Title: On the Wings of Redemption

By: Aina Song

Fandom(s): Harry Potter/ Yu Yu Hakusho

Genre: Yaoi

Rating: NC-17

Warning(s): Some Het; Language; OOC; Depression; Attempted Suicide; Vampiric Action.

Pairing(s): Yeah, like that's not obvious.

Reviews: Yes, please! For the love of God, someone give me a cookie!

Author's Note: Standard Disclaimer. This story was not written for money. Compliant with the book series. Guest-starring a character from Twilight.

Another Note: This story, unbelievably, took me little over two years to complete! *whew* It has, by far, become the longest project in my arsenal. Writer's block was a constant dark cloud over my head, and many chapters had to be re-written. But I feel very proud of myself for having stuck through it, and I eagerly await the response of my readers. Enjoy!

Teaser: Leave the past where it belongs. Let its hurts wash over you, accept them, but then let them go. Do not turn back. Keep moving forward. Time heals all.

Chapter Seven - Sleeping Within My Blood

"You're defending him? Malfoy?"

"Yes," Harry insisted, stroking Esmiril's feathers, the bird standing quite calmly upon his upraised knee.

Ron Weasley exchanged a stunned glance with Hermione Granger, who seemed no less surprised but did appear to be making an effort to understand. "Harry," she reasoned, "perhaps your mind is still a bit muddled after yesterday's attack-"

"Don't call it that," he quietly interrupted, green eyes gone steely. The soft-spoken command startled her into silence, and they both stared at him. Esmiril crooned plaintively - during his outburst Harry had stopped stroking the bird's feathers, his hand just hovering there. The bird nipped at Harry's fingers, but Harry ignored it for the moment. He looked both of his best friends in the eye, one after the other. "Listen to me. I've had to evade or survive attacks every year since finding out I was a wizard. Now the source of all that trouble is gone. Over the summer I had to relearn how to live a life that didn't involve constantly looking over my shoulder. I'm trying to start over."

When his friends suddenly looked uncomfortably guilty, he knew he'd gotten his point across. "I don't want it going around that I was attacked - you know how something like that could be blown out of proportion. And I especially don't want it spread that Malfoy had been the one to try it. What happened yesterday was an accident," he emphasized. "And if Malfoy hadn't been there… The least either of you could do is stop being so bloody suspicious of him and let him be. Even his own Housemates are shunning him these days; do you really want to be like that? I mean, come on, Hermione, didn't you once go on about 'magical co-existence' and cooperation between the Houses? Shouldn't that apply to everyone?"

A chagrined silence fell then, as his words sank in. Most surprisingly, it was Ron who chewed guiltily at a corner of his lip as he looked up again. "Even the Slytherins, eh?"

"Yeah," Harry answered, finally going back to stroking Esmiril's feathers, the bird crooning with great pleasure that he was again paying attention. "Almost makes me want to take their wands away and sic the Dursleys on them…"

Ron's mouth tugged in a hesitant smile, and Hermione leaned forth to give Harry's hand a squeeze.

It was another ten minutes or so before they finally left the hospital wing. Harry dropped his hand and sank back against his pillows with a heavy sigh. Esmiril nipped playfully at his fingers but did not otherwise complain, choosing instead to perch upon the railing at the foot of the bed and preen its feathers.

Hearing a soft disturbance to his left, Harry turned his head in time to watch the drapes of a nearby bed be pushed aside to reveal Draco Malfoy sitting upon its mattress. The blond dropped his arm, looking up with an inexplicable light in his grey eyes. "You didn't have to, you know. I told you I didn't mind."

"I know," Harry replied as quietly.

Malfoy stood, coming over to claim again the chair he had been sitting in the day before, which Hermione had only minutes before abandoned. Glimpsing again the burn mark embracing Malfoy's wrist as the blond rested his arm atop that of the chair, Harry knew a moment of renewed curiosity. "How'd you get that?"

The blond had no trouble discerning what he meant, even lifting his other hand to shove the sleeve of his school robes up toward his elbow so that the mark could be better revealed. "Maybe…" He mused, slowly. "Maybe the Ministry tried to convict my entire family, and I ran away…"

Harry didn't have to wonder why he could not find that so amusing. "And maybe pegasi and unicorns are the same breed of equine," he retorted.(5) Esmiril, hearing the sarcasm in his voice, looked up with a curious screech, hopping down and then along Harry's leg until he was again perched at the knee. And the bird mimicked Harry, turning its head until both amber eyes focused upon the blond Slytherin.

The corners of Malfoy's mouth quirked upward, if only for a second. Bracing his elbow atop the arm of the chair, he lifted his wrist up between them. "You really want to know how I got this?"

"Yeah."

Malfoy met Harry's gaze and held it. "The Ministry tried to convict my entire family," he repeated so that every syllable rang clear. "And I ran away."

