Harry Potter and The Secret Keeper (BP2)
folder
Harry Potter › Slash - Male/Male › Harry/Draco
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
44
Views:
32,305
Reviews:
209
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
1
Category:
Harry Potter › Slash - Male/Male › Harry/Draco
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
44
Views:
32,305
Reviews:
209
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
1
Disclaimer:
I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Brothers Black
Chapter Number/Total: 23/44
Chapter Title: Brothers Black
Words: 2826 Words
"What I think we really need to think about is that locket, and R.A.B." said Hermione to Draco as they sat in the study, pouring over books like it seemed they did all the time these days. "Only one of these books say anything about Horcruxes, but we already know what they are. What we really need to find is a diary of Regulus' or something of that nature. I wonder which room was his..."
"We could ask Mrs Black." Draco smirked. He had heard her screaming and was actually pretty amused by the whole thing. Then he frowned. "Or Kreacher."
"Hmm, yes we could," said Hermione. "I wonder what the chances of actually finding anything like that would be..."
"If handled correctly," Draco said, "then the house-elf will have to tell Harry the truth. Harry said you have done a lot of cleaning in this house. Did you never see anything that might be a diary?"
Hermione thought for a moment. "Perhaps..." she said, "but I can't be sure. There were so many things that got thrown away or stored... And then Harry caught Mundungus Fletcher stealing things from the house... I certainly hope he didn't steal anything that we might've been able to use."
Draco's head snapped up at that. "Was the household jewellery part of what he stole?"
Hermione's eyes went wide. "We only saw goblets... but he stole a lot of things... You don't think Regulus would've put that locket here, do you?"
"I don't know, but it is possible. Was there jewellery in the house? A locket?" Draco asked.
Hermione bit her lip, obviously thinking hard. It was a few minutes before she shook her head sadly. "No, I don't think there was anything. I don't remember any..." She gasped. "Yes! Yes there was! An old, heavy locket that none of us could open! But that was - that was nearly two years ago now. Sirius was just throwing everything he considered junk into a big bag. I don't know what he would have done with it."
Draco suddenly felt a headache coming on. "And you didn't think that might be related?" he asked in exasperation.
"We didn't even know who R.A.B. was," said Hermione. "And I didn't even think about that locket until just now. I think we should get Harry and Ron."
"By all means, yes," Draco said, shaking his head. "Where are they anyway?"
"Ron's probably in the kitchen stuffing his face and didn't Harry say he was going to read the paper after he left here?" Hermione asked, getting to her feet.
"One would think they were allergic to books." Draco sighed, leaning back on his hands. He had actually gotten comfortable enough now with the construct that most of the time, he didn't even think about it.
Hermione sighed. "They're gits. I'll go get them." And she left the room quickly, nearly running.
She returned almost as quickly as she had left. Ron was with her, looking disgruntled with his half-eaten sandwich, as was Harry, looking confused.
"What?" he asked breathlessly, as if Hermione had made him run from the kitchen.
Draco looked up at them, raising an eyebrow at Hermione. "You want me to tell them?" he asked.
"Oh, I don't care," she said impatiently. "We think we might know where a Horcrux could be."
Harry's eyes widened. "What?!" he asked again, only far louder this time.
Ron nearly dropped his food.
"You heard me," said Hermione excitedly. "Remember that locket from when we were cleaning out the drawing room in this house? The locket that none of us could open?"
"Fred split his nail on that thing!" said Ron, sounding excited now too.
Hermione nodded quickly. "If R.A.B. was Regulus Black, then why couldn't that have been the locket?"
Harry stared at her, mouth open.
Draco shook his head at the other two boys' reactions. "And Hermione tells me you don't even know where that locket is anymore."
Harry reached up and grabbed his own hair, his mind racing. "Sirius put all that junk in a big bag... he might have taken it to the attic... I think we should look. Now."
"Indeed," Draco said, getting to his feet, ready to follow them.
Harry spun around and walked quickly out of the room and sped off down the hallway. His loud footsteps set off the portrait of Mrs Black, but he didn't slow down or stop to fix it. He took the stairs two at a time until he was all the way up and inside the dusty old room at the very top of the house. He immediately began going through bags, picking one up and dumping its contents on the floor.
The other three were right behind him, all of them ignoring the screaming portrait. Draco stood looking at the mess for a minute before wading in to help look. He started sifting through the things Harry had dumped. "Harry, wait," he said before he could dump anything else.
