Chapter 25: 25
55Chapter 25: ASTTWT 14: Cheater
And so the Tables Were Turned …, part fourteen: Cheater
Everyone was staring at the two young men as if they had just revealed the meaning of life—but the blank expressions did not feature fascination and wonder, but shock and disbelief. Everything was quiet at the Burrow, except for the baby noises that little James was maing as he, oblivious of the big event being played out before his very eyes, continued to play Firebolt.
What had been intended to be a nice, quiet family dinner in the company of loved ones and friends had—to the Weasleys, mind you—turned into a dizzying stream of mind-boggling revelations that had totally transformed the night into something strange and unfamiliar. And when they had all sat down to dinner at the beginning of that evening, they could not possibly have imagined that it would end in a proposal.
Draco, however, came out of his paralysis quite quickly, and like a true gal pal he shrieked shrilly, hysterically waving his arms about in front of him in excited happiness, and ran up to Ron, throwing himself around the redhead's neck. "Oh, my God, Ronnie! I am so happy for you! I can't believe you're actually getting married!"
The blonde's merry outburst just made the others stare even more, gaping like stupid fish the whole bunch of them. Even Harry. But Draco and Ron leapt around and around and around in a happy circle, Jonathan soon joining them.
Bill sank down on the edge of an armchair, his face in his hands. Slowly shaking his red head, he whispered, "This is just too much. My sister's got the hots for a dead guy, and my youngest brother's marrying a male Muggle!" He seemed just about to utter the worn cliché 'Where has the world gone to?' but spoke no more. Harry actually felt sorry for him.
Draco stopped in the middle of the floor. "But wait … how are you going to get married?" he wondered, blinking in bewilderment. "I thought Muggles forbid all sorts of—"
"I've already thought about that," Jonathan informed them with a proud smile. "I smoothly asked Ron all about marriage in the magical world about a week ago, and he told me that you are allowed to marry whomever you like according to wizard law. All magical creatures are. And wizards marry Muggles every day."
"You're right," Draco said thoughtfully, "wizard law says nothing about prohibition against male-male marriages … and I heard of a unicorn marrying a Flobberworm once, so … Hell, I'm so jealous of you!" He gave them both friendly thumps on their backs and he shook his head with emotion.
Ron laughed and hit him on the arm. "You don't have to be, you know. All you gotta do is pop the question …"
Draco's face turned into an indignant grimace. "Excuse me?! Are you suggesting that I get bound down for life?! You're frigging mad is what you are! I don't need bloody marriage to be happy! I'm quite fine with things just as they are, thank you very much!"
Ron blinked in confusion. "But you just said—"
"Drop it, Ron," Harry warned urgently. "You don't want to go there, believe me."
Draco swirled around at Harry. "What the fuck are you saying? Are you bloody badmouthing me with me present?! I don't believe you! You just wait until I—"
Suddenly Bill flew up from the armchair, and he was even redder in the face than Draco was. With firm determination he grabbed the sleeve of Draco's shirt and began to pull him out of the room. "Okay, that's it! That's it! Get out of here! You totally disgust me with your filthy gay ways of solving your problems, and you are not going to do it in my family's home!" he said furiously.
For a moment, Draco blinked in astonishment, but then he jerked his arm out of Bill's grasp. "What the Hell do you think you're doing?!" he yelled in offense. "How dare you touch me? Hello! Malfoy –" he pointed at himself, and then he pointed at Bill "– Weasley. You do not have the social or the genetic status to have the right to touch me! Now back off or I'll turn your tongue into a frog!"
Harry dropped James's toy wand on the floor in shock. "Draco!" he breathed.
The blonde turned to him, his eyes a furious jet black. "And you!" he hissed. With a disgusted and indignant grimace on his flushed face, he eyed him from head to toe. "You're a disgrace to my body." He Disapparated without another word.
Harry stared at the spot he had just left.
