I'M BACK! I have decided to once again join the QLFC in order to fully conquer my writer's block. I hope it'll work.

This round is about sins and virtues. I, as the Chaser 3 of the Puddles, Chose to write about Draco Malfoy as a bad character and the virtue of forgiveness.

Prompts:

(song) ‚Stitches' by Shawn Mendes

(word) curfew

(quote) 'I have always known who you really are, and that's why I love you.' – Belle, Once Upon A Time

Enjoy!

Love is a Powerful Healing Spell

"Excuse me?"

Harry gaped at the old wizard sitting behind the old oak desk he had sat in front of so many times. His facial expression was serious, neutral. The roughly twenty people that were currently scattered throughout Dumbledore's office, all staring at him with more or less cold expressions were the least one of his worries at this moment. He blinked as he tried to take in what his mentor had just asked him to do. This couldn't be true. He had to have misunderstood what this wise man had wanted to –

"I want you to find out who the remaining Death Eaters are and where they are currently hiding, my dear boy," the strong voice of the white haired man in front of him broke through the confused rambling inside his head.

"I've heard what you said," Harry heard himself snap, ignoring the sharp intakes of air of a few people in the room he slowly started to hate that followed almost immediately after. "I'm not deaf."

Dumbledore looked at him over his half moon shaped glasses that perched on the bridge of his nose. His fingers intertwined as he patiently waited for Harry to regain his ability to think and understand the spoken words.

"Why do you think I would do that?" Staring straight into the blue eyes of his headmaster, he raised one eyebrow and bit back a scowl as said man took his time to take a sip of his tea, adjust his glasses and take a deep breath before gracing him with an answer. Harry frowned.

"Because, Harry, there are things that need to be done for the Greater Good and for the wellbeing of the Wizarding World."

"Greater Good," Harry scoffed and laughed humourlessly. "Don't you think I've done enough for the Greater Good and for the Wizarding World? I saved the school's population more than a couple of times. I fought against Voldemort more often than I can remember, starting with when I was one and didn't have a clue about what was going on. I killed for this world, sir! I killed for a world that enjoyed it more to make fun of me, to give its best to shun me, to spread rumours about me and to completely destroy me than to help me fulfil a so-called destiny that everyone was only too happy to know it was lying on somebody else's shoulders! I had two Ministers against me, one more publicly than the other. I had teachers torture me, betray me. I watched friends get hurt, tortured, killed right before my very eyes and you think that I haven't done enough for this world?"

"Please, Harry," a soft voice interrupted the tense silence that had filled the room after his outburst.

Harry's head turned towards Hermione automatically, who grabbed hold of Ron's hand as his eyes focused on her. She was nervously biting her bottom lip, her teeth leaving white marks on the soft pink flesh and her cheeks were slightly darker than usual.

"This is really important," she said, blinking rapidly. Harry stared at her, unable to react. This couldn't be true. This couldn't be reality! Did she not listen to one single word that he had just said? "We have to find out how many Death Eaters are still out there and the only option we have to do this is to use our only remaining Death Eater link—"

"Draco isn't a Death Eater," Harry hissed. His eyes narrowed as he watched Hermione move nervously from one foot to the other.

"I... I know that, Harry," she stuttered and squeezed her eyes shut for a few seconds, trying to keep the tears from falling. Harry didn't understand why she was crying as he was the only one who had the right to cry right about now! She wasn't the one who got asked – no – told to spy on her partner and be happy and confident about it. She wasn't the one to be told to betray the one she loved.

"No, you don't, Hermione." He took a deep breath, lowered his head and pressed the bridge of his nose between his thumb and pointer finger. He was developing a headache. "Draco is my boyfriend," he knew without looking that both Hermione and Ron flinched, "and I will not betray his trust just because someone told me to."

"This is not about betraying anyone." Hermione dropped Ron's hand and stepped up to him, kneeling down next to the chair he was trying to stay in. "We have to make sure that there is no threat remaining that could cause another war."

Harry raised his head slowly and narrowed his eyes. The bright green irises blazed and Hermione gasped softly as she saw the anger in those usually warm depths.

"We?" Harry chuckled darkly as he sat up straight, causing Hermione to sink back into herself. "Do you even listen to yourself, Hermione? You were the one who kept telling me that it would all be over once Voldemort was dead. You were the one who kept telling me that once it was all over I could finally live a life that I deserved. Those were your words, Hermione. Not mine. And now you're telling me that you lied all along? That although I have fulfilled what Voldemort and the entire Wizarding World thought to be my duty, I have to still do whatever the important and influential people need me to do because no-one else will do it?"

