"Go left up here!" Draco shouted, as they went speeding down the Muggle streets in their stolen sports car, music on full blast, blue and red flashing lights in the rearview mirror.

"I think we need to go right" Charlie shouted back, pressing his foot down on the accelerator with a whoop as they went shooting ahead from the police.

"No it's definitely left" Draco said, seeing the turn come up to get them on the road with no CCTV and plenty of places to ditch the car and run.

"It's this one on the right!" Charlie pointed.

"No it's - " Draco shouted, but Charlie went flying past the left turn and spun the wheel hard, careening them into the right turn and immediately slammed on the brake as Draco shouted his name in panic at the wall that was fast approaching.

The car screeched to a stop and both boys sat silently. Draco dropped his head onto the dashboard and let out a loud groan and swore.

"Well shit, you were right... again" Charlie said sheepishly, and sighed, slumping back in his seat as the sirens and flashing lights blocked the exit behind them to the dead end they were stuck in.

"She's going to be so mad at us" Draco sighed, as the officers approached the car.

"She always is anyway" Charlie snorted and the two boys stepped out of the car and put their hands up, well practiced in the protocol by now.

They were processed slowly, the police on the graveyard shift not in any rush to get things done in the small hours of a Tuesday morning. Afterwards they were put in a holding cell, and they lay down on the benches, waiting for the usual payment to come through so they could get back out.

"Should've stolen a faster car" Charlie muttered darkly.

Draco snorted. "Should've let me drive" he retorted quietly and Charlie chuckled.

It was a couple of hours before they heard the clicking of familiar heels.

"Here comes our guardian angel" Draco said sarcastically as Beverly Harps stalked into the room in her far too high and expensive heels. She was in her early fifties with a harsh face and a short dark blonde bob. Her designer suit was immaculate, even at this hour of the night, and she only turned to give the boys a disdainful look once she'd handed over an envelope of cash to the policeman, who accepted it, told her the escort car would be outside, and opened the holding cell door to let the boys go.

"Out, now" Beverly spoke in a dangerous voice.

"What nice shoes Bev" Charlie commented in a sugary sweet voice. "They new?"

Draco smirked and Beverly narrowed her eyes.

"Move it, both of you" Beverly snapped as she herded them out of the room. "You're almost not worth the trouble anymore"

"But then who else would get you such fancy clothes and cars?" Draco asked her with a sneer. "Unless you've decided to buy yourself some morals instead?"

Beverly pushed him towards the car.

"Get in" she hissed "And be quiet"

They rode back in silence in the back of the cop car, sighing as they pulled up to the dark, looming building where they had spent all of their school holidays for the last nine years. Fairview Foster Home. Or in Draco and Charlie's case, the abusive, Muggle shithole that their parents dumped them in when they weren't at school so they didn't have to look after them.

Draco and Charlie walked ahead as Beverly paid the cop. She would always complain about the money they cost her getting into trouble, but the chief of police always gave back far more to her when he came for his 'conjugal visits'. If only they were with Beverly and not them. But teenage boys with nowhere to go were more his type.

- 0 -

There were two weeks left of summer before Draco went back for his last year at Hogwarts and Charlie went back to Durmstrang, and they spent it in their usual way, making Beverly's life difficult, though not getting in anymore trouble with the police, breaking out of Fairview without the use of their wands, which their parents confiscated before they dumped them there, going to clubs and bars, and stealing clothes and food which they had become masters of over the last nine years of being neglected at Fairview.

Most children at Fairview were foster kids, ones that were up for adoption and were a lot younger, but they allowed renting an additional two rooms out to Draco and Charlie, whose parents paid extravagantly to have them out of their way for the duration of the holidays. Beverly treated the younger kids well, they were after all going to be taken in by nice families and could very well pipe up about any wrongdoings.

Draco and Charlie had been a different story, Draco had been thrown into Fairview when he was nine, a month after Charlie. Charlie Romanov, a lightly-tanned boy with brown hair and blue eyes, a mix of English and Russian descent, had been quiet and was scared to be alone, but Draco had grown up alone, his parents not bothering to look after him, just letting the house elves get on with it. Draco had already become talented at breaking out of the Manor and amusing himself. When he had joined Fairview, he had done so with his Malfoy mask in place and immediately taken a liking to Charlie when they found out they were both wizards, having sleepovers in each other's rooms, watching movies, stealing snacks, playing pranks on Beverly and the other kids. Charlie had come out of his shell quickly with Draco there and over the years they had started upping the anti of their escapades, making challenges to steal more expensive items, or play bigger pranks.

