Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I am just making up this little story because I feel like it.

Warnings: Wow, I don't even know anymore. The direction this was going in seems to have been derailed, so like, half the original ones don't count.

Notes: Heyyyy look what I found! A partly written chapter! Which made it easier to finish. And then I got to the end and I was like, is this the end? Should I write more to this chapter? I think it will just go in the next chapter, and I will figure out this new direction as I go along. Sorry for leaving this story hanging for so very very long, but things happened. I'm not abandoning it though, and I do hope to have chapter 13 up by the end of the summer, that seems a reasonable goal.

Night Life –x- Chapter 12 –x- Mayhem

No Harry, again. He had promised Draco that he would come tell him when he got in, since he worried even though Harry didn't want him too. There was just something about Harry though, that Draco just couldn't help worry about him and wanting him safe. Edward Belmont was not helping.

Draco had tried not to run through the halls to Harry's room, with no success, and his heart dropped when he didn't find Harry sleeping soundly in his room, knocking off the effects of the night before. Where was he? Edward's room again? Drunk and drugged so he had no idea what Edward was doing to him? Because he was fairly certain that Harry didn't really know everything that had happened to him the week before. There were too many blank spots in his memory.

But this… worrywart, was not who Draco was. Not really. And it was driving him utterly mad that this one person, one boy, no - one man was so important to him to drive him to distraction this way. They were just friends, no more then that. Draco honestly cared about him though. And that stupid, stupid Edward Belmont, was using Harry, abusing him. But unlike with Lavender, Harry hadn't come to him and outright said that Edward was forcing him to do things he didn't want. Although, if Harry couldn't remember Edward doing these things, how could he come to Draco for help?

Draco was getting more confused the longer he thought about this. He had dealt with the situation before for Harry, perhaps maybe this time Harry didn't want him to deal with it, didn't want Draco to make the problem go away?

"ARGH!" Draco raged, gripping his hair in his fists. Draco sank onto the floor in Harry's room and tried to order his thoughts rationally. One: Harry was 16 years old. Old enough to take care of himself, and he'd been doing so for years. Two: Harry had said if anything were to go wrong, Draco would be the first person told. Three: But what if he were in a situation that was wrong and couldn't tell Draco? Four: What if he was being held hostage? Five: This wasn't getting him anywhere.

Sighing, Draco thumped his head back against the wall. He just had to let it be. Harry would reappear whenever he did, and Draco would take care of him then. For now, all he could do was wait. His stomach chose that moment to growl at him, and Draco sighed again, even in the midst of what he considered to be a crisis, he could still be hungry. Staggering to his feet, he left Harry's room and went to the dining room to see what he could stomach.

Blaise and Theo were already in the dining hall, having their breakfast. They greeted Draco as he approached the table, both taking in the fact that Draco was not in a good mood.

"What's wrong, Draco? You don't look yourself."

"Harry's gone. Again. He was supposed to come see me when he got back after his date with Edward. I can't find him. I have no idea. And… this isn't me. Why do I care so much about him?"

"Because you like him?" Blaise said.

"I like you guys too, but I don't worry over you like this."

"No, I mean, you like him, as in, romantically, Draco. That's what I meant." Blaise clarified.

"I do not." Draco protested.

"It sure seems like you do. I haven't seen you like this about anyone else." Blaise said, with Theo nodding in agreement.

"I am allowed to care about my friends, aren't I? I know, not a very Malfoy thing of me." Draco said, slathering butter onto his toast.

"Nah. It's not just 'cause of being a Malfoy. You definitely do not act like this about us."

Draco grunted and frowned at his bacon, as if it was the delicious slice of meat's fault that he was in this situation.

"All right. I'm not admitting to anything, but let's say hypothetically I do. What then?"

"You have to steal him from Belmont, obviously."

Draco just barely stopped himself from rolling his eyes at Theo. "Yeah, but how is the real problem there, Belmont has a vice grip on him."

"That's true. But since this is all hypothetical, we don't have to worry about that, do we?"

"I – No, I guess not."

"Stop worrying, he'll turn up again."

Draco didn't reply, instead choosing to forlornly eat his breakfast.

xxx

Saturday passed with no sign of Harry. Blaise and Theo kept an eye on Draco while they played wizard's chess in his room, but they noticed the pages of his book (rescued from where it had fallen earlier) never turned. Sunday came and went as well, except that Draco just went back to bed after checking Harry's room and checking Belmont's room and finding nothing. Blaise reported no sign of either of them around Hogwarts or at breakfast, and Theo was keeping an eye out still. Draco just curled up in his bed and ignored Blaise who had suddenly decided that doing his algebra homework in Draco's room was a good idea. His friends were worried at his odd behaviour, and knew that there had to be something else going on inside Draco's head that was making him freak out like he was. Draco didn't react to other friends like this, not at all. They wisely said nothing in front of Draco.

Monday finally dragged itself into existence, bringing a grumpy Draco along with it. He had no desire to attend classes only to not find Harry there, but Blaise tugged him out of bed – quite literally, pulled him out of the bed, his legs still tangled in the sheets and blankets as his rear end hit the floor. Theo managed to control his laughter, barely. They trooped down the stairs to the cafeteria, the two boys putting things on Draco's tray for him, even though he insisted he wasn't hungry.

