The Battle is Joined

By J.C. Vascardi

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Disclaimer: All characters and places featured in this story that relates to Harry Potter are the property of J.K. Rowling, various publishers, and Warner Brothers. I'm not profiting on this story and it is not my intent to infringe on anyone's copyright or trademark. The only things about this story that I own are the characters and storylines not featured in the books or other media.

Summary: An Apparition accident brings Harry and Draco closer than they could have ever imagined in their wildest nightmares. Finding out that the results of the accident are permanent is the last thing either of them wanted to hear. The question is whether their new reality is a curse that they have no choice but to bear or a blessing in disguise.

-o-0-o-

Chapter One:

The Accident

-o-0-o-

In the chaos that followed the news that the Death Eaters were attacking the World Cup, a terrified Harry Potter found himself alone in a field. He was barefoot and only wearing a pair of red cotton pajama bottoms.

The sickly green of the Dark Mark was hanging in the sky above his head, bringing back memories of the night that he'd lost his parents, as the color reminded him of the Killing Curse that took his mum. He could hear fighting and screams all around him, and he didn't know if any of his friends were safe because they were separated from each other what seemed to him like hours ago, even though he knew it wasn't. And to make matters worse, he didn't have his wand.

Seeing movement and a glimpse of blond hair out of the corner of his eye, Harry reacted, running after whoever it was, catching them, and causing them both to fall over in the tall grass.

"Let go of me!" a familiar voice shouted.

"Malfoy," Harry said, instantly recognizing the voice. "I should have known. You're probably the one who put the Mark in the sky."

"I did no such thing," Draco said. "Now unhand me, Potter. My father will hear of this!"

"I'll unhand you all right… when I turn you over to the authorities for the junior Death Eater that you are. You're not going to escape punishment this time, Malfoy."

Draco was in no mood to argue. He was tired, scared, half-naked, cold, and now thanks to Potter tackling him, he was also damp and muddy since the ruddy berk managed to land them in a mud puddle. He had his wand in his back pocket but he couldn't reach it as he had one arm pinned between his back and the ground and Potter holding onto his other one with a death grip.

Wanting nothing more than to get away from his nemesis who he would never admit aloud was superior to him, at least when it came to physical strength, Draco did the only thing he could think of and attempted to Apparate.

Of course, considering that he was only fourteen, had no license and no training, this probably wasn't the best idea he'd ever had. He also wasn't thinking very clearly about his destination or the act itself. In his desire to get away from Harry, he also didn't think his action through long enough to realize that because Harry was holding onto him, that he'd end up going with Side-Along.

The last thing Harry or Draco remembered was the sudden excruciating pain that flooded their bodies out of nowhere and was unlike anything either one of them had ever felt before in their lives. Mercifully, it didn't last long before they both blacked out.

-o-0-o-

Harry groaned as he blinked his eyes open and they struggled to adjust to the low light. When they finally did, he couldn't place where he was. He knew he was in a warm bed and fully dressed in a pair of comfortable silk pajamas. Needless to say, this threw his mind for a loop because all of his clothes were hand-me-downs from Dudley, and while it was true that his aunt and uncle spoiled him rotten, they had never bought him a pair of silk pajamas.

He was just about to call out and see if there was anyone around who could tell him where he was when he turned his head slightly to the left and his eyes widened in surprise when he realized that he wasn't alone in bed. Closing his eyes briefly as he turned his head more, he opened his eyes and nearly had a heart attack when he saw a blond head on the pillow next to him. Eyes adjusted to the low light, it took only a few seconds to realize whose head it was and that didn't make him feel any better.

"What the fuck!" Harry yelled, his voice scratchy. "Malfoy, why are you in bed with me? Get out!"

Harry's yelling made Draco wake up and while it took him a moment to fully wake up, when he did, he almost had a heart attack of his own when he saw Harry bloody Potter in his bed.

"Potter! Get out of my bed!"

The two young men immediately jumped away from each other… or at least that is, they tried to jump away from each other. Instead, they ended up toppling out of bed and onto the floor, their backs hitting it with an audible thud, their legs still on the bed and tangled up in the blankets. It wasn't long before they realized that try as they might, they couldn't get away from each other.

