Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

19 Years and 5 Minutes Later	By : TheMightyFlynn Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 58416 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 6
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or any characters related to that series; they are JK Rowling's. I make no money from this.

Chapter List
- 1-19 Years and 5 Minutes Later
- 2-Ch. 2
- 3-Ch. 3
- 4-Ch. 4
- 5-Ch. 5
- 6-Ch. 6
- 7-Ch. 7
- 8-Ch. 8
- 9-Ch. 9
- 10-Ch. 10
- 11-Ch. 11
- 12-Ch. 12
- 13-Ch. 13
- 14-Ch. 14
- 15-Ch. 15
- 16-Ch. 16
- 17-Ch. 17
- 18-Ch. 18
- 19-Ch. 19
- 20-Ch. 20
- 21-Ch. 21
- 22-Ch. 22
- 23-Ch. 23
- 24-Ch. 24
- 25-Ch. 25
- 26-Ch. 26
- 27-Ch. 27
- 28-Ch. 28
- 29-Ch. 29
- 30-Ch. 30
- 31-Ch. 31
- 32-Ch. 32
- 33-Ch. 33
- 34-Ch. 34
- 35-Ch. 35
- 36-Ch. 36
- 37-Ch. 37
- 38-Ch. 38
- 39-Ch. 39
- 40-Ch. 40
- 41-Ch. 41
- 42-Ch. 42
- 43-Ch. 43
- 44-Ch. 44
- 45-Ch. 45
- 46-Ch. 46
- 47-Ch. 47
- 48-Ch. 48
- 49-Ch. 49
- 50-Ch. 50
- 51-Epilogue
- 28
- 29
- 30
A/N: Thanks for the reviews!
Pain flashed across Draco’s forehead, through his sinuses and down his jaw as the curse hit him. It was quickly followed by the racing heart and nausea of pure panic as he realised what had happened: Ginevra had struggled free, grabbed the wand of the Auror nearest her and had aimed straight for him. He hadn’t been fast enough, hadn’t been able to cast a shield to prevent it from hitting him and was now about to pay the price for his slow reflexes.
His eyes closed as he staggered from the force of the blow. When he reopened them, everything was red. Blood poured down his face, soaking through his robes, covering his hands and beginning to pool on the floor in front of him as he landed on his knees. He had managed to avoid this kind of serious injury even during the War, so the colour and smell surprised him a little as he stared down at it. His head spun, although whether it was from the sudden loss of blood or from the combination of panic and fear rushing through him, he had no idea. He knew he was going to die and his only thoughts at that moment were of the promises he had made to both Astoria and Harry to stay safe. They were both going to be so disappointed in him...
“Draco!”
Harry’s cry in the dream combined with the shout that finally dragged Draco back into consciousness. Draco took a shuddering breath as he sat bolt upright in the hospital bed, his heart racing. He was drawn immediately into a loose embrace, which he leant gratefully into. Harry let out a small, amused sound and tightened his grip a little, now holding Draco securely. Unwilling to fight against the comfort that was obviously being offered, he closed his eyes and listened to the soothing voice murmuring in his ear. There was no real meaning to the words, but the tone was what Draco desperately needed. Low, familiar and reassuring, that voice was what kept him grounded as the panic from the nightmare receded.
The dream had been so real, so vivid, that he was having trouble preventing himself from jerking away from the embrace and checking to make sure he wasn’t still covered in his own blood. It had to still be there: there was no way something like that hadn’t been real. The impulse nearly overwhelmed him before he gave himself a mental shake. Caught between fighting back against the pain potion dulling his usual reactions and his need to have some kind of mental barrier between himself and the rest of the world, his only physical reaction was to clench his hand in the back of Harry’s shirt. He would fight against the numbness the potion forced on him and he would win. A softly murmured Lumos pulled him out of his thoughts.
“It’s alright; you’re safe. Here, see for yourself.”
