Draco didn't see Harry on Friday. Instead, he came back to work from his lunch break to find Harry waiting for him on Tuesday afternoon. Harry was still donning his Auror robes and was sitting at the end of a bed, swinging his legs much like a child.

"Potter?"

"Hello Healer Malfoy. Good lunch?"

"Yes, it was good thank- Potter what are you doing here?"

"I can't visit my good friend at work?," Harry asked innocently, clutching his side when he laughed at the face Draco made.

"That'll be the day Potter. Robes off then."

"Well, since you asked so nicely."

"Oh fuck off!," Draco replied with a laugh.

"Is that how we talk to our patients?," a stern voice asked.

Draco looked up to see his supervisor peering into the doorway and his face flushed.

"His job is to both heal and humble me," Harry waved the voice off. "I specifically requested Healer Malfoy. He's the only person here that I trust to tend to my injuries."

"I don't know why no one paged me."

"Because I told them not to. I didn't want to bother you during your lunch. I'm not dying, it could wait."

"Yes, you would know wouldn't you?," Draco replied dryly.

His supervisor looked at him with a raised eyebrow and Draco bit his lip.

"Healer Malfoy can take it from here, thank you," Harry said pointedly.

"Very well Auror Potter."

"I hate coming here," Harry said, throwing a locking and silencing charm at the door with a flick of his wrist. "I'm sorry, I hope I didn't get you into trouble."

"No, she tends to peek in on my patients sometimes to make sure no one is being aggressive towards me. I can understand why you'd hate coming here though. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen you here."

"I'm sure that's accurate, I only stay when you're here to see me. If not, I'll do my best to heal it myself."

"You're such an idiot. I'm doing a full body scan. Lay on the table."

"Yes sir," Harry mock saluted before trying to lay down and wincing. "Can I maybe sit in a chair? Or can you look at the injury before I lay down?"

"Go back to sitting at the edge of the bed. Was that comfortable for you?"

"Yeah."

"Can you take your shirt off so I can examine the wound?"

"Is it okay to vanish it or should I not use magic near myself? Taking the robe off really hurt."

"I can help you get it off. Tell me if it hurts."

"Believe me, you'll know."

Draco cursed quietly under his breath. He didn't know what he was looking at at first because of how many scars and old wounds there were. Harry grimaced and turned away, unable to look Draco in the eye.

"Can you tell me what happened?," he asked softly, gently pressing his fingers to the bruising on Harry's ribs.

As Harry ran through the story, still decidedly not looking at Draco, Draco conducted his assessment.

"Potter, can you look at me please?"

"I'd rather not."

"Harry."

Draco watched in satisfaction as the other man's head whipped towards him, eyes wide.

"Do you think I'm going to judge you for all of the scars? That would be very hypocritical and highly unprofessional of me."

"It's not that it's just, no one knows how bad they are. I've never dropped the glamour around anyone before and I'm feeling highly vulnerable right now."

"I'm sorry."

"It was all my fault anyway, I just don't like to be reminded of it. So, a couple of broken ribs I reckon?"

"I'm sure whatever caused this abundance was not your fault. I have what my father likes to call 'reminders' from growing up. But yes, you do have some broken ribs. I'm going to heal those first and then check for any internal bleeding. I'm going to help you lay back okay?"

After many curses later, Harry was finally in position on the bed and ready to be healed. He kept his eyes closed, not wanting to see Draco's reaction to how terribly marred his skin was. Some scars from growing up, others from the war, the rest from work. The killing curse had once again scarred him, leaving its mark on his chest in conjunction with the horcrux wound.

"May I ask how many of these are from the dark arts?"

"The obvious ones. This one is from the killing curse. Again. And then this one is from where a dark artifact fused to my chest."

"For Salazar's sake!"

"Literally, it was his locket."

For once in his life, Draco Malfoy was speechless.

"The rest of these...?"

"Growing up and being a child and now adult soldier."

"I might be able to do something, if you wanted."

Harry sat up so quickly Draco thought he might have whiplash.

"Do you really think so?"

