I am so sorry for the long wait on this one guys, I really was trying to keep to weekly updates. I finally got over my horrid case of bronchitis after about two-three different antibiotics and three different inhalers x.x Sadly I was feeling a little blocked with my writing for some reason after I got better, so I hadn't been able to really think of how to finish out this chapter until I had a dream last night that gave me the inspiration I needed to finish it, so I really hope you guys like it.

Chapter 14

Draco let out a tired sigh as he threw the bedcovers off of his head and stared up at the ceiling being illuminated by the early morning sun.

He'd tried as hard as he could the night before to get some sleep, but he hadn't been able to get that almost kiss out of his head after he laid down so he ended up tossing and turning most of the night as the whole day they'd spent together played on repeat in his head. He hadn't been able to get his mind to quiet down for even a few blissful minutes, and every time he thought about everything he couldn't help but internally curse himself for allowing the brunette to flirt with him in the first place since it had obviously given him the wrong idea.

Of course, the more he tried to tell himself that, the more a traitorous voice in the back of his head argued that Harry hadn't been the only one that was flirting or wanting a kiss. He tried to tell himself that was ridiculous because he didn't want anything to do with the Gryffindor like that, but every time he tried to focus on that thought it led to him thinking about those drunken kisses that were too hazy to fully remember.

He let out another soft sigh as he just laid there for a few more minutes, though when he realized it was pointless he simply got up and pulled out the journal Lupin talked him into starting and opened it up and whispered his password so he could get some of these troubling thoughts out of his head.

By the time he'd gotten everything off of his chest that he could remember from how yesterday made him feel, the sun was high in the sky and he could smell something good coming from the kitchen, so he whispered his counter password and hid the journal under his mattress before he got up and got dressed and made his way downstairs.

The Slytherin furrowed his brows as he made his way into the kitchen and he noticed Lupin cooking at the stove and Black leaning against the counter drinking what he assumed was most likely coffee. He couldn't help but notice the tension in the air between them, and it was odd to see them standing so far apart and the air around them feeling so thick when he'd grown used to seeing the couple barely an inch apart any time they were in the same room together-especially in the mornings when Lupin was cooking.

He only grew more confused when Black noticed him standing in the doorway and he noticed the man shoot him a small glare, and he was just thinking about turning around and maybe heading to the library in lieu of breakfast when Lupin turned and noticed him as well.

Remus offered a kind smile when he saw the boy standing in the doorway. "Good morning, Draco. There's still half a pot of fresh coffee left if you'd like some. Or if you'd rather I could make you some hot chocolate," he offered when he noticed the kid looked a little tired this morning.

"Uh, no, that's alright. Coffee's fine," Draco assured him as he hesitantly made his way over to the coffee pot where Black was still leaning against the counter. "So where's Harry?" he found himself asking, having only wanted to fill the tense silence and wanting to facepalm at the fact he chose to ask about the brunette out of all the things he could've tried to start a conversation about.

"Not up yet. He doesn't usually sleep in too late though, so he'll most likely be up by the time breakfast is ready," Remus said thoughtfully as Draco poured himself a cup of coffee and began dropping in sugar and coffee creamer to sweeten it a bit.

"Why? Need him for something?" Sirius couldn't help but ask, holding his hands up in a placating manner when Remus shot him a warning look.

Draco frowned at the question as he stirred his coffee. "Uh, not particularly. I was just curious since he's usually always up when you two are," he muttered awkwardly, growing uncomfortable when the conversation dropped after that and was replaced with that tense silence once again.

Needless to say, he was more than a little relieved when Harry shuffled into the kitchen a short while later, and he offered a small smile in greeting.

"Morning, everybody," Harry greeted with a soft yawn.

"Good morning, Harry. You're just in time," Remus told him as he turned off the stove and waved his wand to send everything into the dining room and onto the table.

Harry arched a brow as he made his way over to the coffee pot to pour himself a mug and he noticed the slightly dark circles under Draco's eyes. "You look tired," he noted.

Draco snorted. "I'll bet." At Harry's questioning look he explained, "I couldn't sleep. I have random bouts of insomnia sometimes, usually because my brain doesn't seem to want to shut off and stop thinking, so I'm stuck tossing and turning all night," he admitted, frowning when he realized he'd actually just said that when he'd never told anyone about that before.

"Yikes, that's rough. Does nothing help? 'Cause I'm pretty sure we have some chamomile tea. And if we're ever out of that Lupin stays stocked up on potion ingredients so you could make yourself a sleeping draught if you ever need to."