Draco came very close to clinging to the back of the soft shirt Harry wore to prevent him from pulling away, but he controlled the impulse, mentally cursing the potion. True to his word, it seemed that Harry had been asleep on the armchair beside Draco’s bed, if the crinkles in his shirt and the state of his hair were anything to go by. The idea caused warmth to spread through Draco’s stomach and he smiled as he took the handle of the wand Harry offered him. Instead of checking himself, though, he used the light to study Harry’s face.
“Have you slept at all?” Bags had begun to form beneath Harry’s eyes and he kept blinking in the light, almost as though he was trying to keep his eyes open. Draco shook his head. “Don’t exhaust yourself for me.”
Harry chuckled and the accompanying smile caused the warmth pooling inside Draco to turn rapidly to desire. “You’ve only been asleep for an hour and a half. There has been so much going on in that time that I haven’t had time to even sit down, let alone try to sleep.” He held a hand up to silence Draco when he opened his mouth to ask what he was talking about. “I’ll tell you all about it in the morning. Right now, we both need sleep.”
Knowing that Harry was right, Draco silently handed him his wand back. The thought that Harry had handed over his own wand without hesitation flittered through Draco’s mind, but he pushed it aside for the time being; there would be time to ponder Harry’s actions later on, when he was thinking clearer. He grabbed Harry’s sleeve when he made to get off the bed.
“Stay here.”
Harry raised an eyebrow, the action bringing back the memory of earlier in the night. This time it was accompanied by the flash of a smirk across Harry’s face that immediately separated the two moments in Draco’s mind. This was the Harry he had fallen for, not the cold, hard man he had been faced with just a couple of hours before and the difference was so obvious that it almost had him laughing in relief.
“You’re not supposed to be getting excited tonight.”
Draco rolled his eyes, unable to completely prevent the smile that spread across his face. “That’s not what I meant and you know it, you bloody child,” he muttered. “If you want to sleep in that chair all night, go right ahead. I’m not the one who’ll wake up all stiff.”
He settled back down on the bed with his back to Harry as his words caused Harry to snigger. The change in Harry’s demeanour was having the effect of relaxing Draco much faster than anything else Harry could have done and his earlier exhaustion was catching up with him quickly. The fact that the Harry he knew and loved was back was what he focussed on as he felt the bed shifting. He had no idea whether Harry was going to take him up on the offer to use the bed or not, but was discovering that knowing that they were alright for the time being was almost as good. Draco smiled when Harry lay down behind him and draped an arm across his waist. The warmth of Harry’s body seeped into him and he leant back against his chest, enjoying the content feeling that settled over him.
“Night,” he whispered just as sleep claimed him again.
*~*
Waking with Draco draped across his chest wasn’t a new sensation for Harry. The warm weight was so familiar to him by now that his only reaction was to wrap an arm around Draco’s waist and try to fall back asleep. His eyes flew open, however, when he heard a small sound, almost like a whimper.
“Draco?” His voice was rough and he cleared his throat before trying again. “Are you awake?”
Draco shifted on top of him, but didn’t respond. His Auror instincts kicked in to wake him fully when he realised that something was properly wrong and he reached carefully over to the bedside to grab the pain potion that the Healer had left the night before. It had been clear the previous night that Draco didn’t like the idea of the strong potion, but if he was in enough pain that he was almost whimpering in his sleep, then Harry would make sure he took it. He got a better grip of Draco’s shoulders and shook him a little, hoping to not cause more pain.
“Come on, wake up. You need to take this.”
“No.”
Harry rolled his eyes. “Why not?”
“Too strong.”
“You had seven Healers in here last night stopping the bleeding and making sure you survived the night. I think they’d know what they are talking about when they give you a specific strength.”
Harry loosened his grip on Draco’s shoulders when he began to wriggle in his arms. With a groan, Draco shoved himself up on his elbows so he was hovering above Harry. He had yet to open his eyes, but Harry could already see the pain lines forming between his eyebrows.
