Disclaimer: See chapter 01.
THANK YOU SO MUCH to: Jamie, Lildove and Jade, my beta readers; and to all of you kind enough to leave me a review!!
Chap. 31 – EXTRA, EXTRA!
Draco was in shock. Life couldn't be worse. Harry had kissed him publicly and he had no idea why. All he knew was that the kiss had felt like a dream, until Colin Creevey had appeared out of nowhere with his damned camera. Draco hadn't waited around to confiscate it. If he had stayed, he would probably have killed Colin. Instead, he had let Harry handle things – supposing that Harry would handle the situation properly – after all, Colin Creevey was not only a fan, but also a friend of his. With dark thoughts on his mind, Draco had vanished before anyone – Harry mostly – could notice his absence.
He hid at his flat and refused to answer the phone, the door or the fireplace. All magical channels closed, he grabbed a huge bar of chocolate from Honeydukes and ate it all furiously. Then, as a result of this compulsive action, he spent daybreak throwing up and cursing the world.
The next morning Draco found himself with Harry on the front cover of The Daily Prophet and read the following flashy headline:
"SCANDAL OF THE YEAR: HARRYPOTTERFALLS FOR THE DARK SIDE?"
Draco clutched the newspaper in his hands and took a deep breath before continuing to read the rest of the stupid article. Clearly, Harry hadn't handled the situation very well at all after Draco had left Diagon Alley. However, Draco was surprised to see that the article occupied at least five pages of the journal and it was written not by Colin Creevey but by a wizard named Charles Hagen. If only Colin had written the article instead of just providing the compromising pictures. Colin liked Harry – in his own weird way – while Hagen seemed to dislike Harry and Draco a lot, and the article was very unfavourable to both.
Hagen seemed to have done a fully extensive investigation about the Malfoys, from the beginning of their illegal business in India and Africa to their financial empire throughout the rest of the world. He implied that their business hadn't ended with Lucius' imprisonment and that Draco was now in charge of everything. More importantly, Hagen outright declared that Draco's job at the Ministry was just a very clever cover up.
'...by becoming an Auror, the Malfoy heir guarantees that the law will always be his side. An Auror who wishes to remain unknown said that Mr Malfoy rarely does any work and when he does he spends his hours complaining about it. This reporter wonders why Mr Malfoy would take a job he hates in the first place, and the answer is pretty simple. Mr Malfoy's job as an Auror is just a disguise so he can appear presentable and honest after his father's shameful imprisonment. It is also a way to guarantee that the Malfoys keep full control of the Ministry's affairs, a power they have held for decades.
Draco could almost hear the steam coming out of his ears. He told himself to stay calm but as he kept reading, he found it very hard not to lose control and hex the first thing in his line of sight.
'...It is quite a shock to our community that Harry Potter, hero of many, is now involved with someone as dangerous as Draco Malfoy. Could it be that Mr Potter is enchanted by some dark spell? Or perhaps he is just showing his true colours.
"Harry Potter always had a dark side," said a colleague of his from school that also wishes to remain unknown for matters of security. "He spent his last two years in school isolated and gloomy. He looked at everyone with such contempt. It was scary."
"Well, of course!" exclaimed Draco. "He had just lost his godfather, for Merlin's sake! I would like to know how you would feel if the only family you know had just died!"
"Some used to think that he would join You-Know-Who. I never really believed that. But now… I can't believe he's seeing Malfoy. Malfoy was the bully at school. Harry was supposed to be the good guy. I thought they hated each other. If he's seeing such a hateful person, one can only assume that he's just like Draco Malfoy. Maybe he fell for the dark side?" hinted his unknown friend.
"Quite a fucking friend," Draco muttered under his breath before continuing with his reading.
'Hated each other? This reporter was able to put his hands on some very hot material about what their hate was really all about.'
Draco gasped as he looked at the hot material Hagen had collected. One of them showed Harry on top of Draco and their faces were very close as if Harry was about to kiss him. Since it was a muggle photo, whoever saw it would think that they were flirting with each other. In actuality, Harry had been trying to strangle Draco after a particularly heated Quidditch match.
