[HP] FYI.

Click.

The hem of the clothes floated through the dark sky where you can't see your fingers.

After a door, he raised his head.

Click.

five.

When this long road as long as life is like death that will eventually come, it has come to an end.

His final step fell to the dungeon door.

Then he raised his drooping head.

Hold your head high.

In the darkness of eternal night without light, he couldn't see his face clearly in the door.

But he knows he's there.

Right there.

courage.

he thinks.

brush--

He bowed his head.

The ten-inch hawthorn wand passed through the gap between the stone iron bars, along the moldy stone tiles, and was pushed into the cell by his master in the dark.

stop at the feet.

"Want water?"

he asks.

He was surprised that his voice not only didn't have an unpleasant cry, but didn't even tremble.Cowardly, broken trembling.Not at all.

Then, he said.

"Change yourself."

six,

"Diffindo!"

Seven,

The night was hazy.

Under the new moon, the tree shadows are mottled.

They stepped deep and shallow on the mottled land swept by shadows.

Dirt splashed on the trousers.

Harry Potter walked in the front, waving his wand, brushing away the weeds over his knees. Behind him, there were three people almost side by side—four people who you would never have imagined would sit down and chat quietly a year ago, At this moment, let's move forward together.

Behind him on the right was Ron Weasley, who supported the weak Hermione Granger, followed his friend in front, and walked in the passage he opened up.

And behind him on the left, a few steps away, Draco Malfoy lowered his head slightly, his face pale.

Keep walking.

The splendid Malfoy Manor was left behind by them, he stretched out his hand, and pointed in a certain direction under the dark blue night sky.

"The Way."

He said.

Said with trembling lips.

"There's a forest there. Down there is a Muggle town . . . where you can Apparate."

Harry Potter turned his head.

There were noisy voices in the distance.

The Death Eaters in the manor should have sensed the emptiness of the dungeon.

He could imagine how they were arguing.

"—Go." And here, he said, looking at them.

Ron Weasley paused when he heard the words, and then he pointed at him, strode across a small stream among the grass, walked, and when he passed by, Hermione Granger thanked him in an inaudible way.

Draco Malfoy rolled his eyes.

He didn't say 'you're welcome', nor did he say 'yes, you should thank me well', he just rolled his eyes gracefully.

Then, he stopped.

Following behind the two friends, across the stream, Harry stepped two steps across the grass.The long weeds slapped his legs, and the wand that was not his own hanging down with his hand slapped the hem of his trousers. He lowered his head, blinked, and then he also stopped.

The messy black hair flew messily under the moonlight.

He turned around again.

The red-haired boy and the brown-haired girl who noticed that he was not following also stopped running.

"...Harry?"

Behind him, Hermione called her name in bewilderment, but Ron didn't say anything.

He could feel his friend's gaze falling on his back, and under his friend's gaze, he hesitated, turned his head, and took a few steps back along the way he came.

then.

look up.

The shadow cast by the dark-haired boy's body fell into his eyes, so the light-blond boy who stood there with his head down also raised his head.

Then, he saw him standing in front of him.

In the bitter wind.

They stand opposite each other.

The voice is getting closer.

Then, he held out his hand to him.

under the moonlight.

The black-haired boy held out his hand to the blond boy.

By the creek between them a few steps away, crushed flowers bloom quietly.

They at this moment are superimposed with a certain picture in front of a certain gate in a certain corridor of a certain castle on a certain day of a certain year.

It's just that the object of reaching out and deciding whether to hold it or not has changed.

The one who had to make a choice then, now stretches out his hand.

At that time, he stretched out his hand and now he has become a blond boy who has to choose whether to hold it or not. He raised his head in a daze, and those light gray eyes fell straight on the dirty face of the black-haired boy. Through the broken corner of the lens, he met his emerald green pupils shining in the dark night, and then, slowly, slowly down, along his outstretched arm in the air, and landed on his booth. Open the hand in front of yourself.

Then he raised his eyes.

It's like lifting your head.

Looking back into his eyes again.

At that moment, Harry saw a strange light in his eyes, which disappeared in a flash.He didn't know what kind of light it was, but he just stubbornly stretched out his hand towards him.

Signal him to hold it, then follow him.

