Issues

"Look, Remus, he's coming round!"

That was a familiar voice, Hermione if he wasn't mistaken. Harry forced his eyes open to ensure he was correct, wondering why she sounded so concerned. It wasn't until he opened his eyes and found he couldn't see anything other than vague dark, blurred shapes that he remembered what had happened.

"Wha...?" It was a pretty poor attempt at speaking, too, but it appeared that was all he could manage right now. He tried to sit up, propping himself up on his elbows.

"It's all right, Harry, just rest. You've had a lucky escape." Remus guided him back down onto the bed even though Harry didn't feel terrible - he didn't hurt anywhere - he was just having trouble seeing and speaking. Not that his throat was sore, so perhaps it was just because he'd been unconscious for some time. How long had he been out, anyway and what was the white powder?

He closed his eyes and tried again, whispering this time. "What happened?"

"That powder you inhaled was a potent, magical form of an hallucinogenic drug. It was lucky that I was able to contact Hermione who found us the antidote in time."

Confused, Harry looked at the dark blob in the direction Remus' voice had come from.

"We don't know who it came from, Harry, but we can guess. I've sent the packaging off to Kingsley to see if they can find anything incriminating on it," Hermione said.

"How long?"

"You've been unconscious for most of the day."

Harry rubbed his eyes. "I can't see, Hermione," he whispered, trying not to panic.

"I know. It's a side effect of getting particles of the drug in your eyes. We're assuming when it is flushed from your system properly, your sight will come back." He could hear the note of worry in her voice and he tried sitting up again.

"Help me to sit up?" he asked Remus, who helped as requested.

"Here, drink this," Hermione placed a glass in his hand. "It's a pain potion."

"I'm not in any pain," he replied.

"No, but it will help soothe the vocal chords and you should be able to speak better."

Nodding, he carefully raised the glass to his lips and downed the potion, managing not to spill any of it out the corners of his mouth. He could feel it going to work immediately and he coughed a little to clear his throat before he spoke.

"I will recover from this, right?" he asked. As long as he knew he'd be all right, then he could get on with the several other things that were more important right now.

"Of course you will," Hermione said. "And we can spell your eyes if they don't come back to full strength so you'll not feel any long term lack."

"Hermione," Harry said, a small grin on his face. "My eyes have never been full strength. If you can do that, you're a miracle worker."

Hermione gave his shoulder a punch. "I'll have you know I've been dying to try and correct your eyes, right from the very first time I mended your glasses."

"So, why didn't you?" He laughed.

"I didn't know how at first and by the time I did, they just seemed a part of who you are so I never offered."

"Well, I don't know..." He tried sounding doubtful. "Not sure I want to let you loose on my eyes, I might start seeing things I've not seen before." He winked playfully; Hermione would be about the only one he trusted with his eyesight.

"Oh, really? Like how attractive you find Draco?"

Oh. That shut off his grin as a warm blush spread across his cheeks.

"What's this?" Remus asked. "Harry, you don't really, do you?"

Damn his eyes, he wanted to look at Remus and try and gauge how he was feeling about that. "Umm, well, maybe?" Oh, what was wrong with him? It wasn't as if fancying a bloke was bad, he wasn't ashamed of it. No, it was just something new for him and he'd hardly had time to process it himself let alone explain it to anyone else.

"I should have seen it, I suppose," Remus replied in a tone that made Harry think Remus was resigned to it, or wasn't all that surprised.

"You should?"

"Wolf instincts. You can't fight them." Harry must have looked confused, so he continued. "One of the instincts of a wolf is to find a mate, so wolves have very attuned senses in regards to mating. I tried to ignore mine with reference to Dora, but she insisted and I eventually realised that my wolf instincts agreed with her. Once I stopped fighting it, I was much happier."

"What does that have to do with me and Draco?" Harry asked, still bewildered.

"Do you remember we fought a lot? Well, I was angry at the wolf instincts for wanting her and I projected that anger on to her. You and Draco did that to each other from the first time you met. There is some sort of bond between you; just for the first seven years of it, you've chosen to fight it, rather than to accept it. I should have seen it earlier."

Hermione chimed in. "What made them stop fighting it?"

"From the pieces of information I've gathered from Harry, I think Draco stopped pretending he hated Harry when he needed him, allowing Harry to see what sort of person he was underneath all that."

"Remus, you're talking a lot of rubbish," Harry tried to protest, but Hermione stuck her big bossy nose in again and overrode him.

"I think that's exactly right. The two of you were always obsessed with each other. It makes perfect sense when you think about it."

"Oh, and the blind as a bat bloke lying here on the bed has no say in it, then?" he huffed, arms crossed.

"What do you think it was, then?" Remus asked. "What is it about him that you find attractive?"

