The simple explanation Draco offered made Harry’s heart jump, a flash of intimidation amidst a sea of truth.<br/>It wasn’t even that Harry knew Draco in a more intimate way that the public ever would, it was the fact that he was the only one who ever really could; just like Draco was to Harry. Harry knew that that understanding hadn’t come this past year, for if he allowed himself that piece of honesty, he knew it came from an awful moment in a bathroom, half a lifetime ago.<br/>It made Harry’s heart ache, still finding himself unsure what to do of the knowledge that their lives had become so intertwined into one another, and so much of that without their doing.<br/>“Would you rather go by Healer than by Cursebreaker, then?” he asked, both out of curiosity but decisively to stir his thoughts away from an endless pit of doubt.<br/>Draco’s leg was warm against his, and focusing on that alone helped, too. It condensed Draco to what he was in this instance, and not everything they were beyond that. Here and now, Draco was brilliant and<span style="font-style: italic">warm </span>company in a chilly kitchen at the depths of Autumn, and if that was all he could remain, Harry would’ve had no hesitations.