There was of course one more group that needed to be told exactly what was going on, more so than the Gryffindors. As soon as the arrangements for Draco and Harry to move into the upper room had been made, Harry cast the charm on his galleon, which called all current members of the DA to a meeting. The information sent round to the other houses had been bare facts and Harry knew he was going to have some explaining to do. At eight thirty all twenty-five members of the DA arrived at the Room of Requirement.

There had been twenty-five original members and so it was that they had agreed that when they left school those leaving would find their own replacements. Hence the group remained the same size. Some of the faces in the crowd did not look at all happy to see Draco Malfoy upping their numbers.

"You shouldn't have brought him here," one unhappy voice stated as soon as the door closed.

Harry's eyes fixed on the fourth year Ravenclaw who had spoken and narrowed. The irrational anger that welled up in him was not exactly productive, but he was already on edge and he did not need the DA being openly hostile. Somehow this was entirely different than explaining to the Gryffindors; this felt more dangerous, possibly because every person in the room was technically just that little bit more lethal than their school friends.

"I know you all already know what I am," Harry said, refusing to give an answer to his critic straight away, "but I thought you deserved a better explanation. The first thing I have to make clear is that what I know Draco knows. There is nothing I can do about that and I wouldn't even if I could. If you decide you can't handle that then I will leave."

"Draco Malfoy stands for everything we don't," it was Zacharias Smith who spoke up next and he appeared decidedly unhappy. "He'll sell us out to his father if he hasn't already."

Draco's hand gently rested on the small of Harry's back, which was the only thing that stopped the retort that jumped to his mind. Having a screaming match with any of the members of the DA would not be productive, but right about then it was what Harry wanted to do. He was tired, he was on edge and all he really wanted to do was go to bed.

"I am not now, nor have I ever been a Death Eater," Draco's voice was calm, cool and very firm. "If you ever meet Voldemort face to face you will understand my decision."

A twitch at the open use of the Dark Lord's name and a murmur went round the room at Draco's admission, but Smith did not look convinced. Harry continued to glare at the Hufflepuff in a very annoyed fashion. To prove his point Draco pulled back the sleeves of his uniform to show he was not marked.

"Draco came over to our side before anything started between me and him," Harry said, trying to make them understand. "I don't think I could make a move before he did. We weren't compatible until then."

Trying to explain instinctive reasoning was not easy and it was all he could do to make it sound half sensible. How could he tell them that things had to have been just right for his heritage to kick in, when he was not exactly sure what the criteria had been to begin with?

"How do we know it's not you who went over to them?" Zacharias did not appear to be in the mood to give up.

There were several retorts of outrage from the Gryffindors in the room, but some of the other pupils appeared to think Smith might have a point. Draco stepped past Harry as Harry warred with himself trying to stay calm. He had had one too many things to deal with today and he was realising that meeting with the DA tonight may not have been such a good idea. The Gryffindors had been so easy in comparison.

"You actually think The Boy Who Lived would side with Voldemort?" Draco asked pointedly and another convulsive shudder went round the room at the name. "Did you conveniently forget how many times Harry has stood against that madman? Which bit of the past six years did you miss?"

"People change," Smith replied coldly, "there was no attack last year; maybe that was because good old Harry was changing sides. Who knows what he'd do for his soulmate."

The way the Hufflepuff said 'soulmate' was not nice and Harry suddenly realised that this was not just about Death Eaters. Smith made it sound as if what Harry and Draco were to each other was a dirty word. It appeared Draco had come to the same conclusion because there was white-hot anger running through him that cut through Harry's emotions like a knife. It was obvious to Harry that his lover was furious and the tension in Draco's stance was obvious. The Slytherin's hands were clenched by his sides and Harry knew his soulmate really wanted to reach for his wand and teach the Hufflepuff a lesson.

This was not a prejudice Harry had yet had to face one on one. In the Wizarding world choice of sexual partners was not really an issue, and being Hecatemus had removed any of the remaining possibility of stigma associated with Harry's choice in the minds of most wizards and witches. Zacharias' father was a Muggle and it appeared that he had instilled some of his Muggle prejudices in his son.

"He is the only pure thing I have ever known," Draco's voice was low and dangerous. "How dare you suggest otherwise."

There was righteous anger in his every word and several faces paled under his wrath.

"Nice try, Malfoy," Zacharias said pointedly, "How do we know you're not relaying everything to Voldemort right now?"

Harry wanted to strangle the little prat with his bare hands, but sat on the desire before his anger and Draco's could combine and get really out of hand.

"You're a danger to us all, Malfoy," Smith said with uncompromising certainty in his voice, "until we have decided this I think you should be out of the loop."

Then the Hufflepuff did something that drew an amazed gasp from the entire room: the youth had his wand already in his hand and he raised it and said one word: "Stupefy."

Harry's world slowed down to an almost stop as the red flash lanced straight at Draco. His lover had no chance to defend himself and as the curse hit him Draco folded like a rag doll. There was total silence and Harry's already precarious control snapped. The sudden absence of Draco's conscious mind in his thoughts wiped every rational idea from his brain and shock coursed through his system. For a moment he just stared at the crumpled heap that was his soulmate and then his barriers came crashing down.

There was no gap between thought and action as they became one in Harry and he swung his gaze up to look at the person who had thrown the curse. Magic leapt at him from around the room and Harry took hold of it, not even trying to control the power that it fed into the surrounding air. His hair and robe moved as the spirals of raw energy moved over the surface of his body.

"Oh Merlin," Harry caught the sound of someone speaking behind him, but barely noticed; "someone revive Malfoy now."

