Draco rolled over as the door to his bedroom creaked open.
"Harry?"
"Yeah." Harry sat on the edge of the bed. "Do you mind?"
"C'mere." Draco tugged on his arm, and Harry slid under the covers to join him. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know how to live like this anymore," Harry laughed weakly. "Isn't that insane? I've forgotten how to live with respectable people. It's going to be awful at school."
Draco pulled Harry against his chest. He knew he wasn't comfortable staying in the Manor, but Minister Fudge had approved Lucius' request, made begrudgingly on behalf of his son, so there wasn't anywhere else he could go. He knew Harry felt ridiculously out of place around priceless knickknacks and fine furniture, and frankly he looked it. Narcissa's mouth went pinched every time she saw Harry, her eyes lingering on his tattoos and piercings. Lucius always looked like he'd swallowed something distasteful, but was too polite to let it show.
"It'll be alright at Hogwarts," Draco murmured. "You'll be in Slytherin this time, of course."
He felt Harry grin against his shoulder. "I suppose I have developed a talent for self-preservation and cunning, haven't I?"
"We'll take the dungeons by storm," Draco promised. "If any of those posh gits say anything, we'll tell them to get stuffed." Harry laughed briefly.
"I was right, you know," he said after a moment.
"About what?" Draco asked.
"It is ridiculously easy to love you."
Draco propped himself up on an elbow, staring down at Harry in the faint moonlight. "I thought you said a whore couldn't fall in love."
"Not a whore anymore," Harry pointed out. "I'm all reformed now, and I. Love. You," he breathed, hooking a hand behind Draco's neck and pulling him in for a long, lingering kiss.
"Yeah," Draco said softly when they broke apart, "definitely taking the dungeons by storm."
-0-
Harry woke to a hard body against his back and a hot tongue sliding along the shell of his ear. He hummed and tilted his head back a little. "Is this how you wake everyone up?" Draco chuckled, his warm breath tickling the wet skin of Harry's ear. "What are you doing?"
"Counting," Draco murmured.
Harry laughed. "Eight, now hurry up, I have to go get gawked at in public." He pried Draco's arm off his stomach and tried to sit.
"Ruin my fun," Draco muttered, letting him up. He leaned back on his elbows, openly leering at Harry as he stretched.
"See something interesting?" Harry asked, tossing the blond and slow, burning smile as he hooked his thumbs in his pyjama pants, already barely hanging onto his hips, and inched them lower. Draco's eyes went dark. "I'm going to take a shower, meet you down there for breakfast." He laughed again as he shut the door, cutting off Draco's frustrated groan.
People did more than stare in Diagon Alley; they pointed and talked and shouted at him. They called him a whore and a slut, they wanted his autograph or to take his picture, they wanted to ask him, no, demand he tell them, why he left.
Harry just wanted to curse them all and disappear back into Knockturn. Fuck, these people made him want to go back to drinking.
Though, on the upside, apparently all he needed to do to get Narcissa Malfoy on his side was confess he had no clue about current fashions and allow her to pick out his whole wardrobe.
"Exhausted yet?" Draco smirked, slipping through the curtain.
Harry shot him a look, stripping off his twenty-eighth shirt that day. "Is she always like this?" He tossed the shirt at Draco, accepting the next pile in return.
"With shopping?" He knocked Harry's hands out of the way and did up the buttons himself. "Always." He smoothed the lines of the emerald green silk. "You're getting this."
Harry scowled. "I defer to you, oh emperor of style," he said with an obsequious bow. "Now get out and let me be tortured in peace."
His feet slowed as they drew near Gringotts. He could see the shadowed archway that divided the upstanding morals of Diagon from the down and dirty lives in Knockturn.
"Harry?" Draco asked gently, jerked to a stop by Harry's hand.
"I want to go home," Harry said quietly. Draco's arm wrapped around him. "I want to go home," he repeated into the blond's chest.
"It's going to be alright," Draco said into his hair. "Let's go visit that tattoo artist friend of yours. My parents can handle the bank on their own."
