Author Note: Oh my goodness... Is this what I think it is?
An update????
Why yes it is, finally :) And before I say anything else, I must apologize very very deeply for the wait. I'm so so so so so sorry for my laziness. I have a fairly busy schedule (in other words, I'm in a marching band), but I still feel very horrible about this ^^;; I've had one review saying that they'll start crying if I didn't update, and another claiming that they'd have to beg ^^;; Although I am very happy I'm being that well received :)
I have not abandoned this story. I will not abandon this story. Please feel free to e-mail me like whoa if I ever appear to have abandoned this story. And please keep reviewing me. Each time I got a review after I slowed down on this, I wrote more of this chapter. You've been very encouraging to me, so please continue (that is, if you haven't abandoned this story yet ^^;;)
I've just entered high school, and I joined the Tiger's Pride Marching Band, which is very time consuming. The season is, however drawing to a close. We'll still be practicing, as we go to Florida this Christmas, but I should be gaining some free time... (oh no... the school play is starting soon... X.X) Well, I'll have free time for a little while at least ^^;; And there's the fact that I just saw the new trailer this morning. I almost died. No, seriously.
So yes, we have a revival of the Harry Potter lurve. And I'll try to update as often as I can. So anyways, please, read on :)
***
"Kill the spare..."
The voice rang out clear against the cool, dark night. The curtains in the windows blew softly in a gentle breeze, creating the only sound in the room, save for the heavy breathing of Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy.
Draco could feel the stillness of the room, until Peter Pettigrew's pale hand fell softly to the side of his robes. With this action, the swarm of death eaters had moved toward him, surrounding the boy. The four figures stood over him menacingly, their dark hoods keeping him from recognizing any of them.
The first of them reached a hand out to him.
Draco, still unable to move, shivered at the touch. The figure ran a hand down the blonde's arm, and he felt goose bumps form as the long fingers passed over his fragile skin. The hand trailed its way down his side, and he cringed as it passed his stinging wound, and then caressed his tender thigh...
...watched as he ran a hand up and down his thigh...
The touch felt familiar; he recognized the icy cold feeling as the hands reached up around his neck. For a moment he was sure the dark creature would choke him, but he felt only the pain of fingernails digging into his skin, and running over old scars and scratches that bled as the scab was torn off.
...then slid both his hands up over his chest and around Draco's neck, his long fingernails drawing blood at the sides...
Draco felt the warm trickling of blood slide down his neck along with the smooth hands falling down with it. They landed on his bandaged stomach, tearing slightly at the white cloth, and running a single finger in circles over his chest.
...pale hands then pushed their way up from the base of his smooth, black top, and caressed his son's stomach...
Draco gasped at the memories, though he couldn't fight away the force of the cackling Death Eater...
"And you've failed me yet again, boy." The words of the man struck like a leather whip; the realization struck harder. "Lying here so pitifully. And in the house of a Weasley at that... You are no son of mine..."
Draco struggled against Lucius' grip, but his injuries and the powerful hold of his father confined him to the bed. A long blonde tress fell from the hood of Lucius' cloak, running smoothly over Draco's petrified face as another breeze blew through the room. The older man reached up with his free hand, and as he moved the hair back into place underneath the black cloth of the hood, Draco vaguely saw a smirk on his face as the moonlight reflected off his lips and gleaming eyes.
"And no longer will you be..."
The silence that followed his sharp words seemed to last an eternity for the blonde boy. In the few moments it took for Lucius to pull out his long, thin wand and to point it in Draco's direction, he breathed in what he was sure would be his final breaths. Death at the hand of his father... He tried to pull away from Lucius again, though he failed again and within those last precious seconds, Lucius had his wand poised and ready.
Again the moonlight glinted off his slanted eyes, and Draco could see the words before they had even formed on his lips. "Avada..."
"Expecto Patronum!" Harry's voice broke through the words as Lucius Malfoy spoke them, creating a bright light that shone through the darkness. It assumed the form of a stag, running through the first three Death Eaters and Pettigrew. Each let out a shrill in turn as the stag went through them, then wavered before they fell to the ground in a heap.
