By: PepperjackCandy
Rating: PG13 (up to "second base" explicit, beyond that implied)
Disclaimer: This is J.K. Rowling's universe. I just play here.
Warning: This will be a slash story (Harry/Draco) eventually, though romantically-slashy, rather than erotically-slashy. Hence the PG-13 rating.
A/N: Everyone sit around me in a circle for storytime. Once upon a time there was a fanfic writer who had a vision. A vision of a touching love story between two people who came from different worlds, yet were more similar than they were different, and how they found each other. Only, there was something missing. The fanfic writer knew in detail the history of one, but couldn't quite get a grasp on the most important aspect of the other's history - his relationship with his father. Then, one day, she saw a story by a writer by the name of Rhysenn. Rhysenn's story filled in that missing gap perfectly. So, the fanfic writer approached Rhysenn and asked if she could take that story as part of her story's history. And Rhysenn said "yes."
In other words, if you want to see what happened the night of Draco's birthday, when he received the Dark Mark, check out Rhysenn's story "Slave of Darkness." You'll be glad you did. And once again, many thanks, Rhysenn, for letting me borrow it.
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For a long moment after Draco left the room, Harry was rooted to the spot by shock. He had expected that the Dark Mark would be there, but he hadn't expected it to look so diseased - like a spot of blight on the smooth whiteness of Draco's arm.
As suddenly as it had hit him, the stunned paralysis was gone. He could move again. He had to move. He had to find Draco, talk to him, find out what he meant when he said that Lucius had sold him to Voldemort.
Harry stepped into the hallway. First, he looked toward the front doors of the school, but decided that Draco wouldn't have gone outside. Then he looked the other direction, deeper into the castle. That had to be it. Draco would have gone someplace he felt safe, either the Slytherin Tower or Snape's dungeon. Since he couldn't get into the Slytherin Tower by himself, Harry figured that it would be better to start looking in the dungeons.
The torches that lined the dungeons had burned out, so Harry performed the lumos charm and used that bit of light to illume his journey along the stone corridor. The doors to Snape's office and the Potions room were both closed, but he saw a soft glow coming from under the Potions room door. He opened the door and saw a dark shape huddled over one of the tables. Hoping that the shape was Draco, he walked closer, but was still unable to make out any details in the dim light.
"Malfoy?" He asked hesitantly as he approached the shape. But no answer came.
He continued walking, holding his wand out in front of him like a talisman. He could see that the shape was Draco, but he still did not acknowledge Harry's presence.
Finally, when he was close enough to touch him, he could see that Draco was holding his wand in his right hand and pointing it towards his left forearm, all the while, mumbling incoherently. Draco's Potions class cauldron sat, empty, next to his right elbow.
The understanding of what Draco was doing hit Harry like a bucket of cold water. The universal solvent! He thought, as the blood drained from his face. The light emanating from Draco's wand illuminated what was left of Draco's arm.
Harry had seen a lot of awful things since he started at Hogwarts - the Bloody Baron, Wormtail shifting from his rat to human form, that horrible fetus-like thing that Voldemort had been reduced to - but nothing could have prepared him for the sight of what Draco had done to his arm. It was bloody, and it was . . . bubbling. Draco's face was contorted in pain, but he kept his eyes screwed shut and held his wand steady as a rock as he mumbled under his breath.
Remembering from Snape's lectures that the solvent would only work as long as wandlight was on it, Harry reached over, knocking the wand from Draco's hand.
As if the wand had been holding him upright, the moment it left his hand, Draco fell over in a slump on the table. Harry quickly grabbed one of the extra robes Snape kept in a closet and wrapped it securely around Draco's arm. Then he wedged his left shoulder under Draco's right armpit and started to heave him upward.
"Harry?" It was Ron's voice, out in the hallway. Harry could see the light of his friend's wand.
"I'm in here." He called. "It's Malfoy. He's . . . done something to his arm." Harry resisted the temptation to go into detail.
