Chapter Twenty:
The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most
A/N: Read, Review, Enjoy!! Sorry for the really short chapter, I promise next one won't be that short and many questions will be answered! ^_^ Oh and I picked this song for this chapter because not only are Harry and Draco unable to 'fake it' anymore but also because we finally get to find out Harry's greatest fear! Woot! And also I think it fits Draco's fowl mood, hehe. Now enough with my chattering, enjoy!!
The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most - Dashboard Confessional
Buried deep as you can dig inside yourself
And covered with a perfect shell
Such a charming, beautiful exterior
Laced with brilliant smiles and shining eyes
Perfect posture, but you're barely scarping by
But you're barely scraping by.
This is one time, this is one time
That you can't fake it hard enough to please everyone
Or anyone at all...or anyone at all
And the grave that you refuse to leave
The refuge that you've built to flee,
The places that you've come to fear the most,
Is the place that you have come to fear the most.
*
Draco was currently pacing outside of the Entrance Hall, the cold fall air nipping against his skin as he pulled his cloak tight to him. 'He just left me. Just like that. Choose Granger and the Weasel over me! How could he do that to me? I am his mate, his husband, his forever! Who the fuck does he think he is?!' he screamed inwardly, holding back all of the tears that threatened to fall.
Draco Malfoy wasn't one good for dealing with being left behind, especially without even a goodbye or a quick simple word. Harry had quite literally run away. The Slytherin didn't have time for these heart games anymore, either Harry was with him or he wasn't. Of course by law they were together, but mates that never saw one another wasn't particularly unheard of.
"Draaaco!"
"Urgh, you are the LAST fucking person I want to see right now, Pansy! Get the fuck away from me!" Draco hissed angrily, not even looking at the girl with a cynical smile on her face as she approached him. Draco growled and quickly started off away from Hogwarts, not knowing where he was going but planning on taking a nice long walk to clear his head and emotions.
Pansy followed quite happily, Draco snapped a devilish glare at her from over his shoulder as he neared the Forbidden Forest. "Pansy, you better get the fuck away from me this instant or else I am going to bleeding drown you in the Black Lake!" he yelled angrily, his face flushed.
"Fine by me," she chirped and was beginning to trot back off to the castle.
'Since when did she give up so easily?' Draco stopped momentarily before shrugging and turning back to his destination, but then he heard her call to him.
"Oh, and watch where you're going, Dracey-poo," she giggled and took off at a run, by the time Draco had taken a second to figure out what she had said to him, he had hit something unexpectedly hard.
His shin collided viciously with an unseen, invisible barrier which sent him toppling over into the Forest floor, outside of the Hogwarts ward. Draco hissed and swore, he clutched onto his shin. It felt absolutely shattered, if not bruised to the bone. "Fuck, fuck, fuuuck," he whined rocking back and forth, tenderly making sure as to not rub the part that was already swelling up. He felt cold blood running down his leg. "Ahhh, fuckkk, I broke it. Great, Just great. I hope you are happy now, Potter!" Draco screamed at nobody in particular.
And then he realized he wasn't alone.
*
Buried deep as you can dig inside yourself
And hidden in the public eye
Such a stellar monument to loneliness
Laced with brilliant smiles and shining eyes
Perfect make-up, but you're barely scraping by
But you're barely scraping by...
*
"Ron, Ron! Wait up! Guys!" Harry yelled after his friends, he was taking the stairs two at a time and finally caught up to them just outside of the Gryffindor Common Room, The Fat Lady looking at them curiously.
"What do you want?!" Ron turned to his friend angrily, Harry was taken aback and gaped unable to speak as Hermione looked frantically between her boyfriend and best friend.
"I-I wanted to explain to you what you saw back there because it's not what it seems like..."
"It seemed pretty plain and simple to me! You were snogging Malfoy! Draco Malfoy, his Father is out to KILL you, you know that right?! Not only that but Malfoy is a sodding bastard! What the fuck, Harry!?" Ron screamed, the Fat Lady was absolutely aghast now.
"Stop being such an irrational, git, Ron!" Harry yelled back, his temper slowly rising as the magical energy around him began to pick up, but Ron didn't back down one little bit. "His father is not out to kill me, this I know for a fact because Lucius-fucking-Malfoy is dead. Also, Draco's not a bastard and you have to come to terms with the fact that I. Love. Him!" Harry finished firmly, crossing his arms with defiance.
