≈ill the roo, but now they are ostly quiet, alr, w their way through apologies it’s fuhey should be, but when you peel away all the bigotry and eh year, it really jt was o kids beiy
“do you reber,” drao hoked out, wheeziill goihey reouories of hagrid’s agial reatures ss “those badges i ade for the triwizard tod, i spent ages w on fi spell, ade the all yself, and you were so ad at ron that you barely eveo are”
“i ared,” harry aditted, reberg the w arouions ssroo “but they were funny”
≈hg was funi that ron ursed hiself to belhg up sgs, but it was also sort of sad, ohey wh their probles and got to the legayunderh “do you reber whehe tra?” harry asked quietly “with d goyle?”
“yeah” drao sobered up and sped ughg “ron’s rat bit o it?”
god, he did, harry thought, a was ahg, how aer was brought up ron and harry’s hildhood “and you offered to show the right sort of wizards”
“i was a git” they’d lost trak over how ahey’ve aditted that to eah other over the past hour, but this ti he said it fierely “yht you were the o he was dog and i was the idiot that believed everythg y father said”
“so let show you now” harry barely had a he was , but all he khat he had to offer, to help drao pull hiself out of his pe he had found hiself “ihe right kd of people”
“okay” drao held out his hand, and for one, harry atually shook it without feelihe would try to kill the other the proess “i’ ”
chapter 5
drao
≈aken wanderg around the hoe when harry isn’t there
drao isn’t sure why he does it, other tha without shool or a job or any responsibilities he’s got hours’ worth of free ti and nothg to fill it with, uually wants ter up oeahg hi how to rohet kreaher had bee it, shog hi roos that he ould around to leang beae of his khe pes that he won’t go ahey hold too any ories, and all of a sudden he g doer bathroos and wipg away the dt that has piled up the library, like he ould srub away the darkried hard enough
he fis of the past whe expets it that’s part of it, too, ohe reasoo take these walks through the hoe and stik hisharry ft out refed to put foot ihered up khey’re treasure —a baby photo of his auer fro his father tuked to a drawer—but it’s not uo pull hiself up ihat he uands why harry sees to want to fill this hoe up with en
it’s to hase away the ghosts
all drao had done was ove a box, and all of a sudden photos were p out, floodg the floor, a huhe sa faes fshg up at hi, wavihere is a uh younger professor p with his ar ed around a lean shaven siri bk, a an who looked like harry with his ar ed around soone who had harry’s eyes, professor oody wheill had both eyes he thks it is o past, at first, but thehrough so ore and fihgs—nyphadora tonks holdg out her hand with the sallest e rg he had ever seen er, gny and herione leaniher to pose for the piture, the weasley faily gathered arouable as soo be their other yells at the there are people he dnize and people he does—fred weasley, gee rofessors, dubledore, herione, and harry, always harry at the ehgs, happy and ughg
a lot of these people are dead, he thks, and it is not for the first ti that drao begs to fully appreiate how young they all were, how uh they had to lose jt a year ago all the thgs that they did lose uh too young to be soldiers
that’s how harry fds hi, sittier of a sea of photographs, lookg at all these faes that he knows he o an nnize drao looks up at hi like he is lost and harry is his light hoe, hands full of ories, photographs full of the urrent dead and dyg
≈ knoas gog to happen,” he says fally, after harry has sat down aross fro hi and reahed fraphs of his ow his knees were pressed up agast drao’s they have gotten to a box that is jt full of the iogether at dis their roo, the s holdg out their haheir piture fro beis pyg explodg snap with roeag up agast bill fa of explodg snap, all the ti piled up while they were livihey were together, and safe, ahey didn’t know how short it would all be”
“gny took ost of these” harry was ryg, tears slippg down fro his heeks the death of fred had hit hi the hardest they were all hard, but it eially awful to wath the shok waves that the grief sent through the weasley faily “her dad bought this uggle ara fro a poroid spent the wh pitures”
“you all looked happy” drao had always bought to his father’s idea that he was the ky o what it took to ake a great an oket full of gold and a big hoe, a beautiful