DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Harry Potter or any of its characters. I also do not make any money from this.

WARNINGS: Yaoi (male x male), Yuri (female x female) adult topics, swearing, sexual scenes and violence.

This has not been Beta'd.

PAIRINGS: Ron x Hermione, Blaise x Cho, Neville x Ginny, Saito (OC) x Draco

'text' is thought

"text" is talking

Hidden Element

Chapter 26: Reasons

Elementals:

Ice and Void – Draco Malfoy

Fire – Pansy Parkinson

Earth – Blaise Zabini

Nature – Cho Chang

Light – [Name]

The Forgotten:

Electricity – Saito Blackstar (OC)

Animal – Carsly Hendricks (OC)

Shadow – Alakai Petrovski (OC)

Water - Yasmin DiAngelo

Wind - Miya Hendricks (OC)

The day had begun to look darker, midday setting in. Everyone had scattered round the house to do some thinking.

Hermione had retreated to the library, although most of her attention was on her fiancé, chatting animatedly about how he had figured the whole thing out instead of the many books around her. She knew she would have to tell him about Draco's letter and how she herself had figured it all out. Hermione also had to tell Ron why she hadn't told him when she had found out.

Luna was in the kitchen cooking, something she seemed to do when she was trying to think of other things. It calmed her down, even when she knew no one would eat it. Oh, she knew her cooking was bad, but the bitter taste it left made people laugh in serious situations. She hummed as she turned the oven on and turned back to her orange batter.

Ginny was in the living room with Neville. No words passed between them, yet their eyes never strayed from one another. There was a soft lull of music in the air, faint smiles on their faces. It was nice to be alone for once even if it was on separate couches.

Harry had retreated to his room, lying on his back on the bed, arms folded beneath his head. The curtains were drawn, the lamp next to his bed switched on. Deep in thought.

Down the hall he could an argument. It was faint enough that he couldn't hear, yet he knew they were seriously angry at one another. A female and a male. He hoped it was Blaise and Pansy rather than Blaise and Cho. He would have hated the situation to cause a rift between the two.

The door opened slightly before it opened all the way and closed just as quietly. Opening his eyes, he bit his lip as he saw the blond of his thoughts standing before him.

"Draco?" he asked incredulously, to which Draco hushed him.

"Lower your voice! I... look, I know I have a lot of explaining to do, and, well... I thought that out of anyone here, you had the right to know first. Would it be OK, if we talked, maybe?" Harry smiled at the thought he wasn't the only one feeling light headed with anxiety.

"Join me?" Harry sat up gingerly, scooting himself up against the headboard to make place for Draco to sit on the bed. More hesitation. With a slight sigh, Draco moved forwards, and sat slowly on the bed, legs crossed beneath him. There was silence between the two for a while, before Harry decided to start off with what he considered to be 'easing in' conversation.

"It was hard. The war, I mean. I half expected myself to die. I was so amazed that I killed Voldemort, that I wasn't sure what to do anymore. I left. My family and my friends didn't know what hit them; one second I was there, the next I wasn't. I feel sorry for what I did, but looking back on it now, I'm happy I did, even if it caused them some pain. In the end, I figured some things out. Some things I had needed to sort out for years."

Harry smiled as the comment caused Draco to release laughter so soft, he hadn't been sure it was really there.

"I stayed away for five years and I would have stayed gone for longer if 'Mione hadn't decided to barge in one day. She made a list of the places I'd liked, and been searching for me for nearly two years. I expected her to be angry. I expected them all to be angry... but they accepted it..."

"You can't expect them to have stayed the same for five years, Harry. People change all the time," Draco stated calmly, elbows resting on his legs.

"I know, I know. For a second, I thought of running. I didn't want to come back, not yet. But I think she came at exactly the right time. There wasn't much more I could do by myself. I needed to figure things out with the help of my friends. I needed someone to..."