Draco Malfoy hooked the corners of his mouth, and Harry Potter clearly smiled when he saw him.

Then he raised his wrist.

next moment.

The two palms collided.

Draco Malfoy slapped Harry Potter's hand away without hesitation.

"I think—" the young man dragged his voice, and said falteringly, "I can tell the good from the bad."

Then he put his opened hand into the pocket of his trousers, nodded and smiled.

"Thank you."

quack quack.

Harry blinked.

Then he burst out laughing.

So Draco Malfoy laughed too.

Under the icy light of the new moon, the boy watched the other boy turn his face away and made an apologetic gesture to himself, and slightly curled the corners of his lips.

With a sincere smile

The contours of his side cheeks were almost tender at that moment.

"I can't go with you, you know." With one hand in his pocket, he shrugged towards Pailongaoyuan, "My parents...they're still there.

he said softly.

Oh.

Harry nodded, pursing his lips.I feel a little wronged.Yes, he knew.

but.

He rubbed the grass with the soles of his shoes, but he was still unwilling to walk away.

"Oh Comeon."

Draco Malfoy shook his head, a helpless gesture that the slender fair-haired boy felt as an understatement, and then he drew his hand away and opened his arms to him.

That too was an understatement.

The black-haired boy raised his eyes blankly.

"Do something," he said.

"..."

"You can't leave me here intact."

He accentuated the word intact.

And Harry stared blankly at him, blinked, and spoke in a pleasant tone he had never heard before.

"Stay here after you've escaped—they'll be suspicious."

"..."

The boy tilted his cheek towards the approaching human voice.

"Quick," he said, "do something. Unsheath. Or Cruciatus."

"..."

"for me."

"..."

Harry didn't say anything.

He looked at him silently.

An indifferent, accustomed, attitude.Even smiling.

Dark clouds covered the crescent moon.

The stars are shining.

A cold wind blew between them.

From the moment his hair blew onto his cheek.

The black-haired boy stepped forward, crossed the creek, and crossed the flower-filled meadow, making the distance between them disappear into nothingness, then he opened his arms and hugged him.

after that.

Hermione opened her mouth and let out an exclamation.

"Oh shit," Ron said.

Then he was elbowed in the abdomen by the girlfriend next to him.

"..."

The pale blond boy who was hugged by the black-haired boy opened his eyes wide in an instant.

A gleam of innocence flashed in those light gray eyes.Then he picked it up and closed it.There was a gentle smile on the corner of his lips that changed from subtle to indescribable, he let go of his tense body, buried himself in this hug, then, sighed, stretched out his hand, and hugged him back.

In the gradually approaching human voice.

They hug each other in the dark.

He hugged him tightly, and he rested his head on the side of his neck, feeling tears welling in his eyes.inexplicable.

He is so thin.

he thinks.

The wand that didn't belong to him was pressed against the back of its original owner's neck at the same time.

His hands touched the air, and then, lightly covered his eyes.

Draco Malfoy, whose eyes were covered, leaned on Harry Potter's shoulder and raised his head towards the starry sky he couldn't see.

And he hugged him tight.

"...stunned (Stupefy)."

Eight,

Harry was lying on the single bed that was simply set up in the tent, under the quilt, under the light, and in the night when he escaped from death.

Holding the golden snitch flying up and down with flickering wings in his hand, he stared at the little thing, but he didn't seem to be staring at it, his pupils were dilated for a moment, and the black-haired boy suddenly smiled foolishly He got up, and then fell into the pillow with a blushing face.

Pull up the coverlet.

Cover and cover.

"Well."

Ron Weasley raised his eyebrows and made a rather exaggerated expression.

"seriously--"

Harry lifted the covers and sat up on the bed, his face still red when he looked at his friend.

"Malfoy?" Ron said, "Malfoy."

Hermione pushed him aside.

"Congratulations." The girl walked through her boyfriend and sat on the edge of the bed, then leaned forward and gave him a blessing hug. Although she was still weak, she was very gentle, "My friend."

Harry blushed a little.

Then he accepted the hug frankly, which was regarded as acknowledging the meaning of this blessing.

Ron rolled his eyes.

