Staying
Harry sighed as he shifted from foot to foot outside the diner. He glanced at his phone again, making sure he didn’t misinterpret Seth’s text:
Dinner at seven at the diner, can’t wait to see you, bro.
Maybe Seth didn’t mean tonight?
Maybe… Harry shifted away from the door when it opened and a small family left. Maybe he should just go in?
Harry wasn’t a coward, alright, but he really wasn’t sure if he wanted to run into the girl who invited him to dinner, promptly threw him out of her apartment, and then ‘ghosted him’ (a term that Hermione taught him) for a month.
Yeah, it wasn’t like Harry had a chance in hell with someone like Leah Clearwater, but Jacob and Seth kept in touch, why didn’t she? He knew she’d been upset that he was leaving, but she didn’t give him a chance to explain why he had to go and why he wanted to come back.
And, it was stupid, but the whole time Harry was in London, officially resigning from his job, collecting reference letters, leasing out Grimmauld Place, Leah had been on his mind.
There was something about her, something Harry tried to explain to a very bemused and amused Ron and Hermione, that just made her special.
It was the same something that led Harry to applying to a job in Forks and renting a room in the La Push Motel once more. He had thought about renting or buying a place in Forks, but every time he started looking at houses, he felt a small ache in his chest that reminded him about Leah’s mad offer to be roommates.
She probably found a roommate while Harry was gone. Someone handsome and charming and they’d fall in love and Harry would be pining for the rude waitress the rest of his life.
It sounded dramatic, but Harry had long ago learned to expect the worst so he wasn’t disappointed when that’s what happened.
Harry glanced inside the diner with a quick peek, keen on not being spotted by Leah or her mum. He frowned when he still didn’t see Seth, someone who was hard to miss with his height. He checked his phone and saw that it was already eight. If Seth was going to show up, he would have been there.
Harry sent a quick text, making sure he was alright, before he began making the slow walk toward the motel.
It was weird that Seth invited Harry to dinner and then bailed, but it was definitely more weird that Seth was fully nude when he did it. Weirder still that Jacob had joined Seth a few moments after Harry first saw him, also fully nude. They’d both hurried and pulled on shorts that were tied to their ankles, but Harry couldn’t help but wonder what they were doing naked in the woods.
Then he stopped wondering that because Jacob and Seth’s love life was none of his business.
Harry was slowly walking down Main St, wondering if he could stop by Leah’s and pretend to be looking for Seth, when Seth finally text him back.
I’m at Leah’s, sorry bro, I fell asleep. Come on in, I’m hopping in the shower.
Harry glanced at the tackle shop on the next block and hesitated.
He wanted to see Leah… but he also didn’t want to see Leah…
But he wanted to see Leah.
Harry jogged the last block and took the side entrance that led to the little staircase that went up to Leah’s apartment. He hesitated again before just letting himself in, like Seth said.
Harry looked around the apartment, wondering if Leah had gotten the roommate she wanted. He didn’t notice any changes, so he had to assume not. Since he also didn’t see Leah anywhere, unless she was in one of the bedrooms that Harry wasn’t going to go poking around in, he had to assume she wasn’t home.
Probably on a date.
Harry heard the shower running and made himself comfortable in one of the plastic chairs in the kitchen. The same plastic chair that he’d been kicked out of a month ago.
Hopefully Seth got out of the shower before Leah got home and could kick Harry out again.
Harry entertained himself for a moment with looking at the few photographs hung on the fridge. Seth, Leah, their mum, and their dad who died a little over a year ago. Harry grinned at the one of toddler Leah holding baby Seth with a gap-toothed smile. He did not grin at the photo of Leah, Sam Uley, and a bunch of other muggle teens on a beach.
According to Seth, who was an expert on all things Leah, Leah and Sam used to date until he dumped her for her cousin and best friend Emily.
Which Harry equated to Ginny dumping him to ‘focus on her career’ and then immediately making headlines by getting together with Oliver Wood.
Harry shifted the photo of Leah and her friends over a little so he could see the photo stuck to the fridge behind it as the water in the bathroom turned off.
And then Harry froze.
