Written for LDWS comp week 1.
The prompt was Blue/Calm and NottPott, max 400 words
Hogwarts lay in ruins around him, but the Boy-Who-Lived hardly seemed to notice anything other than the man in front of him.
Though acrid smoke still burned his lungs and the sounds of grief assaulted his aching head from every direction, the battle's chaotic aftermath receded as Harry looked into Theo's blue eyes and was enveloped by a surprising calmness.
He smiled.
The world had never been particularly kind to Harry. Yet, this world that chewed him up and spat him out, leaving him to brokenly gather his pieces before attempting to swallow him whole, had also given him Theo. This man was his breath of fresh air in a life that had always been cruel to him. Theo's love had carried Harry through the past two years of horrors and struggles, lightening his burdens and doubling his joys.
The necessary secrecy surrounding their relationship had taken its toll, of course, but the weight of it had somehow never cost more than the price Harry was willing to pay for their stolen moments of solace. Nothing brought peace to the soul quite like a warm body, a willing mouth, a listening ear, a tender touch.
There was something about the way their heartbeats had always fallen into sync as they memorized each others' faces in dark corners, drinking in the details and painting portraits kept safe in their minds. They held fast to them like blankets, to ward off the bitter cold of war and their anguish at existing on opposite sides of it.
Harry thought Theo was the most beautiful man he had ever seen, even now, with his face covered in the remnants of a battle he could have chosen not to fight. Perhaps he was even more handsome because he chose to fight it anyway.
For love.
There was some measure of insanity in what some people were willing to do for love. Harry was beginning to understand the madness of it intimately. It was the adrenaline coursing through his veins even as a pain he had never known before seemed to slowly overtake his senses.
As Harry stared into Theo's unseeing blue eyes one last moment before gently pulling his lids closed, he felt surprisingly calm.
But the calm often comes before the storm. As he slowly rose to walk away, Harry vowed the coming tempest would drown them all.