Magia Scura

As bits of the detonated Dementor rained down around him, Draco felt something warm encompass him. He could hear bits of the dementor falling against the walls and floors, but curiously, none of it touched him.

He finally opened his eyes when the noise stopped, and immediately looked down. There was a semi-circle of dementor bits surrounding him, but the vicinity around him was clear. He was still warm, too, and looked over to Snape and Dumbledore. There were similar semi-circular patterns around them, as well.

"What happened?" he asked. They exchanged a Look, and then Snape appointed himself spokesman.

"The dementor... exploded," he said, pointing out the obvious. If Snape was reduced to saying things like that, he was even more shocked than Draco was. "I didn't think; I just shielded myself, and you,"

Dumbledore nodded. "I too shielded myself and you," he added. Draco stepped outside of the circle, making a face as he stepped on something that squished under his boot.

Memory kicked him in the head, and he whirled around to look at Potter. He was still huddled in the corner he'd been in when the dementor had attacked, shivering. Draco knelt beside him, pushing his shoulders back. His face was expressionless, a blank wall. His lips and eyelids were tinged blue, however, and he was trembling violently. Bits of dementor rested in his hair and on his clothes, and his eyes were filmed over with a milky white colour, blocking out the green.

"What the hell have you done?!" Draco shouted. "You didn't protect him?! What if he dies!?" Almost hysterical now, Draco shook the unresponsive boy. "Wake up, Potter! Don't do this now!"

Snape knelt beside him, looking curious. "He looks like Bar-" He cut off with a guilty glance at Draco, who immediately put the clues together.

Barty Crouch, Jr. The Death Eater who'd gotten the Kiss. Draco's heart dropped into his pelvis and his stomach began roiling. "That's not true," he whispered, willing it to be so by the force of his belief.

"Come on, he looks to be hypothermic. We'll take him back to Madam Pomfrey. She'll do everything she can." Snape touched a hand to his forehead, and withdrew it as if he'd been burned. "We must hurry," he said, and gathered Potter into his arms. The small boy made no motion to show that he understood, or was even aware that anything had been going on around him. Draco, curious despite his panic over the boy's state, also touched his cheek.

It felt like plunging his hand into a bucket of ice water. He jerked backwards, cradling his limp hand. No wonder he'd turned blue. Suddenly, the worry was back, and he was following Dumbledore out of the room. "Hurry up," he urged. "He's too cold." He's blue for Merlin's sake, get him back to the fardling school! He didn't add that, though he wished he could.

The look on Aberforth's face told Draco everything he needed to know. They weren't going to hurry because Harry was already gone. The Dementor's Kiss had done its duty, and there was nothing left of Harry in there any more. The good news was that there was no Dark Lord either, but Draco didn't want to contemplate a future in which Potter was not Gryffindor's seeker, besting him at every turn, glowering at him from across the Great Hall, calling him a jackass.

The lines were down and buried, the foundations laid. All that was left was for him to admit that there was something between them, and he did so willingly.

At some point during the last few days, he'd fallen for the spunky little Gryffindor. Fallen hard, head over heels, into love with his worst enemy in every sense of the word. As if his unacknowledged feelings had been sitting on his body, crushing him down with the weight of their strength, his acknowledgement made him feel light hearted, almost like laughing. He could have flown into the school he was so buoyed by emotion.

He let nothing show on his face, no outward sign reveal his feelings, but with the admission of his love, came the knowledge that now Harry would be alright. He would wake up because Draco loved him.

He didn't pause to question such a Hufflepuff-ish logic, merely followed Snape and Dumbledore into the medical wing of Hogwarts, and waited to see what the miracle worker would do this time.

*

The next time he was allowed in to see Harry, he was still faintly blue around his lips, but he was no longer trembling. He was practically buried under blankets and heating charms, hot water bottles and there was even a muggle device sitting on the floor, re-wired to use magic and merrily pumping heat into the enclosed space.

Draco sat nervously on the end of the bed, and pushed Harry's hair off his forehead. The scar was still gone, but a check of his arm revealed that the mark was gone, too. Did that mean he was free?

