Disclaimer: They ain't mine, which is why I'm poor and Harry's a virgin.



Golden Daffodils

--------- I wandered lonely as a cloud.

Part 12

Fang whined sadly as Draco got ready to leave. It was well past midnight and the blonde had finally obtained the last ingredient he needed. Well he'd had it all the time, he just hadn't been able to give it up just yet. It was very likely it would be destroyed in the process of what he was going to do. He carefully placed the one strand of Harry's black hair into a small container, looking at it for a little while and turned to the dejected looking canine.

He placed his hand on the dog's head and closed his eyes.

(I have to go.) He whispered into Fang's mind.

(Lonely.) Fang thought back.

Draco sent a reassuring feeling to him. (It's important. I have to help Hagrid.)

(Master?)

(Yes, I'm getting him back for you. I know how to, now.)

(Happy.)

Draco smiled softly. (I gave you my word that I would. I always keep it, if it's true.)

(Come?)

(No. You stay here. I'll take you to see him as soon as he's allowed visitors. He's going to be very weak.)

(Wait.)

(Yes, you wait here.)

(Friend.)

(Yes, I'm helping your friend.)

(No. You friend.) Fang nudged Draco's knee with his large head and the blonde smiled.

(Yes, we're friends.)

Fang licked his hand as he removed it.

"You're welcome." Draco said softly, while opening the door. "Be good."

Draco left and walked up to and through the common room quietly. He hadn't bothered to make himself invisible as he knew that no-one was walking around. Not even Filch, who was usually wandering around with Mrs Norris trying to catch the students out.

Ever since Voldemort had fallen, all the staff, even Sev, had eased off on the children a little, as a way to celebrate such good times. Of course, you couldn't actually tell that Sev, in particular, had eased off at all, unless you looked really, really hard.

Draco had been too tired the night before, to concentrate as well as he knew he would have to for what he was about to attempt. The incident at the Ministry had annoyed him into a frenzy that not even the conversation with Sev had helped to calm him down any. He'd spent most of the night playing with the new ring on his hand. Thinking about Harry. He'd sent another flower to the Gryffindor's bed. That made it four in all. Five if you counted the rose pendant he had given Harry in the sixth year.

He desperately tried to get his mind off that topic. /Get over it, Draco. It's not like you'll die without him./ He wasn't very convincing. /I really do need to get some sleep one day. But I hate my dreams. They're either really good, and tormenting me with what I can't have, or really bad, making me feel intensely sick./

"Bloody Voldemort." He muttered out loud, causing one of the portraits to stir a little. "This is all his fucking fault." /I really should start taking responsibility for my actions. No, to hell with that! I'll stick to blaming the arsehole./

He silently walked into the infirmary and looked around, checking that Pomfrey hadn't gotten up since he'd done his scan of the castle. But everything was still peaceful and the paintings were all at rest.

He made his way to the first private room that was located near the back of the large ward and slipped inside. He looked at the still form of Hagrid. /Looks almost dead. I wonder if that's how I looked?/ He walked over and sat down in the chair next to him.

/The last time I came here was with Harry. When he was celebrating Hagrid's birthday./

~~~~~~~~~~

"Shh, Dray. They'll kick us out if we're noisy." Harry hissed.

"Sorry, Honey. It's not like I *meant* to kick the cabinet."

Harry sat in the chair next to the bed as Draco hovered nearby.

"Happy birthday, Hagrid. Look, I made you a cake. Well, I had Dobby help, but I'm sure it's fine. Oh, and we did a nice spring cleaning session on your hut, it's all neat and tidy now, you wouldn't recognise it." Harry said, smilingly sadly.

The still form hadn't made any response."

"Dray? Do you think they'll work out how to break it? Make him better?"

Draco smiled and brushed some of Harry's hair out of his face. "I'm sure they will, Honey. They just need some time." Draco looked down at the couple strands of hair that had come loose in his hand and stuck to his fingers.

He carefully put them in his pocket with Harry noticing.

~~~~~~~~~~

Draco shook himself out of his memories and focused on the task at hand. He placed the strand of hair on to the half giant's forehead and placed his hand over it. He closed his eyes and carefully redirected the pain that he knew would still be waiting.

He lifted the coma curse he had placed on the half giant and the pain smashed into his body with enough force to make him slip from the chair. He righted himself and ignored the agony, concentrating hard, now that he finally knew what to look for.

Curses that were put on the mind were very dangerous and unstable. To mess around with one without knowing what you were doing, usually ended in damaging the mind, one way or the other. That was the reason why Draco had to wait until he had scanned Voldemort's mind.

Luckily, the fallen dark wizard had not only known how to put it on, but also how to end it.

Draco finally found the small flashing beacon of implanted magic he was looking for and, using the fear and concern that had been infused into Harry's hair at the time, deactivated it.

He slumped forward as the pain left and Hagrid opened his eyes. When he removed his hand, the hair was gone. Undoubtedly, it had been absorbed in to Hagrid's system, as part of the spell.

/There goes the last bit of Harry, that I had. I could ask Dobby to get some more for me? It might not be easy though./

"Mal ...... Malfoy?" The half giant whispered shakily. He swallowed and Draco poured him a glass of water, levitating it from the next room to Hagrid's side. The large man drank gratefully. "What?"

Draco smiled warmly at the man. "Shh, you need to sleep, you're very weak. You've been cursed for a very long time. Your body needs time and rest to recover properly. I'll leave you be." Draco got up to leave.

"Don't ........ don't go." Hagrid was obviously disoriented and confused. "Cold. So cold." Draco summoned a blanket and placed it over him. "Just don't go."

Draco weighed the odds. "All right, I won't. I'll be just over here. You get some sleep." He waved his hand and the grounds keeper obligingly closed his eyes and slept.

Draco moved his chair into the shadows and waited.

----------

Naturally, the next morning was a very busy and excited one. Pomfrey came in to do a quick check, purely out of habit and dropped her breakfast tray Hagrid turned his head to look at her, saying 'Hello' in greeting. So naturally, Dumbledore was summoned, then the Trio turned up, uninvited but still welcome once they were there.

Draco watched, invisible, from the corner. Not even Dumbledore would have been able to see him unless Draco had wanted him to.

Sev came in due course to give the newly awakened man an energy potion, which Hagrid drank down as Sev stared directly at where Draco stood. Draco pulled a face and smiled when Sev must have somehow sensed it, because the teacher turned back to look at the recovering half giant.

"My dear Hagrid!" Dumbledore said delightedly. He had taken Pomfrey's advice and at least waited until the energy potion, before asking Hagrid any questions. So now everyone was dying of curiosity. Except Sev. "How are you? Can you tell us what happened?" Dumbledore continued on.

The large man cleared his throat. "Mal ...... Malfoy woke me up."

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. "Draco? Did he indeed? How interesting."

Draco squashed the urge to throw something at the headmaster. /Insufferable prat. I hate that expression. It means there's a 'talk' coming on./

"But tell me, my dear boy, what happened? We found you lying on the ground after a nasty run in with a Death Eater."

"Ya, an' I'm right glad the little uns got away all right. I just remember that the filthy wretch, who ever he was, shouted summat at me an' then there was all this pain. It was horrible. There was someone yellin' at the scum. Lots of blue light, then it was all quiet like. An' then there was this angel, standin' over me. Could only jus' hear what it said, the pain was so bad. It said every thing would be jus' fine and that he'd fix it all. Then the pain stopped and I woke up here, with the Malfoy boy holdin' my head."

"Draco healed you?" Harry said incredulously. "He woke you up?"

"I reckon he must've, if you say I was asleep for so long."

"Hagrid?" Harry leant forwards. "This angel that made the pain go away? What did it look like?"

/Take a fucking guess, Honey. Who else would be stupid enough to attempt what I just did? Oh, Christ, my Gryffindor side shows through again./

"It was all shiny an' the like. All glowing an' shiny."

"Draco." Harry muttered. "Draco was the one who knocked you unconscious? But why?"

"No, it was this shiny angel, I tell yeh. He's the un that did that. To stop the pain."

Harry shook his head. "It wasn't an angel, that was Draco. He, er, has this habit of glowing every now and then."

"He does?" Hagrid asked warily. "Don' think I like the idea of kids glowing, meself, but if it was him, then I should thank him." Hagrid looked around. "Where is he? He sat with me through the night."

Every one looked around except for Sev, who knew exactly where Draco was standing.

"Draco?" Dumbledore said to the room. "Are you here?"

Draco quietly walked to stand right in front of the head master and then made himself visible. The headmaster jumped in surprise.

"Yes. I'm here."

Dumbledore regained his composure. "Did you wake up Hagrid?"

"Yes."

"And how did you know how to do it?"

"I scanned Riddle's mind for the information."

Dumbledore was clearly shocked. "Did you, indeed? When was this, might I ask?"

"After I gave my statement to the Council. I went to his cell, scanned his mind and found what I needed to know. Then I may have arranged it so that he has an eternal headache, but that's not the issue, right now." He smiled at Dumbledore's surprise. "Now, I have a class to prepare for. I'm glad you're better Hagrid. Good day."

Draco walked out and Sev followed quietly as the rest stared at them in surprise.

----------

"Malfoy? Er, Draco, I mean." Hagrid said nervously. "I've had a little chat with Dumbledore, an' he told me about you, an' the things yeh done."

"Hello, Hagrid, I'm glad you're here. I have someone who wants to see you."

"Eh? Yeh do?"

Draco gave a piercing whistle and waited. Hagrid looked around in confusion and then his face broke into a delighted smile as rounded the corner of the hut and galloped up. He leapt and it was only through sheer luck that Hagrid managed to stay upright as the vast hound landed on his chest.

Draco smiled as the two got reacquainted with each other and then his face darkened. "I'm sorry I had to put you in a coma. It was the only way I knew how to make the pain go away. I'm also sorry, it took me so long to find out how to fix you. It wouldn't have been safe for me to scan him while he was still in power."

Hagrid looked over and placed one of his huge hands on Draco's shoulder. "That's all right. I know yeh did yeh best. And I'm grateful for all of it."

Draco smiled. "Shall we take Fang for a walk?"

"Sure."

The two started to walk as Fang ran around them both, in a state of ecstasy.

"Now, Hagrid. There's a small favour I wanted ask of you."

"Anything, Draco, just yeh name it."

-~~~-

Part 13

"Yeh sure 'bout this Draco? It's jus', well I ain't never done this before." Hagrid toyed with his coat nervously. "What if I mess it up real bad?"

"Hagrid, trust me, you'll be just fine. Stop worrying and just relax. You'll be great."

"That's what I thought 'bout Norbert."

"This is slightly different to raising a dragon in a hut." Draco said playfully. "Stop fidgeting."

"Er, I could change? If yeh thought I needed to?"

"Hagrid." Draco said firmly. "I hardly see how it matters about what you are wearing. Just relax and this will go smoothly." Draco took another look. "Well, maybe you should take off the tie. It's a little ...... gaudy. She might not like it."

Hagrid quickly yanked off the dirty, yellow and red tie and stuffed it into one of his coat pockets, before tossing the coat on to the porch of his hut.

"Hello, Hagrid." Harry said, as the Trio walked up to where Hagrid, Draco and Sev stood. Ron and Harry ignored Draco's presence completely while Hermione rolled her eyes and gave him a smile wave.

He smiled back. "Hello Hermione, you're just in time."

"For what?" Hermione titled her head slightly, taking a quick glance around.

Draco looked past the bushy hairdo and sighed. /Just what I fucking need./ "Why is *he* here?" He said rudely as Dumbledore and Sirius arrived.

"Why, Sirius is only here to see his old friend." The headmaster said brightly.

"I was talking about you, Dumbledore." Draco said as he brushed a leaf off of Sev's shoulder. "I'm still not happy with you."

"Will you ever be?"

Draco narrowed his eyes. "I don't know. You have a lot to make up for in my books."

"They just wished to see the trial. I saw no harm."

"I'm not talking about that." Draco's voice had dropped to a very cold level and Sev frowned at him in confusion. "There are a couple of matters I'll have to discuss with you one of these days, Dumbledore. But not today. Today is too good to ruin."

"Matters? I have no idea what you're talking about.

"Sure you do. You're just not thinking hard enough."

"But I assure you ...... " Dumbledore was cut off.

"Finally!" Draco watched impatiently as Blaise and Justin rushed up. "Where have you two been?"

"Sorry ....... we were ....... in the ...... library." Blaise panted out.

"Yeah? Well, I've got twenty Galleons that say neither of you were studying." Draco smiled as they both blushed.

"Draco? Why *is* everyone convening here?" Hermione said looking around as if there was something she had missed the first fifty times she'd looked around. "Is there something going on?"

"You could say that." Was the only response Draco offered. Now that everyone was there, he hadn't taken his eyes off of the lower western sky. He eyes went from one side to the other, relentlessly as he searched.

"What's going on?" Harry actually addressed Draco this time but the blonde was too busy stretching his scanning ability to the utmost to hear him.

Draco's head moved quickly to just slightly left of straight ahead and he smiled. "There." He pointed to where he was looking. "In just a few moments."

A minute later and the sky was still clear but Draco's smile hadn't faltered. Eventually a small speck appeared, just above the horizon. It slowly got bigger, at a crawling rate.

Hermione squinted, trying to see better. "It's a winged horse!"

"Close, but not quite." Draco murmured.

It was passing over the forest now and was much easier to see.

"Draco, I don't know what you learnt growing up, but a horse with wings is a winged horse." Hermione said, insulted that he had said she was wrong.

"I learnt some of the most horrifying lessons you'll never encounter, when I was growing up. But that is *not* a winged horse."

Whatever it was, was coming in to land. Remus Lupin was sitting on it's back and the enormous gold and silver creature slammed into the ground without a hitch. Remus hopped off it as Draco rushed over and threw his arms around the large beast's long slender neck. Which meant he had to hang with his feet two feet off the ground. He dropped back down and let Remus give him a quick hug.

"Sorry we're late. Slight hitch going over London." Remus smiled and joined the rest of the group as the animal bowed it's head and allowed Draco to whisper into it's ear.

"Severus." Remus said amiably, extending his hand.

Sev shook it and gave a nod. "Remus, good to see you made it in one piece. I would hate for you to be able to mange to hurt Draco's friend."

"I doubt Selena would ever let me. Intelligent creature."

"Indeed she is. I hope you weren't too intimidated."

Remus recognised the humour behind the words and smiled before turning to his childhood friend and giving him a hug. Sirius was looking rather bewildered.

"Selena?" Hermione asked, almost bursting with curiosity.

"Draco's unicorn." Blaise, Justin and Harry said at the same time. Surprised, the two boys looked at Harry, who only shrugged and pushed at his glasses.

"But that's not a unicorn." Ron scoffed. "It doesn't have a horn."

"No, Mister Weasley, she doesn't." Sev said as he took a slight step forward, not taking his eyes off the creature. "But she does has a substantial sunken scar where she should."

The beast did indeed have a large indentation on her head, right where a unicorn's horn should be. It seemed even larger than the horses who had pulled Madame Maxime's carriage. And it's colour shimmered. From one way the hair looked gold, but from another it looked silver, making the whole of her look both in places.

"Oh." Ron frowned for a second. "I've never heard of a winged unicorn before."

Hermione took a step forward, completely enraptured. "That would be because they were supposed to have become extinct, four hundred years ago." She took another step, taking her closer to the beast than Sev was. The large beast tossed her head and neighed loudly. Hermione scooted back.

"Er, sorry Hermione. But she doesn't know you, yet. Come on, Sev." Draco motioned for Sev to come over.

He took a tentative step. Selena snorted softly and made an odd whining noise.

"She remembers you, come on." Draco said softly.

Sev, absolutely confident in Draco's abilities to heal wounds, if not in reading an unpredictable, moody animal, walked up and ran his hand down her neck. She nuzzled him, nearly knocking him off balance.

"Guess she *does* remember your hand being on fire." Draco smiled impishly.

"Oh, do be quiet, Draco."

"Okay, now hold her ear."

"Must I? I really don't like doing this."

"Grow a spine, Sev." Draco motioned for Hagrid to slowly walk over. "Hagrid, no Dumbledore, you stay back. Hagrid, come on, she doesn't have a horn to gouge you with, you just have to be careful of her hooves."

Hagrid took a very nervous step forwards. "Er, why doesn't she have a horn?"

