Draco returned to the common room closely followed by Ron. As he entered, he noticed that the atmosphere felt quiet, like the life had been drained from everyone who occupied the space
Hermione was curled in the corner of the sofa lost in a book, Pansy and Blaise were squished together on a beanbag talking quietly. Neville was playing cards with Seamus while Dean was sketching up the table, various other students were dotted across the room relaxing. The fire crackled in the corner and the huge curtains had been drawn creating a cosy atmosphere
As Draco entered, he noticed a lot of the group look up at him with a trace of pity in their eyes, no one spoke, they only gave him sympathetic smiles. He figured that word must have spread about his breakup with Harry, and on that thought, a certain dishevelled, slightly tired-looking brunette appeared from the dorm room hallway
Everyone looked from Harry to Draco, the tension in the air was thick, no body wanted to breath a word
"Hey" Draco whispered, looking at Harry with a face full of regret. Harry simply nodded back at him awkwardly "Can we talk?"
Harry eyes darted across to the others sitting beside them, stares boring into his soul feeling the pressure of everyone looking and knowing what was going on
"Um... yeah... sure I guess" Harry mumbled quietly, twisting his mouth in uncertainty. Seeing Draco hurt so much, his heart felt so full for him, he wanted to hug and hold and kiss him forever and ever, so much so that this tension between them was ripping him in two
Draco followed Harry silently back to Harry's bedroom, where he closed the door gently and turned back to face him. Harry stood with his arms folded in his oversized jumper, his curls flopping over his forehead touching the top of his glasses which Draco thought made him look so bloody adorable, he couldn't help but melt at the sight of Harry
"Whatever you've come to say, please just say it quickly so I can get past this pain faster" Harry stated, his eyes glued to the floor
Draco took a step forward "Harry... I'm so sorry. I was just so scared that... once you realised what life with me would be like with me after Hogwarts, you'd drift away from me... It would remind you of all the horrible things from your past"
"Well enlighten me then. What is life suppose to look like with you after Hogwarts?" Harry insisted
"Look, I may not be a death eater any more, but that doesn't mean they can't track me down again. There's a chance they'll torture me again for turning my back on them. Torture me like Voldemort did..." Draco broke off, his voice breaking at the memory of the Dark Lord's abuse
He bowed his head and subconsciously rubbed the scars on his wrists. Harry looked at him with hurt in his eyes, hating every minute of this
"My father will definitely try to kill you, I know that for sure. I'll most likely be hiding my whole life, if the death eaters don't try to hurt me then everyone else surely will... people in the wizarding world know me, Harry. They know who the Malfoys are, they know what we did and they're angry. If you're with me... you'll receive abuse and threats and I can't bare the thought of you getting hurt or worse... killed" he stopped and bit back tears that were welling inside
There was a long silence before Harry finally spoke, squeezing his arms to his chest as though he were freezing, instead he felt numb from the hurt
"I really don't care. If I have to go through even a second of that, I'll do it because you mean more to me than anything in my life right now, Draco"
Draco opened his mouth to argue back but Harry cut him off
"I am so hopelessly and painfully in love with you, Draco. Every single part of you from your stupid perfect hair to your ridiculously spotless clothing. Your face that I caress that's absolutely flawless, the dumb jokes you tell that make me do that ugly snorting laugh that you make fun of. The way you complain constantly about my, what did you call it?-"birds nest of hair" yet you always run your fingers through it when we make love and you adore the way it smells of mango"
Draco huffed a smile as tears glossed his eyes
"They way you hate the holes in my woolly jumpers but always steal them to sleep in instead. The way you look so beautiful when you get lost in a good book or you focus on your studies. You don't realise that I'm looking at you but I can't take my eyes off you. The way you subconsciously hold my hand when I talk about my parents and how much I miss them. The way you always sneak treacle tarts away from the dinner hall and leave them on my pillow. The way you try to hide your dark mark every time you undress with me but I know it doesn't define you anymore and I will always, always kiss your beautiful arm because you are worthy of love and you are a good person"
Draco was standing in front of him crying softly now, the tears rolling down his cheeks as he wiped them away with his sleeve and smiled at Harry's speech
"Did it ever occur to you that being with me might have its advantages? Yes, there may be people who are out to get you when you leave school, but if you're by my side you're untouchable. I know safe-houses, and the Order will keep you protected too, and I'll inform the Ministry that no harm is to come to you. I will always protect you, I will always defend you and I don't care if they entire wizarding world hates me, I will always love you"
"I love you too" Draco managed through tears.
