Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own Harry Potter, cries, but I do have all the books and movies.
Voldyismoldy: I am so glad none of you hate me for ending the chapter like I did and that so many people like this story it is very encouraging. Thank you so much for all of your reviews, alerts and favorites they are all deeply appreciated. At first I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with this story but I think now I have figured out a little of where I want to go and hopefully you all will continue to enjoy it. Please continue to read, review and enjoy. It is your reviews and your enjoyment of my work that keeps me wanting to write so please keep it up and cyber snitches for everybody!
Warning: mentions of rape and abuse, Dumbledore bashing and Ron and Hermione bashing along with Ginny and an irate werewolf and Molly Weasley.
Chapter 3. Why Did He Have To Suffer?
Draco forced his face to remain impassive as he followed his godfather down into the kitchens where the others sat talking quietly amongst each other. At one end of the table Dumbledore, Madam Pomfrey, the Elder Weasley's and Lupin where sitting, Moody and Shacklebolt having left, and at the other end were the two youngest Weasley's and Hermione deep in some kind of conversation. His eyes narrowed in a glare as he looked at the three people who were supposed to be Harry's closest friends and thought delightedly of the confrontation that was to come with them later before he returned his face to neutrality.
The adults stopped speaking as they entered the room the Weasley's and Lupin looking worriedly past them for any sign of the boy they cared so deeply about. Dumbledore stood that infuriating twinkle in his eyes and a small smile on his face. It took all of the will power and control Draco had not lash out at him right then. The old man had no right to smile and look like nothing was wrong after what he had sentenced Harry to. To Draco the abuse and rapping were as much this old man's fault as it was his relatives and if it were up to him he would see the headmaster punished along with them.
"Ah Severus how is young Harry doing?" Dumbledore asked while the others looked at the two men wanting to know the answer as well. "and when may we speak with him. It is imperative that we talk to him about what happened to him as soon as possible if we are to defend against Voldemort's next attack. He may know something that could be useful to us from his time with them."
"Potter is healing well headmaster and is now asleep with the use of a potion I gave him," Snape replied revealing none of his true feelings as he placed a hand on Draco's shoulder who he could he feel was fuming at the older man's words next to him. The words and Dumbledore's lack of concern for the young man had angered him to but it wouldn't do to fly into a rage over it. "I am afraid you will have to wait to speak with him as his health comes first and he is very much in need of rest."
"Very well but you will inform me the moment he awakens so that I may speak with him," The headmaster agreed though the twinkle in his eyes dimmed slightly for a moment before returning to its earlier brightness as Snape nodded. "Well then I must go I have many other things that must be taken care of good day to you all."
"I am afraid not Albus for I have something to discuss with you," Severus replied stopping the man before he could leave. Dumbledore looked at him curiously seemingly undisturbed by the sudden harshness of his voice. "It has come to my attention headmaster that Potter's relatives have been less than kind to him and that you were aware of it."
Dumbledore didn't speak right away the twinkle in his eye vanishing as he gazed at his former pupil and fellow teacher. The rest of the room had gone silent even Ron, Hermione and Ginny having stopped their conversation to look up at them in curiosity. Draco nearly smirked as he looked at them their faces showing that they were more than ready to disbelieve anything that put the headmaster in a less than favorable light. The adults however were more cautious not wanting to believe what Snape was implying but unwilling to disbelieve it either until they could be more certain of what was going on.
"I don't know what Mr. Potter has told you Severus but yes I was aware that his family didn't like him," the older man answered without giving anything away. There was a warning look in his eyes that Snape would be damned if he followed. He wasn't about to back down now. "However due to his need for safety I felt it necessary to put him with his family even if they didn't like him knowing they would at least protect him while he was in their home."
"Protect him! Oh yes they protected him all right. Protected him from ever feeling love, from ever having a full meal or a real childhood. Protected him from having friends or anyone at all to care about him. Protected him from ever feeling that he was worth something but yes they protected him very well," Snape told him with a sneer. The reaction to his words was instantaneous as the adults gathered there jumped to their feet in outrage all eyes on Albus. "Don't play games with me Albus I have heard a full confession to the serious abuse Harry suffered with his relatives and that you knew full well what was happening to him and chose to do nothing about it why Albus? Why did you allow him to be beaten, starved and rapped for all these years?"
"Beaten? Rapped?" Mrs. Weasley said in shock as she looked at Draco for confirmation obviously believing that he had heard the boy's confession as well. He nodded in answer to her and her face reddened in anger as she turned on the headmaster. "Albus explain yourself now though I doubt anything you say will make me forgive you for what you have put poor Harry through. To think I actually believed you when you told us he would be safer with his relatives. I should have taken him to our home a long time ago."
