1: Who says eavesdropping doesn't pay.
All the injured were being treated in the Great Hall which left the hospital wing abandoned save for a corner surrounded by partitions that was a bed hosted by an unmoving Harry Potter. A space away from the cot, was a screen and behind it, under silencing and notice me not spells, were Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Hermione, Ron, George, Arthur and Kingsley, discussing Harry's condition.
"Severus what can we do?" McGonagall asked
"I'm afraid to say I do not know Minerva, Lucius made it himself and even I cannot concoct an antidote,"
"But you have to!" Ron yelled, he had lost his brother, he didn't want to lose Harry too. He looked to George who hadn't been near Fred and could barely bring himself see him. Hermione understood the professor's predicament better than the others and tears streaked her cheeks.
"He can't Ron, anything we do is hopeless," her last word caught on a sob and McGonagall embraced the young Griffyndor that looked well beyond her years.
"Albus is there really nothing…" Arthur asked saddened
"Well we'll have to see won't we," he said causing the others to turn to him and his twinkling eyes.
"Albus… can he be saved?" Severus asked, disbelief clear in his voice, suddenly, the doors creaked open.
"Ah, our answer is here." He said, all eyes moved to a cloaked figure making its way to Harry's side, it looked left the right, then flicked the hood off revealing a head of white blond.
"Malfoy!" Ron yelled but was grabbed by Kingsley when Dumbledore nodded at him
"Let me go!" he cried and his father placed a hand on his shoulder, he stopped fighting but his body was tense. They all looked back to the younger Malfoy, he sighed.
"You just can't keep yourself out of trouble can you?" Malfoy said then he uncorked a silver vial he dug out of his cloak and poured the contents into Harry's mouth, pinched his nose, and everyone saw how Harry's body swallowed. Harry twitched, then the sickly color he had taken, slowly started vanishing. He groaned and his eyes opened. Hermione let out a hysterical laugh and fell back into the arms of McGonagall who was now holding on to her tighter. One common look of disbelief on their faces, except Dumbledore. Harry groaned again then he shot up,
"NO!" he screamed and Draco grabbed him, he trashed
"Draco- no! They- Fred- Tonks- Lupin!" he yelled and the ones behind the screen saddened and was once again shocked not only at Harry's use of Malfoy's name but, how easily he was calmed by Malfoy's soft murmurs,
"Fred is fine," he said and a hopeful look arose from the twin behind the screen, Harry looked at Draco
"But I saw him…he…" he trailed off
"It was a near thing, but a little dark magic can easily run off those death craving souls," he said lightly
"You used dark magic to save Fred?"
"He was my favorite of the twins," Draco answered 'matter of factly'
"Lupin.. Tonks?", "Both fine, no dark magic just Healer-like spells,"
"You know dark magic has repercussions!" Harry yelled
"Harry,"
"What if something bad happens…"
"Harry!" Harry stopped
"You trusted me with your life, you trusted me with your secrets," Draco said placing his hand on Harry's chest, "you trusted me with you heart, trust me with your friends," Harry sighed,
"And besides I'm not dumb enough to do a dark spell that would have serious repercussions," he said and Harry gave him a half smile
"Thank you Draco, thank you for saving my friends," Harry said raising a hand to touch- no caress Draco's face, Draco sniffed and turned his head away,
"Don't say it as though I'm some kind of hero, I only saved Fred because he was my favorite twin, Professor Lupin wasn't a horrible Defense teacher and Tonks is fami-oompf" his words were cut off by Harry's…lips!
Everyone gasped save for Dumbledore who smiled and George, who was eager to find his twin now that he knew he wasn't going to leave him. Harry finally pulled back out of breath.
"Trust me, no one but me thinks of you as a hero, anyone else would roll over and die-" Harry's smile dropped, he looked at Draco, "How many?" he asked
"A lot." Was the quick answer, Harry looked down. Draco took his hand in his, "This isn't you fault, everyone there weren't fighting for you, they were fighting for themselves, for their friends, for their families, for their Wizarding World." His voice was calm, quiet even but it called everyone's attention. "And for every fallen student and friend, there are hundreds of deatheaters." He finished but Harry still hadn't completely calmed down,
"Oh god Ron and Hermione!" he said, "They're fine, and you don't have to worry they've finally gotten together," Draco said and Harry gave a short laugh. Hermione, who had gone over to Ron to hold onto him, looked up,
"About time to, I swear you spent more time worrying about them than us," Draco said but Harry knew he was trying to change the subject.
"And your family?" he said and Draco looked down saddened, Harry held his hand and gave it a squeeze,
"I know it was your father," Draco swallowed
"Mother knows about us," Draco said and Harry's eyebrows rose, "She does?"
"Well after my near hysterical breakdown when you fell on the battlefield, she pulled me aside and told me what father used and saved me the trip to the manor by giving me the antidote,"
"What did she say?" Harry prompted, Draco looked up the way he and Harry looked at each other, it was how you'd imagine old time lovers do, "She said she approved of my choice and hope you take very good care of and appreciate me," Harry chuckled but then he got serious, Draco was holding back something, "But…"
"But," Draco continued, "She's staying by father's side, I could stand by the one I love, so will she." He finished. Everyone behind the screen tried to process the information they had heard, so Malfoy and Harry had been in a relationship for god knows how long, Malfoy's father poisoned Harry and Malfoy's mother saved him and Draco was now officially on the Light side.