"It's not certain, I need you to know that, but I can try. I would need to learn more about the origin of each scar to help with treatment."

"If you can remove or even fade just one..."

"Let me finish making sure there's no lingering effects from your ribs coming back together. Then we can pick one scar at random to focus on. I can book you in for some treatments with me if you'd like. I always stick to my appointments unless something abrupt happens like, I dunno, an Auror raid gone wrong?"

"Funny. Yeah, sign me up. When can we start?"

They talked through a schedule, and Harry decided now was the perfect time to take some time off of work. He wanted to focus on his healing, and he couldn't do that with the threat of more scars being added.

"Now, you can either come here for the procedure, or I can do a home visit-"

"Home visit. Please. That's how I'll feel most comfortable. If you're going to be late you can just fire call or owl or something."

"Okay. I'll see you on Thursday then for our first session?"

"Thursday. Do you need the address?"

"No, I know it. And I'm already keyed into your wards," Draco said with a grin. "I'll give you one last once over and you'll be good to go."

"Thanks Malfoy, you're a lifesaver."

"It's my job," Draco brushed off.

"Just because it's your job doesn't mean I can't thank you for doing it well."

"Thank you anyway Potter. Figure out which scar you want to focus on getting rid of first for Thursday and I'll see you then."

"Have a good rest of your shift Malfoy, thanks again."

Snapping his fingers, Harry was once again dressed. With a grin, he bumped his shoulder against Malfoy, and with a wave he was gone.

Draco's jaw dropped in shock. You weren't supposed to be able to apparate in or out of Saint Mungo's.

Those were the first words out of Draco's mouth once he saw Harry on Thursday.

"Oh hello Potter, how was your day? I'm oh so excited to see you again and can't wait to help you unmutilate your body," Harry mocked in a posh accent.

"I do not sound like that," Draco protested, removing his shoes as he stepped inside. "My apologies, hello Potter, are you well?"

"Ask me again once we find out if we're successful. How are you?"

"Bit of a long day. Lots of Aurors through the ward again today. Surprised I didn't see you actually."

"Oh yeah because I'm on leave."

"You- you're what?!"

"I'm on leave. I haven't taken vacation like... ever actually so I have loads saved up. Could probably take a whole year off actually with the amount of times I've had to work holidays, imagine being called to work on your own birthday which is a national holiday, and all the times they've called me in on my day off. They couldn't quite deny me without looking like even bigger arseholes."

"Why the sudden change?"

"It wouldn't do to just re-scar myself while in the process of trying to remove them. I'd like to stop using the glamour all of the time. It's not physically draining because I've got magic out the arse, but it's mentally and emotionally draining and I've always been shit at taking care of myself in that way."

Draco giggled and immediately clamped his hand over his mouth in horror. He felt his face heat at Harry's raised eyebrow.

"I used to say people worshiped you as if rainbows came out of your arse."

"Didn't know my arse was such a hot topic. You can check it for scars too if you'd like," Harry teased with a wink.

"On one hand I'd lose my medical license but on the other I could mass produce pictures of your arse and make a fortune. Decisions decisions," Draco clicked his tongue.

"Maybe stick with the one that saves lives yeah?," Harry replied with an amused snort.

"I can see how the savior's arse can be life saving as well."

"Swiftly moving on, can I get you something to drink?"

"Water is fine, thank you."

"Follow me, I'll tour you around after I get you some water."

"Whatever you're making smells good."

"Thank you! I made extra, if you wanted to stay for dinner or something. No pressure just, it's an option."

"Oh, erm, thank you Potter. Shall we get started then?"

"Where are we doing this? How do you want me?"

"If it's alright with you I'd like to start by cataloging the scars and their locations. Maybe their causes only if you're comfortable sharing. At the bare minimum I just need to know whether they were caused by magic or muggle means. That matters in the healing process."

"There's only four that I'm certain were caused by dark magic so let's start there. The obvious one on my forehead. This one on my hand from a blood quill. Then it's the dark artifact and the second set of remnants from the killing curse."

