Right in Front of Me

trust - year 2

TW:
harry has an anxiety attack in this chapter. please note that i wrote it how i feel about my own anxiety attacks and no one's anxiety is exactly the same! <3 please be kind to yourself if you get triggered by anything like that! <3

There is no one left in the world that I can hold onto.
There is really no one left at all, there is only you.
And if you leave me now, you leave all that we were undone.
There is really no one left,
You are the only one.

"But honestly I didn't think that the reading was too hard to understand." Hermione said, as they were sitting down in the same place as last year. Last year... it seems like it's been ages away but it's only been a few months. He hadn't seen Draco in almost a month because he was staying with his father, so he was anxiously waiting to see his best friend again.

"Of course you didn't Hermione. You're the smartest person I've ever met." Neville said, sitting down next to Ron. Ron nodded, laughing.

"Definitely. I mean Harry would probably be dead if you didn't know who Tom Riddle was." There was an awkward silence that followed, the others not quite sure if it was something they could joke about. Harry didn't want to be a victim, he wanted to just pretend that everything was fine.

"Really Ron?" Harry said, gaining looks from the others. "Probably? There's no probably about it. I definitely would be." That earned him three laughs all around, but he couldn't focus on his rise to standup comedy because Draco opened the door. Harry looked up at him, so excited to finally see his boy. And he saw his boy...with a fading black eye and a bruise on his jaw. He stood up immediately and hugged him tightly.

"Wh- your... Draco, what happened?" Harry said into his ear. He felt Draco shake his head. "Not here." He whispered back to him. Harry could respect that, but he wasn't going to let this go, especially because he had a good idea of who gave him those bruises. When they got to Hogwarts Ron and Hermione made their way to the common room, Ron wanted to take a nap and Hermione wanted to do some reading. Neville looked between Harry and Draco and decided it was probably best to just leave them alone.

"See you at dinner lads." Neville said, headed to the Hufflepuff dorms. Harry immediately grabbed the map to look for an empty room. When he found one he pulled Draco along and locked the door.

"Ok. What happened?" Harry asked him, concern practically oozing out of him. Draco sighed and motioned for them to sit down. Harry did so and patiently waited for him to be ready.

"I don't want to get into detail... Ok?" Draco started. "My... it's just my dad. It looks worse than it is, Ok? I promise. I'm fine."

"Draco he hit you!? That's not fine. That's so far from fine!" Harry was furious. How could Draco not see that he didn't deserve this?

"I was talking back to him... look. I'm not saying it's Ok. But that's how my dad knows how to handle things. That's all he knows. And it's why I hate spending time with him... but I have to."

"Does your mum know about this?"

"No! And she doesn't have to. As far as anyone knows, I fell and hurt myself. Just... please drop it, please?" Draco said, he looked on the verge of tears... and Harry didn't have the words to make him feel better. He hugged him and just nodded, because what else could he say?

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.

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"I'm so excited to be back at Hogwarts!" Hermione said as they were walking to Defense Against the Dark Arts. "I don't act so excited in front of my parents... I don't want them to think that I like this world more than them... it sounds silly. But I just absolutely could not wait to get back." Ron smiled and said something in response, and Harry nodded along. He was only kind of listening to them. His mind was racing with thoughts about Draco and his father. How could Draco act like it was no big deal? And worse... did he really think it was no big deal? Harry couldn't let him go to his father's house ever again.