The sound of the hospital buzzed into Harry's ears like an untuned radio channel. There were beeps and boops and blips and voices, though they said nothing he could comprehend, and as people walked - quickly, with purpose - through the halls, it looked to Harry as though they were blurs of paint, left behind by an impatient artist. He didn't recall ever feeling so panicked or so helpless in his life.

The last hour had whizzed by with the intensity of speeding bludger: He had found Draco on the bathroom and screamed at the top of his voice. He had lurched forward and scooped Draco from the floor and into his lap. He had tried desperately to wake him up while Aunt Petunia screeched for Dudley to call 999.

Dumbledore arrived before the ambulance, and before Harry knew it, they were rushing Draco into St. Mungo's Hospital on a stretcher, and the Healers had taken him away. Harry was so charged with nervous energy that he couldn't bring himself to sit down or even to stand still. He shifted back and forth, from foot to foot, and tried to avoid seeing scenes of the bathroom floor every time he closed his eyes.

This was his fault. He knew it was. What had he been thinking, leaving Draco alone like that when he could tell something wasn't right?

"Harry?" Harry just about jumped out of his skin, and spun around to see Remus standing there, a look of concern etched onto his face.

"Remus!" Harry's brain whirred helplessly as it looked for something else to say, but - as though he were being controlled by someone else - Harry fell forward and enveloped Remus's entire body in a hug. Suddenly, he was sobbing.

"Hey, hey, Harry, shh…" Remus sounded slightly alarmed with Harry's sudden - and tearful - attachment to him. "It's alright, Harry. Professor Dumbledore told me that Draco is going to be fine."

"It's my fault!" Gasped Harry, incoherently. From his position buried into Remus's shirt, all he could see was darkness. In spite of this, he could feel Remus shaking his head in disagreement.

"No, Harry. No, it isn't. Look at me." With some difficulty, Remus peeled Harry off of him, and forced him to make eye contact.

"You are in no way responsible for another person's mental health. No matter what the circumstances." Harry sniffed, picking up his glasses and messily swiping at his eyes.

"I should've told someone." he mumbled. "I shouldn't have been so stupid." Remus looked Harry over sadly.

"You weren't stupid, Harry. You didn't want to betray, Draco, and that in itself is quite noble. Unfortunately the right decision isn't always clear. The world isn't so black and white." Harry took a few deep breaths, slowly regaining his composure.

"I didn't tell him." He said, miserably.

"Tell him what?" Asked Remus, and Harry looked around to see if there was anyone else who might be listening.

"You know..." He said, quietly. "About… about how I feel..." He spat the last part out so quietly that he was surprised when Remus appeared to have heard. When he looked up, there was a bizarre kind of half-smile written on his face that Harry didn't recognize.

"You'll just have to have that conversation when he wakes up, won't you?" Harry felt his stomach drop. Remus was right. After everything that had happened, he couldn't keep lying to Draco about his feelings. Harry was spared having to answer Remus by the arrival of Hermione, followed shortly by Ron. They both hugged Harry, and then turned to look at him, questions on both of their faces.

"Harry what happened? Professor Dumbledore wouldn't tell us anything!" Exclaimed Ron. He looked as though he had panicked when he had been told that Harry was at the hospital. His eyes searched Harry up and down, looking for signs of injury.

"Is… is Malfoy alright?" Asked Hermione, slowly. Her eyes narrowed toward the currents that were currently drawn closed around Draco's bed. Harry chewed on his lower lip and then took another shaky breath. He had some explaining to do to these two, as well.

"Let's find a place to talk," said Harry. "I've got a lot to tell you."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione adjourned to a waiting room down the hall, and - bit by bit - Harry filled the other two in on everything. He started with the morning Draco had arrived, and finished the week before when Harry had told Draco he had been having his own feelings about being gay.

Harry had stopped here, scanning their faces for any signs of shock or disgust, and found none. Hermione looked - if anything - intrigued, and Ron simply gaped as though he had just been told Christmas was in July. When Harry finished, he let out a huge breath and said:

"Blimey, Harry. You've had one hell of a summer." Harry allowed himself to give a slight laugh at this, and turned - expectantly - to Hermione, who broke into a grin.

"You'll have to let me write that romance, novel, Harry. In ten years." Harry's cheeks grow red hot, and he shoved her, lightly.

"Shut it, Hermione. I haven't even told him, yet. I have no idea how he feels…"

"Well you know he's gay, right?" Chimed in Ron, brightly. "You said that, didn't you?" Harry shrugged, entirely unused to talking about this, and slightly put off by how quickly his friends had accepted this bit of news.

