Memoirs of a Male Escort

Authors Note: Many thanks to my beta, Laurel (DreamingInColour) for her work on this chapter. I was lost without her while she was on holiday! So I finished the rough drafts of this story today and chapter 25 will be the end. It's in beta now for revisions, so we should have regular updates on this story for the next few weeks pending the lack of any odd disasters occurring. A few of my stories are coming to an end in the weeks ahead, HRI only has a couple installments left and as soon as I pick up on Poppet and Alurring Lullaby there will only be a couple chapters left of those stories as well. On the bright side some of you have already seen chapter 1 of my newest story (Becoming) and I still have another that I'll start posting soon, so the end of one just means the beginning of another. Thanks to everyone who has been patient with me in my absense and I hope this chapter makes up for it a little bit.

Chapter 22 Killer Instinct

Everyone dies one day. It’s unavoidable really.

What you have to determine, though, is what is most important you? Do you want to be remembered for all the good you did, the beauty and brilliance you instilled into a world that would have been worse off without you in it? Or would you prefer to not give a rat’s arse about how people think of you after you’re dead and worry only about your own happiness while being alive?

If it’s the former then you’re in the wrong business. If it’s the latter then I’ll probably see you in Hell.

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The streets of Hogsmeade were desolate and eerily quiet, reminding Harry of the old Western movies he had sometimes watched through the cracks of his cupboard at the Dursley’s. He half expected a ball of tumbleweeds to roll by and to see someone dressed in a cowboy hat appear at the end of the lane, ready to duel.

The imagery helped take his mind off of the frantic situation he was in and kept him from going stark raving mad at the prospect of losing Draco at the hands of the Code. He had already experienced his lover’s near death once, wasn’t that enough? Must people keep trying to rip his lover straight out of his embrace? Hadn’t he endured enough, what with growing up a virtual slave, having his childhood shadowed by death and destruction, killing a Dark Wizard and then being thrown head first into a position as Minister for Magic? Hadn’t he paid his due ten times over? And if so, then when would he get his turn to be happy?

Hogsmeade had fallen into disrepair over the years. It had taken so long for the school to be rebuilt that a good portion of the population in the small town had moved away before the castle was complete. By the time the school was finished, there were only a handful of residents still around who helped to do the basics like keep the train station running when school was in session.

None of the shops were open, and several, like the Weasley Wizard Wheezes looked completely abandoned. Harry remembered the day Fred and George had purchased the old Zonko’s Joke Shop. It was at the height of the war the summer before the trio snuck away to hunt for Horcrux’s and the twins had been thrilled at their new expansion. They got it for dirt cheap because of the war being waged all over Europe and went to setting it up immediately.

They hadn’t even gotten the chance to open the doors before the Battle of Hogwarts began. After the dust settled and with only one remaining twin, the plans for the store fizzled rather quickly and the windows and doors were boarded up.

Harry got into the shop fairly easily using a prying charm and a rudimentary unlocking spell and felt ill at the sight that hit him inside. Every wall was slathered with moving posters depicting either the twins grinning like mad, or one of their products spinning on display with starbursts announcing the products ‘long lasting effects’ and ‘tastes great’. Dust laden shelves all held candy and other items that Harry could remember the boys inventing and testing on him and Ron.

With a sigh of loss he left the past behind him and tried to concentrate on the task at hand. Almost at once he heard faint noises from the basement and headed toward the back.

Tripping over several boxes in his haste, he made it to the basement door, but one unlocking charm after another refused to let him open it. He was about to try yet another, wanting to be able to surprise Draco’s captors instead of alerting them to his presence with something as loud as a Reducto curse, when he heard a bloodcurdling and furious howl from downstairs.

Without a second of hesitation he damned the consequences and reduced the door into smoldering bits with an explosion hex before running down the stairs two at a time.

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Draco braced himself for another painful strike from the end of Granger’s ingenious wand, but it never came. When he looked up, he was shocked to see her looking at him with what appeared to be grudging respect.

“Aren’t you going to beg for your life?” she asked at last, lowering her wand to her side and flicking it absently against her robes.

