Chapter Twenty-Nine: Harry and Draco's Grand Adventure
Harry and Draco ran through a deserted alleyway, giggling as they almost crashed into a stinking rubbish filled skip and kept going, grinning at one another through their ridiculous masks and cracking up all over again.
They were free!
Harry couldn't believe that Draco had asked - no, BEGGED - him to take him out exploring in the Muggle world. They had been curled up in Draco's bed and Draco had wondered aloud about what Muggle teenagers did to have fun, and Harry told him what Dudley and his mates got up to (Harry hated to admit that he had always felt jealous of Dudley's mates and wished Dudley would take him along too, but he knew why his cousin couldn't let anyone know he liked him). Draco had gotten all excited as Harry regaled him with tales of second-hand fun and begged Harry to take him to "Muggle London" so they could pretend to be Muggle teenagers together.
Of course Harry agreed, and once Draco had packed what he'd said were "essential items" that Harry wasn't allowed to see just yet, they were off, taking Draco's Nimbus 2001 and two twisted, hideous, birdlike masks from Lucius Malfoy's room of magical artifacts with them. Draco had insisted that they wear the masks, both to disguise their identity, and to protect them from the Muggle Virus - turns out the heir to the Malfoy fortune had taken to reading Muggle medical reports along with his Shakespeare and even admitted to Harry that he trusted the Muggle medical advisors more than the reports from Umbridge (hisssssss!) that were coming out of the Ministry for Magic. He really WAS becoming Muggle crazy!
And so that was how Harry found himself running through the streets of "Muggle London" with Draco Malfoy chuckling and chortling by his side as though it were the most normal, natural thing in the world. One might have mistaken them for brothers, or life long bosom chums, if not for the happily fluttering butterflies that were rioting throughout Harry's entire body - and the unmistakable love bite on his neck.
Harry had never seen any part of Muggle Britain as empty and devoid of human life as Muggle London was that morning - there was nary a soul in sight as they rampaged through the streets, knocking over dustbins and laughing uproariously. It reminded him of a scene from a movie he had watched late one night while the Dursleys slept the previous Summer. It had been the most tragically romantic movie Harry had ever seen and he had to fight back tears just remembering it. But Harry refused to cry, instead he shook his sadness off like an invisibility cloak and started snapping this fingers rhythmically as he slowed down to a casual strut.
With no one about, Muggle, Wizard of otherwise, and the entire city of London at their feet, the whole world could be Harry's stage, if he wanted it to be.
And in this happiest of moments, that was exactly what Harry wanted.
He was going to live out one of his dreams and Draco was going to go along with him, whether he wanted to or not.
"Potter, what in the name of Salazar Slytherin are you doing now?" Draco snorted derisively, as he watched Harry.
"Just go with it, Draco," Harry said, continuing to snap his fingers. "I'm trying to make a happy memory with you right now, so I'd appreciate it if you just followed along with me."
Draco thought about it for a second. "Is this something that Muggle teenagers would do?" He finally asked.
"Yes." Harry lied automatically. Well, at least, he assumed he was lying - he had no idea if recreating your favourite scenes from a musical was something Muggle teenagers ever did, but he didn't care. HE wanted to do it and he needed to convince Draco to go along with him or else it wouldn't be any fun. It would just be embarrassing. "Sure, of course, I've seen Muggle teenagers do this LOADS of times." Harry couldn't help but dig himself deeper into the lie.
Draco knitted his eyebrows together and screwed up his pointed little face, taking a deep breath in through flared nostrils, but then finally sighed and nodded. "Okay, Potter, the world is on fire anyway and I guess you could do with all the happy memories you can get, in case Patronus charms become necessary in battle."
Harry was a little taken aback, he hadn't even thought of that possibility. Between insisting they wear these ridiculous masks to protect themselves and thinking at least one step ahead of Harry when it came to what he might be facing in the difficult days ahead, Draco was actually proving himself to be quite useful to have around.
"So, what are we doing then? Will you at least tell me what I'm supposed to do?" Draco sighed.
