Fractured ✔️

99.00

Harry's POV:

I stood in-front of the mirror, rolling my shoulders, trying to loosen the tension in them. My black tie hung limp around my neck. I brought my shaky fingers up to do it, but I struggled to get a grip.

I dropped my hands to my sides, glaring back at my reflection. I squeezed my eyes shut for a brief moment then opened them.

"Second time lucky..." I muttered under my breath and brought my hands up once again.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the reflection of the door opening, and a head of red hair poked through the gap.

I looked back at my own reflection, my fingers still fumbling uselessly with my tie.

"Need a hand?" Ron offered as walked towards me.

I turned around, keeping my eyes trained on his shoulder. "Yeah, please."

"Put your chin up." He said softly and his fingers worked quickly to do the knot.

"There." He muttered as he centred the tie and took a step back.

I jumped as his hands griped my shoulders, and I brought my eyes up to meet his.

He scanned my face, "You don't need to pretend that you're okay. We're all here for you. I'm here for you Harry."

I sighed, "I know. I just- I can't. I can't let myself process it yet, it's too hard."

"I know. Just remember that you need to let yourself grieve. The longer you hold onto this, the worse it will be." He said and let go of my arms, instead pulling me into a hug.

"I'm just trying to get through this today. That's all I can focus on right now." I spoke into his shoulder.

"I know. It'll be okay. We need to head down now, get it over and done with yeah?" Ron suggested as he moved back from me.

"Yeah...Is everyone ready to leave?" I asked, a lump rising in my throat.

"They're all ready when you are. The service is at 10, we still have plenty of time to get there." Ron said as he looked me in the eyes, a concerned expression forming on his features.

"Let's just go... there's no point in stalling. I don't want to leave Narcissa alone for too long, I did tell her I'd try get there early." I replied, trying to focus my mind on anything except Draco.

"Okay. Are you sure you're ready?" He asked.

"I'm sure."

—

It was surreal.

Seeing the sleek black coffin lying beside the altar.

I couldn't register the fact that Draco was right there, so close yet ultimately unreachable.

Narcissa was clutching my hand tightly, I tried to focus on her warm grip, tried to distract myself from the words being spoken by Blaise who stood beside the coffin.

"Harry dear, it's your turn to speak. You don't have to if you're not ready, he would understand." Narcissa spoke softly.

I shook my head, "No. I want to. I need to."

Blaise nodded at me as I stood up, he waited for me to reach him, giving me a tight hug before returning to his seat.

I glanced around at everyone who sat in front of me, but stopped quickly as emotions came flooding in.

I cleared my throat, and averted my eyes from the coffin. "I'm not going to stand up here forever and retell stories that are going to make everyone even more upset than they already are. Because, we all know that's not what Draco would want. As I'm sure all of you know, Draco and I didn't get off to the best start... in fact we spent the first 6 years of knowing each-other, as enemies. But as the saying goes, there's a fine line between love and hate. And it's save to say that that line got blurred."

I paused, giving myself a moment to breathe, I looked up to see smiles on everyone's faces. Encouraging me to continue.

"If I'm being honest, I didn't get enough time with Draco. None of us did. But we can all agree that the time we did spend with him was amazing. I've had the best time of my life with Draco. It's not fair that it was cut so short, and I'm sure that he's already kicking up a fight wherever he is, that he didn't get to plan his own service. I hope we did okay Draco. I love you so much, have fun up there. We miss you already." I choked out the last sentence, holding in a sob as I rest my hand on his coffin.

I let the tears stream down my face as I whispered to him, "Don't be starting too many fights up there, rest well, I love you so much."