Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When Draco made the deal with his parents that he’d take care of everything if they let him go to college, that all they had to do was pay his tuition, he hadn’t meant it literally. But the morning he was to set off into the real world his mother woke him up and informed him that his uber was waiting for him downstairs. He was seated in the back seat of a 2013 Chevrolet SUV and three miles away from home before he completely grasped his situation.

“you’ve got to be joking” Draco mutters under his breath when he sees the brownstone that is supposed to be his housing for the next year.

The building is in a state of total disarray. With weeds sprouting between the cobblestones to random cardboard boxes strewn across the patch of dirt that’s supposed to be a lawn.

This explains why he couldn’t find any pictures of the building online.

“you good?” the driver, a middle-aged Hispanic man with greying hair and kind eyes asks.

“um yeah, I just don’t know how I'm gonna get all this stuff to the third floor.” Draco laughs nervously pointing to the trunk full of his stuff.

He thought there’d be people, upperclassmen, waiting to help him move in like it said in the move-in-day email he got twelve hours ago. He bites his lip anxiously. There is no way In hell he can carry all his boxes of clothes and appliances up three stories.

Just when he's about to give in and ask the driver if he'd be willing to help he spots a girl with a cloud of thick brown hair and dark skin running up to them from down the street. She stops when she gets in front of the engine. hands-on her knees panting and wiping sweat from her forehead.

 After catching her breath she walks up to where Draco’s sitting in the back seat.

“you…Draco” pant “Malfoy?” she takes a deep breath.

“fuck stitch stitch stitch” she clutches her side.

Draco watches her warily. This is not going very well. The whole day has just been one disaster and disappointment after the other.

“yes..”

“cool cool cool” she straightens “I’m Hermione” she sticks her hand through the window to shake his.

Draco takes it after a not unnoticed moment of hesitation.

It's warm and sweaty but her grip is strong and confident.

He very discreetly wipes his hand on his jeans.

“i apologize for being so late, Harry was supposed to be here but Dumbledore called him in and I live on the other side of campus. It was basically just a whole mess. And you didn’t need to know any of that. sorry” She stops when she sees the look of confusion on Draco's face.

“Harry’s the RA right?”

“yup”

They stare at each other awkwardly for a while. She seems nice enough, Draco thinks, a bit scatterbrained but otherwise harmless.

“I gotta get going kids” the driver announces, not unkindly.

“right!! Why don’t we get started with all this” Hermione claps her hands together?

Draco finally climbs down from the car, he shivers when a chill gust of wind blows through.

“Sorry bout that, the weather here's a bit bipolar. Seems like fall's coming in early this year though.”

They spend the next fifteen to thirty minutes lugging boxes full of clothes, bed linens, and crockery up to his room on the third floor.

“This is your id. It gets you into your room and the building and the dining hall. Basically everywhere on campus.” She hands over a laminated id card with Draco's pale face in the corner.

“if you ever get locked out or lose it just call housing or Harry. Though There’s a ten-dollar loss fee.”

Draco nods, his head storing all the information for later.

“Should I give you my number in case you have any questions.?” She looks up and the light of the hallway catches her dark eyes and Draco notices how pretty she is. The kind of pretty that becomes more noticeable the longer you look.

He shakes his head.

“I'll just wait for harry.”

“cool!” she flashes him a bright smile. He offers a small smile in response.

“I’ll see you around then. And if you see me before I see you don’t be a stranger. Please say hi even it's in the middle of Walmart, I promise I'll be glad to see you” somehow Draco knew she meant it.

He found that he liked this friendly outgoing girl.

“alright. Bye!! Good luck!!”  she waves at him walking backward before turning and going down the stairs.

For the first time, all day Draco is finally alone.

He plugs his earphones into his ears puts on the weirds sister's newest album.

He steps around the boxes in front of the door, swipes his id card through the card slot in his door handle, and opens his new apartment.

The air inside the room is stale and hot so he turns on the ceiling fan. The room is ridiculously tiny with a small twin bed taking up more than half of the floor space and a desk taking up what little is left.

There’s barely any space to stand. He finds a tiny wardrobe that slides open for his clothes. He looks at the huge plastic tub of clothes and wonders how on earth he’s supposed to fit all his stuff in there.

Overwhelmed Draco slumps on the crinkly blue mattress.

“what have I done?” he whispers in horror.

He was so excited to finally go off to college on his own, after being homeschooled and coddled his whole life due to his omega and veela status. But this, this was not a great start to his new journey.

He felt tears burning behind his eyes.

No! he tells himself. "I will not let them be right". He’s been fighting for this freedom his whole life hell be damned if he let his parents win.

“it's actually kinda quaint” he mumbles.

"I’m going to make the best out of this shoebox of a room." He forces a smile and steels himself for the task ahead of him.

Hours later when all he’s managed to do is tuck away his clothes, leaving his winter coats and shoes in his box, there's a knock on his opened door.

He looks up from where he’s sitting on the floor and in his doorway is the most gorgeous man he’s ever seen. He's around 5’11 a bit taller than Draco, with golden brown skin, broad shoulders, and thick biceps that bulge even in his red university hoodie. He’s smiling at Draco with a smile that makes his eyes crinkle behind his thick glasses. His hooked nose is crooked like it's been broken once or twice but somehow that makes him even more attractive.

“hey” he greets.

Draco is pulled out of his reverie. It’s rude to stare he reminds himself. He constantly has to remind himself of what is and isn’t socially acceptable. His educaton and socialization consisted of omega lessons and lessons on how to be a good homemaker, everything he knows about regular interactions he taught himself.

Because he can’t trust his voice he waves weakly.

The man nods in reply. ”I’m Harry your RA”

Draco freezes, RA. This Adonis of a man cannot be his RA. How exactly is Draco supposed to function with this man living in the same building as him when he’s squirming in his seat with the heat that’s settled in his stomach at the sound of harry’s deep rumbling voice.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t help you move in earlier but don’t hesitate to come to me if you have any problems.”

Draco nods stiffly. Say something Malfoy!! he screams internally. He’s going to think you’re weird!!

 A Crease appears in Harry’s brow. “ok…I guess I’ll leave you to finish unpacking your stuff.”

Again, Draco nods.

Harry gives a last close-lipped smile and then he’s gone.

Draco feels the tension go out of him immediately.

He’s never embarrassed himself so thoroughly before, his face heats up.

“oh god how am I supposed to speak to him ever again” he groans aloud.

He’s not used to being around attractive men. Typically the men his father brings around the house are middle-aged and foul. Apparently, his reaction to hot men is to go all frigid and hostile. Good to know.

He can’t help but hope that harry hasn’t completely written him off.

                                              ********

“so what did Dumbledore want from you?” Hermione asks as she slides into the booth beside Ron and opposite Harry.

Her tray is filled with greasy pizza, ice cream, and a salad. Harry grabs the salad.

“he wanted to talk about the triathlon,” Harry replies spearing the green vegetables with a plastic fork.

“When is that anyway?” Hermione asks. She smacks Ron's hand away when he goes in for her ice cream.

“in two weeks” Harry swallows the salad with a grimace. He's so sick and tired of this rabbit food. He gazes longingly at the oily pepperoni pizza in Ron's freckled hand.

“just in time for fall.” Ron chimes.

Harry nods.

Hermione and Ron launch into a conversation about the school's Quidditch, basketball, and hockey teams while Harry’s mind wanders off.

He thinks of Draco. The waifish boy that moved in today. Those sparkly grey eyes come to mind and harry can't help but think about just how pretty the boy is. His long blonde hair and pale skin making him look ethereal and otherworldly.

Harry was a little put off by the boy's reluctance to converse with him earlier that day but he's willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. It might be his first time away from home, he might not be used to the city. Harry made a mental note to talk to him again that night.

“how was Draco when you met him?”

“hm? Oh Draco!!” Hermione gives in to Ron's haggling and hands him the rest of her ice cream cup.

“he was a bit quiet but other than that he seemed cool. Had a real posh accent though.”

Now harry really wants to know what he sounds like.

“he's an omega right?” Ron asks.

“mhm, veela too” Hermione answers.

“damn.”

That single word manages to convey all their feelings on Draco Malfoy's status. Being an omega in this post status modern age is rare and it's supposed to be a lot safer now than fifty even ten years ago but everyone knows that there are still many persistent challenges that omegas deal with. From sex trafficking to rape culture, being an omega seems like a lot more trouble than it's worth. Not to add being a veela on top of that.

“gotta get going I've got a meeting with snape,” Harry announces shoveling the last of his salad into his mouth.

“ooooh” Ron and Hermione groan in unison.

They’ve known about harry weekly meetings with snape for the past month or so but they’re not completely clear on the details. Harry leaves them to their assumptions because he knows that nothing they come up with would come close to the truth.

Harry zips his hoodie closed when he leaves the dining hall. Snape's office is all the way in south campus, the part of campus harry hates the most. For no reason other than how dark and humid the air is there.

He walks swiftly dodging groups of students and parents with move-in boxes and carts.

Soon he reaches the two-story red brick building where Severus Snape spends 90 percent of his time.

Harry rings the doorbell next to the number 34. He shivers thinking about how it's too cold for august when the door swings open.

Harry steps in closing the door behind him.

The stairway is dark forcing harry to use his phone flashlight.

“fucks sake Severus.” He mumbles. Every week he tells snape to call maintenance and get the light fixed and every week snape ignores him.

Once on the landing, he pushes open a door with a faded embossed gold plate that is supposed to spell out snape.

Snape's office is on the entire second floor but he makes sure to take up as little space as possible. His desk and all his things stuffed in the darkest corner as though hes allergic to the sunlight.

Knowing snape he might as well be. The thought of snape being a vampire brings a small smile to harry’s face.

“what's so hilarious about being late Potter?” snape bites.

Harry coughs. “sorry professor I had an impromptu meeting with-“

“I don’t care for excuses.” Snape moves like a serpent from where he sits behind his desk.

Standing in front of Harry, Snape watches him and they stand facing each other for silent minutes. harry barely towers over the slimy professor.

“I need to know that you’re serious about this. That you want this as much as you say you do.”

Harry's brow twitches. All semblance of humor gone from his face.

“how exactly do you expect me to prove myself when you won't give me any missions.?” Harry snaps because how dare Severus snape imply that he's not serious about this when he’s sacrificed his entire life for this. For a chance vengeance.

Snape eyes him his expression stormy but harry meets his gaze unflinching. Snape's black eyes narrow.

“Alright then potter you want a mission?” Harry nods solemnly, excitement bubbling up inside him.

“I want you to protect Draco Malfoy.”

Harry blinks completely dumbfounded.

“what”

Severus turns with a flourish his black coat swishing behind him.

“I am not in the habit of repeating my self potter.” Snape sits in his office chair.

“you’re kidding right.”

Snape levels harry with an unamused glare.

“ I need to be in the field Severus. I can't keep training for nothing!!” a migraine is starting behind his eyes. He can feel his scar throbbing and pulsing like it always does when he gets agitated.

“The fact that you do not recognize the name Malfoy proves to me just how unready you are for any real action.”

Harry is stumped.

Is he supposed to know who Draco is? Today was his first time seeing the omega of that he is certain. There's no way he could ever forget a face like that.

“find out who exactly Draco is and then I’ll give you a real mission,” Severus says the word real In the most condescending way possible.

“Until then, the phoenix will handle everything.” With that final statement, harry knows he’s been dismissed.

                                             **********

Draco wipes the winged eyeliner from his eyes for the fourth time. His grey eyes are smudged with the remnant of his previous failed attempts.

This is a lot harder than it looked on youtube. He huffs in defeat. It's just Walmart anyway, who cares. He tells himself.

He bites his bottom lip anxiously. this is his first time going to a grocery store by himself and he has this idea of what he wants to look like and how he wants to be perceived but it's not working out.

"You’re free Draco act like it," he mumbles

The tight clothes he has laid on his bed seem a lot less appealing now than they did an hour ago when he picked them out.

He lets the portable mirror fall from his hand onto his floral bedsheets.

He decides that a trip to Walmart to buy extension chords and a shower curtain is not worth all this stress. His hoodie and sweats will have to do, besides he doesn’t know anyone yet so he can't be embarrassed.

He ignores the voice in his head that says he's never going to make any friends dressed like that. With his ID and credit card in hand, he makes his way downstairs. On his way out the front doors, he bumps into a hard body causing him to lose his footing. Before he can fall a pair of strong muscled arms catch him around the waist.

“sorry about that” that voice, it's Harry.

Draco looks up at the face of his RA, he clears his throat silently and finds all the courage he has.

“it’s-it’s ok I wasn’t looking where I was going.” Dracos brain is in shambles half of it focused on the hot piece of man in front of him. The other half going batshit insane at the heat and muscle he can feel around his waist. That leaves his last two brain cells with the task of stringing words together to form coherent sentences.

Harry smiles down at him, reluctantly he removes his arms from around Draco's waist. As soon as the heat and closeness of harry is gone Draco misses it.

“So where are you headed?”

Draco thinks about whether or not he should answer honestly. He considers the fact that he plans on walking half a mile he should probably let someone know where he’s going in case anything happens to him on the way.

“Walmart”

Harry’s eyebrow shoots up in question, that’s when Draco notices the lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. It’s a bit covered by his raven black hair so that explains how Draco failed to notice it before.

“you got a ride?” harry asks concern in his voice.

Draco blushes from the look in harry’s eyes.

“um no not really I’m gonna walk. It's only half a mile anyway.” Before he finishes his sentence harry is shaking his head.

“lemme give you a ride yeah. It's getting pretty dark out.”

“I can’t-“ harry rushes off before Draco can object.

“lemme go grab my keys!! Give me a minute!!”

He can't be serious, can he?

Draco is concocting an excuse to give harry when the man of the hour comes back keys jingling together in his hand.

“this way” harry leads Draco out of the building and towards the back of the building. The back of the building in an even more woeful state than the front. Pushed against the wall is an overflowing garbage bin that makes Draco wrinkle his nose. On the ground is litter and – is that a syringe?? Draco does a double-take and takes careful purposeful steps following harry.

Soon, after a couple more steps, harry stops. Draco looks around for harry’s car but doesn’t see one. What he does see is a motorcycle parked against the wall. His mouth falls open.

Harry smirks back at him.

“hope you’re not scared of bikes.”

The first time Draco Malfoy saw a motorcycle he was ten years old and had just discovered how to bypass his parents internet restrictions. He had been watching a sappy rom-com that made him feel funny in his stomach, he'd soon identify this feeling as yearning and it’d never go away no matter what he did.

On the computer screen a rugged, scarred bad boy had a rich blonde girl clutching on to him tightly as they raced through the streets of Chicago. He couldn’t help imagining himself in place of her, he wondered how it would feel to be pressed so close to someone, for them to feel your heart beating against their back.

Harry was standing next to his bike beaming proudly. Draco could tell that he was extremely proud of his alternative mode of transportation.

“right this way princess” Draco tries to ignore the way the nickname makes his stomach flutter. The similarities between harry and the man from the movie are not lost on Draco but he refuses to allow himself to be carried away by foolish fantasies. He is stopped in his tracks by the phrase foolish fantasies, he's heard that phrase from his father a thousand times. And like a worm it has burrowed into his thoughts.

Draco bites his bottom lip hard, his grey eyes turning stormy.

“okay”

Harry smirks as Draco climbs on behind him. The blonde's thin shaky hands wrap around Harry’s waist.

Draco tucks his head into the wide planes of Harry's back the smell of detergent, cologne, and something else filling his nostrils.

“hey.” Draco feels the rumble and vibration of Harry's voice. He lifts his head a little.

“you’re safe. Trust me.”

And with that, they're off.

The feeling is indescribable. At first Draco has his head down and the noise of the engine has him scared half to death but soon enough he raises his head. He almost can't believe his eyes, it feels like he's elevated to another plane, the sites, sounds, and smells of the city feel magical. The wind blows through his hair scattering it behind him.  His chest feels light like he can finally breathe.

This is it. This is the feeling he's been chasing his entire life.

The ride is certainly too short when it comes to an end but Draco consoles himself with the fact that soon enough he'll experience it again.

“That was amazing!!” Draco is unable to keep the giddy smile on his face.

He feels Harry’s eyes drift to his lips and up to his eyes.

“yeah.” Harry mutters.

“umm, we should-we should probably get going” Draco feels his cheeks heating up and he is 100 % certain that his pale face is red.

Draco silently sends up a prayer of thanks for harry’s presence beside him when he enters the Walmart. The sheer size of the building is overwhelming, with shelves stacked topped to the bottom with commodities of varying sizes and colors. Draco has to tilt his head back to see the signs that direct people to different sections of the store.

“so what are we looking for?” harry asks while eying up a life-sized stuffed dragon with a tag that reads "Limited edition poisonous Hornback!! Squeeze and hear him roar!!!"

“I need extension chords and a shower curtain.”

“you don’t have a shower curtain?” harry asks surprised while he starts walking languidly.

Draco follows him trusting the scarred man.

He shakes his head “I thought they would be provided by housing.”

“yeah sorry, I should have probably informed you about that.”

Draco waves the guilty sentiment off.

“it's completely fine, plus it gave me the opportunity to explore this place.” Draco gestures wildly.

Harry laughs. “Ron, Hermione, and I spent our freshman year here. I know this place like the back of my hand. Hell Ron works here” harry’s face lights up “hold on I’m pretty sure he’s on shift right now. Come on let's get you sorted out so we can go bother him.”

Draco feels his heart pounding in his chest, Harry thinks at a million miles an hour but there's something ridiculously freeing and magnetic about him. Draco smiles widely, today has been the most exciting day of his short-sheltered life. He rode a motorcycle!! He moved into freaking college!! All his earlier doubts suddenly seem trivial, this is it this is the life he’s always wanted. And now he's going to take it, no more waiting around.

They find the shower curtains easily enough but it takes minutes of meandering backtracking and Harry constantly muttering things like “I swear it was right here”, “you sure we checked aisle fifteen?” and “those fuckers can never leave shit alone.”

Draco is enjoying harry’s indecision and frustration far too much to suggest they ask one of the many blue vested workers he sees milling about.

Eventually, they find extension chords in the gardening and outdoor tools section. Harry huffs and puffs about inefficient cataloging and how the uck are extension chords gardening tools? Draco Is unable to keep a laugh from bursting out of his throat.

“oh yeah pretty boy what's so funny? Enjoy seeing me floundering around?” harry cocks a thick eyebrow but an amused smile is playing across his lips.

Draco blushes hard at harry calling him pretty and it's like some spirit possesses him because he answers.

“I do in fact enjoy seeing you all riled up Mr potter.”

Harry's eyes widen in shock because he definitely did not expect Draco to reply. Draco flushes even harder but he doesn’t regret it. He’s bantering with harry potter his freaking RA.

Harry smiles at him and just like the scar on the man's forehead, the smile strikes Draco like a lightning bolt. Harry Potter always smiles with his eyes, smoothing out the hard lines and harsh planes of his face. Draco has never met anyone so transparent, he tries to consider that harry may be playing him for a fool and might have alternative motives but maybe Draco is too naïve but he cannot imagine harry being anyone other than who he currently is.

They wander around the store for a while, pointing out weird flavors of condiments and drinks, Harry launches into a rant about overconsumption. Soon enough they make it to the returns desk where a lone ginger figure is arguing with a balding man with a beer belly and cigarette cloud around him.

“that’s Ron.” Harry points.

Just then a dark-skinned boy wearing the standard Walmart vest that signals him as a member of staff comes up behind Ron. Ron's face lights up and he offloads the troublesome customer unto the newcomer.

“come on let me introduce you guys.” Harry cuts off Ron before the unsuspecting redhead makes it five steps outside the waiting area.

“harry!! What’re you doing here mate!!” Ron exclaims when he finally sees harry.

They embrace and Draco awkwardly waves.

“This is Draco”

Ron bows his head in a weirdly enchanting gesture “how's it going?”

Draco is fairly certain the question is meant more as a salutation so he doesn’t reply just smiling dumbly.

“what’re you doing here? Came to visit your best mate?” Ron asks haughtily.

“don’t flatter yourself Weasley, we just came to pick up some things.”

Draco zones out while they discuss, a family of three catching his eye. The child looks around two years old, Draco doesn’t know why he guesses this number so he chalks it up to his omega instincts. The brunette toddler sits in the cart pushed by a short, fairly attractive man. Beside the man, a tall woman with a severe ponytail reads off a list.

Draco can't help the yearning that twists in his tummy, what he would give to live a mundane life filled with love. He steels himself, that’s exactly what he's doing right now.

Right there and then Draco promises himself that he would die before he steps a foot back in Malfoy manor.

                                    ******

“And you did this without my permission” the dark lord hisses quietly.

Lucius Malfoy shifts causing a bolt of pain to shoot up his knee. From where he is kneeling, head bowed, Lucius has to strain his ears to hear the dark lord's low words.

“my lord, I had no choice.” Lucius pleads. He's repeated this phrase countless times since his master stormed into Malfoy manor demanding to know why his spies reported that Draco Malfoy was no longer residing in his ancestral home.

“silence!! you let yourself be manipulated by the omega”

A bead of sweat travels from Lucius Malfoy's temple down the collar of his nightshirt.

He barely had time to pull on his thin clothing when the doors to the mansion were blasted open, dragging him cruelly from his slumber. After hardly getting dressed he was snatched out of his master bedroom by the scruff of his neck by his own underlings. Whatever space outrage would have occupied in his head is taken up by the fear coursing through his veins.

“My lord you must understand.” The words fly out of his mouth, quickened by the terror he feels.

The room goes eerily quiet, the sound of shuffling feet, gasps, and whispers among the death eaters surrounding them disappears.

“you dare command me…Lucius”

Lucius scrambles for purchase of his words.

“no no, my lord please.” Out of the corner of his eye, the Malfoy patriarch sees the dark lord flick his head slightly. Before he can make sense of the gesture his leg is kicked out from under him. His jaw smashes down against the marble floor his teeth cut into his cheeks and blood fills his mouth. The pain is so agonizing that black spots dance in front of his eyes. Mercy, he begs in his head although he's been a bystander and a hand in his fair share of punishments and he knows the likelihood of being shown even a drop of mercy is zero

When he gathers enough strength to look up he goes nearly cross-eyed, his eyes staring down the barrel of a gun.

Recognition and hopelessness seize him. He's seen this gun before, he's even cleaned blood and guts off it.

Voldemort leans in and whispers softly into his ear.

“In five seconds I am going to blow your brains out”

Lucius feels his bowels loosen and dampness soak his trousers.

“my lord” a voice interrupts. There is no one in this room stupid enough to do such a thing, no one except. Severus Snape, the dark lord’s right-hand man stands apart from the group, greasy hair curtaining his face.

“my lord we might still be able to lure the omega back willingly and I believe Lucius would be useful in doing that.”

Voldermort frowns, his brain working behind his dark eyes

Lucius silently prays to whatever gods he can think of from his place on the ground. After a tense silence that Lucius swears lasts a lifetime, the dark lord straightens.

“There is truth to what you say Severus.” A masked death eater comes practically running when Voldemort flicks his hand. He hands the gun to the faceless man who holds the weapon reverently in his gloved hands.

“I will let you live Lucius.”

The blonde man feels his heart restart.

“tha- thank you my lord!!” the dark lord sneers down at him.

“now let them say I am not merciful” Voldemort spits in disgust.

Lucius can taste blood, snot, and tears in his mouth. He sags with relief.

“thank you thank you thank you”

“get out of my sight.”

Later that night when all is quiet and the air is still. The dark lord meets with his most trusted advisor.

“I trust that you will have your eyes watching the boy?” Voldemort knocks back several fingers of whiskey, dropping the glass onto the mahogany table of Lucius Malfoy's office with a thud.

“of course my lord.”

“good” the dark lord smiles to himself “I will break every last bone of resistance in that omegas body and soon enough he will come crawling back.”

Chapter Text

“back straight.” A voice commanded.

Draco saw no way to straighten his back further. His bones ached and his buttocks hurt from how long he’d been seated in the uncomfortable hardwood chair.

The food in front of him had long since gone cold, the sweet juices that seeped out of the chicken thigh when Draco cut into it have now congealed. Draco feels his stomach rolling in on itself. He shuts his eyes tight and tries to distract himself from the saliva currently filling his mouth.

When he opens his eyes next it is to the sight of a white popcorn ceiling. He seizes up, going stiff, his lungs getting little to no air no matter how hard he tries to breathe. He forces himself to calm down, to breathe, and regulate his heart.

He’s gotten this process down to a ritual, every morning he wakes up to a panic attack, and every night he prays it’ll be different. He’s never had a good night of sleep since the day he turned thirteen.  But now he can do something about it, now he can go to a doctor. He doesn’t have to convince anyone of the validity of his nightmares only to be dismissed as hysterical and melodramatic.

Already, the details of the dream are foggy and fading, however, he still feels the ache and terror in his limbs. His body is tensed like he’s anticipating a blow.

“it’s ok we’re safe now.” Draco tries talking to his omega, trying to calm it down. But he’s never had a good relationship with that part of him, no matter how hard he tries.

He rolls onto his side to pick up his phone from where it lays plugged in next to his bed.

He bites his lip thoughtfully. Harry’s the only new contact he has and he did tell Draco to come to him with any questions.  He decides to go for it.

So haltingly but determined he types out a message to harry potter.

Hey, do you have time to explain how the school clinic works? I need to book an appointment.

Two minutes later he adds to his earlier message.

This is Draco by the way

The digital clock in the corner of his phone shows the time to be 8:46 in the morning. He pulls up his class schedule again. He’s got it memorized at this point. But there’s this thrill that runs through him whenever he pulls it up and sees his name and ID number in the upper right corner.

Today he has only two classes, Philosophy relating to the laws of the physical at 10 am and Chemistry and potion literacy at 1 pm.

He smiles, today is his first day of classes and he’s determined to start off on his best foot.

He gets to his feet and wraps himself in a bathrobe not bothering to take off his pajamas, rationalizing that he’ll shower after his classes. When he reaches the communal bathroom that he’s supposed to share with the three other boys in his section of the floor, the door is locked shut. From behind the closed door, he can hear water running.

He knocks.

“one second.” A voice calls.

Draco takes a breath to steady his nerves. This is the first time he’s interacting with the other occupants of this floor. Although Draco will admit that he had a part in avoiding them, like all the times he heard shuffling and shouting in the hallway and burrowed deeper into the safety of his bed. it's only been two days since move-in day though, he's still got time to meet the others.

The door opens to reveal a tall thin boy with brown hair and an overall mousy look about him.

Draco pulls the lapels of his dressing-gown closer

“oh, it’s you” the boy does a double-take at the sight of Draco.

“um hi, i-I’m Nott. Theodore Nott.” he waves.