"Uh, er, yeah, I mean, it would take awhile to explain properly, but all you have to do is just follow along with me and do what I do, okay? It's okay, it's just dancing, Draco." Harry almost pleaded.
"Dancing?!" Draco cried, flustered. "Like at the Yule Ball? Potter, you've gone mad if you think I'm going to dance with YOU like THAT."
Harry couldn't help but feel slightly hurt, but he silenced the pain with a loud laugh. "No, not THAT kind of dancing, Malfoy, this is COOL dancing and Muggles LOVE this shit, so if you really want to have 'The Full Muggle Experience' like you said, just...shut up and dance, all right, Malfoy?"
Maybe it was the too loud laugh or the way Harry went from calling him by his first name to returning to spitefully calling him by his surname, but Draco seemed to realize that his words had stung Harry. Refusing to stoop so low as to to apologize, Draco merely nodded and began snapping his fingers, mimicking Harry's rhythmic snapping from before.
A huge grin spread across Harry's face and he began snapping his fingers along with Draco.
"Wait!" Harry cried, stopping all of a sudden.
"What now, Potter?" Draco whined.
"Do you have your Walkman?" Harry asked, a huge hopeful grin on his face.
"Are you joking?" Draco scoffed, "Of course I do!" He reached into a small pouch that he had assured Harry was much bigger on the inside, and pulled out his Muggle Walkman triumphantly.
"Good!" Harry grabbed it, removing the headphones once again and handing them back to a very flustered and indignant looking Draco.
"Oi, careful with that Potter!" Draco growled protectively.
Harry rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, I'll be gentle, I just thought a bit of music would help."
Draco's eyes lit up like twin lighthouses on a dark night. "Is it more Muggle music?" He asked excitedly. After snogging with Harry for an hour to Billy Idol (and no, it didn't go any further than that! It was only their first date - just what kind of a boy do you think Harry is?) Draco had decided that he could trust Harry's taste in Muggle music and was excited to have this whole new world open up to him.
"Yes!" Harry grinned, nodding emphatically. "It's the best kind of Muggle music." And with that, he pointed his wand at the Walkman and cried, "West Sideoso Storioso Prologio!" And with that the streets of London were filled with the sound of West Side Story's 'Prologue.'
Draco squinted for a second at the tune so unfamiliar to his virgin ears but when Harry began snapping his fingers, Draco immediately joined in with a grin on his face.
Though neither boy would ever admit it to the other, they were actually having fun together, and in a way that neither had ever been able to with their friends. It felt freeing - like mutually assured destruction.
Or love.
Or fuck it, maybe a bit of both. This IS Harry and Draco we're talking about. Hadn't it ALWAYS been a bit of both for them?
They loped down the streets of London together snapping their fingers like a duo of 1960's juvenile delinquents from New York as the music played magically around them. Then Harry changed things up and began almost skipping down the street and leaping with his arms outstretched. Draco followed suit and then both boys began dancing a bit more freely, skipping and leaping through the streets, snapping their fingers the whole time as the music intensified.
Harry was thrilled to see Lucius Malfoy's uptight, handsome, evil little shite of a son mimicking his every move and he began leaping and dancing even more erratically in the middle of Piccadilly Circus, Draco always just one step behind, like his own little echo, his own shadow. It was absolutely exhilarating.
They kicked and spun and skipped their way down the cobblestones, completely incapable of looking at one another without grinning and bursting into laughter. Neither boy had ever felt so happy in his life.
As they danced toward St. James Church, Harry suddenly stopped, his heart thudding in his chest. Draco almost crashed into him. "What it is, Potter? Why did you stop?" He asked curiously.
The plan that was furiously clicking into place in Harry's mind thrilled him so much, that without even stopping to think it through, he grabbed Draco's hand and began running towards the church at full tilt. "C'mon, Draco, we're breaking into the church!" He cried, his voice rising to an almost hysterical pitch.
"What? Why?" Draco asked as Harry dragged him along, almost tripping over his own feet. "And isn't this...wrong? Like, morally wrong? I thought you Gryffindors were supposed to be heroic and always do the right thing."