“Give me a few minutes, I need...” Draco paused and frowned, causing Harry to run his hand up his back to his shoulder blades in an automatic gesture of comfort. A small smile touched Draco’s lips before he continued. “What you said last night...”
Harry’s stomach dropped and a feeling of great reluctance tensed his muscles. “I’m sorry, but–”
“No, let me say this before that stupid potion robs me of the ability to think straight again.” Draco’s eyes opened to pin Harry with a glare and he snapped his mouth shut, not wanting to piss him off, just in case. “About that little meltdown you had. I understand where you’re coming from, but I know what and who I want. You aren’t dangerous; not for me. If there was any chance that you were going to prove to be too risky for me or my family to be around, then I would tell you. As for the press, I’ll be able to shield my family from most of what they can throw at us, just as you can do the same for yours.”
Harry closed his eyes, unable to meet Draco’s as shame washed through him. He now realised that trying to leave Draco the way he had the night before had been the coward’s way out of the guilt he had been awash with. He knew he would always feel a little spark of blame over what had happened, but the fact that Draco still trusted him – still wanted him – had put a lot of his doubts to rest. The need to protect Draco from what he had seen as something that would follow him through the rest of his life had overwhelmed him and the only way to fulfil that need that he could see was to push Draco away, the same way he had pushed Ginny away before going Horcrux hunting all those years ago.
Draco’s reaction had highlighted the differences between him and Ginny yet again: he had risked further injury to prove to Harry that he was being stupid. It had reinforced the idea in Harry’s mind that Draco wouldn’t take any of his crap, wouldn’t allow him to ‘play the martyr’ as he had put it.
The reluctance that had begun to spread through him caused him to squirm uncomfortably, although exactly what the reluctance was over was beyond him at that moment. It had been a while since he had been hit with the fear that Draco would mock him for expressing his feelings for him, so he figured it couldn’t be that. He knew how Draco felt for him and he returned those feelings, so... He shook his head, unable to figure it out. Reopening his eyes, he found Draco watching him with such an intense look that he immediately felt a blush beginning to spread across his cheeks.
“Harry?” Draco leant in so that their foreheads touched lightly. “You still with me?”
Forcibly pushing his remaining concerns to the back of his mind, Harry offered up a grin. “I told you last night: I’ll be here as long as you want me to be. I’m in this for the long run.” His grin turned to a proper smile when Draco hummed in response. “I am sorry for what’s happened and my reaction to it; you didn’t deserve to be the one she took it all out on. I’ll watch closer for anything else like that from now on, though, whether you think I should be watching out for you or not.”
Draco stayed silent for a few seconds before humming in a way that made it sound like he was agreeing with what Harry had said. “Alright.” He rolled off Harry’s chest, his eyes squeezed shut tight. “Potion.”
Shaking his head as Draco held his hand out, Harry handed the potion over. If he hadn’t been used to Draco’s peculiar way of interacting with the world around him, he would have thought himself in trouble. He ran a hand absentmindedly down Draco’s chest to come to rest on his hip as he waited for the potion to take effect. His mind wandered back to that first day in Grimmauld as Draco swallowed down the last drops of potion and lay back against the pillows, grimacing in pain. The argument the two of them had had in Harry’s bedroom had ended similarly, with Draco relaxing after getting Harry to admit what he wanted to hear. Refocussing when he felt Draco’s tense muscles loosening, Harry pressed the palm of his hand lightly to Draco’s forehead, knowing that even the heat of that would help with the remnants of the pain. He smiled when Draco leant into the touch.
“Better?”
“Mmm... much.”
Draco opened unfocussed eyes to reveal that his pupils had widened. Harry slid his hand down the side of Draco’s face, smiling as relief rushed through him. He hadn’t realised just how much pressure knowing Draco was in pain had been putting on him, but now that it was abating, it had become obvious. Draco blinked a few times before his eyes locked onto Harry.
