Disclaimer: Not mine. The only thing I do is play with them.

Thanks a million to: Jamie and Jade, my beta readers, and to all of you who reviewed! Unfortunately, my computer is giving me headaches these days, so sorry for being so brief and not thanking you properly. I had so many reviews! Thank you!I think it's a stupid virus. It's making it difficult to type… Grrrr…. Anyway, in a few seconds you will all find out who the mysterious person is. It was a tie between Sirius and Remus. Some people actually considered Neville and Hagrid! What an imagination! Hagrid would just be creepy, but definitely a surprised! Lol! So, take a deep breath and find out if you were right or wrong in your assumptions! Have a good reading!

/author hyperventilates/ I'm nervous about this chapter. I hope I don't let too many people down.

Chap. 35 – HARRY BREAKS DOWN

It was like being in a surreal dream, an alternate reality where what you thought was real wasn't real at all. Just when Harry thought his life couldn't be more complicated, here was something to turn things upside down again. Harry vaguely thought he heard Draco asking him if he was ok, but his eyes were glued on the man in front of him, a man he had thought dead for a long time. Here was a man whose death had never stopped haunting him. At some point he felt like there was something stuck in his throat, and his eyes burned with unshed tears. He refused to cry though. First he wanted to understand what was going on.

"Sirius?" Harry asked in a whisper.

"Harry..." said Sirius with a feeble smile. He tried to approach Harry and touch him – Sirius had been dying to do that for a long time – but Harry immediately took a step back and drew out his wand.

"Potter, put your wand down!" Severus said, upset, pulling out his own wand.

"Severus, don't do that!" Sirius berated him. "He's already scared! Don't make the situation any worse!"

While Severus and Sirius silently battled with their eyes, Draco didn't say anything. He was as stunned as Harry. Everybody close to Harry knew that he had been severely traumatised by Sirius's death. To see Sirius Black alive was a deep shock, and Draco could only imagine what Harry was going through.

Finally, Severus lowered his wand with a resigned sigh and then turned to Draco to say, "Let's put on the kettle, Draco. They have a lot of... catching up to do..."

Draco didn't know if it was such a good idea to leave Sirius and Harry alone. One look at Harry was enough to be sure of that. Draco could feel his confusion and pain, but most of all, he could feel Harry's anger. But just when Draco decided to stay, Severus grabbed him by the arm and dragged him out.

"What the fuck!" Draco complained, removing his arm from Severus' forceful grip. "I don't want to leave Harry alone with that man! What are you thinking? You hurt me!"

Severus sighed. "I'm sorry, Draco. But Sirius has been waiting for this moment since I rescued him from the ancient doorway. That talk is between him and Harry. It's their moment. I can't meddle in it no matter how much I want to. I understand your feelings. You're worried about Potter and I'm worried about Sirius. But... all we can do now is wait."

Draco frowned. "Is he really Sirius Black?" Draco needed to make sure of that, because he knew Harry was also having the same doubts.

"Of course it's Sirius," Severus answered with a scowl. "Do you think I would leave Potter alone with some fake?"

"How did this happen?" Draco asked in disbelief. "He was dead! You all told Harry he was dead! You let Harry go through all that pain for nothing? And what's with you and him? I thought you loathed him!"

"I did." Severus felt his palms sweating. This conversation was making him very uncomfortable.

"Then why is he staying here with you? Why..." Draco stopped abruptly and opened his eyes wide as a sudden thought struck him. "Oh, my God! He's the guy you married? How's that even possible?"

"Oh, please, Draco. You, more than anyone else, should understand. After all, you hated Harry Potter with all your might for most of your life. You even wanted him dead. The same happened with me and Sirius. We were attracted to each other, but we were too stubborn to realise or accept it. Besides, we were from opposite houses and we were both guys. Those things were enough to make anyone go crazy. It didn't help that we also had dreadfully mismatched personalities... But I'm sure you can understand what it's like to hate and love someone at the same time."

Draco did. He knew exactly what it felt like love and hate someone. Even now he still had trouble coming to terms with his feelings. "All right. So you love Sirius Black. That doesn't answer the main question though. Everybody thought he was dead! How did he survive?"

