Black Truth

Chapter Nine: Awaken

Draco's eyes opened to a sight he didn't ever expect to see again: his room. Even more wondrous was the fact that his father was sitting next to his bed and had apparently been keeping vigil, which the worn look on his face implied. This was something his father had not done since he was six and had come down with some sickness that he himself couldn't remember anything of except his father raging at his mother that he wouldn't have his son die from some stupid muggle illness (Draco's mother had been of the opinion that his father had been over-reacting at the time.).

"How are you feeling?" His father asked quietly as Draco blinked and looked around curiously.

"Strange." Came the answer. And that was the only explanation that Draco could think of. He felt all weird inside.

"Considering the fact that you survived suffocation, I'm not surprised."

Draco blinked. "Then why am I not stupid?"

Draco's father looked at Draco as if what his son had said could not be processed by his brain.

"When you start to suffocate, your brain starts to die, so why am I not stupid?"

Lucius smirked wryly. "Because you're a Veriae."

"Oh." And that explained that. "So why am I not dead, again?"

"Because your intended got cold feet a few minutes before your death and rescued you," Lucius spoke dryly as if this wasn't really what he thought of the matter. "He carried you out of the Forest once your aura had returned into your being and your wings retracted."

Now things weren't computing for Draco. "Wait, Potter saved me?"

"Apparently so, although the why of the matter still eludes me."

"He doesn't love me."

"You're so sure of that?"

"He hates me."

Lucius looked at his son pointedly. He already knew that.

"One night isn't going to change years' worth of feelings."

"Maybe." Came Lucius's response, but the older Malfoy was thinking. Something in what Draco had said had triggered a memory of a conversation he'd had with the Dark Lord a month or so before the "Department of Mysteries" incident. Something about impulses... but he couldn't remember why that was important at this moment in time so he returned to Draco, pushing the memory back into the recesses of his mind to ponder over later.

"You'll have to see him today."

"We have classes together."

"Not for classes, Draco. You'll need to work things out with him today. He's had long enough to mull it over anyway; you might as well talk about your situation."

"What situation? And why has he had time to 'mull it over'?"

Lucius's eyebrow rose. "Draco, exactly how much of that book did you skim over?"

Draco at least had the modesty to look bashful. "Everything after-"

"After you found out about the Aspectus and what it meant." Lucius finished with an air of disappointment. "You figured you would never have a mate and therefore it wouldn't apply to you."

"Yes Father."

"Well, Draco, then you had better ask Granger for that book back because as of three days ago, when you were on the road to suicide, you gained a mate and now you must act accordingly."

"Three days ago?"

"You have been sleeping for three days as your body recovered. Normal humans wouldn't have been able to survive without air for as long as you did, and even in Veriae terms you were much too close to death to survive and get up the next morning to play Quidditch."

His father's sarcastic tone was not lost on him. "Oh."

"So, now you have a mate to deal with. A mate, who a few moments ago, you said does not love nor even like you."

"Oh."

And that summed up Draco's feelings quite nicely.

As Lucius had pointed out, Harry had been given three days of time to mull over his current situation. And reading that book from cover to cover had given him a lot of time to think... and to berate himself. Well, he'd started berating himself after he'd met Draco's father waiting for them at the doors to the castle... or more like waiting for him to carry Draco's sleeping form to the doors of the castle. Draco had exchanged hands and been carried off to wherever it was thought proper by Lucius to take him, and Harry had walked up to the boys dorm lost in thought. He'd never gotten there. Ron had been waiting for him in the Gryffindor Common Room. The conversation had been awkward to say the least.

"You know, you could have told me Harry," Ron said, looking into the cheerfully blazing fire. "I would have supported you. I told you that."

Harry frowned. "Ron, I don't know what to think right now... can we talk about this later?"

Ron had agreed, and they both had gone up to bed, not saying another word. Well, Ron had gone to bed. Harry had stayed up, reading and thinking. At about four in the morning, he'd given up on reading and had just sat on his bed thinking. He'd done it again, and this time he really couldn't say why. At the moment he'd felt he had been doing the right thing yet looking back on the moment, he felt all confused. The feelings between this night and the now, and that night and the then were identical... sort of. Except this time no one had died. Last time... the last time Harry had given in to his impulses like that... Sirius had died.

