Chapter 2
Draco was five. It was his birthday today, and he was excited. Using Uncle Sev's advice, he had dropped hints to his parents about a kitten he wanted for the past week. He was sure that his parents had caught the hint because they kept talking about a small spotted kitten named Dragon and he had found a small collar with a name tag attached onto it in the garden just the other day. He had asked Uncle Sev about the collar and was delighted when his uncle had solemnly informed him that the collar was for kittens only.
The collar clutched in his hands, Draco ran out of the room, his heart pounding. He was about to enter the corridor when he heard voices. Maybe it was his parents trying to hide the kitty! Pressing a hand to his mouth to prevent any noise from escaping, Draco crept across the corridor, making sure to stand on his tippy toes because if you stood on your tippy toes, you would be as quiet as a mouse. He swallowed multiple giggles and peered around the door to his Father's study. What he saw made his heart stop.
A kitten sat in the middle of the room, and Draco combed his eyes over the kitten. It had spots! Draco gripped the collar with excitement and tried his very best to not start jumping for joy. A kitten! His very own kitten!
"Is it true? Is the Dark Lord really coming back, Lucius?" His mother asked, worry lining her voice. The five year old looked up in concern. He didn't like it when his mother spoke like that. He frowned.
"Yes, Narcissa. We've found a way to bring him back." A man replied eagerly. Draco's nose wrinkled. He knew that man. It was one of his Father's friends, and he smelled bad. He always liked to pinch Draco's cheeks and ruffle his neat hair and leer at him in a way that Draco absolutely hated.
The kitten sitting in the middle of the room stretched languidly. Draco could hardly contain his excitement. He jumped into the room and headed straight for his kitty. "Dragon! Come to daddy, kitty!" Draco reached out for the kitten, only to have his hand smacked away.
"Draco! What the hell are you doing in here?" Lucius roared. Draco whimpered, staring up at his father, terrified. Never before had he seen such an expression on his Father's face. It was distorted by pure fury.
"I… I just wanted to get Dragon…" Big, fat tears rolled down his cheeks.
"How many times must I tell you to not come into my study without permission?" Without waiting for a reply, Lucius scooped up the spotted kitten, ignoring Draco's startled cry.
"Your insolence mustn't go on. You'll be a shame to the Malfoy name and to the Dark Lord if I allow you to continue being a brat. You will have to learn that every action has its consequence, Draco. Avada Kedavra."
Instinctively, Draco knew that the words his Father uttered was bad. Emerald green light shot out of his Father's wand and hit the kitten he had flung onto the carpeted floor before him. Draco heard a scream echoing in the suddenly big room, ringing in his head and ears, going on and on. It was only later when he realized that he was the one screaming.
Every action has its consequences.
HPDM
Harry stood outside of Draco's door, shuffling his feet. He glanced at the tray he held. In the very likely event of Draco tossing him out before Harry could even open his mouth, the latter was going to use the tray of simple food as a shield. Right. Taking a deep breath, he reached for the doorknob.
The moment he touched the doorknob, he immediately withdrew his hand. Resolving to come back later, he whirled on his feet. He yelped in surprise. Hermione stood at the end of the corridor, blocking the staircase entrance. Her hands were folded across her chest and there was a grim expression on her face. Harry gulped. Draco, or Hermione…
He turned back to Draco's bedroom door. Draco it is. He knocked four times on the door and gently eased the door open. "Draco? It's me, Harry. I've brought breakfast for you."
The room was drenched in darkness with the curtains drawn. Harry stood at the doorway, blinking furiously. After what seemed like an eternity, his eyes finally adjusted. He could make out Draco's thin form at the foot of the bed, knees drawn to his chin. Harry padded softly across the carpeted floor and set down the tray of food on the bedside table.
"Draco. Can-can I sit next to you?" He asked softly. The blonde gave no response, eyes blinking ever so softly. Swallowing, Harry scrubbed his damp hands across his jeans and he sat on the edge of the bed, making sure that although his body was angled towards his other half, he wasn't near enough him to touch.
"If it's alright with you, I would like to tell you why I didn't defend you 7 years ago."
The blonde gave a visible start. He hadn't expect Harry to say that. He blinked slowly, the only sign of him acknowledging Harry's words.
