The Butterfly Effect

Of all the decisions he’d made since thinking Sirius was at the Ministry, choosing to leave Draco behind was perhaps the wisest. Harry was reminded of this sentiment as he was brought face to face with a scowling Lucius Malfoy, wand aimed at him.

“Hand it over boy,” he said, lip curling into a snarl, “there is no point in fighting.”

Harry raised the crystal ball high, trying to ignore the trembling in his fingers. He’d been able to somewhat escape the horrors of the war he knew was coming but now, alone and all his friends captured, Harry realised just how real everything was becoming. He was faced with the reality of just how much rested on his shoulders.

“Let them go or I smash it.”

“That is a fruitless bargain, Potter. Give it to me or I will have my companions kill your little friends, one by one.”

“Don’t Harry!” came the sound of Hermione’s shriek as she bit down on the hand her capturer had over her mouth to warn him. They stood in a little circle around him and Lucius Malfoy. Hermione, Ginny, Ron, Neville and Luna. All of them utterly helpless. The message was clear, give up or else.

Harry shook his head fiercely. He could stand getting hurt or tortured but not his friends and certainly not because of him. Not ever. Slowly, he stretched his arm out ready to hand over the prophecy when he heard the little tell-tale cracks of Apparition. Distracting, all of them long enough from the prophecy in order to determine if the newcomers were foes or friends. 

All around him, Order members were appearing and spells were flying. He watched as a Death Eater was promptly stunned by a fierce Mad Eye, freeing Ginny who immediately turned and blasted at the man that held Luna with a marvellously done Reducto.

Then Sirius was standing in front of him, effectively blocking Harry from Lucius’s advances and clinging to his godfather’s arm was Draco Malfoy.

Harry opened his mouth, ready to tear into Sirius for bringing him along but his godfather was already turning to the blonde haired boy looking furious.

“Are you insane ? You could’ve been splinched Draco!”

“I wasn’t going to be left behind a second time,” he returned snootily, turning his nose up in the air so familiar to the Malfoy he knew in First Year that Harry found himself biting back a grin.

Then Draco was turning to his father, that same aloof expression on his face, “Fancy seeing you here, Father.”

“Draco,” his father moved a step forward, “you should not have come here. It’s simply too dangerous.”

Draco gave his father his own assessing look and took a tiny step forward. Harry curled his hand around his wand, fighting the urge to reach out to him and hold him back. He knew that coddling Draco from his own father was something the other boy would probably punch him for. 

“It’s not too late, Father. Maybe... maybe we can still manage to fix this.”

Lucius’s wand tilted just a little in consideration but than Bellatrix Lestrange screamed out from where she was battling a grim faced Remus Lupin.

“Lucius, the prophecy! Forget about Draco!”

And as suddenly as his indecision had come, Lucius Malfoy was tilting his wand upwards again, “Potter has something that belongs to the Dark Lord, Draco. Tell him to give it over and we will leave.”

“I don’t see his name on it,” and then before any of them could blink, Draco was whipping out his wand and yelling, “Stupefy.”

Lucius Malfoy sailed backwards as the spell hit him and Harry turned to Draco mouth agape.

“You’re brilliant!”

“I know, Potter.”

Tonks let out a pained yell and Sirius glanced anxiously at them and then towards his cousin who was battling two Death Eaters at once. She was steadily being back into a corner but she was whipping spells with a ferocity despite the gash on her arm.

“Go help her,” Harry yelled out and then Sirius was Apparating away.

In unspoken agreement the two boys moved in sync, Harry handling the spells on their right while Draco focused on their left. It seemed as if their DA classes really had managed to whip them into fighting shape or maybe it was just adrenaline forcing them into acting as fast as they did.

“How did you even manage to get here or bring them ?” Harry yelled out, as he promptly disarmed Dolohov.

In the same breath, Draco had the man bound with a handy charm spell that Harry hadn’t ever bothered to look at, let alone practice. But he supposed that was what Draco was there for, he’d always be at Harry’s side, smoothing out what he oversaw.

“I figured it out as soon as I heard you took Umbridge to the Forest. Great thinking by the way! Pansy and Blaise went to get McGonagall but I figured it would take too long so I used Umbridge’s Floo to Grimmauld. Most of the Order was there, I was ordered to stay with Mother but well, I sort of pounced onto Sirius when he Apparated.”

“You’re insane!”

“I thought you said I was brilliant.”

Harry turned to look at the blonde menace, insult ready on his mouth and that was all it took for his attention to slip. Before he could even blink, Bellatrix was raising her wand and a familiar green light was shooting out of the tip of her wand, in a straight arch towards Draco.

