When Harry is seven years old, he realizes that what his father is doing with him, to him, really, isn't something a father should be doing. He hadn’t known any different, hadn’t known that it's wrong, but it had always felt wrong. He went to muggle elementary school though, and one day they read a book, about three children - Colin, Sara and Cathy - An uncle, a dad and an older sister. They all behave the same way that Harry's dad does with him. Their teacher says it's wrong, and that if they or anyone they know gets treated like that, they need to talk to her. Harry wished he dares to, but he knows his father can make people forget things, and he likes his teacher, and he doesn't want that to happen to her, so he doesn't say anything.
Sometimes, Harry wonders if his father has made Uncle Sirius and Uncle Remus forget. He's not sure, but one time uncle Sirius came and got him, he got to stay with them for a whole week. Then he was suddenly home again, and suddenly Uncle Sirius wasn't mad any more. Harry doesn't like to think about it, because after that his Uncles’ come over a lot less.
Harry wishes his mum was alive. She would stop it.
He's ten years old when his father does something new. Something painful and hurting and really, really bad. Harry cries all day, and he's sick the rest of the week. Suddenly all he can think is turning eleven so he can get away from here.
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Draco has known since it started that what his father is doing is wrong. He knows it's wrong, but he can't do anything about it. He doesn't go to school, but his parents and their friends have hired some teachers for them, so they have day school four days a week. The fifth day is to learn about their families, and Draco spends the whole day with his father.
Sometimes, when Draco isn't good enough (because he knows by now it's not about being bad), his father spanks him. At first, Draco doesn't mind, it's better than the other things. Then the other things come after the spanking, and Draco hates it.
Draco wishes his mother would care enough to stop it.
When Draco turns ten years old, his father comes in to his bedroom and gives him his last “gift”.
Draco has been dreaming about turning eleven since he was six and his father came in to his bedroom. He had been longing to get away, and to escape this house and that man, and get to the safety of his Uncle Severus and the old school.
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Harry is not surprised he is in Slytherin. He's actually glad that he is, hoping maybe it will keep his father away from him. Everyone was surprised at first, and their head of house, Snape, looked a lot at Harry first. He seemed to have decided whatever he was wondering about, and after a week in the dungeons, Harry feels like he has found a home. He has friends, he does well in his classes, and he is happy. His best friend is Draco Malfoy, though he hasn't told his father, as both their fathers would blow a casket if they knew. Harry sees something in Draco though, and he doesn't care what his Gryffindor friendly family has to say about it.
His father wants him home for Christmas, and Harry is dreading it, but he has to go. He comes back feeling worse than he did when he first came here. It seems his father wanted to use whatever time they had. Harry decides that no matter what, he is staying at Hogwarts next Christmas.
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Draco isn't surprised to be sorted into Slytherin, and smiles at Uncle Severus as he goes to sit down. What does surprise him is when Harry Potter joins him at the table, but he keeps an open mind, and after a few weeks, Harry has become his best friend. He doesn't care what his father says about the Potters - he has connected to Harry and refuses to let that go. He's not sure what, but there is something about their friendship that makes Draco trust him more than anyone, and Draco doesn't really trust at all.
Except, now, for Harry.
He goes home over Christmas, and things are just as bad as they were. When he comes back he can hear Harry swearing to himself to never go home over Christmas again, and in his mind, he promises himself the same.
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Harry isn't sure when he starts to notice Draco as more than a best friend, only that it's somewhere between the end of the third year and the start of the fourth. They meet up a lot during the summer, usually in Diagon alley, as their parents still have no idea they are friends. Harry stays over with Uncle Sirius and Uncle Remus a lot during the summer, and usually invites Draco over. Both of his uncles adore Draco, even though they can't stand his parents.
When they get back to school for their fourth year, Harry's gaze suddenly lingers when he look at Draco, both when he is fully clothed and when he is not so much.
By the time Christmas comes around, Draco has been his boyfriend for two months.
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Draco knew exactly when he wanted Harry to be something more. It was the summer before fourth year, and they were both staying with his cousin Sirius and his husband Remus. Harry was being fitted for new Quidditch gear in the living room, as he had had a growth spurt during the year. All that leather had given Draco some rather explicit images of what he wanted to do with Harry. He was a bit terrified at first, because his father had screwed him up in regards to sex, but this was Harry, the one person in the world he trusted to never hurt him.
They had some issues to sort out, but the day after Halloween, they were officially a couple.
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It was the summer after fifth year when they finally got on the subject Harry was terrified of. They were staying with Uncle Sirius and Uncle Remus again, and for the first time they were actually sleeping in the same bed. They had fooled around quite a bit, but they had never had penetrative sex, and although Harry was sure he was ready, he was also kind of terrified.
They were laying on the side, facing each other, in boxers and tank tops. They had been making out rather heavily, and had agreed that they would go further today, but they both knew they had something to clear up first.
Harry lay his hand on Draco's cheek, and asked the one question he knew neither of them wanted to answer, but that they had to.
“Have you done this before?”
“Yes. You?”
“Yes.”
And they both knew what that meant.
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“Yes.”
It rang through Draco's brain, confirming what he had always known, and knowing that his own answer had done the same for Harry. It was horrible to know that his sweet, lovely, caring boyfriend had gone through that, were still going through that, and he couldn't help.
Draco thought that maybe Sirius and Remus suspected that something was wrong in the Potter home, but not what. They might suspect abuse of some kind at least, as they very rarely was seen in the older Potters company, and did everything they could to keep Harry with them on vacations. Draco didn't know how, but they somehow managed to keep Harry with them all of Christmas break from second year and out, and from third year, Draco had stayed with them.
Unfortunately, the elder Potter had a lot of influence, so there was little else they could do.
That night, Draco and Harry held each other, both silently crying. They didn't take the next step that night, but some nights later. Afterwards they held each other tight, in a hug filled with promises and a future they dreamed about.
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When Lord Potter disappeared during an Auror mission, never to be heard from again just a few days after his sons’ 17th birthday and adulthood, no one connected the two instances.
Neither did they connect the deaths of Lady and Lord Malfoy two years later to the 19th birthday of their son, and thus the freeing of all Malfoy assets and voting seats.
Five years later, with wedding bands on their fingers, they welcomed Lily Elisabeth and Albus Severus Potter-Malfoy to the family, both men promising to be better fathers to their children then they ever had themselves.