Disclaimer: Oh yes, of course they're mine. Just as the sun is made of ice and money grows on trees. Miss Rowling? If you wish to sue please find someone else, I can't even afford a lawyer let alone a settlement.

Warnings: Another sort of cliffhanger. Won't be long now :)



Golden Daffodils



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



Part 25

Draco opened his eyes, only to stare straight at the ceiling of the hospital wing. He looked to his left to find Harry, sitting on a chair next to his bed and staring at the new mark on Draco's arm. The Gryffindor looked confused as he looked at it from one way, and then the other.

/Well, this is going to be fun./ "I missed the flames."

Harry had jumped slightly, eyes flicking to Draco's face before looking away guilty. "I was just trying to work out what was *in* the flames."

Draco lifted his arm up so he could point them out. "That's a lily. And these two with their stems wrapped around it are daffodils."

Harry nodded in acceptance. "Yeah, they looked familiar."

Draco feigned ignorance. "Huh?"

"Never mind. It's um, very nice. I like the colours."

Draco looked at the silver flames. He watched the flowers dance and twine for a few moments before commenting. "Yeah, I've changed it a little since I first put it on. Not much though, just aligned everything right and such."

Harry obviously decided it was time to stop beating about the bush. "What did you do?"

/Ah, and here comes Question Time. Great./ "It was a blood link." He looked to his own right hand, it was perfectly back to normal, his finger growing back while he was out of it. "I cut off one of Lucius' fingers."

"Why?"

Draco snarled softly. "He killed Sev's mother."

"Oh."

They stayed there in silence for a short time before Harry made the choice to go on. "Is he dead?"

Draco shook his head. "Sadly, no, I think he could survive that. Unless he somehow bled out after the link was dissolved."

Harry looked surprised for a moment. "You let him live?"

Draco smiled thinly. "Unfortunately, to kill him using that, would mean I would have had to kill myself. That's why I just did something small."

"Professor Snape is really mad at you."

"Figures."

"No, Draco, seriously, he's furious. He nearly gave Neville a heart attack when he rounded on him in class this morning. And he keeps muttering about you under his breath. Something about you're a foolish boy who should be locked in his room, keep you out of trouble."

Draco laughed softly and finally sat up in his bed. "Don't worry, he'll be okay in a few days, I've angered him before. I've done it worse before." He turned to sit cross-legged and face Harry who leant back in his chair.

"I passed out too, you know."

"That was a possibility."

"Why?"

"Because you, you irritating brat, won't let me disconnect us." Draco tapped his head. "When I fell it was because my heart stopped from the back surge, in turn that passed to you because I was technically dead and that put a strain on the connection. It's all part of the spell. The back surge hits you, stops your heart then restarts it a few seconds later and you slip into a coma. It's all done so your body can have a chance to recover."

"You scared the hell out of everyone."

Draco narrowed his eyes. "I just wanted to remind Lucius that he shouldn't play with fire. He, unlike me, can't just grow his finger back, and he'll be hard pressed to find a medi-wizard that will help him."

"Speaking of fire, the Quidditch pitch is almost back to normal."

Draco smiled, embarrassed. "Ah, yes, sorry about that. It was either that or the seventh years fry." He stopped smiling and looked up. "Okay, so?"

"So what?"

Draco gave a tired sigh and started picking at the sheet. "So why are you really here?"

"Oh, um, yeah. I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to do it last night, but well, everything got a little out of hand."

"Yes?"

Harry blushed and looked to the floor. "Look, okay, I was silly. The whole war thing was stupid. Um, I really am sorry about Selena."

"I know."

"Yeah, and well, I want to call a truce. We both have done things in our past that we're not happy about, so let's just leave it at that."

Draco nodded. "Very well." He held out his hand. "A truce it is."

Harry shook his head frantically. "Um, no, let's not shake on it." He brought both his hands to his lap and left them there.

"Ah yes, quite right, the sickening feeling of hate." Draco nodded again, if only to give himself something to do and forget about how it had felt.

"Is it really that bad?"

"It's not pleasant in the least. It's quite awful really, it can almost make your stomach churn."

"I'm sorry."

Draco smiled, shaking his head. "No, it's not your fault. I have done plenty in my life to warrant you to truly hate me. You never did let me apologise and explain that. You cut me off and stormed away."

"Yeah, sorry. I just wanted to beat you to it."

Draco frowned with confusion but let it pass. "You should probably get to lunch, Harry, we both have classes soon."

Harry nodded and stood to leave, but something made him stop and look uncertain.

"Something else?"

Harry nodded. "If I ask you something, you'll tell the truth won't you?"

"I'm tired of lying to you or anyone." /Brace yourself. This could be bad./

"Have you ever slept with Justin?"

Whatever Draco had been expecting, this wasn't it. "Um, if you mean in the sexual way, then no. Why? Have you?" He was only teasing and was glad that Harry caught on.

"You already know the answer to that. I'm sure he would have mentioned it one way or the other." The small smile disappeared. "Did you ever sleep with Blaise?"

"No. Why does it matter?"

"No, I guess it doesn't. Just something I heard them say made me wonder."

Draco titled his head. "When?"

Harry was starting to look lost in thought. "Oh, it was while you were unconscious, after the whole death thing." He shook his head and seemed to come back to himself. "Neither of them?"

Draco looked at Harry warily. "No. I never had sex with either of them. Though they did offer once or twice."

"Oh."

Draco looked at Harry carefully as the boy seemed to be upset with something. /Why would it bother him if I didn't sleep with them?/ "Harry?"

"Huh? Oh, um, never ...... never mind. I should go, I have classes."

