Author's note: Have a lovely week. Also where have i been? I made an instagram and fell deep, deep into the trenches of bookbinding.

Xoxo Catstclaire

Chapter 5: laughter

Harry had never spent an hour of his life in such distress. None of the times Voldemort had come after him even came close to comparing to the ball of dread currently sinking lower in his belly every time Draco screamed out.

Harry was nearly out of his mind. When Bellatrix took her away Harry suspected something like this. It was obvious they wouldn't let her betrayal slide no matter who her family was. For the last hour Harry had heard nearly every octave he expected Draco was capable of making her voice. Loud screams. Soft screams. Desperate broken screams, Harry never would have thought someone as collected as Draco could have been capable of making.

Why the fuck weren't the walls thicker down here he wondered?

Harry resorted to singing very loudly to himself. Old show tunes he had been forced to listen to at the Dursley's after church on Sundays. When that stopped being helpful he began to list all the awful things he had ever seen Draco do, and when he couldn't think of anymore passed that God awful experience they had just shared in Harry's head at the Yule; then he listed all the awful things he had not witnessed but he heard she had done.

-She was said to have been involved in the disappearance of the Creevey family. No one knew exactly what the details were, but it was a widely spread rumor within the Order.

-She hexed Charlie's arm when they'd dueled, and eventually it turned black and fell off. Harry really didn't want to believe that one, but because it was Charlie's own account Harry could not discount it.

-Countless muggles were reported to have died at her hands within the last year since her aunt had taken her under her wing. At first it was thought to be part of some sort of initiation, but then once the kill count rose above 10 it was obvious it was no longer initiation. Draco was a full fledged death eater.

Then before Harry knew it the screams stopped alltogether.

It was hard to think straight during that hour, but all Harry knew by the end of it, is that the death eaters were extremely lucky he didn't have his magic. Because fuck the ministry, and the law. Draco's screams had just put the use of the unforgivables on the table for Harry.

Bellatrix brought her back with the same hover charm from before, but now Draco was entirely limp. Passed out cold it looked like from Harry's vantage point. Bellatrix dropped the charm and Draco's body fell unceremoniously to the floor. Her head made a twacking sound on contact, and Harry winced.

"Poor little dear," Bellatrix smirked at Harry. "tired herself right out." Draco's face was a mottled purple, and her shoulder was clearly out of its socket. Harry breathed in deep. "Not to worry- i have just the thing."

Bellatrix fished around her cloak, and brought out a vial.

"Don't you fucking dare." Harry said threateningly. His immediate reaction was the same when Draco had pulled out a vial- he assumed it must be poison.

Bellatrix laughed coldly. "The noble house of Black's blood runs in her veins, I wouldn't dare waste it."

Harry wasn't sure exactly what she meant by that except that she was assuring him it was indeed not poison, but it still couldn't be good.

"Relax. It's a little something to perk her right back up." Then Bellatrix force fed Draco the potion. Probably some of the same Harry had from earlier. He didn't relax.

It made Harry wonder why Bellatrix hadn't just killed her. With a hex or poison... Draco should be dead. Any other death eater would be.

Harry had heard rumors about Pansy Parkinson's death. She had helped a hufflepuff girl from their year get out of Britain, and escape to the states when her blood status had been called into question. The next week Pansy had been skinned alive, and left on the ministry steps. The death eaters were not forgiving- there were no second chances...So. Why wasn't Draco dead?

Bellatrix left, and Harry fought his immediate desire to rush to Draco's side. Could this be a trick? Some elaborate ruse, in order for Harry to drop his guard?

Harry shook his head. Draco was a lump of green fabric. She couldn't be any less intimidating right then. Harry rationalized further. Would Draco really endure that amount of torture for a ruse? Unlikely. She was the most selfish person Harry had ever met.

"Draco," Harry tried, but still she laid flat like a stone.

Harry guessed the potion needed a bit of time to work, it had for him after all.

Minutes later Harry tried again. His hands were curled at his sides. "You better not be dead." He scooted closer. "I was just starting to enjoy your company."

