1000 Days of Harry Potter

Day 206

"How are you doing?" Draco asks carefully, setting a glass of wine in Harry's hand. "After...everything?"

"I'm alright now. Thank you for going with me."

Draco gives him a scrutinizing look, and Harry laughs. "I am, I promise. It was horrible being back there, and I had to contact my Mind Healer for the first time in years to work through it a bit, and well, I'm still meeting with her, but—"

"They kept you in a cupboard."

They haven't talked about it, any of it, since that night. Since Draco had held him until Harry was wrung out, leaving to pick up Teddy only after Ron and Hermione had arrived to take over and do what they did best.

"Yes, they did," Harry says simply, watching his face for something, Draco isn't quite sure what.

"Why didn't you tell her? Your cousin's wife? They lied to her."

"What good would it do?" Harry sighs. "The people who were responsible are dead."

"But Dudley—"

"Was a bully, who was raised in an environment where he was taught that treating me that way was okay. He knows it was wrong now. I've never seen him look so guilty before as he did when he looked at me that day, but...there was no point in ruining his life over it. It wasn't his fault. He was just a kid, he didn't know better."

"I'm sorry." Draco blurts. "For every awful thing I ever said about your parents being gone, for all the times that I—"

"Draco," Harry sets his drink down and moves closer, setting his hand on his shoulder. "Hey, we're past this already, yeah? I made mistakes too, and we both apologized a long time ago."

They had. Awkwardly but sincerely, after Draco's trial. And then they had gone on to studiously avoid each other for the next few years. It doesn't feel the same. "We weren't friends then," Draco says, "it feels different."

"It's not," Harry says kindly, earnestly looking into Draco's eyes. He's so close. Draco can see the dark green outline of his irises behind his glasses. Draco thinks he could drown in those eyes, happily. "I forgave you before we were friends. We're okay, Draco."

"Okay," Draco says, looking away quickly before he does something absolutely ridiculous, like kiss Harry Potter right on his stupid, perfect mouth. He takes a breath and abruptly changes the subject. "So, what did you find in the boxes?"

"Lots of photos," Harry grins and strides over to the mantle where he grabs a framed photo of himself as an infant with his smiling parents and presses it into Draco's hands. "Look!"

"Merlin, look at that hair even then!" Draco laughs, passing it back. "You were cute."

"Thanks," Harry puts it back on the mantle. "There were some things that must have been taken from our house by the Ministry...not much. Some books, a few dishes that might be heirlooms. The photos are the best part. Oh! And my mum's journals from her Sixth and Seventh years at Hogwarts were in there. I've been reading them, and it's been incredible. She was so clever, and I like reading what she wrote about my Dad because if you can believe it, she actually hated my dad for the first, well, five years, at Hogwarts, and I don't blame her because Dad was kind of an arse, but then he changed and I can read in her journal as she notices, and then she doesn't hate him anymore, and then they're dating and falling in love and sometimes when I'm reading it feels like I'm there, just watching them..."

"Wow," Draco murmurs as Harry keeps talking excitedly.

She'd hated him, but then he changed, and she noticed, and then...

Draco can't help wondering if Harry takes after his mother. If maybe, just maybe, he might be able to love someone he'd once hated, too.