Title: The Beauty of Forgiveness
Author: Appleton Grey
Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns the characters, and places. I just like to play with them.
Summary: Harry gets invited for dinner to the Dursley's. What on earth could possibly go wrong? DM/HP
Harry sat in the drivers seat, his fingers tapping restlessly on the steering wheel.
He had been sitting here for what seemed like half an hour, but was really ten minutes at the most.
He had been invited for dinner at the Dursley's home. That alone was shocking. They had actually wanted him to come over to their home for dinner. They hated him. Or so he thought. But now… maybe they wanted to ask his forgiveness for they way they treated him all those years ago.
Harry had a long time to think over the things they did and said and he had forgiven them, they just didn't know it. Maybe they had asked him to come here to officially ask him to forgive them!
But still, none of this seems right.
Harry felt a firm hand pull him from his thoughts and stopped his tapping, glancing at the person in the passengers seat.
'Who ever thought things would turn out like this?' he asked himself, not for the first time since entering his relationship with the infamous Draco Malfoy.
After the defeat of Voldemort four years ago, Harry had decided to 'come out'. Hermione had already known of his sexual orientation, but when Ron found out… well let's just say it wasn't pretty. Ron wasn't really a homophobe, he was just a little nervous that maybe, just maybe, Harry had been crushing on Ron since Hogwarts? So he panicked a little. But when Hermione had finally managed to calm him down, and got him to really think over this new change in his life, he settled. That is to say he was able to look Harry in the eye and shake his hand unflinchingly. The rest of the Weasley's, to Harry's shock, really weren't that surprised. Many of them had suspected this for quite a while, and sang praises the day Harry told them straight out. But when he told them his lover's name, well that quieted them. For a little while.
Informing them that the man he loved, was none other than Draco Malfoy, the one that had ridiculed their family for years and held nothing but contempt for their entire family, really got their attention. Even Hermione had not known this small fact.
But when he explained his feelings for the blonde, when he really examined himself and told them honestly how he felt, they slowly but surely accepted the new bit of information.
And so everyone he really cared about finally knew everything there was to know about him.
Except the Dursley's. Not that Harry loved them, he still held small feelings of fury towards them, but they had raised him, however horribly. Harry had planned on telling them his realization, but he got so busy, moving his things into his and Draco's flat, and preparing for work as an Auror, that it had slipped his mind. All thoughts of the Dursley's completely fled his brain, until the letter came.
It came the Muggle way in the mail, as if to rub in the faces of the Weasley's that they knew how to write a letter and send it properly. When Harry opened it, he suspected that they were writing to him to tell him they never wanted to see them again, and that they were giving up any parental rights they ever had.
But instead it was an invitation. An invitation to dinner. Harry along with a few other guests were invited to come to dinner, and Harry was given permission to bring a friend along. It was almost as if they were encouraging him to bring his 'girlfriend' along.
After a long discussion with Draco among the boxes, waiting to be unpacked, they had decided to R.S.V.P. after all.
Which brought Harry to his current position; sitting outside the Dursley home, in a car with his lover having second thoughts.
"Harry?" the voice of Draco, brought him back into the real world. "Love, are you going to just sit there stareing into space or are you going to show them who you have become?"
"Always straight to the point, Draco." Harry grinned impishly, pulling his lover in for a brief kiss. But with Draco Malfoy there was no such thing as a 'brief' kiss.
As he finally stepped out of their car and into the warm night air, Harry couldn't help but have second thoughts.
'I can't do this!' his mind cried out.
'Oh yes I can and I will!' the determined side, bit out.
'But they'll humiliate me!'
'I can stand it!'
"I can do this." Harry said to himself, nodding curtly. "Yeah, I can do this. It's not that hard. All I have to do is walk in there and say, 'Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, I'm gay. Oh my God, they're going to tear me a new one." He moaned to himself, burying his head in his hands.
"Come on, love. You can do this remember?" Draco said reassuringly.
"Yeah…I know. Let's get this over with."
Harry marched up to the door, one hand grasping Draco's in a death grip, the other fiddling with his wand in his jacket pocket. Why he would need his wand he did not know but it always comforted him somehow.
When Harry reached the door, he hesitated briefly before knocking on the door lightly. After a few seconds, which seemed to be five minutes, he knocked again only louder this time. Halfway through his first knock the door swung wide open and suddenly Harry was pulled into the house rather roughly, by giant arms. Surprised, Harry dropped Draco's hand in an effort to get the steel rods away from his shoulders.
When Harry was finally released, he was surprised to see the grinning face of Dudley towering over him.
"Welcome home Harry!" Dudley had certainly grown since Harry had last send him nearly six years before. He seemed to finally have grown into his large amount of weight, his height looking to be nearly 6'7".
"Well, Dudley… you certainly have… grown." At that Dudley let out a booming laugh and Harry was a little ashamed at he stammer in his voice, but managed to hide it.
"Oh Harry!" A high-pitched voice said from behind Dudley. Dudley moved aside to reveal Aunt Petunia, in all her thin glory. She embraced Harry as if she actually liked him when he was a child. Over her shoulder he could see Uncle Vernon come rumbling in from the kitchen, wearing, of all things, an apron.
