Thank you again for the amazing reviews.
I want to thank my amazing friend Lauren who made me explain some of the problems I had with the story in more detail and made me get my thoughts in order. I hope you enjoy this chapter Loz.
I hope you enjoy this answers some of your questions, also this isn't edited because I wrote this on a train but I will come back and edit it soon.
~PureBloodSnake x
UPDATE: edited 03/2017
Gryffindor Actions
The sound of bodies hitting the ground shocked everyone before they let out a huge cheer. Draco however did not scream like the rest of the Hogwarts students, all the blood had left his face and he felt sick. Harry was cradling a dead body and nobody but him seemed to realise that, he needed to look away, to compose himself, yet he couldn't bring himself to do it. The cheering continued and Dumbledore had made his way over to Harry and Cedric, blocking Draco's view of his brother. That annoyed him a little, his brother was in pain, in enough pain that Draco could feel the nauseating waves of sorrow and guilt. What had happened in that maze?
"He's back, he's back, Voldemort's back!" The whole crowd was silent, Draco fought the urge to be sick. "Cedric, he asked me to bring his body back, I couldn't leave him," Harry was beginning to break down, his words were constantly interrupted by the harsh, ragged breaths passing through his lips. "Not there!" Tears started pouring down his cheeks as the barrier broke, Draco could feel that his own eyes were starting to swim with tears as well.
"It's alright Harry," Dumbledore had his hands on Harry's cheeks, grounding him to the real world while offering him the smallest comfort. Draco wished that could be him, but then squashed the jealousy down, it wasn't appropriate. He watched as Dumbledore bent his head close to Harry's and whispered something that no-one seemed to hear. When Amos Diggory, Cedric's father started wailing in despair, Draco found he couldn't stand to be there anymore. Casting one quick glance back to Harry, he saw Moody with his arm around his shoulders growling into his ear. Draco himself almost growled, he was nearly strangling Harry! Something wasn't right there, but he turned and walked towards the castle, even though something in the back of his mind was nagging him to stay and follow Harry.
A little while later, no more than twenty minutes whilst he was wandering the corridors, Draco saw Snape, Dumbledore and McGonagall all heading towards Moody's office. Harry! Following them closely, Draco saw them blast the door open and charge in, disarming the teacher. Catching a glimpse of Harry, he saw that the younger boy was cowering behind a trunk. Draco laughed silently at how similar their positions were, especially how they held themselves, trying to not show any fear, even when hiding. Watching Snape pour something, which he assumed to be veritaserum, down Moody's throat, Draco felt a breath of relief fall from his lips, whoever sat in that chair couldn't do any harm to Harry now. Draco couldn't hear anything that the professors were saying, and it bugged him, maybe he should move closer. He stepped forward, and slowly edged his way into the office, keeping to the wall, as he watched silently.
"Harry, away from there!" Dumbledore called, moving his hand as if he was going to flick Harry away with his wand. Draco was glad his brother had the sense to move quickly. Everyone in the room, except Draco and Moody, crept forward after the trunk had opened and peered in, if the situation was different Draco would have found it hilarious, it reminded him of those awful muggle horror films he had once watched with Pansy.
"You alright Alastor?" Dumbledore called into the trunk. From where he was stood Draco could not hear the reply, but instead turned his eyes to Moody. If there was an Alastor in the trunk, who was this Alastor Moody in front of him?
"If that's Moody then who's..?" Harry seemed to have caught on to his line of thought.
"Polyjuice potion." Snape sneered
"Now we know who's been stealing from your stores Severus," Dumbledore replied calmly. How could he be calm at a time like this? And why was nobody but him watching the fake Moody? Draco was inclined to announce his presence to the other people in the room but kept quiet, no-one seemed to have noticed him and he wasn't exactly hiding, so why blow his cover now?
Whilst everyone had been distracted by Moody in the trunk, or in Draco's case his own thoughts, nobody had noticed Moody melting away to become a skinnier, younger dark haired man. Harry turned back to the criminal in the chair only to find a wand pointed at him.
