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What an endless nightmare.
Harry’s now officially the last person in Remedial Goodness 101. All the other wharf rats, yes, even Bonny, have all just graduated from this brainwashing class. At one time, they were once Harry’s friends, but now he views them all as traitors. Harry watches as they cheer and listens as they discuss their future aspirations. He watches as they all dream without living in a nightmare.
The Isle is their horror story. Auradon is their fantasy come true. The dream their heart was always wishing for. Harry wasn’t like them. For him, it was the opposite. The Isle is his dream. Auradon is his nightmare come true. Yet, there's one thing that could turn the Isle into his nightmare, well, one person, not being by his side. You see, there was a constant in Harry’s life. Someone he’s known for so long that being without them made him feel like a ship without a sea to sail on. Uma. Even thinking her name caused his villainous heart to speed up from his affection.
Harry's desk is closest to Jonas's. It’s why he can’t help but notice when Desiree approaches Jonas’s desk. Desiree, the small vicious girl Harry grew up with and fought alongside, knocks on Jonas’s desk to get his attention. Jonas, who’s looking through some magazine Harry can’t see the cover of, looks up. They both exchange greetings and then talk about the most mundane things. Almost immediately, Harry bores of it.
Harry leans back in his chair, so far back that it lifts the front. He works on balancing it and almost falls back onto the floor, but manages to fall forward enough to stop. Harry lays his head on his desk, which so unlike his one back on the Isle. His isle desk always left a splinter on his face if he turned the wrong way. He remembers touching his carved initials on the desk as he inhaled the salty scent of the past life of a ship. To Harry, there was nothing more precious than it because it was the first time he smelled the true scent of the sea.
Now, Harry could see the sea anytime he wanted. The beach was a bus drive away but it didn’t feel the same. It didn’t fill him with the longing that seemed to overflow in him before.
Desiree and Jonas start talking about their futures. Harry didn’t care for the future that much. Why should he? When his future was like a lighthouse without a bulb. A sailor without a compass. A captain without a first mate. Harry had no course, no destination. Everyone in Auradon saw it. They whispered it behind his back. They laughed about it when they glanced at his test scores. Even gave him pitying looks when he couldn’t solve the most basic math problem on the blackboard.
Desiree knew exactly where her future’s taking her. Harry listens as she talks about wanting to work with animals. She mentions something about joining Carlos De Vil’s school club. Harry’s seen posters for the club around the school. Carlos had put his dog on it and added a doggy pun about joining his club. Recently, Harry took down a poster to crush up and throw at Jay during History of Woodsmen and Pirates. Jay’s annoyance would be the highlight of his day.
Jonas talks about his future goals; his voice is so full of passion and hope. He lifts the magazine he’s reading and points out something. Harry can’t see it, but he hears Desiree comment on how complicated it looks. Jonas laughs it off and starts bragging about how he’s already made things more complicated than that in shop class. Then Jonas speaks about how he’s making a jewelry box. He tells Desiree he’s making it for someone special. Harry wonders who, even though he tells himself he doesn't care at all. Jonas then says her name. Uma. The name of their former captain, Harry's best friend, and the apparent owner of Jonas's heart.
Harry bolts up from lying on the table. Like the smell of a smelling salt hitting a fainted patient, hearing Uma's name spoken by another awakens something in Harry. Anger.
He stands up, pushing the chair he's sitting on back with his legs. Desiree spots Harry standing before Jonas does. She backs away from Jonas's desk and quickly heads back to her own. Harry walks over to where Desiree once stood, his anger rising like steam from a pot on a stove. He slams his hands against Jonas's desk.
"Owner of your heart?" Harry snidely says. "You're just a lowly former member of Uma's crew. She'd never look at you."
Why would she look at anyone when she, like Desiree and Jonas, has a future? When she has a place in Auradon?
Jonas blinks, looking surprised to see Harry, as if his very words didn't summon Harry's anger but instead released it like a fish in captivity being brought back to the sea.
"She hasn't looked at you either, and you're her best friend, aren't you?"
Jonas seems shocked by his own words, but not as shocked as Harry. Harry opens his mouth, ready to retaliate and say the nastiest thing he could think of. Nothing came out. He pushes Jonas's desk, leaving the classroom.
