Favoring The Bold {Drarry}

- k -

Valerie walked slowly into the house once Draco had left. She set James' gift on the side table beside the door before closing it behind her and looking to Harry for an explanation, but the darker man was pacing across the floor with his hands gripping his hair. He turned with alarming speed and moved towards the door. It was like he looked past her as his hand reached the door knob. She placed a slightly smaller hand on his forearm.

"He's gone, Hare."

It was if her voice shattered his thoughts. His eyes, no longer glazed over, snapped to her then to the present on the table. He tugged on an achingly authentic smile.

"You should take it up to him," he said as he picked up the admittedly heavy box and handing it to her.

"There was a celebrity crying on your porch. Something tells me you need me more than James needs a birthday present right now. " Harry chuckled though nothing was particularly funny.

"It's a long story," started the messy haired man as he scratched awkwardly at his neck. "I was going to tell you at some point, yeah, but not so soon. It's gonna make you view me a bit differently. I wasn't quite ready for that. I was kind of enjoying being normal."

"Look, I already assumed he was like a past boyfriend. If you're bi or something that wouldn't change my view of you. You can still enjoy being normal. I don't see-" She had stepped closer and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I wish it were that simple seriously." He took a deep breath and smiled at her again. "You should really take James his gift first. I'll be...here." He moved back into the living room. As the muggle moved up the stairs he started taking the charms off of some of the pictures that stopped the wizarding photographs from moving and off of others that showed his pregnancy.

Valerie came back down the stairs with a soft smile as she turned towards the living room. Harry saw the moment where she started to become uneasy. She looked around him at the pictures and blinked a few times before her eyes focused back on him.

"Are those like the frames that can do- er- slideshows and stuff with your photos? Do you just leave them off all the time. I've never seen them move before and-" Harry shook his head at her until she stopped speaking mid sentence. "So how does it work?"

He shrugged. "Magic."

"Yeah," she chuckled while she sent him a thankful smile as if he were just joking around. "Magic."

"Magic," Harry said again quite seriously as he raised his wand and froze all the pictures mid-transitions. One picture of him with a baby James had stopped just as the boy had attempted to smile for the first time.

"Magic," but this time she spoke softly in awe. She moved into the room and started re-examine the pictures around the room that she had seen plenty of times in their frozen states over the past year that she had been dating the green eyed...magician(?) in front of her. She turned to him quickly and he unfroze the pictures again. "So what are you? Some kind of magician or something?"

"I'm a wizard," he laughed.

"A what?"

"A wizard."

"You mean like with potions and spells and brooms and- well everything?"

"Actually, I'm pretty rubbish at potions," he said awkwardly rubbing at the back of his neck. " Dra- I mean, DL, he used to be great at them. A sodding prodigy, I bet. He was gonna open an apothecary before the war mucked everything up." He sat on the couch as he thought back to that darker time even if only for a moment.