Disclaimer: "In love, there are no friends." –Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.
Warning: Slash
True Love
Is there such a thing as true love? Can it ever be pure and blissful and, above all, right? Or will someone always get hurt? Shakespeare once wrote, "The course of true love never did run smooth." Through his eyes, there is such an elusive idea, undeniably hard to achieve, but once reached apparently magnificent, transcending, true…But does this ineffable state justify the pain that is inevitably attached to it?
Harry pondered these thoughts one day as he sat in the morbidly mind-numbing class that was known to the students of Hogwarts as History of Magic. The rain viciously threw itself against the window beside him, shattering into a million shining pieces as it hit the glass. He envied the rain in its continuous suicidal mission. Well, he corrected himself, maybe not to such an extent. True he was depressed, but was seeing one's ex-girlfriend with another guy really something to become suicidal over? No, he decided firmly, he was being foolish. He never had truly loved her, had he? He flinched slightly at the memory, still fresh in his mind, of Cho kissing the Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain before class and clenched his quill in his fist a little harder. Maybe the raindrops were on to something…
He pushed his mind away from that less-pleasant-subject and turned it to the events that had occurred over the past year, he still marveled at the multitude of them. First off, he and Cho had broken up, that was clear enough and still more obvious he wasn't quite over her. He was doing better though; his interests were beginning to wander to a quite different person. Quite different indeed. His close friends had always suspected something so it came to no surprise to Hermione, Ginny or Ron when Harry admitted to them that he had fallen for his friend Draco Malfoy.
The fact that he could even utter the words "Malfoy" and "friend" together in the same sentence in itself was a complete about face from this time a year ago. But, for better or for worse, sometime during the previous year, sixth year, Draco had come over to the Light and, as much as Harry had hated to admit it at the time, he had been quite the addition to the Order. As it tends to happen with people forced to work together in close quarters, Draco and Harry had slowly become friends. As the year dredged on and the death toll rose, they only became closer. Then, finally, over the summer the time had come to face Voldemort and during that final duel Draco had stood gallantly at Harry's side and together they had vanquished the Dark Lord. Needless to say there was much celebrating.
Upon returning from the "holiday" Harry had been promptly broken up with, a truly lovely "Hooray, You Destroyed the Ultimate Evil" celebratory gift. And now, predictably, Harry was falling for Draco.
"Just tell him, Harry, I'm sure he'll understand," prodded Hermione as they were walking to lunch half an hour later.
"Yeah…no, I think I'll pass," responded Harry. "Somehow I don't think that'll go over well."
"What's the worst that could happen?"
Harry was spared the unpleasant process of inventing something truly horrible by the arrival of Ginny, "I don't think Harry should have to tell him if he doesn't want to," offered the girl.
"Saved," muttered Harry.
"Of course you wouldn't," stated Hermione matter-of-factly.
Ginny blushed.
Harry was confused, but didn't let it bother him. In fact, due either to his natural oblivious nature or perhaps the arrival of a rather attractive blonde, a moment later Harry had entirely forgotten about his friend's strange behavior.
"What are we talking about?" asked the new arrival.
"Nothing, Draco," answered Harry and Ginny simulatainously.
Hermione's eyes shot quickly between the two other Gryffindors in a calculating nature then, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Cho and the said Quidditch Captain making out nearby and her gaze fixed on Ginny. All this passed in the space of a second.
"Come on Ginny, let's go for a walk!" she offered abruptly.
"But-"
"Come on, such a nice day shouldn't be wasted!" She plowed through Ginny's protests, gesticulating at the miserable raining day outside before dragging her off brutally by the arm.
Once they were out of ear shot of the boys Ginny rounded on her companion, "What was that for?"
"What was what for?"
"Don't play dumb! You know I like him!"
"So does Harry."
"So you're siding with Harry?"
"I'm not siding with anyone, trust me Ginny, I had my reasons."
"Whatever." They progressed across the rain swept grounds, bickering all the way.
We must pause a moment to wonder what might have happened if Cho and her boyfriend had not been involved in such atrocious PDA in such a close proximity to Harry and his pathetically fragile heart. Would Hermione perhaps have taken pity on Ginny? I suppose we never shall truly know. It just shows what little events can alter the winding path of destiny. But now we must once again return to Harry and Draco.
