Chapter 18

It was dark in Harry's room and, though a cool breeze whispered through the curtains, he warm. Dark because it was night, and warm because he was sandwiched between two bodies.

Nothing felt quite so comfortable as such warmth. Such stable, supportive warmth. Nothing quite so comfortable as his bed, either. Harry had missed both in his brief bout of being deprived of them, and he missed them already, despite that he hadn't even left it yet. Soon. Such a short time to be returned to such comfort but… soon it would be gone again.

Harry didn't know if he was more excited or terrified. Possibly both, but he was used to the latter by now. Having felt the extreme, the watered down version barely fazed him anymore.

"I'm having your phone."

Snorting, peeling an eye open from where he'd closed them minutes before, Harry met Jackie's gaze through the darkness. The streetlamp outside his window was enough to make out her features down to the disgruntled set of her lips.

"No, you're not," he murmured.

"Fine then," Jackie muttered in reply. "I'll have your Playstation, then."

"You're not having my Playstation either. You've already got one."

"Yeah, but it always dies on me."

"Sirius would be devastated. He'd have nothing to do when he comes over."

"Fine. Then I get at least half of your games."

At Harry's other side, Jill laughed in a whisper. She'd barely spoken for the better part of an hour and Harry had thought she was asleep. He should have known better. Though he'd closed his eyes, he doubted he would manage a wink that night – the last night – and he wouldn't have been surprised if either of his best friends fared any better.

The weeks following his escape from hospital he'd been all but locked indoors. It wasn't only because of Lily and James' insistence, though Harry used it as an excuse the single time Jackie asked him over. If he was being honest, Harry might even admit he didn't really wanted to leave his house either.

There was no threat. Not any longer. But that didn't mean he still struggled to sit in a room he couldn't see a window, or hear the sound of someone else going about their business. Idle comforts quelled the ever-present fear.

"We've got wards set up around the house," James had said the first day Harry had returned from the hospital. "Extra ones on top of the old ones."

"Old ones?" Harry had asked.

"You didn't really think we didn't have any at all, did you?"

Harry supposed he probably shouldn't have. Might not have, even, if he'd known his parents had an inkling of what wards were in the first place.

"We have Alarm Charms stationed along the street," Remus had told him, because of course they would.

"I'll be keeping you guys company for the next few weeks twenty-four seven anyway, just in case," Sirius had added, because of course he would.

"Nothing's going to happen," Lily had said. From the set of her jaw, the little nod of her head, it seemed more for her own benefit than Harry's. "Nothing will happen to you, Harry."

Harry believed them. He did. But he couldn't shake the feeling that 'something' would regardless.

Weeks felt like such a short time. In his hospital bed, considering the days until he would make the move to Hogwarts – to learn magic as he should have already been doing but also to retreat to the added safety that he supposedly no longer needed – it had felt so far away.

It wasn't. It wasn't far at all. Lying in his bed that felt far too small when it hosted three bodies instead of one, Harry wondered just how that time had passed so impossibly quickly. How much everything had changed in so short a time and how he wasn't entirely sure if he was ready for it.

How would he ever leave?

Dropping out of school was a whirlwind of stupefying change, but more to Harry's friends than to Harry himself. "I'll visit as much as I can," Harry had promised, but it hadn't stopped Jill eventually dissolving into tears or Jackie ranting for what felt like hours about abandonment and betrayal.

It did feel a little like he was abandoning them. A little like he was leaving and might not actually come back as he promised, as he knew he would. A little… scary. Like so much was these days.

Harry wouldn't be abducted again. He knew that, but the prospect still scared him.

He knew he would be only an Apparition and momentary, gut-wrenching journey away, but it still felt too long and too far.

He knew he wanted to leave, knew that Potting Point was no longer enough for him, knew that what lay ahead would be more wondrous and exciting than anything he'd ever experienced before –

But it was still terrifying. Harry didn't have nearly as much trouble admitting that as he used to. Not when so much seemed to play upon his nerves these days.

In the warm company of his two best friends, though, he could hide those fears. He could admit that he was sad but also excited. That he would definitely be returning and no, Jackie was not abruptly entitled to all of his belongings. He almost believed himself, too.