“Gods, you’re hot all rumpled like that.”
Harry chuckled as he leant in to press their lips together in a chaste kiss. He had missed the first hour of the potion the night before because Astoria had gone in before him, then Draco had fallen asleep. It seemed to him that due to the strength of the potion, a lot of the walls that Draco held up had come down, although Harry knew he had seen him struggling against that effect last night. As entertaining as it seemed a Draco with very few filters would be, Harry knew he had to set up boundaries. He would not take advantage of him while he was in this condition, no matter how much Draco may claim to want it.
“No sex while you’re high.” He watched as Draco slowly blinked at him before smiling. “Tea?”
“A poor substitute.”
Harry was unwilling to prevent the laugh that escaped him as he rolled off the bed and pulled his shoes on. Apparently the potion hadn’t stripped Draco of all of his personality if the aristocratic tone his voice had taken on was any indication. He glanced back towards the bed just as he left the room. Draco had lain back against the pillows again, his eyes closed and a small smile touching his lips. He looked peaceful and it was that thought that Harry clung to as he made his way quickly down to what he knew was the best cafe in the hospital. Everything that needed to be done over the next few days was just rushing back to him as he rounded the corner towards the cafe and, not paying attention to where he was going, he crashed into another man.
“Shit, sorry! I–” Harry blinked as the man turned around and smiled at him. “Kingsley!”
“Good morning, Harry. We weren’t sure if you would be awake this early, so we were just killing time in the cafe here. Would you care to join us?”
Harry’s insides froze as Kingsley stepped aside to reveal Molly Weasley sitting on a stool on the opposite side of the table outside the cafe. Her eyes were bloodshot, although whether it was from tears or a lack of sleep, Harry couldn’t tell. Standing there staring at her, a mix of emotions crowded through Harry’s chest, causing his head to spin. Everything seemed to catch up with him in that second and a desperate need for the motherly comfort she had always offered him pushed to the front of his mind. He took a deliberate step backwards to prevent himself from throwing his arms around her.
“Molly.” A sense of pride spread through Harry’s chest as he realised he had managed to keep his voice steady despite everything washing through him. “How are you?”
“I’ll just leave the two of you to it, then?” Harry glanced over at the sound of Kingsley’s voice; he had almost forgotten the other man was there. “I have to have a private word with Mr. Malfoy and then I’ll need to speak to you as well, Harry. I’ll send you word by Patronus when I’m ready for you if you’re not back upstairs by the time I’m done with Mr. Malfoy.”
Harry nodded numbly as Kingsley left him alone with Molly. His chest ached as he turned to meet her eyes again. She was the only true motherly figure he had ever had in his life and the way things had been between the two of them recently had caused him so much pain that he was unsure how this meeting would go. He actually found himself grateful that they were in public because the potential for them to have an audience was, hopefully, going to temper many of both of their more explosive reactions. He almost jumped when Molly cleared her throat.
“Sit, please.” Molly waved a hand at the empty chair in front of Harry. “I understand if you don’t want to see me, but we have to have a discussion.”
Harry hung his head and bit down on the inside of his mouth to prevent himself from simply blurting out everything he had wanted to tell her over the past six weeks. The confusion currently running through him told him that Molly was right: he really didn’t want to see her at that moment. However, there was also a part of him clinging desperately to the mother/son relationship they had forged over the years and it was this that was causing his head to spin with the contradiction. He moved to sit on the very edge of the chair opposite her without looking up.
“The children are safe.”
Harry’s head snapped up. He had sent his Patronus to Arthur the night before after he had made certain Draco was safe, asking him to collect the boys from Hogwarts before the news broke in the newspapers that morning. He knew Kingsley had already informed them of what Ginny had done and considering the state Draco had been in the night before, it had been highly unlikely that Harry would have been able to leave to collect them. The response he had gotten had been short, but Arthur had agreed with him that the boys were both much safer with them at the Burrow for the time being. The thought of his kids brought more of the pain that he had been repressing over their situation to the surface and he was gripped by an urgent need to see them, to make sure they were alright. He shoved himself to his feet again.