Harry blinked, "What?"

Lowering his arm, he stood and crossed the room, which was empty but for them. Without pause or hesitation, he leaned out an open window, though they were quite high from the ground, and called out as softly as if he were simply calling into the next room. "Jasper."

He then turned and moved to the side of the window, mouth quirking as he deciphered Harry's puzzled look. Pointing toward the far end of the room, he whispered, "You might want to make certain Pomfrey can't hear anything."

Though still greatly confused, Harry acted immediately, taking up his wand from the bedside table and casting Muffliato at the door.

The very next instant, a long and cool shadow stretched over the floor. Harry looked up… and stared as a creature too beautiful to be human pulled itself up within the frame of the window and then dropped into the room. It was tall and leonine, but with a sense of grace and power that was evident even as it stood there, perfectly still. It wore a faded pair of black slacks and a snug grey button-shirt, which clung comfortably about its lanky frame. The look seemed to suit this alabaster pale creature, whose short but wild honey blond hair fell over its eyes of glistening golden ochre.

Harry Potter blinked and shook his head, wondering if he had just set his eyes on an example of the exceedingly rare male version of the Veela.

"Harry," Malfoy spoke, his voice strangely wary. "This is Jasper Hale. My uncle."

"Pleased to meet you," the creature softly greeted, seeming perfectly content to remain where he was standing.

More than a little stunned, Harry could only give a nod of his head in answer.

"Actually," Malfoy hesitantly added, drawing Harry's focus back to him. "He's my great-great-uncle, who I didn't even know existed until the day he suddenly appeared and saved my life."

"What?" Harry wondered again, his curiosity now overflowing.

"You had just defeated the Dark Lord," he began in explanation. "There was… a two-week lapse, before that Shacklebolt fellow was able to purge the Ministry of its Death Eater spies. A handful of them stormed my parents' home. Father struggled, Mother cried… Both shouted at me to get away…" Malfoy paused, taking a breath. "And I did. I read in the paper a few days later that Shacklebolt was reforming the Ministry, ordering the release of all those wrongly captured. I was relieved to learn that meant my mother and father as well, but…"

"You decided not to risk going back?"

Something untold flashed within those slate-grey eyes, before Malfoy turned his gaze down and away. The statuesque creature, Jasper, quietly stepped behind him and set gentle hands to the younger blond's shoulders. Lifting his golden gaze to Harry, he softly said, "You don't understand. Draco is afraid the option to return home is slipping through his fingers."

"What?" Harry stared, "Why?"

"There are a handful of details he skipped over that - judging from the fact that he saw fit to introduce me to you - I believe he wants my assistance in explaining?" The last bit was spoken with a brief look at the younger blond for confirmation. Malfoy nodded. "When they came for Draco's family, two men in particular seemed especially determined to catch my nephew. These men threw magic at Draco, and cornered him in his own bedroom."

He paused, glancing down at Malfoy as though the younger blond had shifted beneath his hands. With a look of inexplicable sadness, Jasper wrapped his arms around Malfoy's shoulders now and pulled him close; Malfoy seemed to need the comforting gesture, turning the side of his face against his great-uncle's shirtfront like a small child.

Jasper looked up again, another small smile playing at his mouth as he caught Harry's stare. "I'd only gotten to his window in time to see the flash of green, and my nephew falling to the floor… I didn't hesitate to take my vengeance on their lives, and then I stole Draco away with me before their accomplices could find the bodies."

"Remind me not to get on your bad side," a very familiar resonating voice cheerfully interrupted, causing both blonds and Harry to turn their heads toward the infirmary's main entrance. Esmiril flapped his wings twice, but otherwise calmly acknowledged Urameshi's sudden presence. The tattooed demon gave a fanged smirk, throwing back the hood of his cloak as he moved to stand beside the foot of Harry's bed.

Malfoy seemed instantly discomforted by Urameshi's intrusion, though not entirely surprised. Jasper merely nodded his head in greeting.

Harry looked from one to the other, frowning. "Not that I haven't been following everything up to this point, but you still haven't explained why Malfoy doesn't think he'd be welcome in his parents' home anymore."

"Why not ask him how he knows so much in my classes," Urameshi suggested, causing the blond Slytherin to look sharply up. "You'll get the same answer."

Jasper Hale cleared his throat; "Actually, I've been helping him somewhat in that area. Though, of course, I admit to a rather limited knowledge of your kind, myself."

Urameshi flashed another fanged smirk. But then his dark gaze seemed to settle solely upon Malfoy, and there was suddenly an edge to his smirk that hadn't been there before. "Don't you think it's about time we talked?"

Malfoy shook his head, seeming to cringe back against his great-uncle's chest.

"Waiting won't make it easier. You know we can help."

