Title-After the Downfall

Author-Angel of Darkness 4585

Rated-PG-13

Disclaimer- Harry and co are not from my imagination, they come from the great mind that is J.K Rowling. If you see any characters and don't recognise them from HP, they belong to me.

Summary- After Voldemort's death, what happens when Draco goes in search of a distraught Harry? PG-13 for some language. Set at the end of 6th year. Set in 2003.

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Chapter One- Hurting

Harry sat in the darkened classroom, alone, until he heard footsteps. He looked up, and green eyes locked onto silver.

"What do you want?" Harry said, bitterly, since, at the moment, he wanted nobody, so having his worst enemy there was like a nightmare.

"To talk to you." Draco replied, with only pity in his eyes.

"Well, I don't want to talk to you, so fuck off." Harry spat the words.

"Look, you need to talk to someone, so until Gra...Hermione shows up, I'm pretty much the only one to talk to." Draco said, trying to keep the irritation out of his voice.

"I've still got...um..." Harry trailed off, suddenly coming face to face with the fact that there was no-one else. They were gone. Tears appeared in his now-lifeless eyes, making them shine. He furiously wiped them away.

"You can cry you know, s'better than keeping it all hidden away." Draco said, walking over to Harry slowly. He looked, partly in horror, as the tears began to fall. He surprised both himself and Harry when he carefully wrapped his arms around Harry's slim form, trying to offer comfort to both boys, after the suffering each had gone through.

This was how their sixth year ended. Voldemort was dead, along with many Hogwarts students, mainly sixth and seventh years, including Ron, and all of Voldemort's followers, including Draco's family. Both boys were orphans now, and each had lost friends. They sat in silence for almost 10 minutes before either one spoke.

"Sorry about..." Draco paused, searching for the right name. "....Ron."

"Sorry about your parents."

Draco snorted at this. "Don't be. It's not like they ever cared about me, or even loved me. If my life had been half as perfect as I'd made it out to be, I'd have been very happy." He sighed thoughtfully. "Look, I just wanna say I'm sorry. For everything. I know I've never been nice to you, and I just hope that you can forgive me."

Harry looked thoughtful for a moment, as the past 6 years flashed through his mind. For the first five years, neither had been nice to the other, but in the last year, everyone had known the war was coming, they had tried to be at least civil to each other, and settle old disputes.

"Yeah, I can forgive you. I've never been nice to you either, so don't worry about it." He smiled a small smile.

The two seemed to strike up a friendship there and then, as neither had any friends around them. The only real friend of Harry's was Hermione, and he didn't know where she was. All of Draco's friends had been killed in the war.

The two began to talk, mainly about their lives, before and during their time at Hogwarts. Harry spoke first, he'd never told anyone about his life in the muggle world, except his two best friends.

"I live with my aunt and uncle, I have ever since I was a baby. They've always hated me because I was like my parents, although they never told me that. I found out I was a wizard on my 11th birthday, when Hagrid came and told me. Until I came to school, I lived in a cupboard under the stairs, and whenever I go back there, I have to do all of the chores, they do nothing. I only have to spend one more summer with them, then I'm kinda, free."

Draco was astounded by the wonder in Harry's voice about being free. He thought the Dursley family sounded terrible. He asked Harry what they were like.

"Well, every summer, when I get home, my uncle locks my school things under the stairs, I have a bedroom upstairs now. I get to keep my owl up there and I try to sneak my books up to do my homework at night time. My cousin lives to beat me up, and hurt me. I can't describe my aunt, I just hate them all. So, anyway, tell me about your life."

Draco looked worried for a moment. "It'll probably haunt you for life if you know."

"Please? I just want to get to know a new friend." Harry looked at him with puppy like eyes, and Draco gave in.

"Well, my father beat me, every holiday, he was so pissed that I didn't want to join THAT side. My mother, well, she....um.....right after Easter, she came into my room one night, and told me how worthless I was, and how I'd never find anyone to love me, so she would give me the experience just in case I never found anyone. Then.....she....um.......raped me." Draco's eyes were full of shame, horror and pain, as he shared his terrible secret, reliving the memory in his mind.