Title: The Boy Who Survived

Writer: Azure K Mello ()

Part: 25/?

Pairing: Draco/Harry

Overall plot: what does it take to make Harry trust his stalker?

Segment plot: Harry comes up with a plan. Severus and Remus support him.

Disclaimer: please don't sue me. I have no money and I don't pretend to own these things.

You kiss me awake and say, "Draco, It's past noon. You ready to get up?"

"Shower?" I ask.

"Sounds good." You grab the bathrobes and stand up pulling one on and throwing the other to me. "We'll shower and put our memories back then eat."

I follow you to the loo and you turn on the shower as I shut the door behind us. We both shrug out of our robes and you pull me into the shower with you. You wrap a leg around my waist and ask, "Can we start the morning like this?"

"Yes, Merlin, yes." I kiss you slowly. "Please take me, Harry, want you in me."

"Whatever you want." You remove your leg from around my waist. "I think the best way is if you brace yourself against the wall."

I do as you say and I hear you muttering spells, loosening me and opening me up with your fingers, "Fuck," I moan, "feels so good. You always make me feel so good. Love you."

You kiss the back of my neck and say, "You really do feel good." I give a half laugh. "Gotta be inside of you."

"Good, yeah. Please. Harry, I want this so badly."

"Never need to beg." You pant against my back, and you bite down on my shoulder as you enter me. It doesn't hurt, all of it feels so good. You rock into me and you cry out and say, "This is what I wanted. Christ, Draco, love being this close. You make me happy. Love that you're with me. I love being with my best friend."

You thrust into me, "I like being your best friend." I drop my head back onto your shoulder and you kiss my cheek as you start to stroke me. I'm beyond words, just gasping for air. And you moaning in my ear, the noise ricochets off the walls. I come hard and you keep thrusting into me until you come a minute later. You pull out slowly and start to wash my hair before I even turn around.

"Stay still, don't turn around. Let me wash you." You run a flannel down my back and over my arse and gently part my cheeks and wash me off. Kneeling you kiss my hole and lick inside of me which makes me squirm. "Stay still, I'm cleaning you."

"Are you sure you want to do that?"

"Yes, stay still."

I have to lean into the wall just to stay upright. I reach up to rinse my hair out as you lick into me in an imitation of sex and it makes me shudder. "Like that, I do," I pant. I relax into it and just let myself enjoy it. I worry that you wouldn't do this if you had your memories but you wanted this, to be able to act without your memories. You stand up slowly, licking over your lips.

You finish washing my hair and turn me around by pushing at my hips. I start washing your hair as you wash my chest and my armpits. "I really like showering with you. It's becoming my favourite," you say and I laugh happily and easy as we wash each other. You turn off the water and smile, "It's time to face the day and put the memories back."

"Okay," I nod. I dry myself off and hand you a towel before I slip on my robe. I watch as you shrug into your own and then head across the hall to the bedroom. Dressing quickly I watch you do the same. I still like watching you even though now I'm not your stalker. But now I have the right to watch you as much as I like and it's still my favourite activity.

You smile and pick up the Pensieve. "You ready?" I nod but you put our own memories back first. It takes a while and you go grey and then you sigh, "Now you. Brace yourself: it's not good." You return my memories.

And I breathe in harshly, "God, how do you handle that?"

"Just breathe through it; it gets easier: once you remember that it's happened and that that was yesterday. It's not today. Today is ours and I have a really fun idea as to how we can spend it. It's part of my plan. You gave me all those hours yesterday and I have a lot of ideas."

"Okay," I smile shakily. "Food?"

"That sounds good." You head towards the door and I follow you.

We go down to the kitchen. Severus and Remus are sitting there, both looking tired. You walk to the larder and open the door, "Cheese sandwiches?"

"Sounds good," I say. Neither of the men look at us. "Rus, Remus, what's going on?"

Remus finally looks at me, "Silencio, boys. It's a really simple spell. Please."

You laugh as you turn away from the larder with bread, cheese, butter, and pickle. "Always good to start the day on an awkward note. And it's a way better awkward note than the one we closed on last night. Anyone else for a sandwich? We've got tons of bread." Remus and Severus both shake their heads, "How was the paper this morning?"

"Bad as you expected," said Severus. "She got out one more report, exactly what happened in the Great Hall. She has since been captured."

"Have you spoken to Dad?" I ask.

"Yes, he's gone to the Ministry to talk to Kingsley to see what's going to happen. Kingsley has already assured him that you won't be facing charges."