"What?" Harry asked quickly. His hands stopped moving, but his eyes continued searching.
"You can call Kreacher and make him tell you if he knows where it is," Draco said.
Without a second's hesitation Harry yelled, "Kreacher!"
Like all the times before, Kreacher appeared with a pop, but unlike before, he took one look around and squealed with delight. "Kreacher is home!" he cried, and he dropped to his knees right then and kissed some of the junk on the floor.
"Kreacher, I am demanding that you tell me if you know where an old, golden, heavy locket is. There was an 'S' on it that looked like a snake. It was in this house and it still may be."
"Why is Master wanting to know?" asked Kreacher almost snootily.
"You better tell me right now you little bastard," Harry said angrily.
Hermione gasped. "Harry!" she let out.
Harry ignored her. "Tell me," he said. "It used to be in that case in the drawing room before we cleaned it all out."
Kreacher regarded Harry for a few seconds and then finally said, "Kreacher hasn't been seeing the precious, beautiful locket since that ginger-haired blood-traitor be taking things from the house. Oh, I have failed my Mistress! Her treasures, gone forever out to the world with the Mudbloods and Muggles!"
"Merde!" Draco cursed.
"Mundungus," Harry growled. "Mundungus Fletcher, I'll kill him! I'll kill him, I swear I will!
"So how did the thief get in here in the first place?" Draco asked.
"He's part of the fucking Order!" Harry yelled, running his hands through his hair and making it stand up all over. He started to pace, eyes wide.
Draco shivered as Harry's anger made his magic pulse. "Calm down, Harry," he said. He turned to the elf and asked, "Did any members of the Black family keep diaries or journals? If so, who and where are the journals now?"
"Kreacher doesn't think yous should be snooping through things," said Kreacher.
"You better fucking tell him," Harry spat, but then he took a huge breath and began pacing again.
Kreacher looked at Harry warily. "Kreacher knows of a few journals..." he said slowly to Draco. "Masters Sirius and Regulus kept them. They be in their rooms, Sir."
"Bring them to us now," Draco said in a stern voice.
Kreacher scowled, but Harry looked at him as if he could burn holes through him with his eyes and Kreacher was gone with another pop. He was back again in a very short minute and holding two similar green-covered books. Harry snatched them up quickly and opened the cover of one of then and saw the name Sirius. He tucked that journal into the back of his trousers and then flipped the other one open.
Draco came to stand beside Harry, looking over his shoulder and down at the book.
It was Regulus' journal by the name inside and Harry quickly flipped past years of entries, towards the end. He scanned pages quickly, just looking for one word. He ran across a few things about Death Eaters and a few times the "Dark Lord" was mentioned, but Harry didn't see anything at all about Horcruxes until:
"I think I have discovered something very important. So important that I believe it may possibly be the reason for the Dark Lord's terrible fearlessness. I have heard things that I was not to hear, I know it." but Harry stopped reading. "This has got to be it!" he said.
Draco glanced back at the other two. "Elf," he said, "do not speak of this to anyone except myself and Harry Potter." He looked to Harry to confirm the order.
Harry looked down at Kreacher. "Don't even speak of it to us unless I say so," he said, thinking that Kreacher might try to say something while someone else was in the room. "Do you understand?"
Kreacher frowned deeply, but nodded.
"Good, now go back to Hogwarts and do whatever it was you were doing."
Kreacher looked like he didn't want to leave, but Harry glared at him again and back to Hogwarts he went.
"You are learning to handle him," Draco encouraged. "Now let's get out of this attic and figure this out."
***
Draco followed the others downstairs. He could hear the portrait yelling again and couldn't help but smirk.
"Filth! Scum! Running through my house at all hours of the day!" the portrait screamed.
"Merlin, will someone shut that damn thing up?" Harry asked loudly over Mrs Black's cries.
"Good day, Aunt," said Draco, grinning, as he came to the portrait.
Harry raised an eyebrow at Draco and hung back to watch him.
Mrs Black's eyes bulged. "You! You nasty blood traitor! Running about with these hoodlums! How dare you set foot in my house?!"
Draco considered the portrait for a minute, arms crossed on his chest and eyebrows raised. "I suppose I have a lot in common with your son Sirius then," he said. "And for much the same reasons."
"You'll meet the same end as my good-for-nothing son! And good riddance I say!" shouted Mrs Black.
