Disclaimer: Anything that you recognise does not belong to me; it belongs to the very talented J.K. Rowling. Lucky her! I am doing this purely to see if I can, I am not making any money off of this what so ever. Unlucky me!
Also, I have read a lot of stories on this site, so if anything is familiar, it is not on purpose… Could you simply take it as an homage?
A/N: Thankyou to my wonderful Beta Dreamerdoll...
That night at dinner Harry sat with his two best friends listening to them as they recounted their day.
"Oh Harry, you should have seen it, it was so romantic! Ron gave me a red rose and then we…"
Harry smiled into his mashed potato as Hermione raved about how wonderful her boyfriend was. It seemed that Ron had pulled out all the stops to make this day special to Hermione, for which Harry was glad. They had obviously had a good time, and his friends deserved all the happiness in the world. Laughing as Ron tried to sink under the table in embarrassment from his girlfriend's effusiveness, Harry was surprised to feel a hand touch his shoulder. Turning he came face to face with a garishly patterned robe, looking up he saw the somber face of Albus Dumbledore.
"Harry could you please come with me? There is something I think you should hear."
Nodding wordlessly, Harry smiled at his friends and got up to follow the Head Master, leaving Ron and Hermione to stare after his retreating back in concern.
Entering the Headmasters office Harry was surprised to see Tonks standing by the desk looking at Fawkes.
"Tonks!" Harry exclaimed, a smile appearing on his face
"Why don't you take a seat, Harry?" Dumbledore broke in before Tonks could speak to Harry.
Frowning in confusion, Harry took a seat in one of the chairs facing the desk, angling it so he could look at Tonks too
"Auror Tonks is here in a professional capacity Harry; she has something to report that I feel you should hear from a reliable source and not the Daily Profit." Dumbledore said, nodding to Tonks to begin speaking.
"Sir, at approximately 3.15 pm, November third, myself and Aurors Moody, Shacklebolt, Gibbs and Princeton were alerted of Death Eater activity in the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Dursley. We apparated to the site and entered Number four Privet Drive through the side entrance. Upon entering we were immediately fired upon with a variety of hexes and curses from the four Death Eaters in the house. Returning fire, Aurors Moody and Gibbs covered myself and Aurors Princeton and Shacklebolt as we moved to the three Dursley's, Vernon, Petunia, and Dudley. Unfortunately we were too late to do anything for the family; they were all murdered by the Avada Kedavra curse before we entered the premises. Aurors Moody and Gibbs managed to subdue three of the four Death Eaters and they have been apprehended to custody at the ministry. Under questioning the three Death Eaters admitted to killing the Dursleys with intent to mutilate them afterwards. It seems that You-Know-Who planned to send Harry Potter a package containing his Aunt's head." Finishing her rather impersonal report Tonks nodded to Professor Dumbledore and glanced at Harry with a sympathetic look on her face before turning and flooing out of the office.
Dumbledore turned to Harry with concern etched on his lined face, "My dear boy, would you like a lemon drop?"
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Harry looked up at the Headmaster, shock plainly painted all over his features "Uh, no, err, no thank you, Sir. May I be excused? Please?"
"Are you going to be alright?
Harry?" Dumbledore asked, leaning forward in his chair.
Harry stood up, "I, uh, I need to see Ron and Hermione."
With that he turned and walked out of the office, not stopping until he reached the Fat lady's portrait. Racking his brain for the password that he just couldn't seem to remember, all he could think of was that the last of his family was dead. He stood there; looking blankly at the portrait for Merlin knew how long, Harry didn't move, his mind was whirling with memories of the Dursleys. Eventually, the Fat Lady grew concerned that one of her Gryffindors seemed to be upset and went to retrieve the Head Girl.
"Harry?" Hermione walked up to her friend, treading softly as if afraid of scaring him. Gently touching the boy's arm she tried again, "Harry, are you okay?"
Harry turned blindly towards her voice and Hermione gasped at the sheer pain in the emerald green eyes.
"Come on Harry, let's go sit down. Okay?"
Taking Harry by the arm Hermione spoke the password, leading the boy through the Gryffindor common room and into her bedroom. Ron who was in the common room at the time followed the two friends when he saw Hermione's worried expression.
"Mate, are you alright?" Ron asked, looking at his girlfriend in confusion. What had happened to their dark haired friend to make him go almost catatonic? What had he heard from Dumbledore?