Lucius' head turned quickly as the bright lights caught him off guard, and he whipped around just in time to see the stag pass through his body, though he made not the smallest sound as he fell to ground, nearly unconscious. It then continued its way to Draco, where it stopped. The blonde reached out a hand toward it, though it simply passed through the figure, which quickly faded away.
Harry and Draco cast a fleeting glance across the room, but quickly turned their gaze to the slowly rising form of Lucius Malfoy, whose wand lay on the ground beneath him. Wormtail and the three remaining Death Eaters, all of whom were leering viciously in Harry's direction, stood slowly after him. Peter called the three Death Eaters off Harry as they stumbled weakly toward the confident looking, raven-haired boy, and Lucius took one last, heavy step toward Draco.
"You have not seen the last of me, boy," he hissed, lightly dusting off his robes. "I'm your worst nightmare. I'm always there..."
With that last remark, five pops were heard, and the figures were gone. Draco's hand fell to the side of the bed, and without a word, he fell asleep with one foot hanging off the mattress and his pillow on the floor...
...though Harry thought he heard the blonde whisper something that sounded vaguely like thank you...
***
The minutes passed like hours, and the hours like days as time rolled on in the Burrow, each moment passing with the foreboding of another attack. Of course the Weasleys had broken quickly into the room where Harry and Draco lay, though they managed to see nothing more than the disappearance of multiple figures as they knocked the door down, for it was heavily cursed with locking spells.
There, they found Draco laying askew in the bed, bandages torn, and watched as Harry ran over to him in silence. As he sighed in relief, he collapsed at Draco's side; his torso upon the mattress and his legs unmoving on the hardwood floor. Mr Weasley held Mrs Weasley's hand, as he was sure she felt to do the same, and Ron, Ginny, Fred, and George raced to Harry's side as Harry had to Draco's.
The next day passed slowly, and nearly all was explained to the stunned family. Though the end of the night remained untold, for an unmentioned glance between the two boys was enough to seal their thoughts...
***
The first light of dawn passed through the thin curtain in the windows of the guest room at the Burrow. Dim rays, as thin as they may be, lit the room slightly, and one particularly strong ray fell gently over the eyes of Harry Potter.
The light penetrated through his eyelids, and as the brightness grew, the depth of his sleep wavered. After tossing around in the sheets for a few minutes and tightly clenching his eyes to block out the sunlight, the raven-haired boy finally accepted his defeat and lazily rolled out of the soft, warm bed.
Though his footsteps were light, the hard floor still made a harsh sound as he walked, and echoed as Harry worked his way slowly across the room towards the old door. He placed one limp hand over the handle, but he heard a grunt from the other side of the room and saw none other than Draco Malfoy as he twisted the sheets around his thin leg.
The light, brighter now than it had been before as the sun rose higher into the morning sky, shone through his white-blonde hair, almost creating a halo of light over the figure. His pale face was highlighted by the thin rays that dashed over him, and his lithe, calm body seemed alive with warmth from the first rays of the morning sun.
As Harry remained lost in thought, the rays of sunlight that cascaded over the body of Draco Malfoy began to disrupt his deep slumber. He scrunched up his face just as Harry had done, and moaned again as he pushed himself up into a sitting position on the bed.
Two weeks had passed since the incident on that night. Draco's wounds had been nearly fully healed, thanks to the efforts of Mrs Weasley. Those that Harry had received from the fight with Peter Pettigrew had healed as well, though the cuts and scrapes hadn't seemed more than trivial when compared to the punctures and breaks that Draco had suffered through.
Harry quickly broke away from his long gaze at Draco as the blonde boy looked toward him, still half asleep. "G'morning," and Harry quickly flashed a smile as he walked out the door.