"You must understand Severus that I did what I had to do to ensure Harry's loyalty to me," Albus began ignoring the incredulous looks the others were giving him and keeping his eyes only on the potions master. "You know how stubborn and willful James was and I could not allow Harry to be the same. He had to be obedient and controllable and in order for that to happen he couldn't go to a wizarding family that would have spoiled him and ruined my plans. So instead I took him to his remaining family knowing they would hate him, abuse him, and make him so grateful to me when he was finally reintroduced to the wizarding world that he wouldn't hesitate to do as I wanted him to. It is for that same reason that I couldn't allow him to spend his summers with the Weasley's it would have undone all that I had accomplished. It is regrettable that Harry had to suffer as he did but it is and was necessary, and if one boy had to suffer in order for the rest of the wizarding world to be saved than it was the only thing I could do. I am sure you understand Severus how one boy's life could not be placed above the lives of everyone else and cannot fault me for my decision."
"Strangely enough Albus I can. How dare you decide something like that for what you considered the greater good. I may have hated James and yes he was willful and stubborn and a down right pain in the ass but I would never have wanted his child or any child for that matter to suffer as Harry has," The black haired man growled disgusted by Dumbledore's explanation for his actions. "If you had wanted and needed his loyalty so badly you could have taken him in yourself or given him to a wizarding family you trusted to teach him to support you. Instead you chose to send him to people who would hate him and destroy any sense of self worth he had. You didn't want someone loyal to you you wanted a Harry Potter who would be to meek and timid to ever even think about standing up to you and having ideas of his own. He was never a person to you only a weapon and once he out lived his usefulness to you you would have thrown him away leaving him even worse off than before."
"I think we have heard enough Albus," Remus nearly snarled before the aged headmaster could respond to him. Draco had never seen the usually passive man so enraged and his amber eyes almost appeared be glowing. "And I want you to leave now you are no longer allowed to come near Harry unless he himself wants to see you which I doubt and he won't ever be returning to those . . . People again. I never should have let you bring him to them in the first place and I regret how much I have failed him and James and Lily and Sirius."
Dumbledore looked for a moment as if he wanted to speak and then seemed to think better of it and with a bow of his head and a crack he was gone. The moment he left Mes. Weasley burst into an angry rant that not even her husband could stop and the adults began a new discussion with Snape wanting to know everything Harry had told him. Draco quietly disengaged himself from their discussion not one of them noticing him leaving and walked over to the other end of the table where his three classmates and now the Weasley twins sat in a heated discussion of their own.
"Come of it Ron you know Harry wouldn't lie about something like this," George or Fred, he never really could tell the difference between the two of them, hissed eyes flashing with anger. "He has no reason to."
"Course he would the little gits always looking for attention and for people to feel sorry for him," Ron sneered. Draco tensed at the exact words Harry had said about why people never believed him when he was younger about the abuse. "And even if he is telling the truth do you really think he'd tell Snape about it. Come on he hates him he wouldn't tell him anything even if his life depended on it."
The twins were silent then knowing he was right. Harry didn't trust Snape and wouldn't have told him about the abuse willingly but why would he make it up and why wouldn't Dumbledore have denied it if it wasn't true. Draco scoffed at their indecision and hearing him they looked up at him in surprise.
"What do you want Malfoy?" Ginny questioned hauntingly. The blonde boy sneered at the girl not knowing why everyone had expected Harry to eventually marry her she really wasn't much to look at. "Don't you have anything better to do then listen in on private conversations?"
"Not when the conversation is between a bunch of gits although Weasel is right in that Harry doesn't really trust Snape yet," Draco told them though he was loathe to agree with anything the red headed idiot said. "However it wasn't Snape he told, he just happened to over hear him, it was me he told everything to, every single thing those disgusting muggles ever did to him."
"What! You expect us to believe that Harry would tell you, his worst enemy, things he wouldn't even tell us, his friends?" Hermione questioned in outright disbelief. Ron and Ginny looked like they agreed with her but the twins were frowning. "That would never happen Malfoy."
"Well it did. Maybe he was just so desperate to tell someone that he didn't care who it was or maybe he was just so glad that anyone cared about him enough to actually ask him about it that he couldn't stop himself from revealing everything," He replied feeling his anger and rage at them rising in him again as he thought of all Harry had told him. "You were supposed to be his friends but you only stayed with him because Dumbledore paid you to do it, to keep him in line," He smirked at their surprised faces. "Yes he told me about that to and I have never been more disgusted in my life."
"Ron, Ginny is this true? Dumbledore paid you to be Harry's friends?" One of the twins asked enraged. They both stood up as their younger brother and sister nodded and Draco was glad at least that they weren't trying to deny it. "Did mum and dad know about this because you can bet if they didn't they and our older brothers are going to be none to happy when we tell them and what the heck is wrong with you that you need to be paid to be Harry's friends? How could you do that to him? He didn't deserve it."
