Harry opened his eyes on a very peculiar world. It was somewhat like the world he had left in Snape's classroom, but was more like the real world with the negative world overlaid on it. Objects were touched with metallic shades and there were weird patterns on things, but it felt more ordered and much more controlled. He stared at the ceiling for a while, watching an intricate spiral pulse across it in a vaguely hypnotising manner. It was only after a couple of minutes that he realised someone was lying next to him curled up to his side.

Slowly Harry turned his head and found himself looking at the sleeping face of Draco Malfoy, and his lover's features were glowing gold. For a moment Harry thought he was dreaming and then he felt it, the presence in the back of his mind, the calm, reassuring essence of Draco.

He reached for his glasses slowly, wanting to see the world in proper focus. His hand found them on the bedside table and he pushed them onto his nose, relaxing back into the pillow. The logical part of Harry's thoughts informed him that this situation should bother him and that he should be calling for someone to tell him what was going on, but he just lay there.

The rest of his mind did not want him to move and did not care that lying in a strange bed next to Draco should worry him; in fact, most of his thoughts were taken up with a feeling of content rightness. In his entire life Harry had never really been content; he had been happy at times throughout his life at Hogwarts, but he had never felt like he felt now. He was here, Draco was here, and that was all that mattered.

Harry was so caught up in this feeling that he lay there for a good ten minutes just watching, before his body managed to inform his mind that there were some pressing matters to attend to involving his bladder. Reluctantly he dragged his eyes away from Draco and looked around the room.

There were two doors; one of which was covered in patterns and one which was not, a wardrobe, a strange looking alcove and a table, but no windows, and nothing that would aid him in his need. Carefully he climbed out of bed and, on instinct, headed towards the door without the pattern. It opened towards him and he was very thankful to see a bathroom.

Without waiting to consider why he was in a room with a private bathroom, Harry slipped inside and relieved himself. Then, and only then, did anything but his physical requirements make it into his mind and he looked around.

As he washed his hands he had to admire the gold taps and marble surround to the perfectly white porcelain sink. In fact the whole room was done out in gold, white and marble, which was nice because it didn't clash with the new world Harry could see over top of it, and it was very impressive. It also contained all of his toiletries as well as some he didn't recognise, which he assumed were Draco's. He was examining an item that he could not even begin to comprehend when he felt something and, on instinct, turned. Green eyes met grey and just looked for a moment.

"We have a bathroom?" Draco said in a somewhat surprised tone.

"The other door is locked and charmed," Harry said without thinking, "we need one."

It then occurred to him that he was not sure how he knew that. The information had just come out of his mouth with no conscious thought. Draco just shrugged and Harry decided that his boyfriend felt as if he was accepting everything calmly.

Having taken this in, Harry was once again reminded that knowing what someone was feeling was not normal. His lover padded past him and proceeded to do exactly what Harry had done previously without the slightest hint of bashfulness. Now that Draco was awake, the contentment wasn't quite enough to put off the questions that began flying around his brain.

"You're in my head," Harry found himself saying.

Draco turned from where he was cleaning his hands and smiled slightly.

"And you're in mine," he said, as if this made perfect sense to him.

Harry could not deny that it felt as if this was a completely correct state of affairs. There was confusion in Draco, Harry could also feel that, and he didn't think his companion knew what was going on any more than he did, but at least neither of them was panicking about it.

"And I can see these weird shapes everywhere," Harry admitted, looking around the room, "and everything looks vaguely metallic."

Now Draco stopped what he was doing and turned to face Harry completely.

"Now that's not happening to me," his lover admitted. "Everything looks perfectly normal from over here. What exactly can you see?"

On instinct Harry did not try and describe what he was looking at; he took a mental picture and projected it at Draco. His lover's eyes opened slightly in surprise, but Draco's face spread in a smile of something close to pleasure.

"That was," Draco said slowly, obviously trying to find the right word, "incredible. I saw what you saw and not like some stupid spell."

Harry suddenly saw an image of himself in his mind's eye and he blinked in shock. The feeling of rightness did not go away, in fact it intensified, and Harry found himself grinning at Draco. He sobered after a couple of seconds as his always over active thoughts began asking questions again.

"Draco," he said slowly, "why is this not worrying us? This is not normal."

His lover looked thoughtful for a moment and finally shrugged again.

"I have no idea," Draco said eventually, "but there's a letter on the table out there addressed to both of us, so that might give us an idea."

With that the they headed back into the other room. By mutual consent Draco picked up the letter and they both walked back to the bed, sitting on it side by side. The seal on the letter was Dumbledore's and it opened as Draco pulled at it. At that point the parchment gained a life of its own and, for a second, Harry was afraid that it was going to be similar to a howler.

"My dear Harry and Draco," Dumbledore's calm tones emanated from the letter, "I took the liberty of charming this letter to avoid the dreariness of having to read my hand writing. I am sure your current situation comes to both of you as somewhat of a surprise. Believe me when I say it has shocked the few members of staff who know the truth more than you could imagine. By all accounts when you read this you will have been asleep for a little over one and a half days and I am sorry there is no one there to talk to you in person, but this would be most uncomfortable for Harry."