He glared at the girl who had been the only person dear to him who had not once turned her back on him – until now. All of those moments when she had defended him from friends or enemies were nothing against what she was asking of him now.

Harry looked from one Order member to the other. They have been awfully quiet throughout this discussion. Looking into their faces though showed him that they were all agreeing with Hermione. Every single one of them. Betrayal shot through his veins, leaving him with an empty feeling. These people needed him, that he knew, but they needed him for the wrong reasons. He didn't mind helping, he never did, but being told what to do never sat well with him and they should know that. They might all still be the old man's pawns in this big game he called the Greater Good but he wouldn't be one anymore. He had done what he had been called to do. Either they were happy with what he had accomplished or they could piss off and look for another idiot to sacrifice their life for them, just so they could lay back and enjoy the praise they got for ensuring peace.

No-one said anything as Harry stood up and grabbed his bag. He was through with them all.

One glance towards the red-haired boy standing to his right told him what his once best friend was thinking of him. The disgust in his blue eyes was obvious. He had seen it lurk in the background ever since he had told them about Draco, but choosing his boyfriend over his best friend which he no doubt thought this had been about had brought it all to the front. In an oddly satisfying way Harry was glad that it had happened that way. Seeing the true side of his friend hurt, yes, it hurt a lot, but he was also thankful for knowing that this side existed.

Ron scoffed and moved forward to Hermione, who was still kneeling on the floor, staring up at Harry with teary eyes. She didn't move as he tried to pry her away from the chair Harry had sat in mere moments ago.

"I won't do it," he said in a soft voice, all energy had flown out of him and he felt exhausted. Looking up into the faces of the people he had once believed to be his friends and colleagues, he shook his head weakly, turned around and left the office and his friends behind him.

*~*Drarry*~*

It had been long past curfew when the door of the Room of Requirement opened and revealed a blond wizard stumbling into their secret meeting place. Harry was sitting on a soft dark green couch in front of the fire and stared into the flames, not reacting to the footsteps he could hear coming up to him. What had happened earlier in the evening had been bothering him and had filled all of his thoughts. He was still not over the fact that people he thought of as his family would tell him to betray a loved one.

Harry sighed and lowered his face into his hands just as Draco let himself sink into the soft cushions next to him. An arm wrapped itself around his shoulders, holding him gently but tightly as his lover bent towards him and pressed his velvet lips onto his pale cheek.

"Hey, are you alright?"

Shaking his head, Harry exhaled shakily and glanced to the young Slytherin sitting next to him. A frown darkened his beautiful and flawless face and Harry complied with the urge of raising his hand and gently rubbing at the wrinkle between two perfectly formed blond eyebrows. A soft smile and a roll of light grey eyes were his reward.

"Will you tell me what's wrong?" Draco's voice was low and quiet. It seemed to blend into the background noise of crackling fire and calmed his panicked thoughts down even more.

Harry sighed and leaned back against Draco's shoulder, putting his arms around said waist and feeling the blond's arm pull him towards him even more.

"I've been in Dumbledore's office," he murmured and started playing with a button on his boyfriend's shirt.

Draco waited patiently for the raven haired boy to continue as he slowly started to run his fingers over the other's arm.

Harry smiled and cuddled closer to the blond. "They asked me to..." He swallowed and pressed his eyes shut tightly. His breathing got faster, more laboured and he felt himself being pulled into a tight embrace.

"Shh, it's alright," Draco whispered and kissed the top of his unruly hair, sniffling a bit as the stubborn strands tickled his nose. "You can tell me. I'll behave."

Harry smiled at that and looked up at a softly glowing face that looked even more beautiful in the flickering lights of the warm fire they were still sitting in front of.

"They still think you're a Death Eater." Might as well say it straight out, Harry figured as he sheepishly glanced up to his boyfriend to see a flicker of pain and annoyance on his face. "You knew."

"Yeah, I've assumed as much," Draco sighed and rubbed over his face with his free hand. "It doesn't matter that I am a free man according to the Ministry. That one decision has them bound to that way of thinking."

Harry felt a stab of pain shoot through him as he watched the Slytherin next to him. He didn't deserve this. None of this. He was a great guy and he hadn't done anything voluntarily back then. Everyone had been forced to make decisions they'd rather not make in the first place and he had to choose the other side of the war because of the predicament his father had brought his family into. He hadn't done it because he felt he wanted to but because he needed to in order to protect what he loved the most – his family.