He hears Uma's footsteps echoing on the crunchy pebbly path of Belle's harbor before he sees her. Hearing her before seeing her gives him enough time to hide what was in his hand, a key. A key he had stolen from Chad Charming almost a week before. He slips it into his pocket. Relief flows through him because Uma won’t ever know the truth. Harry wanted to go back. Back to the Isle.
She finds him sitting on the graveled path behind an oversized statue of King Beast. Unlike the one in Auradon, it didn't change back into their former King. It stayed the same, as if his curse was never broken. As if he never found love. As if he never made the Isle.
Harry grabs a handful of pebbles, feels it stick to his skin, and then chucks it at the statue of the beast.
"Long live the king.” His voice drips with mockery.
He glances at Uma; her hair's mostly straightened with the top part of it braided and with two braids in the front. Part of Harry wants to playfully twirl her front braids around his finger like he did back on the Isle. The Isle where she's his Captain and he, her first mate. She taps her foot on the pebbly ground; they stick to her shoe like how Harry used to stick to her side back on the Isle. Back when she wasn't busy planning out her future. Back when Harry was so sure he'd always have a place in it. Uma gives him a look, the same look she gives him when she's not in the mood to reciprocate his flirtations. Recently, it feels like the only look Uma gives him anymore.
"I hate Auradon," Harry tells her just like he’s told her many times before.
Unlike before, however, he uses Auradon's proper name. He doesn't mock it by saying Bore-adon, so Uma could know something's really bothering him. Harry could tell she got his message because she came closer to him, leaning back on the statue of King Beast.
"I know." She replies, softly.
Her tone is the same one she uses when talking to the new transfer students from the Isle. A tone that told you she knew exactly what you were going through and all the feelings you were wrestling with. Harry didn't want that tone used on him, because Uma didn't understand his feelings at all. Not about Auradon. Not even about her.
"Harry here—here the future is ours. We can be anything, " she continues, sounding to Harry like she's reading off a checklist.
"They took my hook. I can't study without my hook." Or function. Or stop himself from crying whenever he misses his dad.
Uma frowns. "I tried to get your hook back but Fairy Godmothers classified it as a weapon. It also didn't help that you threatened to hook multiple students with it when you did have it."
"They started it." With their laughter because he couldn't count. As if any number after one mattered.
Uma sighs a heavy sigh. A conflicted look passes over her face. Her conflict is quickly forgotten, and she walks over to Harry. She puts her hand out, ready to help him up. Harry stares at her hand, so much smaller than his own. He tentatively touches her fingers, never grasping them. His fingers heat up as if he's touching a freshly off the stove dish from Ursula’s fish and chip shop.
He swears hers are heating up too. She pulls away, leaving Harry's fingers touching nothing. Uma wipes her hands on her pants and clears her throat.
"There's a bench somewhere,” she says, her eyes searching for the location of it. "It's gotta be better than sitting on the ground, right?"
"I like the ground,” Harry retorts. He didn't actually like it, but he felt like being defiant.
Uma walks back over to the statue of King Beast. She leans back on it. "I'm not supposed to tell you this. Ben told me he spoke to Fairy Godmother, and she's talking about sending you back. Back to the Isle."
Harry doesn’t like how she says the Isle. She speaks of it as if it’s the worst place to be. Harry wonders if Uma forgot all the memories they’ve made there. Most of all, he wonders if she's forgotten him.
"Is that a bad thing, Uma?" Harry asks, and Uma's face looks stricken at the thought of it. "I don't belong in Auradon. I never will."
"I'm here, and you're my first mate," Uma replies, her voice unusually quiet.
It reminded him of when they were young, and he'd found her in the back of her mom's shop crying, the smell of shrimp filling the room. Back then, he placed his arms around her, told her he didn't smell a thing, and then insulted Mal, the cause of her distress. She wouldn't even let him touch her now, not without pulling away almost seconds later. And whenever they did, it burned, burned his body like the blistering heat of the sun during a heatwave.
"The wharf rats no longer exist, darling." Harry reminds her. "Every crew member has gone their own way, including you."
"That may be so, but I still won the race. You're still my first mate."
"We don't even have a ship, anymore."
Harry wonders if he should tell her about the key in his pocket. If he should ask her to run away with him. He knows she'll just take it away and tell him that Auradon is their home now. That their future lies here.
"We don't need one," she says, a look in her eyes so intensifying it strikes Harry down like lightning.
"Uma..." He starts, but his voice trails off.
He didn't know what to say or what to tell her.