Ron reached the doorway of the Potions room and then hovered in the doorway.
"Don't just stand there, help me!" Harry snapped.
Harry's urgent tone made Ron spring into action. He dashed into the room and propped up Draco's left side just as Harry had propped up his right side.
"Careful of his arm." Harry cautioned.
"I *am* being careful."
Carrying their lighted wands in their free hands, the two young men brought Draco back through the hallway, up the stairs and off to the hospital wing. When they arrived, the night nurse who was covering for Madame Pomfrey gasped and sent a message to Madame Pomfrey for her to immediately come to the hospital wing.
Harry and Ron placed Draco on the nearest bed and Harry said with less than total honesty, "He's badly hurt. I don't know what happened to him."
"Can we go now that you've done your good deed for the day?" Ron asked. "I want to get back to Hermione."
"You can go on. I'll be along in a minute." Harry responded distractedly, not taking his eyes off of Draco.
Ron sighed and turned to leave, but then he turned back to face Harry. "What went on back there? In the Great Hall?"
Harry finally wrenched his gaze from Draco's inert form. "I was right." There was a deep sadness in his green eyes.
"You mean?" Ron pointed to his left forearm.
Harry nodded.
"Well, I can see why you don't want to let him out of your sight, then. At least, not until you get the answers you want."
Harry didn't want to stay with Draco because he needed answers; Harry wanted to stay because he felt sorry for the other boy. However, he didn't feel like arguing with Ron about it, so he just nodded.
"You'll be all right, then?" Ron asked.
Harry nodded again.
"Well, then, see you back in the Tower."
"Yeah. See you there."
After Ron left, Harry sat down heavily in a nearby chair and kept watch over his nemesis. He couldn't imagine what life was like for Draco. Living with the Dursleys had been terrible, but at least he'd always had the knowledge that he had once had parents who'd loved him. Draco hadn't even had that small consolation.
The night nurse and Madame Pomfrey examined him. Madame Pomfrey sighed and clucked her tongue a lot, which Harry took to mean that Draco's wounds were every bit as bad as they looked to his untrained eye.
Moments later, Snape came in, concern etched on his face. "Is Draco Malfoy here?" At Madame Pomfrey's nod, he asked, "How is he doing?"
Madame Pomfrey looked up at him. "It's too early to tell, really." At his gasp, she smiled softly. "He'll make it, but I'm not so sure about this arm . . . ." She dispassionately started pointing at things within his arm. "See how the bone is showing there, and there? And I don't like the look of *that* at all."
Snape blanched. "That's quite all right. I'll take your word for it." He said queasily.
Madame Pomfrey gave him an understanding smile. "That's all right. We'll get him all cleaned up, and then we'll see what we can do for him. I have a feeling he'll be just fine, though."
While Madame Pomfrey went to get a talisman to help Draco's healing process, Snape began to speak to the unconscious young man. "Why?" He asked. "Why didn't you listen to me? I *told* you what your father had in store for you, and yet you completely ignored my warnings.
"Why?" He continued. "Why did you have to continue in your blind trust in Lucius Malfoy?"
Harry couldn't stand listening anymore to Snape blaming Draco for being victimized by Lucius. He stood up and began advancing on the Potions master. "What choice did he have, Professor Snape? What choice do any of us have? He *had* to go home to his parents, no matter how awful they were, just like I *have* to go home to the Dursleys every summer."
By this time, Harry and Snape were standing nose-to-nose. "Potter!" Snape snarled. "I should have known that *you* would be involved with this somehow. What did you do to him?"
Harry snorted. "That's right. Go ahead and blame me. I'm to blame for everything that's happened, aren't I? Wormtail tries to kill me, and it's my fault. Voldemort tries to kill me, and it's my fault. I'm probably to blame for Voldemort's rise to power, in your mind!"
Snape wound up to let Harry have it, but stopped short when Dumbledore walked in.
