Chapter 30

If a war was fought with a sword, there would be blood every where amongst the bodies. It is hard to say whether it is fortunate or not that a wizard's war is less bloody. There wasn't time to ponder this. Draco had his wand out and indiscriminately began firing spells at those with Death Eater Cloaks. Their arrival had opened the gates to the prison. Both sides seemed to have suffered loses. Having been focused on their previous task, he didn't really know what the numbers were. The young Weasley daughter was holding the body of one of her brothers. He couldn't see which one. Another Weasley, the one who used to boast frequently, was being tortured with the Cruciatus curse. Neville reached him first. Then the sky went dark, and the air became cold. A dark skull appeared in the sky. They had summoned the Dark Lord. Harry was not among them there was no way for them to win what was left of their battle.

Mad-Eye ordered the retreat. It was not a complete loss, they rescued many of the prisoners there. George was shaking when he saw his brother return in the arms of his sister. Apparently, he had blocked a spell aimed for her. After Ron's death, this was even more unbearable. Their entire air team had sustained terrible injuries, and Severus slaved over their recoveries. Oliver Wood did not survive. The scarring on Marcus Flint's face could not be healed. There were too many for Grimmauld Place to hold, so some of the injured were sent to the Sea Cottage that Bill had bought with his wife.

There was no way around it, they were shaken from their fight. It was hard to say that they weren't ready, but there's no real way to be ready for your friends to die. Each person who died on their side was loved by all. Ron, Hermione, the Weasley twin that he couldn't remember the name of, Oliver Wood, they were all family to each other, and they had included Draco. Both sides suffered incredible losses, but he doubted that the Dark Lord would have grieved over any of them. Draco's Aunt hugged him when they returned. He almost forgot again that he still had family. There were so many injuries. Many of them Severus could treat instantly, but others had to take time to recover. When Draco's Aunt let go of him, he panicked when he saw the blood on her dress, but it wasn't long before he realized that the blood wasn't hers. She caught him before he fainted. Neville brought bandages and towels to cover the cut across Draco's chest. It wasn't deep, but it was bleeding quite a bit.

"Mrs. Tonks, please go fetch Severus." Neville requested.

"I can treat that injury." Andromeda pointed her wand at her nephew and the cut was instantly healed, but Draco was weak.

"Not for the injury, he's going to need some blood replenishing potion." Neville picked Draco up and carried him upstairs, "I'm going to put him in my room. We are going to have to double up if this many people are going to stay here."

"Be careful with him." His Aunt said, "That boy has been through a lot, but he deserves to be loved like everyone else."

"I know" Neville said with a smile walking up the stairs. Draco was light, and it seemed surreal that he was carrying Draco up the stairs when the other day Draco had done the same. What bothered him was that Draco was injured and he didn't let anyone know until he collapsed. Neville wondered if his history made him feel out of place. In truth, Draco had no idea that he was injured until he saw the blood on his Aunt's dress. He had panicked because he thought it was hers, but reality and the pain finally set in. His body became weak from the blood loss. He was vaguely conscious when someone was carrying his body up the stairs and laying him in bed. The scent smelled like the person who had just been carrying him. Someone was pouring a potion down his throat, and then a second one.

It's always difficult to wake up after a night of Dreamless Sleep potion. His eyes felt heavy, but he was no longer tired. Something was heavy on his arm. His eyes fluttered open and he looked over. Neville was sitting in a chair, passed out with his head leaning against Draco's hand. If his hand wasn't losing its feeling in that moment, he would have just let Neville sleep, but he needed the blood to rush back this limbs. His stirring made Neville jump and pull out his wand, "Hey, hey, hey, it's just me."

"Oh," Neville said yawning, "What time is it?"

"I haven't the faintest idea. What happened?" Draco asked.

"You don't remember? You had a mighty gash across your chest." Neville pointed to his now healed body. Draco looked down to double check to see if he was dressed. He was still wearing the clothing from the previous night, thankfully.

"I was injured?"

"I'm surprised you didn't notice. It looked like hell." Neville said, "Scooch over, I'm going back to sleep."

Neville basically pushed Draco aside and laid down to close his eyes. Draco's eyes looked out the window, it was still night, "But I'm not tired."