"Hear me out?" Uma asks and Harry nods. "I begged Ben to ask Fairy Godmother to give you another chance. You know how much that boy loves chances, so he agreed to help me. Anyway, there's a way you can pass remedial goodness 101. But if you don't want to stay in Auradon, then I won't force you, Harry. I-I'll let you go."
His dream and nightmare could both come true. He'll be back on the Isle and back to living in his wicked ways. It's what he wanted ever since he started school at Auradon Prep. He thinks of the key in his pocket. The one he didn't want Uma to know he has. It seems heavier now. He could've easily stolen Chad's boat earlier and gone back to the Isle; instead, he found himself patiently waiting for Uma to find him, knowing that she'll come. Knowing that no matter how busy she is planning her future she’ll always find him. Always knowing where he is, sometimes it feels like Uma held a compass that pointed straight to his heart.
Harry stands up and brushes the pebbles off of his pants. He walks past where Uma's standing and makes his way to the side of the statue. The perfect spot to see every boat in the harbor. Oddly enough, although this place and all the boats around were way more extravagant and fancier than anything Harry’s ever seen growing up, it still all the more reminded him of home, of the Isle. And because of that, this place became the only place in Auradon Harry will ever allow himself to enjoy.
Uma knew that. Uma knew him. It felt like the only thing she didn't know about him was how he felt about her. Even though it was so obvious. Harry reaches into his pocket, grabs the boat key that now weighs him down, throwing it into the sea. For the first time since he's been here, Harry wants to stay. Except now, he's not so sure if he can.
Fairy Godmother assigns him an essay. An essay about a hero. Someone who's shown true heroic qualities. Someone who has overcome their “villain” to achieve their happily ever after.
Harry, who's only known a life of villainy, didn't understand what exactly classified as heroic. No matter how many times Fairy Godmother tries to explain it, he just didn’t get it. She smiles at him, a smile that says you've got no chance of passing but in her mind probably came off as kind. She suggests Harry borrow some books about heroes from the school library. Harry wasn't really a reader. Sure, he's read plenty of books about adventures. Sea adventures, specifically. Adventures about a dashing pirate's plans always being thwarted by an annoying, forever ten-year-old boy. You know, books about his dad, Captain Hook. But other than that, when it came to books, Harry just couldn't stay interested.
And now the only chance he has to stay by Uma's side depended on him finishing books about heroes. Great. He might as well start packing up his bags now. The next day, after all his classes ended, he changed into his hoodie. His usual long leather jacket didn’t provide him with the sense of invisibility he’d need in the unfamiliar setting that is Auradon Prep’s school library. Besides, if he were spotted by an Auradon kid at the library, or even worse one of his former friends, he’d never hear the end of it. Raising his hood up, Harry cautiously makes his way to the library trying desperately to blend in. Harry had never tried to fit into a mold that didn’t reek of seaweed so it was strange to walk through the halls and feel so…not like a Hook? When he reaches the library, he checks his surroundings and then pulls the door to the library open. The library is so vast that Harry wouldn’t be surprised if Queen Belle supervised the build of it herself. Harry scans the room before walking in, his demeanor becoming laxer when he sees how surprisingly empty it was in there. Studying during a tourney game was probably one of the smartest decisions he’s ever made.
He quickly moves toward the front desk. When he gets there, he averts his eyes from the sight of the librarian who sits there. Harry never got nervous. He never felt like he didn’t belong anywhere. Not until Auradon, at least. The librarian is writing something down so she doesn’t notice him just yet. He waits, tapping his jittery fingers on the front desk.
“Do you need anything?” The librarian says once she’s finished. She eyes his tapping fingers with displeasure.
Harry stops tapping his fingers on the front desk.
“Uh–” He had suddenly forgotten why he was even there and then it all came back to him.
“Heroes,” he continues, his voice full of shame.
“What about them?” She asks, unsure of why he was being so vague.
“I need books about heroes, you know, the ones that save people, I guess.” Harry’s voice is unusually quiet and the librarian seems annoyed by it.
“I can’t help you if I can’t hear you,” she remarks, not hiding her annoyance.
“Can you just tell me where to find books about heroes?” Harry snaps, rudely.
The librarian is surprised by his reaction, but not as surprised as Harry himself. Why was this so difficult? She moves away from him, checking the database to find the books he was looking for. When she moves back toward Harry, she picks up a sticky note and writes down the information Harry needs, putting it down harshly on her desk where Harry could grab it. Harry snatches the paper, clenching it tightly in his hands and leaves the front desk. Going somewhere secluded where he could look at the sticky note in his hands, Harry studies the note, his stomach dropping.