Another one showed Draco fondling Harry's hand in St Mungo's and then leaning in to kiss him. Draco couldn't believe his eyes. Only a few close friends knew about his visit to Harry that day. Clearly, someone else had known about it too and even had a picture to prove it. Draco threw the newspaper on the floor and moaned in desperation. Where did that picture come from? He hid his face in his hands and then threaded his fingers through his silky hair, holding in the urge to pull it out a rage.
He didn't mind about the photo on the cover or even the silly one that could be interpreted the wrong way. He was worried about the Hospital photo. That picture should have never been printed, because the moment Lucius Malfoy saw it, he would know that Draco was responsible for pulling Harry out of his catatonic state. Lucius would be furious and so would every Death Eater alive. And so the hunting for Draco's head would begin.
Rumours were rife among the Death Eaters that Voldemort had managed to cast a curse on Harry just before dying, a curse that would make Harry live in an endless nightmare. When Harry went into a catatonic state, the Death Eaters presumed that Voldemort had succeeded. The remaining Death Eaters had been thrilled about the news. The Healers hadn't known what was wrong with Harry, and even had discussed the possibility to transfer Harry to a muggle Hospital. A month had passed and Harry had not reacted to anything.
That was when Draco had taken the matter into his own hands. Draco couldn't exactly tell anyone what he knew. If he had, his life and Harry's would have been in danger. So he had decided to go to the two people he thought would be able to help him: Dumbledore and Severus. They had done everything in secret. Severus had taken two months to boil a potion that only had a fifty percent chance of working.
And then another problem had presented itself. How could they make Harry drink the potion? After long discussions, Dumbledore had suggested that Draco give it to Harry through a kiss. 'Just like a bloody fairytale,' Severus had sneered. Draco made a face at the irony of it all. But he had done it and Harry had woken up a few hours after Draco had left the building. Nobody besides him, Dumbledore and Severus had known about the potion, not even Hermione. But Draco knew for sure that one look at that picture would be enough for Lucius to go ballistic and send someone after Draco. His father knew about his infatuation with Harry. He also knew that Draco had known about the curse and, most importantly, Lucius didn't believe in coincidences. So it wouldn't take long before Lucius would blame Draco for Harry's miraculous recovery.
"Fuck!" Draco exclaimed.
Draco fidgeted with the possible results of that article. There were so many things to worry about. He was afraid of Harry's reaction, even though it was Harry's fault in the first place for kissing him out of the blue and out in the open.
Harry would wonder about a lot of things. He would most certainly wonder about that kiss in the hospital. And there was the fact that now – thanks to a bunch of strangers and Bill – Harry knew that Draco was in love with him.
Draco made a face and then sighed in defeat. He had pictured that moment of truth many times. But not in his wildest dreams had he thought it would happen in such a cheap way. That was exclusively his fault. He should have left the coffee shop long before Harry had entered with the blond bimbo. He was very aware of that. In his current bad mood, he even forgot about his wounded ego when he had found out that Bill had been lying to him all this time. He wasn't worried about his relationship with Bill anymore. He was worried about Harry.
At least the newspaper hadn't discovered the real truth behind the facts. They didn't know Draco had something to do with Harry's recovery. And most importantly, they didn't know about what had really happened to Draco after Hogwarts.
But he knew he would have to face Harry and tell him about the potion. Most of all, he knew he would have to face his past sooner or later. But just for a little while, he would stay hidden. He had been brave enough for too long. He was entitled to a moment of cowardice before facing what was to come.
------------------------
"He kissed me when I was in St. Mungo's?" Harry yelled, flabbergasted.
On the other side of the phone line, Hermione held the receiver away from her ear for a moment and then, after making sure that Harry was no longer breathing like a furious bull, she tried to sound merry as she said, "Well, at least now you know he loves you, right?"
"Hermione," Harry hissed threateningly. "This is... this whole article is... And what's with all those pictures? That was just a stupid Quidditch match! I wasn't trying to kiss Malfoy! I was trying to strangle him! And this one here... St Mungo's? You told me Malfoy came to visit me, not kiss me!"