What had just happened? It was as if Draco had snapped and turned into a completely different person. That had not been an act to conceal sexual arousal; that had been genuine fury. And the way he had just left like that … It did not seem right. A vague recollection of Draco's strange behaviour on the night of Slutty Piper's death came back to him. The same change had been in his eyes then. But what did it mean?
He looked at Blaise as if questioning him about it.
The other boy merely shook his head.
Harry cleared his throat and shot a nervous smile at the Weasleys. "Sorry about that. It's been quite hard on Draco, everything around the house … I can't help him in my current state, so he pretty much has to do everything. He hasn't gotten much sleep the past few weeks, so he's probably very tired and testy, is all … I'm sure he didn't mean any of that."
But he could not even convince himself. A lump of hard realisation had formed inside his heart. Something was going on with his lover, and he had no idea what. Nor did he know how to confront him about it, because he remembered all too well how Draco had reacted when he had asked him about Slutty's death.
He turned to Blaise again. "Well, shall we leave, then?" He took James's hand. Then he gave Mrs Weasley an apologetic smile. "Once again, Mrs. Weasley, I'm sorry about all this. We'll behave better next time, I promise."
When they were just about to leave, Ginny grabbed Blaise's arm. "You have to ask me out some time!" she demanded forthrightly.
Blaise smiled. "I'll send you an owl."
Draco found himself in the third floor library and had no clue how he had got there. He had no memory of leaving the Burrow, and he sure as Hell had no memory of coming up here. He never set foot in the library because it had been his father's library and was packed with books on Dark magic.
His hand trembling badly, he consulted his wrist watch. Eight forty-six. Had not they finished dinner at about seven-thirty? He was sure that Harry and he had gone upstairs at seven forty-five or so, which meant that they had caught Blaise and Ginny at about seven fifty-five …
He had lost forty-five minutes?!
Disoriented and scared, he ran off to the bathroom, feeling like he was about to vomit any second. Nothing came up, though, so he went to the wash basin and turned on the faucet.
The blackouts were getting longer and longer. At first, they had been really short—he had lost maybe two to five minutes each time—but eventually he had started to lose as much as thirty to sixty minutes at a time.
What's happening to me? he thought miserably as he bent over the wash basin in the master bath. Why am I having these blackouts? And what am I doing when I black out?
He splashed cold water on his face.
His hands would not stop shaking.
"What's happening to me?" he squealed.
"You're being possessed by your inner Malfoy," his reflexion in the mirror said merrily.
Draco glared at it with flaming eyes. "I hate magical mirrors," he muttered, and turned off the water.
"Now, don't be rude," the mirror admonished.
"Fuck you."
He left the bathroom and cast a glance at the door to the library.
Why had he gone in there?
Then he looked down the other end of the long hallway. Where was Harry? Draco did not feel like being confronted by him just yet for some reason. But where could he go without being found?
He turned his head towards the staircase.
"Draco?"
He stiffened. Harry was just emerging from their bedroom. Tears were coming to Draco's eyes, and a huge lump formed in his chest. His heart ached. For some reason, he felt ashamed; he just knew that he had done something to Harry, something really bad.
"I'm sorry," he whispered without knowing why he was apologising. What had happened during those forty-five minutes?
Harry walked up to him with concern in his wonderfully silvery eyes. He slowly stroked Draco's right cheek with one hand. "It's all right," he said with a sad smile. "I know you didn't mean it. You're tired, that's all. You've had a lot of pressure on yourself for some time now."
A loud sob escaped Draco. "You forgive me? Just like that?"
"Of course I do, Dracums. I love you."
But what did I do? Draco wanted to ask. What did I do?
"You might want to apologise to Bill, though."
"Why?"
Apparently, Harry took it as if he was nonchalantly waving whatever he had done away and gave him a reproachful look. "You really hurt his feelings when you implied that he's less worth just 'cos he's a Weasley and not a Malfoy," Harry told him. "All he did was grab your arm."
"He did?" Draco said before he could stop himself. "I mean, he did offend me. I think." The last thing Draco remembered was Harry telling Ron to 'drop it'; after that, everything was blank. So, Bill had grabbed his arm and he had flipped out, eh? That was it? But what had he said to Harry …?