"Dumbledore came to us before we started school and said he needed our help with Harry. We didn't know him at the time and we needed money so we agreed," Ron explained and Hermione nodded her head to tell them it had been the same with her. "But he never said we would be risking our lives for him and he promised Harry would marry Ginny which he refuses to do now because he said he is into blokes the git. I am sick of trying to protect myself while with him and putting up with his constant brooding and self-esteem problems. He's right annoying sometimes and he was always causing me and Hermione to fight all the time."
"Yes we were only supposed to keep him out of trouble and tell Dumbledore what he was thinking and doing not risk our own lives," the bushy haired girl told them frowning as she took Ron's hand in hers. "And of course we were to help convince him that it was for his own good that he had to return to his relatives every summer. It was for the greater good and we trust Dumbledore to have made the right decisions. Besides Harry only has another year with them until he is of age and can live where ever he wants to."
"I have heard enough. You are supposed to be Gyffindors loyal and true and all that shit but I don't know how either of you got into that house," Draco replied with a sneer of contempt. The twins looked like they agreed with him as they glared at them angry at what their siblings had done, it was more serious than anyone ever seen them before. "Harry needed friends after all of the abuse he suffered, true friends who cared about him, and I wish he had accepted my hand that day on the train though I can see now why he didn't he was never really given a choice as to who he could have as friends."
"Get off your high horse ferret face its not like you actually care about Harry so don't pretend that you do," Ron snapped his face turning red with his anger. Hermione squeezed his hand trying to calm him.
"I didn't care about him, in fact I truly believed I hated him, that was until last night when Voldemort tortured and rapped him. When I heard his cries and realized that he was really nothing more than a terrified boy no where near strong enough to bare the weight that has been put on him," Malfoy told him his hand sliding into his pocket to wrap around his wand in case he needed it. "He is supposed to be our savior but what have we done for him to deserve his protection. Left him in an abusive home without giving him any help even when he was brought back to our world. We don't deserve him and I am going to do everything I can to prove to him that I can be the friend he needs even if no one else will."
Without bothering to wait for them to respond Draco turned and left the room his hand still firmly around his wand. He wouldn't put it past the Weasel to hex him from behind. He had enough talking to them and listening to the adults argue about how they should have known what was going on and what they were to do now. He wanted some peace and he wanted to be with Harry though he wasn't at all sure why. He supposed he should be disturbed by how much he had come to care for the boy he had once hated but he really wasn't that much at all.
When he reached his room he found the black haired boy still sleeping which wasn't surprising given the strength of the potion Snape had given him. He sat down on the chair next to the bed and took one of his hands in his. His whole life, his beliefs, everything he was had changed within the matter of a day and yet he regretted none of it.
He knew that because of his actions he had lost his parents, his home, and more than likely his friends as well but there loss didn't seem so great to him. His parents had always been cold and indifferent to him expecting him to be a proper heir without really caring about what he wanted or his feelings and he had never known love from them. Snape was more of a father to him than Lucius was and he still had him. The manner had never really been a home to him and he had never really felt that comfortable there so he wouldn't really miss it and most of his friends had only been his friends because of his father or theirs.
Truly he hadn't lost much and what he had lost was more than Harry had ever had. How could he lament the loss of things the other boy had never even been able to have or thought he deserved? Harry had never had parents after his first birthday, had never had a family or home, and had never had real friends only those he believed were his friends until now. Draco had meant what he told the others he would be Harry's friend and show him what a true friend was and how good a friend he could be to him.
Harry moved slightly in his sleep breaking through his thoughts and he watched him as his face turned toward him not even realizing that his breath had caught as he did. Harry's skin was still pale though Pomfrey had healed the bruises that had once colored his face and his lips were parted as he breathed softly. Without knowing he was doing it his hand lifted towards the boy's face to run lightly over his left cheek his eyes fixed on his parted lips. They were pink and full and so very tempting and as he watched the boy's tongue ran lightly over them as if taunting him.
Draco leaned forward entranced by that tongue and those lips rising from his seat slightly his one hand still clutching Harry's own. Gently his lips pressed against the other boy's and he tasted vanilla and honey and something that was distinctly Harry. He didn't notice at all that the others lips weren't responding to his or the other figure that entered the room until he heard someone clear their throat nearby. Startled and embarrassed he moved away from him and turned to find Remus standing near the bed a small smile on his face.
"Not that I think Harry would mind but you might want to wait until he is awake to do that again," the werewolf chuckled as he moved over to the bed to sit down on the other side of it and take Harry's free hand, Draco still holding the other. "Hey cub it's me Remus, I'm so sorry about everything that happened to you if I had known I would have taken you from there years ago. I should have any way but I was to willing to trust Dumbledore. I hope you can forgive me for that."