"'Ello Harry! It's nice to see you back after such a long time! 'Scuse the apron, I've just been helping Petunia with the cooking!" He laughed uproariously and gave Harry a hug as well patting him on the back. Uncle Vernon and Aunt petunia hadn't changed much, merely getting grayer as time went on.
"Well come, come dear! Dinner is all set and waiting! Let me take your coat!" Aunt Petunia said, and stopped when she finally noticed Draco standing in the doorway, watching the 'family reunion'. "And who's this?"
"Umm… Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, uhh… Dudley, this is my… roommate, Draco Malfoy." Harry quickly looked at the ground so that he didn't have to see the glance that Draco would send him.
"How do you do?" Draco said, offering his hand to Mr. Dursley. Mr. Dursley glanced at said hand for a moment before extending his own with a smile.
"Vernon Dursley, but I expect you've heard all about me and my family from Harry here!" Vernon said with a smile.
"I have Mr. Dursley, heard quite a bit about you." Draco said with another quick glance at Harry, only to find Harry had taken a sudden interest in the floor.
"Mrs. Dursley." Draco said, once again extending his hand, only instead of shaking hands with Petunia, he kissed the knuckles of her hand.
"A pleasure to meet you Mr. Malfoy." Draco was not surprised to see a faint blush on her cheeks.
Dudley stepped forward to receive his handshake.
"Dudley Dursley, Mr. Malfoy. Nice to meet you." When Draco grasped the large hams that were Dudley's hands, Dudley squeezed fairly hard, probably to let Draco know that Dudley was still the biggest man in the house.
"Please, call me Draco." Draco smiled charmingly enough.
"Well right this way to the dining room. As the invitation stated we are having one other guest with us tonight." Mr. Dursley explained. "Our Dudley is getting married soon and we thought it would be a good idea for Harry to meet his sister-in-law."
Already seated at the table was, an exact copy of Mrs. Dursley. Extremely thin, with a swan like neck, the woman who was soon introduced as Claudia Banks, could have been Mrs. Dursley's twin.
After more introductions were made, they all took their places at the dinner table. Mr. Dursley sitting at the head of the table with Mrs. Dursley on his right and his son Dudley on his left. Sitting next to Dudley was Claudia, and across from Claudia, sat Draco. And sitting opposite Mr. Dursley was Harry.
"Well, everyone enjoy!" Mr. Dursley's said, amusement in his voice. And so the feast began.
The talk around the table was civil enough, no one mentioning Harry's years at Hogwarts, or the day he left the house at the age of sixteen to fight against Voldemort's army. Most of the chat around the table consisted of asking what Harry was doing for a living, where he was living. Harry answered the questions with simple answers like, he was working with the 'government' and living in a small flat in London. The Dursley's went on to ask if there were anyone special in his life.
"Well I have met someone I do have deep feelings for." Harry said stareing fixedly at his plate of mash potatoes, steak, and vegetables.
"Really!" Aunt Petunia said, curiosity in her voice. "When will we get to meet this lovely woman?"
"Who said it was a woman?" Draco murmured under his breath.
"Pardon me, Draco?" Dudley said, loudly, to draw his parent's attention.
"Nothing, nothing at all." Draco said with an easy grin.
"Well go on Harry! Tell us about this girl." Uncle Vernon said, shoveling more mashed potatoes onto his plate.
"Umm... well you see… actually… I… uhh…"Harry blushed and stammered.
"Oh for God's sake!" Draco said finally, "Harry and I are in love!"
Harry had not heard such silence in his entire life.
Finally the sound of Uncle Vernon dropping his fork broke the silence.
The entire room erupted in many different sounds to say the least. Petunia Dursley started weeping, Vernon Dursley began to shout, and Dudley tried to comfort his mother while glaring hatefully at Harry and Draco.
" I WILL NOT HAVE IT! I REFUSE TO HAVE A FAG IN THIS HOME! DO YOU SEE WHAT YOU ARE DOING TO YOUR AUNT? DO YOU? WE HAVE CLOTHED YOU AND PUT A ROOF OVER YOUR HEAD FOR LONG ENOUGH! AND FOR YOU TO PAY US BACK THIS WAY! FOR YOU TO GO OFF AND BE SEDUCED BY SOME WANKER!" Mr. Dursley's shouted continued for a long time after that. But they suddenly stopped when Harry slammed his hand onto the table.
"Vernon, Petunia, Dudley, Claudia." Harry said with barely constrained emotion in his voice. "It was very nice of you to be inviting us over for dinner. Maybe we will see each other again some day. And maybe not. But for now. Draco and I must be going." And with a 'POP!' Harry apparated from the room, to the car. Draco sat there looking at them for a while longer before waving cheerfully, then apparating as well.
The Dursley's sat in complete silence for a moment before another 'POP!' sounded exactly where Harry had been sitting.
"Oh, and I wanted to tell you," Harry said quite calmly, "I forgive you."
And he disappeared with another 'POP!'
A/N: Well wasn't that phun? It is now 4:35 a.m. I have been writing since 3:00 a.m. But I think it was worth it. Do not hesitate to e-mail with your opinions of this story and to point out grammar mistakes. jmorgangrenvillecc.ca
I also went through the story with my beta and I edited it a little. I will be doing much more editing as well, and I'm sorry for not, doing it before but I needed to get in touch with my beta.
Also, just wanted to mention, there will be no more chapters! Thanks to everyone who reviewed!
Adieu,
Appleton Grey