"Probably," he nodded, "but I am sure it will be worth it." He reached up and pulled the curtains closed on the portrait. He looked up to see Remus standing in a nearby doorway, watching him. He nodded to the man.
Remus smiled and nodded back, before turning and going back toward the kitchen.
Harry was still watching Draco. He looked a bit amused.
"Only you would try and have a conversation with a mad old portrait," said Ron, shaking his head.
"You've never talked to her?" Draco asked Harry.
Harry smiled crookedly. "No, afraid not," he said with a small laugh. "C'mon , let's go look at these." He held up the journals in his hand and shook them a bit.
Draco nodded and followed them back to the study. He held out a hand to Harry, wanting to take a look at the journals.
Harry handed both books over to Draco and then started pacing again, thinking of where the locket could be.
Ron sat on the floor, leaning against the couch, and Hermione sat on the couch near where Ron was leaning.
"What do you think?" she asked Draco, voice low and quiet.
Draco had begun leafing through the dairies, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration. "About?" he asked, glancing up at her.
"About that journal. It is the real thing right? I mean R.A.B. has to be Regulus?" Hermione said, sounding a little scared and excited.
"Yes, of course it is," said Harry.
"Do you think Mundungus got the locket, Harry?" asked Ron.
"Where else could it be?" asked Harry, clutching at his hair again.
Draco pulled his wand and tapped the book, speaking the words to a revealing charm he knew. Then he opened it again and after a minute, smiled. "I thought so," he said. Then he looked up. "I think yes. The hidden part talks about the Horcruxes and the locket." He held the book and pointed to a section that had not been there before.
Harry rushed over to Draco to get a look. "Wow," he said. "There could be so much in there. This could be our first lead to finding the other Horcruxes! Is there anything in there about what he did with it? Because I don't want to go off on some wild goose chase just to find out that it's not even the real locket that Mundungus stole."
"In the last entry, he is talking about finding a way to destroy it," Draco said as Harry and Hermione both looked on. "There is nothing about what he did with it after he exchanged the false one for it. I don't think he ever got the chance."
"Damnit!" Harry cursed. "That means off on the chase we go. Where the hell could it be? Mundungus probably had loads of people he sells to! And it's not as if we can talk to him! The git's gotten himself thrown in Azkaban!"
Draco nodded, continuing to flip pages and read. Realizing he should probably answer Harry, he looked up and frowned. "Did you say you knew where he sold some of it?" Draco asked, looking between the Gryffindors.
They were all silent for a moment.
"We saw him on the day Katie Bell got hurt," she said. "He was in Hogsmeade..."
"And he was talking to that barman from the Hog's Head!" said Harry. "We'll have to go there and ask him if he knows anything."
"Do you think he'll tell us? Even if he does know? He seems a bit... dodgy..." Hermione said.
"Well, we'll have to see, won't we?" said Ron.
"It is worth trying," Draco said. "And there are different ways to get information, if it is important enough." The words were said calmly, but there was a hint of something dark in the tone.
Hermione stared at Draco warily.
Harry stared at Draco too. "This is the most important thing in the world," he said seriously. "We're not going to use any Unforgivables, Hermione, so don't look so scared, but nearly anything else is game. Bribes, threats, anything it takes..."
Draco nodded, but didn't say anything. He closed the books, holding them in his lap and watching Harry.
Harry paced for a few more seconds and then turned to Draco again. "We really need to find out how to change the secret keeper for this place. You can't leave here, can you?" he asked.
Draco leaned back, thinking for a minute. "It would require the same procedure and the risks would increase with each time we try it."
Harry groaned. "I'm going to have to be leaving here a lot soon," he said. "I don't want the risks to increase every time you come back!" He sighed heavily. "Do you even think we'll find a way to get a new secret keeper? And fucking hell, we still need to fix our bond!" Harry rubbed his forehead; stress, that had lifted slightly since Draco had gotten in the house, falling back onto his shoulders like a weight.
Draco reached a hand up, taking Harry's hand and tugging him down toward him.
Harry sighed and sat down heavily next to Draco.
"It'll be alright, Harry," said Hermione softly.
"Yeah," said Ron, "we'll get through this. We'll get it done."
Draco slid an arm around Harry and pulled him close. "Take a deep breath, Harry," he said, then smiled, "and then kiss me."
Harry closed his eyes and filled his lungs; he let it out slowly and turned to Draco. He stared at Draco with brows slightly lowered for a moment, and then leaned in to lay a gentle kiss on his lips.
