Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, etc. etc. etc.
Ok... I know at least two people said that I should write a sequel and I was all ready thinking about writing a sequel so... yeah... I was bored and I started writing. This happensone year after my story "Unexpected Visit",four years after my story "If You Leave" which happens the night before they graduate from Hogwarts.
WARNING: there's some yucky conversation about rape and incest. No graphic description, but there is conversation. Later there should be yummy happy Harry/Draco sex. Also, sorry about the long chapter... I started writing and just kept going.
Please read and review.
Harry slowly got dressed in his black suit and tried to straighten his tie. His expression was tired and worn. He was going to a funeral today. Hermione had died in St. Mungo's. No one knew how, but she had died. Draco walked into the room and saw Harry getting dressed. Harry was still fussing over his tie and trying to get it straight.
"Here," said Draco walking towards his lover, "let me help you with that." Draco adjusted Harry's tie and straightened it. "There you go, perfect." Draco looked up into Harry's eyes now and saw the sad expression they had been carrying for days. Draco gently stroked Harry's cheek and then gave Harry a lingering kiss. "You look good in a suit." Harry looked at Draco's appearance.
"So do you," he said quietly. Draco took Harry's hand gently in his and they left the house for the car waiting for them.
Harry would later remember the day in pieces. He remembered getting dressed, getting in the car, arriving at the funeral home, shaking hands with people though who he never could remember, seeing Hermione in the casket, sitting next to Draco, hearing voices speaking of her, seeing Hermione's parents again, standing next to the grave, and then sitting in his chair back at home again. He asked Draco if he had been rude or unkind but Draco assured him that he had been a perfect gentleman. After Harry had curled up in his chair once again by the fire, Draco busied himself in the kitchen heating up some pot roast that Harry had made the night before in a fit of guilt. While it was warming up he poured a kitchen glass full of brandy and placed it on the end table next to Harry's chair.
"Drink some of this," he said. "It will take off the winter chill."
"I wish I could be cold forever."
"You wouldn't make a good bed mate. It would be like sleeping with an ice sculpture." Harry shrugged. Draco struggled against his exasperation. "Do you want your dinner in here or at the table."
"In here is fine. I'd prefer to be next to the fire." Draco returned to the kitchen and pulled the food from the oven. He put the large slices of meat along with carrots, onions, and potatoes on the plates, and then grabbed two forks and brought them into the room where Harry was sitting.
"Here," said Draco holding out a plate. "Fresh from last night." Harry took the plate and began to nibble at the food.
"When did I make this?" asked Harry with a touch of confusion.
"Last night, in one of your whole guilt trip things. You were going on at one o'clock in the morning about how everyone around you dies, everything if your fault... I decided since the worst you were going to do was cook I was going back to bed."
"Oh... I don't remember."
"You all right love? You do look a bit pale. Eat. You haven't eaten all day." Harry obediently took bigger bites out of the slice of meat in front of him. Draco saw the cuff of Harry's shirt fall and for a second he thought he saw a scratch on Harry's wrist. But when he didn't see it again he assumed it was a trick of fire and shadow. Draco finished his plate of food and returned it to the sink along with Harry's.
"I'm going to take a shower," said Draco casually. Harry just stared into the flames. Draco sighed and went upstairs to the bathroom. He turned on the hot water first and then stripped down. When Harry got into these moods it was always frustrating. Afew monthsearlier he had found out that right after Hermione went to St. Mungo's Harry started cutting. He had worried since then that Harry would start cutting again. He had worried last night when Harry seemed so determined to punish himself. Draco stood under the hot water and let it beat down on his shoulders. Looking down at himself he saw his hard need staring back that had been bothering him since seeing Harry in a suit.
"Well then, I guess it's you and me tonight," Draco said jokingly. After stroking himself to release he finished his shower, got dressed in pajamas, and went back downstairs. He heard the dishes washing in the sink and peeked in to see if Harry was there as well. Harry was there. He held a butcher knife in one hand and had his other arm stretched out on the kitchen table. Draco could all ready see three parallel cuts on Harry's arm. Draco burst into the kitchen before Harry could lower the knife to his skin again.
"What are you doing!" Draco screamed at him taking away the knife from Harry. Harry looked up at him with dead looking eyes.
"What does it look like I'm doing?"
"What will this accomplish?"
"Please Draco, I'm just letting out the pain for a minute, please, I just want it gone for a minute."
"This won't accomplish anything. You know that."
"Yes it will. I'll be gone. And then people will stop dying."