"After the war, there was a group stirring up trouble. They called themselves the Avengers. It was mainly made up of ex-Death Eaters and their families. They cast a curse, a curse to hunt down and kill all the people who betrayed Voldemort. People like you," he added in a hushed whisper. "The Ministry tried to cover up the deaths and tried to find a counter curse. They finally figured out that the only safe place from the curse was Azkaban, so the ex-spies were moved to Azkaban. Nobody knew about it, of course, except for the Ministry, Hermione, Ron and I."
"The nights you spent at the Ministry, having meetings with the Minister." Draco murmured. Harry nodded, happy that Draco was talking to him. Even when it was under undesirable circumstances. "I was sworn to secrecy; we all were, so I couldn't tell you anything about it.
"Then to make things worse, the Avengers cast another curse. A Dark curse. It was to instill dark thoughts into everyone's mind. Technically, it shouldn't have worked but the leftover magic from Voldemort… It increased the potency of the curse. Almost everyone was affected by the curse. Neighbors turned against each other, people betrayed their own families and they were all ecstatic when someone died. It was terrible. Those unaffected by the curse soon grew paranoid and the Ministry was forced to imprison almost everybody. Nobody was safe from the curse."
"Except for those in Azkaban. That's why you didn't say anything when they called to stand trial, right? You wanted me to enter Azkaban. To protect me." Draco turned red eyes to Harry.
"Everybody wanted your blood, Draco! They were hungry for it! They wanted to torture you, to kick and spit on you. The Avengers wanted you for your betrayal while the rest of the population wanted you just because. Everybody was crazy for blood. A mother tortured and killed her own baby because she thought that the baby was dark. The baby was just three months old, Draco. You were the only ex-spy not safely locked away in Azkaban, where the curse couldn't touch you!"
Draco was still silent, staring emptily at his hands. Harry began to babble.
"It's got to do with some ancient wards. They said that seeing that Azkaban is the oldest building in the Wizarding World, the magic used to protect the building was strong and powerful. That's why I told Kingsley to summon you to stand before the Wizengamot and why I didn't testify for you. It was to protect you, Draco. I don't want you to die; I-"
"I want to some time to think. Please leave." Draco said quietly, lips barely moving.
"I-okay. I'll be back later, for the tray. Please eat, alright?" Draco stayed silent. Deciding to take Draco's silence as consent, he nodded and exhaled shakily before heading for the door. He paused and turned to look at Draco. "I really am sorry for what I did, Draco. It was wrong of me, and I realized that now. I missed you." Draco barely moved his head. Nodding, Harry exited the room.
"Well? How did it go?" Hermione hissed from the staircase. Ignoring her, Harry barreled past her and jumped down the stairs.
"Terrible." Harry said flatly, slumping onto a kitchen chair. "He kicked me out of his bedroom."
"Well, that's actually a good thing! Shows that he is communicating with you. At least he didn't ignore you." Hermione consoled, pulling out the teapot and the jar of tea bags.
Harry perked up. "Yeah, yeah I guess you can see it that way." He quickly sobered though. "I just… I just want him to be happy, Hermione. He means the world to me. If he ends up being hurt in the end, I'll never forgive myself."
Silence enveloped the kitchen as the two best friends brooded.
"Woah. Did someone die?" Ron joked, entering the somber kitchen.
"Haha. Very funny, Ronald. Nobody died. Harry just told Draco the reason why he didn't testify for him at his trial."
"No way! You really went through with it, mate?" Ron paused in his perusing of the cupboards for food to stare at Harry.
"Why can't you have some faith in me, Ron?" Harry whined, burying his head in his shoulders.
"Here, Ron, let me do it. You'll just mess everything up." Hermione snatched the bread loaf from Ron's hands. "It's not that Ron doesn't have faith in you, Harry… It's just that you have a tendency to run and hide from the problem. I have faith in you!" Hermione said brightly, slapping a slice of turkey ham onto the bread.
"Is that why you guarded the staircase just now?" Harry asked dryly.
Hermione dropped the plate of ham sandwich in front of Ron and huffed. "I was guarding the staircase just now because… Oh, alright. I admit defeat." She slumped onto a kitchen chair again.
Harry chuckled and pulled the loaf of bread towards himself once again.
