Disclaimer: (Eh, it's been a while. I figure one's about due.) I definitely no own. Ya still wanna sue? Go ahead. You can take my tuition bill, as it's all I have to my name. *innocent smile*
Chapter 4
Draco wasn't fully convinced that he couldn't get Harry to talk about the situation. He had, after all, gotten somewhere with the cupboard admission. Harry, on the other hand, was determined not to repeat his accidental confession. He became a master manipulator of conversation, steering talk carefully away from the danger subjects before anyone was aware of what he was doing.
Frustration was running rampant on both sides when Draco attempted to approach the topic yet again. "So, does your family even know your name, or do they just call you 'boy' all the time?" he asked, flipping through a book on Harry's bed. He wanted to make the conversation seem as nonchalant as possible.
"Not all the time. Sometimes it's 'freak'," Harry replied lightly. Under Draco's reproachful glare, he instantly became more serious. "I don't know why you're so interested in my home life, anyway. It's been almost 16 years for me already, and this summer is it. After graduation, I'm never going back. Stop trying to make an issue out of it."
Draco's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. "How can you not make an issue out of it? Damn, Harry, they just walk all over you!" A silent question in Harry's eyes asked what, exactly, Draco wanted him to do about it, and this further fed Draco's irritation. "Get angry. Fight back. Do something!"
Even in the face of Draco's almost-anger, Harry remained calm and reasonable. "I've done the anger thing. Especially right after getting to Hogwarts, seeing how families were supposed to be. But I can't live my life being angry all the time. I wouldn't have the friends or the fun I've had if I was. As far as fighting back, I can't even ask questions in that house. I don't even want to think what would happen if I actually dared to stand up for myself."
Draco closed his eyes, attempting to calm his mounting temper not only at Harry's stubborn attitude but at the appalling way the boy had been treated. "So are you at least going to admit they hit you?" he asked, slowly and quietly. Unfortunately, it was a step too far.
Harry jumped from the bed, his eyes flashing to an angry jade. "Fuck, Draco! Would you just stay out of it? All I've been getting from you for the last three days is questions about how I live outside of school! You never cared before this, so just stop. Just because we're in this house for the next few weeks together and seem to have come to some sort of truce does not mean you can fix me, make it all better."
Silver-gray eyes widened with shock at Harry's outburst. "Harry, I never meant-"
"I don't care what you meant!" Harry cut in. "I've made it this far just fine on my own. I don't need your sympathy now. I don't need the whole 'Look at Harry Potter, who lives in a cupboard and starves more often than not and gets hit if he opens his eyes the wrong way'!" Tears were building in Harry's eyes, and he paused long enough to repress them.
Draco, in turn, gasped at the furious confession. "I know I've never cared before, but you have to admit that circumstances didn't exactly allow for us to get to know each other like that. And I know now. You can't tell me to walk away from something like this. I'm not walking away from you. I'm here, and I'll wait here until you can tell me the whole truth."
Silence reigned as Harry tentatively settled back onto the bed, holding tightly onto a pillow for a comfort object. It took some time, but he did start talking. "Do you know how terrifying it is to be told when you're five years old that if you ever tell anyone what goes on at home, you'll be killed? He'll kill you and no one will care because no one likes you and you're a worthless freak anyway. Would you willingly tell anyone anything on conditions like that?"
Draco knew he wasn't supposed to answer, couldn't even if he wanted to. Instead, he rested one of his pale hands on Harry's smaller one. "I used to have a dream. Not of my parents, I knew they were never coming back, but of two people who would come and take me away. Love me, maybe. At least want me. And sometimes I'd just lay in that cupboard, trying to imagine what my parents had been like."
Harry was trembling now, clutching at the pillow in a desperate attempt to stop the shaking. "The first time he hit me, I was maybe four. I hadn't gotten any lunch and was locked in my cupboard for asking about my scar again. I just started crying when I got so hungry. Uncle Vernon opened the door, slapped me, told me to shut-up or I wouldn't get supper either, then locked me in again. I could've sworn right then that I just wanted to die. At least then I'd be away from the Dursleys. Maybe with my parents."
Four years old? He'd wanted to die at four? While Draco was processing this information, Harry had started crying. Silently, because that was the only way he knew how. Then suddenly the pillow was ripped away, and he was in someone's arms. He clenched his fists in the soft shirt, buried his face in a shoulder. He allowed himself, for the first time, to cry for himself.
At the same time, Draco was holding tightly to the boy in his arms. He noted the distressed shaking of a crying person but the distinct absence of sound. His shirt was soaked with tears, but he didn't care. All Draco worried about at that point was letting Harry know that someone cared about him. Someone wanted to hold him and let him cry. That this particular someone wanted to love him.
Far away, two pairs of eyes were staring into a large mirror mounted on a dark stone wall. "It wasn't supposed to happen this way," the first figure sighed, tearing blue-black eyes away from the scene. "Not like this, not so early."
The second figure, identical eyes dancing, laughed at the other. "Oh, you're just upset your prediction was wrong." The first scowled, causing the second more laughter. "Don't be so bitter! Everyone is wrong at least once in life. Granted, this was a rather bad even to be so wrong about, but that just means you won't mess up again for another lifetime. Better to be wrong big once than little lots of time."
The first figure was still scowling but without as much anger fueling it. Both figures turned to watch the action still playing out in the mirror. A few minutes of flinching and wincing went by before neither could take any more. "I've accepted the fact that I can be wrong, but this is still really bad."
"Yes, yes, it's definitely in the not-good range. And it will get worse before it gets better. But it will turn out alright in the end, no matter how bad it gets. We've all Seen that, remember?" The first nodded silently, effectively closing the conversation.
Meanwhile, Harry and Draco had both fallen asleep. Harry's fists were still clenched in Draco's shirt, using the blond as some kind of anchor. Draco's arms were still wrapped around Harry to hold him against any more upsetting thoughts. Neither was aware this was the safest the other had felt in a long time.
Just outside the room, Victoria smiled tenderly at the scene in front of her. Both boys needed this, but Tori was the only one with a view objective enough to see that. "It won't be easy for you two, but you'll be okay in the end," she whispered to the slumbering forms. Then, quietly as possible, she closed the door and walked into her own room.
The two boys stood at the top of a hill. Draco was studying the dark-haired boy next to him. Harry, on the other hand, was staring into the valley below them. "It's going to be over soon. I can't tell from here which side will win, hopefully ours, but at least it'll be over finally."
It wasn't until Harry said this that Draco managed to tear his gaze away to look at the valley. Even from their vantage point, he could see the grass was stained a dark brownish-red Draco associated with blood. Curses were flying in every direction, making it difficult to tell who exactly was on which side. Only three figures were motionless amidst the chaos: Harry, Draco, and Voldemort himself. "That's us?" Draco asked incredulously.
Harry nodded. "I've been here a lot, so I've been able to piece some things together. This is the final battle, the end. I've never actually seen the outcome, but it's always the same battle. Of course, this is the first time I've ever had someone standing here with me. I won't say it's a bad thing."
Draco thought about the whole situation for a few moments before coming to a realization. "Is that why it was so easy for you to accept me this summer? Because you've been seeing this, with me on your side?" Harry's only response was an enigmatic smile.
More minutes passed with both boys watching the fighting. It wasn't until the Draco and Harry in battle began walking across the field that anything was spoken. It was, of course, Harry who broke the silence. "It's almost over. I always wake up just before we face Voldemort." And when their duplicates were no more than 10 feet from the Dark Lord, the scene went dark.