Close Enough

Ch 13 What is normal anyway?

After giving the portrait the password, Draco made his way into his dorm followed closely by Dex, Lucas, and Loki. Once inside the common room, the guys asked where Harry’s room was so that they could drop off the bags that they had been carrying. Draco scowled slightly but pointed down the hall and told them just to put them near the closet they would get to them later. While they were out of the room Draco called for Dobby.
“Dobby!” Draco snapped. Crack. The crazily dressed house elf appeared in front of Draco.
“Yes, Master Draco sir, what is it Dobby can be doings for you?” the house elf asked with a slight bow.
“I will need you to bring some food here, I am told you will know what to bring. It is for Harry.” Draco watched as Dobby’s ears drooped slightly and his eyes became slightly glassy.
“Yes, Master Draco, Dobby is knowing what is needed.” Crack. And just like that he was gone. However he wasn’t gone long. In the time it took Draco to pace back and forth only 3 times Dobby had returned with a small tray of food.
“Will there be anything else, Master Draco?” the house elf asked in a small voice. When Draco shook his head no and waved Dobby away the house elf Cracked himself right out of the room again.
Dex and the twins came back into the common room and sat on a sofa by the fire looking around the room. After a moment Loki stood and walked over to the bookshelf, running his fingers over the spines of all the thick volumes found there.
“Draco, he will be fine. Just calm down.” Draco turned to see Dex looking at him over the back of the sofa. “HJ always comes out no worse for the wear and squeaky clean. There is no need for you to be so worked up.” Draco advanced closer to where Dex sat on the couch.
“No need? No need? I have no idea what just happened!” Draco pointed in the general direction of the entrance hall. “My intended got beaten up and pushed down the stairs, only to be followed up by some….. I don’t even know what to call it!” Draco sighed in frustration raking his hands through his hair furiously. “I have every need to be worked up! I will not be okay until he is here where I can keep an eye on him!! Had I known….” Draco shook his head slightly trying to make that thought go away. ‘If only I had left with him. I easily could have been there with him, but I wasn’t.’
Just then the portrait opened, Draco spun to face the door. In walked a tired looking Severus, followed closely by a sad looking Cordalina with her arm wrapped securely around Harry’s waist. When the guys saw Harry enter the room Dex and Lucas stood from the couch, Dex went to help Cord get Harry to the sofa, Lucas went for the tray Dobby had left of the table. Loki moved from by the bookshelf to one of the chairs, removed a blanket from the back of it and threw it over Harry once he was sitting on the sofa. Draco watched from what appeared to be the sidelines as this well choreographed and seemingly very habitual routine occurred. He looked up to the man standing next to him only to find the obsidian eyes boring back into his own looking sad.
“This happens a lot then?” Draco asked softly as he watched Cord practically force Harry to nibble a piece of toast, which he grudgingly followed with a gulp of juice.
“It has happened before, yes.” Severus replied turning his eyes to watch the activity before him. It amazed him how these four would dote over Harry when this would happen. He had never seen it, but Harry had described it to him. They all seemed to have their own part, a set of tasks to complete, and once their part was done he watched as each one of them sat back and relaxed.
“What was it? What happened??” Draco asked looking back at his godfather expectantly. Severus didn’t respond however, well not until Cord turned her head and gave him a small nod anyway. Draco noticed that this happened once the tray had been cleared and Harry lay curled up in Cords lap, sound asleep.
“Sit.” Severus said as he stepped up to the circle of furniture and placed himself in one of the chairs, motioning to another one for Draco to sit in. Draco didn’t speak, he just sat and looked at Severus, who sighed. “Draco, did you, in the whole thing, ask yourself why he didn’t fight back?” he paused watching these words take effect “He fought the Dark Lord more times than anyone else alive, and won. He killed the most powerful dark wizard of the age, did it not occur to you that he could easily take on a group of four seventh year Gryfindors?” Draco shook his head slightly considering why he hadn’t thought of that when his godfather spoke again, “Everyone of us in this room knows that Harry isn’t normal. We all know that he is special and unique in every sense of the word.” At this Severus looked over at Harry with a sad smile, “This is just another one of those things, Draco. Just another way in which he is special.”
“Sev, what on earth are you talking about?” Draco asked completely dumbfounded as to what he could be talking about.
“What I am talking about is what you witnessed in the hospital wing, what happened on the stairs. Harry refuses to fight anymore, no more bloodshed will be caused by him unless there is good reason…”
“Good reason! They could have killed him!” Draco interrupted.
“Draco please, just listen.” Severus looked back at Draco a slightly hardened expression on his face. “An interesting side effect of being Harry Potter is that you do things for your own reasons. Thus Harry does this for his own reasons. My understanding is that he feels that enough blood is on his hands, and he will not be the cause of more being there.” Draco began to sputter again, but Severus silenced him with a raised hand. “It is part of who he is to feel that way Draco, there is nothing you or anyone can do. Trust me, we’ve tried.” Severus looked to the rest of the group quickly and then back to Draco, “This is not the first time his fellow students have… shall we say… been less then kind to him. Harry didn’t fight back because he didn’t want to, he didn’t want to hurt someone who used to be his best friend, because that would make him no better than they are. And in the end he is so much better than they are, all of them.” Severus said the last part looking at the small sleeping boy gently cradled in Cords arms.
“Okay, so giving that he doesn’t want to fight anymore, and was going to be an idiot and let himself possibly get killed by his former best-friends, what in Merlin’s name happened in the hospital wing?” Draco asked looking at Harry.
Severus chuckled softly, “That is a very interesting question. What do you know about Raw Magic?”
“Umm... that it’s in everything around us… everyone around us… even the castle itself has it… why?”
“Let’s just say that our special and unique little friend has a unique and special relationship with Raw Magic. One in which when he is in distress it kind of seeps out of everything and everyone around him and is absorbed by him.” Severus paused here with a sigh. “Only problem is that with Harry not wanting to hurt anyone, he doesn’t release it by fighting back, so it just builds up. When it builds up it becomes a painful and hard for him to contain.”
“Is that why you kept telling him in the infirmary that he couldn’t hurt us?” Draco asked.
“Yes, that’s why. With the Creature blood the Raw Magic isn’t as powerful against us as it would be a normal wizard. Had anyone else been there with us when it happened they would be headed for St. Mongos. But you and I are not completely human thus the burst of energy he released didn’t effect us in that way, as I’m sure you could figure out.”
“So… you’re saying that because I stayed I kind of revealed that I’m not all human?” Draco asked uncertainly.
“Yes, you did. However it will probably give you two something to talk about.” Gesturing to Harry. “Cord is the only other non human that Harry is in contact with, it might do him some good to have someone else to talk to.” Just then Harry shifted in his sleep clinging tightly to Cord’s shirt. Cord looked up at Severus a small sad smile still one her face.
“All he ever wanted was to be normal Sev.” She sighed, muttering softly “Those damn Dursley’s.”
“Cord, what is normal anyway?” Severus responded flatly. Only he knew the meaning behind Cord’s last statement, and he let the words drop as he leaned back in his chair pinching the bridge of his nose