"So what were you talking about?"
"Like Ginny and I said, nothing, absolutely nothing." Harry remained resolute.
"So it had 'absolutely nothing' to do with the fact that you, Harry Potter, have an inexcusably large crush on your former arch-nemesis, yours truly?"
Harry's jaw dropped, "But, how? Who-?"
"Oh please, Harry, it's quite obvious."
"Um…well, yeah…I guess that's what we were sorta talking about…" Harry trailed off.
"Never thought you'd get around to telling me, always knew I'd have to bring it up." He shook his head, "Ah well, poor Ginny."
"Wait, what does Ginny have to do with this?" Harry was baffled.
"She seems to like me as well. How sad, for her that is, I seem to have fallen for you. I mean it is entirely possible for me to like her, subconsciously I could have fallen for either of you, probably did, but you, in fact, are my choice."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Sweet!" the black haired wizard exclaimed, "So what does that make us?"
"Boyfriends, unless of course you wish to take pity on the unfortunate Ginny Weasley."
Harry paused, he had to, he was in fact a decent person, loyal to his friends and for him not to pause and simply take the offer without considering his friend would be most unHarryesque. So yes, he did in fact pause, but as luck would have it, during that pause he noticed the same thing Hermione had moments before, the sight that ensured him being the one standing here and not the hapless and currently drenched Ginny. A fire rose inside him, a flame of pain and thus, naturally, he took the path away from such pain, a fire escape if you will. He accepted Draco's offer.
Ginny was devastated to say the least. Being sixteen she was quite sure she was in love with the blonde and, having nothing to tell her otherwise, she hung on to that notion. Was she in love with him? I do not know. Does it really matter? Not in the least. It hurts as much to have your heart broken by someone you think you love as it does to have your heart broken by someone you do love. How would you know the difference? It was not Harry's intent to hurt Ginny, nor was it the goal of Draco, Hermione or even Cho and her boyfriend for that matter, though they all played a part, nevertheless, despite best intentions, it happened.
Fortunately for them all, Ginny was a bright girl. She did not hate or resent any of them, recognizing, in time, why it had happened. Nor, though, did she make an attempt to move on. She stayed in love, or in the illusion there of, with Draco, clinging to the false hope belonging to those who are, ironically, hopelessly in love that one day he may turn and look at her in new light and return her feelings. He never did. Whether she ever got over him or not is unknown and unimportant, but, whether he knew it or not, he always owned a small portion of her heart. Ah, but the story must continue.
The days passed, the rain fell and Harry and Draco's relationship grew stronger. They remained friends throughout the affair and would remain friends long after they broke up. The day came, at the zenith of their bond that Draco said to Harry the three words that are far too well known and far too often uttered without true meaning to back them up.
"I love you."
Harry did not respond with the customary "I love you too", no instead he asked, "You do?"
This threw Draco off guard, "I believe so."
"Believe? You believe you do, but how do you truly know?"
"Some people say you just know."
"Do you know or do you believe?"
"I know."
"How though?" Harry shook his head, "'Just knowing' isn't enough. Is there a sure fire way to tell?"
"Of course not! If there was, someone would have figured it out by now."
"Well, how do you personally know then?"
"It sounds ridiculous, but when I see you it doesn't feel right when I say or think 'I like you', no, but it clicks when I say 'I love you'."
"I suppose I should try it then."
"I suppose you should, where's the harm?"
"I love you."
"Well?"
"I love you."
Was it right? To them it was. To Ginny? Perhaps, perhaps she saw them and knew it was right. Was it true? In their eyes it was, to them the words were the truest they had ever spoken. And at that point, what does it really matter what the rest of the world thinks?
A/N: Right now I'm going through an "I'm Totally Obsessed with Les Misérables" phase. That is, I'm listening to the music non-stop, I'm reading the book and I'm going to see the show on the West End in exactly 20 days 17 hours and 24 minutes as of right now. I have no idea if this little fact has anything to do with how I wrote this story, but I thought I'd might as well mention it. I wrote it in sort of a different style so please review and tell me what you thought.