“Potter, What Is That?” Draco Asks With Urgency, His Chest Constricting In Pain As He Catches A Glimpse

“Potter, what is that?” Draco asks with urgency, his chest constricting in pain as he catches a glimpse of something dark coiling up Harry’s forearm.

Harry shoves his sleeve down and jumps up to meet Draco, his wand clattering to the floor. “Nothing. How did you find – “

“Show me.”

“I don’t – “

“Show me. Now.” Draco demands. He can’t believe this is happening. As if it isn’t horrible enough seeing it on his own arm every day.

Harry pulls up his sleeve slowly to reveal it – The Dark Mark – etched into his flesh. Draco holds back a gag.

“It’s not what you think,” Harry says.

Draco’s eyes dart between the mark and Harry’s face. “It’s – how did – why?”

“I wanted to practice removing it,” Harry says slowly, his meaning clear. It only makes Draco angrier.

“So you gave yourself a Dark Mark? You reckless idiot. What if you can’t remove it? Did you even think about that before you – “ Draco stops himself. Of course he didn’t. He’s Harry fucking Potter. Draco sighs and tries to calm himself. He’s not responsible for Harry’s idiotic antics. “How did you even manage to replicate it?” He asks, his voice measured.

Harry smiles weakly. “Well, a fragment of Voldemort’s soul was inside me for most of my life and his magic left a pretty big trace. I just… accessed it.”

Once again Draco holds back a gag. The thought of Voldemort’s magic, so dark, so cruel, inside of Harry Potter, the Gryffindor Saint, is too much. It’s horrifying.

Draco takes a breath and asks Harry the question he already knows the answer to: “Why do you need to know how to remove a Dark Mark?” He needs to hear the idiot say it.

Sure enough: “So I can remove yours.”

Draco grits his teeth. He’s furious that Harry has put himself in danger for him. Again. “You don’t owe me anything, Potter.”

“I know,” Harry says. But he doesn’t.

“You can’t just go around saving people all the time!” Draco’s raised voice echoes throughout the room.

“Why not?”

“Not everyone wants to be saved,” Draco points out. He doesn’t want Harry risking anything for him. How could he ask that of anyone, after all that he’s done?

“You don’t want the mark removed?” Harry questions, his eyes falling down to Draco’s left arm.

Draco’s mark is covered but he tugs on his sleeve regardless. “It reminds me of who I am.”

Harry frowns. “That’s exactly why you need it removed. That’s not who you are, Draco.”

Draco blanches, surprised at the use of his first name and Harry quickly corrects himself. “I mean Malfoy.”

Draco lets his eyes fall back down to Harry’s mark, taking in the harsh lines of the coiling snake and skull, and the red raw skin beneath. He shudders. “Looks like you haven’t had much success anyway,” he says as casually as he can manage. But inside, his heart is tight. Because now Harry will have to live with the Dark Mark the rest of his life. Just like Draco, he’ll be forced to carry the weight of the inescapable dark magic within his skin, forced to feel it crawling through his veins, through his every spell, with no relief and no hope of salvation.

“I’m getting close. Before you came in, I could feel it moving.” Harry retrieves his wand from the floor and points it at his Dark Mark, eyebrows tightening in concentration.

“Go on, then. No other Wizard has been able to do it, but I’m sure even a Dark Mark will be no match for the great Harry Pot – oh.” Draco’s knees buckle. “Oh.”

Against all logic, Harry removes the Dark Mark as if it is nothing more than a muggle tattoo. The head of the snake recoils into a rapidly shrinking skull until all that is left is smooth, untainted skin.

Malfoy yanks up his sleeve and holds out his arm to Harry. Despite all his protesting, he wants to be saved. More than anything.

Harry’s hand wraps under Draco’s arm holding it in place and he raises his wand. Draco screws up his eyes in anticipation - he cannot bear to witness the removal in case it doesn’t work properly. What if his Dark Mark is worse than Harry’s, having come from Voldemort himself? What if – Oh.

Draco doesn’t need to see it happen because he feels it. He feels the darkness extracted from his body, feels strength returning to his limbs. And he feels light. Lighter than he can ever remember. As if he might just float away. He opens his eyes and stares down at his clear, unmarked skin.

There’s a sense of twisted deja vu when Draco looks up from his arm. He remembers looking up into Voldemort’s eyes after he was given the mark, and feeling colder than he’s ever felt before. But now when he looks up into his saviour’s eyes, into Harry Potter eyes, it’s warmth he feels, from the smooth skin on his forearm to the centre of his heart.

