A/N: Reviews always welcomed. Would love to know what you think.

Disclaimer: What you recognize: not mine.

"Thinking. I've decided that you've saved us all and now I'm going to save you."

"Save me?" Harry sat up in surprise. "Do you think I need saving?"

Draco sighed, " I don't know, maybe that's not the right way to put it. I just know you need a friend. I won't be very good at it but being with you somehow makes what happened a little more bearable. If that makes any sense at all."

"So it's not all about me then."

"Of course not, Potter. I am a Slytherin. I will help you but you're helping me too. What do you say?"

"Haven't anything else to do, do I?"

Chapter 4

After a few years of roaming, they ended up back in England and were flat mates in London. And although not fully healed, they were considerably better off than their first encounter at the club in Austria. They surrounded themselves with all sort of muggles. Intellectuals, drunks, artists, punks. Their group was an eclectic mix of bizarre and worldly. It was nice in a way to find people who were comfortable in their own skin. Harry felt their presence along with Drake's had helped him focus on his writing. Their stories weaved together to inspire him. Lost in his writing was the only time he felt at peace within his own head.

Voldemort continuous attacks against his mind and sanity had left him searching for anything to dull the pain, to be able to now spend days in solitude exploring his darker thoughts and to translate to paper was nothing short of a miracle. And he knew it.

And he was proud of his accomplishment. Even if it meant that they might find him. He hadn't planned on leaving after defeating Voldemort. But they really had not given him a choice.

After he had systematically killed the entire inner circle, the Ministry had been worried. Without Dumbledore alive to keep his protégé in line, it seemed that Harry most likely would just kill Voldemort to take his place. The power was just too great, they had never such pure magic in any human being ever before. It was frightening.

The secret meetings occurred after Percy Weasley's remains had been cleaned
(using some of the strongest cleaning spells known too magic) and identified. It seemed Harry had lost control and had obliterated the traitor. The sight was grisly. Disgusting and vile. The hardened aurors who came after Harry wrenched at the sight. How could the Boy-Who-Lived do such a thing?

Of course the answer was quite easy. Harry was no longer a boy. But powerful and ruthless. Too much pain in such a short time seemed to have made him immune to killing. It was their worst fears being recognized.

Of course, no one at that time was close enough to Harry to see him rubbing his skin raw red to try to get clean. Systematically scrubbing until blisters boiled up upon his skin. The three weeks of eating only to throw up every content of his stomach as his mind riddled with guilt and anguish reminded him of the scene he had left behind. The acidity of his stomach made his larynx swollen and his voice raspy and deep. His sleep had already been erratic was now non-existence. But he knew, to save everyone, he had to press on.

It had not been quite intentional; Percy being pulled apart into tiny pieces of bone and flesh. But Harry's increase in power had come as he came of age in the wizarding world and his power was strongly tied to whatever emotions Harry was feeling. Harry had very little control on much of his magic and he had no one who could help him. The only in the wizard in the world who could have maybe related to this "power that he knew not" had died.

The first secret meeting orchestrated by the minister to discuss the "Harry situation" had been divisive. Some wizards thought he should be killed by aurors as soon as Voldemort had been defeated. Others were shocked at the idea. A few suggested Azkaban. The second meeting more were leaning to his murder. By the time Fudge had been destroyed, almost all decided that Harry was just a weapon to be dismantled once he had been used for their purposes. Unknown to Harry, this group of ten governors and officials eventually decided Harry's fate. All except one, voted to "dismantle" their weapon.

The surprise attack on him by his most trusted companions, the aurors who had fought side by side against Voldemort had certainly been a shock. Only a few minutes after an exhausted empty Harry Potter had finally fulfilled his destiny and killed his enemy, his friend's attacked. The story the Daily Prophet wouldn't even dream up on a slow news day had become reality. Harry betrayed by the light.

