Draco yanked Harry into a hug again, pressing their temples together as Harry's hands clutched again at Draco's back. "What are you talking about, 'ruining my life'?" Draco asked, and Harry couldn't help the sob that escaped his mouth.

"Rita Skeeter ambushed me yesterday," he said, feeling his body quake. "She's out to slander us – you – she wants to break us up. She said so many awful things about you." Harry screwed up his face, his anger at her fresh once again. "And then I came here, and I saw how much you have to lose, and then your father threatened to take it away too, and I – I've just been so selfish!"

Draco leaned back and cupped his face so they had to look at each other. "The only thing I could possibly lose," he said sternly. "Is you. Are you going anywhere?"

"No," Harry practically yelped. "Draco, no, I wouldn't leave you, but-"

"Then 'but' nothing," Draco pleaded, his eyes bright with unshed tears again. "They can't tear us down if we don't let them."

Harry chewed his lip, trying to articulate his fear, his real fear, without making things worse. "Skeeter was cruel," he said quietly. "About you. And so was your father, about your...they said..."

"They called me fat," Draco said, and Harry's eyes snapped up from where they had drifted to the carpet. "I heard my father's atrocious insults, I dare say Skeeter's weren't any kinder."

"I'm so sorry-" Harry began, his throat constricting, but Draco wrapped his hand around the back of Harry's neck, and touched their foreheads together.

"Did you mean what you said?"

"What?" Harry stammered. "When?"

"All those times, those hundreds of times when you called me gorgeous, and told me I was perfect, and kissed every inch of my skin, and made me feel worshiped. Did you mean that?"

Harry was almost too stunned to speak, but he needed to speak, quite urgently, so he drummed up a desperate "Yes!" from his toes. "Yes, yes of course I meant it, every word, every time."

Draco smiled, tears spilled from his eyes. "Then they will never break me," he said firmly. "I can't promise I won't get rattled, but as long as I have your support, they won't convince me I'm not good enough for you just because I'm a bit big."

"You are good enough," Harry said frantically, pawing at Draco's back with one hand and sliding his fingers into his soft hair with the other. "You are, you're amazing. I was so proud of you, standing up to your dad like that, you were amazing."

Draco smiled, and then leaned in for a sweet, tender kiss, salty from the tears running down both their faces. "Now we've established we're both brilliant, and neither of us is abandoning the other, can I take you somewhere a little more private?" He bit his lip and dugs his fingers into Harry's skin, sending a surge of want through him that cleared away so much of the anxiety Harry had been saturated with for the past twenty four hours. "I love you, and I feel like I need to give you a demonstration of exactly how much."

Harry thought back to the first time they had made love, emotional after unexpectedly coming out to half the school at once, and suddenly he knew like last time he just needed to have Draco in his bed again, he needed to claim him completely.

Sometimes he wouldn't be able to shield them from the unfairness and cruelty of world, but when they were alone, he knew he could protect Draco and love him with everything he had to give. "Do you want to come back to mine?" he asked, which seemed a little silly, considering Draco's bedroom was only up a few flights of stairs, but he wanted sanctuary from absolutely everything, with no chance of interruption. He wanted a door to lock in a quiet corner of the world where it would just be them too, joined as one. "Let me take care of you."

"Yes," Draco whispered. "Yes please, but...but I want to look after you too, okay? I don't know if you really understand how perfect you are, how beautiful? I want to take you to bed and show you."

Harry shuddered.

"I'd like that very much," he confessed.

Draco kissed him again, and took his hand. "Then let's go."