"Actually, my love for Sirius does answer your question..." Severus said, flushing slightly and looking terribly embarrassed. "I risked my life to bring him back. Ironic, isn't it? I prayed for so long for his death that when it finally happened, all it did was cause more pain."

"So he was dead."

"Not exactly. Come on. I'll tell you all you want to know, but first, let's have some tea." Severus gestured for Draco to follow him to the kitchen. Draco obeyed him after hesitating a little. While Severus prepared the tea, he said, "Sit down, Draco, because this is going to take a while..."

Harry didn't even notice when Severus dragged Draco away. He was trapped in a living nightmare, one that he knew he wouldn't just wake up from. He felt the pain growing inside his chest. He was once again back on the day of Sirius's death and once more it was impossible to breathe. Facing Sirius now, the awful truth hit him with the force of a Bludger. He had never gotten over that moment in the Department of Mysteries. No matter how many times he had tried to convince himself that none of that had been his fault, he knew better. It was his fault. He had never left those feelings of guilt go. That was a wound that had never healed completely.

Harry couldn't understand who this man was. Was he a ghost? No, he couldn't be. Nearly Headless Nick had told him that Sirius had moved on. Then who was standing in front of him right now? He did look a lot like Sirius. Perhaps this was only a sick joke or a game to destroy him. Harry still had many enemies. In his disturbed state of mind it even crossed his mind that Draco and Snape had teamed up to bring him down. His heart ached.

"Who are you?" Harry asked, gripping his wand in his trembling hands.

"I'm Sirius, Harry," Sirius answered.

"No," Harry shook his head with a grimace. "You can't be Sirius. He's dead. He died a long time ago. I saw it with my own eyes! I saw him get hit by that bitch and fall behind the veil! Everybody told me he was dead! Why are you here? Are you a ghost?"

Sirius sighed tiredly. He had known it wouldn't be easy to convince Harry of his existence. He needed to be patient with Harry. "I'm not a ghost, Harry. I am Sirius."

Harry's mind began to swirl and he felt faint. "Then... Was it all a lie? Everybody lied to me?"

"Nobody lied to you. Nobody knew."

"I don't believe you!" Harry shouted. "You're a goddamned liar! Prove to me that you're Sirius! Tell me something that only Sirius and I would know!"

"I used to be Padfoot for you. I told you all about my family tree, remember? When I was stuck in that dreadful house... that house that used to drive me nuts... We talked about my family. You asked if you could live with me if you were expelled from Hogwarts that same day. Do you remember when you asked me and Remus about your father? You didn't like what you saw in Severus' Pensieve so you wanted to know more about it. You didn't like the new image you had of James as an idiotic bully. You told me you felt sorry for Severus, and that you couldn't understand why you mother had fallen for your dad if she hated him so much."

Harry's wand slipped away from his fingers and fell to the floor. He felt his knees grow weak and his vision blur slightly. He still couldn't understand what was going on. "You were dead," he mumbled feebly.

Sirius carefully took another step towards him. Harry didn't move this time, but he flinched.

"It's complicated..." began Sirius, moving his hands nervously. "I don't know how to explain to you what happened after I fell behind the veil. It was a very confusing time. There were periods of intense darkness followed by moments of peace and quiet... I felt as if I was lost in an endless dream. I thought I was dead, but there was nobody familiar to welcome me as I thought there would be when my time came. And I didn't have any sense of time. One day I saw your father. He smiled at me, and I thought my time had finally arrived. I was happy to go, but then someone called me back. My heart was torn in two.

"I wanted to go to your father but at the same time there was this other voice calling me back incessantly." Sirius smiled fondly at the memory. "At first I could only hear loving words. It was a heartbreaking confession of love that kept reverberating in my heart and making me waver in my decision. Then the soft voice changed. It began to curse me... It was then that I realised who it was and it was a total shock to me. It was Severus. I saw him. Even though he was cursing me, he had tears in his eyes. I'd never seen him cry for anything.