"But, I-"

"Draco," Jasper quietly interceded, lowering his head to speak near the younger blond's ear. "You need this. I won't be able to hold it back forever."

The Slytherin winced, lifting one hand to grasp the wrist of one of the arms that still held him close. As though to assure himself he was still within their protective cage…

Harry found he didn't like seeing his ex-rival looking so vulnerable, even for an instant, and he was starting to lose his patience with this turn of the conversation. "Would it be too much to ask that someone clue me in," he snapped. He dared to give Urameshi an angry look, "What doesn't Draco want to talk to you about, that you think you could help him with?"

Because his gaze was turned away, he did not catch the surprised glance the blond Slytherin threw him upon hearing his ex-rival use his first name. Urameshi caught it, however; a corner of his mouth twitched in amusement.

"Harry," Jasper spoke again, regaining the young wizard's attention. "You've seen my nephew's wrist by now, haven't you?"

Frowning, remembering how this whole discussion started, he nodded.

Whispering again into Malfoy's ear, the otherworldly creature suddenly dropped his arms from around the younger blond. Malfoy seemed to tense for a long moment, but then nodded and approached Harry's bedside. "Harry. When those Death Eaters came to arrest my mother and father, and I ran… It wasn't what you'd call a clean getaway."

"What do you mean?"

"They came after me. One of them threw the Manicas(6) jinx at me, but botched it so that one cuff was all that caught me." Malfoy's slate-grey eyes grew distant as he seemed to relive the moment in his mind. "It was iron. It burned into my skin like a rope of fire. Jasper got it off of me as soon as he could, later, but obviously it left a scar. And when they'd cornered me in my room, they hit me in the back before I could reach my wand and broomstick - the flash of green Jasper saw was from an Unforgivable. The last thing I remember before blacking out was falling to the floor."

Harry didn't ask the obvious question. Two mentions of a flash of green… He couldn't even pretend to misunderstand.

Malfoy seemed to read the expression on his face, and the blond nodded grimly. "I'd like to deny it, but that'd just be insulting your intelligence. He hit me with the Killing Curse, and I died. And even if it had somehow missed me," he added, turning his head and pushing back his tawny strands to show a nasty cut above his right ear, "I hit the corner of my desk on the way down. Pretty hard, too."

Harry's mouth went dry as he stared at this scar. It was long and curved in a wide arc over the Slytherin's ear, and was so dark a red that it looked nearly black against Malfoy's pale skin and hair. Malfoy dropped his hand, and his hair fell again over the scar. "The details of what happened next are a little hazy to me, but I remember waking in a room of the Leaky Cauldron, numbed down and dizzier than you would believe. Jasper was there, too, and he told me what had happened. How he'd been almost too late, and how he'd gotten me out. But, out of all the questions I had for him, there was one he probably wished he could've avoided."

"I didn't want to lie to you," Jasper himself softly apologized, still standing at the far end of the room.

"I'm not following," Harry shook his head. "You said the Curse got you… but you're still alive. Maybe it missed…?"

But Malfoy's eyes glanced aside, "Don't make this any harder to explain than it already is, Harry. You have to accept it. The Curse did hit me; I did die. Something in my body - in my blood - helped me to come back."

"But-"

"I came back," he insisted. "No one should be able to do that. Even you had help when it happened for you, from your mother. New grass should be growing on my grave as we speak, and yet here I am. The question of why plagued my mind, until I could convince Jasper to explain. And then there was that first day in Urameshi's class…"

Eyes widening, Harry turned his head to stare at their tattooed professor. Urameshi's smirk had long vanished, and he looked suddenly very serious. "Try to think," Malfoy encouraged Harry, regaining his attention. "Since coming back here, have you ever seen me perform even a speck of magic?"

Recalling what Urameshi had said in his last class about magic versus his own race, Harry felt a drop of liquid ice trickle down his spine. He could admit that sometimes he was slow to understand what might have been obvious to so many others, but this was just too much of a jolt to ignore. "Y-you mean… you're…?"

Draco Malfoy gave another sigh, "I didn't want to believe it at first, either. But Jasper helped me accept the truth, before Urameshi even had a chance to suspect it. The only reason I was able to come back was because my death triggered the awakening of something… very powerful, that until then had been sleeping within my blood."

3) "Take it back" - From the movie, The Green Mile. I don't quite know how to explain it… It's kind of like hitting "rewind" on someone's sins or grievances, so that they never happened. That make any sense?

4) Seems Bella has been teaching her family some new tricks.

5) Equine = horse. And they're not, by the way.

6) A jinx borrowed from Rhysenn's Irresistible Poison, a fanfiction like no other. Rhysenn, if you're reading this, I'm sorry for borrowing your jinx without your permission, but it fit so well into my idea for this story that I couldn't resist.