Taking a deep breath, Draco said, "Potter, stop struggling. Something is wrong."

"Yeah, no shit, I woke up in bed with you!"

"I don't like that anymore than you do, Potter, but don't you find it even the slightest bit odd that when we tried to get away from each other, we ended up falling out of bed? And that we fell off the same side of the bed mind you, even though I'm sure we tried going in opposite directions?"

Harry was quiet for a moment as he contemplated what Draco had just said. As much as he didn't like the idea of admitting that the blond was right about anything, he didn't have much of a choice in this case.

Turning his head away from Draco and looking up at the ceiling, Harry's eyes widened when he saw his legs still tangled in the blankets. The problem was that Draco was lying right next to him and yet, he only saw two legs…

"Uh, Draco, where are your legs?"

"I didn't give you permission to use my first name."

"Focus on the question, damn it!"

"They're on the bed, why?"

"You're sure?"

"Of course I'm sure."

"That's funny because I could swear that mine are too. And yet I only see two legs."

Draco scoffed, about to tell Potter that he was clearly blind without his glasses, which he only now noted that his nemesis wasn't wearing when he turned his head and looked at where it felt like his legs were… only to see that Potter was right. There were only two legs coming down off the bed.

Reaching out with his right hand and pinching his right leg as hard as he could, Harry winced, even as Draco cried out and said, "Ow! Potter! That hurt!"

"What do you mean that hurt? That was my leg I just pinched."

"That's impossible because I felt it."

"I don't see how, since I felt it too…" Harry began, as he tried again to move away from Draco, only to note that he couldn't feel his left arm.

For a brief moment he thought maybe he was laying on it, but as he reached across his chest, trying to find it he realized that the silk pajamas that he was wearing matched the ones Draco was wearing perfectly. Squinting a bit, he then realized that they matched because... because…

"Shit. Shit. Shit! Shit! Oh shit, shit, shit," Harry began saying with increasing volume like a mantra over and over, as his brain tried to process the fact that at he and Draco were not simply wearing matching pairs of pajamas but literally the same singular pair.

"So uncouth," Draco muttered.

"Draco shut it. Am I crazy? Or are we wearing the same pair of pajamas?" Before Draco could respond, Harry, in a desperate tone, added, "Please tell me that I'm crazy."

Draco was about to respond, but before he could, light flooded the room and an unfamiliar masculine voice said, "Vous n'êtes pas fou, car vous portez la même paire."

With the lights on, Harry and Draco could now both clearly see what Harry had already started to suspect, much to his horror and that was that not only were they in fact wearing the same pair of pajamas, but that they had woken up in bed together because… because…

No, no, no, NO!

They couldn't believe what their eyes were telling them, because that was impossible. After a few more minutes however, they turned their heads to face one another, matching looks of total abject horror on their faces, before they both started screaming at the top of their lungs.

Within moments, however, the same masculine voice that had just spoken muttered a spell that neither of them could hear the incantation of over their combined screaming. But they immediately understood what spell it was when their screams were cut off due to their rising panic dying away and being replaced with a calm feeling of serenity.

Putting his wand away, the man said, "Bien mieux," before he moved into the two boy's field of vision and added, "Je suis content de voir que vous êtes tous les deux enfin réveillés, même si j'espère que tomber du lit n'a pas rouvert vos blessures."

The next thing they knew, the unfamiliar man was helping them up and getting them situated on the bed. Despite the Calming Charm, they were both sure that their eyes were about as wide as dinner plates as they looked down and saw that not only were there only two legs between them, but also only two arms and a single torso.

Without even thinking about it, Draco asked with the comfortable switch of being fluent in the language, "Qui êtes-vous et où suis-je?"

"Could you two please speak English?" Harry asked, in what would have been an annoyed tone, except that the Calming Charm didn't really allow him to speak in any way that wasn't a calm monotone.

"Hmm, interesting," the man said. "One of you speaks French easily and the other doesn't appear to understand a word of it." Shaking his head, he said, "My name is Luc Flamel and you're in my home."

