Disclamer: Everything you might know is property of J. K. Rowling.
Challenge: Write a store where someone wakes up in a different reality.
Condition: Harry does accept Draco's hand/friendship in the Hogwarts Express in their first year at Hogwarts.
Maybe it's kind of obvious that this fic is a WI?, where they are... a couple (?)
Cover: pebblume on Tumblr.
Sweat covering his entire body. His breath getting shorter each time he gasped for air. His hair sticking to his forehead and, because of the length of it, to his neck. His eyes were wide open, fear seizing his gaze. Cheeks red from the nervousness of what was happening.
"Shit! This has not happened to me for weeks…"
Harry tried, mustering up what little strength he had left in wanting to get out of bed. A strong pain made him twist forward. His brain repeated intense waves against his skull, causing him to close his eyelids too tightly, increasing the pain from the tension he put into doing so.
"What the hell is wrong with my body?"
Harry's hands flew up to his head, it seemed that he will crush himself from the intensity of his grip; he could tell he was suffering… it wasn't just a panic attack that had woken him up. That strange feeling added to his despair, preventing him from thinking about anything else.
He began to feel dizzy. Strangely, the pain became more distant but everything revolved around him. The pressure of his hands didn't diminish, believing that perhaps he was the one who was moving as if he were on a ship in the middle of a storm.
"Oh no... I'm going to fall unconscious at any moment... What do I do?"
The black cloak that covered him made him feel worse for a few seconds, coming to feel almost claustrophobic as he lost himself in the weakness of his body, before everything around him dissolved into a dense black cloud... Harry wasn't able to realize the way he rolled on the bed and fell to the floor when he lost his consciousness.
Absolute silence. There wasn'thing around him and that, instead of scaring him, relaxed him. "It means I can sleep a little longer." Harry snuggled into the covers, ignoring the whimper of the person beside him on the bed. His mind thinking of only one thing: keeping his eyes closed to fall asleep again.
He rubbed his temples after letting out a loud yawn. He ran his fingers through his hair, weakly trying to untangle it. He massaged the muscles between his neck and his shoulders, relaxing before deciding to face the day.
"What are we doing today?" He murmured, scratching one side of his forehead, before resting the other side on his palm, feeling his brain too numb to stay alert.
He kicked the rest of the sheet to the edge of the bed, keeping his eyes closed and trying to gather the energy to get up and out of his room.
He felt the cold touch of the ceramic under his feet as soon as he touched the ground, the sensation made him shiver from the current that activated all his nerves. He turned his face to the clock on his nightstand and finally opened his eyes to see the time.
"Why is everything so blurry?" Harry poked his eyes for a few seconds and blinked a few times before returning his gaze to the numbers on the clock. "Looks like I need glasses again."
He couldn't help the surprise in his expression when he saw glasses that were on the opposite corner of the table. His brow arched, wondering the reason for what was happening. He ran his fingertips across the frame before grabbing them and bringing them close to his face, placing them over his nose without wanting to think much more about it.
"What the hell is happening here?" He breathed as he realized he was seeing clearly through the glasses. "Was the ophthalmologist's permanent spell undone?"
He scanned the room quickly, looking for something out of place but everything was the same as always... The shelves with the books that he had to read for Minerva to finish assigning him the position of Head of the DCAO Department. The little transparent closet where he kept the start of his snitchs collection. The medal that the Ministry gave him when the war ended and the small piece of parchment signed by the Minister as a symbol of appreciation from the magical community of England.
He turned his face to the wall that was right in front of his bed and there was his magnetic board with the thousands of drawings that several children had given to him, many were from his students; usually the first years were nervous the first days of school and they ended up stacking several scrolls at the end of the first week.
With a smile on his face, Harry finished scanning his room, finding his three trunks stacked in one corner, just below an empty cage. The structure was way too black, too clean… Everything was just as he had left it the night before; nothing strange, nothing new.
He made his way to the bathroom at a slow pace, stretching along the way. He pushed open the door with one hand and flipped the light switch with the other, scanning the room from one side to the other and, again, found nothing out of place or added to it that he couldn't recognize.
Harry couldn't help but gasp when he saw himself in the mirror. The combination between the glasses making him remember those years when he used them daily, seeing the pair of dark bags under his eyes showing how badly he had been sleeping the past few days, and a small cut covering part of his left jaw.