Skulls & Scars was like a second home to Harry. It was smoky and dimly lit in the main lobby, with flash on the blood-red silk walls. On one of the doors to the private rooms was a framed picture of the tattoo on Harry's back, a panther and a raven.
"My favourite customer!" A Spanish man came out of the staff lounge, opening his arms wide.
"Stefan!" Harry hugged the man back. "This is new," he remarked, holding up one of Stefan's hands, which was now decorated along the wrist with cherry blossoms.
"Two months ago," Stefan said proudly. His face turned serious. "Young Hadrian, I heard what happened." He gripped Harry's shoulders tightly. "You have always been like a son to me. You will be welcome in my shop, as a customer, or," his face broke into a proud smile, "as an artist!"
"What?" Harry asked, slightly stunned.
Stefan winked conspiratorially. "Your Auror Green was in last week. Great design, very nice detail, very good. Finish school, and I hire you on the spot!" He winked again.
Harry turned when he heard Draco laugh, jaw still hanging open. "Told you, Harry," he chuckled. He closed Harry's jaw with a finger and gave him a kiss.
-0-
"I still can't fucking believe you," Theo growled as the new first years were Sorted.
"A fact you have not stopped reminding me of since it came out in the papers," Draco replied, all but ignoring him. "Now shut up, Harry's about to go."
Dumbledore stood to address the Great Hall. "As I am sure you all know, this year we welcome back to Hogwarts one of her lost sheep, Mr Harry Potter. Because of his…unusual circumstances, he will be the first Hogwarts student to be resorted. Mr Potter, if you would."
Harry strode out of the shadows in the back of the Hall and moved down the wide aisle in something that was part self-assured saunter, part hunting cat prowl, and all sex. Older students all over the Hall blushed and shifted in their seats as his piercing gaze swept across them. It paused on Draco, and he winked.
"Also, due to his interrupted education, Mr Potter has been undergoing a series of theoretical and practical exams in the last week, in order to place him in an appropriate academic year. I am proud to announce that he has performed in an exemplary fashion, and will be able to sit his NEWTs at the end of the year with his yearmates. All that remains is to see which House he will make proud."
Harry grinned at the Hall in general and slipped the Sorting Hat onto his head. The whole student body leaned forward, waiting breathlessly for the final decision. Draco saw him break out into a wide smile just before the Hat screamed "SLYTHERIN!"
The look of absolute rage on Severus' face was hilarious, as was the outrage on McGonagall's when he sat down at the Slytherin table and leaned into Draco's side.
-0-
"Mr Potter, you were placed in this class for a reason. Surely you can manage to Transfigure a mouse into a vole without undue difficulty," McGonagall snapped.
Harry nearly snapped back. "I was placed into this class because I can do semi-permanent human Transfiguration, Professor, not because I am an expert at turning one useless rodent into another," he replied tightly. McGonagall's lips compressed into a thin line.
"If you have the power to perform human Transfiguration, simple changes among a single family should not pose a problem to you, then," she said.
Harry glared at her. "I have the power, yes, but I have difficulty with my control." She raised a single thin brow, and he sighed. "I have an unstable magical core, and it tends to defy control under stress, such as having just come from a double Potions lesson with a man that would much rather have seen me dead in a gutter years ago and would dearly love to tell me to my face. Ma'am."
"You did not have an unstable core six years ago," she pointed out, like nothing had changed. She always treated him like that, and it made him burn.
"Repeated heroin usage will do that to a person," he remarked, deadpan. "Ma'am," he added, after a pause.
She frowned at him, but swept away without another word.
"Seriously, Harry?" Theo leaned over and whispered. Harry shot him a look. "Right, yeah, sorry. And about Snape, too."
"What are you apologising about Snape for?" Harry raised an eyebrow. "He's the heartless bastard. Though if you have any idea why, I'd love to know. He does know I never wanted to come back and see him again, right?"
"Honestly, I'm not sure he does." Theo scratched at his eyebrow with his wand. Harry half hoped he'd accidently burn it off, but no such luck. "He was in the same year as your parents, I think. No offense, but James Potter was an arse."
