Can Love Survive...

Harry was still sitting at Draco's side, waiting for the moment in which he'd finally wake up and Harry would have to face the music. It had been several hours atleast since he'd arrived at the Hospital wing, and apart from Madam Pomfrey bringing him some dinner a bit ago, which made him realize it was getting quite late in the day now, the two of them remained undisturbed as he'd hoped for.

Draco showed no signs yet of rising, a fact which actually was beginning to worry him, though Madam Pomfrey, who'd checked up on Draco nearly an hour back, hadn't seemed too concerned. She only had told Harry that is probably the lingering effects of all the healing spells she'd had to use to clean him up, and that the rest period would be good for him right now, to help him heal what was left. She had cleaned up nearly all of the external bruising, but a few scrapes and such remained, some things just needed time to heal on their own she said.

It's not that waiting bothered Harry, it didn't. He used the time to prepare himself for what he was going to say when Draco woke up, pacing the floors at times even to get the right words. He didn't care if Draco wouldn't accept an apology, he was going to tell him one anyway, not because he had to do it, but because at this point it was something he needed to do. The guilt still had quite a hold on his emotions, and the apology was the only thing that he felt he could do to try and alleviate some of it.

It was nearly 6 hours later now since the incident between them had taken place, and it was quite well into the evening. In the back of his mind he knew his absence was probably being noticed, and wondred what Ron and Hermione would think when he hadn't shown up for meals, nor back at the Gryffindor common room after curfew. He suspected Dumbledore had a hand in allowing him to remain in the infirmary, if not Severus and Remus as well, and a part of him was glad that they were allowing this. Another part of him internally was groaning though because this would be another thing that the "Golden Boy" was allowed to do that noone else in school would have been allowed to, meaning just another bit of ammunition the Slytherins could use against him.

A few minutes later it didn't matter though, as Draco finally began to rouse from his sleep, to Harry's immense relief.

"Malfoy? Can you hear me?" Harry said softly, not wanting to startle Draco.

Draco blinked, then looked up at Harry, his grey eyes still a bit sleepfilled, till they registered who it was who'd spoken to him, and turned his head to face Harry. At first he looked at Harry like he had never seen him afore now, then he glanced round the room for a moment and realized where he was at, remembrance at what happened finally registering on his face.

"Potter. I'm not a bloody zoo animal, stop staring at me like that." Draco said in an oddly flat voice.

"Sorry. Just didn't think you would ever wake back up." Harry said, but didn't take his eyes off Draco's just yet.

"I bet you'd have been happier if I didn't. What's the matter Potter? Come here to finish the job?" Draco said coolly, however he didn't turn his gaze away from Harry's eyes either.

"No! I-I mean, of course not Malfoy. I"m not a killer like some people." Harry said sharply, almost too sharply.

Draco seemed to burn his gaze into Harry's now, then turned away finally. "Go away Potter, I dont need you here. I'll live, if that's what you're worried about. Go back to you're little friends and leave me alone." he said, his voice holding a tinge of bitterness.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean that Malfoy, honestly I didn't." Harry said adding more guilt to himself.

"Whatever. Everyone thinks I am one anyway, why should you be any different. Just.go.away, Potter. Unless you're here to pound me into the ground again, leave me." Draco's voice held more then bitterness now. To Harry, it almost sounded like resentment.

Harry sighed, everything he planned on saying got cut short in one fell swoop by that stupid comment he'd just made a moment ago. Draco would never hear him out now, and he had to resolve himself to that, and accept whatever would happen next. He slowly got up and began to walk away from the bed when he turned back to look at Draco one more time. He was surprized though, for in that few moments he'd turned away, Draco seemed to have changed.

The sly, cunning Slytherin was curled up now on the bed, shaking as if in tears, though Harry couldn't tell for sure since Draco was still turned away from him. He seemed lost, vulnerable, and very much like...like Harry himself lately. Walking back to the bed, he looked down at Draco for a moment, then decided to ask something that he had wanted to from the first moment.

"Why?" Harry said softly.

Draco didn't turn round, but he had heard Harry. "Can't leave well enough alone can you Potter." his voice flat sounding again.

"Why Malfoy? Why didn't you fight back? Why didn't you stop me?" Harry said a bit more forcefully, and coming closer to the bed now.

"Do I really need to tell you Potter? So you can spread it round to your Gryffindor friends and everyone can think worse of me then they allready do?" Draco asked, the bitterness back in his voice, his head still turned away from Harry.

"I'm not like that you know, I don't just go round telling everyone everything I do Malfoy." Harry said a bit heatedly.

"Could have fooled me Potter. The rumors allways seem to start out of Gryffindor's mouths. Why should this time be any less?"

"You know...you're just like Snape and Lupin, always quick to assume that a person's house is who they are. We're not." Harry said, then wished he could take it back after suddenly remembering that conversation back at Remus's rooms.

Draco did turn back to look at Harry then, and Harry could see the tears that had been in his eyes. Slowly however his grey eyes started to swirl with another emotion Harry wasn't so sure he was seeing....pity.