"I was really tired. I wanted to rest. I considered staying with James. But in the end Severus' persistence won me over. I knew I had to come back, not only for him but for you as well. While I was stuck between life and death, he reminded me that I had a lot of things to live for. So I turned around and made my painful way back to life. I chose life over death. It wasn't easy, but I succeeded."

Harry shook his head and blinked a few times. Since he felt as if he could faint at any minute, he sat on the couch, leaned his elbows on his knees and covered his eyes with the palms of his hands. Sirius approached him immediately with a worried expression. Harry felt a soft touch on his shoulder and violently repelled it. He stared at Sirius and hissed, "Stay away."

"Please, Harry... I know it's a lot to digest at once but..."

"But what?" Harry shouted, his whole body shaking from anger. He felt betrayed. "What should I understand? How everybody fooled me all these years? How I was left alone to deal with the pain of losing you? I spent all this time thinking that I was responsible for your death! I never forgave myself for that. That moment changed me entirely. My heart died away with you. And now I find out it was all a lie..."

"It wasn't a lie, Harry," said Sirius with a deep pain in his heart.

"All these years... You were alive and you didn't even bother to fucking tell me!"

"It wasn't like that!" Sirius had promised himself to remain calm while talking to Harry, but it was hard. "If Severus hadn't rescued me, I wouldn't have come back."

"Oh, so you came back for him," Harry spat, his voice full of accusation. "Because the stupid little orphan wasn't worth the trouble, was he? You came back for a man who wished you were dead! A man you hate and that hates you back! I... I really don't understand anything! I don't get it. Why did he save you? I thought he was glad you were dead! I could understand if we were talking about Remus rescuing you, but not Snivellus-Snape!"

Sirius ran his fingers through his hair and held the urge to pull it all out. "That is also very complicated... It'll be difficult for you to understand..."

"Then make me understand!" Harry demanded with bloodshot eyes.

"It's true that we hated each other with all our guts. He was my sworn enemy. But... at some point we realised that we only hated each other so much because we were in love. Severus..."

"Stop calling him Severus! It gives me the creeps!"

Sirius sighed. "We were very much alike, me and Se... Snape," Sirius corrected quickly before Harry could throw another tantrum. "It's ironic to think about this, but our similarities were what drove us apart." Harry made a face and Sirius half-smiled. He sat down next to Harry, but left a safe distance between them so Harry wouldn't feel like Sirius was imposing himself on him. "I told you it would be difficult to understand. I know I'd always projected confidence, but the truth was that deep down I was very insecure, and because of my family history I spent a long time hating myself. All that over-confidence was only a façade to hide my insecurities from others. It was a shield. It was the same thing with Se... Snape." Sirius paused, irritated with the fact that, now that he had finally gotten used to using his lover's first name, he couldn't use it because of Harry. "Do I really have to call him Snape?"

Harry nodded seriously. Sirius arched an eyebrow, but didn't make any further complaints. He wasn't in a position of deny Harry anything, no matter how absurd it sounded. He had already let Harry down in too many ways.

"Snape was just like me. That grumpy act of his was his shield. He was purposely rude to people so he wouldn't get hurt. In truth he was as insecure as I was. But while he chose to be bitter, I chose to have as many friends as I could in order to forget about my family problems. I disliked Snape at first sight, but at the same time there was this spark between us, a strong attraction that used to drive me crazy. He felt it too. That was what made him hate James even more. He hated the closeness between your father and me. It got worse when a series of events happened..."

"What events?" Harry's soft voice took Sirius by surprise. It made him wonder if his godson had finally calmed down.

"Snape and I sort of... dated... for a short period of time. Because of our constant fights we were paired up once in class as punishment... We had an assignment together. But because we didn't want to meet, we left it all for the last minute, so we ended up in a deserted classroom trying to finish it into the late hours. As usual we fought... But because we were alone, one thing led to another and... We kissed and... Well..." Sirius felt embarrassed. "Stuff... happened. After that, not only our hate but also the attraction increased... So every time we met we fought and then kissed and then..."

"Stuff happened..." Harry completed with a sneer, thinking that Sirius and Severus' routine sounded awfully familiar.