Free of Voldemort perhaps, but not of the icy coma the Dementor had bestowed upon him. "wake up, Harry," he whispered, laying down next to him as Voldemort had done when he'd awakened from being hexed by Weasley. He put an arm around him, adding his body heat into the mix, and let his head rest on Harry's shoulder. He still felt to cool to be normal, but it was better than the frost that had been gathering on him on the walk back into the school.

"You've got to wake up, Harry," he said again, and glanced around nervously. This wasn't something he wanted passed around yet, not until he was good and ready to pass it around himself. "I love you."

If he'd expected some miraculous change in Harry's condition at the words, he was sorely disappointed. He barely even twitched an eyelash at the monumental announcement. Draco sighed, curling himself closer.

"jackass..."

The word was so faint he didn't think he'd actually heard it, just the echo from his memory. Looking up, he saw Harry's eyes half-opened, the brilliant green returned from black and white. The corners of his lips twitched up, and they closed, as his breathing evened out. The blue was completely gone from his face, and he no longer felt even the slightest bit cold.

Draco buried his face against the Gryffindor's throat, and gave into a childish urge to cry.

*

When he'd exhausted his tears, he began laughing. Harry was going to be alright! They'd done it - he'd done it. His plan had been implemented and followed through with, and it had worked.

Madam Pomfrey, drawn by the sound of his laughter, poked her head in. "Oh, he's looking much better," she said, fondly. "You've been good for him, Malfoy."

Those words sparked an even bigger flush of happiness through him. "Thank you," he murmured.

"Thank you," she said, and left. When Draco's eyes fell back onto Harry, he found a curious green gaze lingering on him. There was silence for a few moments, and then Harry's cheeks turned red.

"Did you mean it?" he asked, not clarifying. Draco didn't ask for him to clarify.

"I meant it." he said, surely.

"I'm glad." Harry's voice was soft, and he was already drifting off again.

*

The next time they were both awake, Madam Pomfrey was forcing them both to eat.

"Lords and Ladies, boys, it's been two days since either of you ate anything!" she said, and shoved the food at them. Draco, who had lost all sense of time, realized suddenly that he was ravenously hungry, and dug in. Harry sat up slowly, and helped himself.

"This is so surreal," he said. His voice hitched, and Draco eyed him, wondering if he'd choked. He'd only taken a small bite of his sandwhich, and had swallowed it before talking. It wasn't his food that was choking him. He coughed again, and his breath wheezed.

"Madam Pomfrey!" Draco's shout rang into the quiet hall, panicked. The healer bustled in, carrying a small bottle with a twist at the top.

"I was wondering when this would happen," she said, and let Harry cough. It got so bad that Draco became afraid for him again, but finally, a black mist was expelled from his body. The healer caught it in the bottle, and sealed it, and Draco watched as the mist formed into a miniature dementor.

"What happened?" Harry asked, his voice raspy. "What was that?"

"When the dementor exploded, pieces of it were absorbed into your body," she explained, and Harry looked horrified. Draco took his hand, squeezing it, and found him trembling. "It's what made you so cold at first, and kept you from waking up properly. It was essentially trying to poison you. Your magic expelled it, however, and now you have something else to add to your collection."

He knew what she was talking about, of course. He still had the model Horntail in his trunk, and could add the tiny dementor to it. Maybe he would start a collection of miniature creatures. It would be something to do now, in this world that didn't contain Voldemort. There were still Death Eaters and dark wizards to catch and contain, but the ringleader was gone. There would be no war.

"Thank you, Draco," Harry murmured to him, grasping him. "You saved me."

*

Harry wasn't allowed out of the hospital wing for another three days, and Draco skipped his classes to remain with him and make sure he was fully recovered from the possession and subsequent expulsion. Harry spoke often to him in the quiet hours of the night when neither of them could sleep, of how he'd been captured and what had happened afterwards.

"I was sleeping in the Gryffindor dorms," he said. "It was just a normal night as far as I was concerned. I went to bed like usual, and woke up with Miguel Nott standing over me. I don't remember much after that. I woke up again and I was in Malfoy Manor."

