Hey Mate,

How are you? I hope your relatives are treating you well. Just bear this one month with them. I hope the order will transfer you here after your birthday. Things here are okay. Everyone is somewhat put out after Dumbledore's death. Remus and Kingsley are acting as leader now. Hermione came here just day before. She sent her parents to Australia to keep them safe. Would you believe she erased all of her memories from them? She is beyond distressed with this decision .I am trying to help her as much as I can. I am also formulating a plan so that I can leave my family without arising any suspicion. Hermione is reading and researching about you know whats. But so far no luck with them. Did you find anything at your end?

Last night we heard some conversation of order with the help of extendable ears. We did not hear much as mom got hold of us after sometime. But is it true Malfoy is living with you? I could not believe they did not shifted him to Azkaban instantly. Is it some elaborate plan to harm you? Please Harry! Be safe and don't believe the ferret. They are Malfoy after all.

Ginny is very much upset after you broke up with her. But she accepted it. George and Fred gifted Pigmy Puffs to cheer her up.

Please reply asap.

Yours truly,

Ron

P.S. Hermione charmed the letter so that it'll open only on your touch and it'll burn down after you will finish reading it.

As Harry finished the letter it burst in fire.

'Ow!' Harry sucked on his finger as it got burned before he could withdraw it.

Ron and Hermione were his greatest strength. He might not have received parents' love but he was gifted with great friends. Friends who'll risk their lives for him. May be Remus was right. Draco needed some friends right now. People he can trust.

Harry stood up from the shadowy corner of the garden and prepared some stew and grabbed some loaf. Madam Pomfrey finally allowed Malfoy to eat solid food.

"Malfoy" Harry knocked and entered "I prepared some stew for you." He put the bowl on the table beside the bed. As he was leaving the room Malfoy called him.

"Potter! Why don't you take your lunch with me instead of eating it on the garden?"

Harry's eye bulged. He did take his meal on his hidden corner of garden. It may be warm out there but it was better than the glaring and silent treatment of the Dursleys.

"How did you?"

"How did I know? I can see you from the window over there. I am trying to walk on my own. I do not like asking your help every time I need a loo."

"Okay." Harry returned to dining hall to grab his meal. At last Malfoy is getting conversational. May be he was getting bored out of his mind.

They finished their meal silently. The situation was awkward. Both of them did not know how to start a conversation.

At evening Harry brought both of their dinner to his room. It started just like lunch. Awkward and silent. Halfway through the meal Draco broke the silence first.

"So, your relatives do not treat you like a prince as the rumour goes?"

Harry snorted at that. "Prince? Better call me a slave."

Draco raised an eyebrow at that. "Did they have any personal vendetta against you?"

"They hate wizards and anything related to magic." Harry answered.

"But how can they? I mean magic is the greatest gift of God. Anyone should admire it. And you are gifted. Even I am envious of your magic."

Did Harry hear it right? That Malfoy envy him?

"It is easy to hate anything that you don't have." Harry shrugged "They tried to beat my magic out since I was young. I was beaten, starved and left alone in a cupboard my entire childhood. Hell! I did not even know I was a wizard until my Hogwarts letter came." Harry did not know why he was sharing his secrets with Draco. Things he did not even talked out loud with his friends.

"I am sorry." Draco said, his voice sincere "Then why are you protecting these abusive muggles?"

"Not all muggles are same. Dursleys are fanatics just like Voldemort and the deatheaters. But there are muggles who are good and accepting like Hermione's parents and they did not deserve to be slaughtered like animals."

Draco flinched at the answer. Harry sighed. May be parents and slaughter in one sentence brought back bad memories to him.

Harry tried composing a letter to Ron. But what can he write back about Draco? That he is tortured? He is changed but still acting arrogant? That Harry is trying to befriend him? He knows Ron will be angry if he could not pen it right. At last Harry gave up. He sighed and tried to fell asleep on the chair.

Draco was observing Harry's writing attempts. May be Weasley and Granger wrote him the letter. He was watching Potter through the window before lunch. As Harry tried to sleep on the chair again Draco felt sorry for him. This boy, whom everyone admires and loves, is living a slave life in his home. Despite his hard words he looked after Draco, helped treating his injuries and did not humiliate him once. He gave up his room for Draco, the only place of privacy and did not even complain sleeping on the stiff chair. He must be facing muscle cramp due to this horrible sitting arrangements and he had to do all the household works of the Dursleys.

"Why don't you sleep on the bed Potter?" Draco asked without thinking.

Once again Harry was stunned. Did Malfoy asked him to share his bed?

"But you are sleeping there!" Harry answered.

"We can manage. Sleeping on the chair must be uncomfortable."

Harry agreed with that. His neck muscles were cramping due to sleeping on the chair. He really wanted to sleep on the bed.

Draco and Harry slept facing opposite sides.

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Harry woke up at the sound of moaning and pleas. Soon he was wide awake and he grabbed his wand tightly on his hand. Then he realized Draco was making these painful noises in his sleep. This is Draco's first night without dreamless sleep, Harry recalled.

'No! Please stop. It hurts!'

"Malfoy?" Harry called.

'Father please! No no no! Do not kill him. Make it stop!'

"Malfoy wake up!"

But Malfoy was lost in nightmare.

'Mother! Do not hurt her. Take me instead.'

"DRACO!" Harry cried out loud.

"What?" Draco woke up disoriented and shocked. His mind was still playing the scenes of that horrific night, his body still feeling the pain of cruciatus. His limbs were trembling violently.

"I could not save them! I could not save them." Draco started chanting, his voice a whisper.

Harry's heart shattered seeing Draco broken like that.

"It's all right! It's all right." Harry hugged Draco.

"It's my fault they are.."

"No! It's Voldemort's fault. They loved you Draco. You are precious to them. They sacrificed their life protecting you. It's their decision to save you." Harry repeated this mantra continuously trying to soothe away Draco's pain.

Soon Draco felt asleep cocooned by Harry, Harry's shirt damp with his tears.