The Last Dance
Draco, as it turns out, is an excellent dancer. Harry’s not but that’s okay because Draco leads. It’s better that way anyhow as he has the height advantage.
Harry even lets Draco spin him around and pull him into a dip. Though he does insist on returning the favor. It’s not as smooth but at least Harry doesn’t drop him.
“You’re so cute,” Draco says dreamily. His tone reminds Harry of Ron’s. Is everybody getting tipsy?
Then, Harry realizes, that he actually feels a bit drunk himself. Oh well.
“I’m so cute?” Harry teases.
“Absolutely adorable. Do you know how long I’ve wanted to say that?”
“How long?”
“Since I first met you...”
“Really?”
“Not really. I wanted to not think you were cute for most of that time, to be honest.”
“That’s fair. I’ve felt the same about you and you are bloody gorgeous. Do you have any idea how hard I tried to resist you?”
“Yes. And so does the entire 6th year, now. Really glad you gave up on that nonsense. Worked out much better for me,” Draco says. He gives Harry a grin. Harry feels like he should be more appalled at the comment but his mind is a just a bit fuzzy.
“I’m sorry. I really was sure there was no way I was the one … even when everyone kept trying to tell me.”
“They did?”
“Well nobody really suggested that I was your ‘beloved,’” Harry waggles his eyebrows at that last part, “until Hermione told me. But Hermione, Padma and Luna all seemed to know I fancied you. Before I did. I tried really hard not to fall for you because I thought you were in love with someone else and I was just trying to be your friend...”
“You can be really dense sometimes,” Draco says.
“People really bought that you might like Ron though,” Harry laughs.
“Weasley is-”
“Call him Ron. There’s too many Weasleys to be on a last name basis with any of them. And Ron is your boyfriend’s best mate.”
Draco chuckles. “You make excellent points. Ron is a fine, I guess. But he’s not you, Harry.”
“Yes, well I learned something funny while I was busy planning how to seduce you on the dance floor-”
“Oh so you’re seducing me?” Draco teases.
“I have seduced you. Sorry, love, but I think everybody knows about your crush on me now...”
“Right, right. Sorry what did you learn?”
“I learned that apparently there was a big debate between you and I always fighting because we had the hots for each other -”
“So the truth?”
Harry playfully swats Draco’s arm. “Let me finish.”
“Sorry, continue.”
“So apparently there was a big debate – even though nobody was supposed to talking about it – between it being me or Ron. Team Ron had even built up a sizable following that we were in a love triangle. That you loved Ron, Ron loved me and that I loved you.”
“At least they got one part right?”
“Yes, yes. I don’t get how anyone thought Ron wanted anyone but Hermione but I guess rumors have a way of getting out of hand.”
“That they do. Has anyone ever told you how gorgeous your eyes are, Harry?”
Harry smiles. They have. Except, the compliments are always about how gorgeous his mother’s eyes are. This is the first time anyone has complimented them as his own.
“Not directly, no. Not like you just did.”
“How rude of them.”
“Yes, quite,” Harry muses and they fall into a comfortable silence for a while.
They slow to a sway as the song starts dying down.
Draco hums as his fingers open and close around Harry’s hips, drumming absentmindedly.
“This is fun,” Harry says, looking up at him.
“It really is.”
“So much fun,” Luna says, having slid up to them at some point.
“Hi Luna,” Draco says, “I don’t think Harry is going to let you steal me for a dance.”
Harry tugs Draco closer. “He’s right. I won’t.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Luna says, “besides I’m with Neville tonight.”
Harry and Draco glance over to the tables, which seem to be filled with food again somehow. Neville is attempting to carry back several drinks to the dance floor, presumably for the entire group. A few float behind him precariously, having had some kind of levitation charm placed on them.
“Really? I thought you were happy on your own at the moment?” Harry asks and then winces when he realizes what day he’s reminding them all of. Draco doesn’t seem to mind though.
Luna gives him a look. “That moment was a long time ago, Harry.”
“Yes, I suppose it was.”
“Time flies when you’re having fun,” she adds.
“Does it?” Harry says, “it seems like we’ve been dancing for a few weeks now and I’m still having a blast.”
“More like months,” Luna breaths out with a laugh. Harry rolls his eyes. He’ll never fully understand Luna’s brand of humor.
Apparently Luna can read minds because she follows up with, “it’s not a joke, Harry Potter. We’ve been dancing for a long time. Haven’t you noticed?”
“What?” Harry says.
“I am a bit tired,” Draco mummers. And when Harry looks back at him, he realizes Draco does look tired. Well, that would be true even if it had only been ten minutes of dancing. Draco did go through quite the ordeal that night.
Or was it last night?
Or has it been longer than even that?
Harry looks up at Draco’s crown. It’s still there.
“Why don’t we take a nap together?” Harry asks, finding it hard to explain the unsettling feeling pooling in his stomach.
“Really?” Draco says, looking around the room, “where?”
“The benches are quite comfortable or perhaps we can lay down in the grass?”
“In the grass? Was the floor covered in grass earlier?” Draco asks.
“I don’t think so...”
“I think rest is a wise idea. Sometimes, the only way to go where we want is in our dreams,” Luna says airily, looking around. It would appear some other attendees have had the same idea. Many are sitting in chairs or slouched over benches. It looks like some of them are asleep.
Ron and Hermione sure are. Harry smiles at Ron’s peaceful face and the way his arms wrap protectively around her.
“Let’s take a nap, Draco,” Harry says. This time it’s not a suggestion.
