Summary: In the third year of the war, Draco is discovered as a spy for the Order of the Phoenix. Snape brings him to Grimmauld Place for safety. But months of being locked in a house with Potter take their toll, and soon both boys are in over their heads.
Pairing: Harry/Draco. If you don't like it, don't read it.
Warnings: Sexual content. Language.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and everything affiliated with his world belong to J.K. Rowling.
Betaed by YaoiFanGirl101
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When the trio went to the orphanage that the Dark Lord grew up in, Draco stayed in the library. He bit his nails down to the quick, a filthy habit he hadn't indulged in since he was eight.
They were gone a long time, which did nothing to quell Draco's anxiety. The fire, the cozy atmosphere of the library, and the dry text he was reading all conspired against him, and Draco felt himself nodding off.
Draco woke with a start. He was in his bed, which was weird, because he distinctly remembered falling asleep in the library. He was still in his robes, at least.
He ventured downstairs, and discovered that the trio had returned. He found Potter in the sitting room. Potter didn't appear to notice his approach, but he was making plenty of noise. Sure enough, when he spoke, Potter didn't appear startled.
"How'd it go?"
"Could have been worse," was the only response. Potter had his back to Draco and was staring determinedly at the Black family tree on the far wall.
"Did you find it? What happened?"
"Why do you care?" Harry didn't appear apathetic, merely curious.
"Humor me, Po-Harry," Draco said with a small smile. No matter how easily Harry flowed in his head, he couldn't get over his first instinct of calling him Potter out loud.
Harry finally turned around to face Draco. "Well, you and Hermione were right, shockingly. The basement was the original, the new owner told us as much. He had pretty much forgotten about it until we brought it up, actually. A Confundus charm got us a quick look around. It was wild, there was this place right in the heart of Muggle London, with no traces of magic, and then you enter the basement, and even I could sense there were some magic traces."
As Harry continued narrating his adventure, he grew more animated and his eyes lit up. It was an expression Draco had seen many times at school, usually on the Quidditch pitch, but never when Harry was talking to Draco.
"Ron and I start to go barging in, but Hermione stops us. She tells us we're idiots, which is probably true." Draco snorted at that. Harry gave a wry grin. "And that the place is probably booby trapped, haven't we learnt anything. She does these complicated spell things that make the air glow red, showing all the magical traces, I think. Most of them were anti-Muggle spells, which explains why even the owner of the building had forgotten he had a basement.
"They had no effect on us, of course, cause we're Wizards, obviously. Some of them were for the few people that actually got through the anti-Muggle spells. I was a little confused about why Tom Riddle would leave a piece of his soul in such a Muggle place, especially one he hated. Hermione thinks that this was his backup soul, and that no wizard would think to look in the orphanage. Especially since most wizards don't' even know Tom Riddle and Lord Voldemort are the same person.
"There was nothing really nasty, just like the cave, I've sure Hermione's told you all about it. Voldemort would be interested in learning about who could actually get this far in discovering his Horcruxes. Well, Hermione didn't recognize one of the spells, and Ron just goes dashing through it. It actually turns him into a baby, well in his mind at least. He starts gooing and gahing and Hermione and I have no clue what to do. Fortunately, he disabled the booby trap. We, Hermione and I, discovered a secret compartment in the back wall, hiding under some pretty mean cloaking spells. If Hermione weren't there, Ron and I would probably be stuck in that basement, dying of starvation with the mental capacity of two year olds.
"So, we open the compartment pretty easily, but then comes the hardest part of all. There was this mirror in front of the compartment, and it was like a mini-Mirror of Erised. Hermione looked into it, and it took me almost fifteen minutes to snap her out of it. She was refused to tell me what she saw though, other than it reminded her of my descriptions of the Mirror of Erised."
Draco tried not to laugh at Harry's petulant tone and asked a question to distract him. "How do you know about the Mirrors of Erised? Wasn't the last one destroyed in 1897?"
"Nope, there's one at Hogwarts. I found it my first year one night when Filch caught me in the Restricted Section."
Draco's mouth hung open. In first year, he had been far too scared to venture out in the castle at night. When he challenged Harry to that duel, he had every intention of showing up. Until he realized it would be leaving his common room around midnight, to go wander around a dark castle full of ghosts. He had told Filch and pretended like it was his plan all along.
"Anyways, I accidentally looked in the Mirror. Fortunately Hermione snapped me out of it, and reminded me that what I really wanted was to destroy Voldemort and have a happy future."
"That wasn't your first vision in the Mirror?" asked Draco, genuinely curious.
Potter blushed and mumbled something. He probably saw himself married to Weaslette with fifteen kids. Draco squashed an unreasonable surge of jealousy.
"She managed to snap me out of it. Luckily Dumbledore taught me the trick with the Mirror of Erised in first year, though. Inside we found his Head Boy badge, actually, not his Prefect badge. But don't worry," he hastened to add, seeing the look of worry on Draco's face. "The Head Boy badge was the Horcrux. I tried to pick it up with my scarf, but it burnt a hole right through it.
"We decided to destroy it where it was. Hermione threw the basilisk venom on it and it smoked and melted, that's how we knew it was a Horcrux.
"So we gathered up Ron, who was drooling at this point, and left. And one more Horcrux down. Hermione went to the library as so as we got back and is still researching."
"Weasley's still a two-year old?"
"Only in his mind."
"Oh, so there's no difference, then."
Once Harry realized what Draco had implied, he threw a couch pillow at him.
"It's so weird, though, that the Dark Lord was Head Boy, I can't imagine him as a Hogwart's student. Of course, he didn't have a prejudiced Headmaster, either. "
"We didn't have a prejudiced Headmaster!" Harry immediately jumped to his hero's defense.
"Oh yeah? Remember the house cup first year? You got all those extra house points and stole the house cup from us! And do you know the last time there was a Slytherin Head Boy? My father! Do you know how long ago that was?"
"Well, if the Slytherin Head Boys would stop going evil and power-hungry, maybe people wouldn't be so anxious to not put you blokes in positions of power."
"So, at least…we're debonair." Harry just stared at him. "What? I don't really have another defense."
Harry looked like he was trying not to laugh, and let out a huge yawn.
"Merlin, I'm tired."
"You should go up to bed." Harry nodded his acquiescence and got up. He offered a hand to Draco, who took it as Harry pulled him up. Draco stared down at their joined hands as the significance of their actions hit him. His memory of that first train ride to Hogwarts was still plenty vivid in his mind. He could still see the look of disdain on Harry's face as he turned him down.
Harry was completely oblivious, as usual, and he gave Draco a tired smile and another yawn before he dropped Draco's hand. Potter exited the sitting room and walked up the stairs, affording Draco a very nice view of his denim clad ass.
Draco followed Potter up the stairs, but turned off at the landing that led to the library. He found Granger there, hunched over a new pile of books. Her eyes were red-rimmed and there were tear tracts on her face.
The look of relief on her face was palpable, and Draco felt disconcerted for a moment as he reflected on how times had changed.
A few hours later and Draco was the one yawning. Granger thanked him, and sent him off to bed. She stayed put, however, for she had the look of someone who wouldn't stop until she found what she wanted to know.