AN: Extra long chapter for the extra long wait. YEAH 3

Harry could hardly believe they had less than two months of school left before this year would come to an end. There had been so much that had happened in the last year. Draco and himself were bonded now, Sirius was safe, Lupin managed to run off with him...with all of this commotion, he had practically forgotten about the attack at the beginning of the year. Thankfully, his friends still remained vigilant. Hermione, with Draco's help, kept brewing shielding potions which all of Harry's close friends took regularly. Although there had been no trace of the snake for a while now, they all still kept up with their potions, though none of them spoke to Harry about it. As far as they were concerned, Harry had enough things to worry about. School was actually going alright for a change. With his mate's constant tutoring he had managed to get decent at potions so now besides History of Magic all of his grades were quite good. In general, Harry felt happier than he ever remembered being.

"What are you dreaming about now?" Draco asked his mate, snapping him out of his wandering thoughts. They were both sitting around the coffee table in their rooms, Draco drinking his tea while Harry had just been loafing on the sofa. "Oh, nothing...everything. Just sort of thinking about this last year." Harry explained with a small smile, his hand drifting over the table to lace his fingers with Draco's, a gesture they had gotten quite fond of. "I see. I suppose it has been quite eventful." the blonde agreed, setting his empty mug down. "Well, it's almost noon, I suppose we can go have an early lunch. It's a Sunday after all. We can have the rest of the day to figure out a way to entertain ourselves." the Slytherin grinned suggestively, pecking at Harry's lips. "Yeah, yeah. Lunch first." he insisted, standing up with a small laugh. "One track mind, that Veela." the Gryffindor pointed out, to which Draco just shrugged with a confident smirk.

A few minutes later they were both headed to the great hall, looking forward to a quick bite to eat. Since Ron had blurted out that they were mates in front of the whole school Draco and Harry had been taking turns sitting at either the Gryffindor or Slytherin table. The Slytherins had been surprisingly accepting once Draco assured them he was worthwhile, perhaps even a little more accepting than some Gryffindors. It was strange to think how Harry had become so used to both houses. Then again, when he had first arrived at Hogwarts the Sorting Hat had hesitated between the two so maybe that was an indication of why he seemed to get along with both now. In any case, today was Gryffindor day, and although there weren't many people in the hall at the moment they still found a few Gryffindors to sit with.

Seamus, Fred and George greeted them as they sat down and Harry said a quick hello before starting to pile some food onto his plate. "So...haven't seen you two at breakfast. What were you up to? Nothing too inappropriate we hope!" the twins sad, both letting out a hearty laugh as Harry blushed and tried to change the subject. Draco just raised a thin brow, eating quietly. Malfoys were fairly adept at not showing emotion and this was becoming quite useful around the two Weasleys. "What we did with our morning is none of your concern, I assure you." Draco drawled, inducing another fit of giggles in the twins. "And now that our privacy was invaded...how is the shop going?" Harry asked the twins.

The two looked at each other with a wide grin before leaning in close. "Well Harry." George started. "This is on the down low...but there's a new product." Fred continued. "and it explodes and leaves behind rainbow taffy that's enchanted to stick to anyone that tries to run." they both finished proudly. "That sounds...please don't ever make it chase me." Harry laughed in response.

"Wackspurts sometimes chase rainbows...they would really like your shop." came an airy voice, and a strange looking blonde girl sat across from them. "Hello Luna." Harry greeted her. He hadn't seen her in a long time and he'd only recently managed to catch her up on everything that happened throughout the year. "Wackspurts?" Draco asked. He'd only met Luna once or twice, and he couldn't say he thought she was all...sane. "Yes, they live mostly around areas with lots of wizards, my father studied them for a long time." Luna answered with a smile, starting to pile rice onto her plate, counting each grain as she did so. The Slytherin stared at her in disbelief for a moment, wondering why no one else thought it was odd to be speaking to her. "Wackspurts don't exists. No one has even heard of this random name." he pointed out, his voice condescending. Harry was a little surprised to hear his mate sounds so harsh, looking up at him with a small frown. Luna didn't seem to be too affected by the comment. "You can read all about it in the Quibbler. Would you like an issue?" she smiled, pushing a magazine across the table to him. "Loony, this is ridiculous. You can't possibly believe what's written there. It's not even close to facts." he retorted, the usual Slytherin sneer back in place. Harry stared at him in disbelief before kicking his leg under the table. "Draco." he said through his teeth. "Luna's father prints the Quibbler..and you don't need to call her loony." Harry told him, getting a little peeved now.