Draco closed his eyes and kissed him back, gently but firmly. Then drew back and smiled at him. "Feel better now?" he asked.
Harry gave a small smile. "Yes," he said quietly.
Chapter Title: Brothers Black
Words: 2826 Words
"What I think we really need to think about is that locket, and R.A.B." said Hermione to Draco as they sat in the study, pouring over books like it seemed they did all the time these days. "Only one of these books say anything about Horcruxes, but we already know what they are. What we really need to find is a diary of Regulus' or something of that nature. I wonder which room was his..."
"We could ask Mrs Black." Draco smirked. He had heard her screaming and was actually pretty amused by the whole thing. Then he frowned. "Or Kreacher."
"Hmm, yes we could," said Hermione. "I wonder what the chances of actually finding anything like that would be..."
"If handled correctly," Draco said, "then the house-elf will have to tell Harry the truth. Harry said you have done a lot of cleaning in this house. Did you never see anything that might be a diary?"
Hermione thought for a moment. "Perhaps..." she said, "but I can't be sure. There were so many things that got thrown away or stored... And then Harry caught Mundungus Fletcher stealing things from the house... I certainly hope he didn't steal anything that we might've been able to use."
Draco's head snapped up at that. "Was the household jewellery part of what he stole?"
Hermione's eyes went wide. "We only saw goblets... but he stole a lot of things... You don't think Regulus would've put that locket here, do you?"
"I don't know, but it is possible. Was there jewellery in the house? A locket?" Draco asked.
Hermione bit her lip, obviously thinking hard. It was a few minutes before she shook her head sadly. "No, I don't think there was anything. I don't remember any..." She gasped. "Yes! Yes there was! An old, heavy locket that none of us could open! But that was - that was nearly two years ago now. Sirius was just throwing everything he considered junk into a big bag. I don't know what he would have done with it."
Draco suddenly felt a headache coming on. "And you didn't think that might be related?" he asked in exasperation.
"We didn't even know who R.A.B. was," said Hermione. "And I didn't even think about that locket until just now. I think we should get Harry and Ron."
"By all means, yes," Draco said, shaking his head. "Where are they anyway?"
"Ron's probably in the kitchen stuffing his face and didn't Harry say he was going to read the paper after he left here?" Hermione asked, getting to her feet.
"One would think they were allergic to books." Draco sighed, leaning back on his hands. He had actually gotten comfortable enough now with the construct that most of the time, he didn't even think about it.
Hermione sighed. "They're gits. I'll go get them." And she left the room quickly, nearly running.
She returned almost as quickly as she had left. Ron was with her, looking disgruntled with his half-eaten sandwich, as was Harry, looking confused.
"What?" he asked breathlessly, as if Hermione had made him run from the kitchen.
Draco looked up at them, raising an eyebrow at Hermione. "You want me to tell them?" he asked.
"Oh, I don't care," she said impatiently. "We think we might know where a Horcrux could be."
Harry's eyes widened. "What?!" he asked again, only far louder this time.
Ron nearly dropped his food.
"You heard me," said Hermione excitedly. "Remember that locket from when we were cleaning out the drawing room in this house? The locket that none of us could open?"
"Fred split his nail on that thing!" said Ron, sounding excited now too.
Hermione nodded quickly. "If R.A.B. was Regulus Black, then why couldn't that have been the locket?"
Harry stared at her, mouth open.
Draco shook his head at the other two boys' reactions. "And Hermione tells me you don't even know where that locket is anymore."
Harry reached up and grabbed his own hair, his mind racing. "Sirius put all that junk in a big bag... he might have taken it to the attic... I think we should look. Now."
"Indeed," Draco said, getting to his feet, ready to follow them.
Harry spun around and walked quickly out of the room and sped off down the hallway. His loud footsteps set off the portrait of Mrs Black, but he didn't slow down or stop to fix it. He took the stairs two at a time until he was all the way up and inside the dusty old room at the very top of the house. He immediately began going through bags, picking one up and dumping its contents on the floor.
The other three were right behind him, all of them ignoring the screaming portrait. Draco stood looking at the mess for a minute before wading in to help look. He started sifting through the things Harry had dumped. "Harry, wait," he said before he could dump anything else.
"What?" Harry asked quickly. His hands stopped moving, but his eyes continued searching.
"You can call Kreacher and make him tell you if he knows where it is," Draco said.