Draco's chest rose up higher than it had been doing, and Harry held his own breath in turn.

"Plus it would really suck for me if you died here you know? Your psycho aunt would probably just leave your corpse here. And i know you hate me, but do you really hate me enough to make me experience that?"

"-please." Draco's voice was barely a whisper. "Shut your mouth, Potter. I'm alive." She tried to pull herself up, but she missed the wall spectacularly. Harry's arm reached out to her, out of his own control. Her eyes drifted to meet his for a split second, and Harry couldn't keep away any longer.

Harry shoved one arm under her, and slid her with the other until she was staring up at him from a sitting position against the wall. She made a weak sound of protest, but Harry ignored it. He began to look over her injuries, and he could already see how the potion was fixing her. Her skin was already less purple.

Harry couldn't help how it made him feel to see her injured life this. It reminded him of quidditch days. Anytime Draco walked off the pitch with injuries Harry recalled a horrible tug deep in his stomach, it always made him anxious and impulsive. Once when Cho Chang had fouled Draco and left her with a broken nose by games end, Harry spitefully wrote an anonymous letter to Snape suggesting Cho may be the student pilfering his potions closet. Cho went down for all the ingredients the trio stole in second year, she was expelled for the remainder of the year and Harry never felt bad about it. He never felt bad because he felt he had only paid her back Draco's Vendetta.

They sat in silence for a short stretch of time until Harry couldn't stand the silence any longer.

"Why didn't Bellatrix just kill you?" Harry stared at her. He was still apprehensive of her. "You tried to help me. You've turned on them." They should kill Draco by every Death eater standard Harry was aware.

Draco grimaced. "You know, why not,"

Harry searched his mind again but found nothing. "No i really don't."

"-my mother." She said simply.

"I really don't think the bonds of sisterhood run that deep for Bellatri-"

Draco's finger shot up to her temple. "No you blithering imbecile!" Then she carefully readjusted herself against the wall. She was starting to feel much better apparently she rolled her shoulder as it healed back in place. "My mother was from the house of Black."

"Okay..." Harry said quite dimly not at all following whatever Draco was hinting at.

Draco sighed. "Potter, can you not think of some reason that Bellatrix and her gang of purists would want to keep someone with my blood alive? Even if i'm a traitor- there are still uses for me in their eyes."

Then it hit Harry all at once.

"You can't be serious." Harry clicked his tongue, and turned his head away. "That's foul." One of the most disgusting things Harry had ever heard.

Draco smoothed away a loose strand of hair in her face. "If i'm lucky they'll want to honor and uphold the arrangement with the Nott family, and i'll only be expected to produce his offspring. But if i'm unlucky-"

"Don't fucking finish that sentence!" Harry felt sick to his stomach at the thought of Draco being given to Nott let alone any one of the other death eaters, or any number of them. Who knew how many times exactly they'd expect Draco to breed little purebloods for them... probably until it killed her Harry thought- then he bit the inside of his cheek to stop those trains of thought. Harry put his head between his knees. "I can't handle the thought of that happening to you." He admitted.

Draco seemed momentarily stunned.

For several moments the only sound was of their breathing.

Draco inclined her head at Harry, motioning at him to sit next to her against the wall.

"Sorry." She said, when Harry's arm settled next to hers. "I forget not everyone is so used to brutality." Her eyes were dull, and her lip downturned. "They really are going to kill you, Harry." She told him gently in a hushed but serious tone. "If you answer some of their questions, you can at least go out peacefully. For your own sake, go gently not screaming."

"I can't." He shook his head slowly. "Not even for my own sake." Her shoulder felt warm next to his, and he let it slide just a bit closer to her and the comfort it gave him.

Draco went slightly rigid.

"What about for mine?" Harry searched her expression and her eyes had turned fiery, and he could see the emotion brimming within them that had been hidden from him before. "For my sake, would you go gently?" She implored.