Numbers and letters were on the note. He bites his lower lip, his nervousness rising. He didn't know numbers would be involved in this. He couldn't do this. He couldn't find any books or write this essay. He couldn't stay by Uma's side!
He sees his life back on the Isle. His life without Uma. He’d end up waving around his hook next to crocodiles' mouths, waiting for any one of them to bite off his hand. Forever cursed with an endless boredom because his best friend wasn't there. He could at least try to find the books, right? So Harry ends up walking around the library trying to find a match for the numbers and letters on the paper until eventually, he does. He ends up with four books all varied in size. With books stacked in hand, Harry walks over to an empty table. He places the books down, pulls out the chair tucked under the table, and sits down. Grabbing a thin book, he starts to read.
It takes Harry five minutes to fall asleep. He doesn’t wake up until he hears the sound of someone knocking on the table. He groggily opens his eyes, shutting them before stretching out his arms.
“Why’d you wake me?” He grumbles, asking the person knocking on the table. If only he had his hook…
“Cause you’re drooling, Hook.”
Seeing Uma in front of him, Harry opens his eyes, and he gives her a sleepy smile. “If it isn’t the girl of my dreams.”
Uma ignores him. “So you're writing the essay. Does that mean-"
"I want to stay?" He finishes. "Yeah, I guess I do… want to stay."
Harry looks at Uma as if he's trying to send her a telepathic message. I'm doing this for you, his message says. So I won't leave your side.
Uma looks away from him and nervously tucks her braid behind her ear.
"Uma, if I fail-" He starts, but decides against it.
Even if he told her how he feels about her, he doesn't think she'll believe it. No, he knows she won’t believe it.
"Promise me, you’ll put my picture in a locket and tell everyone you’re taken when I’m gone,” he finishes with a flirty smirk.
Uma laughs, but Harry can hear the sadness in her voice, and it fills him with relief that she doesn't want him to go. That she doesn't want him to leave her.
Uma walks over to the side where Harry's sitting. She pulls out the chair next to him and sits beside him. "How far did you get in the book before you slept?"
Harry squints at Uma, confused by what she's talking about. She points down at Harry's hand, drawing attention to a book he completely forgot about. He lifts the book, checking the page his thumb had rested on while he slept. Lifting the book even higher, he asks Uma to tell him what page he's on.
"You're joking,” she says, but Harry shakes his head. "Harry, this is the first page."
Turning to Uma, Harry pouts like a kid. "Can you read it to me?"
Uma takes the book from Harry's hand, much to his surprise. He expected her to tell him she was busy. Something like she needed to go off to some club meeting or had a report due soon. Instead, she sits next to him and starts to read. She reads the first page, and Harry doesn't nod off like he does when he reads alone. A couple of pages in, Harry starts insisting he should turn the pages. Uma quickly rejects the idea, pointing out Harry's not a child.
"It's my research for my essay,” Harry points out, pouting like a child again.
Uma closes the book up and glares at Harry. "Do it yourself then."
Harry turns around, facing forward. He places his elbows on the table and lays his head on the palm of his hand. "I guess I'll just go back to the Isle then, darling."
Uma plops down the book between Harry and her. Harry stops lying on the palm of his hand and takes his elbows off the table. He then scoots over closer to Uma. "Miss me, darling?"
Uma rolls her eyes, not impressed by childish antics.
"I can’t stand you,” she says with a smile.
Harry and Uma meet in the library for three days straight. They managed to finish about two books, which were two collections of stories about Heroes. Tales of Hercules defeating the Hydra, a monster so terrifying many died just seeing it. A weird story about a rat that cooked human food by pulling on some guy's hair. Harry and Uma exchanged many looks while reading that story. If you get too close to a rat on the Isle Of The Lost then you better pray to the gods you'll get a chance to see tomorrow.
Harry still didn't feel closer to understanding the meaning of a hero. So he asks Uma what she thinks, what she sees as a hero.
She thinks for a moment, lifting her gaze from the book to look at Harry.
"Someone who doesn't hurt others. Whether it be physical or emotional. You know, the exact opposite of our parents?"
