Colin was there as Harry woke up, a tea tray shaking in his hands.
"Harry?" Colin asked tenderly. Harry sat up, as soon as he realised he was restrained he panicked, Colin set the tray down. "It's me, Colin."
That didn't help.
"Get away from me," Harry screamed, "Get the fuck away from me you sick freak!"
"Harry," Colin scolded him, handing him the tea. Harry held up his bound hands.
"Oh," Colin put the cup down. "Look, you're denying yourself Harry, because you're scared, and that's not okay." Colin reached to stroke Harry's face, and Harry scrambled away.
"I want to help you to be happy, you spent all your life saving everyone else and no one ever offered to help you! I just want you to be happy."
"I was happy!" Harry cried, "Then you kidnapped me."
"With Ginny?" Colin asked with a laugh, "How could you be happy with Ginny? Talk about cookie cutter, its like her whole purpose was to be your wife."
"No," Harry said, "I love Ginny, she's amazing."
"Cookie cutter," Colin taunted him, singsong.
Harry shook his head, still denying everything. "I don't want to talk to you, I don't want to be here, Fuck off."
Colin sighed and left Harry to himself. He was so frightened of accepting himself, this would take time. Colin paused at the liquor cabinet in his drawing room.
No, he couldn't drown his troubles away, this thing with Harry would take time.
The next day Colin came back to Harry's room, bringing an apple and a glass of water with a straw.
"Harry, please," Colin pleaded, "I want to look after you, like you looked after me and everyone else."
Harry stubbornly stayed silent that day, Colin left the green apple on the bedside table.
That night Colin cracked open Harry's door, just to check in, Harry glared at him.
"Harry, you'll be so much happier if you just accept it?"
"Accept what?" Harry spat.
"This!" Colin exclaimed, coming into the room, "us, me, then I can untie you can we can just exist. You can get a muggle job and we can be normal people again. No Harry Potter, no Colin Creevey, no Weasley's, no press, no more stress or hard decisions. Harry you can be looked after and be at peace."
Harry glared at him stubbornly, so Colin sighed and left his Hero alone in the dark.
Colin was thinking hard. Harry would come around, but at this rate it would take forever for him to be happy, he just needed something, more persuasive, something to cure his homophobia, something to make him see Colin was right for him, even though they were both men, especially that they're both men.
Colin paused at the liquor cabinet again. Then scolded himself. Silly Colin, he thought to himself, he wouldn't be Harry if he weren't so stubborn. Colin stopped his musings as he heard a crash.
"Fuck!" Colin ran up the thin hallway and threw himself into Harry's bedroom, the window had been smashed open, blood was dribbling down the wall and the plants on the other side had been squished. Colin drew his wand as he reached the window, blasting away the long sharp shards and he jumped out the window.
"HARRY!" Colin called, "Fuck," He cursed again, crossing the small lawn in a few strides. Colin frowned, looking at the pavement, he crouched down, dipping his fingers in the thick red drop of blood.
He licked it off his fingers, eyes spotting the next drop on the pavement and Colin followed the breadcrumbs left for him by his lover.
"Fuck!" Harry hissed, he had broken into the house three doors down and hid upstairs, trying all the phones, presumably for Hermione but was not having any luck. Harry glanced at Colin and took a defensive stance, despite being badly injured and unarmed.
"Harry," Colin scolded the other man. "What have you done to yourself?" Harry's stomach sported a deep gash which he was desperatley cluching, hand slipperly and covered in blood. "Pertrificus Totalus!" Colin bound Harry and levitated his body towards him, clutching his hand and apparating them back to his own home.
Harry's eyes were panicked, no doubt becasue of the large bloody gash in his abdomen, and Colin frowned. He couldn't take Harry out of the house, not yet.
Colin ripped up Harry's bedsheets and bound the wound, before running to the tiny sitting room and pulling his sewing kit out from under the lounge, and stopping to pull a bottle of vodka out of the liquor cabinet.
He soaked needle and thread in the alcohol and with a sympathetic glance to Harry, he began stitching up the violent wound.
Harry wanted to fight, to scream to cry but he was stuck, it was agony, the alcohol soaked thread made the gash sting even more and he could feel the needle piercing and moving in his flesh.
Harry's eyes darted around wildly, that was all he could do as the sick man above him tried to help.
Colin felt very sick as he continued to sew his lover back together. It was like blanket stitching raw meat. And the way Harry's beautiful eyes were darting around told Colin loud and clear the poor man was in a lot of pain. He tied of the final stich before pouring a little more of the vodka over the cut and Colin tried to take a swig of it to calm himself but his hands were shaking. Covered in Harry's blood. Colin looked around wildly. His vision blurred.
Then he blacked out.
Colin let out a wreaked sob. It wasn't supposed to be like this. it was supposed to be happy. And Harry can never do that again, run away like that. Ever.
He shook the water out of his eyes and stood on shaky legs, running still soaked through his home and almost running into the liquor cabinet. He pulled something amber, rum maybe, and drank it straight.
What if Harry kept trying to leave?
Or he kept hurting himself?
Colin would never do something like that again, he couldn't, not ever. Anger welled up inside him and with heavy footsteps he rampaged up the hall, bottle still in hand, and bashed open Harry's door. with a wave of his wand Harry was released from the curse and he screamed, doubling over, tears in his eyes as he was finally able to react to the... surgery.
Colin kicked him across the face. Harry went sprawling and the 3/4 full bottle of rum smashed on the floor. Colin moved forwards, piciking up Harry by the collar.
"I'm so angry with you!" Was all Colin could manage, he punched Harry in the face, and again, and again, Harry spat out blood. Colin dropped him, waving his wand and conjuring heavy chains, then fixing them to the roof. He bodily pulled Harry up and locked his wrists in the manicles, Harry was hung so his feet could only just touch the floor.
"You will never run away again." Colin kicked aside the shards of alcohol bottle as he left the room and headded back to his liquor cabinet.
Colin gave it another full day before visiting Harry again. He was just as stubborn, but Colin would make him listen. Harry didn't have a choice.
"Harry you don't see it do you? How everyone is using you? Ron and Hermione wouldn't even be friends if it wasn't for you, and they just, you're always a third wheel with them, you never got any time for yourself, you're always saving someone, doing something, planning something, and then you just, it was so cliché, you save the world and marry the younger sister of your best friend." Colin paused and shook his head, "and the real crime is you never get to explore, never ever find out how happy you could be, you've never been happy, so you don't even know that you're so sad."
Colin moved forward quickly and tenderly touched Harry's face, he received a stony expression for his trouble. Colin left then, leaving the room dark, and cold, with Harry still hanging from the ceiling.
