Draco slowly woke from his sleep. Disoriented by his surroundings, he experienced a moment of panic before remembering where he was. It was then that he realized what had woken him up. Across from him, Harry was asleep in his armchair which was normal enough, but the green glow that he was steadily emitting was not. The light had woken Draco up. Draco didn't know what to do. He was afraid to touch the boy. He was also afraid to startle him. He had a feeling that this glow was not just a light, but something more, maybe even Harry's magic.

Suddenly, the light extinguished and Harry lay limp in his chair. Draco ran over to him and lifted him in his arms. Running out of the room, Draco stopped outside of the door. He didn't know where to go so he went to the one person he trusted in the school, Severus Snape.

Draco threw open the door to Severus's chambers without knocking. He saw Severus standing over a table covered in potions and dripping blood from a gash on his arm, but he paid no attention to this. He also saw a bundle lying on the ground next to the man's feet, it wouldn't register until later that the bundle was actually a death eater's robe.

"Help! I don't know what's wrong, but Harry was asleep and glowing green. The light suddenly went out and he went limp. I think he was leaking magic. I don't know. Help."

Severus didn't speak; he ran into another room and grabbed several potions.

"Put him on the couch."

Draco laid Harry down gently and without thinking took hold of the unconscious boy's hand as Severus poured the potions down his throat and massaged it to make him swallow.

"We have to wait now. We'll know whether they work in fifteen minutes."

"How?"

"He'll still be alive."

"Is it that serious?"

"His magic is dangerously low. It seems that the barrier that held it in him had weakened to the point that it couldn't hold his magic. Basically, you saw some of the life drain out of him."

"Oh, god."

Draco's whole body slumped, but his hand still held Harry's.

"Draco, why were you with Potter?"

"Harry. His name is Harry."

Severus was shocked.

"Harry, then. Why?"

"We were talking."

"About?"

"The war. How long has it been?"

"A few minutes."

"Bugger."

Severus watched as Draco turned toward Harry and leaned his head on the boy's shoulder. The blonde began to whisper in his ear and Severus leaned forward to hear what he was saying, stunned by these developments.

"Harry, come on. You have to come on. I need you. I need to talk to you. I need to talk about these past years. I need to hear what you have to say. You're too strong to let this happen. I'm sorry I didn't realize when you said that you were tired that you were this sick. I want to get to know you. I need you to help me escape the dark world I've been living in. I've only gotten to know you for a few days and already I know that I need to know you. You are truly one of those people that make the world a better place. I feel like you're the key to something. I know we never mention that kiss you gave me because it was supposed to be a joke, but I've never felt so much before. Come back, we have so many loose ends to tie up."

Draco rested his head on Harry and tried to wipe the tears out of his eyes without letting Severus know that he was crying.

Severus sat back in shock.

There were only three minutes left.

Draco didn't move. Severus got up and took care of his arm, turning his back on the boys.

Draco was so caught up in his fear and sadness that he didn't notice the boy moving beneath him until he felt a hand stroking his hair.

Startled, he looked up into Harry's eyes.

"It's ok, Draco."

Severus whirled around. He was amazed. He hadn't told Draco, but he hadn't believed that the boy on his couch would make it. He'd never heard of anyone surviving a loss of magic like Harry's before.

Draco was crying openly now and hugging Harry.

"Sssh, Draco. It's ok."

Draco slowly stopped crying.

"Thank you."

"What?"

"Thank you for saving my life."

"Always, just don't be so careless with it next time."

Harry smiled weakly.

"Draco, please get off of Mr. Potter, I need to run a few tests and you're in my way."

"Yes, Severus."

Harry shut his eyes as Severus performed several scanning spells. The man walked out of the room and into his lab. He unlocked a small storage cabinet and pulled out two potions.

"Take these."

Harry swallowed them both immediately.

"Is my magic going to be ok?"

"We'll see. I've just given you a potion to restore your magic barrier to insure that it will be able to hold your magic from now on. It will be stronger than your natural barrier. The second potion was to restore your magic. It won't take effect for another hour so that the first will have plenty of time to work."

"How did this happen?"

"Honestly, Mr. Potter, I only know of one way this could have happened. Someone gave you leech root."