He ran a finger over the wound and he thought he must have done it last night right before sleeping because he didn't remember having it. He decided to leave the thought for later and began to wash his face and teeth with cold water to try to wake up and reduce a little the inflammation of his face.
"I have to make some coffee," he whispered, retracing his steps as he exited the bathroom. His stomach decided it would be a good time to proclaim that he was hungry, "and something to eat."
He took one last look around his room, saw the time out of the corner of his eye, and turned the doorknob ready to fry two eggs, chop some cheese, separate a handful of olives, toast several slices of bread, and help himself to a good plate of fruit; it was almost lunchtime now so Harry decided he would eat a hearty breakfast before he could see what he would do for the day.
He went downstairs from the third floor, where his room was located, to the ground floor, where the kitchen was. He jumped the last steps alert and a little nervous, when he heard the noise coming from the room that was now in front of him.
He clicked his tongue as he reached into the pocket of his pajama bottoms and realized that he had left his wand in his room and hoped that his magic without it would not fail him now... Someone was in his kitchen and he was going to find out who was in his house without his consent.
He pushed the door open, ready to find out who was the disrespectful being that had sneaked into his home.
"Good thing you woke up, Harry… I was starting to worry."
He kept his arm in the air, static with the image in front of his eyes; in shock at the person who was practically next to him. A blond"haired boy was pacing in his kitchen, stirring a couple of pots and tasting their contents as he served things on two plates with his wand.
"I hope you want to eat fried egg with bacon and toast," said the man without turning to see him, "lunch will be ready a little late today."
Harry didn't come out of his astonishment. His mind wasn't processing as fast as he would have liked and he couldn't decide whether he should go back to bed to wake up from this weird dream or if he had to walk through the doorway and face the nightmare his brain was creating.
He pinched himself a couple of times on each arm and came to the stressful realization that this wasn't a dream. There really was a man in his kitchen, a man who seemed to know exactly where he was; he moved so fluidly that Harry was mesmerized watching him until he felt himself being shaken by the shoulders.
He looked down at the pressure he felt and inhaled hard. He leaped back, not realizing that he would slam like an idiot against the door frame doing so. His eyes were extremely wide and filled with concern at the expression of the man in front of him.
"Harry, what is it?" The aforementioned only managed to focus his gaze on the gray eyes that loomed a few feet above him. "Why did you react like this when you saw me?"
"Ma… Malfoy?" Was all he could say as he brought his fingers to his back where he had hit himself.
"Harry," he whispered, reaching for his face, "are you okay?"
He struck his hand before he could touch it, becoming more doubtful as the expression on his pale face turned more pained; it looked like he had driven a dagger into his heart, where Malfoy was pressing with both hands.
"Malfoy, what the hell are you doing at my house?" He asked in a lucid moment.
"Our house, Harry," he replied, still not changing his expression. "What's wrong? Why are you calling me by my last name?"
"What do you mean why?" Harry raised an arm, pointing an imaginary wand at him. "What are you talking about?"
Malfoy held his wrist in his right hand before he could react and pulled his other hand down hard until it was level with Harry's eyes. He made sure he was able to see the two rings, one silver and one gold, before speaking.
"We're married, Harry," he murmured, his lips curving down with sadness. "For just over a year."
"WHAT?!" Harry felt the immediate need to get away from there as soon as possible. "No, no, no… Good joke, Malfoy, but you're not going to gain anything from all of this."
"It's not a joke, silly," he said, without losing his pained expression. "Do you think I would be able to play with you like that?"
"You are capable of many things, Malfoy." Harry was aware of his rapid breathing. "Get out before I cast a spell on you and call the Aurors for invasion of private property."
"But… Harry, I'm telling you I'm not lying." Malfoy was beginning to feel despaired at not knowing what to do to make Harry believe him. "What can I tell you so you can see that it is true?"
"Show me our connection." Harry decided that since magic didn't lie, seeing his magical bond would be a good way to destroy the joke he was playing on him.
Malfoy stepped back, stretching his left arm to the side of Harry's and ran his free hand over him in both of them, brushing Harry's smooth skin with his fingertips, causing an involuntary shiver running through his body. Two sparkling threads emerged from his rings and twisted together before floating to tie around his wrists.
