We love you because we do
“What the bloody hell are you doing here? How did you even get– What happened to your face?” Draco’s questions stopped when Harry fell unconscious in front of him, forcing Draco to drag him in, and dragging him upstairs to his room so no one saw them.
Today had been like most days for Harry, he woke-up, did his chores, and was forced outside, as the Dursleys didn't want to see him anymore. Everyday was the same for him, but something changed today, when he was kicked outside he started walking to a recently built park at the end of the road, and he was met by a group of boys he had never seen before. He quickly found that they were friends of Dudley's, and that they weren't a friendly bunch, as when they saw him they recognized him from Dudley's stories, grabbed their bikes and started chasing him down the road.
When they finally reached him, one went to grab Dudley, and the rest of them started picking on him, grabbing his things and tossing them around him, and when he did finally catch it, it was only because Dudley had finally caught up with them, red-faced and breathless from running.
“Oh, no, poor Harry has been caught, what should we do with him?” Dudley asked as he approached Harry, a glint of evil in his eye, “Petunia said that you haven't been doing your chores well enough recently, and I noticed that my bacon was burnt this morning. Shouldn’t someone be punished for that?”
All of Dudley's friends nodded as they all closed the circle around harry. Dudley threw the first punch, but they all slowly joined in, punching him until he fell to the ground, and kicking him when he did. They didn’t stop until Vernon drove past, they all lined up so he couldn't see Harry, and Vernon told Dudley that dinner was ready, and invited his friends to join them for dinner.
“Me and my friends will start over now, also, harry won't be there tonight, but he promises he’ll be back tomorrow” As he finished, Vernon drove away, and he told harry that he had better look better by the next day, or they’d be back and do much worse.
After they had left for the Dursleys, harry gathered all of his strength and apporated to the first place he could think that would let him in, the Weasleys were away visiting one of their other children in another country, Hermione and her family were out camping and would be gone for weeks, and the only person he knew would surely be home was Draco Malfoy, so he apporated to the outside of their property, knowing they had a block on their actual land, and he walked to the front door, fighting to hold on to his consciousness as Draco threw question after question at him, until he lost his inner fight and passed out, leaving Draco to do whatever he wanted with him.
“You absolute blithering fool, why would you come here, I can not believe you,” was the first thing Harry heard as he came to consciousness on the most comfortable bed he had ever been on.
“...Malfoy? What am I doing here… where even is here?” he asked as he attempted to sit up, immediately regretting it, and gasping in pain as he fell back to his original position.
“Stay down idiot, here is my bedroom, and only you can explain why you're here, covered in cuts, bruises, and what i can only assume are years-old scars,” Draco responded, as he continued bandaging Harry's many injuries, “I did all that i could with magic, but it looks like you've been getting hit for the past few hours.”
“Oh, yeah… I have… I’m so sorry i came here, there was no one else i knew would be home, but i remember that you told be that you'd be here, and i couldn't do anything on my own, Dumbledore told me i wasn't allowed to do even the smallest amount of magic, so i'm probably going to be expelled, but i thought i was going to die, i felt like i was going to die, i'm so so so sorry, please don't make me go back there–” he would have continued, but he lost consciousness again, over exerting his tired body as he tried to explain.
“Well… this isn't good. I'd better call over uncle Sev, he'll do better than i can,” he said as he walked out, contemplating what Harry said as he called Snape over the floo.
Over the next few weeks Draco had to explain to his parents what happened, and why Harry was there, though Harry had to explain his situation on his own. They allowed harry to stay, and tried to let him rest and heal, though harry didn't want to.
One day Narcissa walked into a spare room and saw Harry cleaning, she tried to ignore it, but after she found him in her and lucius’ bathroom, she walked to Draco's room and sat him down for a talk.
“He's cleaning the bathroom,” she told him.
“Who?” he asked, confused.
“Harry.”
“So?”
“He's cleaning our bathroom,” she clarified.
“Oh.” recognition hit like a ton of bricks.
Leaving his mother behind, Draco walked slowly, clearing his thoughts, to his parents room. Unprepared for the sight in front of him, Draco stared at Harry, on his hands and knees, scrubbing the bathtub.
“Hey, there,” was all that he could come up with as he watched harry.
“Hi.”
“Where'd you get those?” he motioned to the cleaning supplies littering the floor.
“Oh, um, in this box in the kitchen, it seems like it was what your house elves used when they couldn't magic a stain away” Harry said, continuing to scrub.
“Ah… Hey, why are you cleaning the bathroom?” he asked, slowly approaching harry.
“I clean. That's what I do. I did all the... the cooking and the cleaning for my family.”
“Okay. Hey, give me that. Listen. You don't have to do any of that here. Okay?” Draco said as he took the cleaning supplies from Harry's hands.
“My aunt and uncle said that this is how you earn love,” said Harry as he reached over to take the supplies back, tears in his eyes.
“Well, I'm sorry, but your family didn't know what the hell they were talking about. You just love people because you love them and that's it,” He said as he drew Harry into a hug, “I… WE love you because we do, you will never have to prove yourself to us,”