“Traitor to the Black name,” she shrieked out, her face twisted into an ugly snarl. “You took Cissy from us!”

Harry’s insides went cold and he felt as if the spell was shooting at him rather than the other boy. For if anything happened to Draco, it very well meant he himself would not survive. Dimly all Harry could think was, no no no no no no. Then something caught ahold of his senses so quickly, he felt as if it were divine intervention itself.

He managed to yell out the words of a tripping jinx and while that would never stop the killing curse, it struck Bellatrix right in the knees and her handle on her wand went wide. The killing spell shooting out to the ceiling instead.

He tackled Draco to the ground, very nearly missing the piece of plaster that would’ve brained them both. His hands fluttered helplessly over the blonde’s shocked face and hair. Ridiculously, Harry felt as if he was going to burst into tears at any second and he hadn’t even been the victim of the spell.

“Are you alright ?” he asked in a rough gasp. It felt as if his heart was threatening to beat right out of his chest. “Are you fine ? Hurt ? Draco!”

“Fine, fine,” Draco pressed his cheek into Harry’s palm for a brief second in reassurance and then he pulled away. His eyes, so bright that they put the moonlight to shame, were soft as he looked at him. “Merlin, does this mean I owe you a life debt now, Potter ?”

Harry laughed, impossibly glad that Draco was there. That he was being his usual, odious self. He’d been seconds from losing him, losing what was probably the most important thing in his life.

Bellatrix had tried to take that away from him.

Harry’s mouth turned into a snarl, “Keep this.” Then he shoved the crystal ball into Draco’s hand and stood up.

Bellatrix was already flitting out the door, giving him a cheeky wave. Harry’s gut churned and then he was setting off after her, battle around him be damned. Revenge, his brain was baying and he was more than happy to listen to it.

Distantly he heard Draco’s urgent, “Harry!” but he ignored him.

Rage turning him into a vile, snarling person he hardly recognised. She’d almost taken Draco. His Draco. Draco Malfoy who had been nothing and then just as quickly everything. Draco who he’d do just about anything and everything for. Draco, who he realised, he cared about more than anyone else in the world.

“Crucio,” Harry said as they came to stalemates in the very centre of the Ministry.

He meant it.

Bellatrix writhed underneath the curse, a terrible scream coming from her mouth that had Harry smiling. He flicked his wand and she rose into the air, the spell pulling pained cries from her as she went. 

“Harry Potter!”

Then Dumbledore was there, hand pressing harshly into his shoulder and the spell he had on Bellatrix Lestrange promptly dropped. She didn’t wait around, turning to sprint towards the Floo Networks. In a second, she was there, cackling in delight and giving Harry a smug smile as she shouted out an address. Dumbledore pressed his fingers sharper into Harry’s shoulder forcing him to watch her disappear. The rage in him was shimmering hot now. 

Whipping around furiously, Harry gave Dumbledore a vicious look, “She tried to murder Draco and you let her go!"

“That was an Unforgivable Curse, Harry. We do not use such spells." 

“I don’t care! She had to pay." 

“Isn't it funny how your star pupil is no better than us, Albus ?” asked a familiar voice behind him that had goose bumps raising on Harry’s arm.

Voldemort.

