A/N: Evil Laugh Thanks for your reviews. Read, review and enjoy.

"They are both resting peacefully now. You can leave."

"I can't."

Harry was sitting between two beds. On one, Draco was asleep, still pale as death. Fawkes had been able to heal his wound, but the blood loss he had suffered was extreme. No one knew if he would make it, but they hadn't told Harry yet. On the other bed, the little girl Harry had rescued was asleep. It was only the result of a sleeping potion she had been given. She had been too frightened to fall asleep on her own.

"Harry, you have to go talk to the headmaster. I'll watch them. You can come back."

Harry got up, reluctantly, and placed a kiss on both the girl's and Draco's cheek before walking out.

Harry walked up to Dumbledore's office where McGonagall let him in. As he entered, Fawkes flew to him and placed himself on Harry's shoulder. Harry felt both reassured and energized by the phoenix's presence. It was then that he felt one tear drop on him.

"I thought as much."

Harry looked up to see Dumbledore sitting behind his desk, the customary twinkle missing from his eyes.

"Harry, my boy, it has been a while since you last visited me."

"Yes, sir."

"It seems that I have missed much of the goings on in your life."

Harry was silent and Dumbledore sighed a heavy sigh.

"Fawkes has been with me for over fifty years now, Harry. In that time, he has never shed, but one tear for me. He has rarely chosen my shoulder for her perch and he has never shown so much regard for anyone except you. When I got him, I knew that he would not be mine forever. I could tell that he was always waiting for something. Tonight, he has made his choice. Tonight, Harry, Fawkes has chosen you."

Harry looked at Fawkes and suddenly, he knew that Dumbledore was right. He reached up and tentatively brushed a finger across Fawkes' back. The phoenix gently butted his head against Harry's cheek.

"Thank you, headmaster, I know that you must have valued Fawkes. I am sorry that he did not favor you, but I think you for keeping him for me. Now, if you don't mind, I have to return to the infirmary."

"That's fine, but I will need to speak with you again."

Harry nodded as he exited the office.

"Well, Fawkes, I am honored. Is there anything I need to provide for you?"

Harry found that as he looked at the phoenix, he could sense the answer, not in words, but somehow he knew.

"Yes, I suppose you can take care of yourself. I have to go back to the infirmary. Do you want to come?"

"Ok, I guess you'll find me later then."

Fawkes flew off Harry's shoulder and through the castle, leaving Harry to watch him in wonder.

As Harry approached the infirmary, he heard high pitched screaming and so he doubled his speed.

"What's going…?"

Harry was knocked over as the small blonde girl hurled himself into his arms, crying. Harry tried to calm her.

"What's wrong, sweetie? Are you hurt?"

"No."

"Did something scare you?"

"You weren't here. You left me."

"I'm here now."

The little girl clutched Harry tighter and he stroked her hair. Gradually, she calmed down. Harry suddenly realized something.

"Sweetie, what's your name?"

"Emily. What's your name?"

"I'm Harry."

The little girl looked down.

"What's wrong, Emily?"

"My brother's name was Harry," she said in a small voice.

"Ok, why don't you call me something else then?"

"Like what?"

"Well, nothing's really short for Harry. How about calling me Ree?"

"Ok, Ree!"

"Honey, are you hungry?"

"Yes."

"Ok, when the nurse comes back, we'll get some food."

"Ree, who is the other boy; is he your friend?"

"That's Draco. He's my friend and a student here, like me."

"What's wrong with him?"

"He got hurt and is sleeping to get better."

"What can I call him?"

"You can call him Draco."

"I want to call him something else like I do with you."

"What do you want to call him?"

Emily thought for a moment.

"I'm going to call him Co."

"I like that. Let's go sit with Co in case he wakes up. We don't want him to wake up alone, do we?"

"No, I didn't like waking up alone either."

Harry gave the little girl a hug.

"I'm sorry."

"It's ok."

Harry and Emily sat down on two chairs next to Draco's bed, that is they sat in two chairs until Emily got out of her's and crawled into Harry's lap. And so the hours passed. Emily fell asleep again, tucked in Harry's arms and Harry sat there worrying. He was so worried and out of his depth. He had a little girl that had attached herself to him, a little girl with no family. Harry knew he had to find some way to talk to her about that as well. They couldn't just avoid it forever. To be fair though, he wasn't avoiding it. They had a lot going on. He would deal with that soon enough. Hold on, he would deal with that? What was he doing? Was he becoming Emily's parent? He was sixteen. That was a crazy idea. But looking down at the sleeping child in his lap, Harry knew he was already lost and his crazy idea was becoming reality.

And then, there was the problem of Draco to consider. Harry knew something worse was going on than just Draco sleeping because of fatigue. Harry had seen how much blood the boy had lost. He knew something was up. So he sat and he waited for someone to come and tell him the truth.

"Harry…Harry…wake-up. You need to eat something."

Harry opened his eyes to see a blurry black figure in front of him. Realizing that Emily was gone from his lap was all it took to jolt Harry into full wakefulness and cause him to scramble for the glasses that had fallen onto the floor.