"It's alright. I can tell he's not a friend of Nargles." Luna said, offering Harry an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, I'll bring a different paper next time." she assured him. Harry sighed and stood up. "Don't apologize Luna, Draco's the one that should be saying sorry." he added, giving him a small glare. The veela could feel that his mate was upset, but it didn't change the fact that the girl was insane. "I won't be apologising." he told him softly. "I'm still a Slytherin. Sometimes your adopted Gryffindors are just too...odd." the blonde said, trying to put it nicely. Harry turned to him, feeling actually hurt now. "Luna is my friend. And she's helped me quite a few times. I owe her a lot and although some of her ideas are eccentric at least she doesn't just blindly follow everyone else like your Slytherins." he started. The rest of the group had fallen quiet now and Seamus reached to tug Harry back down. "No. I'm not sitting back down. Why do you think we take turns sitting at both tables? At least I'm trying to get along with your friends. Pansy's not sane and Crabbe and Goyle attacked me numerous times even before the curse but I still manage to talk to them and it turns out that they're actually pretty decent!" he pointed out, his voice raising in volume now. "Your Slytherins are my Slytherins too...why can't it work the other way around too? Why do you have to be such a prat to Luna, who's actually one of my close friends." Harry told him, feeling genuinely hurt now. Draco could feel his emotions leaking over, and it made him feel a little guilty, though that still wasn't an excuse for how his mate was yelling at him. "Harry...just calm down. I'm not trying to insult your friends. I just don't think this Quibbler is very...valid." he tried. "You're overreacting...and she's a little more than just eccentric." Draco pointed out. Harry shook his head softly. "Maybe you could decide that after you've actually met her. I'm going to go see Hagrid." the Gryffindor decided, huffing and trudging out of the great hall. He hadn't even really eaten lunch. The day had gone from incredible to terrible in such a short time.

"I didn't mean to get him so upset." Draco sighed, running his fingers through his hair. Seamus rolled his eyes slightly. "He did have a point mate. Though we insult Slytherins every day so I can't say we're much better." he said. Fred and George gave a half shrug in response. Luna finished counting her rice grains, looking up at Draco after. "It's alright, what you said. Lots of people say those things. They just don't know what it's like to be different. Harry's different." she said with a smile, standing up and taking her rice before heading outside to eat it. Draco frowned slightly. Harry was different, and he'd gotten harassed quite a bit...for a long time by Draco. The blonde sighed as the guilty feeling settled in again, standing up too. "I'll go apologise to him." he decided.

Harry growled to himself again as he trudged through the forbidden forest. Hagrid was of course headed off to see Norbert and Harry had decided to tag along, though at a distance. He wasn't exactly mad at Draco anymore. After all, it had taken him a while to warm up to Luna, Draco was actually doing a bit better than most Gryffindors. "Stupid idiot veela" he sighed, looking up again. Well great, Hagrid had gotten so far ahead of him now. Oh well, he had come here mainly to get some air. He supposed that part had been accomplished.

Harry gasped as his vision suddenly blurred and pain flared up in his side. He didn't know what was happening, and when he opened his eyes it was like he was seeing out of someone else's. There was Voldemord's snake, rearing to strike again, and the person who's vision he was seeing was staggering to get up. A few scale like feathers fell to the ground in between droplets of blood. Red feathers. And then just as suddenly as it had come the vision was gone again, and Harry was left kneeling on the grass in panic. "Oh god. Draco." he gasped. The bond. It let them share emotions, thoughts...even sight. Draco was hurt. That thing was here and it had attacked his mate. "Focus, focus...where was he? What was around him?" he was whispering, trying to think of the surroundings. He'd been so focused on the snake he'd barely registered anything else. Wait. The forest. It was in a clearing. The one that they'd spoken to Aragog in during their second year.

As soon as he realized this he bolted up, starting into a dead run towards the clearing. He didn't care what was around him or what kind of plants he had to wade through, he just needed to get to Draco. Harry had completely forgotten about their argument that day.

"Please be okay." he panted, stumbling into the clearing, coming face to face with the snake.

