"Mother," Draco muttered. It had been an hour since they had left Hogwarts. when they left, Draco had every intention of following his mother without any complaint, but then he heard Harry's voice and his heart conflicted with that choice. "I have to go back."
"What!?" Lucius gasped. They had just gotten away from Voldemort and now his son wanted to go back. What did Draco want there? Lucius wouldn't allow it, but then his wife gave their son a sad smile.
"I understand," she said. "Just be safe."
"Thank you mother," Draco smiled before he turned and ran back to Hogwarts. He could hear his father complaining in the background, but he didn't really care. The only thing that he cared about was getting back to Harry.
Harry stared at the edge of the bridge longingly. Hermione and Ron had long since gone inside to leave him to his own thoughts. He debated leaving, following Draco and hopefully getting the man back. These last few years without him had been hard and he wanted nothing more to be at his side, but he knew that they both had their own duties. Harry to the people inside Hogwarts and Draco to his family.
Harry gave one last sigh and was about to turn to go back inside when something caught his eye. There was a person running towards him and Harry couldn't help the wide grin that spread across his face. He would recognize that head of platinum blonde hair anywhere. "Draco!" Harry laughed as he practically tackled the other.
Draco was only just barely able to stop in time to catch Harry without falling, but he managed it. "I'm back," he sighed as Harry clung to him and he ran his hands through Harry's hair.
"I killed him," Harry said in return. "It's all over."
"I'm so glad that you're okay," Draco said. "I thought that you were dead."
"You're mother saved me," Harry finally looked up at Draco. There were not tears in either of their eyes because neither was the type to cry about such things, but both of their eyes gleamed with extreme happiness. "She told Voldemort I was dead even though she knew that I wasn't."
Draco didn't understand why his mother had done that, but he wouldn't dwell on such things. His mother seemed to understand and accept his choice and that was all that mattered.
"Why are you here?" Harry asked suddenly. "What about your parents?"
"I never should have put them before you," Draco said. "And now I never will again."
"But won't they be angry?" Harry asked. He knew what it was like to not have parents and he didn't want that to be the case with Draco.
"My mother understands," Draco responded easily, "and my father really doesn't have the right to be angry. Besides, once he gets over the fact that I'm gay, he'll probably be happy that I am in love with the most prominent figure in all of the wizarding world."
Harry's eyes widened. "You've never said that to me before," he said.
"I know," Draco responded, "but I am now. I love you Harry Potter."
"I love you too," Harry smiled. They took one more moment of silence to be together before Harry spoke again. "Come on," he said. "I want to introduce my boyfriend to all of my friends."
"All right," Draco followed Harry inside only to find that both the people that they were looking for were not with everyone else.
"They're probably somewhere deeper in the castle," he grabbed Draco's hand and pulled him past the others. Some people stared at their clasped hands, but chose to ignore it. There was no reason to ruin this happy moment with some sort of argument as to who Harry chose as a lover.
"I hope that you're not breaking my little sister's heart," came a voice just off to their right.
Harry stopped abruptly and turned to face the tall man who had spoken. Draco took this moment to let his hand break free of Harry's so that he could wrap his arm around his waist. Let no one mistake who Harry belongs to. "She's with Cho," Harry said easily. "We were only together to hide our preferences. I think that now both of us are going to come out of the closet."
"Hmm," the twin before them muttered thoughtfully.
"Hey George," Harry continued. "Have you seen Ron and Hermione. I want to introduce them to my boyfriend."
"What about that map that we gave you?"
"I gave it to Ron," Harry answered.
"Well I'm sure they're around here somewhere," the twin grinned mischievously. "Why don't we go looking together? I was looking for them anyway."
Harry gave the Weasley twin a suspicious look, he knew that they were prone to jokes and there was no telling what the man was up to while he was trying to get over the death of his brother, but he decided to go with him anyway. It's not like he could really say no when it was his family that they were searching for.
The castle was a lot bigger than it originally seems. Every time that there is something to be found, it takes hours to find the thing even when it's not in the place where everything's hidden. It is especially hard when you're looking for something that could be moving.
The three of them were walking for almost an hour with the Weasley twin joking the whole way and Harry getting more and more nervous as they went. His friends never really did like Draco and then he became a death eater, against his will of course, so he was afraid that they wouldn't accept Harry's choice. Every time he looked worried, though, Draco would squeeze his hand or bring it up to his face to kiss. He would be with Harry no matter what. Even if his friends abandoned him, he would be there forever. Such was his love.
At some point or another they lost the Weasley twin, but they continued on figuring that they would find him somewhere or another.
Finally, Harry and Draco turned the corner and found Ron, Hermione, Mrs. Weasley, Mr. Weasley, Ginny, and George walking down the hallway opposite him.
"Harry!" Ron smiled, but froze when he noticed Draco. "What's he doing here."