But of course, Harry lived. After all that's what he did, right? Unfortunately many of the aurors did not. Harry often wondered why he hadn't just let them take him and kill him. He realized it was just anger that kept Harry alive. Anger at the people he had just fought their battle for turning on him so violently and quickly. His childhood, his innocence, his sanity and purity taken from him so they could live. And they tried to take his life.

Nonetheless, it was Harry himself who ended up saving the wizarding world again, this time from their own fears of Harry's great power. Meeting with the Minister of Magic afterward behind closed doors, Harry decided what to do to alleviate the fears of all of them. He proposed the Salvation vow. And the curse. Both spells severely weakened a wizard for two different intents. The vow weakened them only to return them to full power if a life was to be saved. Once the life (any life, even their own) was saved, the wizard would be fully restored.

This was used by some wizards who adhered to Buddhist principles of enlightenment.

Many wizards from the far east felt the draining of their magic, thus the suffering they endured, helped them to achieve their enlightenment. The great wizard Buddha, himself had performed this spell.

The curse had before Azkaban had been built. It was to bind powers of cold-blooded killers who were sent to muggle prison colonies and essentially left them powerless to save themselves from harm. Many felons were killed by witch-hunts and by the elements of nature using this ancient curse.

The vow and the curse had never been used together. Until Harry.

The Minister of Magic and his council of wizards decided after the auror deaths that they had severely miscalculated and that although Harry most likely would become the next dark wizard, this was the only plan of action. The spells done together would weaken Harry's great power where he could barely perform any magic at all. Lumos would be difficult to be done under just one of the spells, it would be near impossible to achieve under both (although Harry could do it, he could do a few other simple spells as well. He kept this information to himself for obvious reasons. If he allowed them to know that even under two binding spells, he could achieve a few acts of magic; it would confirm again to the council their greatest fears: Harry's almost infinite power). After taking oaths not to attack or intentionally harm Harry or to reveal to anyone the magic binding spells performed on Harry. They performed the spells to make the greatest wizard of their time a squib.

All the council agreed with this course of action, except one, the same person who had protested the assassination attempt as well. Arthur Weasley. Although his son, Percy had been violently killed; his daughter heartbroken; Ron, injured; Bill, killed in battle; he still loved Harry. Harry was still their son. Even after all that had happened, Arthur still believed in Harry. It was that faith alone that kept Harry from taking his own life during the first few weeks after the spells were cast.

Magic had been so much of who Harry was. Now he felt nothing. Was nothing.

He stayed at the Burrow for two weeks recovering from the aftermath of the spells. He decided there that he could no longer live within their world. He was already considering himself as a muggle and it was dangerous. If the wrong person bent on revenge found out what had happened, Harry would become a much too easy target.

Telling Ron and Hermione he was leaving was actually easier than he had hoped it would be. He realized that for their own healing, he needed to go. They spent far too much time trying to make Harry better, they had not done the same for themselves. After the hugs, tears and long goodbyes; Harry knew the right decision had been made. Even though –

"You're leaving?" a small weak voice interrupted the trio's hug.

Harry sighed and looked toward the doorway to see the much too thin and pale girl. Her hair was limp and dull. And she was still the most beautiful person, he knew. Even after what she did…

"Yes." Harry winced, the tone of his voice was colder than he had intended.

"Were you going to say goodbye?"

Harry sighed again, "I don't know, Ginny."

"Oh." Ginny looked into his emerald eyes. It was the first time in a long time that they had been able to meet one another's eyes. So much had happened, so much had gone wrong. Harry didn't even blame her anymore, but the pain and grief was still there. And this is what kept him from telling her everything she needed to hear. Everything he wanted to say.

"Ginny." He said walking toward the girl, touching her hand. Ginny winced, almost in pain at his touch. Her guilt consumed her so much that she felt she didn't deserve it. "I'm sorry."

Ginny gave a small smile, "Me too, Harry. Me too." And pulled away from his hand, walking out the room.

Watching her walk away was the hardest thing Harry had ever done in his eighteen years of life.