Thank you to ALL my reviewers and to ALL my readers!
Disclaimer: see previous chapter.
Thank you to Merlin, GoldenSunnyGrl, and Malombra for being such great BETA'S.
AU.
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CHAPTER TWENTY
Neither Harry nor Draco saw the oil finally make it to the fire. They didn't feel the whosh of heat as the flammable oil ignited. In seconds the flames had reached the oil's path on the floor and made its way to Draco's soaked sleeve.
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Pomfrey made it to Severus' office just a minute after leaving Harry outside Draco's door.
"I want you to know that I disapprove greatly with this 'Plan'."
Severus nodded as he looked up from some papers he was signing. "As we all do. Mr. Potter is stubborn, we all know this. He had to come to Draco of his own free will."
"Free will!" Pomfrey snorted, "that boy hasn't had free will since he was born."
"Are you implying, Madam Pomfrey, that we have somehow manipulated this situation?"
"You weren't a successful spy for no reason at all, Severus." Her tone was mocking but there was still affection in it.
"Why thank you, my good woman."
"Don't thank me. Just pray to what ever God or Goddess you believe in that Draco can keep Harry occupied."
Before Severus could answer, claxons started shrilling loudly. With a muffled curse he turned to the miniaturized scale of Hogwarts that materialized on the wall beside the fireplace.
"Merlin!" Pom breathed in fear. There was a fire in Draco's room!
"Come on!" Severus cried as he sped towards the door.
As they turned the corner of Harry and Draco's corridor, house elves were dragging the unconscious forms of the two men out of the room as black smoke billowed out of the door. More house elfs and teachers arrived as the Headmaster began shouting orders. Within minutes both men were in the infirmary and the house elves had the fire out.
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Severus stepped into the infirmary after making sure the fire was completely out and Draco's rooms were well on the way to being fixed.
"How are they?" Severus asked as he wearily sat down in a chair next to his Godson.
"Draco is fine." Pom said as she continued to work on Harry, "it seems he was already unconscious by the time Harry got there."
"And Harry?" He prompted when she hesitated to continue.
"There was a magical barrier around Draco, preventing the smoke and flames to reach him." Severus could hear her voice and could tell from it that she was very upset.
"He protected him, again?"
"Again." Was all that she answered as she busily poured potion after potion down Harry's throat.
"Did he know?"
"Harry? I can't tell, but I believe so." Pom conjured a wet cloth and began to wipe the black soot from Harry's face. When it was as clean as she could make it, she carefully began to smooth a thick burn salve over the worse marks on Harry's face and neck.
"Will he be okay?" Draco's voice was rough but it wasn't from the smoke. He had been screaming right before he felt Harry's arms circle him.
Pom turned and flashed him a small smile. "He will be. The burns are second degree and the potions will clear his lungs. I have him bound to the bed so that when he starts coughing he won't fall out of it."
"So, he can't run this time?" Draco tried to smile back but he was still feeling the panic of before.
Severus snorted but all that Pom did was smile again. "Not this time."
"Good." Draco murmured before he let the potions lull him into sleep.
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Harry woke up in pain. The last thing he remembered was falling to the floor and taking the shaking Draco into his arms. Then there was a sound that he had remembered from the Final Battle, and it was instinctual for him to cast a sphere of protection around Draco right before the right side of his body erupted in pain. The fact that he was still in pain was actually good. If he was in pain, he was alive. And that, no matter the hell of the last six months, was always good.
Harry groaned as he tried to move and couldn't. That groan sent him into a coughing fit that would have ended with him on the floor if he hadn't been bound to the bed.
"Bout time you woke up, Potter." Harry couldn't move his head too far but he could see someone moving out of the corner of his eye. A hand holding a potion vial came into view and his head was slowly lifted. Harry opened his mouth and the cool potion soothed his raw and hurting throat. He couldn't stop the sigh of relief as his lungs started to clear.
"Wha-?"
"Don't try to talk. You're throat and lungs are still raw from the smoke." Draco started talking as he wiped Harry's face of the potion that hadn't made it into his mouth. "You know, if you hadn't been so stubborn, none of this would have happened."
Harry shook his head as much as he could and tried to convey his confusion by his eyes alone.
"When I woke up, after you bonded yourself to me, I was still confused. I didn't understand what had happened. It was weeks before what had happened was fully understood and what you had done to both of us was clear." Draco's voice was still rough but it was soft as he caressed Harry's healing cheek.
Harry's heart was beating so fast that he was sure that Draco could hear it. As he couldn't move because of being bound to the bed, Harry couldn't run like he wanted too.
"You left me, Harry. Why?" Draco continued to caress Harry's face, while his own was expressionless.
Harry felt his eyes start to burn and itch, classic signs of impending tears. All Draco did was gently wipe the tears from Harry's cheeks.
"You bound yourself to me, and then you left me." Draco reached beside him and picked up the glass container that was filled with fresh burn salve. He lifted out an appropriate amount and turned back to face Harry. He lost the hold he had on his emotions as he saw the tears falling from Harry's sad eyes.
His own eyes burning with unshed tears, Draco applied to burn salve to Harry's face and neck, the hardest hit by the flames.
"I panicked. Me, self-proclaimed Prince of Slytherin, panicked when I woke up and you were gone. I didn't understand what was going on, where all these feelings were coming from, and how to deal with them. All I knew was that I had never felt so alone in my life."
"I'm sorry." Harry managed to whisper before Draco laid a finger over his lips stopping him from continuing.
"Me too." Draco said with a soft smile. "I hated you, so much, because I didn't know how to deal with all these emotions. In seventh year when my mother was killed, I made a promise to myself that I would never let anyone close to me again. I married Pansy because I had too. When Voldemort killed my son in front of me to try to gain my loyalty, I lost it. It was easier to hate everyone."
Harry's heart filled with love for the man before him, more than he had ever had before. He had known some of what he had been through but the emotion behind Draco's words was something he had never heard from the other man.
"I wanted to hate you the moment I met you."
Harry was shocked at what that comment implied and tried to get that information from Draco's eyes. But those eyes were, once again, expressionless. He watched as Draco kept spreading the burn salve, eyes fully turned from his own.
After a few more moments of silence Draco sighed. "I tried, you know," he said softly, "it was so hard but I wasn't trained as a spy since I was ten years old for nothing. The only one who knew was Severus and I made him vow to never tell. And then you saved my life, again, and in the process bound us together."
Harry's chest was no longer tight from the smoke damage, it was now tight from not being able to express his feelings. Here was the man he had loved for countless years, telling him that he loved him back. And he couldn't do anything about it until he was healed. Try as he might Harry couldn't break Pom's body bind. So, he tried to convey his love for the man gently rubbing burn salve on his burned cheek, with his eyes, the only part of his body that he control over.
"I love you."
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Well, there is one, maybe two, chapters left. Still not sure if there will be an NC-17 chapter for this story. It may be left at R so that the last chapter can be posted here. Heaven forbid I get ANOTHER story deleted from FFN.
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LMG