Losing The Game

Warning/disclaimer: All recognizable Harry Potter characters and places are not mine, They belong to J.K., I\'m just borrowing them and will give them back later slightly worse for the wear but perfectly fine. I make no money off this, please don\'t sue etc, etc.
~. . .~ song lyrics
\". . .\" talking or quotes from a person, letter, or book
\'. . .\' thoughts

Losing The Game CH 7- Fall From Lies~
~Well I hoped that since we\'re here anyway
We could end up saying
Things we\'ve always needed to say
So we could end up staying
Now the story\'s played out like this
Just like a paperback novel
Lets rewrite an ending that fits
Instead of a hollywood horror~


Harry leapt over the edge, not even hearing Snape\'s yell or feeling him grabbing for the corner of his robes, which sadly slipped from his hand. The pain from the bond was too panicked, screaming too loudly for him to even hear his own thoughts. He needed Draco or he would die a most agonizing death but not from sickness or loneliness. He would die because he would once again be shoved into that painfully dark place he\'d been in for his first ten years, would die like a plant shut up in a cupboard dying simply from the lack of light. A light he had been ignoring for far too long. Draco Malfoy was a blaze, a snarking, snarling blaze of life that refused to go out no matter how many times he\'s rained on it or shoved it aside. He needed him. Harry grabbed for Draco, hugging him close as they fell to what he considered a very messy end, their lips pressed together, eyes locked.

\"Impedo Momentum!\"

Their fall slowed none too soon as they hit the ground with a grunt of pain instead of splattered limbs. They rolled from the very hard paved courtyard to the grassy area below the Astronomy Tower. Harry gasped into the pale neck of the boy beneath him, shivering with the sheer shock of being alive. Draco groaned in pain.

\"Oh, bloody hell, Potter, you are killing me here! What do those damn muggles feed you? Bricks? Geroff!\"

Harry lifted up grinning down at the glaring Slytherin. He felt a laugh bubble up from his middle. \"We\'re alive!\"

Draco stared at the giggling brunette above him his face clearly expressing his doubt of Harry\'s sanity. \"Yes, I\'m feeling every painful bit of life actually, now GET OFF!\"

Harry shifted to the right subconsciously aware of his wounded left arm. He stayed pressed to his side though, not able to to move away quite yet.

\"No, I don\'t think you get it yet. WE. ARE. ALIVE! Voldemort didn\'t succeed!\"

Draco blinked at him and then grinned suddenly. Harry felt himself grow giddy as the blond\'s grin caused his belly to grow warm, sort of like that time he and Ron snuck a bottle of fire-whiskey at Grimauld Place.

\"Come to your senses have you?\"

Harry moved away and sat up. \"I suppose I have. After we . . . after what happened I couldn\'t remember things properly. I even forgot how to do some spells but then it would come back in these weird sort of flashes. I saw us fighting and in my dreams I saw the . . . the sex but you were hurting me instead of how it really was, you know? I know it was him now, keeping it from me, warping it. I just don\'t know how he got in my head again. I\'ve been practicing my Occlumency since Sirius . . . since he possessed me and gave me false information. He shouldn\'t have been able to and this time he got to you through me.\"

Draco stared at him and shook his head. He could feel the guilt coming off of the Gryffindor in tidal waves and he didn\'t understand it at all. Guilt was not an emotion he possessed, he did what he wanted good or bad. If he got caught he paid the price, no guilt and no apologies. He sat up slowly hissing slightly at the cuts on his chest. When he was upright he felt for the torque around his neck and pulled it off with a growl of rage. He threw it into Harry\'s lap.

\"He didn\'t get to me through you, he got to YOU through ME.\"

Harry picked up the metal collar and then looked back at Draco. \"What? How?\"

\"The bond, he knew of it through you or possibly my father. With that disgusting piece of jewelry, that I thought my mother had sent, he got into my thoughts and feelings. He did it to keep us apart. To keep us from renewing the bond, to keep our magical shields, which keep us from harm, sickness, etc, nearly nonexistent. He played on your fears, used your spotty memories, fed your anger at the injustice of it and mine the accusation.\"

Harry fingered the silver dragon\'s head with the sapphire eyes. \"When did you get this? I don\'t remember seeing it until tonight.\"

\"An owl came to me the night before you woke up.\" Draco gave a bitter laugh. \"I remember how odd I thought it that my mother didn\'t use her usual owl or Dante, my owl, but the note with it was in her hand writing. It said this was a present and it had a special healing charm on it that would help with my migraines. So, I put it on and immediately forgot about it. The damn thing even had a concealing charm on it so it would hide under my clothes.\"

\"So it used our anger and mistrust of each other as a sort of weapon against us? Why didn\'t he just keep doing that? I mean from what I read in that book of yours it would have killed us just as well as you taking a header off the Astronomy Tower.\"

Draco looked away, adjusting the blood soaked sleeve over his wounded arm, his cheeks blushing dark enough for Harry to notice in the moonlight. \"It was those dreams . . . of us in the rose garden. They stuck in my head and I realized a few days ago that it was the bond trying to show us the truth behind the lies and anger, reminding me what had to be done.\"

