Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
A/N: This is the penultimate chapter everyone! One more to go! I'll probably upload the last chapter in the evening (in about 7+ hours) so please bear with this short chapter until then! I'll leave a proper big author's note in that one with my thanks and what not =] Enjoy!
Chapter 13.
"Please just eat something, mate!" Ron pleaded with Harry a week later.
"He's right Harry. You have to eat something, can't you see that you're not healthy anymore?" Hermione persisted. 'Anytime soon would be good, Draco.' She thought to herself.
Harry hadn't eaten anything more than two blueberry muffins in the past week and a half. Every time the food came out, he would look at it, know he should feel hungry, but feel sick whenever he thought about actually eating it. His body was getting weaker, he could feel and see it, but he still couldn't bring himself to eat. After just a muffin his stomach felt fit to burst and he had to sit down for an hour before the nausea had passed.
Ron and Hermione had tried to get him to go to Madame Pomfrey, but Harry kept refusing. He didn't see what the problem was; he felt fine, a bit tired and weak, but fine otherwise. He hadn't starved to death yet, which was what he was expecting after 9 days of no food, so he thought he was okay.
This morning was different though. This morning he felt like shit. His nightmares had been recurring as always and last night's had been particularly bad. On top of no nutrients in his diet, it had left Harry feeling frailer than ever. Yes, this morning was the morning he decided to go to Madame Pomfrey.
"I'm gonna go to the hospital wing." Harry said, interrupting Hermione's rant about nutrition in the diet. He stood and left before he could gauge their reactions and hurried to see Madame Pomfrey.
He arrived to see her eating her own breakfast in her office. She looked up in surprise when he appeared.
"Mr. Potter! I can't say I expected to see you here now that the war is over." She stood up from her tray and bustled over to him, tutting as she circled him before gently shoved him onto the nearest bed. "You look like a ghost!" she exclaimed. "Now just lie there still while I do some diagnostic spells." She took out her wand and started to wave it methodically over his body. When she reached his feet she stood back and frowned. Then recognition clicked in her head and she blushed, before seemingly remembering her position and coughing a bit to regain her composure.
"Have you recently...fornicated?" Both she and Harry flushed at the word and Harry coughed and nodded awkwardly.
"Why? Do I have some sort of disease? Oh dear Merlin, please don't tell me wizards can get pregnant or someth-" Harry froze as he realised what information he had just divulged.
"Ah. You were on the...receiving end. I see, yes that makes much more sense, it is usually the submissive..."
"Err, yeah." Harry mumbled. "So what's wrong with me?"
"It seems, Mr. Potter, that you have bonded magically with your partner." Harry paled.
"Bonded?" he asked weakly. "That's why I haven't been feeling hungry? But how does that work?"
"Your magic has manifested into a form that is, effectively, making you feel like you are satiated so you end up starving yourself." Harry paled further.
"My magic is trying to kill me? But why?"
"Well, it normally does so if you are depriving yourself of your bonded partner."
"But it can't be any other way. I can't be with him, he doesn't love me, I have to separate myself from him." Harry wailed. "How do I break the bond?"
"The only way is for one of the couple to die." Madame Pomfrey said quietly. "But I can assure you Mr. Potter, two people cannot bond without mutual feelings between the pair. So whoever 'he' is, he feels the same as you." She smiled kindly at him. "I recommend that you spend some more, err, 'quality time' with him in order to cure your magic." she went a bit pink and then bustled off after telling Harry that he could leave at his own discretion.
Harry sat in the bed for a bit thinking over what the mediwitch had just told him. Did that mean that Draco had loved him all along? But Harry had pushed him away! How in the hell was he going to fix it? He sat in the bed for the whole of the morning staring into space, skipping his classes, until lunchtime. The moment classes were let out, Harry was graced by two visitors, Ron and Hermione (no surprises there). Both friends came in with worried expressions on their faces, fearing that there was something worse wrong with Harry than they had thought.
"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, "What's wrong? You missed all your morning classes, what did Madame Pomfrey say?"
"I bonded." Harry said simply, using his voice for the first time in hours. "I bonded with Draco and now my magic is trying to kill me because I haven't seen enough of him, apparently."
"Oh Harry, that's such good news!" Hermione let out a sigh of relief.
"Really?" both Ron and Harry replied, neither seeing the good side to this bonding.
"It won't break unless he or me dies, 'Mione. And it won't get better unless I sleep with him." Harry said.
"And he's not talking to the ferret right now, and Malfoy's meant to move on so he won't be able to get anywhere near his pants." Ron finished.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Yes but you two wouldn't have been able to bond if he didn't love you back. And bonding isn't just an everyday occurrence Harry, it only happens between powerful witches and wizards who are perfect for each other. The Muggle equivalent, I guess, would be a soulmate. It's for life, Harry. You two are practically married now." Harry's eyes went wide.
"Married?" he gasped.
"Harry!" Draco burst into the hospital wing, much to the tutting of Madame Pomfrey, and sped over to Harry's bed. "Look, I know we're not meant to be talking right now, but I heard that you were in the hospital wing all morning and I haven't seen you eat a thing at meal times for at least a week, and I couldn't just sit around and pretend I didn't care, so I had to come and see what was wrong. So? What is wrong?" Draco blurted at a speed that required a couple of aftermath seconds just to understand and process what he said. However Harry, it seemed, had got used to Draco's super speed while he was friends with him, and just turned his pale face towards the source of the noise, eyes wide and staring like a house elf's.
"We're married." he said breathlessly.
"Um, what?" Draco asked, eyes as wide as Harry's and face even paler.
"We," Harry said again gesturing between himself and the blonde, "are married."
Chapter End.
A/N: Sorry for another sort-of cliffhanger there, but the next (and last) chapter will be up later today (today in the UK at least) I promise!