"Crucio!" He screamed, hysterical laughter breaking up the silence of the room that followed. Draco's world almost halted, everything seemed to move slowly. He took a look at the teachers and noticed that none of them would react fast enough to protect Harry from the red light that was moving towards him. Draco weighed his options, he could pull Harry out the way, but he didn't think he would have enough strength to pull him, especially as he seemed to be frozen to the spot. The only thing Draco could do was throw himself in the curse's way. Time sped up slightly and Draco dived into the path of the curse and felt it's malicious intent. His body felt like it was on fire, his skin slowly peeling away from his body piece by piece, starting from where the curse had hit. If a person could be turned inside out, Draco reckoned this would be what they would feel. But he would not let out a scream, he kept his mouth clamped shut and opened his eyes to glare at the man who was having the wand wrestled off of him by Snape. The wand was dislodged and it rolled onto the floor and the spell was gone. Draco finally felt he could breath again and collapsed onto the floor, not an ounce of Malfoy decorum left.
"Mr Potter could you take Mr Malfoy to Madam Pomfrey? And whilst you're there get yourself looked over." It seemed that McGonagall was the only teacher who had realised that two students were here and both were hurt.
Harry looped Draco's arm over his shoulders and lifted him back to his feet. Slowly they made their way out of the office and towards the infirmary. Draco felt comforted by the fact his brother was holding him close and helping him, like they should've done all their lives.
"Why?" It took him a while to realise Harry's question was directed at him.
"Why what?" He asked turning his grey eyes to Harry's green ones. He almost grinned as he noticed they weren't so green anymore, there were little flecks of grey hidden in them.
"Why did you jump in front of the cruciatus?" Harry's gaze was intense and reminded him of his mother's when she wanted answers, no disappointment or anger in like his father's, just pure love and hope. They turned the corner and made it to the infirmary doors.
"I think this conversation would be better when my body wasn't screaming in pain, it's awfully hard to think like that, did you know?" He knew his answer was a little silly, but it was worth it to see the smile that Harry sent his way. He loved that smile and wanted to see it more often. "Come by in a few days, when we're both physically fine and I'll explain. It's a long story." There was no way Draco could get out of this without revealing the truth, he just had to hope that Dumbledore would allow him to tell Harry a few days earlier than what they had planned.
"Get him onto a bed then." The snappish tones of the mediwitch brought Draco back to reality. Half crawling, half being lifted Draco made his way onto the bed and fell asleep almost immediately after a pain potion was thrown down his throat.
"I'll see you in a couple of days Malfoy." Was the last thing he heard before the blackness claimed him.
? ゚ミノ? ゚ミノ?
Harry was confused. Draco Malfoy had thrown himself in front of a cruciatus curse that was supposed to hit Harry. How had he even got into the room in the first place? And why? Why would Draco Malfoy of all people save Harry from a torture curse? It didn't make sense. Harry was lying on a bed in the infirmary, the one next to Malfoy's. Madam Pomfrey hadn't put up any privacy curtains so Harry could see Malfoy asleep on his own bed. He didn't know why but he was strangely comforted by Malfoy being near. Harry chalked it down to being grateful that someone had saved his life. Although Malfoy wasn't aware, Harry had noticed that after the second task Malfoy had stopped tormenting him. One day was all it took for Malfoy to leave him alone, something he had wished for for four years, however when the hateful comments had disappeared, Harry had felt a little lost. He didn't realise he needed that rivalry, he needed someone who challenged his every decision, he thrived on it. Maybe after this, even if him and Malfoy did not return to schoolyard rivals, they could continue this routine but as friends.
Harry snuggled further down into the covers and glanced again at the boy next to him, who looked so peaceful, his eyelashes fluttering every so often. Being able to see Malfoy this peaceful felt awfully intimate and Harry could not stop the smile that spread on his face. Taking his glasses off, Harry cast his eyes back to the blond blur that was Malfoy, before closing his eyes and falling asleep.
? ゚ミノ? ゚ミノ?
"Good morning Malfoy," Draco rubbed his eyes and blinked a couple of times before turning to the owner of the voice. Harry.
"Potter, what?" He asked groaning at the stupidity of his question. He needed some coffee.
"You owe me an explanation and the train leaves in three hours. So I came to get my answers." Harry shrugged. Draco took the chance to look at his brother again, it had been a couple of days since he had last seen him and he was pleased to note that Harry's eyes had more grey flecks in along with some blue and his hair was losing its bird-nest qualities.
"We need to go to Dumbledore's office then, just let me get dressed first." Harry didn't move for a while, so Draco glared and Harry sheepishly left whilst Draco got dressed. He needed to wear something smart, his parents and Dumbledore were going to be there, yet nothing too smart that it would scare Harry off. Choosing a black t-shirt and jeans and overlaying a green cardigan, Draco left the infirmary, an apple in his hand before collecting Harry from where he was waiting.
They reached the large stone gryffin and Draco reached out to stroke the feathers as he repeated the password.
