Chapter IV: Growing Bonds

After Ron and Hermione amended their ties to Draco, the rest of school remained unaware that things had changed for the most part. Although there was less fighting in the halls over trivial matters now; the school merely thought they had come to a standstill and so there was a fragile peace between Harry and Gryffindor House to Draco Malfoy and all of Slytherin House.

Meanwhile, as the school remained clueless, Harry and Draco continued to meet in the room of requirement before lunch each day to share different stories of them when they were younger. Most of Harry's stories consisted of things that had happened after he came to Hogwarts or of his adventures there. Draco wondered why he never divulged his stories of before Hogwarts, but was determined to find out one way or another.

Draco's stories were more of a mixed bunch than Harry's seemed to be. Some of them had told of some of the mischievous trouble he had gotten into at the manor when he was a lot younger or about the trouble he and Pansy had gotten into together. They had practically grown up together as children.

Then some of them were of interesting things that had occurred to Draco behind the scenes at Hogwarts from everyone else and had taken place throughout his years in Slytherin.

Last week had been his turn again and he had regaled the tale of how he had been playing hide and seek in the manor with Pansy. Draco had told Harry that with such a large home, the innumerable of places to hide where you shouldn't would soon enough become inevitable.

They had laughed as Draco told him that Pansy had nearly caught him twice by then and they were both six years old, so Draco was trying not to be spotted as he searched for a new room to hide in.

Draco had smirked.

Oh he had found a room alright…

Draco told Harry he had went into a room and locked himself inside before he turned around. When he had at the time…he wished he hadn't.

Apparently his father as a teenaged boy and a young man while attending university had quite a thing for female adult porn and had quite the use for sex toys in absence of his mother around now and the room he had 'accidentally wandered into' must have been his secret 'adult playroom' because Draco had doubted his mother knew of it and Draco also knew she would have been angry if she did know of it.

Harry and Draco laughed uproariously as Draco told Harry how he had cornered his father once after Pansy left from their play-day and he vacated the room later when he had come home from work to ask him what a 'dildo' was and Lucius's face had drained of all its color to a very pale complexion.

His father asked him where he had learned that word from and this was just as his mother walked in from the laundry area and checking on the elves. Lucius and he had both noticed her, but Draco was determined to get his dad in trouble so he answered him.

Draco laughed, "I said to him, 'Oh dad come on, you know the room in the manor on the fourth floor with all those weird looking objects and the posters of nak-hmph."

"My father had hastily covered my mouth to keep me from finishing my sentence and his face was so white I thought was turning into a ghost." Draco laughed

They had both laughed until tears had come along and then ate lunch over trying to fine tune their Slytherin Conversion some more.

It was now nearly almost Halloween and it was about to roll around the corner in a few days and Draco noticed Harry's new sense of somber silence during this period as well. He understood somewhat though. Harry lost both his parents on Halloween, and so he held the day with a silence of remembrance and reverence as he grieved for their loss and not knowing how he would have grown up if they were still with him.

Harry and Draco were now both fairly comfortable in each other's presences when isolated from the rest of the school. Draco had something he wanted to ask the dark-haired friend he had come to respect, but he doubted he'd receive an answer.

Dobby had continued to bring their lunches to them when Harry requested it and told him that these meetings needed to be kept a secret from everyone else; including the headmaster. Dobby had nodded his head vigorously and promised to keep the secret.

Lunch today consisted of a bowl of homemade beef stew, small salad, and a bread roll with light butter. For a drink they had some steaming mugs of black tea with a small amount of sugar added to them. They appeared appreciative since the weather was getting cooler now. Quidditch practices had become harder on their bodies due to the dropping temperatures outside and the winds becoming bitter.

Harry sat and smiled, "So Draco is there anything in particular you wish me to tell you about myself today?"

Draco knew this might be his only chance, "Actually, there is something I've been curious about and wanted to know of."

Harry nodded, "Ask away then."

"I want to know more about you from before you came back to our world here." He asked seriously

Harry tensed and his back went rigid as his fork was laid down carefully beside his bowl of stew with care.

"Why do tense at this?" Draco asked

Harry looked away, "It is not that I do not wish to tell you…it is more that I don't know how you'll see me after I do. There are things about this part of my past that I have kept a secret from even Ron and Hermione. I've kept these secrets so long they've become almost parasitic in nature and the wounds they've caused me have never fully healed."

"In some way or another over the years, these wounds have affected me and my personality."

Draco seemed concerned now, "Harry, I know you well enough by now to know that your life isn't what most people want to think it is. Before I was your friend I could see it, but I chose to ignore it. This was done partially on my own and partially not. You cannot tell me that after all these stories we've shared that something like this is totally going to break it?"

Harry sighed, "It might and it might not. The possibility that it will is what frightens me most, but if you truly want to know about my childhood then be prepared for your ground to start shaking when I'm done."

Harry sighed heavily as he began the tale he never wanted to tell ever again.

"After I was left as an orphan, Sirius Black should have taken me in as my godfather, but he had been framed for the murder of my mum and dad since almost everyone had believed that he was their Secret-Keeper for the Fidelius Charm on my parent's home. He wasn't though, and the Death Eater you know of called Wormtail is actually Peter Pettigrew. His animagus form was a rat and so hence the name Wormtail."