"Which is where?" Draco asked at the same time that Harry asked, "Flamel? Is that any relation to Nicolas Flamel?"

"In the wizarding village of Mont Calais in France," Luc said. "And if you're referring to the alchemist, then yes, he's an ancestor."

"Mont Calais," Draco said. "That's the village near my family's chateau."

"Your family's chateau?" Luc asked. "There's only one chateau near here. Are you a member of the Malfoy family?"

"I am," Draco said, as he tilted his head in Harry's direction and added. "He isn't, however."

Before Luc could respond, Harry asked, "Is this some kind of horrific nightmare? Because if it's not, I don't even want to say what it looks like."

"I'm afraid, young man, that you and your companion are very much awake, so the chances of it being a nightmare aren't very good," Luc said. "As for what you're seeing, if I were to hazard a guess you had what was no doubt a very painful and very severe splinching accident."

"Splinching? Isn't that involved with Apparition?" Harry asked confused, before exclaiming, "I don't even know how to Apparate! I'm only fourteen!"

"All the more reason not to try it," Luc said, in a slightly scolding tone. "Anyway, when I found the two of you, you were lying on the ground about a mile outside of the village. You're lucky that I frequently head out to the forest between the village and the chateau to collect herbs because if I hadn't found you when I did, you probably would have bled to death."

Before either boy could say anything, Luc reached forward and began unbuttoning their pajama top, which had two rows of buttons starting diagonally at their necks and going down until they met just above the abdomen and continued down, forming a capital letter y.

Harry's and Draco's eyes both widened in shock as they looked down. They could see a curving line of white linen bandages affixed to their skin emerging from underneath the v-shaped silk cloth between their heads and going all the way down into their pajama bottoms.

Reaching out with a hesitant hand, Harry touched his skin just under his right nipple, which was nicely tanned from all the long hours he spent tending Aunt Petunia's garden before he then reached over to the other side of the bandages and touched the much paler skin.

Draco quickly slapped his hand away and said, "I didn't give you permission to touch me, Potter."

Quirking an eyebrow at Draco, Harry said, "Draco, as much as I don't want to even contemplate this, it would seem that we share a body now, so your skin is my skin and I don't need your permission to touch it."

Shaking his head and trying desperately not to believe what Harry and his eyes were telling him, he said, "No, it's not your skin, it's my skin."

"Boys, don't fight," Luc said. "In truth, you're both right because whether you accept it or not, your skin belongs to both of you now, as does everything else below your necks."

Draco's eyes widened at this, as he looked at Luc, gulped, and asked, "Everything?"

Luc shook his head, "Well, not quite everything. It would seem that your splinching accident spared your penises and testicles, but other than that? I'm afraid it's everything… so, two arms, two legs, ten fingers, ten toes, one torso, and yes before you ask, one arse."

"How?!" Draco and Harry both asked in unison.

"Well, considering that he," Luc said motioning towards Harry since he didn't yet know either boys' name, "says that he didn't Apparate, I'm guessing it must have been you, Mr. Malfoy, who not only attempted to Apparate but to Side-Along Apparate both yourself and your friend here. To be blunt, you screwed it up badly enough that you both splinched and left behind significant parts of your bodies."

"My guess," a female voice said, prompting the two teens to look towards the door into the room, where a young lady that looked about Luc's age was now standing, "is that you both left behind an arm, a leg, and about a third or so of your torsos."

Luc nodded and introduced the woman as his wife, Colette, before he added, "Such an extreme splinching would have undoubtedly been fatal, but since there were two of you in close proximity and I'm guessing you both left behind opposing limbs, that your respective magic, in a last ditch effort to save your lives, locked onto each other and healed the damage as best it could by fusing your bodies together."

Luc paused for a moment, before he continued, "As you can probably guess from the bandages, you still had a pretty deep cut winding its way down your shared torso, both front and back, that was bleeding when I found you. Not enough to be lethal, if properly treated in time, which luckily for you, I am the village healer."

