"Sleeping With the Enemy"

Epilogue and End Notes

~*~

Harry winced in pain as Madam Pomfrey pointed her wand at his abdomen and muttered a spell. The broken bone slithered back in place, and Harry tried to keep from vomiting. The pain-suppressant the healer-witch had given him *wasn't* working very well.

"Almost done," she soothed, and he bit his lip and nodded. She placed her wand on the table and started to wrap bandages around his body. "It'll be quite tender for a few days, dearie, but then you'll be right as rain." Harry slid weakly off the stool.

"Thanks a lot," he said. The witch blushed slightly and handed him a heavy jar. "This is cream, for all those nasty bruises you two got. Rub it on every night before bed for a week. It will help. Now, I understand that Professor McGonagall has excused you from today's classes?"

Harry, and Draco, standing by the cabinet and stretching his arm carefully, both nodded.

"Hmmm. All right then. Take it easy, I don't want to have to see either of you for months!" she called as the boys left the Infirmary. "Though," she added under her breath, "with those two, I think I'm asking too much."

~*~

They walked down the hall in silence, shoulders rubbing and fingertips brushing. Draco stopped suddenly and pulled Harry into a side passage. Wrapping his arms around the Gryffindor, he drew their bodies close so that they fit seamlessly like a puzzle.

They stood together, safe and content for many minutes. Not a word passed between them, //soft safe love// but holding each other so *right* like this sent a deep, powerful ache into Harry's soul. He shook his head a little and breathed in the scent of the one person whose arms he once thought he'd *never* take comfort in.

Filled with peace, they continued on their journey. Slipping into the 6th year dorm, Harry was reminded of his best friend.

"Hey! I bet now Ron can come back! I'm going to write him!" he declared. Draco blew out an annoyed breath.

"Does he *really* have to come back?" Harry shot him a dirty look.

Draco sighed in defeat. "I guess that means back to you hogging the bed all the time." he grumbled.

"Oh jeez! I almost forgot about that... Ron might get a tad angry if he found out we've been using his bed."

"You think?"

His only answer was the sound of quill scratching on parchment.

"Be back in a tick," he told Draco, but got no response. "Draco?" he glanced over and saw that the Slytherin was sleeping peacefully on his back on their bed. Harry smiled, and then slipped out the door to visit Hedwig. He returned a short time later to a still sleeping Draco. Harry carefully lay down next to him, so as not to wake him. He lay on his stomach and studied his mate. In...out. In....out went his breathing, rhythmic, soothing. Harry absently brushed a few lustrous strands away from his closed eyelids. Random thoughts floated through his head. //He's so different than I am, and yet I can barely stand it when he's away,//

Harry shifted and reluctantly nudged Draco. "Hmmph, what?" he asked, stretching leisurely.

Harry gestured to the bed. "We gotta change this back..."

Draco sat up. "Oh, right. Pity." He looked sideways at Harry, who was looking very thoughtful and chewing on his bottom lip. "Perhaps," Draco suggested as he scooted towards Harry, "we should make use of it, one. More. Time."

Harry looked up, startled by the alluring tones of his voice. He grinned mischievously and allowed Draco to embrace him gently. They fell back onto the mattress. The kisses were soft at first, loving and luxurious. As they fell deeper into one another, needs made themselves evident as mouths became more insistent. Harry's hands were rubbing in circular motions on Draco's back, drawing moans from him as he shifted his weight.

"Ow!" Harry interjected suddenly.

Draco pulled back. "What what?"

"My rib---you're pushing on it," he said painfully.

"Sorry." Draco scrambled off him. "Are you all right?" Harry took a few deep breaths before nodding and climbing playfully onto Draco.

"You're just going to have to let me be on top," he grinned.

"Hmmm," Draco drawled. "I really don't care."

~*~

That evening, Harry and Draco were lounging comfortably on Harry's bed (no longer expanded), when they heard voices out in the hall.

"Should I go?"

"Nah," Harry said lazily. "They all know you've been here, anyway."

"Good." and Draco laid his head back down on Harry's chest.

The door nearly exploded as Harry's roommates flooded into the room. Harry caught a familiar flash of red and bounded off the bed.

"Ron!"

"Harry!" The two friends hugged wildly, Harry laughing and exclaiming "Ow, ow!" at the same time.

"You all right? Mum was so worried, but I told her you could handle anything, and Gin- what's that?" Ron had spied the bandage around his friend's middle, and he tried to make a closer inspection of it.

Harry batted his hand away. "It's nothing. I'm fine." Ron's head shot up suspiciously, and he saw Malfoy, who was still scowling about the loss of his pillow.

"You." and he took a few steps towards the Slytherin, before Harry and the rest of the boys pulled him back. "Did he have something to do with this?" Ron demanded.

"Er, sort of, but not like that!" Harry remedied as Ron renewed his efforts to get at the blonde. Hermione and Kaleb entered the room, with Ginny trailing them, and in an effort to distract his loyal friend, he shoved Ron and said,

"Look who's here! Hermione!" The bushy-haired girl smiled widely and threw herself into Ron's arms. He hugged her tightly, a goofy grin on his face. They pulled away and simply looked meltily at each other.

