Chapter Text
Recently, Harry had felt... strange. Now, mind you, feeling strange wasn’t anything unusual for him. Weird and inexplicable things happening in his life was basically expected at this point. But this was somehow different.
It had all started, well, to be honest, Harry couldn’t even tell when exactly it had started. Ever since going to Hogwarts, one thing after another was happening to him. And now with Voldemort’s return and the Ministry’s refusal to believe him, he had more on his plate than ever before. So, at first, he hadn’t even noticed the change.
For him, any and all time to relax was basically sacred. And he was glad if he even got any breaks at all.
And if those times, where he could finally relax were accompanied by a strange fuzzy feeling in his head, well, he was just glad he could calm down for the time being and just ignore all the stressful things going on in his life.
But then, it all came to a head around Christmas. Ever since he’s started seeing Umbridge for detention basically every week, the fuzzy feeling in his head had grown stronger whenever he was finally alone or simply relaxing in front of the fire with Ron and Hermione.
All the thoughts that were constantly buzzing around in his head were blocked out by the fog that overtook him. Usually, he would just stare into the fire, admiring the shapes of the flames, occasionally looking over at his two friends. Sometimes, though, one of them would try striking up a conversation about one thing or another. It would be obvious to anybody around that his friends would notice whenever he became more quiet and would try to check in with him, to see if he was feeling alright. But Harry had always been a bit oblivious when it came to noticing such things. And then especially, he would need to be called at least two times to even get his attention. He just couldn’t help it. The fire was just so pretty! There were so many different colours and shapes. How was he supposed to notice somebody talking to him?
The increasing tapping on his shoulder, though, succeeded in gaining his attention.
“Huh?”, Harry turned to the hand on his shoulder and followed it back to Hermione.
“Are you okay, Harry? We’ve called your name about three times now. But you just kept staring off into the fire.”
Harry cocked his head to the side in confusion. If he was in an older headspace, he would have understood her concern. But seeing as he wasn’t, he didn't quite get why she would ask him that. Wasn’t the answer obvious?
“It’s pretty.”, he said, as though that would answer everything.
“What do you mean?”, Hermione asked. Sure, she and Ron were used to Harry being lost in his own head, but something seemed different.
“The fire. It’s pretty.”
Hermione and Ron shared a confused and slightly worried look. They didn’t really know what to make of that. Harry seemed so genuine and open at the moment, so unlike how he usually hid everything. His eyes even appeared to have a slight shine to them as he looked back at the fire. To him, it seemed to be the most fascinating thing he had ever seen.
“Yeah, mate, it sure is something.”, Ron said a little hesitant. Him and Hermione shared another look and she shrugged helplessly.
“Is there maybe something on your mind? You aren’t normally this quiet unless something’s bothering you.”
Harry looked away from the fire again. Ron was looking at him, he seemed kind of, worried? Did Harry do something wrong? He didn’t want his friends to be upset. So, he did the first thing he could think of.
Since he had taken to sitting on the ground directly in front of the fireplace, he would need to get Ron to him.
He reached towards Ron, took his hand and slightly pulled.
Ron’s eyes widened and he quickly looked to Hermione for help. She, too, was just as surprised as Ron, and merely motioned for him to indulge Harry. Maybe it would help him open up.
When Ron slid down from his armchair and next to Harry, Harry gave an excited little smile. He had done it! Now he just needed to…
Ron couldn’t help but let out a small squeak when Harry suddenly hugged him. On instinct he hugged back, which seemed like the right decision, because Harry sighed contently and relaxed more into the hug. Not knowing what else to do, he sent a ‘help me’ look to Hermione, who was stuck between staring at them with wide eyes and trying to hide a smile.
Harry would normally never initiate physical contact. He was always so awkward whenever one of his friends hugged him that they thought he was feeling uncomfortable with it. So, seeing him openly and freely hugging someone was surprising, to say the least.
While his friends were having an internal breakdown, Harry was simply enjoying being cuddled. He couldn’t remember the last time someone held him like this. Sure, sometimes Hermione would hug him when she was particularly excited, but this was different. Right now, he just felt warm and safe.
He barely noticed when his eyes slowly fell shut and his head was carefully placed on someone’s lap. When he felt a hand slowly carding through his hair and lightly massaging his scalp, he snuggled more into the warmth he was lying on and drifted off into sleep.