"W-what...?" Draco felt off balance. He'd heard that before. Those exact words.
"People around me die. They die because of me. My very existence hurts people. Everyone around me dies."
"No... No Harry listen to me. This isn't you. You're under a suggestion spell." 'How is this possible? He's in Azkaban.'
"No Malfoy." Draco nearly jumped across the room when he saw Harry's lips form the words but heard another voice entirely. "I kill the people I love. I'm responsible for all the people who die around me. Just like you are responsible for your parents dying. And one day you'll be responsible for the death of the great and wonderful Harry Potter." Draco steeled his mind against what he heard. Even though the words were coming from his lover, he could hear that it wasn't his lover's voice.
"Stop," he said calmly.
"Scared of the truth Malfoy? Scared of the fact that you'll be the one to kill Harry Potter?"
"I won't be the one to kill him. I would never kill him. I know Harry. He knows me. Shit happens, and sometimes no one can stop it."
"But you're wizards."
"There are some things that even wizards can't stop."
"You could have saved your parents."
"I had an incredibly slim chance of that. A much better chance of getting killed myself."
"Harry could have saved Hermione."
"He also had a much better chance of getting killed himself, or getting in a similar situation to Hermione."
"He could have saved Ron."
"Nice try, I was there. So was Hermione, Neville, George, Dumbledore, McGonagal, Snape, and ten others. If he's responsible, we're just as responsible. Any of us could have gotten killed and Ron just happened to be the unlucky one who did." Harry's eyes looked at Draco suspiciously.
"Since when do you have all the answers?"
"I had five years to get the answers. You are such a coward. You choose now to do this, when Harry is at his most vulnerable. I'm sure that's the idea. But a real wizard wouldn't be afraid to face two wizards at their strongest. You disgust me."
"You and I are not that different."
"That's where you're wrong." Draco pulled his wand from his pocket and cried out, "Finite incantatem!" He'd had enough of this. Harry's eyes closed and his head lolled forward onto to his chest. Draco kept his distance for the moment and hesitantly whispered, "Harry?" Harry's eyes slowly opened and looked up at Draco with confusion. Draco sighed in relief and leaned against the wall for support.
"Draco?" asked Harry. "What happened?"
"You were under a suggestion spell," said Draco sliding down the wall until he was sitting on the floor with his knees curled up to his chest. Harry looked down at his arm and saw the cuts on his arms.
"What the hell?" said Harry with disbelief. "I knew I was feeling bad... but..."
"Yeah, it was a really powerful suggestion spell. For a while there, it wasn't you talking anymore."
"It wasn't... me?"
"What's the last thing you remember?"
"I walked in here and started the cleaning charm. I sat down with my glass of brandy... and then it's all..."
"Fuzzy?"
"Yeah..."
"I thought as much."
"What did I say to you?" Draco rubbed his eyes and shook his head.
"It doesn't matter. It wasn't you. It wasn't even your voice."
"It matters. What did I say to you."
"Why do you care?" Draco shouted at Harry. "Can't you just leave it alone?"
"Because I love you. And no I can't just leave it alone because I know you, it shook you." Draco took in a ragged breath and stared at the floor.
"He said that I will be the one to kill you. I didn't let it shake me. I told him what we've said to each other. Shit happens and sometimes no one can stop it."
"But it did shake you."
"It's nothing I haven't thought about before. I don't know why it would make any difference if I think it or if he says it."
"Who said it?"
"Sam Malfoy. I don't know how, but I know his voice."
"Do you think he's escaped from Azkaban?"
"I don't know... I think we would have heard something... anything." Draco rubbed his face with his hands and combed through his shaggy hair with his fingers. Lacing his fingers behind his head he stared at his knees in contemplation.
"Could he have help?" Harry asked hesitantly. Draco barely ever spoke about the other boys they had tortured and raped. Harry knew most of the details about Draco's torture and rape. He had just never heard Draco speak of the others who were there when he was.
"He might," said Draco thinking intently. "One of the boys, Adrian. He was especially... fond of Sam. And he was a wizard. He could have done something like this. And he's not exactly on anyone's radar." Draco closed his eyes and groaned. "Five years. The jerk off waits five years."
"Draco, could he have killed Hermione?" Draco looked startled at first, but then he just looked angry.
"I should have known. He probably hid amongst the mourners at the funeral today. Then he followed us back here."
"Then... where is he now?"
"He's very good at apparition. He's probably miles away by now. He's also very good at-" Draco suddenly remembered something. 'Confundus charms and polyjuice potions are my specialty.' "What did you get me for my birthday last year?"