“What’s the point?” he replied, leveling his shoulders defiantly. “Obviously I’d prefer not to die, and I’d rather you not hurt Harry as you’ll most certainly do by killing me, but he’s already going to be shattered to find out that you did even this,” he added, indicating the ruin that was now his face and body. Some of the cuts that he could see were already healing into pale shimmering lines and he wondered briefly –if he managed to get out of this alive- if he would be horribly scarred for the rest of his life.

Hermione tilted her head to the side and studied her newest victim. “If we let you go would you keep our secret from Harry?”

“Mione, no! We can’t trust the Ferret,” Ron protested from behind her, stepping out of the circle of Code members to hover at her side.

“Would you keep killing other Death Eaters or would you turn them over to Harry for trial?” Draco countered, knowing he could never keep something this huge from his lover without certain concessions, the main one being that they stopped murdering people.

“They’ve already been tried and the Ministry released them once before,” Ginny spat. “They wouldn’t put them to trial again.”

“Maybe not all of them, but Harry’s Minister now. He hates most of the Death Eater’s just as much as you do, he just wouldn’t resort to illegal measures to destroy them,” Draco told Hermione, ignoring the others. Clearly she was the more rational of the group –which was a stretch to say the least- and the only one that held the potential to save him at the moment.

“Would you keep our secret?” Hermione repeated, narrowing her eyes at Draco in concentration.

Draco sighed and let his head drop backward for a moment before raising it again and letting his gaze lock onto his captor. “I love Harry and I would do anything to spare him pain of your betrayal. I would keep your secret, but only to a point. If he ever asked me directly if it was you three I would have to tell him. I won’t lie to Harry,” he replied at last.

“An honest answer,” Hermione mused and shook her head in dismay. “I fully expected you to just say whatever we wanted to hear to save your own skin.”

“I’m not that Draco Malfoy anymore,” he replied.

“So I see,” Hermione commented and after a moment where thoughtfulness painted over her features she nodded curtly. “Release him,” she ordered and was met with a plethora of shouts and curses.

“You can’t be serious, Mione! This is Malfoy, we’ve been after him for years!” Ron yelled.

“I’m the judge, I’m the leader, I make the rules,” she noted firmly. “This one is done. The Malfoy we were after doesn’t exist anymore and I’m not risking Harry’s happiness anymore than we already have. As much as I hate to say it, Malfoy’s right, Harry will find out sooner or later and it would crush him, and in turn he would crush all of us.”

“It’s Harry!” Ron shouted. “He’d never do anything to hurt us,” he told her.

“Don’t delude yourself into thinking he would spare a moments hesitation before sending us to Azkaban if we were to kill Draco. I’ve heard Harry talk about him, I’ve seen it in his eyes that this one, this time is different,” she spat.

“He’ll get over it,” Ron growled.

“You don’t know him anymore,” she countered. “How many bridges do you think you can burn with him before he stops giving you preferential treatment? He’s already sacked you from the Ministry. Do you honestly believe that he’ll keep you out of prison for this?”

Ron opened his mouth as if to argue once more but promptly snapped it shut. Apparently the distance he had created between him and his old friend had finally caught up and crashed into him and he realized Harry was no longer as attached to him as he used to be. Judging from the look on Ron’s face, he was picturing Harry sentencing them all to the horrid Wizard’s prison and realizing that it was in fact very likely to happen.

Apparently Draco wasn’t the only one who noticed Ron’s conflicting emotions and several other Code members, all of which had remained hidden under their cowls, started chattering amongst themselves, trying to decide whether to agree with their leaders.

A bloodcurdling and frustrated howl erupted from behind Hermione and Ron and every one turned to look. “If you don’t do it I will,” Ginny shouted over the din as she aimed her wand at Draco’s chest and shouted the killing curse.

Brilliant green light shot from the end of her wand and the whole world seemed to slow down for Draco. His life flashed before his eyes, everything from his first training broom ride to the day he first met Harry in Madam Malkin’s, all the way through his first and last time making love to the bright-eyed Minister. Draco even imagined he could see his lover’s brilliant eyes overpowering the green of the curse he was unable to dodge. He had but a brief moment to wonder what things could have been like for he and Harry had they gotten the opportunity to grow old together before he was hit with what felt like a battering ram to the chest and all went dark.

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Harry’s heart shuddered to a stop when he spied the group of crimson robed avengers and easily picked out the identity of several of them, making his frozen heart nearly shatter to bits.

