Known You Always (Theo)
Theo couldn’t believe it, he just couldn’t. He couldn’t stop looking at Harry, waiting for a second snitch to fall from the sky. It didn’t seem real, finally seeing Harry again. There were times, times when Theo’s brain fought against him, that Theo thought maybe Harry really was dead.
And he wasn’t. Harry was alive.
“I like your glasses,” Theo said, grinning at Harry and nudging Harry’s foot with his own. They had climbed on the couch together and Theo threw the blanket over them both so they could lean against opposite arm rests and simply see one another.
There weren’t words for how it felt to have a moment such as that with Harry again.
Harry reached up and touched the arm of his new glasses with a small smile of his own.
“Hop told me to get an eye exam,” Harry said in his new voice, the one that was so different from his voice as a child. There was still Harry in it, but it was rougher, slower.
Theo stretched his legs out, tangled them up with Harry’s legs, and wondered about all the new people in Harry’s life. There was a girl he mentioned, El, then a man he lived with, Hop. Theo wasn’t surprised that Harry had friends, friends who seemed quite accustomed to Harry. Though he did think that Sirianna having a boyfriend was hysterical.
That poor man… truly. Sirianna has been terribly bossy and stubborn as a girl, Theo didn’t know how much of that would have changed as she grew, people tended to grow into their personality traits, not out of them. Unless… unless the wizards within MACUSA tortured that from her like they did the mischievous light in Harry’s eyes.
“They look great,” Theo told Harry honestly. “You - I missed you,” he said again, feeling it well up inside of him once more. Theo’s brain was slow to accept that Harry was there, alive, his body continued to be startled by it.
It was understandable, every cell inside of Theo had been searching for Harry for so long, never knowing that he had been hidden away by a government agency.
MACUSA… it would have been the Department of Mysteries, deciding to investigate the biggest mystery in wizarding history, prior to committing the second biggest. Theo was unsure how he would bring down an entire government, but he had the time and resources to do so.
They would pay, Theo would be sure of it.
Harry slid down more and their legs were as tangled as they used to be when they would stay up much too late, caught up in a book they shared.
“I missed you,” Harry said with a nearly painful tone of honesty. “I - I thought about you, all the time.”
By the Gods, it was as if Theo himself had spent four years thinking of nothing but Harry. Even when he sought out distractions - school and research and the physical comfort of another person - Theo had still carried Harry in his mind.
“Same,” Theo said, momentarily too overwhelmed to elucidate. Harry yawned and Theo couldn’t prevent the soft smile that appeared - it was nearly too much, being there with Harry again.
There would be hell for Theo himself to pay the next day, Theo was certain of it, but it was indisputably worth it to be there with Harry. Theo would take a slew of curses from Sirius Black for the very real moment he had.
“Go to sleep,” Theo told him, getting comfortable as well. “I will be here when you wake up, I swear it.”
No God or deity could move Theo from where he lay. The heavens could fall, flames could broil him from down below, and Theo would still be there.
Harry seemed skeptical, perhaps he too thought that it was a gift of a dream that would turn nightmare upon waking, but he removed his glasses and closed his eyes all the same. He looked younger when he closed his eyes, eleven again before magic was used as a weapon against him.
Theo didn’t plan on sleeping, he was sure he wouldn’t be able to. But, for the first time in four years, Theo’s mind was quiet and his heart was at peace.
And Theo quickly fell asleep tangled up in the person that he had always needed the most.
At some point, when Theo’s consciousness had been drifting away on the clouds of rest, Harry kicked him. Then he kicked him again. Theo opened one bleary eye, saw Harry’s face was twisted up in a look that seemed painful. He wasn’t crying out, he wasn’t making a sound, but Theo assumed it was a nightmare plaguing him all the same.
“You’re safe,” Theo murmured. He flipped around on the sofa, repositioned himself until he had Harry’s back to his chest, his arms wrapped loosely around Harry - a reminder that he was not alone, yet also not trapped.
“You’re with me,” Theo said, closing his eyes when he had his face hidden in Harry’s dark hair. “They’ll never hurt you again.”
Maybe Harry heard Theo’s conviction, maybe he was simply too tired. Theo thought it made him feel better to have someone cuddled against him, holding on to him. Truthfully, Theo was soothing himself as much as Harry, reassuring himself even while sleeping that Harry was there and nobody would take him again.
Harry made a snuffling sound and curled his legs around Theo’s before settling back asleep. Theo went right back to sleep with a grin curling his lips up at how perfectly right everything felt.