"So, Ron. Did you find anything?" Hermione asked.
"I will tell you if Harry helps me make another sandwich." Ron smiled. Harry simply began to cut another slice of bread from the thick loaf.
"Right. So I popped by Percy's to dig around. Interesting thing. He wasn't in, but Daniel was. You remember him, right? The weird guy with the huge glasses? Hits on Harry like there's no tomorrow?"
"Yes, yes. We know who Daniel is, Ron. Please. Carry on."
"Right. Anyway, I asked Daniel to check if the Rebels have shown any signs of activity. Funny thing is, he couldn't find anything to do with the Rebels. And when I asked him about them, he panicked slightly. You know, he gave a start, kept glancing around… Then the moment I mentioned looking for Percy's file on the Rebels, he just…shut down on me. Got all frosty on me and it took him 2 bloody hours to find the darned file on the Rebels. And he barely let me take a look at it too! Thank Merlin for Percy, though.
He came back after that wasted 2 hours and…here's the file." Ron waved his wand and a thick file thumped onto the table.
Nobody moved towards the file lying innocently on the table. The prospects of the Rebels starting again were too agonizing to think about.
"Well," Hermione swallowed, hands wiping nervously on her dark blue jeans, "here goes nothing."
She opened the file and papers spilled out, then formed themselves into a neat pile. She picked up the first piece of paper and gestured for the eating men to do the same.
"Okay. Mine is based on what happened in the past. Just put these kind of papers here, alright? In case we need to review them again." Hermione gently placed the paper onto a far corner of the kitchen table and picked up another piece.
"Holy fuck." Two heads snapped up sharply. "What did you find, Ron?" Hermione asked.
"I… Ginny was right. Things are happening. It says here that Reynolds was released. Last month. Nobody has been keeping an eye on him, though. So there's not much here, except…" Ron trailed off.
"Except he has been meeting with Ginny since he entered Azkaban."
There was barely a moment for the once-Golden-Trio to absorb the implications of that sentence before the kitchen door slammed open. Remembering the last time that had happened and exactly who was behind aforementioned door, Harry tensed, right hand creeping down to his wand on the table. He needn't have bothered, because a very irate, very thin and so fucking beautiful blonde strode in, his head held high in a similar fashion to how it was once held. Harry's heart clenched painfully in his chest at the sight.
"Potter." Draco spat out, eyes flashing, although it was slightly squinted against the glare of the kitchen lights. Harry automatically dimmed it without a thought and action. Draco shivered slightly at the feel of Harry's magic in the air before he composed himself once again.
"Potter. I don't need your fucking protection. I can take care of myself."
Harry opened his mouth to protest, images of Draco lying in a pool of blood, Draco sitting so still and silent on the floor, Draco's widened eyes as a knife protruded from his chest, Draco smiling a faint smile even as a flash of Avada Kedava green engulfed him, flickered in his mind's eyes, only to stop when Draco slammed his hand down on the table.
It barely made a sound as his hand connected with the wood but Harry held his tongue, as did his two best friend, biting his lip as Draco winced.
"Let's get this clear, alright, Potter? I. Don't. Need. You. To. Be. A. Fucking. Hero. Around. Me." Draco bit off. "I was the one who decided to go against my parents. I was the one who decided to date you in public. I was the one who decided to come out to the whole school. It was me. Not you. So you can get off of your very high horse and stop trying to be a fucking hero to me because I hate it when you do that!"
"So what are you trying to say? That you-"
"I'm trying to say that I'm so fucking sick of you taking care of me like…like I'm an invalid!"
There was no sound in the room, safe for Draco panting.
"We'll… we'll just be upstairs…if you need us." Hermione ushered Ron out of the kitchen, shooting worried glances at the two males left.
"I don't- I don't want to feel this way anymore, Harry," Draco whispered.
"Feel what?"
"Like you've been giving and giving to me, but I haven't- I haven't given you anything. I mean, you've supported me in everything that I have done; you stood by me when my parents disowned me. And I haven't been giving anything back to you."
"That's not true. You gave me things too. You gave me love, and the knowledge of how it feels to really fall in love with someone, to the point where I would be willing to die for that person. You also taught me that I'm not alone in this world, that I wouldn't die alone. You gave me yourself, Draco. It's all I've asked for."