"Since when did it start?" He rolled his eyes and sat on the other side of Harry, covering his shoulders, and asked, "In sixth grade, you chased him and you had to look at his name on the Marauder's Map every night to find out." The moment when you fell asleep? The moment when he chased you every day in Year [-]? The moment when you flirted at the Yule Ball in Year [-]? The moment when you were so close to each other in Care of Fantastic Beasts in Year [-] When you speak?"

Hermione: "..."

Harry: "..."

Harry blushed twice.

Honey is silent.

Then, a light bulb went on in Ron's forehead.

"No way!" he was startled. "Could it be the second year! When we drank Polyjuice Potion and pretended to be his two little minions to go to the Slytherin common room?! Is it that early—"

Harry finally couldn't bear it any longer and threw the pillow at him.

Ron let out a long series of ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

"...Anyway." Inside the tent, Hermione said, "Congratulations."

"…Thank you," Harry said.

The boy's face was red and his eyes were bright.

The girl smiled and lowered her eyes.

"Are you ok?"

"Huh? Hey, it's okay... If you're talking about the Cruciatus Curse, I'm fine. Just take a break... Death Eater food sucks, doesn't it~?"

"...cough cough cough."

Death, of course, is not delicious.

"It's you, have you figured out where to go next?"

"Huh? Not yet... Do you have an idea?"

"I'd like to consider a trip to Gringotts, Bellatrix Lestrange's vault - I suspect there might be one there."

"The Horcrux?"

"The Horcrux."

nine,

"Would you like to set up a tent to make fun of it?" Finally, she asked enthusiastically, "After all, there is no locker in the wilderness."

"..." he said, "No thanks."

ten,

1998.5.1.

When he ran out of the great hall of Hogwarts, Harry Potter couldn't help but glance back, then another, and then another.

"Waht?"

Hermione Granger, noticing him turning around frequently, stopped him from turning around again, and asked.

"..."

He didn't speak, just passed her hand and looked back again.

"No."

In the end, he said uncertainly.

"Just now...I seem to see...she is crying."

"?"

"Pansy Parkinson (Pansy Parkinson) ... she was crying."

eleven,

He stood in a room the size of a cathedral, and the beams of light cast by the high windows looked like a walled city.

Bottles, hats, boxes, chairs, books, weapons, brooms, bats...

Outside, the flames of war are burning.

And here he came to a sudden halt in these cities of objects hidden by generations of Hogwarts students.

The moment when the flames of war burn wantonly.

He stopped.

He didn't know what he was waiting for.

What are you waiting for.

However, for some reason, he had a strange premonition that also came from nowhere—he felt that someone would come.

He waited a long, long time.

But no one came.

"..."

Harry Potter's emerald green eyes blinked behind his intact round glasses.

Then he passed through piles of crumbling broken furniture, thousands of messy books, small creatures or small objects flying around, passed troll specimens, and passed through the frozen magic that had been frozen for many years. The vessel of the potion, past the Vanishing Cabinet that Draco Malfoy had tried to fix last year—started walking again, and started looking for Ravenclaw's missing diadem.

Alone.

twelve,

In his mind's eye, he saw the Shrieking Shack.

Lord Voldemort stood there.

stroked his snake.

That was the last Horcrux.

Lucius Malfoy stood behind him, and Harry Potter was surprised to find that the old Malfoy seemed to have aged decades overnight - compared to the time he saw him at Malfoy Manor a month ago.Now he seems to be an old man on the verge of death.Gray hair.There was no light in the empty eyes.

Nagini, who hissed and stuck out his tongue, didn't let him show any expression similar to horror or fear.

He didn't say anything.

It was Voldemort who spoke first.

"Go get Severus."

thirteen,

Then there was Severus Snape's death.

In the Pensieve, in his memory, he saw the truth.So he bid farewell to his friend, put on the cloak of invisibility, and walked on his destined path.

forbidden forest.

The Resurrection Stone in the Golden Snitch after turning it three times in the hand.

The people he loved and loved him who he left returned to him one by one.

"You are so brave."

his mother.

His father.

"We're so proud of you."

He looked at them almost greedily.

Sirius Black was tall and handsome, much younger than Harry had seen him alive.He walked slowly and easily, with his hands in his pockets and a smile on his face.

"...Does it hurt?" Harry looked at it and asked suddenly.

