…STORY THREE
THE GRAND RESCUE
"I wish I may, I wish I might…"
Draco's life never seemed to end, no matter how many stars he wished on.
Endless days and nights of Voldemort's threats, orders, and curses, always on the brink of getting his family killed…
He realized he never really appreciated his better days at Hogwarts, despite its few setbacks for conspiring Slytherins.
"Killed five more…" he muttered, shocked with himself.
After the whole 'Dumbledore's death' thing, Snape attempted to hide Draco,
But Lord Voldemort's broom closet didn't work out too well.
People need a bath every now and then, really.
Anyway, he was found and like some damn fairy-tale princess, was shut up in the highest tower of his own house, the Malfoy Manor.
Until, of course, Voldemort would see fit to have Draco torture, or even kill, again.
"Five more…"
At least he had a window; he had actually never seen the room before (despite the fact that it was his own house).
The view was quite spectacular, like Hogwarts, but darker.
He was really starting to miss Hogwarts.
Suddenly a sharp tap was heard from outside his window, making Draco twist, startled.
Reaching for his wand, yet careful not to pull it out visibly in case it was Voldemort, he squinted at the only window.
A dark silhouette…
Draco tensed, his eyes growing wide as he quivered, fear smothering him.
What was coming to persecute him this time??
Dementor? Death Eater? Voldemort?
Draco jumped at just the thought, trembling so hard, his hand dropped his wand and his legs crumpled beneath him.
Through his watering eyes he saw the silhouette hovering…astride a broomstick??
"W-what…? Oh my god, am I-I being rescued?? O-or tormented?? W-who …?"
A familiar face peered into the frame, searching. The green eyes soon found its target, and Harry Potter threw open the window
(After unlocking it, naturally).
"Oh my god, P-Potter! What the…?!"
Gasping as he lunged himself through the window archway, Harry dusted off his cloak and smiled at Draco.
"Oh, shut up Malfoy." He chuckled.
"w-what are you doing here?? H-he'll kill you!"
Draco stood shakily, his large grey eyes looking around franticly for the monstrous man he spoke of.
"Who, Voldemort?" Harry laughed again, scoping out Draco's dreary prison chamber. "Like he hasn't tried before..."
He turned to Draco with one brow raised, "Besides, aren't you supposed to want me dead too? Aren't you going to call him here?"
"W-w-well, I…" Draco was completely thrown off. He had no clue what to think or say.
"Look, I know you're actually a good person, Mal-er… Draco... you're only doing this stuff to save your family"
Harry took a step closer to the unstable Malfoy, the reassuring smile never fading from his face.
Draco, still petrified, took a fumbling step back.
"But..."
"…and Dumbledore's murder was intentionally a good deed on your part... despite the fact that it required you to kill,I guess I forgive you... Not like you ended up killing him anyway, so stop gawking and let me save you, ok?"
Harry took another step forward, hand outreached in pardon, but, again, Draco took another step away.
"But... Potter... I... but..."
"Look, I'm saving you from that half dead fucker and taking you to the good side, this was the best time to save you…"
The smile faded a bit from his face as he realized that Draco wasn't coming around.
But Harry had always been insistent on seeing things to the end,
so he took another step forward and offered his hand a little more insensitively.
"We'll make sure the rest of your family is rescued… we'll protect all of you…"
Draco's eyes widened further as he tried to take another step away,
yet his back hit the wall and Harry quickly filled in the space between them.
"Um... ok, but..."
Harry's smile was rapidly replaced by a face of perplexity.
"Look do you want me to save you or what?"
He slammed his arms against the wall, keeping Draco locked in place as he brought himself nose to nose with the frightened blonde.
Draco quivered and wriggled as Harry's hot breath cascaded down on his goose-bumped skin,
his rescuer's intense green eyes attempting to keep his wide grey ones in a lock hold.
Yet Draco broke the uncomfortable connection, instead looking desperately at his far-from-reach wand.
"I'm not going to rape you." Harry assured him, practically whispering.
Choking on words, Draco's body tensed, every bit of him attentive of whatever touched him;
…Harry's dark hair tickling his forehead, his nose lightly brushing his own, and, unexpectedly, coarse fingers brushing back a stray blonde hair, lingering at his nape.
"D-DONT JOKE ABOUT THAT!"
Harry pulled back, shocked.
"W-wha? What the fuck is wrong with you??"
His firm hand yanked at Draco's chin, encouraging him to look forward into Harry's quizzical face.
"Do you…do you really hate me that much?"
"... It's just... I'm finding that hard to believe right now."
"What?" Harry whispered, moving close to Draco once again, "that I'm not going to rape you? Don't be stupid Malfoy…"
"I- I'm not being s-stupid! Leggo! Get off, Potter!"
"You know what?" Harry chuckled, "maybe I will…just a little…"
"w-what???"
Harry kept one arm on the wall yet brought the other down to Draco's waist, emitting a high squeak from Draco.
Harry laughed but stopped quickly, a look too serious for Draco's comfort in its place.
"Ready?"
"Huh??"
Swiftly, Harry stole a kiss.
It was short-lived though, for Draco wasn't ready and yanked his head back too sharply, causing it to smack into the wall.