Blinking himself into consciousness, Draco took in the room again, from tattered cloth hangings on the walls, to the old floorboard that creaked as Harry stepped out of the room. From the chipped pottery that decorated the shelves to the shelves themselves, rickety and tilted, falling from their fixtures between the boards that held them together. From the moth eaten curtains that hung around the open windows, to Harry Potter as he left the room. Harry Potter...
Even now, after two long weeks of coexistence, his thoughts were mixed. Enemies, that's what they'd always been. The famous rivals, the true adversaries of Slytherin and Gryffindor. But now, the thought of that felt strange, almost wrong. Perhaps it was the time spent in forced cohabitation. Perhaps it was the knowledge that Harry knew how deeply Lucius had damaged Draco's pride. Perhaps it was just the fading of feelings over time. Whatever it was, the hatred was diminishing, dad by day.
Still, the feeling was something new; different. Every morning there had been a moment where they would catch the others eye, but the silence was deafening. Finally, Harry had picked up the habit of a smile and a greeting, but the gesture was strange to Draco. He'd heard it from teachers, from those around him to one another in the Slytherin Common Room, but never from anyone else.
Never from Lucius.
And his only response was a softening of his eyes, or the slightest nod before he turned away and smoothed down the sheets of his bed.
A few mornings ago, he remembered his breakfast with the Weasley's and Harry. When Arthur and Molly Weasley cheerily brought the bacon and eggs to the table, they'd shouted their good mornings, and received a chorus back of them as well. Draco quietly had mumbled it as well under his breath. He could see Ron give him a strange look out of the corner of his eye, and Harry smiled faintly before he began his work on the fried eggs in front of him.
And it was still strange for him, but as Harry shut the door behind him, he sighed heavily and returned to straightening the graying sheets that lay on his bed. Draco then slipped himself into a set of black jeans and a white T-shirt that the Weasley's had lent him, folded his nightclothes, and followed Harry down to the kitchen.
"...sounds like a servant of Voldemort killed him. Probably because he couldn't take you out, eh, Harry?" Mr Weasley laughed halfheartedly, pointing at an article in the Daily Prophet. "'Says here they found him mangled up pretty bad, down under the bridge in Knockturn Alley."
Draco kept his steps light, careful not to disturb the flow of the conversation with his entrance. He remained in the shadows of the stairwell, watching as most of the Weasley's looked towards a photo on the cover of the wizarding paper.
"It sounds like they suspect the attacker used the Cruciactus curse on him until he went insane." Draco cringed, running a hand over the side of his abdomen.
"Then they used the Avada Kedavra curse on him, leaving him good and dead for a few startled visitors to find the next day." Harry shivered, tracing his hand over his lightning bolt scar.
"Peter Pettigrew..." Ron scowled a little as memories of the rodent Scabbers passed through his mind. "He deserved to die." Harry nodded, still keeping a hand over his forehead.
Ron smirked, setting down his silver fork as he reached for a glass of juice. "I'll bet you anything Malfoy killed him."
But from across the table, Harry saw Draco's hand dart down from his side as he stepped out of the shadows, walking toward the table. Slowly, walking with the pride he'd been taught he must always possess, he headed straight for the door. Draco could hear Ron choking on his juice as he reached for the handle without a word, and smiled slightly at it. He pulled the door open gently, but as he walked out of it, Draco unconsciously felt himself slam it into the wooden door frame.
And he ran so hard; he just had to get away. Not for love of his father, not for love of the family name. Truly, whatever love he'd once come to know had disappeared long ago, alongside his innocence.
Love did not exist.
So Draco kept running, leaving his thoughts far behind him in the dust that floated slowly down to the ground, caught up in the whirlwind of air that was pushed out of his way. And he didn't know where he was going, but he followed the gentle flow of the wind, racing it, tempting it to blow and knock him to the ground, but it just blew softly, sending his tousled hair in all directions.
The blonde slowed soon, nearing the edge of forest as he started to run out of breath. The Burrow was far from his sight now, far behind his heavy, pounding footsteps that were ruined as the wind brushed them away.
