All of the Stars

"Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it." - Thomas Fuller (1608-1661)

It started with letters as many of the great love stories do. At first their communication was completely platonic and a little had been so impressed by Harry's skill that they'd got talking afterwards and he'd given the boy his address to exchange at letters. At the time he had thought that there would may be a couple but had been surprised when they began a regular correspondence. Even odder had been that the 14 year old quickly became his closest confident. They even had their own nicknames for each other, he was Lee and Harry was micuţo, something he had picked up from Romania meaning little one. He could still remember Harry's outrage when the name had been explained but it had stuck anyway.

Their relationship only grew that summer despite not being able to see each other. Harry had still been seconded with the Dursley's when he had made his annual visit. He knows from talking to Harry that he credits him with his ability to stay even remotely sane during that time. He been the only one to send him 'proper letters' after Cedric and the graveyard rather orders to stay safe and little hints to what else was going on. He had thought the letters he had sent had been a little boring they just covered his usual work at the reserve but he'd tried to make them as understanding as possible. Charlie knew too, what it was like to lose friends too young. Working with dragons was not a risk free endeavour after all.

In fact the next time they met he had been summoned back by Dumbledore for a progress report on the recruitment of foreign aid .Of course his mother had been delighted when he had extended his stay. She wanted all her children close after the youngest two had almost gotten themselves killed. Charlie, however, had not been thinking of his siblings but rather Harry who was struggling with Sirius's death at the time and stopped responding to his owls.

*****Flashback*****

He knew he had changed over the past two years he had grown, although still on the shorter side, he had also begun to put a little muscle on. No longer did he have the face or body of a child however that still didn't prepare him for the look in Charlie's eye when they saw each other for the first time. Unfortunately they were not alone as the whole family was congregating for lunch. They had to settle on staring at each other for a long moment before making polite greetings and starting a light conversation.

"Your mum said that you're here for a week, is that right?It's so good to see you! You're not hurt are you? "he scanned his body looking for any new burns or bandages that would explain his leaving the reserve.

"Yeah it was meant to be more of a pit-stop for Order business but mum heard I was going to be in the country so now it's a week. She made the excellent point that it would look weirder for me to be here but not at the Burrow than if we could disguise my return as a simple holiday. Of course that hasn't stopped her spending her time trying to convince me to make it permanent."

Harry snorted and replied "Which'll never happen as long as there's Dragons there and not here."

Charlie grinned widely before replying "See you get it. So do dad and Bill but everybody else thinks I'm crazy to turn down Quidditch and home to live in a hut miles from everything."

"But Dragons are awesome." Charlie merely laughed at the enthusiastic expression on his face and clapped him on the back. Their solo conversation was put at an end as Mrs Weasley organised their seating so that he was between herself and Ron while Charlie was at the other end of the table as he was one of the few that could be trusted to have a neutral conversation with Fleur.

xXx

It was just before midnight later that day and Harry was in the Burrow's kitchen after waking up by another nightmare about the department of Mysteries. Tonight he had not only lost Sirius but his friends as well until he stood alone amongst their corpses. Sometimes it was still only him left like usual but more commonly since hearing the prophecy his nightmare took the form of what would happen if he failed. He was so deep in thought that he was startled when he heard someone coming down the stairs.

"What you doing up? Couldn't sleep?" He heard Charlie ask turning towards the door he nodded.

He felt his mouth dry as he took in his appearance. Charlie looked particularly gorgeous tonight dressed only in checked pajama bottoms which lay low on his hips with the moon backlighting him. "Yeah, Nightmare woke me up." He felt a little childish admitting it but he knew Charlie would weasel it out of him by hook or by crook.

"Sirius?" A single word was all Charlie needed to reach the heart of the matter.

