AN:Yeah, new chapter. It's been a while since I last updated and I was suddenly struck with inspiration. Thank you so much for the reviews as they've been a major encouragement. Now, on with the chapter.
Severus was going absolutely nuts waiting for Bruce and Harry to get back from their nightly venture in the city. He threw himself into his favorite chair by the fire and picked up his tea on the small table next to him. Taking a long pull from the steaming cup he sighed heavily as he put it back down. He was more worried than usual and he couldn't figure out why. He would never admit to it. Never! Severus Snape would never admit he was worried like some ordinary housewife. Bruce did this sort of thing every night and there was certainly no reason why he should worry about him. Potter especially!
That was when he started to pace again.
It was Bruce's fault really. Bruce was the one who wanted to gallivant in spandex every chance he got all because he had a strong sense of justice. Let him get into trouble! Severus frowned at his own thought before turning to glare into the fire.
No, he would never wish that one anyone. He knew trouble, went through it regularly as a Death Eater, and he knew better than to purposely want someone to waltz into an unwanted situation. Severus sat back down in his chair and picked up his tea cup again but held it in midair. Glancing at the clock he scowled and then cast a Tempus spell and frowned even deeper. That's strange, Severus thought, they should've been back by now. As he brought his tea to his lips a loud Pop! resounded through the room.
Harry was still in Snake garb, his eyes wild, as his eyes searched through the room frantically before spotting him.
"Severus!" Harry strode to him, "Batman's in trouble! We were in pursuit of the Lestranges when I lost track of both of them! I was looking for them again when Bats contacted me! He sounded like he was in distress when he told me to come find you!"
Snape's eyes darkened as his eyelids lowered to slits. "Where is he?"
Harry wrapped his arms around Severus' torso and looked up into his eyes determined. "He's at the docks. The reception's terrible down there. Bruce's transmissions were getting cut off. It'll be better if I apparate us there."
"Do it." With that they were gone.
SSBWDMHP SSBWDMHP SSBWDMHP SSBWDMHP SSBWDMHP SSBWDMHP
There were times that Batman could remember that he panicked and he could count them on a single hand. Once when he was originally afraid bats, once when Dick was being particularly childish in his training lessons, and once when Harry had Dragon Pox. Now he could count this one to be another time.
He was dangling helplessly over a good twenty feet of water by a levitation spell and had both a binding spell and a heavy weight charm placed on himself by Bellatrix Lestrange. Her husband had been waiting for the rest of his leftover Death Eater comrades with a bottle of firewhisky in his hand. Bruce was desperately trying to think of a way out of his situation but could find nothing off the top of hid head. It's times like these I really, really wish I wasn't a squib! He thought as he allowed his body to fall limp. He hated giving up but there was really nothing he could do but hope that his back up arrived.
"Crucio!"
Bruce tried desperately not to scream but couldn't help but express his agony. He writhed and screamed as he felt as if every cell in his body was on fire. Severus! Please! Find me! Bruce thought as he was released from the curse.
"Awe, what's 'e matter Batsy? Can't take a wittle pain?" Bellatrix cackled and sent a slashing hex at his torso.
Batman's breathing was heavy but he made no sound as blood flowed freely from his wound. The crazed woman glared and sent a another four slashing hexes to his torso and then three to the back. The hero's eye merely twitched but still no sound came from his sealed lips.
"Come now Batman! A muggle like yourself should know that screaming makes a woman like me get a little...excited." Bellatrix cooed.
He chuckled darkly. "That makes you sadistic and ugly."
Bellatrix screeched like a banshee. "You'll pay for that you filthy muggle!"
"What's this muggle you keep talking about? If I'd have known any better I'd say you were calling me a-"
"Crucio!"
He knew goading and taunting villains was a bad idea but he couldn't help it. Anything to keep her distracted from the movement that escaped her eye but caught his.
"You're lucky we're waiting for company or else you'd be at the bottom of the ruddy ocean by now." The madwoman sneered.
"Technically it's a doc-"
"Shut your mouth Bats or I'll shut it for you!" This time the threat came from the annoyed husband.
Batman glared at his foes and held his head up high. It wouldn't do to let Severus and Harry know he'd given up just yet. Then, the light turned on in his mind. "You said you're expecting company..."
"Just some friends of ours, Batty boy! If you know what's good for you, you'll shut your gob." Rodolphus speech was beginning to slur from the alcohol.