Draco settled down near a tree, reminding himself of his old sanctuary back when he was still at Malfoy Manor. Save for the small creek, and the dark, looming figure of the Manor casting shadows over him in the early hours of the morning, it was all the same. He stretched out as he always would, clearing his mind of all thought, finding himself in the mess around him.
But this time it was different.
Draco still didn't know why he'd run. He didn't want to go home, that was for certain. He didn't care if they mocked Lucius; Draco was almost certain there was nothing left for him but a deep swelling of hatred in his heart.
Then what was there?
Though he didn't know why, nor was he sure he wanted to, Draco had felt a ripping sensation spread straight across his heart. There was a pain that ran through him now, but it was a different kind of pain than the physical torture he'd endured for his life. Different from the mind games, from the mental strife he fought back from consuming his mind daily.
Emotions.
Was that it? Had he felt a glimmer of hope at forming a bond, a true bond with these people? With the Weasley's?
With Harry?
The wind kept racing through his hair, through the branches of the tree that his back rested upon. Lose your thoughts, he thought, falling into a heavy silence as he fell into an even heavier sleep.
"Mmph..." The soft moan echoed off the dungeon walls, absent of strength in the presence of the powerful figure before him. The boy was shoved into another wall, ripping the tender skin of his lithe arm, destroying the perfection of it, destroying the last pieces of pale, unscathed skin.
Again, a jolt ran through him as a hand ran over his back, swirling the fingers softly as Draco fell into their touch. But before a moment's "relaxation" could be enjoyed, he was slammed into another wall, lost in a pool of hot blood; the dizzying shades of red and the dancing candlelight rendering him thoughtless as he was lifted off the ground again.
Spots of white light clouded his vision as the robed man danced fingers lightly upon his bare chest, running long fingers through Draco's short hair. He started shoving him again, pushing him into the wall near his right shoulder, with increasing power...
"Wake up." Harry pushed Draco into the tree several more times, until his head bobbed slightly and he finally managed to kick Harry in the shins. "You know, that hurt, you idiot."
"Don't touch me..." He mumbled, just loudly enough to be audible. He felt a sharp sense of pain in his right shoulder as he squirmed closer to the tree.
"Draco, please, get up!" Harry gently rested a hand on Draco's left shoulder, poking him square in the chest.
"Leave me alone, Father!" And now Draco was screaming as he shoved a stunned Harry off of him, falling down to the base of the tree. He muttered a curse as his shoulder fell hard onto the cool ground, and he finally opened his eyes to consciousness. "Ow..."
"What the hell was that, Draco! First you run off to -- God knows where we are, so we all have to come chase you down, and you're sleeping? Sleeping? So what do you do when I try to wake you up? Kick me? Shove me? Scream and kick and whine all you want, but damn, what's your problem?"
Draco fell speechless, rubbing his injured shoulder as he looked back at Harry. "I... had a dream." His voice was unusually shaky, almost frightened as he spoke.
"Oh yes, a dream, because that's so much of an excuse."
"But haven't you ever..."
"I-" Harry stopped cold, and his eyes fell away from Draco's for one long moment. He placed a reassuring hand on Draco's shoulder without saying a word.
"Haven't you?"
"I... have..."
"Then you... understand...?"
"I suppose..."
"I'm sorry... Harry..."
"Wait a second." Harry paused, lifting his other hand to scratch his head. "You're Draco Malfoy, and you not only just apologized to me, Harry Potter, but you called me Harry. Not Potter, not Golden Boy, not idiot, just Harry."
"Yes, but you called me Draco earlier. I heard you, through the dream."
"Eh? I... suppose I did, didn't I?" Harry chuckled lightly at the thought, and slowly stood, raising Draco to his feet as well. "Well then, against whatever you may believe, the Weasley's are actually quite worried that you may be very much dead right now, I think even Ron looked a little bit shaken after you walked out like that. Then again, he may have thought you'd just curse him from behind. Which would, of course, have been a dreadful, dreadful thing, because, well, you know Ron, he wouldn't have been able to finish breakfast, which, as I said, would have been a dreadful, dreadful thing."