I can't believe I did that again, he berated himself. He didn't know what to think, he decided at exactly 4:09 in the morning. He really didn't. He'd saved Draco's life, that much he knew, but why? Now that the moment was gone, he could look back and see that he'd acted purely on impulse.

But an impulse of what? His mind asked rebelliously. Harry ignored this question he could not answer and went on with his analyzing.

Without complete knowledge of the information he could have had, he'd taken the plunge. Yes, there were somewhat "better" results this time, there was a bright side to look to. No one had died. No one had even gotten hurt... well, except for the window. But was what he had done truly the right thing? Harry didn't know.

In fact, three days later Harry still didn't know, and still hadn't come to grips with the strange feelings that had prevailed that night. The ones that had told him to save Draco's life at all costs because it was important, necessary... even, maybe, mandatory was the right word to use. Whenever he thought of how he'd felt during that night, he eventually had to come back to those feelings that had driven his impulses, and whenever he thought of those... he hit a roadblock. Because he truly couldn't say he understood how he'd felt. He could go over the exact same arguments now, three days later, in his head, and yet they didn't have the same compelling force. Maybe that was because Draco's life wasn't in danger at this moment in time, maybe he was just being ignorant, but something inside him was downright glad that Draco wasn't dead. The other parts of him that were more logical were... dealing with the situation as best they could.

And for these three days that he'd been thinking, Ron and Hermione had turned, almost, into shadows around him. Ron must have told Hermione of Harry's request to talk about it later, as she wasn't prying for details. In fact, surprisingly, the whole school wasn't prying for details. Well, at least not from him. The entire Slytherin house was in a state of panic over Draco's current health issue. Of course they had been told that he was very sick, enough to be quarantined in his room ("The Slytherins get their own rooms?" Ron had choked out when the announcement had been made), and couldn't see anyone. Of course this went in one ear and out the other of the Slytherin house, but were met by the jurisdiction of one Lucius Malfoy when they tried to sneak in to see Draco anyway.

The Hufflepuffs were curious but not as compelled as the Slytherins to find out about his welfare. The Ravenclaws were nonchalant, nodding and going back to their books.

And the Gryffindors... well, they (all par three) were celebrating on different levels of seriousness. There were several in Harry's year who were talking about actually throwing a party if Draco didn't recover in time for the next Slytherin vs. Gryffindor match because surely Snape couldn't somehow manage to postpone that as well. (Of course, Harry, who knew all the reasons why Draco wasn't well enough to play the morning after that night didn't comment on this.) And then there were those that just shrugged and went on with their lives. Harry had a suspicion that Hermione would have been in this group and Ron would have gladly been part of the latter had they not also been privy to the real reasons behind Draco's sudden lack of mobility and overall activity. And for his own sake, Harry assumed, they had said nothing about that matter and had waited for him to make the first move towards them.

And three days later, they sat facing each other (somewhat in a triangle form) in an empty classroom, waiting for someone to speak the first words.

"Well Harry," Hermione spoke at length. "It seems you should catch us up. The last time we spoke, you weren't going to bond with Draco."

"And it's a little too late for that now isn't it?" Ron asked, surprisingly without malice, although Harry could tell that Ron was putting out a valiant effort to not be emotional.

"Yes. It's a bit late for that," Harry spoke. He still didn't know what Ron and Hermione knew about the situation. He assumed Hermione had done what he had and read the book cover to cover, but she might not have told Ron the full details within.

"So you are going through with it, then?" Hermione asked.

"I don't think I have much of a choice," Harry muttered as Hermione nodded knowingly.

"I don't get it," Ron spoke. "Why doesn't Harry have a choice?"

"Well Ron," Hermione spoke. "Harry, by stopping Draco's Veriae side from killing him in an effort to appease his soul mate-"

"Wait a minute. What?"

"That's why the Veriae will commit suicide," Harry muttered, staring at the floor. "In a twisted way, it thinks that killing itself will make the mate happy if the mate hates it so much that he/she won't bond with him/her."

"Weird," Ron muttered.

"Yes, anyway, now that Harry has... well... shall we say, committed himself to the Veriae side of Draco Malfoy, he'll now have to complete the bond."

"Or...?"

"Draco will do it for him," Hermione finished and Harry winced.

"WHAT?"

