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So this is it, I think to myself bitterly as I sit on a rickety old bench next to the tracks in the station. I've left the only good thing in my life behind and I'll never see him again. I guess, in a way, it's sort of a relief that he'll never get the chance to leave me behind, as I've already done all the leaving for him. He ought to be glad that I've saved him the trouble, though I know that he won't be once he realizes that I'm gone. Not at first anyway.

Eventually though, he'll realize that it was all for the best.

Now, I have to go home to my mother and to Pansy, the latter of which I might marry and make the woman of the house. Fucking her would be something of a chore, and I'm not sure if I could manage it, but at least she'd be good companionship. Maybe she might even make me forget about Harry once in a while.

I wonder how long it'll take before I stop thinking about him every second, like some heartbroken broad whose lover disappeared in the middle of the night without a trace. I'm ashamed of myself for ending my stay in Romania in such a cowardly way, but I suppose it's fitting that I leave the reserve the same way I arrived. I came to Romania to save myself, too selfish to think about the effects it might have on anyone else, and now, I've leaving for the same reason.

In any case, I'm certain he'll forget about me before I forget about him.

"A pretty boy like you shouldn't be traveling alone."

I freeze and turn to find the source of the voice, even though I know exactly who it belongs to before I do.

He looks tired, and I wonder when he woke up to realize that I'd gone. I wonder what he'd done when he had.

"You shouldn't have followed me," I inform him staunchly, my grey eyes peering up at him. I realize belatedly that I probably look just as frightful as he does, if not worse.

I never thought I'd believe it, but I suppose there are some instances in which appearances cease to matter. "What else could I do?" he asks, his voice strained and his eyes pleading. I realize this is exactly what I'd hoped to avoid as my heart strains against my ribs and my fingers clench in an effort to stop themselves from reaching out to him.

"How many times do I have to watch you walk away from me, Draco?"

"Until you get the hint," I reply callously, my stomach clenching in knots. He crouches down in front of me on the dirty ground and looks up at me with bright green eyes, his hands resting gently on my knees.

"If I thought that was what you really wanted, then I'd leave you alone. All you have to do is look me in the eye and tell me that you don't want me." I'd told him otherwise just hours before now, but he's Harry Potter and just gullible enough to believe me if I told him I never wanted to see his face again.

But I can't.

My fingers brush aside his messy fringe and trace over his famous lightning bolt scar while his reach up to toy with the dragon charm he'd made.

And for a moment, I let myself believe that heroes can fall in love with a boy like me.

I drop my hand back down to my lap and stare down at it. Only then do I realize that it's shaking. The sound of the train's whistle jerks my gaze back up and I watch the black engine pull into the station with a sinking heart, because this is it. These next five seconds are all that I have left with Harry, and I haven't said even half of what I want to. "Please, Draco. Don't go." He looks at me with earnest eyes, his hand wrapping around my shaking fingers. "Please."

I stand and pull my hand out of his grasp to reach for my ticket in my back pocket. My fingers fumble through the bits of loose paper and Muggle money I find there until they find purchase on the edge of the white piece of cardboard with my destination written plainly on it in stark black ink.

He steps away then, his expression confused and hurt and already, I can see him shutting down again. I'm going to leave him in exactly the state I found him. Alone and closed off from everyone and everything around him.

It makes me wonder which of us needs the other one more.

It's the first time I've let myself think that this isn't just a game to him, that maybe some of this is real. I let myself belief that this isn't just as passing fancy on his part and that I'm not a temporary distraction from his own wretched life. I even let myself think that maybe this is as real to him as it is to me, and that maybe he's not saving me… I'm saving him. And damn it if it doesn't feel amazing, even if I'm delusional.

Fuck reality.

I tear my train ticket in half.

He blinks at me, wide-eyed and shocked. "What-"

"A moment of insanity. Nothing more," I assure him dryly. I take a few steps toward him until I'm standing between his feet. "Don't make me regret it, Potter."

He grins and pulls me close, his hands sliding around to the small of my back. "God… I thought I'd really lost you this time."

I peer up at him and see my future in his hopeful face. He looks blissfully happy, as though he's just woken up from a nightmare and realized that it wasn't real after all. Instead, he still has me and I'm not going anywhere. The most surprising thing of all, of course, is that it seems to be exactly what he wants. "This is real, isn't it?" He nods. "But when everyone else finds out…"

"I want them to," he interrupts me cheerfully. "I can't wait."

"And you'll have to be there when I tell my mother. I'm not sure which is more frightening."

"I'm great with parents," he insists happily.

"Idiot," I say, but I'm smiling. As the train whistles and begins to pull away from the station, I slide my fingers along his jaw and kiss him gently. It's not the first time, but it is different than the others.

Because this time, I'm staying. This is my choice.

My future.

My reality.