"Black market traders." Sev answered, tightening his grip on her ear as she watched Hagrid carefully. "I found her when I was walking through the forest one day, about eleven years ago. As some of you may know, winged unicorns don't start growing their wings until they are three years old. Because they are gold and silver, when they are smaller, they are almost always mistaken for a unicorn going through their change. I'm guessing some poachers mistook her for one and cut out her horn and it's base. It couldn't grow back after that."

She started getting a little restless as Draco kept whispering in her ear and Hagrid walked closer.

"I gave her to Draco to look after. When we had fully healed her, she elected to stay with him. Birds of a feather, I suppose. Just stop there Hagrid, let her get used to you. Lupin! Stop smirking."

Remus tried to wipe the smile off his face but failed miserably. "I remember when that was me." He pointed to Hagrid. "I was terrified. Draco handed her over to me to keep her safe when he had to return to Malfoy Castle on a permanent basis. When they started the conductor constructions."

"You *knew* he was a spy?" Sirius asked incredulously. "The whole time?"

"Of course. Who do you think the D was on all those instructions I received?"

"Dumbledore."

"Good. That's what you were supposed to think. I was L and he was D. Just in case anyone read one of them. I could claim it was Dumbledore and he could claim his was Lucius."

Selena rose up on her hind legs harshly at Lucius' name, dragging both Draco and Sev off the ground. They all slammed back down forcefully but Draco didn't miss a beat and continued to whisper.

"Shh, Lena, shh, it's okay. He's not here. He's not here. He's far away, hiding like the gutless scum he is. It's okay, this is Hagrid. He's a good friend. He'll look after you while I'm in class, and then we can spend lots of time together. You okay, Sev?"

"I'm perfectly fine. I didn't need that ankle anyway."

/Always the stoic bastard. But a lovely bastard./ Draco smiled and rubbed his face against Selena's cheek. "You should know better than that, Remmy." He scolded.

"Sorry." Remus looked embarrassed. "I thought she wouldn't mind his name as much if you were here."

"Just don't say it okay?" Draco rubbed her neck with his face again. /I missed you so much. Thank god you're here. You always make me feel better./

Selena finally let Hagrid come close enough to touch her and the large man hesitantly stretched his hand out and stroked her neck gently. She tossed her head lightly, making him jump and nearly lifting the two Slytherins off the ground again. Draco stop whispering and let go of her ear and Sev took that as his cue to do the same.

Selena snorted and sniffed at Hagrid for awhile as the half giant stood stock still. She nudged his shoulder with her head, nearly pushing him over.

"She wants a pat." Draco said slowly. "She likes you."

Hagrid patted the huge animal tentatively.

/So beautiful, just like ....../ Draco let that train of thought go. "Okay, do you remember what I told you?" Draco hopped up on Selena's back by swinging on her neck. He tucked his legs away from her wings and played with her mane.

"Um, she likes steak, but not too often, barley and honey and she's only allowed to drink water or rats' blood. Oh, and brush her and bathe her everyday and she likes her hooves scrubbed."

"Can you manage all that?"

"Course I can." Hagrid lifted his head a little. "I can manage any animal."

/Uh huh, yeah right./ Draco smirked. "How *is* Norbert?"

Hagrid made a face and turned back to Selena.

"I'll be coming to visit her whenever I can. I only have seven lessons a week, so it should be good." Draco leant forward and wrapped his arms as far around Selena's neck as he could, his finger tips barely brushing each other. "Thank you Remmy, for looking after her so well."

"She was getting a little temperamental without you." Remus said as Sev rejoined the group.

/She wasn't the only one./

"Draco?" Hermione said softly. "Can I get to know her?"

"Sure, but can I take her for a fly first?"

"Sure. It's just so amazing, I mean, they're suppose to be extinct. I wonder where her parents are?"

"The Congo. They quite like it there. Selena goes to visit them every now and then." Draco removed the harness that Remus had used to fly her and chucked it to Hagrid.

"By why doesn't she stay with them?" Hermione took a small step closer and raised herself to her toes, trying to see as much of Selena as she could. "With her own kind?"

/I'm almost her own kind. Then again, I'm everything and nothing./ "Because she's my friend. I told her she didn't have to stay, but she wanted to. To keep Lucius away I guess." Selena's eyes had narrowed at the mention of the elder Malfoy, but she hadn't done anything else. Draco patted her. "Let's go." He threaded his fingers into her mane and Selena spread her wings and flashed them once, sending her and her small rider straight up. She seemed to rear up as if she was standing on solid ground and then soared through the sky.

/She's so free and graceful./

Draco motioned for her to go around the castle as everyone on the ground watched quietly.

/I wish I could be free./

-~~~-

Part 14

Draco opened his eyes and rolled to his side, repressing the urge to throw up. He shot a glare to the Mandala, a type of Centaurion dream catcher that Firenze had made for him to try and help with the sleeping chore. It started to smoke he was scowling so much. "Anytime you want to start working, please feel free to go right ahead and do so." He sighed and rubbed the mark on his left arm for comfort, feeling the flames shift and twist under his skin.

He had tried sleeping. It hadn't gone well. /Why am I not surprised? Oh, yeah, right. Be cause I tried this last week too./

He rolled to his back. "Oh god, I'm so tired." He announced to the canopy. "Look brain, I seriously need sleep, so if you could just lay off the dreams, I would appreciate it." He knew there was no point in reasoning with it though. It only left him one option, if he really wanted to sleep.

He got up and slowly made his way through the Slytherin dorms and to the outside, stumbling every now and then, his brain not being fully functional. His eyes kept slipping shut and the night air chilled his bare chest and back as he walked down the dim corridor to the painting of the Bloody Baron.

"Wake up and open." He demanded around a yawn.

The image opened it's eyes. "Password?"

"Just open up."

"I'm not going to unless you give me the password."

Draco could barely remember his own name and he knew Sev had changed it a few days ago he just couldn't recall what it was now. /It was one of my nicknames, but which one? Oh to hell with this./

Without any other option, he held his hand up and the tips of his fingers burst into flames. "Open or burn." He said it sleepily but the threat was still present and effective. The Bloody Baron didn't question him any further and swung open noiselessly.

He padded softly into Sev's room and moved the blanket back. The sleeping figure stirred. "Draco?"

"Yeah." He said softly, sliding in to lie down. "I couldn't sleep."

"I worry, you know?"

Draco turned to lie on his side, his back to Sev. "I know." He whispered back. "And I'm sorry." He shifting backwards a little and felt Sev's arms go around him, pulling him closer. He sighed happily as the soothing sensation through his skin took control and he slipped back to sleep.

----------

"Well, you have to do something." Sev said pulling out one of his robes.

It was morning and Draco and Sev had fallen into what they did best lately. Arguing over Draco's well being. "I'm managing just fine, Sev. You don't have to worry so much."

"Of course I do. It's my job."

"Whatever, I'm just saying that I'll be fine."

"Uh huh." Sev replied, not sounding in the least bit convinced. "Just don't do anything rash."

"Like what?" Draco rummaged through a trunk he had left there.

"I'm sure you'd manage to think of something. Something ..... drastic, given the turn of events of late."

"Oh please Sev. I've been in love with him since I was thirteen, I think I can handle the fact that he's gone back to hating me. Don't make it sound like I'm going off to kill myself the second no-one's watching me." Draco dragged out an old robe and decided it would do. "Besides, even if I wanted to, I couldn't."

"And why is that?"

"Because the little bastard won't let me disconnect us." Draco tapped his head. "God knows what would happen if one of us died before it gets separated."

"Well, you shouldn't have done it in the first place."

"I didn't *mean* to." Draco pulled the robe over his head. "It just kind of happened."

"Draco." Sev grabbed the boy's shoulders. "A sixteen year old boy managed to invoke a three thousand year old ritual spell. Accidentally, might I add. And all he had to do was want it. Doesn't that tell you something?"

"That ..... I'm ..... too powerful for my own good?" Draco said brightly.

"Well, that and ..... How should I say it? You're. Obsessed. With. Him."

Draco smiled. "Thank you for the update. But I was already well aware of that fact."

Sev rolled his eyes and turned away again. "It can't be healthy. That's all I'm trying to say."

"Come on. Let's go. Let's get this over with before one of us curses him."

The two walked in silence towards the Headmasters office.

"I don't see why I have to go talk to him." Draco said as they came to a stop next to the Gargoyle.

"Draco, please. You've been putting it off ever since we came back from the Ministry. It can't hurt to just talk to him."

"You know how I feel about him."

"Yes, but that's all in the past now."

Draco turned his head to look at Sev properly. "Are you saying you've forgiven him?"

"No. And I probably never will. But he meant well."

"Meant well!" Draco exclaimed with surprise. "I don't care what he meant."

"Draco." Came the warning.

"No! What he did was unforgivable." The door opened to reveal Dumbledore. Draco pushed past rudely and went to the office, taking a seat without it being offered. "Let's make this quick shall we? I have a lesson to teach."

Dumbledore and Sev sat down as well. The headmaster looked at Draco carefully. "I wanted to talk to you about the Erosian Ritual."

Draco rolled his eyes. "Why? It's not like I followed through with it or anything."

"Draco. I'm sure Severus doesn't know what it entails, but I do. I want to know why you were going to do it, and I also want to know the real reason of why you stopped."

"I was going to do it, because it seemed like a good idea at the time. And Sev does know, thank you very much. I told him myself."

"It's true Albus, he told me."

"Did he tell you everything?" Dumbledore looked to Draco.

The blonde squirmed slightly, knowing that he had avoided some of Sev's questions on the matter.

"For instance Severus, do you know how it is done?"

Sev looked the headmaster in the eye, wondering what was up. "I know some of it. You have to ingest hair and blood from the person you wish to protect. Then the incantation has to be spoken."

Dumbledore smiled gravely. "And were you also aware that it is basically an intended copy of what Lily and James did for Harry? Protect them with you willingness to die for them? That you have to slit your wrists and let them slowly bleed on to your chosen target until you die? That is the final stage of the ritual."

Sev shot an annoyed look to Draco who stared at the desk stubbornly. "No. I did not know that part."

"I didn't think you would. Draco? Why?"

"Like I said. It seemed a good solution. Harry would have been safe from anyone trying to kill him."

"And you stopped because?"

"Because he woke up and looked at me. I had to put him back to sleep. Even if he hated me, he wouldn't have let me bleed to death in front of him. But it gave me time to think, so I changed my mind."

"Why?" Dumbledore pressed further.

Draco looked up and scowled. "Because despite what people think, I'm not like others are. Going around doing whatever they want for their own selfish means."

"Draco. Don't." Sev said simply.

Draco shot Sev an apologetic look and turned back to Dumbledore. "In that short time it reminded me that I had other responsibilities. Sev, Blaise, all the spies who relied on me to keep them hidden from Voldemort. I just couldn't afford the time to die right then."

Dumbledore stroked his beard slowly. "But what confuses me is why you'd decided upon it in the first place."

"To keep Harry safe. I've already said that."

"You'd die to protect him?"

Draco gave a look that clearly said he though the headmaster was an idiot. "Of course I would. I love him. Besides, I figured I didn't have anything left to lose."

"Except your life." Dumbledore pointed out.

"First off, I wasn't crazy about the turn it had taken in any event and second off, by that time, Firenze had told me about my fate. I was already going to die. And I did, in case you had forgotten."

"No, I don't think I'll ever forget watching you die."

"I'm touched." Draco spat sarcastically. "Can I go now?"

"Well, I was hoping ........ "

Draco cut in. "Too bad. I hate sitting here listening to you ramble on and on with stupid questions that shouldn't even matter now."

He stood up, ran his hand through Sev's hair and walked out, leaving the two men.

/Let Sev listen to the stupid man whine./

----------

"Dumbledore said you were very rude." Sev walked in, not surprised to see Draco sitting in his room.

"Good."

"He also said that you've turned away every single meal he's had sent to your room. Is that true?"

"Yes." Draco said shortly, deciding to get this lecture over and done with quickly.

"I'm worried, Draco. You don't eat, you don't sleep, you're surviving on alcohol, cigarettes and coffee alone. Every single mirror you walk past suddenly doesn't reflect anymore. How do you manage it all without going insane?"

Draco gave a small, sad smile. "Who said I'm not? Insane that is."

Sev placed a sandwich in front of him. "You are not to do anything until I've watched you eat that." He sat in the other chair. "It's shoulder ham, your favourite. Eat. Now."

Draco smiled a little stronger and picked it up, really not feeling like eating anything at all. He looked to Sev, wondering if he could charm his way out of it. But the sad look on the older man's face was enough for him to not even try. He slowly took a bite and chewed, ignoring that fact that his taste buds didn't seem to be working.

He swallowed and automatically took another bite, mildly concerned at the sick feeling that was starting in his stomach already. He sat there and stoically ate the whole thing then lightly brushed the crumbs off of his hands.

"Happy now?"

"Better." Was all the answered that was offered.

Draco stood up and walked over, knocking Sev's foot with his leg and making it fall off the other leg that it was resting on. He sat down on the newly presented lap and leant back pressing in as close to the other as was possible.

"I know I haven't been living properly for awhile. But I am getting better. It was just such a huge adjustment. You'll see, in a century or so I'll be right as rain." Draco said the last part playfully and the other man smiled.

/I don't need Harry in order for me to go on. Maybe to feel alive, I need him, but I don't need him to just exist. Besides, I do have Sev. And Blaise, Justin and Astra. And of course I have my adoring fans, being lead by Colin, Ginny and Neville. And why the hell do I have so many Gryffindor groupies? Salazar must be spinning like a top, in his grave. Serves him right. I'm glad I'm not really a Slytherin./

"Sev?"

"Yes?"

"Were you disappointed when the Sorting Hat didn't put me in Slytherin?"

"No. Not at all. It would never have mattered to me, which house you were put in."

Draco turned his head to look at him out of the corner of his eye. "Are you sure that *you're* supposed to be in Slytherin?"

Sev chuckled and Draco rested his head down on the man's shoulder.

-~~~-

Part 15

Draco, going against every instinct, had actually been talked into attending breakfast in the Great Hall that morning. He'd only had a small piece of toast, but that had been enough to make Sev relax somewhat. /Apparently Sev's decided the time to not push has passed. Damn him and his pleadings. And his bribery./ Draco smiled as he remembered that Sev had offered to convince Dumbledore to let Draco play for Slytherin in the next Quidditch match against Hufflepuff.

And Sev wasn't about to take no for answer when it came to keeping his word to Draco. Dumbledore had folded eventually and consented to it, providing the Hufflepuff team had agreed. They had almost jumped at the chance to go against one of their professors. One of the 'saviours'. Draco idly played with his glass as he sat between Sev and McGonagall at the head table. /I wonder if I should take it easy or just flatten them straight out? Nah, I should make it last somewhat. If only for the pure fun of toying with them./

All in all, it had been unsettling breakfast for Draco. He didn't have to do anything to be able to sense the odd feeling that something was going on at the far end of the Gryffindor table. Where Harry and Ron sat, occasionally whispering to each other and then looking to Draco.

Draco had actually bothered to tune in at one point, enhancing his sense of hearing to eavesdrop. It did mean he had to put up another though, to block the rest of the Hall's occupants out. Especially Dumbledore, who was prattling on about how well all the houses were getting on with each other now. He focused in on Harry and Ron.

"Shall we do it today?" Ron whispered, trying to avoid Hermione's sharp ears.

"No. Wait until I get something else done first. There's this thing I'm researching. When that's all done, we can do it, but not before."

"Okay, but research quickly, I'm nearly bursting here. This is going to be so good. I can't wait to see the look on Malfoy's stupid, pale face."

/Bite me, Match Stick./

"Yeah, but shh, don't let Hermione think anything's up."

Draco snorted. /If they don't think Hermione knows something is going on, they're pretty thick. She was listening the whole time I was./ Draco hadn't even needed to look at the Gryffindor table to know that either. /So, it sounds as if the Gryffindor Duo are teaming up to do something? I suppose it was unavoidable./

Draco took it lightly, but he couldn't silence the instinct that was whispering to him, advising him to brace himself. /Something is starting. This is going to be strong, I can feel it. Maybe I should scan their minds? NO! No, I promised myself that I'd never do that again, unless granted permission. Or under some *very* exceptional circumstances. Harry and Ron, plotting against me in some childish prank does not count, that's for damn sure. I hate doing that, I always felt so unclean, delving around in other people's minds./ He looked to Harry again, who looked away quickly.