"You love me?" Harry asked curiously, Draco flushed, the chosen prat already knew, he just liked teasing Draco, "Uh…that's what mother said… I was… I just," he sighed, "Like you didn't already know," Draco said and Harry smiled, he kissed the cheek of his blushing lover, "And I you," Draco looked up and tilted his head to the side, "You do?" he asked and Harry smiled no matter how many times he said it, the was always a moment when Draco didn't believe him, "Until I die-" Harry started but was cut off by Draco's hand on his mouth and Draco shook his head 'no'. Harry smiled and kissed Draco's fingers, Draco flushed and pulled his hand back easily.
"When did it go from me wanting you to disappear to me dreading the very thought of it?" he said brushing the hair from Harry's forehead, "You need a haircut," he added absentmindedly.
"I do, Hermione was the last one to cut it," Harry said and laughed at the expression he got from Draco then continued, "And to answer your first question, I guess it was around the time you stopped being 'Malfoy' and started being 'Draco'," Harry said snagging Draco's hand and placing a kiss to it, Draco laughed, "And when exactly did I stop being 'Malfoy' in your eyes?" Draco asked smiling, Harry answered,
"Around the third time you kissed me,"
"I kissed you?" Draco said, "Is that the story you're going with?" he added
"That's the way I remember it," Harry said affronted
"Oh really! ... I remember, you trapping me under a mistletoe and assaulting me!" Draco said
"I did not assault you!" harry said laughing now
"And after stealing two kisses, you ran off leaving me confused as hell as to what just happened, then cornered me after the Yule ball and demanded I kiss you again to see if you imagined it the first two times," Draco said shaking his head, then Harry was on his lips causing his breath to hitch, he kissed him back.
"Yup, definitely didn't imagine it," Harry said, Draco smiled and pulled him in for another kiss.
The ones behind the screen were still in disbelief but saw the look of pure joy on Harry's face, admittedly not one of them had seen him this happy. Dumbledore chuckled all eyes turned to him, "Pesky mistletoe, been trying to catch it for years, left over work from the marauders, only seems to come out when tension between enemies arise, curious it is," Dumbledore said, "Alas, we have intruded on the young couple enough we must go, ah I see Mr. Weasley already found my secret passage, off to see his twin no doubt, strange and amazing a twin connection is, well come on now, follow me!" he said and Snape, Kingsley, McGonagall and Arthur turned and on their way to the passageway, they turned back, to see Ron and Hermione still looking on,
"This means what I think it means doesn't it?" Ron said and Hermione nodded, he sighed, "Do we have to be nice to Malfoy?" he whined, Hermione smiled, she took Ron's hand in hers and laced their fingers.
"No, we don't have to, but we will because we love Harry," she answered and Ron sighed
"I always kind of guessed, he wasn't very interested in girls ya' know, but Malfoy…really?" Ron shook his head. Hermione gave a small laugh and squeezed their inter-locked hands, "But it does make sense, it can't be anybody but Mal- Draco," Hermione added and he nodded, Mr. Weasley was stunned, he had never before seen his son so easily pacified, was it because of what the young Malfoy did for his brother and his friend? Or was it the witch by his side? As the two youngsters joined them and the passage way shut behind him, he mused, maybe it was a little bit of both.
(A/N: I was going to stop the story here but my mind wouldn't let me, if you want, you can read on, but you don't have to, but you really should…yeah you really should.)
Down in the Great Hall, Fred and George were reunited
"You gave us a right scare," Molly said wiping her tears
"It was amazing! I saw myself standing, looking down at my body and these ugly looking creatures-"
"Uglier than Ron?" George cut in
"Way!" Fred said and Ron scowled causing the few that were paying attention to laugh, "Then what?" Hermione asked
"Well I'll tell you my soon to be sister-in-law," Fred sai and she flushed
"I heard someone say a spell and when I looked, it was Malfoy and whatever spell he casted made all the 'uglier than Ron' things disappear then I was pulled back into my body," Fred finished. Only he could speak about something so lightly you'd think it happened years ago, not mere minutes. It was then the others filled in the other Weasleys and remaining order members of Harry and Draco's relationship when they finished, Fred laughed and George tossed him a bag of galleons.
"I told you!" Fred said and the other let out short laughs and shook their heads, the twins and their bets jeez…
A silence befell the Great Hall as all eyes went to the doors, there stood Harry Potter with Draco Malfoy right behind , they both made their way to the others.
"I tried to get him to stay and rest but that resulted in me getting myself assaulted, mist be that Griffyndor stupidity…ah I mean bravery," Draco said and Harry smiled, "I did not assault you," Harry said looking at Draco and smiled as he saw the love bite he left there.
"And you're the one who wanted to see everybody," Harry said and they all looked at a wide eyed Draco, Harry chuckled. Draco fidgeted with his robes, "i…uh…well…gah!" he hid behind Harry very un-Malfoy like but then, he took a deep breath, held on to Harry's hand as though it gave him strength and he apologized to everyone. He apologized for his behavior as well as for all the insults and other questionable things he had done, even thought it was just to keep up the pretense, it still needed an apology. When he finished Harry squeezed their interlocked hands and kissed the corner of his mouth, he relaxed. Remus walked up to him and placed a hand on Draco's head and ruffled the white blond
"You are most forgiven," he said and Tonks gave Draco a kiss on the cheek, "That was sweet cousin,"
"For everything you did to us we answered back enough," Hermione said and Draco's hand went to his cheek and she smiled, walked over to him and nudged his shoulder, "You're forgiven." Molly then came over to Draco he tensed at her serious face, "You didn't have to go to this length to apologize but you did and I could tell you meant it, thank you," she said her features softening and she hugged a shocked Malfoy, "You're forgiven."
After that, Tonks asked how they both got together, "Well you see, back in fourth year, Harry trapped me under a stray mistletoe and assaulted m-" Draco was cut off by Harry's hand on his mouth, "I did not assault you!" Harry yelled causing pearls of laughter to fill the Hall.