Then he realized it was a rather childish question.

And Sirius shook his head seriously.

"Death? It doesn't hurt at all," he said. "It's quicker and easier than going to sleep."

"...I don't want anyone to die because of me."

"Each of you."

"I am very depressed."

"Also, Remus—"

He turned his head.

He looked at Remus Lupin who was walking at the end.

He thought of his dead body he had just seen.His and his wife's bodies.

"You just had a son—I'm so sorry..."

"I'm sad too," he said. "I'm sad that I can no longer raise him...but he will know why I died."

"..."

"You will accompany me?"

"Always."

James Potter said.

And he looked at his father, and then at his mother.

"Stay with me."

He said.

With a little relieved smile.

"Always."

she says.

The red-haired, green-eyed woman had been smiling gently and calmly. She paused, and then suddenly tilted her cheeks.

At that moment, she was frozen in the eternally beautiful face at the time of death, and what he had seen in Professor Severus Snape's memory, the red-haired and green girl who walked under the bright sunshine by the lake in the summer when she was 16. The girls with wide eyes overlapped each other exactly.

"One more person."

she says.

"He wants to see you."

Harry blinked.

The night light refracted in his emerald green eyes behind the lens shook.

As he looked at his mother suspiciously, out of the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of young Sirius curling his lips.

"But he's a little afraid to see you."

Forest.

His mother said with a gentle and calm smile.

"But he still wants to."

"I think you are too." James Potter added beside him.

"?" Harry asked, "Who?"

They didn't speak.

They turned behind him, in the same direction, deep in the Forbidden Forest, between two certain trees, and turned around at the same time.

He turned around suspiciously, and then looked around.

Then the smile stuck on his face.

The same new moon as a certain month and a certain day in a certain year, the cold light falls in the jungle at midnight.

Passing through the branches and leaves of the tree, it fell on his pale golden hair in mottled patterns.

Among the bushes, a pale and thin young man stood behind all of them, with his head slightly lowered, staring at a certain point in the void. He didn't look at his relatives, nor did he look at him.

Blonde fluttering.

He stood by the tree, looked at the rough tree trunks around him, at the neat lawn beside his shoes, then raised his head with the wind, looked at the bright night sky with stars and moons, but didn't look at him.After a long time, he turned around, and the flickering gaze fell on him slowly and hesitantly.

"Hi," he said.

The earth-shaking icy cold, under the hood, submerged inch by inch to the bottom of the feet.

devoured him.

He felt the color of this world, it left him at that moment, from his world, little by little, faded away, nothing left, he felt cold, biting cold, he felt nothing but cold, He couldn't see, he couldn't hear, he just felt cold -- overwhelming, biting cold.

The moment he saw him.

The moment he saw him.

devoured him.

He heard his own voice.

"...you're dead," he said.

thirteen,

Harry Potter stood in front of Voldemort in the early morning.

Unbeknownst to him, however, he actually walked into the Forbidden Forest at midnight.

There he was, crying for hours.

In fact, he can use a relieved attitude to meet his deceased relatives.Whether it is his father and mother who have been away for 17 years, Sirius Black who fell into the tent of the Department of Mysteries three years ago and never got up again, and, before, saw the corpse of him and Nymphadora Tonks lying with their fingers interlocked Remus Lupin.

all good.

Probably because their deaths were already known.

maybe.

Maybe it's because in every sleepless night that I miss them, I have clearly realized their departure.

Maybe.

So he can face them calmly and calmly.

They are already dead.

Because they have passed away.

They left this world.

They left him.

And he who is unfortunately and fortunately still in this world needs to look forward and move forward.

Need to move into the future.

With their thoughts of him, and his thoughts of them.

to his future.

...but this person.

this person.

This man is different.

In his wandering escape, in the future that he quietly draws in his mind under the quilt every night, he is in every scene.

He saw the picture.

Saw footage of that night and what happened at Malfoy Manor afterwards.

That was Voldemort's memory.

"Did you let Harry Potter go?"

The young man was dressed in black, and his slender figure was covered by a rigid dark suit.skinny.The shape is pinned and the bone is erected.

He lowered his head.

The focus is on the ground.

Under the pale golden hair, his cheeks were as pale as paper.

"..." he said, "NO."