"It was...Oh, no, I'm not saying another word about that." That was personal and, well, he wasn't ready to talk about that yet. He'd barely enough time to realise he was attracted to Draco himself, without explaining it to anyone else. "How long before you know if my eyes will go back to normal?"

"We should know by tomorrow," Hermione said. "I contacted Madam Pomfrey and she sent over an accelerant with the pain potion and that should help flush the poison from your system faster than normal."

"All right," Harry said, sighing and blinking erratically as if blinking would make his eyes focus. It was annoying, really, but not painful. "So, there's been no word on Coghill, then? No sightings or anything?"

"Not a word," Remus replied. Harry could see him lowering himself to sit on the bed, or see a dark shape lowering itself onto the bed.

"This is so annoying!" Harry exclaimed, frustrated. "His half arsed attempts at revenge on me show a lack of planning...a bit of an amateur job, really, and yet the whole of the Auror force can't find him? Are they even looking?"

"They're doing everything they can, Harry, and we have people looking for him too and we haven't found him yet, either."

"I know, I know. I'm sorry, it's just I keep thinking one of his incompetent plans to kill me might succeed by accident one of these days."

"We'll get him, but you have to take proper precautions," Remus warned. "That was stupid opening that parcel without checking it first."

"Yes, I know that, I'm sorry, it won't happen again." Harry was very contrite; he felt terrible for worrying his friends like that.

"No, it won't. I've decided that Dora or I will check your mail each morning ourselves before we hand it on to you."

He sighed. "All right. What else has happened while I've been out of it?"

Harry could hear the smug smile in Hermione's voice when she answered. "Today's edition of the Freedom Press has created such a stir, Harry. Fred and George spoke to their friend at the Prophet and convinced her to at least read the article. She authorised a special late edition, of the Prophet this afternoon and guess what was the lead story?"

"Sally McGregor?" Harry asked, smiling.

"Yes. They gave Sully the credit for the story and he's being paid by the Prophet for the rest of his stories. He said normally he wouldn't write for such a paper because he calls them weak as dishwater, but if they're prepared to run all of his stories then they have more chance of getting some real changes made. I spoke to him earlier and he says that both papers have been inundated with Owls in support."

"That's great," Harry said, relieved that so far things seemed to be heading in the right direction. "Was there any backlash against Kingsley for leaking the information?"

"They don't know he did it. There's no proof. Besides, they think they have a crazed killer on the loose that is trying to kill the Minister, and they have no time to be chasing a scapegoat for the leak. They just don't think it's important enough. Yet. Wait and see what happens after a few days, when people start Owling the Ministry direct."

Harry could just see it now, Scrimgeour suffocating under a large pile of Howlers. Or at the very least going deaf. He laughed.

"He's offered me a job, too," Hermione added, and Harry could tell she was excited.

"That's wonderful, Hermione. I wondered how long it would take him to do that. You're going to take it, I assume?"

"Of course! You know me, Harry. Not happy unless I'm using my books and knowledge to be subversive. Try and save the world and all that. Or make it better, anyway."

He held out his hand to her and she took it. "You make it better just by being in it, Hermione." She squeezed his hand.

Harry shook his head. All of this - his life turned upside down, relying on others to fight battles for him while he helped an ex-Death Eater - possibly future boyfriend - and tried to save his life. Which reminded him...

"What about Draco? Did anyone go and tell him why I wasn't there? He'll panic otherwise."

"And that's the best news of the day," Hermione said, and Harry blinked. "After we were sure you'd be all right, I went to the cell to tell him what had happened. I thought I'd take him to Snape's and we'd keep looking for the diary, but he was really worried about you, didn't want anything to do with looking for the diary."

"But he hates being in that cell," Harry said, hoping she'd at least taken him decent food and some new books to read. He didn't notice Remus slipping out of the room.

"I know he does and I don't blame him. And he was so worried, I brought him here."

For a minute he didn't understand what she meant and then it sunk in. "He's here?"

Hermione nodded. "Just for a few hours. Kingsley wasn't happy about it, but you know he trusts you and he's working as hard as the rest of us to sort all this mess out, so he's fine with Draco being here for a few hours, but he has to go back after dinner," she said. "He's been sitting by your bed most of the day waiting for you to wake up, he'll be upset he missed it."

Harry heard the door open then and he looked up, not expecting to see anything; it was more a reflex action. He did manage to discern a blond blob on top of a darker blob he assumed was the robe Draco had borrowed from Snape, and his heart sped up while he kept blinking and cursing his lack of focused eyesight. The dark and the light blobs moved closer and Harry felt the cool pressure on his hand of what could only be Draco's hand. His fingers curled reflexively around Draco's and he smiled at the blob.

"That was a pretty stupid thing to do, Potter." The softness in Draco's voice belied his words, and Harry felt even worse. He couldn't afford to let all these people down by being stupid. They had all put their futures on the line, pretty much just on his say so; they deserved to have him thinking and acting sensibly.