Then everything promptly went to shit as it always seemed to do when the two of them were forced into each other’s proximity.

~~~~~

Draco opened his eyes to find Harry Potter staring at him with those stupidly beguilingly green eyes, because of course, he did. Groaning, he tried to pull himself up but was instantly met with a wave of dizziness.

Harry was instantly out of his chair, reaching for the glass of water at the bedside, “Drink this. You took quite a knock on the head.”

Gratefully, he took a few gulps. He remembered Harry disappearing to chase after Bellatrix and he’d gone to follow but he’d been hit with a petrifying spell and he’d gone down like a sack of bricks. He’d obviously knocked his head on something and passed out, because he had no memory of anything after that. Or maybe he’d been Oblivated, but that was highly unlikely.

When he felt vaguely better or at least up to talking standards, Draco immediately asked, “The others ? Are they ?”

“Fine. All asleep,” Harry gave him a tired smile, inclining his head to the rest of the beds in the infirmary. As his eyes adjusted, Draco could make out Weasley and Granger, beds drawn closer to each other than was strictly necessary. Ginny was asleep in another, arm bandaged and the other tucked into Luna’s hair who’d pulled up a chair to her bedside, similar to how Harry was positioned at his side. Longbottom was snoring away in another bed, the sound obscenely loud.

“How you manage to get any sleep with that lawnmower in your room is a wonder,” he said, snorting into his cup and Harry’s mouth pulled into a tired smile.

Cautiously, Draco sat his glass back down. He knew from Harry’s face that bad news was on its way.

“Tonks ? Sirius ? Remus ? All the others ?"

Harry sighed, “Alive but Sirius was hit was some kind of sleeping spell, he can’t wake up from. No one has any clue on what it is or how to break it. He’s back at Grimmauld, but it isn’t looking good.”

“Merlin, trust him to become the living embodiment of Sleeping Beauty. Don’t worry Potter, Black is utterly tenacious, he'll be fine in no time,” Draco collapsed back against his pillows, “and the prophecy ?”

“He either kills me or I kill him. Both of us can’t live at the same time.”

“So we’ll kill him then.”

There was no other choice. Harry had to live. That was that.

They'd kill the Dark Lord. Somehow. It didn't matter how.

“We just have to kill someone that keeps coming back from the dead,” Harry gave him a sardonic smile and ran a tired hand over his eyes. "Perfectly simple." 

“Have you slept at all, Potter ?” Draco asked suspiciously as he took in his rumpled clothing and drawn face. “Or were you sitting here holding vigil over the living ?"

Harry’s mouth pressed into line and he didn’t answer him.

“Merlin, go back to the Gryffindor tower and get some rest. We’ll see you in the morning.”

“I can’t,” came his soft whisper, “I keep thinking that you all are going to disappear into thin air if I wake up. You were nearly killed and I just—I just need to sit here for a bit. Alright ?"

Draco felt his heart pang. Stupid Potter. With his stupid smile and his stupid eyes and that stupid, stupidly kind heart of his. If Draco hadn’t already fallen for him, this would’ve been the moment he fell for the git. Still, his heart gave a sickly thump in his chest making sure that he knew just how much Harry mattered to him.

He shifted in the bed, making room and slowly he patted the space beside him. Just this once. Just this once, he’d be selfish and tomorrow he’d go back to being the friend that Harry needed him to be.

“Come on, then. You can sleep here.”

Harry’s eyebrows shot up.

“If you’d rather sit in that chair of yours Potter—”

“No! No!” scrambling up, Harry kicked off his shoes being none too gentle about it and then he was clambering into the bed, elbowing him as he went.

It was really too small a space for the both of them and yet neither of them mentioned the fact that there was a perfectly good, empty bed a couple feet away from Draco’s own. They needed this.

Comfort to wash away the fear that they’d been subjected to.

Harry’s hand fluttered briefly over the bandage on his temple, “Just like you to knock yourself out in a battle, Malfoy.”

“Shut up. But onto a more serious matter, I'm telling you this, just this once, but if you ever try to rush headfirst into danger—" 

"I've already been told off by a multitude of people for my rashness," Harry said sighing again. "I know. I'll wait and sit around twiddling my thumbs before I run off." 

"I don't give a fuck about rashness, Potter. You leave me out of your plans again and I'll never speak to you," he punctuated this fact with a sharp jab to Harry's chest. 

"You're angry that I didn't take you on a possibly sucidal mission to rescue my godfather ?" 

"He's my uncle! But to reeatrate the point, yes Potter. I shall be very mad if you exclude me again. So shall, Pansy and Blaise for that matter." 

"Slytherins are shockingly similar to Gryffindors, you know, behind all that arrogance and poshnesss." 

"You take that back!" 

Laughing quietly, Harry’s hand travelled down his head, over his neck and arm to rest lightly on his waist. Then he tucked Draco closer to him and it was the oddest thing in the world to lay cuddled up against Harry Potter but somehow it felt as natural as breathing.

"Alright Draco, I promise to always keep you close. Merlin, knows I need you." 

“Infirmaries have the talent of making us entirely too sappy,” he chuckled lightly, but his heart was pounding. "I despise it." 

Draco remembered that long ago time where Harry had been in this place after the Third Task. He could still remember that sickly tasting fear in his mouth at the thought of Harry being hurt even though they hadn’t been as close as they were now. That had been the first time Harry had hugged him and even then it had that sense of rightness.

How quickly and easily, Harry had managed to sneak into Draco’s heart and claim it as his own. The bastard.

“Shut up and let me sleep, you git,” Harry mumbled as he tucked his face into Draco’s neck, somehow, pulling him even closer than before. Draco didn’t mind it. Not a bit.

He put his own arm around Harry, tucking close and that’s how they fell asleep. Intertwined and utterly hapless to the force of each other.