Draco replies with a tight close-lipped smile. “Draco”

They stand there for an awkward second while steam leaks from the inside of the bathroom.

“i-I guess ill see you around then?” Theodore asks, a hopeful tint to his voice.

Draco tries not to grimace, he’s well aware of the effect he has on people and he’s found that he much rather enjoys the company of people who don’t make him so uncomfortable with their staring. So instead of replying, he points at the entrance to the bathroom that is currently blocked by Mr. Nott.

“oh sorry I’ll be going now.” the boy apologizes with an extravagant flourish. Draco almost wants to tell the man it's ok instead he sidesteps him making sure they don’t touch. He waits till the plain boy is heading down the corridor to look back. Sure enough Theo Nott is staring back at him.

When he enters the bathroom, he makes sure to lock the door twice behind him.

Draco is almost overwhelmed by the sea of people moving to and fro around him. He observes students with ice coffees in their hands and students in their nightclothes rushing to their destinations. He keeps walking in the direction of the Rowena Ravenclaw Center for Knowledge where his first class takes place. The campus is so big that he had to look up directions several times, getting lost more than once but now that the building is in his sights it’s all he can look at.

The building is a majestic Victorian whitestone with well-kept greenery adorning the lawn and ivy leaves growing on the sides of the building in ordered, intentional patterns. Large blue-tinted windows give Draco a view of the inside from where he stands on the pavement.

His breath leaves him when he steps into the building. The ceiling is high and domed, warmth from the sun filters through the windows. But the real center of attraction is the giant statue that sits in the middle of the massive lobby slash waiting area. The fifty-foot figure is that of a regal woman with a crown on her head. The Greek-like statue is so lifelike and dynamic that from the corner of his eye Draco swears he sees the woman’s dress flutter in the wind.

Draco seems to be the only one marveled by the extraordinary art piece because all the students mill about talking amongst themselves like it’s not there.

Getting back to his senses, Draco checks the time on his phone. He has less than ten minutes to get to his lecture hall. He makes quick work of finding his final destination. Hall 102 is on the ground floor, the room is large enough to hold the huge number of students that probably signed up for this entry-level, general requirement course.

Just like he anticipated, the arena-style chairs that wrap around a raised dais are nearly full. Draco scans the crowd and he spots an empty chair in the back at the very top. He sprints up the steps to the row.

“Sorry, excuse me.” He offers his condolences to the seated students who have to tuck their legs away to make way for him.

As soon as he sits, the professor walks in.

Professor Filius Flitwick is a stout man with a large nose and greying hair. Draco can feel the excitement bubbling in him threatening to spill over. He takes out his predetermined philosophy notebook. He spent all of last night sorting through his school supplies, going through the syllabi of all his classes, and looking up the required textbooks.

“good morning students.” Professor Flitwick's voice booms through the hall, Draco attributes this to great acoustics.

“good morning professor” the students reply in an eager chorus.

Flitwick nods “feel free to call me Filius or Dr. Flitwick no need for all that  professor nonsense”

He gestures to the front row where a burly brunette man sits. “This is my teaching assistant Mr. Oliver Wood, he’s also the Captain of the Quidditch team so keep that in mind and try to bother him during his office hours only.” Oliver smiles and raises a hand as if to say high to the 200 plus students in the hall.

“Alright now that introductions are over.“ The professor's gaze sweeps through the congregation and Draco swears that his gaze lingers on him for a second.

“I trust that you’ve all read the syllabus?”

The fifty minutes of the class go by in the blink of an eye. When professor Flitwick starts talking about their next meeting, Draco is startled. He thoroughly enjoyed the topics and the discussions they had, even if it was only about their future projects and essays. Draco reckoned he was the first student in the history of Hogwarts University to be excited about an eight-page paper.

He’s packing his things into his backpack when the girl beside him, who’s been silent and withdrawn the whole class, introduces herself to him.

“Astoria Greengrass.” She doesn’t bother to preface this statement with a hi or hello. Draco immediately pegs her as a direct person.

“Draco Malfoy”

She nods but her eyes twitch as if his response is a nuisance to their discussion.

“what's your number? I’m gonna need some help with those assignments and you seem to know what you’re doing” Draco flushes, had his excitement for the course come off as obnoxious? He decides that he’d rather be thought of as a veteran than as a greenie.

He tells her and she types it out just as fast as the word leaves his lips.

“cool. You don’t mind if Blaise comes along right?” she points with her thumb to the space to her left. Draco had not noticed the tall man standing there but now that he’s seen him he can’t look away. The man is gorgeous in a dark untouchable way, his dark skin seems to absorb and reflect the light of the room simultaneously and his close shaved hair only helps to further highlight the godly bone structure of his face. He’s dark where Harry is light. While when he thinks of harry he thinks of his smile he cannot imagine this stranger smiling. Wait why is he thinking of harry right now? He blinks hard to banish those thoughts from his head.

“uh.. sure the more the merrier.” Draco’s voice comes out smaller than he intends and he berates himself internally.

“Good. See you around” and with that Astoria Greengrass is gone, the Greek god names Blaise, her shadow.

*******

Ron lets his body collapse against Harry’s. He wheezes and gasps trying to catch his breath.

“how” pant ”are you - Oh God” Ron falls to the grass of the quidditch field. Harry kicks him in the shins lightly and laughs.

“that’s what you get for gorging on Molly’s pies all summer.” Ron flips him off but harry only laughs settling into the grass beside his best friend.

Soon Katie Bell comes around with a crate of bottled water in her hands.

“you on water duty already?” Harry asks the sophomore.

She sighs heavily “yeah, Wood caught me skiving off practice last year and now I’m on this for the whole season.”

“damn” Harry mutters sympathetically. She nods, giving him two bottles of water, one for him and another for Ron and goes off to hand out more bottles of water to members of the team.

Harry looks to where Oliver Wood is scolding some students, Harry tries to make out who they are but he can’t see very far without his glasses. He can hear Wood loud and clear though.

“a bit early for him to start going mental don’t you think.” Ron pipes.

“definitely. It's his last year though so I don’t blame him.”

They sit there basking in the afternoon sun watching the last remaining members of the Gryffindor quidditch team finish their five-mile laps.

Harry barely even broke a sweat he even had to slow down to keep pace with Ron. He's glad to know all the training he's been doing is finally paying off.

“Hey don’t you have to TA in a couple of minutes?” Ron grabs a water bottle from harry’s hand opens it and tips the contents over his head.

Harry glances at his watch, it's twenty minutes to one pm.

“shit yup I've got Chemistry and Potion literacy with Snape and you know how he is. Gave me a whole list of rules and regulations to study. Had to write an exam before he even approved my application.”

“Defense against the dark I understand but I have no idea why you'd want to TA a Potions class,” Ron says, his eyes closed to block out the rays of the sun.

“I’m a double major bro, need all the credits I can get.” Plus it's another one of Snape's requirements for letting me go on missions. But Harry doesn’t say that out loud, instead, he tucks the words next to his heart encouraging himself and psyching up for the next hour he’ll have to spend in Snape's company.

With that Harry gets off the field grass and nods goodbye to the red-haired boy sprawled beside him.

“see you at lunch”

Harry doesn’t see Ron wave goodbye because he's already making his way to the benches where his backpack waits.

Next to where his bag sits in the shade, a group of sophomores on the team lie haphazardly on the tracks, benches and one even throws up unto the red sand.

Harry wants to offer a couple of comforting words but anything he says will probably give them hope and he doesn’t want to sugarcoat the realities of being on this team.

They knew what they were getting into when they tried out, this is a D1 school with one of the best teams in the country for merlin’s sake. And trust Wood to have them practice on the first day of the semester. Harry is quite grateful for the distraction of the practice session though, he knows that he would have spent the past two hours in his dorm room agonizing over the text he sent to Draco. Even now his phone is currently burning a hole in his bag, he can feel the weight of it against his skin.

No problem. How about I show you over lunch?

Harry has no idea where he got the balls to text that, and now that he's mulled it over in his head, it sounds like he was asking the blonde out. If not for the text that showed up ten minutes later his stomach would be in knots.

Draco: Sure!! How’s 2:30 for you?

Perfect actually. I’ll see you then!

Harry stops the grin that threatens to form on his face.

 Thankfully the Quidditch field is right next to the Salazar Slytherin Science center. The building itself is nothing like the other science labs on campus since it hasn’t been renovated since its construction some hundred years ago. Rumour has it that Salazar Slytherin himself created some chemical that slowed down the aging of the stones of the building constructed in his name. Harry doesn’t think it’s that far-fetched though, Salazar was the most accomplished alchemist of his generation, in fact, it was his research that lay the foundation that Dumbledore and Nicholas Flammel used to perform the first successful alchemical reaction fifty years ago.

He was, although, a raging white supremacist. His building was whites-only years after segregation ended. Harry walks into the building head held high knowing that his mere presence is making the bigot is roll in his grave right now.

 Snape's lecture hall is on the top floor the one floor the elevator doesn’t go. Harry rolls his eyes internally, trust Snape to pick the most inaccessible venue, he’d have to talk to the man about changing it.

Harry walks to the elevator and presses the up button, deciding to walk the rest of the way when he gets to the fourth floor. The chrome doors open and he steps in. he's waiting for the doors to close when he hears a familiar voice

“hold the door please!!”

 He thrusts his hand between the doors, stopping its close. Between the widening gap stands Draco Malfoy, the boy he hasn’t been able to stop thinking about since they went on that little adventure on Saturday.

The omega is dressed in a soft cashmere sweater, loose trousers, and white keds. His long hair tied at the back of his head in a complicated chignon. The overall look is one of simple sophistication, harry swallows.

“Hey!!” he greets.

Draco smiles at him as he stands beside him. And it's, not one of those small smiles he gives to make people more comfortable, it’s a real smile that reaches his eyes. There's a soft floral scent that accompanies him, harry wants to move his head to get more of the smell but he's sure the blonde wouldn't appreciate Harry sniffing at him.

“hi”. the omega replies politely.

Harry points to the buttons of the elevator.

“so were you headed?”

Draco tucks an invisible hair behind his ear.

“the fifth floor?” his statement turns into a question as his eyes scan the buttons for a number five.

“am I – am I going the wrong way?”

Harry feels the boy starting to panic.

“I’m headed the same way, don’t worry bout it. We just have to take the stairs from the fourth floor to the fifth.”

All the worry goes out of him.

“so you’re taking Potions?” Draco asks.

Harry laughs. ”Nah I’m the TA.”

“oh, so I have someone on the inside. Nice.” Draco’s delivery is so wry and deadpan that Harry almost doesn’t realize it’s a joke. He bursts out in laughter. Draco smiles shyly.

“you’ve got jokes don’tcha?”  Harry remarks.

The doors to the elevator open with a loud beep.

“come on Snape’ll have me by the balls if I’m not ten minutes early.” Harry leads the boy up the stairway and to the laboratory. The room is one of the smaller labs on campus. Harry holds the door open for Draco.

“Thanks.” The boy whispers.

Harry smiles walking in behind him.

The room is dark with the windows shuttered and only one light on. Harry searches the room for the professor and finds Severus Snape behind a lab table tinkering with tinctures like a mad scientist.

“goddamit Snape.”

Harry scans the walls for the light switch, he finds it and turns on the central lighting, trusts this ancient building to not have motion-detecting lights, and trust Snape to not care. Snape’s concentration doesn’t shift even as bright lights illuminate the lab.

Already there are nine students seated, Harry wonders if they would have sat in the dark if he hadn’t come along. He thinks they would have considering Snape's reputation. The students themselves don’t look too excited to be here, he feels bad for them because he was in their shoes last semester. Snape’s potions class is no one's first pick that’s for sure. Harry was unlucky enough to be stuck with the course when a curriculum review made the course a requirement for his degree.

He knows for a fact that all the other potions classes are filled up. He doesn’t bother memorizing the faces of the students because he believes with absolute certainty that at least half of them will drop the class over the next two weeks.

Harry watches Draco take a seat in the back next to an intense, hard-faced girl. He schools his face into neutrality, he needs to pretend that his skin isn’t on fire from being so close to the omega.

He dumps his bag on the chair in the very front. Snape throws a stack of papers on the table before him.

“hand these out, potter.”

Harry takes the sheets and flips through them.

“your welcome” he mutters just loud enough for the professor to hear.

Snape shoots harry a warning look but Harry’s immune to those looks. He's spent too much time around snape for his threats and glares to work on him anymore.

Harry smiles apologetically but they both know he doesn’t mean it.

******

 Draco knows Potions is going to be hard. He spent hours scouring the internet for information on his professors, watching interviews, skimming papers, and reading every single rate my professor review. A site on which Severus Snape currently has a 0.5 star rating. So as he sits there waiting, the reviews play on in his head.

Worst professor ever

Turns out I don’t want to be a doctor after all

If you think everyone's overreacting, they're not

This was my thirteenth reason

Draco shifts uncomfortably in his hard metal stool. He's taking out his notebook when harry comes around and hands him sheets of paper stapled together and moves on, though not without sending a wink that makes Draco blush all the way down his neck.

Snape clears his throat not bothering to look up from his experiment.

“In front of you are the instructions to a potion. At the end of this class, I expect you and your partner, the person seated beside you, to have brewed and named the potion correctly. You have fifty minutes.”

What? no syllabus review? no introductions? Draco looks around and sees his feelings of confusion mirrored on the faces of the other students. Slowly people start murmuring and it's like the shoe has finally dropped because soon after people are scrambling everywhere grabbing vials and ingredients from the cupboards.

“I'll go get the ingredients you start up the Bunsen burner.” The girl beside him instructs, speeding off into the group of students crowded by the end of the lab.

Draco bites his lip flips open the pamphlet.

He reads through the first couple of instructions. They’re incredibly specific, things like: heat up your vial for twenty seconds under the blue heat of a naked flame. Draco takes a deep breath feeling a sense of calm wash over him. He's got this.

Soon enough they’re more than halfway through the assignment and making good time. They have to keep the mixture boiling for exactly seven minutes and ten seconds for the liquid to thicken. They're waiting patiently when the girl, his lab partner turns to him and introduces herself.

“Pansey Parkinson, nice to meet you”

Draco smiles in an attempt to be friendly, although he's watching the clock out of the corner of his eye.

“Draco Malfoy, wish we were meeting under better circumstances but alas” he laughs trying to lighten the mood. The boys at the table in front of them turn back and give Draco dirty looks.

Draco waves apologetically but pansy’s hackles rise.

“oh bugger off, it's not our fault yours looks shit.” She points to their mixture which has a slight green tint to it.

Draco stifles a laugh. Pansy smiles at him conspiratorily “now we’ve got to beat them or this will bite me in the ass.”

They get back to business.

“what the hell do you reckon this is?” pansy asks “and merlin is it supposed to smell like that?” she gags holding the vial away from her.

Inside the glass beaker is a pink bubbling potion. Draco brings it to his nose, bile rises in his throat, he places it down carefully putting a cork stopper over it.

“I think- I think it’s a vomit-inducing potion” Draco guesses.

“Really?” Astoria cocks a thick unruly eyebrow.

“yeah, I read about it by accident last night. I think Snape himself invented it-it's supposed to look pretty but it smells and tastes horrible”

“nice!! So we’re done!!”

Draco and Pansy write down their answers in the allotted empty space and turn in their work.

“it was nice working with you Draco.” Pansy says as they leave the lab.

“you too!! I just might make it through this class with your help.” Draco jokes good-naturedly. Pansy laughs. “my pronouns are she/they by the way feel free to use either.”

“oh, my bad!. Mine are he/him I think? I’ve never thought about it before.” Pansy laughs.

“well, I'll see you around Draco.”

Draco waves biting his lip as soon as pansy is out of sight.

He mentally replays their conversation in his head trying to see f he said anything inappropriate.

“aww you waiting out here for me?” Harry comes up behind him, a playful grin on his handsome face.

Draco rolls his eyes but fails to stop the smile tugging at his lips.

“well, you did promise me lunch.”

“I did didn’t I” they walk in step.

Draco smiles at Harry. His cheeks hurt with how he can’t stop smiling around Harry.

“well, I’m delighted to take you on the culinary journey that is the Hogwarts dining hall.”

They walk together through the crowds, across the roads, and finally past the student center and into the dining hall.

“we’re meeting up with Ron and Hermione. You don’t mind do you?” with the worried look Harry has on his face, Draco knows that if he said yes harry would cancel his plans with his friends and sit with him. And while Draco appreciates the sentiment he’s happy to lunch with Ron and Hermione.

“of course not.”

They find Ron and Hermione huddled together in a booth staring down into an outdated model of Draco's own phone.

“what you guys looking at?” Harry asks.

“transfiguration grades just got posted.” Hermione informs them.

Harry lets Draco slide into the booth before sliding in after. Their arms touch and they both make no move to pull away.

“you guys in McGonagall's class right?”

“Yeah she’s strict but she's fair.” Ron states.

“they’re in” Hermione announces.

Ron's face turns queasy. “oh merlin. I can't look, 'mione tell me if it's good or bad.”

“isn’t today the first day of classes?” Draco asks Harry quietly.

“yeah but they had the class over summer, had a huge research project at the end of it. I think that’s what they're looking at now.”

“78. You passed.” Hermione whispers almost disbelievingly.

“Ron!! Ron you did it!!” Hermione says over and over, her volume getting higher with each repetition.

Ron unscrews his face.

“wha-“ he takes the phone from Hermione to see the grade for himself.

“I passed” his mouth hangs open for a second before he grabs Hermione by the shoulders and kisses her deeply.

Draco shifts in his seat, he didn’t know they were together, and unused to public displays of affection he studies the swirls and patterns of the wooden table before him.

“I did it!!” Ron breaks away from the kiss and Hermione laughs

“you did it!!”

Harry clasps Ron's hand in his “congrats man” Ron shakes the hand eagerly.

“well, this calls for a celebration!!”

Harry settles back in beside Draco, and the blonde has to resist the urge to lean into his heat.

“So what’re you thinking? The leaky cauldron?” Harry suggests.

“nope, this calls for much bigger.” Ron wraps his around Hermione's shoulders.

“George got me tickets to tonight's game. The chasers are playing the Bulgarians you coming?”

Draco tries not to feel too left out or sad. He’s only just met them after all, he’s trying to convince himself that a night in his dorm doing homework will be fun when he hears someone calling his name.

“Draco? “ harry brows are knitted with worry.

“Sorry I zoned out. what were you saying?”

“We were wondering if you wanted to come?” Hermione asks a smile on her face, sounding like she actually wants him to say yes.

“Are you sure?” Draco asks excited at the prospect but not wanting to look too desperate.

“yeah got an extra ticket plus wouldn’t want Harry feeling left out all night “  Ron jokes.

Harry reaches over the table and shoves the redheaded lightly.

“oh fuck off”

Draco makes eye contact with Harry asking silently if it’s ok. Harry's dark pools show nothing but Draco's own reflection and it might just be wishful thinking but Draco thinks he sees something like want in the man’s pitch black orbs.

“ok I’ll come”

“Great!!” Hermione claps her hands together.

Harry's eyes don’t leave Draco's when he says quietly but sincerely “awesome"

   ******

“you sure about this?” Peter Pettigrew asks anxiously. His head turning in the direction of every tiny sound.

Corbin Yaxley looks down at peter in disgust, he begged snape to send him on this with anyone but the spineless worm quaking beside him.

“quiet” he hisses.

The rat-faced man shuts his mouth but his whimpers are still audible. Yaxley rolls his eyes.

The gates to the quidditch stadium begin to shut. From where he crouches behind a white van he can see a couple of last-minute stragglers running to get in. He nods at worm tail.

“Alright, it's time go go go!!”

Peter scrambles to open the duffle bag lying bursting at the seams between them on the tar of the parking lot.

He pulls out several explosive devices and like the vermin he so strongly resembles, slides under the cars parked around them and plants the bombs.

Yaxley keeps a close eye on his watch, tracking the time attentively.

Five mates later, peter crawls back, smoke and soot dirtying his face and the material of his threadbare clothes.

“done”

Yaxley grunts. “good. Let's get out of here.”

Chapter Text

Harry takes a deep breath and knocks on the muted off white paint of Draco's door. He studies the purple name card pasted onto the door. The blocky letters that spell out Draco's name make him cringe, he should have spent more time making it. But in his defense, the night he decided to make the name cards he had been tired and sleep deprived from training and running errands for dumbledore.

He shifts his gaze from the bleeding black marker and focuses on the door, like if he concentrates enough he’ll be able to see through it.

The thought of Draco in any state of nakedness excites him in ways he can’t describe.

He admonishes himself. Don't think that!! His conscience scolds.

 He scowls. But this is my head, I can think whatever I want.

He’s closing his eyes to get back to his mental picture when the door swings open.

The image standing before him is a thousand times better than anything he could have imagined.

Draco Malfoy stands in his doorway dressed in a t-shirt,  light wash jeans, and a pair of converse sneakers. His long blonde hair is tied up in ponytail but tiny white wisps frame his porcelain face.

Harry stares dumbstruck for a minute then composes his thoughts.

“You look ready, but how you can make t-shirt and jeans look so good, I’ll never know.”

Draco waves away his compliment.

“I’ve never been to a quidditch game before so I had to look up what to wear.”

Harry does a double-take.

“You’ve never been to a quidditch game?”

Just what hole did this boy crawl out from that he’s never seen a quidditch game?

What kind of upbringing did he have? 

Draco Malfoy is becoming a mystery that Harry wants to solve more and more.

“We should get going, Ron's gonna drive us there.” Harry uses his body and the space he commands to direct Draco down the stairs.

“Thank Merlin, I’m not sure I could stand another ride on that death machine of yours.” hi words are snarky but the mischievous smile on Draco's face makes it impossible for harry to feel the bite. 

Harry grins.

“I’ll have you know that many people would kill for a ride on a nimbus 2000.” Harry holds the door open for the omega.

Parked in front of the building's main entrance is an old, red jalopy that looks five miles away from falling to pieces. 

Draco shoots harry a worrying look. Harry raises an eyebrow, the thick caterpillar sneaking into his hair.

“You might wanna reconsider your previous statement.” 

Draco rolls his eyes and walks ahead of Harry. 

Harry smirks devilishly, watching the svelte figure move gracefully.

“Cmon potter” Ron yells from his place in the driver's seat.

******

“You guys want snacks?” Hermione asks leaning over into the backseat where Draco seats next to harry, their legs touching. 

Draco shakes his head.

“You sure? The food there’s really expensive”

“I’m not hungry” Draco emphasizes firmly but kindly. 

Hermione makes eye contact with Harry, raising her eyebrows questioningly. 

Harry shrugs but catches a bag filled with junk food when Hermione throws it to him. 

Harry digs into a box of chocolate frogs, the melted corners of the chocolate snack rub off on his palm. 

“You got sunscreen?” harry asks Ron with a full mouth. 

Draco side-eyes him irritatedly in a ‘you need to take better care of yourself way’. 

“Here” the omega hands him a long cylindrical bottle. 

Harry thanks him and rubs a thin layer of the lotion on his exposed skin. 

Seconds after he returns the bottle to Draco, Ron makes a hard turn causing Draco to fall against him, a sizeable portion of the blonde landing in his lap. 

Hary watches wide-eyed as Malfoy turns red. 

“Sorry bout that” Ron shouts from the front.

Draco settles back into his seat a frown set on his face, by the way, he avoids eye contact with harry and the crimson color of his ears, Harry knows he's not the only one thinking about how the little layers of clothing separating their bare skin from touching. 

Harry forces himself to tear his gaze away from the beautiful boy and observe the outside world speeding past him through the windows.

*****

Dumb dumb dumb dumb

Draco blinks hard, his thoughts swirl around his head preventing him from thinking about anything else. 

This is what you want. He repeats to himself. 

But despite how many times e tries to convince himself that he's not unwelcome here, that he’s not inconveniencing them he can't stop wondering if they really like him. 

He scratches at the worn peeling leather of the car seat.

He glances at Hermione's cloud of hair in front of him, she’d tell him if she didn’t really like him right? 

The knots in his stomach tighten. 

He takes a deep breath. Take every interaction at face value. There is no invisible meaning here. 

This is hard because he is still in the habit of anticipating his fathers' whims, trying to predict his volatile moods. Lucius Malfoy, behind closed doors, never says what he means but he makes it known when he is disappointed with your actions. 

He makes it known with shakes, slaps, and bruises. 

Draco thinks of the person sure to distract him, the man seated next to him right now, Harry Potter.

The feeling of being in his lap, his back against a firm toned chest, the smell of earth that his sensitive omega nose picks up every time Potter moves. 

Harry likes him right?? As a friend.

Omegas can’t have friends. His mothers’ words ring in his ears. Men will flock to you ut you must remind yourself they only want one thing. 

He feels guilty because he wouldn’t mind harry wanting only one thing from him, in fact, if his late night thoughts this past week are anything to go by, he wants harry just the same. 

“We’re here!!” Ron announces as he puts the car in park.   

 It is around six pm and the game starts in an hour meaning they’re early enough to find a good parking spot. 

Hermione looks around them. “This isn't the assigned parking spot on the ticket?” 

Ron looks around the car sheepishly. “Yeah about that.” 

“Ronald .” a note of steel enters Hermione's voice. 

“I might’ve forgotten to rsvp.” 

Hermione shakes her head in exasperation. 

“We still have the seats right though?” 

Ron nods his head energetically “yup!! Those are guaranteed!!” 

Hermione smiles at her boyfriend. “ well we better get going then.” 

Draco climbs out squeezing his body between the space of the car parked next to them. He looks over the roof at harry pulling a baseball cap over his thick head of hair the sun turning his brown skin golden, their eyes meet and a smirk pulls his lips apart showing a row of perfect white teeth. 

Their seats are in a booth overlooking the field, one of the only four such accommodations. 

“Whoa!! How on earth did your brothers score such great seats??” Harry asks leaning over the baluster looking down at the quidditch field. 

Draco rolls his eyes at Harry’s child-like wonder but inside he wishes Harry would take several steps back.

He settles in next to Hermione who’s busy reading something on her phone. 

“I don't know but I wasn't going to look at a horse’s mouth” Ron shrugs. 

“Look a gift horse in the mouth.”  Hermione corrects without looking up. 

“Yeah that” 

Harry shakes his head good-naturedly and makes his way to the seat by Draco's right. 

“Do you think I can spot Krum from here?” Ron questions hopefully. 

“When the match starts I think you'll manage to see the whole team.” Hermione quips. 

“Haha very funny.” Ron huffs and flounces into his seat. 

“Hey you ok?” Harry whispers.

Draco’s been so focused on distracting himself from the knots in his stomach that he didn't notice how quiet he’d gotten. 

“Yeah I just get really anxious in public sometimes” Draco holds his breath and waits for harry to pull away, to sneer at him and tell him to get over it. God knows that’s what his mother did.