"I'm coming back, you know," he said for what must have been the thousandth time that evening. "Literally as much as I can."

"You won't living here, though," Jackie said. "You won't be using your stuff."

"You wouldn't actually use any of my stuff either."

"I would."

"You wouldn't."

"Yeah, I would."

"Jackie –"

"I would, Harry," Jackie said sharply, more sharply than the playful conversation warranted. "I definitely would."

Harry sighed. He knew they were no longer talking of superficial gifts and stolen possessions. The tightening of Jill's arms around his waist where she'd silently taken to holding him since they'd climbed into bed said she knew it too.

They'd spoken repeatedly and at length of the reasons. Between Jackie's curses and Jill's wistful regrets, Harry had tried to explain.

"It's safer in this place," he'd said.

"Safer? At a goddamn boarding school?" Jackie hadn't taken the explanation well. "What, is this like a witness protection program or something?"

"Mum and Dad think it would be for the best," he'd said.

"Then… I suppose we can't argue with that, even if we don't understand," Jill had said, her voice warbling. Jackie didn't cease her objections.

It pained him. Harry cringed whenever Jill offered her teary-eyed acceptance. He hunched his shoulders before Jackie's accusations and for the first time in his life felt the need to apologise for what she blamed him for. She was right, after all. It was for the best, but he really was leaving them behind. Out of everything – from the school he'd never held much fondness for to his family that he all but clung to in the past days – he would miss his friends more than anything.

Which was why he'd decided he would tell them. Damn the consequences, because the two people on either side of Harry had the right to know why.

"I have a good reason," he said as Jackie harrumphed, wriggling in the bed beside him and shuffling a little closer. He'd said the same thing numerous times before but this time… "I promise, I do."

"Right," Jackie said, just as she had each time too. "I've yet to hear it."

"You don't need to explain, Harry," Jill murmured into his back. "Despite what Jackie says, she doesn't need another explanation either."

"I do, actually."

"Jackie."

"No, it's fine, Jill," Harry said, glancing over his shoulder. He caught her eye as she glanced up at him. "You guys should know. This is going to be my life from now on so… so I should –"

"I just don't get it," Jackie muttered. The weight of her hand plucking mulishly on the front of Harry's shirt drew his attention back to her. Her head was bowed but he could still make out her frown through the darkness. "Potting Point is surely safer for you. You dad's the bloody regional police officer."

"It's not just that," Harry said.

"Sirius, too," she continued over the top of him. "Don't pretend they wouldn't take up the job of being your permanent bodyguard if you needed it."

"Jackie –"

"I would."

Harry's words died in his mouth. It was impossible to protest as he had been before the slight trembling of her lip, the determined plucking at his shirt as though she wanted to unravel it in an agitated frenzy. Jackie wasn't one to express herself openly when it came to feelings of vulnerability, but she didn't need to. Harry heard her nonetheless.

Still in Jill's unwavering hold, Harry reached for and tugged Jackie into an embrace of her own. She wasn't one for sentimental hugs, but he knew she appreciated them when she truly needed them. Given the speed her arms latched around him in return, Harry knew it was one of those moments.

"Thanks," he murmured into her ear. It struggled to pass the lump in his throat.

"I don't want you to leave," Jackie replied, the words muffled against his shoulder. "You prat."

"Sorry."

"You shouldn't have to go."

"I sort of do, though."

"But you don't."

There was too much trembling to her voice. Far too much for someone like Jackie. The lump in Harry's throat swelled and, eyes prickling, he knew that, even if he'd been forbidden from doing so, he would do everything in his power to make things better. Even just a little bit of a fix.

"Hogwarts is different," he said, glancing over his shoulder again to include Jill in his words. "It's exactly what I need right now."

"It's isolated," Jill said. "That's probably good."

"That, but also –"

"It's a school for prats," Jackie said, her words little more than a grunt. "Sounds like you'll fit right in."

Harry's brief laugh sounded strangled. "Yeah, probably. But mostly…"

Unwrapping his arms from Jackie and unfastening Jill's from his waist, Harry pushed himself upright. Scooting down the bed slightly, he folded his legs and turned towards them. Jill propped herself up on her elbows, but Jackie only stole his pillow and glared at him, huddling against the headboard.