"AH! OWWW!"
"…!!! Draco!"
Harry jumped back, eyes wide, waving his arms about franticly.
Draco clenched the back of his head and slid down the wall until his ass hit the floor, whimpering.
"Oh my god! I'm so sorry! I just… I-I asked if you were ready!!"
"I didn't say I was! I didn't even know what you were doing!"
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
"oooh…owwww…there's a bump…"
Harry kneeled down beside Draco and ran his hands softly through his hair until he found the irritated bulge.
Draco flinched and tried to wriggle away, but Harry kept him in a firm grip with his other hand.All he could do was watch Harry through his watery eyes as he massaged the irritation.
"ooo…yeah, its swelling pretty bad…"
"ow!"
"Sorry…"
Harry's hair was a lot longer than Draco remembered.
Not in a bad way of course, it was just that it was also tangled and unkempt.
Draco looked intently at Harry's face, suddenly noticing the blood, bruises, grime, and new scars that slightly disfigured it.
It had even aged with experience in a mysteriously compelling way.
He couldn't take his eyes off his cut, chapped lips, sunken weary eyes, and messy hair.
Harry had always been scruffy but this was different.
What did he go through to get here?
Suddenly he saw Harry's eyes shoot open with shock and glanced over Draco's huddled body.
Draco felt as if he was being x-rayed, and curled up tighter as if trying to hide himself.
Coarse fingers traced a fresh cut along his arm, causing Draco to jump and slam his eyes shut.
"Draco… where did you get all these injuries…?!"
Draco whined quietly and slowly opened his eyes, looking blurrily at Harry,who looked clearly taken aback as he examined his wounds.Draco's broken body seemed worse than Harry's;
skinny and malnourished, freckled with bruises, cuts, and scars of various size and age.
Many scabbed wounds had already cracked and bled at movement, coating Harry's curious fingers.
Draco didn't speak, only looked pitifully into Harry's eyes, transfixed.
"…never mind. I'm going to try to heal some of these, ok?"
Pulling out a familiar wand, Harry touched its warm tip to the deepest cuts first.
The skin at the rips pulled themselves taut over the tender flesh, healing the best they could for the moment.
Draco barely noticed though, he was more focused on the warm hand which rested softly on his bruised thigh.
What did Harry go through? Why did he go through so much trouble?
"Hermione can fix these better later…"
"Harry…"
"humn? What?"
"…nothing."
"…hey."
"What?"
"You said my name."
"What?"
"You said my name. Harry. You said it."
"W-wha?" Draco blushed, stunned.
"You said my name…"
Harry was smiling. Not just any smile, either.
This one was genuine, not the like the snide smirks they used to exchange.
He almost seemed relieved.
"W-well…well what's it to you, Potter??" Draco spat.
"Huh?"
"Don't get so worked up over it, queer!"
Harry stared at Draco, completely shocked.
Draco was also surprised at what he just said, quickly closing his gaping mouth.
Silence passed for a moment, both unmoving.
"I see…"
Harry stood, stretching on his way up.
Tucking away his wand, he looked around for a moment, then back at the window, where his broom still waited.
Slowly, he looked back down at Draco.
Smiling.
"I see." He repeated.
Harry gently yanked Draco back up to his feet, sighing peacefully.
Draco just let it happen, surprised thoroughly. He didn't know how many more surprises he could take.
"It's ok, Malfoy… I guess we have a ways to go before we can break the habit, huh?"
"Habit?"
"Common, let's go. They're all waiting."
"T-they?"
Harry escorted Draco to the window, the sky a grand palette of sunrise colors.
Harry lifted his fingers to his mouth and whistled, echoing over the grim treetops.
Suddenly the leaves rustled below them, and the woods spat out about six people on broomsticks.
"Harry! Did you find him?" Ron shouted, looking around nervously.
"Yeah, he's right here."
Harry's friends flew up a bit closer to the window and Draco edged closer in awe.
They came to rescue him. All of them.
Even though he made fun of every one of them, they were there.
He was shocked beyond words.
No one, not even his own friends… no, they weren't his friends anymore.
This was proof enough of that.
Everything was changing so quickly.
"Hey, is he ok?"
"What?"
"He looks a bit shaken."
Harry quickly grasped Draco's shoulders as he wavered, dizzy from the day's events.
Pulling him into his embrace, Harry reassured the rest of his party that he'd be ok.
"We'll be out in a minute, ok?"
"When did you guys get so friendly?" Seamus giggled.
"Oh hush!" Hermione smiled, a little shaky on her broom.
"Hurry up Harry, someone might find us!" Neville fretted.
"Yeah," Dean smirked, "that white peacock already got Seamus!"
"Shut up!" a flustered Seamus spat, rubbing the bite marks from the regal creature.
"And if we don't hurry, the Snap-wallowed Gherblekins will get us too." Luna sighed dreamily.
"Yeah, yeah, one min."
Harry grabbed his broom, preparing to mount, but Ron flew closer and whispered with his trademark face of disgust;
"And Harry? What was he doing when you found him?"
"Humn? Oh, I think he was in the shower. Why?"
"Could you, maybe, put some clothes on him before we go?"
"Shut up, Ron."
…STORY THREE END