"Well, I had no idea he had kissed you that day."
"You're a horrible friend! How could you leave me alone with Malfoy when I was in such a vulnerable state?"
"Honestly, Harry, it's too late to blame this on me. You already slept with him so you know he means you no harm. He loves you. I thought the kiss was rather romantic. And to think that you woke up to life again that same day…" Hermione sighed dreamily and Harry rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"That's not the point!"
"Really? Then what is the point? You brought this on yourself anyway. You were the one who kissed him in Diagon Alley! It's all in the news for the whole wizarding world to see," she pointed out happily.
"It was a moment of madness!" Harry still didn't know what had made him kiss Malfoy. He blamed the blond for looking so adorable at the time. It was hard to resist a vulnerable Draco Malfoy.
"What does it matter? You kissed him and that's it. Stop living in denial, Harry! He likes you; you like him. Everything is perfect, so what the hell are you waiting for? You were the one who chased after him in Diagon Alley, remember? You borrowed Fred's car just to impress him!"
"I wasn't trying to impress him!" Harry denied, blushing furiously.
"Whatever, Harry. Just go after him and stop bugging me! You guys need to sort things out. Sometimes you need to lend a hand to your destiny, Harry. I can't do it for you all the time. Honestly… Do you think Draco will wait for you forever? I'm surprised he' waited this long…"
Harry was quiet for a moment, pondering the things Hermione had just said. She was right about a lot of things, but it was really hard for him to put his heart on the line. Although, come to think of it, he had already done that since he had kissed Draco in front of all of Diagon Alley. But he was feeling so lost. He knew what he had to do, but he was afraid.
"Harry?" Hermione called out to him gently. "Are you still there?"
Harry blinked. "He loves me."
"Yes."
"He loves me?"
"Yes!" Hermione laughed at his friend's shocked tone of voice.
"Why?" Harry asked completely stunned.
"Who knows? I mean, who wouldn't fall for a guy like you? You're handsome, rich, smart – well, not so smart when it comes to love but… You're quite a presentable bloke, Harry." Harry made a face at the word 'presentable' but said nothing. "Why is it so impossible for him to love you?"
"It's Malfoy we're talking about."
"So? The signs were there all along, Harry. He hated you a little too much, don't you think? We were just too blind to notice, not to mention too young. Besides, Draco was a real brat back then. But everything he did was just to get your attention. Well, I suppose he did a few things just to be mean… He's a Malfoy after all. But most of the time he just wanted to get to you, Harry."
Hermione made everything sound so simple and yet things were very complicated from Harry's point of view.
"I…" Harry licked his lips and then gulped. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do."
He could picture her exasperated expression as she almost shouted, "It's quite obvious what you have to do. GO TALK TO HIM, IDIOT!!!" And then she hung up.
Harry kept staring at the receiver for a while, stunned that she had the nerve to hang up on him. Then he called her back and when she answered, he sneered, "Aren't you forgetting something?"
"What?"
"I don't know where he lives!" he exclaimed, irritated.
"Oh." Hermione frowned. "I suppose it never occurred to you to just ask him."
It did occur to him, but he couldn't just ask Draco without raising suspicion.
"Just give me the damned address!" he asked moodily.
"All right, all right. Here it is..."
---------------------------
When Draco heard the knock on his door, he felt slightly nauseous as if he knew something bad was coming. Even so, curiosity got the best of him. And when he opened the door, he wished he hadn't. Standing there snobbishly was his mother, Narcissa Malfoy. He went pale at first and considered slamming the door in her face, hoping to fix her awful character. But before he could do anything, she let herself in.
"Please, come in, mother," Draco sneered as he closed the door and watched her walk towards the living room muttering to herself. "Make yourself at home," he said elegantly but coolly.
"Home... It's not even funny, Draco. Do you really think of this place as a decent home for a wizard of your position?" Narcissa looked around snottily. "Really... I am so disappointed. I don't even have the heart to tell your father that you live among muggles now. He would die of shame."
