Memory Loss (Harry Potter Drarry slash)

18: [And so the Tables Were Turned 7] Joined Anew

That night, when Harry went upstairs to tuck James in and prepare himself for bed, he heard Draco's voice coming out of the nursery, and he stopped just outside the doorway, out of sight to the blonde. Listened to his lover as he spoke to the boy.

"Would you like me to read you a bedtime story?" Draco was asking James in an affectionate tone. "All right. I know a story that you will absolutely love, because it's a true story and it's a beautiful, happy story. Okay, do you want me to begin?

"Once upon a time, there was a wizard called Harry Potter. He was a lonely boy, because his parents had died when he was very little—oh, about your age, actually—and he had no friends. Since he had no parents, he had to live with his mother's sister and her family, and they didn't like Harry so they treated him really bad.

"For many years, Harry was an unhappy boy, but then one day a letter came for him. And this was a very special letter, you see, because it came with an owl through the chimney. Harry was really happy to receive this letter, because no-one had ever written to him before. But his Aunt and Uncle didn't like that Harry got mail, so they destroyed the letter and never let him read it."

Harry's heart skipped several beats and then began to pound like crazy when he heard Draco tell their son about his life with that mild, warm tone. There was so much love in his melodious voice, and it surprised Harry. This was not entirely his love for the boy, but also his love for Harry—and it was so great, so pure, so unconditional ...

That was when he realised that Draco had been telling him the truth; he did hate him because he loved him so much. Before, when they had been in Snape's guestroom, he had doubted this because it all seemed so absurd bearing Draco's behaviour in mind, but now he understood that the blonde really did love him unconditionally.

"Then one day, when Harry and his friends were training in the secret room, a funny little creature called Dobby came to see him. Dobby was a house-elf, and he worked at the school as a cleaner, and he had a terrible message for Harry. The awful wicked witch Umbridge was coming to catch him! As fast as they could, all the kids ran out of the secret room to save themselves from the wicked witch, but Harry didn't get away; there was another boy waiting for him outside, and that boy stopped Harry from running to safety. Do you know who that boy was?"

"No!" James said, and you could really hear how excited he was by the story in his exhilarated voice.

"That was your Daddy, James."

The small boy gasped. "Dat was you, Daddy?!"

"Yes, that boy was your Daddy, but I was much younger then. I helped the wicked witch catch Harry, because I didn't know then that she was the wicked witch, and I didn't know how evil she was. It was almost as if she had me under her wicked spell and made me do things I didn't want to do. But after Daddy had helped the wicked witch, he found out that Harry had done something really good for all the kids in that secret room, because he had been teaching them how to handle evil witches like Umbridge. Do you know what Daddy did then?"

"No, what did you do, Daddy? What did you do?"

"I asked Harry if it was true that he was teaching all those kids, and at first he didn't want to answer—and you understand why, don't you, James? He thought I was still that bad boy who caught him for the wicked witch, but Daddy had changed. I wasn't a bad boy anymore—I wanted Harry to help me be a good boy. So I kept asking him about it until he answered me, and when he said it was true, I thought that was really brave of him. I asked him to teach me, too, and even though his friends didn't like me, he agreed to teach me.