"Okay," Draco murmured, diligently taking notes. "Take your shirt off whenever you feel ready."

Summoning a stool, Harry sat in the middle of the living room before awkwardly removing his shirt. Draco asked a few questions about the four dark magic scars before asking Harry where he'd like to begin.

"We can start with the oldest ones I guess? Work our way up?"

"Okay."

Harry started off by pointing out his childhood scars, and Draco was struggling not to say anything in response and be professional. There were so many, and he recognized a lot of them as burn scars.

"So this one right here is the oldest scar?," Draco asked, gently trailing a finger across Harry's shoulder.

"Yeah. They started off where they could be hidden by clothes."

"You didn't deserve that," Draco replied quietly. "I'm going to try a few things, is it okay if I touch you?"

"That's fine yeah."

"Which one of these is the most recent?"

"This slice across my forearm. Last raid had some knives, I dunno if they were laced in anything."

"You really don't care about your safety do you?," Draco asked in exasperation as he began to cast.

"It's hard to care some days. Every day feels monotonous. It's not just me that I have to look out for. People see me and they seize up. A lot of these are from jumping in front of people as I cast because if I just cast, they wouldn't make it. They're always so distracted, they can't focus, and I get hurt and no one cares, no one does anything about it.

I'm so worried about taking this time off because what if someone gets hurt and I'm not there to stop it? How much more do I have to sacrifice before I've given myself up completely? I don't even know who I am anymore," Harry finished dejectedly.

Draco hummed before making a curious noise.

"Tell me about what happened when you got this slash."

"One of the junior aurors decided to start taking a witness statement in the field as opposed to safely back in the office. One of the bad guys jumped in between the witness and the junior Auror. I threw myself in front of the witness and pushed her out of the way resulting in this slash- hey it's gone! Malfoy you're a genius!"

"How peculiar. It didn't work until you started telling me about how you got the scar. Can you... can you tell me how you got that first burn?," Draco asked carefully.

"Promise me that you won't view me any differently."

"Potter we've had the most tumultuous relationship since Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor. I stomped on your face and broke your nose, you sliced me open. I made fun of your dead parents, you made fun of my at the time still living ones. My wand was used to win the war, you fought for me to be able to do my apprenticeship and I know you had a hand in Mungo's hiring me. Our whole relationship has been give and take Potter. I promise you that whatever you say to me, I will not tell another soul. Healer patient confidentiality and all of that."

"And friendship," Harry replied quietly, staring at his own forearm.

"And friendship," Draco replied firmly. "Now that we've gotten that emotional shit out of the way, tell me what happened."

"I was only five years old, you know? I just wanted to please them, I wanted to be loved, but it never happened. I'd watch my cousin get hugs and kisses and I thought maybe if I was better, if I had been good enough, I'd get them too. It started off when I was four and I would help fold the laundry. By five I was deemed able to help with the cooking.

It was breakfast time and we were making scrambled eggs. Petunia needed the milk and told me to go get it. I was a scrawny kid, underdeveloped for my age and it took me too long to get the fridge open. The eggs had burnt, and before I knew it she had grabbed the frying pan and whipped around angrily and it hit my shoulder. I screamed and I cried and my uncle grabbed me and threw me back into the cupboard under the stairs. No one treated the wound and I was locked in there for the rest of the day.

That long slash across my back? The really ugly one? It got infected I'm pretty sure. It happened the next day when he told me that boys don't cry and I would do well to remember it. I was lucky to live in that house and not be living on the streets and I would do well to remember that. I couldn't be messing up simple tasks because if I did I'd be locked away with no food and no water. I learned to start hiding things away pretty quickly after that. The sound of his belt was enough to scare me straight."

Draco felt his throat closing up and blinked away the tears in his eyes. Harry was so detached from what he was saying, his voice haunted. The burn had disappeared after some coaxing due to its age, but the slash had most certainly been infected and was harder to remove.

"This was done with a belt?"

"Yeah. I think the buckle dragged over my skin or something, I don't quite remember. I just remember biting down into my pillow to muffle the screams so it didn't come down on me again."