Instead, to Draco's surprise, harry reaches over and takes Draco's sweaty clammy hand in his warm steady grip. 

“Is this ok?” Harry asks with the most earnest concern in his voice. 

A small smile spreads across the blonde’s face.

“Yeah, it is.” 

And for the rest of the night, their hands stay intertwined together. 

“YESSS!! LET'S GOOO!!” Ron Weasley jumps into the air spraying popcorn everywhere. 

"Bulgaria’s Victor Krum has caught the SNITCH!!!” comes an announcement over the speakers. Harry jumps out of his seat bringing Draco along with him. Ron sweeps Hermione into his arms and Harry does the same to the omega. 

He laughs into Draco s neck. 

“We won!!” Draco refrains from correcting that they are not in Bulgaria and that their national team didn’t even make it into the semi-finals, instead, he revels in the contagious joy and celebrations. 

Below, in the stands, fans dressed and painted in red and black scream from the top of their lungs.

The words “‘KRUM KRUM KRUM.” echo through the night air. 

Despite his confusion at the game and the past seventy minutes of boredom, a huge grin is on Draco’s face. 

“We should get going if we wanna beat the traffic.” Hermione being the voice of logic as always. 

“Can I get a Krum jersey on the way out?”  Ron pleads. 

Hermione cocks a thick eyebrow and frowns.

“Don’t you already have four of those.?” 

Ron scratches the back of his neck nervously, “yeah but they aren’t autographed.” 

Ron’s mouths please please at Hermione. 

“fine “ she gives in. 

“Draco and I will wait in the car.” 

Draco’s smile widens at the idea of spending time alone with harry. 

Harry leads the way down from their viewing box, his hand still enveloping Draco’s. 

When their feet hit the tar of the road to the parking lot, Draco becomes aware of all the bodies surrounding them. 

A group of shirtless men sing/chant in Bulgarian near them while a girl and a man in opposing white and black jerseys make out against one of the support beams of a tent. 

Draco shrinks, his anxiety reigniting with a vengeance and harry must pick up on his emotion because he squeezes Draco’s hand in his. 

Draco’s in the process of calming down when a man squeezes past him. 

“Excuse me” the stranger mumbles while taking the time to rub his front all over Draco's back. It all happened so fast, one second the man is there pressing against Draco, and then he’s gone mixing into the crowd. 

Draco freezes, his skin feels hot. He feel dirty all of a sudden. 

Why did that man touch him? He didn’t- why did that stranger touch him? That wasn’t right. It didn’t feel right. 

 “You're just imagining things, he was just trying to get past you it’s no big deal.” a voice in his head told him.  “you’re overreacting as per usual” 

But he wasn’t overreacting, there was ample space for the stranger to pass through and even if Draco didn’t know how to react, Harry did. 

“That fucker.” Harry swore. 

“Where is he??” Harry swivels his head from side to side searching the ever-growing crowd for the perpetrator. 

Draco grabs harry before he goes off on a quest for vengeance. 

“It’s fine let's get going.”

Harry, for a minute, looks like he’s going to protest but soon enough he turns in the direction of the car park . The high of the night long gone. 

Their hands are still together so Harry takes that as a win. 

Draco frowns feeling guilty and dirty all at once, this is all his fault, he’s ruined the night.

He forces his eyes open focusing on one of the many stars that light up the sky, quenching the flow of tears that threaten to come pouring out of his eyes. 

All of a sudden a sound like a drum goes off and the ground shakes. A beacon of blinding lights erupts from the parking lot. 

Draco averts his eyes and as if on instinct harry tucks him into his arms turning their bodies so his back faces the brunt of the flying debris. 

Draco screws his eyes shut as a chorus of car alarms buzz in his ears, his senses are overloading so he focuses on harry who’s arms are getting tighter and tighter around him.

The sound of screams suffocate him and render any and all efforts to remain calm null. His head feels stuffed with cotton, like his body isn't really his, every move he makes, every reaction he has and every feeling is delayed.   

He doesn’t know when things go black but he comes to the sound of someone shouting his name. 

“Draco!! Open your eyes!! Draco!!” 

Draco Malfoy blinks and the last thing he sees is Harry Potter leaning over him blood dripping from a cut in his forehead. 

********

Harry rips the door open, any regard for privacy or etiquette sucked out of him by the harrowing events of the night. 

“We need to talk.” his voice is quiet but steady much unlike his hands which haven't stopped shaking since the explosion hours ago. 

Dumbledore doesn’t look the least bit surprised by the disturbance, but McGonagall who looks almost as frazzled as harry in her night robe and hair curlers looks like she is about to explode from the transgression. They stand separated by dumbledores desk, the dean himself lazing in his chair while McGonagall stands on her feet. By their body language, Harry can tell he’s interrupted something important and he refuses to feel guilty. 

McGonagall opens her mouth to launch into a lecture about respect but dumbledore stops her with a shake of his head. 

“Leave us Minerva” 

With a huff, the professor turns on her heels and marches out of the office, not before shooting Harry a withering look.

Harry waits till he can hear her heels going down the stairs before he speaks. 

“The car that blew up was parked in Ron's spot.” 

Dumbledore takes off his glasses with a flourish and rubs the bridge of his nose. The already ancient man looks a lifetime older in that second.

“Who told you that?” 

Harry’s left eye twitches. 

“I’m not an idiot. I figured it out.” 

“I see miss Granger is back to her old tricks.” Dumbledore chuckles. 

Harry calms his rage, he is in no mood for Dumbledore’s eccentrics and he certainly is not in the mood to be patronized. 

“You told me he thinks I'm dead.” 

“By he I take it you are referring to lord Voldemort.” 

“You lied.” harry goes on ignoring dumbledore’s statement. 

“I have never lied to you my boy.” 

Harry loses patience, he walks up to the old ebony desk and pounds his palms on the smooth surface. 

“They could’ve been hurt. Ron, Hermione...Draco. They could be dead right now because of your negligence. Because you insist on keeping me in the dark. On protecting me. But guess what Dumbledore, it's a little too late for that. “ 

Looking into the old man's eyes Harry watches his gaze turn serious, something that's only ever occurred a handful of times. 

“Please tell me what's going on. I can’t let anyone else get hurt for my sake”

Dumbledore sighs heavily, the weight of an institution, an order, and an idealistic young man on his frail shoulders. 

“The bomb wasn’t meant for you.”

“Bu-”

“Listen harry!” dumbledore snaps. 

Harry pushes his feelings down in favor of hearing what his mentor has to say. 

“The bomb was not meant for you.” Dumbledore repeats the words as if waiting for harry to discern the meaning behind them. 

“Think Harry, can you think of anyone who has recently entered your company that might draw the ire of the dark lord.” 

Harry remembers Snape's instructions, he remembers how Draco had never been to a quidditch game, even how reserved the omega was. All signs Harry took to mean he had a very sheltered life prior to coming to college. Now Harry realizes that him knowing so little of the blonde is no longer just a minor issue, he's going to have to know everything about him if he's going to protect him like a part of him craves to. 

“How about you go get some rest. You look ready to collapse.” 

Harry’s gathering the strength to protest when dumbledore continues.

“Besides, I have a real mission for you first thing in the morning.” 

With those parting words, dumbledore preoccupies himself with documents scattered on his desk and Harry, knowing when he’s dismissed, turns and leaves. 

He makes his way to the infirmary in a daze, there’s an oppressive silence cloaking the campus and all the paths and roads are empty, a rare occurrence. Harry manages to not trip over his two feet despite the tiredness weighing each of his limbs down. Soon enough he makes it to the medical building, it’s open twenty-four hours a day so he doesn’t have to worry about sneaking in. 

He walks right past the reception and the main ward when all he finds there are empty beds. He walks deeper into the building checking every private room he passes trying to ignore the eerie coughs that echo at the worst times while keeping a lookout for madam Pomfrey. Don’t get him wrong, he and the octogenarian are on speaking terms in fact harry has spent more hours in here for quidditch-related injuries than he can count. The problem is that when he came in earlier, with Draco in his arms, an incessant ringing in his ears and Ron and Hermione at his back, he was not exactly polite to the medical professional, in fact, he can vaguely remember yelling at the woman to “stop asking questions and do her god damn job.” 

He was lucky Hermione was there to placate her and apologize for harry’s rudeness because he’s certain she would have kicked him out on his ass and banned him from any visits. 

He turns a corner and finds two doors side by side, one has light streaming in through the little window on the door and the other is pitch black. Hoping and praying he’s found the right one harry peaks through, and he’s in luck because laying right there on a hospital bed is Draco Malfoy. 

Harry studies the omega for a minute, taking in how his limbs are arranged both haphazardly but gracefully at the same time, how his chest rises and falls rhythmically. Slowly but carefully harry turns the doorknob and sneaks into the room. 

He’s closing the door behind him delicately when he is scared half to death by the sound of Draco's voice. 

“Harry?”  

The bronze-skinned man jumps half a meter into the air.

“Merlin!! don't sneak up on a man like that.” 

He looks at Draco and just like that all his doubts, worries, and concerns vanish. He’s sitting up in bed his hair falling in long waves framing his angular face, his eyes are dulled, and sit above heavy bags. The most beautiful thing about Draco isn’t in any one feature, it's in how on anyone else, individually all the shapes and contours that make up his face are completely unremarkable, but together they make the masterpiece that is Draco Malfoy. 

 His chapped lips that look bitten raw tug into a small smile at the irony of harry’s statement. 

Harry walks up to the boy and maneuvering a tray filled with uneaten food sticking out the side of the bed he stands as close as he can. Looking for a way to busy his hands he sticks them in the pockets of a grey zip-up hoodie he doesn’t remember wearing. 

“What are you doing here?” Draco whispers. 

Harry thinks about how to answer the question in a way that doesn't make him sound crazy.

 ‘I couldn’t sleep knowing you were in here’ ‘i had to look at you one more time’ ‘watching you faint was one of the scariest things I’ve ever experienced’ finally, he settles on “I had to check up on you.” even though ‘i feel inexplicably drawn to you and I can’t stand being away from you when you’re this vulnerable.’ was a close contender. 

“Well as you can see, I’m doing much better.” the words leave Draco's lips even as the tightness in his brow becomes more evident. 

“You didn’t eat?” Harry nods in the direction of the covered plastic containers of food no doubt brought from the dining hall. 

Draco looks away and tucks a hair behind his ear. 

“You know what I really want right now?”

Harry picks up on the poorly executed subject change but he doesn’t want to pester the omega so he goes along with it. 

“What?” 

Draco smiles conspiratorily and beckons harry closer, patting a space right next to him on the bed. 

Harry takes a gulp and tries to squeeze in next to him, one half of his body hangs off the edge while the other presses close to Draco. 

The blonde leans his head on harry’s shoulder and whispers conspiratorially.

“Fire whiskey.” 

Harry ‘s shock must show on his face because Draco doubles down on his request. 

“Yup. and you can get it for me.” 

Harry laughs heartily. 

“Really. You want me to buy you booze.”

He feels Draco nod enthusiastically against the fabric of his shirt.

Chuckling Harry asks “how old are you anyway?” 

Making eye contact in a way that shows he’s not only talking about alcohol Draco states lowly. 

“Old enough.” 

Shocked by his brazenness and inhibited behavior it occurs to harry that Draco might be medicated right now. 

“Well I'm not going to buy you alcohol.” Harry heaves himself off the bed and tears himself away from the comforting warmth of the boy. 

“Aww” Draco groans falling on his back against a mountain of pillows. 

“But. I will get you anything you want from McDonald's.” Harry suggests, hoping with all his heart that the omega says yes and not just because he’d give anything to spend time with him but because Draco's eating habits, or lack of them, have started to worry him.

Draco tilts his head to the side pondering the possibilities even though a gleam in his eyes says that he's already made up his mind. 

“I don't know.” he drawls ” how much are you willing to spend?” 

“Name your price.” 

Draco shrugs and slides out of bed. The hospital gown hangs loosely off his thin frame.

“here “ harry shrugs off his jacket and wraps it around Draco.

“It's a bit chilly out there”

Draco smiles appreciatively.” thank you” 

He puts on the same sneakers he’d worn to the game. 

“I feel like I’m committing a crime,” Draco whispers from behind harry as they tiptoe lightly along the corridor, running across corners when they spot the red dot of a security camera.

When they step foot into the night air after a quick dart trying to avoid the last camera in the reception/ waiting room Harry breaks the silence. 

“You know I really don’t think those cameras work” harry laughs. 

Draco bumps his shoulder with his own. “Well, that would’ve been nice to know before I embarrassed myself, Potter.” 

Harry bumps Draco back, taking care to use only a fraction of his strength. Still the blonde nearly falls over, he’s saved by their intertwined hands. Hands they held as they ran through the hallways. 

In retaliation, Draco uses all his might to push the mighty pillar that is Harry potter. Soon enough their game turns into stepping widely to the left and then then to the right, hands clasped together. From afar, Harry is certain they look drunk but he doesn’t care, he is drunk. Drunk on the sweet sweet smell of Draco Malfoy. 

They continue this way till they reach the McDonalds right on the edge of campus.

“Want me to go in? You can wait out here while I order.” he’s noticed Draco isn't always comfortable with new people, settings or situations.

“Mr Potter.” Draco opens his mouth aghast. “are you trying to skimp out on our agreement? We had a deal, and I will personally be ordering the most expensive item on the menu.” 

Harry raises his two hands in resignation and with a smug grin and flourish, Draco pulls the glass door wide open and steps in. 

*****

The inside of the fast-food chain is small but clean, all the chairs are empty and only one employee stands behind the counter. It's a short middle-aged woman with a tired but friendly smile on her face. 

Draco waves at her but she’s too taken aback by the sight of this boy standing in her store at one am in a hospital gown. 

He watches as all possibilities flicker through her eyes, including one where he’s an escaped patient from a mental asylum. 

That's when Harry walks in and stands behind him protectively. Warmth blossoms in his chest, Merlin he could get used to this. To the attention and care that harry showers on him so liberally, but a part of him that always has its guard and walls up remains hesitant. 

The woman greets Harry in Spanish, Draco expects Harry to politely tell her that he doesn’t speak Spanish but instead, he replies in fluent accentless Spanish. 

They strike up a conversation and an ease that wasn’t there a minute ago appears in the womans face and by the way, her eyes dart to Draco periodically he can guess they’re discussing him. 

He hears her use the word gringo, Harry laughs and launches into a rapid-fire Spanish and Draco's second-grade level Spanish has left him woefully unprepared to translate a single word. 

“What would you like?” Harry asks him after leaving the old woman with a ghost of a chuckle on her face.

Draco names the first three things he sees on the lit-up menu hanging overhead. 

Harry nods and relays the order to the woman in her native tongue, Harry pays and soon enough they settle into a booth to wait for their orders. 

Draco watches him as he places his credit card back into his wallet. There's something about harry potter that puts people at ease, it's in his smile, in the way he’s so quick to compliment, protect, help. He’s good in a way that should be annoying but he makes so many mistakes along the way that it's adorable.

“Why are you staring at me?” 

“You speak Spanish.” 

“And Urdu and Punjabi.” 

Draco feels a little embarrassed that the only other language he knows is french and even that is only because his governess pleaded with his parents to teach him. she resoned that if he might be married off to a French politician or millionaire he ought to know the basics. His parents, of course, were opposed to it, stating that it was a plus that he was illiterate in the language. At least he wouldn’t mouth off to his future husband, after all they were still reaping the consequences of teaching him English. This statement had elicited raucous laughter from Narcissa. Eventually, they relented.

“But enough about me. How are you doing?”

Draco thinks about lying but this is Harry and he can never bring himself to lie to him. 

“They said I dropped.” he lets his words settle like a stone. 

An omega drop is a very well known and dangerous phenomenon, it happens when the natural insticts of an omega force them to withdraw after a traumatic or dangerous event. It's meant to protect the omega from suffering and pain but it's very hard to coax an omega out after a drop and the level of distress necessary to trigger it changes from omega to omega.

“They had to drug me to bring me out. “ as he says the words, Draco can feel the high of the medication ebbing away leaving him raw.  

He doesn’t let himself think about the events of the night forcing his wandering mind to focus on this moment. 

He’s saved from any further discussion by the change on the tv flashing their order number. 

They go and pick up their order and harry slips the woman a fifty-dollar tip when he thinks Draco's not looking. 

“You wanna eat out here or back in the infirmary?” Draco asks. 

“Pretty sure the smell of fries would alert Pomfrey to our little adventure.” harry maneuvers the bags he insisted on carrying and takes Draco's hand. “Come on, I know the perfect place.”

Harry takes him to the top of the astronomy tower. A building with no elevator but endless stairs. Harry makes the climb less monotonous by playing games and making up stories about monks climbing the same stairs to and from mass. 

Once they make it to the top though, Draco knows it was worth it. 

The open-air is high enough to be clean but not too chilly and the layout makes it feel like they’re surrounded by stars. 

Harry settles down on the floor.

“What do you think?” 

Draco turns around slowly. This doesn’t feel real, this view, this night, the fact that five hours ago he was in a near coma but now he's standing across from harry potter who is currently setting down their food like a picnic. 

“This is beautiful.” he sits cross-legged and the biting cold of the stone floor isn't enough to take away from the happiness he feels building up inside him. 

“I’m glad you like it.” 

“ How did you find this place anyway?” 

“Well let’s see, it’s a tower. Not exactly a secret.” 

Draco rolls his eyes while opening the box containing his burger. 

“I mean how did you find out how to get up here?” he takes a huge bite and he can practical feel his mother watching over his shoulder, lip coiling in disgust. 

“Ah ah ah. Can’t go around telling you all my tricks.” harry chides. 

“Here stick out your hand.” harry instructs. 

Draco does what he asks, all too eager to please. On his upturned palm harry drops a plastic toy. 

Its blue and it's of a cross between a fish and a boy. 

He brings the figure close to his face to study it more.

“What on earth is this?” 

Harry waves a box decorated with cartoons and a McDonalds logo.

“It comes with every kid's meal.” 

Harry stands and sits next to Draco, his back resting against the wall. 

“Look,” he says before pressing a button on the head of the toy. The arms and legs of the figure start to move back and forth in swimming patterns. 

Harry laughs with childlike excitement. Draco joins in, the plastic scrape of its arms and legs tickling his hand. 

Not long after playing with the toy more and finishing his food, he feels his eyes grow heavy with contentment and exhaustion and resting his head against harry’s broad shoulder, he feels himself start to drift away.

Chapter Text

The first time Draco meets up with Blaise and Astoria, it’s in the library.

Draco arrives thirty minutes before the agreed time and he uses this time to familiarise himself with the environment. He sits at every table on the second floor, the floor allowed for group meet-ups and discussions, and practices what he’s going to say. He crosses and uncrosses his legs, puts his elbows on the table, leans forward, and talks to empty chairs. Pitching his voice low and then high then giving up altogether. 

A cough comes from his right and semi-hidden behind a short shelf of books is a student, who undoubtedly witnessed his whole display. 

Draco shoots up, laughs awkwardly, and shuffles away. 

He walks back out to the library entrance, the decided rendezvous point. He checks the time on his phone, twelve minutes left. 

His cheeks feel hot and he mentally curses his pale skin. 

This is totally normal behavior, he reassures himself. 

Fifteen minutes later Astoria Greengrass is climbing out the driver seat of a sleek red 1973 Camaro, Blaise in tow.

“My apologies for being late.” 

Astoria breezes past him and holds the door open. She walks ahead of him and Blaise with an air of impatience even though she’s the one who’s late. 

She picks a table right next to a large window allowing bright beams of sunlight to bathe the surface. 

They settle in, Draco seated opposite Astoria and Blaise. The blonde can’t help feeling like an outsider even though based on his background he should feel perfectly at home with them. 

He knew on sight that they were old money; just like him. It’s aggravating how this lifestyle follows him wherever he goes despite his attempts to avoid everything about it. 

“Flitwick’s not easing into it, we already have two assignments due, one tomorrow and a paper next week,” Astoria announces, her face pinched in annoyance. 

Eager to placate, Draco interjects. “I’ve already done the weekly homework and I have an outline for the paper.” 

Astoria’s expression barely shifts when she asks. 

“Surely, You don’t mind if we copy your answers?” there’s a weird tilt in her voice towards the end, like she remembered she’s asking a question. 

“Sure!! Of course. Although I think the questions might not be in the same order.” 

So that’s what this is. Draco’s watched enough television and read enough books to know what’s going on. They’re going to keep him around to do their homework and help them pass the class. He can’t find it in himself to feel bitter or slighted about it though. He doesn’t have a lot to do during the weekends when Harry’s training, Hermione’s tutoring, and Ron’s working. 

They've been hanging out a lot since the incident at the Quidditch game a month a go. Does he feel weird about inserting himself into an already formed friend group? Initially, he did, but Hermione and Ron asking him to hang out without Harry and even running errands with them fixed all feelings of intrusion quickly enough. 

So when he woke up this Saturday morning to a text message, a very curt text message mind you, from Astoria Greengrass telling him to meet her and Blaise at the library in three hours. He couldn’t find much of a reason to say no. 

Over the next three hours, Draco sits there and supplies answers in turn to both Blaise and Astoria. Halfway through she gets up to take a phone call, she discreetly pushes the answer button, presses the phone against her ear, and walks away from them. 

Never been alone with Blaise before, Draco isn’t sure how to act. 

He’s about to say something that would have undoubtedly embarrassed him on introspection when the dark-skinned man speaks. 

“Thank you.”

Draco is so shocked by the deep melodic timbre of his voice that he jumps, hitting his knee against the underside of the table. 

He rubs the already bruising spot as he replies. “For uh what?” 

“Your help.” 

“Oh it's no big deal!!” says Draco, unused to being thanked. 

“Are you two..” he trails off eager to change the topic. 

Blaise actually laughs, it's a deep rumble of a sound like a rock slide or an avalanche.

“Not at all. Astoria is... Astoria can be a pain but she’s not a bad person.” 

Draco notes that he doesn’t say she’s a good person either and there’s a great difference between not being bad and being good. 

“What about you?” he asks and Blaise looks him right in the eye with that piercing gaze. 

“Are you a bad person?” he pushes on.

The man opens his mouth to reply when the sound of Astoria’s heels signals her return. 

She slides back into her seat and strikes up a conversation with Blaise. 

“The event’s been moved to this Friday” she doesn’t bother to lower her voice, Draco can’t tell if this means she doesn’t mind him overhearing or if she just doesn’t care. 

Blaise nods and turns back to his laptop. 

Astoria eyes her friend and Draco as if she can tell they were talking about her. 

Eventually, their study session comes to an end. 

“You’re not half bad Draco,” Astoria says as she puts on her sunglasses, Blaise is already seated in the passenger seat of her car. Draco presumes it's hers because the license plate reads A$$TORIA. 

“My parents are hosting a charity event on Friday, I’ll see you there.” and with that, they’re off. The echo of her engine trailing behind. 

Draco stands in place for hot second, trying to get his thoughts together. This is how people make friends in college right? 

He can’t help but hope that Harry’s having a better day than he is. 

*****

“Copy that,” Harry whispers into the receiver of his walky-talky. 

He stashes the device into his backpack and pulls it off. He’s hiding the bulging sack behind a bush when Fred's voice comes through the speaker. 

“You didn’t say over. You’re supposed to say over.“ 

Harry hears another voice scold the twin. 

“Shut up!! this is no time for your silly games! You’ll jeopardize the mission!!” 

Harry rolls his eyes and grabs the bulky gadget. He turns it around in his hands looking for an off button, finding none he simply takes out the batteries, effectively silencing Percy and Fred's bickering. 

Of course, his first mission is with the two Weasley brothers that can’t stand each other, Fred and Percy. Although any combination with Percy would equal disaster no doubt. 

He puts on his gas mask letting it hang on the back of his head and feeling the metal of the mouthpiece dig into his hair. He stretches one last time and lowers his mind into zen mode. 

This mission has been weeks in the making, starting when Frank and Alice Longbottom were abducted from their own home in the middle of the night.

Seeing as the Longbottoms were amongst the first generation of Order members, this attack struck at the very core of the society. 

Neville was in school when it happened, still a novice and an entry-level member. He fought tooth and nail to be on this rescue squad but Dumbledore wouldn’t allow it, saying it was too close to home. 

He’d never argued that about Harry’s revenge plan but perhaps he knew it was hopeless. 

Harry reaches up and jumps feeling his fingers curl against the ledge of the open-air vent that is his entry point. He lifts himself with all his strength and smoothly, he slides into the tight space.

He’s in. 

He has ten minutes to be in and out, fifteen till Fred and George drive off. It is of the utmost importance that they are not caught. The twenty-year ceasefire must be broken at exactly the right time. After the murder of Harry’s parents, truce talks had finally gone through and a ceasefire was implemented. Of course, both sides still take swipes at each other, like blowing up illegal trade deals or kidnapping enemy officials. The rules are straightforward and simple. As long as neither side is caught the ceasefire stands. 

Harry moves forward on his elbows silently but quickly, dragging his body through the increasingly tightening vent. 

A month ago Harry would have never been able to stay level-headed in a space like this. Lupin had trained that out of him, after sleeping in a box even smaller than this for two weeks he could do this in his sleep (literally). 

After exactly fifteen feet, he comes across the first vent. He reaches for one of the many pockets sewn into his suit. 

He pulls out a lighter-shaped gas bomb, pulling out the safety pin with his teeth he drops it through the slots. 

He doesn’t wait before moving on but a tiny ping sound confirms the landing of the bomb. 

Soon enough, after taking one right turn he reaches his destination. 

This vent overlooks a small bare room. Harry presses his face close, straining to see into the room and ignoring the painful protests of his contact lenses. 

Seated back to back in the middle of the 88” x 88” room are Alice and Frank Longbottom. 

The balding middle of Frank’s head presses against Alices' short greying hair as he slumps in his chair, asleep. 

Harry watches their steady breathing for thirty seconds before commencing stage three of the mission. 

He pulls out what looks like an extremely fancy chrome pen but as soon as he presses what should be the cap, a hot red laser beam shoots out. He uses it to cut the area surrounding the vent. 

After cutting a perfect harry sized hole in the ceiling Harry pushes his body through, feeling the hot sizzle of the laser cut against his suit. He falls headfirst but lands on his feet. 

The subjects shoot up in their chairs, sleepy eyes wide with fear and shock. 

Harry raises his hands against his head and does the sign of the Order. The tension leaves their bodies. He checks his watch, they’re behind schedule. 

He rushes over and uses his laser pen to burn through the ropes tying them together. 

They thank him profusely, but Harry can tell they’re drugged out of their minds. 

Using the laser pen Harry cuts through the bolts holding the metal door in place. 