"What?" said Harry with confusion.
"What did you get me for my birthday last year?"
"Why would you ask me a silly question like that?"
"Answer me Potter!" Draco pointed his wand at the other person in the room. Now he wasn't sure who it was in front of him. The other boy smirked evilly. "Answer me!" Draco's insides were twisting. If this wasn't Harry, where was he? Then the boy started laughing. He laughed and laughed as the appearance of Harry Potter melted away and left the face of one of the few people Draco prayed every night to forget. "Adrian," Draco said with a sneer.
"Very good Draco darling," said Adrian. "It took you fifteen minutes to think that it could have been me, and then three more to realize that the person in front of you was me."
"Where is Harry Potter?"
"He's sleeping. He went upstairs while you were in the shower and went to bed. He's asleep now. He was so exhausted after all the day's activities. And he was so distraught over the loss of his friend even though really he lost her eight years ago when that wizard used the Crucio curse on her." Draco stood slowly and sat in the chair across the table from Adrian.
"What do you want Adrian?"
"Always down to business, that's what I liked about you. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the wizards who took such great care of us were put in jail by you. I could barely believe my ears when I was told."
"They raped and tortured us Adrian."
"They taught us about pleasure and pain, and how the two can blissfully combine."
"You really believe that bull shit that Sam spoon fed you? Gods Adrian you always struck me as someone with at least half a brain cell. With that you should be able to see that what they were doing was wrong!"
"I never saw it as wrong."
"No. Of course you didn't. But then someone who was fucked by their father and uncles for most of their formative years wouldn't think of that as wrong."
"They loved me! Sam loved me!"
"NO! Raping someone is not love and I wish you would get that through your thick head! Why are you here anyway? Little Lost Boys ten year reunion or something?"
"I'm getting them out of Azkaban." Draco's stomach twisted into fifty different knots.
"How?"
"Well, first I'm going to help them with their appeal. If I can't get them out legally, I will break them out. We'll come for you. We'll come for Harry Potter upstairs. We'll all take a nice trip back to Romania and there we will all live in one big happy family. I just thought I would give you a heads up on what is about to happen. Expect to hear from me soon." Draco watched Adrian walk out the front door. Draco tried to stand but his knees went weak and he fell to the floor. He felt sick to his stomach.
"Harry..." he whispered. "Harry..." Using the legilimens skills he remembered from school, he read Harry's mind and concentrated on one memory, the first time Harry woke Draco up from a nightmare. Harry woke up alone in his bed and all he could see in his mind was the terrified look on Draco's face.
"Draco..." said Harry as he quickly through a robe on over his boxer shorts and ran down the stairs. He found Draco on all fours on the floor of the kitchen shaking for all he was worth. Harry rushed to him and held him close.
"What's wrong?" asked Harry. "Please, tell me what's wrong." Draco couldn't speak. He was shaking so badly he could barely breath and Harry could see it. "All right, one thing at a time love. Let's get you off the floor." Harry pulled Draco up to his feet and led him to one of the chairs next to the fireplace. Draco tried to breathe but he could barely think. Harry reached into his medicine cabinet and pulled out a small vial with the label DRAUGHT OF PEACE. He gingerly took out the cork and handed it to Draco.
"Drink this, it will calm you down." Draco drank it quickly and felt the calming effects of the potion flow through his veins. Harry sat in the chair across from Draco and patiently waited.
"Adrian was here," Draco finally said out loud. "He was one of the boys who was tortured and raped along with me. He's here to get Sam and the others out of jail. He said that if he can't get them out legally, he'll break them out with magic."
"No one gets out of Azkaban."
"Your step father did. I'm sure they could find a way. He said that once they get out..." Draco swallowed hard and tried to keep down the panic. "They're going to come after us. They're going to take you and me back to Romania. And they're going to do it all over again."
"Not this time," said Harry with confidence.
"How can you be sure?"
"You have me now. If they take you away from me again, I will make them pay."
"And if they get you too?"
"I have friends who will come and get us. They will save us. And we will make them pay." Harry stood and walked to Draco. He leaned over and kissed him gently. "Come to bed." Draco followed Harry up the stairs, stripped down to his boxers, and curled up next to Harry in bed. Harry held Draco tightly as the two fell asleep. They didn't know then, but they were being watched.
The next chapter will be up... at some point. Tomorrow I work lunch and dinner at my restaurant so, we shall see how much writing I can get done.