Without a second's hesitation Harry yelled, "Kreacher!"
Like all the times before, Kreacher appeared with a pop, but unlike before, he took one look around and squealed with delight. "Kreacher is home!" he cried, and he dropped to his knees right then and kissed some of the junk on the floor.
"Kreacher, I am demanding that you tell me if you know where an old, golden, heavy locket is. There was an 'S' on it that looked like a snake. It was in this house and it still may be."
"Why is Master wanting to know?" asked Kreacher almost snootily.
"You better tell me right now you little bastard," Harry said angrily.
Hermione gasped. "Harry!" she let out.
Harry ignored her. "Tell me," he said. "It used to be in that case in the drawing room before we cleaned it all out."
Kreacher regarded Harry for a few seconds and then finally said, "Kreacher hasn't been seeing the precious, beautiful locket since that ginger-haired blood-traitor be taking things from the house. Oh, I have failed my Mistress! Her treasures, gone forever out to the world with the Mudbloods and Muggles!"
"Merde!" Draco cursed.
"Mundungus," Harry growled. "Mundungus Fletcher, I'll kill him! I'll kill him, I swear I will!
"So how did the thief get in here in the first place?" Draco asked.
"He's part of the fucking Order!" Harry yelled, running his hands through his hair and making it stand up all over. He started to pace, eyes wide.
Draco shivered as Harry's anger made his magic pulse. "Calm down, Harry," he said. He turned to the elf and asked, "Did any members of the Black family keep diaries or journals? If so, who and where are the journals now?"
"Kreacher doesn't think yous should be snooping through things," said Kreacher.
"You better fucking tell him," Harry spat, but then he took a huge breath and began pacing again.
Kreacher looked at Harry warily. "Kreacher knows of a few journals..." he said slowly to Draco. "Masters Sirius and Regulus kept them. They be in their rooms, Sir."
"Bring them to us now," Draco said in a stern voice.
Kreacher scowled, but Harry looked at him as if he could burn holes through him with his eyes and Kreacher was gone with another pop. He was back again in a very short minute and holding two similar green-covered books. Harry snatched them up quickly and opened the cover of one of then and saw the name Sirius. He tucked that journal into the back of his trousers and then flipped the other one open.
Draco came to stand beside Harry, looking over his shoulder and down at the book.
It was Regulus' journal by the name inside and Harry quickly flipped past years of entries, towards the end. He scanned pages quickly, just looking for one word. He ran across a few things about Death Eaters and a few times the "Dark Lord" was mentioned, but Harry didn't see anything at all about Horcruxes until:
"I think I have discovered something very important. So important that I believe it may possibly be the reason for the Dark Lord's terrible fearlessness. I have heard things that I was not to hear, I know it." but Harry stopped reading. "This has got to be it!" he said.
Draco glanced back at the other two. "Elf," he said, "do not speak of this to anyone except myself and Harry Potter." He looked to Harry to confirm the order.
Harry looked down at Kreacher. "Don't even speak of it to us unless I say so," he said, thinking that Kreacher might try to say something while someone else was in the room. "Do you understand?"
Kreacher frowned deeply, but nodded.
"Good, now go back to Hogwarts and do whatever it was you were doing."
Kreacher looked like he didn't want to leave, but Harry glared at him again and back to Hogwarts he went.
"You are learning to handle him," Draco encouraged. "Now let's get out of this attic and figure this out."
***
Draco followed the others downstairs. He could hear the portrait yelling again and couldn't help but smirk.
"Filth! Scum! Running through my house at all hours of the day!" the portrait screamed.
"Merlin, will someone shut that damn thing up?" Harry asked loudly over Mrs Black's cries.
"Good day, Aunt," said Draco, grinning, as he came to the portrait.
Harry raised an eyebrow at Draco and hung back to watch him.
Mrs Black's eyes bulged. "You! You nasty blood traitor! Running about with these hoodlums! How dare you set foot in my house?!"
Draco considered the portrait for a minute, arms crossed on his chest and eyebrows raised. "I suppose I have a lot in common with your son Sirius then," he said. "And for much the same reasons."
"You'll meet the same end as my good-for-nothing son! And good riddance I say!" shouted Mrs Black.
"Probably," he nodded, "but I am sure it will be worth it." He reached up and pulled the curtains closed on the portrait. He looked up to see Remus standing in a nearby doorway, watching him. He nodded to the man.
Remus smiled and nodded back, before turning and going back toward the kitchen.