"I know that, love, but others don't think the way you do," Draco mumbled as Harry voiced his opinions out loud. "They will always see me as one of Voldemort's followers and it doesn't matter to them what I did was a forced reaction or a voluntary one."

Harry looked down sadly, nodding. He knew that but it didn't make things easier. His fingers started to play with the bottom he had abandoned a few minutes earlier.

After a short but comfortable silence, Draco gently put his hand under Harry's chin and pulled his head up so that he was looking at him. "But that's not why you're so upset, is it?"

Smiling sheepishly, Harry shook his head, getting the trademark smirk in response. "So?"

"They told me to spy on you," he said quietly, refusing to look away as Draco raised an eyebrow. "They want to find the remaining Death Eaters that are still running around causing havoc and they think you'd be the only way of finding them because of who your family used to be in contact with."

Harry took a deep breath and watched his boyfriend apologetically.

Draco shook his head slowly, trying to take it all in. Well, it didn't surprise him if he was completely honest with himself. They truly believed him to still be a follower of the now thankfully dead evil wizard, so it was only logical for them to want to use that link they thought still existed between him and the dark side. He got it but if he had gotten better in something after the war it was self-control and the sense of self-worth. He still remembered the first few days after the war, being battered with guild, both emotional and physical pain and, the worst of all, longing for safety, comfort and love. Being accepted as himself was something he hadn't been used to and still struggled with.

He had always envied Harry's, back then Potter's, friends for having someone they could count on, someone who accepted them with all of their mistakes which Weasley was still full of. He had hurt back then and unlike then he hadn't had his boyfriend's loving words, gently touches and sweet kisses. He had had no one to heal his wounds back in the day.

"Say something." The softly spoken words ripped him back into the present in which he sat on a soft couch, cradling the person he loved the most in his arms whilst being warmed by the flickering fire.

Harry gazed up into those bright grey eyes that he adored so much and held his breath. He didn't know what he wanted to hear but he needed to hear something at least! This silence was making him insane.

"Let them."

All you could hear were the flames in the fireplace and Draco's soft and Harry's missing breathing.

"Breathe, love," Draco said amused as Harry took a huge gulp of air and stared at him as if he was suddenly sporting a set of wings on his back and a horn on his forehead.

"What?"

"I said let them. I know their behaviour is wrong, but I understand it. Really, I do. Just try and put yourself into their position," he added as the green eyes continued to look at him with a mix of wonder and confusion. "If you'd be in their place and have a friend of yours suddenly go out with, let's say, Nott," Harry cringed and Draco grinned suggestively, "you'd think there was something fishy about it, wouldn't you? And if you'd want to find every evil on this planet and truly think you could use that connection between the good side and the evil side that so conveniently presented itself to you, wouldn't you want to make use of it as well?"

Harry blinked and stayed silent. He had to admit that there was an odd truth in what Draco had just said. He hadn't thought about it that way. All he had seen was his friends trying to jeopardise his relationship with the Malfoy heir and trying to get him into the position of the Wizarding World's hero again. He had enough of that role and although the newspapers still loved him and still had him on their front page even after over half a year since the end of the war, he had not been happy about giving them even more juicy news to publish.

Draco watched the display of emotions running over Harry's adorably confused face. Merlin, how much he loved this man. He had always thought this bullocks about love being the most powerful thing on earth was just that – complete and utter bullocks, but he had come to understand how exactly Harry's parents had been able to save their son's life. He grinned widely as Harry decided on understanding which made his eyes light up and sparkle in the most beautiful way possible.

"I have always known who you really are, and that's why I love you," the raven haired wizard whispered and reached up to cup his cheek in his hand. "All these years there has been someone great underneath this layer of hatred and I've always believed that I'd get to see your true self one time. I haven't been disappointed."

His plush and light pink lips stretched into a loving smile, his emerald orbs glistened with unshed tears and just as a soft thumb stroked his cheek did he realize that he was crying as well. He had not realized just how much he had needed these words.

Even after all this time Harry still found old wounds that needed to be healed and as if it wasn't anything special or anything to be thankful for, he just reached out and made sure Draco was alright.

A smile lightened up the Slytherin's face as Harry leaned forward and caught his lips in a sweet kiss that would forever be engraved in his memories.

Ohhh, I hope you liked it :D Let me know what you think in the comments. I still love reading and answering them!

Update on Visitation: I am so sorry this story is taking so long. I'm having so many problems with it at the moment that I don't know when I'll be able to update it. I haven't forgotten about it, no xD I just struggle immensely with this one. I might publish another short fanfiction to make up for it though, so stay tuned!

Word count: 2931

Until next time - See ya!