Harry Potter's F*cked Life

Occasional tears that dripped down onto the text in front of her was the only indication that Harry was crying. The Weasley twins had made their grand exit earlier that day and she was taking it especially hard. It had been twenty-one long, long, days since she'd been able to see Draco outside of classes.

McLaggen was studying for his six year exams, including retaking his Potions OWL (he truly couldn't afford another failure), as if hell was nipping at his heels and now the twins were gone. And they'd been studying for their NEWTS before they left, something Harry clearly hadn't wanted to interrupt.

It was clear that they were all more to her than simply 'playmates'.

They were what kept her tethered.

What she sought.

Maybe it was love.

Though she seemed to not understand the word. Not properly. Not what it truly meant at its core.

He hoped that she would learn if she hadn't already found it.

Tomorrow would be a big day for her.

Hogsmeade weekend.

--

Harry sulkily made her way toward the doors of the Entrance Hall, Ron and Hermione - along with most everyone else - had already left. She had put on the only skirt she owned, aside from her school skirts, as she'd forgotten to turn in her laundry for cleaning. It was a long ugly olive green thing. Deciding to just not care for the day she'd thrown on a... sickly brown colored shirt that had been Dudley's - her other options were a cut-off tank top (sexy but it was too cold for that) and a call of duty shirt with more holes than fabric (just go naked, it would be better).

Upsetting diarrhea brown it was.

She was unwilling to address the hideousness that always was her winter coat - unsure of what color or shade of a definable color it was, Harry had dubbed it 'uglier than sin but necessary' grey. Maybe it was originally a red... maybe a blue... It was now a strange grey dingy color.

She could hardly guess anymore to what it had originally been.

If she stayed in the castle it was likely that Dumbledore would realize and summon her, as he had earlier that year - much to her surprise and horror. Now she went simply out of compulsion, fear, a need to escape.

She turned when she heard steps hurriedly approaching her and brightened when she saw it was Draco, outfitted casually for Hogsmeade. Harry couldn't not notice the striking difference between their appearances, he looked ready for a red-carpet event whereas she looked like she should be pushing a shopping cart full of cans and plastic bagged items - while muttering seemingly senseless phrases.

She thought she wasn't far off, in reality.

He wore a black wool coat over pressed black slacks and, she'd bet money, that he wore a buttoned up shirt underneath - though she couldn't decide if it would be green or black with a tie of the remaining color, even it was looser than he wore during school. Draco's boots were spotless, whereas her own were a strange mottled red color from age. She could tell he didn't care, however - his mercury colored eyes looked... happy, relieved?

He didn't offer her an arm, it would have been too much of a shock for those around them, but they shared a glance before setting off together. Harry would have accepted, regardless of the sparse eyes about that were glancing at them, having longed to see Draco outside of class - where she might be able to touch, be touched, hold onto and be held onto. To feel safe as he murmured to her and stroked her hair, to nuzzle into his chest and inhale his scent. She had worried he'd forgotten her, didn't care about... she'd felt so fuzzy and unhinged these last weeks without them; him - like he'd taken a part of her.

He was sad to see that her face, underneath the charms she used, was a fading pink yet. How much had she suffered through alone in his absence? The thought caused him anger and despair in equal measure, though there was also trepidation thrown into the mix...

Harry didn't know it, but he'd been given strange instructions by their Potions Professor with the promise that Harry would be safe - no matter how things appeared.

It had been ominous but Draco was willing to overlook it for one reason...

"Will... will she be safe? F-from him." Draco had asked, hating how his voice wavered and faltered. It was not how Malfoy's spoke, but he'd been unable to steady his voice.

For months he had felt completely helpless unable to protect, even offer slight comfort to Harry - he'd have balked, fallen into hysterics, with laughter if someone had told him at the beginning of the year that he'd give a damn about Harry Potter at all. More so if they had told him how it would achingly eat at him; the horrible want to keep her safe, to shield her. She was the face he had thought belonged pictured next to the words 'annoying', 'obnoxious' and 'infuriating' in the dictionary.

The other, more complimentary, terms had been negligible... now, he couldn't think of Harry in an even slightly negative fashion. He'd have never guessed, never... Dumbledore... her nearly glowing, slightly purple tinged cheeks... Harry's broken tears... It was a wonder Harry managed to function on a daily basis - Dumbledore seated at the high table for all their meals... how in the hell she survived was beyond him.

He felt that he'd have chosen to lay down and die... throw himself from the Astronomy tower, never returned to the school, transfer, at the very least.... Draco couldn't help believing Harry would have done better at Beaxbatons, Durmstrang or Ilvermourny - even if it meant that they'd have never met.

Harry would be happier.

"Yes." His Head of House had answered easily, looking fervent and desperate, gripping the edge of his desk in his office - alarming Draco, "You must do this Draco, it is the only plan we have - if you don't her future is lost. I... I can't tell you how much it needs to be done, do you understand? Harry will not be harmed.... Can you do it?"

If Snape had meant to frighten him, he'd done an excellent job.

He'd never seen the man so ardent.

It had made him wonder... what horrors were coming? There had to be more, something planned for Potter - something more vile and horrifying. He couldn't stand how she hurt now, so-

For better or worse...

