分卷阅读47（2 / 2）

“Neither of us are much for gardening though,” Harry pointed out, and yet he didn’t like the idea of this falling into disarray. It would be a nice gathering area, though, if he brought out some nice metal tables, maybe put in a pool. Aunt Petunia would have killed for a party space like that, if it had been a little neater.

“We could be,” Draco said, rolling onto his stomach. “Here.”

Here. Here was different from their other lives, like no matter what else they were, all the things they thought they had to be, it evaporated the moment they stepped foot in this little house and all its sprawling grounds. It was like other people, when they settled down here.

Harry reached out to lace his fingers through Draco’s and then gave up, rolling closer instead, the top of his head nudging his shoulder. “It could be a good life for us here.” He was whispering, maybe because he was too afraid to say something like that out loud. Like all of this could still break at any moment. “Don’t you think?”

“Tiny house, big yard, overgrown garden.” Draco’s voice was just as quiet and dripping with warmth. Harry reached out and took his wrist, kept time with his pulse, feeling hot fast it beat. Normally, that annoys Draco, but today he allowed it. “It could be a really nice life, Harry.”

“Anywhere could be a good life.” Harry wanted to stress this point, make sure that he understood that this, the two of them, was it for him, that there was no turning back, and that when he said I love you, he meant it. “Anywhere, as long as I’m with you.”

Draco smiled, ducking his head into Harry’s shoulder. “Thanks, Harry.” He still sounded soft, still sounded warm, but he does not return the sentiment. Harry doesn’t let it bother him. He would keep saying things like that for as long as it took.

Chapter 38

Draco

They are almost at the end.

Draco can feel it, how things are changing, like a sort of electricity pumped in the air. He had settled into the idea of a routine, and a lot of that routine is tied up in the idea that things will not change—it is burrowed into the bones of Grimmauld Place, wrapped around the idea that there is Luna and Ginny before they become Luna-and-Ginny, the promise of forever that Harry had handed him, all of which is now looking so unsteady, like one strong push might send it all tumbling down.

He tries not to freak out about it. No one else is, and he keeps trying to tell himself that change is inevitable and not always for the better, that this is the only way that you can move on to your bigger and better things that everyone keeps telling you to reach for, but it had been so long since Draco had a place that he considered safe that he cannot consider giving this up, even if the walls in his house are eternally moldy and the stairs creak and he is caught in a never ending cycle of wedding planning. He would take it, just so things could stay the same, because if things were the same, Draco would not have to worry about unpleasant surprises.

“Hey.” Harry bends down to press a kiss to the cheek before straightening up to check his reflection in the mirror. “You alright?”

Sort of, except that you told me that I should look at places to live, too, and I did, Harry, how bout that, found myself a nice place in the middle of muggle London with black iron gates that are spelled to not open to strangers and a big garden out back, only I really don’t want to go there, so please, whatever you are going to do, I think you should say it now before I up and run away, but you won’t, because you don’t know anything about this, because despite everything, I still have inherited my mother’s knack for keeping secrets and my father’s ability to reason any amount of subterfuge, even when I know it’s going to hurt.

“Perfect.” Because he was, perfect. He had a boyfriend that he loved, and who loves him. He was planning a wedding for two friends who he cares deeply about, who have forgiven him for all past transgressions. And he was at perfect liberty to do whatever he liked, thanks to the ministry pardoning him. “Are we about ready to go?”

“Almost.” Harry knew something was wrong, Draco could tell, but he wasn’t going to say anything. It was hard to see the truth when the lie was so much easier to deal with, so much more agreeable for your current situation. “I just have to grab the present.”

The present was for Luna and Ginny’s bachelorette parties, which was actually just one party for both of them. Harry had rented out the Leaky Cauldron for them and stuffed it full of balloons, then packed the place with a hundred of their closest friends.

And the Weird Sisters.

That part, Draco had to admit, was more extra than even he was willing to go, despite how good of a party planner he considered himself to be.