"What?"

"Leech root. It gets its name from leeches which will suck out blood. The only difference is that it sucks out magic. When combined with several other ingredients, it dissolves magical barriers. I suspect that because you have such a high level of magic, your barrier was already weaker than most peoples and this poison had a more dramatic effect than intended. Instead of slowly weakening your barrier and causing you to die without any symptoms, it caused you barrier to dissolve quickly hence the glowing and huge exodus of magic."

"How did they give me this leech root?"

"Probably a powder of some form. It could have been slipped into a drink without detection by your senses or it could have scattered on one of your belongings for you to breathe in. In your case though, it is really only possible that you drank it. It worked much too quickly for you to have breathed it."

"Great. I'm going to have to start drinking out of a flask like Moody."

"You might be joking, but that's not a bad idea."

"Draco!"

"What? I don't want this to happen again."

"Anyway, Mr. Potter. You need to take it easy for the next couple of hours, until I can determine whether your barrier has restored itself."

"Ok."

"I suggest we all try and get some sleep. We can sort the rest of this out in the morning. I've got a monitoring spell on Harry so no one needs to stay awake."

Severus flicked his wand and the couch transformed into a bed without as much as moving a hair on Harry's head.

"Goodnight."

Severus left the room and they heard another door shut.

"Well, that was nice of him. Where am I supposed to sleep?"

"Draco, this bed is huge. We can share."

"Oh."

Draco got on the bed and laid down, pulling the blankets until they were up around his ears. He lay motionless, trying not to think about how much he wanted to touch any part of Harry, if only to reassure himself that the boy was there.

"Draco?"

"Yeah?"

"This is going to sound stupid, but would you mind if I backed up to you? It's just, I'm scared and cold."

Draco was quiet for a moment, thinking he was imagining things.

"I'm sorry that was stupid. Never mind."

Harry turned on his side and curled up slightly. Draco suddenly realized that for all this bravado, Harry was scared. He slid across the bed and wrapped an arm around the Gryffindor.

"It's not stupid. It's fine, see?"

"Thanks."

Draco felt Harry relax slowly and he too began to feel sleepy. Finally, both boys fell asleep to the sound of the other's breathing.

Harry slept for the entirety of the night and woke up slowly to the sounds of Severus making a potion. He rolled over and realized that Draco was gone. Ignoring his disappointment, he began to try and get up.

"Don't even think about it, Mr. Potter. I am not Poppy and I will not be allowing you to sneak out of here."

Harry blushed.

"You will be spending the day here so that tomorrow you can attend classes and no one will know what happened. We have a better chance of finding out who poisoned you if they believe themselves to be successful. Not to mention, it will reduce the risk of your being poisoned again. Now, take this."

Severus handed Harry a cup of the potion he had been preparing.

"I have to restore your magic enough that no one will be suspicious. If I knew someone whose magic was compatible to you, I could actually give you a little of their blood to help you heal faster. I'll have to think about that though."

"Didn't you already give me a potion to restore my magic?"

Harry saw a sheepish look cross his potion master's face which was in itself astonishing.

"I made a small mistake last night. I forgot that some of the ingredients in the barrier rebuilding potion render the magic restoration useless. Either way, after a scan this morning, I found that you magic is depleted to the point that I can't restore it fully. I can only restore it enough for you to do a few simple spells to make people believe you are well. Your body will make its own magic over the course of the next week. I'll also be putting a glamour spell on you."

"Why?"

Snape handed Harry a mirror.

"Look."

Harry was shocked when he looked in the mirror. He had dark circles under his eyes and his skin was pale. He even had a white streak in the bangs that covered his scar, but most shocking of all was his eyes. They were no longer a vivid green, they were barely mint green. The color appeared to have been washed out of them.

"Why?"

"Your body was under a huge strain. In a few days, your skin will be back to normal. The white streak in your hair will disappear as your hair grows, but we will dye it anyway. Your eyes are the most remarkable. It is not uncommon for wizards of immense power to have intensely colored eyes. The color you see is not normal. It is in fact the color of that person's magic. Several examples of this include Dumbledore, the Dark Lord, me and even Draco. In fact, I shall look into Dumbledore's and Draco's compatibility with you."