What had he done to Harry?
"Uuuuuuugggggghhhhhhhh …"
He tried to ignore it, because he was having the loveliest dream. They were both thin and strong and naked, and Harry was working his way down his chest at the moment. Which meant he definitely did not want to wake up. Last night's blackout had been successfully erased from his mind thanks to the lovely things Harry was doing to his body …
"Uuuuuurrrrggghhhhh …"
"Shut up."
Harry had reached his bellybutton now, and he knew that Draco was real sensitive around the bellybutton … oooohh, yeah …
"Uuuuurrggghhhh …"
He swirled around in fury, wide awake now. "What the Hell are you moaning for?!" he demanded.
Harry actually did not look so good. He was sweating and he seemed to be having a hard time moving at all. "I'm sore all over …," he whined, "and every fucking muscle hurts …"
Draco sighed. "Yeah, well, that's pregnancy for you. You're more than seven months along—get used to it, it's only going to get worse from here on."
He lay back down with his back to Harry.
"Only going to get worse?! How am I going to cope with this?!"
"Think about all the positive things about it. You get to feel the baby kick, and you get to create an immensely strong bond between the two of you … I'm supposed to have that."
"You sound sad. Are you sad you're not the pregnant one, Draco?"
"Yeah, I am! What did you expect? It's my baby!"
"No, it's our baby. This time we actually get to share the experience, and that's special."
"But you've had him the longest. It's not fair."
"You want him back? Okay. Let's go see Piper, then. Maybe she has some brilliant ideas."
Draco helped Harry up from the bed and supported him as they carefully transported themselves to the first floor. He would not let Harry use the stairs or the fires in his current condition. He was even bigger than Draco had been in his seventh month! Luckily, Piper was already up and about—and so was her husband.
Piper was currently giving Yousuke instructions for something in Japanese at a blinding rate; her words sounded like gibberish to Draco. "Erm … excuse me," he said, and cleared his throat. "We want our own bodies back—now. Harry's had my baby way too long—I want it back."
Harry moaned again. "He's kicking the shit out of me, I tell you! I want to be thin again!"
"I want to be fat again!" Draco said simultaneously.
"I want out of this pain!" Harry shrieked.
"I want into that pain!" Draco demanded at the same time.
Harry stared at him. "You want this pain?" he asked incredulously.
"Yes! It's my pain! It's my body, my pregnancy, my pain! I'm entitled to have it!"
Piper waved her arms about in front of herself in what she thought was a dismissive manner. "Lads, lads! Calm down! I think I have the perfect cure for this! I figured it out last night, just give me a minute …" She picked up her wand from the dinner table and swished it about a few times. "Corpilus Changae Domaeno!"
A yellowish golden light erupted from the tip of her wand and enveloped the two of them.
When the light faded away, Draco looked at his sister expectantly. "Did it work?" he asked hopefully.
Piper was making a twisted, wry face. "Errr … no …" The way she was staring at them with wide-open eyes—and the way Yousuke dropped the book he was holding and remained standing completely paralysed in place with his mouth hanging open—told Draco that something had gone utterly wrong, and he was almost afraid to look at himself.
Swallowing hard, he forced himself to lower his gaze and inspect his body. What he saw made him shriek with fright. "What have you done?! What have you done?!"
Harry noticed at the same moment, and they both began to scream and flail their arms wildly about as they realised the severity of their new condition. They were still in each other's bodies—and Draco's body was still pregnant, so none of that had changed, thank Merlin—but now they were also physically attached to one another.
Yeah, that's right. Piper had turned them into conjoined twins, joined at the hips and shoulders.
She instantly raised her wand at them again. Speaking in an urgent tone of voice, she said, "Incantato Reverso!", and they went back to normal. Or, well, what had sort of been normal for them for the past four months …
Draco let out his breath in a deep sigh of relief. He could feel his left hand again. Good. But then his mood sank to a new anger-low and he lashed out at his sister. "What the Hell was that about?!" he accused in a fury.