"Some more from the UK? Pretty soon you'll have me talking like you guys. Although, I'm not that adverse to keeping a British accent."
"Crucio! Didn't we tell you to shut your gob? Merlin you're annoying!" Bellatrix growled before grabbing the bottle of firewhisky and taking a pull.
That was when several apparations signaled the other arrivals of their comrades. Batman quickly took a head count. About half a dozen death eaters and two of them he knew were very much on their side. "Well, well, well, the parties all here." Batman snarked and earned a slapping hex for his troubles.
"Silence filth!" A Death Eater hissed. He wasn't very well known since Bruce didn't know him by name.
"Now, Caeal, let's not be rash. Batman, a pleasure to see you again." A familiar drawl came from his right.
"Lucius, if I knew you were going to be here I would've cleaned up. Tell me, how's Draco."
"Right here, Bats. Still flying around Gotham like a pansy?" Draco sneered.
Lucius threw his son a look that silenced him. "Bella, I trust you kept our guest entertained."
Bellatrix rolled her eyes. "Stop the bloody pleasantries Lucius let's get on with it!"
Before anyone could do anything more one of the gathered men had fell to the ground along with the person to his right. The remaining Death Eaters turned to look behind them and saw nothing. Bellatrix snarled and fired off a hex at a nearby crate blasting it to smithereens. "We're being ambushed!" She yelled and ran for cover.
Batman suddenly felt a presents behind him. "Snake?"
"Quickly, what enchantments do they have on you?" A deep voice rumbled in his ear.
Severus! "A heavy weight charm, a binding spell, and a levitation charm."
"The last one was quite obvious, Batman." Severus whispered. "As soon as you're released make for the barrels at 2 o'clock where I will give you some potions. Snake is playing guerilla warfare with Draco and Lucius."
"Muggle history, Severus? I'm impressed." Bruce was suddenly falling to the ground where he rolled and took off for his designated location.
"He's getting away, you fools!" Bellatrix screeched and began firing off whatever spells she could. Batman jumped and somersaulted over a few barrels of oil just as more curses were flung his way.
Severus suddenly appeared and dropped Harry's invisibility cloak to the side before handing Bruce some potions to ingest. Swallowing them in haste Bruce was about to jump back into action when Snape pulled his head back down behind their hiding place. "Relocate first. You need to get cleaned up before you pass out from blood loss. I do not permit you to bleed to death before I get you in bed at least one more time." Severus growled.
Bruce smirked. "I love you too, sweetheart." He then quickly moved further into the maze of large carrier crates.
"Sweetheart?! I'll give you sweetheart!" Severus hissed as he picked up the cloak and followed Batman to beat him to a pulp, regardless of his bleeding state.
Meanwhile, Snaked had slipped his wand into it's holster to sprint to his next location. Apparation was too loud and would give out his location so he moved swiftly and deftly around the dock to locate the rest of the Death Eaters. Right. Left. Left. Jump onto a carrier. A bit more running and another jump. He loved this kind of stuff. He quickly jumped down into a shaded area and crept along until he saw an open area where two figures were conversing.
"Father said specifically to turn back if this kind of situation should arise. You know what could happen should we fail to kill the Bat and his lizard." Harry pouted. A lizard! Snakes are much more sophisticated than a lizard!
"I couldn't give a damn what your poof of a father said! Batman and Snake are gonna pay for putting the rest of us in Azkaban! I'm not afraid of some prats in tights!" The other man snarled and grabbed platinum blonde hair.
"For one," Harry threw his binding wire at the Death Eater's torso and ensnared him with his arms at his sides, "you should be afraid, mate. While Batman and I may be merciful, the dementors won't be. And secondly, don't you know not to touch a Malfoy's hair? A serious offense I can tell you. I couldn't get those boils off my arse for a week!"
"Served you right trying to muss up perfection. Just because your hair is atrocious doesn't mean the rest of us need to look like we just rolled out of bed."
"That's because I do just roll out of bed."
"Even further proving my point."
"Well, I don't see why I should try to do anything with it. It'll never lie flat!"
"Did you try some of Severus' oil?"
"Are you mad? I like Severus but really-"
"Are you two quite finished?"
Harry and Draco looked down at their captive and grinned. "Righto! Sorry about that. Don't mind us!" Snake hefted the man over his shoulder and made his way through the maze of large crates with Draco on his heels.