Harry pulled his arm away fiercely before the knot finished forming, falling into the reality of what was happening: Malfoy wasn't cheating on him, they were seriously married.
"How? When? Where? Why?" He stammered, not bothering to breathe properly.
"Harry, we'd been dating for almost six years before we got to the altar," he murmured, under his strange gaze, "and we were dating for about six months before we were a couple... Don't you remember any of that?"
"What?!" Harry didn't mean to scream the way he did, but he couldn't help it when he heard him. "How can we be together for six years if we've always hated each other, Malfoy?
"Hated?" Malfoy shook his head, not knowing what was wrong with his husband. "We've been friends from the first day I met you, Harry. Our relationship might not be as strong as the one with Ronald nor as mine with Theo but… Harry, I've never hated you."
"Look…" Harry took his left arm, "the mark…" He turned his limb until the inside of his forearm was up and he snorted, "… it's not."
"Harry, we're going to St. Mungo's," Malfoy declared, turning to stop what was still cooking behind him.
"No, no…" Harry ran his fingers through his hair, pulling it gently in desperation, "I never accepted your friendship, Malfoy."
"What do you mean, Harr...?" Malfoy couldn't finish his sentence when he heard the roar that his husband let out.
"Ugh!" Harry fell to his knees to the ground before continuing. "Stop calling me that, for Merlin!"
"How do you want me to call you, then?" Malfoy crouched down beside his, tears beginning to cloud his vision.
"Potter," he spat, wanting to mimic the way Malfoy referred to him, "as you always have."
"The last time I called you by your last name was years ago..." Malfoy tried to wipe the tears with the back of his hand, "and what happened in those moments is too traumatic to relive every time I want to say something to you."
"Better… don't speak to me, Malfoy."
Harry finished placing his back against the kitchen cabinet before resting his forehead on his knees and trying to calm the racing of his heart pounding in his ears loudly. He had forgotten that he had glasses on and immediately separated when he felt a pressure between his eyebrows, thinking it was due to the frame. But no… the pressure continued even after he took off his glasses and tossed them aside.
Harry touched two fingers to the area and pressed back, making small circles without separating his fingertips from the skin, wanting to calm the sensation, only making it worse as the seconds passed.
No more than two minutes passed when the pain moved, covering his head, gathering more force and increasing the space of discomfort until Harry let out a howl and lay over his side on the floor.
"What's wrong?" He heard Malfoy, he knew he was close to him because he felt the warmth of his breath on his skin. "You feel bad?"
Harry wasn't able to open his eyes to make sure where Malfoy was before pushing him away, he couldn't even muster up enough strength to move one of his hands to find him, or to simply tell him to get away from him.
"Let me help you," Malfoy genuinely intended to take care of him, "please, Harry… It hurts to see you like this!"
He didn't answer, not because he didn't have anything to tell him, but because of his inability to do anything other than holding his head.
The pain was transforming into a strange sensation, as if they were drilling the space between his eyebrows, the vibration causing the agonizing pain to be reflected throughout his skull. Harry wasn't the slightest bit aware of the tears gushing out of his eyes before cascading down onto the ceramic kitchen floor.
He didn't realize, lost in despair, that Malfoy brought his hands close to his and interlaced their fingers gently, not wanting to make him reject him again but dying inside at not being able to help his husband; he was crying hard too, sobbing between attempts to breathe slowly.
The pain faded just before images began to play in Harry's mind. He closed his lids much tighter as he recognized the boy who had come into his field of vision: young Malfoy was lying next to him.
The little light with which Harry managed to delineate Draco's face came from the Moon and the stars that rose imposingly in the sky; small flashes that illuminated the almost non"existent intimacy in which they were. He looked down at their clasped hands and his thumb gently caressed Draco's pale back before lifting his face back up when he heard the boy.
"Have the others found out by now?" The blond boy muttered, opening his eyes and fixing his gaze on Harry's irises, who felt a current rise up his spine when he heard him.
"What if they find out?" His voice from his sounded distant, as if he was outside his body and someone else was speaking for him.
"Harry, no…" The gray eyes in front of him fell into a sad expression, "you know what it can mean if they find out."
"For now, we can't think about that." Harry seemed to want to reassure the boy with that phrase, although it gave him the impression that he needed to hear it himself. "Draco, come on."
