{Sorry for the wait, I'm trying to get my life together. I did publish a Halloween AU a few days ago that's just about done though!}

Coming out of the shower, Harry found Draco sitting at his desk, nibbling on the edge of a quill absentmindedly. He snuck up behind the other man, attaching his lips to Draco's neck. Squealing, Draco jumped, almost knocking over the ink pot he was using.

"Harry!"

"Sickle for your thoughts?", Harry asked, trailing his lips down Draco's neck.

"I'm writing a letter to my mother, go away."

"Oh, let me say hello. I told her I would write to her too."

With a snort, Draco completed his thought before Harry removed the quill from his hand.

Harry wishes to say hello now mother, because he's a git who can't get his own parchment.

"No more kisses for you then you prat", Harry huffed, pulling away from Draco.

Hello Narcissa! I'm a git that Draco loves very much I might add-

"Harry!", Draco squealed, hitting him on the head with a book. "Knock it off!"

He just hit me with a book. I think that he followed Snape's instruction a little too closely. Anyway, we're doing alright over here. Lots of stares but that's to be expected. We'll be heading to breakfast soon, I just wanted to add on to let you know I'm okay. I'll send my own letter if anything of importance happens.

Be well,

Harry

"I'm going to head out, I'll see you later."

"Don't be like that Harry, I'm only teasing."

"Tell that to the bump on the top of my head"', Harry muttered.

"I'm sorry Scarhead, come here."

"Finish your letter, it's fine."

Sighing, Draco got up and lightly grabbed Harry's wrist before he could open the door and leave.

"I'm being overdramatic, come here. It's just been a weird few days. Come and give me some cuddles yeah?"

"Maybe I don't want cuddles anymore hmm?", Harry asked stubbornly.

"Oh come off it my darling, you love cuddles. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings, or if I hurt you in general."

Harry knew he was also being overdramatic, but he still wasn't feeling his best after yesterday. He just needed some love and affection, which Draco usually had no issue in providing.

"Everything else can wait, you're most important to me."

Harry allowed Draco to pull him into his bed and pull him into his chest. Draco sighed as Harry laid limp in his arms, Harry's arms resting at his own sides instead of around Draco like they usually would be. It hurt Draco a bit, and he supposed he deserved it for being a bit short with Harry.

"I'm sorry for being short with you Harry. You just needed some love. I'm just worried about today, but that's no excuse. Let me tell you why Lavender was here hmm?"

"Yeah, okay."

As Draco caught Harry up on everything that had happened, he felt Harry slowly relax into him. Draco paused once Harry's arms were wrapped completely around him to press a soft kiss to Harry's lips before resuming his story.

"I'm sorry, I'm being a brat because you were busy and preoccupied."

"We just need to communicate better, that's all", Draco replied softly, nuzzling his face into Harry's neck.

"Breakfast time now?", Harry asked. "Or did you want to finish your letter first?"

"Breakfast. It's later than usual, I'm sure the Great Hall is emptier. Let's go now."

The other eighth years had had the same idea. The two men walked into the common room to see most of their year mates milling about.

"You weren't waiting for us, were you?", Draco asked Nott.

"We were waiting for everyone. Granger and Weasley went down already. So did Seamus, Dean, Abbott, and Bones. Longbottom went to check on Zabini, and Daphne went to check on Pansy."

"Salazar, I hope she's not hungover. I'm going to check on her."

It turns out that Pansy was not hungover, just in a very odd mood.

"Was everything okay last night?", Draco pressed once Daphne had left.

"Granger is just a very odd person to live with. I need to figure it out, that's all. We don't have a nice past either, but we're civil I suppose. That's good enough for now."

"All we have at this point is good enough", Draco agreed with a sigh.

"How are you and loverboy?", she teased as she finished doing her hair.

"We're alright. I was a bit snippy with him this morning. The Weasel has the both of us on edge. Brown is also my friend now I suppose. There's that too... Life is just weird."

"Amen to that. Let's go eat."

Breakfast had the usual amount of staring. It was hard to tell who exactly was the main target of the stares. It seemed as usual that it was Harry, who once again sat at the end of the table with the Slytherins, and Draco, who had Harry sitting next to him today.

Everyone sat with bated breath, seemingly waiting for a fight to break out. Instead, all they saw was Draco politely asking Harry to pass the plate of toast. Every move he made, Draco felt eyes boring into him.

Students were making it a point to "visit" their friends across the hall, just to have an excuse to stare at the unlikely group of friends as they walked past their table. As time passed, most of the stares left Harry and landed on Draco, as people speculated what his motives were.

Finally, Draco had enough.

"I know I'm hot, but must you people stare so incessantly?", he snapped. "It's called tact."

"Damn right you are!", a younger Slytherin yelled from across the room.

Draco raised his glass of pumpkin juice to her then took a sip, feeling Harry's hand land on his thigh and rub comforting circles on it. Briefly, Draco's hand fell on top of Harry's to give it a light squeeze, before it fell back at his side.

Taking meals in his room was starting to seem like a good idea. He would discuss it with Harry later. At least then they would have some alone time.

"Remember students that classes start tomorrow, and today you will be spending time with your housemates. Get to know each other past the colors of your robe", McGonagall announced.

With that, people slowly started shuffling out of the Great Hall.

"Mr. Potter, a word?"

Harry looked at Draco, who gave an almost imperceptible nod.

"I'll catch up."

McGonagall just wanted to ask Harry how everyone seemed to be adjusting, and if they were having any problems. She had no problem waiting for him to write down his answers. After receiving confirmation that it was okay to inform the other teachers about his lack of speaking, she sent him on his way.