Harry struggled for a smile. He didn't think he managed any better than Jackie's attempt at accusation.

"Here," he said, holding out a hand. "I want to show you something. Why I have to leave."

Sniffing, he took a breath. Then another. Then, barely audible, whispered, "Lumos".

It wasn't hard anymore. Easier with a wand, but not as hard as it had been. Impossibly easy compared to what felt so short a time ago, trapped in a room and grasping for the insubstantial tendrils of magic. The effect of it as he conjured it, tingling down his arm and spreading across his palm, was immediate this time.

Magic. Real magic.

The room lit up in pale white light. The shadows scuttled to the corners like creatures of the night and the edges of Harry's desk, his nightstand, his bed, sharpened starkly. Cast aglow, Harry squinted at his palm, at the tiny orb hovering just above his skin, until his eyes adjusted enough to look to his friends.

"This is magic. Real magic, not just tricks. Hogwarts – it's a school for magic."

For a moment, neither of them replied. Jill slowly pushed herself up off her elbows, her eyes wide and staring. Jackie's glare had disappeared, her eyes were just as wide. Pushing herself away from the headboard, she inched across the bed towards Harry.

"That's…"

A pause, and then Jackie lurched towards him, grabbing his wrist and flipping his hand. The Lumos remained hovering over his hand, over the back then the palm again as Jackie twisted it each way.

"What the fuck?" she whispered. "That's not… that's not a trick?"

"That's… impossible," Jill murmured, still unmoving.

Jackie glanced up at Harry. "It's really not a trick?"

Harry shook his head. The shock was to be expected, the disbelief as anticipated as his own, and he was almost relieved to see it from his friends. It was far better than the misery and regret of moments before.

"I can do magic," he said quietly. "Not just the stuff I did as a kid."

"That's…" Jill slowly shook her head. "How?"

"That's impossible," Jackie echoed Jill's words, albeit far more objectionably than Jill had. "That's not – you can't just –"

"Magic is real," Harry said. "Hogwarts teaches people that have the ability to do it how to use it properly. That's why I'm going. I didn't know, not for way too long, that I could but now I do so…"

Silence met his words once more. Jackie still clutched his wrist. Jill still stared. The orb of light pulsed gently above Harry's hand. Then, finally, Jackie released him, her hands falling into her lap with a soft flop.

"Bloody hell," she whispered, slowly drawing her gaze from the Lumos. "You can do magic?"

Harry nodded.

"Actual magic?"

Another nod.

"So as a kid you –"

"No." Harry shook his head this time. "That really was just tricks."

"Was it?" Jill asked.

Harry paused before shaking his head. After a moment of thought, he added a shrug. "I think so, but I don't really know. Draco thinks it may have been involved a bit and that's why I could do it so well."

"Draco," Jill murmured, gaze glazing as she lost herself in thought. "So everyone else…?"

"Bloody hell," Jackie said. "Does that mean Pansy can do it too?"

Harry nodded.

Jackie's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish as she struggled for words. "She - she didn't tell me."

"She's not allowed to," Harry said.

"Allowed to?" Jill asked.

"It's against Wizarding law."

"Wizarding law?" Jackie scrubbed a hand over her face. "Jesus Christ."

"I don't think he was a wizard, no," Harry said. "Or maybe he was. I guess it would make sense."

"So you're leaving to learn?" Jill said, ignoring his attempt at humour just as Jackie did. Creeping slowly across the bed on all fours, she settled herself at Harry's side again. Her gaze had returned to the light, however, like a magnet to a lodestone. "That's the reason?"

Before Harry could reply, Jackie jumped in. "That can't be it. Why now?"

"Well, I only recently found out," Harry began.

"Is that why you got kidnapped?"

As with every time that anyone referred to or even mentioned his abduction, Harry's stomach clenched. The flux of nausea wasn't quite as fierce as it had been a fortnight or even a week before, but he could still taste the unsavoury tang of bile at the back of his throat.

Misinterpreting Harry's silence – or perhaps correctly interpreting it – Jackie's hands bunched into the blankets beneath her. "Was that person a wizard?" she asked, her voice hushed and slightly hoarse.

Harry swallowed past a different kind of lump in his throat this time. He nodded. While not expressly correct, Jackie was close enough.