Piper backed up a few steps. "I'm sorry, Draco, I really thought that'd do it—I swear!"
"That's not what I'm talking about! What was that spell you just used?"
"'Incantato Reverso'? Oh, that's just a Reversal Spell that reverses all spells and—"
"So why didn't you use it on us four months ago when we switched bodies, you dimwit?" he shouted straight into her left ear.
She covered her ears with her hands and squeezed her eyes shut. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't think of it back then, I was too shocked and too fascinated, my brain didn't work properly!"
"How is that supposed to be a sufficient apology?!" Draco hollered, and hit her on the arm. "Fuck you! It's been four months and you haven't even come close to finding a cure for this! It should be simple, like saying 'Bodilo Changeo Backo' or something!" He stopped for a moment to look down at himself. "Yeah, well, I didn't exactly expect that to work, anyway …"
Draco sulked all day, and he was still in a sour mood when they went to bed that night. He refused to talk to Harry and just turned his back to him. But only two minutes later, he changed his mind and turned back. In a strong, desperate need for intimacy, he put his arm around Harry's huge belly and pressed himself as close as he could. Harry mumbled a sweet, "Good night," and they soon fell into a deep, lovely sleep.
The moment Draco opened his eyes the following morning he knew something had significantly changed during the night. First of all, he felt as if he had been run over by a Hippogriff; second, he had a terrible heartburn; third, his hair was in his eyes; and fourth, someone was holding him. Suddenly shaking, he peered down at himself. Gave a shriek of delight. "Harry! Harry, wake up!"
The raven-haired boy—once again raven-haired!—stirred beside him. Sleepily, he lifted his head off the pillow. "Wha'?" But hardly had he uttered that one word before he noticed the difference. He sat up in an instant. "Draco! We're back in our own bodies! How did that happen?!"
Draco looked up at him with loving eyes and an affectionate smile. "I don't know, and I don't care," he whispered gently. "All I care about is I got my baby back."
Harry bent down and planted a kiss on Draco's lips. Then he looked him deep into the eyes. Draco was so relieved that they were green again. "I love you, Draco. And I'm bloody glad you don't look like me anymore."
Draco laughed. "Why? I thought you loved to be fucked by yourself, you kinky bastard."
Harry snuggled up closer, and with his lips to Draco's said, "Damn, you saw right through me."
Draco opened his mouth and welcomed his lover's tongue with hot anticipation. "I want you," he whispered into Harry's mouth, his breathing already accelerating a few notches.
Harry's hand searched its way down the blonde's belly to more sensitive regions. "But I thought you didn't want to when you were—"
"No, you're the one who didn't want to," Draco objected, "I've wanted to make love to you all along, and being pregnant again doesn't change anything. I want you inside of me—I need you inside of me. You can still please me … We just need to lie on our sides, is all."
Draco flipped over so that he had his back to Harry.
Harry covered his back with hot kisses before entering him. The blonde gasped as he finally got what he wanted. Harry felt somewhat uncomfortable with making love to Draco when his back was turned to him—he wanted to see his face, otherwise it felt as if he was stealing something precious without asking permission first. But eventually, the blonde's responses and the unmistakable excited noises he made captured Harry's attention, and he totally forgot his previous reservations.
It was difficult to thrust when lying on his side—he had never done that before—and when Draco said, "Harder! Harder!", and he could not do it any harder because the mattress slowed him down as his hip slid on the crisp sheets, he just felt so frustrated!
"Harry, harder, harder!"
"I'm fuckin' tryin' but I can't!" he growled in Draco's ear.
"It doesn't matter," Draco breathed, and took a hold of Harry's left hand. Shaking slightly, he directed it to his crotch and encouraged him to grasp his erection. Harry immediately understood what he wanted him to do and began to stroke him fervently as he simultaneously continued to thrust as deep inside him as he could get.
