Disclaimer: 1. Do Harry Potter and his world belong to me?
a. Yes.
b. No.
The answer is b.
There was a week's vacation for the eighth-years after NEWTs, during which time they could come and go as they pleased, looking for flats and interviewing for jobs and shopping and relaxing, and then there would be their graduation, and their time at Hogwarts would finally be over. Harry was so ready for this; this last semester had been so different that he'd long ago made peace with the fact that his "real" time at Hogwarts was long gone.
Draco and Harry had made plans to spend this vacation together, first at Grimmauld Place, and then, finally, at Malfoy Manor with Draco's mother, but coming from the last of his regular Friday afternoon catch-up sessions with Hermione (Draco and Ron called these their "playdates," and had taken to hanging out with each other, as well, during these afternoons), Harry knew now that he needed to change those plans. Instead of walking around the lake or hiking in the forest or gossiping over butterbeer at the Hog's Head, he'd taken Hermione to the dis-used classroom that Fred and George had once used as a stink bomb store this afternoon for a quiet place to talk, and although Hermione had wept a lot, and had told Harry that she'd rather not, that it surely wouldn't help and might make things worse, she had finally agreed, and so it was going to be done.
Arriving back at their room, Harry found Draco tidying up after what looked like an afternoon of chess and butterbeer with Ron, while the house elf packed for them. Draco looked up smiling, but then saw the look on Harry's face. "Aw, hell. What now?" he asked petulantly, and his eyes tightened and looked suddenly wary and war-torn.
"I've got to tell you something," said Harry, "and you're not going to like it."
"What else is new," Draco sighed, then sat down on the bed and motioned away the house elf, who disappeared with a pop.
Harry sat down on the edge of the bed next to Draco and took his hand, but couldn't look at him. Guilt floored him, and a little fear, because he knew for a fact that Draco was NOT going to be happy to hear this. His mind suddenly blanked on all the right stuff, the good stuff, the stuff that made fucking sense that he and Hermione had planned for him to say. Instead, when he opened his mouth, what fell out was "I have to go with Hermione instead of you."
Draco was silent, and the sudden tension in the hand that Harry held was his only sign that he'd even been heard. Maybe it hadn't sounded as bad to Draco as had sounded coming out of his mouth? Maybe Draco wouldn't be mad? Maybe- "So you finally chose her," Draco finally breathed.
This was not a response that Harry had even remotely expected. Immediately, his body was flooded with… so many feelings; how could one even start to sort them out? Incensed, confused, frightened and reacting the only way he knew how to react to fright, he jumped up and faced Draco. "WHAT?! What the FUCK, Draco?!"
"Well, that's what we've been building to all this time, right? All this time, and I was never fucking good enough for you. All this time, and it's been Hermione all along, hasn't it? Well, hasn't it?" Draco added furiously, seeing as all Harry could do was stand and stare at him in horror.
"No," breathed Harry, and struggled to continue between the loud sobs that he couldn't stop from breaking out of his body. When had he started crying? Why couldn't he get a hold of himself and make this sorted out? He knew he had to try, but he felt so… wrong-footed, so flooded with this stupid, crippling emotion, this stupid fear. Why wouldn't his stupid fucking brain work? "It's you, Draco. Not Hermione! This is different! I just-"
"I was never good enough for you, was I?" Draco broke in. " I'm always going to be a fucking Death Eater. I am never going to be fucking HERMIONE!" Draco raged on, shouting down Harry. Harry gasped for breath—there wasn't enough air in the room, for some reason—and struggled forward, throwing himself down in front of Draco and clutching himself to his knees. He would fix this; fixing things was what he did.
"I am always going to love you, Draco! Can you just listen to me?" he sobbed. Draco looked so strange, and Harry's mind kept thinking that they were back at the Manor, Hermione half-conscious on the floor next to them. He fought the sensation, but nevertheless his mind was frantic; how could he fix this? What could he do?
"Oh, fuck you, Harry," Draco responded coldly. "Get out, and get your stuff out. I'll see you at graduation, I fucking suppose." He pushed roughly at Harry, still clutching at Draco's knees, and Harry fell backwards away from him.
Sobbing so hard that he couldn't see, Harry got to his feet and blindly made his way to the door by memory. As he pulled it open, he could hear Draco begin to weep, too, and he stopped—now was the time to say the perfect thing that would keep Draco in love with him!-but Draco only said, "Keep the fuck going," and Harry obeyed.
Fortunately, there was nobody in the hallway. Harry called back to himself all of the techniques that his mind healer didn't like him to use, and thought fiercely, "Don't think about it. Don't think about it!" Within seconds, his grief transitioned to a once-familiar state of numbness, something that Harry found that he'd missed quite a lot, actually, and carefully, with focus, Harry made his features resemble that of a man not in pain. Taking care to walk normally, he headed straight to Hermione's room and knocked. Ron answered.
"Harry, Hermione just told me!" Ron answered gleefully, and unexpectedly wrapped Harry up in a hug. Harry let himself relax into it for a second, but it was too reminiscent of happiness, so he made himself numb again until Ron released him. "She's in the bathroom now, getting the last of her things, probably trying to sneak socks to the house elves. I just wanted to tell you, while she's gone, thank you from ME, Harry. I know you're doing this for Hermione, but her happiness is my happiness, too—you know? I know you know it's been kind of weird for me, this friendship that you and she have. But the fact that you would do this for her? I get it now; I understand it. I'm glad that she has you, because I know that no matter what, no matter what happens to me, she'll always have you to protect her, too. And this? Fuck, Harry… This, this means the world to Hermione, and so it means the world to me, too."
"Can you do me a favor, actually?" said Harry. "It's about Draco."
"Sure, Mate," Ron agreed. "Anything."
Harry pulled the envelope out of his back pocket that he'd intended to give to Draco before he left. He'd so been looking forward to watching Draco's face when he read the contents. All that was ruined now, of course. But even though it was over, he still wanted Draco to have this, to be happy, to have a good life. It had just been stupidity to think that it would be with him, when clearly he was so ruined, so gone, that even Draco could tell and must push him away. He handed the envelope over to Ron.
"Um, I don't want to say goodbye to Draco again, but I didn't give him this. Will you give it to him sometime before you separate at King's Cross tomorrow?"
"Sure!" said Ron cheerfully. "I won't have anything else to do tonight after you and Hermione leave. I'll take it over to him then. That way if he decides not to take the train after all, I won't have to worry about not seeing him."
"Sounds good," Harry said weakly. He wondered if he should warn Ron about the reception that any envelope coming from Harry was likely to receive from Draco, but decided not to. It was too long of a conversation, and one that he'd already decided would remain locked inside himself forever. He was going to go with Hermione and do what he promised, he was going to come back here and get his fucking diploma, and then he was going to fuck off to Grimmauld Place and stay there.
Turns out that had been a good plan, after all.
Just then Hermione came out of the bathroom, dressed for travel and carrying that bigger-on-the-inside fancy purse of hers. Laughing, Hermione ran across the room to jump into Harry's arms and hug him. "I'm so excited that I can't stand it!" she screamed into his ear. "Can we go right now?"
Harry winced, but smiled in spite of himself. He hefted Hermione more securely and asked, "That all your luggage?" Hermione nodded. "Well, kiss your boyfriend, then," Harry said, and leaned over so that Hermione could kiss Ron tenderly on the lips. "Right then, let's go get your parents' memories back," said Harry, and in the space of a breath, he made the two of them be in Australia.