"Fuck," she breathed. "That bastard."

"It was a woman, actually," Harry managed. It was the most he'd ever admitted to his friends.

"Bitch, then. Crazy bitch." Jackie's breath hissed between her teeth while Jill returned to wrapping her arms around Harry's waist in her gentle, firm hold. "I hope she rots in hell.

"She probably already is."

Jackie's nod was vehement. "Good. Good."

Then nothing.

For a time, no one said anything. Harry said in Jill's silent embrace, magic still pulsing above his hand. Jackie all but radiated anger in similarly pulsing waves. It did ease, though, and with it too came the return of solemnity. When Jackie did speak once more, it was with a touch of resignation.

"This whole thing is crazy," she said.

Harry nodded.

"But it's good. Right?"

He hadn't anticipated such ready acceptance of the impossible, but Harry nodded once more.

Hands bunching even more tightly, Jackie's jaw worked for a moment before she managed to speak again. "So, you can do magic," she said.

"Yeah," Harry said.

"And Pansy and everyone else at Hogwarts can do magic."

"Right."

"Fuck." She shook her head. "I'm going to haul Pansy through the ringer when I see her on Saturday."

Harry managed a chuckle. "Fair enough. Don't tell anyone else though. It really is supposed to be a secret."

Jackie waved the precaution aside. "Magic is a thing though. A real thing."

She didn't need a reply, Harry knew, but he nodded again nonetheless. "Yeah."

"And I'll bet you can do a trick or two more dangerous than making a light appear. Right?"

It wasn't what Harry had expected to hear from her. Not the direction he'd anticipated she take. But he couldn't deny it, nor that he'd used the same excuse bed-bound in a hospital weeks before.

He didn't need to confirm her supposition, however, because Jackie continued with barely a pause. "Then you should go." Her lips still trembled in the light of the Lumos, but her expression had hardened. "Just for a bit, go and learn your magic tricks. The proper ones. Then at least, if someone like that wizard bitch comes after you again, you'll be able to send them running. Right?"

Harry met her narrowed gaze. It wasn't a question, but she demanded an answer nonetheless. Harry couldn't have denied her even if he'd wanted to.

"You know, I think that's probably one of the only reasons Mum and Dad are letting me go in the first place, so yeah." Harry nodded. "Whatever you want, Jackie."

"Too right," Jackie muttered. "Always knew your mum and dad were smart people. Thinking on the same page as me and all."

"Right. You're a genius."

"You'll come back, though," Jill said before Jackie could utter with continued vehemence. She gave Harry a gentle squeeze. "Even with everything you're going to learn and everyone who'll be learning with you, you'll still come back to us, won't you?"

Harry abandoned his Lumos as he turned to wrap Jill in a returning hug. The room plunged into darkness as he dropped his chin onto her shoulder. "Of course," he said. "No matter how much I need and want to be there, you guys are still my best friends. Always will be."

"Then we'll allow it," Jackie said. The bed bounced as she clambered towards them, and Harry found himself pinned in a double embrace once more as she fell upon him. "You should be grateful I'm letting you have this."

"Thank you, Jackie. It's very gracious of you."

Jackie grunted. "Whatever. I'm still taking your Playstation. You're go off and play with your magic without me? Fine. But it's only fair."

Harry didn't bother fighting her this time. Nodding into Jill's shoulder, he accepted the suffocating hold of his two closest friends without complaint. There'd never been anything to complain about in the first place.

"You can't be serious," Harry said, glancing between Lily and James where they sat on the carriage, peering through the doorway at him with all the nervousness of the overprotective parents they were.

"Oh, we're dead serious," James said. "And you're coming down to visit on the weekend."

"You can't be…" Harry raised a hand to cover his face and released a harsh sigh.

It shouldn't really surprise him. Not given both who his parents were and the events of the past few weeks. So much had changed; Harry supposed he couldn't expect them all not to change with it. But this? They're rented a house in the town alongside Hogwarts? It wasn't even like he would attending for long.

But maybe he should have expected that, too. After all, everything else had been turned on its head.