“Anything for you,” Draco says and from the way he says it, it sounds like he’s already falling asleep.
Harry wakes up to a comfortable breeze and to Draco’s pointy chin stabbing his chest. Somehow, Draco has managed to curl himself into a tiny ball of a boy. He’s too something or another to be the big spoon and Harry’s more than fine with that.
Harry idly runs his fingers through Draco’s soft hair when it occurs to him that the flower crown is gone. He looks around for it only to notice that they’re outside. Also, apparently, he and Draco have slept in because everybody else is half awake already.
“Draco,” Harry nudges him, “it’s time to wake-up.”
“Why? I’m dead,” Draco says, “it doesn’t hurt anymore.”
“You’re not dead!” Harry says, garnering the others' attention.
“Harry? Is that you?” Hermione says groggily.
Draco bolts up and looks at Harry. His eyelids droop back closed for a second, not adjusting well to the sun.
“Oh, right. You saved my life. Thanks for that by the way. Have I ever told you I’m in love with you?”
“We’re in the Forbidden Forest,” Harry says, taking in his surroundings more alertly now. It takes him a moment to realize what Draco has said but when he does he says, “Yes. I’m in love with you too.”
“You are?”
Harry turns back to him with a smile. “Do you not remember last night?”
Draco’s face turns red. “I … oh, yes. I remember.”
Harry laughs and before he can say anything else, Hermione and Ron are trying to get him to stand.
“I got it, I got it,” Harry says, waving them off and standing up. Then he turns to help Draco up.
“Oh but I don’t ‘got it?’” Draco asks teasingly.
“Nope. You don’t. I got you,” Harry insists. Draco hums in agreement and lets Harry lift him to his feet.
The disoriented group of teenagers makes their way out of the Forbidden Forest. Despite its name, enough of them have been in this forest enough times to guide the rest out. Harry lets someone else take the lead for a change and he and Draco, alongside Justin and Padma, lead the rear.
It just seems like the right thing to do.
In the early light of dawn, everything looks innocent and magnificent. Large, curious trees catch the sunlight and turn it into shapely shadows. Harry and Draco take turns guessing at what the shapes might be, much as one would cloud gazing.
It’s all very magical but not the kind of magic they had become accustom to this year. This is the magic Harry came to love his first time entering Hogwarts.
Harry can hear shouting as they approach the edge of the forest and some of the faster walkers make their way out.
It’s a lot of shouting, actually. It sounds like …
By the time they emerge, hand-in-hand, the couple is met with the sight of Hogwarts in the distance. Harry turns back to see the Forbidden Forest much further away than it should be and the Hogwarts train present, where it should not be.
Students pour out of the train in the commotion and teachers are struggling to slow their approach. Dumbledore is running toward him, followed by McGonagall and Snape. And of course, Madam Pomfrey.
Harry isn’t really sure what’s going on at first but in between diagnostic spells and shooing curious students and press away, he learns bits and pieces.
The assumption had been that the tournament failed. Dumbledore and the staff stayed as long as ‘permitted,’ whatever that meant. And then, the 6th years and few extra students who elected to stay behind were left to work out what was assumed to be a Hanahaki outbreak by themselves.
When February had turned to March turned to April and then May … while the assumptions surrounding their fate grew darker and darker. Just one more week and the Minster of Magic was prepared to pronounce them all dead.
Luna was right; they’d been dancing for months while nearly everybody else moved on after the holidays. Harry’s mind struggles to wrap itself around the thought. Everyone did seem a bit off at the ball but Harry was so distracted, so happy that he’d saved Draco that he simply ignored the signs that the ball had lasted far longer than possible.
Sirius Black’s voice can be heard bellowing from a distance that grows closer and closer. He is followed closely by Narcissa Malfoy.
“Harry!” Sirius yells, knocking McGonagall to the ground with an undignified yelp.
“Draco,” Narcissa calls out, far more restrained.
“Hi,” Harry says as Sirius's arms wrap around him.
“What happened?” Both Sirius and Narcissa ask at once, and then turn to glare at each other. Draco laughs.
“It’s a family reunion,” Draco says.
“What?” Harry asks.
“Well, Sirius is my cousin. Don’t look so disgusted. He’s not biologically related to you.”
“Why in Merlin’s name would that matter, you little brat?” Sirius spits out and Narcissa slaps him.
“Mother!”
“Sirius!”
“Why does Narcissa’s brat have anything to say about who is and isn’t your family? You lot wouldn’t know loyalty if it -”
“Oh, that’s because Draco and I are in love,” Harry says smiling back at them.
“You – what?” Narcissa says, fawning over her son. She tugs Draco away and Harry pulls back for a second before releasing his hold on Draco’s hand.
“Harry was … is … well I’m not sick anymore.”
“Speak properly,” Narcissa scolds but her face and embrace give away her true intentions.
“Harry is my beloved, mother,” Draco says, “and I’m not going to -”
“And he loves you back?”
“Very much so, yes,” Harry says.
“That’s … congratulations,” Narcissa says, straightening her posture.
Dumbledore once again casts a powerful silencing spell. In a split second, everyone immediately quiets down. Only a few lone camera flashes can be heard.
“Congratulations on successfully completing the fourth task. This brings our Tri-Wizard Tournament officially to a close,” Dumbledore says.
Harry lets Dumbledore’s words wash over him and fade into background noise as he turns to Draco, taking his hand back. Draco smiles back at Harry as Harry gives his hand a squeeze.