Broken Normalcy

Chapter seven: Like A Drop of Veritaserum

Harry re-entered the Weasley home holding a covered canvas securely in his arms.

His whole body was rigid, face red and distant and he somewhat feared his reaction when he walked in the dining room. Hours must have passed; Draco and Harry had talked and talked.

And the most unlikely truth had slowly come out.

~“What did it all mean? The phone call, you ‘acting’ as drunk, now—why?”

“Harry, I…That you should ask your friends, the people you call your family.”

“What was that about my kids? Who made you leave? I don’t get it, Draco—what’s happening?”

“I…Merlin Harry, it’s not the best time to tell you this. It’s Christmas, just go in there and enjoy it with your family.”

“Are they even my family?” Harry’s eyes had searched Draco’s, that impending feeling of doom finally dawning. “Draco, I need to know.”

“They told you to stay away, didn’t they?”

Draco didn’t meet his eyes.

Harry’s alarm suddenly growing over limits as a flash of his son, of Draco, of Draco’s smirk, of Derrick’s smirk, of Derrick looking away when he did something wrong—and he looked at Draco now, suddenly doing that just before his eyes.

“Oh. My. God.”

Silver eyes flashed at Harry.

“And you were trying to tell me then---when you said, when you said to look at my kids, when you said…” Harry fell to the ground.

“Harry!”

“My friends told me you were wrong for me. They told me your place was next to the Dark Lord. They told me you were using me. They…They told me…They told me you never really loved me. They said, they…they said you had betrayed us all.”

Draco had shaken his head at every uttered sentence, heart breaking at the sight of his love so defeated and completely wrecked.

“No, no, I’ve never---no. I just did what they told me, because it would have been better for you…Because it would have helped you…”

“What?” Harry wheezed, “But, what, how—Ginny? You saved her back from those Dementors—couldn’t that be enough? Why?”

Now, Draco looked pained and sat next to the livid man. “When you were gone…to fight.”

He didn’t dare meet Harry’s eyes.

“We were both recovering from the escape with the Dementors, we…We both loved you very much—we…Harry it was a horrible time! We didn’t know if you were ever going to come back! We didn’t know if you were ok, we didn’t know if you were alive!”

“Draco, just tell me!” He barked between teeth, “What happened between you and Ginny??”

Draco looked away covering his face with a hand and took several calming breaths. “We slept together.” He said, “We took comfort in each other.”

Harry gasped.

“I didn’t know what I was doing…” Draco tried to explain, “One moment I was comforting her, telling her that you’d be back—and then she…And I, I missed you, and I missed been touched and I missed been wanted and I…Gods, Harry I was messed up! I didn’t think straight—and it wasn’t even Ginny’s fault, we were both suffering from the Dementor’s after effects.”

The blond still couldn’t look at Harry.

“I never thought of the consequences. And believe me, I suffered and felt each one, good, Harry.” Then, he looked at him and Harry’s face was a blank sheet.

“Of course we were mortified. But then, Ginny found out that she was pregnant and Weasley and Granger found out. I’m not even sure how I survived castration,” he joked bitterly, “But then I was ordered to fly away so far possible from there that, I guess the speed with which I left was that did it.”

A pause, then Harry sniffed. “Why did you listen to them?”

“They…they brought up a speech of how I was scum, for doing that to you. And they were right. It was horrible Harry, it was unfair and Dementor or not, I shouldn’t have done what I did. Of course, they accused me of the usual things, of how I’m a Malfoy and all the bad in the world, the usual. But it hurt—because it suddenly sank in as true. I hated myself so much. And then they said something that made me sick Harry, physically sick. But also so, true.”

“What…What was it?”

“We had had word that you were alive after you defeated the Dark Lord. And the table turned against me and Ginny. What were we going to do? Tell you what we had done? I couldn’t bear the thought of you knowing Harry; I couldn’t bear having your hate on me any longer. And I couldn’t bare you thinking that I had cheated on you but because, even though yes, technically I’ll admit I did, but my mind was with you, my heart was with you, always…”

Still, Harry’s face remained unreadable.

“I couldn’t marry Ginny.” He whispered, “Weasley insisted that if I couldn’t do well for his sister then, at list, I should do some good for you and leave. He accused me of ruining Ginny’s hopes and dreams, hopes of been with you and dreams about her future career. I felt horrible for Ginny to have left her with such a burden, but I wasn’t entire to blame.” He snorted, “Trust them to see fair when concerning me…” Draco took a deep breath.

“But Granger was worse.”

There was a moment of silence were Harry shifted around. “How so?” he asked.

“She is very good to send you on a guilt trip, that one. I hated myself. More so…” Draco paused, contemplating the snow as he breathed.

Harry noticed his hands, the way they were twisting and squeezing each other out of nerves.

“She brought up old pureblood laws, old but still very valid. Laws on marriage and children out of wedlock. I had dishonored my family, my ancestors just as I had done to Ginny’s. It wasn’t pure, it wasn’t over love, it wasn’t even under consensual contract that looked towards the future…like a proper marriage. I had ruined her, for other men for other families, because now she was tainted with my seed.”

