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Another crumpled piece of parchment was set ablaze with a flick of Harry’s wand. Draco eyed it anxiously from where he lay sprawled across his bed.
“Don’t you dare set our room on fire. We still have to live here another week,” he complained.
“Sorry,” Harry muttered. And really, he should know better. They both still woke up screaming from dreams of Fiendfyre.
Trying to write this speech was so frustrating, though, that he hadn’t thought. He wished McGonagall had never asked this of him. Hermione was top of the class with seven NEWTs, and had already accepted an important position at the Ministry - she should be the one to address the eighth years at their graduation ceremony, not Harry.
“No matter what you say, they’ll eat it up,” Draco pointed out. Once, he might have been jealous. Times changed.
Harry groaned, collapsing on the bed next to him. “They’ll expect me to talk about the war.”
Draco moved to make room, but Harry clung to him, arms circling his waist and head pressed to his chest. Rolling his eyes, he settled back and coiled his fingers into messy black hair.
“Fuck what they want,” he sighed. “Talk about school. Talk about the future. Anything else.”
Harry’s voice was muffled, his face buried against the Muggle t-shirt Draco had borrowed. “I took two NEWTs and I’ve turned down every job I’ve been offered. What would I even say?”
“Harry.” Where Draco’s hand had been stroking Harry’s head, it stilled. “You know that’s nothing to be ashamed of, right? You don’t owe them anything.”
No reply came, and Harry’s face remained buried.
Eventually Draco resumed his stroking. “It’s been a rough year, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. You made sure I got another chance. Instead of a speech, why don’t you write what you would say to anyone else who needs one?”
He pressed a kiss to the top of Harry’s head, and they laid together in silence until they fell asleep.
Standing at the front of the Great Hall days later, the crowd of eighth years and their families waiting expectantly, Harry pictured Draco and the future he wanted for them. “As we prepare to leave Hogwarts,” he began, “We go out into the world with a chance to start anew, and make things better…”