"However, since Sirius was in Azkaban and I had no other living relatives of magical orientation, the headmaster had Hagrid bring me to him at my muggle relative's residence. The headmaster left me on their doorstep in my blanket from my crib, a warming charm, and a letter addressed to them."

Draco seemed furious, "He left you outside in a blanket on their front porch in October?"

Harry smiled at his indignation, "Draco, it was well past midnight and he did not want to knock on their door and cause a disturbance to the rest of the neighborhood. I don't agree with this, but I cannot change it now."

Draco remained silent and with a scowl to his features.

"Anyways, after this I was taken in by them to be reared. However, my muggle relatives did not wait on me every single second of the day nor was I ever treated as though I was fed from a silver spoon." Harry said darkly

Draco looked at him intently now.

"These relatives of mine hated anything to do with our world and me even more so. My mother's sister was so jealous that my mum was a witch and she would be able to do things she would never be able to. She also hated that my mum had natural beauty and she had to work her ass off just to get a date. Her husband Vernon was of an alike mind to this and they had raised this same prejudice in their son and my cousin Dudley."

"From the time I could walk, talk, and reach the top of the stove in their kitchen with a step stool; I was the one who prepared all of their meals. Yet, I never at the table with them because I was considered a freak and unworthy to dine with such superior beings as them."

"In fact, at their home, I rarely ever ate at all. I was given a list of chores that was much too long for someone of five or six to think they could ever finish. What I did finished determined how much I received as food. However, if the required parts were not all done at the end of the day, I received a good beating and I went hungry for the night."

"I did all the cooking, cleaning, maintaining in that house. But I was treated similarly to what purebloods would do to a house-elf traditionally. I was rarely fed by them more than table scraps. I wore clothes much too large because they had first belonged to my cousin Dudley who was two or three time larger than me. When I needed glasses, my aunt had managed to swindle the doctor into believing she was a very poor woman and so I had these very ugly things for the longest time."

"My bedroom wasn't even a full room for the first eleven years I spent there. I actually slept on a threadbare cot in the cupboard under the stairs you've heard of before. For the first eleven years there, that was my room. I don't remember much of my infancy and toddler years enough to know if I was there then, but I presume I was because there were a lot of nights I was very scared of the dark and would cry. My aunt would wake and bang on the door. She told me to stop crying or else there would be trouble. She never held me or ever tried to comfort me at all during those nights and I had to endure the dark, face my fear and without crying again. Otherwise, I presume breakfast was withheld from me." He said sadly

"But this isn't even the half of it."

Draco continued to keep getting angrier on Harry's childhood treatment by his relatives due to the headmaster leaving him there as the story went on.

"I never knew I was wizard until I received my Hogwarts letter as well. My relatives never let me ask questions of my parents or my past to them. What I did learn from them was usually lies fed to me by them in hopes I would never get my letter period."

"They once told me that my mum was a prostitute and a whore while my dad was a jobless drunk, and that I was born out of wedlock from the two as a mistake that was never meant to happen. I knew they were lying though, so I shut up and left before I accidently lost control of the strange things that seemed to occur around me as a child when I was emotional."

"I never knew of accidental magic either. Once Dudley and his friends were chasing me around the school playground trying to catch me so they could beat me up for being weird. I managed to escape them by thinking I had jumped behind the school's garbage cans. I soon learnt I had 'accidentally apparated in panic' onto the school's roof. Let's say Uncle Vernon was less than pleased when he received a call from the administrator because I was 'climbing the school buildings.'"

"When I turned eleven, they also tried to keep me from getting my letter too. I remember moving around to all sorts of hotels, inns and more. After the first letter, more than one arrived at each new location. I think the total was one hundred same letters at once before the final one." Harry said

"My relatives hate me Draco, so there are not many stories I have of them that are fond and recalled with laughter like yours. I hope that this tale was not too depressing for you." Harry asked awkwardly

Draco remained silent for a moment as he tried to figure out what he wanted to say. This was as Harry was internally starting to panic when he said nothing. Harry stood up silently and prepared to leave.

"Harry, where are you going?" Draco asked him confused

Harry turned, "I thought you didn't want me here when you remained quiet, so I decided to leave before I did something I wasn't supposed to."

Draco realized then that below Harry's calm and strong Gryffindor exterior that he was actually quite fragile from the abuse his relatives purposely made him endure.

"I'm sorry I didn't respond; I was just trying to get my thoughts together. Harry, I am honestly glad you told me the story. I want to be your friend still and I also want you to know that if you want…you could come and stay with my mother and I if you want to for the holidays? I'm sure my mother won't mind and she'd love to be able to know the real you just like I have." Draco said softly

Harry was silent and distant, "I don't know what to say other than thank you, I guess and that I will think about it."

Draco nodded, "Pansy won't be there though, as I don't know yet how much trust I would place my friendship with her in not revealing you. It's a risk I am not willing to take. My mother thinks that keeping our friendship a secret is best for now besides those who already know of it, but she did not say much else."