"That's good," you say handing me a plate with a thick sandwich. "I don't think Draco and I are going to go back to school." I nod. "In fact I think, for the first time in my life, I'm going to use my name to get a favour. We're going to take the NEWTs early. There's no way we won't pass. And after that… well, we'll focus on that later, who knows. There's a great spell that makes it so you can speak any language with a perfect accent so if need be we can leg it. We'd rather not do that, obviously, but," You sigh. "We can't do much to counter the articles. They're completely true right down to the details. Talking to the Quibbler won't do any good as there's no way of retracting it. There were too many photos in the Prophet to say it's untrue. Besides, it's not good to say that the truth is a lie, then everything gets muddled. But we can move on and just do our best." You sit down with your own sandwich and then ask, "Is there any tea left in the pot or should I make a new one?"

Remus pointed his wand at the pot and it along with two mugs, the sugar, and the milk jug floated over. He started to pour. "You said we were going to do something fun today?" I ask.

"Yes. How do you feel after last night?"

"Completely fine."

"Could you do it again?"

"You can't handle it. Your mind's been your own for less than twelve hours."

"No, not on me. You remember, when we were in Spain looking for a weapon the Order wanted that wasn't there and I was so stressed out and we did it. I felt so much better and I said, 'It could fix anything. Why don't they use it on the Longbottoms?' And you said-"

I interrupt you, "'If it could help them somebody would have done it already.' Madrid, that awful week. I'll go to school and get Neville, we'll need his permission."

"We'll need his gran's too. We'll Floo her once Neville's here. Eat first. It's no good going full steam ahead without a full stomach."

"What, exactly, are you planning on doing?" asks Remus.

"We're gonna do the thing we did last night to the Longbottoms and see if we can't help them," you say.

"How could it help them?" Remus asks.

"Well, I mean, look at me," you say. "Last night the worst thing that could have possibly happened happened and now I'm sitting here eating a sandwich. It pulls down all of your anxiety levels. For hours last night Draco took all of my fear and panic and higher thought into himself and gave my deep subconscious time off, too make plans, to analyze what had happened. It was like months of healing time compressed down because I could be totally logical and happy while having a think about it. And if we could do that to the Longbottoms… there's no telling how good it could be. The problem will be if there's physical damage to their minds but, well, Draco and I can both heal, maybe we can do that to their minds. We just won't know until we try."

"The real question," I say, "is how to link our minds up." Both men look at me with confusion as you nod. "Harry tells me facts when he wants to go under. I tell him predictions. You talk and the other person accepts everything you are saying exactly as you mean it. It makes your minds sympathetic to the point wherein they become one mind and the person who isn't under can take out all the unwanted information from the other person's mind. But how do you do that with someone who is insane?"

You laugh, "A better question than that is how does it work to begin with? I mean, can we do it to each other because we know each other so well and have the same worries or could we do it to anyone? Severus, do you have any ideas?"

Severus shakes his head, "You're the ones who can do it."

"I figured you have probably read more on this than anyone else in the room."

"There isn't much to read. No one's been able to do this since eight hundred and thirty two BC. And the last person was reticent to talk about it."

"Maybe they couldn't," I say, "there's no real way to explain it. I mean, do you understand it anymore now then you did before yesterday?" They both shake their heads. "And yet we're being as forthcoming as possible."

You sigh, "There's only one way to figure it out. Remus, would you be my guinea pig?" Remus nodded. "You're sure? It might hurt like hell and it's a little scary at first when you realize that you aren't really the one in charge. We sort of just stumbled on it and it was very uncomfortable at first."

"Why did you keep doing it?" asks Severus.

"Well," I say, "we didn't realize what we were doing. One of us would start rambling about our worries and then we would feel a lot better and calmer while the other person felt ill. It was only after a while that we figured out that we could do it on purpose. And then it took a little a practice to get it down."

"So, do you still want to help, Remus?"

"Of course," Remus nods, "Of course I do. But, um, what do I do?"

You swallow the last of your sandwich before saying, "Kneel or sit on the floor in front of me." You turn your chair so that its back is to the table.

"How does that help? You couldn't have discovered it like this," says Rus.

"Practice," you say, "we learned that you need eye contact, that the person who is getting the holiday should be looking up at the other person, that it's easier with your hands on one another, and that if you're on the floor to begin with you can't fall over once you slip under. Drop all of your shields; it makes it a lot easier. Trust me."

Remus kneels in front of you and I stand up. "Severus, this is a very private thing. Why don't we step out for a few minutes?" Severus nods and follows me out and up the stairs. "It can be a little intense," I say once we're in the drawing room. "He might cry a little."

"How are you, Dragon?"

I shake my head, "Hanging in there. But if we could help the Longbottoms, well, it might make all of this feel a little better. I feel impotent. There's nothing I can do for him right now and I want to fix it. I haven't felt this useless since the war and I don't like it."

"No," says Rus softly, "No one does. You'll get through this and I will do everything I can to help you both."

