Because I Deserve It - Drarry

Chapter 26

Harry should've known it wouldn't last. Everything had been going wonderfully, and since when did anything go that well for him for long? Everyone had been astonishingly accepting of his relationship with Draco, far more than they had dared to hope. Not a single person made a nasty comment, no one hexed Draco, and no student nor teacher told Harry he was making a mistake.

Harry wondered when the students of Hogwarts had grown up and moved on from the battle, when they had decided to stop their petty acts of misguided revenge, and when they had chosen to forgive instead of breeding hate.

"It was around the time they saw you do all those things, Harry," Hermione informed him. "Every student witnessed you forgiving Draco and befriending him when it would have been well within your rights to hex him six ways to Sunday. You have suffered more than anyone else from these wars, and yet, you can still look past the Dark Mark to see the person underneath. Once everyone else started doing that too, they found children who had been just as terrified and who had lost just as much if not more. After that, it was significantly easier to forgive, though never forget."

Harry could tell she had more to say, but Draco swept into the seat beside him at that exact moment, and they exchanged a glance and decided to save the topic for later.

Since the Plan to Make Their Relationship Public, as they were calling it, Draco and Harry, and occasionally their friends, had taken to sitting at each other's tables during mealtimes. Today, it was Gryffindor.

Draco still looked sleepy, his eyelids drooping, and his posture just the wrong side of perfect. Even his hair was far from the immaculate style he now preferred - it was dangerously close to Harry's level of messiness. Harry loved this Draco because it was his Draco. It was Draco stripped bare from all the pureblooded standards and ceaseless manners. It was Draco when he didn't have to pretend or try to be some perfect version of himself. It was the Draco he rarely got to see, the one that existed only in the fleeting moments between sleep and coffee, between daydreams and attentiveness, before going to bed and after a long snogging session. No one but Harry truly understood how precious and valuable these seconds were.

Harry grabbed Draco's hand and squeezed it, swooping in to plant a kiss on his cheek. "Good morning, love," he said softly, not wanting to break him out his reverie.

Draco, as out of it as he was, turned to steal a kiss. That done, he demanded, "Coffee, Harry. I need to be awake sometime soon. Classes start in a few"

"You don't need to be awake for those," Harry muttered, but he was already halfway done with the drink. He pushed the mug over a minute later and set about fixing a plate for Draco, seeing as he was already done with breakfast. He piled eggs onto the plate and added some fruit on the side, finishing it off with two slices of toast. He slid that over too, but Draco ignored it in favor of his coffee.

Harry turned back to their friends, who were having one loud discussion about Hogsmeade and whether or not Honeydukes was planning to buy the store next door so they could expand. He smiled and listened quietly, content to sit there and let the conversation flow around him.

A moment later, Draco chimed in on the argument, and Harry turned to see that he looked alert now. He smiled a bit regretfully but kissed his boyfriend's cheek one more time as a sort of welcome back to the land of the living.

Draco started in on his food. Between mouthfuls, but not with food in his mouth because he was raised properly, he said, "Harry, this is perfect. How did you know what I usually take?"

Harry blushed, and Ron, overhearing the comment, laughed loudly. "You should've heard him a couple of weeks ago, Malfoy," he snickered. "He was giving us a detailed description of what you eat and how it changes spending on your mood. Harry insisted it wasn't weird at all. It was quite funny. Definitely strange at the time, but it makes a lot more sense now. Obviously, he fancied you all those years," Ron noted wisely, punctuating it with a confident nod.