Sirius felt his cheeks getting hot. "Yes. Since we weren't mature enough to deal with it, it was bound to end. I didn't expect to be so hard to break things off..." Sirius smiled bitterly. "But I had a reputation to maintain. This will sound awful but... I was quite the ladies' man, you know? It wouldn't look good if I was caught with Snape, not to mention that none of my friends would have understood, especially your father. James and Snape couldn't stand each other. For a while I actually thought Snape had a crush on your father."

"Did he?" Harry asked with a horrified expression.

"No. At least that was what Se... Snape told me." Sirius made a face. "If he finds out that I still have some doubt about the issue he'll kill me."

"Was that when you decided to kill him?" Harry asked.

"No!" Sirius denied immediately. "I didn't want to kill him. I just... I was stupid and reckless. I wanted to scare him, to teach him a lesson. I don't know! I was really mad at him. My hatred had made me blind. I was terribly jealous. You see, at that time Severus was Lucius' lapdog. Everybody knew it. He had this creepy fixation on Lucius." Sirius felt the jealousy coming back at the thought. "Lucius was someone he aspired to be. Disgusting, huh?" Harry agreed with him and Sirius went on, "I thought they were shagging. That certainly multiplied my anger. My stupidity came to the conclusion that if I couldn't have him, then no one else could. So I sent him to the Whomping Willow... Remus was so mad at me that he stopped talking to me for a long time. Even James yelled at me. By the time I realised what I had done, it was too late. I was really relieved when I found out that nothing had happened to Severus. He was furious with me. He took things very personally..."

"Of course he did!" Harry exclaimed. "You set a werewolf on him, who was your best friend! What did you want him to do? Send you flowers? Besides, you were the one who hurt him. You didn't have the right to spoil his happiness, even if he chose Lucius Malfoy."

"Well, unfortunately there are different types of love, Harry, and mine was a very selfish and possessive type. It's horrible, I know..."

"What about Remus?"

"Remus? What are you talking about? Remus and I were purely friends."

"Your mother told me you and Remus were... a lot more than just friends."

Sirius jumped at that. "My mother?"

"Your mother's portrait. We sort of talk sometimes. She told me about you and Remus. First she told me about your brother and then she told me that she suspected you had a relationship with Remus. She said you two were way too friendly with each other for her taste."

Sirius didn't like the sound of that. "I didn't know her portrait could do more than just yell curses at people... Hmm... Why have you been talking to that crazy woman? Are you living in my old house?"

"Yes. You didn't know?" Harry was confused.

"No! Severus told me that last time he heard of you, you were living with Ron in London and training to be an Auror."

"That was ages ago. I'm not an Auror. I... dropped out after six months," Harry confessed in a feeble voice.

Sirius was shocked. "Oh, Harry, I had no idea."

"There are a lot of things you don't know," Harry said bitterly. "And you obviously didn't bother to find out."

"I thought you had moved on with your life. I thought you were happy. Severus convinced me that I shouldn't worry about you..."

"And you took his word for it? What kind of moron are you? I wasn't happy and I didn't move on with my life! It's been a living hell ever since I left school and even before that! I've never gotten over your death! I've never gotten over Remus' death either. It was a nightmare. It still is!" Harry sneered, remembering what had brought him to Severus' house in the first place. "Do you have any idea how guilty I felt? I always blamed myself for that day!"

"It wasn't your fault, Harry," said Sirius quickly. "You can't be responsible for my reckless actions. You didn't force me to go to the Ministry that day. I was the one who let my guard down. If I had been more careful, Bellatrix wouldn't have hit me."

"Dumbledore and Remus tried to make me believe that. But no matter how many times they told me it wasn't my fault, I couldn't let go of the fact that if I hadn't been foolish enough to be tricked by Voldemort... If only I had listened to Hermione and waited... If I hadn't gone to the Ministry that day, none of those things would have happened. So you can't take away the guilt in my heart. And the way I treated Remus afterwards..." Harry looked down and bit his lower lip hard. Again he was shaking all over. "I never told him what he meant to me... I never told you!" Harry couldn't hold back his tears any longer. His silent cry broke Sirius' heart in two. "I felt so alone and hopeless. I felt so lost..."