"Good. Because you mean too much to me to simply let you go"
"What about my father? He said himself, he's going to find you and kill you, Harry"
"I won't let that happen" Harry assured
"But-"
"I wont let it happen. Voldemort threw the killing curse at me twice and still failed, I'm not even afraid of your pathetic, slimy shrew of a father. Him and his ridiculous, basic-bitch blonde extensions can fuck off back to Azkaban for all I care" Harry snapped
Draco was surprised at Harry's bitterness but his lips twisted into a smile and broke into laughter. Harry smiled at Draco's reaction and began chortling too. Neither of them had smiled like this in so long
Draco wiped a tear from his eye, still recovering from laughing but his face faltered and grew sad, thoughts creeping into his mind once more
"He'll find me though. He can trace me with this" Draco pulled back his sleeve where the dark mark protruded from his white flesh "He'll track me down and... he could hurt me too. He could hurt me just to get back at you"
"I won't let him do that. None of us will" Harry walked forward and took Draco's hand in his own. He was inches from him now and Draco could smell the scent of his body wash and see the dark circles under his eyes where he clearly hadn't slept at all the night before "As long as you're with me, you'll be safe. The perks of being me is that I'll have plenty of protection when I leave this place. I will never let anything bad happen to you, I promise. Please believe me, Draco"
Harry studied Draco's face desperately, begging for him not to turn around and walk away for good. He was holding onto him by the tips of his fingers, their relationship hanging on by a thread
"You just need to understand that my own father will hunt me down when I leave here, Harry. I've dishonoured him by breaking his stupid pure-blood tradition, by not falling in love with a woman, he's disowned me and now he will make sure I pay the price for what I've done to my own family"
"Then we'll fight back, all of us, you, me, my friends, the Order, we'll make sure nothing happens to you-"
"Harry they've spent most of their lives fighting for you, they're not going to want to fight for me too. Half of them don't even like me much and the rest are exhausted from fighting the Dark Lord all the time. We can't keep fighting bad people all the time"
"But I can't risk losing you, and I won't let him or any of his pathetic death eater followers hurt me either" Harry said. He was desperate now. Walking away wasn't an option anymore, only fighting for what was important to him
"And gradually, over time, you'll end up resenting me for having my dark past following us everywhere we go. My own father trying to hurt us and punish me for my decisions. You'll end up hating me for making your life miserable"
"My life will only be miserable if you're not in it" Harry snapped "I'll only hate you if you leave"
Draco stared at him, scared that he was pushing Harry to breaking point. They had only ever spoken to word 'love' to one another, the thought of Harry hating him physically stung his heart
"You-you'll hate me?" he asked
Harry closed his eyes regretting how blunt that had sounded "I-I don't think I could ever really hate you... but I'd never recover from the heartbreak" Harry's voice cracked. His throat felt crushed under the weight of holding back tears, keeping everything held together
There was a long silence while they stood face to face, both on the verge of breaking down
"So why are you here? Why did you come back?" Harry asked bluntly
"Because I need to know that you'll still love me when things get bad. That you'll stay by my side even when people discourage our relationship, even when you see the lies and rumours about my past written in the Daily Prophet, when people run to the ministry demanding that I go to Azkaban, when you're on the receiving end of threats and abuse for being seen with a death eater" Draco sniffed and wiped a tears from the corner of his eyes, feeling sick at the thought of it all
"when my own father tries to punish, torture and kill both of us... for defying him... I need to know that you'll stay" Draco couldn't say anymore, tears rolls down his cheeks
Harry looked at the boy standing in front of him. So beaten down, so broken. He could hear the desperation in his voice and felt the pain spiking through his own heart at seeing Draco hurting. Harry stepped forward and took Draco's hands in his own, interlinking their fingers. He could feel his fingertips were damp from wiping away the tears and he squeezed his hands tight.