"It was infected, which makes it harder to heal. Not impossible. I think I know what I can do, hold on."

"I'm going to check on dinner."

From partaking in his apprenticeship, Draco had learned some new tricks on how a bezoar could be manipulated to exude its healing properties in other ways. He was thinking that small fragments of one could be used to aid in exfoliation to help clean out and heal the old scar. He had a special medicinal soap that he thought he could add small pieces to and that maybe that would help the scarring to go away.

"This will be the last one for today Potter. Can you lay down on the couch for me?"

Harry did as told, resting his head in his arms.

"This might hurt. If it's too much, let me know okay?"

"I trust you."

"Let me numb the area first actually. I don't want to hurt you."

"Do I want to know what you're going to be doing?"

As Draco numbed the area he explained the process.

"The older wounds take a lot more magic, and a lot more energy to heal. It's peculiar. The physical trauma isn't healing until the psychological trauma has been discussed. I couldn't heal the first burn until you told me exactly what happened."

"Oh... what does that mean?"

"If I had to guess... it means that even if the physical scars are removed the mental ones would still remain. You can remove or glamour them, but unless you talk about what happened to you, you'll carry the scars regardless."

"Are you a mind healer too?," Harry asked with a snort. "I didn't know you were so profound."

"There's a lot you don't know about me."

"I'd like to know more, but there's also a lot that I do know. I know what you like to eat, I know how you take your tea, I know you love cats even though you're allergic, I know you scrunch up your nose when you're deep in thought. I also know everyone underestimates you, but I have never made that mistake.

That's why I trust you to be my healer. That's why I trust you to help me with this. I can talk to you about things that I can't talk to anyone else about, and that means a lot to me. I hope you know that."

"I don't take your trust lightly, I hope you know that."

"I do know that. You've got my back, literally," Harry replied with a snort.

Draco continued to distract Harry as he worked on remedying the scar on his back. The more Harry opened up, the easier the process was. For both of their sakes, Draco hoped that Harry had no injuries that had healed as poorly as that one, because he was exhausted.

"Go take a shower," Draco instructed, spelling himself clean.

"Okay. You're staying for dinner I hope?"

"I'm too exhausted to go anywhere else, though our dear Delilah will miss me terribly."

"Her loss is my gain. I'll be right back."

When Harry returned, Draco was passed out on his couch. After covering him with a blanket, Harry decided to look in a mirror and see what Draco saw. Honestly, he didn't know how to feel that three of his scars were gone now. He absentmindedly ran his fingers over where the burn mark had been for the majority of his life. Turning around in front of the mirror, he gasped at where the gash had been on his back.

It hadn't hurt much due to the numbing salve Draco had used but the skin was still bright red and irritated from where he had scrubbed. Harry had rinsed off a lot of blood in the shower, and thought that another salve should probably be put on it to make sure it fully healed.

Walking back to the living room, he frowned at the still sleeping Draco on his couch. Draco needed to sleep, but he also needed to eat. Harry decided to finish and plate dinner before waking Draco back up. Half an hour of sleep was better than no sleep at all.

"Malfoy," Harry called gently.

"Hmm?"

"Hey, you fell asleep. You need to eat something and then I'll get you home."

"Need to," Draco cut in with a yawn, "apply a salve to your back."

"I'll do it, tell me which one. You're exhausted."

"My own fault. Need to stop working past my limits."

"I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing. This was my choice, I won't do it again. My bag?"

"Here."

"Turn around."

Draco gently applied the salve before gently placing bandages on Harry's back.

"I'll check on that tomorrow to make sure everything is okay. It's experimental magic, we don't need that to get infected again."

"Thank you, really."

"You can thank me by feeding me."

"Right this way. I made your favorite."

Harry promptly ruined Draco's favorite dinner, and Draco wondered how he'd ever be able to enjoy the meal again knowing it didn't compare to Potter's home cooked version. Harry Potter was a bright flame, and Draco Malfoy currently felt like a moth. He knew if he got too close to the sun he would get burned, but he thought the radiating warmth and light might just be worth it.