It was when they turned 11, just before either of them started school, and as a joint birthday celebration since both of their birthdays were in the summer they had decided to try and steal a boat, hyping each other up for a summer of sailing the seas where nobody would be able to catch them. They were promptly arrested when they drove the boat into land within ten minutes and a much more middle-class Beverly came to the police station. They hadn't been around for the discussion, but it had seemed the chief had cut a deal after finding out that they were unwanted children, and he promised he could make the whole issue disappear and would even pay her, and donate to the foster home as a cover, for just some time alone with the boys. Beverly had eagerly agreed and it was swept under the rug.

The chief turned up that night in Draco's room, pulling his penis out and getting Draco to touch it or threatened that he would spend the rest of his life in prison. He made him stroke it, and put his fingers in Draco's mouth to suck. Draco had started to cry and tried to take his hand away, and the chief had wrapped one hand around Draco's neck, and the other around the hand on his penis and controlled the strokes until he came.

Draco had scrubbed at his hands and mouth harshly afterwards and sat in shock, not knowing what to say or do, isolating himself for the night and next day. The chief had returned for Charlie the next night, Beverly locking Draco in his room when he tried to run through to him and stop it, and he had pounded at the door until the chief left and Beverly finally let him out.

Draco had ran to Charlie's room, who had experienced the same as Draco, and Draco had helped him wash his hands and brush his teeth as Charlie cried, and they both lay on Charlie's bed, neither saying a word. The next day Beverly had handed them a few bank notes each and told them to go get themselves some lunch and cinema tickets.

Both of them stared at the bank notes as though it were millions of pounds, which at that point was what it felt like. They had their own money, their freedom to buy what they wanted with it, to not have to steal food or clean clothes and risk getting caught. They felt powerful.

They had run out of the house excitedly, putting the previous nights' incidents to the back of their minds as they got burgers and chips and went to see a movie together.

The chief returned every few weeks, one night after another on the weekend, and the more he showed up, the more sexual it became. Beverly had started seeing how lucrative the boys could be for her. She always gave them a little of the money, and it was hardly as if they could go to the police or their parents about it.

Draco and Charlie coped with it, eventually just not talking about what was being done to them, just taking the money and gifts and pretending to keep feeling like they were winning, like nothing was a problem. After years of rubbish food, clothes that didn't fit them and having no money, it was easy to pretend. A couple of the people that started coming Draco had even recognised from Wizarding London, from working in the Ministry with his father. How they had got wind of the place Draco had no idea, but they paid handsomely for the boys' service and that was all that mattered to Beverly, who had been turning up to work in more and more lavish outfits. On the days she wasn't there the boys could rest easy. The rest of the staff had no idea what was going on.

It was one night when it was just Beverly inside the foster home, the other staff away, that one of the men had got carried away. He was a Muggle, a wealthy businessman in his fifties. Draco was passing by Charlie's room in a daze, his own last 'client' having just left, when he heard Charlie shout in pain. Draco paused.

"No please stop! Please it really hurts!" he heard Charlie beg.

"I'll do whatever I want to you boy!" Draco heard a sharp smack that sounded like a punch and Draco immediately pushed the door, trying to open it, but it was locked.

"We're busy in here!" The man's voice snarled.

"No please!" Draco heard Charlie beg before he shouted in pain again.

Draco backed up a couple of steps, his heart hammering with anger, and he kicked the door hard. It went flying open and Draco stopped still for a second. The man was inside Charlie, that was expected, it's what they had both come to expect a few nights a week now, but there was blood dripping from the entrance, and he was stubbing his cigarette into Charlie's shoulder and Charlie had bruises forming over his body.

"Get away from him!" Draco shouted, striding into the room.

The man laughed cruelly, looking at small, eleven year old Draco. "I paid for him, I get to do what I want"

"No you don't" Draco told him, his voice icy, and he ran up, punching the man square in the face with all his strength. He stumbled backward, out of Charlie, who scrambled up the bed, sobbing with pain and fear.

The man recovered quickly and grabbed Draco by the throat throwing him at the wall, winding him as he hit the dresser and his head hit the wall, he dropped to the ground. The large man turned back to Charlie.