Meanwhile, Draco had decided to wait for Harry, against everyone else's better judgement.

"He of all people should not be walking alone", Draco had argued.

"Neither should you!", Pansy rebutted.

"McGonagall is right on the other side of this door. If someone is stupid enough to do something to me with her right there, then they deserve to be caught."

No one could argue with that logic, so begrudgingly, Draco was left alone. It took five minutes before he was approached, surprisingly by a Ravenclaw. Something had been thrown, and hit the wall near his head with a sickening thud.

"Think you're hot shit do you, Malfoy?"

"Listen, I don't want any trouble. I'm just here to get an education."

"Like you were here to get an education earlier on huh?"

"You're a Ravenclaw. You should be smarter than this. You heard McGonagall, there's a no tolerance policy."

"She said no pointing wands at other students. There was nothing about some roughhousing."

Draco let himself be pushed against the wall. Under normal circumstances he would at least attempt to fight back, but he knew something this Ravenclaw didn't.

"Tell me, what do you want to do to me?"

"I have lots of options, you know. I'm what you would call a "mudblood" Malfoy. I don't need magic to do some damage. There aren't potions for everything."

"Mr. Whitlock."

McGonagall had peered through the door to the Great Hall, after hearing a slight commotion.

Really, making noise to give yourself away that you were bullying someone? That was a first year mistake, truly. Harry didn't find it so amusing.

McGonagall had startled Whitlock to the point where he dropped Draco, who landed nimbly on his feet.

"Headmistress! He threatened me-"

"Do not patronize me Mr. Whitlock. I witnessed the whole thing, I will not tolerate any lying, is that clear? What did you expect to accomplish?"

"I don't want anyone else being hurt by the death eater", he spat.

"Has Mr. Malfoy made any threats to you?"

"No but-"

"Any threats to any of your housemates?"

"No-"

"Anyone in this school at all?"

"No but Headmistress he was-"

"Doing absolutely nothing to anyone. Apologize."

"No! I will not apologize to death eater scum!"

"Very well. You'll be accompanying me to my office, where I decide whether or not you should be expelled. Let's go."

"Expelled? I was trying to do everyone a favor!"

"Mr. Malfoy has saved more lives than you have. You do not know the full story, and you need to stop getting your news from The Daily Prophet. Let's go. Mr. Potter, make sure he's okay."

As soon as McGonagall was out of sight, Harry pulled Draco in for a tight hug.

"Sweetheart you shouldn't have done that."

"I shouldn't have done a lot of things. I'm fine."

"But what if-"

"Harry. I saw McGonagall watching and holding you back. I was never in any real danger. Besides, I can cast the Confundus Charm wandlessly. I practiced for months to keep myself safe. I'm okay Scarhead."

"I'm taking you back up to our room before I go murder a Ravenclaw who thought he was good enough to put his hands on you."

As they walked upstairs, all Harry could think about was the last thing McGonagall had said. No one did know the full story, and it was only making things worse.

"Harry! Walk with us instead of the death eater!", some Gryffindor girls said with a giggle.

"Fuck off!", he growled.

Draco gripped his arm tightly, flipping off the group of girls, and pulling Harry away.

"Relax Scarhead. I knew what I signed up for when I came back. Your magic is getting out of control. I can feel it pulsing. Think of the beach, yeah?"

Harry focused on Draco's words, and allowed himself to be dragged upstairs.

"Hey guys, we're going to start some games", Hannah began, but stopped as Draco shook his head.

"We'll catch up in a bit. Don't wait up."

As soon as they got into their room, Harry pushed Draco against the door, kissing him harshly. Draco tried to pull away, but Harry was persistent. He had to slip his cold hands under Harry's shirt to get him to back up.

"Harry, relax my love. I'm okay, stop getting yourself worked up."

"I never should have-"

"Harry James Potter, you look at me and listen to me good."

Draco's tone of voice and the fire in his eyes almost brought Harry to his knees.

"What happened is because I made poor choices that I will spend the rest of my life making up for. That Ravenclaw probably lost someone in the war because of some true death eater scum, and he took it out on me because I was available.

I promise you that I will try my best to not be alone in the castle if I'm not in a public area. It is not your sole responsibility to watch and take care of me okay? You are my boyfriend, not my babysitter. While I do love when you snog me against any surface, we need to talk first when your emotions get like that okay?

I know that I worried you, and I'm sorry. I wasn't in any real danger, not with him. I promise you that you are more upset about the whole ordeal than I am. I'm going to get you some water okay?"

Harry nodded, going to lay down in Draco's bed. Draco fixed his clothing and hair before he went to get some water for Harry.

"What happened?", Neville asked.

"I got threatened and called death eater scum by a younger Ravenclaw. Not a big deal, McGonagall took care of it, but Potter watched and didn't take too kindly to it."

"Who was it?", Padma asked quietly.

"Whitlock? I can't say I fault the kid, I've wanted to punch myself in the face quite a few times too", Draco said with a shrug.

"Are you alright?", Pansy asked with concern.

"I think Potter is more upset about this than I am honestly. I expected this. Worse actually. Whatever comes will come, that's karma."

With that, Draco left to go check on his boyfriend, and everyone was wondering what exactly would be coming. They all agreed on one thing before Harry and Draco finally joined them for some games: Draco Malfoy was not the same person that he was before.

This was a man who had lost more than he had gained in the war. No one knew the exact extent of what he had done for their side in the war, minus a select few.

Luna, who wasn't even in the room but had heard what had happened to Draco, was thinking that maybe it was time they found out.