Chapter 38
Harry stares at the food for a moment, mourning for the chicken who died to give him this bland meat. It was fine. It could’ve been better though. Harry sighed internally and thanked Olivia for the meal nonetheless, Draco on the other hand complemented things like how moist the chicken was.
The dinner itself was mostly quiet apart from Esme’s nonstop recount of every second of the day that they were all a part of, Harry didn’t mind that much, if she wasn’t then they’d be eating in complete silence.
Almost as if the world heard Harry's internal complaints, someone knocked on the door, maybe its a chatty neighbor, that would certainly fill up the silence. Dudley gets up to answer it and Olivia scolds Esme for speaking with her mouth full.
Harry hears Dudley gasp and then something clattering to the floor.
“Dudley, are you alright in there, dear?” Olvia asks standing up to go check on her husband, but almost as soon as she stands up, Petunia and Vernon Dursley force themselves into the dining room through Dudley's protests.
Harry feels something cold in his chest, he can’t do anything but blink. Draco comes up beside him and wraps his arms around his torso. Its grounding.
“You’re okay Harry I promise, you are one of the most powerful wizards in history, and these are just some asshole muggles,” Draco says quietly into his ear.
“You’re exposing a poof and a freak to your child?” Petunia says with horror that Harry feels is unwarranted.
A vase shatters and Draco just waves it back together, before fixing her with a glare strong enough to rival Snapes, “Two freaks,”
Her nose wrinkles in disgust, and she seems to make the decision to ignore them for now, “Diddykins we found someone who says they can fix her,”
“She doesn’t need to fixed, Mum,” He says sternly, “Please get out of my house.”
The vase shatters itself again, Harry’s just glad the magic is containing itself. Draco waves it back together.
Vernon interrupts gruffly, and the second he starts speaking Harry’s magic goes haywire, “You’re being unreasonable, we’re trying to help you.”
Everything that can break does break, and Dudley looks slightly worried. Draco gives up on waving it back together and rubs a comforting circle on his hipbone.
“If you do not get out of my house and stop disrupting my family, I will call the police.” Olivia snarls at him with unexpected fierceness ignoring the shattered glass everywhere.
Harry waves Esme into a protective bubble.
Petunia starts a screaming match with Olivia about ruining her precious son, and Olivia keeps telling her she doesn’t deserve to be around her child.
Harry apologizes to Dudley quietly about the furniture. He just smiles sympathetically.
Harry wonders for a moment if this should be affecting him nearly this much. He died he fought in a war when he was a child. Shouldn’t that be harder to grapple with than this? He takes a deep breath and steels himself.
He steps foreward trying to put all of his power into his voice, “You need to leave.”
Petunia flinches slightly, but Vernon continues on unperturbed.
“Have you forgotten yourself, boy,” He spits, “I kept you alive for sixteen years, I should’ve left you in the street until you froze to death, yet I took you in.
“Death was kinder than you ever were,” Harry says more calmly than he feels.
Harry hears the dishes from the kitchen shatter.
“You are endangering my granddaughter.” Harry flinches heavily, “I think I was justified in my treatment of you, you could’ve killed my family at any moment, in fact, you threatened us.”
“When the fuck did I do that?” Harry asks, “I did everything you asked of me?’
Harry pauses, “Oh, is that you never broke me? Is that threatening to you Vernon? You beat the living daylights out of me and i stood back up and still called you out? Is that what it is? Does that scare you ‘Uncle Vernon?’”
He hears Draco gasp, barely, because much louder was the thrum of blood in his head, because Vernon was raising his hand, and suddenly all the fight seeped out of him. He became a scared child with a single look.
The world seems to move slowly for him. Maybe it is moving slowly. Harry decides Esme doesn’t need to see this and pushes the protective bubble-covered girl out of the room just before Vernon's slap lands.
***
Draco used to wonder how someone so young could kill Voldemort so many times. He watches his boyfriend get slapped and knows Harry can defend himself. But Harry doesn’t. He lets Vernon Dursley slap him.
Draco steps forward and breaks Vernon's wrist, flashing his darkmark, hoping the muggle had acquired some idea of the meaning, “Apologize.”
It actually looked as if the muggles did know what it meant, with the exception of Olivia, who asked Dudley if he was in a gang.
“I won’t,” Vernon says, through teeth clenched in pain, “He doesn’t deserve it.”
Draco steps on the broken wrist and leans down, “I think you’ll find he does.”
“Draco stop,” Harry says.
“You are Harry James Potter, one of the most powerful wizards to ever live, with one of the kindest souls, and you let this blundering dick head hit you?” Draco asks, kicking Vernon in the face, who falls to the floor unconscious, and turning to his boyfriend, “You let him hit you, Harry,”
Petunia gasps at her husband's crumpled form on the ground, Draco has her follow him in unconsciousness.
“Oh darling,” Draco pulls Harry into a tight hug, his unshed tears break, dampening Draco's collar, “You can’t let people do that to you.”
Harry sobs quietly into his neck Draco murmers assurances into Harry's hair.
Harry pulls back and wipes his tears from his face, “We should probably fix their furniture.”
He waves his hand and everything he had broken fixes itself.
“I think we should obliviate the Dursely Seniors,” Draco says thoughtfully, “They’ll probably send me to Azkaban if they go off running their mouths”
They clean up the whole mess and start to excuse themselves from dinner. Harry goes out to start the car mostly because Draco’s not sure he won’t burst back into tears any moment from now.
“Thank you for changing,” Draco says to Dudley.
He nods, “Were you really a Deatheater?”
“Yes,” Draco turns and leaves.