Never Said Goodbye

Summary: Harry and Draco lose something more precious to them than anything else.

Warnings: Slash, m-preg, rape, child abuse, lots of angst

DISCLAIMER: Don't own the characters. No money being made from this.

Hermione paced the floor, wondering if she should scream at Ron or just give him the cold shoulder.

He knew he was in trouble, but he wasn't sure for what and if she yelled at him he'd have an answer. She wasn't sure she wanted him to stop being uncomfortable that soon.

"Are you going to tell me what I did?"

"I'm not sure." She had her arms crossed over her chest and was obviously doing that so she wouldn't punch him or hex him.

Ron swallowed nervously. "You're going to wear a hole in the floor if you keep doing that."

She stopped and turned slowly toward him. The look on her face made Ron certain that he should have kept his mouth shut.

"You were very rude tonight."

"No, I wasn't."

"The things you said when we left were horrid, Ron Weasley!"

"To Ferret boy? He deserves everything he gets."

"He's pregnant and Harry loves him. That should be more than enough for you to-"

"What?!? Be his friend?!? I hate him. I don't care if he's pregnant. I sure as hell don't care that Harry loves him. That will pass soon enough I hope."

Hermione shook her head. "I don't know why I bother with you. I'm going up to bed. You can sleep on the couch." She walked upstairs and started to wonder if Ron was the man she thought he was or not.

Ron frowned at her back and grabbed some blankets and a pillow out of the downstairs linen closet. He knew that he wasn't going to stop hating Draco Malfoy anytime soon, but he was starting to wonder what Harry saw in him. Harry had confided that there was something wrong in the bedroom, but he hadn't given Ron any details. He had guessed what was wrong and, by Malfoy's reaction, had been right. He smiled, pleased with the new information and wondering how to work it to his advantage.

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Blaise watched Pansy walk back and forth in front of the fireplace. He had to admit that he was pretty steamed himself, but Pansy's energy had to be uncorked by pacing or he was certain that there would be some serious consequences.

"How could he invite Lucius and Narcissa? How could he be such a bastard!"

"I'm not sure." He stood up and stopped her pacing by pulling her into his arms. "We'll watch out for him."

To his horror, she began to cry. They both knew secrets about Draco's home life, but most of it had been assumed because of their different experiences with the Slytherin. Blaise wasn't sure what had set Pansy off that night worse than before, but he knew he needed to let her cry out her feelings before she could communicate anything to him.

After a few moments she settled down and her sobs turned into sniffles. She looked up at him. "I found something out tonight."

"I figured as much. What happened?"

She told him about Narcissa's miscarriage and how horrid the situation had been. Then she took a deep breath. "It was four years ago, Blaise..."

Blaise closed his eyes, trying to figure out why that was important. The answer came to him like a kick in the chest. "Draco was so distracted. I remember when he came back to Hogwarts and he said...oh shit, Pansy..."

She nodded. "That baby was his..."

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Narcissa looked up as Lucius walked in and frowned at him. "Would you care to explain why you ordered me out of the conversation, Lucius?"

"I wanted to talk to Draco alone. Don't question me."

"I will question you. He's my son and he's happy now. You won't mess that up for him again!"

Lucius grabbed her and pulled her close. "I didn't mess anything up for him. That was you! Or don't you remember writhing underneath him like some wanton whore only to fail him later."

She gasped. "It wasn't like that. You know it wasn't!"

"You killed your child. You don't get to play the caring mother with mine." He shoved her away from him in disgust.

"They are both my children and I didn't kill anyone! You did that with your perversions!" She backed away from him, fearing that their argument may become physical. "Maybe I'll just tell Harry what you've done...."

He narrowed his eyes at her, but didn't move to close in on her. "Go ahead...watch as he leaves Draco alone. He'll keep the child from Draco once it's born and run away. Is that what you want?"

She shook her head. "Harry would understand..."

Lucius sneered. "Are you willing to take that chance?"

She looked down at the floor and allowed her tears to fall. "At least he's free from you now. I'll keep our secret, Lucius. You can't hurt him anymore."

"Don't tell me what I can and can't do, bitch!" He growled at her, but she didn't flinch. "Our son is going to need his father right now with a baby on the way..."