"Tea doesn't usually help, no. Sleeping draughts do work, though I prefer not to use those unless I absolutely have to since it's easy to get addicted to some of them or their effects stop working if you use them too much."

"Well, I know of a few muggle remedies aside from the chamomile tea that might work if you'd want to give it a try."

"I might take you up on that since this stupid insomnia thing happens a lot more than I'd like it to, especially at school."

"Really? You never really look exhausted at school any time I've seen you."

Draco gave a small huff of a laugh at that. "Yes, well, I usually use a concealment charm to make it look like I'm ready to run a marathon when I'm really ready to fall over any minute."

Harry shook his head and idly reached out to pick a bit of fuzz out of Draco's hair and brush a few loose strands behind his ear. "You know Madam Pomfrey could probably help when you can't sleep at school."

Draco shrugged as he tried to ignore the other teen's touch and took a sip of his coffee. "I assume her fix would most likely be a sleeping draught so I don't bother. I wouldn't mind some of those muggle tips of yours if they actually work though."

"They don't always work, but they are better than nothing," Harry assured him as they both turned to make their way into the dining room.

He arched a brow as he noticed his godfathers sitting on opposite sides of the table rather than right next to each other, and he shook his head as he made his way over to the table and he and Draco took a seat closer to Lupin.

There was a bit of an awkward silence all throughout breakfast since Lupin and Black were so tense, but at least it was more bearable for Draco with Harry there to hold a conversation with. He was still relieved when breakfast finally ended so he could get away from all the tension he could feel between the couple, and since he didn't want to be alone with the two of them he jumped at the offer when Harry asked if he wanted to go to the store with him to stock up on a few groceries.

Harry offered a smile and reached out to give Draco an understanding pat on the back when he heard him let out a relieved sigh as soon as they stepped out of the house. "I know, it's a little suffocating to be around them when they're like that."

"Do they get like that often?"

"I don't really know since this is my first summer staying with them, but other than little spats here and there I don't think so. The only other time I saw them get like this was when I got to come here about a week or so before school started back last year and they got into it over something. They seemed to make up pretty quick after that, and every time I've seen them since then they've been their normal coupley selves."

"Well, I hope this doesn't last that long then. I thought seeing them together and all over each other all the time was bad, but I think I'd rather walk into a room and see them making out in a corner rather than on opposite sides of the room and feeling all that tension in the air," Draco admitted.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. But, hey, if they don't get whatever it is sorted out soon we can always just hole up in my room or your room and find something to do so we can ignore them. Or we could also just go out more."

"I guess that works," Draco agreed thoughtfully as he reached up to unbutton the top two buttons of his shirt since it was rather hot out this morning.

Harry frowned as he noticed how clearly uncomfortable Draco was in his long-sleeve shirt, and he grabbed his arm to stop him for a moment. "Here," he said simply as he started rolling up the other teen's sleeves, tightening his grip on his wrist when he quickly tried to jerk his arm back.

"What are you doing?! Stop!" Draco snapped as he tried to jerk his arm back once more to keep the brunette from revealing the Dark Mark.

"It's ok. It's hot out today so I'm just trying to do you a favor here. We're in the muggle world, remember? No one here will know what this means," he said as he pulled Draco's sleeve up and revealed his mark. "If anyone sees it they'll just think it's a tattoo that doesn't mean anything," he tried to assure him.

Draco grimaced and looked away from his arm in disgust as he felt Harry continuing to roll his sleeve up to his elbow. "What if a muggleborn like Granger sees it?" he countered.

Harry glanced up to Draco's face as he moved to start rolling up his other sleeve. "No one will really see exactly what it us unless they're right up on you, and if we happen to see someone from school all you'd have to do is pull your sleeve back down."

He let out a sigh at Draco's silence and brought his hands up to cup the blonde's face and turned him to make him look at him. "Look, I already know it's there. It doesn't bother me, so why go out of your way to hide it and make yourself uncomfortable?"

"Maybe because it bothers me…" Draco muttered softly.

"…You can't feel it, right?"

Draco frowned at the question. "Not really, unless he's calling for the Death Eaters… I get this burning sensation in it when he does that, but other than that it's not like I feel it."

"Alright, then just ignore it and don't think about it being there."

The Slytherin scoffed. "That's easier said than done. Even when I have my sleeves down I feel like others can still see it, and it makes me want to hide it that much more," he admitted.

