After reading the reviews, I have decided not to comment.  After all, I'm only the writer.  The only thing I do have to say is that if you couldn't get up to this point, you have no right to pass judgment, and that there is no such thing as Mary Sue in canon.   Kali is a fictional character, and there is no need to get so bent out of shape over her.  If you want a personal reply to something you said about previous chapters, you may email me at angeldlsm00@hotmail.com.  If you have comments on this chapter, just Review.  I'll get back to you next week.

Sorry about the delay.  I was out and about yesterday.

 Disclaimer:  I am not JK Rowling, and do not own any piece of the Harry Potter pie.  Today, I don't even wish I did, and I pity Ms. Rowling for having to deal with narrow minded fools.

Part Thirty-Three:  Warnings

Draco had collected a reasonable sized contingent to go see Blaise, including David, Padma, Mandy, Harry, Ron, and Kali, and they headed down the hall in the direction of the hospital wing after meeting just outside the Great Hall.  Lisa and Terry had decided not to join them, as neither was very good friends with Blaise nor were they especially close to Draco, the one who was raving mad over the incident.  David was more in a slump, and Terry had offered to go to support a friend, but David had told him to stay behind.  He could handle this himself.  As for Hermione, she had elected to keep Servius distracted, as no one wanted him bursting in on the charade.  Upon offering, Harry had snickered, causing Hermione to smack him in the chest while turning a bright shade of pink.  If things weren't so intense, they'd still be teasing her.

The mood as they walked in the direction of the infirmary was less than somber, Draco all but stomping up there in emotions that were ranging from anger to melancholy.  Harry couldn't help but wonder just what had happened to his boyfriend this morning to upset him so much as he quickened his pace and struggled to keep up.  More than concerned for Draco, Harry was angry that someone had dared to do this to him when he finally decided to let down his walls and rejoin his classes.  It just wasn't right, and someone was going to pay.

Bursting through the doors as if he were a wild hippogriff on a rampage, Draco charged toward where Madam Pomfrey was seated, banged his fist on the table, and demanded to see Blaise.  The others had stood there, mouths gaping, and watching the exchange with expressions mixed of horror and respect.  Madam Pomfrey was very serious and stern when it came to her job, and like Professor McGonagall, she was not someone you wanted to cross.  Draco seemed to think that staying in the hospital wing for a few weeks made him an exception to these unwritten, but general, codes of conduct.  It was refreshing, if not redeeming.

"We want to see Blaise," he said, a little calmer this time.

"Mister Zabini is in a fragile state.  He needs rest and to be left alone," said Madam Pomfrey, fixing Draco with her eyes but he was unmoved.

"The headmaster thinks David should see him.  Professor Dumbledore had him in here just this morning.  Besides, we're Blaise's friends.  He needs his friends at a time like this."  Madam Pomfrey made an irritated, huffing sound.  Draco sighed, putting his hands on his hips and looking rather cross.  The image almost made Harry laugh.  "I know that when I was in here, I needed my friends more than anything to get me through.  If Blaise was just beaten because he's gay, I'm sure he's going to want support.  Fighting an emotional battle is not something one would be wise to do on their own."

"Mister Malfoy, I am sure Mister Zabini does not require your company at this exact moment in time."

"I'm sure that he does," Draco practically seethed.  "The physical damage is reparable.  It's the mental and emotional scarring that you should be concerned with at this moment in time.  I know all about mental and emotional scarring.  He needs his friends more than anything.  It isn't like we're going to try and get him to break out to play Quidditch.  We won't get him all riled up.  All we want to do is talk to him."

"I don't know, Mister Malfoy," she said, crossing her arms.

"Anyway," Draco went on, "perhaps we'll be able to get out of him who did this.  We are his friends and he'd most likely tell his friends before he'd tell a teacher."  Giving her the biggest grin he could muster, Draco looked Madam Pomfrey in the eye and tried to look innocent.  She sighed.

"Yes, well, you may go in but you can't stay long."  She looked as if she was going to lead them in when she hesitated, and then asked, "How are you doing in Ravenclaw, Mister Malfoy?"

Grinning, Draco answered, "Much better than I was doing in Slytherin.  I have my bad days, but I'm coming around."

She gave a curt nod, but Harry was willing to bet she was more pleased than she let on.  Apparently having Draco around night and day for several weeks on more than one occasion had been enough for her to warm up to him.  Harry could relate.  He had barely spent two weeks with Draco before falling for him.  It was impossible, really.  Once you got to know him, he was too perfect to refuse.