Sirius tried to touch him once again, but Harry slapped his hand away and stared at him fiercely.

"I told you to stay away!" Harry shouted. "You haven't explained anything to me yet! All you did was tell me your touching love story! I still don't know why you're alive and why you never looked for me!"

"That ancient door I fell through... is a portal. It's a gate for the after-life. It was opened centuries ago. Because no one could destroy it, the Ministry hid it in the Department of Mysteries. Nobody really knew what it could do or where exactly it could lead you. There were only a few documents about it, but nothing substantial. That's why they assumed I was dead when I fell in it. And in a way, I really was. It was like being in a coma. I wandered in the darkness for a long time."

"But there was a chance of rescuing you! Why didn't they tell me?"

"Only Dumbledore knew and even he didn't know for sure. There were only theories, nothing more. He only told Severus about it because he insisted on it. Dumbledore couldn't have told you, Harry. Never you. If you knew that there was a small chance of bringing me back, you would have taken it. He wanted you to be safe and so did I. He knew I would have never let you do something so dangerous just to try and save me. There weren't any guarantees that you'd be successful, and chances were that you would get yourself lost just like me."

"I had the right to know!" Harry persisted.

"No, you didn't! You're just like me, Harry. You disregard danger when it comes to the people you love. I wouldn't be able to bear it if you risked your life for mine. You've already done that so many times..."

"And the last time I got you killed..." Harry choked down a sob.

"No. I chose my own destiny, Harry, not you."

"You only went to the Ministry because of me," Harry pointed out in a whisper.

"It was still my choice."

"Then the choice to come after you should have been given to me as well!"

Sirius didn't reply to that. His words were stuck in his throat. He had inflicted so much pain in Harry's life that he didn't know how to fix the mess he had created. Sirius felt the anger rising. Severus had lied to him. It was obvious now that Harry hadn't moved on. He could feel Harry's loneliness and pain with such intensity that it hurt. Sirius had let Severus convince him that Harry was fine living on his own, and that Sirius' sudden presence would only upset him. Sirius clenched his fists.

'Harry has his own life now. He's an Auror. He has his friends. I even believe he has a fiancée,' Severus had said to him. 'You're still too weak. When you're fully recovered we can go look for Harry. Besides, it will be quite hard to explain our relationship.'

Severus had been worried about himself, as usual. He hadn't considered Sirius' feelings. He shouldn't have taken Severus' word for it. He should have gone after Harry. He should have seen for himself if his godson was really ok. He had failed James by staying away just because he had been scared. Most importantly, he had failed Harry.

"How did he rescue you?" Harry asked in such a low voice that Sirius thought he had imagined the question. It was only when Harry insisted that he answered, "He came up with a very complicated spell to serve him as a map and to protect him at the same time. Then he entered the ancient door. He knew he was risking his life. He knew he could have lost himself there and never find his way back, but he told me he didn't care because he had nothing left to lose."

"I didn't have anything to lose either," Harry said to himself, staring into space.

"Don't say that," said Sirius hotly. "Of course you did. You're so young, Harry. You have a lot ahead of you! Your life matters to so many people! You brought hope to the wizarding world."

"Again that hero of the world crap... I would trade everything to have my parents back, to have lived a normal life," Harry said with sadness in his eyes. It cracked Sirius' heart into tiny little pieces. "So when did it happen? When did Snape rescue you?"

"When Severus found me I had missed three years of my life," Sirius said. "It took me another year to recover. I was very weak when he brought me back."

Harry was stunned. "Three years?"

Sirius nodded. "Yeah. He only went looking for me when Dumbledore died, because Dumbledore had forbid him to come after me. Dumbledore was afraid of the risks not only for Severus but for me as well. There aren't related cases of someone ever escaping from the ancient doorway. There weren't any about Azkaban either." Sirius smiled to himself. "I guess I have a natural talent for difficult getaways."

"It makes sense..." Harry said thoughtfully. "Snape quit his job a little before Dumbledore died and then he disappeared. Everyone thought he had finally snapped."