Harry cringed, it sounded so crude, so messed up and his conflicted emotions made him jump in with a pressing question.

“Was abortion ever considered?” It left a bitter taste in his mouth after that, his thoughts to his children and how much he loved them.

Draco hesitated.

“It was decided that I’d leave the country and Ginny to keep the baby. I never knew they were twins till you told me that day in the supermarket. I’ve never…I’ve never seen them before...Then that little girl opened the door for me,” he gestured at the door behind them. “Melissa,” he whispered.

Harry watched him get lost in his own private thoughts, he realized that it must have been shocking for Draco to see his ‘daughter’ for the first time, to open the door to him. To find out there were two and not one…

“Granger realized,” Draco then went on, pushing Harry out of his own thoughts, “since you would be coming back in matter of days, that it could have helped for you and Ginny to…And for you to get over me.”

He added, “She said it would have given you something to look for, to be a father to have your own family, something you always wanted…In a way, I’m glad that I could give you that…Because had we stayed together, I could have never given you that.”

The tears running down Harry’s cheeks pooled on his chin and he shivered when he rubbed them away.

It was cold, colder now and Harry felt even colder inside. The warming spell Draco had generously placed on him was lost to Harry.

Draco seemed unexpectedly stoic, he fixed his silver eyes on a spot far, far on the snow as his voice came from somewhere deep almost foreign, retelling a story that Harry knew, Draco had prayed to never remember.

“I knew that your friends only wanted to make you happy. I knew they’d never like me, I knew they’d never approve of me, never forgive me. And now that I had done the ultimate crime, it was easy enough for them to push me out of the picture…”

And then it clicked.

Harry was suddenly so sick that he bolted in a run and stopped as he vomited all over the fresh snow.

He cried and screamed in both pain and anger and soon warm arms were holding him up, and words were been blabbed to him, and Draco and he were suddenly falling on the snow, near the pile of vomit, and holding each other tightly as Harry wiggled and cried in his range and Draco rocked him back and forwards as he held on to him securely.

Much later, when things had gone under control again, Draco and Harry found themselves on Weasley porch again.

Both were shaky, Harry in range and shock while Draco in totally awareness, what had he done? His adrenaline made him jumpy even if something enormous had shifted from him.

To have finally revealed everything…

“I brought this for you.” He said finally as he knelt to pick up the covered painting he had rested on the side of the porch.

Harry frowned in confusion but took it from Draco’s hands.

“Its..” Draco flushed, “It was from that pile of paintings I had stopped you from seeing…I hope you like it.”

Harry who felt crestfallen after everything that happened managed to smile nonetheless.

“Look at it when you have time, when you are alone.”

Harry nodded.

Uneasy silence fell between the two and Harry kept looking at the object in his arms, mind reeling on everything that had been said. A dull ache resonated in him and he almost regretted going back in.

“I have to talk to them.” He said in a low voice, determination itched on his face.

Draco sighed but nodded as he passed a hand trough his hair.

“I need to know it from them; I need to hear them say it. I need to know the truth.” Then, he turned to Draco and gave him an unreadable look, eyes cold. “Then we’ll talk.”

And Draco knew that he wasn’t to be spared from Harry’s oncoming wrath. He looked away.

“I was mistaken to tell you now,” he said finally, “Its Christmas Harry, I didn’t want to ruin it for you or your family.”

It seemed that Harry had to bite his tongue several times before he replied in the most eerie calmness that made the small hairs on Draco’s back stand.

“Your mistake was to have not told me sooner. Your mistake was to have left me to deal with it—your mistake.” And he closed his mouth tightly; his fury visible and Draco stepped away.

“I…”

“Just go.”

Draco grasped on to mirrors, desperately thinking of something to say.

“You don’t… hate me, do you?” he hated his own stupid small voice.

And as Harry opened the door to step inside, the dark haired wizard murmured, “I should.” He paused only slightly, “Merry Christmas.”

And then he closed the door leaving Draco outside on the Weasley porch. ~

So here he was, still leaning against the door and the painting Draco had giving him in his crossed arms, for the millions of time sinking in the new knowledge.

His gaze was lost in the warm wood that was the Weasley’s family floor and only when modest shoes came in his line of vision did he look up.

Hermione came out of the shadows, arms crossed over her chest, the face of one who had been caught for murder.

The moment stilled and the enormous disgust Harry was starting to feel as his friend looked at him with imploring eyes made his knuckles crackle warningly.

Hermione jumped only slightly but didn’t lower her gaze from Harry’s punishing one. The silence between them was thick and dead on. And Harry realized that at one point, the party had finished and everybody had left because there was no sound in the typical loud Weasley home.

Then Ron came from behind Hermione, placing a hand on his wife’s tensed shoulders and looked cold yet wearingly at Harry.

Harry’s eyes flashed at them.

“I am here because I want to know the truth once and for all.” He deadpanned, “Then I never want you see your faces again.”

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A/N:Thank you for your support!

I am in love with your reactions to this –and hey, it is all cool if you had figured out about Egan and the paintings. It was intended! And if you didn’t, well, I’m glad I managed to pull the carpet from your feet without you noticing me sneaking, anyhow!

I will be updating as soon as I can, please review!