Harry frowns. To him, his father was the greatest person he knew. He was the one who taught him how to sail, read maps, sword fight, and even how to play the harpsichord. Harry remembers when he was a kid and how much he would giggle as his father over dramatically fell after Harry plunged his fake sword in him.
“Promise me, you’ll carry on the Captain Hook name, my boy,” he would say between dramatic coughs.
“I will! I’ll be the second-best Captain Hook there is. And I’ll catch that dastardly Peter Pan for you, Dad!” He’d say back.
Everyone thought his dad hated children, but he only hated one group of children. Peter Pan and his sniveling lost boys. Meanwhile, no one else thought badly of Peter Pan. To them, he was just a mischievous child and not someone who caused a great man severe trauma by feeding his arm to a crocodile.
"But haven't so many heroes hurt other people? People like our parents? Way before the Isle Of The Lost was ever made or thought of,” Harry says after some thought.
"Like King Triton?" Uma offers an example.
Harry nods. "Exactly, like him. Haven't you ever wondered what your mum would be like if he didn't trick her into being exiled?"
"I assume exactly the same. I can't imagine that woman ever being nice."
"Think about it, darling. Without your mum being exiled, she never delves into her magic. She's just a normal princess with a brother who resents her."
Uma tilts her head and Harry sees she's deep in thought. She hums and says, "I read something once in an Auradon book. It said she used to sing and had the most beautiful voice in all the seas. Would've been nice to hear. Definitely, would've been better than hearing her scream."
Uma closes the book she's reading with Harry. The atmosphere around her changes and she's frowning. Harry touches her hand, and heat rises between them both. Burning. Burning. Burning. Uma doesn't pull away like she did at Belle’s Harbor or like she did so many times before when the fire between them caused their temperatures to rise too high. Harry smiles like all his dreams just came true.
The next day, Uma tells Harry she's busy and that he'll have to start the third book on his own. Harry wonders if it's because of yesterday. Harry wonders if his dream was Uma's nightmare. Telling her not to worry, he reassures her he could easily finish the book on his own.
So he sits at the same table, wearing the same hoodie as he did on the first day he got this assignment. The book covers up his face. He reads about an ordinary girl who lived in New Orleans. A girl who had a dream, the same dream her father had. A dream to open a restaurant.
Harry understood shared dreams, having spent all of his life wanting his father’s. He finds himself intrigued by the relatable story. To achieve her dream, she had to work as a waitress, saving up every tip she could to afford her dream. She ended up getting so close, so close to that dream and then someone pulled it all away. Harry reads on and on, reading about her meeting a frog prince. After going on an adventure, she receives her happily ever after. Then he gets it. Finally, gets it. He now understands what a hero is and even understands who a hero is. He now knows exactly who he was going to write about. Harry sets the book down and runs out of the library, ready to write his essay.
Uma asks Harry to come over to her dorm the next morning. She apologizes to him for not coming to the library yesterday and then gestures to the pile of homework on her desk as she talks about being swamped with schoolwork. Harry holds his hands out and tells Uma that it's fine.
"I actually wrote the whole thing and handed it in before I came here," Harry informs with a bit of pride.
"You did?" Uma says, shocked. "Who'd you end up writing about?"
"It's a secret," Harry answers with a smirk.
When Harry walks into Remedial Goodness 101, Fairy Godmother's waiting for him. She calls him to the front of the class, where she's standing. Harry awkwardly stands in front of her, waiting for her to speak. She walks over to her desk, expecting Harry to follow. He does.
She lifts Harry's essay from her desk and hands it back to him. Harry's afraid to look down at the paper, to see the big fat F marked on it. Terrified his envisioned future while writing it won’t come true. Horrified by the idea a Captain will live her life without a first mate.
Fairy Godmother makes an encouraging gesture, so Harry swallows his fear and looks down.
An F didn't greet him. In fact, it looked exactly like the letter A. "I passed?" Harry says unsure.
Fairy Godmother nods, giving him a genuine smile. "I passed!" He cheers.
"I admit I wasn't so sure about the person you chose, but she's proven herself many times here. And now so have you. Congratulations, Harry. You're staying in Auradon."
Uma. He has to tell Uma. Fairy Godmother’s words repeat in Harry’s head. Staying. He was staying by Uma’s side. More than that, Harry feels a pride that he’s only acquired by maneuvering around a ship. A pride from earning his first A. He asks Fairy Godmother if he can leave. His feet tap as they ready to bolt for the door. She grants him permission and Harry runs out of the classroom. Uma has a free period around this time, so Harry decides to head to her dorm.