"Why not check your own blood?"

Severus sat down, tiredly.

"I know why you are asking me that. Let's get this over as painlessly as possible. I don't hate you. I respect you. You feel the same way. We aren't enemies anymore. I'm still going to treat you like shit to keep up appearances."

Harry laughed weakly, due to his current condition.

"Ok. Now that we've had that little chat, I can't give you my blood because it's tainted from use of the dark arts. It would also link us in a way that Voldemort could sense. I will also confide in you that I would prefer to use Draco if possible because I believe he is considering becoming a spy and this would insure that he could not."

"Have you told him about your role?"

"No."
"Then, you'd better pick up your Voldie costume off the floor before he catches on."

"Damn."

Severus did as Harry suggested and stuffed the thing in his closest. He came back in and brought Harry breakfast and tea.

"Aw, how sweet."

"Ha. You think I did this? You'd better be glad that Hogwarts has house elves, otherwise you'd be eating a few of the less toxic potions ingredients for breakfast."

"So, where's Draco?"

"I don't know. I don't approve of whatever is going on between the two of you."

"What? There's nothing going on between us. We're just friends."

"If you do anything to hurt him, I will slip poison into everything you eat until you are no longer capable of engaging in any act that could end in reproduction."

Harry gulped.

"I promise, sir, there's nothing going on and if anything ever did, I'd do all I could to keep you from having to follow through on that threat."

"Good. Now, finish your breakfast and go back to sleep you need to rest. I'll put the monitoring spell back up Oh and you can call me Severus when we aren't in public."

Harry did as he was told.

Several hours later, Harry was sleeping soundly and Severus had gone off to find Draco.

Severus didn't have to look far to find Draco. He was sitting in the Slytherin common room with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Draco."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"What?"

"I saw your robes on the ground last night. I saw you bleeding when we came in, I just didn't put two and two together until now."

"Look, Draco, it's not what I think."

"Yes, it is. You're a spy. Don't look so surprised. I've heard enough of your anti-Voldemort innuendos to realize that you don't actually support him. Besides, do you really think I would have left Harry with you if I didn't trust you?"

"I want to talk to you about him. I heard what you said last night."

"I know what you're going to ask or at least what you want to know and the answer is that I don't know. I know I want time to find out how I feel and I really do need to talk to him. I need his help to accept my past. I need to apologize to him. I need to talk to him about the war. I know that I want more than I have. I didn't really until yesterday. It was all a game at first. I was just playing with him because it was something new to do. He surprised me with the darker side of his nature. But hearing him talk about the war and seeing that side of him made me realize I can't play with him."

"I'm glad you realize that, Draco. I know he's had plenty of one night stands, but that's only because he's afraid of a relationship. He can't trust people to want him for reasons other than his fame, his wealth or even his looks."

"It's weird to hear you talk about him like this."

"Don't let it get around. My life rests in his hands almost all the time so it's hard not to feel this way. I just don't let him see it. He doesn't want that from me. He needs me to push him and treat him like any other student."

"Enough. I'm glad you two get along. You are the biggest influences in my life."

"I have to tell you, Draco, if you hurt Harry I will not be responsible for my actions. You would do well to remember that and the stores of toxic potions ingredients that I have at my fingertips."

Draco laughed.

"I won't, but really, Sev, that threat might have scared me as a child, but it's getting weaker and weaker."

"I came here for another reason. I need to test your magic's compatibility with Harry's to see if I can give him a small amount of your blood to help his magic regenerate. It was more depleted than I thought and the restoration potion isn't strong enough to completely rebuild. If you could come to my chambers, I can do the tests, now.

"Sure."

"Ok. I'll warn you that Harry will look fine because I already put a glamour charm on him, but you'll have to be very careful. He's still weak and needs to rest for tomorrow."

As Severus had expected, Draco's magic was compatible to Harry's, though it wasn't as strong. Because of this, the blood transfer was not as effective as Severus would have liked, however it did help Harry to some extent and it prevented Draco from becoming a spy. All in all, the procedure as a success, except for the minor injury Draco received from fainting at the first sight of his blood.