He steps back, takes a deep breath, finally lowers his gas mask over his face, winks at the Longbottoms, and kicks the door down. 

Lying before the now empty door frame are the bodies of the death eaters tasked with feeding and guarding the Longbottoms. Harry takes a quick count coming up two bodies short. 

"shit" 

He turns and finds the Longbottoms succumbing to the effects of the gas, it’s a temporary knockout gas so he’s not too worried about the long term effects. 

He makes quick work of strapping Alice to his back and carrying Frank over his shoulder. 

They, the team, spent a whole week trying to figure out a more efficient way to transport the Longbottoms once he had them but this proved to be the best option despite its crudeness. 

With two minutes left on the clock, Harry takes off running. 

The weight of the elderly couple has nothing on the two hundred pound bags of cement he runs 5k with every morning so he barely breaks a sweat. 

He pushes through the exit and doesn’t stop running until he catches sight of the two missing henchmen on a smoke break. A tall lanky one rests against the building while a stout stocky figure sits on the ground. 

Time slows as they make eye contact. A cigarette falls from their lips and hands respectively. 

Harry, with lightning speed, kicks the gun resting near the shorters' feet away, the weapon also served as a cup holder so Harry is sprayed with a grande caramel macchiato. 

The lanky one throws a punch that he dodges. Harry takes the opportunity of their closeness to head butt him with all his strength. Stars danced behind his eyes but the move is effective, the man before him collapses into a heap. 

Harry takes off once again, weaving past the remaining guard that comes after him with what looks like a knife in hand. 

He knows for a fact that he could take him out as well but the words Don’t get caught ring in his ears. 

 He races towards the black van pulling up along the road. Fred is hanging out the open door shouting.

“HURRY HARRY!!”  

He can hear the man chasing him so he throws Frank into Freds waiting arms. On hearing the sound of a knife swiping through the air Harry twist and jumps back into the van. He falls back on Alice but not before feeling his attacker hit home and cut straight through his suit and by extension, his skin. 

Once they're all in, Percy speeds off. 

“Fuck Harry you’re bleeding.” 

“Frank and Alice?” 

Fred darts around the van, strapping Alice and Frank into the only seats available. He measures their breathing for a while and then takes their pulse. 

“They’re steadily coming around. Should be awake by the time we get to campus.” 

“Good.” Harry is yet to come down from the high of mission mode. The adrenaline coursing through his blood makes it impossible to think straight. This is a problem because he’s currently bleeding out in the back of a van. 

“Percy book it!!! he’s bleeding fuck what do I do?!” 

“Harry!!” Fred yells when he notices Harrys' eyes closing. 

“What? I’m blinking dumbass.” 

“Oh.” 

“Just take me to Pomfrey she’ll know what to do. Till then I don’t want those mangy fingers near me or my open wound.” 

Fred nods meekly and settles in beside him. 

“I don't like doing nothing” 

Harry looks at him, at the panic in his friends' eyes. 

“Welcome to the club buddy.” 

*****

Draco is in the middle of unloading his laundry when he gets the call. 

He wipes his hand against his sweat pants and presses the receive button. 

“Draco?” it’s Hermione, her voice is quiet and shaky.

“Yes?” he holds his breath. 

“Something's happened. Harry’s in the infirmary.” 

Hermione doesn’t need to say any more Draco is on his feet and running. 

The infirmary is packed when he gets there, a whole section of the waiting room is taken up by several heads of red hair. He spots dark-skinned Hermione hanging around the outskirts providing refreshments and snacks from the vending machine. 

He goes up to her side-stepping, people in quidditch jerseys, lab coats, and even custodians. 

It seems that when Harry Potter gets hurt, everyone comes running. 

“How is he? What happened?” the questions come flying out of his mouth. 

Hermione tucks a stray piece of hair behind her ear and folds her hands over her stomach. 

“Not sure about the details but I gathered that he’s in for a deep uneven laceration across his abdomen. “ 

“Laceration?” 

Hermione steps closer and looks around her. 

“A stab wound,” she whispers.

Draco feels the floor go out from under him. 

What on earth happened? Was he mugged? Attacked? The possibilities are endless and each one is scarier than the last. 

“Hermione!! Draco over here!!” Ron yells for them from across the room. 

He and three other Weasleys, Draco assumes they’re Weasleys based on the shared shade of hair, freckle pattern, and long noses. 

“She said Harry's awake but Pompfrey’s only letting in close friends” he announces to the group motioning to the mousy nurse standing anxiously before them. 

An older-looking pair of Weasleys say in unison. “So why the hell are we standing around?” 

This must be Fred and George, Ron’s twin older brothers and campus legends. 

One of them looks worn and distressed, red hair sticking up in every direction. 

“We need to calm down before we go in, Harry doesn't need any stress right now.” pipes a feminine voice. This must be ginny, the only Weasley daughter. 

She is tall and thin in that way athletes typically are. 

She says all this looking to the only Weasley sitting down. Draco doesn't know this one by name but there is something deeply unfamiliar about the strict set of his jaw and the hardness in his eyes, he’s not used to seeing these things on a Weasley face. 

They reach a consensus to be on their best behavior, and when they tell this to the nurse in training she leads them down the hall to Harry’s room. 

Draco watches them go, feeling the most alone he’s felt since he left home.

He stands there alone and scared.

He’s about to sit down when the nurse comes back. 

“He asked to see you too.” 

His heart nearly beats out of his chest. 

Harry’s head hurts, his bones feel heavy, and his mouth feels stuffed with cotton but Draco Malfoy is here and everything is going to be okay. 

Harry frowns, Draco is here and he’s standing too far away.  

He’s brought back to earth by Ginny fluffing his pillows and adjusting his bed. 

“Gin. I’m fine I promise.” he mumbles. 

“Yeah lay off Ginnifer, you’re hogging Harry.”George shouts. 

Pomfrey shoots them all a warning look from where she stands mixing potions. 

“Maybe I wouldn’t have to do any of this if you lot actually did your jobs and protected him.” this starts up a shouting match with everyone yelling about how they did their part. 

Harry makes eye contact with Draco and smiles lazily, he doesn’t care about how his family is yelling classified information in the presence of a literal outsider. 

“Harry tell your Girlfriend to calm the fuck down,” Fred yells. 

The room goes silent, Ron scowls, Ginny shrieks in anger, Hermione shakes her head, Fred high-fives George, and Draco. Harry watches as Draco visibly recoils. 

Shit. 

Pomfrey comes to the rescue.

“Alright, that’s it!! All of you out” 

They all groan but shuffle out obediently. 

“Draco.” Harry groans in pain having shifted his bandages in an effort to move towards the blonde. 

Pomfrey notices this. “Mr. Malfoy you can stay.” 

Draco looks like a dear caught in headlights. 

“The rest of you will come individually. You have five minutes Draco.” 

“AWWW why does he get to stay?” the twins complain. 

“Because he doesn’t give me grey hairs that's why. Don’t think I've forgotten sophomore year Mister.” their voices fade away as they make their way back to the waiting room. 

Draco waits for a minute before crossing the space dividing them. 

“Ginny and I haven't been a thing since freshman year” Harry blurts in a rush to clear the air.

Draco bites his bottom lip anxiously. 

“Listen Harry you don’t have to-, it’s fine I promise. You can date whoever you want.” He doesn't believe him and Harry's brain is too addled to argue properly.

Draco laughs to cover up the hurt in his face "you're Harry Potter, you can have who ever you want."

“In that case I want you,”

Harry swears the words come from nowhere but that’s not true, the words have always been there. The words started taking shape the moment he saw Draco Malfoy for the first time.

The words float in the air and the window to take them back closes. 

“You don’t... You’re all doped up Harry. You don’t really mean that.” Draco whispers a smile on his face but tears in his eyes.

Harry sticks out his hand and waits. Draco doesn’t hesitate, he slots his fingers in between Harry’s. 

The look in Draco’s eyes tells Harry that he’s never been wanted before. Harry pulls him closer and presses his face against Draco’s stomach feeling the soft cotton of his Hogwarts U hoodie. 

Draco’s fingers slide into his hair. He lets the omega play with the silky strands before he says it again, he won’t let this moment slip through his fingers. 

“I want you Draco.” he looks up and Draco is crying; tears streaming down his face and dropping onto Harry’s cheeks. 

“Will you go out with me?” 

The blonde laughs wetly and presses his forehead against Harry’s 

“Ask me again in 24 hours when you’re not high.” 

******

The Leaky Cauldron is a college bar if there ever was one. 

Complete with the older men who love to prey on twenty-year-olds, to freshly legal adults trying alcohol for the first time, and the college graduates who refuse to move on. One of which is currently making his way to a table with a tray of drinks in hand. 

“Order up!!” Fred sets the shots down carefully then slides into the booth next to his girlfriend, Angelina. He's barely settled n when Ron swoops in like a vulture and snags four of the six drinks. 

“Oi I paid for those!!”

“Drink up!!” Ron announces when he makes it to the booth where he and his friends have settled for the night.

Draco, Hermione, and Ron all down their drinks. Ron and Hermione do it in one gulp but one sip in and Draco is squeezing his eyes shut and fighting the urge to through up. 

“Tastes like battery acid.” he groans sticking out his tongue to get rid of the taste. 

Harry is laughing and comforting Draco when Fred and George appear, eyes flaming like men scorned, ready to take revenge. 

“You owe us twenty-five dollars you git.” 

Ron rests his back against the booth and holds out thirty dollars. 

“Keep the change.” he wraps an arm around Hermione's shoulder and she giggles. 

The twins look ready to maul their younger brother when Draco jumps in. 

“Here, took one sip and couldn’t stand it. you can have it back.” Fred harumphs but George accepts Draco’s attempt at peacemaking and downs his discarded drink. 

“Tastes even sweeter knowing it touched your gorgeous lips.” the ginger winks and Draco can't help the blush on his cheeks. 

Harry punches George in the arm playfully. 

“You got what you came for now run along.“ 

Fred drags his brother off and that seems to be the end of that. 

“I still don’t know why you didn't just buy them yourself.” Harry asks, staring at the drinks forlonly. He can't have any alcohol or it'll mess with his potions. 

Ron shrugs his shoulders. “Sometimes you just gotta be a taker, besides look at that line.”

Draco decides this is the best time to bring up something that’s been bothering him ever since he got the call about Harry being hurt. 

“You still haven’t told me what happened yesterday.” 

The table goes quiet. Ron, Hermione, and Harry have a silent conversation with their eyes.  Draco watches this with increasing irritation.

Harry turns to him placatingly.

“I got stabbed,” he says with faux lightness. Draco’s eyes narrow because he’s not so sure it's fake, there’s a part of Harry that scares Draco. The part of him that cares so little about his own safety. 

“Harry James Potter I want to know what happened that day, whether it’s going to happen again and what you’re doing to ensure it doesn’t.” 

Harry stares flabbergasted. 

“How’d- Who told you my middle name?” 

Irritated by not being taken seriously, Draco huffs and climbs over Harrys' lap and out of the booth. 

He’s not sure where he’s going but away from Harry is good enough. He knows what the man is doing, he’s going to weave and dodge and joke about his stabbing (his stabbing!!) until Draco drops it. He knows all the tactics, he just thought harry was above using them on him. Draco thought they were closer than that. 

He blinks away the burning in his eyes, why does he keep crying over this man. He was never this teary before he met Harry potter.

He’s pushing the entrance open when he feels someone grab him. He’s about to shake them off when he hears Harry. 

“Where are you going?” 

“Home, to my bed.” 

He feels Harry’s grip loosen so he shrugs him off and steps into the humid summer night. 

“But we just got here,” Harry yells after him. 

“And I’m going home!!” Draco marches on steadily through the parking lot. 

“And how do you plan on getting there?” 

Draco doesn’t answer. 

“You can’t seriously be planning to walk back?” 

Draco stays silent.

He hears Harry’s footsteps pounding on the pavement. 

“Stop following me! You shouldn’t be running around a day after getting stabbed you idiot!” Draco spins to scold him more harshly but he’s met with Harry Potter’s grinning face. 

“Ughhh!! I hate you!!” but he doesn’t mean it because he’s smiling and laughing and Harry is pulling him into a warm hug. 

They hold each other for a bit just reveling in the contact.

“I’m sorry, I really am. I know you were scared.” Harry apologises into his hair.

“Were you scared?” Draco asks, already knowing the answer. 

Harry hesitates then answers honestly.

“No” 

“That’s a problem. You see how that’s a problem right?” 

***

“So you were home schooled your whole life then you blackmailed your parents into letting you go off to college.” Harry summarizes. 

Draco hold’s his breath waiting for his reaction. A car drives by loud enough to drown out all of his thoughts. 

“That’s fucking awesome not gonna lie. You’re really freaking cool Draco, do ya know that?”

Draco laughs. “Ok your turn, how did you end up here?” 

“Here as in on the side of a highway or Hogwarts? Because to answer the first question, there’s this really hot guy in my building-”

Draco elbows him lightly. “No! I mean yes Hogwarts, how’d you get here as in Hogwarts” 

Harry laughs. 

“Ok so I grew up in the suburbs with my aunt, uncle, and cousin. Went to high school graduated applied to the school farthest away and I got in.”

“What about your parents? Where they as bad as mine?” 

Harry looks off to his right, into the woods bordering the road. 

“Actually my parents are dead, they were killed when I was a baby.” 

Suddenly, Draco feels like the worst person in the world, why did he say that? Fuck fuck fuck.

“Hey don’t beat yourself up over it. It’s fine really. Parents are overrated any way” 

Despite still feeling like a dick Draco nods and changes the subject “so how’d you learn so many languages?” 

“It’s a long story but my dad had a collection of old Bollywood movies and Shayari, Urdu poetry," Harry explains excitedly  "I'll have to show you sometime. I inherited it and kinda taught myself."

Draco stares at the six foot enigma.

"And we have arrived.” 

The less than welcoming outside of their dorm comes into view.

Harry walks him all the way up to his floor despite his protests. 

When they reach the landing of his floor they are both surprised to find Theodore Nott standing in front of Draco’s door. 

“Oh, Theo. What are you doing?” as Draco asks this question he's acutely aware of Harry tensing up beside him.

The Lanky brunette freezes up at the sight of Harry. 

“I was just- I was I was worried about you, haven’t seen you all day.” despite speaking to Draco Theo’s eyes drift to Harry periodically and every time their eyes meet the boy retreats further into himself.

“Well thank you for your consideration Theodore. That's very sweet of you.” 

At the compliment, He positively beams. 

“Any time Draco.” 

“Good night Theo.” Draco moves to his door and opens it with his keys.  Behind him, Harry and Theo are having a staring competition of sorts, a battle of wits. Theo looks away first and thus loses. 

“Harry?” Draco calls from behind his door and inside his room. 

“Coming.” Harry replies and with one last threatening look at Theodore nott, he follows. 

“This locks right?” Draco watches from his bed as Harry fiddles with his door handle. 

Draco rolls his eyes. “Yes, it does. And don’t think I’m gonna let you leave without telling me what happened to you.” 

Harry turns and watches him with a fiery gaze. All playfullness gone.

Draco watches Harry’s almost black eyes harden like he’s made a decision. 

“Harry?” Draco asks worriedly. 

“You trust me right?” 

Draco answers honestly and without missing a beat. “Yes” 

Harry steps closer to him and squats before him. 

“Then trust me when I say I care about you and I cannot let you get hurt,”

“But-” 

“and that includes keeping some things from you but look at me Draco look at me.” 

Draco looks into those eyes, black as night and hard as stone. 

“I will never lie to you.” 

***** 

When Fenrir Greyback is summoned by the dark lord, it is in the middle of his dinner. He was very displeased to have to leave his meal especially as he likes his flesh warm, none of that cold congealed bullshit Carrow likes to feed him. 

Peter Pettigrew, the unfortunate soul tasked with delivering the message to Fenrir, cowered in the corner of the room. 

“The -the dark lord requests your presence immediately.” he sniveled. 

Fenrir looked up from the fresh human corpse, rendered unrecognizable by mauling and clawing.

He huffed and growled. “I oughtta take a hand for yer disrespect.” 

Pettigrew squeaked. 

“I’ll be there.”

Fenrir left his dinner and made his way to the Dark lords office. He made sure to stop and clean any blood splatter and guts from his clothes and face. He knows the consequences of appearing before the dark lord in a less than perfect state. 

The dark lord has punished him for as little as having his fangs out. He absolutely detests any reminder that he has a werewolf in his employ. 

Fenrir Knocks and waits.

“Come in” a low voice commands. 

Fenrir walks in, stepping lightly with his head bowed low. The dark lord makes him wait, asserting his dominance with every passing second. 

“I have a job for you Fenrir.” The dark lord drawls.

Fenrir finally looks up, making sure to look anywhere but at the dark lord. He makes eye contact with Severus Snape, he feels vaguely uncomfortable so he focuses on the dark clothing of the Snape standing by the dark lord's right-hand side. 

Snape has always reminded Fenrir of the snake, and he has no love for those slimy creatures. 

“This job requires your usual..approach.” He can hear the smile in his lord’s voice. 

“In short I want you to do what your kind is good at. I want chaos.” 

Chapter Text

It is a Thursday evening. Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy, two of the brightest minds Hogwarts has seen in a generation, are huddled in the Hogwarts library working on an insurmountable problem. 

This problem is not an unsolvable calculus equation, neither is it an incomplete herbology formula. Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy are proofreading Ronald Weasley’s Charms and Marketing paper. 

Draco squints and rereads the same sentence again. 

“Is he- is he trying to say requisitionable?” Draco asks Hermione circling the misspelled word with his red pen. 

Hermione looks over from her own copy of the dreaded paper. 

“Oh Ron.” 

She reads over the “paragraph” wincing at every punctuation and spelling error. 

“Yeah, that’s probably what he meant.” 

Draco feels bad for the dark-skinned girl and her boyfriend.

“This is due tonight right?” Draco questions biting his lip worriedly. 

“Yup” Hermione shakes her head “ and I can’t even be mad at him, he had to pick up extra shifts this week with quidditch season starting soon. He needs all the help he can get.” 

Draco nods sympathetically. 

Ron and Harry have been notably missing from dinner and study meet-ups this week. While he appreciates the quiet he misses the roughhousing and the excitement that the duo always brought.

Plus he and Harry haven’t been alone since their outing to the leaky cauldron. Draco thinks about that night often. He daydreams about being close to Harry, about laughing with him, being in the blondes broom closet of a dorm together alone. 

He regrets letting harry leave that night, he should have kissed him, hugged him confessed his feelings. He should’ve done something anything. 

Instead, he sat there unmoving and watched harry walk out the door after promising to never lie to him. 

Draco shakes his head and wills his mind to concentrate on the words in front of him. They have roughly five hours till the paper is due. 

Which is pretty good time if you don’t think about how the paper isn’t complete. 

Ron said he’d finish it as soon as he’s done with practice. 

Draco’s thinking about how he and Hermione might have to finish it themselves when the sound of the library door banging open startles him and Hermione. 

“Careful.” one of the junior librarians scolds. 

“sorry!! “ Ron’s voice echoes through the library.

Several heads shoot up and send him death glares. 

“Sorry” he whispers. 

Hermione smiles to herself and Draco can’t help but laugh. 

They wait for the redhead to find them, the squeak of his sports shoes alerting them when he’s close. 

“Sorry I’m late” the ginger apologizes out of breath when he finally finds them. 

Draco turns around to say hello and realizes that Ron didn’t come alone. 

Harry Potter is standing next to him a grin on his face. 

“Harry!!”  Hermione whisper shouts jumping out of her seat. 

She’s almost in his arms when she stops and scrunches up her face. 

“Oh my god. Ya’ll stink.” she fake gags.

“How on earth did they let you guys in smelling like that.”

Ron goes in for a hug and gets batted away. 

“No! You need a shower.”  Hermione ducks under Rons open arms. 

“Hey” Harry saddles up next to draco, squating beside his seat. 

“Hi” draco can’t help the boxy smile that blossoms on his face. 

“Thanks for you know helping Ron with his paper.” Draco looks the man over from head to toe. His glasses are placed haphazardly on his face, the frames askew. There’s blades of grass sticking out of his silky black hair and a smudge of dirt above his eyebrow. 

“Of course. I know you guys have been really busy with the season starting up soon. You must be especially busy if youre carrying the field around with you” Draco says reaching out and plucking the grass from his hair. 

Harry laughs 

“Wood gave us tomorrow off. It’s the only free day im gonna have for a while.So… got any plans?” a hopeful gleam in his eyes. 

Draco wants to say yes, His body is vibrating at the thought of being close to harry after so long. But he can’t. 

He’s berating himself internally for saying yes to Astoria last week and on wednesday when she called to ask again. He can’t cancel now because he already RSVP’d. 

“I actually do.” the words leave his mouth reluctantly and he watches as harry’s face falls. 

“It’s this stupid fundraiser dinner, Astoria invited me to last week and i already said yes and i wish i could cancel but i already RSVP’d and its like a thousand dollars a plate.” Draco rushes. 

“Hey hey. It’s fine we’ll figure something else out.” Harry suggests. 

Draco feels himself frown. “I don’t want to figure something else out. You’re already stressed enough.” 

Harry chuckles “dont worry about me.” he rests his hand on the omegas’ thigh. 

His touch is like an electric shock, making Draco acutely aware of his nearness. 

And a lightbulb goes off above his head. 

What if Harry came as his plus one? Astoria kept reminding him he had one .

“How do you feel about being my plus one?” Draco bites his lip anxiously. 

Harry’s face positively lights up. 

“Harry! we gotta go shower.” Ron yells. A chorus of shushes follow. 

Harry smiles at draco one more time befor standing up to his full height. 

“Ill be back as soon as possible.” 

Draco raises his eyebrow and waves a hand infront of his face. He sniffs at the air theatrically.  “No way. You better take your time mister.” 

Harry laughs but soon gets dragged away by Ron.

Draco turns to face the paper he’s been working on all night but a rather loud cough takes his attention away. 

He looks up and is faced with hermione’s smirking face. 

“So” she drags out the syllable and a mischievous glint appears in her eyes. “You and Harry’ve been getting real close.” 

Draco feels his ears getting red.  

He wants to say something funny or quirky but he can’t, his brain doesn’t work when it comes to harry. 

He thinks about hermione and Ron. How did they meet, who made the first move and has their relationship always been this sappy. 

His brain determines to ask her but his mouth remains sealed.

Instead it’s hermione who says something.

“Hey you don’t have to tell me if you guys have a thing but let me tell you one thing about harry.” Hermione looks straight into his eyes, her warm brown spheres conveying so much conviction that Draco moves back in his seat.

“There are many people Harry Potter knows but there are very few that know him in return. Sure there are those that know of him but the privilege of knowing Harry Potter, that is reserved for a select few.”

Draco can feel his cheeks turning red. He knew harry was immensely popular but he didn’t know just how deep his relationships went.

They both get back to work and a new found understanding and smugness settles around draco. He looks at people differently now, its like looking outside into a snowy day through a window from a warm toasty room. There’s a serenity and security that comes with being inside Harry potters heart. 

By the time Harry and Ron get back , the library is empty and the overhead lights have been dimmed. 

Harry can feel drops of water soaking his collar but he ignores it. Ron is trudging slowly behind . The day of practice finally taking a toll, weighing down his long limbs. Harry feels bad for his friend but he knows any offer of financial assistance would be met with anger and distrust. 

Soon enough they find hermione and draco finishing up the last corrections to the paper. 

“We’re back.” Ron announces making sure to whisper.

He pulls up a chair and slides in next to hermione who’s currently updating the google doc of the assignment.

Harry takes a seat next to draco.  And the flowery smell of the blonde engulfs his senses. 

“So about your invitation for  tomorrow.” He starts. 

Draco turns to him with the most hopeful look in his eyes and harry realizes that he could not say no even if he planned to. 

“The answer is yes. i’ll be there.” 

Draco squeals and almost jumps into his arms. 

Harry laughs into his hair and tightens his  hold around the omega. 

“You’re wet.” Draco scolds pulling away. 

“It’s just water” harry chuckles.

Draco’s smile gets impossibly wider. 

“What time do you want to head out.?” Harry asks.

Draco tips his head to the side thinking. Harry stares as a loose strand of blonde hair falls from his pony tail. 

“10 am” draco states assuredly. 

“And before you ask, no you can not drive me on your motorcycle.” 

Harry tips his head and lets out a laugh from deep in his belly. 

Draco leans in front of his mirror and redoes his eyeliner one more time .The black wings against his pale skin make his grey eyes pop. He’s wearing a silk button down tucked into a pair of high waited tan trousers. Around his neck is a pearl necklace he stole from his mother years ago and on his ears are diamond earrings his father gave him on his eighteenth birthday. 

His hair lays atop his head in a neat bun. 

He goes to his closet and looks through his shoes. A pair of heels catch his eye but he settles on Chelsea boots that according to his mother, have seen better days. 

It’s currently 10:13 and harry is distracting their Uber driver. Draco could have sworn he’d be ready by 10 but he got caught up with his make up. 

He slides on the shoes and grabs his purse. He locks his door behind him and flies own the stairs. 

Harry is right outside the door laughing with the driver. 

Of course. Draco smiles. 

“Sorry to keep you guys waiting.” He apologizes while getting into the back seat. 

“Don’t worry about it, i had the most interesting conversation with Raul.” Harry says shutting the door behind him.

Throughout the ride to the Greengrass mansion Harry and Raul, the driver, converse animatedly with draco chiming in periodically. And once they arrive harry tips fifty percent. 

“Buy annie something nice.”  

Draco moves the gravel on the driveway around with the toe of his boot . Harry comes up beside him.

“You okay?” Draco knows he means that sincerely. 

“Yeah, anxiety’s actually pretty low today.” Draco’s not surprised, the only thing he feels around harry is butterflies and those are going strong especially when Harry gives draco his upper arm. Draco immediately takes it. 

“By the way, you look absolutely breathtaking” 

Draco laughs and squeezes Harry’s arm, his heart stuttering at the thick hard muscle he feels. 

“You look pretty good yourself Mr potter. Who knew you cleaned up this nicely.” 

“I’m going to take that as a compliment.” 

Harry sobers “We’ve got this okay” its a statement and not a question.  Draco nods and harry leads the way.

The official entrance to the Greengrass mansion is manned by two men who by their dressing Draco immediately identifies as the help. 

“Draco malfoy.” He gives his name to the one with the clip board. The man nods and gives his name to the other one. The man is tall and clean shaven with a an ear piece in his ear. 

‘This way gentlemen.” 

He leads them through the gorgeously decorated lobby and into what draco can only describe as a ballroom. 

With high ceilings deftly decorated with diamond chandeliers to the red carpet lining the center  of the room and the stage at the head of the arrangement. The ballroom is truly a spectacle to behold. 