Draco sighed in frustration as he found Hagrid's hut empty. He hated not knowing where his mate was, it made him uneasy. It was especially hard when the bond was so new. "He'd in danger. The Wackspurts told me. He's been tricked." a voice came from behind Draco, and he spun around to face Luna again. Where did this girl come from all the time. He started apologising before pausing, realizing what Luna had said. "Loon...Luna. I can't find Harry. What do you mean he's in danger...do you have any other reason to think that other than...Wackspurts." he asked her, trying to be careful not to insult her again. "I heard voices. They said they were setting a trap in the forest." Luna explained, picking up a flower from the ground and starting to examine it carefully. Draco frowned softly, closing his eyes. If he concentrated on it, he could usually at least find the right direction to get to Harry. He gasped softly as the veela inside him lurched possessively, tugging him to the forest. Luna was right. "This doesn't feel safe. Harry's not safe. I have to find him. Luna...thank you." he told her quickly, red wings unfurling behind him as he took off. He chose to fly high above the forest, trying to spot something from above. His eyes fell on one of the clearings and he used his magic to bring his sight closer. He spotted Harry first, then the snake.

Harry had run into the clearing, wand ready and already casting shield spells. The snake threw itself at him as soon as he ran in, but there was no sign of Draco. 'ssooo easssssy, tricked sssso sssoon. your mate isssssnt here...jusssst ussss.' the snake hissed at him, and Harry felt his blood run cold. He had thought the vision felt a little off, but he had been so scared that Draco was hurt he barely thought before running here. Merlin he was in trouble now. He narrowly dodged the snake again, casting another hex at it to try to slow it down. Suddenly the snake shrieked, sending a pulse of magic out that knocked him back, his wand clattering out of his reach. Harry grunted in pain and scrambled to get up. There was no way he was going down this easy. Where was his want? He needed to find it, but looking around frantically he just caught sight of the snake, fangs barred, feet away from him and striking. He didn't even have time to blink before the snake hit, though when it did he was already thrown to the side by someone. "Draco!" Harry exclaimed as he caught sight of the familiar wings. There was a low growl that escaped the blonde, and as soon as Harry was safe the veela launched himself at the snake, his magic shredding the creature to pieces.

Draco panted heavily as the snake carcass fell to the ground, and he felt himself slide to his knees as pain flared up in his body, almost like it was flowing in from his arm. "Draco. Draco!" Harry was shouting, rushing to him and grabbing a hold of him. "You got bitten, you're hurt, let me see." the Gryffindor was saying, taking his arm to see the wound, shuddering. The bite mark looked gruesome, and there was blood and what he assumed was venom everywhere. "My wand, where the hell is my wand." he said, feeling panic rise up within him. Just then he heard the clatter of hooves approaching them, and he turned to see one of the thestrals riding in with Luna on its back. "Accio wand." Luna spoke softly, and from a puddle of mud Harry's wand came flying out. "Thank god, Luna" the boy gasped, scrambling to grab the wand as Draco slumped against him, his breathing getting slower and slower. "No, Draco stay awake. It's just venom you can fight this, I know you can. Stay awake." Harry screamed at the blonde, taking his arm and starting to perform any spells he knew that could rid a person of poison or cleanse a wound or blood. Nothing was working, and to Harry's horror the venom seemed almost drawn to the wound. Even from the snake's carcass nearby the venom was pooling on the ground before trickling to the bite mark and into Draco's blood. "No...no, no."Harry whispered, tears flowing unchecked over his cheeks. There was nothing he could do to stop the venom. "Draco look at me, I don't know what to do, Draco please." he whispered, holding his mate up. "As long...as you're...safe." the blonde breathed, his breath hitching as his liquid silver eyes started to taint with a murky red before the Slytherin fell unconscious.

"He won't die Harry." Luna told the sobbing boy, watching her friend cradle his mate in panic. "The poison wasn't meant to kill him." she said, and Harry raised his head slightly to gaze at her miserably. "What do you know about it, what can we do?" he was asking her. He had to do something. Anything. "Let's get him back." he suggested, and this time even Luna managed to look worried.

