Commonplace

[zagury]

Author: zagury
Title: Commonplace
Pairing: Harry/Susan
Words: 350
Rating: G
Prompt: Whispers
Warnings: A few references but nothing to get worked up over.
Note: Written for the sortinghatdrabs community.

Commonplace pain was all they knew together.

And he supposed it was all they really needed to stay that way.

His parents were gone forever, swept from the world in a flash of green light and her mother was taken in the same fate. There would never be a life or love to replace such people.

They could never take that flash of green light back, they knew, but they could try.

It started out in a pub. He was drunk and sitting in a corner, murmuring things into the base of his wand as though things would magically appear from that spot alone. Nothing was coherent and when she found him, drowned in the firewhiskey as he was, he was whispering something close to what could have been a levitation charm.

But she was mistaken and he was simply muttering, “Swish and flick.”

For one reason or another, she found that highly entertaining and took a seat next to him to avoid from doubling over in laughter. She was sober, fully and contagiously. It seemed that when he heard her laughter, his temporary insanity would vanish and he was just a boy again.

Somehow later, however many hours into the night that could have been, she woke in a tangle of sheets and he was whispering in his sleep. She put her hand flat on his chest and felt his heart drum steadily under her palm. Whatever he was managing to put into words were hardly audible and Susan figured that there was no need to understand him at this point.

People had spent their entire lives trying to understand who he was but what had it done for them?

She was going to give just letting Harry be Harry instead of that man with a few nicknames. Certainly, their pain was a commonplace for them and maybe that’s what she needed to know from him. She needed to know that like any other man, he snored lightly in the late hours of the night.

And if Harry could lead a normal life, she should be able to too.