A/N at the end.

I was trying to escape. Well, why else would I be in the dungeons bellow Voldemort's stronghold? It was certainly not my intention to be tortured for the last three days. Now, finally, Pettigrew came through on his life debt to me, at the cost of his sanity. Voldemort had gotten smarter, and his followers could not disobey him without madness, or death. So here I was, creeping through the dungeons, searching for a way out before anyone realised I was gone.

I don't know why I opened that door. There was nothing to separate it from any other door around me, leading to more cells and more corridors, but never and stairs leading up. But open it I did, on a whim.

And I saw a dirty blonde head shoot up in fear. Then the face became puzzled, as did mine. I recognised this boy. But where…

It hit me and I backed up in shock. Draco Malfoy, who had disappeared over the summer holidays, was staring up at me in confusion. What had happened to him? He looked starved, beaten and not a little dirty. Draco Malfoy would never let his hair get in that state!

"Malfoy?" I whispered, my shock evident. The boy merely looked up at me with a puppy dog expression.

"Are you going to keep me safe?" he whispered, his voice childlike, pleading and obviously not expecting kindness.

I don't know how long we stared at each other. It couldn't have been long but it seemed like forever. I couldn't get my head around what Lucius Malfoy had allowed to happen to his own son. The way he was curled into a tiny ball, reminding me of myself as a child, hiding in my cupboard from my uncle, my only sanctuary.

I was jolted out of my reverie when there was a slamming door and shouting from a long way off. They had discovered my escape.

Cursing I poked my head out into the still empty corridor. Looking back at the wretched ball I made my decision.

I ran over to Draco Malfoy and grabbed his arms. "We're getting out of here, Malfoy," I said quickly, "Follow me and keep quiet, one word and they might find us. I'm going to keep you safe, Draco." The boy said nothing as I hauled him up, slowly realising he was not going to be able to take care of himself. I dragged him through corridor after corridor, and finally found some stairs.

We took them quickly, Draco following silently all the while, cowering behind me fearfully.

To be honest I don't know how we escaped. I know we were in a fight at one point, and without a wand we were helpless to fight the Cruciatus curse directed at us. I refused to cry out. It was hard, so hard, yet the Cruciatus was nothing compared to being possessed by Voldemort. Cruciatus I could handle easily if the alternative was that.

All I know is that when I woke up I was in the hospital wing. I remembered little from my imprisonment, and I think that is for the best, really, considering the state I was in upon waking three weeks after rescue. I quickly healed after that, my magic waking up and getting to work on my now conscious body.

There was one thing I remembered, however, that no one mentioned. So, on the day that I was to leave the hospital wing, I asked Madam Pomfrey the question that had been pestering me all the while.

"What happened to Malfoy?"

She stared at me sternly then turned. I followed and she walked through a wall. I blinked but followed nevertheless, and entered into a private, secret ward. It had only two inhabitants, and the one I didn't know was an adult, and unconscious. The other, blond hair limp but now recognisable as the Malfoy silver, was sitting looking out of a window, curled up into a tiny, miniscule ball.

"Draco," Madam Pomfrey called quietly as they approached. The boy jerked and turned to face us fearfully. "Draco, it's Poppy. There is someone to see you, Draco." She pulled Harry beside her, bending down to Draco's level. "This is Harry, Draco. Do you remember Harry?" she watched intently as the boy searched over me intently. Slowly he nodded, then shook his head, then nodded again, obviously not sure. She smiled kindly and settled me across from Draco on the window seat. "Why don't you talk to him, and see if that helps, hmm?" Draco made no reply other than to stare at me warily.

I have to admit I was staring at him too. He was still small, far shorter than I remember him ever being. He looked about my height, and I realise that before last summer we had been the same height; he merely stood higher than he was.

His eyes, silver or blue I can't tell to this day, were slightly dull, and full of confusion, innocence, and fear. I knew this was not the Draco Malfoy I knew. I know now it was, but his mask, so firmly crafted through his life, had been ripped away from him.

"Hi," I said awkwardly, not knowing what else to say.

"Hi," he whispered back.

"You're Draco, right?" I asked, feeling silly. Somehow I was acting as though I had never met him. I think it was a defence, now.

"Yes." Simple, truthful, and unelaborated.

"I'm Harry." I stuck out my hand. He flinched, I think but I was too nervous to notice really.

