Beautiful World ~ 𝑫𝑹𝑨𝑹𝑹𝒀

Chapter 30

Draco woke up as if cold water had been dropped on him. One moment fast asleep, the next wide-eyed and tense, for a second, he could not place what exactly had woken him. Then he realized; Harry was not lying beside him.

"Harry!" he cried, sitting up.

The other boy was sitting at the end of the bed, legs pulled up to his chest, arms folded on top of them, head resting there. "I wasn't sure you were gonna wake up," he said quietly, almost reproachfully.

Draco swallowed, the terror at not finding Harry there slowly fading to a vague sense of wariness. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that you left me last night and I was so scared and then you came back and you were bleeding and there were bite marks on your neck."

Wincing, Draco sighed. "Oh. I didn't mean to scare you."

"Vampire, wasn't it?"

"Sort of."

"Sort of?"

"Harry. I just... I needed to..."

"I've never seen a real vampire before." There was a hesitant sort of inquiry in his tone, and Draco slowly closed his eyes.

"You don't want to," he said quietly. "They're monsters. Cold."

"Like a snake?" Harry asked, voice soft with gentle amusement.

Draco opened his eyes and looked at him and smiled, though the effort was shaky. "Not quite," he replied. "That distinction's reserved for me."

"I told you before," Harry cried, but he was smiling. Draco wondered where he got the strength to smile. It was July 30th and the next day would be his birthday. His thoughts were disrupted, however, because Harry was there suddenly, eyes dark and eyelids lowered. His voice, when he spoke, was low and husky and teasing. "You're not cold at all, Draco, you just pretend to be."

"Not anymore," Draco argued, a little breathless at how close Harry was suddenly, though they weren't touching.

"Not anymore," Harry agreed, grinning in a promising sort of way. Then he leaned forward and kissed him.

It was a playful kiss, more soft biting and teasing licks than anything, and the more Draco tried to capture Harry for any meaningful sort of kiss, the further back the other boy pulled, just out of reach. Finally, Draco pulled back, exasperated. Before he could say anything, however, Harry fell forward, knocking him backwards and kissing him hard, driving the breath from his lungs. Startled at the sudden switch from playfulness to a restrained sort of fury, Draco lay there, stunned, and let Harry kiss him. It was almost painful, and he reached up, hands running up and down Harry's back, pulling him closer, letting him hurt him if that's what he needed, because he didn't have anything else to give except this. There was nothing else. Draco had promised to save him but there was nothing he could do.

Harry's fingers had trailed up his arm, over his shoulder, and were now stroking over and over again the side of his neck, where the vampire had bitten. There was no blood there any longer, Harry must have cleaned it off, and Draco knew the marks would have faded, but still, Harry's fingers circled over his skin as if they were still there. Almost like he was trying to rub them away.

"Mmm," Harry grunted finally, pulling away and glaring down at Draco. "If you ever do that to me again, Draco, I swear..."

"You don't understand," Draco whispered.

"Just... just don't ever do that again." He kissed the side of his neck, very gently, right where the vampire had bitten. "Don't leave me like that again. When I woke up and you were gone, I thought I'd go absolutely crazy."