‘Your table.” The table is smack dab in the middle of the room. 

Harry pulls out a chair and options for draco to sit. 

“Thank you.” Draco smiles as he takes a seat. 

Harry sits across from him and draco uses the time to take in the hall one more time. People dressed in all manner of finery are filing in from multiple entrances simultaneously. He looks away from the crowds of people talking and laughing together feeling self conscious. 

“Who do you reckon are the Greengrasses?” Harry asks. Draco remembers now that harry has never met Astoria. 

“Oh my bad” draco scans the people huddled together on stage. 

Finally he spots Astoria in a silver frock talking to who he assumes to be her mother based on the hard set of her lips which they shared and her greying hair.

“Over there” he says not darring to point in a setting like this. 

Harry adjusts his glasses and looks towards them. 

He whistles lowly ‘that’s old money right there.” 

Dracos blossoming smile is hindered by the knowledge that He is in fact ‘old money’. He hadn’t told harry much about his parents and his ancestry. What would the man think of draco’s family? Especially about their livelihood . 

Draco shoook the thoughts from his mind determined to enjoy his time with harry. 

The event went on as planned. Wealthy philanthropists, a majority of those in attendance, donated money to the Greengrass foundation for orphaned children. Draco had been to enough of these that he knew the run down by heart. He spent the time whispering with harry and playing games guessing the price of every pair of shoes that caught their eyes . 

Soon enough the first portion of the fundraiser was over. They were then directed to the garden for refreshments. 

The Garden of the mansion was lush and colourful with fruits hanging low from trees and flowers blooming in bushes all around. 

Draco leaned his head on Harry’s shoulder as they walked arm in arm into the garden. 

“You thirsty?” Harry asked thoughtfully. 

Before Draco could answer Harry continued. “ you know what I’m going to get you some champagne and i know you don’t like hard liquor but I’ll find you something.” With that he’s gone. And with him goes Dracos confidence, damn Harry Potter and his need to serve others. 

He decides to find Astoria and greet her. He finds her with Blaise, the dark skinned man looking dashing in his suit. Astoria is busy talking into her phone so it’s Blaise that sees him coming up to them. 

“Draco. It’s nice to see you.” He rumbles with a friendly smirk. 

Draco blushes and waves sheepishly. 

“You guys reallly pulled out all the stops, this place is gorgeous.” 

“Thank you.” Astoria says. She looks behind draco expectantly as if she’s looking for someone. Her eyebrows crease when she doesn’t find who she’s looking for. 

“Where are your parents?”she says bluntly. 

Draco takes a step back  his  heart reeling and his brain whirling. 

His parents? 

No. Did Astoria invite him only to get to his parents? 

“You are draco malfoy are you not?’ She snapped. 

‘Tori” Blaise warned. 

“I- I didn’t know you wanted me to-“ draco could feel hot tears gathering. 

“To what? Why on earth would i invite you if not for your parents?”

“Astoria!!” Blaise raised his voice cutting off whatever it was Astoria wanted to follow up with. 

He wants to go home, he wants too get into a car, a room anywhere with four walls he can hide. He considers running away to the bathroom but then he remembers Harry, a man that has never made him feel unwanted. 

Draco decides then that he is not going to let this hurt him. He is going to stay and enjoy his time here with his head held high regardless of the fact that he is unwanted. 

Astoria huffs and storms off, scolded. 

Blaise groans and presses his fingers against the bridge of his flat nose. 

“I’m sorry about her she’s just really stressed not to make any excuses for her abysmal behaviour.” 

Draco smiles genuinely. He wouldn’t mind being friends with Blaise if he and Astoria weren’t attached at the hip. 

“Well I’ll go deal with her now . I hope to see you around draco.” The sincerity in his voice is surprising. But that’s Blaise Zambini for you, he never says any thing he doesn’t mean. 

Draco looks around sheepishly. He is considering going off to find harry when he hears his name in an unfamiliar voice. 

“Do my eyes deceive me or Is that Draco Malfoy?” A short black haired man surrounded by an entourage makes his way towards draco. The omega looks back for Blaise to find the man gone. 

“You are even more beautiful in person” the man loooks at him in a way that makes draco feel naked, exposed. 

“ excuse me?” 

The man smiles a slimy smile “ my apologies I am Gaspar Avery, a …friend of your parents.” The man introduces himself and sticks out a hand for draco to shake. 

Draco is wary of touching this man but he concedes not wanting to be rude to a friend of his parents. 

Avery’s grip is strong and his hands are calloused and he deftly turns the handshake into an old fashioned kiss to draco’s hand. His lips linger on draco’s skin and the blonde shivers in the most repulsed way. 

The people surrounding Avery have dispersed to give them privacy. 

When the man finally lets go of draco’s hand he pulls it to himself and cradles it in his other palm. He wants to wipe his skin on the fabric on his pants but he doesn’t think he could do that tactfully even if he tried. 

“The pictures do you no justice.” Avery gazes up at draco as though he has seen an angel.

Pictures? Draco thinks bewildered, why on earth would this man, this stranger be looking at pictures of him?

“Your parents are so worried about you but i know you’ll be coming home soon enough.” Avery smirks. 

That statement rankles and draco realizes he doesn’t like this man. 

“I put in my bid for you you know, but in the end the boss’s orders are final.”

What on earth is he talking about ?

Bid? Boss? 

“Draco?” Harry oh thank god it’s harry.

Draco turns to face him. He’s standing close with two champagne flutes in his hands. Draco wastes no time snatching each glass and downing them one after the other. He barely tastes the burning bubbly fluid all he knows is that he wants more. 

“I think it’s time for us to leave, it was nice meeting you Mr Avery.” Draco grabs Harry’s hand and takes his leave Dragging the six foot man behind him. 

On e they reach the champagne table draco stops. 

“What was that all about? Who was that guy?” 

Draco ignores his question, too busy stuffing his face with alcohol.

“Hey that’s enough.” Harry takes what is probably the ninth drink from draco’s hand before he can drink it. 

Harry looks down into draco’s eyes.

“Are you ok?” 

Draco is not ok, he's far from it. He wants to feel something other than the unwelcome felling in his gut, he doesn’t want to feel dirty the way that man made him feel. But he doesn’t say any of that. 

“I wanna go home.”

Harry pulls him close. 

‘“Already callled an Uber. We’ll be home soon.”

Harry knows there’s something going on in that pretty little head that draco’s not telling him something happened to turn his mood from sweet and excited to sad and upset. Harry frowns as he watches draco sway drunkenly in his seat. He’s going to find whoever made him upset and give them…a stern talking to. He is struggling to reign in his anger when they arrive back at their dorm. 

Harry steps out first leaving the door open for draco to walk through. When the omega just lays there he gathers draco into his arms and lifts him out of the car. 

“Harry.” The boy moans. 

Harry grimaces and his mind goes haywire. 

“It’s okay everything’s going to be okay.” 

Harry carries him all the way to his room and all the way to his bed. He lays the boy gently down. He has to force the muscles in his body to move away from draco malfoy. 

His worry and anger at who ever caused this only grow as he steps back into the corridor and shuts the door behind him. 

He vows then to find out who that creepy dude that draco was talking to was and to find out exactly what he did. 

He’s about to begin his investigation when he gets a text from hermione. 

Dumbledore wants you. 

He tips his head back and groans. He loves dumbledore but his eccentrics can get tiring plus Harry’s scar hurts. The lesion pulsing like a heart beat, with a stabbing pain every time he turns his head. The scar has been hurting more than usual these days and the memories of the day he got it have been surfacing more than usual. He still remembers that day despite being a year old at the time. 

He remembers the footsteps, his mothers scream, and the blinding pain as a bullet grazed his skull. 

Harry pushes the thoughts away and makes his way to the gryffindor building. 

“Ah Harry” Dumbledore exclaims when harry walks through the door of his office. 

“I hear you went with mister malfoy to the Greengrass mansion.” 

Harry stops in his tracks. 

“How do you know that?”Harry should be used to dumbledore knowing everything by now but he isn’t. 

“I know everything that happens to you harry.” 

“Yeah well then you know that we had to leave early because of some creep.” 

Dumbledore’s whiskered mouth is in a straight line, his face unmoving and all semblance of humour gone. An unfamiliar sight 

“You’re angry.” Harry gulps.

Dumbledore leaves his chair behind his desk and begins to pace around harry. 

“Yes Harry, I am angry.” 

“Look i know i shouldn’t have gone but-“ 

Dumbledore raises his hand silencing Harry’s words.

“Do you know what the greengrasses are?” 

A moment of quiet passes before harry answers. 

‘Aspiring death eaters.” They both let the words settle in the air. 

“This fundraiser you went to, do you want to know what it really was?” Dumbledore stops his pacing and leans on the front of his desk facing Harry. 

“It was a showcase for the Greengrass family, an opportunity for them to show their wealth and influence, a test to see if they were good enough to join Voldemort’s ranks.” 

Harry’s bronze skin turns pale and sweaty.

“Can you imagine the disaster that would have ensued if you were recognized Harry. Can you imagine all the years of hard work you would have undone just because of your infatuation with draco malfoy.” 

Harry finally finds his voice and quick as a whip he speaks up. “Leave him out of this it was my own decision to go and my mistake.” The words stun both of them.

Dumbledore nearly sprints to harry,taking the boys face in his hand and squeezing he looks into the depths of Harry’s eyes. 

“My God you are gone for the boy.” 

Harry stays perfectly still. 

Dumbledore finally lets him go and takes several steps back. 

“Do you know that draco malfoy is the son of Lucius and narcissi malfoy, the left hand of Voldemort.” 

Harry feels the world crashing down at the words. 

“No.” 

“No? Harry i’m afraid truths cannot be dismissed by mere words. For all you know the boy might have been sent here to seduce you and then kill you.”

Harry thinks of soft innocent grey eyes, of grins full of happiness. 

“No.”

“When have you ever known me to lie to you boy.” 

“I will ask him the truth.” Harry turns on his heels. He doesn’t care if he hasn’t been dismissed yet all he care about right now is the truth. 

“And if he lies to you?” Dumbledore and the voice in his head speak in unison. 

Harry gives neither of them an answer.

When he gets outside the building he is astonished by the sheer number of students migrating to the dining room.

He stops a pair of freshmen, their class status obvious by the way they hold maps between them and the lanyards around their necks. 

“What’s going on?”

The frantic look in his eyes must have conveyed his emotions because they answered immediately.

“Uh um it’s the season premier dinner? I think.”

Fuck. He forgot about that. The season premier dinner is a feast that signals the commencement of the years quidditch season.

Harry stood and watched as the people walked around him all talking amongst themselves laughing excitedly and goofing off. He took a deep breath in that moment he had never felt more alone. 

He’d spent years running from that feeling, making friends everywhere he went because he was afraid of one thing and yet that very thing has caught up to him. 

Eventually he remembered what he was doing there in the first place, Draco. He’d probably find the blonde already seated in the dinning hall siting with hermione. Ron would be at the designated players table. There was one for every house and Harry’s gryffindor seat would remain empty that night because “there is something in the air” a ravenclaw girl with blonde hair and ridiculous glasses remarked to the person seated beside her. 

Luna lovegood was no psychic despite what the rumours said she just felt things. Professor trelawney would say she had ‘the gift’ but Luna didn’t need any gift to make her stick out, she did that all own her own. 

She sat quietly surrounded by her housemates thinking back to the man who bumped into her as she followed the crowd to the hall. 

The man stuck out like a sore thumb but no one but luna seemed to notice him. He was more than six feet tall and covered head to toe in black overlayed with a black coat that billowed in the wind. 

He bumped into her and the sheer force of him knocked her back a couple yards. 

“Sorry about that.” She apologized assuming it was her fault because with her head always in the clouds it usually is, but this time, this one time it was not. 

 She is brought back from her reverie by the shutting of the hall doors. Now any latecomers would have to embarrassingly push the huge double doors open and walk to their house tables through the center of the hall. 

Harry scrambled and ran around the gryffindor table looking for hermione. He finds her sitting with dean thomas and lavender brown. 

“Mione have you seen draco?” He asked out of breath. 

Hermione’s eyebrow raises. 

“No. Is everything okay? What’s going on.?”

Harry leans away from the table and rests his hands on his waist and stands akimbo. 

“Where the fuck could he be?”

Hermione looks at him worriedly as she answers. 

“Probably the slytherin table. That is his house. “ 

Harry is gone before she finishes the sentence. 

He sprints through the hall to the end where he finds the slytherin table. 

“Draco!!” He yells for the blonde, uncaring of the eyes following his every move. 

His rage consumes him he feels like he’s been played for a fool. His heart is breaking and his chest is hurting but his mind is clouded with anger and his brain is singular in its objective. However, there is a tiny niggling bit of him that wonders where draco is with worry and concern. 

“He went to the bathroom.” The words come from the only figures who aren’t scared by Harry’s visible rage. 

Astoria greengrass and Blaise zambini. 

“He said he was feeling sick.” Blaise added. 

“Looked it to.” Astoria snarked

Harry doesn’t bother to thank them. He leaves the table and makes his way to the double doors that lead into the hallway. He pushes them out and goes to find draco malfoy. 

When he reaches the front of the bathroom door he knows immediately that there’s something wrong . 

The shadows under the door tell a strange story. One moves around frantically while one stays stationary. Harry blinks hard and puts on his guard, Draco is not alone. Pushing any of his doubts away he settles on one prerogative, the words Snape said to him all those days ago. Protect draco malfoy. 

He pushes the door open. 

Nothing could have prepared him for the sight that met him. Draco was there huddled against the wall a broke toilet brush in his hands. Mascara and vomit running down his face. 

A man taller than harry stood there watching draco like he was some prime beef. That was what ticked him off. Without a moment of hesitation Harry Potter attacked. 

He jumped at the man and grabbed him around the waist and took him down. 

He had the advantage of a surprise attack but that was quickly disappearing. Harry punched the man in the jaw and broke his nose he rained a barrage of punches down on the man but once the man caught Harry’s hand it was over. 

Later when draco tells the story he’s going to leave out the countless times he screamed Harry’s name. He’ll leave out the way he threw up when he heard the giant man break Harry’s arm. He’s going to tell the story to several different people and in every version Harry fights with everything in him because that’s precisely what he does. 

Fenrir greyback broke the boys hand and punched him to the ground while draco screamed in the background. The smell of the boys blood and the screaming of the malfoy minx had his blood going so much that he just had to take a bite. 

Chapter Text

“I just feel like it's all my fault, you know.” Draco held his breath as he finished his monologue. 

Dr. Monroe nodded, a sympathetic frown on her face while she simultaneously jotted down on her doctor's notepad. 

Draco glanced down at his phone looking at the time. 

“I guess that's it for today,” he announced. 

He pulled himself off the chair and wiped his face, ridding his cheeks of any stray tears.

He faced his therapist one last time, Doctor Alice Monroe was a short elderly utilitarian woman. Their sessions served their purpose, Draco came in at 3 pm every Tuesday and ranted during which Alice said very little if nothing at all, and at 3:50 Draco walked out the door feeling not better but lighter as if the weight holding him down was a little less. And so without fail, every Tuesday he came back.

He started seeing doctor Monroe shortly after the incident. At the recommendation of his academic advisor who was worried that all the traumatic happenings would affect his academics negatively. He was right. 

Draco found it very hard to focus on schoolwork when everything that could go wrong has gone absolutely haywire. 

He swallowed roughly as he made his way to his next class. Snape’s potions class.

Draco groaned internally not thinking he had it in him to face the class without Harry there. It would be his first time in the class without Harry as the Teaching Assistant. 

He walked all the way up the stairs to the lecture room making sure to hasten his steps not wanting Snape to chew him out. 

Finally arriving he slid into his seat next to Pansy with barely minutes to spare. 

“Hey,” he said in greeting. 

“Hi!” they answered animatedly. 

He winced, not quite in the mood to return their energy. 

He was focusing on his notebook and textbook when Snape announced the topic of the days' lecture. 

“Today we will be going off the syllabus and we will discuss the subject of werewolves.” Snape's voice echoed through the classroom. 

Draco froze in his seat. He could feel the eyes of his classmates on the back of his head. 

Of all things, snape could have decided on he had to pick werewolves 

“Open your textbooks to page 394” 

The rustling of pages was heard as every student rushed to get to the assigned page. Almost every student. 

“But Professor what does any of this have to do with potions and chemistry?” Neville Longbottom asked shyly. 

Snape sized up the black-haired boy slowly and measuredly. 

“I’m sure you know everything potions and chemistry entails Mr Longbottom,” Snape said dryly, enunciating every word. “But due to recent events, we will be veering off topic. Page three hundred and ninety-four,” he repeats. 

Meanwhile, Draco is shaking in his chair, his mind taking him back to the night of the attack, visions of Harry getting beaten to a bloody pulp plague his vision. He can feel his body seizing, his hands are unsteady and he can feel his brain pulsing against his skull. 

He forces his body to comply, turning his textbook to page 394 unwilling to become the focus of Snape's ire. 

Draco spends the whole class with his head bent over his textbook, trying to ignore the whispers coming from the other students. 

“Do you think this is about the shooter that got in last week?” 

“No way was there a shooter in Hogwarts.” 

“There was swear to merlin. It attacked…`` Draco could always tell when they were whispering his name because they would go quiet.

“I hear that's why Harry is MIA.”

Draco tuned out the voices and forced the tears forming in his eyes back. 

For merlin's sake could they shut up he thought and then felt guilty when snape snapped at them to do just that. 

He keeps his head down and barely manages to take notes till the end of the class. 

When the class is over he enters the throng of students filing out of the classroom. He’s almost out when he hears Snape call his name. 

“Mr. Malfoy, a word.” 

Draco swallows and approaches snape's desk carefully. 

“Yes sir?” he mutters lowly. 

“I would like to be the first person to inform you that Mr potter is awake.” 

Draco felt the blood rush to his chest. 

“Now before you go running to the infirmary, I want you to know that it would be wise of you to tread carefully from here on out.” 

Draco flushed. 

“We don’t need any more incidents derailing this season.”

“But sir that wasn’t my fault.” he protested. 

Snape didn’t even blink. 

“Regardless, endeavor to be in the right place at the right time from now on Mr. Malfoy. Am I clear?”
“Yes sir”

However illogical snape was being it could not put a damper on his mood. 

Harry was awake!! 

********

Harry Potter wakes up a little bit, blinking his eyes open, and then all at once shooting up from the bed where he lays.

The first thing he sees is a bearded figure hunched by his side, that's when he computes where he is. 

He looks around the room, green herbs with purple flowers are scattered all over the room, his sight blurs and then unblurs, he realizes he’s not wearing his glasses in fact he's wearing very little. He feels the cold air against his bandage-covered chest. 

He raises the blanket covering his legs, relieved to find a pair of shorts low on his hips. That's when he notices the chains around his wrists and legs. What the-

“Harry.” the words fly out of dumbledore’s mouth like a prayer. 

“Dumbledore?” harry almost asks where he is but the whitewashed walls and mustard yellow sheets are familiar in a way that jogs his memory. 

The dean nods his head, his eyes filled with worry and apprehension. 

“How long have I been out? What day is it?” Harry asks panicked, he might have already missed the first game of the season. Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff. 

“Oh merlin the game did I miss it?” he rambles on. 

“Harry you have not missed the match.” dumbledore says laying the boys worries to rest. 

“You’ve been out for a few days now, since the night of the commencement dinner.” he continues. 

Harry feels the floor go out from under him. The memories of the ill-fated night rush to the surface of his mind. 

Draco. The tall bearded man standing over him. The look of pure fear in the blonde's eyes. 

The memory of the beating he received sent phantom pains erupting through his side. 

“Draco,” he whispers when a familiar smell of honey and milk hits his nose. 

“Harry listen to me the man who attacked you-”  dumbledore starts but is interrupted by a figure who comes bursting through the doors of the private room. 

Locs of blonde hair frame the angular face and a faint sheen of sweat covers his pale skin. 

“Draco,” Harry says in awe. 

The blonde stands by the door for a second before charging into the room and taking harry potter into his arms. 

“You’re awake.” Draco dry sobs into thick black hair. 

“I’m awake,” he replies lowly, inhaling the sweet sweet scent that seems to emanate from the omega. 

“I'm so sorry this is all my fault” 

Harry pulls back slowly and looks into the stormy eyes staring down at him, so filled with guilt and anguish. 

“Don't say that.”

“But it’s true” Draco looks away eyes shutting closed as if unable to bear to look at harry in a hospital bed. 

“I’d gladly get hurt a thousand times if it means your safe.”  and harry is surprised how much he means the words that come out his mouth. 

Draco stares at him shocked and speechless. 

“I don't want you to have to do that.” 

A loud phlegmy clearing of the throat causes harry and Draco to remember where they are and pull apart.

“Oh dumbledore! Hi, I mean good morning sir.” Draco turns absolutely pink. 

Dumbledore watches Draco appraisingly. 

“I’m Draco Malfoy.” he stretches his hand out to the elder. 

Dumbledore takes it and gives it a firm shake. 

“I was just talking with harry here about the circumstances surrounding his attack.”

Draco manages to keep a blank face but the minute twitching of his eye gives him away.

Dumbledore shoots harry a questioning gaze, asking if he should go on. 

Harry nods. 

“You see the man who attacked you harry. He was a werewolf, is a werewolf.” dumbledore states.

He lets his words settle in the air and watches the faces of the two boys before him, gauging their reactions. 

Draco goes pale and raises a hand to his mouth in mock shock while harry lets out a misplaced laugh. 

Dumbledore raises an eyebrow in confusion. 

“And this is funny how?” 

Harry has the sense to look morose. 

“Sorry, it's just I mean at least I didn't get the shit beat out of me by a regular human.” 

Dumbledore and Draco heave a collective groan. 

“Harry. There's more.” dumbledores face falls into a grave and sullen mask. 

His eyes flicker to Draco “Mr. Malfoy would you give us the room for a minute.” Draco wraps his arms around his torso and nods. 

“Sure of course.” 

Harry hates the pang in his chest as he watches the blonde go, but just as he reaches the door Draco turns and blows harry a kiss. The convalescent makes a show of catching the kiss in the air and pressing his palms to his bare chest. 

He catches a glimpse of a boxy grin before the door shuts. 

He still staring when dumbledores words interrupt his train of thought. 

“I don't have to tell you just how much of a bad idea that is do I?” 

“Hmm? oh Draco we’re just friends”

Dumbledores bushy eyebrows raise and the old man gives harry a sure look 

Harry isn't sure what to do with his hands all of a sudden, in fact, he feels like his limbs have minds of their own and he can feel his bones weighing him down. 

“Harry.” dumbledore takes a seat on the edge of the bed. His left-hand hovers above harry's as if wondering whether to take it or not. 

He decides not to. a sense of deja vu comes over him, he’s heard this before, he's done this before. This song and dance aren’t new to him. His mind flashes back to that night, the night his childhood ended when this same man told him his parents did not survive the shooting 

Harry listens, waiting for the shoe to drop for his world to collapse, again. 

“Harry… madame Pomfrey informed me that amongst your numerous injuries there was a bite.” 

Finally, the pieces fall into place, the chains tying him to the bed make sense. He takes another look at the herbs decorating the room, he first thought they were for aesthetic reasons but now looking closer he recognizes them as wolfsbane.  

“I’m a werewolf,” he whispers. 

“Now harry we’re not completely sure we have to wait for the next full moon to make sure.” 

Dumbledore says trying to reassure the boy but Harry finds that he doesn't need reassurance he should be panicking he should be freaking out but all he finds is this calm of an untouched lake with no ripples insight. Is this a side effect of turning? There is no burning in his chest no ache behind his eyes. There's only one person who would know. 

“Lupin.”

“Is on his way. We’re working together to make the transition as seamless as possible. Harry this is not the end, it's merely a slight disturbance, an unforeseen occurrence that we will fix, don't worry about the details, just focus on getting better.” 

And like a summons, Remus Lupin, his professor, mentor, and friend knocks on the door while poking his head in. But the boy in the hospital bed barely notices.

“Harry.” Dumbledore interrupts his thoughts about a certain blonde. 

“Hm?”  Harry snaps out of his reverie. 

“Oh lupin you’re here. Don’t you have a class to teach right now.?”

“Still as attentive as ever. to answer your question yes but I'm sure your set mates won’t miss me. Especially with tonight's match.” Lupin replied. 

Harry winces almost imperceptibly. 

“About that…lupin I'm in the starting line up I can’t just leave the team, the house stranded.”

“I’m going to tell Mr. Malfoy that he can go. I sense that you will need some time.” Dumbledore gets to his feet and dismisses himself. 

Lupin settles were dumbledore had just risen from. 

“Harry you just woke up.”

“Yeah and I'm feeling fine.” to his surprise, this wasn’t even a lie his face that had been beaten to a bloody pulp felt fine, and his arm that had absolutely been shattered felt whole and functional. He flexed his fingers in Lupin's face feeling the handcuffs of the chains catch on his skin. 

“Trust me I know just how fine you feel. Right now you feel like you could take on a spartan army and win. You feel high on adrenaline and right now if I let you go you are going to pulverize the Hufflepuff team. I am a hundred percent sure of that. Why? Because I have been there I have felt what you’re feeling right now.”  Remus was leaning closer now, a fiery passion in his eyes, eyes that had a faint yellowish glow around his pupils. 

“I wish you could see yourself harry. You just got told you might be a werewolf not five minutes ago. Tell me you feel anything other than exhilaration harry, tell me you feel sad because what you have just been given is a death sentence in fact just tell me you feel angry at the man that did this to you. Tell me you feel at least a little bit of that and you can walk out of this room right now.” 

Harry looked away and ground his teeth. He couldn’t look Remus in the eye because he was right yet again. He hated that another man knew more about his own emotions, his own body than he did. He hated that he felt new to his own body that he couldn’t even muster the will to argue because merlin he was a fucking werewolf now.

“Your wolf is in charge right now harry. And right now your wolf wants to play, like a pup your wolf wants run around and smell anything new, he wants to run around and feel the wind against his face hell he’d have you shitting on the floor right now if he could.” 

The defense against the dark arts professor takes a huge sigh. 

“ as soon as you step out of this room you'll lose control.” 

“How do you do it then. How do you stay in control?” Harry asks sincerely. 

“You train your wolf. Like you train a dog you reward good behaviors and you…punish bad ones.” it's small and if he had blinked he’d have missed it, the way Remus flinches a little when he says the word punish. 

“What about my life Remus? My friends, school, my mission,” Draco he doesn’t say his name out loud.

“I just want a normal life.” Remus gives him a look.

“An almost normal life you know with the order and all that,” he adds 

“I won’t lie to you Harry it’s not going to be easy” 

Harry falls back onto his pillows.

