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Harry had always felt that you could tell the type of relationship between two people just by looking at their hands. When he was younger he knew that whilst Aunt Petunia had happily held hands with Dudley, she would never do the same for him…Aunt Petunia had loved Dudley, she had never loved him. It had seemed from his view point that all little children had someone to hold hands with: when they crossed the road, when a street got busy, or even just as reassurance and comfort. Whilst he had never had that as a child, he had hoped that when he was older people would want to hold his hand.
After his eleventh birthday, his wish for someone to hold his hand was unequivocally granted. But it was not what Harry wanted, too many people wanted to be the one to hold the hand of The Boy Who Lived. It wasn’t special; no one who tried to hold his hand cared about him or wanted to offer comfort. They just kept trying to entwine his fingers, enclose his hand and show the wizarding world that they were a couple. Harry knew in his heart that only couples interlinked their fingers when holding hands, he did not want to be a couple with any of these grabby hand-stealing people.
It wasn’t until he had left school that Harry began to look for someone to hold hands with. After Hogwarts Harry was very careful with who he let touch his hands, it just felt too intimate after so many years of longing and wanting to just let anyone grab them. Of course Hermione and Mrs Weasley couldn’t be warned off, but they were women and likely to be the only women to ever be able to hold his hands as his inclinations were geared much more toward men. Or rather one man in particular.
It had taken him a while to gather up the courage to ask Draco Malfoy for a date; Harry had seen him around a lot more often once Draco had come out of the closet spectacularly the Christmas four years after Hogwarts. It was like once Harry knew he had a chance, fate was trying to step in and help (for once).
It had been worth it though. The year or so of dates, family meals, media tribulations and special occasions had including many defining moments of their relationship, the most poignant being the first time Harry had let Draco hold his hand on a date. Right across the table their hands met and their fingers slowly entwined. From then on there was hardly a moment when Harry wasn’t seen reaching for Draco’s hand when they were out and crossing a road, when a street got too busy, or when it simply got too much for Harry to handle on his own.
Finally Harry had found someone to hold his hand.