Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, or any other familiar names/terms in this fic. Tis only a fanfic y'all! COME ON! LOL. Enjoy!

PAIN

LATE NIGHT BATH

The halls of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry were dreary and heavy with premonition of ill times ahead. Its students were no longer only concerned with trivial teenage thoughts, but with concerns for their lives and for their families. Hearts were heavy with burden and dreams were dark as their widened pupils. Pain was a constant with every day's new beginning, but pain was a lot deeper for two boys in particular.

He tossed and turned in-between the green silk sheets of his dorm room bed; sweat making the soft fabric cling to his pale flesh; flesh made more pallid by the nightmare that wrung through his brain. His chin-length blond hair clung to the back of his neck and fell tumultuously over eyes that were clenched shut. His breath was not the normal shallow, soft breathing of a normal, sleeping individual. Air came in as gasps and occasionally out as muffled screams of terror. He never slept in the fancy silk pajamas his Mother insisted on buying for him anymore, they became ruined by sweat and caused him to become warmer and more uncomfortable in his sleep; if you could call it sleep. Every day he thanked his status in his House that he was able to snag a room all to his self, meant to be for one of the Prefects (which he now was) but given to him in his first year. He had a lurking suspicion his Father had something to do with it.

His Father. Lucius Malfoy, the cause of his current nightmare.

Draco let out a breathless gasp, sitting up abruptly with a motion that threw the top-sheet from his body. He grasped at his throat, sore from screaming, staring down at his left arm with whitened eyes. His arm was, as he had expected, red and swollen, veins showing dark on his normally insipid flesh. He bit his bottom lip 'til it swelled red with blood, biting back the sharp ache that shot through his body, courtesy of the blood pumping through from his heart. He could hardly breathe for pain and his face was more than flustered.

At the other end of the school high up in Gryffindor tower, a similar scene had already taken place.

Harry Potter shifted the invisibility cloak off his shoulder and rolled it up, tucking it with his clothing into one of the cubbyholes along the far wall of the Prefect's bathroom. He sighed as the warm water touched his sore flesh, making his muscles contract for a second and he enjoyed the sweet release as they relaxed afterwards. He placed his glasses on top of the fluffy white towel he had placed by the pool-sized bathtub. His feet touched the bottom now. He let the tepid waves wash over his body and took a few deep, calming breaths before submersing his whole being in the clear depths.

Draco made his way down the halls, not too far from the Slytherin commons, towards the Prefect's bathroom. He had thrown a deep green robe over his sweat-soaked frame; deciding that he would be more comfortable after a nice bath. He muttered the password to the mermaid portrait, moved to the front door by Weasley's request as she kept staring at the boys who tried to bathe. Draco usually chuckled when he saw her; and she gave him her usual, lustful stare before budging forward and admitting him inside. He didn't let out another sound this time.

He passed the pool and went over to the cubbies, not bothering to look at the water. It was three in the morning; no one would possibly be awake. Draco leaned over the sinks and wiped the sleep fro his eyes, looking at himself in his disheveled state. He sighed inwardly at himself, his mind lingering on his Father and the Dark Lord and what they had put him through in the past. He hated them both. Draco had never taken being a pawn lightly and loathed the reminders he frequently received.

Taking off his robe was a slow chore, made painful by the throbbing in his arm. He hung it gently on a hook and stripped off his boxers, taking another look in the mirror. He could see the scars, almost silver on the white of his skin. He examined each one, painstakingly remembering where and how he had gotten them. He looked up from the heinous mark on his arm and straight into his own crying, gray eyes.

Harry heard the soft sound of footsteps echoing under the water and slowly lifted his head from the water. He hadn't thought that anyone would be awake at the time he was bathing. He wasn't sure whether or not he should look and see who it was; he had no interest in looking at another guy naked, but his curiosity at the visitor's identity won out.

The other person had his back turned to Harry and had already begun to undress. Harry was about to look away when his eyes caught hold of the marks marring the perfect canvas of the boy's back. He cringed as he saw the redness of new scars and the damage of older ones. They looked quite painful, and Harry knew pain quite well. He felt sorry for the stranger and blushed that he had seen what he did. Obviously this person had chosen to bathe in the middle of the night to hide his appearance. Harry swam underwater to the middle of the pool to give the other guy some space, as well as to give himself some privacy. He tried not to bother the other, but found himself looking back up at the sound of approaching footsteps to see the identity of the unfamiliar person. The boy turned around and headed towards the water's edge and Harry squinted, finding it hard to see without his glasses. It wasn't until he was at the water's edge that Harry saw clearly who the fellow bather was and he looked straight at Draco Malfoy. Naked.