The growl started low in his throat and it moved up through his larynx and out of his mouth, growing with every micro second. Then as he released it into the world he sent with it the power hovering around him and it had only one target. Zacharias Smith never stood a chance; his wand dropped uselessly from his hand as he flew bodily backwards and collided with the wall. The magic surrounded the Hufflepuff and Harry watched it swirl around the youth as the power pinned Smith to the wall like a fly on glue. Harry was completely focused and he wanted to make his enemy pay. He hardly noticed that he was walking towards his helpless captive, and the fact that there were other spells being cast in the room was irrelevant.

Harry reached out to take hold of Zacharias through the prison he had formed of the magic. He had no idea what he was going to do, but thinking was not high on his list of priorities at that moment.

[Harry, no!] Draco's voice sounded in his head and he froze.

His soulmate's inner tone felt dazed and a little confused, but it was real and it touched the part of Harry that had switched off when it was gone. This caused raw power and a sudden lack of clarity to converge; it was not a good combination. The magic surrounding Smith leapt back at Harry and whipped around him; it wanted to be used and it sang its captivating song to his every cell. He barely noticed that Zacharias slid to the floor in front of him, he was too caught up in the power flowing through and around him.

Suddenly Draco was there standing directly before him. His soulmate's grey eyes bored into his and pale, shaking fingers reached up to rest on either side of his face.

"[Harry, you need to release the magic,]" Draco's voice sounded on a mental and physical level. "[If you block it now it could hurt people. You need to disperse it. Push it into the room; let it flow back into the walls.]"

Harry found himself frowning; he could hear Draco, he could understand the words, but it was so hard to think. The power in his veins was like a whirlwind in his mind that he had to overcome before he could know anything properly. Draco's gaze held steady and Harry felt the love pouring down the link between them.

"[I'm alright,]" his soulmate assured him firmly, "[everything is how it should be. Let the power go, you don't need it anymore. Send it back from where it came.]"

The Slytherin's eyes closed and his head went back at which point Harry found the mental presence of his lover within him strengthen. With an effort of will Harry managed to make his body work and he pulled Draco close, wrapping his arms around the slim, muscular frame of his soulmate, needing the physical contact to distract his mind from the purely elemental. Draco's essence stood like a rock in his mind and Harry clung to it. He had never deliberately connected with the magic around him before, only accidentally, and letting go was one of the most difficult things he had ever done.

It felt like Harry was pushing out a part of himself as he tried to control the power he had dragged to his will. It did not want to leave him, it was dangerously unstable and it took every ounce of concentration he could muster as well as Draco's commanding presence to push it away, giving it back to the room from which he had taken it. Harry lost track of time and physical reality, all he knew was the power and his soulmate.

Pushing the power away was of course not enough; he needed to keep it away and slowly he rebuilt his shields. It felt as if it took him forever to put his mind back behind its barriers, but as the world slowly returned Harry had enough brainpower left to realise it could not have been long. He found himself kneeling on the floor with Draco clutched to him. Smith was still on the ground next to the wall, looking dazed and confused and the rest of the room was eerily silent. When he blinked and looked around everyone was staring at him.

"Harry," Hermione said gently as his eyes flicked across her, "are you and Draco okay?"

It took a moment for Harry to come to any conclusion about that and he found himself looking down at Draco's back before he could answer. His lover was half wrapped around him and had not moved from where he had his face buried in Harry's shoulder. Draco's body was as still as his thoughts and only gradually did Harry become aware of a fury growing inside his soulmate. All at once Draco exploded from his arms, coming to his feet and rounding on Zacharias Smith in one, graceful, terrifying movement. The Slytherin's hands snaked out at speed and grabbed the Hufflepuff by the front of his robe, dragging Smith to his feet with rage-induced strength.

"Are you a complete moron?" Draco yelled at the top of his lungs, face no more than an inch from his captive's. "Have you any idea what you just did? Do you know how many laws you broke? Do you even understand how incredibly stupid that was? Can you even conceive of how dangerous your petty little game could have been?"

Harry just knelt there watching as his lover screamed at the helpless Zacharias. Strangely he did not feel tired, not like the previous evening; in fact he felt somehow energised, but he could not quite put his body into motion.

"He could have killed you, you imbecilic little pedant," Draco was nowhere near finished yet. "He has more power at his beck and call than you could possibly imagine and he could have snuffed you out like a candle. And do you even care what that would have done to him? He blames himself for enough death already you filthy, hypocritical worm, can you even begin to understand how he would have felt if that power had wiped your insignificant hide off the face of this planet?"

There was something almost apocalyptic about Draco at that moment. His rage was so pure that it gave him an ethereal quality. Draco appeared to be holding the Hufflepuff against the wall effortlessly.

"The only reason you're still alive is Harry is the most good, noble, just and kind hearted person I have ever met," Draco threw the words like knives. "He could have blown you into little pieces; scattered your atoms to the four winds, but he didn't. Can you get that into your thick skull? You took away the one thing keeping him sane and he did! not! kill! you! Do you understand? Harry Potter is good. At a fundamental level he is better than every one of you. He has seen more pain and suffering than any of you are ever likely to know and he is still good. If any of you ever suggest that he is in league with Voldemort ever again I will take you apart with my bare hands."

Then as if he had run out of steam Draco just dropped his captive. Smith slid down the wall bonelessly, a look of complete shock on his face. As Draco took his gaze off Zacharias and glared around the room at the rest of the DA, Harry finally forced his limbs into motion. He pushed himself into a standing position and reached for his soulmate, pulling Draco into his arms, not quite sure who needed the touch more, him or his lover.

"We're going to bed," he said quietly, only knowing that he did not wish to be here anymore. "You decide what you like; I'll abide by whatever you choose."

Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out the galleon he used to call meetings and then he flipped it onto the floor. With a last look at Hermione and Ron he walked towards the door with Draco close by his side and they left the room together.