Everything Remains

Chapter 32: It's not the Same as it Was

*Explicit material*

Harry woke up with a startle, grasping at the billowy sheets surrounding his body, looking around the lightly illuminated room in the safe house. 
Another nightmare. This time, Harry dreamt that Lucius had transfigured into a snake, slithering down an empty corridor to wrap around Harry's body like a vise. Lucius-snake would grip and squeeze, harder and harder, making it impossible to breathe. Just on the brink of death, Harry awoke. 

Harry looked over at the tall blonde to his left, still sleeping impossibly still and comfortable.
'He could sleep through an earthquake and wake up completely confused, that one.'
The brunette got up out of the bed and walked into the adjoining bathroom, immediately turning on the hot water in the shower. 'Might as well stay up. I don't want anymore nightmares.'
Harry tested the water with his fingertips while sliding off his pj pants, tossing them and his shirt haphazardly across the room. Walking into the glass doors of the shower, Harry let the hot water and steam flow off and around his body, grounding him in the moment and place. 
The sting of the heated water helped him to imagine his nightmare being washed away, releasing it down the drain and away from his consciousness. 

He heard the door creak, looking up in the foggy haze to see Draco standing there, sliding his own clothes off with a smile on his face. 
Harry almost instantly got hard, excitement brewing underneath his skin, encouraging sparks to burst all over his mind. 
"I'm just that good looking, am I?" Draco drawled, getting into the shower alongside him. 
"Shut up. It's not my fault you're incredibly attractive and the person I'm in love with." Harry chided, moving around to give Draco space. 
"Clearly, your mind has good tastes." Draco submerged his head under the stream of water before placing Harry back there and grabbing the soap. 
"Let me." 
Draco began to lather up Harry's hair, massaging it into his scalp, and sending shivers up and down Harry's spine. 
He closed his eyes, reveling in the sweetness of Draco's touch and the calm it was bringing over him. 
Draco tilted Harry's head back to rinse under the water before reaching around and stroking his long fingers up and down Harry's torso; a torturous sensation that was in no way helping Harry's erection to go away. 

"Dray.." was all Harry could muster, leaning back into Draco's touch eagerly. Wanting to erase the nightmare from his consciousness as much as possible, Harry encouraged Draco's teasing by rubbing his arse onto Draco's own erection; eliciting moans of his own. 
Draco leaned down and bit Harry on the shoulder a few times, scraping his teeth along the ridges of his body. Harry's head involuntarily pitched backwards, landing on Draco's chest. 
"Good boy. You like the sensations, don't you?" 
Harry whimpered his response, wrapping his arms around Draco's neck backwards, lending him the power to bring Draco closer, if that was even possible.

 "It'll be such a shame to leave this place. To leave the seclusion. The place where I can have you screaming in pleasure and no one can bother to hear." Draco drawled, continuing light bites on Harry's shoulder mixed with kisses and licks. 
"However, perhaps we can look at getting a cottage just like this for ourselves in the future. We can find one on the coast just like this and have it be a secret. A place to go when we want seclusions. Ours can be much grander though, and have those muggle amenities like.. what do they call them... warm tubs? The ones that can go outside? Those look very nice. I wonder if muggles would be able to hook them up to magical houses? I'm not sure how that works..." Draco began to ramble, thinking about all the possibilities that he and Harry have for their future. Their future together. 
"Dray. I don't mean to be a spoil sport, but you're rambling a little and I still want you inside me." 
"Blast, of course..." 

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"Are you ready to go? Everything packed?" Draco paced the living room of the cottage, keeping a close eye on his pocket watch. The departure back to Hogwarts was upon them, as Tinks should arrive at any minute.
"Yes, just give me one second! I'm looking for my other shoe." 
"How does one misplace a shoe? They aren't difficult to find when you put them where they're supposed to be!" 
"Alright, Mr. Neat and Perfect, I get it! Here it is, thank Merlin." 
Harry rushed down the stairs, hopping to get his trainer on before lobbing a kiss right on Draco's cheek. 
"You know you're the neat one in this relationship. You've always known that isn't a skill of mine. You've told me many, many times over the past 8 years Dray." 
Harry smiled sheepishly. 
"Well, I hope you're ready for many, many more times in the next, oh I don't know, forever?" Draco replied, winking and holding Harry around the shoulders. 

Harry blushed, not sure how to respond to that admission of intimacy. 
*WHOOSH*
Tinks landed with a graceful sploot in the middle of the living room. 
"Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Potter, how nice to see you again! Are sirs ready to go back to Hogwarts?" 
"If we must, Tinks." Draco sighed heavily, reaching out his hand to grab on. 
"Headmistress McGonagal is waiting for sirs now, Tinks won't let you be late!" Without further warning, Tinks apparated the trio back to Hogwarts. 

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The three landed in different positions in Headmistress McGonagal's office minutes later, Harry and Draco catching their bearings from the quick departure. 
"Thank you Tinks, you may go back to your stations." McGonagal strode around her desk, placing down parchments she was pouring into moments before. 

"Boys, I'm glad to see you healthy and safe after a few days away." McGonagal smiled curtly, whisking her wand at the door to close and secure it. 
"Thank you for your help. It was much needed." Harry offered, smiling. 
"I'm sorry to pull you back on short notice, but as you read, the trials are starting. We need to make sure you are both prepared for this, emotionally and mentally." 

McGonagal motioned to the plush armchairs in front of her desk, waving her wand towards the tea set to bring over fresh cups before sitting down herself. 
"Now. You both know how this process goes, as you were a part of it last year. But this will be very different. There is the chance that the Malfoys will be put away in Azkaban for many, many years. This is looking like the last straw for the ministry. Draco, how are you feeling about this?" 

Draco shifted his eyes from Harry to McGonagal and back again, clearing his throat before speaking. 
"I know that this will be difficult. I don't want my parents to go to prison forever. But I also know that they are completely unsafe, unhinged people. They have devolved as much to try and kill their own son. They deserve the punishment they will get. However, I would like to see them and talk to them one last time before the trial gets started. Will I be able to do that?" 
"I will request that through Shacklebolt. I don't see why you wouldn't be allowed to. Harry, what about you?" 
"I feel... mixed emotions. I wish that they could have shown everyone they had changed, that they weren't those negative people that other's knew them to be. But they proved how dangerous they are. I'm just focused on Dray..co right now and how he feels. It must feel horrible to be in your position." 

Draco sighed deeply, his heart feeling constriction. These are his parents, the ones who gave him life and raised him up. It was a difficult feeling no matter what.
"I think with time, I'll be alright. Do we need to prepare words, or practice questions?" 
McGonagal smiled timidly, still worried that Draco wasn't expressing himself fully. 
"Of course, we can do that." 

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