He blinks back his tears. “Thank you.” They’re the same words he was forced to say to Voldemort but their meaning couldn’t be any more different this time. Voldemort had stolen his life, and Harry Potter had just restored it.

Friendly Reminders

Nico had a life before the Lotus Hotel

Hazel was 13 when she died

Clarisse’s weapon has been dubbed “Lamer” by literally everyone at Camp Half-blood

Sally was trapped in the Underworld for over ten days

Leo ran away from multiple foster homes

Piper had to steal a car to get her father’s attention

Thalia has lost Jason twice, but this time he’s not coming back

Nico sometimes accidentally refers to Hazel as Bianca

Athena told Annabeth that she meant nothing to her

Tyson was attacked by a sphinx

Percy loves blue food because his mom was trying to prove a point to his abusive stepfather, not because it’s his favorite color

Percy had to sneak food from Gabe or else he wouldn’t eat

Calypso was trapped on and island for thousands of years, with no one except for the people who would become stranded there, who would also eventually leave her alone again

Every time Apollo looks at a Laurel wreath or a hyacinth he is reminded of someone that he loved who he couldn’t save

Hades is trying to make up for the way he treated Nico in PJO

Frank’s mother and grandmother are dead

Nico almost starved in an airtight jar full of poisonous gas with only pomegranate seeds to keep him going

Will became a counselor at the age of thirteen

Rachel has a life other than being the oracle

Rachel has done incredible things, she’s not a bad character for kissing Percy

Octavian launched himself into his own death

Nico felt like Octavian’s death was his fault

Reyna’s father was abusive toward her and Hylla

Hecate was afraid of Hazel’s powers

Nico probably has an Italian accent

Luke’s mother is baking cookies for a son that is never coming home

Hermes thought Luke died believing no one loved him

Chiron has had to witness hundreds, if not thousands of demigods die at Camp Half-Blood

Thirteen unnamed demigods died in The Last Olympian

Ethan Nakamura literally fell from heaven

Nico convinced Hades, Persephone, and Demeter to fight on the side of the gods

Nico probably hates Zeus for what happened to his mother

Percy is afraid of drowning

Thalia is afraid of heights

Nico is afraid of fading into the dark

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diangelo-cat

6 years ago

When I was training to be a battered women’s advocate, my supervisor said something that really blew my mind:

“You can always assume one thing about your clients; and that is that they are doing their best. Always assume everyone is doing their best. And if they’re having a day where their best just isn’t that great, or their best doesn’t look like your best, you have to be okay with that.”

Any now whenever anyone in my life, either a friend or a client, frustrates me, disappoints me, or pisses me off, I just tell myself They are doing their best. Their best isn’t that great today, but I have days where my best isn’t that great either.

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diangelo-cat

6 years ago

Harry: Draco gave me a get better soon card

Hermione: Awwww that’s surprisingly sweet!

Harry: no… I wasn’t sick, he just thought I could do better

Hermione: …

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diangelo-cat

6 years ago

“Don’t let the fear of what could happen make nothing happen.”

— Unknown

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diangelo-cat

4 years ago

Omg I love this

Addicted to Addict

Tags

fanart hazbin hotel angel dust hazbin angel dust cherri bomb hazbin cherri bomb

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diangelo-cat

6 years ago

New York City passes law allowing gender-neutral birth certificates

“New Yorkers should be free to tell their government who they are, not the other way around,” said Mayor DeBlasio.

Last week, New York City became the first U.S. city to pass a law allowing birth certificates to be marked with a gender-neutral “X” rather than the traditional gender markers “M” or “F.” The policy will go into effect January 1.

The new law also mandates that people be allowed to choose their gender marker when applying for amended birth certificates, replacing a previous requirement that applicants provide letters from medical and mental health practitioners confirming their gender identity. […]

New York City is unusual in that it issues birth certificates to those born in the city through a vital records department separate from New York state. Typically, birth certificates are issued statewide. New York state does not currently offer gender-neutral identity documents — but a bill proposing nonbinary driver’s licenses was introduced in June 2017, and is still making its way through the state legislature voting process. A NYC municipal ID that gives applicants the option to forgo a gender marker entirely has been available to city residents since 2014, making it one of the first genderless ID cards in the country.

While New York is the first city to pass a gender-neutral birth certificate law, it joins a handful of states that have recently passed legislation to make gender-neutral birth certificates available: Oregon, Washington, California, and New Jersey. Last month, Colorado issued an intersex birth certificate to a single person in response to extensive documentation supplied in their application, but did not announce plans to make gender-neutral birth certificates widely available.

Stories like these make me proud to be a New Yorker!

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diangelo-cat

6 years ago