Delicate {𝔻𝕣𝕒𝕣𝕣𝕪}

Chapter 16

After breakfast the next morning, Harry was approached by Ginny on the way to his first lesson. She asked to speak to him in front of Ron and Hermione and so he had no choice but to go with her, lest he be questioned even further by Hermione. The two made their way into an abandoned classroom off to the side. Ginny smiled at Harry in a way she appeared to think was seductive. In reality, it merely made him cringe. She was conveniently unaware of this, however, and chose to continue her advances on Harry.

Realising what she was about to do, Harry immediately tried to shut her down by taking her upper arms in his hands, in an effort to keep her at arm's length. It seemed to work as she paused, momentarily taken aback by Harry stopping her.

"Harry?" She questioned the raven confusedly. "I, Um-" Harry stuttered out, before taking a deep breath and composing himself. "Ginny, I, um, I'm really sorry but, I don't like you that way... I love you, only, I see you as a sister and don't really picture us together, romantically, per se..." Harry attempted to explain to the rapidly reddening girl.

At first, it was unclear as to whether it was in embarrassment or anger, but the question was answered fairly quickly as her eyebrows furrowed and she looked at him, steam seemingly coming from her ears. "What the hell are you talking about? We're supposed to date, and fall in love and get married. I'm supposed to become Ginny Potter and we were meant to have little Potter babies together. Why are you trying to ruin this?" She exclaimed angrily.

As Harry stared at her in slight horror, she took a hold of him, digging her long nails into the flesh of his upper arm. She avoided his cuts, much to his relief, but the sharp nails continued to bite into his skin. "I just don't like you that way Ginny, I don't know what to tell you..."

"This is about that comment about Draco, isn't it? You like him don't you." It wasn't a question. She ignored Harry's wide-eyed look and continued. "But you can't be gay, that's not natural. You're straight, that's how you're meant to be. That's what's normal right?! Liking the same gender isn't right!" Ginny questioned Harry urgently, ignoring the panic she was causing him. There was a seemingly desperate air about her, almost as if she urgently needed the clarification from the boy before her.

"It's okay though, I can fix you. Nothing that can't be dealt with." With that she pressed her lips firmly, desperately against Harry's own as the boy remained frozen once more, having regressed into his mind so far he was barely registering his surroundings anymore. With what sounded like a choked sob, Ginny ran away, leaving Harry in the classroom alone, deep in the confines of his mind once more, replicating the situation he had found himself in only a short while prior.

Harry pushed himself up, in an almost trance-like state, and made his way to the nearest bathroom. Everything Ginny had been saying had brought up his past, with Vernon saying he was abnormal as he would kick him, throwing him to the ground as he told him about how he was trying to fix him. As Harry stood before the mirror, he took his wand from his back pocket and looked his reflection in the eye.

Harry laughed mirthlessly at the piece of wood between his fingers. Such a seemingly insignificant object had the power to cause such devastating destruction with a few words. He noticed that his wand was in his back pocket, clearly, he had been ignoring Hermione's adamant scoldings about how much damage that could cause his wand, or himself. Not that Harry would care all that much if something happened to himself. It would be a pretty awful way to go but at least it would be over.

Harry turned his wand on himself and muttered the counter spell for his glamours and slowly unbuttoned his shirt. He looked at his body, skinny and long, covered in scars, both old and new. He hated himself. He always thought he was too skinny, which is true, he was dangerously underweight, but he never really felt the need to eat when at Hogwarts and never had access to much at the Dursley's. He looked at the words carved into his chest by his uncle. "Freak," "Faggot," "Waste," and "Die," were among them and he knew many more accompanied the whip marks across his back. As much as he hated his uncle, he couldn't help but question if he was right.

I mean he was correct about him being Gay, or at least, Harry thought he was, so why would he be wrong about the rest? Despite the progress he had been making with Draco, Harry felt an intense urge to start to cut and began to scratch at his arms in agitation. Before he could get much further, he heard footsteps approaching the door and hurried to re-apply his glamours. He turned wide-eyed to see who was coming and his shoulders slumped in relief when Draco's head popped around the door. The blond gave a soft smile as he caught sight of the raven and he approached quickly.

Immediately he took Harry's forearms to check for anything new and smiled softly when he saw nothing. He brought them up to his mouth and presses soft kisses along both. Harry blushed brightly at the gesture and returned the soft smile. Draco took in Harry's dishevelled appearance fully. His raven hair was messier than usual from being pulled at and his forearms had red scratches along them. Harry's shirt was unbuttoned almost the entire way and he looked exhausted from their late night the night before.

Draco led the boy from the room into an unused classroom, thankfully one different to where Harry had been previously. Harry silently marvelled at the sheer number of unused classrooms in the castle, it seemed as if there were more unused than used. The two made their way over to a window, seating themselves comfortably on the wide ledge. The two weren't going to fit side by side so Draco sat sideways with his back against the wall and he pulled the younger boy to sit between his outstretched legs.

Harry leaned his head back onto the blonde's shoulder as Draco's hands snaked their way around his waist. The two young boys sat quietly together for a while, no words needing to be exchanged between the two as a blanket of comfort seemed to settle over the room. The two gazed out the window at the grounds before them, they looked out across the grass, tranquil and silent, almost ghostly as snow fell gently, melting before it even hit the ground. The bite that the wind had adopted recently kept any who had a free period inside, the winter chill chasing away those who would try to disturb the outside world. The scene was soothing, a thin layer of undisturbed frost lay across the grass, creating a gentle blanket-like effect.

The view was deceiving. As the outside world looked calming and welcoming at first glance, taunting you with a peaceful place to settle and enjoy, if you were to take a closer look you would see that all is not what it appeared to be. The wind is sharp and aggressive, moving the old trees that make up the forest and disturbing the animals that want to stay hidden. The cold was biting at any who tried to brave it and the snow that had begun to pick up speed started beating down harshly, attempting to bury its victims beneath its heavy load.

The two boys watched the scene outside, both seeing the true darkness of it, but neither having the bravery to speak out about it. As everyone around them had begun chattering excitedly about Christmas break the next week, the two boys dreaded it, wanting to cry knowing that they couldn't stay in the castle as it closed for repairs. Neither boy wanted to face the horrors that awaited them back home but neither had the bravery to voice their apprehensions.

Unfortunately, their silence would be their downfall.

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Hey everyone, so in case you didn't know, I just finished writing a marvel fic which currently has 13k reads 🤭 so if you want to check that out please do! Also, I know I haven't really been updating this as often as I should but my sister keeps taking my laptop for college so I can't write nearly as much as I would like to!
I love you all and thank you all so much for the support!

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Lila out 💜