Draco interrupted the quiet monologue. "How did you know it was the manor?"

"Bellatrix Lestrange came in and pointed out the family crest to me. It was on the back of the door, so I'd seen it, but I didn't recognize it for what it was until she actually told me."

"What did the room look like?" Draco was curious; maybe he'd seen it before.

"It was nice. It looked like a bedroom, I think. There was a large water bed with a canopy over it, and it was all black. The carpet was green. There was a little bit of furniture in there, and it was all black too."

Draco looked puzzled, and then frowned. "Was there anything on the walls?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't think I looked." He was silent a few more moments, and then, haltingly offered, "There was a poster, behind the bed. It was some music group, I didn't recognize."

Draco's expression was mildly shocked. "My Chemical Romance," he said, and Harry nodded.

"That was it. How did you know?"

"That's my room." He laughed, considering the implications. Harry blinked, also shocked.

"Really? Wow." Thinking back on it, he finally smiled. If he'd known it was Draco's room all along, he might have had a better time of waiting. "Why is the poster hidden?"

"It's a muggle group. My father would have had kittens if he found out."

"Ah. So she came and visited me twice, once she told me about where I was, and the second time she came with Lucius and told me it was time. She left, and he ..." Harry trailed off for a few moments, then picked up the trail of the story as he was being dragged into the dungeons. "He just grabbed hold of me and pulled me down the stairs and into the ... dungeons?" He looked to Draco for confirmation of the location. "I saw the Death Eaters, and Voldemort, and I just knew that I couldn't give up. I had to get away. Then I saw you, and all I could think about was how I felt about you, and how you were the last person I would have wanted to see me in that position.

"Once he..." Harry broke off again, unable to talk about the rape. "Once he ...." Again he paused, and Draco gave him a comforting touch. "I felt trapped in my own mind. It was like being in a sticky pool of ...whatever. i couldn't move, or breathe, or do anything but think. I saw him banish you, and realized that I could see and hear what he saw and heard, and listened to him making his plans with the Death Eaters. I stopped paying attention when he came into your room, but it was me who put the Mark on his arm. I don't know how. I just wished for it to be there, so that people would know that it wasn't me, and there it was."

Draco put his arms around Harry's body, holding him tightly. "And I think I can guess the rest of it."

Harry snuggled closer, grinning. "Jackass," he said softly, kissing Draco. Draco began to kiss back when they were interrupted by Hermione bursting in.

"I knew it!" she said. "I knew you weren't dead!"

"They're kissing!" Ron bellowed a moment behind her.

"Ron! Hermione!" Harry scrambled up out of the bed and nearly sent himself tumbling onto the floor in his haste. Ron caught him out of habit more than anything, and glowered at Draco. "Please, let me explain!" he said hurriedly. "I know it'll sound crazy but it's all true. I swear."

"Talk then, Potter," Ron said, and Harry's face fell. Hermione took pity on him.

"Please tell us what happened, Harry."

He repeated the whole tale for his two friends, explaining what had happened the last time he'd seen them. He told them of his feelings for Draco, and how Voldemort had played on them, and while it was no surprise to Ron, Hermione had been taken completely off guard.

"Mafloy, Harry?" She asked. "Why aren't you surprised?!" She demanded of Ron, who shrugged.

"I've known he preferred blokes for a long time, Hermione, it wasn't any big deal to make the jump from blokes to bloke."

Harry apologized for his behavior towards them while under the influence of Voldemort, and in short order, everything was forgiven. They left in a decidedly better mood than they'd arrived in, Harry returned to Draco's side.

"I love you, Draco. You're my hero. You've saved us all."

"And to think you wanted me to kill you," Draco said, pulling him into an embrace.

"Jackass."

-FIN-

Thank you for following me on the journey of this fanfic! I really like it, and I love that you lot liked it too. I'm glad to have been able to finish it, as well, considering that so many of my fics don't get completed. Please review, and let me know what you think!

I was a little bit distracted while writing the end of this, and I think it shows -.o

Y|B