"Yeah," he said, rubbing the toe of his show awkwardly against the linoleum floor beneath him. "But that doesn't mean he feels… you know… that way about me." Hermione rolled her eyes and exchanged a knowing look with Ron. Harry didn't appreciate this.

"Excuse me! You two didn't even know about this until a half hour ago. You can't go giving each other looks like that like you know something!" To Harry's irritation, Ron and Hermione simply exchanged another knowing glance, and he shot up out of his chair and stalked back down the hallway toward Draco's room. How dare they? They had absolutely no idea if…

"Mr. Potter?" Harry's head snapped up to see a Healer, poking his head out of Draco's hospital room door. "Mr. Malfoy would like to see you." Harry felt his heart jump to his throat.

"He's awake?!" Harry all but sprinted the remaining metres down the hall, and skidded into the room. Draco's curtains were pulled back, and he was propped against a stack of pillows behind him. He was looking blearily at Harry, who almost burst into tears again.

"Hey, stranger." Draco croaked. "Long time no see." Harry rushed to the side of the bed, and sat down in the chair that he had drug there hours ago. He glanced back at the Healers, who discretely backed out of the room.

"Draco, I'm so glad you're okay!" Harry exclaimed, shakily. "You scared the hell out of me!" Draco reached out a hand, supported by a heavily bandaged wrist, and placed it on Harry's cheek.

"I'm okay." he answered, weakly. "I'm alive."

"Alive?" Retorted Harry. His voice was beginning to rise. "Alive? Barely!" He shouted. "I found you on the bathroom floor covered in blood!" He was crying now, and so was Draco. "I thought you were dead!"

"I'm sorry!" Draco shouted back, through tears. "I didn't mean to!" Harry took a moment to pull himself together and asked - with a sense of forced calm,

"What do you mean 'you didn't mean to'?" Draco took a few shuddering breaths himself and answered, croakily,

"I wasn't trying to k-kill myself. I… I just…. I went too far." Harry let out an indignant sound and bit back a retort about that being the understatement of the year. Instead, Harry said,

"Why?" And he could see Draco's breath freeze. "Why did you do it in the first place?" Draco looked at Harry desperately.

"You've got to understand, Harry!" He pleaded. "It was just too much. School starts in a couple days and… and well…" Harry watched, painfully, as tears welled up in Draco's eyes. "Well, everything is going to change!" He finally wailed. "You'll be back with Granger and Weasley, and I'll be back in the dungeons, and no one will talk to me and… and…" He took a gasping breath. "And I'll be alone!" The dam broke and Draco fell into crying once more.

Harry - startled by the content of Draco's rant - scrambled up onto the bed and flug an arm around the paler boy's thin, bony shoulders. Draco collapsed into Harry's neck and cried. Harry swallowed past a lump, and waited patiently for him to calm down.

When he finally did, he spoke to Draco in a tone of voice that he hoped was both serious and gentle.

"Draco, we talked about this last week, remember? We don't have to end anything!" Draco sat up, his eyes all firey.

"But we do!" He exclaimed. "With all your friends and… and your crush... and…. and your own house mates! How aren't you going to forget about me?" Harry had already opened his mouth to retort when Draco's words fully registered with his brain.

"I… my what?" He asked, thrown off course. "My crush?" Draco blushed and appeared very much as though he hadn't meant to say that part.

"Well… yeah…" Mumbled Draco, as he wiped moisture from his cheeks. "You know… You said you were having gay feelings so… it's gotta be someone at Hogwarts, right?"

Harry stared at Draco. Draco stared back. Harry burst into laughter.

"What?!" Draco asked him, dismayed. "What did I say?" When Harry was finally able to catch his breath, he composed his face, and answered as calmly as he could:

"Draco, I'm sorry. But you're a little bit daft sometimes." A look of affront and indignation slipped across Draco's face, but before he could open his mouth to respond, he was distracted by Harry, who - to his own amazement - had leaned in, and placed his lips on Draco's.

He felt Draco stiffen beneath him in surprise, before he melted into the kiss, reached up, and placed each of his hands on Harry's face. Around Harry, the room melted.

He had stopped shaking for the first time in several hours.

Dear readers: I'm sorry for the year delay. I'm terrible at ever finishing what I begin. Thanks to those of you that stuck around for so long! I am determined to finish this story! Please REVIEW; it helps motivate me!