A/N:

Sorry it is a short chapter - must dash, busy busy busy.

Chapter Four

Draco was lucky, Theo's was the first place he tried and he offered Draco his spare room. All of Draco's friends knew he was seeing Harry and Draco told Theo they were on a break, until Harry sorted out his priorities.

Draco spent three days and nights, ignoring everyone and just spending most of his time at his laboratory. He rented a place to test his potions and experiment for his thesis and eventual Mastership in potions.

He missed Harry a lot, but he wanted both of them to have time away to clear their heads. He decided he would return to the flat tomorrow and he would ask Harry what his decision was.

He was mixing his sixth attempt at his take on an old potion, which could use modernising. One of the key ingredients was almost extinct and he was trying to remove it from a batch and substitute it with something else. It was trial and error, he decided, this batch would be his last. Then he would return to Theo's and pack.

Draco didn't make it back to Theo's, the sixth batch reacted violently and exploded with such force and ferocity, Draco was thrown backwards. He banged his head on the table behind him and blacked out. The fire under the caldron grew once the flammable potion poured out of the caldron. Soon the fire reached Draco's notes, books and other things, causing the fire to get out of control quickly.

Draco stirred, his eyes snapped open. He was panicking, his head was throbbing, but what worried him was the fire surrounding him. He had flashbacks to the Room of Requirement and the fire that almost killed him.

He couldn't see his wand – most likely charred and in ashes. He even tried wandless magic – nothing. He screamed for help – nothing. The smoke was thick and he couldn't see the door through the flames.

Acrid smokes filled his lungs. Draco ripped his shirt and put the torn piece over his mouth, he didn't want to inhale the smoke fumes, or the potion fumes. The raging ferocious fire soon inched its way closer and closer to him, making Draco's heart palpitate.

The smoke seared his eyes and reduced his visibility to near zero. Draco's last thought before he passed out was; I don't want to die, not when I'm fighting with Harry.

Harry hated the last three days and nights without Draco. He almost went after him, on more than one occasion. But he knew he'd be back and the most important issue was his fear of coming out. That was what Draco wanted Harry to sort out, so he used the three days to think. Also not having Draco around, made him realise he couldn't have a life without Draco in it.

He hoped that Draco would come home soon, maybe tomorrow. He was doing the dishes when Pansy shrieked and started hysterically crying and shouting. Everyone converged in the living room at once.

Hermione was trying to stop her hysterical crying so she could tell them what was wrong. Harry had never seen her like that. Blaise hugged her and ran his hands up and down her arms, as Hermione rubbed her back.

After a few moments she said through a tear streaked face, "Draco…"

Harry tensed at once, something has happened to Draco. Is that why Pansy was hysterical?

"He's been in an accident. His potions lab caught fire and he was trapped. He's at St Mungo's, being treated for smoke inhalation, burns, and other possible side effects. They rang me because he hadn't changed his details – I am his emergency contact. We have to go. Now." She grabbed some floo powder and went to the hospital.

Harry felt sick, his worse fear was losing Draco. Why did he even think he could risk losing him by not coming out? Now he might lose him anyway, and he hadn't said how sorry he was, how much he loved him, wanted and needed him. Hearing Pansy's words caused adrenaline to start pumping through him and his mind started racing to the worst case scenarios in a matter of seconds.

He vaguely felt someone haul him off the sofa and the familiar sensation of floo'ing somewhere. They stepped out and headed for the welcome desk.

Harry pushed Pansy aside and asked the robust witch where he could find Draco Malfoy.

"Are you his emergency contact or a relative?" She asked primly.

"No."

"Then I cannot tell you where he is. Friends must wait until the Healers say you can see him." She looked over Harry's shoulder, intending to help the next person.

Harry was on edge as it was, he didn't have time to fuck around with hospital rules. He glared at the person behind him, who was about to ask a question. Then he returned his deadly glare on the welcome witch.

"Where can I find Draco Malfoy?" He spat.

She frowned at him, "Now listen here Sir..."

Harry cut her off, "No. I am his god damn boyfriend. Tell me where the hell Draco Malfoy is before I tear off every damn door until I find the correct room."

Harry heard the other occupants of the waiting room gasp and start whispering. He whirled around and glowered at the crowd.

"Yes that's right. You heard. I Harry Potter am gay. I'm gay as gay can be, not even a tiny bit straight. I'm gay gay gay. Yes I have been hiding this fact and I have just found out my boyfriend Draco Malfoy is seriously injured, so if I hear one person try and stop me I will hex you all to hell."

Everyone stared silently back at the enraged saviour and no one dared speak.

The welcome witch nervously said, "Draco Malfoy is on the fourth floor, burns ward."

Harry nodded at her and tore off towards the lifts.

The rest of the group stayed in the waiting room, holding back until Harry had his moment with Draco.

Ron whispered to Hermione, "I guess Harry has solved his problem. What an epic way of coming out."

The stupid fucking lift is going too slow, I should have taken the stairs. Harry wanted to get to Draco, he needed to see for himself that he was okay. Harry could feel himself panicking, so he closed his eyes, took a few steadying breaths and pictured Draco smiling at him after he first told him, that he loved him.

The lift doors finally pinged open and Harry rushed to the reception desk, for this ward.

"Draco Malfoy's room. Please." He added 'please' he sounded desperate.

"Third door on the right." The receptionist pointed down the corridor to Harry's left.

Harry tried to smile in thanks, but he didn't think he pulled it off. He hurried down the corridor and found the correct door. He took another steadying breath and knocked.

