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Draco stayed in bed for the rest of the day, in what seemed to be Snape's old room. Snape himself slept in the room that must have belonged to his parents when they had still been alive. Snape was out, "running errands", which probably meant reporting to Dumbledore. Draco didn't have the energy to do anything but lie in bed and lament about his life, dark thoughts taking over. He barely ate anything and didn't talk much either.

Sleep did not come easy that night. He tossed and turned and horrible nightmares followed him all through the night...

Misery. Pure misery. That was what his whole life was. What it would probably always be. That's what he was thinking all night, so it was hard to tell when exactly his memories had ended and the dream had begun.

He had been alone in the bathroom, crying. A regular occurrence at that time.

Only two words, he had thought. You can do it.

His intention was quite clear: to kill. But not Dumbledore. Long before the fateful night on the Astronomy tower he had come to terms with the fact that he just could not do it. So, it was not Dumbledore's life that he had contemplated ending.

"Don't," crooned Moaning Myrtle's voice from one of the cubicles. "Don't… tell me what's wrong… I can help you..."

"No one can help me," he croaked. His whole body was shaking. "I can't do it... I can't… It won't work… and unless I do it soon… he says he'll kill me…" He could not stop the tears from falling.

When he raised his head to study his miserable reflection in the mirror, his blood-shot eyes spotted Potter standing there. And of course, he couldn't let his enemy see him like that. And of course, he got angry. And of course, a fight began.

And when Potter screamed "SECTUMSEMPRA!" everything went incredibly cold and breathing became next to impossible. Everything burnt. His lungs. His throat.

Then Potter's face filled his vision. "You are such a loser," he laughed darkly. "You deserve everything you get and more. It is your fault Dumbledore died," Potter drawled.

"I...," Draco struggled to get the words out,"I didn't kill him."

"No?" Potter's voice sounded taunting. "But you planned to. Tried several times. Nearly killed innocent students while you were still failing miserably."

"You don't know that!" Draco rasped.

"Oh, don't I? I know everything about you, everything you did..." Harry trailed off, kneeled down and pressed his knee into the wound on Draco's bleeding chest.

Unimaginable pain shot through Draco as he fought for air.

"You let Death Eaters into the school! You did not care whether they would kill your friends. You did not care that innocent children might have died," Potter spat, pressing down harder, the pressure becoming unbearable.

"I- I- I didn't have a choice! He would have killed my parents! He would have killed me..."

"Coward," spat Potter. "You are a failure and a coward. Too scared..." Potter shook his head, then looked down at Draco in disgust. "No wonder no one wants you. Not even your mommy and daddy. I should have finished my job, would have done the world a favor."

Potter leaned forward, his whole weight on Draco's chest. Draco rung for air and-

He jumped up, pale, sweaty, gasping for air. His eyes frantically darting through the room. It was just a dream, he told himself, over and over again, but it did not work. The fear, the panic, the guilt - those were all real.

He hadn't had such a dream in a while. He sank down on his bed again, hugging his knees. He tried to Occlude as best as he could, but he could not fall asleep again.

Things stayed like that for the next two days as well, he stayed in bed all day, hardly speaking or eating, and at night violent nightmares would keep him awake. Nothing changed until Snape decided that this behavior wasn't exactly what one would call "healthy". Since Draco hadn't brought any clothes but the ones he had been wearing when he had arrived, Snape took him shopping.

„I can't let you pay for all of that, sir," Draco complained in one of the shops, a stack of new clothes in front of him. He'd never thought about it much before, but Snape couldn't have that much money if he lived in a town like that.

„Call me Severus, Draco. We are not in school. And don't worry about money. I earn enough as a Hogwarts teacher and since I live and eat at Hogwarts, I have enough for the both of us."

Draco didn't argue any further - mainly because he didn't have the money or energy to not accept his offer.

He briefly wondered whether Snape was telling the truth or whether he did not want to appear poor in front of Draco, not that he would have cared. He could not imagine Snape willingly living in such a place, but perhaps he was there so rarely that he did not care to move.

Going out and occupying his mind with something else improved Draco's mood immensely and once they were done with the shopping, Severus showed Draco around the neighborhood. There wasn't much to see, besides a small park, but Draco enjoyed the walk anyways.

"I came here quite often, as a child," Snape explained.

"It's pretty," Draco said. Definitely a lot prettier than anything else around town. "Did you play on the swings?"

Snape looked in the direction of the swings. "Sometimes," he answered and a small smile graced his lips, but Draco thought it looked rather sad.

