AUTHOR'S NOTES:
This was an intended submission for a fest this year. However, I decided not to give use this story for that fest, because the recipient of this piece (my assignment) asked for not too much angst, and this story evolved into a massively angsty story as I wrote it. So, here it is for you instead.
It's a multi-chapter fic, and it's already completed. I'll put it up a chapter a week until it's done.
Please review and let me know what you think! It's my first time writing with Harry Potter as the main character (all his POV). I'm nervous about what you may think!
DISCLAIMER:"Harry Potter" is the property of J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. This fanfiction was written entirely for fun, not for profit, and no copyright infringement is intended.
TIMELINE: Post-Hogwarts, EWE (Epilogue? What Epilogue). Begins 2010.
MAIN CHARACTERS FEATURED (alphabetical order, last name): Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter
SECONDARY CHARACTERS FEATURED (alphabetical order, last name): Lucian Bole, Alastor Gumboil, Gawain Robards, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Arthur Weasley, Bill Weasley, George Weasley, Ginny Weasley, Molly Weasley, Ron Weasley
SUMMARY: On a personal holiday in Rome, Harry runs into Draco Malfoy living in the last place on earth he'd ever expected to see the wizard again: working in a brothel in Rome. Why is he here? What happened to him? He'd unexpectedly disappeared the year after the war, and everyone assumed something nefarious had happened to him. Oh, how right they were…
RATING/WARNINGS: Explicit profanity. Pretending to purchase the sexual favours of an enslaved rentboy. Acting while under the influence of dark magic. References (implied, off-camera) to rape (hetero- & homosexual non-con), whipping, blackmail, betrayal, spousal abuse, abuse of authority, illegal incarceration & kidnapping, healing heterosexual & homosexual consensual sex (a threesome). THIS IS A DARK FIC, FILLED WITH DRAMA, ANGST, AND TOPICS THAT MAY BE UNCOMFORTABLE FOR SOME READERS. IT HAS A HAPPY ENDING, BUT NONETHELESS, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
BROKEN
BY RZZMG
For the first time in years, my heart had started beating again in my chest. At least, that's how it had felt the moment I'd spied Draco Malfoy staring at me through the front window of a building that I'd happened to be passing in a neighbourhood that had a reputation for its unsavoury elements.
Initially, I'd thought my imagination had run away with me, as when I stopped and looked twice, there was no one there. Yet, the curtain swaying indicating someone had just been standing there, and that had been enough of an incentive to force my feet towards the door and my hand to turn the knob of the establishment that had no sign to indicate its name.
Draco had obviously moved from the window and thrown himself down on one of the ratty couches in the room, because that's where he was sprawled when I'd walked through the door and set eyes upon him for the first time in almost a dozen years. He'd jumped to his feet the instant he'd recognized me, his face sheeting white, and a strange, fleeting hope passing over his handsome features.
Then he'd shut down. Between one blink and the next, his expression had gone carefully neutral, as if he hadn't just received one of the biggest shocks of his adult life. He'd folded his arms, and turned his focus to somewhere over my left shoulder, refusing to meet my eye. In fact, he'd seemed almost bored with the proceedings, uncaring that he'd been both found and found out at the same time.
This was how we found ourselves now.
I could feel the tension radiate between us. I watched my old rival squirm under my inspection and was honest enough to admit that I took a bit of perverse delight in that fact. He'd certainly made me feel awkward and anxious more than once back in our youth, so turning the tables now was a twisted sort of kismet that sat well with me.
"So," I spoke up, breaking the tense, awkward silence between us, "you work here, then?"
Malfoy responded to my dry attempt at humour with a roll of his eyes and a sharp tsk. His tone was sarcastic and biting when he countered, "No, I just happened by the place. Thought I'd pop in and ask to use their loo. Colour me surprised when they were generous enough to let me." His gaze travelled over me from head to toe. "What about you? Come to chase a little 'boy meat', have you? I always suspected you tweaked that way, you know."
The fact that he hadn't yet referred to me by family name - with his trademark, sneering emphasis on the first syllable, as if he were likening me to a well-used bedpan - kicked my intuition hard in the bum. Something was wrong. The Malfoy I knew would never have passed up a chance to let the world know he was happily insulting me.
"Actually, I saw you through the window and thought-"
"You thought you'd check up on the bad boy of Hogwarts and make sure he wasn't attempting to resurrect a Dark Lord or something equally as asinine," he interrupted. His backtalk was rife with mocking sarcasm, and the dark smirk that crept up his cheek matched. "Saint Scarhead to the rescue... again."
I roll-tapped my fingers against the outside of my leg in irritation and clicked my tongue. "Hell, you haven't changed a bit, have you? Well-" I let my eyes wander his body again, noting the black, mesh half-tank that showed off a small, almost girlish torso that was completely in contradiction to the rather large bulge tucked into the tight leather shorts he wore. "-except for this. That's a new look for you, isn't it?"
His fists clenched as he crossed his arms over his chest. "What the fuck do you want?"
