a-ndrewminyar-d:

this will not leave my head so i had to write it down. thanks, bye, love you:

• okay so harry comes back for 8th year stressed and easily panicked and needing new ways to ground himself when it starts to feel like the walls are closing in
• then one day, harry sees luna doing these intricate plaits in ginny’s hair and he is entranced
• ginny looks so relaxed and he just watches as luna’s fingers weave through the long strands of hair and it relaxes him
• from then on he frequently sees luna plaiting people’s hair; ginny’s, hermione’s, pansy’s, anyone with hair long enough. so one day harry asks her to teach him
• they spend countless hours in the eighth year common room (luna and ginny practically live up there anyway), luna teaching harry using ginny’s hair and her own hair and harry getting really good
• so good in fact that he starts experimenting with different hairstyles and things luna hasn’t tried yet and soon he has 8th year girls (and the occasional boy) lining up to have their hair plaited
• and for harry it’s so relaxing, focussing on weaving intricate patterns onto people’s heads, it distracts him and grounds him more than anything he’s found so far
• now harry (being the poor oblivious bb he is) doesn’t notice draco staring in fascination as harry does this and draco himself finds calm sitting in the hush of the common room, quietly observing as harry goes about his work
• draco watches constantly but whenever anyone so much as glances at him, he quickly turns his head back to a textbook in his lap
• one night draco wakes trembling from a nightmare and it’s almost as if he can still feel the piercing reptilian gaze from his dreams watching him, ready to strike from the dark corners of the room
• he puts on a jumper and quietly slips out of the dorm to go and sit by the fire in the common room but freezes when he sees that the sofa is already occupied
• harry turns when he hears a floorboard creak behind him to see draco looking almost as exhausted as he feels
• ‘hi,’ the word is tentative, an acknowledgment of the pale figure standing in the shadows of the room, and draco takes it as an invitation to take the place next to harry on the sofa, too exhausted to care that this is kind of overstepping the boundaries of the unspoken truce he and harry have struck up
• draco is visibly shaken and trembling, even in the warmth of the fire so harry gently eases draco back into his embrace after receiving a brief nod in response when he questions, ‘is this okay?’
• draco has relaxed slightly but his eyes still dart around the room at the slightest creak and harry feels an overwhelming sense of protection for the shivering boy in his lap
• harry’s hands go to draco’s hair without thought and soon he is combing through the soft strands, gently stroking the top of draco’s head as he feels the tremors start to slow
• harry had loved when draco had started wearing his hair loose and wavy at the start of their 8th year, harry had thought it had been significant of draco moving away from his strict upbringing towards becoming his own person and harry admired him for that
• harry starts to french plait draco’s hair, loosely and slowly, and as draco’s hair has grown quite a lot since the war, harry can easily form two, short, french braids
• by the time he’s finished, draco’s breath has evened out and his eyes are closed and harry finds that his own eyes are heavy and he slowly drifts off to sleep, draco settled in between his legs, harry’s arms wrapped around his chest
• in the morning, luna lets herself into the 8th year common room early to find draco and harry curled around each other on the large sofa in front of the fire, draco with mussed, sleep tousled french plaits and harry with his hands resting over draco’s heartbeat
• from then on, it is not uncommon for draco to come to classes with some variation of plait in his hair from harry practicing new styles on his hair in the common room

p.s i feel like this is a bit cheesy and the last bit is definitely an overdone concept but i love fluff and i just loved the idea of harry plaiting draco’s hair and had to write it so thanks for reading if you got this far 🙂