“But it is possible. I’ll teach you the basics and when Pomfrey gets back you can ask her about the game.”

He looks into harry’s eyes.

“But I cannot, in good conscience give you my blessing.” 

When Pomfrey comes back it's the first question out of Harry's mouth. Remus doesn’t look up from the scientific journal he was reading while Harry took several restless  naps.

“Please please please my team needs me. The only other seeker we have is a freshman straight out of junior varsity high school quidditch.” 

Pomfrey eventually gives in and agrees on the condition that she runs a full body check on him. 

She presses a cold stethoscope against his chest and listens to his breathing. 

“Huh.” her eyebrows furrow and she starts writing on her notepad. 

“What?  What is it?” Harry asks, worry evident in his voice. 

“It’s just… a little fast. A lot fast actually. “ 

“Must be nervous about the game you know first match of the season haha.” Remus laughs awkwardly. 

Harry doesn’t know why Remus is coming up with excuses it was obviously due to his little werewolf problem. Unless Pomfrey didn’t know about it and by the way, Remus nervously adjusts his tie and avoids eye contact it's obvious what the answer is. 

The rest of the tests go swimmingly and Harry is given a clean bill of health. 

“With the way you came in, I have no idea how you’ve healed so quickly. Must be some sort of magic.”

“Or” Harry draws out the word “you’re just more skilled than you think.”

Pomfrey gives him an unamused look. 

“I’ll go draw up your discharge papers.” 

“Yes!!” Harry pumps his fist in the air causing the chains to crinkle and clang against the bar of the bed. 

When he’s completely sure Pomfrey is out of ear reach, Harry turns to Remus. 

“Does she not know about the attack?”

“You’ll find, harry, that 99% of the school has no idea that Draco Malfoy was attacked.” 

Remus’ words make him think about that night again the sight of Draco on the floor tears pouring from his eyes, alone and defenseless. Unintentionally he grips the bar on the right side of the bed. His grip tightens the more he thinks of Draco getting hurt until the metal gives out under his strength. 

“Only three other professors know. This was kept extremely hush-hush order members only and while I love Poppy but I’m not exactly the most confident in her person.”  Remus continues unaware of the crumbling metal in harry's grasp. 

“So what did you tell her happened to me?” harry tries to keep the conversation going to. 

“Animal attack.”

“While that explains the bite what about the chains?” 

“Well, rabies is extremely contagious.” 

“You did not.” Harry gasps. 

Remus looks down at his watch.

 “look at that it's almost time for the match. I'll see you there Mr potter and even though you are outrightly going against my recommendation i trust that you will do gryffindor proud.” 

Harry watches him go, his gait crooked but his head held high. 

“That motherfucker” harry whispered into the air. 

*************

Draco knew he would stick out but it wasn’t till he saw his figure, just a green speck on the jumbotron, that he saw just how much he stuck out. 

He was standing on his feet, arms in the air screaming because Harry Potter, the best seeker they’d had in a generation just ran out of the prep tent and joined the rest of the team on the field. The stands erupted in a roar, people shouting potter even Hufflepuffs on the opposite side of the pitch joined in the chorus. 

He stood amongst Gryffindors, his green Slytherin shirt making him stand out, Hermione to his left and Dean Thomas to his right. 

Blaise had suggested they hang out during the match he’d figured that no Slytherin in their right mind would willingly watch the Gryffindors play but Draco wasn’t in his right mind he seemed to be always in his wrong mind when it came to harry potter. 

He hears the starting shot fire and the voice of Lee Jordan blasted through the speakers. 

“Alright, folks settle down!!” 

Draco sat back in his seat and turned to Hermione. 

“It's crazy how this is my second quidditch game but I don't remember the first being this heart-wrenching.” 

“I feel that way too, that's generally because your man is playing.” she winked, “I mean even dean is on the edge of his seat.” 

Draco threw his head back and laughed even as his heart beat out of his chest. 

He couldn’t help it. It was partly excitement at getting to see Harry play partly because he was worried about him being discharged so quickly. I mean he’s playing in a quidditch match the same day he woke up.  Draco bit his lip as the first goal of the day was scored, the Hufflepuff stands blow up in celebration while the Gryffindor stands moan and a few people shoot Hermione dirty looks seeing as her boyfriend is playing the keeper. 

Hermione slinks into her seat the tiniest bit. But she quickly jumps to her feet when Angelina johnson shoots the ball into the goal post.

“Yesss!!!” 

Draco joins in losing himself in the noise of elation. 

****************

Thirty-five minutes had passed and Harry has only caught sight of the snitch once. He eyed Cedric Diggory. The Hufflepuff seeker and captain and the only person on campus whose fame and popularity rivaled his own. Of course, he didn’t care because caring in itself was extremely uncool. 

Besides, he had more important things to worry about. Like Remus had warned the wolf inside of him had seemingly come alive when he stepped out of the infirmary room. Every sight had assaulted him, every smell bashing him over the head with its potency. It was like learning to walk again. His legs were unsteady as Ron led him out of the infirmary and onto the field. 

but he kept going because he knew there were people counting on him and even now the thought of letting his house down led him o a dark place he wasn’t willing to go. 

Harry was lost in his mind when something shot past the corner of his eye and like an animal he was transformed. He dashed after the golden ball. Cedric quickly followed suit. 

The ball flew into the air and Harry balanced on his broom leaning forward and edging the machine faster and faster and yet the ball remained out of reach. Having enough of this harry balanced on the edge of his broom and willing the broom to stay still he carefully but stupidly , as Draco would say in the near future, lifted his left leg to the broom handle. He was slowly lifting his body up when a specially powerful wind threatened to unseat or in this case, unstand harry from his precarious position. The snitch hovered before him barely a few feet away and down below he heard the crowd give an audible gasp. Diggory had long since given up on the snitch but the animal thing in Harry wouldn’t let him give up wouldn’t let common sense prevail. And with no final words, Harry potter jumped. 

He clutched the small golden ping pong-sized ball to his chest as he fell and fell. And it was as he was falling that his brain turned back on and he realized what he had done how foolish he had been. It was as he was falling that he heard the sound of the horn pronouncing the game over and declaring Gryffindor as the winner. It was as he was falling that his ears focused in and he heard a distinct voice shouting his name. 

It was as he was falling that he thought of Draco Malfoy. 

It was in an instant that everything stopped. One moment he was falling and the other he was not. And then all he saw was red hair and he was flying then red hair and freckles and a mouth a full luscious mouth that he had kissed so many times before. 

“Ginny” he whispered. 

“Harry Potter you fucking idiot.” she was crying as she shouted the words. 

She caught him. Ginny caught him while he was freefalling to the ground she’d come up from under and caught him on her broom. 

Harry felt the air leave his lungs as the handle of her broom knocked the breath out of him. “Sorry” she mumbled at the sight of his face. He nodded in response not having the breath to reply. 

Slowly she landed back on the green grass of the pitch. As soon as his cleated shoes touched the ground the masses descended. 

They were screaming his name. 

Someone tipped a lemonade cooler over his head and the sickly sweet liquid stuck his clothes to his body. 

He laughed and finally let the snitch out of his grasp. They lift him on their shoulders the crowd moving as one hive mind his name a chant and it was as he was lifted into the air that he saw him. 

Draco Malfoy, hands clutched around his thin frame, a frown and tears on his face. 

The rest of it is a blur. The celebration and the aftermath of his actions. He knows for a fact that Snape had some choice words for him but he tuned the man out as per usual. The only thing on his mind was Draco's face, the disappointment, the fear, and the unbridled anger.  

He’s laying in his best friend's bed reveling in the tiny bit of alone time he's had in days when the room's owner comes into the room. 

“Harry, What the hell are you doing?”

He groans and flips over to his back and covers his face with a pillow to block out the light and sounds coming from the open door. 

“Come on man you have to come to the afterparty. It's the first of the season and all the teammates are supposed to be there and with that stunt, you pulled today? Your practically a legend.” 

“I don't want to be a legend I just want to be left alone.” 

That struck a chord with ron. The ginger had opened up to Harry about how hard it was to be in a family of seven and have nothing special about him. He’d even talked about how hard it was to be constantly seen as harry’s sidekick or not worthy of dating Hermione. 

“Shit man I'm sorry.”

“You know what it's whatever man. Draco’s gonna be there if that means anything to you.” 

And with that Ron was gone with the same quickness that he came banging the door behind and effectively ridding harry of any remnant of sleep left in his eyes. 

He got out of bed and put on his clothes, a t-shirt and some jeans he combed his hand through his hair and looked for his glasses. 

He pulled on his shoes and descended the stairs to the Gryffindor common room where music blasted and people danced. His arrival was greeted with chants of his name and cheers of Gryffindor. 

He’s just reached the landing when Oliver wood accosts him. 

“You know this is the best quidditch team Gryffindors seen in ten years. And with what you did today I truly think we are going to crush this season.” 

“Thanks, man.” harry says distractedly. He’s only here for one person and his eyes scan the heads of the crowd searching. Finally, he finds him near the entrance talking to Hermione. 

“Sorry excuse me.” harry says as he maneuvers through the crowd dodging people asking him to sign their scarves or jerseys. 

“Are sure I’m allowed to be here. I don't know. I just feel so out of place here I’m like the only Slytherin here. “  

“Draco!!” harry yells his name and the blonde seizes up. 

“I’m gonna go get some more punch.” and off he goes almost running away from Harry. 

“-the hell,” he says to Hermione. 

“Is he mad at me?” he adds. 

“Don't make me answer that?” she deadpans. 

“Shit who isn’t mad at me.” she turns to him and raises an eyebrow. 

“Let me guess. Ron came to wake you up and you pissed him off.” 

“Cut me some slack I was sleepy.” 

Hermione sighs heavily. “You talk to Draco I’ll handle Ronald.” 

“Thank you.” harry says appreciatively.

“And don't think you’re off the hook from that stunt you pulled.” 

Harry finds Draco leaning against the wall in a corner, his cup overflowing with punch. 

“Can we talk?” He leans in and uses his height to cage the blonde in but he leaves his left side open as an out for Draco to take. 

“Ok talk,” he says curtly

“Not here, upstairs” harry stretches out his hand and after a moment of hesitation and a you’re lucky I like you look Draco takes it. And harry can help the smile that breaks out onto his face. 

Harry leads Draco through the din and the sweaty bodies grinding against each other up the stairs and into Ron’s room which is thankfully empty. 

They’re barely past the threshold when Draco lays into him. 

 “Do you have a death wish?” 

“Draco-” 

“No don’t Draco me” 

Harry watches as he looks away, shutting his eyes blinking tears away. 

“Why do you insist that I watch you suffer huh? Do you think I enjoy this? this heart wrenching feeling in my chest when you get hurt?” 

As the words left his lips Harry realized it was the most open the blonde had been with him about how he felt. It was a shame it couldn’t be under better circumstances. 

“I just- I’m not going to keep putting myself through this.” 

He hated the anguish that showed in Draco's stormy eyes. He hated being the source of his pain. 

He walked closer to him and cupped his cheek. The blonde leaned into his touch.

“I’m sorry”

“No you’re not.” Draco closed his eyes and a rogue tear escaped tracking a salty wet trail on his pale cheek. 

“You’re not sorry now and you weren’t sorry that night you got stabbed.” 

Harry can't stop himself he rolls his eyes and says “ that again?.”

Draco absolutely explodes. 

“Yes!! that again. You got stabbed for merlin’s sake harry!!” 

“And I'm alright now, why can’t you just let it go!” he can’t help it. Dracos rage is contagious. 

“Because I care about you Harry !!! because I care about what happens to you!”

This was getting away from him. They weren’t supposed to be fighting. They were supposed to talk it out and then go downstairs and have the time of their lives. 

“And maybe you’re not used to that but I'm not going to stop” tears fall faster and faster and harry pulls him into his arms because he’s crying too and he can’t stand this distance between them.

“I care about you too.” harry says into platinum blonde hair. 

“Then prove it.” Draco pulls back and looks into his eyes. Harry lets his arms fall to Draco's waist. “Care about me by caring about yourself.” he reaches up and cups Harrys face in his palms

“What you did today promise me you’ll never do anything like that again.” 

“I won’t”

“Promise me.”

“I promise I won't.” Harry lies.  

Chapter Text

Harry held his breath as he leaned over the glass roof of the museum. Below well dressed senators and politicians milled about discussing politics and the various stolen artifacts that decorated the room. 

Harry scowled beneath his mask, during his last visit to the museum he had to be escorted out by the security guards because he insisted on asking every tour guide where they really got the items on display from. 

“Potter, go over the mission again” a voice echoed from the earplugs in his ear. 

Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Snape's request. 

“We go in, lift Trelawney and get out. No matter what, I am not to engage with the enemy.” 

“Exactly under no circumstances are you to interact with any death eaters, your job is to get Trelawney out of there once shit goes down.” lupin interjects. 

Harry almost chuckled, he was yet to grow out of the habit of laughing whenever his professors acted less than professional. The idea that his teachers were also his colleagues in the Order made it hard to relax when interacting with them. 

“Roger that over” Harry ended the conversation as Senator Trelawney came into view down below.  The top of her dirty blonde head walked over to the refreshments table and the sight of her filled Harry with an anger that he struggled to put out. None of this would be necessary if the government official just accepted the Order’s help outright. 

As soon as Snape got wind of Voldemort's plans to abduct the senator and kill her, he went to dumbledore with the news and we have been trying ever since to keep her safe. 

Professor Sybill Trelawney became a target the moment she proposed a bill to stop the persecution of meta-humans such as veelas and werewolves and to integrate segregated public schools. Her bill would also provide extra protection for veela families and put a stop to omega trafficking, a secondary source of income for the death eaters. 

The death eaters are a dangerous band but at their core they are a hate group, preaching about the dangers of race-mixing and inter-species marriage even going as far as to assassinate prominent civil rights leaders. 

Another senator came up to Trelawney and said something that made her toss her head back in laughter. Harry growled deep in his throat. How dare she be so carefree while there were multiple death threats with her name on them? She has every right to enjoy her night like any other human being he reasoned with himself. 

Harry found that his emotions had become extremely overwhelming as the full moon approached. He’d told lupin about this development and the professor advised him to keep wolfsbane close so as to combat the effects of the lunar body. Thus leading to the necklace of wolfsbane he kept around his neck meant to dampen his wolfish attributes and habits. 

He woke up the day after winning the game for Gryffindor, feeling like he was going to jump out of his skin. 

He went for a run and after running nine miles without stopping at a pace of eight miles an hour he called Lupin because he knew in his bones that something was wrong. 

It turned out that his werewolf abilities would start to peek through the closer he got to the full moon.

Just then Bill Weasley, his partner for tonight's mission, signed his way. 

“Unnamed vehicle approaching.”

Harry nodded and made his way across the roof. Crouching when he reached the edge of the roof, he peered over the ledge and made out the headlights of a black tinted van as it pulled up to a stop next to the unsecured back of the museum. 

Bill started to say something but harry signed for him to stop as the door of the van pulled open. 

Half a dozen masked men emerged from the van each armed. He scrunched his nose as a putrid scent emanated from the group of men. That was one side effect the wolfsbane couldn’t dampen, fairly pleasant scents he could ignore but the especially rancid ones had a way of sneaking through his mental barriers. 

Harry saw the glint of AK 47s in their arms. 

He watched silently as they broke down the door and ran inside each one after the other. 

“We need to get down there and secure the target” Bill whispered after waiting for a minute to see if the coast was clear. 

Bill was right of course but Harry was eyeing another prize. 

The black unmarked van sat there unassuming, almost taunting Harry. He couldn't help thinking about hijacking the van. He thought about what he would find inside what clues to the dark lord's identity he could locate. Even a clue to their hideout would be crucial to the Order’s progress. 

Bill looked towards his gaze.

“Harry we can't. We need to get to Trelawney before they do.” the redhead said, reading his mind. 

Harry tore his gaze from the vehicle mumbling a quick fine.

Together they scaled down the side of the building and entered the museum through the broken-in door. 

They had to sneak through the backlog of stored away artifacts before they found their way to the east wing. 

They had studied the aerial plan of the museum for days making sure to have the building plans down to a science before their mission so as they ran through corridors and turned right and left whenever they caught sight of working staff they were never confused. 

They were just approaching the central atrium when the sound of gunshots stopped them in their tracks. 

“shit “ harry muttered ducking behind a pillar. Bill ran with the screaming crowd seamlessly infiltrating the horde of people. 

It was up to Harry now to locate Trelawney and get her out of here. Harry shut his eyes and prayed that his newly acquired werewolf senses wouldn’t fail him now. 

He’d met Sibyll Trelawney once before under the pretense of trying to convince her to not attend this very event. He’d gone with dumbledore to the senator's office where they discussed the implications of her attending the gala. But really harry was there to get a sample of her scent. And harry had gotten more than he’d bargained for even smelling her incoming nosebleed. 

Sibyll smelt like lavender ashes if that makes sense. It was a sweet scent that lured you in then smacked you in the face with its acridness. 

Harry took a deep breath letting the hundreds of smells filter into his nose until he caught it, the smokey flowery trail. He gave in to the wolf inside him letting it lead him just like lupin taught. His legs followed and he had to remind himself to be sneaky lest he draw the attention of the death eaters holding up the central atrium. 

He snuck around until he reached the south wing where he finally caught sight of the wild hair and bright lipstick of Trelawney through a window. Separating them was a locked mahogany door with glass windows laid in the top. Dropping to his knees Harry slipped his trusted laser pen out of his pocket. 

He used the red beam to saw through the lock on the door and kicked the barrier open. 

She, Trelawney,  was currently being hassled and shaken by a death eater while their partner intimidated the rest of the guests with their gun. The guests were on their knees, hands behind their heads. 

“That's right folks I want phones, jewels.” the man fingered the pearl necklace of a quaking woman “and credit cards now.” he passed a bag around and fired a warning shot into the air when a man started to get up to protest. 

Harry stayed away from the trigger-happy assailant sneaking up behind the one holding up Sybill by the sockets of her arms. He kicked the death eaters' legs out from under him effectively silencing the room and drawing the attention of the masked armed man. 

This was where the plan got dicey. 

“And who the fuck are you?.” 

Harry, in the split second it took for the man to aim his gun at him, had Trelawney in his arms essentially but apologetically using her as a shield. 

“I’m the person who’s going to walk out of here with her.” 

The man with the gun scoffed while his partner groaned on the ground.

“You can't risk killing her, you know very well that Voldemort would have your head for that,” Harry said this statement loudly ensuring that all the guests hear Voldemort's name. This caused the hostages to panic and scream. Leave it to them to spread their rumors about the dark lord.  

“Put the gun down. On the ground now or so help me I’ll snap her neck right now.” harry tightened his hold on her as she squealed in his grip. 

"now kick it over." 

The death eater did as he was told. 

Harry picke dup the weapon and took careful steps backward tugging the short woman along. And once he made it to the doors he turned and ran. 

Harry ran through the halls, Trelawney in tow, his empty hand gripping her limp arm. His legs pumped with inhuman speed and the senator had long since given up running just letting the towering force of a man drag her around. 

“Where.” pant “are you taking me” sybill managed to say the rest. 

“I'm getting you out of here before his death eater buddies come after us.” 

They turned a corner and bumped into a group of death eaters who on sight started shooting after them. 

“I guess they want you dead or alive.” 

“WHAT!” Sybill yelled 

They ran back the way they came only to be trapped in by the death eaters from the east wing. 

“We’re boxed in.” 

Harry shot bullets into the sky effectively breaking the overhead cover of the glass ceiling. Shards of clear glass rained down on them. 

He pulled out his grappling gun and aimed for the roof. 

“Hold on tight,” he said into Sybill's hair while wrapping an arm around her waist. 

They soared into the air and out into the night sky. They crashed and rolled onto the stable concrete roofing surrounding the glass ceiling. 

Trusting that Bill would find his way home, Harry hustled Sybil off the roof, down the building, and onto his motorcycle stashed in a hidden alcove a quick run from the museum. 

“Hold on tight” he warned for the second time that night and then he was off into the dark night. 

*****

Delivering Sybill Trelawney to dumbledore was a hard job made no easier by the fact that the woman refused to shut up. 

“ what if the hook had not found purchase or we had fallen to our deaths?” 

“Then it's a good thing we didn't.” harry said through gritted teeth. He winced inwardly, he knew better than to respond to her incessant rambling. It would only give her cannon fodder, and just like a cannon, she exploded into a new rant. 

“And how did you know that hmm?” she eyed him suspiciously then her face broke into a huge grin. 

“Unless you're a psychic of course!!” she continued. Talking so loudly that the motion-sensing paintings began to stir. 

Harry cursed this woman in his head. All while directing her quickly to the Order meeting room on the second floor. 

“You know I dabble a little bit in the occult!” 

“You don't say” Harry murmured, knocking twice to say that he was not alone before opening the door. 

“Mhmm when I was a teen I could always tell when it was about to rain-.” but before she could finish her sentence she was rudely interrupted by harry. 

“Sybill Trelawney in the flesh ladies and gentlemen” Harry announced to the rowdy room full of restless members of the Order of the Phoenix.They responded with an applause and murmurs of congratulations. Snape of course sat in his chair as stony as ever not even bothering to meet harry's eye. 

He made eye contact with Dumbledore who sat at the head of a long table. The old man sent a knowing wink his way at the sight of Sybill as if to say she's a handful, isn't she ? 

“care to join us harry?” Lupin asked from Dumbledores left-hand side. 

Harry scanned the faces of the people seated doing a double-take when his gaze landed on Bill Weasley. 

“How-How'd you get here before us we-” 

Harry felt his left eye twitch.

“We stopped twice to let someone puke.” 

Sensing the conversation had drifted towards her Sybill spoke up.

“What? it's your fault for driving that monstrosity you call a vehicle.” 

Harry sighed heavily. 

“Whatever, I'll see you guys at the formal debriefing.” harry dismissed himself and left the room. He breathed in the clean scentless air relieved to be free of all those smells. 

He finally let himself relax for the first time that night, his mind wandering to all the places he'd rather be right now. His thoughts drifted to Draco Malfoy, he shut his eyes and rested his head against the wall as blonde hair and gray eyes overtook his mind. 

He was brought back to his mind by the smell of wood and earth. 

He opened his eyes and was met with the sight of Ron coming up the stairs. The tall redhead looked as tired as Harry felt. 

“Hey man,” Ron greeted. 

Harry nodded in response. 

“What are you still doing here?”

Ron held up the large key in his hand

“Someone had to feed the prisoner” 

Suddenly the sleep vanished from his eyes. The prisoner, the man who attacked Draco, was still here. It made sense to keep the man close and the dungeons underneath 12 Grimmauld place were the perfect place to hold the man hostage before turning him over to the authorities. A plan began to form in Harry’s mind. And he thought to himself that maybe the night wouldn't be a complete bust. 

“That the key to the cell?” Harry asked. 

“Umm yeah,” Ron replied confused.

By the look on Harry's face, the ginger quickly realized what he was planning. 

“Harry, no I have to get this back to dumbledore.”

“Look, I'll be in there less than a minute. I just want to ask him some questions. please I promise. Look what am I gonna do to him? You can even come with.” 

“I dunno mate no one's been able to get anything out of him not even Mad eye.” 

“Exactly! So what's the harm?” 

Ron looked around the corridor and over his shoulder, searching for listening ears. 

“Alright .” Ron gave in and heaved a heavy sigh. 

“Careful, watch your step.” the tall lanky redhead warned as he guided harry down the steps leading to the underground dungeons. 

He ducked his head as the ceiling dipped and rose back up. 

They walked beside each other through the winding cave-like structure of the cellars. 

Soon enough they came to the jail cells that marked the dungeons. Before they walked up to Greyback's cell, the only occupied cell, Harry’s nostrils were assaulted by the stench of filth. A mixture of blood, urine, feces, and sweat. 

Ron laughed at the look on his friend's face. 

“You asked for this.” 

The gingers' chuckle soon disappeared as he opened the jail cell. Harry held his breath as the bars of the cell opened. 

Fenrir Greyback was slumped in a corner, his hands and feet shackled to the ground. 

“Back so soon? Have I been good enough to get dessert?” the chained up werewolf growled. 

Docile as the werewolf seemed, Ron wasn't foolish enough to step into the cell, he'd make that mistake once and that'd be the end of him. 

Harry was not so easily cowed. 

The scarred man stepped boldly into the cell and prodded the werewolf with his words. 

“I'm here for answers and you're going to give them to me.” 

The prisoner laughed. 

“I'm not scared of you,” Harry said and it was true, it was as if all the fear had leached out of him when he was bitten. Nothing scared him anymore. 

“Then you’re even more stupid than I thought .” Greyback pointed a dirty finger at the streak of moonlight that splayed against the cell wall.

“You see that that's the moon. No amount of chains will hold me once it's full.” 

“Well you’re not the only werewolf in this room,” Harry said, his voice soft but menacing, the promise of violence barely hidden. 

Silence enveloped the room. 

“Now you will answer me. Tell me about Voldemort why did he send you? ” Harry squatted before him. 

Greyback smiled up at him showing his rotted brown teeth. 

“You have to be more specific than that…pup” 

Harry felt his face twitch with anger but he reeled his emotions in. 

“I want to know why he sent you to Hogwarts and don't lie I’ll know.” 

Greyback positively cackled. 

“On me!! On me? You think you can use your little werewolf tricks on me?” 

The man leveled a look at harry. 

“I've been a werewolf longer than you’ve been alive. None of that will work on me.”

Frustrated, Harry ran a hand through his hair. 

As if sensing that his friend was getting agitated Ron stepped forward, as close as he could get himself to go. 

“Maybe we should just leave man.” the ginger suggested. 

Harry shook his head.

“I’m not leaving until I get answers”

“Listen to your friend, boy. Better men than you have tried and failed” The prisoner spat out the word boy like it was an insult. 

Harry ignored him. 

“Why did Voldemort send you to Hogwarts?”

“You know what I can't get out of my head all this while I’ve been here?” Greyback continued on as if he couldn't hear Harry, talking over his shoulder at Ron. 

“The canine capacity to scent people is a truly marvelous thing you know, I've met people with absolutely intoxicating scents but there's this smell.” he finally looked at harry a sly grin on his face. 

“of Honey and milk. Milk and honey” The werewolf licked his lips. 

 And just like that, his wolf was out.

Harry pulled back his fist and sent it flying into the man’s face. He felt the solid crack of a nose breaking against his skin.

He let his control slip and sensed as blood clouded his vision. He remembered his parents he remembered all he had lost at the hands of Voldemort. His wolf came fully to the surface, his lips pulled back in a snarl and something animal rose inside him. He let his arms fly raining hits down on the werewolf. 

He pulled the now slack body of Fenrir Greyback closer to his face and growled voice low. 