He saw Draco Malfoy collapsed under Voldemort's wand.By then he had been under the Cruciatus Curse for several hours.He is no longer pale.There was hardly any spot on his body that wasn't bleeding.He had his last breath left.His mother finally broke free from her sister's spell of confinement, and threw herself beside him, the always cold and honorable Mrs. Malfoy, her broken tears fell drop by drop from her son's body On the blood that flowed from the inside.His father knelt under the Dark Lord's robes, begging to die in his son's place.

And Voldemort kicked him away.

The last of the grotesque and fragmented picture.

He raised his wand—

"Did you let Harry Potter go?"

"...YES." Finally, he said.

In blood as red as courage.

smiling.

He was on his way to victory.

He will eventually kill you.

at the end of this path.

However, I let him go.

I saved him.

Green, green light.

Lights up the darkness.

He should have taken him.

He should have taken him.

How could he—how could he keep him.

How can he.

how come.

how come.

After that, during the days and nights of a month, he blushed countless times and quietly fantasized about how they would hug and even kiss again on the battlefield filled with gunpowder after this terrible war, but he He didn't even know that the person he wanted to go to the future with, the person he wanted to hold his hand and be held by him and then go to the future together, he had already closed it forever on that night a month ago Eye.

died there.

why.

why.

why.

why.

……Why.

The frame of the mirror was deeply engraved on the bridge of the nose, but it was as if he had never heard of it.

His tears fell drop by drop into his neck.

Through his translucent body.

Then it fell onto the lawn of the Forbidden Forest.

It was like the moonlight falling on the broken flowers that night.

The pale blond-haired boy knelt on the grass. He lowered his eyes and looked at the black-haired boy who threw himself into his arms with a rather gentle look.He hugged him tightly, tightly.Arms passed through his translucent body, encircling his waist, and then he buried himself in his cold embrace.

not moving at all.

His departed relatives stood behind the tree, watching them quietly with sad eyes.

From an hour ago when he walked through the woods and crashed into his arms to after he tore him down, until now, he hasn't moved a bit.

He cried silently and bitterly.

Weeping in despair.

He let him hold.

Listen to his silent breakdown.

They should have said goodbye.

Draco Malfoy thought.

on that observatory.

on that night.

Draco Malfoy had left Hogwarts with the Death Eaters.Walked back to Harry Potter at Hogwarts.

Different camps, different positions.

Those young heartbeats and youthful feelings will eventually be wiped out in this war like flowers that wither in the snow.no longer exists.

Since then, there has been no connection.

It should have been like this.

However, a few months later, Harry Potter was brought into Malfoy Manor.

then.

Draco Malfoy recognized him at a glance, and then fell silent.

why.

Harry Potter asked.

Because he stopped him?

In that dungeon.

Because he stopped him in that dungeon.

No.

The wind passing through the forest stirred his pale golden hair.

The boy lowered his head, his eyelids drooped, his long eyelashes covered his light gray eyes, and his radiant smile.Never before, such a smile.

He slowly, slowly raised his wrist.

The palm finally landed on the top of his hair hesitantly.

no.

It wasn't him who stopped him.

It was he who turned around.

The moonlight is cool.

He raised his head and looked at the starry sky he could see.

fourteen,

"I should go," he said.

"..."

"You should go too," he said.

silence.

silence.

silence.

He tightened the arms around his waist.

Draco Malfoy let him hold.

Like never letting go.

Then his voice pierced through the gap between them embracing each other.hoarse.Choked.

"...come with me," he said.

"I can't." He shook his head with a smile, his cheeks were transparent under his blonde hair fluttering in the wind, "You know that."

The ends of the short golden hair hang down on the same translucent slender shoulders.

He raised his head and looked at the dark blue night sky between the criss-crossing tree branches above.

There is the moon and the stars.

"In... my house. Malfoy Manor," he said, "in the gardens, behind the iron gates, along the gravel roads, where there are peacocks, where there are flowers, the Dark Lord does not allow those who die under his hands to be buried, because They would all be the snake's dinner, and my parents replaced my... corpse with another Death Eater who died that night in his torment, made a double, and buried me there."

"Under the withered flowers."

"No coffins, no tombstones."

"When this is over, if you have time, find me."