"Do you still love me?"
"Merlin, Draco, yes. I love you to the point of madness."
Draco looked down, worrying his bottom lip with his teeth. "Iloveyoutoo," he mumbled.
"What did you say, baby? I couldn't hear it."
Draco raised his head. "I said that I love you too."
There was a short pause and then…
Harry flung himself at Draco, and hugged him tightly. Draco immediately stiffened, something Harry noticed right away. He let go as if he was burnt.
"Oh Merlin, Draco. I'm so sorry. I didn't think. Are you okay?"
Draco bit his bottom lip again, hugging himself tightly. He nodded. "Yeah, yeah I'm okay. Just…just don't hug me suddenly. I might go mad." He tried to smile. "Can you…hug me again? Just go slowly. Please."
Harry smiled tenderly. "Of course."
Moving very slowly, Harry stepped forward once again and opened his arms. He wrapped them around Draco lightly, careful to have the latter's face tipped upwards to meet his eyes.
"Is this alright?" He whispered, feeling a need to do so, as though the moment there and then was very fragile. "Yeah, yeah it is." Draco smiled at him, and Harry shivered, his heart feeling considerably lighter.
"I'm sorry, Draco. I don't know how you can love me after I put you into Azkaban. You have every right to hate me."
Draco pulled away from the embrace gently and gazed at Harry.
"Since you brought that up… I've some bones to pick with you. I haven't forgiven you for putting me in Azkaban, but I want to, and I know with time I will forgive you. But it will take years, Harry. It wasn't…it was hell at Azkaban. I wanted to die every single day but then…but then I thought of you and no matter how much I wanted to hate you, I couldn't. I couldn't leave you without getting a chance to yell at you too. Harry, you have to learn how to stop over protecting me. I can take care of myself. I understand where you're coming from. I know you feel guilty for not testifying for me at my trial. You want to protect me because you didn't have a chance to protect the people you love. Sirius, Remus, your parents. You have to trust me, Harry. I can protect myself. Don't get me wrong, though. I like it when you're protective but you've gone over the line here."
"…. You like it when I'm protective?" Harry grinned.
Draco gasped in mock dismay and slapped his arm lightly. "Be serious!"
Harry immediately sobered. "I know what you're talking about, Draco. I'm truly sorry. I'm going to make it up to you, I swear."
"It's going to take years, Harry."
Harry tried to smile. "I know. I'm prepared."
Draco stared at him for a while more before a smile took over his face. "Okay." He moved back into Harry's embrace.
I love you
HPDM
Much later, the four of them gathered in the living room. Each of them held a plate with a thick slice of chocolate cake on it.
"You sure this is Molly's cake, Hermione?" Harry sniffed at it suspiciously. The last time Hermione had handed them 'Molly's cake', it had turned out to be the former's. She had lied to them about Molly baking the cake for them that day and seeing that Molly did bake for them often enough, the two men had believed her.
"I don't want to suffer from another stomachache, 'Mione." Ron whined, poking at it with his fork.
Hermione huffed. "I'm not lying this time, alright? It is from Molly this time. I swear. I even have her note!" Laughing, the rest dug in and there was silence in the room, saved for the scraping of plates with forks.
Harry watched Draco dig in eagerly, relishing the velvety taste of the chocolate on his tongue. He had to swallow repeatedly at the sight of Draco's tongue flicking out ever so often to clean his lips from any remaining chocolate.
Hermione was watching Draco too, although for entirely different reasons. Draco was stuffing the chocolate cake down his throat, and although she loathed to stop him from enjoying the food he missed over the last 7 years, she knew that too much chocolate was bad for Draco. Especially since his stomach wasn't used to the rich quality of chocolate.
"Draco," she warned softly. He had already eaten one quarter of the cake and was looking a little ill. Glancing at her, he nodded and pushed the rest of his cake to Ron, who accepted it with no fuss at all.
"You guys have been hiding something from me," Draco stated. Three pairs of widened eyes looked at him. He nodded. "I know Harry and he has been hiding something from me. All three of you, in fact. I want to know what it is. I can handle it."
Ron placed his plates on the coffee table and stared at Draco.
"You won't like it," he said quietly.