"You don't have to, but I'm going to sleep," Neville said as he was beginning to pass out. He was right. Draco scooched over and Neville laid down. He was out cold in seconds. The bed was warm, and the air was cold. He snuggled back into the bed and let what seemed like a few more minutes of rest take him. In the days following, life was rough. All of the severely injured were sent to the Sea Cottage, and those who were still fit to fight resided in Grimmauld Place. This proved to be a problem. The old Black House was large, but for the number of people who resided here, it was small. George went home and had not returned since the death of his twin. Gregory was now sharing with Marcus. Charlie was sleeping in the living room. Draco transfigured a couch into a fairly decent bed in Neville's room. It was tight. Draco had no idea when or where, Severus slept. He seemed to be awake indefinitely. There were nights when Draco would awake and watch Severus busy through all hours of the night. Then he would be awake in the morning busy. It must have been a week since the prison break that he saw Severus passed out on the couch. Draco waved his wand to have his former teacher covered with a blanket.

Sharing a room with Draco was fine for Neville, except that Neville had a harder time denying that he had feelings for Draco. Each night he would wait for Draco to fall asleep before he could even begin to relax. He supposed the first reason was that he hated wearing clothes to bed and preferred to sleep in the nude. He had to wait until Draco was asleep before he took off his clothes. He tried to wake up before the blond haired Slytherin so he could get dressed without being noticed. Draco wasn't stupid, he figured that this was a problem, so he willed himself to sleep early and stay in late. It wasn't his normal sleep pattern, but he wanted Neville to feel comfortable.

The other small problem in Grimmauld Place was the lack of bathrooms. With this many people, the situation was uncomfortable. There was one morning when Draco woke up before Neville and snuck out of the room to shower in peace. This early in the morning, and he was sure that aside from Severus, no one would be awake. Draco had already gotten the water to the correct temperature and was enjoying the relaxing feel of the water on his skin when he felt a breeze in the room. He quickly grabbed his wand to make the shower curtain opaque. His roommate was using the loo in all his naked glory, he appeared to be half asleep. Draco called out to wake him up "Hey,"

Neville shook out of it and looked up to see Draco's head peeking out from behind the curtain. It was rare, but Neville blushed when he realized that Draco was naked on the other side of the curtain, "Sorry, could you go back in there?"

Draco sank back into the shower, "Do you normally just walk into the bathroom when the shower is on?"

Neville washed his hands and wrapped a towel around his waist, "No, I wasn't paying attention. I'm going back to bed."

After the door closed Draco went back to finishing his shower in peace, but when he got out, he realized that Neville took the only towel in the bathroom. Draco sighed and concentrated his thoughts to where Neville might be. Instead of speaking to Neville, he got a glimpse of what was in Neville's thoughts. Draco saw an image of him laying naked in Neville's bed spread eagle while the Gryffindor was fucking his brains out. Draco blushed and felt his own body react at the arousing scene, but he remembered his dilemma, "Oi"

"Oh God, you didn't just see that." Neville said horrified. He was glad that Draco was in another room and couldn't' see his face.

"We can discuss that in a minute, but you took the towel from the bathroom." Draco explained.

"Oh, I'll be right there. Give me a minute." Neville knocked on the door and Draco opened it a crack to let the towel pass through. He did not want Draco to see his face, but Draco walked back to the room and Neville had his face covered. Draco smiled a little.

"So that's what you think of when you think of me." Draco said with amusement in his tone of voice.

"I was asleep." Neville admitted.

"Well, I'm flattered. I can leave, would you like to finish?" Draco smiled again. Neville shook his head. He felt a little bit of empathy towards the taller man though. Draco put a hand on his friend's shoulder, "Hey, I get those dreams too. You sleep naked. How could I not?"

Neville sat up feeling a bit better, but he did not expect to have Draco sitting on his bed next to him. What was even more surprising was Draco snaking his arms around Neville's waist and pulling him close. Neville responded to the embrace, but was hesitant, "I thought…"

"I have feelings for you too, Neville. I just…." Draco didn't want to say it, but Neville seemed to understand.

"These things take time. There's no rush." Neville said pulling back but seeing the look on Draco's face made him act. He planted his lips straight onto the blond man's lips. Draco could only blush when the kiss was finished.