Draco modified the rule of life he had thought up before. /Never infuriate a Gryffindor. And don't push it, once you have./ Draco decided to sit back and wait for whatever was going to happen. /No matter how big it is, I can handle it. Bring it on guys, I'm not afraid of you./

Draco smiled softly at Sev and left the Great Hall.

----------

Draco left his arm being tugged as he was about to walk into his classroom. He turned and smiled. "Hello Hermione."

"Hi, Draco. Look, um, there's something I wanted to talk to you about."

"If it's about the test ....... "

"No, no, it's about Harry." That got Draco's attention. "And Ron. They're up to something. Something big, and I think it involves you."

Draco gave a short laugh. "Yeah, tell me about it. I heard some of their conversation this morning."

"You did? But you were all the way up at the head table?"

Draco flicked his eyebrows and smiled. "And?"

She laughed softly. "Just be careful, okay? When Ron and Harry get angry .... "

"Ron's only angry for Harry's sake. If Harry wasn't angry, Ron wouldn't be either. Don't worry, I can handle them." /I hope./ "But thanks for the warning anyway." Draco put on a sad look. "Gryffindors, spilling Gryffindor secrets to Slytherins. Tsk, tsk, tsk. R.E.M were right. It *is* the end of the world as we know it." He flashed her a smile, actually feeling quite good for a change.

Hermione playfully punched him in the arm. "Drop dead, blondie."

Draco stuck his bottom lip out in an exaggerated pout. "Awwww, again? Do I have to?" He whined.

She rolled her eyes and he motioned with his hand for her to enter the room first. He followed her in and went to the front of the room, putting his books and papers down. He smiled and nodded in greeting at his students, quickly checking that everyone was present.

"Okay, today will mostly be another demonstration day. DOBBY!" He yelled, making some of them jump. An even louder noise, like a large whip being cracked and the house-elf appeared, standing on his desk.

"Hello, Master Draco." Dobby said gleefully, throwing his small arms around the blonde's neck.

"Hey, Dobbs. How goes it?"

"Dobby is going well, thank you."

Draco disentangled himself from the small creature and brought some coins from out of his pocket. He selected five Galleons and offered them to the house-elf. Dobby shook his head furiously. "No, Master Draco. You don't need to pay Dobby."

"I insist." Draco pushed the coins into the smaller hands. "Please?"

Dobby looked down at the coins, looked up at Draco and then looked down again. He nodded in defeat.

"Good. Now Dobby, it's very simple. I'm going to pick a student and you're going to duel with them."

Dobby's head snapped up, eyes widening and ears flopping right down. "Dobby is WHAT?" He squeaked. A few of the students laughed softly at his reaction.

"You're going to duel them."

"Dobby can not do that!"

"Oh yes, Dobby can. And I even have permission from Dumbledore for you to do so."

"Well then, Dobby does not approve."

"Why do you think I insisted you be paid for your work?" Draco smiled brazenly.

Dobby narrowed his eyes. "Dobby gets the feeling that Master Draco set Dobby up."

"And Dobby would be correct. Now just go stand on that side." Draco motioned for Dobby to stand at the front of the room, on the students right side. The house-elf, muttering something under his breath, took his position.

"Blaise!" Draco only looked at the boy, after he had said the name. "Thank you for volunteering."

"I didn't!"

Draco gazed evenly at his fellow Slytherin.

"Aw man, Do I have to, Drake?" No answer. "Oh, fine. I guess there's no harm." Blaise muttered as he stood up and walked to the other side of the room.

Draco clapped his hands once, to make sure he had their attention. "Okay, here are the rules. NO KILLING CURSES! You wait until I say to begin. If I say stop, you stop. Dobby? Just remember, I know what you can do, so no pretending. Blay? Er, just be careful to not destroy the wall behind him. I don't want either of you holding back anything. I can heal any wound under the sun, so no going lightly." He clicked his fingers and a large scoreboard appeared above his head. "And I want it to be as quick as possible. Be as aggressive as you want, it won't matter. Just no killing." He stated again.

The scoreboard was displaying a timer set to zero, and two more zeros, one under each duellist's name. Draco checked to make sure it was working fine and then reset the values. "Okay, ready?"

"Yeah." Blaise drawled.

"No." Dobby squeaked out.

"Very well, begin."

Blaise lifted his wand and cast his first spell, a fire spell. Dobby blocked it with a strange, whirling, blue light and pointed his finger at him. A loud noise, similar to a canon going off accompanied the action of Blaise being lifted off his feet and slammed into the wall. /This is going to be good./

----------

An untouched Dobby was thanked by Draco and left. Exceedingly bruised, bleeding and sore Blaise took his seat back at his desk, grumbling about the pain. "I don't see why we had to go for twenty hits." He whined.

"I just decided that I like seeing you get your arse kicked. Okay! Does anyone have any theory as to why Blaise kept losing so badly?" Several hands shot up, including Hermione's. "Yes, Susan?"

The class discussed it at length, in between bouts of Blaise whining that Draco could get rid of the scoreboard now. They talked of strategy and spells and what they themselves would have done different. Except for the Gryffindors. Only Hermione was desperately waving her hand for attention, but Draco was giving some others a chance, before he got to her.

He finally looked to where the Gryffindors sat. "Neville?" The boy looked panicked. "Do you have any ideas on what Blaise's very first mistake was?"

"Um, he, er didn't take it very seriously?"

Draco, who was sitting on his desk by this time, having a cigarette smiled. "Yes, exactly and?"

"Um, and, er, and he underestimated Dobby?" Neville asked tentatively.

Draco smile got wider. "Exactly. Which is why I picked a pure blood who was raised with house-elves as servants. Good judgement, Neville." The boy grinned at Draco.

"Draco! Can I say something now?" Hermione pleaded, having to support her arm by this time, to keep it in the air.

The blonde sighed. "Oh, very well. Let's hear it."

The arm fell down gratefully. "Firstly, Blaise didn't try too hard because he didn't think Dobby was very powerful. If Dobby was a real enemy, he'd be dead by now. And then he made the mistake of still going easy on him, because, well, Dobby looks so breakable. Blaise was too concerned he'd seriously hurt him, obviously not knowing that house-elves are very resilient creatures."

"Very, good. So Blaise's very first mistake was?"

"His pride." Hermione answered quickly, before anyone else had a chance to think.

"Correct, Hermione. Who here was raised as a muggle? A show of hands please." Draco ignored the fact that Harry didn't bother to raise his. "Now, for once television actually had the right idea. You *never* underestimate who you're going up against. I'm a very powerful wizard, and I always knew how to handle myself, but I made the mistake once of being too arrogant about what I could do."

He put out his cigarette and faced his students. "I used to believe there was nothing in this world I couldn't do. Well, that's simply not true. So far, from what I've tried, I can do anything magical in this world, but that doesn't necessarily make me a god. I'm not perfect, and I overrated some of my abilities. I got severely burned for that mistake, so just remember that fact. Just because Voldemort is gone, doesn't mean they're aren't still people out there who will hunt you down and make you scream until you're spitting out blood."

Everyone was silent for awhile. Neville raised his hand. "Did you ever correct your mistake?" He asked softly.

/No, still living with it./ Draco smiled sadly, hoping it wasn't too obvious he was avoiding looking at Harry. "Thankfully, I appear to be the only one who suffered from it." /Too fucking arrogant for my own good. I should have listened to Sev./

"Well, whatever it was, I think you're doing just fine now." Neville beamed at him and Draco returned it.

"Hardly."

Draco looked to Harry. "Is there something wrong, Mister Potter?"

The obstinate Gryffindor looked up from his book. "I'm just saying I don't think you're fit to teach a class. And certainly not this one."

"That's not true!" Neville jumped to Draco's defence before the blonde could say anything. "I think he's doing great!"

Harry snorted. "Someone like him shouldn't be telling us about morals and what to do in times of need."

Draco let it go, waving his hand at Blaise and Justin to sit down again. They had jumped up to argue back. They sat, scowling at where the Gryffindors sat.

"Harry, you're being unfair." Hermione said gently, trying to defuse the situation.

/And childish. Did we mention that? Bitching about this in front of the class./

"No, I'm not. I mean okay, fair enough. So maybe he was working for our side. That doesn't excuse some of the things he did."

"He helped save us." Neville was back to defending him now. "Voldemort couldn't have been brought down without him."

"If you don't mind Mister Potter ...... " He was cut off.

"I don't mind at all. I'm quite happy to discuss this here."

Draco walked to stand directly in front of him. "I hardly think this is the time or place."

"Exactly, Harry. You're being far too hard on him." Neville said, slightly annoyed. "We should be very grateful. He's a wonderful guy and we all owe him a lot."

"Oh, come on Neville. Wise up." Harry turned his head to look Draco straight in the eye. "He's just a disgusting, worthless whore."

Draco felt something inside of him fade to thin and then shatter, it was the only way he could explain the sudden burning pain. It had been one thing for him to think Harry went around with that on his mind, but to hear the words being spoken, almost crushed him. He was quickly finding it harder and harder to breath, but he acted his way through it well. Keeping his face unchanged.

/If there's one thing I can do, it's act. But not for long. I feel sick./ "Get out." It was barely a whisper but the whole class heard it. "All of you. This lesson is over." He held his hand up. "Go study in the library, Hermione." He said as she opened her mouth. But his eyes never left Harry's. /Keep it together, keep it together./ "Class dismissed." He hissed out.

Everyone, except Harry, packed up hurriedly, shoving books into bags and crushing parchment in their rush to get out of the room and away from the rising tension. The green eyed Gryffindor lazily put everything away and stood up, most of his class mates already gone. Without breaking eye contact for even a moment he slowly walked backwards to the door, as Hermione and Ron dragged him.

He gave Draco one last contemptuous look and shut the door behind himself. Draco raised his hand and placed every single locking charm he knew on the entrance.

As the last one slipped into place, his legs gave out from under him and he fell heavily to the ground, landing on his knees first and then slipping to the side and on to the cool stone of the floor, leaning on his left arm for support. He slowly raised his hand up to cradle his head by his forehead. In the quiet of the empty room he let out a choked sob.

/I'm so sorry, Honey. I'm just so sorry./

And for the first time in ten years, making it the second time in his entire life, Draco started to cry.

-~~~-

Part 16

Draco rubbed the damp wash cloth over his face, cleaning off what was left of his tears and pointedly ignored the mirror that was above the basin. It wasn't reflecting anything anyway. /A mirror that's not reflecting and still I can't look at it. I'm so messed up. Maybe it's about time for therapy?/ He didn't bother to turn as he heard the door open. /Who else would it be? It's his bloody room anyway. Fucking Harry. No brain, I didn't mean that way. Those days are over, enjoy the memory./

"I went by your classroom." Sev gently said as he walked up to stand behind the young man. "It was empty."

"I let them out early today."

"You've been crying." It wasn't a question so Draco didn't offer an answer. "You must have been rather upset. Either that or some one was attacked. I cleaned up the blood, by the way."

"Thank you." Draco barely got his voice to whisper level. /Thank god someone thought to do that. I have to focus more./

"What happened?"

"Nothing ............. Everything. I don't know. I think it just got too much for me. It just kept building up and building up." He ran his hands through his hair. "Until of course, I snapped."

"It was bound to happen one day." Sev slipped his hands around to rest on Draco's chest and then drew the smaller wizard closer, into his chest. "You always kept pushing things to one side, waiting for them to get better by themselves. Life just doesn't work that way."

"I know. I was just hoping it would for once."

"You can't magic your problems away."

"Yes, I can. It's just too dangerous as a permanent solution."

Sev kissed him on the top of the head and let him go. "Was it Harry?"

Draco looked up, his eyes still blood red where they should be white. "Who else? What else? It just got to be a bit much, that's all. I'll be fine."

Sev gave a humming noise that clearly indicated that he wasn't as optimistic. "Let's go read by the lake, now that the snow is gone."

"Very well. Do I look okay?"

"Why don't you use the mirror." That too, wasn't really a question, more of a suggestion.

"No thank you. I'd rather that I didn't."

"Then you look just fine."

Draco cast a freshening charm on himself anyway, grabbed up a book and followed Sev out to the grounds. A blanket appeared at the wave of a hand, followed by a chair for Sev to sit in. Draco lay down on the blanket to the side of the chair and opened his book, ignoring the onlookers of students who didn't have classes until Monday and were milling around the grounds.

He smiled and waved at Justin and Blaise who were sitting a little way off, their feet splashing in the water, and they returned the gesture before making some rather rude ones, involving some exuberant hand movements and tracing a zigzag down their foreheads. /Showing what they thought of Harry's little outburst, no doubt. I've got some great friends./ He smiled at them and turned to his book.

Even with his gift of absorbing the information books held, by a mere touch, Draco still enjoyed the real activity of reading and before long was absorbed. The only sounds coming from each of the wizards being a page turned every now and then. Until two men walked out of the forest and approached them.

"Traitors!" One yelled. Draco looked up and recognised him as the brother of some female Death Eater that had since been made a Dementor. The other had been her husband.

"Death Eater supporters, Sev." He said calmly.

"Indeed? Deal with it, will you? I'm at a extremely interesting chapter." Sev said back evenly, barely giving the advancing men a glance.

The other students watched in horror as the mystery men raised their wands at the two who didn't even seem to be defending themselves. It didn't even look as if they were paying any attention. Until the wands were ripped out of their owners hands to come lie next to Draco and the men were picked up off the ground by an invisible hand and then held there. Draco decided to smack them together, as a way of punishing them for the rude interruption and both men squawked when it happened.

"Blaise!" He called out. "Go tell Dumbledore to summon some Aurors! Oh! And could you get me a drink while you're at it?"

"I will." Justin offered and got up off the ground, and the two boys ran for the main building.

Some of the younger students walked over and looked at the two suspended men. Draco smiled impishly at Sev and then proceeded with a very odd puppet show. He returned to reading as the two men bobbed around, with amusing voices saying silly things as the children laughed.

Even some of the elder students came over. Hermione took a place on the blanket, next to Draco and watched, wondering how he could do that without looking. Draco didn't need a sixth sense to feel her almost bursting with curiosity. Blaise and Justin returned with his requested drink and sat with her. But after about half an hour there were more strange people approaching. Sev looked up.

"The Aurors are here, Draco. You'd better put them down."

Draco didn't even bother to look up from his book. "Very well." He smacked them together one last time and abruptly deposited them at the Aurors feet. The group of onlookers broke up slowly and wandered away, most of them obviously being in even more awe of Draco than ever before.

Hermione had stayed behind though. "Draco? I'm sorry about Harry and the things he said. He's being a real prick lately. I don't know what it is."

"It doesn't matter." Draco said, trying to sound sincere. He was pleased to hear that he managed it quite well. /Ah, acting, where would I be without you? Oh yeah. Dead. The real dead kind, not the die then be brought back kind. Why did he bother anyway?/

Hermione was looking at his hand. "Those are very beautiful." She was pointing at the two rings that were there.

"Thanks." Draco brought his hand back and covered it with the other.

"The smaller one had the Snape family crest?" She blushed. "I recognised it from your home, sir. What was the green and red one?"

"Nothing." Draco shifted slightly and Hermione didn't miss it. "It doesn't matter."

"Oh. Okay. If you don't want to tell me, that's fine."

Draco could practically hear her brain whizzing around, searching for the most likely conclusions. "How are your other classes going." /Pointless I know seeing as this is Hermione, but still./

"Oh, just great. Really fascinating in Arithmancy right now."

Draco saw the patented Hermione look of 'I wonder if I should ask' settle on the young girl's face and he sighed. "What is it now, Hermione?"

"Oh nothing. Just that ...... " She paused and he waited patiently. "Harry said that you said you had already graduated. But how?"

Draco put on his best 'teaching' voice. "Miss Granger are you aware of the examination program called the G.N.O.M.Es and what it entails?"

Hermione's breath caught and Draco heard Sev repress a laugh. "You don't mean the Ghastly, Nail-biting, Overwhelming, Mind-bending Exams do you?" He looked at her. "No. You can't mean them." He kept looking at her and her hand flew to her mouth. "Oh my god! You do?"