Ron's face was impossibly red with anger at this moment and he did something unexpected to all parties. He rounded his hand backwards and punched Harry hard across the face, breaking his nose as blood spurtled out. Hermione and the Fat Lady gasped loudly. "Get the fuck outta my sight, you filthy bitch!" Ron demanded coldly.
Harry felt the words hit him like a brick wall, his fingers were pinching his nose and he felt the tears silently fall from his eyes. 'Filthy, filthy, dirty, unworthy...' he repeated a Vernon Dursley tantra in his head - something he hadn't done for awhile, and then he found that his feet were reacting quicker than his head. He was off down the hall, sobbing, weeping and bleeding all at once. And then suddenly, a heavy pull at his naval took him elsewhere...
"Hey, 'Mione..." Ron began with wide eyes, his body shaking from emotions. Hermione was standing with her jaw on the floor.
"Yeah...?"
"Did Harry just..."
"Apparate?"
"But you can't inside of Hogwarts..."
"Ron, I think we should go get Dumbledore," Hermione said in a daze. She had just seen Harry disappear out of thin air with a small crack, and apparantly Ron had too. "Now, we should go get Dumbledore now," and with that she grabbed her boyfriends hand and started off with a run down the hall back towards the Halloween Ball.
Meanwhile, with a loud 'pop!', Harry appeared outside of the Hogwarts wards. He noticed he was not alone immediately and quickly took in his surroundings as the Forbidden Forest. He was in a clearing and there was one masked Death Eater, Draco being choked by somebody silhoutted in darkness as the blonde was wincing and clawing his hands at the arm around his neck. His eyes went wide at Harry's sudden presence only a meter in front of him. "Harry!" he struggled to scream it out in a gasp.
Harry reacted fast, he took out his wand from his pocket and pointed it at the Death Eater who had just begun his advance. "Stupefy! Petrificus Totalus!" The Death Eater was stunned and body bound in a split second, Harry turned on Draco and his assalaint as his magic was radiating off of him from the recent fight with Ron as blood still freshly poured down his face and he heaved.
This was his mate in front of him. His Draco being hurt. He looked like he was in so much pain. He was losing consciousness. He wasn't breathing, although trying to. Harry growled and advanced, the silhoutted person seemed to become scared for they backed up one step as well. "Stupefy!" Harry carefully aimed the spell to the side of Draco's head and thankfully heard a loud thump on the ground before rushing over to Draco's side, the blonde slowly lowered himself to the ground heaving heavily and rubbing his lower thigh. "Urgh, Harry...there's more..." he croaked out.
Harry, still extremely alert and on the defensive, put a body bind on the fallen boy who turned out to be none other than Blaise Zabini. He looked wildly around until his eyes finally fell on...her.
Harry's blood ran cold, his breath caught in his throat and he turned his back completely to Draco now and took a few menacing steps forward. A laughter escaped the maniac woman, a cackle that sent ice down Harry's spine but he ignored it. He felt hatred, pure and utter unadultured hatred run through his body.
"Bellatrix Lestrange, do you have any idea how bloody fucking long I've been waiting for this moment?" Harry growled angrily, taking another step forward as Bellatrix cackled on, her wand at her side as she pranced on the Forest Floor, taunting Harry.
"Oh Potty-wotty, you look upset! And over our little Draco...why now, that's a pleasnt surprise...I must say...awwwh, you must still be upset about what happened at the Ministry...Potty-head-Potty Potty Potty-head," she cackled insanely.
Harry was smirking cynically now, his magic was rolling off of him in tufts as Draco held tight on his own wand now from the ground, looking on the scene worriedly biting his lip. "Say your prayers, Bella," Harry's voice was cold, dark and smooth. It even scared Draco at how in control it was.
"Now Potty, you know that you can't kill me...you're not strong enough!" she cackled again.
Harry understood her plan, her diversion skills. She was tempting to tease him into a trap, trying to buy time for the inevitable. Bellatrix would have gotten out of this one, if Harry was the old Harry and fell for it - if he had let his temper take control. But he didn't just have himself to think about now, he also had Draco and the seething revenge begging inside of him for Sirius' life.
