Behind Their Sleeves

Chapter 10

Harry wakes up an hour later, still resting his head on Draco's chest.

'Hello there, sleeping beauty,' Draco jokes.

'Shut up,' Harry laughs as he pushes Draco aside and grabs his glasses from the nightstand.

'Severus just called, saying dinner's ready, so we should probably get up,' Draco says.

'Okay.'

Draco and Harry get out of bed and walk to the kitchen where Snape already set the table and sit down next to each other. Snape fills Harry's plate with spaghetti and puts it back in front of the boy. After about ten minutes, Harry's still picking at his food without having eaten a single thing. When Snape glances at him for the billionth time, he decides to say something.

'Harry, I need you to eat,' he tells him.

Draco looks up and sees that Harry hasn't eaten a thing yet and holds his hand under the table, slightly squeezing it. Harry looks at Draco, who nods at him, and then back at his plate. He takes a small bite, but quickly spits it out in his napkin.

'I can't do this,' he states.

'You can, Harry,' Snape says.
'How about we say, you eat...' Snape grabs the boy's plate and makes a line in the middle. '...this,' he says, gesturing to one half of the plate.

'I- okay,' Harry reluctantly agrees.

After a little over an hour Harry finally swallows his last bite, earning praising words from both Snape and Draco. Snape casts a spell, making the plates clean itself and walks Harry to the living room, telling Draco he wants to have this conversation alone. They both sit on the couch once again, Harry on the right and Snape on the left.

'So, tell me about last night, Harry,' Snape starts.

'I- I don't really know where to start,' Harry mumbles.

'Thats fine, perhaps I can ask you questions?'

Harry nods.

'Alright, why did you do it?' he asks.

'I- um, I guess I've been feeling suicidal for quite a while, for years actually and I think Ron and Hermione being mad at me was just the thing that threw me over the edge (no pun intended lol) you know?' Harry explains.

'Why are your friends mad at you?'

'I- um, I don't know if- I don't know if I can say it.'

'Everything you say here stays between these four walls, Harry, I'm not going to tell anyone,' Snape assures him.

'I- alright, I- um, Hermione caught me and Draco um t- talking and-' Harry gets cut off by Snape.

'Talking or kissing?' he asks.

'I- how did you-'

'It's obvious, Harry,' Snape smiles.
'Anyways, Hermione caught you two kissing, go on.'

'I- um, she got really mad, because Draco hasn't exactly been the nicest to any of us, especially not to Hermione, so she was understandably pissed off.'
'It's just- I had been trying to talk to her and Ron the past three weeks and they just ignored me, so I guess I just figured that they didn't care anymore, and they'd be better off with me dead.'

'You know now that isn't true, right?' Snape asks.

'I mean, yeah, I ran into them earlier and they wanted to talk to me so,' Harry replies.

'And have you talked to them?'

'No, not yet, but I told them I would owl them later, so I'm planning on doing that tonight.'

'That's good, Harry,' Snape tells him.
'You mentioned you've been feeling suicidal for multiple years now, how long exactly?'

'Since I was 9, or 10 maybe, I'm not sure,' he answers.

'And you started self-harming when you were 11, if I remember correctly?'

'Yeah.'

'Thank you for telling me all this, Harry, is it okay if we talk about your eating habits tomorrow?' Snape asks.

'Yeah, that's okay,' Harry replies.

'Alright, go to bed, it's getting late, and you have school tomorrow.'

Harry nods and heads to the bedroom, where Draco's already lying in bed. He quickly writes a letter to Hermione, asking if she and Ron can meet him at the Astronomy Tower tomorrow after lunch when they all have a free period, before joining Draco and curling up beside him.

'How was your talk?' he asks.

'It was okay,' Harry answers.

'Alright, good night, Harry.'

'Good night, Draco.'

A/N: just pretend Snape already told Harry he'll be following classes again and Draco will be staying with Harry as long as he has to stay in Snape's chambers, bc I'm too lazy to go back and write that in lol