Draco slammed his bedroom door shut as loudly as he could hoping everyone in the bloody house heard it. He peeled of his wet damp clothes on his way into the bathroom, Drawing a hot tub of water complete with Lavender bubble bath. With a content sigh he sank down into the bubbles allowing the warmth to clear away the damp that seemed to have settled in Draco's bones.
Upon climbing out of the tub wrinkled and pruned he went to his bag to pull out pajama bottoms and found nothing in the bag. Raising his eyebrow he looked around to find a closet thinking perhaps the house elves had unpacked the bag for him. He opened the closet door and flipped on the light switch and his jaw hit the floor.
The walk in closet was almost as big as the bedroom itself down the right hand wall were shirts ,t-shirts, dress shirts, sweat shirts, in all styles and colors imaginable. Down the left side were pants with dressers underneath. The pants were also in countless varieties. None of this is what caught Draco's attention however. What caught his attention was the whole back wall that was filled with shoes. Dress shoes. Tennis shoes. Boots and slippers. It was floor to ceiling shoes.
The blond was shocked all of the clothing was in his size and brand new. He wanted to know two things. One of those things being how Asher knew his size, and the other being how Asher got all of this done in such a short amount of time on top of sneaking it all into the room.
With a shake of his head he pulled a pair of sweatpants out of one of the dresser drawers and headed out of the closet.
Seated on the bed cross legged with his eyes closed Asher waited for him. A tray sat next to him with a grilled cheese sandwich and chicken noodle soup. "Strange, I don't recall ordering room service." Draco scowled crossing his arms he remaining by the closet door.
Asher rolled his eyes. "I thought you might like something hot to eat to chase away the cold." he said softly nodding towards the tray and expecting the blond to start eating.
"I hope you don't have some delusion that I'm going to bow to your every whim when you think I should do something." Draco retorted climbing into bed but ignoring the food.
Asher sighed and picked up the tray, moving it to the night stand. "I'm not expecting you to. I only expect you to take care of yourself and if you don't start now with heating yourself up, you will wind up sick." Asher said, still expecting the other male to turn over and eat the soup.
"It's not my fault. I didn't expect you to come track me down." Draco sneered crossing his arms over his chest. "nor did I expect you to pick me up and carry me back here!"
Asher sat down on the bed next to the blond. "I protected you first in the attack, what makes you think I'm going to let something I can stop kill you?" he asked softly, a bit of hurt leaking into his eyes.
"No, I mean I didn't expect you to find out I was gone or to find me until it was too late." Draco murmured turning his head staring at the comforter
Asher looked down. "You really don't understand do you? It would have hurt me just as much as it would have hurt your mother if you had died. We all want you here." he said softly.
"I'm a Death Eater Asher," Draco sighed taking the glamor off of the dark mark on his arm. " No one wants me around."
Asher chuckled darkly. "Trust me that doesn't matter to me at all." he said with a bit of a sadistic grin.
"You can be scary you know." Draco commented before dipping the grilled cheese into the soup and taking a bite.
Asher smiled in a silent thank you. "I think that might actually be the idea." he said softly, happy the teen was eating his soup.
"That's how Voldemort gained power, through fear. I don't think that's quite the way to go about things." Draco tilted his head contemplating his words. "I think using a more... I don't know the word I'm looking for." He paused another moment taking a few bites more. " Seductive maybe. Addictive. Be a leader that everyone knows is bad news but still can't seem to stay away from."
Asher chuckled. "I plan on being the dark lord, but at the same time I will use none of his methods. I don't know about marking my followers but I will not torture them. my inner circle will be my most trusted friends, meaning those you see downstairs." he said with a bit of a more sadistic grin. "torture is only used for punishment and play." he said softly in a joking voice.
"You are lucky to have them." Draco nodded sadly before finishing his soup in silence
Asher smiled. "You know there is room for others if they aren't always acting like stuck up pricks." he said in a bit of a teasing voice.
"I'm not a stuck up little prick," Draco argued hugging his knees to himself. "At least I don't try to be, I just don't know how to talk to them or what to say." He shivered slightly.
Asher laughed. "The way you talk to your mother and my Father, with respect. If you talked to everyone like that it might do you some good."
"I've always been taught that if I act weak I'll be treated as such. To respect everyone is to open yourself up to being used and abused because people will assume they are better than you." Draco replied quietly blushing slightly.
Asher shook his head. "I am not better than you, nor is Luna, Neville Fred or George. We are all equals."
"Tell them that, I was a prick I know that I'll admit it. For some reason you forgave me but it doesn't seem like they have or ever will." Draco gestured a hand towards the door referring to the rest of the homes inhabitants, he stopped to cough and then continued. "What can I do?"
"Have you ever thought about apologizing?" Asher asked raising an eyebrow inquiringly.