Back at Spinner's End, Draco wrote a letter to let Sirius know what had happened and that he was fine. Severus had advised Draco against telling anyone who he was staying with and Draco had to agree that it was probably for the best. But he felt the need to contact Sirius. He had been abandoned by his family as well, so perhaps he could share some advice.

After that Draco spent a lot of time helping Snape brew potions, exploring the house and browsing through the books Snape owned.

"What's that?" Draco asked, while exploring the house. It was a question he had asked rather often, considering Snape owned quite a few muggle items. The things were all rather old and Draco assumed that they had belonged to his parents and he had just never gotten around to or cared enough to get rid off them.

"It's called television," Snape said, not looking up from the book he was reading.

"And what's it do?" Draco had never been a fan of muggles and he would probably never be, but he had decided to be more open-minded, considering where he was staying, and tried to show interest. He wasn't sure whether Severus liked to talk about these things - he did become a Death Eater after all - but Draco didn't want him to think that he thought any less of him for being a halfblood.

Snape lowered the book and looked at Draco. "A television is a technological device used to receive and observe images and sound sent from far away. Muggles use them for entertainment and information acquiring purposes." He observed Draco for a while. He must have looked quite blank. "It is like a book but in moving pictures."

Draco could not for the life of him comprehend this. Like a book but in moving pictures? "Can I try it?"

"Try I- You want to watch a muggle movie?" he raised his eyebrows. "What has happened to you?"

Draco blushed and shrugged his shoulders. He couldn't even explain it himself. Somewhere between the beginning of the second war, staying in a holding cell awaiting trial, being depended on Potter's kindness and being shunned by society for being a former Death Eater, he had lost his attitude.

"Alright," Snape stood up and walked towards the television. He went on one knee in front of it and opened a small cupboard under the device.

"Pick one," he said, motioning at a couple of small boxes.

Draco knelt down next to him and started to examine the boxes. Like books they had a name and a picture on the front and a summary of the plot on the back. He browsed through them.

"Let's uhm- watch? - this one," he gave one of the boxes to Severus.

Snape looked at the title and smirked. "The Godfather?"

Draco smiled. "Well," he shrugged. He was staying with his godfather, so wasn't it fitting?

"Fine," Snape said and opened the box, revealing another box, which he put into an even bigger box. The whole thing made Draco's head spin.

Snape sat down on the sofa and Draco followed him, staring at the television.

Suddenly, the thing became alive and there was music and Draco could see people moving and talking. He was mesmerized. Never in his whole life had he seen anything like it.

Snape smirked, watching Draco in amusement. During the movie he had to explain a lot so Draco could follow the plot. What the Mafia was, what guns were, and so on.

"That was amazing," Draco said at the end, surprised that he actually meant it. "Why don't we have anything like that in the wizarding world?"

"Magic is known to interfere with muggle technologies," Snape answered matter-of-factly.

"But it works here?" Draco asked.

"Well, I am hardly ever here, usually only during the summer, and even then only for a few days at a time. And we hardly used any magic during the last days." That was true. They had both mostly been reading, talking and brewing.

While browsing through Snape's books one early morning, Draco found an old, leather-bound photo album. He opened it somewhere in the middle and a picture of a younger Snape greeted him. A younger Snape with his arm around the shoulders of a young red-head. Draco knew immediately who this was. Lily Potter. The eyes were a dead giveaway. He hadn't found this when he had gone through Snape's things after his death. Maybe he had moved it by then or maybe Potter had found it before him and had decided to keep it.

He looked through it, finding it quite fascinating.

"What are you doing there?" Snape barked and Draco flinched. That was the harshest he had ever talked to Draco.

He closed the album immediately and hurriedly put it back where he had found it. "Nothing. Just looking at your books. You said I could read them if I wanted to."

"I believe there is a difference between reading a book and snooping through old photo albums," but his gaze had softened again.

"I'm sorry," mumbled Draco. "You were friends with Potter's mum? Before school?"

Snape frowned. "For some time during our youth. We had a falling out. Look, Draco-"

"Don't tell Potter. I get it, don't worry. I shouldn't have been so nosy."

Snape smiled.

Suddenly, the fire in the fire place flared and Draco hastily hid behind the sofa.

"Severus, my dear friend, are you there? Mind if I step through?"

Draco gasped. It was his father.

TBC

Did you like this chapter? Can you guess what Lucius wants? What do you think might happen next? I wrote chapters 67-69 ages ago and absolutely love the drama and the Snape-Draco bonding moments.