TW- Self-hate, Verbal Fight, Talk of past abuse & Crying

"Of course I can't, I'm Harry Bloody Potter, I'm dense as a brick," Harry answered with a smile as he walked into the room and sat on his bed but made sure to face Draco.

Draco scoffed at his words but Harry continued, "I wanted to let you know that I truly would be very upset if you were hurt in any way and I would be downright depressed if you were dead. Plus, if I really wanted you dead then I wouldn't have saved you from that fire in the ROR, I would have let you burn. But guess what? I didn't, I saved you because I care about you and I want you to be safe." He stated as he looked at Draco, trying to look him in the eyes but Draco refused to look at him.

Because of Draco's silence and refusal to look at him, he continued. "I know you probably don't like me much or any at all and that's alright but I want you to know that I do like you and that I care for you. I hope we can be friends, I truly want to put our past behind us and start fresh; I don't expect either of us to forget the past because that's not possible. What I want is for us, as cheesy as it sounds, is to build a better future where we can be friends and trust each other. But if you're horribly against that idea then we can just be civil around each other instead. We don't have to be friends if you don't want us to be." He rambled on and on, barely breathing between his words.

"But why? I don't understand why you want to be my friend or even my acquaintance. Why do you care so much or even at all about my safety? Why do you care about what I want? I just don't understand any of it! I was absolutely horrible to you and your friends ever since first year, I called you all names, I bullied you all frequently, and I even got into a battle with you that left scars all over my body. I have been nothing but a terrible person and yet you still insist on trying to be my friend. You insist on trying to be kind to me. Is this some kind of twisted game? Do you want my trust so you can hurt me in the end? Because if so then that won't happen, you can't break something that's already broken." Draco snapped, his words becoming louder and angrier the more he spoke while he stood up and walked towards Harry.

He expected Harry to get angry back at him, he expected him to yell, to tell him that he was just trying to be nice and that he's a bloody prick, he expected him to throw a spell at him.

But he did none of those things.

Instead, Harry stood up so he was directly in front of Draco.

He raised his arms making Draco flinch but he quickly went from mad to confused when he didn't feel a strike and instead felt arms wrap around him.

The feeling was completely foreign to him, he hadn't been properly hugged in years and he didn't know what to do, nor did he know why Harry had hugged him now of all times.

"Draco, I'm not as dumb as you may think. I know that most of your actions were expected of you from your father and the rest of the Death Eaters, I know you weren't doing most things on your own accord and I know that you didn't want to hurt anyone you hurt. I know that you were put under a lot of pressure and stress and trauma as a child and that that's all you've known. And I know that now you can make your own decisions and you're allowed to do things for yourself instead of having to follow orders so I would love to befriend the real you for you." Harry said in a soft tone, trying his best to calm Draco down as he hugged him, rubbing his thumb in circles against Draco's back. 

Draco stood there in silent shock. He hadn't expected that answer, he truly believed that Harry would lash out at him or at least banter back but he didn't. He was gentle, he was kind and he was forgiving. 

"Draco?" Harry asked as he pulled away from Draco just enough to see his face to make sure he was okay.

He wasn't expecting to see tears silently rolling down Draco's face. 

Instead of saying anything Draco looked at Harry in the eyes, just then realizing that he was crying when he saw that his vision was blurred. 

"Oh, baby..." Harry said softly as he pulled Draco into a tighter hug this time.

He didn't mean anything by the name "baby", it simply slipped off his tongue without him even thinking about it, it was a name that was associated in his mind with comfort and that's what he was trying to do for Draco.

Draco's brain finally began to catch up to what was happening and he finally wrapped his arms back around Harry before hiding his crying face against Harry's shoulder. 

"You're okay, you're safe, I'm here for you." He said softly as he put one hand on the back of Draco's head and the other hand was resting on his back as he held him close.

Draco continued to silently cry against him as his hands gripped onto Harry's shirt in an almost desperate manner, as if he let go then Harry would disappear.

"It's okay, I'm not going anywhere, you're okay." Harry said, making sure to keep his tone gentle as he began to slowly sway them side to side.

After a few minutes Draco's mind truly caught up to what was happening and quickly pulled away from Harry, startling the boy from the sudden movement.

"That was discussing, I've never done that before." Draco stated as he looked at Harry as he quickly and harshly wipped his eyes.

Harry gently took his hands away from his eyes, not wanting him to hurt himself. "It's okay to cry, you've been through a lot of fucked up shit. If you didn't cry then I would be even more concerned for you if I'm honest." He said as he losely held Draco's hands in case he wanted to get out of his grasp, he could do so easily.

Draco looked down at their hands before looking back at Harry's eyes, his stupid emrald green eyes. "You're insufrible you know that?" He asked though he made no attempt to remove his hands from Harry's.

"I know," Harry answered with a grin making Draco give him a small smile back despite himself.

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1,140 Words!