"He will he is to willing to forgive anyone besides your one of the few people who actually care about him he won't stay angry at you," Draco told him. The ex-professor smiled again and nodded knowing he was right as he rubbed the boys hand with his thumb. "Professor do you think he'll be all right?"
"You can call me Remus, Draco, Harry does and I have a feeling I'm going to be seeing a lot of you in the days to come," the man told him with a knowing look. Draco blushed but said nothing after all he didn't know if Harry felt the same way about him that he felt about the smaller boy. "And yes he will be fine. Harry is strong, far stronger than Dumbledore believes he is and far more stubborn but he is going to need our help, especially yours, to overcome the abuse he suffered and the torture Voldemort put him through."
"He will need to be somewhere he feels safe as well, somewhere he will be safe from the Dark lord and Dumbledore," Another voice said. They turned to find Snape walking into the room a grim expression on his face. "I am glad you're both here as I wanted to talk to both of you alone about this."
"Much as I hate to say it your right Sev Harry won't be safe here its to easy for Dumbledore to get him here," Remus agreed the smile leaving his face as he frowned as well. Snape nodded while noticing that his godson was holding tightly to the smaller boy's hand and deciding to think about what that meant more later. "Where would you suggest we take him the "Burrow"?"
"No Dumbledore would be able to get him there and with what has happened with his supposed friends I don't think Harry would be to comfortable there right now," Severus replied. He hesitated for a moment knowing the werewolf wouldn't like what he was to say next. "My suggestion would be to take him to Spinners End my home where I was already intending to take Draco. The wards are strong enough to keep the headmaster and the Dark lord out and no one would suspect him of being there. He would be safe while he healed and he would have Draco for company as well as myself."
"I don't like it but you're probably right he would be safest there however I will only allow it on one condition," the brown haired man agreed as he looked down at the boy who slept obliviously in the bed. "I stay with you as well. I'm Harry's guardian now and I intend to see him taken care of if you can't agree to that than we will have to think of some place else to bring him."
"Very well you may come and I will make you the Wolfbanes potion again though you will have to leave the day before the full moon and not return until two days after can you agree to that?" Snape asked not liking the idea of the werewolf being in his home but seeing nothing else he could do if Harry was to be safe. "I will probably need your help anyway dealing with two teenage boys won't be easy and it's not something I ever thought I would be doing."
"Thank you Severus I appreciate that," Remus replied a small smile reappearing on his face. Snape scowled but said nothing not liking something about the look on the other man's face. "When do you want to move him then?"
"After he wakes up he needs to trust us and feel safe there and he won't if we take him without telling him first. He's had enough of being put places without his consent as it is," the potions master explained with an unusual softness to his voice as he looked at the boy again. His face hardened almost at once as he went on. "However there is something I want to do now while he is still sleeping. His things are still with those muggles and I want to go get them and see that they are properly punished for what they have done."
"Lets go then I am eager to meet with them myself," the other man agreed with a low growl his eyes glowing again as he stood releasing the boys hand. "They will wish they had never touched my cub."
Draco glanced between the two men and the boy torn between wanting to go with them and wanting to protect the raven haired boy. He didn't trust Harry's former friends not to try something or Dumbledore for that matter and didn't want to leave him alone with them. But he also wanted to meet these muggles that had been so cruel to the smaller boy and make them pay for what they had done. He didn't even question why he was suddenly so protective of Harry or why he felt such a great need to see those that had done him wrong properly punished. The reason for it didn't matter right now only that he wanted to.
"I know you want to come as well Draco," His godfather said looking at the blonde boy who nodded without releasing Harry's hand torn with indecision. "You can leave Harry here we won't be gone long and the Weasley's and Pomfrey won't let Dumbledore take him while he is healing. He will be fine while we're gone."
Draco hesitated for a moment longer and then reluctantly released the boy's hand to go with them. The two men left the room quickly not wanting to waste time and Draco followed with one last look at the boy. He hoped Harry would be all right while they were gone and the headmaster wouldn't try to take him or his friends wouldn't try to do anything to him. Harry had been through enough as it was and he didn't want him to suffer anymore then he already had. He knew that the quicker they went the quicker they could return and he followed them into the sitting room away from the others where Snape took out another portkey. They each grabbed hold of it and within seconds they were gone without anyone else knowing they had left or where they had gone.
A/N: I think you can already guess what is going to happen in the next chapter, little hint the Dursley's make an appearance! And don't worry Dumbledore will be punished as well just not yet. I hope you liked this chapter and the action between Harry and Draco, Draco took advantage of Harry while he was sleeping!. Will he do it again? Will Harry want to go to Snape's home and what will happen with the four of them leaving together? Read to find out. Also I am toying with the idea of putting Snape and Remus together would people like that if I did? Any way hope you enjoyed and please review, review, review.