"You think that was sore" he licked his lips. "You have no idea what I'm going to do to you next" he growled menacingly, advancing on Charlie who whimpered.

"Draco" he whispered pleadingly.

Draco stood up, his head spinning slightly and saw the man grab Charlie's legs, saw the blood and tears and bruises, and Draco picked up a lamp, lifting it and swinging it with all his might, smashing it into the man's head. The man let out a roar of pain and fury and charged at Draco, who ran to the corridor. The older man dived at Draco and grabbed him at the top of the stairs, pushing Draco into the wall. He pulled back his fist and Draco ducked as he swung, the man punching into the wall and shouting in pain. Draco tried to run away but he grabbed Draco's jumper and Draco turned, pushing him off as hard as he could. He watched in slow motion as the man stumbled back, his eyes going impossibly wide. He teetered on the edge of the step for an agonising second, staring into Draco's eyes in fear as he let go of his jumper, falling backwards. Draco could do nothing but watch as he landed hard on the steps and tumbled down both flights. Draco looked over the bannister and heard the snap of bone as he landed hard at the bottom of the stairs. The man was lying still, his neck was at an unnatural angle, his eyes open and unseeing. Beside him stood Beverly, who had come to see what the noise was. She had her hand over her mouth as she stared at the dead, naked man and she looked upwards, staring into Draco's eyes. Draco gulped and ran back to Charlie's room, shutting the door and propping a chair under the handle before running to his friend, climbing onto the bed in front of him, where Charlie sat curled up, his blue eyes bright and red-rimmed from tears.

"Are you okay?" he whispered to Charlie, who was staring at him with wide eyes.

"Is he coming back?" Charlie whispered back.

Draco swallowed hard and shook his head jerkily.

Charlie let out a breath, staring at Draco as though he'd come straight from heaven before throwing his arms around him and sobbing. Draco wrapped his arms around him and they held each other before Draco helped him get cleaned up and they both moved room and lay in Draco's bed all night, neither sleeping at all. They held each other's hand tightly as they listened to Beverly and the Chief of Police talk downstairs, cutting a deal to make sure this never got out.

After this, the boys never went anywhere without the other, sleeping in the same bed, pretending they didn't have the same nightmares. The years passed, and people kept coming to their rooms for favours, though Beverly was a tiny bit pickier about the clientele she brought in... most of the time. They carried on as they had before, though Beverly gave them less money as punishment for what Draco had done. But it was okay, they had each other. One night after they'd both had a client, they had gone out instead of sit in silence, and they had gone to a club and taken shots of tequila using their fake ID's that they'd managed to buy with some of their saved up cash.

They had snuck back into Fairview and lay in Draco's bed, giggling non-stop. Draco had turned to Charlie and Charlie had moved forward, kissing him on the lips. Draco had been surprised but it felt nice, comforting, and he kissed him back. Charlie pulled back after a few seconds and they both looked at each other and started laughing again, the whole thing was absurd. They both turned and went to sleep, and nothing ever happened between them again.

Now, one week before school started again and Beverly was clearly trying to make her money's worth. Draco's client for four nights in a row was the worst he'd ever had, another sadist, and Draco's memories flickered back to Charlie's client when they were 11, the way he entered him roughly and without any preparation, drawing blood from inside Draco, the way he licked Draco's tears away and got off on the fact he was crying, the way he punched and choked Draco, while Draco cried and whimpered, told him over and over that Draco was a vile, worthless, unwanted person, that he deserved this, as he stubbed his cigarette out onto Draco's skin. But he refused to beg him to stop, he wouldn't give him the satisfaction of begging. And he didn't want to bother Charlie, so he never told him, just pretending as usual that things were fine, while he hoped that his insides would repair, and the bruises and burns would fade.

And then the man was gone, just like that, as though he'd never been there at all, and it was almost time for his father to collect him for school.

Draco tried to put it all behind him. Tried to forget what the man had done to him and mentally prepare himself for school. When Draco went to Hogwarts it was like a separate life, it was like he dreamed the holidays up. And when he went to Fairview in the holidays, it was like Hogwarts and magic didn't even exist, they were entirely separate worlds, and Draco needed to keep it that way in order to stay sane.

So why, when he stepped aboard the Hogwarts Express, was he staring directly into the face of Charlie Romanov?