Draco nodded slowly, smiling at her look. "That's how I spent the first week after our sixth year ended. My father knew someone who could get me in it." He frowned. "Unfortunately, they couldn't just say I'd passed. I actually had to do it. Thank god I never have to again. It wasn't the most pleasant thing in the world."

"But, but, but." Hermione spluttered and then took a calming breath. It didn't seem to work very well. "Those are said to be the worst exams that you'll ever have to sit in your entire life?"

"And sadly, they weren't lying about that little fact."

"Only a hundred or so have ever tried sitting it."

"Yeah, and only a handful of those actually survived, let alone passed."

"Nicolas Flamel almost didn't manage a passing grade." She looked him completely over. "And he had two hundred and thirty two years to study for it."

Draco nodded staring at the blanket. "All I can say is, thank god I can regenerate. At one point, my entire abdomen area had been ripped open from one of the theory papers alone. Those things are vicious if not under the proper control, like the ones at school are."

"Hermione? Are you coming back or not?"

Draco and Hermione looked up to see Harry and Ron standing there. "Ah, Mister Potter. So glad to see you." Draco said, letting sarcasm slip into his voice. "I've let myself cool down, literally, and have thought that ten points off Gryffindor and a months worth of detention with Filch shall be enough for your little display in class today."

Harry actually acknowledged Draco's presence at that and looked to the blonde with a trace of surprise. "What? I'm getting detention for speaking the truth?" He hissed.

"Harry! Stop it!" Hermione glared at him and got it returned.

Draco picked himself up and stood, looking back. "Yes. You are." He nodded slowly. "Because it was highly inappropriate. If you have any personal problems with me, I suggest you take it up with either Dumbledore or myself."

Harry's eyes narrowed. "Fine. I'll speak to the headmaster. But it won't do any good."

"Also, I have been getting the distinct impression that you and your good friend Mister Weasley here, are planning further little disturbances in my class." Both boys glared at Hermione this time so Draco waved his hand in dismissal of their silent allegations. "Miss Granger has not told me anything of such matters. Don't blame her. But I would suggest you don't try anything further."

"And I should listen to you because ......... " Harry trailed off. "After all, Ron and I were having so much fun. And isn't this the time to be celebrating? Voldemort's demise and all?" He put on a look of apology. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I completely forgot that you must be missing your boyfriend."

Both Gryffindor boys jumped when an unexpected growl came from Sev, but Draco held his hand up for the teacher to not get involved. Blaise and Justin were also standing a little way off, having seen what was happening.

Draco lifted his hand and curled his fingers towards himself, as if in a beckoning motion and Harry's body leant forwards. Magic, being the only thing that was keeping him upright. Draco leant the rest of the distance until their foreheads were nearly touching. His voice dropped to a threatening level when he spoke.

"If it's war you want, Mister Potter, I can give it to you." Draco held the Gryffindor's gaze evenly. "But just be careful. I've played this game a lot longer than you have." He sent Harry a smile that would have made an Auror cower. "And you know I don't like to lose."

He returned the surprised and slightly daunted Harry to an upright position and gave a small head bow at Hermione. Catching up to where his friends stood, the two Slytherins and the Hufflepuff walked off in silence as Sev followed as well.

"What was that, Drakie?" Justin said softly when they were out of hearing range of the Gryffindors.

"That? Oh nothing, really. I think that war was just openly declared, that's all."

"He'll probably get his friends to join in." Blaise said shooting a look back and scowling.

"Yeah. Probably." Draco said absently. /Well, this is going to be fun now isn't it? Still I think I know what to expect./

"Well, Drakie. You've got me."

"Me too." Blaise joined in.

"And I'll bet it wouldn't take anything at all to convince Stra to join in." Justin added.

Draco smiled. "No, probably not. Even if it is Harry we're going up against."

"That's settled then." Justin slipped his arm around Draco's shoulders. "So, you Verses Hufflepuff?"

Draco looked to Justin. "Where do your loyalties lie now?"

"Hmm." Justin faked deep thought for a second before shrugging. "Obvious, isn't it?" He smiled mischievously. "Kill 'em."

The three boys snickered as they walked back inside.

-~~~-

Part 17

Draco sat calmly on his Thunderbolt and surveyed the Quidditch pitch, hunting for the telltale flash of gold as the match played on below him. He finally spotted the snitch hovering near the Gryffindor stands.

Well to be completely honest, he spotted Ron and Harry desperately trying to get the Hufflepuff Seeker's attention and point it out to her. /Ah, the age old art of trying to cheat. God, Gryffindors really suck at it. Bloody good thing they've got the whole bravery thing to fall back on./

Draco sped to the stand and was just about to swoop down for the snitch as he zoomed past parallel to the side, when he felt something hit the end of his broom. It startled him for a second but got control and returned to the edge of the stand, coming face to face with an innocent looking group of Gryffindors.

This meant he had his broom absolutely vertical, using all the strength in his right arm to make it look as if he was just standing next to it in mid- air. This certainly puzzled most that were watching. He looked Harry straight in the face. "That was a little rude, don't you think?" He hopped back on his broom and raced off before the boy could answer him.

The match over in thirty seconds as he easily ambushed the snitch and caught it. He slowly went back down to the ground shaking the hands of all his students until he came to Astra.

"What the hell was all that crap with Harry?" She hissed and then shot a smile to some Hufflepuff boy who sped past.

"Oh, didn't you know? We've gone to war."

"What? Why?"

Draco looked over to where Harry, Ron, Seamus and Dean were standing. The four boys were completely ignoring everything else, just watching Draco. "I'll tell you back at the dorms." Draco got to the ground and hopped off gracefully as Astra landed as well. She was staring at the small Gryffindor group as well.

Justin rushed up and gave Draco a huge hug, almost strangling the slightly shorter blonde. "You were spectacular! Oh my god. I don't think I've ever ... "

Draco broke in. "Okay, okay, you're killing me here. I get the idea, I did good."

"Good?" Blaise had reached the group. "You were fantastic! And did you see the look on those idiot Gryffindors' faces?"

Draco smirked. "What? You mean that look?" He pointed over to where they stood, fuming.

"Yeah. Um, yeah, that's about right, actually."

Astra gave a low whistle. "Man. They looked pissed off about something. So what's this war?"

"When we get back, Stra. It could take awhile to explain."

Astra grabbed his hand and started to drag him towards the school. "Well, come on then. I'm dying to know."

Draco fought off the younger, completely hyperactive Slytherins and the four rushed into his room. They all took a seat on Draco's large bed, with the blonde sitting at the head, leaning on the board.

"Okay." Astra was clearly impatient with such news like this. "Spill."

So the three boys told her pretty much everything that had happened between Draco and Harry since the blonde had woken up from his dying episode.

"But why do you think he's being such a bitch?" Astra frowned, when they had finished.

"He's angry. I fucked him around a lot."

"Well, yeah. But most of that was plausibly justified at the time."

"Stra, sweetie. I don't really think he cares about that." Draco smiled grimly. "How many people would?" /Would I? Well, probably, but like I said, I'm screwed up in the head./

"But didn't you try and tell him everything?"

"He brushed me off."

"And you didn't make him listen?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Yeah, why not?" Blaise said shifting a little as Justin leant back to lean in his arms.

"Look, it's just better this way."

"What crap." Astra gave Draco a look that clearly said she thought he was being an idiot. "Why didn't you force him to listen to your side of the story."

Draco looked up from the blanket, to her and smiled weakly. "I couldn't really stand the look in his eyes. It was ....... It was just wrong. Cold, venomous. It just wasn't nice."

"I've never known you to give up so easily." She fired back.

Draco scowled. "You've never had the chance. Getting Harry was the only thing in my life I ever had to really try at. The only thing I truly had to fight for." His face softened. "Even being a spy came as almost second nature. But getting Harry was different, I had to work for it. And even then it seemed a little too easy at times."

"And that's a bad thing?"

Draco smiled softly, shaking his head. "No. Not at all. Quite pleasant really."

"So you're just going to give him up and go ahead with this whole warfare thing?"

"Jesus Stra. You make it sound as if 'giving up' is the easiest thing in the world."

"Well, isn't it the cowards way out?"

Draco shot her a look. "Not always."

All three gave him a look of their own.

"It's better this way." He said sadly.

"For who, exactly?" She said hotly.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Him, dumbarse. What? You think I'm doing this for my own fucking benefit? Well think again. Look, he's angry, hurt and sick and tired of me fucking his life around. Hell, *I'd* try and destroy me too!"

"Would you try to destroy him?" Draco didn't answer her. "Well? If he walked in right this moment, called you a whore and then just sat down, what would you do?"

"I'd retaliate. It's not in my nature to let everything go. Last time just took me by surprise, that's all."

"Could you destroy him, though?"

He looked up. "If it was justifiably provoked, fuck yeah. Don't get me wrong, I love the prick. I really do. But I won't stand aside as people try and walk all over me."

Blaise cleared his throat for attention. "What if he came in right now and said he'd take you back?"

Draco snorted, conveying how likely he thought that would be. "I'd want to." He slowly shook his head. "But I wouldn't."

"Why?" Astra pressed further.

Draco looked to the Hufflepuff. "Justin? Can I ask you something seeing as we're sort of on the topic?" The boy nodded hesitantly. "Why did *you* break up with him?"

Blaise shifted uncomfortably as Justin bit his lip. "Um, I guess, I just knew that I'd have to be busy. I was spending most of my days doing that mind blank thing so that Voldemort wouldn't suspect anything. And then there was this one." He smiled and pushed back into Blaise.

Draco crossed his arms abruptly. "I'm not a simpleton, you know?"

Justin blushed. "Very well. It was a simple fact. You had just put your neck out to get me safe and had sat me down, spending hours to explain every little thing that I would have to know in order to stay alive. I'm not stupid myself and I saw the difference between you and me. I didn't love him, you did."

"So?"

Justin looked up. "I had no right to get in the way." He held his hand up for silence before Draco could argue. "No, that's what it felt like I was doing. You kept asking me about every second I had spent with him. Even I could tell you cared. I could *never* have sacrificed everything that you did, in order to keep him safe."

Draco looked away. "It wasn't just him for him."

"No. But he was one of the main reasons that you were there. Doing what you had to do. Him and Professor Snape." Justin gave a bleak smile. "I honestly believe you would never have left Hogwarts to permanently join Voldemort, if it wasn't for those two."

Draco didn't reply and the four of them sat in silence for awhile.

"I just don't think you should have let him go so soon."

"Can we talk about something *other* than Harry?"

"Like what?" They all said at once.

"Something. ......... Anything! ..... Better yet. You guys bugger off, I have to cast a sleeping charm on myself and get some rest."

They nodded as they stood up, knowing that he needed to get some sort of sleep. Blaise dragged his boyfriend out and Astra walked to the door. She turned to grab the handle and looked at Draco.

"Okay, I'm in. I'll stand by you against him, even though he was always good to me. House spirit and all. Just one thing though. I don't get it. You love him, so why? Why give him up?"

Draco smiled slightly at her persistence. "*Because* I love him."

She frowned a little and then closed the door after herself. Draco sat down on the bed and let out an unsteady breath. /I hate my life. Oh come *on*, Draco. Grow up, already. It's not that bad. After all, it could be so much worse. Well, maybe not that much./

He groaned and sat up. /All these stupid games with the Gryffindors mean that I'm not going to sleep tonight, that's for sure. No rest for the wicked./ He gave a soft laugh and stood up, heading for the door.

He wandered the halls without paying any attention to where he was actually heading. His mind raced along with thoughts. /I have to go back to the way I lived. I do what I have to, no more, no less. I watch carefully for any little details, I wait for my time. Don't anticipate too far. Watch what I say, what I do, even what I think. Oh shut up brain, I'm well aware I promised we wouldn't have to ever again when this was all over./

He found himself at the Old Astronomy Tower so he turned around and headed back down. /Harry and Ron. It looks as if he may have enlisted Finnigan and Thomas as well. Neville won't go for it and they won't even ask Hermione. She'd find it childish. But they could get most of Gryffindor to at least side with them, if not join in. Looks like Gryffindor and Slytherin are pitted against each other again. Dumbledore will be so disappointed./ Draco actually gave a genuine smile at that thought.

He took in his surroundings and found that he had wandered into an abandoned classroom. One of his sighs broke the silence as he realised it was the one that held the Mirror of Erised. He walked up to it, carefully avoiding his own image and sat down on the floor.

He smiled sadly at what he saw. He never asked himself why nothing ever changed very much. His greatest desires had merely evolved as he had gotten older. Every year no matter what, Sev had stood to his image's right, but back a little, by maybe a step. He was looking happy, or at least contented, while holding the paper that Draco had always known to say that Lucius was in Azkaban and Sev was now his legal guardian.

/And Harry./ Draco looked at the image of Harry now as the Gryffindor's lips moved in words that the mirror wasn't able to produce the sound for. /Harry was always there./

In Draco's first year, when Dumbledore had shown him the mirror, he and Harry, each of them smiling cheerfully, had stood side by side as friends. Draco had known that it would be best for them to not actually be friends, which meant he had to go around insulting Harry's friends and making fun of him, but that didn't mean the blonde hadn't wanted the other boy's friendship.

In Draco's second year, he had be slightly confused at first, wondering why his reflection had been holding Harry's hand. But by the third year, he'd figured it out and wasn't the least bit surprised to see he had his arm around the other boy's shoulders, Harry's arm around his waist with both still smiling softly at each other.

During his fourth viewing of the mirror, the real Draco had actually blushed when Harry's image had given his a kiss on the cheek. The blonde had thanked god that Dumbledore, who had been hovering close by as usual, couldn't see what was being emulated.

The fifth year had been a soft kiss on the lips for the two boys in the reflection, while the sixth had been one that was a little more intimate. That had been before Draco had in fact ever kissed the Gryffindor in real life.

/And now so much has changed./ Draco still sat watching. He put his elbows on his knees and rested his head in his hand as the image played over and over. Harry's likeness continuously repeating the same sentence to Draco's.

Now Draco didn't desire anything physical such as a kiss or a hug. He'd had all that and while it was nice, it wasn't what he wanted the most anymore. All he wanted was the three words that Harry's lips kept silently forming. Ones that he could almost hear, but that was only in his own mind.

And still the lips kept moving as Draco watched them carefully.

[I forgive you.]

-~~~-

Part 18

Draco was very apprehensive as he walked into his classroom. The Gryffindors hadn't done anything direct since the incident at the Quidditch match and he knew they wouldn't have called off whatever they had on their agenda. His eyes swept over where the four of them sat, seven times just to be sure.

The four boys were all sitting there quietly and calmly. /Something is definitely up. Wait for them to make their move./

"Good afternoon class." Almost everyone smiled as he perched himself on his desk. "Yes Hermione?"

Hermione's hand had been waving madly the second he had greeted them. "Are we going to be working with Boggarts?"

Draco sighed. "And you knew that how?" He was well aware how she knew, and wasn't at all surprised that she had picked up on it.

"Because you've been teaching us the seven deadly sins." She beamed as he raised an eyebrow. "Well, we've done lust, anger, greed, sloth, jealousy and pride, so fear must be the last. Hence, Boggarts."

"Class, I'm sure this will stun you to your very core, but the lovely Miss Granger is correct in her analysis of the situation. And we shall be indeed dealing with Boggarts."

"Some teacher." Ron scoffed. "Now we're doing stuff we learnt in our third year."

Draco smiled, showing his annoyance. "Mister Weasley, did you not listen to your charming girlfriend at all? I'm showing you the seven deadly sins."

The four Gryffindor boys snickered. "And it's just so fascinating." Harry drawled.

Draco sighed. "The concept that Misters Finnigan, Potter, Thomas and Weasley, have missed is fairly simple." He smirked as they glared. "Anyone can teach you how to fight a vampire or a troll. I'm teaching you to fight yourself. And yes Hermione, you are being graded on this at the end of term, please put your hand down."

Hermione complied as the rest of the class looked blank. Draco smiled. "I've seen some of the best Aurors end up in a very bad way, while some wizards as clumsy as Neville used to be, have triumphed. Why?"

"Luck?" Called out one of the Ravenclaws.

"Sometimes to a certain degree, luck plays a part. But the trick is to keep your head during a battle. Figuratively and literally. If you remain calm, ignoring all of the so called sins during battle, you're most likely going to be able to think of the best way to win."