Madam Pomfrey had done all she could, but even her spells couldn't do anything against the venom. She had managed to identify the poison, and she brought over a potion she had prepared. Draco had been set down on one of the beds and Harry was sitting beside him, slinging to his hand. When they had rushed back they had gone past a few of their friends and now practically all of Harry's and Draco's friends were piled outside of the doors to the hospital wing, awaiting some news. Harry, however, barely noticed this, or anything else around him. It took Madam Pomfrey a few good shouts to get him to look up at her. "Harry. I can't get rid of the venom because it was cursed, the poison is laced with magic and it's binding to his blood. It's not meant to kill him though." she said uncertainly. "I've only seen this once before, but it's quite powerful." she started explaining, and Harry teared up again. The mediwitch chose to continue, wanting to give the boy all of the information she had before she lost his attention again. "The curse takes any set of memories of the targeted person and traps it's victims in them. It was used a very long time ago as a torture method. If you knew your enemy's most painful experiences you could make them relive them over again." she told Harry softly. "There is no known way to break out."

Harry didn't hear anything else after that. His bloodshot eyes fell on Draco again and he felt himself start crying anew. The snake had been targeting him, not Draco. If he hadn't been so stupid...if he hadn't run off before noticing the vision was fakes. Then Draco might be awake right now, with him. It was him Voldemord wanted, so the memories that were laced into the venom were probably some of Harry's most horrible. And now Draco was being forced to live through them. Harry would give anything to switch places with his mate. Anything to have Draco back.

"Well...come on boy. Clean this up." a short, portly man shouted. Draco groaned in pain as he scrambled up from the ground. Everything around him felt so...wrong...so unfamiliar. "I said clean!" the man shouted, and Draco was startled out of his thoughts as he watched the man grab a young boy, shoving him roughly towards the kitchen by his shoulder. The Slytherin hissed as pain flared in his own shoulder, and he stared dumbfounded from himself to the boy. The child was so small and scrawny, with clothes too large for him and broken glasses. Any child would have started crying when treated like this, but this boy just started cleaning, yelping when he burned his hand on one of the hot pans. Draco hissed too as his own hand burned, and he gazed at his reddening palm. Then he caught a proper look at the boy, and those eyes were unmistakable. "Harry?" he whispered softly. It didn't seem like the boy could hear him, and before he could approach him everything changed again.

This was Hogwarts now, bustling with students, and he was in an office strewn with cat photographs and pink wallpaper. He recognized Umbridge at her desk, and Harry sitting off to the side of her office, writing quietly. He groaned in pain and stared in disbelief at the back of his hand as words started appearing on it. When he looked over at Harry he could see the Gryffindor was suffering the same fate. "Harry. What's happening. Where are we? Why won't you answer me. Can't you hear me?" he started, stumbling as his surroundings changed again.

Pain. Everywhere. This was different. He could see Harry lying on a shabby bed, looking terrible. There were news papers strewn across the tiny room, and he caught one of the headlines. The department of ministries had been broken into, Harry Potter...wait...was this perhaps the summer after Harry had lost Sirius? The same portly man from earlier burst into the room, yelling at him about leaving things of magic around, spitting profanities. If this was the summer, then Harry lived...here? And this must be one of the muggles...but that couldn't be, Harry was treated like royalty wasn't he? All the Slytherins believed so...

The man picked up a heavy book and threw it viciously at Harry and Draco growled menacingly as he reached to catch the book, hissing when the object passed straight through him almost like he was a ghost. What was going on? He didn't have any time to think as the man fumbled past him, grabbing Harry and throwing him roughly to the ground. "I'll stomp the magic right out of you." the man was yelling, pinning him down and crushing him to the filthy floor. "Don't you dare. Get away-" Draco started yelling, giving a frustrated groan as everything around him changed yet again. How many times was this going to happen. When he realized where he was, he wished he could go back to the previous scene. "No." he whispered as he watched Harry throw himself to the veil in front of him. Someone was holding him back as he struggled and Draco had never seen Harry so hurt. It was like watching his mate be tortured in front of him. He couldn't take this. Harry's screams and sobs, the pain that he felt wracking through his own body. "Stop. Enough." Draco was saying, closing his eyes to try to block out the scene. it didn't work though, even behind his eyelids he could still see everything clear as day. Why was this happening? He felt so helpless.

The scene changed again as Draco's stomach heaved as he recognized the maze from the Triwizard tournament. This was just getting worse.

AN: Yes, it's been a while, but that doesn't mean I don't want to hear how you feel about this little twist ;) Muffins people...muffins...