Harry was still watching Draco. He looked a bit amused.
"Only you would try and have a conversation with a mad old portrait," said Ron, shaking his head.
"You've never talked to her?" Draco asked Harry.
Harry smiled crookedly. "No, afraid not," he said with a small laugh. "C'mon , let's go look at these." He held up the journals in his hand and shook them a bit.
Draco nodded and followed them back to the study. He held out a hand to Harry, wanting to take a look at the journals.
Harry handed both books over to Draco and then started pacing again, thinking of where the locket could be.
Ron sat on the floor, leaning against the couch, and Hermione sat on the couch near where Ron was leaning.
"What do you think?" she asked Draco, voice low and quiet.
Draco had begun leafing through the dairies, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration. "About?" he asked, glancing up at her.
"About that journal. It is the real thing right? I mean R.A.B. has to be Regulus?" Hermione said, sounding a little scared and excited.
"Yes, of course it is," said Harry.
"Do you think Mundungus got the locket, Harry?" asked Ron.
"Where else could it be?" asked Harry, clutching at his hair again.
Draco pulled his wand and tapped the book, speaking the words to a revealing charm he knew. Then he opened it again and after a minute, smiled. "I thought so," he said. Then he looked up. "I think yes. The hidden part talks about the Horcruxes and the locket." He held the book and pointed to a section that had not been there before.
Harry rushed over to Draco to get a look. "Wow," he said. "There could be so much in there. This could be our first lead to finding the other Horcruxes! Is there anything in there about what he did with it? Because I don't want to go off on some wild goose chase just to find out that it's not even the real locket that Mundungus stole."
"In the last entry, he is talking about finding a way to destroy it," Draco said as Harry and Hermione both looked on. "There is nothing about what he did with it after he exchanged the false one for it. I don't think he ever got the chance."
"Damnit!" Harry cursed. "That means off on the chase we go. Where the hell could it be? Mundungus probably had loads of people he sells to! And it's not as if we can talk to him! The git's gotten himself thrown in Azkaban!"
Draco nodded, continuing to flip pages and read. Realizing he should probably answer Harry, he looked up and frowned. "Did you say you knew where he sold some of it?" Draco asked, looking between the Gryffindors.
They were all silent for a moment.
"We saw him on the day Katie Bell got hurt," she said. "He was in Hogsmeade..."
"And he was talking to that barman from the Hog's Head!" said Harry. "We'll have to go there and ask him if he knows anything."
"Do you think he'll tell us? Even if he does know? He seems a bit... dodgy..." Hermione said.
"Well, we'll have to see, won't we?" said Ron.
"It is worth trying," Draco said. "And there are different ways to get information, if it is important enough." The words were said calmly, but there was a hint of something dark in the tone.
Hermione stared at Draco warily.
Harry stared at Draco too. "This is the most important thing in the world," he said seriously. "We're not going to use any Unforgivables, Hermione, so don't look so scared, but nearly anything else is game. Bribes, threats, anything it takes..."
Draco nodded, but didn't say anything. He closed the books, holding them in his lap and watching Harry.
Harry paced for a few more seconds and then turned to Draco again. "We really need to find out how to change the secret keeper for this place. You can't leave here, can you?" he asked.
Draco leaned back, thinking for a minute. "It would require the same procedure and the risks would increase with each time we try it."
Harry groaned. "I'm going to have to be leaving here a lot soon," he said. "I don't want the risks to increase every time you come back!" He sighed heavily. "Do you even think we'll find a way to get a new secret keeper? And fucking hell, we still need to fix our bond!" Harry rubbed his forehead; stress, that had lifted slightly since Draco had gotten in the house, falling back onto his shoulders like a weight.
Draco reached a hand up, taking Harry's hand and tugging him down toward him.
Harry sighed and sat down heavily next to Draco.
"It'll be alright, Harry," said Hermione softly.
"Yeah," said Ron, "we'll get through this. We'll get it done."
Draco slid an arm around Harry and pulled him close. "Take a deep breath, Harry," he said, then smiled, "and then kiss me."
Harry closed his eyes and filled his lungs; he let it out slowly and turned to Draco. He stared at Draco with brows slightly lowered for a moment, and then leaned in to lay a gentle kiss on his lips.
Draco closed his eyes and kissed him back, gently but firmly. Then drew back and smiled at him. "Feel better now?" he asked.
Harry gave a small smile. "Yes," he said quietly.