As the day began to draw to a close, the sunset rose over the hills, spreading millions of colors across the sky, painting brilliant imagery over the soft puffy clouds that seemingly flew over the Burrow. The Firebolt whipped through them, soaring across the sky towards the large, rickety home. Upon it at the front sat Harry Potter, bringing Draco Malfoy back towards the home of the Weasleys.
As the Firebolt drew closer to the Burrow, Harry could feel Draco pressing up against him, leaning against him as they were lowered to the ground. The winds began to cease as they approached the side of the house, and Harry finally felt his feet lightly skim the ground beneath him. He looked behind him as he felt Draco press harder into him still.
Draco's head rested itself lightly upon Harry's shoulder, his eyes shut, and his mouth open in a small circle. He'd fallen fast asleep.
Harry, careful not to disturb his slumber, swung his leg over the broomstick, and caught Draco as he fell forward. Gently, he hoisted the blonde up into his arms, and carried him into the old doors of the Burrow.
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were inside, and greeted Harry loudly until they saw him touch a finger to his lips. They stood back and watched Harry wander slowly up the stairs towards the guest bedroom, until they lost sight of him as he turned a corner to ascend the next flight of stairs.
He pushed the door open lightly, stepping into the cool room, and the floorboards creaked ever so lightly as he did. He walked over to Draco's bed, and gently laid him down on the old, tattered sheets.
He pulled the covers up to the base of the boy's chin, and carefully laid them over his body. He ran one finger over his face, brushing a few stray hairs out of his eyes, and a few stray pieces of dirt off his rosy cheeks.
"Good night...," and he walked slowly away.
Draco slightly opened one eye, smiled, and finally fell asleep...
Author Note: Oh come on, you know you love the corniness of it all ^^ I apologize if that was a little bit OOC, but, well, it's gotta be a little bit I suppose, doesn't it? I tried to slowly bring Draco to this point, I hope this wasn't too quickly ^^;; And, while it may go into the lovy-dovy-ness of it all a little more, I'd like you to keep in mind, this was an overly-fluffy chapter. I don't really like fluff that much, honestly ^^;; (If you like fluff, please feel free to read "If Only in My Dreams," my FFX Tidus/Wakka fic. That's fluff. Well, chapter 2 more than chapter 1. Chapter one is just a fluffy make-out ^^;; I don't intend to do that again. (And as if that wasn't shameless fanfic self-promotion ^^;;)) Some of this will be fluffy, but I'll be adding some more dark elements to this story in upcoming chapters. Also, please forgive my few, pitiful attempts at humor. I'm stupid, and that's all there is to it ^^;;
Again, I apologize for the wait for this chapter, especially as I don't honestly feel the wait was worthwhile for a chapter like this. I'll attempt to bring up the levels of darkness in upcoming chapters, and as well, I'll be bringing better writing quality I hope.
Now, for the begging ^_^ Please review. It really boosts my self esteem, and also encourages me to write more. It really does ^^ So leave me some love, because I absolutely adore hearing from you. Also, please feel free to e-mail me, I'm a very open person, and I'd love to talk to you, or rant about how wonderful Harry Potter is ^o^ Again, please review!! I'll post the next Chapter as soon as I complete it, so keep reviewing me to kick my lazy self into motion ^_^
Oh yes, and by the way, I wanted to say while I was reading the reviews:
Shellbert: Awesome, so glad I found someone else loving the Unforgivables ^^ A couple months ago I used a permanent pen to draw the Dark Mark on my shoulder, two people thought it was a real tattoo ^_^ Thanks for the review!!
A reader: Tee-hee, during my math exam, I banged my head on the table because I couldn't figure out how to do a problem, and while I was banging it, I figured out how I could get half credit on the problem ^^ Thankies!
theExecutioner: Haha, spiffy is my word! You are not alone! Sank yuu!!!
Thanks again to all the reviewers! *runs off to listen to Irish techno*