About an hour later the American Auror division rounded up the remaining Death Eaters to be taken to Azkaban Prison while Bruce, Severus, Lucius, Draco, and Harry returned to Wayne Manor for the night.
About a week later Harry was almost bouncing in anticipation of his sixteenth birthday. He wasn't looking forward to his NEWT's but he was looking forward to spending time with Draco all year.
He loved his best friends like his own family. Ron his overprotective and chess loving brother, Hermione his clever and book worshiping sister, and Draco...
What was Draco to him?
He had been thinking about that ever since his first kiss with Cho right before he left for the summer holidays. It was a tiny, insignificant, kiss on the cheek that should've made him swoon like a woman but...it didn't. Of course, it didn't help that the only reason why she gave him that kiss was because he saved Cedric.
No one expected Harry to pull out the muggle semi-automatic gun from his back pocket and shoot the Dark Lord in the head.
Bang!!!
Silence ripped through the graveyard. Everyone was too shocked to do anything as they watched Voldemort fall lifelessly to the ground. Bellatrix was the first to move to her fallen lord and start weeping bitterly. That caused the others to apparate away before others could show up.
"Bellatrix! We have to move!"
"No! I won't leave him! I won't leave our lord to desecrate his body!"
Rodolphus thus grabbed her arm and dragged her bodily away from the scene. He turned to look at Harry dead in the eye and snarl, "This isn't over, Potter!" With that, they left with a Pop!
Severus stood speechless and cautiously followed behind Harry as he approached the dead body. "Potter?"
Harry stood like a statue for a moment before raising the gun and took aim.
"HARRY!"
BANG! BANG! BANGBANGBANG!!!
The Potions Professor stood stalk still and gaped in shock at the boy's moment lapse of sanity. Bloody barely flowed from the five additional rounds fired into the chest of the corpse. Snape sighed in relief and approached Harry from behind and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "It's over, Potter. It's done." Severus said gently and briefly looked over his shoulder to an ashen Cedric Diggory. Diggory merely nodded, more worried about Harry's mental state than anything else at the moment. He wasn't the one with the gun.
"Harry?" Severus couldn't believe his own voice was that tentative.
The young man dropped the gun and then began to sway. Severus deftly caught him and pulled him into his chest before kneeling and cradling the smaller body against his own. He rocked their bodies to and fro whispering, "It's finally over."
Harry smiled as he thought of the tender moment that showed Severus' soft side. He knew it would be a while before another moment like that occurred so he made it sink into his memory for future reference.
After that, he remembered, Severus apparated him, Cedric, and the corpse back to the stadium temporarily built for the Tournament and sighed as the masses gasped in horror. He silently thanked whatever gods there were for getting them back safely.
So when Cho kissed him in thanks he felt nothing and gloriously...free. That soon developed into cold dread about a week later when he and Draco were hiding from Ron and Hermione after pushing the two together in an involuntary embrace that had them blushing from head to toe. As the two were catching their breath Harry noticed Draco as if seeing him for the first time. Flushed cheeks, silly grin, and grey eyes filled with laughter. Harry watched Draco's chest rise and fall with every breath he took. "Something wrong, Harry?" inquired Draco with a raised brow. The raven haired boy shook himself out of his thoughts and replied, "No, nothing at all."
Oh contraire.
Ever since then Harry carefully assessed his thoughts about his best friend and even compared him to his other year mates. Blaise Zabini was okay to look at and Nott was easy on the eyes but no one of significance could pop into his head. Ron was...no. Hermione...nuh uh. Seamus Finnigan was all right looking too but, again, nothing. He couldn't describe his other friends the way he could describe Draco. Draco was smart, funny, cunning, beautiful, sexy-
Harry shot up from his bed where he'd been laying for part of the morning. Where did that come from? He thought and ran a hand through his hair. Another shocking discovery he thought of was that he only thought of one girl. One, just one, female out of all his class mates. Quick! Think, Harry, think! Um...Lavender! Ew. Pans- ugh. Pavarti. Padma. Ginny. Luna. Nonononono! Nothing. They did nothing for him!
But Draco. Even thinking of his name gave him a weird feeling in his stomach and it made him smile and think of a song he heard on the radio recently. "It starts in my toes and I crinkle my nose..." He put his hands behind his head and sang softly. A knock at his door interrupted his musings. "It's open!" He called and started humming again.
