分卷阅读14（2 / 2）

“So, maybe I don’t want to fight.”

“What do you want to do instead?”

Ron isn’t angry. He looks resigned, a bit, like he knew that this was only a matter of time. It validates Harry’s decision like nothing else could, that Ron did not seem to think that this was a bad idea. “Nothing. I don’t want to be anything right now. I spent so long being the Chosen One, that I never got to figure out what I would have wanted to do, given the choice. It was fight or die.” He swallowed, hard, because this was bringing up memories that he would rather not think about. About a basilisk, about Quirrel’s screams, about the first time he ever cruicio’d someone. He was a warrior, and he was a good one, but now the fight was done. “I just want to rest.”

“I get that.” They’re food has gone cold. neither of them has eaten, and it is already time for Ron to start heading back to the office. “I do, Harry. And I’m glad that you’re trying to make yourself happy.” A pause. “But I’m not quitting. This really is what I want to do.”

Harry knew that. But he had to ask, to put the option out there. “Don’t you ever get tired of the fight?”

Ron laughs, shakes his head, and then makes a fist, and his own set of scarred letters shines up at Harry, bright under the lighting of the diner. I will not resist.

“It’s all I’ve ever known.” That was true, too. Harry had dragged him along, and sometimes he thinks that ruined him. “I’ll keep going until the end.”

Draco

Harry had came back from his meeting with Ron with a smile on his face. Draco took it as a good sign.

“Everything go okay?” He cannot help the concern that wells up in him, because he knows how much of this decision relied on Ron’s approval.

“It went fantastic. So great, in fact,” Harry’s grabs him by the arms, spins him around, and then let go just as fast. “I’m buying us dinner. Leaky Cauldron, the good stuff. I’ll be ready in fifteen.”

Draco felt one side of his mouth quirk up in a smile. “Fancy.”

Harry’s laugh floats down the hallway, and Draco knows in that moment that this is it for him, he will spend the rest of his life trying to find a place as happy as he is with Harry. “Only the best for you.”

It does end up being mildly…special.

Not special in the sense of linen tablecloths and fine china, but maybe in the idea that no one is bothering them, and they are tucked into a corner booth where its quiet, and the two of them have gotten to enjoy a meal in peace, for once, with the two of them stealing forks full of food off each other’s plate. If Draco didn’t know better, he could almost believe that Harry meant this as a date.

But he does know better, so it is just two mates hanging out in a bar.

(Or, a guy and his court ordered mentor-like person, if he’s getting technical.)

Harry reaches across the table and covers Draco’s hand with his own. It stops Draco in his tracks like a deer in the headlights, and he waits for Harry to make the next move, wide eyed and barely breathing, because it’s really getting hard to think that Harry doesn’t have feeling for him.