'almost dead yesterday,

maybe dead tomorrow,

but alive, gloriously alive, today.'

[robert jordan, lord of chaos]

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Addie had been sitting at the vanity in her room at Shell Cottage. Curtains drawn, the rhythmic crashes of waves just beyond the house were the only tell-tale signs of the ocean still existing at this time of the night. Hair pulled over one shoulder, Addie fiddled with the wavy ends as she studied the concentration on Harry's face in the mirror. He was coating the wounds on her ribs with mending ointment, holding the back of her T-shirt up with his other hand.

The warm glow from the lamps cast a softness onto his skin, despite the hints of stubble by his jaw. He glanced up, catching her gaze, and she meant to look away, but couldn't bring herself to. The corners of his mouth turned up slightly as heat rose to her cheeks.

Addie cleared her throat quietly. "You don't have to do this," she turned to look at him over her shoulder. His face was much closer than she realised, but to move back now would be wrong. And she didn't want to. "I can reach it myself."

"I know you can," he said softly, glancing down to apply more lotion, his hair brushing her cheek. The gentleness of his touch made her want to melt. She turned back, watching him in the mirror again.

"You're sure? Because--"

"Addie," he murmured to her back. "It's no bother. You're no bother."

She let her shoulders slack, and he scooted his chair closer. "Okay."

"I don't think you'll need any more of this stuff after tonight," he said thoughtfully, motioning to the open container of lotion after a moment. "It looks like they're healing quicker than before."

Something warm flickered in her chest, and it wasn't just from the way he was looking at her. "Do you think it's because of my magic coming back?"

"I think you're spot on," Harry eyed her in the mirror as a smile grew on her sleepy face. She yawned, then, and smooshed her face into her hands, closing her eyes. "You tired?" he said quietly, putting the ointment away, wiping his hands on a nearby towel. She hummed in response. He stood. "C'mon, bed."

"Soon," she grumbled. Elbows against the vanity table, she hid her face in her hands. "Gotta...gotta do my hair."

"I'll do it."

"You don't know how."

"I'll still do it." He sat back down on the stool behind her. Grabbed her brush and a hair tie from the table. "Just a simple braid, yeah?"

Her brow furrowed. "How'd you know?"

"You do it all the time," he chuckled softly. "I notice things." He held onto the hair tie with his teeth and ran the brush gently through her hair--much softer than she did. It felt as rhythmic as the ocean swelling outside. She kept her eyes closed, the faint lamplight becoming too bright as she almost drifted into sleep. He untangled her knots with such care it was like they were never there in the first place. Ran his fingers through it, brushing against her neck as he separated her hair into sections.

"You're so peaceful here," he said so quietly she thought she dreamt it until he continued, his voice, with a slight lisp from the hair tie between his lips, bringing her to that gap between sleep and wakefulness. "Calmer than you've been for a long time."

She kept her eyes shut. Could feel him weaving her hair in what was probably a clumsy braid. Said, "It's a different world out here. So quiet. Listen," she said, and he kept quiet to hear the shush of waves rolling in...rolling out. In...out. She didn't need words; that sound said it all for her. "It's everything."

He was silent for a moment. Addie figured he was concentrating on not messing up the braid. He started to stay something, though, but then quickly lost his words. Cleared his throat. Took in a breath.

"What is it?" she whispered. He plucked the hair tie from his lips and tied it at the bottom of her braid, then fiddled with the ends of her hair.

"I've...been talking to Bill," he said. Addie sat up, looked at Harry curiously through the mirror. He was still fiddling with her hair, not meeting her eyes. "Fleur wants to move back to France once this is all over. Be near family. Bill's gonna go with her, so this place'll be empty. And I was thinking of buying it." He looked up, met her mirror gaze. "For us."

She turned around in her chair to look at the real him, lips moving to try and find the right words but none were coming out. Then, "You mean, live together? You and me?"

He looked mildly terrified as he nodded quickly, trying to read her expression. "Well, yeah. Yes. Is it too soon? I didn't know if it would be too soon but I love you and I just want a quiet life with you and I, uh--oh!" he was cut off as she squealed and lunged forward to hug him, knocking them both off their stools and onto the carpet.

He held her waist as she erupted in gleeful laughter, looking up at her. "So that's a yes?" he grinned.

"Yes, you idiot, yes!" she smacked him in the chest, making him laugh, and then she bounced up to her feet, spinning around and dancing. He stood up and she jumped into his arms in another hug and he spun her around and her legs flailed around before he set her back down, and then, catching her reflection in the vanity, she laughed even harder. "You call that a braid!?"

"I said I'd do it; I never said it'd be any good," he grinned, wrapping his arms around her shoulders from behind, both of them looking at the in-love couple looking back at them in the mirror, realising that this, this right here, is everything. One of them wondering, when had they grown up so much, enough to resemble that photo of his parents? And the other, settling on one thing: that she will do whatever it takes to keep him alive. She'll make sure he will get out of this alive; Harry, her Harry, who's given her everything just by loving her; who's transformed her life since he pulled her out of that lake.

He kisses her head.

You wouldn't think they were in the middle of a war--because, at least in these four walls, there was no war. In here, it was just the two of them; they could pretend for a little while that this room was the whole world and nothing existed beyond it.

But make-believe only lasts for so long. Eventually, reality has to kick in--and no one leaves a war unharmed.

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a/n:

no, you're not dreaming. i have actually, somehow, miraculously, by some degree of madness, actually UPDATED.

i'm studying writing. i love it. it's everything. i'm working on a real novel.

and i am determined to finish this story for you, my beautiful readers <3

there are possibly only four chapters remaining. you know how bad my updating is so i'm not promising a date. but this story will get finished.

no matter how far i'm drifting away from wattpad (although, i'm never really gone. i do go through notifs still), and fanfiction in general, haddie WILL have their story told.

-g <3

absolutely addicted to TTPD btw, holy SHIT

also if you get gossip girl vibes from the last line of this chapter, its bc ive been bingeing it for the first time and i'm utterly obsessed with it.