Sitting in silence, Ron and Hermione watched Harry in alarm. Finally he spoke.
"They're dead," Harry whispered voice full of pain.
"Who's dead mate?" Ron asked cautiously, as if afraid to know the answer.
"The Dursleys. He had them killed."
Ron and Hermione winced. They knew who 'he' was and they knew what was going through their friends mind at this time. He would be blaming himself, and they hastened to tell him otherwise.
"Harry, this was the work of a madman, it wasn't your fault," Hermione informed him, voice soft.
"Yeah, you had nothing to do with this. Vol-Voldemort is just trying to mess with your head," Ron said to him, struggling over the name.
"You couldn't have done anything to change this outcome," the girl tried.
Suddenly Harry seemed to snap into focus "Yeah, you're right. I, um, I need to go for a walk or something, okay?"
"Okay Harry, do you want us to come with you?" Hermione asked, worry still evident on her face.
"No, no I just need to get some air. I'll be back soon."
Harry walked out of Hermione's room and headed towards the entrance hall with the intent of going for a walk outside. But he didn't reach his destination, as halfway to the entrance hall a strong hand grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him into an empty room.
"Hey, what's the matter?" Draco crooned at his mate. Since dinner that night the young Veela's link with his mate had been playing up, he knew that Harry was going through a severe emotional upheaval. "Come on, its okay, you can tell me," Draco whispered reassuringly, drawing the shocked Gryffindor into his arms.
Though Draco was only a few centimeters taller than him, Harry managed to burrow his way into his boyfriend's arms and Draco rested his chin on Harry's head. When Harry started to shake with tears, Draco tightened his hold and whispered reassuring words into his ear until the teen calmed down, all cried out.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Draco asked quietly?
"Dumbledore took me into his office tonight; he said I should hear something. It was an Auror telling me that my Aunt, Uncle and cousin had been murdered by Death Eaters."
"Oh no, Harry. I am sorry," Draco whispered, his heart breaking for his boyfriend. "They are in a better place now."
"Yeah, I know," Harry said.
"Were you close with them?"
"Not really. They hated me. Did you know that?" Draco shook his head in denial. "Yeah, every summer I was treated like a slave or ignored me, and I hated it. I used to beg Dumbledore to let me stay at Hogwarts or at Ron's house, his family wouldn't have minded. But every year I was forced to go back there."
Harry gave a broken grin.
"Do you know what I used to do at the sweet shop when I was bored? Don't get me wrong, I loved working for Mark, but he gave me some of the dullest jobs in the world. One time, he got a carton of mixed jellybeans and he wanted them separated by color. So I had to stand there for an entire day putting the different colored jellybeans in separate jars, one for pink, one for red, one for green etcetera. Anyway, my mind wandered and I got to thinking about what I would be doing after Hogwarts. I thought about how I would go to the Aurors program. And then I thought about the Dursleys, about what I would say to them about how I would get my revenge for all the summers they treated me like dirt. I thought about how I could hex Uncle Vernon with permanent bad breath, or hex Aunt Petunia so that every time she gossiped about one of the neighbors she would get a pimple. I used to laugh at how her face would be covered in an hour. And now I can't do that. I can't get my petty revenge or my 'closure' as the muggles like to say. But the really sad thing is that they hated me because I was magical, they thought it would hurt them, and in the end they were right." And with that Harry broke down again.
"Shh, shh, shh," Draco whispered reassuringly as he rubbed his boyfriend's back, his mind reeling with what he had just heard.
Draco had always known that Harry couldn't have had the best home life; he had always come back to school looking a little skinnier and more tired than he had at the end of the last school year, but he didn't know that his relatives had hated him! He just thought that Harry's relatives were slightly less well off than his own. He could feel his anger rising inside of him on behalf of his mate. How dare he be treated like that? Draco resolved to never let Harry want for anything, after everything he had been through, Harry deserved all that Draco could give.
"Oh God Draco, I am all alone." Harry whimpered "I don't even have relatives that hate me anymore."
"Harry, you're not alone. You have friends who love you; Weasley and Granger would do anything for you, and you know that. And you have me. You know I will always be there for you, don't you? That I am yours forever?" Draco put a finger under Harry's chin, tilting his face up to look into water clogged green eyes.
"Really Draco? You won't leave me?" Hope shone through Harry's eyes, lancing its way straight to Draco's heart.
"Don't worry you silly boy, I'm yours, you couldn't get rid of me if you tried."