Harry felt himself blush. \"You saw those? How did us shagging in a bloody rose garden remind you of anything?\"

Draco looked at him with narrowed eyes. \"I may be gay, Potter, but I am no bottom. I will have to be for the bond renewal though cause that \"represents us as equals\" or some such rubbish. It\'s some weird requirement for male gay couples. So, there was that and every time we had the dream more of the roses were wilted and dying because we\'re getting sicker, weaker.\"

\"I didn\'t notice them.\"

\"You wouldn\'t, would you?\" Draco snorted. \"You only ever had eyes for my arse, didn\'t you? Anyway, I started noticing that whenever I thought of going and talking to you I\'d get a zap from that stupid necklace and I would get really mad at you for no discernible reason. I tried taking the damn thing off but I would get a sharp pain in my head so I did a risky thing. I left my families Gentilis book out for Millicent to find after having a huge completely irrational argument with her about our bond, refusing to see you even if I did get sicker. Which she of course knew was wrong because every self respecting Slytherin always looks out for number one. I knew she would get it to you somehow and you\'d read it and realize I couldn\'t have raped you. Thing is I didn\'t realize how much the Dark Lord was inside my head already. After that stupid Mudblood, \" He ignored Harry\'s glare. \" Came to me babbling about the bond he knew it was only a matter of time before you knew the truth. He started trying to take me over completely then and tried to make it look like I\'d offed myself. Only I fought and he only managed to slash the one arm. I passed out though and went into your dream. I did my best to wake you up with him forcing me out and away. I tried to go to Professor Snape while he was playing with you but he wasn\'t there. I went looking for him then. You woke up fortunately and pushed him out but then he took over again taking me up to the Astronomy Tower.\"

Draco looked at his still slightly oozing arm and then up at the top of the tower. His pale bloody face was blank but his eyes showed the pain he was in and the fear he had felt. Harry touched his knee bringing the Slytherins attention to him. He stared into those liquid luminescent eyes and smiled slightly, the warmth he had felt at realizing they were alive was back. The light he had thought he\'d lost was right in front of him all shiny and bright, ready for him to cup it in his palms and hold it close. But it was still Malfoy, still his rival, the one whose misery he had reveled in and who enjoyed his with a dark glee that clashed with the angelic appearance of his face. He didn\'t know how to talk to him, they weren\'t friends who soothed each others hurts and lied that it would all get better. So he took in a nervous breath and said . . .

\"Malfoy . . . I\'m not gay.\"

\'The stupidest bloody thing to ever come from my mouth!\' He could practically see his bondmate\'s eyes dilate in rage and winced as his thin nostrils flared and he opened his mouth in shock.

\"What. The hell. Are you. Talking about! You\'re not gay! I\'m only sitting here in a pair of blood soaked pajamas, fallen from a damn tower because of a fucking dark wizard who wants to kill you by using ME through a bloody bond that YOUR fucking magic chose using bloody SEX and you\'re going to sit there and say YOU\'RE NOT BLOODY GAY!\"

Harry flushed. \"Well, I\'m really not, I-\"

\"Where is your wand?\"

\"W-what?\"

Draco glared at him and began feeling around in the grass. \"Give me your wand! Because I am going to bloody KILL you! Right after I shove it up your arse that is, now give it to me!\"

\"I\'m not giving you my wand.\"

His hand brushed over something and he seized it with a small sound of triumph, pointing it at Harry. \"Hah!\"

Harry blinked at the long slender twig in Draco\'s hand and smirked. \"What are you going to do with that? Poke me to death?\"

Draco stared at the stick and then threw it aside with a curse.

\"Draco!\"

Their gazes snapped to the dark form of Professor Snape striding towards them both from across the courtyard. Draco grinned darkly.

\"Uncle Severus! Was wondering when you\'d get here! Now, \" he pointed at Harry. \" Kill that stupid git of a Gryffindor!\"

Snape stared at him his gaze flicking from one to the other and then he raised one dark brow at Draco. \"I cannot kill him as you very well know. You would die too and I have tried my best to keep you from dying tonight.\"

Draco pouted and got to his feet. \"How about a Stinging Hex then? Or maybe boils in a bad place?\"

He took a step forward and the world spun on it\'s axis. His knees crumpled under him and he started to fall. A pair of firm arms caught him and he found himself looking up into pools of emerald green. He felt his cheeks tint pink and fought off the urge to smile. He caught hold of Harry\'s shoulders as he was swung off his feet.

\"You know carrying me like a girl to the hospital wing is not going to get you on my good side.\"

Harry grinned, tilting his head down so the man following them couldn\'t hear. \"I know but what I have to say just might. What I said, that I\'m not gay, is true.\" Draco scowled and opened his mouth. \"Ah, ah, let me finish. What I mean by that is that I haven\'t ever found any other guy attractive besides you. You\'re the only one.\"

Draco\'s lips turned up a bit. \"Really?\"

\"Really, really.\"

The blond preened. \"Well, I guess that is understandable seeing as how I AM the best looking guy at Hogwarts.\"

\"Hey! What about me?\" Harry jiggled him threateningly.