"Where's Emily?"

"I'm here, Ree. Sevie brought me food."

"Sevie?"

"Ree?"

"She didn't want to call me Harry; it was her brother's name."

"She couldn't pronounce Severus."

Harry began to laugh.

"Now, eat this before it gets cold. Emily is not the only person that you should be taking care of. Then, we have to talk."

"Are you going to tell me what's really going on with Draco?"

"Yes."

"Good."

Harry ate slowly and took small bites, willing his stomach to accept the food, knowing that Severus was right. He had to take care of himself. He made an honest effort to eat, but it was all he could do to finish half of his plate. Severus eyed him, worriedly, but accepted that the boy could eat no more.

"Emily, could you do me a favor?"

"Yes."

"Could you go to the nurse and tell her that Harry wanted her to show you something for a few minutes while he talked to Severus?"

"Ok."

Emily left the room.

"I didn't want her to hear whatever you have to tell me. I have a feeling it would upset her."

"You are planning to look after that little girl, aren't you?"

"I can't help it. She's attached to me and she has no one else.'

"I'd tell you that it's a bad idea and that you're too young, but I figure you won't listen."

"No."

"I'm offering you my help with her then and if it makes you feel better, I think you are making the right decision. Not many sixteen year olds could handle this, but I think you are probably the best person in this castle to take care of her. I can tell just by watching you. You've already become a parent when you look at her."

"Thank you for the support, but can you please tell me about Draco?"

"You know that he has lost a lot of blood, but that's not the real problem we've found. It is the reason he's sleeping now. The problem will begin when he wakes up."

"What do you mean?"

"A full medical scan was done on Draco and Poppy found that a memory charm had been placed on him."

"Was she able to remove it?"

"Yes. She asked me to search his mind and find out what had happened. I did so, reluctantly. I discovered that Draco had been eavesdropping on Pansy one evening and she had found him. Draco heard her tell Millicent that she had tried to slip you leech root, but something had gone wrong so she had come up with a new plan. She found a spell that would enable the caster to erase someone from a person's memory for whatever amount of time was specified. Having already failed when trying to harm you, she decided that this time she would attack Draco. She would erase the memory of you from his mind for this entire school year so that he would forget any relationship between the two of you besides hatred. When Pansy discovered Draco, he threatened her and so she cast the spell and then placed a memory charm on him. There was only one thing Pansy didn't know, however. She did not know the effect of mixing these two spells."

Harry had grown more and more despondent over the course of Severus's story. He was hanging on to any shred of disbelief he could find, but at the last few words, a glimmer of hope appeared in his eyes.

"What happened?"

"Pansy weakened her spell. Instead of permanently forgetting, Draco will remember again. I don't know when though. It could be a month or a year or several years."

"You're wrong. The spell never worked. He hasn't forgotten me."

"I'm sorry, Harry, but Pansy set it to go in affect tomorrow. Draco will wake up, not remembering you. Events in his mind will make it seem like he was alone when you were together or with others, but never you."

Harry began to cry, softly at first, but as everything began to catch up with him, he broke into sobs. Harsh, hysterical cries shook him until Severus escaped his shock at seeing Harry break down. The man moved to wrap his arms around the teenager, not hesitating a moment when he saw how completely overcome Harry was. Harry clutched at Severus, not surprised to find that his once hateful professor was not comforting him, having long ago realized that the man had a heart. Finally, his tears subsided and were replaced by deep shuddering breaths. He gently withdrew from Snape and wrapped his arms around himself.

"I'm sorry about that."

"Don't be."

"Thank you."

"Ree!"

Emily raced into the room.

"Look at what Poppy gave me!"

Emily held out a syringe that was missing the needle. It was filled with water.

"Look!"

Emily pushed the end and a jet of water shot into the air, coming down in droplets over the three of them. Emily laughed while Harry and Severus wiped the water off of their faces.

"That's great, pumpkin."

"Ree, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, sweetie, I'm just worried about Co."

Severus raised an eyebrow at the shortening of Draco's name.

Emily gave Harry a hug and patted his cheek with her tiny hand. Then she settled into his lap.

"Emily, would you like to come see my room? I bet you could jump on the bed there."

"Can I go, Ree?"

"Yes, sweetie, just don't drive Severus crazy."

Emily giggled.

"I won't."

Severus took the little girl's hand in his own larger one.

"Come on, Emily. Let's go and leave Ree to rest."

"Thanks, Sev."
Severus nodded and left, shortening his steps so that Emily could keep up.

Harry crawled on the bed with Draco once they had left and promptly fell asleep.

Harry woke up much later that night as the body next to him began to stir. He watched, terrified by the thought of Draco waking up and not remembering him, as the boy slowly opened an eye.

"Harry?"

"Yes, Draco?"

"I'm glad you're here."

"I'm glad you're awake."

Harry gently embraced Draco, relieved that he had not been forgotten. The blonde wrapped his arms around him and they lay there for several minutes. Suddenly, Harry was shoved back and cold grey eyes were staring into his.

"What the fuck, Potter?"