Visiting Diagon Alley to finally, finally, purchase the wand that Draco had offered to outfit him with what felt like so long ago was unnerving, though more because Harry's entire family, uncles included, saw it as an opportunity to educate him on a part of the Wizarding world he'd already seen.

"I take it back," Sirius had said when Harry admitted to his visit with Draco. "James, I agree with you; the Malfoy kid's a right little fucker for taking Harry before we could."

And that was to say nothing of the shopkeeper Ollivander's words when he'd handed Harry the holly and phoenix feather wand. "Very curious," he'd murmured, "that you, young sir, would be the owner of that wand in particular. Curious indeed."

James, naturally, had asked what was so curious about it. Neither he nor any of the rest of them had liked the answer.

Getting equipped for the few months of magic school that Harry would be attending – a few months only at Hogwarts, as had been decided with the current headmaster, before progressing elsewhere to continue his learning – had made it real and daunting. Flipping through the heavy tomes of his his textbooks that were so thick with jargon that Harry could barely read a sentence without being more confused than when he'd started only added to the effect. Packing his essentials, shipping them off to Hogwarts, and then finally leaving – it had all passed over the span of a day that felt like a matter of minutes.

And now Harry's parents were telling him that they'd rented a house?

"How are you even affording that?" Harry asked, simply because he had to know. "Did you sell the other house or something?"

"What? No, of course not," James said. "Your mum and I still work in Potting Point."

"Then how -?"

"Ministry support," Lily explained. "We got given a grant for the exceptional circumstances. It's very considerate of them."

She spoke with a scowl, and Harry didn't need to ask where it came from. Lily had been unwaveringly infuriated with the lack of apology the magical Ministry – aptly named the Ministry of Magic, as Harry had only recently learned – had afforded them in response to Harry's abduction. Maybe the grand was an alternative to claiming any kind of responsibility? From what Harry knew of governments and covering politician arses, it wasn't unlikely.

Shaking his head, Harry took a step back from the carriage. The horse-less and engine-less carriage, as he'd dubiously realised upon first seeing it. When he'd first Apparated with his parents to the township of Hogsmeade – because his parents could Apparate, an 'of course they can' moment that still stunned Harry to consider – the town itself had seemed remarkably plain. Blessedly so, for Harry's nerves had been taught since the moment he'd awoken that morning from a mostly sleepless night.

The carriage was the first display of magic he'd seen, and even that was unremarkable next to every other spell he'd ever seen.

"Whatever," he said. "The weekend, right?"

"The weekend," James said with a nod, though Lily's lips thinned at the prospect.

"And make sure you send me owls every evening," she blurted out an instant later.

"Mum –"

"Harry, we agreed on this. You won't be able to use your phone with the magical interferences so that means you have to send owls."

"Every evening?"

Lily nodded, and Harry sighed. He knew she wouldn't back down from such a restriction. Hogwarts might be just about the safest place in the world for anyone facing a magical threat but it apparently wasn't safe enough for Lily. Harry didn't think being clad in bubble-wrap and locked in a bulletproof safe would be safe enough for her, even when Bellatrix found.

"Right," Harry said finally, swinging the carriage door closed. "Whatever. Just don't blame me if you get midnight owls or something when I forget."

"You won't forget," Lily said, a warning rather than vote of confidence.

"Yeah, yeah. Go home, both of you."

James smiled crookedly, but Lily's face only tightened. As the carriage, by some unspoken command, lurched into motion, she leaned out the open window. "Don't forget I love you," she called.

"Have I ever?" Harry asked.

"Let me know immediately if something happens and you need me."

"Mum –"

"I'll come out of work and drop by, I promise. It's just an Apparition away."

"Mum, you don't –"

"And if you're ever worried about anything, or feel like you need to come home, you make sure you do, alright?"

Her voice was growing distant as the carriage took her away, and in spite of himself, Harry couldn't withhold the resurgence of nerves wreaking havoc in his belly. It wasn't like they'd be far away; Lily would make sure of it. But it really hadn't been so long since everything had happened. The promise of safety behind wards meant nothing to uncontrollable emotions.

Shoving them aside, Harry raised a hand to wave farewell. The clatter of wheels died before Lily's returning wave did. Harry was fairly sure she kept waving even when the carriage took a turn in the road.

