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Written for;
The Restricted Collection Challenge - 1. No Dialogue
Drowning In Emotion
He was drowning in emotion, and he didn't know how to save himself, didn't know how to swim to the surface to drink in air. It was Severus who showed him how to breathe again. It was Severus who taught him how to live his life without bowing to the expectations of others, and it was Severus who helped him to be Harry.
Just Harry.
Just as he'd always wanted.
They shared their lives with one another. They shared horrific tales of times gone by, they shared the little moments of happiness that spattered through the darkness, they shared everything they'd ever enjoyed and everything they'd ever suffered. They shared their emotions and thoughts and memories.
They knew each other better than anyone ever would or ever could.
Between them, they showed each other what true happiness could be. Of course they argued, and passionately at times, but they apologised to each other, the way they wouldn't for anyone else. They smiled and they laughed and they loved each other wholly and truly.
They balanced one another. The darkness and the light they each carried faded into their relationship, making them HarryandSeverus, a single entity that joined against every obstacle that tried to destroy them and obliterated it.
And then it ended.
It wasn't a spell, or a battle. It wasn't a drama. It wasn't a potion, or a fight, or anything that Harry could have understood.
It was old age. It was a hard life, finally catching up.
Harry was there, sitting beside the bed, holding the frail hand, until the very end. He'd smiled, he'd professed his love. He'd watched as the love of his life, the only man he had ever and would ever want, passed away into the next great adventure, leaving Harry alone.
And it felt just as it had all those years ago.
He was drowning.
This time the emotion was frozen in his veins.
And this time, there was no one there to save him.
No one there to show him how to breathe, how to live.
He was alone, and he was drowning, and he didn't know how to survive it.