In their midst, bound tightly to a wooden chair was his Draco, nude and blood soaked. If it hadn’t been for his wide-eyed expression he would have thought his lover dead, but as it was it seemed that Draco was at least conscious, which was honestly better off than Harry had expected to find him.

He was about to hex the lot of them when he heard Ginny’s words and saw her wand raise and watched the spell he had been having nightmares of his entire life come flaring in a green blaze from its tip, straight at his love’s chest.

He leapt forward at once, knocking Ginny to the ground, but it was too late, the spell was still on course and Harry was forced to watch as his lover’s stormy eyes widened slightly before impact and then closed peacefully in resignation that this was his end.

With a scream that shook the dank basement walls, Harry flung himself in the path of the killing curse, waiting to feel its impact, waiting to feel the life drain from him in one fell swoop.

Instead, all he felt was the thud of magic as Hermione and Ron both stepped up and together cast a powerful Repello charm that sent him and Draco both sprawling out of the way of the deadly curse.

Harry quickly scrambled to his feet and leveled his wand on the group surrounding him. “Drop your wands,” he ordered and heard the instant clatter of wood on stone. “Everyone,” he added, glaring malevolently at Ginny, who still clutched her wand tightly in her hand. When she still refused to release it he ripped the wand from her hand with the powerful magic the Deathstick offered.

Her eyes widened slightly at the sight of the Deathly Hollow wand, but Harry didn’t give her the opportunity to comment on it. Instead he turned to check on Draco, who was unconscious but still breathing. A sigh of relief fell over him, quickly overshadowed by a thick feeling of betrayal as he spun on his former friends.

“All this time,” he whispered, his entire body shaking uncontrollably. “You’ve been doing this behind my back, killing innocent people, all while lying to my face.”

“They were hardly innocent, Harry,” Ginny bit out, sounding very disgruntled.

“Shut up,” Harry hissed. “They were deemed innocent by the Wizengamot. Who are you to dispute their word?”

“The Wizengamot is corrupt,” one of the Code members replied, and Harry looked up to see his old friend Ron staring back at him with a mixture of sadness and defiance. “You know that better than anyone.”

“So that gives you the right to corrupt your own soul?” Harry asked, staring back into his friend’s frightened blue eyes incredulously. “You’re all murderers.”

The word reverberated through the room and hung over their heads like a death sentence. “Together you have probably killed more people than the people you’re punishing. What is it that makes you any better than a Death Eater?” Harry asked, leveling his powerful gaze on each of them in turn.

When he got to the end of the row closest to him he spotted the one person he had wanted most to be wrong about, and she stared back at him with regretful eyes. “Hermione,” Harry rasped. “How could you of all people betray me like this?” A sob nearly choked his throat as he thought of what he now had to do to these people he considered friends and even family.

She fell roughly to her knees; tears streaming down her cheeks. “Oh, Harry. I’m so sorry, it all just happened so fast. We thought we were doing the world a favor but then-“

Her words fell of deaf ears as Harry waved a silencing charm over the group. “Enough!” he shouted viciously and hung his head between his hands. “You’ve murdered countless people, I could sentence you all to the Dementor’s Kiss right this moment.”

Harry could imagine the protests and the sobbing that would be filling the basement had he not silenced the lot of them a moment before. He stared with pitying eyes at his best friends and his former girlfriend as he cast the spell that would send his patronus to Kingsley Shacklebolt and alert him of their location.

It wasn’t forgotten that Hermione and Ron saved his life as he jumped to protect Draco’s but he didn’t know what he could do. A trial would not go favorably for either of them and his heart was in shreds at the idea of losing them forever and having to watch their innocent children grow up without parents.

As soon as he heard the sounds of breaking glass from upstairs he knew the Aurors had arrived and he disbanded his silencing charm. He summoned the wands to his grasp and shoved them all into his robe pocket for evidence. Certain familiar willow and vine wood wands caught his eye and he placed them into a different pocket.

He went to Draco’s side and pulled him into his lap, transfiguring the rope that had unwound when the chair broke into a robe for the otherwise naked man. A groan escaped Draco’s cracked and bloody lips as his eyes opened and took Harry in critically. “Am I dead?” he asked softly.

“I’m afraid not,” Harry responded with a gentle smile. “It was Harry Potter to the rescue once more.”

“I had it all under control,” he rasped, but Harry could see the relief in his eyes.