She swept past them to open up the door and allow them to enter.  Blaise was sitting up in his bed and his entire face seemed to brighten upon their entrance.  The effect was needed.  There was a rainbow of bruises running across his cheek, healing gashes were visible on his upper arms, neck, and face, and his left eye was almost completely swollen shut with a big purple ring surrounding it.  Draco had been right.  Blaise did need his friends at a time like this.  Then again, that should have gone without saying.  A disapproving, stern expression twisted on Madam Pomfrey's face as she told Draco that he couldn't stay long and that he had better not get Blaise worked up.  She shut the door behind her as she left.  They headed from the entrance over to Blaise, and they crowded around him with David sitting on the edge and taking Blaise's hand into his own.

"How long have you been up?" asked David.  "When I came by this morning, you were still unconscious."

"I got up about twenty minutes ago.  Pomfrey started pouring fluids down my throat before I even opened my eyes."  Blaise rolled his eyes at this and Draco nodded, remember his own days that were not so long ago spent in the very same bed.  "You came by earlier?  How did you know I was here?"

"Dumbledore," answered David, plainly.  "He brought me by.  Told me what happened."

The topic seemed to make Blaise uncomfortable as he shifted in bed and gave a curt nod.  "Oh.  Yeah.  So, Draco, that was a nice show you put on our there against Pomfrey.  As soon as I heard your voice, I knew you were going to get in here.  Slytherin or Ravenclaw, Draco Malfoy just does not take no for an answer."

"Was I really that loud?" asked Draco, grinning.  Blaise nodded.

"You were deafening.  I was glad to hear you, though.  I was getting rather bored in here all by myself."

"It is boring, isn't it?  I do hope that bed is treating you just as well as it did me.  You know, come to think of it, I kind of miss it in here."

"This visit's better than my first one this year, though neither is under circumstances I'm proud to have been a part of."

"Oh - er, yeah.  Sorry about that," said Draco, looking away.  Harry immediately remembered what they were talking about.  No one was going to soon forget when Draco launched himself at Blaise, closing his hands around his throat, and tried to choke him to death.

"Don't mention it," said Blaise, dismissing it.

"We all thought we'd come by to say hello."

"Draco isn't the only one who misses the infirmary," added Harry.  "I'm making a lot of infirmary visits this year, but not once so far have I been in one of those beds.  Not as a patient, anyway.  Defeating Voldemort really cuts back on your infirmary time."

"Don't say his name!" said Ron, covering his ears.  Kali rolled her eyes and ripped Ron's hands away from his head.

Laughing, Blaise said, "Voldemort was your enemy; my peers are mine."  Things seemed to fall quiet at this as Blaise took on a more serious tone and expression.  "I guess by now you all know what happened."

"We've heard rumors but you of all people should know how reliable that can be in a school like Hogwarts," said Draco.

"Who did this to you, Blaise?" demanded David, looking paler than they had upon first arriving.  "Why won't you tell anyone who did it?  Was it really because. . ."

"The gay thing?" replied Blaise, lightly tinting pink in shame.  David, looking sheepish, nodded.  "Yeah, it was because of the gay thing.  I got beaten because I'm gay."

"You don't have to be ashamed about it around us, Blaise," said Draco.  Blaise flashed him a sad smile.

"It's hard not to be."

"You've got to tell the professors who did this," said Harry.

"Really, Blaise," said David.  "I agree with Harry.  You can't just let this go.  You've got to do something about this."

Blaise, still smiling, sadly shook his head.  "I appreciate your concern, and I love you all for it, but I don't want to cause any more problems than I already have."

Making a sound that was a cross between a snort and a sigh, Draco crossed his arms and shook his head.  "Gods, Blaise, you really are an idiot."

"Thanks, Draco.  What is it about the infirmary that makes you want to call me an idiot?"

"How can you be like this?"

"Be like what?"

"This!" said Draco, malice beginning to seep around the edges of his words.  "Smiling and joking after what happened to you!  How do you do that?"

"I'm a Slytherin, Draco.  I don't let anything get in the way of what I want and what I want is to not let them get to me.  Why are you going so crazy over this, Draco?"

"Yeah, Draco?" said Harry, twining his fingers in Draco's desperate ones.  "What happened to you today?"

"Is this about what happened in Herbology?" Mandy suddenly piped up.  Draco's eyes connected with hers and he sadly gave the slightest of nods.

"What happened in Herbology?" demanded Blaise.  "You had Herbology today?"

"Mandy and I were paired with Parkinson and Goyle."

"Oh."