"Do you think they would listen to me?" Draco asked sliding down under the blanket stretching as far as he could with Asher sitting where he was.
Asher rose gracefully to his feet. "Yeah I think they would, We've all been through tough times. We understand." He leaned over tucking Draco in and kissed his forehead. "Get some sleep. You need it."
Draco watched the other teen go trying to make a quick mental inventory of questions to ask Asher but he was asleep before he made it very far.
Sometime in the middle of the night Draco woke again coughing and shivering. He curled up in the blankets hugging himself and wondering if the elves would answer him, He certainly had know idea where to find Asher. Coughing again the blond hoped that Asher might be close enough to hear him and come to his rescue with a glass of water or a potion or something.
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Asher laid his book to the side listening carefully hearing coughing, mere seconds later the health wards he had placed on Draco's room went off. He quickly jumped up snapping his fingers an elf appeared by his side. "Go heat some soup please?" Asher requested before conjuring a glass of water and heading to Draco's room. He went to sit on the edge of the bed helping Draco sit up.
"How did you know?" Draco asked hoarsely taking a long drink of water.
Asher smiled and pulled the blanket up around Draco's shoulders. "I thought this might happen, I put up a ward to tell me if you woke up sick," He replied while taking a tray with warm soup and tea from the elf.
"No, not that. How did you know I wanted water?" Draco clarified leaning back into his pillows.
"Well with how you were coughing I didn't figure it would hurt." Asher lied reaching over to feel Draco's forehead. He didn't think it would make the blond feel any better if he had replied with ' I can sense things you need, You're my mate.
"Thank you." Draco almost whispered hiding behind a steaming cup of tea. "For everything, The clothes, saving me, the room service. All of it. Thank you."
"No need for thanking me. As a member of my household more so as a guest it is my job to take care of you. What kind of host would I be otherwise?" Asher asked snapping his fingers again the elf reappeared with a bottle of green fluid and a box of tissues.
After getting Draco to sit up again Asher poured some of the green liquid into a little plastic cup and handed it to the blond.
"What is this?" Draco asked skeptically smelling it and recoiling in distaste.
"Just take it, It tastes like black liquorice." Asher rolled his eyes. Draco still looked worried but did as he was asked regardless drinking the fluid in one shot and it did indeed taste like black liquorice.
"Now I ask again, what was that?" Draco asked wiping his mouth on his arm.
"It was muggle cough syrup. You caught a muggle cold you need to treat it the muggle way." He sighed. "This one actually has sleep aid in it too so you'll probably be out again in no time."
"Why did Severus always treat you so badly if you were his son?" Draco questioned snuggling under the covers.
"Papa didn't know I was his son, He thought his wife and son had both died.." Asher began. He moved to lay next to Draco with his head on the pillow knowing he might be there a while. "Mama was at Hogwarts when she went into labor early she taught there.." Asher paused to look at Draco who was barely holding his eyes open.
"I can tell you this later," Asher smiled pulling the blankets up over the blond again.
"No, I want to hear it please?" Draco argued stubbornly even going so far as to grab onto Asher's wrist. Asher curbed the natural defense his body had when surprised he didn't think Draco needed to be reliving his worst memories while sick.
"Okay okay." Asher laid back down rubbing his thumb over the back of Draco's hand. " Snape was in a meeting with Voldemort when it happened. By the time he got here Dumbledore told him Mama had died of complications with the labor and I hadn't made it either." Asher paused a moment calming himself down. After a few deep breaths he felt normal again Draco was watching him expectantly.
"I was born on Halloween, The same night the Potter's were attacked and killed Harry Potter never existed. Dumbledore just made everyone think he did. He took me and dropped me off at the home of Petunia Dursley. Lily Potter's sister. And her oaf of a husband and son. He fed them the same lie as everyone else. That I was Harry Potter and I defeated Voldemort." Asher took a moment to slide under the cover while Draco thought of his first question,
"If you didn't kill him how did he die?" Draco asked drowsily as the medicine kicked in.
"My guess is James or Lily Potter were able to hit him with the killing curse." Asher shrugged. "He had Horcruxes so he couldn't really be killed by the spell but it would seem that he was so maybe James got his and thought he was dead and was then killed by another death eater. Who knows."
"How did you find out the truth?" Draco then questioned scooting closer to the Harpy.
"Remus and Sirius started figuring things out. they had never seen Lily pregnant and they had never met their so called godson. Sirius was sent to Azkaban not long after the Potter murder. Moony was living with the werewolves and Dumbledore didn't expect either one of them to live long enough to talk."
"But they did and they told you and you and Severus both have a family now." Draco murmured curling up as close as he could get with his head on Asher's chest.
"That we most certainly do." Asher whispered as Draco's breathing evened out and his eyes drifted shut. " I just hope you'll be a part of it."