"Aaah!" Harry pounded into him again and again and again, and it was hard for him to concentrate on moving his hand too.
"Fuck, yes!"
He did not know who of them said it, because to him they were one being, one entity, and he could not tell his limbs from Draco's, could not tell his words from the blonde's. They just melted together for a wonderful short-lasting moment.
Draco squealed and unconsciously loosened his grip on Harry's left hand. Harry could feel the blonde's manhood jerking in his hand as it pumped out its load.
He was amazed at how quiet Draco was—he always used to shout out loud at the height of pleasure. But, well, Harry did not shout, either; he simply sighed happily and slumped against the blonde's back. Neither of them said anything for more than five minutes.
Quietly, they decided to go downstairs and have breakfast. Draco was eager to tell Piper the good news and almost skipped into the dining room despite the heavy weight he was carrying. When she spotted him from the other end of the room, she lit up as if she already knew and came leaping towards them.
"Piper!" Draco exclaimed happily, and stood beaming and almost jumping in place.
"Draco!" Piper said at the same time, and in the same excited tone of voice, but she did not stop but instead went right past him. "Guess what!"
"Guess what!" Draco said simultaneously before he realised that Piper was skipping up to Harry and not him. Getting angry and offended, he swirled around. "Hey! I'm talking to you!"
But Piper ignored him. She grabbed Harry's hands and jumped up and down excitedly. "Draco, you cannot ever imagine what's happened, it is just too amazing!" she chirruped.
Harry blinked in bewilderment. He tried to smile but only managed half a grimace. "Um … I'm not Draco—I'm Harry," he said numbly.
Piper immediately stopped jumping up and down and stared at him in astonishment. "You are? But then you—"
"We changed back!" Draco said over-excitedly, and hurried up to her. "Look! I'm myself again! I don't know how we did it, but we must've done something!"
Piper nodded. "I'm impressed. You fixed it even without my help."
"Oh, and you were so helpful!" Draco moaned sarcastically. "Anyway, what was it that you wanted to tell me?"
His sister lit up again. "I'm pregnant!" she squealed happily. "Yousuke and I are having a baby!"
Draco stared at her in disbelief for so long that Harry feared he might have turned into a statue. He actually knocked on the blonde's shoulder to see if he would react.
That was like a wakeup-call for Draco. He sprang into life with immense fury and lashed out at his sister. "Whaaaat?! You're bringing another occupant into my home?! Can't you ever just get into your bloody mind that I don't want you here!? Get your own fucking place if you want to have children! This is my house—I inherited it when our father died! It belongs to me and Harry and our children. I don't want no bloody mini-Piper running around here disturbing me twenty-four seven! Get rid of it or move!"
And with those harsh words, he turned suddenly on his heel and stormed out of the room.
Blaise had sensed something different about Draco for some time now. Sometimes, he acted weird or said weird things—like he had done the night of the Weasley family dinner. Therefore, Blaise decided to do some digging.
When both Harry and Draco were having breakfast in the dining room, he stole up to the third floor to quickly go through their bedroom to see if he could find any proof of Draco's change. He searched through drawers and cabinets and loads of other spaces but found nothing. Not that he'd actually expected Draco to leave something behind in his own bedroom, where Harry could easily find them.
Furthermore, he went to the library where he knew thousands of ancient books on Dark magic were stored neatly on hundreds and yet hundreds of shelves. Shutting the door behind himself, he cast a quick glance around the large room. Taking out his wand, he said, "Prevolious Usageae." It was a semi-advanced spell that could be used to point out the object—or objects—that had last been used within a confined space. Now he carefully surveyed the many shelves to spot the book—or books—that had last been taken out. In aisle five, he hit a bingo. A large book with a dusty black leather cover shone in pale, misty lime green.
Blaise took it out. "Prevolious Pagero."
The book automatically flipped open to the most recently viewed page. Blaise's eyes narrowed into thin slits. He looked at the numbers at the bottom of the pages again to make sure that he was not imagining things. 652—655. An entire sheet had been ripped out. Pages 653 and 654. What could be on those particular pages?