"Nobody's a saint in real life," Harry shrugged. "So he hates me because my father, a man I am nothing like and never got to know since he was killed before I was two, bullied him in school?"
"Merlin, it does sound like a shit deal when you put it like that," Theo muttered. Harry nodded exaggeratedly. "It doesn't make him any better than James Potter, does it?"
"No, but he's never going to see that. He's too obsessed with hating me."
"Rotten luck, mate," Theo slapped his shoulder bracingly. "At least it's only for a year, right?"
"Yeah," Harry sighed, gathering up his books as the bell rang. "I'm going to skip out on dinner tonight. If Draco asks, I need some time to get under control again."
Theo nodded, and Harry took off down the hall in the other direction. There was a room on the seventh floor that only appeared when someone was in need. For Harry, it was a huge empty chamber with white walls, a single desk with inks and a sheaf of parchment.
He stepped into the room, feeling his cool focus coming back to him already. Half the far wall was taken up by his latest design, the next tattoo he wanted to get and his first in colour. It was a silver-grey rose on a black thorny stem. Around it wrapped a Chinese dragon design, a solid deep green.
He spent four hours just on linework that night, but by the time he was finished, the tiny tremors in his hands had finally stopped.
Unfortunately, that meant he was out after curfew. He cursed mentally as he saw Snape patrolling the halls. He needed to find out what had happened to his father's invisibility cloak. Ron had kept it, probably.
"Disregarding the rules already, Potter?" Snape sneered. "You haven't changed as much in six years as everyone thinks. You are more like your father every day."
Done with taking shit from Snape's outdated prejudice, Harry raised his chin and met Snape's black eyes. "How so, sir? I remember nothing of my father, you understand, whereas you knew him in school. Would you mind telling me about him, sir?"
"James Potter was a spoiled brat who thought himself above authority, simply because he had money and some skill on a broom," the Potions Master snapped. "His attitude was obviously genetic, considering your own behaviour."
Harry put on an innocent, confused expression. "I'm sorry sir, but did…did you live under a rock this summer? You know, when the Ministry dragged me kicking and screaming out of a life of poverty in Knockturn." He dropped the innocent act, openly sneering at Snape. "Maybe if you pulled your head out of your own school days, you'd notice that I never wanted to come back here. The mere fact that I'm in your House makes me an entirely different person than James Potter, who, by the way, has been dead for sixteen years!"
Snape stared at him in shock, but Harry just stepped past him. "I'll be down at your office at eight tomorrow night for detention," he said over his shoulder.
-0-
"And Granger! Don't get me started on Granger! Always trying to stick her fingers through the ceiling of every classroom, just because she thinks she should be the only one to ever answer a-"
"Shut up!" Harry hissed as he slapped a hand across Draco's mouth. Draco gave him an affronted look, but Harry just shook his head. "Accio Potter Invisibility Cloak!"
There was a soft rushing sound as a pile of silvery fabric flew at them, tangling mostly around Draco. Weasley and Granger appeared near the wall behind them, looking shocked.
"What the hell was that, Potter?" Weasley shouted, already turning red.
"That was me taking back one of my possessions after far too long," Harry replied easily. The smirk on his face made Draco proud.
"You left it behind when he ran away! It's mine now!"
"I think not," Harry said. "This is a powerful magical artefact entailed to the Potter line and left to me by my father. Ten generations of Potters have handed down this cloak from father to son, and the Peverells before them. It will never belong to a money-grubbing pig like you," he spat. "Hermione, I'm surprised you never bothered to find out its history, since it's more powerful than any other invisibility cloak in history."
"You're a cheater," Granger informed him primly. Draco went for his wand, meaning to hex the superior look right off her face, but Harry laid a hand on his chest.
"How so?" he asked coolly.
"You shouldn't be in seventh year. There's no way you could have learned everything we have in school while you were begging in Knockturn." Her face screwed up in disgust, like even the name of the district tasted foul in her mouth. "You must have cheated on your exams."
