Rescued

Harry’s friends never told him what they had seen, but they did notice him disappearing more so now that they were watching him than before. He was going off to meet with Draco in private. They had become friends after that day and were almost always together. They ate meals together, much to Ron and Hermione’s distress, and he only ever saw his friends when they cornered him in the common room. He never told another soul what had gone on with Draco and as far as he knew no one had even known nor cared where he had been that day.

But Weasley and Granger knew and wouldn’t leave it alone. They told Neville, Seamus and Dean that they thought Draco had done something to Harry; why would he want to be friends with him otherwise? The three of them agreed. And though Hermione was usually most intelligent and should have used logic, she was for some reason ignoring the little voice in her head that was telling her that there was more to this situation than meets the eye.

Everything came to a head one day when Harry couldn’t walk with Draco to class. He kissed his cheek; the Gryffindors in the shadows cringed, and walked off to find Dumbledore. After he was out of sight they circled the blonde, forcing him against a wall as they closed in on him menacingly.

“What the fuck did you do to him, you fucking pouf?” Ron said rather nastily.

Draco was shaking and he dropped his books. They clattered to the floor.

“Nothing, he’s my friend….”

Seamus snorted and moved closer, “Right, as if Harry would be friends with you willingly.”

The blonde bit his lip and began to cry, “He is…he told me…”

“I’m sure he believes it, with whatever you did to him. No doubt he thinks he’s in love with you as well. But we all know Harry has better taste than that,” Dean sneered at him. They just weren’t going to let him go.

He shook his head, “But I didn’t do anything…He found me…”

Neville, who had gained not only maturity and height, but had also grown balls, grabbed him by the robe, “Yes, we’re sure. He found you, boo hoo. He should have left you there to fucking die. We all would have been much happier, I can tell you that,” he threw him against the wall and smirked.

Draco began to cry harder. What if Harry didn’t really care he he was just fucking with him? What if the Gryffindor was in on this attack? Merlin, Draco thought, I can’t handle it if he is. He had fallen head over heels in love with Harry since ‘the incident’ and would give anything to keep him there in his life; even if it meant never telling him his true feelings.

Out of the shadows a female voice spoke, “Mmm, well, I can see we’re not going to get it out of him just by asking. Boys, do as you must.”

His eyes went wior aor a second, right before the first blow landed, then he fell to the ground with the wind knocked out of him. Was this actually Hermione who was telling them to beat him? Their voice of reason? Draco was too shocked to do little more than lay there and cry as they kicked and hit him. He tried curling into a ball only to be held by three of them as the fourth continued his assault. They took turns, beating him, when all of a sudden a voice stopped them.

“What the FUCK is going on? Get the fuck away from him!” Harry shouted as he dropped his things and ran over to where Draco was lying on the floor.

He gasped when he saw all the blood his ‘friends’ had beaten out of the blonde and turned to them with cold eyes, “If I EVER see you near him again I’ll beat the ever living shit out of you. There will be no rescue because you will die by my hands. I never want to speak to any of you again.”

He then turned back to Draco and pulled intointo arm arms, clinging to him as tears streamed down his cheeks, “I’m so sorry,” he whispered.

“But Harry, we know he did something to you. Why else would you be his friend?” Hermione said tentatively.

But when her friend turned back to her she didn’t see the Harry she remembered, he had died with Sirius though none of them had noticed.

“Get the fuck away from us and don’t bother trying to talk to me anymore. I’m having my things moved right now,” he turned back to Draco, “That’s where I was, getting my things moved to our new room. I never should have left you.”

The headmaster, as well as Snape, had decided that perhaps Harry and Draco should have their own room so no one could bother them and Harry had asked that it be a surprise for the Slytherin. Draco had so little now and even though they weren’t more than friends, they were both in need of protection; obviously more so than anyone thought.

Harry had been thinking more and more every day about gro growing feelings for Draco, but he had no idea what he wanted to do about these feelings. He knew he was gay, he had known since he was fifteen, but he had never really been interested in anyone before. He knew that if he could spend the rest of his life with anyone he would choose Draco, but he wasn’t too sure he wanted to tell him. Draco had just gotten over trying to kill himself, he had just come to grips with his mother’s suicide, which had been over a year ago and no one had told him, and he didn’t need people telling him they thought they were in love with him. Harry just thought he should wait. But perhaps now would be a good time, or at least after the Slytherin was healed.

The Gryffindors were shocked at the way Harry was acting towards them. How could he take the side of a traitor over them? His father was a Death Eater and had tried to kill Harry countless times! But apparently Harry couldn’t care less about the Slytherin’s past and his so called friends were being left in the dark.

Without turning back to them, he spoke in a voice worthy of Snape, “Leave, and never come near us again. I’m shocked and appalled that you would even do these things. None of you are considered my friends anymore.”

After saying his piece he lifted Draco into his arms and walked past them without even deigning them with a glance then proceeded to the hospital wing. Merlin, Draco had only recently left this place and now he was back. He only hoped the damage wasn’t too extensive.

He called for Madam Pomfrey who gasped, did the woman always gasp when a patent was brought in?, and began to work on him. She pronounced that he would be fit to retire to his rooms the next day after getting some much needed rest and tried to urge Harry to do the same but he refused to leave the blonde’s side.

It was such a familiar sight; Draco in a hospital bed with Harry sitting by his side, his head down as he gripped one of the blonde’s hands in is own. It almost brought tears to the headmaster’s eyes when he saw it. And no matter how much Severus yelled at him for coddling the Gryffindors, he knew the man was right. It was well past time for scheming Gryffindors to pay the price for their actions. He would wait until the two young men were rested and well then he would speak to them about pressing charges and what the four of them could come up with as an accurate punishment.

Without making his presence known, he faded back into the shadows to retreat to his office and begin to think of ways to punish his former favorite students. It couldn’t just be any old punishment, but then again, he would give Harry and Draco the final say in what happened. Severus would be pleased that foolish Gryffindors were finally getting their comeuppance; even if it wasn’t the ones he’d had in mind in the first place.

As Draco lay sleeping Harry thought about a lot of things, things he would need to say to his friend when he finally woke. Those bastards had broken four of his ribs, his nose, bruised his kidneys, ruptured his spleen; they were lucky Harry had been more worried about Draco’s health than what he would have liked to do to them when he found them beating the Slytherin. And what irked him the most was Hermione’s involvement in all this. She was usually the sensible one who didn’t let rage and confusion cloud her judgment.

Harry smirked to himself; as it turned out fucking a Weasel fucked with your brain cells. Draco had been right allng. ng. Now he just wanted him to wake up and be safe so he could tell him what a fool he had been for not telling the other how he felt.