Blaise looked at the cover of the enormous spell book.
Deadly Potions and Poisonous Draughts, vol. 33.
Now there was no doubt about it. There was something utterly wrong with Draco, and judging by the proof that was now before him, Blaise reached the conclusion that someone must have tampered with his mind. Someone must have cursed him or forced him to drink a potion that made him … what? Evil? That made him Dark?
Blaise wanted to help his best friend, but unless he found out exactly what Draco had wanted from Deadly Potions and Poisonous Draughts he could not do much. To be able to figure out a way to salvage Draco's soul and free him of whatever external influence had changed him, he needed to find out which potion Draco had wished to make. And why.
And there was one room in which he would probably find his answers.
Checking the hallway to make sure that no-one was in sight, he sneaked out of the library and down the stairs to the second floor. There, he walked down the long hallway and turned left into the south wing. Hidden behind a tapestry of Lucius Malfoy himself (which was irremovable, otherwise Harry and Draco never would have left it up) was a secret door to the ladder room. He tapped the second button from the top on Lucius's expensive travelling cloak, with his wand, and the silver-haired man instantly smiled deviously to greet him.
"Ah, young Mr Zabini. Come to stir things up, have you?" he said, and the tapestry swung aside.
The ladder room held only one thing within its depth; a steel ladder which was the only way to get down to the dungeons hidden beneath the Manor. Blaise had only been down there twice, and always together with Draco and his father. To descend into the darkness below now felt awkward and unnerving, because he had never thought that he would have to go back down there.
The dungeons beneath the Malfoy Manor were protected by a series of very advanced repelling spells that ensured that no-one could get inside them with the help of magic. As far as Blaise knew, not even Piper had succeeded to find a way around those spells. The only way to get there was to climb down the ladder, and only so many people knew about the secret room behind the tapestry. Blaise doubted that Draco had even told Harry about it.
He turned right in the narrow tunnel and hurried by the chambers on each side of him. When he had almost reached the end of the long tunnel, a door swung open in front of him. Startled to find that someone else was down there, but quick to act on his instinct telling him to hide, he backed into one of the small chambers and waited for whomever it was to pass.
Trying his best not to make a single sound—a mere breath of air could give off multiple echoes down there—he steeled himself and tried to make himself as small as possible.
He could hear the footsteps coming up from the last chamber.
Closer. Closer …
The person passed him rather quickly, but there was no mistaking who it was because he was preceded by an enormous belly and his silver hair shone eerily in the darkness of the dungeons.
Blaise gave a start. Harry was in the dungeons? But how could he even know about them? It made no sense.
When he was sure that Harry had gone back up to the main building, Blaise sneaked out from his hiding place and hurried down the last bit of stone tunnel. He opened the door with the Alohomora Charm.
He was inside the Potion Chamber. In there, one could find everything that one might need to make any potion there was—especially the bad ones. Blaise almost immediately spotted the cauldron that had been placed in the middle of one of the long tables because greenish-blue smoke billowed up from it. It was churning and bubbling and boiling.
And beside it lay the missing page from the book. According to that, the potion that was being made in there was called Masamadie, but Blaise could not make out exactly what it was supposed to do because it was written in Latin. That's weird, he thought. The potion's called Masamadie but the instructions are written in Latin? 'Masamadie' isn't Latin!
But when he looked at the ingredients that were piled up around the cauldron, he felt his intestines turn to ice. That mix was deadly, alright.
Feeling sick, he went back upstairs to talk to Draco. Because if Harry was brewing deadly potions in the dungeons, Draco ought to know just what kind of maniac he was living with.
He found him in the parlour—as usual—where he was currently practising a charm of some kind. He looked up as Blaise entered the room. "Hey," he said expectantly.
Blaise went right up to him to make sure that no-one else but him could hear what he was about to tell him. "Draco, I saw Harry emerging from the Potion Chamber," he whispered urgently. "Did you know that he knew about it?"