He watched as Draco shifted in his place before crawling across the grass and approaching him. He recognized the weak pressure on his chest when he felt Draco's head rest on him, as he discovered the warmth that covered his cheeks and the extremely idiotic grin that came across his face so suddenly.
He was surprised when one of his hands stopped being entwined with Draco's to move until he felt the fine strands of the boy between his fingers; Harry was trying to assimilate everything that was happening around him.
"I think I could get used to staying like this forever," Draco whispered, putting a little more pressure on his grip and pulling his hand until it rested just above his heart. "Saving all my nerves in a huge box and letting all my fears go I hardly see you."
"Draco," Harry placed a kiss on the top of the boy's head, "if I could stop this moment and stay here until death came..." Another short kiss made him stop talking for a second, "I would do it without a second thought."
Draco released his hand and shifted in his arms until he turned completely around, wrapped his legs around his hips and rested his hands on the grass at the level of his shoulders.
"I would, too, Harry," he whispered, letting his breath brush his lips.
Harry, totally beside himself, parted his lips at the closeness he had with Draco. He reached up one of his hands to re"tangle his fingers in his hair, making Draco close his eyes.
"No, dragon," he murmured, grabbing his chin, preventing Draco from moving, "let me see those sparkling eyes of yours, please."
"Aw…" Draco responded at once, obeying even before Harry finished his sentence, "I don't want to leave."
"We can stay a little longer yet," he declared as his heart pounded so hard he was sure it would leap out of his chest.
"I can't believe this is our third year together, Harry."
A chaste kiss followed the sentence. Neither of them moved but Harry, the real one, was terrified. He was moving desperately trying to escape everything. The feeling that filled his chest, the pressure he thought he felt on his abdomen and the thought of wanting to kiss Draco until his lips fell down.
"Hey," his voice rumbled through his brain as if he were yelling directly from within him, "please, wake up!"
His skin was covered in sweat. His throat was so dry that Harry believed it would rip if he tried to speak. His lips tickled, unsettling. His heart skipped a beat when he opened his eyes and he found a pair of gray irises staring back at him, panic filling his expression completely.
"Harry…" Malfoy's sob made him stiffen, "don't leave me now, please." He felt his arms wrap around his body. "I didn't lose you during the war and I don't plan to do so now, I beg you."
"Uhm…" was all he could say before feeling the pale fingertips outlining his face, causing him to close his eyes again and exhale the air that he seemed to be containing.
"Harry, by Morgana, let me take you to St. Mungo's to see what's happening," Malfoy said in a small voice, so softly that Harry wouldn't have heard him if it wasn't for the fact that he was literally glued to him.
"But before..." he whispered, taking a deep breath and slowly releasing it, "tell me how."
"What are you talking about?" Malfoy had no idea what he was referring to.
"How did this start?" He asked, pointing at them while biting his lower lip; he was nervous but needed to enlighten his thoughts.
"Let's sit at the table and I'll tell you everything you want to know," Malfoy stirred, getting up as he spoke, "okay?" He added, holding out both of his hands to help him to his feet.
Harry nodded and took both of his hands; Malfoy lifted him at once and led him to the table in the middle of the kitchen. Malfoy dragged a chair back, gesturing for Harry to sit down; he accepted without question. He fell heavily onto the thin mattress that covered the seat.
"Where do I begin?" Malfoy asked after sitting down, more to himself than to Harry, trying to decide if he would tell him first about when they started dating or when they decided they would be friends.
"From the beginning, Malfoy," Harry replied, as if what he had said had been with him. "I want to know everything."
"Well," Malfoy stretched out one of his arms, trying to take his husband's hand but immediately regretted it and moved it away, "the first thing was in the first year of Hogwarts, even before reaching the castle... You seemed able to accept anyone who wanted to be your friend and I approached you, just partly out of curiosity and excitement to be able to meet the boy who lived, and you didn't disappoint me... You gave me a squeeze when I asked you to be friends and I felt like I was the king of the world.
"So," Harry mused thoughtfully, "I took your hand on the train?"
Harry's raised eyebrow didn't go unnoticed by Malfoy, who only managed to nod in response to what he asked.
"And did we stay friends even though we went to different houses?" He questioned, nibbling the inside of his cheek.
