The war had changed them all.
Harry honestly couldn’t remember the last time that Ron had laughed or that he’d woken in the middle of the night to find Hermione sleeping peacefully instead of scribbling madly on every spare piece of parchment she could find. He worried about them and had nightmares of death and torture nearly every time he closed his eyes.
It was his fear of what awaited them, what the two people he loved most in the world would face if he lost, and the love he felt for them that drove him to succeed at any cost. They were all exhausted, tired of the death and despair that seemed to cover all of Britain now as Voldemort’s power continued to grow, and it was in each other that they found the strength to go on.
Ron’s eyes were colder now; the eyes of someone who had seen death and taken lives of enemies. There was no longer an easy smile or awkward joke to ease the tension. Harry watched his best friend wither away and become a man who had seen and done far too much at a far too early age. Neither of them were even eighteen yet and they already had blood on their hands.
Harry knelt on the dirty wooden floor of their latest hiding place and sucked Ron’s cock eagerly. He licked and nibbled, his fingers squeezed, and he never looked away from Ron’s face because here, while he was doing this, he saw something other than the cold gaze of a boy who was slowly dying inside with each new battle. He saw life, passion, and need. He felt Ron’s fingers in his hair, gripping it tightly as his hips rose to force more of his cock into Harry’s mouth.
After he comes, Ron would smile, just a hint of the lazy grin that used to always be present, and Harry would hope for the day when those smiles would become common once again. Ron would push him back against the floor, shove his trousers down, and then all Harry would see was red as Ron licked and sucked, his head bobbing up and down until Harry was escaping his own reality for a few brief moments of release.
Hermione never slept. She was always fussing with books and researching, trying to find ways to help him, to help them, and she’d not rest until she found the answers she sought. There were dark circles beneath her eyes and she’d lost too much weight. Her clothes hung off her frame now, her hips sticking out where they used to be soft curves, and she had to be forced to stop researching to eat.
Her eyes were bright, too bright, alive with the fervor of one who was passionate but also bordering on crazed. She’d killed, she’d used spells that caused screams that echoed in his own nightmares so he knew they haunted her if she tried to sleep. He drugged her pumpkin juice every few days with dreamless sleeping draught, only when they were well and truly safe, just so she’d not kill herself by not getting the rest she needed.
Harry pressed her against the unpainted wall of their latest hiding place and thrust into her over and over. He squeezed her breasts, so soft even as the rest of her became brittle and sharp, and fucked her hard as she panted against his neck. Her broken fingernails scraped his back and she held him as close to her as possible, wet tears often on his shoulder as they fucked. His own tears would fall into her hair, lost in the unruly locks and gone before anyone saw them, and they’d both whimper as they came, finding escape from reality in that sweet release.
After they both come, Harry carried her to the mattress and touched her gently. She looked at him and smiled softly, her gaze tender and not so fanatical. He’d hold her close as she drifted off into a much needed sleep, his embrace protecting her from nightmares. He’d whisper words of a future without war, of soft caresses and making love instead of rough fucks and exhaustion.
The mattress shifted and another body pressed against him from behind. Harry closed his eyes as their arms held him close. He enjoyed the warmth and love of the two people who meant the most to him in the world. And he knew in these moments, when everything else was falling apart around them, that he would win this war. He’d win it...for them.
The End