Draco tensed at the mention of his father. He wondered if Lucius had sent his mother to pester him. "Father has other reasons to die of shame and they have nothing to do with me."
"Don't speak to me in that insolent tone, Draco. I am still your mother and he is still your father." Narcissa's cold eyes pierced through him and Draco felt as if he were a child again. "Even though now you want to deny your own blood, you are still a Malfoy. You are going to inherit everything."
Draco gave a hollow laugh. "Wait a minute. Weren't you the one who expelled me from the mansion and told me that I wasn't your son anymore? Weren't you the one who told me that I wouldn't receive a penny of the Malfoy's fortune?"
Narcissa didn't answer right away. She sat down on the couch first, crossed her legs elegantly and raised her head. She hated everything muggle related, but she was dressed like one, and very well-dressed. Draco had the same impression about her as he used to have when he was a kid: that if she weren't human she would be a beautiful swan. But her pretty features couldn't hide the coldness and shallowness in her heart. Even Lucius could be more passionate than Narcissa, which was saying a lot.
"Since you haven't answered any of my letters I took the liberty to come and inform you myself of the good news. Your father and I have talked..."
Draco felt his blood running cold. He knew something bad was coming. But even though he felt like zipping her mouth shut he let her go on.
"... and he decided that we should give you a second chance. You're our only son after all." Draco felt his insides burn. "We are not broke as many want to believe. We still have a lot in our possessions. It isn't an easy task to destroy everything that our family has put together over the years. Your father is going to appeal his sentence in a few days..." Draco felt like he was going to faint. "... and he wants us to be together again. When he comes back home, he plans to pass everything to you. Every one of our assets will be in your name."
Draco counted to ten not to scream. He felt his head aching. "I can't believe this."
"You had your fun. You were young and we already accepted your need to try new things. But you are not a teenager anymore. I strongly believe that you have some sense in your head now. As it is, we are willing to put the past behind us and let you come back home. All you have to do is quit that disgusting job of yours. We already have a suitable girl for you to marry. We just need to arrange a few details and..."
"Stop!" Draco finally had it.
She closed her mouth instantly and frowned. Draco shook his head in disbelief and tried not to throttle her. "You're unbelievable. After all the horrible things you said to me you have the nerve to talk to me as if nothing happened. You called me an abomination," he reminded her with a dark look.
Narcissa remained impassive as she said, "What did you expect? You broke our hearts with your nonsense. I never thought my little baby, my pride and joy would become..." She waved her hand. "I guess your father was right. It was my fault. I spoiled you too much. It's ok. I admit I was wrong. Now it's time for you to admit it too. Then we can put things behind us and move on. You have a wonderful future ahead of you."
Draco clenched his fists. "It wasn't nonsense! I'm still gay, you know? I won't change!"
"You don't really mean that."
"Mother..." he sighed heavily. He didn't want to go through that same discussion all over again. He just wanted her out of his flat. All of the memories he had tried so hard to repress came back to him like an avalanche. He remembered the way his mother looked at him the first time she found out he was gay, the icy looks and imperious manner when she nodded at Lucius's idea to send Draco to a place in Scotland where their son would be cured of his disease. Draco remembered quite well how she had stared at him indifferently as she left him in that hideous place and how she had ignored his pleas not to leave him there alone. He remembered the pain and torture he was submitted to.
By the time he came back for his seventh year of school, he had changed indeed, but not in the way his parents had wanted him to. That lovely summer camp made him better at deceiving. He learned to play the part of the perfect son outstandingly. His hatred increased so much that he didn't even feel guilty for helping the Order.
He had known what the results of his actions would be. It didn't come as a surprise when Narcissa noticed he had been bluffing all along. He had already graduated from Hogwarts. In his innocence he thought it would be easier to turn his back on his family fortune and embrace the world.
But it hadn't been easy at all. With Dumbledore's sudden death and Severus' retirement and disappearance, Draco had only met closed doors and prejudice. The wizarding world turned its back on him. He had experienced the same cruelty and rejection he had once inflicted on others he had thought inferior. And with no job and no money, he had let himself be misled by a wizard named Johnson Smear. Johnson had shown him another type of hell, one that Draco would never forget.