"Yes" Malfoy shrugged, hesitating on how to continue the conversation. "We were friends for a little over four years."
"Yeah…" Harry didn't need to hear him say how their relationship had evolved until they had reached that point, "but when did we end up passing that barrier?"
"I… can't tell you that, Harry." The aforementioned reacted to hear that voice saying his name again. "I am sorry."
"Don't worry, just… continue." Harry leaned against the back of the chair, straightening his posture.
"It could have been the friendly Quidditch matches or the afternoons we spent touring the castle."
Malfoy bit his lip looking to the side, trying to find in his memories the moment when everything had changed between them, an action that made Harry feel nervous and the thought of "it is true, he is handsome" passed through his mind. He remembered his first kiss, or rather the time they almost kissed but were interrupted in the silliest way.
"Do you want me to tell you what our first kiss was like?" Malfoy wasn't so sure Harry wanted to know about that at the moment.
"Let's see…" Malfoy was surprised to hear him agree as he leaned his elbows on the table and rested his chin in his hands.
"First I'll tell you about the failed attempt and then the real one, okay?" He asked, waiting for Harry to give him the green light to continue. "We were resting after a long and intense Quidditch practice, the afternoon before the fourth match between our houses. We had leaned against the trunk of a tree, hiding from the burning rays of the sun and, for some strange reason; we were bringing our hands closer until we could feel that our fingers were touching.
»We were excited, or so I think, and nervous too, so we didn't even try to look up when we interlocked our trembling fingers... Perhaps it wasn't the most romantic moment but then you decided to straighten up and approach slowly, as if wanting to give me time to get away.
»But, uhm, what you had in mind didn't happen because, uh… a squirrel crawled up my leg and made me jump. I jerked away before turning my face in their direction, and there it was, so calm, alternating his brown eyes between us."
"A squirrel?" Harry couldn't help the mockery that left his throat before the short laugh he tried to stop by placing his hands over his mouth. "Are you telling me that a simple squirrel terrified you so much?"
"It wasn't my fault, I was scared to death…" Malfoy looked down at the table, "it was less than a week since I had accepted that I liked boys more than girls and I didn't know what I was doing."
"What was the real one like?" Harry's curiosity got the better of him, even though he was anxious to put the pieces in order in his mind.
"It was a few months later, during the first practice of the year." Malfoy was grinning, Harry was struck by the way his eyes lit up and his dimples became visible. "We were flying on our brooms in a competition to see who saw the snitch first. We both plummeted to a corner of the field, where silver wings fluttered rapidly, our gazes met in the middle of the ride, and we forgot about the ball in an instant."
"Did we lose focus that easily?" "Harry I thought Malfoy was teasing him, he couldn't believe he got distracted so stupidly fast.
"None of us understood it but that's what happened… We slowed down until we were side by side; we were still sitting on our brooms when the wind decided to do its thing."
"Please don't tell me we fell over and that was the reason we ended up kissing." Harry sighed, leaning closer to Malfoy with complete interest.
"Not exactly…" Malfoy laughed helplessly. Harry surprised himself again by wanting to hear his laugh again, "not this time, at least."
"Malfoy," Harry bit his lip uneasily, "before you go on… can I ask you a question?"
"Sure, Ha… uhm," he murmured, lowering his voice before inhaling enough air to fill his lungs, "tell me."
"Do you think this," Harry brushed his wedding ring with his fingers, "this change, could be thanks to a spell?"
"You mean about us?" Malfoy couldn't keep fear from shaking his body. "Or are you talking about us remembering what happened between us in different ways?"
"The second..." Harry removed the wedding ring and placed it in the center of his palm, watching it carefully, "maybe one of us is under the influence of some enchantment."
"I don't know of any spell that can totally change a person's memories... or a relationship, really," he said, moving his eyes from side to side, trying to search in his mind for something like what his husband was proposing.
"It's just... you seem so passionate about telling me your version of our story that I doubt it could be a lie or some modified memory." Harry was undecided whether to tell his what he had seen when the pain stopped or not.
"We could go get help, you know." Malfoy reached up to Harry's shoulder and pressed gently. "Perhaps the mediwizards have some way of seeing if something is wrong with either of us."
"Ma-Malfoy…" Harry swallowed, "a while ago, when the pain subsided, I saw us lying on the grass one night, talking about how we didn't want to be away before you ended, uhm, hovering over me."