"Remember how Veela treat their mates, Ron?" Hermione asked a stuttering Ron. "Well, Veriae are not Veela in any genetic way, but their need to complete the bond now that the soul mate, in this instance Harry, has committed himself will start to look very similar if Harry doesn't complete the bond himself."

"So Harry's going to... mate... with Malfoy?" Ron couldn't keep the slight disgust out of his voice and for the second time Harry found himself wincing.

"Not like that, Ron." He spoke and Ron heaved a sigh of relief.

"That's right. Harry's only got to kiss him."

"Potter's got to kiss me?" Draco half shouted as the elder Malfoy finished explaining how his son would complete the bond with Harry Potter.

"Draco!" Lucius's own voice rose in volume, reminding the younger Malfoy that shouting at the top of one's lungs like that was an undignified act unbefitting of a Malfoy.

Ron blinked and then frowned. "What kind of kiss are we talking about Hermione?"

Harry also frowned. He hadn't thought of that.

"The book doesn't say, but I'm guessing it's just a regular kiss."

"There's no tongue, right?" Draco asked worriedly. Lucius's eyes looked to the ceiling in a "why me" gesture of annoyance before he shook his head in a definite no. Draco heaved a sigh of relief.

"May I continue explaining then?" Lucius asked pointedly and Draco fought down the urge to yelp.

"There's more?"

"Of course, what did you think? One kiss and you never see each other again?"

"I'd rather hoped that..."

"Don't be an idiot, Draco."

"I'm sorry Father."

"And then what? That's it?"

"No," Harry spoke, his voice void of emotion. This was the part where those funny and unexplainable feelings of his started acting up.

"Well, Ron, they're bonded."

"And that means what exactly?"

"Well, they'll have to share the same bedroom."

"WHAT?"

"WHAT?"

Lucius rolled his eyes in his first unMalfoyish gesture in exactly fifteen minutes. "Do I really need to repeat myself, Draco?"

"No Father."

"Good."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Again, not like that, Ron. Draco's Veriae side... well you could almost think of it as a feminine side really, it needs the protection of its soul-mate when Draco is vulnerable. Now, when Draco's awake and aware of his surroundings, I doubt he's 'vulnerable' but when he's asleep... well everyone's vulnerable when they're sleeping. So his Veriae side will need Harry in close proximity. Maybe not in the same bed but in the same room."

"Oh." Ron looked relieved. "But what if Harry doesn't want to or something?"

Thanks for acting as if I'm not here, Harry thought before answering out loud. "If the bond between myself and... Malfoy (Harry was unsure if he should start trying to call Malfoy "Draco" now, but decided against it.) starts to disintegrate, as in if we aren't around each other when the Veriae side needs us to be around each other-"

"It takes its toll on the body," Hermione finished. "So basically, if Harry doubles over in pain we'll know to get him to Malfoy."

Ron nodded slowly, his face a few shades lighter than it was previously.

"And this includes having other bed partners."

"Wait a minute! So if I want to have sex I have to do so with Potter and only Potter?" Draco glared at the nearest offending inanimate object, which happened to be one of his bedposts as his father nodded the affirmative. "Well that's a pain."

Lucius internally groaned. And here he thought he was done talking to Draco about these types of matters.

"Harry, I am so glad I'm not you right now," Ron muttered and Harry personally agreed with him. Harry would be glad not to be Harry at this moment in time. And yet, there were those feelings again... those weird impulses that didn't really seem to mind some of these prospects that the logical part of him should have been condemning. Strange.

After a few minutes of silence between father and son, Lucius spoke. "You had better get up. The sooner you get this situation fixed between the two of you, the sooner you will be able to relax."

"Relax?" Draco all but yelped. How in the name of all things magical was he supposed to relax? He was going to be completely bonded to Potter of all people before the day was out. And while his Veriae side didn't mind it in the least, the last part of Draco Malfoy as the world saw him had major issues with it.

"I believe you heard me correctly. Remember, if you handle this correctly, you can force your own contact with Potter to a minimum..." The elder Malfoy stood and walked towards the door to the room. "...if you choose to." And he left as Draco started and glared at the door which closed behind his father silently.

Presumably, his father was going to find someone to find Potter or maybe even find Potter himself... but what was his father talking about with those last words? Draco shook himself slightly and started the process of getting out of his warm bed and moving towards the shower. There was no way he was going to see anyone if he hadn't showered in three days.