"Thank you, we just need to get through this, just ford ahead until it's over. You slept here last night."

"I was worried about you both."

"Remus is a very good looking man."

"That's ridiculous."

"At some point in time you get sick of living with your best friend and grieving over a war and realize that life moves on. Then you see this guy who's just as damaged, and attractive, and kind. Even though you've never seen eye to eye, well the war is over and things change, and maybe you've changed because the world has."

"Ridiculous."

"I've been watching you since you turned up. And maybe it's a friendship, maybe I'm wrong and it's just friendship. But whatever it is it's not a bad thing."

Severus sighed and said, "Do you really think you could heal the Longbottoms?"

"Yes, completely. I believe we could make them whole. Although, I feel like we might need a hell of a lot of that potion you brought me last night. It's not a race it's a marathon. I've never met them but I know that they're pretty well catatonic. There's going to be a lot of work."

"Could you take a preemptive healing potion?" I shrugged. "Well, if I gave you a healing you could take it, try this trance thing on me and see if it had any benefit."

"That's a good idea, let's first see if Harry can put Remus under." And then I hear you in my head say, "You can come down; it's over." I smile at Severus and say, "Harry says he's done. Let's go see if it worked."

We walk back down and Remus is rosy cheeked, looking much better, "It worked," he says, "I feel like I actually slept last night. It wasn't painful."

You give me a wry smile, "I think we worked out all the kinks on each other. He was only under for a minute."

"Good, that's good: we don't want to hurt the Longbottoms," I nod to myself. "Rus has thought of a new experiment. We could take the healing potion beforehand."

You nod, "That might work." You look a bit grey but you'll be fine in twenty minutes, even the most limited contact with someone else's mind like this. While Legilimency is more invasive it's not painful for the user. Just like healing is more tiring than killing protecting a mind is more difficult and strenuous than breaking one. You swallow your tea and breathe through your nose.

Severus produces a vial of the potion he used last night, "Small sip," he says and holds it out to me.

I take a tiny amount and feel it course through me. Last night it hadn't felt like this because I was so badly injured now it just feels amazing. It makes me feel like I'm on a high. I roll my head on my neck, "I'm ready."

He kneels without any preamble while you and Remus leave quickly, "So what do I do?" he asks.

I rest my hands on him, keeping eye contact. "Relax, take down your shields, I won't look for anything."

"Did you and he take down your blocks? During the war I mean?"

"Ours slipped a little back then, we were too anxious back then and not as disciplined, the tops ones faltered when we were stressed. We didn't even realize. Clearly we didn't let them all down, the ones that we made to block our feelings." I watch as he takes them down, see the concentration. His are so tightly ingrained in his mind that it takes a moment. "When you're ready you just start talking."

"About what?"

"Whatever you want me to understand, it's up to you. Why don't you tell me what's going through your mind: what's true to you. Be honest, it doesn't work when you lie."

"I'm worried about you, both of you; I'm worried about your plan. I don't like that Harry is going to trade on his name he shouldn't have to."

"Rus," I interrupt gently, "Relax, you're tense."

"How can I relax? With all this going on, how can I, Dragon?"

"Just trust me. Trust me to take care of this. Believe that I can do this."

I see something shift in his eyes, he's no less tense just more open, "I am ashamed of how I treated him from the moment I met him. I'm ashamed of not realizing what was happening. I am ashamed of trusting Dumbledore and disgusted that he refused to see it when he knew so much more. I am ashamed of how I learned his secret. I am ashamed that he felt he had to keep it a secret." I see the moment he goes under, the way his face loosens. I don't stop him from talking even though I'm overwhelmed with the feeling of stress that washes over my mind. "I never stopped leaning on him, not even on the battlefield. He didn't deserve that, no one does. I broke him down on purpose for no reason. I just didn't like him."

"But you're making up for it." He nods, slowly drowsily. "Deep breaths, breathe with me," I breathe slowly and he matches it perfectly, I control it. "That's good, nice, keep that up. It's all going to be okay. I'm going to take care of it. Harry and I are going to have a nice day and then we're going to go stay in a great hotel, for a good long time and regroup. It's going to be fun, a wonderful vacation and we're not going to think about any of this. If you and Remus want to come up with a plan while we're away that would be good but don't stress out. Now come back up, time to wake up." I feel our minds disengage and I feel none of the after effects. I feel no pain, none of his stress lingering in my head. But he still looks relaxed, rested.

"How do you feel?" I ask him.

"Amazing," he says sounding shocked. "How do you feel?"

"Absolutely fine. Can you dose us before we start?"

"Yes. A larger dose than the one you just took. Should help a bit."

"Awesome," I smile feeling relieved, "That's great." I speak to you in the back of my mind, "Babe, it worked. Come down?"

