“it was a boggart,” harry says, a bit reduntly, stog his wand the bak poket of his pants without lookg drao i’s all it was, drao jt a boggart”
“oh” drao felt like ryg fat, he was ryg, both beae all the ws he had been thi a to say with harry had been said out loud, by the o he did o say the, and also beae he had been aught at it,on the floor like a hild and also beae he wao tell hi that it was all okay, whih he wasdht”
“do you really thk that?” harry’s head snapped up, and he was ryg, too, hurt by this whole thg, and drao jt wahe floor and hat i want to say all those thgs?”
“i’ afraid of it,” drao ahe boggart has left hi ell the truth “i keep telli it was silly, that you wouldn’t have said all those thgs if you didhe, a,” he shrugs “fears don’t always ake sense”
“beae i do” harry’s words were halted, like he was tryg tn hiself i you”
“i know”
“and i have fiven you f everythg you’ve dohg you ight do” harry waves his ha’s like it’s ent”
“i know that, too”
“and i know that this—what we’re dog—i’ n around it’s,” he is searhg for a word, learly, sothg stroo express his feelgs with drao away “this is it for this is all i ever want, you a ottage”
that—those st six words—ake drao feel like he is able ta “i know”
“do you?”
drao does not wao hi aybe he hasn’t beely, but he has been holdg bak, buryg thgs that he should have id out the open “i’ startg to,” he ands, whih is ruth but is loser thaen before
“okay” harry nods his head, faste losed oi, and stiks a hand out to help drao to his feet “sood here?”
“yeah,” drao says, and this ti, it does not feel like a lie “we’re all good”
harry
harry had been surprised before, but there’s nothg quite like hearg your boyfriend talkg to soohe atti and libg that rikety stairase only to fd that the persoalkg to is…yourself
≈ is hurlg abe, apparently, as drao sits on the floor and jt takes it, like all the fight goes away where harry is onerake what ay o flyg fro this person’s outh as gospel, and harry feels sik about it, and even ore so when he rebers ahat he had stared at a dupliate of hiself this hoe, a was a boggart
whih, when you thk about it, is evehahat runs ar veno at the people you are about
“i jt don’t uaer, wheaketehough it is ohe a of the bathroo to fd drao urled up on the wi, drawihe fss, “how you ould have thought those horrible thgs about the o of ”
“i’ o people like you lovg ” drao doesn’t look at hi “the war left its ark on the bad guys, too”
“i don’t thk yuy”
“and that’s probably the biggest differeween ”
harry stares at hi, not knog how to fix the sudden rift that had appeared, but it sees that he doeso, beae drao turns to hi, fae pale a like he is preparg for a punh to the fae, ahat the old alfoy has showed up to the fight
“you wah?” drao isn’t waitg for a harry nods anyways “the truth is that i are about you a lot, ahis whole ti we’re together i was waitg for sooo shoasn’t happeng, how this wasn’t real or you didn’t wa jt seed too good to be true and i was so afraid of that that i started l sig even there, and you ade this o was, really, beae it was that signifiant—about how i sh for pes, too, and i thought that you didn’t wao o with you, whih ant that you ould not thk about the sa way i thk about you, beae you, harry, are it for , too”
harry doesn’t have a respo, beae he rebers the ont (and how stupid, beae he o harry ion, not that he was tryg to throw hi out o) and it was before they eveage, whih ant that this t have been needlg drao’s bra for weeks
“you had to have knohat i aears burng harry’s eyes and he blihe away “didn’t you?”
“well i alost bought a ft london, so i’d say that i didn’t”
“i jt wao be happy, s to say that—that you didn’t jt have to follow , or whatever, that it was was our deision that’s all” he erate for drao to uand this “i was tryi you knoere og with this”
≈her thought, o want to fo on, about how aybe drao didn’t wahe ottage after all, but o on harry had built hi a potions b, for rl’s sake)
“a logially” drao lifted one shetially “but i also k you ould hange your d any ti”
“i’ not hangg y d, drao” ahough it’s uh too soon, possibly even unwanted,how badly harry had apparehgs up, he adds, “i love you”
it a whatever response drao had been fo