Because it wasn’t a picture at all, it was a lined sheet of notebook paper covered in doodles of little flowers. The same doodles that Harry drew in the diner the morning he had breakfast with Leah. Harry traced the ink lines with his fingertip. Why would Leah keep this? Why pin it to her fridge with her other sentimental photos?
Harry turned his head when the bathroom door opened, and was caught off guard again.
Instead of tall, gangly, cheerful Seth standing there- it was Leah.
Tall, lean, beautiful Leah.
Leah wrapped up in only a thin white towel with eyes as wide as galleons as she stared at Harry.
Instead of a greeting, an apology for being in her apartment, or something charming or casual to say, Harry pulled the notebook paper off the fridge and held it up. “You kept this?”
Leah took a few steps towards him, stopping beneath the arc in the kitchen doorway. “Yeah,” she said quietly, no bite to her tone.
“Why?” Harry asked incredulously. “Why keep this and kick me out? Why ignore my texts? Why—”
Leah closed the gap between them and surged forward, pressing her lips to Harry’s.
Harry hesitated for a split second before dropping the paper and wrapping his arms around Leah’s waist to pull her even closer while they were locked together. Leah gasped a little, leaving Harry an opening to deepen the kiss. Leah moved her hands to Harry’s head and tangled her fingers in his hair.
This was what Harry missed while he was in London. This was what he couldn’t explain to Ron and Hermione. This was what made him not so torn up when Ginny dumped him. This feeling that couldn’t be put into words…
Somehow, Leah felt like home.
And Harry, who never really felt like he had a home, didn’t want to lose this feeling. This absolute rightness of being with Leah.
It wasn’t just because she was beautiful and witty and clever, though she was certainly those things, it was because Leah felt like she was made to fit in his arms. Like Harry had been created solely to be with her.
As far as destiny’s went, it certainly wouldn’t be the worst one that Harry felt that fate saddled him with.
“I missed you,” Harry murmured as he picked Leah up and moved her to the counter. It evened the couple of inch difference out in their heights and Harry began a slow assault on her neck. He kissed beneath her ear and smiled when she made a hum of appreciation. “So bloody much, Leah.”
“I missed you,” she said breathlessly as Harry moved from her neck to her jaw and back down again. “I didn’t want you to leave.”
Harry, very reluctantly, pulled his mouth from her skin and narrowed his eyes at her. “You told me to go,” he reminded her, his voice a little rough with emotion. “You said get out, then ignored my texts.”
Apparently Harry knew how to kill a mood pretty quick, because Leah yanked her hands from his hair and snatched at the towel that had been slipping lower and lower and tightened it firmly back in place.
“You wanted to go,” she said with a scowl. “I wasn’t going to beg you to stay, I’m not going to make myself look pathetic.”
Harry tried to fix the suddenly tense mood. “You could have came with me.” He reached up and ran his fingers softly through her wet hair. “You could have met my friends, my family, my godson…”
Leah closed her eyes as Harry toyed with her hair, her face relaxing into a more passive expression. “How would you have introduced me?” she asked with a mild smirk. “‘Hi guys, this is my friend Seth’s sister’?”
“Don’t be daft,” Harry chuckled. He ducked his head over by her ear and lowered his voice to something he hoped sounded seductive. “I would have said you’re my favorite bitchy waitress.”
Leah opened her eyes to glare at Harry, but she softened when she saw the teasing smile on his lips. “Are you staying now?” she asked. “Is that why you’re back?”
Harry grinned and dug in his pocket before triumphantly holding out a business card that he handed to Leah.
Leah read it before looking back up at Harry with a cute look of confusion. “What does Chief Swan’s phone number have to do with anything?”
“You should keep that,” Harry said, folding her fingers over the card. “So if I get hurt at work or something, you have my bosses phone number.”
Leah looked from the card to Harry quickly. “You’re staying?” she asked slowly. “For sure?”
“For sure,” Harry said. He tried to smile, hoping it made him look charming and attractive instead of nervous and on edge. “So… do you still need a roommate?”
Leah couldn’t just say yes like a normal person. Instead, she threw her arms around Harry’s neck and wrapped her long legs around his waist as she pulled him back in for another scorching kiss.
And if Leah didn’t want to talk, that was fine.
Harry didn’t either.
He scooped Leah off the counter and moved to her bedroom.
There was plenty of time to talk tomorrow.