"Of course I'll stay... I love you, Draco"
Draco smiled and sighed in relief, letting out the weight of his emotions "I also came back because... well... Ron told me to"
"Ron?" Harry twisted his face in confusion
Draco nodded "He told me that I would be making the biggest mistake of my life If I let you go. He said that we belong together... and that your happiness is more important to him than his feelings about me"
Harry had no words. The last person he thought would ever support his relationship was Ron, hearing Draco say that was unbelievable
"He really said that to you?"
"He really did. He talked some sense into me" Draco let out a laugh through the sniffs of tears. His cheeks were red and eyes were blotchy but he was happy
"I can't believe that" Harry breathed
Draco leant into Harry, resting his cheek on Harry's shoulder feeling his warmth once more. Harry's arms wrapped around him in a close embrace then Draco pulled back and smiled at him but his attention was caught by something on Harry's bed, and he looked across to see it littered with several objects "What's all that?"
"It's things from our relationship" Harry said, slowly moving his hands from Draco's. He walked across to his bed and perching on the side, picking them up one by one "I began looking through them last night but it got too difficult so..." he trailed off, feeling awkward "I figured you might want some things back if you were... breaking up... with me"
Harry avoided Draco's eyes but could tell he was tearful. He gave a subtle cough changing the subject to distract himself. He picked up a small square card that was lined with stamped ink writing
"So, this is the bar token from our first secret date at the Three Broomsticks. You got nervous and spilt butterbeer all down your shirt and-"
"You couldn't stop laughing so I flicked the rest at you" Draco added
He placed the token down and scooped up a handful of shiny red and silver wrappers
"These are from the chocolates that we had the first night we spent in the room of requirement together" Harry said, holding up the wrappers in his hand, then placing them in a small box
"This here is every single piece of parchment you sent to me during classes over the year" he fanned them out across his bedding, each one small with beautiful handwriting, some even had tiny drawings on them
"These are the petals from the red rose that was in the room with us on the first night we... made love. The night I asked you to be my boyfriend" Harry placed the petals in the box and Draco noticed the heartbreak across his face at the prospect of losing all those memories
"This is the jumper I stole from your room back in December because it smells like you and it comforts me when you're not around" Harry folded it neatly and held it out for Draco "Sorry I took it"
Draco laughed and sat beside him on the bed, picking up a small square piece of parchment no bigger than his palm "What's this?"
Harry took the parchment from him and held it close, looking at the moving image below. It was a moving photo of Harry and Draco laying side by side on the floor, Harry howling with laughter while Draco grinned next to him and looked deep into his eyes filled with love. Harry then met Draco's eyes and caressed his cheek with his palm, the pair grinning at one another, totally in love. The moving memory lasted about 5 seconds before looping back to the start again
"It's one of my favourite memories. The day after we said we were in love, and we walked through the grounds together. You tripped over a branch in the forest and as I turned back to help you I tripped over your leg and we lay huddled on top of each other on the forest floor dying with laughter. We could barely breath our ribs hurt so much and tears streamed down our cheeks, remember? I took the memory from my mind, using my wand, and I transformed it onto parchment as a moving photo, a constant loop of our smiles and laughter, the way you look at me with such love in your eyes. I always look at it when I miss you"
Draco looked up at Harry with glassy eyes "Harry, I had no idea you kept all of this stuff?"
Harry half smiled and shrugged, not knowing how to express his feelings anymore "Well... this relationship has meant the world to me. I love you"
Draco didn't say it back. Instead, he leant forward grabbing Harry's arms and pulled him onto his lips in a hard kiss. His hands travelled up his shoulders to his neck, holding him tight and running one hand through his hair, remembering what Harry had said before about how Draco really loved it. Their lips were eager, almost deprived of one another, kissing, nibbling and sucking gently, held together in a loving embrace
Harry pulled back looking into Draco's eyes hesitantly "Does this mean...?"
"Stay with me? Please?" Draco asked desperately
Harry broke into a smile and leant in resting his forehead against Draco's. He closed his eyes, savouring this sweet moment together, vowing to never take him for granted
"I'm all yours"