Harry thought about it for a moment before he decided to just go for it and reached out and took Draco's left hand and laced their fingers together so his forearm was pressed up against the blonde's and covering the mark from view. "There. Now you can't see it, and it's better than risking giving yourself a heat stroke."

Draco felt his cheeks heating up as he looked down to their joined hands, and he felt that damn fluttering in his stomach starting up again while his heart pounded in his chest for some annoying reason. He wanted to try and jerk his arm away because he didn't want the Gryffindor to get the wrong idea here and think shit like this was actually ok when this was going beyond a little harmless flirting, but at the same time that damn traitorous voice in the back of his head felt the need to point out he liked it; he liked the feeling of his skin tingling where it rested against Harry's.

He said nothing as he let Harry keep ahold of his hand and lead him along the sidewalk, and even though he noticed them getting a few odd looks from some of the muggles that passed them Draco eventually found he didn't exactly mind. Hell, he even forgot Harry was holding his hand once the brunette started up a new conversation between them, and he only remembered once they made it to the store and Harry let go of his hand so he could go get a cart.

Since it was remarkably cooler in the store Draco took the opportunity to pull his sleeves back down as he followed Harry down one of the aisles. "So what all are we getting?" he asked curiously, wondering just how much they were going to have to carry back with them.

"Nothing we'll have trouble carrying back to the house," Harry assured him as he started looking through the different shelves.

Draco unconsciously rubbed at his arm through his sleeve where he could still feel his skin tingling as he followed the other teen through the store and helped him find a few things. It was a little quiet between them as they shopped, though it wasn't really uncomfortable. Of course, by the time they were checking out and making their way outside with their bags he couldn't help but notice this odd sense of dread he seemed to have for some reason.

He wasn't sure why he was feeling like that all of a sudden, especially when he didn't really have any reason to feel that way, so he tried to ignore it and started up a conversation as they walked. He paused for a moment halfway back to Grimmauld Place when he felt the Dark Mark prickling and it felt as though something were squirming just underneath his skin, and he looked around in panic because he knew that was a sign another Death Eater was nearby.

He felt his blood run cold when he looked to his left and saw Yaxley and Travers. He should've known better than to think it'd be safe for him to keep going out, to think that the Dark Lord wouldn't star widening his search for him and Harry both. It had only been a matter of time before he sent Death Eaters to start searching the muggle world.

"Hey, you ok?" Harry asked in confusion as he turned to make his way back to the blonde when he realized he was no longer walking beside him.

Draco, seeing Yaxley and Travers now looking his way and clearly recognizing him, quickly dropped his bags and gave Harry a hard shove that sent him flying backwards into some nearby bushes when Travers shot a killing curse at him, obviously thinking it was a muggle Draco was talking to that they didn't need getting in their way. "Stay down!" he ordered before he took off running into the closest alley to lead them away so they wouldn't see the person they'd almost killed was actually Harry Potter.

It took Harry a moment to really process what just happened since he hit his head pretty good when he went down in those bushes, though he stood up just in time to see Draco disappearing down an alley and two guys chasing after him and firing off spells.

Draco cursed as he carefully dodged the spells being fired at him, and he tried to think of what he should do since he couldn't escape when Yaxley and Travers had seen him. They would tell the Dark Lord where he was so more Death Eaters would be sent after him, and there would be a greater risk of him learning where Harry was when he wasn't at Hogwarts under Dumbledore's protection. He could try to modify their memories, but to do that he'd have to turn around and face them, and he wasn't sure he could do that when there was two of them and only one of him.

He cursed again when he suddenly came to a dead end and he was forced to stop and quickly pull out his wand as he turned to face the dark wizards, a shiver running down his spine to see Travers laughing at him as he and Yaxley moved in closer to assure he couldn't run past them.

"Well, well, well, who would've thought you'd be in a disgusting place like this? I was starting to think you'd crawled into a hole somewhere and died considering how Carrow said you looked when you got away from her, so at this point we've just been searching for a corpse. But look at you. Alive and well, and feisty as ever I see," Travers chuckled darkly. "Oh, the Dark Lord's going to be very pleased with us for being the ones to finally find you and bring you back to him."

"I'm not going back there!"

Yaxley and Travers both laughed at that.

"How cute. He actually thinks he has a choice," Travers said with a smirk.

"Come now, boy. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way," Yaxley warned as he pointed his wand at the kid.