Draco watched, baffled, as Harry nearly walked into the next bed. The Gryffindor practically ran out of the room and he shook his head in confusion. /Lunatics. All of them./

----------

He endured Dumbledore's well meaning lecture on how to be careful with the Ministry breathing down his back. He patiently listened to Sev yell at him for over an hour. He wandered into his room and wrote a letter to William, deciding that it was time to stop letting people push him around.

Then he stared around, wondering what to do next, as the owl flew off to Germany. He decided to go so Alaric and talked to him about what he had seen in the sky last night. He had a feeling that while Nanna's death had been sad, it wasn't quite what the stars had meant.

Alaric greeted him warmly, but when he asked about the stars the old Centaur just looked at him sadly. That did not put Draco's mind at ease and for the next three days he was on his guard the whole time. The protection around Sev was tightened after he threatened to set Dumbledore's beard on fire, but it still didn't make him any more calm.

Justin and Blaise didn't quite grasp the whole thing about protecting Sev, but Draco did try to explain it to them.

"But you also love Harry. I don't see you threatening to rip Dumbledore's arms off if Lucius gets him?"

"Well, of course not. It's not necessary to protect him."

"Why the hell not?" Justin threw a pillow at Draco to emphasise his point.

"Because Lucius in all his pathetic wisdom, doesn't know that I love the git."

"Of course, he does." Blaise sat up and shot Draco a confused look. "Why wouldn't he?"

"Because I never told him about it. I never told any of them about how I felt. Most of them knew I had been sleeping with him, but Lucius sure as hell didn't know I loved him. They just thought I was following my orders."

"Orders?"

"Voldemort wanted his semen to create some master army. But I gave him mine instead, just in case. That was one of the main reasons I went after Harry anyway."

"What was the other?"

Draco looked to Justin and smiled grimly. "Because I wanted him. I loved him. I didn't want to die without knowing his touch." He stared down at the ground. "I didn't want Voldemort to be my first. With anything."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning I scanned his mind for what he liked to do and then convinced Harry to do it to me. That way, no matter what, I could always have the thought that I'd done whatever it was with Harry first. A lot easier to stomach than having to remember Tom."

"I think I can understand that." Justin nodded thoughtfully. "It would be awful to have to think of anything like that. I don't know how you cope with what you already deal with." He shuddered.

Draco smiled weakly. "No offence or anything, but I wish the hat had put me in Hufflepuff. Lucius would have disowned me and none of this would have been a problem."

Justin stuck his tongue out and sulked quietly. "You wouldn't have made the cut, *traitor*." This time he had to duck a pillow which had been the retaliation for his teasing.

"You're more wrong than you think." Draco smirked as they frowned. "Didn't I ever tell you about the trial run?"

They both shook their heads. "Not the whole story, no."

"Well, as you know, I had a trial run with the Sorting Hat, just to see if it would put me in Slytherin. That's what we wanted, keep Lucius happy and everything that his son was turning out to be the perfect little follower and all that stuff."

"Okay." Justin shifted slightly to get more comfortable.

"Bloody thing had the gall to suggest we create an entirely new house, just for me." Draco put out his cigarette roughly. "I told it to just sodding well put me in Slytherin and get over it."

"And did it?"

Draco scowled. "I argued with that fucking hat for three hours, before Dumbledore gave up and said he'd hex it to put me in Slytherin. That's why it barely touched me before it placed me."

"Why couldn't it decide?"

Draco rolled his eyes. "Apparently I was something of an anomaly, no big shock there. I always have been and things don't seem to be changing much in that respect."

"Huh?"

"It said I had undying loyalty, providing it was the right person. Immovable courage, providing it was the right cause. Wisdom of the way the world worked, I got that from my childhood, and well, I only just have to touch a book to know it completely, so that took care of Ravenclaw. And it said my ambition to get Lucius locked up and out of my life was unsurpassed. In other words, it had no bloody clue to what to do with me. All of the traits it judges us by are in everyone, most people having more strength in one or another, but I really stumped it. Even though I just kept saying 'Put me in Slytherin', it kept replying 'But I'm not sure if that's best.' which made me rather angry. It got a little singed."

"Yes, that certainly does sound like you."

"Shut up, Jus."

"But back to the original topic." Blaise interrupted before an all out pillow fight began. "Why aren't you having Harry protected. Lucius knows you love him."

This time, Draco didn't miss the sound of guilt in the other boy's voice. "And how would he?"

Blaise blushed. "I thought we had won."

Draco titled his head as he remembered something Dumbledore had said to him when he had first opened up in the hospital wing.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Ah, er, I'm very sorry, Draco. He managed to escape during the fighting. Blaise was one of the last to see him."

~~~~~~~~~~

"Blaise? What did you do?"

The boy squirmed. "I swear, I didn't know he was going to get out. I just wanted to rub it in that his son had betrayed him and everything."

"Did you tell Lucius I loved Harry?"

The boy nodded silently, blushing.

Draco tensed up slightly and then forced a smile. "I guess that's all right. I'm sure that Dumbledore would have taken that into consideration."

"I didn't tell Dumbledore what I said." Was the whisper that came out.

Draco was finding it harder and harder to keep the smile on his face. "Who did you tell?"

"No one, I didn't think it would matter."

Draco stood up off his bed slowly and decided on the best course of action. "I think I'm going to go warn Harry personally."

As he was walking up to the Tower he made one small mistake by looking out at the stars. /Hmmm, they say something is missing. I wonder what?/ He came to a stop and tried to read them further as Blaise and Justin waited behind him. He finally caught a small message that he nearly overlooked. /I wonder what the hell 'Fly, thy wings, for you shall be called' means? Call the wings? Unless they mean a Swap? Why would anyone do that?/ Draco's eyes widened slightly. /Fuck./

He ran the rest of the way to the entrance to Gryffindor.

To Be Continued.