"You've also been in comas for a little over a week now," Colette added. "So, since you didn't have any identification on you, all we could do was keep you comfortable and hope that you could tell us who you were when you woke up."

"I'm Draco Malfoy," Draco said. "Son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy."

Harry was a bit surprised that they hadn't recognized him from the tell-tale scar on his forehead, which he assumed was still there, but since he hadn't seen his reflection yet, he didn't know for sure. Of course, he had never traveled outside of the United Kingdom before, so he didn't actually know how far beyond its borders they'd heard of him and his bloody scar. "I'm Harry Potter, son of the late James and Lily Potter."

"Well, I guess we'll try to contact Mr. Malfoy's parents, is there anybody that we can contact for you, Mr. Potter?" Colette asked. "Being unidentified John Does for the last nine days, I'm sure your families are worried sick."

Sighing, Luc said, "Not to be a downer, but, it's also possible that they think you're dead. Based on how much I'm guessing you both left behind when you splinched, in my professional opinion, it wouldn't be a stretch for them to believe that you'd died. The damage was extensive enough that no healer worth their salt would say that it wasn't fatal."

Colette nodded. She wasn't a healer herself, but being married to one, she'd picked up enough over the years to know that if somebody had both an arm, a leg, and a third of their torsos violently ripped away from the rest of their body, they'd be losing blood and quite possibly internal organs at an alarming enough rate for their continued existence to be in grave peril. Anybody who found those parts which had been removed would no doubt come to the same conclusion.

Gesturing at their fused body, Harry asked, "This can be fixed, right? I mean, we can go back to being separate again?"

"I'm afraid not, Mr. Potter," Luc said. "It's been nine days. If I knew where you'd come from I might have been able to get there and fetch what you left behind, but that's only if you'd been lying where I found you for a few minutes, maybe half an hour at the most. Any longer and the blood loss to the parts of yourselves that you left behind would probably have been too much for the tissue to remain living."

"From the tests that we've run on you," Colette added, "it would also seem that your magical cores have connected to each other. So, even if by some miracle we could find the other parts of you and they were not dead and decaying tissue by now, I'm afraid that splitting you apart at this point would render you both little more than squibs."

Shaking his head, a look of total disbelief on his face, as the Calming Charm had now started wearing off, Draco asked, "What? Do you mean to tell me that we're stuck like this? Permanently?"

Luc sighed. "Unless you fancy life as a squib with only your left arm and leg and half your internal organs missing, then yes, Mr. Malfoy, I'm afraid you very much are stuck this way."

"Oh Sweet Circe's sagging tits!" Draco said. "I think I'd rather be dead then sharing a body with Harry fucking Potter!"

"Trust me the feeling is mutual," Harry said. "If I had to choose somebody to share my body with, not that I ever would mind you, Draco sodding Malfoy is the very last person I would pick."

Shaking his head, Harry added, "Honestly, Draco, I wouldn't pick you for this, even if my life depended on it and you were the last person left on the face of the Earth!"

"This is all your fault, you know."

Harry looked at Draco wide-eyed and asked. "My fault? How the bloody hell do you figure that? You're the one who Apparated us, so it was you, not me that splinched us so badly that this happened."

"It's your fault because you grabbed me and wouldn't let go. I wouldn't have had to try to Apparate to get away from you if you hadn't done that."

"I only did that because you sent up the bloody Dark Mark over the World Cup!"

"I did no such thing, Potter," Draco said through gritted teeth. "I don't even know how to cast the Dark Mark. I know it's a spell but I don't know the incantation. How could I? I'm not a Death Eater, you ignoramus! The Dark Lord's been dead since we were both a year old so he's not exactly out recruiting now is he?"

"Boys, boys, calm down," Colette said. "Fighting isn't going to change anything. I can see that you apparently hate each other's guts, but I suggest that you get over that and quickly, because whether you like it or not, Draco's guts are now your guts, Harry, and vice versa. That's why you were both comatose for so long. While Luc managed to stop the bleeding from the cuts on the outside, your new merged body needed time to heal and repair itself on the inside so it knocked you out to keep you from using any magic that was otherwise needed to save your lives."