I tweaked an eyebrow at that. "To wring your scrawny neck," I stated very honestly, and lowered my voice, whispering to him in an angry hiss. "Bloody hell, Malfoy, is this where you've been all this time - in Rome? No one's seen or heard a peep from you since the middle of your eighth year back at Hogwarts. You just up and disappeared before graduation, and everyone thought you'd been murdered by some pure-blood fanatics out for revenge or that you'd gone off alone to commit suicide. Hell, I've been searching for you for years, you git!" I huffed with anger. "By pure chance, I just happened to see you tonight while walking by on the street outside. You, here of all places! That's why I came in. I wanted to make sure you weren't being forced to do" –I waved a hand up and down at his barely-there costume- "this. Or worse."
Draco's jaw clenched. "I'm fine. Now beat feet."
I narrowed my eyes and really looked at him then. Years of interrogations in my line of work allowed me to note small details in a suspect's face or in their body language. Right now, Malfoy was lying to me. It was obvious by the way his pupils flared and the sheen of sweat dampening the top of his lip and in the way he'd occasionally look off to the side, as if checking out something behind me. I had a feeling he was looking at the floor-to-ceiling length mirror that had been mounted to the wall here in the lobby. Was it a two-way? Was someone he feared behind it, listening in on our conversation? Was that the reason for his clipped words and his rigid stance, and for trying to push me out the door as fast as possible? If so, that meant he wasn't safe.
I had to do something.
I'd been in brothels and rentboy cages before while undercover on sting investigations for work. Such places tended to be a favourite haven for practitioners of dark magic, so I knew the score. "If you say so," I drawled, "then I've got to respect that you're here of your own free will. I won't give details, but I'll let your parents know you're fine so they can stop worrying."
He flinched with guilt, which was the signal I'd been hoping to see, as it meant he didn't like his current circumstances, but felt trapped in them for some reason. Clearly, he wasn't living this lifestyle out of spite, but out of either necessity or under duress.
Good. That meant I could take him out of here without worrying about his returning on his own later.
"Right, so..." I made a show of looking nervous, stretching my shirt collar away from my neck and rubbing a hand through my hair. "Um, in that case, I take it that you're, well, available. So, how much?"
Malfoy's arms dropped to his sides and he stood up straighter, his eyes practically bulging in astonishment. His mouth opened, closed, and opened again, but it seemed words escaped him. I forcibly kept in character, despite wanting to laugh. I'd finally zinged this prat first, rather than end up on the receiving end of one of his cutting jibes. The revenge felt good, if not a bit childish.
"For fuck's sake, Draco, I've just come from Il Diavolo Dentro down the block," I stated, trying to sound annoyed at having to explain myself. I wasn't lying about that; in my desperation, I really had been there, hoping to pull, but deciding at the last minute not to follow through. He didn't need to know that, though. "Everyone knows what goes on there. Put two and two together, would you?"
He blinked several times. "You're fucking with me," he replied, seeming confused.
"I will be, if you're up for it," I offered, trying to appear serious.
My old rival looked extremely doubtful and positively wary. "Five-hundred Euros," he stated.
It was an obvious call to make me scoff and walk out. I didn't even flinch. "That'll buy me the whole night with you?" I asked, fishing for my wallet in my back pocket.
He nodded, swallowing hard as I flipped through and pulled out five, crisp hundred Euro bills.
"Give it to her," he bid, indicating a rather rotund, older woman sitting in a chair in the corner.
I walked over and passed the money off to the matron. It disappeared very quickly down the front of her rather hefty bodice. Well, there went my entire holiday spending money! Shite.
I'd better get reimbursed for this by the department, since I officially considered myself on the clock as of that minute.
The crone gave me a narrowed-eye stare as if she could sniff I was disingenuous in my interest in a night's entertainment from her establishment, but said nothing. Perhaps a bit unwisely, I turned my back on her. I was careful to stretch out my senses as I walked away from her, though, checking for that telltale gathering of magical energies that always prickled the nape of my neck just before an attack came, but I felt nothing to indicate that the woman might be preparing to draw on me just then. Still, I fingered the tip of my wand as I let it fall from its hidden spot inside my shirtsleeve. I'd learned early on in this job that an indolent pose and a deceptively lazy expression were two things you should always be on guard against.
To my relief, I made it back to Draco's side without incident, assuming I'd passed whatever test I'd needed to get into the house. Thank Godric my bangs had grown out and I wasn't wearing my spectacles just then. With the scar covered, and my recognizable rounded glasses nowhere in sight, I most likely had fooled whoever had been staring at us behind the mirror. Until I could get the whole scoop from Draco about who owned this place and how well it was manned, it was better to err on the side of caution when walking into a viper's pit such as this one.
"Lead on," I instructed him, nudging my chin towards the beaded curtain that led deeper into the house, where I assumed his room would be.
As soon as we were closeted away, I'd find out from my rentboy how exactly he'd come to be here, and figure out how to get him out of this place and past the Anti-Apparition wards that surrounded the building. Malfoy was coming home to Britain if I had to drag him there kicking and screaming.
TO BE CONTINUED…
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Il Diavolo Dentro – Italian for "The Devil Inside". A real gay male's cruising club in Rome. Considered rather risqué even by those on the scene, as it encourages full nudity and orgy nights, and features three floors of offbeat sexual fantasy props and sets (i.e. a darkened labyrinth, a leather swing, a cage, glory holes, etc.).