DECENT EXPLANATIONS

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"Oh, my God!" Colin gasped, his camera slipping from his thin fingers. Luckily, it was on a string around his neck, so no crash was heard.

His eyes flooded over with tears at the sight of Harry. Harry, leaning over Ron in the most obscene way he thought possible.

"I- I'm so sorry," He attempted, but all that came out was some incoherent mumble, and he stumbled from the room, his eyes burning and blurry

He was thunderstruck. From the minute he laid eyes on Harry, he knew he loved him. Now to see him like that...with Ron...it made him sick to his stomach.

He ran until he was out of breath, then leaned against the wall outside the Defence against the Dark Arts classroom, and cried.

Yes, he was hurt. And he was also infuriated. His blood boiled, and he was so sure he was about to lose it. Though, surprisingly, it was not Harry he was infuriated at. It was himself. He was angry that he had allowed himself to fall for someone so out of his range. He lashed out and punched the nearest thing to him. That thing just happened to be the wall he was leaning on. He cursed under his breath and held up his hand, still balled into a fist. Blood poured from every knuckle, and temporarily, he was distracted from the anger throbbing throgh his veins.

He was just thinking...how good it felt. To have all the emotinal pain gone, if only for a few minutes, when he heard distant footsteps closing in on him.

He turned just in time to see Harry walk up to him, eyes full of worry.

"Ha. As if he's really worried about me." He thought.

"Oh, Colin! What happened? Are you okay?" He asked, his voice laced with false concern. He reached out his hand to take Colin's, but he backed away, shaking his head. He didn't want to be here.

"Colin, let me help. Please." Harry pleaded, his green eyes locking on to Colin's.

He still didn't recieve a reply.

"Colin, I'm so sorry you had to see that. I know you probably despise me now."

No! Never.

"Oh, I hate myself for this. Colin, please. Talk to me. Just let me explain what you saw here tonight. Then I promise to leave you alone."

Colin pondered this. Should he let Harry defend himself? After all, he had done something practically undefendable, in Colin's eyes. But, no. Even through the fake concern coming from his mouth, Colin could see his eyes still held some honesty. So, he let himself be pulled into the empty DADA classroom.

Harry sat down across from Colin and sighed. Then sighed again.

"Colin, I..." He stopped, glancing down at Colin's injured hand. Of course. He had to fix everything else before he could make his mistake right. He asked Colin to wait for him there, while he got some bandages. Colin obeyed him and sat cradleing his hand. After all, he'd come this far. Why run now?

It wasn't hard to find the said bandages, seeing as this was Defence Against the Dark Arts. Harry came back and carefully wrapped the cloth around Colin's hand. At one point, Harry wrapped too tightly, and Colin gasped and jerked his hand away. Again, he'd felt the same thing. The same kind of...draining process that lasted only about a half a second, but still tore the emotional pain away and replaced it with physical pain. The pain he liked better.

"Sorry. I know I've got seeker hands. Little rough, aren't they?" He offered a small smile, and Colin didn't take it.

Harry started again, this time without the sighing. Colin prefered that way. It made Harry sound as if he would give anything to be somewhere--anywhere--but there in that room with him.

"Colin, what you saw back there...it had nothing to do with what I do or don't feel towards Ron. It was just sex. It meant nothing."

Colin didn't say anything. Harry took this as a sign to keep going.

"You know, sometimes a get a little...tense, and Ron...he relaxes me, that's all." Harry reached out and put his hand on Colin's small shoulder, then lightly traced down his arm and held his good hand in his own. Colin's arm tingled. "I don't have feelings for him, and he doesn't have feelings for me. It's a comfortable compromise we can both live with. And now that you've seen it---you're going to have to learn how to live with it, too."

Colin looked up at Harry incrediously. Was he serious? And, for the first time in over an hour, he spoke.

"And what if I don't want to live with it?"

Harry stared back at him, his eyes burning Colin's away.

"Colin...the universe isn't perfect. We can only bend it so far before it's in danger of snapping in two. I'm sorry if you don't want to live with what you saw. But now that you have, you must. That's just the way the world works."

Colin looked back down at the floor, his eyes flooding over again.

Harry, obviously content with his speech, stood up, stretched, and made for the door, but not without turning to Colin one last time.

"One more thing," He said, leaning down level to Colin's face and manuevering it up with his fingertips. "You're always welcome to join us now. All you have to do is ask."

Smiling seductively at the look on Colin's face, he kissed him on the cheek and walked out the door, leaving Colin there to wonder.