"Avada Kedavra!" Harry bellowed, and all of his concentrated energy went into that one blow. The Forest floor vibrated as Bella's body suddenly went cold and still, it was flooded with green light before it fell to the ground.
Draco gasped audibly. He had never seen somebody murder somebody else so easily, and then when Harry turned back to him he was...smiling. Draco gulped heavily, feeling fear shake his bones with the pain he was feeling. "Is that all there was?"
Draco nodded. Harry then smiled even brighter, and it was at that point just creeping the hell out of the blonde who had forgotten all about why he had come outside in the first place. None of that mattered after what just happened...whatever it was.
Harry flicked his wand at the two petrified bodies and levitated them, he picked up Draco gently in his arms and kissed his forward as he did so. Draco sighed heavily, even though he was terrified of his mate at the moment he couldn't stop but feel so wonderful at the sametime.
"Are you alright? Can you explain to me what happened?" Harry asked hurriedly, he walked with quick pace and ease with Draco in his arms. His smile finally fell as he considered the absolute graveness of the situation. Yes he had just killed somebody...again. But in his head, Bellatrix had deserved it for years. He couldn't wait to tell Neville that he had gotten revenge for his parents too.
"I-I was outside, walking things off a little bit and...Parkinson came and so I hurried away from her, naturally,"
"Yes, naturally," Harry agreed with a grin.
"I think she was in on all of this. I think that she was used to bait me away from the castle and towards the Forest. That is when Blaise, who was disillusioned, tripped me and broke my leg. Harry, please do not worry right now, telling you is more important. I am fine. You know I can handle the pain. Anyway, after that Aunt Bella was going raving mad about how Lucius was a traitor because they couldn't find him and he was obviously in hiding. So I told her that she was a fool for thinking that because he wasn't a traitor, I was. I was the one that killed him. I told her everything, and so they wanted to make me...pay," Draco winced.
Harry looked worriedly down at his lover, his mate, as they neared Hogwarts. "What did they do?" he asked softly.
"Nothing much. Just one Crucio, which you know is lucky for me..."
"Lucky? Still, Draco! I shouldn't have let you come into harms way in the first place!" Harry snapped in response.
"Well after that, Blaise was choking me and then...you showed up. Just like that. How did you do that, exactly?" Draco asked, biting his tongue to ignore the pain shooting up from his knee.
"I-I don't know. I didn't do it. I was in the hall and then...suddenly I was here," Harry responded, equally confused. "Listen, I'm going to Disillusion ourselves as to not cause attention. Is that alright?" Harry asked, Draco numbly nodded. He was beginning to feel the side effects of the pain and the Cruciatus curse, he felt sick to his stomach.
After Harry quickly disillusioned the two floating, petrified bodies and his mate and himself, he continued into the school and as quietly as possible, avoiding any physical contact with any student, made his way to the Hospital Wing.
"Oh, and Draco," Harry whispered, getting a soft grunt in response. "I never told you what I fear the most, but I'd like to tell you now," he said, making sure his voice was low enough so as to nobody else could hear in case somebody were to be in the deserted hallways - mostly everybody was still at the Ball.
"My greatest fear was me. Myself. My temper is what controls me and that's what Bellatrix was trying to take advantage of...and then she forgot that my love for people was larger than my temper. I needed to take revenge for Sirius, for Neville's parents, for everybody that bitch has hurt," Harry growled angrily and then took a deep breath, he absently felt Draco's invisible hand resting on his chest.
"But now, it's different," Harry admitted softly, they were coming close to the Hospital Wing now. "Now I understand that my biggest fear is so simple and has always been right there,"
"What is it, Harry?" Draco asked softly, they were standing in front of the closer double doors now and Harry looked down at where he knew Draco was in his arms and he could feel Draco looking back up at him, despite their disillusion.
"My greatest fear, Draco, is losing you,"
*
Well this is one time, well this is one time
That you can't fake it hard enough to please everyone
Or anyone at all...or anyone at all
And the grave that you refuse to leave
The refuge that you've built to flee,
The places that you've come to fear the most,
Is the place what you have come to fear the most.