"Ugh." Harry sighed. "You need to learn to give up control, Draco." He said hypocritically. "Besides, Muggle teenagers do dumb, risky things like this ALL the time, it's part of being a teenager - you're SUPPOSED to rebel, whether you're a Muggle, a Gryffindor, a Slytherin or anyone else."
"Okay, Potter, if you say so." Draco said nervously.
And with Draco's agreement, Harry kicked open the door of St. James Church and pulled Draco inside with him, closing the now slightly battered door behind them.
A hush fell over the boys as soon as they entered the imposingly beautiful church and they immediately removed their masks out of respect for Muggle Jesus, who looked down on them from the stained glass window. Harry took a deep breath and turned to look at Draco, taking the blonde's hand tenderly in his own and smiling shyly. Draco smiled back and Harry's heart skipped a beat - he still wasn't quite used to seeing that smile, especially directed at him, and it made the butterflies in his stomach flap their wings with joy every time he saw it.
Harry looked deeply into Draco's grey eyes, his own green ones wordlessly asking the question he dared not speak aloud. Draco smiled and nodded in silent agreement, and, with Harry taking the lead, the boys walked slowly down the aisle until they reached the alter, where they both got down on their knees, still holding hands.
"I, Harry, take thee, Draco." Harry said in a hushed, serious tone.
"I, Draco, take thee, Harry." Draco intoned solemnly, but with the tiniest hint of a mischievous grin on his face.
"For richer, for poorer," Harry continued, his voice wavering slightly. Every time Draco said his first name it made Harry weak in the knees.
"In sickness and in health," Draco said, his heart fluttering in his chest, realizing full well what a bold promise this was to make, even in jest, during the deadliest pandemic in several generations.
"To love and to honor," Harry said, his palms starting to sweat a little.
"To hold and to keep," Now Draco's voice was wavering a little, unless, of course, Harry was mistaken.
"From each sun to each moon," Harry said, struggling to stop himself from crying, because he was suddenly feeling completely overwhelmed by emotions he didn't even have names for yet.
"From tomorrow to tomorrow," Draco said, turning to gaze up at Harry, smiling as happily as bride on her wedding day, and looking just as radiant in the cool light that streamed into the church through the stained glass.
"For now to forever," Harry smiled at Draco.
"Till death do us part..." Draco almost choked, his grey eyes watery with tears.
Harry lifted Draco's hand and mimed slipping a ring onto his finger. "With this ring, I thee wed."
Draco's eyes widened and he put up a finger to silently indicate that he needed a moment, reached into his pouch and pulled out a gold ring inset with a black stone, which he slipped onto Harry's finger. "With this ring, I thee wed." He said, grinning beautifully at Harry and gazing rapturously into his eyes.
Overcome with emotion, Harry began singing, his voice once more cracking with puberty and emotion, "Make of our hands one hand, make of our hearts one heart, make of our vows one last vow, only death can part us now..."
And amazingly, as if by magic, Draco began singing beside him, still gazing into his eyes. "Make of our lives one life, day after day one life."
And then the voices of both boys rose together in perfect harmony, "Now it begins, now we start. One hand, one heart. Even death won't part us now."
With light flooding in through the intricate stained glass windows, the relics and trappings of Muggle religion all around them and the world "on fire" (as Draco had put it) right outside the door, the boys clasped hands even tighter and sang their hearts out into each other's emotion filled faces.
"Make of our lives one life,
Day after day, one life.
Now it begins, now we start
One hand, one heart.
Even death won't part us now..."
With one last watery smile, Harry leaned in close to Draco and kissed him tenderly, lovingly, unashamed of the bittersweet tears that slid down his cheeks as he felt Draco kissing him back, with poor, Billy-no mates Muggle Jesus seeming to smile down upon them from his perpetually bloody perch on the cross.
And for that one moment, it seemed to Harry that everything in the world was exactly as it should be.
Author's note: The rights to West Side Story obviously don't belong to me and I sincerely apologize to Stephen Sondheim for the use of his lyrics in this work, as well as to Arthur Laurents and Ernest Lehman for some of the dialogue and to Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins and everyone else involved in the making of West Side Story, just...in general. Apologies all around!