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Harry was exhausted, but overall happy, as it usually happened after Quidditch practises. He was pretty sure they’d beat Ravenclaw on their next game. Ron was already snoring by his side and he was looking forward to that night’s sleep but he reckoned that looking for Malfoy’s dot on the Marauder’s Map wouldn’t hurt.
He would probably be asleep, but as Harry looked and looked, he wasn’t at the Slytherin dormitory. His eyes went towards where the Room of Requirement should be but he wasn’t around. He was probably inside the Room, Harry thought, but then he spotted Malfoy’s dot. He was in the Astronomy tower.
Harry didn’t feel tired anymore, adrenaline rushed through him as he got his robes and Invisibility Cloak and ran off the common room. He dodged professors, prefects and ghosts as he went towards the Astronomy tower, rushing as he thought that maybe Malfoy could have found a way to bring Death Eaters there somehow.
However, Harry found that Malfoy was alone. He was at the edge, looking down. He took off his Invisibility Cloak and coughed, he didn’t want to startle Malfoy. That moment seemed too delicate, somehow.
Malfoy’s back arched and he turned around slowly, but when he spotted Harry, his worried expression turned into a sneer.
“What are you doing here, Potter?” He snarled.
“I could ask you the same” Harry answered, approaching him.
“But I asked you first” Malfoy replied. As Harry got closer to him, he realized that Malfoy’s eyes were bloodshot and there were dried tears around them. Even his sneer didn’t quite seem like it used to be.
Harry wasn’t irritated. He wasn’t as angry and irrational as he usually was when Malfoy was around. Maybe it was the vulnerability that the other boy was trying to conceal, maybe it was the Quidditch practise, but Harry didn’t feel like arguing with Malfoy.
“I came here to see what you were doing” Harry said.
“How did you know I was here?” Malfoy asked.
“I have my ways” Harry pursed his lips “You still haven’t answered my question”
“What question?”
“What are you doing here?”
“It’s none of your business” Malfoy turned around, clutching the rail, his profile glistening in the moonlight.
“Are you okay, Malfoy?”
“Like I said, none of your business” He replied sharply.
“I can make it my business” Harry said hoarsely.
“Why do you care?” Malfoy turned to face Harry, his voice tinted with desperation, his eyes vulnerable, brows furrowed as if he was trying to maintain a neutral face.
“I’m not sure…” Harry mumbled “But maybe I do. I do”
“I’m here because –“ Malfoy breathed out “I can’t sleep” He turned his face again.
“Nightmares?” Harry asked sympathetically.
“Yeah” He sighed.
Harry turned around as well. They stood there for a while, watching the horizon, the silhouettes of the Forbidden Forest against the dark sky. Harry could only hear Malfoy’s breath, as he felt his own heart pounding, his own lungs filling themselves up. He didn’t feel tired, he felt peaceful. Their silence was comforting.
Harry took one small step to the left, and one more, and one more until he was right next to Malfoy. Then he did something that required more bravery and daring than he could ever think. But he was brave and daring, wasn’t he? Wasn’t that something everyone was always telling him? So he held his breath and put a hesitant arm around Malfoy’s back. The other boy’s body went rigid, Harry’s heart was pounding so hard it seemed as though it wanted to fall out of his chest. He gently squeezed the edge of Malfoy’s shoulder, and he relaxed a bit.
They stood like that for a while, and Harry would never be able to fully explain why this seemed right. It just did.
“Can you help me sleep?” Draco said quietly, almost begging, and Harry could only nod. He pulled Harry towards a stone wall, and made him sit with his legs stretched out. He rested his head on Harry’s legs.
Harry stood there, still, not daring to breathe too loudly because it could ruin the moment. Draco had closed his eyes but Harry knew he wasn’t sleeping. He breathed heavily, though, but Harry knew.
“Potter” He heard Draco calling “Sing to me, please”
“I can’t sing” Harry mumbled
“It doesn’t matter. Sing something you like. I can sleep better when there is someone singing”
Harry sighed and tried to remember a song. He thought of nights at the Grimmauld Place when Tonks and Ginny would set the record to play Weird Sisters’ songs and there was one in particular he quite liked. He started singing softly.
“There is something about you
Something not quite right
Something not quite wrong
There is something about us
Something not quite right
Something not quite wrong
I feel like I might lose my mind
If you ever lose yourself I might
Help you trace back your steps
Help you take back your life
I don’t understand why I feel pulled towards you
But there is a string that tugs me hard
And when I follow that path
I find you there and you’re
Waiting for me in the end of the line
You’re trying not to smile but I can see in your eyes
That glow that feels like home
That sparks that make me go on”
“I like that song” Draco whispered.
“I thought that having someone singing helped you fall asleep” Harry said, and Draco turned around to face him. Their eyes met and then everything happened so naturally, like the universe had always chosen to shape itself around them like that and only now they had realized. He didn’t know who started it, maybe both did, but then Draco’s hand was on Harry’s neck and Harry held his back strongly, and they melted in a kiss that made their heartbeats match.
“Harry” Draco breathed on Harry’s lips “Harry” he repeated
“Draco” Harry said back “Draco” he also repeated.
Perhaps the fact that they had always chosen to call themselves by their last names had been hiding the fact that their first names sounded so natural, so familiar, when they said them out loud. As if Draco had always had been inside Harry, but he had only realized that when he stopped being just Malfoy. And when Harry heard Malfoy speaking his name, so softly, so vulnerable, and Harry knew that now it somehow belonged to Draco’s lips, and he, too, belonged to them.