"I see. Then maybe I might just stay then." Harry said

Draco walked over to Harry and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder in comfort as the two felt some soothing magical energy spark between them. Draco stared at his hand for a moment and then removed it slowly after shaking his head.

Meanwhile, as Harry and Draco continued talking in the room of requirement down the hall from Gryffindor dormitory, Ron and Hermione were busy in the common room with their transfiguration essay and discussing Harry and Draco's new friendship in hush-hush voices by the fire.

Harry had joyfully told the two that he had already finished all his assignments for the week, so he was free to do whatever he wanted. Hermione had been pleased by this news, but Ron had scowled at him for abandoning him to work with his girlfriend alone. She was terror sometimes when correcting your work…

Ron and Hermione had secretly begun to call these meeting between Harry and Draco their 'Story dates' as the two seemed to want to have this plan of theirs work for real sometime soon enough. Ron had commented on how much more Harry smiled after them and how relaxed he was. Hermione noticed this too and seemed to think it was good they were getting along so well until she thought of something more serious about this topic.

"Ron, I don't want to make you uncomfortable or anything since you know that we're dating and I like you a lot; but, I never thought about this before. What are the wizarding world's views on same-sex couples?" Hermione asked quietly to her boyfriend

Ron appeared pale but calm, "I know it's nothing like where you come from Hermione. They are accepted just as easily as we would be accepted, even by the older pureblood families unless someone in them is prejudiced against it. Not many are though any more. Our world has many old traditions relating to family lineage, and keeping blood strong and the line alive."

"But even traditions such as those cannot change the path of a person's love unless forced upon them by someone else, which is very rare nowadays. Our world is more about finding a partner that suits you and complements your abilities magically. The issue of a chosen partner for marriage should be that they care for you as much as you do about them than it is about being societally correct."

"Perhaps this is because same-sex couples can have children together in our world naturally or aided with potions too if they are too weak magically together in their magical signatures, but it is just much more difficult than it would be for a straight couple. Generally, the same-sex pair would consist of two powerful witches or wizards to accomplish it naturally."

"Should it occur naturally; the carrier parent would naturally grow a uterus if they were male to carry the child with as we do not have one in our anatomy system. Female carrier parents have no need for it as you should be aware for your own reasons. During birth the child is born through Cesarean section for a male because obviously we cannot do what a woman does during labor."

"Why do you ask me this now?" Ron asked her in a low tone

Hermione remained silent for a moment, "Ron, I am surprised how educated you sounded then. But then again, your mum was a healer before Bill was born. Anyways, have you noticed how happy Harry looks when he returns from one of his 'story dates with Draco?" She said

Ron nodded, "Well yes, I have noticed somewhat. He seems genuinely happy and relaxed when he returns from them. He rarely has an angry temper outburst now, thank heavens. I think this is good though." He said softly

Hermione stopped writing on her parchment, "Ron, do you think maybe Harry approached Draco for this idea because in time it was meant to happen as a part of his role in the war? That maybe by some odd and rare coincidence they are soul-mates and Lucius's murder only catapulted the situation we are seeing now regardless of the prophecy Harry has hanging on his shoulders?" She asked low

Ron stopped writing too now with wide eyes on his girlfriend.

"Hermione, I- I don't know. Possibly it's true, but if so then we need to just let things occur on their own between Harry and Draco. They need to do this bonding stuff between them to strengthen it and heal their own pasts together." He said finally

Hermione nodded, "I agree and you're alright with this?"

Ron seemed to relax now, "I'd be a hypocrite if I wasn't since Charlie has a boyfriend in Romania where he works as it is. However, if you'd have told me this story last year prior us going to save Sirius; I likely would have had you emitted to Mungo's accidental spell-damage ward." He said

Hermione smiled and nodded, "Ron, I know Harry needs to work on this with Draco mostly on his own, but perhaps since you're his best friend and another male he would talk to you more openly about his preferences in a partner of some kind."

"I'm not saying he wouldn't tell me if I'd have asked him, but because I'm female he may feel more uncomfortable. Plus, Harry and Draco are both from old and powerful families Ron. You realize this and what could potentially happen if they 'did it' together and realized the consequences later on?" Hermione scrunched her nose at the thought in embarrassment while her cheeks reddened

Ron's face now looked like a tomato and matched his flaming hair, "Hermione, no need to go any further with whatever you were going to say. I get it and yes…I will attempt to talk to Harry later on tonight since he needs to know about this now, even if he doesn't want to." Ron said low and in a grumbling tone.

Hermione just smiled and nodded to her boyfriend with red cheeks as they continued their essay.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed the rather nice mix of innocent and naughty in the beginning? I know I laughed myself to tears as I re-read it while editing it...Anyways, this is a note made to give you a heads up. The next two chapters are more as filler content one, yes I know you hate them... :ducks thrown tomatoes at her head: But these fillers are also in two perspectives. One for Draco's view and One of Harry's and they will sort-of add depth to the story in some way. These are not just there to sit and make nice fluff for you all. I cannot do that to you! So, as a warning that if you feel you could skip them...by all means do so, but be warned some of the later chapter might not make total sense if you neglect to read them.