He was looking at it curiously though. I realised he didn't know what to do and started to babble.

"You shake hands, when you're introduced to people, 'cause it's polite and you don't know them and it says you want to be nice and polite and you don't have to but you just put your hand in mine and we sort of… shake, like this, just up and down once or twice, but if you don't it's sort of rude and people don't like it much, and-" he raised his hand to mine tentatively and we shook hands. I told you I begun to babble, didn't I? I was beat red by the time we let go hands, and smiled awkwardly. He returned the smile tentatively, and somewhere inside something threatened to burst with happiness.

An hour later Madam Pomfrey returned. Draco had shown me his bed, and the book he was reading. It was a story book, and he seemed engrossed in it. He seemed quite pleased with his bed, claiming it was his own, as was the book. We talked quietly, and I grew more and more comfortable.

The Healer looked shocked to see us talking together while sitting on Draco's bed when she came through the wall, which looked like a normal opening from this side, the door wide open to show the other ward. I realised, later on, that it must have been a portal, because the view from the windows in each room was different, the secret one over looking the Quidditch pitch, the other the lake and outside the Entrance Hall.

She ushered me out quickly, but not too quickly that I couldn't say goodbye to Draco. She interrogated me as soon as we were out of earshot, and finally told me that Draco had said not one word to anyone since retuning, through he would watch the main ward religiously. She asked me if I would mind returning to keep him company. For some reason that I didn't understand back then I accepted.

Really, it was worth all the fuss Hermione and Ron gave me when I went to see him the next day, and his face lit up as his hand extended to shake.

Slowly he grew more open around me. He stopped flinching when I moved suddenly and when I bought some homework with me one day, needing to get away from Hermione and Ron, who had gotten together just before Christmas, just a day before I went missing, he stole a quill and parchment and began to draw. I was surprised at how well he drew, and the next time I went I took him pencil and paper. He found them much easier to draw with, though he nearly burst out crying in fear when he broke the pencil lead. I sharpened it for him quickly and calmed his trembling lip under my thumb. I blushed when I realised what I was doing and moved back to my homework again.

Three weeks after I left the hospital wing I was doing my potions homework on Draco's bed. The ward was empty other than us, and I was muttering under my breath. Hermione and Ron had disappeared again. I couldn't blame them, really, but I couldn't remember the last time I had had any time to ask Hermione about class work without her becoming distracted. I was falling behind slightly. Nothing to worry about, but having missed two weeks of school I was getting worried.

"The reaction of chuckweed with daisy is… is… chuckweed is a root, daisy is skin, root and skin is… healing… but chuckweed induces sleep…"

"It thickens the mixture while encouraging the separate parts to meld together, like a wound, then it makes the mixture settle." I stared at Draco in shock. He was frowning at himself, obviously as stunned as I that he had remembered that.

"Thanks," I said, stunned. I quickly wrote that down before looking back at him. "Who taught you that?" I asked casually.

He frowned deeper. "Don't remember." He admitted finally. "He had black hair." I blinked.

"Did he have… a big nose, like this?" I demonstrated Snape's hooked nose. He nodded.

That night I asked Colin Creevey if I could look through all his photo albums. I bought a spare album from him and, with his help, placed copies of many of the photos in the album. He didn't ask what I needed it for; I think many of the Gryffindor's knew what I was doing half the time. It didn't seem to matter to them. Instead they seemed to want to help me, in discrete, quiet ways.

I never deserved my friends, they did so much for me. Still, I managed to repay them, though it was too late for some.

Next time I saw Draco I showed him the album. He recognised over half the people in it, and remembered names. I laughed and jumped with glee, startling him until I dragged him up onto his feet and hugged him tightly, startling us both. I stared at him for a moment, fearing his reaction, and when he didn't flee I did it again, slower this time, and slowly his hands came up around my waist.

We over balanced after a moment and sprawled on his bed. I laughed as we bounced and saw him smile shyly.

Soon I had him bouncing too, and, once he got the hang of it, he was jumping from bed to bed and laughing with me. I hadn't heard him laugh yet and found that it was like music, a song I wanted to hear all over again.

A/N; Well here's the first fic. The plan with this one was to make it a HP/DM romantic slash fic, in which Draco never fully recovered all his memory, and became a very sweet, happy character. This ends abruptly, but thats going to be a common theme I'm afraid. Next one in the next couple of days :)