Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his world are owned by J.K. Rowling, Bloomsbury, Scholastic and Warner Brothers. I merely take Harry and Draco out to play. I own nothing but the plot.

Warnings: Slash. Hurt/Comfort.

Author's Note: Thank you to those who put me on their list of fics to follow =) Tentatively, I think I am going to update this fic on a monthly basis (I know I said I won't promise a frequency, but I think I owe it to my readers to know when to expect a new chapter). Sorry if this chapter isn't too terribly exciting…feel free to make suggestions for the fic. Happy reading!

Stirring the Pot

A man stood in the alleyway next to The Leaky Cauldron, waiting for his companion to arrive. The man was dressed in a simple black travelling cloak, and his hands were clutching onto a briefcase. There was nothing remarkable about the man's facial features—dark brown eyes, a straight nose, and a mouth set in a line. The man certainly hoped that he isn't attracting any attention to himself, and that nobody deemed him interesting enough to warrant a second glance. He wanted to blend seamlessly and anonymously into the busy Friday crowd gathered in Diagon Alley, and so far, his plan seemed to be working.

"Almost couldn't recognize you out here, you sly dog," a voice drawled.

The man turned around, and in front of him stood the companion that he has been waiting for. The other man also wore a simple black travelling cloak over his clothing, but on his feet were red dragon skin boots. He also wore a matching red scarf. Rings with precious and semi-precious stone adorn his fingers, and around his neck, a heavy silver chain adorn with a snake.

"Aren't you…being a bit too obvious?" the first man asked.

"Nonsense, you wanted us to be able to blend into the crowd, and so I dressed the part. I look fit for a night at the pub, too bad I can't say the same about you." the second man replied.

"Clovis, you know that we're not out for a night in the pub! I don't want ANYBODY to give us a second a glance, as you know the topic of discussion tonight is highly confidential and sensitive and if anybody gets any word of it, we're both doomed."

"As usual, you are just too paranoid. But alright, whatever, have things your way, Almeric," and here, the man named Clovis threw up his hands in mock defeat, "Where to?"

"There's a bar in Muggle London not far from here. I thought we could go there to discuss things tonight,"

"Alm, you know Muggles serve plebeian drinks. The stuff that they pride themselves on tastes like shit. And they leave a horrible after taste in your mouth. And the Muggle servers all want too much tips, and the women working there seem to think that their lack of assets is something really worth looking at. You want us to discuss the situation in a hell hole like that? Don't you have any fine pureblood taste in you? "

"I don't want to be overheard, and Muggles won't know what we're talking about anyway. And you can always discretely change your drinks. Stop complaining. Either we do things my way, or we're not doing anything at all. And you won't get any of the nice rewards."

"Alright alright alright. Kick me where it hurts. To the plebeian Muggle pub it is. Although I don't know why you want to be so hush hush about the whole thing. We aren't exactly doing anything wrong, technicality aside. The Malfoy boy would've already received his fate by owl this afternoon."

"Do not mention the name! We will discuss things at the bar" Almeric hissed at Clovis, grabbed his wrist, and with a turn, the pair was gone.

Harry watched his boyfriend toss and turn in his sleep, wondering for the millionth time what the news from Gringotts was. It must have been something devastating—Harry had not seen his boyfriend so upset before. Harry had never seen the look of absolute despair, loss and hurt in Draco's beautiful stormy grey eyes before, Harry had never heard those heart-wrenching sobs from Draco before, and Harry had never felt more helpless while rocking Draco and comforting him.

Somehow, Harry had managed to stay strong for Draco as Draco held onto Harry. Somehow, Harry had managed to convince Draco that there was a solution, a lifeline, somewhere out there for whatever Draco was going through. Mostly importantly, Harry had managed to convince Draco that all was not lost, and that he would be always by Draco's side, no matter what happened.

Now Harry could only hope that he would be able to deliver the promised assurances to Draco.

The bed creaked and Harry focused his attention back to Draco. After Harry's arrival to the bar, Draco had proceeded to down drinks after drinks and pints after pints. It was a testament to how much Draco had drank when the Harry picked up Draco's tab and the figure was more than what Harry had ever imagined possible. After Draco drank himself into a stupor, Harry had Apparated them both back to their house. Draco then promptly vomited in the foyer, and passed out in his own vomit. Harry then magicked Draco clean, changed Draco out of his dirty clothes, and levitated him to the bed in their bedroom. After making sure that Draco was comfortably tucked under the comforter, Harry had sat by the bedside, ready to tend to Draco's every need.

"Harry…?" Draco croaked, his voice rough and coarse.

"Yes love?" Harry had moved closer to Draco, intertwining their fingers together "I'm here."

"Hurts…" Draco opened his eyes, searching for Harry. He was pushing himself up to a sitting position "Really hurts…"

"What hurts my love? I have some Pain Potion ready, and a vial of Hangover Potion too" Harry hooked his arm underneath Draco's and helped him with sitting up in bed.

"My head…feels like it's going to explode. The lighting is too bright in here. I want to cuddle you honey. Harry…" Draco sat up in bed, but vomited on the sheets as a wave of nausea hit him "…I'm so sorry. I'm such a mess right now. A failure."

"That's alright Dray, don't worry about the sheets. I can clean them—" Harry waved his wand, casted a nonverbal Evanesco and Scourgify , and the sheets were good as new "—and I will get you the Pain Potion and the Hangover Potion right now love. I will be back, Iove." Harry then carefully extricated himself from Draco to fetch the potions from the kitchen cabinet.

