A/N Here's the next chapter guys! I know it's pretty short, sorry about that.

Draco wasn't sure what exactly Harry was about to tell him, but the wording made him think that he was going to have a hard time not becoming excessively angry about it. "I promise I'll try not to get too upset on your behalf," was as good as Harry was going to get on this one.

Harry nodded, looking nervous for a moment as he pulled them into an empty classroom. "Alright, so the thing is, growing up, I learned at a very young age not to expect anything from my Aunt and Uncle. Yeah, it was probably a really gross neglect, but the only thing I understood that young was that they didn't care about me and I was unimportant. So I just never expected anything. When I got here everyone treated me like the boy-who-lived but not like a real person. More often than not I was everyone's idealistic person. I was your rival, Ron's famous best friend, Snape's enemy's son. It got a little out of hand, and I learned that in some ways Hogwarts wasn't any different than my Aunt and Uncle's house. Things rarely worked out the way I expected them to, and people's own expectations of me were constantly unrealistic. So I still just…don't expect anything. I'm not brushing it off or anything, it just doesn't really occur to me that I should really care about it."

Obviously, Harry had been right. The amount of neglect that he'd been through growing up, and that most of the people here at the school had actually made worse had Draco feeling rather ill. He was upset, angry even, but he put all of that aside because of the way Harry was watching him. The look he was faced with was full of uncertainty, clearly awaiting a judgment for the way he'd been trained to think. Draco knew that Harry had frequently saved their world growing up, whether he had known it or not, and that he constantly put others before himself. He resolved that he would put Harry before himself from now on, because clearly someone needed to, and why shouldn't it be him.

Instead of the judgment he knew Harry was expecting, or even the anger that he wanted desperately to unleash on those muggles, and even on himself and other people in Harry's life, Draco pulled the smaller boy into his arms. Draco honestly didn't know if the action was more for himself or for Harry, and at the moment he didn't care. It was nice to hold the other boy in his arms, even if Harry was likely to pull away at any moment.

Harry drew back a few seconds later, though he didn't go very far, just pulling back enough so he could see Draco's face. "You're not angry?"

"Oh, I'm angry. Angry at the muggles, at myself, at everyone here that was stupid enough not to look into your circumstances. But being angry isn't going to help anything, and you don't need me to be angry. I can't help being upset, really, but I can do my best to put that aside. It isn't going to help you if I go on a rampage hexing everyone I'm upset with. Of course, you should know that everyone is going to be excessively over protective of you now, at least those of them you let know about this," he replied, staring into the startling green eyes intently and hoping that Harry understood what he'd said and didn't take it the wrong way.

Harry just nodded and let his head fall back to Draco's shoulder, seeming to allow himself to curl further into Draco, "Thank you. I'd like to try and keep it as quiet as we can. Just Hermione and Ron, I think, need to know about all of it. Everyone else can just be told we're fixing my eyes if they ask. I really want to avoid answering a ton of questions if I can. It's not really anyone else's business, anyways."

Draco tugged his fingers gently through the mass of black hair, resting his cheek against the top of Harry's head. "If too many people start asking questions, we can just ask Greg to follow you around looking threatening for a while. I think he's getting bored since I told him he had to start being nice to the younger students," he said, hoping for a smile at the very least for his efforts.

Instead, Harry chuckled, "I suppose we could resort to that. I guess we should get back before Hermione sends out a search party."

"Probably a good idea," Draco agreed, a little upset about letting him go, but doing it anyways. "I won't tell anyone you don't want me to about today. If you really don't want to tell Ronald and Hermione everything, at least not yet, it would be alright."

"Honestly, it would probably be best to tell them now while there's so much else going on so that they won't be able to focus solely on it. Besides, Hermione's almost as good at telling if there's something wrong with me as you are, so it won't do any good to try and keep it from her, even for a few days. By the way, does Ron know you call him that?" Harry asked curiously.

Snickering, Draco tried to look innocent, "Oh, he knows, but Hermione keeps insisting that he shouldn't complain because it is technically his name. I don't think Ronald and I are ever going to be able to get along if we don't antagonize each other occasionally, but at least we aren't doing it violently anymore."

He hadn't missed the compliment Harry had given him, even if the other boy didn't realize it was a compliment. Being told that one of Harry's oldest friends wasn't as good at telling if there was something wrong with Harry as Draco was made for a rather lovely ego boost. When he'd set out to prove to Harry that they could be good together, he had never imagined that it would end up quite like this. It was more than he had ever dared hope for.

"I guess that's true," Harry murmured as they wandered back towards their common room yet again. "I'm just glad that you two aren't trying to make me choose."

Draco tilted his head, "I wouldn't have done that. Ronald and I actually discussed that at one point, and we both agreed quite some time ago that neither one of us would ever do that to you. He might be an idiot, but he tries to be a good friend."

They were right outside the common room now and he turned to look more closely at Harry. He looked tired and worn around the edges like the hospital wing fiasco had taken a lot out of him. It probably had, since Draco himself was feeling the wear from the situation, so Harry must have been feeling it at least three times as much. "Ready?" he asked quietly.

"As I'll ever be. Hermione and Ron will probably be the only ones really expecting an explanation. Mostly everyone is used to us disappearing and showing up again hours later," Harry told him as they made their way into the common room. He turned out to be right; almost no one even turned to look at who was coming in the door. Ron and Hermione were waiting at their usual couch, looking a little anxious.

Hermione took one look at Harry and moved over to him, fluttering her hands slightly around his shoulders. "Oh Harry, are you alright?"

Harry mustered up a small smile that was not at all convincing, "I'm alright 'Mione, really. It was just a long, what hour? Hour and a half?"

Clearly not convinced at all by Harry, Hermione rounded on Draco, "Well?"

"Ya know," Harry muttered behind her, glaring at her back, "I'm right here. You could just ask me what happened."

She turned back to Harry, patting his shoulder and then maneuvering him and pushing him slightly until he was sitting on the couch. He just continued to glare at her while Draco started telling her what had happened. By the time he had finished outlining the event, Ron was cursing out the muggles every bit as thoroughly as Snape and Draco had done. Harry's eyelids were drooping closed, the boy clearly in need of rest.

Hermione took a deep breath, then said, "I should have suspected. We all should have, really. The important thing is that he's being looked after now." And Draco agreed really, that was the most important thing. Of course, that wasn't going to stop him from being angry about it all.