Blackberry Jam (A Drarry FanFiction)

Chapter Twenty Five

   Harry froze as if he had had a bucket of ice water poured all over him. "What?" he uttered.

Draco thrust a finger at him. "Everyone has been too scared to tell you, but since you're so devoted to honesty right now, you should know what no one has been brave enough to tell you for years. You can't be a pilot!"

"What are you talking about!" Harry bellowed at him, despite the fact he was only a foot or two away. "What does that have to do with anything!"

Draco suddenly took a step back, and inhaled several times. "Your glasses," he said in a much quieter voice. "You have terrible eyesight."

"So?" Harry challenged. "So, so what? I see perfectly with them on?"

Draco looked smaller, like he'd drawn in on himself. "And what if they fell off?"

Harry opened and shut is mouth. "I – they wouldn't. I tie them around my head if I have to." He'd had to do it for football before, it wasn't a problem. But Draco was now looking at him as if he was going to cry.

"Harry," he said, taking a step towards him, but Harry took a step back. Draco hugged himself. "Harry." He screwed his eyes closed. "You have to take an eye test to join the air force. They don't let you in if you can't pass that." He opened his eyes, and looked directly at him. "Without your glasses."

"No," Harry said, feeling like the world was tilting.

Draco just stared at him. "God," he said. "I didn't want it to come to this. Harry let me back in, let me talk to you."

"Me!" Harry shrieked, finding his anger again. "It's you, you hate me, and I don't know how to change who I am! I'm sorry, okay, Draco, I'm sorry!" He gulped down air, trying to stay upright. "I'm sorry I made a mistake, I'm sorry there's something wrong with me! But you don't have to be nasty! Just go to Theo, go be with other people like you. You don't have to make up lies just to hurt me!"

"I'm not lying," said Draco flatly, and Harry flung his hands out in aggravation.

"You're expecting me to believe that no one bothered to mention that the fact I wear glasses will stop me getting into the R.A.F.? You're just being cruel because I disgust you!"

"I'm being honest with you because you're my friend," Draco said, rubbing his own arms as he continued to hug himself. "I swear on my life I am telling the truth. You can't...you'll never fly a plane."

Harry broke. He felt it, like a physical sensation, as if his body shattered into a thousand pieces. It was all lies, it was vindictive spite! But a small part of him admitted that maybe, just maybe, Draco was talking sense.

He let out a terrible cry and spun on his heels, stumbling away. He was defective and a weakling coward. He was nothing like his father. Draco hated him and he was NOTHING.

He ran around to the front of his house, vaguely aware of Draco's calls behind him. But his hands were already on his red handlebars, his leg swinging over the frame of his bike. He had to get away, he had to get far away.

Harry shoved his feet into the dirt of the pathway, kicking up dust, and within a second he was flying through the air, the way you only could on a bicycle. He didn't note where he was going, he just pushed one foot over the other, the peddles and the chain flying around and around as the wheels spun into frantic motion.

No no no no no! his thoughts screamed. All he had ever wanted, for as long as he could remember, was to be a pilot, just like his father. To fly planes and soar through the sky and save people and be free! He screamed out loud to the trees and fields either side of him, ripping his glasses from his face and hurling them away. But the motion unbalanced him; the front wheel jack-knifed and before he could registered what was happening he was hurtling over the handlebars and landing in a crumpled heap in a ditch just off the path.