Cursed // Larry Stylinson // Royalty AU

Chapter Eleven

Harry sat with his parents, watching time slowly run out. 

"I love you," he whispered.

"I love you," they whispered back.

"Tell Louis-" his voice caught. "Tell Louis I love him and I'm sorry. Tell him to never forget forever."

"Of course, love," his mother said through her tears.

"God Louis-" Harry whispered. "I'm so so sorry."

The clock struck twelve. 

And nothing happened.

They waited another minute. And another. And another. And nothing happened.

His mother hugged him tight, followed closely by his father.

"Oh my gosh, you're alive," Anne breathed, almost laughing with relief. "Do you feel any different?"

"No. I feel the same," he breathed out, relief washing over him.

"But I don't understand," she said. "How are you still alive if nothing changed?"

"Sarafina never said there had to be a kiss or marriage or anything," Harry said with realization. "She only said I had to fall in love. Not even. I only had to meet the person I was going to fall in love with."

"It must be one of the girls then. We didn't need that long event, they would have broken the spell the moment you met."

But he didn't feel anything for any of those girls. And as far as he was concerned they didn't feel anything for him. He hadn't fallen in love with any of them.

A ghost of a voice echoed through his head.

What are you supposed to do when you're falling in love with someone who's going to die?

It was Louis. 

Louis broke the spell.

"Oh my gosh," he breathed out. He turned towards the door. 

"Where are you going?" his mother asked.

"I know who it is," he said, and he was out the door.

Louis's in love with me. 

And I'm in love with him.

It was the thing he had been avoiding all this time that saved him. He knew it now. He probably always knew it, he just didn't want to admit it to himself.

He had tried to convince himself the butterflies didn't mean anything. That the names, the touches, the soft looks. That none of it meant anything. 

But it did.

He burst through Louis' door, immediately spotting him on the bed, his eyes red, his cheeks raw and swollen. It was obvious he had been crying. He probably thought Harry was dead, he realized.

Louis looked up at the sound of the door opening. "Haz?" he asked in surprise.

Harry kissed him.

It was long overdue. If he was being honest with himself, a tiny part of him had been wanting to do that since he was fourteen.

"What happened?" Louis asked when they pulled away, a look of confusion passing over his face.

"You did," Harry said. "You broke the spell. I fell in love with you and you broke it." He laughed, giddy with relief as Louis pulled him onto his lap. "There was never even a curse we had to worry about."

"What do you mean?"

"You were there when it was cast. The spell was broken the very moment it was cast."

"I-" Louis' voice caught. "I broke the spell?" He tightened his grip on Harry's waist. "You mean after all this time, I broke the spell?"

"Yes," Harry breathed out nodding. "Yes."

"Last month when I- when I told you that-" He paused, looking down at his- well, Harry's- lap. "When I told you I was falling in love with you, it was the first time I even admitted it to myself. I had been falling for a long time, but that was the first time I admitted it. I just- I never dreamed that you were falling too. That I would break the spell. That I'm the reason your still here, alive. Here in my arms forever, just like we always said. I love you," he whispered.

Harry smiled into another kiss because finally, he had found his forever. But no, he had always known his forever. He smiled because he had fallen in love with his forever.

"I love you," he whispered back. "Forever."