"Good grief, that's disgusting," Draco muttered, and Ron shot him an irritated, "I'm-going-to-kill-you" look.

"Shut it, Malfoy," he commanded. Hermione was twisting a strange necklace in her hands. "What's this?" he asked, picking up the charm.

The girl leaned close to Ron and whispered, "I have something to tell you," and then to the rest of the room she announced, "Be back in a bit!" and pulled at Ron's arm, who shrugged helplessly.

Harry grinned at his other friends, then looked around.

"Hey, where's Neville?"

~*~

A quiet knock on his door interrupted the silence of the dungeon-room as Severus methodically -and cruelly- graded essays. "Come in," he intoned without looking up. The door creaked open and someone walked hesitantly into the room and stopped in front of his desk.

"Professor?" It was Neville Longbottom.

Snape stood. "You've come for the dreamless-sleep potion?" he guessed, and reached onto a nearby shelf. He handed a flask to his student, who grasped it tightly. There was a silence during which Neville fidgeted and swallowed heavily. Severus pursed his lips. "Well, you may sit down then, I suppose." and he was rewarded with a flash of -something- in sea green eyes. Severus started a fire to warm up the cold room, and turned to see Neville drinking the concoction, steadily ignoring the taste. A small smile quirked at the corner of his mouth as the young student pulled a face and then looked up quickly, praying to avoid any wrathful reproaches. Seeing that he was safe, Neville relaxed, then suddenly hiccuped.

"'Scuse me," he mumbled. Snape nodded and went back to his desk. The Gryffindor stretched out on the couch, curling his fists and bringing them up to his chest. Gathering up his papers, Snape settled into a chair near Neville and continued grading. Soon the room was filled with regular, heavy breathing.

It was odd, really, how the mere presence of the boy greatly improved the feel of the drab room. Or perhaps it was simply because he had lit more fires recently *because* of the boy. The essays slowly slipped from his grasp and fell to the floor as more soft breathing joined Neville's. The fire crackled merrily and even the dirty old stones of the dungeon seemed to relax as two more enemies found solace in each other.

~*~The End~*~

End Notes: Well. Wow. It's done. I have to say, I feel like chapter 9 really screwed things up. Hell, the whole fic is screwed up! It makes me want to laugh, there's so much fluff in this and yet it's dark! *shakes head* Also, I know there was a huge OOC prevailing throughout the whole thing, so let's just pretend it's like, slightly AU or something... ^_~

Thank you, all my readers and reviewers out there who put up with the twists, turns, and general demented-ness of this whole thing, I really appreciate it!

Chapter Thank you's to: chrisseee667 (you are *totally* correct, dark with fluff indeed. I'll answer your question at the bottom), @_@ (*claps hands* I have a cheerleader! yay!), Fidelio Crescent (yeah, SWII rocked the house, didn't it? *dreamy sigh*), fidelio-fickles-revenge (longer chapters? 0.o I gave you 2 this time! ^_^), the-princess-bard (ooo, you like "Snape's view of Neville"?! I'm so... happy! Thank you!), MOI (*beams* Thank you! I hope you enjoyed this fic!), Alynnia*McKinnon (I've *never* liked Cho. grrr), moonfire (of course H+D live! I'm so very sappy, I know), Corinth, coriander, Intangible Lollipop, D.A. Maxwell (look, they got expelled!), Bienfoy (haha, I like your name), Cat Samwise (look, more! ^__^), scythefire (interesting idea, i considered it, too ^_~), Sousister, phoenixtears, Fuzzy Blue Owl, MiniMe (I broke a block for you? Yay!! RS saves the day! ^_^), LightFaerie, and LunaDeath (snogging! Isn't that a great word! Yeah, it's British. hee hee).

BIG COLOSSAL THANKS TO: Klee!!!! She helped with like half of this entire story and man would it have sucked without her. Seriously, all the good parts of this fic? Hers. And she lent me her character, Kaleb, Thank yoooouuuu! And she beta'd and put up with me constantly IMing her ("hey, you wanna read what I have now?") so muchos gracias to her, and go read her fics! And maybe yell at her to write more!

As to my other stories, such as... "My Fire, My Love", well now that I'm not preoccupied with this fic anymore I'll hopefully be working on that a lot. I know, it's been almost a year since I started that fic... *sigh* I'll get going on it. Also, got a new fic called, "Learning Paradise" coming soon. But no more new projects except for that! Promise! I think... *coughs nervously* ^_^ oh yeah! There's an extended part to a scene in chapter 10 that I'm going to be posting on my website. It's not much but I kinda want to expand on the whole idea.. Anyway, go take a look-see [smearedsilver.8m.com]. Methinks this is all. I can't believe I'm done! I can't believe you guys read this! *sniff* I'm getting all emo, better go,

~RainShadow

and for old time's sake, review? ^_~