Chapter Forty-Five - Acceptance
Utter silence. You could hear a pin drop. His cheeks reddened, and he looked down to the floor. Had he said that out loud?
At the first sound, his head shot up, he looked expectantly at Ron, who had cleared his throat.
"Well mate, uhm, definitely not what I expected to hear, and well strange moment to come out like this, but... no matter that, how did you come to this conclusion? What have you been doing all day? I should hope you did not ditch our quidditch session for a make-out sessions with some— OW!Hermione that hurt!" She pointedly looked at him. It seemed she was conversing a whole story to him in just a second.
He looked back to Harry and cleared his throat again. "Point is mate, we're happy for you. We don't care who you like or don't. And we certainly think it's great that you figured it out." He looked back at Hermoine, as if to ask if she was satisfied with his response. She smiled in return, and then smiled at Harry.
"We are very happy for you Harry. It is great that you felt comfortable to tell us. Is there anyone in particular that helped you reach this conclusion?" She asked inquisitively.
Harry froze. Shit,he had not expected that question. Hell, he hadn't even expected to tell them. What was he supposed to say? He couldn't very well tell them who it was now could he. He didn't want to push them into disliking Draco.
"No, no one in particular," he scratched behind his ear, his cheeks reddening even more, "And yeah, I think I still like girls too, if that's possible? I mean, I still like Cho, and Ginny is still pretty"—Ron cleared his throat, again— "Sorry mate," he looked at Ron, but he just shrugged indifferently. "I just, realised that I find boys pretty too, and that I might want to date them too. That's not weird, is it?"
He knew it wasn't that weird in the wizarding world. There was Sirius and Remus who had apparently been together for ages, and Seamus and Dean had recently become a couple. No one seemed to bat an eye at their public displays of affection. At first, it had been quite difficult for Harry. One time, when he was eight, they had gone to the park to play, and Harry had been forced to sit on the bench and guard over the valuables of Aunt Petunia. Dudley played around, tormenting other children, when suddenly Uncle Vernon had started screaming at a couple sitting a few benches away. Harry had looked over, confused, when he saw the two men were holding hands. He had heard Uncle Vernon scream awful things for what seemed like ages and just after that, they had left the park and Uncle Vernon had been raging about the two men for the whole walk back home, and the whole day after.
But then when Sirius had accidentally mentioned it in his letter, and he saw how happy they were, and how happy Seamus and Dean were, he had started questioning his mindset.
Hermoine seemed to realise his conflicted thoughts, as she looked at him warmly. "No Harry, that's not weird. In the muggle world it might not be very accepted, but in the wizarding world they've never seen the issue."
Harry released a breath he had not realised he was holding. Somehow, Hermione confirming it was just what he needed.
Ron and Hermione did not pay attention to him anymore. They had gotten into a discussion about muggle views on homosexuality. Ron was quite affronted by this, and Hermoine, patient as always, slowly tried make him understand how it all worked.
Harry smiled. It didn't matter right now if Draco was going to like him back. His two best friends accepted him. They knew and they still accepted him. He sat back and looked at the fire. It was going to be all right.