"No," you say, "you come up and I'll send Remus down. Want you for a minute."

I smile and say aloud, "Remus is coming down. I have to go upstairs for a little while."

He looks at me, surprised, "I thought you were going to get to the Longbottoms right away."

"We need to be calm so we need a little time to be alone." Severus raises an eyebrow and I smirk before going upstairs. I pass Remus on the stairs, he still looks relaxed, he smiles at me, a small smile of support. "Bedroom?" I ask silently.

"Yeah, come here. I'm already naked." I sort of jog up the last few stairs. And open the door to find you with the covers pulled back.

"You are gorgeous," I say standing there, almost frozen.

"Shut the door," you say softly. I do as you say. "Now strip nice and slow."

I start to undo the buttons of my robe and you watch me, drinking it in, I shrug the outer layer off of my shoulders and you say nothing. I pull off my boots and socks and take off my inner robes, standing naked I ask, "Is this was you want?"

"I want you to come lie with me and make out and just stay here for a little while." I come to the bed and kiss you very slowly, "I like that," you say against my mouth, licking my lips and licking into my mouth. "Just this," you pull me into bed and close to you, playing your fingers over my chest and tangling our legs together.

You don't ask if that's okay; don't check that it's what I want. And I'm glad, glad that you're making decisions and not doubting yourself. In my bedroom, only days ago, you asked if it was okay to be together and not have sex and now your confident in what you want. We share air as we kiss and curl together. "So good," I say softly as we break apart. "We don't even need a silencing spell for this." You laugh and it's a happy noise. We lie silent for a while, just cuddling, kissing, and stroking each other's skin. "How are you, baby?"

You sigh, "I love the endearments they make me feel so loved, so good."

"You are loved," I stroke your hair.

"I'm okay, when it's like this, when it's you and me. I don't think we should still go to the hotel. I think we need to be with family. As much as I dislike Christmas I don't think we can just bugger off. I think we should have a Christmas here. Your dad and Remus have never had a problem with each other and Severus and Remus are getting along. We were supposed to go to the castle for Christmas dinner but why don't we just have it here? Once we see how it goes with the Longbottoms we can invite them. And Blaise, of course. How does that sound?"

I nod, slowly and unsure, "That could be fun. But can we still go on holiday?"

"Absolutely, I want to go some place warm."

"Sounds awesome. Anywhere in particular you want to stay?"

You shrug and slowly detangle yourself from me and crawl down the bed to an old school chest which must have been Sirius' you open it and root through it finding something flat and square wrapped in a cloth. You come back and say, "It's a two way mirror," as you unwrap it, "but I don't know where the mate is and," the mirror is badly broken and you look at it so longingly, "I didn't use it when I should have. But I use it a lot as a blank slate." You reach for your wand and run it over the surface, lazily.

I sit up and pull you so you're between my legs and I rest my chin on your shoulder, "Sirius?"

"If I'd called him on this and not spoken to Kretcher he'd still be alive." I kiss your neck and you lean back against me, still trailing your wand along the broken mirror. You lift your wand off and then touch it with the very tip. And images start popping up, hotels on beaches, in sunny cities, gorgeous country sides, and then there it was: Disney World. Harry had seen it, in movies, and Hermione had gone one summer with her parents and came back gushing. "Disney World, the most magical place on earth. That's where we should go."

"I thought you wanted to hide among Muggles."

"It is Muggle. It's just the closest Muggle's can get to magic. Can we go there? Please?"

"Wherever you want, sweetheart." I run my hands over your ribs and you rest your head on my shoulder.

"I like sex when I don't have my memories because none of it is scary. Not that I don't love sex with you when I know who I am, it's just, I can do things with you when I don't think that I can't do yet when I'm fully me. When I don't have my memories, don't ask me if I'm sure about sex. I want to try everything again, and see how it feels with love, see if I like it. It feels good and I can experiment without being even the least bit scared." You turn your head to kiss my jaw then say, "We should go, get started." You stand and I allow my hands to trail over your skin. You smile and lean down to kiss me. "I love that you see me like this."

"I love getting to see you like this. You're so gorgeous."

I kiss you again and you pull back saying, "Get dressed."

I stand and put my robes back on and say, "I'll go to the castle and get Neville. It might take a while. I have to talk to my dad so maybe a couple of hours."

"I'll set up Disney and… gather myself."

"Are you going to be okay?" I ask softly.

You nod, "I'm going to do a lot of shop keeping. But would you do me a favour and shrink all my stuff and bring it back here? I don't want to go back there."

"Of course, I'll bring Hedwig back with me."

"Thank you."

Hey guys! Would you be very kind and send me some feedback? I'm not hearing from people and I'm curious as to what people are thinking. I don't mean to sound needy… but I'm really needy.