"Honestly," Harry muttered, "it's like she's dropping off a pre-schooler rather than a kid who, by all magical rights, is actually considered an adult."

"She's worried, and not without reason. I suppose you can't really blame her."

Glancing sidelong, Harry met Draco's gaze. Standing in his robes – actual robes the likes that Harry still couldn't believe he'd have to wear himself – he looked like he was trying to bite back a smirk. It wouldn't be uncharacteristic of him. In fact, if anything, it would be far more typical than the melancholy he was only beginning to climb his way out of after weeks of brooding.

Stepping towards him, Harry held out his hand expectantly. Draco took it in an instant. "They're renting in Hogsmeade," he said as Draco turned, leading the way up the path from the carriage drop-off.

"Yes," Draco said.

"Literally right next door."

"They are. Aren't you lucky?"

"Oh, sod off," Harry said, rolling his eyes. Draco flashed him a grin, however, and he couldn't help but reply in kind. "There's overprotective and then there's obsessive. I don't think Mum knows the difference."

Draco shrugged. "Well, it won't be for long, will it? It's not like you're retaking your entire high school years all over again."

"Thank fuck, no." Harry closed his eyes in silent gratitude.

What had been decided wasn't typical, was about as far from typical as it came in terms of the history of Hogwarts' student allowances, but he blessed the decision every day. Full immersion in the magical teachings of his peers, picking up what little he could with a large dose of independent tutelage on the side, and then continuing with that tutelage after graduation in what Harry could only equate to pre-entry university courses.

He knew he couldn't possibly learn everything that Draco or the rest of his friends knew of magic and the magical world, but it was a start. Far better than the prospect of spending an extra seven years at school again. Even if it was Wizarding school, there were some lines Harry didn't think he could cross.

"Perhaps your mother will be a little more confident in your ability to protect yourself when you actually learn how to use your wand?" Draco suggested.

"I can only hope."

"Though I doubt it," Draco continued, smirking as Harry jabbed him with an elbow in the ribs.

"Shut up, you wanker," he muttered, and Draco laughed. It was wonderfully pleasant to hear when it happened so rarely of late, and Harry found he didn't even care that it was at his expense.

They would get better. Harry would shoulder through the last of Draco's inhibitions if it was the only thing he managed to accomplish before graduation. He was Harry's boyfriend, would remain his boyfriend despite his misguided feelings of guilt, and Harry would be damned if he'd give him the chance to duck out of their relationship.

They'd come this far. A magical school and a magical boyfriend? It was everything Harry hadn't known he wanted, and he'd be damned if he would give it up.

It was a resolution he'd made many a time, but there was no harm in making it once more as they made their way up the weaving road under Draco's lead. Any thoughts of silent commitments, however, faded abruptly from Harry's mind as they turned a bend through the forest. The dense forest that had hitherto allowed little of the surrounding countryside to be glimpsed. When it thinned, a vast openness of school grounds spread before Harry, a shimmering pool of a lake, and the school itself looming above it. Harry jerked to a halt to a stop.

The school.

"Yes?" Draco asked, pausing alongside him and cocking his head.

"That's a bloody castle," Harry said.

"Hogwarts?"

"Draco, that's a bloody castle right there."

Draco turned, following Harry's pointed finger. "Yes, it is. The school."

"Your – your school is -?" Harry paused to untangle his tongue. "No one told me Hogwarts was a goddamn castle."

Draco, the bastard, smirked. "Our school, you mean." Then he tugged on Harry's hand and all but dragged him in motion towards the looming mass of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry could only follow, stumbling slightly in the wake of everything, everything, that abruptly crashed down upon him, realised all at once in the face of that.

Magic.

A school that was a castle.

A magical boyfriend who was absolutely, one-hundred percent real and looking to stay that way.

Shaking his head, Harry could only laugh to himself. Weeks of impossibilities, the best and the worst kind, all seemed to culminate into one moment, into a perfect demonstration of that impossibility. Just what an absolutely unexpected and magical turn life had taken.

A/N: And that's it! Thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed. I really appreciate it and I hope you liked it. I know it ends sort of openly, but I don't know, it felt kind of right to leave it this way.
Anyway, thanks again! I'd love to know your thoughts if you have a second but no pressure. See you next time!