drao was ughg at hi the way he does whehks harry is beg silly, his outh istg up to a sirk harry doesn’t know how to exp the real proble with beier of attention—that how sotis it ds you down, piks off piees of you, takes away all yes until you have nothg to protet yourself aough sk to hide behd, only you aruth of the publi opion ahe other part, about how gog there and siliheir thanks would see like he was ore iportant thahers who had risked life and lib to fight beside hi, to fight for hi, a stoah it, he only thg harry ahk he is beg ohe fat that he had beeo stay alive, even though he had tried to die
≈hihought i he isn’t tellialy not herione: he should have proteted the all that’s what he was tryg to do, by walkg to that forest he should have proteted the, or he should have died with the, a quite ao do either, so what kihat ake hi?”
≈o knos one” harry reads over the letter for the third ti, already rippg off a piee of parhnt to send a rsvp “who do they thk i’ takg? everyohat gny and i broke up”
≈ age news as soon as it happehe quibbler overed it, whih was sortore than annoyg, beae na had written it i y friends have been dog tely on, and harry did hi to be ad at her
“you ould take ” there’s fored asualness his voie, ahough they’ve gotte where they pretend arouher, drao is avoidg harry’s eyes “i’d be able to help”
≈he reason that harry would want to take hi beae he’d be able to help
“yeah” harry had to lear his throat ie before he ould get the word out, beae this is raisiions than it is answers, like if it’s a date aher drao wao be a date, if this art of their attept to keep ovg forward, if harry should be expetg thgs to hahey go publi like this “yeah, i’d like that a lot”
drao siles, even though he still is not lookg his way “you would?”
harry doesn’t know what to do with hi when he is like this, so he jt siles, too, ahe upboard to ake his own bowl of ereal, w what the world he was gog to wear
≈ until thirty ihe party before he starts to freak out
harry’s wearg an old suit of drao’s, beae apparently it’s fashile fs now (or at least, if it’s not fashion, it will be after they see the oit, and it’ll be easier to take you shoppg at a uggle pe, anyways) ahehi he tugs at it, hearg herione’s voie iellg hi to leave it alone, and looks at his refletion the gssboard, ryg to ftten his hair, even though gny had reassured hi at this pot i keeps hi fro lookg less like he’s tryg too hard and ore bad boy hi
≈ know what that ans, but if gny says he looks fihan he probably does, so he spehe ti pag the livg roo floor, and it’s o of how exited this had ade drao that keeps hi fro goio of the steps and anellg on hi, sayi and lokg the do hiself down on the ouh, a ever ake the istake of givg taihey send so any owls the letters fill up the whole hoe
“drao?” he sgs hiself arouer, even though the w i harry spends half his ti seeg ho before this old hoe breaks, jt so he has ao fix it up so far, no k wizards ake thgs for keeps, apparently “you alost ready? we’re goie”
herioures, and she also ion on her dress before she throws herself at the ry of the ob ron’s written and said that she had spent all day gettih that hair sleekg potion and dog her nails it sees that hildhood taunts had ade her unwillg to go if she looked aha
≈ goie,” drao says, and there’s reakieps behd hi harry knows with around that dra his eyes and puttg the fishg touhes on his hair at the sa ti, like there’s a strg istihe together so harry kly eng with hi at all tis “you an’t rh beauty”
harry’s already f a respohe wht oip of his toheurns arouhi have said, beae even though he k he found drao attrative, this was the first ti that he was aught h to allow hiself to look without feelg guilty
“you look…” he’s ioo, this one grey he’s ied olors, with his pale sk and light hair and the dark grey of his suit, like he wahe bakground while givg harry all the roo to shihere was nothg that would let hi fall out of sight when he’s walkg around lookihis “aazg”
“thanks” drao srathes at his olr, but other than that, there’s no sign that he was fstered at all “you do too” he didn’t harry didn’t look bad, but he didn’t look great, not the way drao did, like he was goihe only thg the roo worth looki for the tie, you…”
harry fubled at it for a ont, and then drao was there, phg his