"Guide you?" Draco's eyes twinkled in a way that said he knew exactly what Harry was feeling. It thrilled him, to think that Draco still knew him in that way.

"I've been thinking, about..." Draco laughed softly, interrupting his thoughts, an eyebrow going up self-consciously.

"You think too much lately. You've been brooding ever since I came, that's why your friends haven't talked to you about any of this yet. I know you don't do it on purpose, but when a thought enters your mind, it won't leave, and then you get this serious face and... I still talk too much." Harry's smile broadened. He had broken the ice.

"It started in fifth year. It didn't make sense at first. There were times when I felt, numb. Unhappy, for no reason." Draco licked his lip as his smile turned to a face of concentration. "I didn't tell anyone, because it happens, you know. People get depressed every now and again and I figured being in the situation I was in... it could have been an inkling of a reason why. I thought people would look down on me, even more than they did then.

"I came across Pansy in a classrooms one day, on patrol, something didn't seem right. She was wincing in pain and there were burn marks on her skin. I thought someone had attacked her. I reached out to get her attention and the second I made contact, the whole room seemed to freeze. Quite literally. The floor was icy, the desks and chairs frozen together on the floor. She looked at me in shock and I think both of us freaked out for a while. You should have seen our faces." Harry and Draco laughed for a while; the situation seemed comical at the time being.

"She took me to Dumbledore immediately, and he enlightened me on my ordeal. I think when I wanted to stay with the light, that was when Pansy finally took Dumbledore's offer to switch sides. I guess she didn't want me to take the dark mark, and thought her changing sides would be incentive now she knew I'd been thinking about it.

"We used the Room of Requirement to train. Of course, Dumbledore knew nothing on how to actually teach us, but he supervised us to make sure we were OK. We tested things out, experimented. We learned by ourselves what we could and could not do. But the more I learned, the less I seemed capable of controlling it. I was 'leaking' as Dumbledore termed it.

"I had so much of the element inside me; I was like a cauldron filled with too much potion, brimming out at the edges. Next thing I knew, I couldn't stop it anymore. It became so much a part of me that I didn't realise when it was present in my behaviour and when not."

Harry held his breath, unsure if the story was finished or not. He felt like closing his eyes and banging his head against the wall like a house elf.

"I'm so sorry, Draco..." Harry's chest was thumping as the words spilled from his mouth. "I must admit that I'd rehearsed the words. I was planning on telling you those exact things closer to the date of the battle, but it just seemed the right opportunity..." At Draco's frown, Harry quickly made himself clearer.

"I didn't want you at the battle, whether you loved me or not. I knew your father would be there. Snape would be there. There was also the chance that not only the dark would aim for you, but also the light. Not everyone knew which side you had decided to be on."

"It's OK." Harry looked up sharply, not knowing when his head had started to lower during his speech.

"What?"

"Like I said before, Harry. It hurt, and I know that this isn't the only reason you told me those things, but I can start to get where you were coming from. To be honest, I was thinking of locking you in a classroom myself. The whole prophesy thing... that one of you had to die... I didn't want anything to happen to you. So, I guess, I get it, Harry. It also makes me, strangely happy." Draco blushed and shook his head.

"Listen to me, does that make any sense? I mean it feels nice to think I meant so much to you that you wanted to protect me. It makes me... happy... I seem to have lost my vocabulary." Draco trailed off, hand over his eyes as he seemed to make a fool of himself before the raven head.

"I'm glad you think so," Harry whispered. Draco blushed some more. "But I also thought you were hiding something from me."

"I was..." Draco stated monotonously. Harry stared at him sadly for a moment before shaking his head.

"I thought you were hiding something serious from me, Draco. Something along the lines of using me or that you were seeing someone else on the side, or that you were in contact with your father..." Draco cocked his head to the side in confusion. He seemed to be taking this a lot better than Harry thought he would.