"Ron!" Harry and Hermione stage whispered.
"What? He said he can handle it! Besides, I thought you promised to not protect him so much anymore, Harry."
"It's a habit, okay? Habits are very hard to break. And why were you eavesdropping?"
"I wasn't eavesdropping! I just happened to pass by and stop changing the subject! Draco knows that we're hiding something from him so there's no use in us keeping it a secret anymore. He will find out sooner or later, anyway."
"What is it?" Draco said softly.
Harry swallowed. "I… Draco. Remember the Avengers I told you about?" He nodded slowly, curiosity in his eyes. "The leader of the group…the leader of the group is…"
Understanding flashed in Draco's eyes, followed by horror, and then acceptance.
"My mother," finished Draco.
The four of them sat there for a while, silent, each lost in their own thoughts.
"Tell me in full detail. I want to know everything." Draco demanded, his grey eyes hard and glinting with determination.
"Your mother set up the Avengers right after your father was sent to Azkaban. Nobody but her closest friends and people involved in the setting up knew what was going on, and what was going to happen. She was brilliant and she completely took us by surprise. Harry told you about the curse, right? The one that was designed to kill everybody who had betrayed the Dark Lord. The group cast the curse, and it took immediate effect. It went after people who betrayed Voldemort from the time they started serving him. Then it went after the people whose parents are Death Eaters or are supporters of Voldemort and yet chose to side with us, the Light side. We couldn't stop the curse because it was designed by your mother and nobody knew how and when it was casted. Then we found out that Azkaban was the only place safe from the curse due to its ancient wards. That's when Harry had the stupid, crazy idea to send you to Azkaban in a bid to protect you from the curse. We needed the sentence to be as heavy as possible because we were running out of time. Then the Avengers cast another curse. A curse that instilled dark thoughts into almost everybody. It's actually a very corny curse because only people who were truly in love was unaffected by it. Those who were affected went insane. Families turned against each other, and killed each other. Best friends stabbed each other in the back. Everybody was suspicious of anybody and everybody. Nobody dared to go out at all. Shops closed down, radios were shut down and the streets were basically deserted. And yet, the death rate during those times were very high. We had to go from door to door, trying to stop them from becoming dark and kill others. Again, Azkaban was the only safe place. Hogwarts wasn't even safe because of the damage done to its wards during the war. It was horrible. Children even killed each other without remorse. It took us 4 years to put an end to the madness." Hermione explained.
Draco was very still, head bowed. "Is my mother still alive?"
Hermione and Ron glanced at Harry. "No, Draco. She killed herself when we cast the counter curse. I'm sorry." Harry said hoarsely, guilt rising in his throat.
Draco's head whipped up. "I know what you're thinking, Harry James Potter," he hissed. "You're thinking that her death is your fault. It's not true. I'm not sorry that she's dead. She changed right after Father received news that Voldemort was coming back. She was no longer my mother back then, and she still isn't my mother. My real mother died when my Father started to dedicate himself to Voldemort. So her death is not your fault. Do you understand?"
Harry nodded, mouth open.
Draco exhaled and looked at them.
"I assume Ginny is part of my Mother's group. Or she's part of another. I want to know about that too."
"Okay. There was a group called the Rebels. It was made up of people who still had the darkness in them from the curse the Avengers casted. Their goal was to kidnap the Death Eaters, their families and their sympathizers and kill them all. Ginny is part of that group. It was shut down with all of the group members in Azkaban or under house arrest. They used dark spells to kidnap, torture and kill all the Death Eaters. Recently, Reynolds, the leader of the Rebels was released from Azkaban and…Ginny has been meeting with him. We're trying to find out what the group is up to but there isn't much information offered. Until then, we'll have to lie low and keep an eye on Ginny." Harry said.
Draco nodded and looked at his hands again. There was a frown on his face, and he seemed paler than normal.
"Draco, are you okay?" Harry asked worriedly.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just tired. I need time to process all this information, that's all." Draco slowly stood from the couch and he wobbled, looking faint. Harry stood up to help him, only to lunge forward with a cy as Draco fainted.
"Draco!"
A/N: I know, I know. I will try to post the next chapter within a week! Please leave me reviews again because I SWEAR the unicorn is munching them up every time I read it out loud. THANKS