When Harry returned back to the room, he found Draco crying into the sheets, trying to muffle his sobs. Harry's heart clenched at the sight—Draco was so vulnerable and so fragile right now that all Harry wanted to do was to fix whatever it was bothering Draco. Harry had promised Draco that he'd take care of him, and to provide him with happiness for the rest of his life when they had gotten together, and Harry intend to go through with the promise.

Putting the potions on the dresser, Harry gathered Draco in his arms, and held onto him as Draco cried. Harry patted Draco on the back, whispered sweet nothings into Draco's ears, and kissed Draco's tears away. Harry continued holding onto Draco long after the sobs subsided, wanting to surround Draco with his love and comfort. Harry cuddled Draco in silence, holding onto Draco, wanting Draco to know from his actions that Harry loved him dearly, and would be by his side in dealing with whatever the news was.

"Harry?" Draco asked, his voice muffled by Harry's shirt.

"Yes love?"

"I think I'm ready for the potions now, and then, I think we need to talk."

Harry poured a dose of Pain Potion for Draco, cozied up to Draco in bed, and waited for Draco to start talking. While he would very much like to initiate the conversation, Zabini's words echoed in Harry's head. Harry would not want to push Draco to talk when he is not ready, and after seeing how vulnerable Draco is in his current state, Harry did not want Draco to feel obliged to tell him anything. Sure, Harry wanted to know what was bothering his boyfriend, but he did not want to force Draco to do anything that he didn't want to do. After several long minutes of silence, Draco started talking.

"You know…telling you all this will be difficult for me Harry. I don't normally like to…air my dirty laundry, so to speak. I have my Malfoy pride, although I am not too terribly proud to be a Malfoy right now. My Father…was what he was. My Mother…I think she tried to be doting mother to me and loving, supportive wife to my Father, but there was only so much she could do…Hold me please Harry, I need your strength for this. I can't do this on my own…"

Harry wrapped his arms around Draco, and rested his head on Draco's shoulder. Draco leaned back into Harry and continued talking.

"Thanks love…now, as you know, after the War, Father was convicted to a life sentence to Azkaban and he was to receive the Kiss immediately upon his arrival. He was Kissed, and just like that, I was now the new master of the Malfoy money, assets and land. Father left me a considerable amount of things to attend to—Father may be stingy with his money, but he sure knew how to invest and have a grand fortune all for himself. Too bad he never got around to using any of that, which is not a shame at all. I wouldn't want him to lord over anybody anymore just because he has money."

"And so I inherited his money. I didn't want to deal with it. I was perfectly happy to just donate everything away—I had my own money from The Perfect Potion, and I didn't need or want to tend to Father's business. As far as I'm concerned, he stopped being my Father when he forced me to get in ranks with Lord Voldemort. What kind of father gives his son to the Dark Lord when there was nothing but death and torture to be gained from it? My Father considered it the height of honour that he was offering his only son for service with the Dark Lord. I considered it as a low blow to get on the Dark Lord's good side after losing his credit with the Voldemort."

Draco paused to compose himself before finishing his tale.

"I should've listened to my gut feeling about not tending to Father's assets. I only took care of Father's assets because of Mother. Without Father's money, Mother had no money to spend, as by wizarding law, a woman is to be given money by her father prior to getting married and by her husband after getting married. My Father's assets and money was the only source of income my Mother can get. As Father is not dead yet, just soulless, she was tied to his fortunes."

"And so I took care of Father's assets for Mother. I didn't touch one single Knut of it. As far as I was concerned, they were Mother's money now. I was just merely responsible for handing the transactions and for making decisions with regards to investments and other financial decisions. It went relatively well until now. I had no idea that my Father was such a callous, soulless man. The Dementors guarding him have more soul that he ever will."

"You see, Harry, every month, a large sum of money would appear in my Father's account. I didn't know what it was for, who it was from, or even where it was from. But like clockwork, at the beginning of each month, a large sum of money would be deposited into the account. I asked Mother, and she didn't know, but guessed that it must have been the profit for some of his venture. Father had many ventures for monetary gain on the side, and I didn't take too much notice of it."

"That is, until now. Gringotts received intelligence that the large sum of money that appeared each month in the vault was indeed one of Father's ventures…but it wasn't your typical business venture. You see, from the evidence that Gringotts was able to gather, Father scammed innocent witches and wizards of their money, and the money that comes into the vault at the beginning of each month is the monthly "payment" to my Father from the vaults of the people he scammed. After uncovering this, Gringotts now requests that I pay the sum of money of all back, plus any interest that have accumulated on the scammed money. I am officially ruined by my fucking Father. "

Harry was puzzled. How was Draco ruined? Surely, there must be a way around that. There's got to be. Draco wasn't the one to incur the money from scamming, Lucius was. And if they need to pay the money back…the sum may be large, but surely, between the two of them, they can cover the tab?

"Dray, I can help you pay the money back, and I can ask Hermione to help you with the legal side of things. There isn't a single thing Hermione can't make right." Harry looked expectantly at his boyfriend, expecting Draco to add to his plan.

"No Harry, I'm ruined. And if you help me, you will be ruined too. There isn't a thing that Hermione can do for me. I've read the contract myself. I had taken over Father's vault, what was his is now mine. And that includes the scam money." Draco paused, rubbed his forehead tiredly before locking his eyes with Harry's.

"And the amount of money that I now owe is ten times the money in both our vaults and the value of this house."