Happyily ever after?

Chapter 9

[It's friday. Draco & Harry brewed in the classroom and then went to collect ingredients in the Forbidden Forest.]

Draco: I'm holding a basket while we're standing infront of the Hogwarts front door which is CLOSED. Pottah is banging on the door and pulling the door handle.

"It's locked..." He looks at me. "fuck." I scan my surroundings - it's getting dark. "Shit. ähm. What now?" "Sleep outside?" he wispers insecure.

"HELLO?!? YOU LOCKED US OUT!!!" I try but there's so anwser. "Noooooo" I sigh. "Noones gonna hear us." The walls are too thick. I turn around walking towards the forest.

"Malfoy! What are you doing?" Pottah hurries after me. "Sleeping in the forest - like you suggested." "REALLY?" I stop to find his eyes. "Potta, what else should we do? Noone's coming. I've slept in the forest for the last 4months. We're gonna survive one night. It's a warm evening. "

"you? you've slept here..." he meets my gaze.

"yes..." I start walking again. "I had nowhere else to go." I feel his eyes observing me.

"So...all the month in which you vanished. You were living in the Forbidden Forest." My cheeks flush.

embarrassing.

"yeah. I guess I did." I tilt my head away from him.

"Here is just fine. Not too far into the woods. Plus the sun should wake us early tomorrow." I sit down leaning against a tree. Pottah hesitates but sits down next to me. I'm aware of his body that's just a few inches away from mine. There's a weird silence between us. Avoiding his eyes I search my mind for something to talk about. In the moment I want to ask about our partner work, Pottah says:

Harry: "Do your parents know you're here?" Abrupt Malfoy turns his head.

That got his attention.

His eyes are soaked with sadness.

fuck. Was that insensitive?

"Sorry. You don't need to tell me." I add averting my eyes. I've watched him closely for the last minutes. The light that's colored in a soft pink and yellow by the sunset paints his cold face with a warmth so unusal I nearly forgot this person is Malfoy - the Death Eater.

former Death Eater.

"It's...No. They...They don't know"

He replied.

I lift my head again meeting his wearly smile.

It's painfully fake.

"You don't need to force a smile for me."

Don't be someone you're not - at least not with me.

"There's no need to be hiding your feelings."

around me.

"Please don't cover them up because you wanna make me more comfortable."

"Oh..." The fake smile exits his face and leaves a suprised, blank expression behind.

"okay...I just feel like a crybaby. like it's unjustified to complaining about my parents when you...yk" Embarrassed he looks down on his hands. "you have never had them at all."

No.

"Don't." I close the space between us longing for his warmth.

"The fact that some people seem to have it worse, doesn't mean your struggle & pain isn't there. Not a crybaby. You're suffering - that's very real & valid. You're allowed to fell that pain & complain about it." Malfoy looks up again.

"Thank you." I offer him an uplifting smile.

"Do you miss...your parents?" I avert my gaze again.

Hard question.

"I think "miss" is the wrong word. To miss someone, you would need to experience situations with that person." I pause. "I feel like I can't miss them because I never got to spend time with them. Of course I would love to have my parents with me. And I know my life would have been extremly different if they had been with me. I long for having parents in my life. Sometimes I would like to have a life with my parents and all the difference they could have made." I sigh. "Maybe they could have killed Voldemord and maybe today I'd actually have friends or a more forfilling life."

Did I just say that?

"YOU?" His voice is full of suprise. "You're the Chosen One. Anyone loves you!"

I laugh dryly. "No." I sound strangly serious. "They don't love me. They don't even know me. Everyone loves the person they want me to be. They have a certain image of me - close to the actual me or not. That's what they love. I'm the Chosen One who killed Voldemord. The hot brunette who everyone would like to fuck." I shake my head. "I didn't chose this. I didn't want this. I was forced to be someone I didn't want to be. And now no one cares about the real me. No one wants to get to know Harry. I'm not a hero. I did not kill Voldemord. I did not safe anyone. I killed a lot of my loved ones. They killed Voldemord by sacrificing themselves. for me. They saved the wizard world. Every single one of them is more of a hero than I am." My whole body is shaking. "I have lost everyone except Hermione because they did the "right thing". And I get all the credit eventhough I did nearly nothing." I scratch my arm to get rid of the uneasy feeling under my skin. "I wonder what my life would be like without Voldemord."

Malfoy: OMGOSH.

He's so done. He's crying.

All I want is to hug him and make him feel okay.

I want to know you, Harry - if you want that...

Carefully I move my hand towards his.

"Harry" He shudders. Finally I can feel our fingers touching. Cupping his hands with mine I say. "You did not kill anyone except Voldemord. Your people choose to sacrifice themselve. It's not your fault. They knew you could do it and you did it. I can understand why you feel like you don't deserve the recognition you get. However you suffered so much and you sacrificed a lot. You lost people you love and time. It was your hand that held the wand that killed Voldemord. You did that. I'm so sorry that you had to be someone else but now you can be however you want. You have Hermione..."

and you could have me.

He looks at me with tears in his eyes.

"Do I still have the chance to be me?" It's a wisper.

"Yeah...Harry, yeah. I know you have." A tear rolls while the hope in his eyes lights his face up. Sniffing he lays his head on my shoulder. As he snuggles into me, my heart beats faster. His warmth spreads into my whole body getting the corners of my mouth to raise. I close my eyes inhaling Harry's unmistakable fragrance.

I shouldn't enjoy this that much when he doesn't feel well right now.