"Ron," Harry said a little nervously, "Hermione. This is my boyfriend, Draco Malfoy."
"Finally," Ginny squealed before anyone else could say anything. "Cho and I were wondering when you were finally going to out yourselves. I already did."
"To be fair," Draco pointed out, "you just did it today too."
"That's true," Ginny shrugged.
"You know about this?" Ron pointed an accusing finger at Ginny.
"Of course," she answered. "He wouldn't be my fake boyfriend without us knowing anything about each other's actual preferences. He knew I was with Cho too."
"Are you sure about this Harry?" Hermione asked cautiously. She had no intention of getting on Harry's bad side by showing her disapproval, but even she had to make sure that her own best friend was actually going to be happy. That he wasn't just finding the first person he could get to now that his only two friends were dating each other. Not that she really thought that Harry was interested in either of them, but he might feel like the odd one out or something.
"We've been dating since our first year," Harry divulged. "I'm sure."
"As long as your certain," Hermione bit her lip so she wouldn't say anything else and she had to hold Ron back from saying anything as well. After everything that Harry had gone through, he deserved to be happy even if it was with some one that neither of them approved of. But, if Draco ever did anything to hurt Harry, she knew quite a few curses that weren't actually illegal that she could use on him. She was the brightest witch of her age after all.
"You know George," Harry said after an awkward moment of silence, "if you knew where they were you could have just told us instead of apparating to them before us."
"What are you talking about Harry?" George attempted his usual grin, but it turned into a grimace instead. "I've been with them this whole time."
"Harry," Draco muttered. "His shirt is purple."
"Yea," Harry examined the shirt, but didn't see anything special about it. "And?"
"The twin we were talking to earlier," he rolled his eyes, but he couldn't help but smile at what he was about to divulge. He hadn't noticed it until now, but he had seen that one of the twins had died earlier so he was sure that this news was going to make everyone in the room happy. "He was wearing a green shirt."
Harry's eyes widened comically, but it was George who spoke first. "Give me the map," he demanded.
"Ron has it," Harry said somewhat shell shocked. This would be the first time that he had ever seen this happen for anyone besides himself.
Ron took the map out just as stupefied and handed it to George who immediately ripped it open. He examined it for a few more moments before he gasped and tears came to his eyes. "Oh my God," he said before taking off with the map in his hand. Everyone followed him, but none of them were really fast enough to keep up with him. He did have some pretty long legs.
By the time they finally turned a certain corner, they found the two twins hugging while George picked Fred up and spun him around before putting him back down. Everyone was speechless. Even when Harry survived the Death Eaters' curse, it had been a shock, but he was the boy who lived and he was supposed to live through impossible odds like that. Fred was not the boy who lived and he just came back to life. They had the right to be shocked. Especially his twin brother who had been mourning the loss even more than the others.
"How are you still alive?" he asked.
Fred held up a tack to show the group. "It works," he grinned happily.
"You used this?" George asked, taking it from the younger twin.
"Yep," Fred grinned.
"What is it?" Draco asked. He was pretty much the only one who wasn't really feeling anything major by this because he had barely known either twin in the first place so he had felt no need to grieve for either of them. It's easier to recover when you never grieved in the first place.
"We were testing this," Fred explained, though he wasn't allowed out of George's grip as the man held onto him tighter and buried himself into his shoulder. "We were hoping to get it perfected before this big battle. You see, it fakes death. Actually, it really puts you to death, but only for a short period of time. You can't be killed from a spell if you're already dead. All's I had to do was prick myself as soon as I know that I was going to die and hope that I would wake up again."
"Hope?" Mrs. Weasley asked. She was still shellshocked, but she had always loved hearing about her sons' new experiments even though they caused mischief more often than not.
"All of the test subjects," George muttered loudly enough for everyone to hear, "have died."
"They were all plants mind you," Fred pointed out, "but yea. It wasn't working at all, but I figured I'd bring it just in case. I mean if I'm going to die, I'd want to at least have the chance of waking up again."
"You're never going to do this to me again," George growled. "You hear me. We're supposed to be together forever."
"I know," Fred smiled knowingly.
That seemed to be what broke everyone out of their stupor. Suddenly everyone was in tears for a good reason now and the Weasley family was involved in a big hug with Hermione squashed in their just because she was dating Ron.
Draco grabbed Harry and slipped away. As much as he was happy for the family, he really just wanted time with his boyfriend that he had also just lost and then had come back to life. As soon as he felt that they were far enough away from everyone, Draco grabbed Harry and kissed him. "Someday you're going to have to tell me how you survived," Draco muttered against his mouth, "but right now I think that I just want to be with you."
Someone was kind enough to point out to me that I accidentally gave Ron's little sister the wrong name. I accidentally called her Jenny. I have fixed it now, but it anyone sees one that I've missed, please let me know and I'll fix it.