Never Said Goodbye: The Other Side

Chapter 2

I originally posted this as an mpreg, but I've edited it since then to no mpreg so I don't have to deal with people who can't read.)

Warnings: Nothing much for this chapter. Really nasty stuff later on.

Rating: PG-13 but it will get a lot worse later on just like the warnings.


Two weeks after Draco’s bedtime musings, he woke up to find that Harry was already showered and dressed. He got up and headed into the bathroom to enjoy a good shower and to wake himself up more. He brushed his teeth and watched himself in the mirror. For a moment he frowned, wondering what had happened to the boy he used to be. The smirking and rude child he had been trained to be was no longer gazing back at him and he shuddered at the memory of what his life had been like then.

He shrugged off the memory and put his things down before grabbing his cup so he could do a quick rinse of any leftover toothpaste. He stopped before filling it up with water and just stared into it. No way...that can't be real, can it?

He walked out of the room and found Harry. "Can you take a look at something for me?"

Harry nodded and frowned at Draco's wild eyed look. "What is it? Are you okay?"

Draco just took Harry's hand and led him to the bathroom and pointed into his cup. "Is that what I think it is?"

The dark-haired boy smiled. "Yes...it is.”

He smiled and placed his hand to his heart. "I had my suspicions, but I didn't know for sure. I wasn't even going to hope."

Harry smiled. “Draco…you didn’t answer.” He took the simple silver ring out of the cup and held it up as he sank down to one knee. “Will you marry me?”

Draco just nodded dumbly and allowed the band to be put on his finger.

Harry laughed. "Let's tell everyone. Pansy and Blaise will be thrilled. I can call Ron and Hermoine and....what is it?" He noticed that his blonde lover had paled when he mentioned Ron and Hermoine. "They're my friends..."

"But they're not my friends. They still think that you made a mistake by being with me after everything that I've done."

"Stop. They'll have to learn to accept it and it's not easy for them to do when you won't even socialize with them. They have to get to know you and you can't avoid them any longer."

"I can try..." He mumbled and walked out of the bedroom and into the living room where he sat on the couch and pouted.

Harry rolled his eyes and came over to sit next to him. "Look, this is good news. I want to share it."

Draco smiled slightly. "Yeah...I guess it is....I'm just so nervous." He turned to Harry and kissed him lightly. "Are you nervous?

Harry nodded. "Very. But it’s going to be great." He got up and looked at the clock on the wall. "I've got to go. Classes will be starting soon." He kissed Draco's cheek and walked out the door.

Draco stared at the door for all of three seconds before bursting into laughter. He was going to marry Harry Potter. Who would have thought?

************


Harry looked at his class and frowned. His students didn't seem to really care much about staying away from the dark arts and, if anything, he was only helping them to think that they were cool. He dismissed them eventually and sat at his desk to grade the papers they had turned in that day.

The day passed quickly and he found himself annoyed at not being with the man he loved when there was nothing for him to do at work. He gathered the rest of the papers and headed home.

**********

The next week passed with ease. Draco was looking up everything he could on proper etiquette for a wedding ceremony for two men. Harry was trying to get him interested in the dinner party they were having that night. The guest list was a point of contention between the two, but they'd finally agreed to just invite who they each wanted and the other would just have to suck it up and deal.

Snape was the first to arrive and he had on his usual sneer as Harry opened the door. "Potter..."

Harry smiled. "Hello Professor." He served him a drink and pointed out the appetizers and tried to make small talk, but Severus wasn't willing to oblige him. Luckily the door chimed again and Harry hurried to bring in another guest, hoping it was someone from his list. It wasn't.

Harry nearly choked when he opened the door to see his cousin, Dudley, standing there. "What the hell do you want?" He was about to slam the door in his face when Draco appeared.

"I invited him."

"You WHAT?!?"

Dudley looked down at his shoes. "Harry..."

"Don't you fucking 'Harry' me, you ass!" He turned and stalked into the kitchen, fuming at Draco in his mind.

Draco smiled shyly. "I'm glad you came."

"Maybe I should go. I don't want to upset him. That kind of goes against what I wanted to accomplish."

"Harry is stubborn. Some things you just have to force him into so that he'll have to deal with it. Come on in." He made introductions and went to the kitchen to face Harry's wrath.

Harry didn't even look up when Draco walked in and stood in front of him. He just stared at the floor. He heard Draco sigh and go back to cooking. Something about the action infuriated him and he turned to the blonde and grabbed his arm, pulling him away from the stove. "What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that family is important. Dudley has been trying to contact you and you never give him the time of day."

"Why should I? He was a cruel, heartless..."

"No, your uncle was. Dudley was raised in the same household and he didn't know any better. He's a grown man now. He knows that you were treated poorly and wants to make up for it."

Harry shoved Draco away from him and didn't even care when the blonde hit the wall and grunted. "You don't know anything about it."

Draco took a deep breath and righted himself. "Okay, you're mad. I get it. Consider Dudley on my list. That means you have to deal with it."

Harry threw his hands up in the air in defeat and frowned when the door chimed again. "This had better be someone that I like."

Draco sighed as Harry left. He knew getting Dudley here was risky, but he empathized with the man. He had been raised by a cruel father as well. After spending some time talking to Dudley, he'd realized he was as much of a victim of a poor upbringing as Harry had been. He just hoped Harry could see that he'd only done it for him.

**************

Ron and Hermoine didn't quite know what to do when Harry jerked open the door with a scowl on his face, but they made the best of it.

"Uh...hey mate...thanks for the invite." Ron looked at Hermoine awkwardly.

She just shrugged and walked through the door. "Harry, I can't believe Malfoy actually allowed you to invite us over." She smirked.