“now I’m going to ask again? Why did Voldemort send you?”

Greyback smiled a rye bloody thing.

“that boy, Malfoy. Have you ever seen skin so white so soft? Bet he tastes as good as he smells.”   

He came back to his mind when Ron pulled him back from a bloody heap squirming on the floor. He pulled Harry out of the cell and locked the jail cell behind them. He did all this to the background noise of Greybacks mounting laughter. 

“what the fuck was that man” Harry pushed his way out of Ron’s hold. 

The open cuts on his knuckles stung like an afterthought. Harry pushed his hair out of his eyes, smearing blood all over his cheeks. 

“What was that Harry? You were going to fucking kill him.” Ron yelled. 

Harry rested his face against the naked concrete of the wall. 

"hes a werewolf, hell heal." 

“we’re not even supposed to fucking be here. What the hell do you think Dumbledore's gonna say when he finds out about this?” 

Harry turned on Ron with inhuman swiftness. 

“He's not going to say anything because he's not gonna find out.” all the blood left Ron's face.

“Harry you don’t- I can't lie for you not about this.” 

“I’m not asking you to lie, quite the opposite actually. I want you to keep your mouth shut.” At that moment the brown-skinned man seemed to grow taller than his friend. He filled up the small room and Ronald Weasley knew he didn’t have any choice he also realized with stark clarity that this man before him was not his best friend. At least not the one he’d drank hot chocolate and wore ugly Christmas sweaters with every year.  

This was someone much darker. 

***********

Harry Potter stood in front of his reflection in one of the many bathrooms of 12 Grimmauld place. He’d washed the dark blood from his knuckles, barely flinching at the stinging cuts. 

When he was done he stopped and stared at his face in the mirror. His hair was sticking up in all different directions like he ran his hand through it too many times. 

He'd lost control in there and even now he could feel his wolf simmering just below the surface. 

He'd done all the rituals Lupin suggested to help him calm the wolf inside him. 

Counting backward from 100, measuring his pulse until he could slow it down manually, paired muscle relaxation, and even splashing cold water on his face to regulate his body temperature. So far only biting the inside of his cheek seemed to ground him, the blood filling his mouth served to force his mind back from the edge. 

There was blood on his face smeared on his nose and across his cheeks. He quickly filled up the sink and ducked his head underwater. He closed his eyes and let the water cool his boiling blood. 

His mind drifted aimlessly until his thought focused on something, someone. 

Draco. He hoped the omega was having a better night than him. He couldnt get Greybacks words out of his mind, he couldnt even pretend the thought of dracos skin, nice and soft, had never occured to him. 

Harry couldn't pretend that he hadn't thought about what his turning would mean for their relationship. He hadn't had his first transformation yet and he was already acting like a savage, he didn't want to bring that kind of behavior anywhere near Draco but the blonde was like a magnet forever attracting harry's gaze. 

And of course, there was the fact of harry's presentation, he wasn't worried about presenting as an omega, omegas were born not turned whether werewolf or veela. That left beta and alpha as Harrys’ open possibilities. 

He wouldn't mind being a beta but an alpha…

He raised his head and using one of the hand towels hanging around the sink, he dried his face. And before he could stop himself he pulled out his keys and headed to his dorm and by proxy Draco Malfoy.

*******

Draco was in the middle of a Gilmore Girls marathon with Hermione when he heard the knock on his door. 

He peeled his lithe form from his bed as he went to answer it. 

“is that ron and harry?'' Hermione asked from her place on the floor. At that thought, Draco quickly ran to the mirror taking note of his my little pony pajamas, the freshly applied nail polish on his hands, and the facemask currently drying on his face. He didn’t reply but he secretly wished it was. Harry and Ron had turned down their night of rest of relaxation in favor of some mysterious project they both had to work on. Draco missed the fit dorky giant the past few days, with him always at some practice or impromptu class meeting. 

He fussed with his hair a bit, the only thing about his appearance that he could address. 

“coming!!” he yelled at the sound of another barrage of knocks on his door. 

Stealing one last glance at his reflection, Draco practically ran to the door. 

He took one last breath, steadied his breathing, and opened the door.

“Oh, it's you,” Draco murmured disappointed at the familiar figure on his doorstep. 

“Hm, what was that?” Theo Nott asked. 

“nothing nothing” 

The brunette trailed his eyes from Draco's head to his toes. Taking in every inch of bare skin.

The My little pony shorts that seemed practical and even fun to Draco a moment ago now felt dirty and risqué.

Draco cleared his throat forcing Theo to look up from his legs. 

My eyes are up here weirdo 

“hi how's your um evening going?” the gangly teen asked.

Worse now that you're here 

“It's been good. great actually. Hermione and I were just watching Gilmore girls.”

“Oh, you have a visitor, nice nice.” 

A silent pause.

“ how's your evening going?” Draco asked politely. 

“oh it's great been great” 

They both stand there awkwardly. 

“What's the hold-up?” Hermione asks loudly. 

She comes up beside Draco and holds the door open further to accommodate her short figure. 

“oh it's you”

“what?”

“nothing” 

“I’m Theodore Nott. I don't believe we’ve met.” Theodore said, sticking his hand out for her to shake. 

Hermione took the hand and shook it gingerly. 

“Theodore “

“Theo” he corrected.

“It's been nice meeting you but we have to get going now,” Hermione said slowly, closing the door. 

“Wait! I came to ask Draco here.” he smiled, all gums and straight white teeth. “If he would like to go out with me tomorrow.” 

Draco groaned internally, he had little to no experience turning men down and had heard horror stories about scorned men taking out their anger on the object of their affection after being rejected. 

Thankfully Hermione interjected. 

“We actually have plans tomorrow, were going apple picking and we already paid the admission fees so sorry about that.” 

Theodore's face fell and Draco didn't like the way his stomach twisted at the kicked puppy look on the man's face. 

“Maybe another time?” 

They didn't have the time to see Theodore's face light up because Hermione shut the door in his face. 

They stood there in silence until they heard the sound of footsteps walking away. 

Then they burst out laughing. 

Wheezing Hermione chocked out “why would you say that” 

“I don't he just looked so sad.” 

“Oh merlin Draco you're gonna have to get used to breaking hearts .” 

Draco climbed back into his bed while Hermione went back to her spot amongst the blankets on the floor. 

They were just about to hit play on Dracos laptop when someone knocked on the door. 

“Are you kidding me?” Hermione complained. 

“Your turn to answer it,” Draco said, throwing a handful of popcorn into his mouth. 

“Fine” Hermione grumbled. 

She got off the floor and trudged to the door and flung it open expecting Theodore Nott or someone equally annoying. 

she was met with the towering figure of Harry Potter.

“Harry!!” she squealed as he pulled her into his arms. 

Draco jumped from his place on the bed spilling popcorn all over his mattress. He soon fell over on the floor, limbs tangled in blankets. He struggled and wriggled out of them and ran to the door. 

And there he was in all his glory, Harry potter. Hermione stepped away from them giving them space, Draco wasted no time and flung himself into harry’s arms shamelessly. 

“I’ve missed you so much,” Draco said.

“I know. I've missed you too.” Harry mumbled into his hair. Draco thanked merlin that he'd had the common sense to wash it that morning. 

Draco eased himself out of harry’s hold and back on his two feet. 

“Well, I'm here for a reason.” 

“And that is.” Draco tried and failed to calm his beating heart. 

Harry flashed his white teeth and Draco was strangely reminded of a wolf baring his fangs.

“I'm here to ask you if you would come with me to a college party.” 

Draco smiled. 

“You know you can just say party, you don't have to say college that part is kind of implied.” 

“Look at you, Mr smartass. But seriously it's fine if you can't, I get that I'm probably interrupting your movie marathon-”

“Yes” 

“What”

“That's my answer. Just give me a minute to kick Hermione out and get dressed”

Harry laughed.

Draco caught sight of the bandages covering Harry's knuckles and heaved a heavy sigh.

"do i even wanna know." he chided raising an eyebrow. 

"you can sleep well tonight, its from kick boxing."

draco smiled.

“I’ll meet you downstairs in a few ok?” Harry suggested. 

“Ok”

True to his word Draco kicked Hermione out although the dark-skinned woman was happy to go saying she wanted to go find her boyfriend. 

He pulled on his tightest leather pants and a form-fitting long-sleeved black shirt, completing the look with a pair of platform doc martens. 

He stomped his way down the stairs to meet up with Harry when he caught sight of glasses and dark silky hair he smiled and tried to catch his eye. 

But he was busy talking to Hermione who had blankets piled high in her arms. His face was serious, all humor was gone from it which was a rare sight. His voice was low enough for Hermione to hear but not for draco's straining ears.  Soon enough they finished their conversation and hugged one last time. 

soon after hermiones exit Harry looked up and finally locked eyes with Draco.

The blonde felt Harry's gaze drift downwards and upwards again and a look of hunger appeared in his eyes. 

Draco flushed and he felt warmth pool down in his stomach. 

“Hey,” Draco muttered. 

“Hi. you look gorgeous by the way.” 

Draco felt the tips of his ears go pink. 

“Thank you” 

Harry walked him out of the building and to his motorcycle. He handed Draco the only helmet. 

Draco shook his head at Harry and heaved a resigned sigh but he pulled on the helmet anyway. 

When they arrived at the Durmstrang frat party Draco was surprised to see people outside stumbling around drunk and puking onto the grass and couples making out against the house. Inside was no better, before him a mass of bodies moved together like an alive being moving in time to the music. 

He’d thought a Durmstrang party would be more or less tame than the Gryffindor afterparty he’d attended a week ago. 

Harry laughed and smiled at the look on his face.

“Forgot to warn you, the Durmstrang boys are wild. but seriously don't accept any drinks or pills from anyone. I'll get you some shots if you want, I know where to get the good stuff,” 

Draco nodded at Harry's words. 

The tall man left Draco for a minute but quickly returned with two shots in each hand.

“Straight from the bottle, you can trust me on this”

Draco nodded and took the small glasses in Harry's right hand, he tipped his head back and swallowed, not letting himself taste the clear liquid.

“Wanna dance?” the blonde asked. 

Harry, mind clear despite the alcohol he had ingested, denied the invitation with a soft smile and a shake of the head. 

Draco feeling the sting of rejection hid his frown and grinned.

“Well if you need me I'll be on the dance floor.” 

Draco felt the alcohol burning down in his stomach Just then the music seemed to worm its way into his ears. His hips moved with a mind of their own and his arms were in the air waving back and forth to the beat of the song. He was mildly aware of the eyes tracking his every move. Soon enough someone crowded into his space and danced with his hands not touching Draco but close enough that phantom touches left heat on the omegas skin. 

Harry meanwhile was trying and failing to calm his wolf at the sight of the omegas' slim form moving so sensually. It was when the stranger put his hands on Draco's trim waist that Harry could feel himself growling. He pushed back from his place on the wall and walked over to them. Using his hulking form he pushed through the crown and shouldered past the unknown person who dared put their hands on Draco. He was so close to punching the guy's face in but the man took his dismissal gracefully and went on dancing. 

Draco opened his eyes and stared up at Harry as if daring him to move to dance to do something.  

Harry Potter picked him up. His hands encased Draco's waist and lifted the blonde clean off the floor. Draco laughed as Harry spun him through the air holding him high above the heads of their fellow drunk college mates. The blonde’s hands settled on his chest and his hands cupped Harry's face, the pink nail polish on his fingers almost glowing in the magic of the night. After a minute high in the air harry brought him back down to the ground and as soon as Draco Malfoy's feet touched the floor he pulled Harry Potter's head down and kissed him. 

Chapter Text

Kissing Harry Potter was nothing like the movies, and nothing like the books. Those described kissing as fireworks. This was an explosion, a barrage of sparks.  Something hungry, feral and passionate passed between them as they locked lips. 

Harry’s lips were full but hard, soft and cushiony but cracked all the same and Draco wanted more. So much more. He wanted to give himself over to Harry all the parts of him that he never dared show to anyone else, all the parts he himself had not discovered yet. And by the fervent way he kissed back, Draco knew harry felt the same. 

Draco let his hands wander, letting them glide over the muscled arms that were covered by a red Hogwarts hoodie. He wondered how they’d feel with no barrier of clothes between them. He loved Harry's arms being in them was like coming home, it was like nothing in the real world could get him while he was there. 

“Hold me” draco whispered, breaking the kiss. 

******

Harry looked down at him and tried to comprehend what he was seeing. Draco malfoy stripped bare in the sense that his brain was mush, his eyes hooded, his mouth red and swollen, draco malfoy was the picture of want. 

It was enough to bring any warm blooded man to his knees. He looked down at Draco, really looked at him. His mouth said one thing while his eyes said ‘fuck me’ but harry couldn’t; not while he was vulnerable like this and most importantly of all, not while he was drunk. 

Their time would come but tonight he would reign himself in. Harry Potter, much to the disapproval of his wolf who saw nothing but a willing omega before them, adjusted his pants, ignoring the aching hard on in there, and picked Draco up bridal style.

“Weeee!!” Draco yelled “I'm on a ride. Take me away my trusty steed” 

Harry smiled as he pushed his way through the crowd. This was a bad idea, he had come to distract himself from his problems instead he'd gotten Draco drunk. it was time to leave. 

They made their way out of the house and to his motorcycle.

“Can I trust you to hold on to me?” harry asked putting draco down. 

“Yes sir!.” the blonde saluted into the air. 

“I'm serious.” Harry said, struggling to keep a smile off his face. 

Draco let his hand fall and walked up to the taller man. He threw his arms around harry's shoulders.

“I know. Thanks for the ride captain.” he finished with a tap to Harry's cheek and a wink. Then he slowly walked to the vehicle making a show of raising his leg and climbing onto the set. 

Harry was left speechless, he couldn't believe it, couldnt believe his eyes.

 Draco malfoy was a sexy drunk.

“Cmon just once.” draco begged.

“No,” Harry said, repeating himself with a smile on his face. 

And as if draco could tell that the taller man was on the verge of saying yes, he kept prodding. 

“You're just scared i'll beat you.” Draco said smugly, his nose in the air. 

“Really?” 

“Yup”

“What if I beat you, what do I get then?”

“You get one.” the omega held up one finger in front of Harry's face.

“Kiss” he finished and booped Harry's nose with that finger. 

“Alright then I'll race you.” Harry said standing up from his seat on the swing set. 

Draco jumped from the swing causing it to fly backwards. 

“One lap from the slides to the sandbox.” draco instructed. 

Harry nodded his head in acquiescence. Moving along with Draco to stand next to the slides. 

“You can do the countdown, on three” he said. 

Harry eyed the drunk man carefully, there was a boxy grin on his face. He was planning something. 

“One, two-”before he could finish the blonde was off  running. 

“You cheat!!” harry yelled, lungs pumping and legs pushing him forward with every step. 

The closer he got to the blonde the sooner the giddy smile on his face came into view. 

Harry slowed his pace contemplating letting him win just for the fun of it. But then he thought of the prize he could win, another kiss from draco even a drunk one was hard to pass up .

He ran directly behind Draco which was why when the blonde came to an abrupt stop he barreled right into him. 

Using his newly found reflexes he flipped the blonde around in his arms as they fell to the ground and used his body to cushion the fall. 

The wind was knocked out of his over working lungs and he struggled to catch his breath. 

“Sorry” Draco said from on top of him . 

Harry didn't reply, he just lay there under the omega catching his breath. 

“I was almost there you know, i almost won” 

“After cheating” harry squeaked but the blonde just waved his hand as if waving harry's words away. 

“And that's when i thought to myself why would i win? I want a kiss too”

Draco looked down at him. “I want to kiss you again.” 

Harry propped himself up to his elbows causing the omega on top off him to slide down from his winded stomach to his hips. 

He looked into the boy's stormy gray eyes, not moving as Draco brought his fingers to his face. Slowly the omega caressed his cheeks, fingers soft and warm on his skin. He slid the glasses off harry's face but his vision remained sharp, nothing blurred at the edges. He didn't dare move. 

draco glided his hands down his chest glasses in hand. He pressed his hand against his chest and felt as Harry potter's heart nearly beat out of his chest. Then slowly so painfully slowly that harry ached with every passing second, the boy leaned in and pressed his thin lips against harry's full ones. 

They kissed. Slowly then passionately, lips moving against each other then taking a chance Draco opened his mouth and waited as Harry's tongue slid inside. Their tongues pressed together and danced in unison. 

It felt like every nerve in Harry's body was coming alive; he could feel everything all at once. 

Holy shit his mind said.  

He felt his body responding to dracos ministrations, his soft hands on his chest nearly burned his skin through his shirt. He felt the beginnings of a boner in his jeans from the kiss, dracos touch and the plush supple ass that pressed against him. 

He tasted sweet, like honey and milk but with a bitter tang of alcohol. 

Holy shit draco malfoy is sitting on my dick . 

It was that thought that spurred him on. 

He sat up and wrapped his arms around dracos waist pulling him closer till their bodies were pressed against each other. 

It was a blur of hands in hair and teeth occasionally clashing.

Just then a sweet intoxicating smell entered the air and Harry felt something damp on his lap. He pulled back a little sniffing at the air trying to identify the smell. 

“Do you smell that?” he asked draco. 

The blonde looked at him through cloudy eyes and he smiled shaking his head but he humored Harry all the same. He took a second to sniff hard and then he shot up from harrys lap and onto his feet. 

“Oh no, no no no no. i can't not now not fucking now.”  Draco said, starting to freak out. 

He turned and  looked  down at  the wet spot that managed to appear on the back of his black leather pants. 

Harry watched as he squatted down on the ground and hid his face in his hands. 

The taller man got to his feet and approached the crouched figure slowly like he was a cornered animal. 

“Draco.”  he whispered bending down and slowly but carefully lifted the omega to his full height. 

“Draco.” he repeated the boys name trying to get him to lift his face from his hands and look him in the eye. 

“Draco listen its okay.” 

The blonde before him shook his head and harry watched helplessly as tears leaked through the gaps in his palms. 

“You don't understand. I think i'm in preheat.” he mumbled through his fingers 

Harry had a vague idea of what happened. A hazy memory of his underpaid and overworked eighth grade biology teacher explaining the omega heat cycle. 

“This is so embarrassing merlin. I am going to kill myself.” he said after hearing nothing from the taller man. 

“Thats not funny now look at me.” he pulled the blondes hands away from his face.

“Its ok this is ok. You are who you are and i knew what i was doing when i started this between us.” 

Draco looked at him unconvinced. 

“What is this anyway?” he said waving his hand between them. 

Harry leved a look at the shorter unimpressed. 

“I asked you to be with me a couple weeks ago. The invitation still stands.” 

Draco shook his head.

“You were all drugged up, you didnt mean it. 

“And right now youre drunk so this isnt exactly a good time for that conversation either” harry snapped. He immediately felt sorry, it wasnt dracos fault he was drunk and he was in preheat his emotions were heightened. But so were harrys, he was using every ounce of his self control to keep his wolf at bay, especially this close to the full moon; all that part of him wanted was to pounce on the omega. 

“Listen, we’re both worked up right now. How about i take you home?” he tried to smile to reassure the omega that the night was not ruined. 

“I dont wanna go home.” he whined. “Plus i feel gross and sticky.” 

Harry’s smile turned genuine at the sound. 

“I have an idea. “ 

******

Draco had long since sobered up, thanks to the traumatizing event of the night. Right now he was cuddled up to harrys side as they watched the stars from the astronomy tower. 

He raised the sleeve of the hoodie he was wearing to his nose, inhaling the woodsy warm scent of harry potter. 

The giant man had offered up his even bigger hoodie to the blonde for him to change into. Thankfully it reached his knees so draco was able to change out of his sticky jeans. 

“Got any plans for thanksgiving?” harry asked breaking the comfortable silence that blanketed them. 

“I honestly dont know if my parents want me to come home haha” draco stated adding a little laugh at the end to dilute the seriousness of the statement.

Harry looked away from the stars and down at him. Draco rested his head on the taller mans shoulder and he responded by putting his arm around dracos shoulders and rubbing circles into his arm through the fabric of the hoodie. 

“Well then its a good thing hermione, ron and i are having a friendsgiving slash thanksgiving at the burrow.” 

“The burrow?” 

“Yeah thats what we call rons house.” 

Draco went quiet contemplating the invitation. 

“I’d love to be there. Ill call my mom and ask her if shes expecting me home for the holiday.” 

“Ok” 

They went back into the comfortable silence. 

“I meant what i said you know. About wanting you.” 

Daco shut his eyes and sighed.

“Lets talk about this tomorrow.” the blonde said falling asleep. 

But they never did.

**********

“Again” Snape instructed. 

Harry sighed deeply, summoned all his strength and pulled. Hard.

The chains around his wrists and his ankles strained against his skin. Fresh pools of blood welled and leaked over the iron chains covered in dried crusted blood that spoke to how long they had been doing this. 

He pulled and pulled until he gave out and slumped down on the floor. 

“get up” severus said through gritted teeth. 

Harry looked up at the cloaked figure, sweat trailing into his eyes, the salt stung his eyes. 

“I can’t” he groaned chains clanking together as he wiped his forehead with his arm. 

“weve been testing these chains all day severus if they haven’t broken by now I think its safe to say we’re in the clear.” 

Snape leveled a look at him, the corner of his lip curling in what appeared to be disgust but harry knew was pity. He couldn’t tell which he hated more. 

“get. up”

“severus” a new but familiar voice spoke up. 

Lupin came in looking the most dressed down Harry had ever seen him. He was wearing a pair of trousers and a t shirt that said Barbara Streisand in cursive letters. 

“enough severus. He’s had enough.” Remus warned 

Snape barely looked at him, his eyes trained on harrys slumped form. 

“get up” snape repeated 

Obediently harry raised his head and soon his limbs followed.

Lupin walked up to snape  and whispered quietly although harry had no problem making out their words. 

“we need him exhausted not passed out severus.” 

Snape said nothing he just stared down stonily at were harry knelt. 

“hes just a boy sev”

That seemed to jolt the proffessor out of his trance because he soon shouted. 

“that boy” he spat out the word “is a ticking time bomb

If we do not contain him he could massacre hundreds If not infect more.” 

“or he could die turning. Is that what you want severus because I assure you at the rate you are going it is more than a possibility.” Lupin snapped.

Snape flinched back like he had been slpped across the face. 

“he said chaos, not not this.” Snape muttered shaking his head and stumbling back, unsteady on his feet. 

“I failed her remus” he looked at harry but the boy could tell he wasn’t really seeing him. Snape often got like this when he looked at harry like all he could see was someone else. 

“Severus look at me I'm here aren’t I. I survived and so will he.” Lupin pointed at harry who had taken this brief reprieve to sit on the floor and catch his breath. 

Harry looked to the barred of hole in the wall they called a window, the sun had gone down and like he could feel it in his bones the way harry could, remus began to direct snape out of the cellar that he and harry would occupy for the next twelve hours. 

“Listen to me harry.” snape began “this is your first transformation so it will last longer and it will be more painful than anything you have ever experienced.”

“It’s basically your bones breaking and reforming into that of a wolf, over and over for every single bone in your body.” remus interjected. 

Harry gulped. 

“here “ snape handed him a bottle full of a yellowy liquid.

“Bleugh” harry gagged as he took off the cap and sniffed at te liquid. He felt the smell stick in his nostrils burning his nose hairs and refusing to abate. 

“That is liquified wolfsbane. Its undiluted so drink it right when you feel the change coming on.” remus said. 

The professor of defense against the dark arts looked down at his watch “We’re running out of time severus” 

Snape nodded and bent down to make eye level with harry. 

“You will get through this or so help me you will be my teaching assistant every semester till you graduate.” 

That forced a laugh out of harry although his nerves threatened to choke him. 

“snape“ remus said warningly. 

“What if the chains dont hold? What if he cant handle it? what if hes an alpha?” 

“In that case only the gods can help us.” 

And just then the light of the full moon reflected unto the floor of the cellar of the old principals building. 

It started slow. It was at first an itch under his skin and then it erupted into flames The pain was like a tap turned from a trickle to a gush. 

Snape turned and left slamming the door, his cape fluttering behind him. 

“Remus remus im scared.” 

The older man simply shook his head, tears appearing in the corner of his eyes. He knew better than to offer words of comfort for no words could adequately prepare anyone for this. 

This wasnt supposed to happen, he was supposed to protect the boy and yet here he was subjected to the same fate as he was. But there was one difference, harry potter would not be alone for his first turn. 

Lupin fell to his knees and directed the lip of the bottle to harrys lips.

“Drink” 

Harry looked up at him with fearful eyes but he opened his mouth and drank.

 It tasted like battery acid. 

Harry gagged sputered and spat the burning liquid froom his mouth but he had already ingested some of the cursed fluid and it tuned his stomach to a pit of fire that burned with a single minded fury. 

He looked at remus eyes like that of a wounded puppy, his trust betrayed.

 The change was underway. 

There was a brief moment of calm that lulled harry into thinking it wasnt that bad at all, he culdnt have been more wrong. 

“GAAAAHHAAAAH” Harry screamed as his femur shattered into pieces.

Harry looked at the slammed metal vault of a door contemplating his situation. 

“Please lupin. Help me.” he begged, clawing at his own skin looking for any way to stop the pain. 

“REMUS!”he yelled as his collarbone broke in two, as his ribs began to rearrange themselves. The other werewolf in the room looked down at him in sorrow, his face contorting into an expression of deep pity and remorse. This was to be his biggest failure in life, his inability to protect this boy he loved so deeply from the same fate as he.

“I can't- please no more. No more!! I beg you please.” he screamed at the sky to whatever gods were up there. 

He heaved as his stomach muscles convulsed, in pain, from the wolfsbane or from the turn he could not tell. 

“Amma” he cried pathetically as vomit trailed down his chin. Visions of his mother began to appear before him, his mother beautiful and tall, her skin dark and browned by the sun. 

He remembered her tossing him up into the air and catching him always being there to catch him so he never fell. Even now when he knew she was dead and gone he called out to her beggng for relief for comfort. 

He collapsed as his arms gave out from under him,he lay in his own vomit as tears ran down his cheeks and mucus flowed from his nostrils. 

His perfect vision began to blur. Black spots began to appear at the corners of his sight and they spread enveloping him. His mind began to follow, and so soon he was unable to string sentences together, he just screamed the same thing till the turn took him and his mind turned over to the wolf. 

*****

Draco was not new to his heats but this one, tonight, was different. There was something in the air or rather the stuffy stale air of his room that seemed suffocating. He got up from his bed and made his way to his door.  He tested the locks on his door feeling unsafe at the thought of someone else on the other side. 

No omega should have to go through their heat in a new environment like this. Alone and scared. With no one to comfort and care for them. 

He walked way from the door and went to the window seeking to alleviate the oppressive feel of the air. 