"Exactly my point Potter, surprized a high and mighty Gryffindor is actually seeing that." he said a trace of his usual smirk in his tone. "An eye for an eye Potter, don't look so shocked. I assume the worst of you, you assume the worst of me. It's probably better we keep it that way."

"Better for who Malfoy...you?" Harry said, wondring where this conversation was leading.

"Better for both of us Potter." Draco said actually seeming to get weary of this. "I'll agree to a deal with you Potter. I wont tell anyone else what happened between you and I, if you'll agree to turn round and walk out of this room...and leave me alone." Draco's voice held a tone that meant he was serious about this.

Harry searched Draco's eyes for a moment, searching for something he didn't quite understand. Slowly then he said, "Now...or forever?"

Draco seemed a bit taken aback at that, and had to think for a moment. "Forever seems like the best idea." he said back slowly.

Harry searched himself and realized this was the only type of 'apology' Draco was going to accept, and if that was the way it would be, so be it. "Shake on that then. I'll leave you alone, you leave me alone." he said and extended his hand.

Draco looked at the outstretched hand and his mind just for a second, flicked back to 1st year on the train. He offering Harry his outstretched hand in friendship, only to be turned down with the coldest words, "I can choose the wrong sort for myself thanks." Ironically now it was Harry offering up his hand to Draco, only this time it was to forever seal themselves off from each other. It was for the best however, too much depended on Draco at the moment, and he needed no further complications.

"Right then. We'll seal the pact with a handshake, then we'll never have to deal with each other again." Draco said, and almost in slow motion he could see himself take Harry's hand in his, but neither of them were prepared for what happened next.

As the two boys hands met, a blinding white hot flash of heat seared them at their wrists, moving into their whole bodies. Flashes of odd memories drifted into their minds, of pacts and promises made long ago that had been broken and shattered, whispered voices like ghosts from the past encircling their senses. Feelings of pain, agony, torment filled their bodies, bringing stinging tears to their eyes, though they found themselves unable to cry out.

Just as quickly however, those tormented pains ceased, and new sensations began to run through their veins. Peace, tranquility, serenity filled their souls, their minds filling with a joy they'd never in their short lives experienced. Images of a time long past in which life was simpler, kinder, and filled with picnics, explorations, and laughter.

Some point later, at some hidden signal from deep within themselves, their hands parted at the same time, their bodies still shaken, their minds still in turmoil. Neither of the boys seemed to be able to talk yet, or even move. The emotions that they had just both experienced still firmly implanted within them. A few minutes later, Harry was the first to recover.

"M-Malfoy? Wh-what...happened?" Harry said still a bit overwhelmed, and turned to look at Draco.

Draco shook his head, finding his voice. "I-I..dont..know..Potter."

"Did....did you..." Harry said softly, still not quite sure even what he had seen, but finally recovering from it all just a bit more.

Draco looked at Harry for a second, then nodded his head. He too was coming out of the hazy stupor that he'd been in.

"What does it mean? Harry asked wondringly.

"You think I bloody well know what it means? You're the one in divination Potter, not me!" Draco said a bit testily.

"Actually I dropped out last year." shrugged Harry, and put his hands to his temples to rub them.

"Bloody great." Draco said with a drawl, then suddenly his eyes focused upon something on Harry's arm that he wasn't sure he was seeing correctly. At first he thought he was imagining what he was seeing, but somewhere deep inside him instinct knew he wasn't.

Harry saw the odd look Draco was suddenly giving him and put his arms back down at his sides, wondring what the look was for. "What's wrong Malfoy?"

"N-nothing." he stammered, then recovered himself. "Look Potter, I dont know what happened just now, not even sure I want to know. For what it's worth I accept your 'apology', but right now I just want to be alone. In otherwords, get out." Draco said, a tenseness in his voice that even he didn't understand fully.

Harry looked at him for a second, then nodded. "What bout our pact?

"Forget the bloody pact Potter, and just get out!" Draco nearly screamed now, he needed time to think, he needed to be alone...now.

"Fine Malfoy, but this isn't over!" Harry said angrily, then turned and walked out of the infirmary, leaving the air tinged with heat as he left.

As soon as Harry left, Draco slumped back into the pillows, and closed his eyes, images swirling behind his eyelids. This was too much...too much to deal with ontop of everything else he had to. Had he seen what he thought he had on Harry? Could it even be possible? If so...how...when...why? Draco groaned then, tensions running rampant through his body again, and he wondred if perhaps he wasn't beginning to lose his mind suddenly.

Using a relaxation technic he'd picked up from a muggle book a long time ago when the need to bring his body back to peace from the torments of his father, he relaxed himself..mind, body and soul. He allowed his thoughts to drift away, releasing the tensions that were creating havoc within him. He used it as a way to clear his mind, and refocus on what he had seen.

Opening his eyes not much later, an odd expression filled them, and he knew then he had been right, and seen what he had. Bringing his own wrist up to eye level, he traced the pale scar that ran acrost his wrist, which no longer was painful thankfully, the pain had now edged down to it's normal dull pulse. Draco had noticed that the scar hadn't really begun to pulse like this till the start of school this year, though a few times last year after Yule, when he'd come back from holiday and done what he'd done, it had pulsed as well, as if it was approving of what he had done.