“I’m sure you did,” Harry replied, smoothing blonde tendrils from his lover’s face.

“They were going to let me go, Hermione and Ron that is,” Draco informed him. “Probably the rest too, but that ex of yours is feisty.”

“Well, they all bought a one way ticket to Azkaban the minute they even thought about attacking you,” he replied bitterly. He winced as he wiped away blood from Draco’s face to reveal thin scars.

“Am I hideous?” Draco asked, trying to make it sound like a very casual thing, even a joke, but Harry could hear the terror shaking his voice. He knew what had been used on him and he knew that healing all the scars tissue would be next to impossible.

“You’ll always be beautiful to me,” Harry soothed, but knew it fell short. It was the truth, Harry could easily see past the scars to the true beauty of his lover, but he knew that Draco was far more vain than that and it would take longer for the man’s ego to heal than it would for his skin to do so.

Draco laughed harshly, an anger flooding his eyes that Harry hadn’t seen since they were children and immediately he worried that he may have lost his Draco after all. “At least this should free me from Madame X’s contract. No one will want to bed a freak,” he spat, and all Harry could do was pull him close and hold him tight.

“I love you, Draco. Nothing they’ve done to you will ever change that,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you.”

A moment later the stomping of feet hit Harry’s ears and he looked up to see a troop of Aurors rounding up the Code members. Kingsley came straight to him and the look on his face reflected his shock at finding out who the members were.

“Harry, are you okay?” he asked worriedly. Harry imagined he probably had as much blood on him as Draco did at that point and nodded quickly.

“I’m fine, but I need to get Draco to St. Mungo’s. Can you handle everything here?” he asked. He knew he must sound exhausted and he probably was, but he wouldn’t leave Draco’s side.

“Of course, sir,” Kingsley replied with a professional nod. “What would you like me to do about…” he asked, his voice trailing off as his eyes flicked to where Hermione, Ron and Ginny stood.

Harry followed his gaze and saw that they were staring at him intently. They all looked broken, and Harry nearly caved and went to their rescue, but in the end all he could do was look away.

“Are you ready?” he asked Draco, who nodded in return and a moment later Harry had apparated them both into the lobby of St. Mungo’s. “I need to see Healer Pratt,” Harry announced and soon they were being ushered into a private room to wait for the Healer.

“Do you have a crush on the Healer, Harry?” Draco asked bitterly.

Harry rolled his eyes and kissed his boyfriend on the cheek. “I simply like that the man didn’t judge us before. There is no one for me but you, love.”

Draco scoffed lightly as he looked across the room at his reflection. Shining pale flesh riddled his skin in looping patterns across his face while the blood dried in his hair made him look ghastly. Harry flicked his wand in the direction of the mirror and reduced it to a pile of shimmering dust.

“Stop it,” he hissed, turning Draco roughly to face him. “I fell for you not your looks. I wish I could have been there to protect you from even this, but Draco I thought you were dead! I saw the killing curse aimed right at your chest and I was prepared to take it to save your life. Please don’t reduce my feelings for you into a petty thing made of shallowness and lies. That’s not who I am, that’s not who we are.”

Draco looked at him with a stony façade and shook his head. “I’m a monster, Harry. I can’t believe you could love this,” he said, gesturing to his own marred face, “when you have the option of that instead,” he finished, pointing out the handsome Healer approaching their room.

The Healer beamed at Harry until his eyes fell onto Draco’s form and a dark cloud settled over him.

“See,” Draco muttered. “Monster.”

Harry sighed and held Draco close, trying to comfort him, but the man never melted into his arms as he always had before, and instead remained rigid and defensive.

He had only a moment to think of what he had lost within the last few hours before the Healer was in their room and their private moment was just as far in the past as their love apparently was. He never wanted to leave Draco’s side, but he feared that if Draco were to keep up his current attitude, eventually it would force him away.

With a piercing gaze he studied his lover closely, and he couldn’t even see a hint of the man he had fallen in love with in those cold eyes. A thick emotional darkness settled over the both of them and Harry gripped Draco’s hand tightly.

“Please don’t let us go,” he pleaded, but Draco merely dropped his gaze to his own lap, refusing to raise it up to meet Harry’s again.

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Authors note: Have I been away so long that you forgot about my cliffhangers? lol.