He thought for a moment. "Of course that doesn't apply to every fight. Many fights have been one because the victor wanted it the most. Instinct kicked in and they did it. Their anger hit so high a level, they lost their sense of fear and went with what ever they could. But fear is one of the strongest emotions I've ever experienced. It shows us clearly what we care about the most. Most of us fear for our lives, our friends and family."

"So we're not defeating Boggarts?" Blaise looked slightly confused.

"It's one thing to defeat a Boggart. I want to see if you can stand up to your fears. Mister Potter?" Harry looked to him with his disrespect showing clearly. "Will the Boggart still take the form of a Dementor for you?"

Harry reluctantly nodded.

"Then you are excused from the practical side of these lesson. Unfortunately you're fear has the nasty habit of rendering you unconscious, if you're not trying to defend yourself. Can't have students passing out in class now can I?" Draco smiled at the look of annoyance on the Gryffindors face. /Wait for his move, damn it. Don't you ever listen to me?/

"Miss Granger? As you always seem so excited about lessons, would you like to be the first one to come up and face your fear?"

Hermione, looking slightly apprehensive stood up and walked to the front of the room. "Nothing to worry about now. Er, is your fear the same as third year?"

She nodded tightly, obviously bracing herself.

"Very well. Please hand me your wand."

"What?" She handed it over anyway, with her natural instinct to obey her professors, kicking in.

"Hermione, I don't want you to fight the Boggart, I want you to stare your fear down. See if you can change it. If you can't it doesn't matter, few people can make their greatest fear change. Just reason with it in your mind." She frowned in confusion. "Try and see that it really isn't that much to be scared about anyway."

She nodded, taking all this in. "Have you ever done this? Trying to let go of what you fear?"

"Yes." Draco said simply and then plucked on of her hairs out.

"Ouch." She yelped her hand flying to her head. "What was that for?"

"I need a sample of you, so I can coax the Boggart to only respond to your fear and nobody else's." Draco walked over to one of the cupboards and knocked on the door. An answering bump could be heard and he put his hand through the wood of the door, his lips moving without any sound. When he retrieved his hand, he was no longer holding the long strand of brown hair. "That should do it. I've fused your hair into it, so it'll only focus on you. Ready?"

Hermione nodded as Draco moved back to his desk. He waved his hand and the door swung open. A perfect replica of Draco stepped out. The real Draco gave the young girl a look and she shrugged. "All my other teachers have told me how well I'm doing." She said softly as the Boggart walked over to her.

"Miss Granger. I'm sorry to inform you that you have failed every aspect of my class." Hermione whimpered, her face pale. "You may even have to return next year." Her knees started to tremble.

The real Draco watched her carefully as her lip started to wobble. The Boggart Draco walked around telling her all the things she has gotten wrong on the test. /The test we haven't even had yet. Jesus, and I thought *I* had problems./

"*And* you failed to defeat a cave troll."

"But we haven't even studied them this term!" Hermione shot back, panic showing on her face.

"Hermione." The real Draco cut in. "What are the chances of you failing this class?"

"Very high." The Boggart said.

"Not you! Hermione? Think hard. What are the chances?"

"Um, I don't know. I thought I was doing so well."

"Come on. What are the chances?"

"Exceedingly good." The Boggart offered.

"Shut up, you pathetic imitation. Think. Concentrate."

"Um, well, I always do so well."

The Boggart flickered, as if it was an image on a broken television.

Draco smiled. "Good. That's good. Keep trying."

"And I've never failed anything. Not even Potions when Professor Snape seemed so against us."

The Boggart flickered again.

"In fact. I've held the highest scores in every single class, ever." Hermione stood up straighter. "There's no chance I could fail."

The Boggart seemed to spasm and then transformed into Harry. Draco waved his hand and it was pushed back into the cupboard, the door slamming shut. "Excellent, Hermione. You did very well."

She beamed and then frowned. "Why did it change to being Harry?"

Draco smiled. "You lost your fear of failing the class, so it had to change to the next on your list."

"Oh." She nodded and then hurried to her desk and scribbled things on to her notes.

"You anyone like to volunteer to face their greatest fear? Justin?"

Justin's face went paler than Draco's and he shook his head furiously. "N .... no, thank you."

Draco frowned. "Not even for a moment?"

Justin shook his head again, but Blaise nudged him and gave him a reassuring smile. "If it's a snake or something, it's not like Drake's going to let it bite you."

Justin looked to Draco. "I won't get hurt?"

The blonde smiled and shook his head slightly. "Of course not. Just try it for a little while. What are you most afraid of?"

Justin didn't answer, just stood up and went to the front of the room, his hands trembling hard already as he gave Draco his wand. Draco studied him thoughtfully for a second before he took one of the boy's hairs. He magicked it into the cupboard and fused it with the Boggart, remembering to remove Hermione's trace.

Justin cringed as the door swung open and Draco's eyes narrowed as Lucius Malfoy stepped out of the cupboard. He was holding a knife. Most of the class had jumped a little at seeing him. "Well, well, well, it's my son's little catamite again." The Lucius copy growled out. "The one who doesn't know his place."

Justin shook harder and Draco watched him carefully. The Boggart moved closer, but Draco had placed up a barrier already, ensuring it couldn't reach the young Hufflepuff.

"Justin." Draco said gently. "Do you think you can beat this?"

Justin shook his head. "Don't think so, no. Just make him go away."

"Would you like me to cut you again, boy?" Lucius hissed out. "That was so much fun, tying you to the bed and watching you bleed."

Draco waved his hand and the Boggart was practically thrown back into the cupboard. "I think that's enough for you today." /That, and I don't even want to see something that looks like him./

Justin nodded gratefully and returned to his place.

Draco looked over to where the four Gryffindor boys were sitting, laughing softly to each other. He moved further onto the desk and absently picked up a quill that was sitting there. He looked to the ceiling confused as a hushed noise reached his ears. His fingers twirled the quill.

The noise got louder and soon the entire class was looking around for the source. Except for Harry and his friends. They were sitting up straight, trying not to smile. That rather blatantly gave it away, that they were the cause. The noise was loud enough to understand now.

Draco gave a boys a dry look as he realised it was his own voice. Moaning, rather loudly, to Voldemort and saying some very inappropriate things. He looked around for the source as his fingers kept moving. Some of his students blushed as they started to make out the words. Not seeing anything he closed his eyes and scanned the room.

"Mmm, Voldemort. I'll be your little whore."

"Ron! What have you done? STOP IT!" Hermione's voice cut through as he latched on to the source.

He opened his eyes and looked at the quill, his fingers no longer moving it. He had sensed both Harry's and Ron's magical signatures on it. Silently casting the counteract spell, the noise stopped midway of a very loud moan of ecstasy, the quill turning to dust in his hands and he looked at the two who had made it.

"I think that little display was very immature."

None of them said anything but Ron did give a mock bow with his head.

/Well, I guess that would be their move, not very ingenious, but original so far. And that means it's my turn now./ "I'll be talking to your mother about this, Mister Weasley." Draco looked over to Harry and smiled insincerely. "And just as soon as I get a ouija board, I'll talk to yours too." The rest of the class were too apprehensive to even breathe.

Harry's eyes narrowed dangerously, but Draco continued on as if he didn't notice. "Mister Weasley? Is your greatest fear still Aragog?" Ron's fear had been spiders in general, but ever since the fifth year, it had focused solely on that one in particular. Ron reluctantly nodded his answer. "Very well, please come up here."

Ron shook his head disobediently. "No thanks, don't feel like it right now. Still in such a good mood."

"Mister Weasley. If you seem so adamant about my class being boring, so much so you have to resort to tricks to keep yourself amused, come up here and I'll make *damn* sure it's interesting for you." Draco lightened his tone, sounding sympathetic. "Of course, I'll understand if you don't want to." Draco's smile went even colder. "But even your girlfriend had the guts to come up and face her fear. You're setting a bad example for your relationship."

Ron stood up quickly and walked to the front, slamming his wand on to the desk. "Fine. Do whatever." He spat.

Draco's smile got a little wider and he set it up. The Boggart came out as Aragog and headed straight for Ron. One swipe of it's front left leg and blood was dripping down Ron's right arm.

"There's no barrier." Screeched the redhead in a panic.

"Really?" Draco drawled, as if bored. "I must have forgotten to put one up." He smiled even harder as Ron hid behind the teacher's desk while Aragog circled around to find him, muttering the words 'blood' 'food' and 'so hungry' under it's breath.

Draco hopped back up to sit on the table and lit up a smoke as Harry and Seamus both tried to alter the Boggart. "Oh, by the way class. You can only alter a Boggart that is specifically designed for one person, if you are indeed that one person. You might want to take note of that."

Only Harry, Seamus and Dean were worried about Ron. Even Hermione had the look on her face that said she thought that was justified.

/Gryffindors : 1, Slytherins plus Hufflepuff : 1. Looking good so far. Just don't over do it. Only retaliate, don't initiate./ Draco exhaled a stream of smoke as Aragog pounced. Ron screamed and bolted out of the room, leaving all his things behind.

-~~~-

Part 19

Because of his response to the quill incident, Dumbledore had stopped Draco for a little chat during the weekend, in which the headmaster had asked Draco to be a little more professional and Draco had replied by telling the old man to go fuck himself, stalking off and ignoring the frown that was sent after him.

But it had meant he searched Harry out. That conversation had not gone well.

"Mister Potter? May I have a word with you? There are things we need to discuss."

Harry looked over from where he and his friends were sitting. "I can't think of anything we have to talk about. Go away, I'm busy pretending you're dead."

"If I recall correctly, you have only yourself to blame for my state of being alive right now."

"More the fool me, fuck off."

Draco had pushed his anger down, not wanting to set anything alight and waved his hand, making it so when he walked off, Harry was suddenly dragged along the ground after him. He also made sure that the other Gryffindors couldn't follow.

"Let go of me!" Harry struggled. "Stop it!"

Draco decided they were out of the hearing range of everyone anyway had drew Harry into a standing position with the click of his fingers. "Don't you think you're being rather silly?"

Harry sneered. "This from a guy who just dragged me around the ground."

Draco gave a bleak smile. /Keep it together. Focus on objective./ "I think we should stop this silly little battle that seems to be going on."

Harry held his head up stubbornly. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Draco sighed. "Oh come on, Harry. Why are you doing this? I can understand you'd be pissed off, but I thought you were a little more mature than enchanting quills and calling people whore's in public."

"I can do whatever I like."

Draco noticed that Harry hadn't really put any strength behind the words. In fact the Gryffindor looked very tired and worn out. Draco had taken to not looking at the other boy too hard, so that it didn't hurt as much, but even he could see that something was wrong. "Have you been eating properly?"

The boy's eyes flashed with anger. "None of your fucking business." He growled out.

Draco frowned as Harry's eyes clouded with mixed emotions. he reached his hand out to try and fully understand but Harry moved out of the way. "Don't touch me, whore."

The blonde sighed again. "I just did what I had to do."

Harry scoffed. "Yeah, right. Aren't you such the victim. Poor little rape victim."

"No." Draco shook his head. "Not even I can justify it to rape. I started most of those anyway. But I just did what I had to, plain and simple."

Harry didn't say anything.

"But you're right." Draco ran a hand through his hair. "I whored myself for the good of the cause. I'm not proud of what I did, but it did bring around a good ending." He looked away. "Somewhat, in any case."

"How touching." harry drawled sarcastically.

"Look, fine. You're pissed off with me because of what I did to you, fair enough. And I'm really sorry that you got hurt. But this fighting thing isn't going to solve or prove anything."

"And what makes you so damn sure I got hurt by anything you did?"

"What? Aside from the fact you're now out for my blood? How about the fact that you loved me?"

"You said it wasn't ....... "

"I lied." Draco cut in. "I lied about many things. I didn't really have a choice. It was either lie and make you hate me, or tell the truth and probably get us both killed. Which would you have preferred?"

"All right fine. I loved who I thought you were." Harry looked to him and sneered again. "But I could never love this." He motioned to Draco. "I couldn't ever even *like* the real you."

Draco ignored it. "Let's just call an end to this fighting thing."

"No thanks. I'm having too much fun."

Draco rolled his eyes. "It's your choice. You're being very petty, so think about it for awhile and get back to me on it." He turned away before he said too much and walked off, lifting the spells he had cast.

"I'll show you petty!" Harry yelled after him.

/You just did./

----------

The first thing Draco noticed when he walked in to give another lesson to the seventh years, was the drawing on the blackboard. He walked over to it silently.

"I'm sorry Draco." he looked at Neville briefly before turning his eyes back to the board. "I tried to rub it out but it won't come off."

"That's all right Neville. It doesn't matter." He said quietly.

The drawing was obviously enchanted as it moved and it showed Draco, on his knees in front of Voldemort, doing something that the blonde was trying to forget about. With the words 'Professor Malfoy can teach you many things.' at the bottom for a caption.

/How unoriginal. Honestly, is the whore aspect the only thing he has to work on./ He turned and looked at Harry. "I take it this means you've decided that you don't want to stop all this nonsense?"

Harry raised an eyebrow. A look he had actually stolen from Draco.

The blonde crossed his arms. "So be it. You want your little war games? I can help you along. Here." He slapped his hand into the board hard. "How's this for you, Mister Potter?" He hissed. "Appropriate come back?"

The drawing changed. The Draco image transformed into the image of a young man with black hair and glasses. He was standing in front the Voldemort image and it raised it's hand, green chalk suddenly appearing. Going from his wand to the man.

A perfect chalk representation of James Potter dying. Complete with scream that made every single student jump. Draco looped it so that it would begin again, repeating endlessly. The words 'James Potter died for a petty cause.' appeared under it.

"Please open to chapter eleven. The Boggart had a very tiring day with the third years yesterday and it needs it's rest, so we will be working from the text." Draco said, as if a re-enacted murder wasn't playing behind him.

Harry leapt across his table and wrapped his right hand around Draco's throat. "Stop playing that right now!" He yelled.

Draco was overwhelmed by the emotion that was surging through the skin of his throat. Hate, disgust, anger, so many negative emotions. He did a thorough scan while he had the chance and found what he had feared.

Harry didn't have one single good emotion towards him. Not even tolerance. Even Draco knew it didn't matter how angry the boy was at the moment. The simple fact was, Harry hated him completely. No love, no kindness, nothing of any sort of positive feeling. He blinked slowly as it slowly sunk in.

/He truly hates me./

He slowly pulled the hand away from his throat. "Please sit down, Mister Potter." /Thank god I can control my voice./ "I'm merely playing by your rules. I'm sorry if you can't handle it." /I guess it's not surprising. I can't really say that I blame him./

But it did hurt. And quite a lot. Draco felt as if he was fading away. As if he was losing all hope. /It's been awhile since I did that. I wonder if Sev can save me this time? It never hurt like this before./

"Sit down, Mister Potter." He repeated.

Harry returned to his seat, his eyes still blazing. Draco closed his own eyes and repeated his old trick of sending those flowers to the Gryffindor's bed. He recited to himself, in order to stay calm. /Daffodils have been said to mean hope. I'll give him all I've got left./ He kept his eyes shut as they started to land on the bed. /They've also been known to mean unrequited love. How fitting. They used to be my mother's favourite./

Draco opened his eyes. He hadn't thought about his mother in quite awhile. He preferred not to. He pushed it all away, his mother, his father, Harry, everything and resumed the lesson.

The relative silence was only interrupted by the reproduction of James Potter's final scream.

----------

Draco had been wandering the halls after dinner and had headed up to the Old Astronomy Tower to look at the view, and keep his mind off of some things. He sat on the edge and looked down at the grounds. /Still a prisoner here. I wish the Ministry would stop being such dickheads. Maybe I should contact William?/ Draco stopped swinging his legs and thought hard about it. /Actually, that's not a bad idea. Get him in and the Ministry would back peddle very quickly./

William was a man Draco had befriended on a trip to Germany that Sev had taken him on, one summer. A summer before Voldemort, when Lucius didn't really much care if he wasn't at home. William, like Charlie, raised dragons, but had a tendency to bring them on his travels. They were never restrained as the aged man had dragon blood in his veins and could control them well, providing he got them young enough.

Seeing as Draco could also communicate with them, the two had gotten on well, and saw each other whenever Draco had time to visit. Which had been lacking of late.

But there was also one other thing. William also had the tendency to get his dragons to persuade people into doing what he wanted them to do. Very few witches or wizards would argue when they had a dragon in their face.

