“dad” dudley looked pai”
“well, we did!” eveunia looked afraid, now “we fed hi, ahed hi, a hi up as one of our own—”
harry ould a like that night with aunt arge, where it bea ooo a goi this hurt ore tha it would, beae after all those nights with dudley and how well d, he had atually onvihey ight start to like hi he was wrong
“how you raised ?” his voie was low, but everyo “you didn’t raise hi—” he jerked his head towards dudley, who was lgg to his e gss and lookih the floor “hi you raised he’s the ohe one you bought all the presents for, ahdays fave hi a real bedroo the one you ared for he was your son and what was i?”
no answer
≈ed an answer, and he was goi o was i, vernon?” if he was youhis level of anger would send his agi spiralg out of ontrol, but as it was he ould jt feel hiself shakg with the i all “say what i was” nothg “i was the thg that showed up on your doorstep that you wa with the week’s garbage, wasn’t i? a sta o faily iage i wasn’t the one you raised i was the oarved i was the oed i was the one you loked i ao, for years” no one oved only drao tried to ake it better, reahg out to grab at harry’s hand, but he fng hi off “tell if i’ wrong”
hanially, harry sat down the e gss “you want to khihese years, all the horrible thgs i’ve seen, all the people i wathed die, i still fihkg that ehis hoe was what rued ” he was sayihg he had never had beeo say before, but sudde wahere anyore, so he left, yankg ourng to go
“wait jt oe!”
unle vernon seized hi by the wrist, and harry was done, was gog to turn and hit hi aop, but he dido, beae drao was there, the threat lear even without the wa go and drao oved beeen the
“don’t touh hi you doo y a hand on hi, you uand?” he eakg softly, but i ade it lear he was ed to beio “you said he was a war hero, but he’s he war he saved this whole dais over, and not even one of your filthy fgers should o lose to hi aga or i’ll persohat you lose a hand”
drao lets hi go uaggers bak, leaviunia aarg at hi harry thks he would rather die thahe fall out of this
“thank you for dner, rs dursley” drao said, bak to perfetly polite, buttong up his oat and soothg out the wri was lovely”
the looks on their faes alost ade it all worth it
drao
he ould hear harry talkg on the ph on a oion with dudley
“listen, no, i’ sorry” pae “i should never have o, i knew i was gog to lose y ool, it ae “i jt feel horrible, i rued your birthday”
a lohen harry ade a sound that drao thought was a sob but was atually jt a strangled ugh
≈?” uer “ky bastard should tell her it’s your birthday every night”
probably the girlfriend do guys always diss their girlfriends? drao wouldn’t know
“i an, yeah, we aher ae, jt let get a piee of paper you want to go where?” the soundsthrough draen “you kno b?” pae, hter, this ti uffled “does alie khere?”
they really are friends, now “okay and i’ sa, about today, i didn’t an…” longer pae, a soo, dudley”
there was a bang, ahi the robably the pad of paper he had been writg on, but aybe the phone drao didn’t want to go fi
people suk, he th to hear when harry roahg hi butyou quite like faily
drao gives hi an h e a shower ale down the livg roo ao lee aly radio show
≈ly radio show gee is a very spuest)
“i didn’t know” drao stayed by the doorway, lettg harry deide if he waalk or not pany wasn’t alful “how bad it was”
“i didn’t tell you” harry aepted the gift of hot hoote, and drao took that as an vitation to sit down beside hi “i did of people, outside the weasleys and herione gonagall, one”
drao he ration wash over hi he didn’t ry, but part of hi thought that harry alk about it or aybe that was jt the selfish part of hiself that wao opare sars “how old were you the first ti?”
“five” harry took a dri his outh, even though drao had war was still uh too hot for that “i had draiture of a agiian you know, the uggle kd—big wand with the sparks that flew out, poty hat, the lohey loked i for a week, o one a day like they ould starve the agi out of ”
it was a wohey hadn’t killed hi drao wants to say sothg, but sorry does whehi
(he has a horrible fsh of bak i year, when he oked harry about not bei ho for the holidays, but he had ed it to be really true, jt thought