"Ah, here you are, Severus! And Harry! Good! This way I won't have to repeat myself." Dumbledore glanced over at Draco, but then looked back at Harry and Snape. "You will give this message to Mr. Malfoy when he wakes up, I trust?"
Harry couldn't tell whether Dumbledore had made this request of him or of Snape, so he nodded just as Snape did the same.
"Good. While nearly everyone in the Great Hall heard your . . . confrontation this evening, fortunately the only ones who heard the part about Mr. Malfoy's father were two first-year Hufflepuffs, and so we were able to put that particular rumor out of commission in time. I would ask that none of the three of you," his gaze included Draco in this, "tell *anyone* what happened tonight. We do, after all," he looked directly at Snape as he said this, "want the Death-Eaters to think they have one faithful servant here. To keep them from putting spies in our student body that we do not know about."
Draco stirred then, mumbling incoherently. He moved his left arm, and sat upright, howling with pain.
Immediately, the three men leaped to Draco's side, Snape took Draco's hand, Harry took his elbow, and Dumbledore took his shoulders, forcing him back into his original position. It was then that Harry noticed that if he had regained consciousness, he was once more out cold.
Madame Pomfrey came around the corner, then, carrying the talisman. "Looks like we're going to have to restrain him." She said without emotion. "If he keeps moving around like that, he's going to damage his arm even more."
Harry didn't want to help, but when Madame Pomfrey brought in the restraints, saying "Come on, now. You want to help him, don't you? Well, he's not going to get any better unless he's restrained." He took them. From the look of it, Snape didn't want to help either, but he cooperated as well. As did Dumbledore.
Soon, they had Draco secured firmly to his bed, and Madame Pomfrey had attached the talisman to his wounded arm. "It should start healing immediately. It will look *some* better by tomorrow morning, but he has lost a lot of blood and should probably stay here through the week-end."
Harry looked at Draco, who, tied to the bed as he was, looked fragile and helpless. You could almost think him incapable of all of the havoc he's wreaked during the past six years. Harry thought in wonderment.
Harry, Madame Pomfrey, Dumbledore and Snape rested for a moment.
Then a student stuck his head into the room. "Professor Snape?"
"I'm over here." Snape called out.
"Could you come here, please? We seem to be having a problem in the Slytherin Tower."
Snape sighed, and said to Dumbledore. "One of the hazards of being the only former Slytherin on staff. No-one else to cover for me. Please look after him, Poppy." He asked Madame Pomfrey, and left the room.
Dumbledore then walked to Madame Pomfrey, taking her hands in his. "I know that you'll do everything in your power to help him, and I'm confident that you are correct in your belief that he will be fine. Come along, Harry."
"In a minute, Professor Dumbledore." Harry responded. "I want to ask Madame Pomfrey something."
Dumbledore's final words before leaving the hospital wing were, "All right. Just don't stay here all night, will you? Good-night, Harry."
Madame Pomfrey gave Harry a warm smile. "What did you want to know?"
Harry wanted to ask if he could stay for a while and watch Draco, but didn't dare. So he asked his second question, "When he screamed, I was certain he would wake up, but he didn't. Why?"
"It's his mind's way of protecting itself. It can't protect his body from the pain, so it keeps him. He'll wake soon enough, though, and we'll start having to actually do something for the pain."
Harry started to leave the room, but didn't seem to be able to make his legs move.
"Let me guess." Madame Pomfrey offered. "You'd like to stay here a while and keep an eye on him."
Harry nodded. "Yeah. Thank you." He didn't want to look too closely at his reasons for feeling protective of Draco, he just chalked it up to the notion that the only people Draco had watching his back were Snape and some *very* untrustworthy friends. And with a father like Lucius Malfoy, Draco needed more than that. At least for this night.
And besides, he rationalized, I've all week-end to get my homework done. Harry returned to the chair he had been sitting in earlier and kept watch over Draco the rest of the night.