Draco smirked and made a mental note to contact the old man. /He can be *very* convincing when he wants to be. And I'm sure he would have heard some details by now. The man's not that much of a hermit./

Pleased with himself over his plan, Draco was just about to get up and leave when he saw something in the dying light of the day. It was Harry, Seamus, Ron and Dean. But they were being approached by some very angry people. Namely, Hermione, Blaise, Justin, Neville, Ginny, Astra and Colin.

It looked very interesting so Draco stayed where he was and cast a charm so he could see and hear what was going on.

"You're being very stupid. All this rubbish with Draco! It ends right now." Hermione said hotly.

"No." Harry said calmly. "It doesn't. I have to do this and moreover, I *want* to do this. If you don't want to help, fine. But stay out of it."

Hermione's eyes narrowed. "Ron?"

"I'm just helping out a friend." Ron said, though he did look a little uncomfortable.

"Well, you can choose now. Be an arsehole and help Harry to be childish. Or stay with me."

"Are you giving me an ultimatum?" Ron asked incredulously.

"You're damn right I am, Ron Weasley! And just wait until your mother hears about this. Won't she be happy? You, her youngest son, condemning the man who kept her alive for all those months that she was a prisoner. And all because Harry won't grow up and realise the obvious!"

Ron paled and he looked down at the ground, trying to decide. Hermione put her hands on her hips. "Well? I'm waiting? Are you going to end this silly nonsense or end it with me?"

Harry was also looking uncomfortable. "Ron, just go with her. I don't want to cause trouble between the two of you." He said sincerely.

"But Harry, I want to make Malfoy pay just as much as you do. It's not fair, what he's done."

"Oh really." Ginny spoke this time as the rest remained quiet. "And what is it he's done? Oh yeah, I remember. He saved our mother! He saved your godfather! Hell he saved pretty much everyone who deserved to be saved! He brought down Voldemort, he bailed us out when we were captured, he ..... "

"Yeah? Well what about what he did to Harry?" Ron yelled back.

Seamus and Dean spoke together. "What did he do to Harry?"

"Never mind." Harry said hurriedly.

/Still haven't told them huh?/ Draco smirked.

"What the hell do you mean, about what he did to Harry?" Blaise decided his turn had come.

"You know." Harry ground out. "I'm sure he told you."

"What? How he saved your life? Or do you mean the *other* thing. The one you obviously haven't told these two idiots." Blaise gestured to Seamus and Dean, who were still looking confused.

/Atta boy Blaise. Hit him where it hurts. Wait. What? Whose side am I on exactly?/ Draco rubbed his throat, remembering clearly, how awful it had been to feel the emotions that Harry felt for him now. /I guess there's not much point looking out for him anymore. It would just be a wasted effort./

It didn't make him feel any better but he turned his attention back to the argument.

"Harry." Neville said, trying to get his friends to understand. "The day after Christmas, for the first time in my entire life, I got to sit down and have a conversation with my parents. They recognised me. They even knew my name! I don't care if he had to sleep with Satan himself in order to do that, he's still a hero in my books."

Draco cringed at the word hero. /Not quite, but thanks anyway./

"Neville. I'm thrilled about your parents, I really am, but it doesn't change the fact that I hate him. I can't tell you why, but I just do."

/I just wished him hating me meant I could hate him. Why can't the world work that way. Why does it have to be so bloodthirsty?/ Memories of a better time crept into his mind. Draco shook his head making them slink back into the recesses of his mind and returned to watching the spectacle.

The two groups were just yelling at each other now, and no-one could understand anyone. Until Justin pointed his wand at the space between them and used a spell Draco had taught him. The fireball shut everyone up and they all looked to the Hufflepuff.

"Harry. Just listen to me, okay? I don't understand why you're *this* mad at him but let me just tell you *all* something." He said softly. "I don't know what Draco had to do in order to make it that he was the only one allowed to touch Blaise and myself. And quite frankly, I don't *want* to know. But whatever it was, it worked. He *was* the only one allowed to touch us. And more to the point he never did."

Harry snorted in disbelief that made Draco tilt his head in confusion, but Justin continued on. "He *never* did. Not even when we offered. He looked after us, he kept us safe. Something he's done for all of us, in one way or another. He deserves our gratitude and respect if nothing else." The Hufflepuff, having said his piece, turned and walked away, leaving them all quiet.

The small group of Draco supporters, seeing that they had said pretty much all they could, walked away from the four Gryffindors. Hermione tugged something out of her pocket and tossed it to Ron. "I suppose you should have this back. If you ever come to your senses, give me a call." She said sadly.

"Hermione?" Ron called.

She didn't even look back at her boyfriend. Draco felt guilty. He knew she loved her pigheaded redhead and he didn't like the fact she was walking away from it all, just because of him.

/I'll talk to her, and straighten it all out. I don't see why anyone else's relationships have to suffer because of me. It's bad enough I fucked mine up so much./

The four Gryffindor boys had followed after the other group and Draco turned off the charms. He looked up to the sky where the stars were starting to come out.

/I can do anything in the world. Except work out how to be happy./

He sighed and started to head down, deciding to sleep in Sev's bed again so he could actually sleep without dreaming anything too bad.

/Maybe I don't deserve to be happy? Maybe whores aren't allowed to be?/

-~~~-

Part 20

"The rumour around the school is you and some Gryffindors seem to be having a dispute with each other."

"Really?" Draco didn't look up while he washed the octopus blood off his hands. "How fascinating."

"Dumbledore wishes to speak to you about it." Sev said, as he walked around the workroom, checking that all the ingredients had been put back in their right place.

"I'm afraid there's not much I can say to him about it." Draco turned the tap off and dried his hands on the towel. "Tell him he should speak to Harry. If such a thing was going on, I'm sure that boy would know why it began."

"Was that you're way of saying 'He started it', Draco? I expected better." Sev gave the young boy a smile.

Draco shrugged, smiling slightly himself. "So sue me. Anyway, this will be good for me. It gives me something to do." He began manually tidying up where he had been working. "I can plan and plot to my heart's content. Action and counteraction , all that stuff that I've proven myself to be so good at. It'll keep me busy."

"I thought you were going to give all that sort of thing up when the war was over?"

"So did I." /But things never work out the way you plan. I think everyone noticed that./ Draco stared at the wall for a second before he shook himself. "But it's not truly over away. There's always Lucius. He's still at large."

"Indeed. There were a few reports of him being in Brazil."

Draco scoffed. "Well, if that's true, he won't stay there forever. He'll be back." He shot a worried look of to the older man. "So be careful. No silly stuff."

"Wouldn't dream of it." Was the sarcastic reply.

"Don't take that tone of voice with me, Sev." Draco said patronisingly and received a hand cloth thrown into his face. "Seriously though, don't do anything stupid."

"If I recall correctly, that was your department. *I* was sorted into Slytherin, we plan, not rush blindly in."

"Hey! I planned before I rushed in, mostly." Draco stuck his tongue out childishly. "I did what I judged was best at the time. I've spent the majority of my life planning one thing or another."

"You don't have to anymore."

"Oh yes I do. If those Gryffindors think I'm just going to sit back and let them do whatever they want, I'll show them just how wrong they are. I'm sick and tired of sitting around feeling sorry for myself. I've got something to keep me motivated now."

"What? Destroying Gryffindors?"

"Exactly." Draco gave a playful smile as he hopped up to sit on the workbench. "Isn't that what Slytherins are supposed to do?"

Sev mimicked thinking about it for a few moments. "Well, partially. But we actually do other things, also."

"What? Destroying Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs as well?"

Sev snickered. "Which reminds me, how is your Hufflepuff dealing with all this? Surely his loyalties are divided. He was once involved with Harry, wasn't he?"

Draco shrugged. "He seems to have placed all the loyalties and trust on to me and his boyfriend. I guess he prioritised at some point."

Sev pretended to shake his head sadly. "A Slytherin and a Hufflepuff in love. Our house will never live it down."

Draco grinned. "Yeah well, war does funny things to your head. As does learning how to shield your thoughts in a four hour crash course. He coped with that really well at the time. He'd been abducted, marked and made into a slave in the course of an hour. He had to place his trust somewhere and we were the only two available."

"And then it just stuck, hey?"

"Pretty much. I'm off to see Selena." Draco slid off the workbench and headed for the door. "And then I have some business in the Forest." Draco didn't need to remind Sev what day it was.

"Very well. Be careful. And do try and talk to Dumbledore in a civil manner if you run into him."

Draco's smile melted into a frown. "He can go to hell, for all I care."

Sev sighed. "You should let it go, Draco."

"Have *you*? Or better yet, *can* you?" Draco didn't get an answer so he quietly shut the door behind himself and started upwards, towards the main doors.

/Civil? To Dumbledore? After everything he's done? I don't do charity cases. If he can do that, he can live with the consequences. Everyone has to do that, why not him? He's just bloody lucky I haven't been telling people what he's really like. I'm sure Harry would be so thrilled to know what really happened./

Draco arrived at the stables that had been freshened up for it's sole occupant. Selena snorted happily when she recognised her visitor and nudged him as he gently rubbed her neck.

"Hey there Sel, *you* love me don't you?" She snorted again and he smiled. "I'm actually feeling pretty good today. I've decided to chuck out the whole 'Oh woe is me' thing. It was even starting to get on *my* nerves. But enough about me, how have you been? Want to go for a ride, it's a lovely cool night."

Selena stretched out her wings and fluttered them briefly, meaning yes. He hoisted himself on to her back and she soared out the door and then straight up. Once she reached a fairly high level she just starting to glide mostly, in a circular pattern, allowing Draco to see the whole of Hogwarts' outside.

He smiled grimly at the Gryffindor Tower, noticing that there was faint light coming from Harry's dorm. /Midnight snacks? Or possibly drawing up battle plans?/ He decided not to go investigate.

Instead, he headed her out over the forest, still technically a part of Hogwarts so Fudge couldn't get him for that. Searching the ground he found the clearing he was looking for and nudged Selena down to land.

"Hello, little brother."

Draco smiled a little and slid off Selena's back. "Good evening Firenze. I have come to pay my respects to Alaric."

The Centaur left the group of his relations and walked over, bowing his head in proper greeting. "He shall be most pleased to see you. The stars speak of trouble to come for you."

Draco sighed. "I'd like to say that I'm surprised, but I just can't be bothered to waste the energy of pretending. The stars never seem to have anything nice to say about me. Why can't they ever tell me that I'm going to win the lottery?"

Firenze patted Selena gently as the blonde spoke. "I thought you already had human money?"

Draco smirked. "I do. I have more money than I could possibly ever spend. It was just an example of something good that could happen instead of the same old 'trouble'."

Firenze quietly led Draco to the entrance of Alaric's cave as Selena was left to meet the other Centaurs. Draco knew she would be fine with them being near her, as they were more her kind than humans.

He could walk through the maze of caves unassisted, but Firenze went with him anyway, to announce his arrival. They eventually reached the entrance to the main cavern and Draco waited patiently.

"Father. Someone has called to pay his respects."

"Very well." Came a softer, slower voice.

Draco walked in and bowed his head politely. "Good evening to you, Alaric. I have come to celebrate this night. Another phase has welcomed you." Draco said as Firenze took his leave.

"Ah, Draco. The stars have whispered to me of you. It seems you are in uncertain times still." The ageing Centaur King held out his hand and Draco took it, allowing himself to be brought closer. Alaric was very old by now and his eyesight did not allow him to think any differently. "We are still praising the good fortune of your recovery."

"Thank you, my King." Draco took the space to the King's left and made himself comfortable on the ground. "And how has this phase found you?"

"Ah, Draco. You are not as ignorant as you sound. You know that I am nearing my own end and that soon I shall leave to reunited with the stars. I have very few phases left, if any."

"Do the stars not tell you how many?" Draco absently picked up a hand- crafted brush and began to stroke the long, grey beard, untangling some small knots.

"I regret to say that I fear to ask them."

Draco smiled slightly. "So even the mighty Warrior King of the Centaurs can fear death? How reassuring."

"I only fear that I have not done as much as I could. That I shall leave this world without fulfilling my purpose."

"Do not fear such things, Alaric. I am sure the stars will be highly pleased with all that you have done for them. There a few others who can claim to have helped as greatly you have. After all, it was you who convinced the Centaurs of the world to stand against Voldemort, when it would have been safer for you to fight with him. Even if that did only last for awhile before your people took to the underground."

"Yes, we felt we could no longer help. But we did not change sides, we only left the battle."

"Do not feel you have to explain yourself to me. It was Human business and you did not have to partake to begin with. It was my fault you even considered it. I should never have asked."

"You needed our help, little one, so we do not blame you for asking. You did not start the trouble, you were only trying to end it."

They sat in silence, Draco brushing the King's beard and the King sifting through his collection of beads. He held one up and offered it to the young boy who took it without a word.

"Tell me Draco, what of you heart?"

Draco studied the bead in his left hand as his right continued to brush. "It is in pain, but it is happy." The boy said quietly. The bead started to glow. "For Harry continues to live, yet he is no longer mine to lay claim to."

"Perhaps all is not as hopeless as you think?"

Draco smiled sadly. "I wish I could believe that, but I have felt it. He touched me and that experience was not something I would like to undergo again. He believes the one he fell in love with was purely a pretence. Though I must admit, I am not truly as I may have portrayed myself."

"So sure of his touch are you?"

"It was very clear how he felt about me." The bead seemed to be sucked into his skin and he watch the small lump move up his arm. It was slightly discomforting but not exactly painful. He was used to this anyway.

"So you think that fighting with him will solve your problems?"

"It will give me something to focus on. After all this time that I have spent, I hardly know what to do if I do not have some goal."

"So you made your goal to hurt him?"

"I have already hurt him. More than I could possibly apologise for. I should have left the second I felt him start to fall but I didn't."

"Why?"

Draco started to feel light headed as the bead, still under his skin, made it's way up his neck. "I was selfish. I wanted him to love me. I ignored all logic and reason when they told me that I would only end up hurting him. I kept saying to myself that it was all Voldemort's fault, but I was lying. I was arrogant, selfish and I ignored everything that told me I was doing wrong. I just wanted him to love me."

"Do you regret it?"

"I regret many things. I regret loving him. I regret him loving me. I regret leaving and not listening to Sev. I regret thinking that we loved each other to fix whatever I did. I regret hurting him. I regret hurting me. I regret many things."

"If you could change it, would you?"

Draco winced. "No. Because I don't know what would happen it I change how it took it's course. I would hurt him again."

"Why?"

"Because I love him."

"You don't always have to hurt the ones that you love."

The blonde sighed. "If he hadn't loved me, I would have given up." Draco finally stopped brushing the beard. "Sometimes that was the only thing that kept me going. Even when the knowledge of my impending death couldn't get me to do what I had to, I just thought of him. I owed it to him. I had to make things right."

"This fighting business will only hurt the both of you."

"It's what he wants. And for once, I'm actually going to do what he wants me to. He wants me to fight back, I will. I have to stop thinking of myself."

"There may still be hope."

Draco gave a cold laugh. "I have definitely given up on that. For this situation at least. Sometimes I just wish Sev hadn't touched me that night. I just wish that I had died there, bleeding on the dungeon floor. Ended this all." He threw the brush angrily and it bounced off of the wall. "I'm not going to sit around feeling sorry for myself. I can survive without him. I might not enjoy it, but I can. He hates me and I'll just live with that."

"Hmm, we shall see."

They returned to silence.

-~~~-

Part 21

Draco was instantly on his guard the next time he walked into his seventh year class. The Gryffindors that were out to get him, looked awfully smug.

"Hello, professor." Harry barely said it civilly, but he gave a smirk anyway. "We thought you could help us with our problems."

Draco raised an eyebrow. "Did you Mister Potter? Very well, let's here it." /Anything you can do I can do better ...... dear god, grow up Draco./

"We thought you could show us how to properly face down fear. So we set up the Boggart to answer only to you."

"How unoriginal."

Harry's eyes flashed. "How so?"

"Mister Potter, in this silly little game of ours you have chosen to do something I have already demonstrated, for a class, no less. All you did was take the original idea and turn it to me. That is what I call unoriginal." /And really boring./ He ignored the look he was receiving. "But I shall go along with it, if you so wish." /Brace yourself./ "I suppose you think I won't do it? Well, far be it from me to disappoint my students."