Harry closed his eyes to concentrate and force his mind to imagine the memory again, but two sensations attacked him as he wanted to focus.
The former felt as if a tube were being thrust into the side of his head, pushing hard, as if trying to drive it through his brain. The second was totally the opposite and on the other side of his skull, it seemed that they were pulling the tube in an attempt to remove it from his brain.
He felt Malfoy getting up from his seat but wasn't able to move to see what he was doing, Harry just wanted the pain to stop, even if it meant he would have a strange hallucination again; at this point, he didn't care, as long as it disappeared.
He found himself standing in front of a door with a seven taped to the side. He felt the presence of someone behind him… he didn't have to turn to be sure it was Draco, or to sigh knowing who owned the fingers that were curled around his wrist, static on the knob.
With a little pressure, he finished inserting the key into the lock and turned his hand before pushing the door open. Although he had already expected it, he tensed as arms encircled his body and a chuckle echoed in his ears.
"Finally, Harry!" He heard the boy say behind his back. "We can already say that we have our house."
"There's only one thing left…" That remoteness in his voice hadn't gone away.
He realized how he turned on his ankles and corresponded to Malfoy's embrace, he breathed in his scent and lifted him a few inches off the ground, intensifying the hug; Harry found himself thinking that he didn't want this moment to go away.
He felt Draco's lips on his temple and closed his eyes, relaxing before lowering him and releasing himself from the embrace, moving only an inch away but keeping his hands on the boy's hips.
There was a moment when he felt like being pushed back into his body and decided to try to move consciously. He began by lowering his gaze, detailing Malfoy's aristocratic features from his hairline to his jaw. He passed his gleaming gray eyes and his flushed cheeks, wondering if he was looking the same.
He continued on his way until he saw his thin lips part and stopped immediately. He lifted one of his hands until he brushed against Malfoy's chin, debating between falling into his need or ignoring it; Harry didn't know what to do.
"Are you going to kiss me or am I going to be the one to finish closing the distance?" He saw Malfoy's lips moving before a smirk was formed, a common characteristic from when he wanted to prod him for something.
Harry decided to let himself go. He would do what that Harry would have done, at least until he came out of the memory again and faced the strange tension that would surround him in the reality of him.
He exerted a little more pressure on Malfoy's chin, making sure he stayed still before reaching out and slowly bringing his lips together. For Harry it felt like it was his first kiss, and it actually was for him, so he surrendered to the sensations that his body created little by little.
The butterflies fluttering in his stomach, the slight trembling of his muscles, the cloud that covered his mind and kept him from thinking about anything else, the little explosions on his fingertips and the tickling he felt over his lips.
It was when his lungs started to ache that he realized that he really needed to breathe so he pulled away to take a deep breath...
"You're back," Malfoy whispered as he shifted in his seat.
Harry looked around carefully realizing that they were in a darker room and the surface beneath him felt a lot more padded. His gaze fell on the gray irises that watched him worriedly; he lowered a little until he could only see Malfoy's parted lips. He wondered if he would feel the same as in that memory, even if it was something real or just a joke that his brain was playing on him.
"I brought you into the room when I saw that you were starting to shake and you were turning red," he said, putting a hand on the back of his neck, "I'm sorry if it bothers you to be here."
"Not at all, uhm..." Harry wanted to tell him a theory that had occurred to him in the middle of the memory, he was nervous because it was going to sound very silly.
"What happened?" Malfoy hunched his back from him trying to get closer to him. "What did you see this time?"
"Malfoy, I think I know what could have happened to me..." he whispered almost without being able to pronounce the words, "I just need you to listen to me without interrupting."
"Go ahead." Malfoy pulled his hands away from his body and hugged the pillow that was the closest to him.
"You sound too confident in everything you say and I've been losing memories over time... I feel like something more physical could have happened and they changed me."
Malfoy made a gesture to say something but he stopped when he remembered what he had promised Harry, so he stopped himself before saying something.
"Do you think they may have sent me to another reality?" He asked, under Malfoy's watchful gaze.
"Other…? Another reality, you say…" Malfoy licked his lips unconsciously, searching for a way to do what Harry said might have happened to him.
"Yes, it sounds crazy but not impossible." Harry clasped his hands, placing them on his lap.