"You'll have to kill me first," Draco said firmly, hand slightly shaking as he tried to think of the quickest way he could take them both out and fix their memories so he could get out of here.

"That can be arranged."

Yaxley quickly reached out and grabbed Travers's wrist when he saw him raise his wand. "We can't kill him. The Dark Lord wants him alive."

"Maybe, but that doesn't mean we can't at least get close to killing the little shit for what he did."

"Yes it does."

"You know what he did! How he dared to raise a hand to our Dark Lord! How he nearly killed Mcnair and Rowle! For that he needs to be punished!"

"He's not ours to punish, Travers!"

Draco took a chance with them being distracted arguing with each other and quickly fired off a Stupefy, gasping when Yaxley easily reflected it and sent him flying back into the brick wall behind him.

"Did you honestly expect that to work, boy?" Yaxley asked in amusement.

Draco tried to raise his wand again only to immediately drop it and start screaming when Travers cast a Crucio on him and a wave of agony ripped through his body. The pain was so intense it took him a moment to realize when Travers was no longer cursing him, and he looked to see why he would've stopped only for his heart to nearly stop in his chest when he saw Harry had apparently chased after them and was now facing off with the two Death Eaters.

He gritted his teeth as he pushed himself up off the ground, his muscles protesting as they were still tense from that Crucio. It was clear Travers and Yaxley assumed he was down for the count seeing as they were both solely focused on Harry, so he quickly fired off a stunning spell at Travers and jumped on Yaxley's back to throw off his aim when he saw the tip of his wand glowing green.

"You little shit! Get off!"

Harry tightened his grip on his wand when the Death Eater slammed his back into the brick wall to get Draco off and he saw the blonde drop. He quickly fired off several offensive spells, relieved when one of them hit and sent the man flying over towards his incapacitated partner.

With that taken care of he quickly made his way to Draco's side and tried to get him to open his eyes. "Come on, Dray, get up. We gotta go."

When he saw the Slytherin's eyes fluttering open he offered a small smile as he reached into his pocket for his pouch so he could get out his two-way mirror and contact Sirius and Lupin so they could come and get them and do something with the two Death Eaters.

"We can't leave them…" Draco warned, wincing as the brunette helped him sit up.

"Yes we can. I'm gonna call Sirius on my two-way mirror and him and Lupin can take care of these guys."

"No, they can't do that. He'll get suspicious if they don't come back and he'll send more Death Eaters to search here. It won't be safe for you anymore."

Harry snorted. "In case you haven't noticed, it's not exactly safe for anyone anywhere anymore."

"If he knows where you are he'll make everyone search every last nook and cranny for you until he finds you, and it won't matter to him how many muggles will be killed for getting in the way or being in the wrong place at the wrong time," Draco argued as he grabbed Harry's shoulder and used it for support as he pushed himself to his feet.

"But we can't just let them go back to Vol-"

Draco quickly cut him off by slapping a hand over his mouth. "Don't say it."

Harry arched a brow but decided to reword it when Draco dropped his hand. "We can't just let them go back to him. Besides, they might have information the Order can use."

Draco paused on his way to Travers and furrowed his brows in confusion as he looked to Harry. "The what?"

Harry blinked as he realized what he just said. "Uh…nothing. It's, uh, just-just nothing. But, anyways, we can't let them go back when Sirius and Lupin could get some information out of them. And, even if they can't, we have a chance to take two Death Eaters off of the streets here."

"Like that will actually make a difference. He'll just break them out again. He always does that for the ones that don't disappoint him…" Draco muttered darkly as he started the memory spell on Travers.

Harry quickly made his way over and grabbed his wrist to stop him. "No, don't. We should at least wait until Sirius and Lupin get here."

"I'm not waiting on Black and Lupin to get here! We don't need more Death Eaters coming here and risking them finding out where you're staying!" Draco snapped.

"Then at least leave one! Make the other think they split up or something and they'll meet up later."

"You are completely off your rocker if you think for one second-" the Slytherin cut off when he saw movement from the corner of his eye and he looked over Harry's shoulder to see Yaxley pulling a knife from his belt. He didn't even think about it when he saw him go to throw it, he just wrapped his arms around the Gryffindor and managed to reverse their positions barely a second before he felt the blade sinking into his back.

"Draco!" he heard Harry shouting in panic before a burst of pain emanated from where the knife was embedded in his back and black spots started dancing across his vision, Harry raising his wand and firing off some kind of spell being the last thing he saw before everything went dark.