He waved his hand and the cupboard that was holding the Boggart unlocked and the door swung open. An almost exact copy of Draco stepped out of the cupboard and the original Draco rolled his eyes. The only differences were that the copy wasn't wearing a shirt and the black hair image was making a come back. It also had black patches that moved around on it's skin, like ink stains that were alive.

"I really hate myself sometimes." The real Draco said, clearly annoyed. His students looked from one to the other.

"That's why I'm here." The copy replied cheerfully and walked closer, until they were face to face. "Hello Draco."

His heart was beating fast but he kept his breathing controlled. "Hello Not- Draco. How have you been?" The blonde answered evenly. /I can beat this. It's not too bad. It could have been so much worse./

"Do I scare you?"

"Not particularly."

"I must. After all, it's like I said, that's why I'm here."

"No, you're here because you're what I'm afraid of the most. That doesn't mean that you terrify me, you just won over the lesser fears. And you yourself are not even the thing I most fear. The greatest fear I had was for them to see you." The real Draco gestured to the students who were watching quietly.

"And yet I'm still here. Surely if you had gotten over that fear, I would change to the next selection."

"Give me a moment, these things don't happen all at once. I'll get you down to the next one soon."

"Very few people can completely overcome their fears." The black haired Draco started to circle him as the blonde turned to face the class.

"You don't have to completely overcome it, just control it. And very few people can think rationally when faced with their greatest fears." The real one stated as the other prowled around.

"Can you?"

"I seem to be managing."

"Or maybe this is that spectacular acting that you always do?"

"I only do that when it's necessary."

"And how's that working out for you?"

"I'm alive aren't I?" Draco was calmly working through all of this, knowing he could beat his own fear at this game.

"Only just. And you weren't for a little while, or had you forgotten?"

Draco added sarcasm into the little chat. "Hm, could I have possibly forgotten that I died? After all, it happened so long ago."

"You're not being very nice to yourself."

"I'll get over it."

"You're losing, Draco."

The real Draco smiled slowly. "Oh, no I'm not." He closed his eyes and whispered in his head. /They've already seen it, it doesn't matter now. Most of them won't even realise what it means. I'm not afraid of my own reflection./

"What are you doing?"

He opened his eyes and his smile widened. "You don't control me." He said softly. The image flickered. "You're not even real." The image flickered and changed.

Into Severus. Draco frowned for a second before he realised what it would mean. /No, I thought I beat this one? It's stupid. It's irrational. Most fears are. Shut up, you're not helping./

"Well, well, well. Malfoy." The Severus copy hissed out.

Draco took a step back, shaking his head. "You're not real."

"You keeping telling yourself that, if you like. I don't care."

Draco closed his eyes as his heart went even faster. "You're not real."

"You never could block me, could you? Anything that reminded you of me, was cherished beyond belief. Because you have this nasty habit of being sentimental at times."

"You're NOT real."

"Pathetic little whore." It moved to stand at Draco's left.

Draco's eyes opened. Even though it hurt, it made it seem a little less real. Deep in his mind he knew Severus would never call him that. No matter what. "Fuck you." He spat back.

"Let me show you how much you disgust me." The copy stretched his hand out and Draco was too stubborn to move.

Feelings of disgust and hate started on his left arm where the Boggart had grabbed him and it was slowly weakening Draco's resolve. He closed his eyes and focused. It was almost there, the feelings kept making him lose concentration. /Fuck. I'm going to lose. In front of the Gryffindors too. Well, this day wasn't worth getting up for./

His eyes flew open as he sucked in a large amount of air as an even stronger emotion started on his right arm. The real Severus had turned up and had grabbed his other arm.

"Let's see which one can win, shall we?" The real Severus smirked as he spoke.

Draco smiled back and left his left arm being pulled. He looked back but wasn't concerned anymore, the only thing he could focus on were the feelings his real Severus was showing him.

The image flickered as the Boggart started to whine. It twitched. Draco tilted his head and watched quietly. The Boggart twitched again and then exploded, causing Draco and Severus to take a step back out of pure surprise.

"Well, how interesting." Severus handed something over. "This needs your signature, apparently."

Draco read it quietly and picked up a quill, signing his name with a sigh. The Ministry were asking for his authorisation to check Malfoy Castle for any of Voldemort's possessions. He handed it back when he was done.

"Good day, Draco."

"Bye, Sev." He turned back to his class. "Now, can anyone tell me why the Boggart self-destructed when the real Professor Snape was here?"

Neville raised his hand and then answered slowly when Draco smiled, the sign for him to go on. "Er, because for some reason whenever Professor Snape touches you, you're not afraid of anything?"

Draco's smile widened. "Well done, Neville. Ten points to Gryffindor." The smile disappeared for a look of shock. "I can't believe I just said that." A few students snickered and Draco's expression became even more horrified. "Oh god, I can't believe that it *counts*. I feel so unclean."

----------

Draco couldn't sleep again so he was wandering the halls in search of Peeves. He always enjoyed tormenting the poltergeist. Unfortunately, Peeves had the uncanny ability to sense Draco even when the blonde was invisible and stayed the hell away from him. He'd obviously learnt something from the sword incident in fifth year.

As he found scanning the castle being a lot like cheating therefore not as fun or as challenging, Draco didn't find the spook but he did hear something coming from the Old Astronomy tower. It sounded like music so he headed up, just to be nosy.

The music had stopped but another song started up soon afterwards. Draco arrived and looked around, at first not seeing anything. Then he recognised the tune. He knew it very well.

------------------------------------------------------------------

The world was on fire and no one could save me but you.

It's strange what desire will make foolish people do.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Draco's eyes came to rest on Blaise, trying to teach Justin to dance. He put his hand over his mouth, trying not to laugh and slowly started for the exit.

------------------------------------------------------------------

I never dreamed that I'd meet somebody like you.

And I never dreamed that I'd love somebody like you.

------------------------------------------------------------------

"What the fuck is going on?"

Draco spun around to find Harry, holding that damn cloak, standing at the exit. Blaise and Justin had frozen in place as they stared at him.

------------------------------------------------------------------

No, I don't wanna fall in love. (This world is only gonna break your heart)

No, I don't wanna fall in love. (This world is only gonna break your heart)

------------------------------------------------------------------

Harry pointed his hand at the stereo and it burst into flames.

"Hey! That wasn't ours!"

/No, it was mine. Oh well, I can afford another one. I see that Harry must be taking some extra tutoring from Dumbledore. Odd how the insufferable old coot never mentioned it./ He sneered silently and kept very still.

"I don't care who the fuck owned it." Harry looked furious.

"Why don't you just fuck off, Potter." Blaise moved to stand in front of the Gryffindor. "I don't think anyone here is in need of your presence."

"Don't ever play that fucking song again. If I hear it, I'll hex you to hell."

Blaise rolled his eyes. "Oh, poor old Harry. All upset about his stupid birthday song. Life is so cruel."

"Grow up, dickhead. If you really ........ What did you call it?"

"What?"

"You called it my birthday song. How the fuck did you know that?" Harry looked to Justin who was looking rather blank.

Draco silently cursed and moved to stand behind Blaise. "Idiot." He whispered gently.

Blaise looked to where he stood and Justin looked around warily at the noise but Harry had missed it.

"Justin? Did you tell him about this song?"

Justin frowned. "Er, no. I actually hadn't heard it until tonight."

"But, didn't you send me it for a birthday present?"

"Um, no."

Harry looked lost for a second. "But then ...... who did?"

Justin shrugged.

"Bail me, Blaise." Draco hissed.

"Er, I sent it!" The taller Slytherin stepped forwards. "I sent you those things."

"You did?" Harry asked looking even more confused. "Why?"

"Um, I fancied you."

"You did?" Justin tilted his head.

"Um, yeah. So, I sent all that stuff. I kept meaning to apologise for harassing you, but then we started the battle between Gryffindor and Slytherin, so .... yeah. Sorry. Um, we gotta go, come on Jus."

"Whoa, hold on. Dobby told me that Justin left the second one for me."

Blaise was slipping into character by now and knew how it handle the situation as Draco hovered in the background. "No. What most likely happened was that Dobby told you someone who *looked* like Justin left it. I used Polyjuice."

"But that means you would have had to left it *after* Justin was kidnapped. Dobby told me ..... "

"I paid him to lie!"

Draco snickered softly. Dobby had actually been paid to lie, much to the elf's displeasure, the blonde had tricked him into it. Justin smacked him, indicating he was being too noisy.

"Dobby wouldn't lie to me."

"He would if he thought he was being well paid for a service." Blaise answered smoothly.

Dobby had only been able to hold up his word, because it was Draco. The house-elf had always had a soft spot for the blonde, even more than the one for Harry. Draco placed his hands on Blaise's shoulders and squeezed gently, trying to convey that he was doing fine.

"I don't believe you." Harry crossed his arms. "You were with Voldemort and all them when those things were sent to me. Why would you risk such a thing just because you thought I was cute?"

Blaise 'um'ed and 'er'ed for a few minutes before he just shrugged. "I don't know, but I did send them, you can check the handwriting if you like."

"You're lying." Harry turned and headed for the exit. "I'm going to do everything single thing that I can to find out who sent me those things. Though I think I have a fair idea." Harry smiled slightly.

Draco dug his nails into Blaise's shoulders, making the boy yelp slightly. "Stop him. God knows what he'd do to me." He hissed.

Blaise cleared his throat and spoke loudly. "Words shan't achieve for me as I would have them to. My voice will always die at your caress. Even pen will not convey my thoughts adequately. How can the mute ever hope to express." Blaise gave a tiny, tentative smile. "Um, I could go on if you wish? I know the whole thing."

Draco wasn't surprised at that. He'd made Blaise write it fourteen times until he was happy with the neatness and spelling. /I really plan too much./

Harry had turned and looked at him in disbelief as Blaise had repeated the first few sentences that Draco had written while in a very depressed mood. The Gryffindor opened and closed his mouth a few times, but no sound had come out. He took a deep breath. "Fine." It was a little shaky but pretty good. "I trust you won't be sending anything more?"

"No. I won't."

"And no more fucking flowers!" Harry stormed back downstairs as Draco let out the breath he had been holding.

He made himself visible and looked to the other two. "Thanks Blaise."

"Yeah sure. No problem."

Draco went to leave before Justin called him back.

"Er, what flowers?"

Draco just smiled softly. "Never mind."

-~~~-

Part 22

Draco was sitting between McGonagall and Severus for dinner. The Gryffindor Group were up to something and Hermione, Ginny, Neville and Colin were sitting with Blaise and Justin at the Slytherin table. Things were definitely not going good.

Especially when the words 'Whoring Murderer' appeared in blood on the doors where everyone could see it. Draco took a sip of his drink and then looked to the Gryffindor table, motioning for his friends to sit down, as they had leapt to their feet to defend him.

"Don't you have anything better to attack me with, Mister Potter?" He said in his best bored tone. "The whore thing is getting old, and I've never killed anyone."

Harry stood up. "I don't know what you're talking about, professor? I had nothing to do with this." He smiled sweetly.

"Don't play the innocent act with me, I don't buy it for a second."

"I'm not acting."

"Bullshit."

"Such language is unnecessary." Harry said, condescendingly.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Mister Potter. Did I offend your delicate sensibilities? That wasn't my intention."

"No worries. Something as detestable as you certainly couldn't say anything to offend or upset me." Though his voice had taken a slight edge to it. "I wouldn't give you the satisfaction."

Draco smiled bitterly. "I'll have to remember that, *Honey*." Draco waited for the explosion.

Harry head shot up and he glared. "Fuck you!" It echoed in the now silent hall.

"Children, children, please."

"Shut the fuck up for once, Dumbledore. And don't you *dare* give me that look." Draco rose to his own feet. "What's the matter, Harry? You seem all to happy to help circulate all the rumours about me and Voldemort. Don't want the entire school to know that it used to be you and me?"

"SHUT UP!"

"NO! I see no problem with the students knowing that I've fucked you and that you returned the favour quite happily!"

"YOU LYING SLUT!"

"Oh please! That's the best you can do? Say that I'm lying?"

"SILENCE!" Dumbledore stood up as most of the students sat there, dumbfounded. "This is not the time, nor is it the place."

"Thank you, Dumbledore." Harry sat down.

"Oh, come off it! Stop treating him as if he's some sort of saint."

"Draco ....... "

"Don't Draco me, headmaster. I thought I made it very clear? I don't talk to you, you don't talk to me!"

"Leave him alone!" Harry was on his feet again.

Draco let out a laugh. "Don't you stick up for him! He doesn't deserve it!"

"He's a wonderful man. You should be fucking honoured that he lets you stay here after everything that's happened!"

"I don't owe him anything! And neither do you!"

"That's not true!"

"Fuck that!"

"Draco, I'm warning you." Dumbledore said, looking angry.

"No! Fuck you, old man. You know it's not true."

"If it wasn't for him, I'd still be with the Dursleys'!"

"BULLSHIT! If it wasn't for him, you're parents would still be alive!" /I really shouldn't have said that. I hate it when Harry gives me that look. Like I've kicked him or something./

The hall was very silent as Harry did his goldfish impersonation. Dumbledore had sat back down heavily. Harry started walking forwards, looking murderous. "How dare you!"

"Sit down, Draco." Severus said gently and Draco obeyed without question.

Harry was still advancing though. "Who the fuck do you think you are?"

"Leave it, Harry." Draco said softly.

"I don't fucking think so! I'm going to kill you!"

A fork levitated and headed for him as Harry reached the table. Draco batted it away without touching it and it slammed into the far wall. "Harry, just stop it."

"You arrogant, disgusting, manipulative .... "

"ME? You think I'm manipulative? I'll .... "

"Draco." Severus caught his arm. "Harry. Now is *not* the time as Dumbledore said. Perhaps we should wait for this to continue elsewhere."

"Fuck that." Harry growled out.

"Draco, knock him out. It's the only way."

"Somnus." Draco muttered as he pointed his palm at the boy. Harry's eyes closed obediently and he slumped forward on to the table.

Severus stood. "Shall we?" He picked up Harry and carried him out as Draco and Dumbledore followed.

----------

"Enervate." Draco watched as eyelids moved and green eyes stared back at him.

Harry leapt off the floor of Dumbledore's office. "You bastard! How dare you say that it's Dumbledore's fault?"

"You just don't even stop to breathe do you?" Draco stared at his feet. "I'm sorry, Sev. I didn't mean to mention it."

"That's all right."

"To hell with that! It's Dumbledore you have to apologise to!" Harry spat looking around for something to throw.

Draco sneered. "I'm not going to apologise to him for speaking the truth."

"What the fuck would you know about my parents?"

"More than you, obviously. But then, that's always been the way, hasn't it."

Harry grabbed Fawkes' stand and lobbed it across the room. Draco caught it easily and tossed it back to it's place. Dumbledore was still being very quiet.

"Wake up, Harry. For once, I'm not lying or bending the truth." He lifted his eyes up, trying to convey his sincerity. "Dumbledore is not as white as snow as you love to think."

"Fuck you."

"I have NEVER lied to you about your mother! I have lied, mislead and exaggerated to you about many things, but I have never told anything but the truth when it came to Lily."

Harry stood there, trembling angrily as Draco turned his eyes to the floor. /And Draco fucks it up again. Hurting him even more. I just can't help myself can I?/

"Dumbledore, please tell Malfoy to shut his fucking mouth." Harry said, calmly.

Draco looked to the quiet headmaster. /How's that guilt doing you now? Prick./

Dumbledore finally looked up. "I think that Draco should clarify why he said what he did. But not tonight. Another time, we shall discuss this. Until then, I would ask you all to leave this subject alone."

"Gutless prick." Draco muttered, earning him another scathing look from the young Gryffindor. But he stood and walked out, Severus following him silently.

----------

Draco was refusing to speak to his seventh year class. He had everything they were supposed to do written up on the board and most of them were working quietly. He ignored the fourth enchanted paper aeroplane that came flying on to his desk. Ron and Harry had obviously set them up before class to appear from behind paintings and the bookcases. He rubbed the bead Alaric had gave him, it had taken it's place on the back of his right hand, just under the skin.

It was the mutterings that really got to him. They were loud enough to be understood and soft enough to not be ignored. That irritating level that your mind automatically tunes to from some ancient instinct to hear what people were saying about you.