Harry smiled at her. "He's not exactly happy about it, but I couldn't care less about his feelings right now."

"I knew it." Ron nodded his head as if he were agreeing with himself on something. "Malfoy has gone and screwed things up. Fine with me. Get your things and we'll split."

"No, Ron. I can't do that." Harry told them about Dudley in the next room.

Hermoine gasped. "That's not right. How could he do that?"

"He seems to think that family is a very big deal right now."

Ron frowned. "Harry, he shouldn't have done that to you. Obviously he's not thinking about what's best for you."

Hermoine nodded in agreement. "Look, we'll go try and talk to Dudley and find out what this is all about."

Ron bit his lower lip. He wanted to find out what was going on, but had no desire to talk to Dudley. He snuck into the kitchen as Hermoine entered the living room and Harry went to greet more guests.

Harry greeted Blaise and Pansy and was relieved to see that Snape finally had someone to talk to. Pansy rattled off to him all of the things that she had done since she left Hogwarts and that seemed to be taking up quite a bit of time. He wondered where Ron was briefly when he saw Hermoine whispering furiously to a pale Dudley in the corner. Go get him.... The door chime interrupted his thoughts and he smiled. I don't feel so bad about this now.

There was a small part of him that realized he was being quite a hypocrite, but there was nothing to do about it now.

This time when the door opened he put on his best smile. "Lucius...Narcissa...how nice to see you again."

Everyone in the living room stopped talking and turned to look at the new arrivals. Harry escorted them into the room and got drinks for everyone. The reactions varied. Snape, Blaise, and Pansy glared at the Malfoys and then at Harry. Blaise walked over to Harry. "You have no clue what you've done."

"Don't I? Look, I wanted to force Draco to deal with his pride. He didn't want them in his life because they didn't approve of me. I got that. But what he did was so much worse. Dudley was part of my emotional abuse as a child and he knew it. The Malfoys' worst crime is that they loved their son too much."

Blaise reddened in anger. "Is that what you think happened? You're a fool."

Harry shrugged and smiled as Snape and Lucius exchanged sneers while Narcissa began conversing with everyone that she could. He took a seat to watch things progress. Let the festivities begin.

Meanwhile, Ron had entered the kitchen and watched Draco finishing up the touches on an amazing smelling roast. "Smells good..."

Draco jumped and turned to see Ron. "Uh...thanks." He was annoyed to see that his hand was shaking. For some reason, the red-head scared him. Sometimes he had a look on his face that reminded him of Lucius. Nervous because of a weasel. Nice... He poured himself a glass of wine, took a sip and then leaned against the counter. "I'm sorry. I'm being rude. Did you want some?"

"Yeah, I did...." Ron walked over and grabbed Draco roughly, kissing him.

Draco struggled against him and finally pushed him away. "Weasel! What do you think you're doing?"

"I was thanking you for fucking up so badly. Now Harry can leave you and get on with his life." Ron licked his lips, loving the taste of wine that had lingered.

The blonde wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "I didn't fuck up."

"You brought Dudley here."

"Dudley has changed. He wants to make things up to Harry. The two of them need each other."

Ron poured himself a glass of wine and raised his glass in a mock salute. "To your brilliance, Malfoy. I couldn't have done better to destroy your hold over my best friend and I'm trying." He took a long drink from the glass and smirked. "Come on...drink up."

Draco shook his head. "I don't want to."

"It's rude not to drink when someone makes a toast."

Draco shook his head again and turned away, shocked at how much Ron was acting like Lucius in that moment. When he felt himself grabbed and turned again, he panicked. "No...stop!"

Ron covered his mouth with one hand and pressed him against the counter. "I've watched you hurt Harry over and over again. He may not say anything to you, but he tells me all about it. I know that you're not pleasing him in bed and that you aren't emotional enough to satisfy a block of stone."

Draco felt the tears pricking at the corners of his eyes and tried to shake it off. He couldn't believe that Harry would talk to Ron about those things. He couldn't handle it if he had.

Ron's hand went to Draco's chin. "Drink..." He held the glass to the blonde's lips and Draco guzzled it, wanting Ron to move away from him.

Ron finally did and sighed. "You'll never be good enough for him, you know. I've heard things about you...and your father. I know that you want to be just like him."

"I won't be like him. You don't know..."

Ron shrugged. "The thing is...I don't care enough about you to want to know." He turned and walked out of the kitchen, smiling when he saw the Malfoys. He joined Hermoine when she beckoned him to join her and watched Harry leave to go into the kitchen.

Harry stopped cold when he noticed the red marks on Draco’s face. He forced the blonde to tilt his head up a bit. "What happened?"

"Nothing...I slipped and bumped my chin on the counter." He lied to Harry so that he wouldn't have to face the things that Ron had said. And Harry needed the redhead's friendship. Draco didn't want to mess anything else up. "I'll ask Dudley to leave."

Harry was disturbed at the sight of Draco's face and realized he was being a bit stupid about the whole thing. Draco would never do anything to hurt him purposely. Maybe with Draco's past, he didn't understand just how damaging Dudley had been to him.

"No, it's fine. Hermoine and Ron are talking to him so he can stay and feel uncomfortable all evening. And I get to watch." He kissed Draco's nose. "Please...I'm sorry about being angry. I want this night to be special."

Draco sighed in relief. "It already is." He kissed Harry passionately and pulled away as he heard the timer go off for his vegetable dish. "Help me with the dishes?"

Harry nodded and carried things out to the table, hoping that the rest of the night would go smoothly.

Draco grabbed the roast and walked out of the kitchen…

And that was when the world stopped.


TBC...