Draco blinked at him in confusion. "First of all, you've got us mixed up," he said, and surprised Blaise. "We turned back this morning—don't ask me why 'cos neither of us can figure it out yet. So the person you saw was Draco. I'm Harry."
It took Blaise a few seconds to understand what he had just heard. "You're Harry?"
"Yeah."
"Oh my God."
He could not tell him. He just could not tell him. Instead, he hurried out of the parlour in search of the real Draco, hoping to find his best friend and not 'the other.'
Draco was in the kitchen. "Draco! What the fuck are you making in the dungeons?" he asked, suddenly flaming with fury.
The blonde turned around with a vicious smirk on his face. "Well, well, if it isn't Blaise Zabini. Long time, no see. I thought you were dead."
Blaise stiffened. That was not Draco.
The blonde took a few steps towards him. "Why so quiet? Don't you even recognise your own best friend? Have you forgotten everything we did already?"
No. This could not be. He had turned back into his old self? Into the Draco Malfoy that Lucius had raised to become a loyal Death Eater? How could that have happened?
"Do you really wanna know what potion I'm making in the dungeons, Blaise? All right. I'll tell you. It's a very special, very complex potion, it is. It kills foetuses without harming the parent regardless of the trimester you're in. Now that I've finally got my body back I need to get rid of this thing inside of me. Having Saint Potter's baby isn't exactly worthy of a Malfoy, is it?"
Blaise backed away in fright.
The cold sneer on the blonde's lips widened. "Unfortunately, I have to get rid of you too now. Can't have you running to Potter and telling on me, now can I?"
Blaise shuddered as a demonic bark of laughter escaped the blonde.
"Where's Blaise? I haven't seen him all morning." Draco sat down on the couch with some effort. He did not even notice Cho at first, but then he saw her sitting in the armchair right next to him and jerked. "You're here?" he stated disapprovingly. "How … nice. Not afraid of me anymore, then, I take it."
She feigned astonishment. "Afraid of you? When was I ever afraid of you?"
Harry was standing in the middle of the floor practising Capture Spells for his Auror class. "Blaise came here just ten minutes ago claiming to have seen you emerging from the Potion Chamber," he said indifferently, and inspected his wand. "Do you know what he meant by that?"
He thought he saw Draco jerk slightly. "Er … no, I have no idea what he meant by that. We don't have any potion chamber at the Manor." He was silent for a long while. Then, he added: "Wonder what he meant."
"Yeah, it's a mystery, don't you think?" Harry laughed bitterly. "Funny that he should disappear right after he said it, too."
Draco frowned. "Disappear? What do you mean?"
"He just ran out of here and didn't come back. You said yourself that you haven't seen him all morning. Seems to me he disappeared, alright." He polished the tip of his wand somewhat.
Draco hastily rose from his seat. Going pale grey, he uttered a muffled excuse and hurried out of the room. Harry looked after him, wondering if the blonde knew something about Blaise's disappearance or if he simply was shocked by it and did not know how to handle it. But he did not get much time to brood about it, because in the next moment Joseph showed up right before him.
"Harry, you need to get ready—Pywercaseley's coming here," he said with an expression of urgency on his face.
"What? But the forcefield—"
"It won't work. He's found a way to break through it. You need to get Draco out of here quickly; this is going to get ugly."
The boy vanished.
Harry wanted to yell "Stay and help, then, you ungrateful brat!" but did not.
Damn. Now, where had the blonde gone off to?
Fortunately, Draco returned only seconds thereafter, looking a bit better than he had when he left the parlour. Harry tried to think of a way to get him out of there without having to tell him why, because he would only want to stay and fight. But he could think of nothing. In lack of anything else, he said, "Draco, I … er … I need to tell you something … I, er …"
"Slept with me," Cho suddenly said, standing beside him with one arm around his shoulders.
He turned to her in fright. Oh no!
Draco frowned. "What?"
Cho squeezed his shoulder. "What Harry's trying to say is we've slept together," she elaborated. "Twice," she added, almost as an afterthought.
