Discoveries and Revelations

Revelations and Discoveries

Chapter One

He had a bit of a struggle admitting to himself that he preferred blokes to girls. After all, he grew up surrounded by girls who wanted to shag the Boy-Who-Lived on more than one occasion. But he wanted none of the adulation. Not then, and definitely not now. He just wanted to be left alone as much as possible. That was why he relished these moments of solitude he usually had at 12 Grimmauld Place. Yes, his inherited home was still the headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix, but most everyone who stayed there respected his much needed alone time. They all knew he needed to be by himself every now and then to sort out his oftentimes jumbled up thoughts, or just clear his head and escape, even momentarily, this world that was clinging on to him like a lifeline.

Outside, the rain was pouring down heavily against the glass pane of his bedroom window. Harry sat curled up on the window seat, his knees tucked neatly under his chin, and his arms wrapped around his legs tightly. Hedwig gave out a soft hoot and flew towards him, settling down near his feet. He smiled at his pet and started stroking her feathers lightly with the tip of his knuckles. He sighed deeply and continued gazing outside.

The rain was now really coming down in torrents and he could barely see anything outside. Still, he continued staring blankly at the rain, wanting so much to run out of the house and just scream until there wasn’t an ounce of strength left inside of him.

He was getting quite tired of all these cat and mouse games he and his friends had been playing with Voldemort and his Death Eaters. For the nth time in his life, he wished he were just some normal, boring 17-year old teenager instead of this character destined to save the wizarding world from an evil beyond anyone’s imagination.

He started rubbing his scar gingerly, more out of habit now more than anything. Harry thought of getting something to eat from the basement kitchen, and maybe a shower afterwards. He was about to step down from where he was seated when he heard a loud bang, like a door being slammed shut, and a whole lot of screaming and shouting. He knitted his brows as he listened to the commotion coming from downstairs and his heart started pounding loudly in his ears. He felt a painful tug in the pit of his stomach as he realized what it was.

He and Professor McGonagall had had a chat with Albus Dumbledore’s portrait in the new headmistress’s office a few weeks after his death. It was at that time that Dumbledore informed them both of this moment.

Harry grudgingly left his perch, causing Hedwig to fly off with an annoyed hoot. He was dreading this moment, knowing that he might have to fight off his very own friends for this so-called present-time cause. He left his room in haste after tucking his wand in the back pocket of his jeans. He raced down the stairs to see his former Potions professor, Severus Snape, and Draco Malfoy being mauled by his fellow Order members: Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and the twins. And as much as his brain was telling him to let the group beat these two men to a bloody pulp, he felt guilt and pity tug at his heart. He drew out his wand and flicked it, making a loud exploding sound reverberate through the entire house.

That did it. He was able to catch the group’s attention – as well as the rest of the people inside the house at that time – in just one go.

Ron glared at him, naked fury in his eyes. Hermione was staring at him with a confused look on her face. The twins were holding on to both Snape and Malfoy with iron grips, while Ginny had her wand pointed at Malfoy’s neck, all set to hex the living daylights out of him.

“Of all people, mate, I would expect you to join in on beating up these two gits instead of stopping it,” Ron blurted out after a moment of silence.

Harry had a very tired look on his face as he rubbed his scar again and lowered his wand. “Ginny, down with the wand. Just leave them be. They’re under my protection from now on,” he called out tiredly, albeit confidently. A confidence that betrayed the churning emotions battling in the pit of his chest.

"Did I hear you right, Harry? Protection?" Hermione squeaked, her eyes wide with disbelief.

"Why would you want to protect these two gits? They murdered Dumbledore, for chrissakes!" Fred blurted out incredulously. His grip on Malfoy's collar slacked a bit and Malfoy was able to shake himself free from his grasp.

Malfoy looked up at Harry, his face bloodied and his nose broken. But even though he was quite messed up, he still showed traces of arrogance about him, his silver eyes gleaming with clear defiance. Seeing this, Harry wanted to just let everyone beat the two men to an inch of their lives; hell, he wanted to slug Malfoy in the face himself! But he heard Dumbledore's voice in his head and he relented.

"Because Dumbledore said so," was Harry's short reply. He sighed and ran his free hand through his already tousled hair.

