Title: October Blues
Author/Artist:
tittiPairing(s): Draco/James Sirius
Rating: G
Prompt: Sun-faded Photographs
Link to full table:
HereSummary: Jamie thinks about his relationship with Draco
Word Count: 500
Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
It's Sunday, his day off. Jamie would love to stay in bed. Yesterday's game lasted five and a half hours and it was played under the pouring rain. He thinks he needs a month or two submerged in hot water before his muscles can relax again, but Grandma expects all of them at the Burrow for Sunday dinner. It doesn't matter that it's too small, that there are a lot of them and there are enough heads of departments (and the Minister) that any attack would leave the Ministry in disarray. No, it's Sunday and every Weasley/Potter must be present.
Jamie runs through his little cottage, getting ready. He's looking for his favourite scarf, because it's windy and eventually they will end up outside playing Quidditch (the Coach would kill him if he knew). The scarf is somewhere on a top shelf, put away during the warm months. When Jamie reaches for it, a box comes tumbling down, spilling its content on the floor.
Photographs. Photographs of him and Draco through their secret relationship. Jamie used to have them up in the living room, the sun hitting on them all day long, but magic kept people from seeing what was really there.
Jamie picks them up. He keeps telling himself that he should burn them, but he can't. He runs his thumb over the top one. Draco is laughing at some stupid joke Jamie made while the camera was set to go off automatically. All of their pictures were taken that way. No one ever knew about them. Jamie made sure of that and now he can't tell anyone that his world feels as faded as these pictures.
Jamie is the new idol of the league, the star of the Falcons, the hope of the national team. Every man wants to be him; every woman wants to be with him. Jamie just want Draco and no matter how much he tries to forget the man, he can't.
He looks at another picture, one taken in his bedroom, just him and Draco and the rain outside. Jamie lowers himself to the ground, resting against the bed as he starts to leaf through the pictures. His eyes sting, but he can't cry. He doesn't have the right. He's the one who put an end to it, the one who caused the hurt, but right now he wants to run to Malfoy manor and tell Draco how stupid he had been, how he's not afraid to come out.
Except he is.
It's not the fans or the public. He can deal with that. Draco was right all along: he's afraid to disappoint his father. Albus has always done the opposite of what was expected to him, while Jamie has done everything that people expected. He can't imagine anything worse than being on the receiving end of Dad's disappointed look.
"I'm sorry, Draco," he murmurs, before putting the pictures away. He goes to the Burrow, smiles and pretends that he doesn't feel numb inside.