Draco didn't even look up from the floor as he entered the classroom and followed Blaise to a seat near to the back. Theo suddenly whacked him in the back with his arm, startling him out of his miserable contemplation of the scuffed floor. An angry scowl took over his face as he whirled on Theo, about to blast him for hitting him like that. But Theo wasn't even looking at him, and instead reached out again to smack him harder in the arm this time.

"What?" Draco snarled. "Stop hitting me."

"Look!"

Draco turned to look at what had Theo's attention, and saw… Harry. He looked haggard and half-dead. But he was still there, when he hadn't been anywhere since Friday. Draco would have stopped dead in surprise if he hadn't already been at a standstill. Instead, his reaction was to rush over and throw himself at Harry.

"You're here! You're okay! Where have you been?!" Draco demanded, drawing back slightly from the near stranglehold he had on Harry's neck.

Harry tiredly pushed Draco off of himself. "Draco, not now, okay? We can talk after class." He turned away from his friend, flipping open his notebook, and picking up his pen. Draco was a little stunned but took it all in stride, putting his own things up on the desk beside Harry. Theo and Blaise took the table behind the two, sharing a significant glance as they did so.

xxx

Harry had refused to say anything all morning until they were at lunch, and then not until they were seated as far as they could be from the rest of the student population. He was still reluctant to talk about it, but Draco was persistent, and Harry was too tired to listen to his pleading for long.

"Draco, stop, please, I'll tell you if you can be quiet for five minutes."

Draco leaned away from Harry, turning back to his tray. He wasn't used to be spoken to like that, but he would make the exception for Harry, and so that he could finally know what was going on.

"I… Draco, you were right. I've been at Edward's house this entire time. He took me back there after we went out the other night. I don't remember much of it though. You were right; he did drug me or give me something. I don't know why. If he had just asked… I… I wouldn't have fought him. It would be better then this." Harry hung his head, his appetite suddenly leaving him. He didn't understand why Edward had gone to those lengths. He hadn't even asked Harry if certain things were all right or not. Why hadn't Edward given Harry a choice?

Draco's hands curled into white-knuckled fists as Harry spoke. Theo and Blaise didn't look happy either, they were Harry's friends too, and this wasn't something they were going to ignore.

"Harry… I'm sorry that this happened to you," Theo said, "we'll keep him away from you. If that's what you want."

"Thank you Theo, and no, I don't want him near me again. I just don't understand why he thought he had to do this to me. For fun?"

"That's really sick, it's not fun and games, you're not supposed to treat people you care about this way." Blaise said with a frown.

"He obviously didn't care about Harry, ever." Draco spat out. "We're the only ones that do, it seems." His voice was low and harsh; he was so angry and hadn't felt anger this strong in a long time.

Harry put a hand on Draco's shoulder to assure him he was still there. "Thanks Draco, I know you guys care. I… just seem to attract these kinds of people. First at home, now at school where I thought I'd be safe from it. Or at least, safer then I was. I've been wondering if I should live with Ron's family and go back to my public school."

"No!" Draco said with surprising force, "Sorry, I meant, no, you can't leave. Not now. Hogwarts is so much better then a lame public school. And what would you do without me?"

Harry just looked at him, not sure how to interpret what Draco had said. "I'd be fine without you; I'd have Ron and Hermione. I would stay away from my old house and my cousin. It would be okay."

"But it doesn't have to be just okay, Harry, it can be so much better then okay. The four of us, we can make everything fantastic. I think… I've thought this for a while now, and I truly think that we were meant to meet that night we ran into each other on the street. You were supposed to find me so I could help you, and we'd both be better for it and happier."

Harry looked askance at Draco. "What are you talking about? You sound like a bad romance novel, talking about fate or something. I know I had a bad experience, but are you all right?"

Draco paused, ignoring the significant looks that Theo and Blaize were silently exchanging between themselves. He bit his lip and turned away from Harry's concern green eyes.

"I'm fine, I just... I really worried about you. I care about you a lot and I think you'd really be happy here, instead of the other school. It's just been – a rough start. O.K. - terrible time here, I'll admit, but we'd miss you if you left."

"He's right; we would miss you." Theo offered. "I know Draco likes to take care of you and that can be annoying, but you have to admit that putting up with Draco is better than being stuffed in a locker by bullies every day."

"Which, unfortunately, seems to us like that would happen to you, as you said, the kind of attention you attract. Strange how it happens to you though. We all want to make sure you make it to adulthood alive." Blaize added on.

Harry lowered his eyes and stared at his barely touched plate. "Well... thanks, guys. It is more bearable having you guys around. Now I just need to stay away from Edward, and it won't work like it did before with Lavender." He shook his head and dropped his face into his hands. "I wish this didn't keep happening to me."

"My sentiments exactly." Draco said, using his fork to push his food around on his plate.

"So, what do we do now?" Harry asked.

"We'll figure it out. Just avoid Belmont for now. All of us will talk about it tonight and figure out how to end it with him." Draco responded.