"Down with the wands --- and the fists --- everyone," he glanced over at Ron, "And no kicking or tripping either, Ron. By the looks of it, Malfoy and Snape here already have a clear idea of how much we hate them. Do not give them any more reason to hex you while you sleep."

Harry climbed down the rest of the steps to fetch the two. He pocketed his wand and motioned for them to follow him up the stairs.

On the way up, he nodded at Molly Weasley who was looking at him, aghast.

"Mrs. Weasley, would you be so kind as to prepare some hot water and clean tea towels for us and bring them up to my room? I will be tending to Snape's and Malfoy's wounds myself, seeing that I might be the only person here who does not want to murder them where they stand."

Molly nodded and turned towards the kitchen, her face still marred by the horrified look that she could not seem to get rid of.

With that, Harry turned and led the two men up the stairs.

* * * * * * * * * *

Draco was shooting daggers at Potter's back with his eyes as the raven-haired boy led them to his upstairs room. He was now holding his painfully broken nose to try and stop the bleeding.

He silently cursed at Snape for talking him into coming here. He knew he was not welcome here --- as painfully demonstrated by the buggers downstairs who had banged him up good. He had planned to Apparate to France before Snape had told him that they were to go to this place. He had thrown a right fit while he and Snape argued about it. Finally, he grudgingly admitted that Snape was right. The Dark Lord will be able to locate him and bestow upon him the punishment he'd deem befitting a known traitor such as himself wherever he may hide. 12 Grimmauld Place was, indeed, the safest haven there was for them to stay.

Still, I do not have to be all happy about it, Draco thought.

As they entered Potter's room, Draco sulkily plopped down on the king-sized bed and sneered at his host, who had a concerned look on his face.

"Do not look at me like that, Potter. I don't need you or your pity," he hissed.

Harry cocked his head to one side and gazed at the bleeding Slytherin. "Who said anything about me pitying you? And besides, I don't recall you turning down my efforts to save your sorry ass from the mob that were my friends earlier. If you had done so, you could have earned back that so-called dignity of yours."

Draco glared at him and turned away, trying to sop up the blood that was gushing out from his now throbbing nose.

Snape cleared his throat and finally spoke. "Potter, are we not going to fix Draco's nose?"

Harry smirked, "I will, in a while. I'm still savoring this moment of him feeling the same pain that he had inflicted upon me when he stomped on my face in the Hogwarts Express back in Sixth Year."

Snape's expression turned grim, and Harry glimpsed of his old professor's usual demeanor. "Fine, if you're not going to do it, then I will," Snape remarked. He was about to pull out his wand from his robes, but was stopped when Harry pointed his wand at him.

"And I almost forgot to ask you both to give me your wands," Harry said quite calmly. "Now."

Snape reluctantly handed Harry his wand. Draco was a different story. He glared at Harry, telling him with his eyes that he refused to do so without a fight.

"Oh, you will hand over your wand to me, Malfoy. You may think that I'm no good at spell casting, but I can throw a mean hex or two if I choose to do so."

Draco knew he wouldn't be able to out-hex Harry even if he were quick to the draw. Harry already had his wand out and conveniently pointed at his face. He had no choice but to place his wand on Harry's outstretched palm.

Harry placed both their wands in a drawer in his side-dresser. He cast a complex locking charm to it and faced the two men. "It would be better this way anyway. I'm sure Voldemort has you two under his radar after what you both did to him. Using magic might provide him with all possible means to track and locate you both. And he would --- inevitably --- kill you."

There was a knock on the door and Harry called out for the person to come in. Molly came in with a basin full of warm water and some clean wash cloths. She was obviously avoiding looking at both Snape and Malfoy as she went into the room and placed everything she was carrying on a table. She smiled tentatively at Harry and immediately left the room, closing the door behind her.

"Right then. Since I am no good at medical magic, I will be tending to your wounds as you clean up all the blood. And I do have a small bottle of ointment from Madame Pomfrey that can heal wounds and bruises overnight."

Harry took the bottle from the pocket of his robe that hung in front of his wardrobe and handed it over to Snape together with a wash cloth so he could start cleaning himself up.

"I know you wouldn't want me touching you even with a ten-foot pole, so you may want to clean up on your own, Professor." He then turned to Draco and smirked.

"You, Malfoy, on the other hand, are a different story. Much as I don't want to lay a finger on you either, that won't be possible."