Nodding, Luc said, "As usual, my darling wife is correct. You're going to have to learn how to cooperate with each other because there's simply no way you'll be able to go through life otherwise. Walking and anything that requires two hands is going to require you to work together, because I'm sorry, but no matter how it happened, this is permanent, so you're just going to have to deal with it."

After a moment's pause, he added, "Now, since we were side-tracked and you didn't answer the question earlier, is there anybody we can contact for you, Mr. Potter?"

"My guardians are muggles," Harry said as he heaved a sigh. "But you can try Albus Dumbledore. He's my school headmaster."

Draco sighed as well. "That's fine. He'll know how to contact my parents. My father is on the Hogwarts Board of Governors."

Luc nodded. "Okay, Colette, dear could you handle that while I check the bandages on their back?"

"Of course," Colette said before she left the room.

"Okay boys, take your top off and turn around," Luc said. "From the position you were in when I came in, it seems you fell backward out of bed and onto your back, so I need to check the bandages on that side."

-o-0-o-

Meanwhile, Albus Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk in his office at Hogwarts. The only thing keeping him in anything even remotely approaching a happy mood was Fawkes' singing. Although even that had a rather mournful hint that it normally didn't have, but had unfortunately become commonplace over the last week.

The Death Eater attack at the World Cup would have been concerning enough, but the Dark Mark being cast into the sky was an even more worrying development. Especially when the morning after the attack the Aurors had found two severed legs along with two severed arms still attached to a portion of the torsos of their owners lying in a patch of grass that was stained brown with dried blood.

On top of that, both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy had gone missing. A frantic search had quickly ensued, as every possible resource was put into finding the two missing boys, until finally the Ministry was forced to call it off after the severed limbs found at the scene were identified. Initially, the healers from the British Ministry and St. Mungo's had only been able to determine the relative age of the limbs and that there were two victims.

Thankfully, the Aurors who found the limbs did think to place them in stasis. Unfortunately, they were already long dead from blood loss at that point, but a Master Healer who'd come in from China to watch the World Cup was able to find enough trace magic left in one of the arms, the primary wand arm of the person it had belonged to, that they were able to run a magical signature test and then compare it with the British Ministry's records.

Two of the severed limbs belonged to none other than Draco Malfoy. Telling the families had definitely been the hardest thing that Albus had ever had to do. The Malfoys were devastated at the loss of their only son.

With Draco being identified as one of the two victims, on a hunch that he prayed with every fiber of his being was wrong, Albus had Remus come in to smell the other pair of limbs. Albus was hoping against all hope that his enhanced werewolf senses wouldn't pick up any resemblance to Harry. Unfortunately, however, because Remus considered Harry to be part of his pack, he was able to detect the faint trace of Harry's scent.

Where the Malfoys, Remus, Sirius, and the Weasleys had been overcome with grief, enough so that even Lucius Malfoy showed emotion for the first time since Albus had known him, the Dursleys reacted very differently. Much to Albus's complete and utter horror, Vernon and Petunia, when told that their nephew was most likely dead, expressed joy that they were finally rid of him. Dudley even cheered.

It took everything in him for Albus not to kill them on the spot and was glad that he'd gone to Privet Drive himself to tell them because if Remus or Sirius had done it, they would no doubt both be on their way to Azkaban for the violent murder of three muggles who would no doubt have been ripped to shreds. Albus couldn't say that he'd feel particularly sorry for them if that happened, but he was glad that it didn't, if only because nobody would be on their way to prison.

Albus looked up when the chime that rang to signal an incoming Floo-call went off, just before the tell-tale whoosh of the flames igniting. Standing up and walking over to the fireplace, he was surprised when the face of a familiar-looking young woman appeared.

"Colette Flamel?" Albus asked, after a moment, as it had taken him a moment to place the face.

The woman nodded. "Yes, Albus, it's me. Nicolas's great-granddaughter-in-law."

