Harry stood outside the Burrow, bouncing from foot to foot to stay warm.

He took a deep breath and knocked.

Moments later, Mr Weasley opened it and pulled him in, patting him on the shoulder.

"There you are, Harry. Molly's been... well, you'll see."

Mrs Weasley was standing in the kitchen, staring rather blankly at the wall. When he walked in, though, she turned and took him in her arms.

"Oh, Harry," she said, and he felt himself crumble.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I was trying so hard to save it, but I— it's all my fault."

"We don't blame you, dear. It's those horrible folks at the Prophet. Arthur was telling me all about the—what was it, dear?"

"The camera-shop."

"Yes, that's it."

Mrs Weasley pushed him away a bit to look at his face, giving Harry a pat on the cheek. He felt like a child again, confused and anxious.

"I didn't know that wizards had learned how to use it," Mr Weasley said. "It's really a remarkable thing."

"Er... sorry. What are we talking about?"

"The picture that started this mess!"  said Mrs Weasley. "The Prophet taking something the Muggles invented and, and—"

"You... wait—you think that was photoshop?"

"Ah, photoshop, yes! We're not as foolish as those witches and wizards at the Prophet," Mr Weasley promised. "It's really an unfortunate thing. The photos were hardly even incriminating. But the poor Malfoy boy. I found it hard to ever summon up any sympathy for what they've put his father through but, well. Draco might never work in his field again."

At least he wasn't insulting him. Harry chose to take that as a good sign. He steeled his nerves. "Mr Weasley, it wasn't photoshop."

"Come again?"

"I thought we'd have skipped this step, with the picture and eyewitness interviews and all, but... listen, I don't know what either of you think about homosexuality, or Draco Malfoy, or me being... careless enough to let my feelings get in the way of reopening the shop, but the photo was real. The article, not so much, but er... yeah."

"I thought you and Ginny—" Mr Weasley started.

"We broke it off nearly a year ago, now."

"But you're living together," protested Mrs Weasley.

"Er... with Ron."

They stared at him.

"Right, well. I thought that was what you wanted to talk about, so I've already said everything I planned to say. Except that I'm not done trying with the shop, I just don't know if I'll be able to... how I'll be able to save it."

There was a creak near the doorway, and they all turned.

George stood there, eyes lined with dark shadows, hair grown past his shoulders, clothes so worn they looked like they'd been passed through all the Weasley household members and back again.

For the briefest moment, Harry thought George would solve all his problems. He hadn't seen him since Fred's funeral. He knew that a couple of months before, he hadn't been leaving his room at all. And he thought, maybe...

George brushed past him and took a bowl Mrs Weasley had left on the counter. As he was already partway out of the room again, he turned back.

"Just forget about the shop, Harry. I have."

Then he stumbled up the stairs to his room.

"Are you staying for supper, dear?" Mrs Weasley asked tightly.

ϟ ϟ ϟ

Harry had woken at 4 a.m. drenched in sweat. In his dream, he'd watched Draco and Fred shoot curses at each other across the great hall. Then Piers Polkiss appeared, ripping the invisibility cloak off of Harry and exposing his hiding spot. The dream ended as a bolt of green light was shot at him. He couldn't be sure who'd sent it.

He'd skipped his training exercises and gone straight to the fireplace.

"It was almost worse, Mione," he complained. "I don't know what they thought of me kissing Draco because they wouldn't bring it up again after George came down. Do you think they hate me?"

Her hair was tied back in a bun, eyes lined with pillow creases, but she'd sworn she hadn't been sleeping. He wasn't sure he believed her.

"They'd never hate you, Harry."

He sighed, because he didn't have a real answer to that. "I just don't know what to do about all this."

How could she claim to know how Mr and Mrs Weasley felt? All his life, Harry'd had people who weren't supposed to hate him hate him anyway.

"Give it time, breathing room. I'm sure it's hard for you to keep up with everything moving so fast."

She was right, of course. Harry picked at the tear in his joggers. "I need... I need to do something."

"Talk to Luna. Focus on the shop. You'll figure it out. You always do."

He was about to reply when he heard the front door slam and the sound of muffled laughter.

Hermione's eyes went wide, and he turned over his shoulder as Ron came careening into the room wrapped around a flushed Astoria Greengrass, bumping into furniture. His grin was still wide when he caught sight of Harry, but then he saw Hermione and it fell.

"I... sorry, didn't realise how late it was. We were just... Astoria, you know Hermione Granger?"

She gave a little wave, not seeming much concerned about Ron's ex-girlfriend, then whispered something in Ron's ear that made him go bright red.

"Er... well, Mione, this is Astoria Greengrass, and we'll just be going, now. Nice seeing you."

He dragged Astoria from the room, and Harry heard them tripping up the stairs just after, giggling.

They sat in silence.