This startled Harry and he looked away from the letter at Draco, which caused it to suspend its speech. Harry was beginning to feel that this was probably his fault. He turned back to the floating parchment.

"Harry, My Boy, I have to admit that even I did not see this one coming," the headmaster's slightly amused voice continued. "You are a most extraordinary young man and far more extraordinary than anyone could foresee. You are in fact what is known as a Hecatemus."

The spike of surprise that came from Draco caused Harry to look at his companion again and the letter to stop talking.

"I take it you know what that is?" Harry said quietly.

Draco nodded.

"Sort of," his lover admitted, "let it continue."

Harry nodded and returned his attention to the charmed object.

"I am sure you are wondering what that is," the voice went on and Harry could imagine Dumbledore's knowing smile, "and I shall not keep you waiting. You are in point of fact an elemental wizard connected to the energies which run through our world in a far more direct way than the rest of wizardkind. This is a role for which you should have been prepared from birth, but please forgive our ignorance. As Draco can most likely tell you, there have only ever been, up to this point, Hecatema; elemental witches, so you were never tested."

The letter paused as Harry felt his brain go into overload; it seemed to realise he needed time to assimilate the information. The newly proclaimed Hecatemus looked around at the room while trying to sort out his thoughts, and Draco placed a hand on his arm in an unconscious gesture of support. It occurred to Harry that the designs he could see on the walls and much of the furniture was magic.

"Draco, I am sure you have realised what this information makes you," the letter continued when Harry finally returned his focus to it, "please forgive me if I explain to Harry. The world around you undoubtedly looks somewhat different from that which you are used to, My Boy. This is because you can sense the energies which sustain our world. The most obvious of these will be magic and you may see emotion as well from time to time, but you will most likely just feel that unless it is very strong. Do not fear, in time you will learn to construct mental barriers to return your world to normal. That is where Draco comes in: he is your soulmate."

Harry stopped paying attention again and turned to look at his lover. Something told him that the fact he had just heard should have at least caused him to question, but as Draco gazed back at him he knew it was no more than the truth.

"The information you are capable of understanding is far too much for one mind, Harry," Dumbledore's parchment continued to explain. "You chose Draco to stabilise you, so that you are part of each other. Or rather I should say nature chose you both; from what I understand there is no conscious choice involved. Draco, your instincts are your best guide, you understand how to help Harry even if you do not know you know. There is much more I could tell you, but I think now is not the time and it is better if you find some things out yourselves."

Harry and Draco shared a look; it was just like Dumbledore to give most of the information but expect them to work out the rest themselves.

"The wall to the left of your bed is a speaking wall which will allow communication to the outside that will not affect Harry's new awareness," the headmaster's letter told them after a few moments. "Touch the blue stone to activate it and you will be able to talk to whoever is on the other side. It will also record messages if there is no one with which to converse. If there is an emergency press the blue stone three times and an alarm will alert Madam Pomfrey. The alcove is a small summoning chamber; if you need anything simply ask it nicely and it will retrieve it for you. I am sure you have already found the bathroom. The door to the outside is locked and no one will be allowed in or out until such time as Harry is able to shield himself at least partially. This is to prevent any more incidents similar to the one in Professor Snape's lesson. Rest assured that the majority of the school are unaware of the true nature of your incapacitation; they believe you both contracted a rare form of Draconigena Mumps from infected dragon scales. Those who have been made aware of the situation are myself, Madam Pomfrey, Professors Snape, McGonagall, Flitwick and Sprout, Miss Granger and Mr Weasley. Please do not strain yourselves, you have both been through quite a transformation and there is plenty of time. Ah yes, and one more thing, make sure that you eat, both of you will require a great deal of energy from now on."

Then the letter refolded itself and gently floated down onto the bed. Harry and Draco sat side by side in silence for a while and Harry tried to come to terms with what he had just heard.

It wasn't that he didn't believe it, in fact he had no doubts it was true, but he just couldn't understand it all. Part of him was absolutely furious at the universe for throwing yet another bludger in his direction, but the rest of him was singing for joy that this was what his whole life had been leading up to. It was difficult to focus on how different this made him, yet again, when he was sitting next to Draco feeling like he had found the part of himself that had always been missing. He glanced at his soulmate and decided that the whole situation was totally insane.

"I agree," Draco said and looked at him, "but the whole world's pretty insane at the moment."

Harry blinked at his lover and it took a moment for it to dawn on him what had happened.

[You heard me,] he thought the words and concentrated on Draco.

His quick witted boyfriend cottoned on immediately.

[Yes,] Draco responded and the word filtered into Harry's head.

This caused another smile to break out on Harry's face, which rather outdid the worry that had begun to creep into his mind.

"Okay, how do I fret about a situation when I keep feeling deliriously happy?" he asked, out loud this time.

"It is rather difficult," Draco admitted, smiling himself, "maybe the euphoria will wear off eventually. In the mean time, are you hungry?"

Harry's stomach gave his answer for him with a loud growl