Draco had agreed.

For the time-being, however, he was more than content to follow Harry as she veered towards the Shrieking Shack - glancing nervously over her shoulder to see if he followed and biting her lip, worrying the piercings there anxiously with her teeth. She looked so impossibly pure and delighted when she saw that he had.

Not that anyone deserved to be beaten about but... it should have caused the old man to drop dead the second he raised a hand to the saccharine creature before Draco maliciously. If there were any justice, he would have. Once they were alone, he picked up the pace slightly, whirling her around and crashing his lips on hers.

Kronos, how he'd longed for this...

Harry wrapped her arms around him and broke the kiss with a sob after a couple minutes of relishing one another. He pulled her to him, melding against her soft curvy form against his harder one and glanced around - as if expecting Dumbledore to appear and try to rip her from him - as she let out whimpering sobs. From how tightly she clung to him she had missed him horribly and he felt guilty, annoyed at being assigned watching over the first years the last few weeks. There had been many times where he'd entertained the idea of abandoning his post to find her, especially when the time came where he knew she'd be leaving Snape's office.

"Shhh." he found himself hushing her, impossibly pulling her closer, running a hand through her hair - Hades, it was so soft - "I've got you. It's all going to be okay now." Draco murmured to her, clutching her nearer to him - almost trying to mesh into one being.

Harry whined and returned his fervent need to be closer, pulling at the back of his coat more. She shuddered against him, wanting nothing more than to be held and he wanted nothing but to hold her. Whatever she wanted, needed...

To smother whatever turmoil she wanted into silence - in whatever way she needed him to. Though her silence was driving him insane, she hadn't spoke the entire time. He remembered her being a bit of a motor-mouth in the past, her and her friends speaking rapidly - often at the same time.

Time passed too quickly for him and he, begrudgingly, pulled away; knowing it was time to head into uncertainty, "Let's go get a butterbeer." he hoped he sounded normal, casual, instead of gut-achingly nervous.

What was about to happen?

Harry's eyes had widened and he worried about a refusal; they were supposed to be enemies and being seen together might be out of the question for her, but her face broke into a sweetly eager smile,

"Please?" He couldn't help but think it was sad how excited she sounded, never-mind how it bothered him that she'd answered in one word. Draco missed how she used to ramble on with her friends, which he only caught in passing; or babble as she'd done, 'I'm fine, really, no need to fuss', when he'd tended to her in the last few months.

No one had ever asked her to do something so closely resembling a date, Harry felt hope that Vernon and Dumbledore were wrong.

She wasn't vile and unlovable.

If Draco had been privy to just her thoughts in that moment - 'vile and unlovable', he'd have happily set all of Hogwarts on fire while whistling show tunes - his mother adored musicals and had taken him as a child, now he liked them too. He'd even dance in its ashes.

The whole truth... well, if he had known that then...

He'd find a way to make Hogwarts cease to exist, along with all of Little Whinging.

Not even the blades of grass would be spared.

Harry had happily clasped his hand in both of hers when he held it out to her, silently expressing that he was sincere about the butterbeer, and let him lead her - dropping one hand to her side as they climbed the embankment. She didn't pull her hand away as he expected her to, seeming oblivious to some of the glances they were receiving or the huff McLaggen gave near Honeyduke's. Draco couldn't help but feel smug about that, sending the upperclassmen a smirk, though the Gryffindor continued to track them with his eyes.

They both drew up short in the street on the way to The Three Broomsticks...

"Mr. Malfoy, I'm glad to see that you and Harry have put aside your differences." Draco was, again, amazed when she didn't pull her hand from his and instead nervously chewed on the skin along her nails of her other hand. It escaped him that they were where he'd been instructed to roughly bring her. They were never supposed to actually reach The Three Broomsticks, something was meant to happen.

"Moony." she smiled shyly as her teeth still bit into the flesh around her thumbnail, before both of them shifted their gazes to the figure beside their ex-professor; hood completely drawn down to obscure their - likely male - features. Only likely due to the dark stubble Draco could see on the exposed chin and jaw, but Harry greeted this person just the same, "Padfoot. What are you doing here?" she sounded absolutely delighted, like the planets had aligned just for her while Draco tried to remember the last time he'd heard Harry talk - actually talk. Weeks. It had been fucking weeks.

"We felt nostalgic, decided to visit during a Hogsmeade weekend in hopes of seeing you." No one else could see, or knew - besides Sirius - that Remus had gripped a stone in his pocket that was charmed to set off alarms at Slytherin Stronghold at his touch. Touch. He'd anxiously gripped it instead, saying the first thing that came to his mind, "What made you two bury the hatchet, so to speak?" Remus asked, knowing something of why Harry had sought solace in Malfoy's arms. Anything to cause them to linger... not that Harry was likely to dart off when she was presented with her two adoptive father figures after months of separation.

Harry gripped Draco's hand almost painfully and he received the message easily, "We are just too old for such things." he replied smoothly, shrugging. It wasn't like he wanted to visit how he'd stumbled across her and the twins, fucking her in Snape's office after nearly mauling each-other in the dungeon hallway nor how he just couldn't stay away or... Dumbledore. He'd like to never, ever, discuss that subject.