"I haven't seen you in years," Albus said. Honestly, he had thought that she'd be dead by now, what with the destruction of the stone three years ago. But then again Nicolas never did say how much Elixir the family had stored, just that they had enough to set their affairs in order… whatever that meant. "How are you and Luc?"

"We're doing well," Colette answered. "Luc recently became the resident healer in Mont Calais, France. We've had a pair of unidentified teenage boys here at our home for the last nine days after Luc found them unconscious on his way back home from collecting herbs in the nearby forest. They were both comatose until now, but they woke up this evening."

"So why contact me?"

"They told me to," Colette answered. "They identified themselves as a pair of your students, Albus. Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter."

Albus's eyes widened as he asked, "Draco and Harry? But, Colette, they're dead. We found enough of their bodies that they couldn't possibly have survived. We'd assumed they were tortured to death by the Death Eaters who attacked the World Cup."

"It's true their injuries were severe," Colette said. "But they weren't caused by Death Eaters. It seems that Harry thought Draco cast the Dark Mark and grabbed him, causing Draco to panic and attempt to Apparate away. He ended up Side-Along Apparating himself and Harry here to France, and splinching them both quite severely in the process."

"Draco is fourteen years old. He has no business attempting Apparition, let alone Side-Along Apparition, let alone from one country to another."

"I don't think it was Mr. Malfoy's intention to come to France," Colette said. "He also didn't intend to take Harry with him, but because he was physically holding onto Draco at the time, he ended up getting caught up in Draco's botched Apparition attempt."

Albus was quiet as he processed this information, prompting Colette to say, "Albus, I should tell you that they would be dead now save for a freak accident which has left them connected."

"Connected?"

Colette nodded. "Fused together, both physically and magically."

Albus just looked at Colette for a moment, before he asked, "Just for clarification, are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"If you think I'm saying that they now share everything below their necks," Colette figured the boys would agree that the headmaster did not need to know about their private parts, "and that their magical cores are now essentially one large interconnected unit just like naturally born wizarding conjoined twins, then yes, that is what I'm saying."

Albus shook his head, as he reached up and stroked his long white beard. "Oh Merlin's beard, that's going to cause issues."

"Yes, Luc and I gathered as much when they woke up and started arguing as we explained their situation. They really don't like each other do they?"

"That's putting it mildly, Colette," Albus said, with a sad shake of his head. "They've been bitter rivals for years now, all the way back to their first year. Still, I suppose alive is better than dead. Are you sure it's them?"

"They told us their names and the names of their parents," Colette said, as she shared what she'd been told. "As for a physical description, Draco is blond with storm grey eyes and pale skin. Harry is brunet with brilliant green eyes, suntanned skin, and a scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt. Does that sound like them to you?"

"Yes, it does," Albus said. "Although, just to be sure, before I get their loved ones' hopes up, I think I'd prefer to see them for myself. May I come through?"

"Of course, I figured you'd want to," Colette said, as she removed her head from the fireplace so that the headmaster could come through.

-o-0-o-

After checking their bandages, which thankfully had not needed replacing yet as the wounds on their back had healed enough that falling out of bed had not torn them open, Luc left the room to check in with his wife to see if she'd made contact with Albus yet and to make the boys something to eat now that they were awake.

Considering it had been nine days now since they'd eaten anything beyond nutrient potions, he figured they were probably getting a bit hungry by now.

Harry and Draco sat on the bed from a moment, before Harry moved to stand up, but didn't get more than a couple of inches off the bed before falling back down. With a growl, he realized that it was because Draco hadn't been trying to stand up along with him.

"Draco, stand up."

"Why?"

"I want to go to the bathroom."

"Why? We haven't eaten in nine days. Surely you don't need to go to use the loo."

Shaking his head, Harry said, "No, but Luc mentioned there's a full-length mirror in the bathroom. I want to see the damage."

"Well, I'm not ready to see it so I'm staying right here."

"Have it your way," Harry said, before he reached his right hand, now his only hand he supposed, since the left one was Draco's, into their pajama bottoms.

"Potter! What the bloody hell are you doing?" Draco nearly sputtered indignantly when he felt Harry's hand brush his cock.