Sighing then he knew this was something he wasn't going to find out bout now, that he'd have to wait. What he had known was that the pulsing seemed tied to Harry Potter somehow, because nearly ever time it did pulse, Harry was near him, or he had been thinking about him, which meant that as of lately, his scar pulsed nearly all the time. Sometimes even during sleep because it would be aching when he'd wake up. Not that he ever remembered any dreams that Harry might have been in, but somehow deep inside his instincts, which by now had become fine tuned for the things he was risking, were never wrong, and he trusted his instincts implicitly.

Whatever was going on between the two of them, he'd bide his time. Patience had become more then a virtue to Draco Malfoy since Yule last year, it had become an art form. Like a cat stalking it's prey, Draco knew when it was time to pounce. Right now Harry James Potter was Draco Malfoy's prey, and when the time was right, Draco would find out what this all meant, and why he felt himself losing control of himself for the first time in his life. Then he closed his eyes again, drained of the evenings affairs, and fell back to sleep, odd dreams swirling under rapidly moving eyelids.

Severus Snape snuck away from the corner in which he'd put himself during the little exchange between Harry and Draco. Unknownst to both, he had been silently eavesdropping and checking in at the infirmary ever since his conversation earlier that day with Remus. He was still in the way that he needed solid proof that meddling in their affairs would be needed, and now he'd found it.

It had been luck that he'd arrived only moments before Draco had awoken, giving him the ample opportunity to remain undetected, and to witness everything that had happened. He nearly showed himself while their hands were clasped, it had actually frightened this hardened exdeatheater. The boys hadn't known that it had taken nearly 5 minutes before they had let go of each other, and the look of pure pain and anguish on their faces had almost been enough to pull him from his hiding area, until he remembered that it would be more dangerous to tear them apart then to leave them be.

He had told Remus he wouldn't be long when he had left over an hour ago now, and quickly he headed down towards Remus's rooms, his thoughts furiously racing through his mind. Last year when Draco had come to him and done what he had, he feared for him, worried for him. That was right before Lucius had kidnapped Severus from the deatheaters meeting and Voldemort had 'punished' him, leaving him to die in that coffin sized, darkened room back at the base. Back then he'd existed on pure anger, hatred, fear even, and he swore that should he ever get out he would make changes in his life. He wouldn't...he couldn't...let Remus go on alone, and that's nearly the only things that had kept him from breaking sooner.

He knew the strength of a lifemate, and the power love could yield. He knew of the torments, the joy, the fears of loving someone that intensely that nothing else mattered, and to have that love returned. A lifemate was a tool, a weapon, in a small arsenal that could fight evil...and win.

Severus knew that despite Harry's 'attempts' at remaining 'normal', at fighting what must be a losing battle judging from the looks on Lisa Turpin's face at dinner tonight when Harry hadn't shown up, that Harry was beginning to face who and what he was. The scar on his wrist would see to it even if Harry couldn't, and now that Severus and Remus knew for sure what Harry and Draco had done, and what had been used, it was no longer a match between rivals, but an all out war that was going to rage within themselves.

He suspected Draco was a bit more aware of things then Harry would be, having grown up in a world that understood such liaisons, while Harry's muggle upbringings, and having to grow up with people like the Dursleys, would have kept him sheltered, or demeaned such a liaison. He had seen the way Draco had looked at Harry's arm, his wrist in particular, and he could almost sense the thoughts..the questions..that were now running through his head.

Remus was right, if the two of them didn't find out soon, enchanted bushes or not, the two boys would become lake fodder, or worse, tortured shells of themselves, unfeeling, unknowing, uncaring. Not just Hogwarts and Albus, but the entire wizarding world needed these two boys, even if they weren't wholly aware of it, and Severus knew that at all costs, the two boys had to be prevented from doing anything stupid that would endanger them all.

He made a decision finally by the time he'd gotten to Remus's room, and he intended to stick with it. Opening the door to Remus's front room however, and seeing his lover, his lifemate looking so concerned for him at why he had been so late, he decided to wait to tell Remus anything. Instead he took his love by the hand and without saying a word, embraced him to his body, easing Remus's worry with a kiss that poured Severus's entire soul into the other, thanking whatever powers that be yet again for giving him this loving man. Silently he drew Remus out of the room to the back bedroom, his thoughts only on one thing, and anything else would have to wait till morning.

* * * * *

Hopefully I'll be able to post another chap tonight after I get done bowling...takes me anywhere from 1 to 3 hours to actually write one chapter, depending on how many distractions I get (AN: in otherwords me kidlets! :groan:) I cant ever get a chap out quickly really, though it might seem like it. I've never taken less then an hour, and most times it is round the 3 hour mark per chapter since I like to make sure me facts are straight (distractions dont help though as example Dippet's name..I was writing that while me 5 year old was bugging me for gameshark codes :mutter:). Creative writing certainly isn't easy! :P

2002-03-12 5:19:02 PM