She gasped. "Lucius! The baby's health has to come first! You can't possibly think that he'd allow you to-"

He smiled slowly. "He already has."

Narcissa felt the world slip away.

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Harry went downstairs half way and found that the lights were off so he went back to his room. After about half an hour he started to wonder if Draco was in the bathroom. He stood up to check, but paused when the door opened to reveal a very tired looking Draco Malfoy.

Draco had woken up in the cold dark room and knew that he had to get up before someone found him. He'd been pulled in so many ways as far as his emotions that night that he couldn't deal with questions about how he had ended up on the floor. There were things he just couldn't tell Harry yet.

He looked at the floor. "You're still up."

Harry frowned, trying to figure out what was wrong. He noticed that Draco was keeping his head down and he didn't like that at all. He reached forward and tilted the blonde's chin up and growled. "What happened?"

The cheek Lucius had hit was a reddish purple now and it seemed to be centered more around the lower part of his eye.

"Nothing, Harry. I just tripped and fell."

"Again?"

Draco nodded. "Actually I bent down to pick something up and miscalculated the distance between my face and the arm of the chair." He passed the lie off easily by relaxing his smile into an embarrassed grin.

Harry laughed. "Sounds like something you would do." He pulled him close and kissed him softly. "This night was really weird. I want to apologize to you." He silenced Draco's protests by placing a finger against the blonde's lips. "Yes, now I want you to listen, alright?" At Draco's nod, Harry removed his finger. "Dudley and I spoke. We had some things to work out and you forced the issue. I want to thank you."

Draco's eyes widened. "You want to...I mean, you're okay?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, we talked and we're good, but I need to tell you something about why I didn't want him here. It wasn't for the reasons you think."

"Go on."

"He didn't hurt me. You were right about that. It was all Uncle Vernon. Dudley just did what he had to do to keep his father proud of him."

"I know how he feels." The comment was muttered softly, but Harry caught it and began to realize just what he had done by inviting the Malfoys. Yes, he had said it was in retaliation, but that was a lie. He'd invited them before he had any idea that Dudley would be there.

"The summer I turned 15 he came to me and started helping me. I guess he was older and decided he'd had enough of his father. We became friends and spent most of our time with each other. Vernon thought he was tormenting me, but....well....he was actually...." He began to blush.

"Wait...I don't understand."

"We were teenage boys, Draco....and we spent all of our time together and....we explored some things..." He was obviously having trouble with his confession and sighed in exasperation.

"You explored some...sexual things?"

"Yeah, are you okay with that?"

"Are you still doing it?"

Harry laughed. "No. My last year there I wanted to become lovers and Dudley stopped me. He said he loved me because I was family, but he was straight." He shrugged. "I was hurt and for some reason I thought that meant that he hated me because I wasn't."

"Harry..." Draco wrapped his arms around his husband. "That must have been very difficult for you."

Harry nodded. "It was and I never forgave him....until now...thanks to you."

Draco smiled. "This turned out better than I had hoped then."

"Now...what about you? You're having trouble with your parents being here obviously. Dudley said something that made me really think. He said that a parent that loves their child too much can become obsessed. Is that what's going on? Did you feel crowded by them?"

Draco's mouth went dry. Harry was right about the obsession, but he had no idea what kind it was. "My mother....she loves me, but we share a very painful memory and seeing her brings it up for me again. I do the same for her. It makes things difficult."

"Do you want to tell me what happened?"

Draco shook his head. "I can't betray her trust. I'm sorry."

"I understand. What about your father? Does he know?"

"Yeah, but it's not a painful memory for him. He just doesn't care." He wrapped his arms around himself. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. They're leaving tomorrow, right?"

Harry nodded. "I don't see why not. I'm so sorry. I should have asked you, but I think that it's good you're with your mother. You two should lean on each other if you're suffering from the same thing."

Draco sighed. "You're right. I know you are. I just-" He lowered his head as he felt his eyes begin to tear up.

"Hey...." Harry pulled Draco to him and kissed him again. "I'm right here with you this time. Nothing bad can touch you."

Draco shivered and leaned into Harry's embrace. It already has...

TBC...

Sorry it's short, but I have very little time now to write so I fit things in where I can. :-)