"I wanted to see what we were packing," Harry said, bluntly. "Luc said we'd each kept our cocks, but I couldn't imagine what that would look like. Since you didn't want to get up to look in the mirror, I decided to investigate another way."

"Potter that's…" Draco stopped mid-sentence and got a look of horror on his face as he thought of something. "Um, Potter, who do you fancy?"

"Why do you care?"

"I should think that would be bloody obvious, Potter," Draco drawled. "Our cocks are now right bloody next to each other and we apparently share an arse. Depending on who you fancy, that is potentially going to cause a rather serious problem."

Harry sighed. "Blokes."

"Oh thank, Merlin," Draco said. "I was worried you liked Weasel's sister."

"Ginny?" Harry asked, disgusted. "Merlin, no. Draco, not only do I think of her as a sister, but she also looks a lot like my late mother. The mere thought of doing anything with her is enough to make me want to puke."

"Well, what do you know? We actually agree on something."

"I'm assuming from your reaction that you also like blokes?"

"Yes, Potter, I do," Draco said. "And I still haven't given you permission to use my given name."

Harry shook his head. "Sorry, Draco, but as long as we share flesh, I'm not calling you by your surname. Which since this is apparently permanent, thanks by the way," his voice practically dripping with sarcasm on those last four words, "you're just going to have to get used to it."

Draco let out a put upon sigh, as he said, "Fine then, Harry. Oh, Merlin, I can't believe that I'm stuck to you of all people."

"Well, you've got nobody to blame but yourself," Harry said, as he removed his hand from their pajamas. Their pajamas. That was definitely going to take some getting used to… along with about ten thousand other things.

Before Draco could argue, Luc came back in carrying a tray. "Boys, don't start. I've got dinner for you and Professor Dumbledore is here to see you."

Setting the tray on a nearby table, Luc asked, "Can you get up and walk that far or do you need help?"

It took a moment for them to coordinate standing up, as it seemed that they each only controlled one leg. They took a few halting first steps, almost falling, but managing to catch themselves before they did, as Draco reached out and steadied his hand against a nearby dresser and Harry was still close enough to the bed to reach out and grab the bedpost.

Albus stayed quiet as he watched from the doorway, as the two boys made it over to the table and sat down. It was definitely them. Very different from the last time he'd seen them, but there was no mistaking them for anyone else other than Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter.

The headmaster stayed quiet for a moment, as Draco poured himself a cup of tea and Harry poured himself a glass of pumpkin juice.

"I'd be careful, boys," Luc said. "You share both a bladder and a stomach now. So, keep that in mind when you eat and drink, because they will fill up faster than they used to."

"Great, just great," Harry muttered, softly enough that Luc and Albus didn't hear it but Draco could not only hear it but also pick up on the sarcasm in Harry's tone.

He would have commented, but in this case, he agreed. Still, he supposed it was a good thing to keep in mind since anytime they both ate they'd now essentially be eating double portions if everything they ate was going to the same place and they were eating the same portion sizes that they used to eat.

"Just one of many things to get used to, I guess," Draco muttered, more or less to himself, but Harry heard it since their heads were now only about half a foot apart, give or take a couple of inches.

Coming forward, Albus said, "Well, Draco, Harry, I see you've had a little accident."

Looking at the headmaster over the rim of his teacup, Draco had the sudden urge to murder the man and his damn twinkling eyes. Unbeknownst to Draco, since their thoughts were still their own, in that moment, Harry was thinking pretty much the same thing.

"Still, I'm glad to see you both alive," Albus said. "Draco, I'm sure your parents will be quite happy to be able to cancel your funeral."

"Maybe they shouldn't," Draco said as he put down his teacup. "Maybe it's better if they just continue to think I'm dead."

"Why would you say such a thing?" Luc asked.

"Look at me," Draco said. "I'm conjoined with Harry bloody Potter. I'm a freak."

"Aren't conjoined twins usually celebrated in the magical world?" Harry asked, confused. "Because they've generally got more magic than non-conjoined witches and wizards?"