"Draco, you have to understand, when we started dating, it was wonderful. I couldn't have ever been happier. But then one day, out of the blue, I started getting the cold shoulder. You wouldn't contact me for days on end unless I made the first move, you were snappy and distant. It was like having the old Malfoy back, but with an added twist as you now knew my intimate secrets.

"You didn't tell me anything anymore. We were growing apart. I guessed the other reason why I said those things? I wanted to tell myself you were what you used to be. If you were going to leave me, I would rather think you had been sneaky Malfoy with some malicious plot, rather than the man I loved who seemed out to hurt me."

Draco nodded as Harry took a deep breath. He seemed to be thinking. Harry was going to go crazy from the wait.

"If I were in your position I would have done things differently." Harry could feel his heart plummet.

"But when I said people changed, Harry, I meant me as well. If there's one thing I've learned since living in the muggle world, it's when I feel it start to kick in. There's this shuddering icy breath that takes over my lungs. I notice the difference now. When I'm me, and when I'm 'me with a twist'. I can separate the two feelings.

"Although I would have done things differently, I would have thought the same. I thought about it, for a while. What if our roles had been reversed? I would have been just as angry. Just as heart broken. I don't see anything wrong in what you did, Harry. So stop apologising."

"But I should have noticed. I'm supposed to know you best, Draco! How did I not notice this?" Harry was mentally beating himself up again.

"You didn't know something like this was possible, it wasn't in your calculations," Draco stated simply. Draco refused to tell Harry he had been prepared to break an oath and tell him that day. It was irrelevant informatio, and one he hoped the others didn't bring up either.

"You still look just as calm as ever."

"Don't let me fool you!" Draco sniggered. "I'm all twists and knots inside."

"I was trying to find you, you know. When I came back to the world from my 'isolation' as Luna puts it. When I thought about it clearly, I knew I was missing something from the equation..."

"I'm glad you came to your senses."

"You're in a good mood? Even after I told you..." Draco held a hand up, halting it a breath away from the others arm.

"You don't know why I'm in a good mood? I learned many things I was unsure about, Harry. You wanted to protect me from the battle. You broke up with me for a reasonable and understandable reason, rather than who I was, could have been and that you didn't love me. You've also admitted you've been thinking about me in your so-called seclusion, and you wanted to look for me because you didn't trust that reasonable reason for our break up to be the complete truth. Do you see where I'm coming from?"

Harry stared at him in shock. What the hell was that supposed to mean? He had accepted the reasons Harry had given him. Had been glad about it, in fact. Was he friend happy? Just happy or ecstatic happy?

"It seems your friends don't," Harry grumbled under his breath, not meaning for Draco to hear it.

"What have they done now?" Draco sighed, turning slightly to touch his feet to the ground.

"You know what? I never thought your friend could be such an ass!" Harry moaned.

"Which one?" Draco laughed, knowing both friends could have their bad moments.

"Blaise." Draco shook his head, muttering to himself something Harry couldn't hear. He stood up gracefully and made for the door.

"Where are you going?" Harry asked softly, keeping his voice neutral. It had felt right to speak to Draco like this again.

"To talk to my ass of a friend. Where else? And thank you." He paused, fingers curling around the door handle. "For putting my thoughts at ease."

"I should be saying that to you." Harry said softly.

"We were just both incredibly stupid, Harry, as was usual."

Pacochico 11: I'm sorry if I've confused you along the way! I would love to know what you're confused about so I can make the story more clearer. Any criticism helps!

XxHushHushxX: Yep, Blaise is a prick, He has issues, but he will get a good talking to, don't worry :p There will also be some arguing involving the fact that they never get told things in advance! As for the friends thing, Hermoine is slightly prejudiced in the Draco Harry department, and Rons only just figured thins out :p They will speak up for him, however, when he needs it.

TSwift3: Thank you! Blaise will be on prick status for a while :p He's just being impossible and unreasonable.

ISthisWOrlDReaL: hehe, I agree :p But when younger, they all made mistakes, now being older, they can sit and talk all of this through.

Nations: Lol, thank you for the review!