"According to you then, I should be at the level of a second year," he said for clarification. She nodded. "Well then, tell me how someone who only knows the most basic of spells managed to bewitch Albus Dumbledore and a series of Ministry officials into giving me higher exam scores." Granger's mouth dropped open, flapping silently. Draco smirked when Harry added, "Go on, I'm waiting."
"You paid them off!" Weasley shouted triumphantly. Draco rolled his eyes. Was he really so stupid?
Harry threw his head back and laughed. "With what money?" he asked incredulously. "I wasted that money years ago!" Weasley looked gobsmacked. "You want my medical records as proof? Illegal substances are illegal for a reason, you know, they do serious damage. Look if you don't believe me." He rolled up his sleeves over his elbows and thrust his inner arms under their noses.
Craning forward a bit, Draco could see the red-purple scar tissue of old track marks where he'd injected the drugs into his system. They made him feel faintly sick.
"Heroin or cocaine in solution," Harry was saying. "You might want to get Hermione to explain to you what those are, though I bet you recognise the names 'fire salt' and 'VizPo.' I got into those, too."
"VizPo?" Granger asked, annoyed, as Harry unrolled his sleeves and buttoned the cuffs again.
"Visionary Potion, it makes people hallucinate," Weasley waved her question away. "It's ridiculously illegal, too."
"Just because you're close-minded and simple enough to think you can only learn from books and teachers doesn't make it true," Harry remarked carelessly. "I learned more than the library could ever tell you on the streets, just trying to stay alive." He wove his fingers into Draco's and tugged him forward. "Leave them to their newly-altered worldviews, Draco."
Draco tossed a smirk over his shoulder as they left.
-0-
"Whore!"
"Faggot!"
"Filthy slut!"
Circe, it was so hard to keep a hold on his magic while they were beating him. Fucking bastards, they jumped him on his way back from the room on the seventh floor, disarming and immobilising him.
Another fist struck him in the ribs. "You're nothing but dirt, Potter," a boy younger than him growled in his ear. "You don't deserve to be here, around decent people."
His magic shuddering inside him. It felt like it was beating his ribs black and blue on the inside from trying to get out. Why didn't he just let it go?
It shuddered again. Oh, right, because they'd be scraping his attackers off the stone walls. Fucking unstable magic.
"Strip him," the ring-leader, a sixth year, ordered. "Let's see if he picked up any skills in Knockturn." Someone vanished his clothes, and he felt the ring-leader run a broom-callused hand down along his spine. "This is all you wanted, isn't it Potter?" he said, disgustingly sweet. "Someone to put you on your knees and force a cock into you."
Harry could barely focus. His mind was spinning with hazy, fractured memories from his days in the drug dens. All the times the dealers had forced him down in exchange for another hit, the way they had slapped him across the face and taken him unprepared, grinning like Satan every time he screamed in pain.
The broom-callused hand gripped his hip tight, and Harry lost control. He screamed as his magic rushed away from him, mixing with the screams of his attackers. He couldn't look, he didn't want to hear, he wouldn't feel. He just pressed his forehead to the cold stone floor and screamed and screamed until his throat was raw and bloody.
-0-
"I refuse to indulge Potter's constant need for attention."
"I don't give a shit!" Draco shouted at his godfather. "Do it anyway!"
"Why should I help him?" Severus sneered.
"Because that's what you're paid to do!" Draco nearly screamed. "He's locked himself in his mind, you need to get him out."
"He is clearly faking." Severus crossed his arms. "He's trying to avoid blame for attacking those four Gryffindors."
"So why is he the one stripped naked and beaten to a pulp?" Draco growled. "Just get over yourself and fucking do it!"
"Fine," Severus snarled. "Put him on the couch."
With a scowl on his face, the Potions Master pointed his wand at Harry's forehead and murmured "Legilimens."
Draco paced, watching closely. Severus's face went from scowling to annoyed, though surprised. After a moment, that gave way to a shock that only grew as time went on, and Severus began to grow pale.
Severus tore his eyes away with a gasp, breathing hard. "Merlin, what have you done to your mind, boy?" he murmured softly.
"Will he be alright?" Draco burst out desperately. "When will he wake up?"