Bits of the old Draco were rising to the surface before his very eyes. She was showing Harry she was still vulnerable. Even if she tried very hard not to be. It was a surprising turn of events.

Then she surprised him again when she clutched his hand in her own. "Draco-" he began warily.

"Do you think i want to hear your screams? As they torture you to death? They'll likely even make me watch Harry. Do you hate me enough to make me experience that?" She sounded horrified, but Harry had to remind himself he couldn't do what she was asking.

Again he shook his head. "I would never give up Ron, and Hermione. I'd die for them a hundred times over. I just can't." Not even to spare Draco from watching him die.

For half a second Draco looked crushed, but then she recovered herself and a bitter smile flitted to her face.

"You're exactly the same aren't you?" She asked. "Same exact Harry from school. Always choosing them over me, even now at the end."

Harry began to smooth circles into the back of her hand idly. "So that's how you've thought of it all these years? As if I betrayed you for Ron and Hermione?" Harry intertwined their fingers, because he wanted to and why the hell not when he was going to die anyways? "You're not the betrayed party here Draco."

"I don't guilt trip easily, Potter, so knock it off." She nudged his shoulder, but didn't let go of his hand.

"Yeah i sort of figured that out, about you the first time you tried to hex me."

"Incorrigible." Draco's eyelids fluttered in mock displeasure, though he could tell she was amused.

"So Voldemort is pointless to bring up?"

Draco was quiet and did not answer, but Harry was determined to make her laugh- to hear her laugh just one more time. He begged the universe to let him just have that one thing before he met his proverbial maker.

"Or what about the time you filled Neville's shoes with-" Draco had put one long pale finger against Harry's lips to silence him. Probably he wouldn't get to hear her laugh again. A pity.

"What were you even doing out in the fucking woods alone?" Draco asked referencing when Harry had been captured just days before.

Could he tell her? Should he tell her? Maybe she wasn't with the Order, but she certainly wasn't with the death eaters now. Harry wasn't going to make it out of here, Draco might and maybe it would be good someone in her position knew the truth, maybe someday she could do something about it even. He was conflicted. They just sat holding hands for several minutes.

It should be fine to tell her, Harry finally decided. What could it hurt?

Harry explained exactly what he'd been doing in the woods to her, and Draco listened intently.

"You really like to keep things exciting, don't you?" Draco said in the most bland unenthused voice anyone had ever used in a conversation before. "Never a dull second with Harry Potter- of course. No! He's the youngest seeker in an entire century at Hogwarts," Harry got the distinct feeling Draco was partly rambling to herself then. "the bloody chosen one of prophecy, Dumbledore's fucking golden boy-" Draco threw her free hand up in the air. "and now, now apparently you're a horcrux. What's in store for tomorrow, Potter? As if your head wasn't fat enough, now i'll expect you'll have to grow a second head to accommodate all the blind praise people throw at you?"

Harry rolled his eyes dramatically. "No. I'm saving that for my birthday."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I'm waiting until my birthday to grow another head." Harry grinned. "That way on top of having 2 heads It'll be my birthday, and so i figure they'll have no choice but to put both of my big fat heads on the front of the Daily prophet for at least a week- maybe i'll grow a 3rd one after that even."

Draco snorted in a very unladylike manner before she began to laugh. Really laugh. Like Harry remembered. It was so wonderful, and Harry found himself laughing to.

When the laughter finally stopped Harry braced himself, sure she was about to turn cold again any second- but then her lips suddenly smashed into his and Harry's brain went haywire.

"Still so funny-" She muttered against his lips. Harry didn't care about anything at all suddenly. He didn't care what Draco had done, that he was a prisoner, he didn't care that he would be dead soon. He just wanted Draco closer. He had been denied every and all comforts the last few days, and here was Draco comforting him, and she was so very warm. "You and your stupid sarcastic mouth- always driving me insane." She gasped into his mouth when Harry slid his fingers through her hair.

Harry pulled her entirely into his lap as they kissed, he held onto her long after they stopped, and when he was sure she was asleep in his arms he whispered into the universe.

"Thank you."