"Bury me."

"Okay."

A sob came from his neck.

It was like a desperate trapped animal, sobbing fiercely and screaming.

"..."

His fingers ran through his hair.very messy.And the blood after it was done.I don't know whose blood it is.

And he touched it tenderly.

One strand at a time.

"Help me take care of my mother," he said, "OK."

softly.

Gentle.

The wind from the depths of the Forbidden Forest blew past them.

The boy raised his head slightly, his translucent side cheeks were shining like stars.

"I'll take care of your mother too."

Lily Potter stood behind the tree, looking at them lovingly with those green eyes that were exactly the same as those of her children.

the other side.

Sirius Black was also standing in the clearing between the two trees, translucent and without legs, with Remus Lupin on his left and James Potter on his right.The latter turned his head and silently looked at his partner.

They stood in a protective circle among the shadows of the trees, facing them, their backs to the darkness, and cast a quiet, tender gaze on their child.

"..."

among the trees.

The pale blond boy half-kneeled on the ground, and the black-haired boy threw himself on top of him. He exhausted all his strength to hug him, and buried his tear-filled face tremblingly on his chest, while he was hugged by him. Then, they knelt together on the lawn of the Forbidden Forest.If he had already yelled a year ago or two years ago, he would never have sat down in such a dirty place for him, but now he is sitting very calmly, and he no longer has to worry about splashing mud. Dirty his trousers, isn't it.

"I know, you want to come to me."

After a gentle silence.

He said.

Then he felt a violent shake in his shoulders.

"But, no."

He lowered his eyes, looking at the top of his hair.

"No."

His pale and determined fingers touched his hair.

At the same time, grabbing one of them, he said.

"You have to go back."

Under the moonlight on the Forbidden Forest, the boy knelt on one knee, with a faint smile, he raised his head with a smile.

Blonde.

"If you're prepared, you'll be there waiting for a train."

"It will take you far away."

"It will take you home."

"And you're going back."

"do you know."

He heard him say it over and over again, gnashing his teeth.

"You have to go back."

The deceased elders stood outside, watching them embrace each other.

He raised his hand to clasp his shoulder blades, and hugged him even harder.Just like him a month ago, trembling uncontrollably.

Shaking his head tremblingly.

But he knew, he heard.

He got it.

So Draco Malfoy lowered his head.

"..."

He leaned on his shoulders, tilted his chin slightly, and touched the top of his hair.He indulged in this embrace full of the warmth of the living with a docile appearance, and returned to the icy wind after a moment.

"This." He pointed to the hand on his waist, holding the resurrection stone in his hand, and the hand holding the resurrection stone, "I want to take it away."

Then he carefully and resolutely opened the fingers that had been stuck in the palm of his hand, and twisted away the small triangular stone on the palm.

The second of the Three Hallows of the Dead, the Resurrection Stone.Legend has it that his first master used him to recall his lost lover. Day after day, he indulged in the joy of regaining and the pain of regaining it, and finally ended his life in order to go with her.

"But this."

He pointed to his other hand, his wand.

"gave it to you."

He wrote lightly.

With a peaceful smile.

He then braced his knees to stand up before being dragged back to the ground.

Drag back into this hug.

The black-haired boy tightened his arms.

Tightly, tightly.

Like never letting go.

Like never letting go.

The pale blond boy blinked, and those light gray eyes passed through the air on his shoulders puzzledly, and looked between the dark trees.They were there, looking at him so tenderly and sadly, so he sighed, relieved, sighed.

Then, he pulled the corner of his lips.

His hand fell on the crook of his arm, inch by inch, slowly, slowly, pulling away his arm.

And as he left, he was smiling.

He used a gentle tone, a quiet, quiet opening that had never, never appeared in his words in his life.

"You know, I'm not me," he said, "I'm just your memory."

"It's the most insignificant buffoon in your star-like life, and it's just a bit of resentment left behind after his death."

No.

He shook his head.in tears.

No.

No.

He grabbed his wrist in vain.

Grab his blood-stained, transparent wrist with a hand that is branded with a never-fading red mark on the back of his hand.

You are my future.

The boy lightly put the triangle stone into his palm, and then his translucent hand fell on the arm around his waist, calmly and resolutely