Harry advanced towards Draco as Draco continued glaring at the other boy. Harry grasped the sides of Draco's face, holding it in place firmly. Harry shoved a thick, rolled-up piece of cloth into Draco's face.

"I suggest you bite onto this. You might wake that hideous painting up by the stairs if you scream."

"Why would I---"

Harry took that opportunity to jam the cloth into Draco's mouth.

"Because this is going to hurt like hell. Your nose is not broken, but the main cartilage was dislocated, which caused some of the veins to rupture. I assume your nose is throbbing and not numb, right?"

Draco nodded grudgingly.

"Right then. Brace yourself Malfoy. I have to snap your nose back into place, and like I said earlier, it's going to hurt like hell. Now, on three---"

Draco nodded and closed his eyes.

"One---"

He clenched his teeth tighter on the cloth in his mouth.

"Two---"

And before Draco could ready himself further, he felt hot, searing, blinding pain shoot from his nose to his brain. He spat out the cloth in his mouth as soon as Harry's grip on his head slackened.

"Bloody fucking hell, Potter!!!" he yelled. His hands flew to his nose and he fell writhing on the bed. His eyes were still squeezed shut as he squirmed.

"Did you even know what the bloody hell you were doing? It felt like you broke my nose further!"

Harry went to the basin of water and dipped another wash cloth into it, "Give it a few more minutes, Malfoy. The pain will disappear and you'll feel right as rain." He walked over to where Draco was again and handed over the wet wash cloth.

Right after Harry said this, the pain in Draco's nose did disappear and he sat up to receive the wash cloth. He stared at the already tacky blood on his hands and grimaced.

Harry took notice of this and rolled his eyes, "Oh for Merlin's sake!" He took out his wand and pointed it at Draco, "Scourgify

"The blood on my skin is still there, Potter."

"Bloody hell, Malfoy! That's why I gave you the wash cloth in the first place!"

"Well, the wash cloth isn't going to be enough. I'd need to take a long, hot bath, or at least a shower."

"Well then, it will just have to wait because I want to talk to you both about something."

Draco started rubbing the blood off of his hands grudgingly with the wash cloth as he watched Harry grab the chair from the table and drag it beside the bed, positioning it so that it was not facing both men. He straddled the chair and sighed when his eyes met Draco's gaze.

"I talked to Dumbledore right after the burial ---" Draco gave him a questioning look, "---his painting, you git --- anyway, I spoke to him and he was the one who told me to accept you both here once you turned up and give you both my protection, as well as that of the Order ---"

"I told you, Potter, I don't ---"

"Will you let me finish, you daft little prick!? You'll get your chance to rant all you want later," Harry snapped. He closed his eyes and let out a cleansing breath. He rubbed his scar with his middle and index fingers.

"Dumbledore had warned me that this time would come, and it has. I've questioned him over and over again as to why I have to do it --- give shelter to the men who betrayed him and took his life...I knew that that was too much, even for me --- but he never answered me. So now, I'm asking you two: What exactly was that that happened at the Astronomy Tower?" He looked pointedly at Snape. "I know Malfoy was given orders to kill Dumbledore by Voldemort and was threatened by the death of his mother. But you, Snape, were the one who performed the Killing Curse on him. Oh, still loathe you for what you did, and I'm not sure if I can forgive you at all, but I'm giving you this chance to explain yourself. Dumbledore seems to trust you, even now that he is dead. I want to know why. I want to know everything, so don't you dare hold back any information from me."

He stared at Snape who suddenly looked much older than he actually was. Snape rubbed his temples, then the top of his nose before he sighed and eyed the emerald-eyed young man in front of him.

"Okay, Potter. I will tell you..."
------------------------------------------------------

***I have no idea as to how this thing sounds or looks like. This is my very first HP fanfic, let alone my first Drarry fic. Please bear with me, and review it as well. I'd be eternally grateful if you do.

Also, may I ask for your suggestions as to how you'd like the next chapter to go about after Snape reveals everything to Harry. How will Draco and Harry's relationship develop from here? I already have a chapter written on how they would admit their feelings for each other, but the gap between this chapter to that is not coming to me as of the moment (damn my writing muse...). So if you can pinch in your two-cents, that'd be great. :)