He spots her about to head somewhere else but before he can approach her, someone else reaches her first. Jonas. Jonas has that jewelry box he told Desiree just days before that he was going to make for Uma. It's colored a teal blue to match Uma's hair, Harry presumes. The box is small. So small, Harry can't spot most of its more intricate designs.
Harry doesn't know why he doesn't swipe the jewelry box from Jonas. Why he doesn't throw it on the ground and laugh while it breaks? Jonas starts talking to Uma. So Harry walks closer, close enough, to hear what Jonas is saying.
Neither of them seems to notice Harry. He overhears Jonas telling Uma how he made the jewelry box for her as a sign of his love. Here, in Auradon, he realized what love is. It was the only word that could describe how he felt for her.
Nightmare. Harry is in a nightmare, he's sure of it.
Harry wishes he had his hook. He'd hook Jonas so badly, he'd never be able to speak a word to Uma again. Even without a hook, Harry could do some damage. He pictures it, bringing a smile to his face.
Until he checks back into reality and sees Uma accepting Jonas's jewelry box.
Harry backs away, though the urge to throw Jonas down rises with every second.
Uma leans closer to Jonas, whispering something in his ear. Harry backs away again, shaking his head, not believing what he's seeing.
And then she kisses Jonas's cheek, patting his shoulder.
Harry becomes hot with anger. Hot with jealousy that burns more and more with every second. He's burning, just like he does with just a second of Uma's touch. He screams, exploding like a volcano. In his rage, he throws his essay down. He hears Uma call his name, but it burns.
Turning around, he ignores Uma and runs back into his dorm.
Harry leaves his dorm almost an hour later, his stomach grumbling for food. The grumbling makes him not notice Uma’s waiting outside his dorm room until the last second. He tries to go back into his dorm, but Uma's blocking the way in.
"If I'm your hero, does that make you, what, a pirate in distress?" Uma jokes, but Harry doesn't laugh.
He hates how her voice instantly brings him into a dream of her love that he'll know he'll never get. Jonas appears. Nightmare. Uma kissing Jonas's cheek. Nightmare.
Harry moves away from Uma. Yes, he could easily outrun her. Easily go to the school's cafeteria, grab some food, and run back into his dorm. He could do this all year. Just stand in the background while Uma's kissing Jonas. Loving Jonas. Dating Jonas.
Gods, no, he couldn't do it. He couldn't live in a nightmare.
"Are you going to rescue me then, darling?" He bitterly retorts. "Or are there other pirates in distress for you to save?"
Harry scowls internally, frightful of Uma’s answer. Once in a nightmare, there weren’t many means to escape. Yet, Harry holds onto the frayed rope of his dream, hoping to find his way back to it.
"No, there’s only one pirate in distress that I rescue."
"Jonas?" Harry growls, with the very mention of Jonas's name bringing back the burning anger from earlier.
"No, Harry. You."
"You sure weren't thinking of me when you kissed Jonas on the cheek."
"I rejected him, politely. Just like how Audrey taught me to reject suitors I don't like."
"Audrey gives terrible advice." Harry spats.
"Really?" Uma muses as she walks up to Harry.
She stands on her toes and kisses his lips. Dream. It feels like a delightful dream. A dream Harry never wants to wake up from. Her fingers touch his hand. The heat seems more overwhelming than the sun beating down on Harry. He likes it. No, he loves it and wishes on every fish in the sea that she never pulls away.
"Am I really your hero, Harry? Do you really feel that way about me?"
Harry nods, rubbing the back of his neck when he realizes what she's implying. She read his essay and knew how he felt. She knows that he loves her.
"You weren't supposed to read that..."
"I'm glad I did."
Harry looks at her surprised. "You are?"
"Yeah, it gave me some realizations. I’m sorry, Harry. I’ve been so busy, and I'm sorry it took me so long to realize that you love me. Though I think I’ve always known.”
"Do you—Do you feel the same way?" Harry asks hopefully.
"Of course, I feel the same way. Why’d you think I kissed you?” Uma responds, kissing Harry again.
She pulls away when she hears his stomach grumble. She laughs. "Let's go to the cafeteria, so your hero can save your stomach from distress."
Uma's fingers intertwine with Harry's. As Harry walks alongside Uma with their hands interlocked, it feels like a dream.
A dream full of boundless possibilities. A sweet sweet dream.