分卷阅读17（2 / 2）

“The albu—”

“What do I have to do to get you to drop the album?” Draco asked, snapped out of the pleasant musings brought on by the thought of spending time around people and back into reality.

“Acknowledge the elephant in the room,” Harry said.

“Which is?” Draco tensed.

“I just vowed to protect you with my life for the rest of my existence, Malfoy.”

“I know, I was there,” Draco replied, the words as long as we both shall live echoing through his mind, his heart beat picking up again as he replayed Harry’s answer, a slow, deliberate, and above all else, incredibly confident I will.

“So. That means I—”

“Don’t hate me. I know. You’ve mentioned.”

“I was going to say don’t mind being around you. Might even go so far as to say I would like to be around you,” Harry continued.

“Thanks very much, kind of you to say,” Draco said. He didn’t want to say it. Not so plainly. Not yet.

“So I guess what I am saying, Draco, is is that album what I think it is?”

Draco suppressed the leap his heart made at Harry’s use of his given name. It wasn’t the first time he had said it, but he seemed to only reserve it for moments like this, moments that tug at Draco’s chest, threatening to make him spill every secret he’d held close for the last decade.

“What do you think it is?”

“Evidence that maybe you’d like to be around me, too.”

“Maybe I would. Seeing as we’re as good as handcuffed together forever, it seems like it would be in my best interest to like to be around you.”

“You just can’t stoop so low as to admit you don’t hate me so much, either, can you?” Harry laughed.

“To your face? Never,” Draco said, a pleasant warm feeling spreading through his stomach as he returned Harry’s smile.

So maybe the familiar idea wasn’t the best one he had ever had, but it certainly wasn’t the worst. After all, he was only trying to make sure Draco didn’t feel like a prisoner for the rest of his life. It was ironic really, that this was the life he chose when it was highly unlikely he would have ended up in Azkaban after the trials, especially when Harry would have vouched for him. Harry hated to say it, because it made him sound so self-important, but his word did go a long way in the months just after the war. They still would, if he felt the need to use them.

But he had been looked at his entire life, and he knew how difficult it was to be the center of attention, especially when it was negative. And Draco had been fragile just after the war. Hell, they all had been, but Draco had a certain amount of guilt that he was sure made the fragility all the worse. But things would have worked out.