Changed (Drarry)

Chapter 16

Draco woke up slowly, feeling heavy and a little discombobulated. He didn't even remember having fallen asleep, but he was sure it was sleep he needed, and he did remember that Harry was asleep when Draco lay down on the bed with the two of them, but now Harry was sitting up.

"Harry? Are you alright?" Draco asked groggily, rubbing his eyes and lifting himself up awkwardly, looking at Harry who was trembling slightly.

'I can't talk.' Harry signed, tears building in his eyes again. 'Even when you were asleep.'

"It's okay, Harry." Draco said, hugging Harry in such a way he could still see his hands, hoping to be able to help him calm down. "You went through something really traumatic, it can't be that odd that you can't speak now."

'But what if I can never speak again?" Harry asked, his hands still trembling as he signed.

"Then you sign, or write, or we find other ways for you to communicate. Father was right, people who can't accept it if you can't use your voice don't deserve it." Draco said, keeping his arms around Harry's waist. "Besides," Draco added, his cheeks going pink as he looked a little shy. "I love you, your voice was just an added bonus."

Harry turned to face Draco, throwing his arms around in him a brief, tight, emotion filled hug.

'I love you too.' Harry signed after moving back.

"I missed you so much, Harry." Draco whispered, leaning his forehead on Harry's shoulder. "You never have to face them again, but you should know that Fred and George were genuinely trying to help you."

"I'm sorry, but what did you want me to do!?" They heard Hermione's voice from the other room, she sounded angry and almost upset.

'What's going on?' Harry signed, looking at the door which was just ajar , but not enough for them to see anything. 'And where are we?'

"I think Granger is trying to defend herself, and we're in the room your parents prepared for you." Draco said, looking at the door with something less than concern showing on his face.

Harry opened his mouth in understanding. He guessed he understood where Hermione was coming from, Lily and James were trapped in this place and he hadn't been able to talk to them before, so it made sense that she used the opportunity of his speaking in front of them to free them. Then again, he still understood the others, she took advantage of him during the time he had no idea what was going on, and didn't even bother to explain anything to him. He couldn't say what it was he would have done in her situation, but clearly the others were against her.

'Don't you normally call her H-E-R-M-I-O-N-E?' Harry signed, after tugging lightly on Draco's sleeve to draw his attention.

"Sorry, Harry, I'm just annoyed. The least she could have done was explain." Draco said with a sigh, his eyes on Harry's hands rather than his face, embarrassed but not wanting to miss anything Harry wanted to say. "You ready to go through?"

Harry gave a small nod, holding Draco's hand tightly as they went into the living room, where sure enough Hermione stood, her cheeks flushed with indignance at how she was being reprimanded by Lily and James, the latter sitting down and still looking a little pale.

"Cub." Sirius said, his voice breaking slightly as he slowly approached, Harry looking down, but not moving away. "You're okay."

"He can't talk at the moment." Draco said for Harry, making sure everyone knew why Harry wasn't going to talk, then again, with Lily and James there he guessed people may still not have questioned it, but still.

"See?" Hermione muttered, looking away from Harry, but Harry could hear a little worry in her voice.

"I'm so sorry Harry, I'm so sorry. I should have done better to protect you." Sirius said, wrapping Harry in a hug, his voice more gentle and watery than it had been when Harry was still under all the spells and he was talking about Dumbledore.

'Not your fault.' Harry signed, not that Sirius could see, but Remus said it aloud for him.

"Harry, do you remember what happened at that time?" Remus asked, coming and kneeling down close to Harry in a place he could see Harry's hands.

Harry nodded. 'I remember some of it. They were laughing and it hurt so much. I couldn't do anything about it.'

"It's okay Harry, it's their faults. What happened to the necklace Melissa and Ven gave you?" Remus asked gently, Sirius still not having let him go.

'D-U-M-B-L-E-D-O-R-E took it. I don't think he knew what it was though.' Harry signed, remembering Dumbledore's confused scoff as he raised the necklace, tossing it to the side, ignoring it thereafter.

"Come on, let's get you home." Remus said, ruffling Harry's hair, Sirius finally letting him go.

'Aren't we supposed to go back to H-O-G-W-A-R-T-S? It's still term time.' Harry signed, looking confused. He didn't have anything to write with on him.

"I'm assuming you don't want to see the Weasleys yet, don't worry, we've already had permission from Professor McGonagall for you to rest at home for a while." Sirius said, petting Harry's head with a smile.

'We were told to avoid M-C-G-O-N-A-G-A-L-L too.' Harry signed, Hermione nodding.

"We were told to avoid her because she betrayed Dumbledore. He also used her to imply that being queer is wrong, and he said she betrayed him for greed so Professor Natasha McGonagall could be the new head." Hermione explained Harry's comment.

"Damn bastard." Sirius muttered under his breath. "That's rich coming from him, being the man who wouldn't even get involved in the war with Grindelwald because he was in love with him."

"That's not what the books say, they say he was busy with research and when he finally surfaced and found out he took Grindelwald down." Hermione said, those memories were her true memories, so that meant there was something wrong with the book she read, then again, there were a lot of biases in books.

"That's what he told the public, but my family had connections with his side so found out." Sirius said, sounding extremely bitter when he said 'family'.

"There's more I need to tell you about what I did for Harry." James said, standing up, changing the subject that had already trailed away from leaving. "Unfortunately I don't know everything about phoenix magic, Lily and I got kicked out of the community when Harry was born because we used illegal magic. All I can say is that magic may not affect him the same as it did before, at least not before his next death."

"What illegal magic did you cast?" Hermione asked, seeming curious to learn more about magic.

"Phoenix inheritances can give partial immortality to someone else, I gave mine to Lily, but before Harry was born we were told about the prophecy, so the day he was born we cast a spell to share both of out protection with Harry. It's not something that can cause harm, and it's not a strong protection, but it's something. It was illegal though, so we got kicked out of any phoenix communities I knew of." James explained.

"With that being said, I don't think it was only that protection that saved Harry that night." Lily said, Harry feeling small, and less comfortable given he was being spoken about like he wasn't in the room, something the Dursleys did a lot. "If it was just that I find it unlikely he would have been able to go to Hogwarts, his magic would have taken a lot of damage."

"I think we should get Harry home now, everything else can be dealt with later." Draco said firmly, gripping Harry's hand tightly, and pulling Harry close to him.

"Yes, right, everyone over here." Remus said, pulling out the port key.

((A/N: Hello all, just a quick poll/question: Do you want Harry to stay with James and Lily or Sirius and Remus? The two families will not be living in the same house so he can't stay wit both of them, at least not all the time.))