"Naturally born ones, yes," Draco answered. "But this isn't natural. For all I know, we're actually weaker now. I have no idea how much of our magic might have been depleted trying to save our lives."

"You were magically exhausted when I found you," Luc said. "But I've been giving you some Magical Restorative Drafts while you were comatose. I've taken a reading of your reserve capacity now, but I'm afraid I don't have a reading from before your accident to compare it to."

"Madam Pomfrey has one for both of them," Albus said. "They've both been patients in the Hogwarts hospital wing and that's something that shows up on the standard diagnostic tests that she performs."

"Well I'll provide copies of my notes then for her to add to their medical records," Luc said, as Albus nodded.

"I think you should rethink your stance, Draco," Albus said. "It would be unfair to your parents to let them go on thinking that you're dead. Plus, you're not the only one who can make that decision now, as Harry certainly gets a vote on whether or not he wants to let all of his friends and loved ones continue to mourn him."

The thought of all of his friends mourning for him when he wasn't dead made Harry shake his head negatively, as he said, "No, I don't want that."

"You sure?" Draco asked. "I mean just think for a moment about how they're going to react to this. The Gryffindor Golden Boy permanently fused with the Slytherin Ice Prince." Draco paused here for a moment, before he said, "You know on second thought it might be fun to go back if only to see your housemates' reactions."

Harry looked at Draco askance for a moment, before he turned pleading eyes to Luc and Albus and said, "Kill me now. Please, kill me!"

"Mr. Potter, you shouldn't joke about such things," Albus scolded.

"I'm not joking," Harry said, as he pointed at Draco and added, "Being connected to him for the rest of my life? I'm going to go crazy!"

"That's assuming you don't drive me crazy first, Potter."

Luc sighed as he turned to the headmaster. "Obviously they're going to need some time to get used to this." Albus nodded in agreement. "I would like to keep them here for a few more days to monitor their condition, but you're welcome to bring some of their family here, professor."

"Thank you," Albus said. Turning to the boys, he said, "Well, boys, eat your dinner and I'll be back in the morning."

-o-0-o-

To be continued… maybe?

And there you have Chapter One of The Battle is Joined. I have absolutely no idea how long this story will be or even if I'm going to continue it. I guess that depends on whether anybody wants updates for it.

Why did I write such a weird story? Well, I got the idea from one of my group members who submitted a pair of original characters for the Triwizard Tournament in The Seventh Olympian (check out my group for details). A pair of twins who were born as regular twins but got conjoined to each other at the age of 12 due to a freak apparition accident.

I guess the idea stuck in my head and egged on by the Muses, the rabid plot bunnies attacked me in a rather vivid dream, which is where I usually get some of my best material. Not saying this is it, per se, but since today is Evil Author's Day and I think this pretty much epitomizes the concept of something an evil author would do, I figured what the hell?

For anyone who might be concerned, this will be an extra story that will not take up a place on my update schedule (the 1st and 15th of each month). If this does get updated, it'll be as an extra chapter in addition to one of my other stories.

French translations in this story were done by Google Translate, so any mistakes are Google's fault. Although when I translated the French back into English, with the possible exception of a word or two being different (but meaning essentially the same thing), it was still pretty much exactly what I had written in English. Here's a list for you of the translations, plus what I originally wrote before translating it:

"Vous n'êtes pas fou, car vous portez la même paire."/"You are not crazy because you are wearing the same pair."

"Bien mieux,"/"Much better,"

"Je suis content de voir que vous êtes tous les deux enfin réveillés, même si j'espère que tomber du lit n'a pas rouvert vos blessures."/"I'm glad to see you both are finally awake, although I hope falling out of bed didn't reopen your wounds."

"Qui êtes-vous et où suis-je?"/ "Who are you and where am I?"

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? I love hearing from my readers, so feel free to contact me in a review, by email (Gmail: jaycolin25), my LiveJournal (JayColin), my group: (slash) g (slash) storiesbyjayson, or on Twitter JVascardi. Alternatively, you can also contact me via Skype (text messaging only) at . Also, don't forget to check out my Wiki: .com, for character profiles and story guides.