分卷阅读15（2 / 2）

Harry snorts. “Looking forward to it.”

They leave, and Draco makes a sound that Harry takes for a sob but is actually just a laugh. He’s in hysterics, right there in this dirty alley with his broken nose, and Harry doesn’t really know what to do with that, so he crouches on the ground beside him to get a better look at his face.

He clicks his tongue, because that’s what Hermione always did when they were hurt, and then uses the end of his shirt sleeve to clear away so of the blood. “It’s alright, Draco.” He wraps an arm around his shoulder and then pulls him to his feet. “We’ll get you sorted out.”

Draco

Getting beat up sucks.

It’s happening more and more often, lately, but none as bad as this one. It took Harry a half hour to patch him up, but even that wasn’t as bad as the idea that Harry had seen that, had had to rescue him from that, like so sort of damsel in distress. And even worse was the fact that Draco hadn’t even fought.

(That, he thinks, is the biggest difference between him and Harry. Harry would never stop fighting.)

“Maybe I should be an auror, after all.” Harry’s laugh is a little dry for it to be funny, but Draco still snaps his head up when he says it. “Was good at it.”

He was. He’d be a great one. “Don’t bee one on my account.”

He’s only half joking, but Harry isn’t when he reaches out and cups Draco’s face in his hand, his thump brushing over where Draco’s lip had split. “Who’s going to look out for you if I don’t?”

Sowhere in the back of his mind, Draco knows that he doesn’t an him, specifically. He ans anyone who ever had been discriminated against, who had felt what it was like to be dragged to the end of a dark alley and not know if you are ing out again. The mon people. Still, it makes him angry and sad all at once. “I don’t deserve it.”

Harry’s voice is only a whisper. “You do.”

Draco throws his hand off, steps away, and maybe they are not talking about protection anymore but he still does not stop. “I don’t. You’ll realize it one day.”

“Damn it.” Harry’s curse is hissed under his breath, but his next words are loud. “I don’t care, alright! I don’t care about your dad, I don’t care that you fought against , I don’t care that you used to hate and that I used to hate you because we were absolute cocks to each other in school, okay? None of that matters to .” He takes a step closer. “The only thing that matters to is this. You. Us.”

There is no us, Draco wants to sneer, but he is learning not to be cruel all the ti.

“I know! You said!” He yells instead, throwing his hands in the air, because it is all so unfair, all the ti. “You’re trying to save because you don’t think I deserve it. But guess what, Potter? Obviously, so people don’t agree with you.”

“Then to Hell with them.” Harry stares at him for a long ti, and then rounds the table, getting so close to Draco that he half expects another punch. “This isn’t about saving you, you git. This is about being your friend. Because I care about you, not because I want to wash away your past sins or make your the new wizarding saint, or whatever the hell you think is going on, alright? This is just you and .”

Draco is still breathing hard and ready for another fight, but really, he’s in too much pain to stay angry. “Two mates against the world, just looking out for each other?”

When Harry turns to look back at him, Draco gets the sense that he has said sothing wrong, though he can’t imagine what. “Sure,” Harry says, and Draco chalks the flat tone up to being just the aftermath of the fight. “Sothing like that.”