"Yeah but it wasn't just him but everyone else as well. Dolohov wasn't silenced so the curse was full strength killing Hermione and the brains proved fatal to Ron. Bellatrix got Neville after Siri fell. Ginny was lying like she was when I found her in the chamber with Luna by her side looking just like Cedric did. No matter what happens it always feels so real Lee it's like I'm back there and could stop it if I just moved faster." Now he was sniveling like a child in front of someone he wanted to impress this night just kept getting better. He lowered his head to hide his tears so didn't see Charlie close the gap only felt it when he was pulled into a bear hug. This simple act of compassion caused him to break down completely. Charlie maneuvered them so they were sitting with Harry in his lap and began stroking up and down his back to calm him.

"O Harry, micuţo. It's okay, it's okay. I'm here you're not alone. Never alone. I'm here. Listen you can hear Ron's snore from here. Gin and Hermione are safe upstairs too I passed their door on my way down. Look at the clock sweetheart, see none of the hands are pointing at mortal danger. Luna's safe in Sweden with her father and Neville is behind wards of Dumbledore's own creation. Not to mention that his grandmother was a worldwide dueling champion in her youth." He finished his speech instead he made random comforting sounds like Harry had heard his Aunt do for Dudley. They stayed like that for a long time until Charlie dropped kiss in Harry's hair making him look up in surprise. Their eyes met and held until Harry shakily put his lips to Charlie's. He could feel Charlie freeze and started to panic thinking he'd just made the biggest mistake of his life.

Then, thanks to Merlin, Charlie began to kiss back licking Harry's lips and coaxing his mouth open. It was the best feeling in the world it was warm and comforting and he never wanted it to complete opposite to his abortive kiss with Cho. The few lingering doubts he had about his sexuality were blown away. Surrounded as he was by Charlie's pine scent and strong muscles, he could not remember ever feeling quite so protected. He let out an involuntary moan and started to rut against Charlie's body as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Charlie responded with a groan as he he also began to move against Harry making the friction even better.

"Feels so good. So fucking gorgeous grinding on me like that. Not gonna last if you keep going babe." Charlie was almost chanting. Instead of slowing down or stopping to the mix of moans, groans and words he sped up. He couldn't help himself. It felt like flying had the first time as if he had total freedom. His climax crept up on him as he still wasn't all that experienced with them and it was first time another party was involved. After he had regained his senses he could feel the wet patches on his pajama bottoms from his own orgasm and Charlie's seeping through the thin cotton.

"That was even better than I imagined, Lee" Harry said without thinking before immediately blushing deeply realizing he'd just admitted to fantasizing about doing this with Charlie.

He laughed before commenting, "What do you think I've been doing since seeing you earlier? Or for that matter why you're currently sitting on my damp pajamas." kissing the side of his face and putting him more securely on his lap.

"Wanted to do that for so long since I met you at this table if I'm honest. Took me a while to figure it out though why I kept staring at you. Never thought you'd want me back Lee. You were meant to be secret fantasy material. I mean I'm your littlest brother's best mate, for crying out loud! You're an incredibly hot dragon tamer who could probably get whoever he wanted whilst I'm a teenager stuck at Hogwarts for most of the year."

"So I'm incredibly hot, Huh? You have no idea how fit you are, Ry. It knocked me sideways when I saw you for the first time today. Shit, I remembered you as this terrified kid who against all the odds managed to outfly a mother-fucking dragon. You're worried that I could do better but what about you. You spend most of the year with a couple hundred horny teenagers most of whom would quite happily jump you."

"But they wouldn't really be jumping me they'd be jumping the-bloody-boy-who-lived just so they could tell their friends they had." He said it bitterly. He couldn't help it. This was the reason which had really stopped him from experimenting to work out his sexuality. Although the wet dreams about Charlie eventually clued him in.

"Well someone clearly hasn't looked in a mirror recently," He teased. "Harry you're this completely gorgeous package that can kiss me like that. Salazar you made me cum without a hand on me,micuţo. Do you know how long it's been since a quick bit of dry humping has done that? Years, babe, not since I was teenager has someone turned me on so much that I couldn't contain myself."

"Really?"

"Really."