"He is only sleeping now," Severus assured him. "He was having…a flashback, as I believe those versed in Mind Healing call it. His mind was focusing on a series of painful memories from his past and not allowing him to focus on the present."
"So he'll be ok now?"
"As much as he has ever been," Severus replied. "Many of the memories I saw were distorted by his drug usage, and what I did see clearly was…disturbing, to say the least. I must apologise to Mr Potter when he wakes," he added very softly.
-0-
Harry woke slowly to an aching pain over his body. His throat was sore and scratchy, and his ribs jolted with pain when he took a breath.
"Draco?" he croaked out.
"Here," said a voice in his ear. Draco lay beside him in the bed, very carefully not touching him. "How do you feel?"
"Like the castle landed on me," Harry answered honestly. "What happened to…them?"
"Burned and a little bloody, but all in all not nearly as bad off as they deserve," Draco replied through gritted teeth.
Harry rolled over gingerly, so as not to jostle his ribs, and curled carefully around Draco's frame. "It's better this way. I could have killed them on accident."
"You should have," Draco muttered.
"And if I had, the Ministry would have killed me," Harry replied. "I have to be careful, I'm on probation, remember?"
"Alright," Draco sighed. "Do you need anything?"
"A pain potion."
Draco summoned a potion, which Harry eagerly swallowed. "Anything else?"
"For you to stay here with me." Harry's voice was casual, but there was a forced tone to it that he couldn't quite get rid of, and he knew Draco could feel how tightly Harry's hands clutched at him.
He pressed his lips to Harry's scar, brushing the hair out of his eyes. "Of course," he murmured. He smoothed a hand gently across an unbruised portion of his neck. "I love you, Harry."
"I love you too," Harry said, his face pressed against Draco's shoulder. "Now shut up so I can sleep again."
-0-
Draco hugged his mother excitedly when the ceremony was over. He turned to his father, already offering his hand, but, to his surprise, Lucius grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him into a tight hug of his own.
"I am proud of, Draco," he said, smiling. "Graduating from Hogwarts with ten NEWTs. No matter what profession you pursue, know that I am proud of you."
"Thank you, Father," Draco said, trying not to get choked up and pretty much failing.
"Shall we go to dinner?" Narcissa asked.
"I- I want to speak to Harry first," Draco said, knowing his parents still didn't like Harry all that much. "To congratulate him and say goodbye and all that."
"Where is Mr Potter, anyway?" Lucius asked, scanning the crowd.
"He's with Auror Green. He's, er, the only one who came to see Harry."
"His probationary Auror?" Lucius asked, eyebrow cocked. Draco nodded. "Very well, go speak to your Mr Potter. Narcissa and I shall visit with Madame Zabini. I believe she in on husband number twelve now." He pursed his lips briefly as he led Narcissa away with a hand in the small of her back.
Draco whirled, dashing through the crowd to reach Harry, who stood awkwardly with Auror.
"Draco! Just the man I wanted to see!" Harry called, pulling him in by the hands and kissing him soundly. "Do you have a few minutes to say goodbye?"
"Yes, but then my parents want to take me out for dinner," Draco answered.
"Good," Harry purred in his ear, tugging him around the corner of the castle. "This way, Gorgeous."
Draco stumbled, his knees going weak when he heard the old nickname in Harry's husky voice. Harry pushed him into a hidden corner and cast a privacy ward before pressing Draco against the wall and dropping to his knees.
"Oh, fuck, Harry," Draco gasped, already hard and aching. Harry grinned evilly as he undid Draco's flies and exposed him to the warm June air for just a second before taking his cock in his mouth and swallowing him down.
Circe, it was just as good as he remembered. Draco groaned into the fist pressed against his mouth as Harry hummed around his cock, sliding down to swirl his tongue around the head before swallowing him down again. Draco's hips jerked as the head hit the back of Harry's throat.
"Ah, Harry, fuck- oh!" he cried as he came, Harry eagerly swallowing it all. "Fuck, I love you."
"I love you too," Harry murmured back, leaning his head against Draco's thigh. "Happy Graduation Day."
Draco laughed. "To the both of us."