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He held the phone in his hands, willing it to ring, silently pleading with whomever might be listening that his name would appear on the screen. The ache in his chest bloomed with every passing second, with every minute that his phone remained silent.
Please, he begged. Please call me back.
But there was nothing. No phone call, no text message. It was like a sword had severed all of their communication, a bleeding wound that had no chance of being stitched back together.
“Your Highness.”
Theo looked up to see his best friend standing in the doorway. He frowned at the use of his title — until he saw the guards behind Draco, their faces blank, their suits perfectly pressed. Draco met his eyes and a silent conversation passed between them. He turned to the guards.
“Thank you for escorting me. We’ll be fine here.”
A step in and Draco shut the door firmly behind him. By the time he was crouched next to Theo, the prince was crying again, a heart-wrenching sound that curled cruelly around them.
“He won’t pick up,” Theo said after he called a bit. “He won’t… He’s not answering anything.”
“It’s been less than a day,” Draco reminded him. “Give him time.”
But Theo buried his face against his best friend’s shoulder, only mumbling, “I’ve given him everything.”
“How did this happen?”
Albus Dumbledore — more frequently known as Al and one of the top agents in Los Angeles — threw down multiple tabloids, all of them featuring a photo of his client, Harry Potter, locked in an embrace with Prince Theodore of Denmark. More than one showed the two of them kissing.
Harry stared at the photos without saying a word. He couldn’t. He didn’t know what to say.
It happened because we were careless.
It happened because we couldn’t stop ourselves.
It happened because
Because
Because
“We need to put out a statement of some sort,” Al said. He snapped his fingers at a man dressed in all black, who immediately sat up and poised his hands over a laptop. “Snape, get ready to contact all of these publications. We’ll say that he was —”
“No.”
Harry turned to his side to see his assistant — but Hermione was more than that — glaring at his agent. Her face was flushed in anger.
“No?”
Hermione stood, the slow slide of her chair against the floor screeching loudly in the tense room. She placed her palms flat on the table that separated them from the agency personnel and his management team. “I know how you’ll spin this. And I am saying no .”
“Miss Granger, you’ll find you do not have any legal standing to tell us what to do about Mr. Potter’s career.” Al’s voice was firm, oily, dangerous. “So unless you have suddenly found a legal team to go against his, I suggest you sit down. ”
But she didn’t sit down. She refused to back down when it came to Harry’s happiness and she would call everyone she knew to help him. Because he deserved to be happy. He deserved to smile and kiss the person he loved without paparazzi hounding him.
Harry took a deep breath and finally looked Al in the eye. “How did this happen? Because I love him.”
One week.
For seven days, Theo locked himself away in his suite of rooms, allowing only Draco and Astoria in, the couple trying to give him comfort. It was Astoria who revealed to him that his guards were instructed to take his phone away after the second day.
He hadn’t even noticed.
Theo knew he needed to do something. Everyone around him seemed to have a job. Astoria and her sister had taken over contacting any publication that attempted to get to him. They refused all requests for an interview on his behalf. His parents, he learned from Draco, were fighting. His mother, the Queen, was furious, but his father tried to calm her, saying they needed to speak with him.
But Theo refused to speak with them.
Not yet.
Not yet.
Not yet.
He wanted to hear Harry’s voice, wanted to know where he stood, where they stood.
Because he didn’t know.
And it hurt.
“Are you sure this is the right thing to do?”
It was Ron, the youngest of the Weasley family, who questioned Harry. The family of redheads had been his security team since his first film catapulted him into stardom. While he got along with all of them and appreciated their work, Harry had made a friend out of Ron, the young man carving out a place in his friendship with Hermione. They worked well together.
“I have to,” Harry said. He climbed the steps to the private jet Hermione had managed to convince her current boyfriend to lend them. “I can’t get through to him. I have to go there.”
Hermione stuck her head out of the plane. “Come on, Harry. Adrian said they’re doing the final checks and we can be off.”
Off.
Off to Denmark, where Theo would be. Off toward Theo, who he hadn’t spoken to in over a week, and he wanted to scream at everyone who tried to keep them apart.
But they wouldn’t.
They couldn’t.
He would find the man and confess his love if it was the last thing he would do.
“You can’t be in here! Sir!” Men in suits shouted down the hallway. “Guards!”
Theo ran out of his suite, out of his prison, to see Harry being held by a team of bodyguards. Behind him, he could see Hermione and one of Harry’s security escorts also being held. Without stopping to think of anything, Theo ran down the hallway.
“Let him go. Let him go!”
“We cannot —”
Theo saw red. “I am the Crown Prince of Denmark. Unhand him!”
“Theodore.” It was The Queen, regal and imposing, even in a simple skirted suit. She stood in between the two men. “Calm yourself.”
But he couldn’t, wouldn’t. He appealed to her, not as his monarch, but as his mother. “Mom. Please. Please. Let me speak with him. Let me –”
“Release him,” she said. Her face softened when Theo let out a breath. “You cannot keep hiding from me, Theodore.”
“We’ll come see you, I swear,” he promised. “Just please. Let me…”
“Go.” She nodded at him, and could only watch as her son wrapped his arms around this film actor, this celebrity , that would change their lives forever.
“I’m here. I’m here.” Harry could barely speak as Theo pressed kisses on his lips, urgent and frantic, like he would disappear at any moment. “Theo, Theo, hey, hey. Stop. Look at me.”
Blue met green and Harry smiled.
“I can’t – My mother – We need to –”
“Breathe,” Harry said. He brushed a thumb over the corner of Theo’s mouth, taking in lips swollen from kisses. “I am here. Our friends are in your sitting room. We are not alone.”
Theo did as Harry asked, and breathed in and out, in and out, until his heart stopped racing. He leaned down, resting his forehead against Harry’s, and felt himself relaxing with every stroke of Harry’s hand down his spine. He brought his own hands to Harry’s neck, feeling his pulse beneath his palm. This time, when they kissed, it was slow and sweet, a languid brush of tongues that promised more.
When they separated again, Theo’s eyes were bright. “We have to talk to my mother.”
Harry grasped Theo’s wrists and squeezed lightly. “Alright.”
“She’ll want to —”
“I love you,” Harry said. Theo froze and stared at Harry, who continued to speak. “I love you and we will get through this. Together. Alright?”
The smile on Theo’s face was blinding. It took Harry’s breath away.
“Okay,” Theo said, his voice lowering as if he held a most important secret. “Alright. Together.”
Harry stepped away from him, but laced their hands together. He made to walk out of the room, but Theo tugged at his hand, stopping him. Harry turned his neck to look at him over his shoulder. “What’s wrong?”
For once, Theo answered, “Nothing’s wrong. I just love you too.”