Finally, Hermione said, "So they're—I mean, are they serious? Or is it just..."

"I don't know. I'm sorry you had to see it. For once, Ron wasn't trying to be an arse."

She nodded, unfocused. "Maybe I should go."

"No, wait—Mione, you know he still cares about you, yeah?"

She crossed her arms. He'd thought she might be tearful with the way she'd been looking at the ground, but her gaze was steady when her eyes met his.

"I do. I also know that isn't enough for a relationship. It's just enough to make it hurt." She looked behind her like she thought someone else had walked into the room, then turned back to him. "Take a break. Really consider your options here. The shop closing isn't the worst possible outcome, remember. You just want the best for Ron's family, and you've tied the two together. I think now might be the time to call it quits, before it consumes your whole life. Have you even thought about what you'll do if you save it?"

He'd tried to avoid thinking about that. He'd tried to pretend that he wouldn't have to make choice soon about if he wanted to work at Wheezes or join the Aurors in the spring. If he wanted to finish his school studies abroad like Hermione, or stay here and hope Draco would talk to him again.

"Okay. I'll think." His voice sounded small, sad. He knew she heard it too.

"Oh, Harry."

"Mm."

"I'll talk to you later, okay? You can call me again if you need. I promise I won't care about the time."

But he would, because he knew how important it was for her to get a proper night's sleep when she had her final exams coming up, and he knew it was about to be the end of the semester for her. And he knew that she'd been napping before the call because he'd woken her up the night previous in a daze about the kiss and everyone seeing.

He wouldn't call her because she knew what she wanted to do with her life, because she was going somewhere, and because he was worried that the need to decide on a path might be contagious.

ϟ ϟ ϟ

Harry'd arranged with Luna to meet at the shop at 8 o'clock in the morning. But he wasn't sure he needed her help to see what problems they were dealing with.

The animatronic head that rested on top of the building was crossed out by a large black X. On its hat, still raising up and down cheerfully, was scrawled a word that Harry couldn't quite make out.

Luna appeared beside him with a pop. "Oh, Harry."

"Hullo, Luna."

"Do you want some help with vanishing that? Only, it's just about the time people start going into work, and someone will definitely sell a picture to the Prophet if they see it."

"Please."

They tried casting from street-level for a while until that proved too difficult, and then Luna used a Dangling Jinx to drop him unceremoniously onto the roof, where he landed with a thud.

"Levicorpus," he said, and then Luna joined him, walking on her hands for a few steps to balance before righting herself.

"It's beautiful up here," she said.

"Mm."

They could see all of Diagon Alley spread out before them, people bustling about to start their days, the gleam of sunshine on windows.

Luna tried casting a few cleaning charms, but when that didn't work, he showed her the wand motion that he'd used to banish the orange stuff in the main office.

"Abstergo," she said, and then laughed delightedly when the whole X disappeared at once.

They tackled the hat next, and it was quick work.

"You gonna tell me what that word means?" he asked her eventually. "I could tell it's bad since you didn't want people to see, but..."

Luna gave him a sad smile. "You're quite perceptive these days, Harry Potter. It's nasty. Some folks like to use against gay people."

"Ah."

It had not, for some reason, really occurred to him that the entire wizarding world would now know that he liked blokes. He'd understood that they'd seen him kissing Draco, but it hadn't clicked that that was as good as announcing his bisexuality on the next Celestina Warbeck Christmas album.

"It's missing something," said Luna, looking at the large head.

"What do you mean?"

"Here." She raised her wand and tapped it on the face. Thin lines of black wound out, twisting around the eyes to form a circular pair of glasses and up to cover the red hair.

"Luna! I don't want anyone to think I'm trying to replace the twins."

"They won't, silly. It's not permanent anyway. Just to show everyone that you're not going anywhere." She stared at him a moment. "A-ha!"

She shot another spell at the head, and a lightning bolt scar appeared.

He grimaced. "Thanks."

"You're very welcome. Now, about that thing I wanted you to take a look at—"

"This wasn't the thing?"

"Oh, no. This must have happened overnight. No, It's to do with the machines. I'm afraid a few of them are a bit broken. I wrote to Verity to come and take a look as well."

He apparated down to the street, Luna following behind, and walked reluctantly to the doors of the shop.

He threw them open and gasped, yanking Luna back before she could go any farther.

The entire shop was swallowed by orange.

He stared.

"Broken, you said?"

"Yes. But it certainly wasn't anything this bad last night."

This was it. This was the final sign. No more need to convince him, world. He would give up. He was fine with giving up.

He'd abandon the shop. The lost money would be no worry to him. He'd start Auror training in the spring and he'd forget about Malfoy and he'd forget any of this ever happened.

Then the floo flashed and Verity stepped out, only having time to throw a quick, "Wotcher, Mr Potter?" before orange rose up and covered her mouth.