“How are they? Do they – Are they alright? I–”
“Harry.” Molly reached out and grabbed his sleeve in a loose grip. “They are as good as can be expected, considering the circumstances. George, Percy and Arthur are all there keeping them occupied.”
Harry sank slowly back down into the chair again, his heart racing. It was too much: he couldn’t deal with everything that had happened over the past few weeks on top of having the man he loved lying in a hospital bed. He stared unseeingly down at the tabletop as it all piled in on top of him, causing his chest to ache and his eyes to blur.
“I – I can’t... Gods, Molly, I am so sorry. I know Ginny’s your daughter and that you have to stand with her no matter what, but with everything that’s happened...” He shook his head and widened his eyes in an attempt to regain some kind of control over himself. “With the way she’s treated Lily and the boys and has tried to discredit me in the newspapers for everyone to see... I miss having my family around me and getting the kind of support that I have needed this past six weeks. I miss knowing that I have somewhere I’ll always be accepted no matter what I’ve done. I know that after everything that’s gone on, I’ll never have that again, but...”
He trailed off as he lost the tight grip he had had on everything and a hot tear splashed down onto his hand. He quickly wiped it on his shirt and took a deep breath, willing himself to get a grip. Biting down on the inside of his bottom lip and clenching his jaw, he took several deep, slow breaths. The hard lump that was forming in his throat as he managed to stop the tears from falling was preventing him from speaking, but it was worth it. He couldn’t show that kind of weakness in front of Molly anymore for fear of having her inform Ginny and Ginny, in turn, selling the story to whichever newspaper would listen to her. He flinched when he felt Molly’s hand rest lightly on his forearm.
“Harry, dear, I...”
He swallowed against the lump in his throat and took another slow, deep breath before meeting her eyes. “I understand, Molly, I really do.” His voice was thick and he paused to clear his throat and force his emotions down again. “The fact that you’re willing and able to look after the kids while everything is happening here is enough for the time being. I can’t just abandon Draco and I know how you feel about he and I being together, so...” He shrugged and shook his head. “It’s enough.”
Molly stared at him for an interminable few seconds before nodding. Harry could almost see her working through her options before responding and was thankful when she finally settled on one. Placing one hand on his shoulder and the other on the back of his head, she drew him down so she could place a kiss on his forehead. He frowned as she pulled back, but she offered up a small smile before he could question her.
“Come by the Burrow whenever you have a few minutes of free time. You can see the kids and reassure yourself that they are safe and as happy as they can be at the moment. We can discuss things properly then.” A feeling of loss hit Harry hard as she stepped back from him, but he suppressed it. “We know what Ginny did and what the consequences are likely going to be. I think it would be good for everyone involved to sit down and talk everything out over a cup of tea.”
With that, she was gone. Harry sat at the table, simply thinking over what had just happened. Was it possible that he would be able to sort things out with his family after all of this? He knew getting his hopes up on that score was a stupid idea, but he really couldn’t help it: they were his family, no matter how they had all treated each other over the past six weeks.
He eventually pulled himself out of his thoughts when the noise level around him increased. Glancing up, he saw that people had started to arrive for visiting hours and the realisation hit him that he had originally only come down here to grab two cups of tea. Gathering himself as much as possible, he wet his hand with a quickly muttered charm and ran it over his eyes, knowing that they must be bloodshot. It was the best he could do, but he knew he must look like shit. The girl behind the counter offered him up a sympathetic smile as she filled his order and he smiled absently back, lost in his own thoughts again.
Kingsley’s Patronus met him as he was exiting the cafe with two steaming cups of tea. His stomach swooped: it was time for him to find out exactly how bad the damage was that Ginny had caused and the exact consequences she was likely to suffer.
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19 Years and 5 Minutes Later