"I'm glad you've reached that level of maturity, it is harder to reach for some - letting go of old school grudges." Lupin shot the cloaked figure a glance, who had turned slightly with a snide sneer on their lips.

The cloaked man's lips parted-

There were innumerable pops and Harry let go of his hand to draw her wand, spinning away from him to face the apparent threat as she did. It immediately zipped from her grasp. Her form had been flawlessly elegant, Draco noted, as Harry stared dumbly at her empty hand with her eyes widening quickly, her breathing becoming erratic. McLaggen came from nowhere and wrapped his large body around Harry's as spells spouted and shot about them all and Harry made no protest - wide, frightened eyes looking unseeingly around her.

The older boy was murmuring something to her, likely that he had her and he would protect her. Draco glanced back to see his ex-professor and the cloaked figure had been incapacitated before they were apparated away. Harry was staring where the pair had been, a look of disbelief and terror marring her features.

Seconds seeming an eternity and his body filled with lead...

With mounting but not fully developed horror, he saw a cloaked figure running at McLaggen's undefended form wrapped protectively around Harry and flung himself sideways. He extended his arm toward Cormac and gripped the other boy's muscled side before the Death Eater grabbed onto one of the Gryffindor's shoulders. Harry was gasping and gulping for air, apparently unable to draw enough in, an obvious wet stain growing on her long skirt and staining the remaining snow at her feet yellow...

He didn't care.

Wherever they were going, he was going too.

Harry was panicking.

He needed to go with her.

The trio landed heavily, groaning, and Harry was pulled from their arms - flailing blindly for a couple seconds before simply surrendering to their embrace. Draco reached out before he realized it was their ex-Professor who had done it and the cloaked figure. The hood fell back to reveal... his second cousin?

His arm dropped in astonishment.

Notorious mass-murderer: Sirius Black...

... was tightly hugging Harry Potter and calling her 'pup' while murmuring apologies. Professor Lupin pressed along her back and was doing the much the same, both rubbing their chins on the top of her head as they did so. The masked figures who had nabbed them all left, seeming on a mission yet.

Sirius mumbled a spell to clean her and her clothes, murmuring more fervent apologies for not warning her, not telling her... though without telling her what they hadn't told her. The only discernible apology either made was for terrifying her so profoundly...

Harry made a repeated low whimpering noise as they murmured and entreatingly mumbled as she glanced around. When she spied Draco and McLaggen, having to awkwardly turn her head as the older men pressed her between them, she reached out a single hand that seemed to beckon and beg.

Draco hadn't expected the other to respond to the silent pleading summons but they'd both completely surrounded Harry, dislodging the older wizards - who had seen the motion. The others didn't take offense as the shaking wixen wrapped her arms around Draco's neck and nuzzled into his chest, her aura was almost painful to be near from how scared she was.

It was almost a cloying scent that hung heavily in the air.

A toxic choking cloud.

It eased and slowly dissipated as Draco rocked with Harry in his arms, he gently hushed her with endless words of tender comfort - the others having backed away - she emitted random sniffles and seemed to try to burrow further into his chest intermittently. Her breathing ebbed enough towards normal for her to speak.

Finally, she whimpered, "I'm scared." to the blonde, still burying her face in his robes. Her eyes clamped shut, fingers gently clawing at him in fearful desperation...

"I'm here." he replied, knowing he could actually do nothing - say nothing - to alleviate her fears.

Draco wasn't privy to whatever the Dark Lord had planned and, glancing around, he knew they were in The Stronghold. He couldn't help but feel fear in the pit of his gut, it was no secret that the Dark Lord had tried to kill Harry previously - more than once. Draco clung to three facts -

Severus had sent them on this collision course.

Severus Snape very much cared whether Harry Potter lived or died, he would never assist in her annihilation.

Sirius Black and Lupin had also been obvious in their affection of her, unlikely to allow her to be slaughtered without resistance.

"Please," she begged with wide tear-filled green eyes that were darting between him and - he assumed - Cormac, hands tugging harder at his robes.

Draco nodded, leaning down to capture her lips.

"You two may want to leave." McLaggen commented to the older wizards, who were a little shocked at the young man's near growl as he'd approached the younger pair.

He'd begun to nip and lick at her neck while Draco kissed her with heated abandon as the Marauder's slowly vacated the room - waiting for the slightest sign of objection from Harry. She was vulnerable and they wanted to ensure that she was sure of what she'd seemingly asked for. They weren't certain she knew the word 'no' anymore.

Instead they'd have to live with her wanton moans echoing in their ears along with the image of her arching needily between the two young men after McLaggen tore her jacket clean down her back, pressing against her again, and Draco had tore her shirt at the same time. Harry had nearly yowled as the door shut behind them, both decidely gluing their eyes forward as Draco had moved to pull the dark lace bra down.

James and Lily were likely turning in their graves.

Likely that their daughter had been abused and had nearly driven to behave as she was.
Perhaps they rolled less as it seemed the two young wizards genuinely cared about Harry. Though the display had been slightly violent.