I don't own the characters of this story, nor do I own the song and lyrics quoted.
Bury all your secrets in my skin, come away with innocence and leave me with my sin.
He was so messed up. He had made all the wrong choices. After the boy he loved had made his own.
The air around me still feels like a cage, and love is just a camouflage for what resembles rage again.
He didn't talk to anyone anymore. Not Crabbe, Goyle, Parkinson, Zabini, not even Snape, or his parents.
Hexes. Duels. Arguments. He thought he hated him for years. But he didn't. Since he had first seen him, he had confused his burning attraction with fiery hate.
He didn't believe it. One song, one Muggle song off that darn Muggle radio channel. It had ruined him. It was about, or so he thought, lost love. He thought he could relate to it. But he didn't.
There was never any love. There was never anything lost. There was only what he longed for.
He wanted to be his friend, the second he held out his hand for him to shake. He wanted to talk to him in the days afterwards. But with any attempt he made, he was shot down, and hard.
He knew the boy had it hard. The pressure of his parents. Of their 'master'. He knew that the boy, who he actually cared for, would have it differently if he could have chosen.
It didn't give him an excuse to ruin the lives of others, though.
So break yourself against my stones, and spit your pity in my soul.
That one day, after he had stumbled into another boy in the showers, when an older Slytherin had picked on him, the Gryffindor boy stood up for him. Although it happened at the beginning of second year, he could remember it like it was yesterday.
"Trying to get a load of cock in it, hey, Mouth Boy?"
Although he had already made a weak homophobic joke back to defend himself, his sworn enemy had snapped something back to make the bullies hush.
He didn't exactly hear what he said though. He was too busy worrying about what would happen if they really found out.
He ran off and cried. Cut himself and cried. He wasn't normal, as they would say. Cocksucker, bumfucker. He was gay. And he loved the one boy he could never, ever have.
But that special someone had stood up for him.
It was a shame he would probably never do it again though.
You sold me out to save yourself.
He had stood up for the Slytherin one day, and he thought maybe, just possibly, there would come a time where he would repay him. But it hadn't come yet.
He still held on to his hopes, though angry inside.
There was this song he listened to, and it would make things better. A Muggle metal band. It was simply wonderful.
"If you still care, don't ever let me know…" the pale, sickly skinny boy sang quietly.
One day, they passed each other in an empty corridor. Strange, seeing as there were usually hundreds of smaller students jammed in them. They saw each other. And they stopped.
The blonde boy looked at the beautiful face in front of him. His heart stopped, he shut his mouth abruptly but then let it open a little.
"Draco."
He tensed, a bit worried that he had been the first to speak. What would Draco say? Would he taunt him about the latest happenings? Would he hex him for calling him by his first name?
"Harry."
He winced a little, nervous and sick, dizzy and tired.
"How are you?" Harry asked, bowing his head a little.
If you still care, don't ever let me know.
Draco sighed quietly before he answered. "I don't know. But what do you care?"
The past few months, there had been some silent communication between them. Understanding looks during classes, and unintentional contact everywhere, which had once or twice been rather loving, but frightening all the same.
Harry swallowed. Could he tell him? He had waited long enough. Years. He had faced some difficult things in those years, but now, this was the most difficult thing he would ever do.
"I love you."
And with that, already barely any space between them, Harry raised his lips to Draco's.
"You don't know how long I've been waiting to hear that," Draco said after he pulled away gently.
"I'm not the only one then."