"Happy birthday, old man!" Draco poked his head through the door with a big grin on his face. Harry laughed and watched as the blonde sauntered his way to his bed before crawling and flopping down on his back next to him. "When is everyone else arriving?"
"Not for another three hours. I'm bored as hell and Bruce told me not to leave my room until then. I'm going mad Draco!"
The blonde laughed and flipped onto his stomach. "Let's...I don't know. Let's play a game, yeah?"
Harry turned on his sighed. "What game shall we play then?"
"Birthday boy gets to choose!"
"You always do that!"
"What?"
"You always tell me to choose what to with some excuse! Like yesterday you told me to pick what we should have for dinner because I got more O's on our OWL's than you did!"
"And you should be proud! The only people to out score me are you and Puff Ball!"
"Hermione's a given, Dray."
"At least I beat Weasel." Draco said with satisfaction.
Harry looked him in the eye. "Draco, dearest, Seamus beat Ron."
"What does Finnigan have to do with anything?"
"Seamus doesn't have enough time between buggering Dean and...well buggering Dean to do any homework. Ron always gets caught cheating off Hermione. McGonagall keeps telling him that she's been spelling his work."
Draco remained silent and huffed before crossing his arms. "Doesn't matter, I'm third in the class." He grumbled and pouted.
"Hey!" Harry poked Draco in the side and watched him squirm. "Let's jump on the bed!"
"What are you? Five?"
"I act my shoe size, not my age."
The blonde cocked and eyebrow.
"A contradiction to a muggle saying to 'act your age and not your shoe size'.
"Right. So, jumping on the bed?"
Harry smirked and arched his legs and pushing off into a standing position, wobbling a little bit because of the softness of the mattress. His companion merely rolled his eyes and got up to start jumping on the bed.
So for the next two hours the two jumped on the bed, had a pillow fight, a water fight, dropped water balloons off of the balcony on Sirius' head, and sang as loud as they could with the radio. They were interrupted by Alfred alerting them that they had an hour to get ready for the party. That, of course, sent Draco into a panic. He rushed out of the room saying, "Nooooo! I need time for my hair!" Harry calmly walked into his bathroom and got ready for his party.
Bruce Wayne made sure all of his guests were entertained before harry made his appearance for the night. Everyone was dressed in semiformal attire, so, therefore, Bruce wore a shirt and tie. Severus, however, decided to do a bit of teasing and wore firm fitting black slacks and a black, button down shirt with the first two buttons left open. He looked for Dick and spotted him conversing with Sirius and Remus Lupin, Hogwart's Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher of three years. Who would've thought that the werewolf would be the one to break the curse? He watched as Lucius Malfoy approached Dick and tapped him on the shoulder before engaging him in conversation. Bruce smiled at the small blush that formed on his friend's cheeks. Now that everyone was present and accounted for they just needed the main event and his hip attachment.
Speak of the devil. Bruce thought as Harry and Draco walked through the door to party room. "Happy birthday, Harry!" everyone cheered and clapped, making Harry blush and smile. He immediately spotted Ron and Hermione within the crowd and dragged Draco with him by the wrist; not that he minded.
"Thanks for coming guys!" The birthday boy hugged them both and immediately began talking about their day. By the end of their conversation they were all laughing hysterically.
"And then-and then- ha ha ha! And then Sirius looks up and says, 'You better stop droppin' those water balloons or, I swear Harry, I'll turn into a dog and bite your ankles!" they burst into laughter but three out of four of them spotted the two figures behind Harry's back. "So, then, Severus says-"
"Harry Potter, if you say another word I'll make due on my threat!"
Harry turned around and laughed at his godfather, "Hi, Sirius, didn't see you there!"
Remus was chuckling behind his hand as Sirius huffed and ruffled Harry's hair. "It's time for cake, kiddo. Bruce wants to you to unwrap your presents soon. But what I think is-"
"Not important at the moment, love." Remus shook his head and grabbed his arm, steering him away towards the gathered crowd.
It wasn't until later that night Harry was able to collapse on his bed with a contented sigh. Draco soon followed him after and snuggled up to his side to fall asleep. Maybe, Harry thought, just maybe... He wrapped his arms around Draco and breathed deeply, taking in his scent.
...I wouldn't mind thinking of Draco like that...
"It starts in my soul and I lose all control..."
Draco sighed in his sleep where Harry followed soon after.