The things that the two Gryffindors were saying weren't very nice. The other Gryffindors in the 'Battle' were sulking at them because they hadn't previously mentioned the 'Draco and Harry' situation, which was still the main topic of the school.

The fifth paper plane landed just as Ron muttered 'Rent Boy' and Draco stood up. "Is there something the two of you would like to say?"

Ron shook his head slowly. "Um, no. I can't think of anything."

"How normal. Harry?"

Ron was now glaring but Harry's expression was cold. "Sure. Um, you're a sick pervert who should be locked up and kept away from everyone except your own kind."

"Mister Potter, if you spend your time thinking these insults up, perhaps you should only speak when you have something that is at least average. Otherwise, you're just wearing out your vocal chords prematurely."

"Fuck you."

"Very articulate. I'm stunned by your poetic capability."

"Drop dead."

Draco smirked. "You have no idea what I said, do you?"

"At least I don't go around accusing innocent people of murder."

"I never said he killed them, I only said it was his fault. There's an astounding difference."

"Dumbledore is a brilliant man."

"Dumbledore is a manipulative bastard who has ruined many people's lives."

"Prove it!"

Draco's eyes narrowed and he leant his hands on Harry's desk. "Twenty one years ago, Dumbledore started a rumour. It originally went along the lines of a prophecy. One that said the son of James Potter would help defeat Voldemort. It changed a few times but that was it basically. Everyone just knew that Lily and James would be together, it was one of those things. So James being important to Voldemort would make Lily a target too. Voldemort heard this rumour, most likely through Lucius somehow, and checked up on it."

He had the room's entire attention, but Harry's was the only one he was looking for. "This wouldn't have been a problem if the prophecy hadn't turned out to be true. Dumbledore didn't know it was real, but that doesn't excuse him. Voldemort asked them to join him and when they turned him away, he hunted them down and killed them. He was after you most of all. But he didn't get you."

"You're lying." Harry said sadly. His hands were shaking.

"You know I'm not."

"No, you are. Why would he start a rumour like that?"

Draco's face went hard. "He wanted Sev to volunteer to be a spy. He just didn't have the guts to flat out ask him."

"No." Harry shook his head. "Dumbledore would never do something like that."

Draco sneered. "Would you care to place a wager on that?"

Harry glared in return. "I don't care what you tell yourself to justify your actions, but don't start speaking shit about other people. Dumbledore is a better man than any of us will ever be."

Draco put on a grim smile. "It's amazing what guilt can do. He felt so ashamed when he let Riddle slip through his fingers and become Voldemort. So he told himself that he needed a spy, but who? Sev fit the prerequisites, the profile, but how to get him? Oh of course, use his love for Lily against him."

"Shut up." Harry gritted his teeth.

"After all, if they had a spy, things would be so much better. The end would justify the means." Draco straightened up and looked down at the other boy. "But the ends didn't justify the means, not even close. Or," He titled his head as Harry looked up again. "Maybe you'll claim they did? Would you, Harry? Would you defend the man that did all this, just to appease his own guilt? Your parents died because of that rumour."

"The prophecy would have come out anyway."

"Unlikely. In order to confirm it, Voldemort had to capture the Centaurion King, and do ..... well, not nice things. Centaurs usually don't tell humans what the stars whisper to them. Especially not one's like Voldemort."

The door flew open but Draco didn't bother to look, he knew who it would be.

"Professor if I may have a word with you?" Dumbledore asked politely.

"Anything you wish to say to me can be said in front of the seventh years, I'm sure."

"Very well. I believe I asked you to leave this topic for another time?"

Draco smiled. "I believe I asked you to stay the fuck away from me? You never seem to listen to that one."

"How dare you ........ "

"NO! How dare *you*, you meddling old fool?" Draco looked to him angrily. "You barge in here, trying to silence the truth? I thought you were it's number one fan?"

"Things such as these should not be discussed in front of the students."

"Why not? Don't want your sordid, contemptuous past to be public knowledge? It's not as bad as you'd think, I'm doing quite well with facing mine. Face it, you made a mistake, one that cannot be fixed and now you're trying to cover it up. Well, you did cover it up, but I'm sort of ruining that now."

"That's enough."

"I don't think so. After all, that's only half of this little story. Perhaps we should *discuss* what you did after all that?"

"I said that was enough, Draco."

"Your guilt for letting Riddle go started it all but then, after the downfall, you had to contend with the guilt you felt for Lily and James. All of that day, as people celebrated, you sat in your office thinking about what you had done. and then you thought of one more thing. Harry."

"Draco, I'm warning you, that if you ...... "

"Don't waste your breath on me, you don't scare me in the least. You thought of Harry, the tiny baby that had just been orphaned. The one who the prophecy that came true spoke of. He would help bring down Voldemort one day so you needed him to be a good little lap dog."

"ENOUGH!" Dumbledore pointed his hand at Draco as a large blue light burst from it.

Draco raised his own hand and it seemed to be absorbed into his skin. "DON'T BE SO FOOLISH! I'm not immortal, but I can certainly match you. And I will make you scream if it comes to that! You manipulated a sixteen year old boy into risking his life for you every day just because you didn't have the guts to ask! How the fuck can you stand there and tell me you did what needed to be done? You didn't even have the decency to let him choose for himself, and you ended up getting two people killed and a baby orphaned!"

Dumbledore was shaking with rage by this time.

"And so then you dump him off at the Dursleys'. Oh, wasn't that a wonderful idea? You knew what they were like! You knew they'd treat him badly. But you used the pathetic excuse that they were all the family he had left and therefore should be with them. BULLSHIT! You left him there, PRAYING they would be bastards. You wanted him to be so fucking grateful that he could come here and escape them, that he would worship you like you were some sort of god!"

"SILENCE!"

"NO! You left him there, and you never even helped. You didn't do anything when they locked him in a cupboard! You looked the other way when sometimes it went for days without him eating properly! Bloody hell, and people wonder why he's so fucking short!"

Dumbledore just closed his eyes, as if he could block the blonde out.

/Oh, no you fucking well don't./ "You left him there, like you left me there! You knew what my father was like, you knew what he was capable of. You just wanted to make sure that I'd listen to you so I could fulfil my own damn prophecy!"

Draco stopped shouting and let his voice reach it's menacing level. "I don't care that you left me, because that brought me Sev. But I will never forgive you for what you did to him. Or Harry, or Lily. I hope you never can either. Now get the fuck out of my classroom, this conversation is over."

Dumbledore stormed out and the door slammed shut after him.

/Probably off to owl the Ministry. Well I don't fucking care./

Harry's eyes were blank, and Draco, taking this as a bad sign kicked his class out and sat down at his desk when he was finally alone. He rolled his left sleeve up and started tracing the flames on his arm, thinking about what would happen now.

-~~~-

Part 23

"Okay now swish and flick, then in a nice clear voice." Draco was sitting on his desk at four thirty in the morning having yet another cigarette. He was almost at chain smoking point.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" The piece of paper twitched slightly.

"That's pretty good. Now you just need to focus. Most witches and wizards have their magic open to them naturally, so all we have to do is give yours a nudge. It's hard but it can be done. Try again."

"Okay." Draco's wand went swish and flick. "Wingardium Leviosa!" The parchment twitched again, a little more than last time. "So then what?"

"Oh, so then I kicked them all out of the room. Harry seemed really odd, I probably shouldn't have ruined his godlike image of the old man."

"Dumbledore isn't so bad. He's just made mistakes."

Draco sighed. "I know that, but he refuses to accept the responsibility for it. I'm coming to terms with my own for god's sake and if I can do it, so can he. Less swish, more flick. And I'll never forgive him for what he did to Sev. He should have known that was wrong from the start."

"Wingardium Leviosa!" One corner of the piece of paper actually rose slightly before falling back down.

"Excellent! So yeah, now Dumbledore's probably gonna get the Ministry to take me away or something. He's really pissed off at me."

"He'll get over it. Wingardium LEVIOSA!"

"No, Argus, no, don't force it. I know it's frustrating but you're only suppose to be activating it. If it turns on and you do that you'll probably send the desk through the roof. Just try and let it open up on it's own terms."

"Right, sorry. Wingardium Leviosa."

"Here, let me try again." Draco lifted his hands and Filch walked over letting the blonde grab his head. "So, Harry hates me, Dumbledore hates me, not that I care on that score, Lucius must be ready to kill, and I don't trust the fact that people say he's disappeared completely. He was never the one to be patient, so expect bad things soon."

"Yeah, Severus always said that people had better watch out if Lucius was after them. I .... ow!"

"Sorry. I'm trying to get it to respond. I can see it, it's just dormant, but getting it to do anything is like dragging your fingertips over glass shards. Oh, wait, here's something." Draco had closed his eyes since he'd touched the other man and now tilted his head. "That's different."

"What?"

"One side seems to be higher than the other all of a sudden. I think we're finally getting somewhere." He opened his eyes and let go. "Try it again."

Filch returned to the desk and raised Draco's wand. "Wingardium Leviosa." The paper lifted up to about a foot in the air and hovered for a few seconds before falling back down.

"Cool!" Draco clapped a little. "That was pretty good!"

Filch looked at the wand in shock and then back to the paper. "It ...... it did it. It floated for a little while. I've never been able to do that before."

"Yeah, that was great! You want to rest, or do you want to try it a little more?"

Filch didn't have time to answer as the door slammed open nearly falling off completely and Hagrid rushed in as fast as he could. "Draco! It's Selena, she ain't doing too well! It's real bad!"

The smile left Draco's face instantly and he jumped off the desk. "What? Where is she?"

"She's in her stable!"

Draco could run a lot faster than Hagrid or Filch so he arrived first to find Sev already there and checking her over. "I don't know." The elder wizard said, before Draco had a chance to ask what was going on.

Movement to the side caught his attention and he lit the whole stables to show Ron, Harry and Seamus looking very nervous. They obviously hadn't been able to leave as Sev would have seen them go to the door and for once Harry didn't seem to be holding his cloak. Draco's eyes narrowed in suspicion and premature anger. "What the fuck did you do to her, Potter?"

Harry shifted and bit his lip. "Nothing, I'm sure she'll be fine. We er, we were just .. "

"I don't care! Just tell me what you did!"

"We gave her a Fury Potion." He said lifting his head a little as to show he wasn't scared.

Draco's eyes closed for a brief second before they snapped open again. "I know." And then he ran nearly colliding with Hagrid and Filch who were just arriving.

The outburst must have been meant for Sev because the teacher got to his feet and slowly walked up to the three boys. "And why did you do that?" He whispered, his anger very clear.

Harry stood up straighter. "We knew he always took her for a ride on Saturday mornings, she wouldn't have let her near him. It was only a prank."

"Fascinating. And do you know what goes in a Fury Potion?"

"Of course. We made it." Harry tilted his head. "And we made it well. It took us all night."

"So you are aware that there is Dittany in it?"

They nodded quietly.

"And were you also aware that, for some reason, winged unicorns are severely allergic to Dittany." Sev's voice was more of a purr than a growl, but it still served it's purpose and made their knees shake.

Harry's eyes had widened and he looked to where the unicorn was lying now. Filch and Hagrid were trying to keep her from rolling to her side and possibly breaking one of her wings. He shook his head slowly as he looked back to Sev. "No, um, we didn't know that."

"Then I suggest you make a note of it, Mister Potter. And do hang around to see if she survives, I'm sure Draco would like to talk to you for a second when this is all over. No matter what the outcome." He spat, coldly.

Harry sat down heavily, his friends following, and looked at Selena as she made a noise that was almost like a howl. The door flew open again and Draco fell to the ground, losing his balance from the impact. He crawled to her and pulled the cork out of the large flask he was carrying. "Okay, hold her head!" Hagrid grabbed her head as Filch and Sev kept her body steady.

Draco forced her mouth open and poured the contents down her throat, some coming back up to splash him a little and part of his face and hair was covered with a blue liquid. It was finally all gone and the four of them stayed with her, waiting for the antidote to take effect.

"I couldn't find any Remedy, I had to get a Counter Act." Draco panted out as she tossed her head and knocked him to the ground.

"That should work just as well." Sev said back, trying to stop Selena from rolling.

She seemed to calm down after a few minutes and Draco placed his hands on her back as they glowed. He opened his eyes and gave a relived smile to Sev. "She'll be a little skittish for a few days, but she'll be okay."

The smile stopped instantly as he looked to the three Gryffindors. "And as for you fuckers ...... fifty points off for each of you for being out at night. And a further thirty each for causing serious harm to a defenceless unicorn."

He stood up and slowly started to walk over. "Oh and also? I'm going to kill you." The hay all around them caught fire and they jumped to their feet in panic.

"We didn't know." Ron said taking a step back.

"I don't care." He looked to Harry and growled. "You arrogant little fuck! If you want to hurt me, fine, hurt me. But you stay the fuck away from my friends! You come after me, not them!"

"I'm sorry. I didn't know." Harry said, backing away quickly. "The potion had been used on unicorns before."

"Jesus fucking Christ, you dickhead! What? I suppose you consider a winged horse to be the same as a normal horse too? You could have killed her!"

"I'm sorry!"

Harry didn't even see the punch coming. A sickening crack sounded as Draco's fist slammed into the Gryffindor's jaw. "Get the fuck out of my sight!" The flames went higher.

Harry stumbled and fell to his knees as he went a little dizzy. His neck hurt from how far his head had turned from the impact and his jaw had an odd ache about it.

"OUT!" Draco took a step towards him as Hagrid grabbed his shoulder, holding him back.

"I didn't fucking know!" Harry yelled back, holding his jaw. It must have hurt to talk. "I was just getting you back! You deserved it!"

"WHAT? You're fucking punishing me for ruining your opinion of that bloody old fool?"

"NO!" Harry dragged himself to his feet. "I did it because you never told me before! There were a hundred times you could have told me about all that, and you never fucking did!"

Draco took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to calm himself. "That would be because I didn't fucking know. I only found out when I scanned Riddle's mind to work out how to make Hagrid better. He knew, and then I knew."

"Oh." Harry's lip had started to bleed and Draco felt guilt wash over him. He could tell that Harry was speaking the truth when he said they didn't know. But it was hard for him to not retaliate when someone he cared about was threatened. He reached his hand out and touched Harry's face, healing him quickly and trying to block the sickening feeling of Harry's hate.

It confused him for a second that he couldn't feel Harry's guilt, even though the boy was obviously sorry about it all. /I should be able to. It's not like Harry's hate could drown it out completely?/ He took his hand away and Harry touched it cautiously.

"I'm sorry I struck you." He said coldly. "It was unacceptable. I will understand if you take the matter up with the headmaster."

"You bet he will!"

"Leave it, Ron." Harry said softly. "Just leave it."

"Get out, all of you." Draco said, rubbing his face. "I'm too tired for this shit now." He put the flames out and rolled his head, stretching his neck.

The three hurried out, but Harry stopped just outside the door. "I am sorry, Draco." He said softly.

"I know. Just get out."

Draco looked over because of the tap on his shoulder. Filch was holding his wand out.

"I reckon we should take this up another night. Thanks for the help."

Draco nodded and took his wand, putting it back up his sleeve as Filch and Hagrid left in silence.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm just tired."

"You should get some rest."

"Yeah, I'll just sleep here tonight. She'll want to speak with me when she wakes up."

Selena was now sleeping peacefully on her stomach with her legs tucked around her. Sev nodded as he patted Draco on the shoulder. "Don't worry too much about it. I'm sure he'll see it was justified."

"Christ, Sev. I hit him. Like a true hit."

"Just don't think about it. I'm sure everything will be fine."

"As if he didn't have enough reasons to hate me."

"Draco!"

"Yeah, yeah. Don't think about it. I know the drill."

Sev left and Draco sat down a little way from Selena, wrapping his arms around his legs and resting his head on his knees. /I really shouldn't have hit him. Oh well, too late to change now. I'll just get some sleep and try not to think about it. Just like Sev said./ He gave a yawn. /Sev's always right. I really should learn to listen to him. Maybe one day, I will. Who knows, stranger things have happened./

He fell asleep in that position. He was so tired that he didn't remember to put up the spells he always did when he didn't want anyone sneaking up on him. So he didn't notice when someone crept into the barn and left him a small plate of biscuits and some milk for when he woke up.

He didn't feel the gentle kiss to his forehead or hear the whispered 'I'm sorry' either.

To Be Continued.