Draw The Line

Hangovers and Coming Out: Chapter 27

Draco woke up the next morning with a groan.

Harry had woken up an hour before and was trying to focus on his homework over his headache. He looked over at Draco now, and he tried to open his eyes and his nose scrunched up from the light. He thought it was oddly cute, the way his forehead scrunched up, but he knew he was in pain so he moved to get up and walk over.

Draco's head was pounding and the light from the window was assaulting his eyes. When he tried to sit up his stomach turned and he felt nauseous. He laid back down and then felt the bed shift.

"Your head hurt?" Harry asked as he reached out a hand to feel Draco's forehead. Draco didn't open his eyes.

"Feels like someone let loose a hippogryph in my head," Draco groaned.

"Here, take this." Draco opened an eye and saw Harry was holding out a glass of water and holding something else in his other hand.

"What's that?"

"Medicine. Muggle medicine. Dean and Seamus forgot to make more hangover potion and I'm trash at making them. Anyway, it'll help with your headache, you swallow it."

"Muggles are weird," Draco muttered, but still went to try and sit up again.

"Let me help you," Harry said when he saw Draco struggling. Setting down the cup and pill on the bedside table, he leaned forward and helped pull Draco gently into a sitting position.

When Draco was sitting up against the headboard, Harry picked up the water and medicine again, "Here, put the pill on the back of your tongue and swallow it with the water."

It took Draco a couple tries but he finally got it down and made a face, "Why would muggles do that?"

"To feel better," Harry laughed slightly, "I mean, why would wizards take skeligrow when it tastes so bad? To heal themselves."

Draco made a noncommittal noise and closed his eyes. The sun streaming in the window was brighter than he ever remembered and everything seemed just a bit louder than usual.

Draco's eyes were squeezed shut again, trying to block out the sun and Harry quickly noticed. Harry got up then and closed the curtains on the four-poster, leaving a slight gap on one side where he was sitting originally.

"Better?"

Draco opened his eyes again to find it much darker than it was before. "Much, thanks."

"Course," Harry paused for a moment as he watched Draco shift on the pillows, "I can run a bath for you if you'd like, it might help a bit."

Draco stopped moving then and turned to look up at him. No one had really been as kind to him as Harry was being now and it made his heart ache, if possible he liked him even more in that moment. "I don't want to be a bother," Draco finally said.

"You're not. You took care of me when I had that nightmare." Draco suddenly remembered the way Harry looked that night - tears running down his face and moving about on the bed - he wanted to reach out to grab his hand, but stopped himself at the last second. "It's the least I could do," Harry finished.

Draco was about to answer when he remembered something, "Wasn't today a hogsmeade weekend? I don't want you to miss out on it taking care of me."

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Ron was seated at a table in the three broomsticks, waiting for Hermione to return from the restroom when Ginny and Luna entered.

Ginny saw him first and with a deep breath, tugged Luna along after her.