\"Well, I am! You are just the best looking Gryffindor.\"

Harry smiled appearing mollified but dumped him none too gently onto the first hospital bed he reached.

\"Hey! I am an injured party here! You can still feel my pain you know.\"

Harry just grinned. \"I\'m so pumped full of adrenaline right now I won\'t be feeling anything for hours, Draco, and by then you\'ll be all patched up.\"

Draco blinked at him. \"What did you just call me?\"

Harry frowned in confusion then smiled. \"What, you mean Draco?\"

\"Yeah, I\'ve never heard you use my given name outside of dreams before.\"

\"I could stop if you want me to.\"

\"No! Don\'t I . . . I like hearing it from you.\"

They smiled at each other not saying anything else as Madame Pomfrey bustled over to them and healed Draco\'s cuts. Draco\'s eyes went to his god father as the nurse checked out his head for any internal damage. The elder Slytherin had his hand resting over his left forearm, his face pinched with pain. Silver eyes met obsidian and they shared a look of sadness.

\"He\'s calling you, isn\'t he?\"

Snape nodded as Harry looked from one to the other. Draco pressed his lips tightly together trying to stamp down his small spurt of panic.

\"You can\'t go. He\'s going to punish you!\"

\"I have to go he would label me a traitor otherwise.\"

\"Better a living traitor then a dead spy! He could kill you!\"

\"He won\'t kill me. I am his only spy in the Order, he needs me as does Dumbledore.\"

\"He\'ll hurt you, he\'ll hurt you very badly.\"

The younger Slytherin\'s lips trembled but the tears in his eyes didn\'t fall. Harry stepped closer, touching his bondmate\'s shoulder, his pain making the brunette ache. His eyes met Snape\'s and he saw something akin to approval in them. It was such an odd occurrence that he looked away in surprise.

\"I must go, Draco.\"

Draco took a deep breath and nodded. \"It would be a great loss to the family if you died.\"

Snape\'s mouth tightened at the oddly formal words, he gave a curt nod and swept out of the hospital wing. Draco watched him go and then clenched his eyes tightly closed, taking another deep breath. They opened after a moment and settled on Madame Pomfrey who was picking up the various potion vials and putting them back on her tray.

\"He\'s going to need the pain potions, the ones for Cruciatus and he may have broken bones. The bastard crushed his index finger last time. Do you have enough Skelegro?\"

She nodded silently, going to her supply closet to check her other supplies. Draco slid off the bed and headed for a door off to the side of the supply closet with a stunned Harry trailing behind him. The small room may have once been a rather large supply closet but now it was a small potions lab with a cot wedged against the far wall. Draco looked through the potions on his rack and pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh.

\"Out of bloody Dreamless Sleep, I\'ll have to make more as well as a Blood Replenisher and an Anti-Toxifier.\"

Harry stood in the doorway watching Draco mutter to himself and shuffle through several vials on the table. \"Do you do this often?\"

Draco paused but didn\'t look up. \"Whenever I think a meeting is going to be bad. I don\'t always know ahead of time but sometimes my mother sends me an owl warning me after my father leaves. Madame Pomfrey lets me brew any potions she needs so I won\'t get in the way really.\"

\"So, your dad really was a spy?\"

\"Is a spy, Potter.\" he answered coldly.

Harry stiffened at the tone. He turned to go since it was obvious he was just in the way here.

\"Harry?\"

He looked at Draco seeing the fear and vulnerability in his eyes. \"Stay with me?\"

Harry gave a short nod and went to Draco, running a soothing hand down his back. \"Anything I can do to help?\"

Draco gave him a jaundiced look and then handed him a few things as he set up the cauldron. \"Chop things, but don\'t touch anything else. How you made it into NEWT Potions, I have no idea.\"

Harry stuck his tongue out at Draco but began to chop, looking at the directions over Draco\'s shoulder. He silently agreed that he was rubbish at Potions, not that he\'d ever admit it to the blond Slytherin. After everything was chopped, diced and peeled Harry settled onto the cot to watch Draco work. He looked so intense and focused but at the same time peaceful, his slender hands working gracefully at the bubbling liquid. He was startled out of his doze about an hour later when Draco sat down next to him on the cot. He blinked at him.

\"All done?\"

Draco nodded. \"For the moment.\"

\"What\'ll we do now?\"

\"Now we wait.\"

The blond stared at the simmering potions, his eyes haunted. He smiled a bit when Harry settled his arm around his shoulders. He snuggled into the Gryffindor, his head resting on his shoulder, grateful for the warm soothing presence of his soon to be lover.



~~~TBC

hey, sorry for the evilness of the last chapter. this one came quickly as well i hope you enjoy it. thanks to those who reviewed even tho they were grumpy lol. i know i deserved it, hehe. as usual the next chapter will come when i finish writing it. maybe in a few days or even a week. tata for now. oh the lyrics from chapter 5 on have been Someday by Nickelback.