"For you nothing is impossible... child who lived, remember?" Malfoy couldn't help the tiny laugh that escaped his throat.
"It seems it's the memories related to you that I have different," Harry seemed to be thinking intensely as he explained his theory to Malfoy, "maybe someone wanted me to learn something from this… experience."
"Are you saying that you think someone sent you to just this… reality to learn something?" Malfoy raised an eyebrow. But who and why?
"I'm just saying, it's a possibility," Harry concluded, getting out of bed and heading for the bathroom, "the most important thing would be: what do I have to learn?"
Harry closed the bathroom door behind him and leaned against it for a couple of seconds, taking a deep breath. He clasped his hands again in an attempt to slow his thoughts so he could think clearly.
When he came out of the bathroom he looked a little calmer, less divided into a thousand parts with all the strangeness that had happened to him in the last hours. He found Malfoy lying on the bed, chest against the mattress, while he read a book that was about to be pulverized if he continued to use it.
He approached him briskly, wanting to know what he was reading with such concentration. He sat up, moving the roll of sheets that were in the corner, to settle closer to the book.
"There is an enchantment that allows you to move whoever you want through the world," Malfoy said, pointing to a page in the book for Harry to read what he said.
"But if that's the one being used, I'd be in another country, with other people..." Harry grumbled when he finished reading the explanation of said spell, "not with you in my own home in England."
"There is also this other one, with which you manage to move a wizard or witch flat..." He repeated the action, moving the book slightly so that Harry could see it better.
"Can they be combined?" Malfoy gave him a doubtful look but answered his question with a nod. "Oh!"
"I don't see who would do something like this but… it can be done."
Harry sat up in his seat, looking for how the two spells would complement each other, before saying what he had in mind; he motioned for Malfoy to do the same. He reached out his hand where his ring was and wiggled his fingers over and over until Malfoy brought his own hand closer. A current was created as soon as his skin brushed against the guy's, running through his entire body until it disappeared near his heart.
"You felt it too, didn't you?" Harry asked, meeting Malfoy's surprised gaze. "I used a sentimental permanence charm."
"Oh…" Malfoy didn't need more to understand what Harry was looking for with that: to show that what they had wasn't going to end simply with breaking the magical bond they created when they got married.
"We can try to reverse the spell but…" Harry pursed his lips in a straight line, "I'm not sure I want to drop out of it if it's this true."
"Don't you have anything worth going back for?" Malfoy questioned, feeling his heart swell in his chest.
"My life is the most boring and common in the whole world." Harry knew that being a full-time professor at Hogwarts didn't leave him any time to go out and find something to do. "You just have to be patient with me and show me how we lived until now."
"You're sure?" Malfoy didn't want to pressure the guy, after all, he didn't even agree to be called by his name.
"Yeah," Harry squeezed the hand he had in his, "if at any point I feel strange or something, I'll tell you and I'll go.
"Can I call you Harry again?" Malfoy looked down at his rings as he asked.
"Only if you don't refuse to let me keep calling you Malfoy until I get used to referring to you by your name." Harry took a deep breath and waited for Malfoy's response.
"Is it okay if I hug you?"
Arms went around Harry just after he nodded. He felt that strange heat in his chest that he had perceived in the memory, along with the butterflies, the tickles and the blush; he felt like a teenager starting to fall in love.
Although he was afraid, he was also anxious, moved by the tumult of sensations that enveloped his body in a new cloud and made him think that he was flying without the need for a broom; he had never felt like this before.
"Harry…" Malfoy broke away from the hug before continuing, "I promise to help you with whatever you need."
"I promise to learn and maintain a good communication," Harry replied, smiling as he understood that he had an opportunity to show that people did change.
Harry decided to rest, he would ask Malfoy later about his life, his profession and stuff… Now, he just wanted to ignore everything; even the faint roar of his stomach demanding food.
He knew it would not be easy, they would have problems along the way… but that was normal, that was fine; that filled his heart with renewed strength.
¡FIN!
It's been a while since I write a cute drarry story (eventho this is a translation of my original story in spanish)... I had serious issues with this fic while trying to write it and aiming for what I wanted to show!
I hope you liked it, even if it's just a tiny tiny bit... I'll be feeling your kudos and reading your comments!
I'm excited to know how this went...