"He was taking care of me..." Sirius felt his palms sweating. There were many things he wanted to ask Harry. He just didn't know if he was ready to hear the answers. "What has happened to you?"

Harry gulped. "What do you care?"

"Please, Harry... You know I do. I thought you were ok. I was led to believe that you had found your way in life and that I would be a burden if I showed up in front of you out of the blue. I didn't want to ruin things for you. I was going to look for you eventually, but I was scared of your reaction."

"Snape told you to stay away from my life?" Harry could feel his blood boiling.

"Not exactly. He just... convinced me that you were better off without me."

Harry sneered. "So he did tell you to stay away from me. The bloody bastard..." Harry snarled. "And you just obeyed him like a loyal dog, huh? You really thought I would be better off without you? You love him that much? You chose him over me!"

"It isn't like that!" Sirius exclaimed, distressed. "It isn't about choosing him over you! I... I thought you'd gotten married! I thought you'd had kids by now. I didn't want to disrupt your life."

"Well, I didn't get married. I don't have any kids. I was so sick of everything after Voldemort and Hogwarts that I just gave everything up. My bright future as an Auror, the Quidditch invitations, my girlfriend, my friends..." Harry took a deep breath. He wiped a few tears away but new ones kept falling. "I faced a legal battle against the Malfoys for your house."

"Really?"

"Yeah. It was quite hard to prove that you were really dead and that you had left the house to me in your will. Lucius Malfoy really wanted that house... But I won in the end. I made that place my haven. I hid myself from the world there. If it wasn't for Hermione and Ron visiting me all the time to check up on me, I don't know what I'd have done..." It was the first time Harry confessed that aloud. "I wasn't ok. I was depressed and pathetic. I didn't have any strength left."

Sirius felt something squeeze his heart. "But... When I first saw you today, I didn't notice anything. I thought you looked fine. You looked so happy and handsome. I didn't think you were depressed at all."

"That's because of..." Draco. Harry was surprised at how easy that answer came to him. In the few days they had spent together, Draco had changed his gloomy life. He had shaken Harry up and made him feel alive again.

He looked around, only now realising that Draco wasn't there. Suddenly he missed Draco deeply and that thought scared him. He didn't want to miss anybody. Harry didn't want to be hurt anymore. Sooner or later, Draco would betray him, wouldn't he? It was bound to happen.

Sirius felt Harry's uneasiness and he called softly, "Harry?"

Harry looked at Sirius. His godfather looked very handsome but also tired. Harry was feeling tired too. He had never wanted to be alone so badly.

"I..." He stood up and walked to the door. "I don't know anything anymore. I need to be alone."

"Do you hate me, Harry?" Sirius asked anxiously.

Harry opened up the door and stared at the floor. He didn't hate Sirius, but he was hurt. He didn't answer Sirius' question because he wanted to punish him. Harry wanted Sirius to think that he did hate him, even though it wasn't true. He felt a deep pain in his heart that he thought would never go away. The whole situation was unbearable to him. He needed to vent his anger and he knew only one way to do that.

"I'm so sorry," Sirius said sadly.

"Yeah, me too," Harry replied, leaving the room quickly and running upstairs.

He slammed the door of the bedroom with all his might and before he knew it, he was throwing everything he could lay his hands on at the wall.

It came rather fast and unexpected; a blast of magical energy that made Draco dizzy and slightly nauseated. The moment that the strong wave of magic hit his body, he knew something was wrong with Harry. He should have foreseen it. There was no way Harry's conversation with Sirius could have turned out any differently. For Harry, who had suffered so much all those years, it was betrayal to find out that his godfather had been alive but hadn't bothered to look for him and save him from his painful existence. That was the truth about Harry: he had been waiting for someone to save him, just like Draco had.

Draco ran to Harry's room quickly, not bothering to explain to Severus where he was going. But as he got there, he didn't dare enter. He felt Harry needed that moment of privacy to vent his own frustration and pain. Draco had had a similar moment not so long ago, so he understood. He still could feel every fibre of Harry's pain throughout his body. He could feel in his whole being how much Harry needed a shoulder to cry on, but at the same time needed to be alone. It was as if Draco heard Harry's soft pleas asking him to wait just a little more before entering and taking him in Draco's arms.