"Why won't you tell Dumbledore it was them?"

"He admitted to it?"

Snorting, Draco said, "No, but he didn't deny it, either, and you know perfectly well what that means."

"Are you going to go to Dumbledore?"  Draco could feel himself start to get angry again when Blaise sounded scared that Draco would go to the headmaster.  This just wasn't right.

"I can't.  I don't have any proof . . . yet."  He looked down and away, tightening his grip on Harry's hand.

"Yet?  What happened?  What did they say to you?"

"Nothing."

"Don't you tell me nothing, Draco Malfoy.  I know they said something to you and its something I can already tell I won't be particularly pleased with . . . They didn't threaten you, did they?"

"Threaten you?" interrupted Harry, sounding alarmed.  "Who threatened you?"

"Blaise, you're the one who's lying in a bed in the hospital wing from being beaten," snapped Draco.  "You really shouldn't be worrying about me."

"Draco's right," said David, quietly.

"No, he isn't," Blaise snapped back.  "Draco is an idiot.  Just because I'm in the hospital wing, it doesn't mean that I shouldn't worry about you.  I don't want you lying in the bed next to me."

"Wait!" said Harry, sharply.  "What is this about being threatened?"

"No one threatened me."

"Yeah, right," said Mandy, irritated.  "I was there.  They started talking about how all gay people should die and then they told you -"

"That's enough," bit Draco, cutting her off.  "I really don't want to talk about that right now, okay?"  Mandy sighed, but nodded.

"What did they say?" asked Harry before Blaise had the chance to reply.  Both were looking expectantly at Draco, staring him down.

"I'll tell you later, okay?" said Draco, practically whispering, before pressing his lips lightly to Harry's.  "Please, I don't want to talk about this in front of everyone.  Later when we're alone."

Harry nodded, brushing a stray hair back from Draco's eyes.  "Okay."

"So they did threaten you," prompted Blaise.  Draco shook his head.

"Mandy misunderstands.  Not me exactly.  They said -" Draco's voice trailed off and he released a deep, heavy sigh.  "Goyle said, 'Don't think we haven't noticed who you've been hanging around these days, Draco.  I do hope Potter's worth it.'"

Blaise's face fell as he looked between Harry and Draco.  Finally, he said, "Please don't tell me they can actually be that stupid."

"Maybe we're reading too much into it," countered Draco.

"I doubt it.  But would they actually..."

"I don't know."

"Did they say anything else important?  I mean, what do you think?  Do you think that's what they're actually planning?"

"Just a big speech about how all queers should die and you getting what you deserve.  I'm surmising it's nothing you haven't heard before."

Blaise waved his hand as if the topic were already dismissed.  "I heard enough about it last night.  What about the thing you didn't want Mandy to tell us?  I mean -"

"They said I should have died the first time I tried to kill myself.  That my father would still be here if I had died," said Draco, softly.  The mood shifted, every single person in the room looking as if they had just been socked hard in the stomach.  Vaguely, Draco could feel Harry's arms coming around him, holding his thin frame close to his body.

"I love you," Harry whispered in his ear.

Draco's jaw slightly dropped, processing Harry's words.  His world had gone hazy, titled.

"I love you, too," he breathed, barely audible, but Harry must have heard it as he felt Harry shifting their limbs, trying to get their bodies as physically close as was possible.

"I can't believe they said that," seethed Blaise.  "So that is what they're trying to do, then?  They're actually stupid enough to go after him.  I was just a warning."

Draco gave an awkward shrug, laying his head on Harry's shoulder.  "I don't know."

"You do know, Draco.  Stop denying it.  They're going to go after him next, and I was just a fucking warning," said Blaise, pounding the mattress.

"Don't get yourself worked up," warned David.  "You still look like shit and Madam Pomfrey will castrate those of us who can be castrated if you make yourself worse.  Draco had to promise to keep you subdued so that we could come in here at all."

"You don't get it, David," snapped Blaise.  "You don't know how those Slytherin bastards play.  We'll do anything to get what we want and, on most occasions, we have other people do our dirty work for us.  It's harder to trace it back to you if you hire someone else to do the crime.  It pays to be elusive."

"I don't get it," said Ron.  "If they aren't after Draco, who are they after?"

"They are after Draco," said Blaise, simply.  "And I was just a fucking warning.  You just wait until I get out of here."

"Are you going to tell Dumbledore who did this to you?" asked David.  Blaise shook his head.

"Are you crazy?  Go to the headmaster?  Let him fight this out for us?"