No answer, he turned the handle and went inside anyway. His breath hitched. Draco was lead out on the hospital bed, asleep or knocked out – Harry didn't know. His skin was a shocking sight, his arms looked red, painful like they would be very sensitive to touch. The damaged skin looked as if it was slightly moist, maybe from leakage of the fluid in the deeper layers of the skin. His face looked like the burns were worse, like the damage was deeper and blisters had started to appear on his skin.

Harry couldn't see much else, he was under the covers and a Healer was applying some cream or salve to the burns on his arms, then wrapping it in a bandage.

The Healer turned to face Harry. "Sorry I didn't hear you come in. Are you here to see Mr Malfoy?" the friendly looking man asked.

Harry cleared his throat, it felt dry and he found it difficult to speak, "Yes. Is...Is he okay?"

The healer continued his work, "He has suffered severe burns, of various degrees. His face has second degree burns. But I have given him the relevant potions and I am now applying a healing salve, which needs to be applied three times a day. Until the burns have cleared up completely. He was lucky that the caretaker found him. He was working late and no one else was in the building. He must have inhaled a lot of smoke, but he hasn't woken yet and we don't want to force him awake."

Harry blinked away some tears that were threating to fall. He walked to Draco's bedside and smiled sadly at him, even though he was unconscious. "I'm here Draco. I won't leave your side, I promise." Harry told him as he smoothed back his hair.

The healer smiled at him, "He will recover. Just needs time and constant application of the salve and potions. However we are unsure what caused the fire, I know Mr Malfoy was studying to be a potions master, so we cannot rule out an unstable potion go awry."

Harry was stroking Draco's hand, "Do you know the extent of the smoke inhalation damage?"

"He was subjected to the smoke for some time. The caretaker thought it was just a fire caused by an unattended potion, he didn't realise that Mr Malfoy was there at first, but as soon as he did he got him out."

Harry made a mental note to find out the caretakers name and thank the man – he saved Draco's life.

"We have given him a potion to fix any damage on his lungs. It will be uncomfortable for a day or so, but hopefully he will make a full recovery. He had a lucky escape. His burns shouldn't leave any scarring."

The healer finished wrapping Draco's burns on his arm. He didn't wrap the ones on his face, but he covered them in ointment and cast a cooling charm to the room. The healer left with a nod at Harry and Harry was left with his thoughts.

The others snuck in briefly, but couldn't really do much because Draco remained unconscious. They stayed for a while, but eventually left leaving Harry alone with him. Pansy said she would sort a bag of clean clothes etc. for Draco and bring it in tomorrow. She also said she would bring some flowers to brighten up the room.

She hugged Harry and said he wouldn't dare die on Harry, because if he did Harry would kill him. Harry rolled his eyes at her and hugged her goodbye.

The fire didn't seem to damage Draco too badly, all the injuries could be fixed with spells, potions or salve. But no one knew what was in the potions lab and any of those ingredients could have caused an adverse effect. Hermione had explained to the Healers as best she could about Draco's experiments and what potion and ingredients he would have been working with. The healers had said that Draco shouldn't have any adverse effects based on what Hermione said.

Harry stayed in the chair by his bed all night. The healers came in to apply the salve, take Draco's statistics and cast various diagnostic spells.

Harry had asked the last healer about the probability of Draco waking up soon.

"He must have hit his head, he may have fallen. He inhaled thick smoke and passed out. His body is resting, recovering – we will not force him to wake and hinder the recovery. Hopefully he will wake soon." The female healer said as checked in on Draco.

Harry sighed and rested his head on the edge of the bed. He soon fell asleep slouching forwards, still holding Draco's hand.

Draco felt strange. His body felt extremely heavy, yet he was feeling so light. Even though it may sound paradoxical, there is no other way for him to describe what he was feeling. In this extra-sensitive state, he was able to hear everything, without being able to respond to anything. Every whisper, word, cry and earlier the sound of someone snoring gently, but very close to him.

Draco wanted to lift his hand to reach out, but he couldn't. He couldn't even open his eyes. Someone was griping his hand, it was nice knowing that someone was there sitting next to him, and wishing him a recovery.

"Draco? I don't even know if you can hear me…Christ this is fucking weird." Harry mumbled.

Draco recognised that wonderful voice, that voice made him feel instantly better just by hearing it. He wanted to smile at Harry, or move a finger to indicate he could hear him. He hoped Harry would continue to talk.

"Well I'm going to talk to you, no matter how silly it seems. I don't think I'll ever get another chance to talk to you without you interrupting."

Draco smiled inwardly, Bloody dork. His dork though!

"I'm going to tell you again when you wake, but I'm going to tell you now. I love you, you idiot. I hated not having you at home the last few days. I never thought I'd miss your insane neatness, your incessant moaning about all my bad habits and clothes. I love that I still feel butterflies when you're near. I love the way you kiss me, how you make me feel. I love how you love all my imperfections, yet you still think I am perfect. Well okay I'm rambling, normally you would have scoffed and called me a Hufflepuff and I would have shut up."

Draco liked it when Harry babbled, especially when it was adorable babbling about being in love with him. I love you too Harry. Draco thought.

"Loving you comes so naturally. I don't know why I was holding back, it wasn't because of you. You're perfect, I just didn't feel ready. But now I don't care who knows – I'm gay, I love you and everyone can fuck off. Anyway I think my huge tantrum in the waiting room, was my coming out speech. Draco you need to wake up so I can tell you all these things and more, I want to see your astonishing eyes and magnificent smile, as I tell you that I'm never letting you go."

Draco was glad he couldn't do anything, because if he was awake and in control he probably would have out Hufflepuffed Harry. The git was saying such lovely things.

Harry sighed he felt stupid talking to someone, who is clearly out of it.

"I'm going to shut up now, I feel silly." Harry told the motionless Draco.

Harry remained silent the rest of the night, only offering small touches as comfort.