The blonde blinked stupidly. "What? You mean like you were tired and happened to fall asleep next to each other, or …?"
She shook her head. "No. We had sex. Lovely, raw animal sex."
Now Harry wished he could vanish, too. What the Hell was she saying?! That's not what he'd meant by getting Draco out of there fast and without questions! This would hurt him!
Draco looked at Harry. Something dark had come over his eyes. "What is she talking about, Harry? Surely you haven't slept with her, have you?"
"I …" Oh, God, it was already too late; he could just as well play along and at least have the comfort of knowing that Draco would leave and be safe. He sighed. "Yes."
The blonde raised his eyebrows in shock. "What?" he whispered.
Harry felt as if he was dying on the inside. "I'm sorry, Dracums," he said, but what he was really apologising for was having to put him through this. "I never meant to—"
"You're kidding me, right?" Draco said, and laughed disbelievingly, tears streaming down his pale face. "You've got to be kidding me. You've never done anything like that—you're just joking, right?"
"I … I …"
"Fuck you." He Disapparated before Harry could finish his sentence.
At first, Draco did not know what to do. It just hurt so bad. He had never imagined that he would feel this way if he ever found out that Harry had cheated on him, but he felt as if he was dying over and over again for every agonising minute that passed. And he just could not stop crying. Tear after tear fell from his eyes, and he almost choked on the loud sobs that escaped his tight throat.
How could he? How the fuck could he? He must have done it that very morning, because that had been the only time that Draco had not been with him. Had they just got dressed again right before he entered the room?!
That was just unbelievable!
He cheated on me with a girl, Draco thought grimly. A girl!
And not just any girl, at that. His ex-girlfriend! Harry Potter—gay? Like Hell! He had been lying to Draco all these years, lying about his own sexual orientation … naturally, he had to be bisexual. And of course he could not resist the occasional urge to get some pussy for a change! Draco's arse was obviously not good enough for him.
And when he was almost eight months pregnant!
He spent days and days wallowing in his misery, trying to figure out why Harry had done it. And eventually he came to the conclusion that he had not done it at all. Suddenly it all seemed so clear. The way Harry had stared at him in shame as Draco came back into the room had not been because he had done something nasty; it had been because something was about to happen and he needed to get Draco out of there fast.
Draco knew that look. Harry, who had always been a lousy liar, had tried to come up with a reason good enough to keep Draco away for a few hours—and Cho had given it to him without his consent. That must be how it was.
Confident that his Harry had not cheated on him at all, he transported himself right back to the Manor. He found him almost immediately, kneeling beside James in the downstairs hallway, both of them looking ready to go out into the sunny weather to play in the snow.
When Harry noticed him, he stood up warily. His eyes were so filled with pain it hurt Draco. "Baby …," he began, but Draco would not let him finish.
"You didn't do it, did you?" he stated. "I figured it out. You just wanted me out of here to protect me again, didn't you? Just tell me the truth and I'll forgive you."
Harry sighed visibly with relief. "Dracums, I am so sorry, I never meant to fool you into believing I had actually slept with Cho, she never should have said that. If you still need proof of my innocence, we can ask Snape to make us some verita serum."
"That won't be necessary," Draco promised. "Just tell me what happened."
Harry told him how Lord Pywercaseley had come to the Manor to try to eliminate them again. Fortunately, Piper had stood by with her clones and attacked the moment the Death Eaters showed up. They had not been strong enough to fight them all off; all the clones had fallen in battle. But at least they had managed to drive Pywercaseley away. He was too yellow-bellied to attack them with so many of his men killed by the clones before they died themselves.
"You promised you wouldn't ever do that again, Harry," Draco reminded him.
"I know, but this was different. Look at you. You're in no condition to defend yourself," the raven-haired boy stated quite assertively.
Pouting, Draco had to agree with him.
"And," Harry went on in the same tone, "that is why I've asked Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia to let you stay with them for the remainder of your pregnancy."
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