"I really think we should," interrupted Draco.  "Letting other people do our dirty work for us, remember?"

"But this is personal.  Come on, Draco.  You can't honestly tell me that you want Dumbledore fighting this for you."

Draco sighed.  "I don't want anyone to get hurt, Blaise."

"I'm already hurt, Draco.  There's going to be more where I come from, and they aren't going to let Dumbledore stop them.  Personally, I don't want to sit back and watch the headmaster stop this.  Snitching on them?  Really, Draco.  That's not like you."

"There are a lot of things that aren't like me, Blaise," he snapped.

"I don't get what's going on here," interrupted David.  "You say they're going after 'him' next, only we don't know who 'he' is.  Then when Ron asks, you say they are after Draco.  You say the Slytherins don't play the way we do.  We know that.  We all know that.  The Slytherins play dirty and they're a bunch of rotten cheats, no offense."

"I'm confused," moaned Harry.

"I'll explain everything to you later," said Draco.  "I promise."

"When we're alone?"  Draco nodded.  "Okay."

"The most I can tell you is that Slytherins don't think the rules apply to them," said Blaise.  "If Draco wants to talk to Harry about this alone, I'm not going to tell him anything Draco isn't ready for him to hear.  You learn to look at things differently when you're in Slytherin.  They are after Draco.  He is their target, but he isn't the one they're going to go after next.  At least not physically.  They went after me first because I was convenient.  Because I share a dormitory with them and they already wanted me out of the way.  I'm Draco's ex-boyfriend and we're still friends.  By hurting me, it hurts him.  By saying that Lucius would still be here if Draco had died the first time, it hurts him."

"They're slowly driving him crazy," said Kali.  "They're messing with him.  Trying to get him to attempt suicide again."

Exchanging glances, Blaise and Draco both nodded.

"And even though I know what they're getting at, it doesn't make the pain go away," finished Draco, his voice now severely strained, sound barely coming out.  Harry ran a hand over Draco's hair, smoothing it back, and he placed a kiss on his forehead.

"They're coming after me, aren't they?" said Harry.  Draco, miserably, nodded.  "Don't worry about it, Draco.  I defeated Voldemort.  I'm the bloody Boy-Who-Lived.  I can take care of myself.  A couple of Slytherin gorillas don't scare me."

Draco formed the smallest of smiles.  "I know you can take care of yourself, Harry.  I'm not worried about you.  You have so many people looking out for you, not even counting me, that I think they're crazy for even thinking they could get to you."

"You've got people looking out for you, too," pointed out Kali.  "Whether you're hurting or not, I'm always going to be here for you.  I'm your cousin.  It's my job.  I put up with Servius, don't I?"  Draco nodded, laughing.

"That goes for me, too," said Ron.  "I know we haven't gotten along ever but no one deserves to be going through this kind of shit.  Goyle and Parkinson need to be hexed for saying that to you, and you need your head checked if you actually believe them.  Harry likes you, and Harry has excellent taste.  Look who he picked for a best friend."

Rolling her eyes, Kali playfully swatted him on the arm.

"I'll help Ron hex them," said Blaise.  "Once I get out of the hospital wing and all," he added, grinning.  "Don't let them get to you, Draco.  Every single person in this room would step in front of a hex for you and some of us would step in front of an Unforgivable.  You don't just have us, either.  You still have your mother, and if your father were here, he'd tell you that Goyle and Parkinson together have about one thousandth of the brains you have.  You can't really rely on numbers like that."

"Blaise knows what he's talking about," said Harry, leaning forward to brush his lips over Draco's.  "I don't care what clever scheme they manage to come up with, you're always going to have me, and I'm going to kick some serious Slytherin arse for them making you feel this way."

Draco's eyelids fluttered, his lashes just barely brushing across his cheeks as he looked at them through eyes filled to capacity with salty tears.

"Thanks," he croaked out before the door opened and Madam Pomfrey came bustling in.

"What has been going on in here?" she demanded, looking from Blaise's angry, flushed face to Draco's teary eyes.  "You haven't been fighting, have you?"

"No," replied Harry.  "We're very emotional right now.  It's not easy when something like this happens to one of your friends."

Her expression seemed to soften.  "Of course, Mister Potter, but Mister Zabini needs to rest.  You may come back to visit him tomorrow if you wish."

Draco nodded.  "I'll see you tomorrow, Blaise."

"Sure.  Just remember what we said, Draco.  Keep your head up."

"I will."

Blaise watched from his bed as his friends filed out of the room.

Next chapter:  Beautiful.

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