When Darkness Threatens - Moment by Moment Book #5 (Harry Potter, Drarry)

Results, Good and Bad

Draco hadn't said much when Harry had grabbed him and, with a quick word to Tonks, had dragged him out of the little nightmare he had created for them. He didn't even say much when Harry planted him in front of Poppy and told her what had happened. So Harry was somewhat on edge, especially when he was shooed out of the room while the healer conducted an examination. Throwing him out hadn't really been necessary, Harry knew Draco wouldn't have minded him staying, but Poppy had had her authoritarian hat on, and so Harry had retreated and started to pace in the corridor outside the exam room. Thus, he had also begun to brood.

Harry had thought he'd put the Dark Prince behind him: those horrible encounters had been superseded by the love that had grown from their ashes. Yet watching Draco turn another human being to quivery putty had stirred the older feelings of hatred and disgust and, more significantly, fear. The psychotic stare that had tormented the prisoner was once again sitting in the front of the free man's mind, and there was no stifling the shivers that ran up and down Harry's spine each time his thoughts came to rest upon it.

Trying to focus himself in the present, Harry concentrated on the state in which the interrogation had left his lover. Yet, his emotions clashed on that as well. The leftover prisoner was glad that the intimidation had had such a dramatic effect on his lover; the contrast was a comfort, but the selfishness of that satisfaction also inspired guilt, and the mixture made Harry pace even faster. He was therefore moving at quite a speed when a laugh from under the door brought him to a sudden halt. The worried man turned to the door and tried to work out if the laughter had been in humour or derogation.

With his instincts half back at Hogwarts and half worrying about his partner, Harry failed to judge either way; the conflicting emotions were giving him a headache and he rubbed the furrows of his brow in anxious consternation. He was still finishing the motion when Poppy opened the door and caught him: she crossed her hands over her apron and fixed him with professional scrutiny.

"Draco is not the only one to have had a shock today," she observed, and then stood aside and indicated for Harry to re-enter the room.

A packet was slipped into his hand as he walked by his healer, and Harry knew exactly what it was before he lifted his hand to examine it: a chocolate frog. Draco was already chewing on one and swinging his legs off the examination couch like he was a school boy again. The contrast between old and new this time made Harry smile.

"Is that the verdict?" Harry decided to try and be professional (Draco was still technically his responsibility).

However, he still perched himself beside his lover on the trolley and ripped open the chocolate. The sweet flavour ran down his throat and sent a whole new gale of shivers down his spine, but they began to remove the knots the last wave had left behind. Poppy placed herself in front of both young men and continued to appraise them as she answered, "That is part of my diagnosis, yes."

Harry had heard the but as soon as the woman had started speaking, and he glanced anxiously at his partner; Draco was paler than even he should have been, grey around the eyes and tired, he was also concentrating a little too hard on the card that had come with the frog.

"Draco," Poppy drew her patient's attention, and Harry watched the way in which he blinked at her like he had only been half listening; the healer didn't continue until Harry saw his lover's eyes focus properly, and then she disclosed, "Your magic defended you from a very nasty assault. Any normal wizard would have been seriously injured by the backlash from the Dark Mark. As it is, the mark only succeeded in causing a disruption in your magical balances, which is why you experienced the convulsions. The disruption is still settling, so I want to keep you in for a few hours observation."

Harry was expecting all manner of objection to that suggestion, and so, it appeared, was Poppy, because her professional, Healer-knows-best expression was firmly in place. However, Draco surprised them both when he just nodded meekly. Harry saw worry instantly cross the healer's face, but she recovered herself when she realised he was watching, and told him, "You as well, Harry, since you are sensitive to Draco's magic."