"Mint humbugs" he had cleared everything with Dumbledore last night, who had agreed that it was finally time to let Harry know the truth.
"Welcome my boys, please take a seat, we're just waiting for a couple of guests before we can begin." Dumbledore turned on his heel and walked towards his fireplace and removed the wards to actually allow someone to pass through.
"Why couldn't you tell me in the infirmary?" Harry hissed in Draco's ear.
"You'll see." He murmured back. Draco was a little excited, he was finally going to have his brother back in his life. And hopefully his stunt a couple of days ago would make this easier for Harry and him to get passed their schoolyard rivalry. Before long Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy stepped out of the fireplace, not stumbling at all, Draco could see Narcissa trying to hide her excitement and almost failing, she had a massive smile on her face and her eyes were twinkling.
"Draco, how do you feel?" She swept Draco into a hug and he stiffened before remembering that the Pureblood mask would only scare Harry away. He always missed his mother's hugs whilst he was at Hogwarts, they were warm and homely.
Harry looked on at the scene curiously. He was confused as to why both Malfoy's parents and Dumbledore needed to hear the reason Malfoy had saved him. What confused him more was the open display of affection by the usually emotionless family. After Narcissa had let go, Lucius pulled his son into a hug and ruffled his hair. Maybe Harry had misjudged them? Ron would think he was mental thinking that, so he shook the thought out of his head.
"Now that we're all here, we may begin." Dumbledore seemed excited as well. "A few months ago, Harry, when Madam Pomfrey checked your health before the tournament, she noticed something a little strange. Harry there was a glamour spell on you that was starting to fade."
"What's a glamour?" He didn't miss Narcissa's stern look as he interrupted Dumbledore and was a little concerned with how much it made him feel guilty. He shook off the feeling.
"A glamour is a charm that conceals part or all of one's appearance. One of those had been placed on you when you were a very small child, and its magic is beginning to disintegrate. I'm sure you have noticed your appearance changing a lot this past year," Harry nodded, he hadn't payed too much attention to it, preferring to focus on the tournament, but Hermione had a habit of reminding him and trying to do some research for him, luckily (for Harry) she had found nothing and couldn't give him another lecture. "I would say in about a month the entire glamour will have disappeared and you will look like your family."
"But I already look like my family, everyone's said it 'you look like your father with your mother's eyes'. What do you mean look like my family?" Harry was beginning to get agitated, all he was here for was to find why Malfoy jumped in front of that curse. What was all this glamour business and why did it include the Malfoys?
"I'm getting to that my boy. After seeing that the glamour couldn't be removed by most spellwork, Madam Pomfrey took a blood sample, I'm sure you remember, brought it to me and we did a DNA test to see who you were underneath the magic." Dumbledore handed Harry a piece of parchment
Harry James Potter it read in an elegant scrawl.
Formally known as Caelum Regulus Malfoy
Parents: Lucius Abraxas Malfoy and Narcissa Druella Black
Siblings: Draco Lucius Malfoy, older twin brother
Harry stared at the parchment in shock. He could feel the magic on the parchment that belonged to Dumbledore, who wouldn't lie to Harry, not after everything.
"So that's why you jumped in front of that curse. You knew." He knew he sounded defeated, yet spoke anyway. Malfoy nodded, he looked ready to receive a punch. "When?"
"Christmas."
"And you didn't tell me?" Harry felt like he was going to explode, the grief, the guilt and now the anger on top of everything was boiling his blood.
"I honestly wanted to. Now will you please calm down, you're going to end up blowing us all against the wall!" Malfoy snapped and Harry looked at him in shock, how did he know how close to boiling point Harry was?
"Draco don't be rude." Narcissa hit the back of her eldest son's head and turned to Harry apologetically. "We wanted so badly to tell you, but we and Dumbledore agreed not to burden you with anything on top of the triwizard tournament, you are only a boy after all. I told Draco at Christmas to try not to act any differently around you, to keep you feeling as comfortable as possible whilst you were in such dangerous tasks. I'm not sure you would've been glad to have Draco acting all protective over you when you didn't understand why." Harry had to agree with her point.
"Is that why you jumped in front of the curse, to protect me?" Harry turned to Malfoy his eyes softening.
"Yeah couldn't let my little brother get hurt now could I?" It was mumbled very quietly, but Harry heard it all the same, he smiled widely. He wasn't sure how well he would get on with a new family, but he was willing to make an effort if they were. And Malfoy's stupidly brave action gave him hope for a better future.