The waiting seemed to last forever, but then, just like that, the high level of magic surrounding Draco decreased. Everything stood still. Draco walked slowly towards the door and listened. There was nothing but quietness. Draco knocked on the door softly, but no answer came. His heart began to beat faster. He couldn't feel anything coming from Harry anymore and that scared him. He knocked a little harder and took a step back when the door opened on its own.

Draco carefully made his way into the room. Everything looked quite messy. He figured his living room had had the same trashed appearance after his own breakdown. He found Harry in a corner, sitting on the cold floor. His green eyes were red and puffy, and very far away. Draco's heart clutched inside his chest. In the past, when they were still Hogwarts students, Draco had waited badly to see Harry broken as he was now, but for all the wrong reasons. Now he wanted to cuddle Harry and make things right for him instead of humiliating him in public.

"Harry?" he called softly.

Harry's empty eyes kept staring into space. Draco gulped and tried again. He wouldn't give up so easily. Harry had been there for him when he needed him the most. Now it was time for him to reciprocate the favour. Even though Harry wasn't answering him, he sat by Harry's side and waited.

"We should end this," Harry said suddenly, taking Draco by surprise.

"End what?" he asked, afraid of the answer.

"Whatever we are doing," Harry answered distantly. There weren't any traces of emotion in his voice. Draco felt a pain in his heart, but he told himself not to panic. Instead of replying, he just glanced at Harry. Harry kept talking, "What's the point in continuing with this? This is bound to end and we're bound to suffer. Sooner or later you'll get tired of me, or we'll get on each other's nerves."

"We already do," Draco muttered.

"Yeah, but... it might get messier. You'll leave me someday when you realise that I'm not at all what you thought I was."

Draco sighed. He felt like shaking Harry. "I know exactly what you are. I know exactly who you are."

Harry shook his head. "You don't know me at all. The sooner you get this, the better it is. Besides, all relationships fade and you're left with nothing but a broken heart. Are you willing to risk your soul for a screwed up guy like me?"

Draco damned Harry for letting the conversation come to that. It wasn't about them. It was supposed to be about Sirius and how much he had hurt Harry. But then again, maybe it was about Sirius. Harry's godfather had been Harry's last hope of having something close to a real family. Harry had always been alone. He had always protected his heart. Of course he would be afraid of jumping into a relationship. It was up to Draco to prove to Harry that he could be loved.

Draco felt his hands trembling. He clenched his fists, swallowed hard and then took a deep breath before gathering all the courage he could to put his feelings on the line.

He stared at Harry with determination. Even though his heart was beating so fast that he thought it would come out of his mouth at any minute, he still managed to answer firmly, "Fuck it all, Harry! I am."

Harry looked at him puzzled. "You're what?"

"I am willing to risk my soul," Draco said, trying not to freak out. Harry's breath got stuck in his throat. Draco took advantage of his surprise to continue with his confession, "Don't ask me for guarantees. I don't have any. If anyone had told me in the past that someday I would be shagging Harry Potter I'd have laughed my heart out. But here we are. Together. We're even getting along, something that I never thought possible, and I'm sure you thought the same thing. I don't have all the answers. I don't know what will happen in the future, but I know my feelings. I've tried to deny them, it's true. But I'd be very stupid to throw it all away now. It doesn't matter how annoying you can be from time to time or how stubborn... I won't leave you. I'll stay by your side forever if you'd let me. I... I'd do anything for you." Draco's voice failed.

Harry's eyes flickered. "What are you saying?"

"That I love you, twit! I love you!" Draco felt such a relief getting that off his chest that he barely took notice of Harry's shocked expression. "I love you." Draco smiled softly and then said more determinedly, "You can try to push me away all you want, Potter, but I'm not giving you up."

TBC…

A/N: Ohh! Another cliffhanger! Mwuahahaha! So how was it? Too bad/dashes off to avoid angry readers/