Shoulder Pillow

Chapter 20: My Undying Love To You

 Draco had had to sneak out of Harry's dorm room early the next morning after waking up tangled with him in his sheets. Everything in him had been reluctant to leave the sleeping boy, wanted to stay for as long as he could, and simply gaze at the peacefulness in Harry's face. He'd wanted to relish in the warmth and intimacy that came from being pressed so tightly to Harry's smooth, bare skin. Well over ten minutes had been spent simply tracing the lines of Harry's body—softly over his face, his collarbones, down the entirety of his muscled abdomen. The thrum of his boyfriend's strong heartbeat against Draco's own chest seemed to beg him to stay.

Instead, Draco had grudgingly forced himself out of bed. He'd quickly shimmied into his clothes from the day before and pressed light kisses to his boyfriend's forehead and the center of his chest before creeping his way through the corridors back to his own dormitory.

Even as he now sat in the Great Hall beside Harry, holding his hand under the table, Draco couldn't get the small, soft smile off of his face. Yes, the day previous had been... horrible. It had no doubt left Harry aching and drained, and a multitude of other things that Draco couldn't even begin to comprehend. Draco knew that he couldn't ever forget the fear that had nearly stopped his heart.

Rather, it was the feeling of hope that made Draco smile. No matter how many bad days lay in their future, they could always rise with the sun the next morning and make something better.

"Wait, wait, wait," Harry blurted, eyes wide as he gaped at Pansy across from him, "he was cheating with Cho?"

"Yup," Pansy said, popping the 'p' with her purple lips. She'd been rehashing the news she'd told Draco, Theo, and Blaise the day before to Harry and Hermione. "It seems that you and I have something in common other than our unparalleled attractiveness, Potter."

Draco watched with amusement as Harry nearly choked on his orange juice. Though a laugh tumbled from his lips, it was weak and strained.

"I know it doesn't count for much," Harry told her, a sympathetic frown on his lips, "at least not right now. But I'm so, so sorry that he did that to you. I know how it hurts, how it screws with your head." He swallowed hard, and Draco knew from the shadows in his eyes that Harry was trying not to let himself get pulled into those memories. "But it's not your fault. There's nothing that you could have done differently, nothing that you could've changed or said to him to make him stay. It's on him."

Pansy's eyes dropped down to her plate. Beside her, Theo squeezed her shoulder fondly before returning to his breakfast, chatting idly with Blaise across from him. Her moment of solemnity didn't last long, however.

Looking back up at Harry, Pansy scoffed, eyes flashing, "Damn right it's on him." Even though her eyes spoke of fury and confidence, Draco could see Pansy picking at the skin around her nails. He could see the hidden pain in her slouched shoulders, in the dark circles around her eyes that she'd tried to cover with makeup. "What did you do?" she asked, looking intently at Harry. There was an air of desperation about her, like she longed for connection. "To make yourself feel better?"

Uneasiness flitted across Harry's face, gone so quickly that Draco almost thought he imagined it. He had to admit that he was curious as to the answer to this question as well.

"Honestly?" Harry sighed, "I didn't. Not for what felt like forever. I had a pretty bad breakdown. It was hard to just make myself get out of bed for the first few days. I had to have either Hermione or Ron with me pretty much at all times, to make sure I didn't do something desperately stupid—like go and beg Cedric to take me back or some shit." There was a huff of a laugh from Hermione on Harry's other side. The corner of Harry's mouth twitched upward in a reminiscent smile. "After that, I was pretty angry. At Cedric. At Cho. The universe or some shit like that. But mostly, I was just mad at myself."