Phoenix

Draco was sitting on the hill again, and heard the phoenix call again as it came down from the sky, landing on his right. “Hi,” he greeted. It flapped its wings softly in reply, then cocked its head to the side in a reply to the smile playing on his lips. He looked almost… shy, as he answered, “I talked to Harry this morning. I’ve always been in love with him, you know. Or maybe you don’t, but I would think it’s obvious. I don’t even know if he’s gay, but getting to speak with him still makes me sort of happy. Even if he is, I’m sure I’m the last person he would consider dating, but every time I see him I just wish I had the courage to say it. I almost don’t care what he answers anymore, I just want to stop hiding it.”
He looked over at the bird again, and commented, “You usually sit to my left.” He reached out to pet it, when a bit of gold in the middle of the scarlet on its left wing caught his eye. He slowly and gently pulled the wing open, and saw that the gold was in the shape of a lightning bolt. “Ha. That almost looks like…” he trailed off as he continued staring at it, then he slowly let go of the wing and stood up, backing away. He started rambling, talking to himself, “An animagus’ animal form retains some visible identifying feature from their human form. Harry- Harry’s not an animagus, though, right? But he has to be, there’s no way that it’s a coincidence.”
The phoenix lowered its head and stood there as Draco spoke. Draco put his hands over his mouth in horror, thinking through everything he had told it, and he started hyperventilating as he continued staring at it. Harry knew that there was no hope of fixing it without coming clean, and now was a pretty good time, because he hoped he could keep Draco from having a full-blown panic attack. He detransformed, and stood there for a couple of seconds. Draco just shook his head and a few tears rolled down his face as he continued to hyperventilate, not wanting to believe what he was seeing. Harry walked over to him slowly, and spoke as softly as he could, “Draco- Draco, try to follow my breathing.” Harry started breathing slowly, in through his nose and out through his mouth, making eye contact.
After several seconds Draco’s breathing began to slow down as he tried to follow Harry’s, and after a couple of minutes it had evened out. Harry then quietly began, “I’m sorry. I never meant for you to tell me anything. I just figured I’d spend some time up here with you after you almost hit me with a rock, but when you started talking, I- I didn’t want you to lose your new bird friend, and I’m sorry, I know I should have just told you, but I-”
Draco cut him off, saying, “I’m going to go. Talk to you later, or something, I don’t know.” He then quickly headed down the hill towards the castle.