"I know," he replied. In the background he heard the soft snick of the door closing; Remus and Hermione obviously deciding to leave them alone. "I have no excuse, I'm sorry."

"You had me worried sick, Harry." He felt the edge of the bed sink and the blobs moved closer until he felt Draco curled up next to him and hugging him tightly. Harry raised his arms to hold Draco, too.

"I'm all right, though, and they'll be able to fix my eyes."

"You shouldn't have to go through all this. If it wasn't for me..."

"Stop, Draco. I'll admit this was not what I planned to do after the war but, now I'm here, there isn't anywhere else I'd rather be."

"Idiotic, heroic, Gryffindor," came the reply, accompanied by lips pressing fiercely to his, demanding he kiss back. Which he did. With pleasure. Several times. He didn't need eyes for kissing.

"Have they caught you up on all the news?" Harry asked when they took a break from the delightful kissing.

"Yes, and those twins of yours gave me one of the communication devices they invented so that you can contact me now, too. I thought it might be a joke at first - you know how those two are, so you can't really blame me--"

"You're rambling, Draco," Harry said, amused.

"I know. I just...it's still hard to get used to not being hated by these people and by you. I keep thinking I should pack as much into the time I have with you, for when it's all taken away from me."

Harry's arms tightened around Draco. "It's not going to be taken away from you. We'll find Snape's diary, it will clear you and you'll be free."

"I'm under no illusions, Harry. I can't see us finding that diary or we'd have found it by now. Snape has hidden it too well. They'll use Veritaserum on me and make me relive every minute of my time with V-Voldemort and even then they'll think I deserve Azkaban for having this mark on my arm. They won't let me go, Harry, I know it."

"We still have a week left to find the diary, don't give up yet. And have you seen the response to the newspaper story? We'll have the use of Veritaserum changed so that they can't give it to you unless you agree to it."

"It's hard to believe that will happen, Harry. I think we'll have to face up to the fact that I'll end up on that godforsaken island regardless of what we do and you know I'll only last a few weeks there at most."

Harry could feel Draco's body shaking, but all he could do was to hold him and insist that he not give up just yet. There had to be a clue to the whereabouts of this diary. Harry just hadn't thought of it yet, that was all.

They spent the rest of the evening laying on the bed, speaking quietly to one another, Harry doing his best to bolster Draco's flagging spirits, while racking his brain for another solution to the dangers they both faced. If only Kingsley and the Aurors could capture Coghill, that would be one headache removed. If only Scrimgeour was a reasonable sort that Harry could bargain with...well at least Harry had been able to do away with his social engagements on behalf of the Ministry while a 'crazed killer' was on the loose attempting to assassinate the Minister.

Hermione ducked in during the evening to tell them she was off to the Freedom Press offices to meet with Sully, and have a tour to find out where she would be working. Harry was pleased at the ardor in her voice - the one that appeared when she was passionate about something. It made her fearless and Harry loved her for it. She would make a terrific investigative reporter, crusading for the rights of the downtrodden and overlooked.

Several others also dropped in, some becoming speechless at seeing Draco snuggled up to Harry's side, others, like Ron, resigned to it. Harry was rather proud of Ron for not running way screaming "My eyes!" They learned that Bill was still following the Minister, the twins had had no luck in pinpointing where Coghill was, but they were looking at inventing tracing devices that were undetectable and non-removable, and that half of the old Order team had decided to move back into Grimmauld Place until this situation was dealt with. Molly arrived with dinner on trays for them and did no more than roll her eyes to see the two boys curled up together. Not that Harry saw it but Draco told him later.

While Harry loved spending this time with Draco and getting to know him better, he still felt time ticking away and regretted the loss of the day searching for the diary.

Just when Harry was about to suggest that perhaps it was time for Draco to go back to the cell, Ron burst through the door.

"Come on, Malfoy, I've got to take you back on my way to the Freedom Press. Someone's broken in and set it alight and Hermione's still inside."

"Well, leave me here and just go," Draco replied, sitting up quickly.

Harry sat up, too. It was a worry but he was sure that Hermione would be able to escape. She was too clever to be caught in something like that.

"I can't. Kinglsey thinks it was done with Ministry approval. It's a magical fire that Sully is having trouble putting out. Kingsley says that if it was Ministry approved and they're trying to shut Sully up about the Veritaserum, then they might do some checking on you and if you're not there, everything we've been doing will all be for nothing and none of us will be in a position to do any more."

"Fuck!" Harry said. "Right when I can't see, either. Anyone would think the Ministry sent me that package." He'd just been thinking out loud and didn't really believe it, but, at the deathly silence from Ron and Draco, maybe it wasn't that far fetched after all.

Well, shit.