He pushed open the glass pane and felt the cold breeze on his hot cheeks. He looked up at the moon and wondered where harry was. If he was looking up at the same moon right now. The past two days since the party had been a wreck with draco hiding out in his room awaiting his heat but it was made better by harry texting him encouraging words every couple hours. 

He even went as far as to install new locks on dracos door to make the omega feel safer. Draco had called him in the middle of the saturday night crying about theo nott and what if the regular lock on the door wasnt enough and someone found him and did gods knows what to him while he was out of it. 

Harry hadn’t dismissed his worries as paranoia the way his parents often did when he got like this before his heats. The man had told him he’d do something about it, gone out into the night and came knocking at dracos door toolbox in one hand and locks in the other. 

“How about we agree to tell no one about this eh? Especially the building attendants i could get in some real trouble.” he smiled that night trying to lighten the mood. Draco had jumped into his arms and he remembered the distinct feel of harry digging his nose into his shoulder. The warmth of his body pressed gainst his lean form. 

The next morning draco woke up to find a basket of food at the foot of his door. It came along with a note saying: 

I can only hope this will help. see you as soon as youre ok. all the best - H

Draco pushed back from the window sat on the floor of his dorm room and pulled the basket of fruit and other snacks to himself. He found the note and stared at harry’s god awful handwriting and smiled to himself. 

He could deny it no longer. He loved harry potter at least he thought the beating of his heart and the shaking of his hands whenever the man got close was love. 

But he was scared. Hed been denied love all his life. His mother and father had made it clear they would bestow only the very necessary amount of care upon him and no more. All his attempts to grow closer to them had been rebuffed so how was he to kow what requited love felt like?

The itching feeling that usually preceded his full blown heats started at the tips of his fingers and the sole of his feet and it travelled up his leafs and arms engulfing him in a feeling of emptiness and want. 

He climbed into his bed on top of his covers. He leaned over the edge of the mattress and pulled a dark navy blue box from its hiding place. 

His face turned bright red as it usually did when he had to do this. 

E flipped open the box and his toys glinted back at him in the moonlight. He had made sure to charge his vibrator the last time he used it and his dildo had been freshly cleaned after every use. He blew out a breath as he felt slick leak from his hole. 

In one last burst of reasoning he grabbed harry potters red hogwarts hoodie from its place neatly folded on his nightstand.

He brought the cloth to his nose and breathed in deeply.

“Alpha“ he moaned. 

******

The light of the full moon shone down as Arthur Weasley locked up his office for the night. The greying man had a long day at work trying to get the department of methuman and human relations to take the threat of omega trafficking seriously. But hed been met with the same indifference of not outright dismissal for why would the higher ups want to disrupt a trade that lined their pockets and warmed their beds. Arthur shuddered at the thought. 

His footsteps echoed in the empty office. He had worked well into the night and now he was the last person to leave. He was shutting the building door behind him, entering the garage that was located below the building and heading to his car when he felt it. 

It was the feeling of eyes watching you, the feeling that someone is following you. 

He looked around the empty parking lot, every shadow making him nearly jump out of his skin. 

He turned back to his car, the lone vehicle in the premises. He had just inserted the keys into the handle of the beat up 1974 chevy nova when someone came up behind him and knocked him to the ground. 

Arthur fell with a mighty thud his head hurt were his assailant had struck him and his eyesight blurred. 

He tried to get up and fight back but his order days of being inthte field were far behind him and the masked attaker kicked him with steel toed boots in the gut. Over and over until the weasley man tasted blood on his tongue. 

Just when he thought the barrage was over a van pulled up and arthur smelt the burning of tire on the pavement of the parking lot. Multiple men got of as soon as it came to a stop and together the hefted arthur weasley off the ground and into the van. The men surrounding him all wore similar masks as the assailant. 

A pitch back canvas bag was puled over his head obscuring his vision. 

Rule number one of self defence was never let them move you to a different location but it seemed already too late for that. 

The men became blurs of figures and one of them bashed a gun against arthurs head effectivey knocking the man out. 

******

Severus snape walked swiftly down the hallway, the sound of the heel of his shoes echoing in the dark. 

He soon reached a stairway that led up to dumbledores office. 

He ascended quickly but his mind was elsewhere causing him to trip over himself on the final step. 

Calm yourself severus, the boy will be fine. He chided himself on his lack of concentration. He blamed it on his lack of seep but he knew deep down that his mind was wiith a certain dark haired golden skinned boy. 

Dumbledore had summoned him as soon as the full moon had reached its peak. The bearded man had said his presence was urgently needed. And however much it pained him to sit outside the cellar and listen to harrys whimpers and crie of pain, it pained him even more to leave. 

He knocked on the door, three consecutives knocks that signalled his presence. 

“Come in” 

He reached for the door knob and twisted pushing the door open. 

Albus dumbledoor was seated almost lazily behind his elaborate desk, glasses perched on his nose. 

“Sit” he motioned for severus to sit before him in one of the two chairs that lined the front of his cluttered desk. 

Severus slid into the chair on the right and fought the urge to push the chair foward so he could look dumbledoor directly in the eye. 

They sat in silence for a minute and snape could swear he heard the sound of screams drifting up from the cellars.

“I take it the boys transformation is underway.” dumbledore asked. 

Severus nodded in response. 

“It-it sounded more painful than i expected”

“I thought so. Severus if this is too much for you-”

“No!” snape almost flew from his chair. 

“I vowed to help you those twenty one years ago. Nothing about that has changed.” he let his words settle in the air. 

“About that. For the past two decades we have had aligned purposes, yours being to protect the boy and mine being to end voldemort. To assuage any doubts you have about continuing your end of the bargain i fully intend to kill lord voldemort this year. No more prancing around severus. The boy is ready.” 

Snape couldnt believe his ears. 

“Ready?? Potter is seven floors below experiencing the worst pain either of us could imagine and you think he’s ready?” 

“We have wasted enough time. While we have been training the boy voldemort hs been gathering his forces, he was weak before but all he needs now is to mate the malfoy boy and his plans are complete. Soon he will have everything he needs to come out of hiding and you and i both know we can not let that happen.” 

Snape nodded his head passively.

“Yes yes but he was just turned into a werewolf does none of this concern you?” 

“Of course it concerns me. But i cannot let years of planning and sacrifice go to waste because of one person.” 

“He will change obviously and he wll present as an alpha. I know the signs. And do you know what this means severus? He will be an alpha up against voldemort who despite his abilities is a mere human.”  

Snape shot up from his chair and paced back and forth.

“Theres no way you think this is a good thing”

“is it unplanned for? yes, will it cause for additional planning? yes, but does it completely erase all our progress? The answer is no

Obviously you have come to care for the boy but do not forget what needs to happen for the greater good.” 

Dumbledore rose from his chair gracefully and walked up to snape stopping his continued pacing. 

“For the greater good severus.”

At that moment severus snape got a text message. 

He pulled his flip phone that he used for deth eater business from his pocket and read the message sprawled across his small screen. 

“Arthur weasley has been captured.” he announced. 

In the dark lighting of the room dumbledore's smile was only illuminated by the gleam of the full moon. 

“Perfect” 

Chapter Text

Chapter Ten 

    Ronald Weasley was at work when he found out that his father had been captured, he was holding Hermione’s hand when he learned that his dad was in grave danger, and he was in the Walmart employee bathroom when he knew that he was going to do something about it.    

He was working a late-night Saturday shift and was counting down the seconds till 5am when he could go home. He stood behind the customer service desk arguing with a regular customer Donny Mero, eying the clock with mounting anticipation. His feet hurt, his back occasionally shot bolts of hot pain up his spine and at 1am his vision had started to blur around the edges. He knew working doubles fucked with his body in more ways than one. There was a reason why no one picked up those late night/ early morning shifts. At around midnight, you were usually so tired and exhausted that falling asleep while standing up was normal, you would come to after nodding off or jerk awake while stacking spices in the condiment aisle, paprika in one hand chicken bouillons in the other. It was the 3 am window you really had to watch out for. The quiet dead hours where you fazed in and out of waking and sleeping with no recollection of entering the latter. Those were the hours people lost fingers in the meat slicer.  

Ron spread a hand down his face as if to wipe away his exhaustion.  

“I told you not to overload the machines man.”  

“Yeah, I know but that bitch Sandy, you know the one with the Target shopping bags? She was using all the other ones. What was I s’posed to do?”  

Donny was shrouded in a hot cloud of Butterbeer and marijuana smoke so strong that it penetrated Ron’s drowsiness and scrubbed the sleep from his eyes.  

“You were supposed to come to me and let me sort it out”  

Try as he might, Ron could not find the fortitude to be mad at the guy. Donny was charming, loquacious and entertaining. He always stopped by around this time whenever Ron was the shift lead, grateful because Ron gave him all the sushi and cold cuts that were about to go bad. He was a nice guy to have around. He was funny, ridiculously good at poker and this was a way Ron could look out for him, check in, and see if he’d started using again.  

“yeah yeah”  

The older man waved his gnarled leathery hands in the air dismissively.  

Ron was about to take out his keys so he could go service the bottle collectors when he saw Harry and Hermione come into the store.  

He blinked hard, thinking for a second that his mind was playing tricks on him. That he might have fallen asleep for a second and conjured them up. But no, they were there, in the flesh, one of Harry's hands thrown over Hermione's shoulder, her head tucked into his side and her arms wrapped around her body. He felt the joy that usually accompanied seeing his friends, seeing her. Then his fatigued brain remembered that he’d told Hermione that he’d stop working double shifts, especially late ones.  

“Fuck”  

The word slipped out of his mouth unbidden. The outburst caused Donny to laugh and look over at the duo making their way to the counter. He scratched at his armpits underneath his several coats and mirthfully chuckled.  

“ain’t that your girl?” 

Ron nodded absentmindedly. “I told her I’d be at my brothers' place tonight” 

“You slimy son of a bitch” Donny cackled approvingly “Didn’t know you had it in you to lie to the Mrs”  

“I’m not lying to her, just stretching the truth a little.”  

As they got closer, Ron noticed the absence of a smile on Harry’s usually jovial face and a red tinge in Hermione’s eyes.   

Her big bright eyes were dull and low-lidded, her cloud of hair piled into a bun atop her head leaving her neck looking long and strangely bare. She looked sad, she looked vulnerable, she looked naked. 

Later on, he will look back on this night and know that this was the moment he realized that something was wrong.  

“Hey guys”  

“Hey” Harry tried for a smile, but it did not reach his eyes, Hermione’s did but her lips were pressed tightly together. 

“Donny” A reverent nod from Harry. 

“’arry” An exuberant bow.  

“I’ll be with you guys in a sec” he turned back to Donny “lemme get Marcus to help you out” 

Donny shook his beanie-covered head and groaned “Not that guy” but Ron was already picking up the intra-store duty phone.  

Marcus looked like a younger whiter version of Donny. They were both the same Irish Italian mix common around these parts but where Donny was weathered and hunched over, Marcus was sharp, clean, and tall. Where Donny dropped the occasional vowel and skipped over consonants, Marcus made sure to pick up extras on his way through the simplest sentences.  

He was more than happy to take over responsibility for the avuncular customer. He was the sort of person that expected to be handed other people's obligations. 

They left the customer service desk, Ron, Harry and Hermione, and made their way to the staff lounge on the upper floor. Ron led them up the stairs and through the winding liminal corridors in silence. He noticed an intimacy between Harry and Hermione, a closeness born from them both holding a truth that he was yet unaware of.  

Something was very wrong.  

The lunchroom was deserted and lit up only by the neon glow of a half-empty vending machine. Motion-sensing lights were triggered by their movements as they gathered around a small circular table, Ron seated in the middle.  

They sat and listened to the continuous whirring and vibrating sounds of the buildings' large-scale freezers until Harry looked up from the oil-stained table at his best friend.  

“Ron”  

At the sound of his name, the redhead felt his entire body brace for impact subconsciously. 

“What?” He looked at Hermione and tried to make eye contact with her, but her lips trembled even as she remained motionless, unblinkingly mapping the topography of the crumbs dusting the table’s surface. “What’s wrong?”  

Under the table, he reached for her hand and successfully pried her fingers from underneath her legs and intertwined them together with his.  

She squeezed lightly and he felt something loosen in his chest.  

“Is it- is it my mom? Fred? George? Ginny?”  

“It’s your dad” Harry delivered the news solemnly with the weight and gravity required of such a statement. “The death eaters have him”  

Ron had always enjoyed the benefit of being the baby of the family. Even after Ginny was born, they’d both enjoyed the freedoms and affections afforded children born last in a litter. He’d missed the years of strife and scarcity that his older brothers experienced when they were still a new young family. He had only recently become grateful of this fact. Of course, the hand me downs grated on his nerves and the perpetually crowded house occasionally suffocated him, but he knew that he was lucky. Lucky to have the guidance of his brothers, lucky to have missed the experimental years where Molly and Arthur were just figuring out how to be parents, and lucky to have so many people in the world that loved him unconditionally before he even came into it. 

“Ron?” Hermione was kneeling next to him, her free hand on his shoulder.   

He looked down at her, at the wide depths of her dark eyes and he found even more love.  

Silently he rose from his plastic chair, let her hand fall from his, and stepped mechanically to the employee bathroom in the corner of the room.  

The harsh white light of the toilet illuminated his bedraggled form in the mirror. His hair was almost radioactively bright, his skin deathly pale, and his lips cracked. It was in this moment, under this unflinching light, breathing the acrid smell of urine and shivering from the cold tile beneath his fingers, that he understood that he was at a crossroads. Ronald Weasley took a long hard look at himself and decided in a brief second, the type of man he was going to be, the type of brother, son, and friend he was going to be to the people that loved him.  

He decided that he was going to be the man that rescued his father from Voldemort.  

****

Draco watched closely, enraptured as Harry weaved and dodged Ron’s swift punches. The sounds of muffled grunts filled the training room, and copious amounts of sweat fell in rivulets onto the boxing mat, salty liquid that occasionally flew and splashed into their congregation of two.  

“Too slow” Harry critiqued.  

Ron responded by quickening his jabs and focusing his strength at the end of his fists. Draco could tell that he was losing momentum, could see his arms slackening and his breath stuttering as Harry kept on. They’d been at this for at least an hour and Draco wondered just how much more the men had in them.   

He buried his chin in the juncture between his knees, balancing his figure on the bleachers as he felt warmth emanating from Hermione beside him. She paid equally rapturous attention to the dance occurring before them, to Harry’s graceful languorous movements and the jagged unfocused responses they elicited from Ron. Her full bottom lip lay tucked in between her teeth and her fingers fidgeted wildly in her lap. She was nervous. That much was clear. 

Draco knew something was wrong. Had suspected as much for the past week ever since a quiet sobriety had come down on the trio of friends. He felt the sharp unrelenting sting of exclusion, but he understood that it was not his place to ask. He did not want to add to whatever issue they were struggling with. He hoped that the fact of his presence was, at the very least, a net positive.  

His mind went back to earlier that week, to his therapy appointment with Dr Monroe. The chill of Harry’s recent silence had left him feeling raw and frayed. His nightmares had come back and his sleep had gotten worse. The fact that Harry did not answer his texts caused him to lose so much gained ground, to regress exponentially, to isolate himself. He told her how much he hated this. The degree of these emotions of abandonment frightened him. They did not feel normal; they felt out of proportion to the reality of the situation; they felt outside the scope of regular behavior.  

He told her this as tears gathered in his eyes. She watched him steadily, her blue gaze hard and stony but comforting in its strength, reassuring in the depth of its knowledge. 

“I just...He tells me that he wants me the night before I go into a heat and then he doesn’t text me for a week” He let out a cutting laugh.  

“I feel like an Idiot. Merlin, I feel so stupid.” 

He tore at the thick creamy tissues crumpled in his lap and flattened out their damp corners. His mother's voice echoed in his head. The truth of her indifference towards him, audible in the space between her words, in what was left unsaid. He’d called her that Wednesday and asked if he should come home for thanksgiving. He had sensed her reluctance even before she said the words “I am not sure that would be a good idea Draco.”  

The rest of their conversation was stilted but mercifully quick. He could not hear her responses to his inquiries about home life over the ringing in his ears. She did not want him. His father sure as hell didn’t and this wall of silence from Harry meant that he felt the same way.  

“What are you thinking about?” Dr Monroe summoned him back into her office and sat patiently as he drew a map of the places his thoughts had gone.  

“Draco, do you really believe that Harry feels the same way as your father about anything?” He waited, considered her question and shook his head. Harry was so different from his father that he struggled even to believe that they were the same species.  

“The Harry you have described to me over the past few weeks does not strike me as capable of cruelty”  

She put down her fountain pen and crossed her legs together in a way that Draco now knew to mean that she was about to deliver a heavy blow to his habitual thought patterns.  

“Have you considered, Draco, that none of this is about you?”  

He’d left that session feeling lighter than he had felt all week. His doctor's bluntness had a way of always cutting right through the haze of his judgements. By the end of their meeting, he’d resolved to do away with his assumptions and relate only with the information he was forthrightly given.  

So, when he was woken up that Saturday morning to a text from Harry, he could hardly believe his eyes. He thought he was still dreaming when he read it.  

Hey sorry I’ve been MIA . At 1pm I’ll be in the ring at the campus rec.   

Please come.   

He blinked over and over, half in anger, half in relief. He felt a new kind of happiness descend on him. He typed out several responses that were promptly deleted, for none of them could communicate the broad expanse of his emotions. Language was too small, too limited.  

At 1pm sharp he pulled on the metal handles of the recreation center and navigated through the winding hallways to the boxing ring. He had never been in the building before, and a Saturday morning was a bad day to explore the facility. The air was thick with chlorine from the Olympic sized pool, and he had to dodge dripping athletes as he read printed signs that directed him past the panting bodies on cardio machines and grunting figures in the weight room. The physical feats and abilities of these people made him feel vaguely self-conscious, he hadn’t known just how fit the Hogwarts student body was. 

He found Harry, Hermione, and Ron huddled together next to the raised platform of the boxing ring. The room felt strangely small, in contrast to the airy high ceilings of the other rooms in the building, there was an oppressive nature to this place. The white walls were stained a dirty uneven yellow, the punching bags hung limply in all four corners, and faded bleachers crawled across the expanse of a wall facing the ring.  

The three of them whispered lowly, completely engrossed in their conversation until Harry looked up and saw him standing awkwardly by the door, a green Slytherin hoodie folded in his hands.  The smile that blossomed on Harry’s face at the sight of him was almost radiant enough to dismiss all his feelings of uncertainty. Almost.  

“Hey, I wasn’t sure you were coming” He straightened his posture and moved hesitantly towards the blonde. Draco watched him warily, eyes trailing down his body, noting the patches of sweat staining his armpits, collar, and chest.  

“I saw your text.”  

Hermione came up and enveloped him in a warm hug. And in that gesture, he felt her affection, her apology, and her anxiety. Underneath her usually buttery scent lay a stale musty smell of worry.  

Ron waved at him pleasantly from his place beside Harry, a strained smile on his face.  

The afternoon was spent with the group of them in the cold claustrophobic room. Draco and Hermione watched as Ron and Harry attacked each other in the ring, as Harry held the punching bags still for Ron, as Harry’s attentive defense accommodated Ron’s bright erratic fury. They took breaks every hour to refuel on grainy nutrition bars and jugs of fountain water Hermione filled up intermittently.  

It was only when the sun went down, and the cold of late fall began to sneak into the room that Hermione decided to put an end to their training session. She and Draco had worked on their assignments and papers over the past four hours, uttering barely a word to the other but sitting in companionable silence all the same.  

At eight o’clock she marched authoritatively into the ring and separated the two men.  

“It’s time for dinner.”  

The dining hall was empty and deserted at this time of night. Harry explained that it was because the kids that weren’t at the House frat parties probably commuted back home. The food was sparse and uninviting with only a skeleton crew made up of students catering the meal. They settled inside a circular booth and Harry’s arm brushed his as he shoveled spoonful after spoonful of Chinese stir-fry into his mouth. Draco nibbled gingerly on a dry chicken sandwich, Hermione sipped lightly at chicken noodle soup, but Ron stared resolutely at his entree of barbecued hot dogs, uncharacteristically reticent.  

“Draco” He interrupted the chorus of clanking forks, spoons, and plastic dinner plates. “do you mind telling me about the night you were attacked by Fenrir Greyback?”  

“Ron!” Hermione interjected.  

Harry stilled in his seat, scallion-covered rice caught in his beard.  

“If you don't mind of course” 

Draco felt his heart pick up and his stomach bottom out. He did not have to scour the recesses of his mind for the memory of that night. It, like all the rest of his traumas, floated beneath the shallow surface of his mind, bobbing in and out of view and rippling across his being in the process. 

“I was-” he cleared his throat “I wasn’t feeling well that night, I’d just gotten off the phone with my mother and I was feeling a little upset, so I went to the bathroom.” He found the sight of his stale limp sandwich to be much more preferable to the unwavering focus of Ron’s gaze.  

“I was in one of the stalls for about a couple minutes when I felt the air shift. I didn’t hear anyone come in, but I sensed it you know? The presence of another person. I had enough time to climb on the toilet before I saw his shadow. I don’t even really remember what he looked like but I remember his shadow. How it swallowed all the light in the room, how it moved almost separately from him, how it stopped underneath my stall. I barely even blinked before he broke down the door and dragged me out of there”  

Draco’s hand wrapped around the slender wrist of his right arm carefully as if in anticipation of a bruise, a green and purple splotch long since faded but forever remembered.  

“He was yelling all these things at me and pulling me with him but what really frightened me was the smile on his face. This knowing self-satisfied smirk like he knew something that I didn’t, like he knew who I was.” A shiver ran through his body at the memory of the gnarled teeth, the scraggly beard, the thin lips pulled tight.  

“I managed to slip out of his grip when Harry got there. But that was after he threw me around. I had this sense throughout it all that he was playing with me, humoring me, letting me test his limits and see how far I could go. It wasn’t till Harry got there that he got serious. You guys know the rest”  

He looked up and eyed Harry apologetically, but the man was looking at Ron.  

“While they fought, I was able to call...Scream for help. Professor Snape was the first on the scene, but it wasn’t till Lupin, Hagrid, and Dumbledore got there that he was...stopped. “ 

“Why do you ask ?” Harry’s words were quiet but heavy.  

The redhead looked Draco right in the eye. “I wanted to know how scared you were.”  

Despite the frankness of the statement, he was not embarrassed or humiliated by it for he sensed a sincere curiosity in Ron that went beyond the blonde’s usual anxieties and fear of judgement.  

“You could just ask me, I was there too you know” A protective tinge entered Harry’s voice. Suddenly Ron let out a peel of laughter. It was an amusement that seemed involuntary, it shook his broad shoulders and caused him to wipe tears from his blue eyes. He reached over to his friend, lovingly laid a hand on his shoulder, and pulled him close.  

“You, Harry Potter, have never been afraid a day in your life”  

With that, the apprehension and fear that had weighed down the group all week seemed to fall away, and a small smile blossomed on all their faces as they settled into the comfort of companionship.  

They decided to take the long way back to their dorms after their meal as though they did not want to leave the warmth of each other after only recently reigniting it.  

Ron and Hermione walked hand in hand, bodies bent towards each other and words whispered in the other’s ears. Behind them, Harry and Draco walked close enough that their arms pressed against each other.  

“Thank You”  

Draco looked up at the sound of his words. The rumbling vibrations of Harry’s voice traveled from the well of his lungs, through his body, over their arms, and nestled inside of Draco.  

“Thank you for coming. I know that I haven’t been very communicative this past week and I’m sorry about that.” 

Draco stayed silent, his aversion to conflict and his affection for Harry pushed him to assuage the man’s worries, to readily accept his apology but he knew that he did not want to lie to Harry, did not want to perform ease where there was none.   

“Ron’s been going through a lot recently, that’s why he’s been so...”  Harry trailed off. 

“Intense?”  

They laughed.  

“Yeah, intense”  

The chill of the late November air snuck up behind them and caused them to seize up, tighten their shoulders, and clench their teeth.  

He cleared his throat and released a cloud of cold air from his lungs “I want you at the burrow for Thanksgiving Draco” 

They passed clusters of drunk students as they walked over the Hufflepuff frat house lawns and crossed to the Ravenclaw tenements.   

“There are a lot of people in my life, people I admire, people I respect, people I love”  

As if to punctuate his statement, Hermione let out a soft giggle at something Ron said and playfully shoved him away from her.  

“There are many people who know of me but there are only a handful of people that see me. It’s dumb and it’s stupid but I need those people the most, I need them to remind me that I am a person. If I didn’t have them all I would have are the...” He hesitated “fans. Merlin, I sound like a conceited asshole but it’s the truth. I cannot afford to be carried away by people's perceptions of me because I’m afraid that one day I'm going to make them my own.” 

Draco felt his heart flutter, this was new. This level of intimacy and honesty from Harry. It seemed beyond the boundaries and limits of the physical and emotional infatuation they had juggled between them since their initial meeting.  It was something more fragile, more honest, more delicate, more vulnerable. As though their individual egos had been tossed aside in favor of this deeper connection. As he walked beside Harry that night, Draco felt the ball of loneliness and isolation he carried inside himself bump up against Harry’s.  

“I was homeschooled my entire life.” The words tumbled out of him involuntarily.  

“I think that my parents love me, but I don’t believe that they like me. They never made space for me in their hearts, in their lives, in their Manor. I’ve always been something tacked on, as necessary as an ornament, as integral as a vase. A very expensive vase that no one was allowed to touch, move, or even look at, an accessory that existed only to be protected. A guarded experience is ” he took a deep breath “a very lonely one”  

They stopped before the Gryffindor dorms, a tall baroque building with intricate rafters, carvings, and statues, and watched as Ron and Hermione climbed up the front steps.  

“I’ll be there”  He supplied. 

Harry’s smile was electric as usual but softer, smaller.  

“Thank you”  

The group came together to say their goodbyes for the night and as they hugged, Draco wondered aloud “How many people will be there anyway?” 

A strange silence fell over them once more and Harry eyed Ron, but the redhead did not miss a beat. 

“just the immediate family, ‘Mione, Harry, my brothers, my sister, my mom, and my dad” 

Only the most observant would catch the worried crease that appeared between Harry and Hermione’s brows.  

“My dad loves Thanksgiving. Fair warning he’ll definitely want you to try out his god-awful pumpkin pie and you can’t say no. It’s a price we all have to pay”  

Draco let his excitement show on his face and made a mock gesture of a salute “ I’d be honored.”  

“It’s going to be the best Thanksgiving ever.”  

The hard steel in Ron’s voice imbued his friends with a courage that dwarfed their fear.  

Arthur Weasley was coming home for Thanksgiving.