Draco could already feel the tears ready to fall. He pressed his eyelids together hard to prevent that, and then he said, "I won't go back."
Her mouth seemed to twitch for a second. "You don't belong here in this filthy muggle neighbourhood. If you want to have your own house I won't object. I'm sure Lucius won't mind either. But..."
"Don't play dumb, mother. The mansion is not the fucking problem! I won't go back to that sick life anymore. I'm not your toy! This is the way I am and I won't change! I'm fucking gay! Deal with it!" he roared.
Her lips curled in a bitter smile. "You don't know what you're talking about. How can you be ok with this? You know it's not normal."
"I don't give a fuck!" he shouted out of control. "Just tell Lucius that he can shove the Malfoy fortune wherever! I know why you both want me back. You want to put things in my name because somebody has finally had the courage to dig into the Malfoy's business." For the first time, Narcissa seemed to be really shocked. Draco sneered. "Oh, yes, mother. I work at the Ministry, remember? I know why you two are so desperate to pass things on to me. But guess what? I don't want anything that comes from you or him. I'm fine on my own. I don't need your fucking money. SO JUST GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE!"
Narcissa's face went crimson. She got up and stopped next to him with flaming eyes. "You really are a disgrace," she muttered under her breath. Draco felt like slapping her. "Do you really think that the Potter boy is worthy? Do you think this infatuation of yours will last? You are throwing away centuries of family history and power, and for what? For a sickness of your body. For a perversion!"
Draco shut his eyes and whispered, "Shut up."
"Do you think he loves you, Draco darling?" she smirked. "Do you think he can really love someone like you? Two men cannot love each other. It's just a sick form of desire."
"Shut up."
"Don't be mistaken. It's all an illusion. There's no way this type of love will last. You can't even have children."
"I swear to God, if you don't shut your mouth..." Draco threatened.
"Does Potter know about the man you used to live with, Draco?" Every word coming out of her mouth was pure venom.
"Don't..." He couldn't hold back his tears any longer. He blinked but they didn't stop falling.
"Does he know what kind of life you had before you became such a respectable man? Being the coward that you are, I'm sure you didn't tell him. No one knows about your dark little secret, right?" she pressed on. "I wonder what your lover would have to say about that. I wonder if his love would last if he found out by chance that you used to sell..."
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
"... your body for money."
Draco didn't know how he managed to hold his urge to beat her up. Somehow he couldn't do anything. He was paralysed by her poisoning words. It was as if Johnson was by his side again, punching him when he did something wrong, making him beg for his meals, making him feel like Draco was the worst scum in the universe. It wasn't his fault. Johnson was the monster, not him. Johnson had made him sleep with those horrible men for money.
"If you just came back to us, we would make it all go away, Draco. You could have your dignity back. Lucius and I were so sure that you'd come to your senses after Johnson... Johnson was supposed to be a lesson well-learned, Draco. He was supposed to have cured you from your weakness... After all, that was why Lucius paid him so well." She touched his shoulder and he jerked away violently. Narcissa just shrugged and then smiled at him. "You haven't heard the last of us yet. I'm sure your father will have a lot to say about a certain hospital photo. He won't be very pleased, that's for sure." She pushed her hair back delicately and then walked towards the front door. "Potter doesn't have to know about your secrets, darling. As your mother I would protect you. Your fate is in your hands. And should I say Potter's fate as well? After all, if you come back home I'll try to convince Lucius to leave Potter alone. It's all up to you." She opened the door and blew him a kiss. "I'll be in touch."
When she closed the door, Draco slid to the floor and broke down. He was left alone to relive six months of hell.
TBC…
A/N: Finally something VERY important about Draco's past is revealed, and now you all now that Narcissa is a bitch. Prepare your hearts for the next chapter! Leave a tissue next to you. Poor Drake… I feel really bad for him. But luckily, Harry will… well, just stick around and find out! XD