Harry woke slowly, which, these days was unusual for him, and opened his eyes feeling rested and relaxed. That feeling lasted about three seconds until he realised that he was alone. He sat up with a frown.

He remembered falling asleep wrapped in an embrace with Draco, but now his lover was gone, and that annoyed him on several levels. Ready to storm to the bathroom, he moved back the cover on the bed, at which point he found the note stuck to the pillow with a charm that released the moment he touched it.

Harry,

I tried to wake you, but you must have really needed the rest, because all I got was a grunt for my trouble. Dobby brought the special edition of the Prophet in, which is what woke me. Seems that the whole paper is full of you, and I mean cover to cover, from pictures of you as a baby to the pictures their photographer snapped after the hearing. I had a quick look and left it on the desk for you; I think you may be pleasantly surprised, and I suggest you read it. I'll see you later: send Dobby when you've finished with the werewolf.

Draco

The annoyance lessened, although it did not go away completely; he had been looking forward to waking up beside a warm body. Part of him did not take disappointment well. Climbing out of bed, he stretched leisurely and walked across the room to his desk. The paper was folded in half with the headline and a very large picture of Harry fainting into Remus' arms upwards. To his surprise the words were not a condemnation of what he was. For a moment he stared at it.

"Down But Not Out" he read it over again just to make sure and picked up the paper to find out what the article with the headline said.

Earlier today Harry Potter made his first public appearance since his heroic defeat of He Who Must Not Be Named. It could clearly be seen that The Boy Who Lived is still suffering after his encounter with The Dark Lord. In a later press release the Ministry revealed that after his kidnapping, Harry Potter was subjected to a version of the Crevitemero ceremony in which magic from several dark creatures was forced into his body. The hearing which The Boy Who Lived attended today concluded that he bore no responsibility in this situation and cannot be considered a danger to society. The corruption of Harry Potter failed.

Harry stopped reading and slowly sat down; this was not what he had expected at all. Spreading the paper out on the desk, he ignored the fact that he was completely naked and just began to read in earnest.

~*~

"Hello, Remus," Harry greeted as soon as his friend entered the room.

He had finished reading, had a quick bite to eat and then sent the message he was available for visitors while he dressed. Remus had come straight away and Harry had the craziest urge to wag a tail he did not at the moment possess, and he found himself smiling broadly. The werewolf in him acknowledged the werewolf in Remus and Harry felt completely at ease as Remus smiled back and bowed his head slightly in greeting.

"You're looking much better," Remus said in a warm tone.

That was enough for Harry and he crossed the room and wrapped his ex-professor in a hug. There were few people he felt as close to as Remus anymore—they shared something no one else he knew could understand. The only person he felt closer to was Draco and that was for entirely different reasons.

"Thank you for this morning," he said, so incredibly glad Remus had been there for him.

"You're welcome," Remus said in such a genuine tone that it made Harry's heart hurt. "How are you feeling now?"

"As close to sane as I get these days," he replied, leading his friend over to the arm chairs and sofa. "Draco is very good at putting me back together."

Remus sat down with a thoughtful little smile.

"Not a talent I would have ever guessed that young man possessed," was the werewolf's considered opinion. "He always seems so much better at taking things apart."

"He does that too," Harry replied and then remembered who he was talking to and felt himself blushing.

At that Remus actually laughed, which was a blessing.

"I think you are showing a lot more of your father these days," Remus said and rather surprised him; "if I let them he and Sirius would never shut up with the innuendos. Your mum despaired sometimes in polite company."

Harry wasn't sure if it was his dad he was channelling or it was just the fact that he had sex at the front of his mind most of the time, but he had to admit it was a little different from how he had been. He managed a small smile through his embarrassment.

"Did you see the paper?" he asked, deciding that changing the subject would be a good plan before he died of mortification.

"I read it from front to back," Remus replied with a nod; "I was quite astounded."

"Yeah," Harry admitted, glancing at the copy he had on the desk; "me too. I don't think Rita Skeeter has ever been that nice about me even when she liked me. She even sounded genuine in places."

Remus leant forward a little, catching his gaze directly.

"There were a lot of people in the courtroom today, Harry," Remus said simply; "I think she was being genuine."

That made him stop for a moment. He didn't really understand what Remus was trying to say.

"But they saw how dangerous I am," he pointed out.

It did not make sense that seeing what he had done in court would make people like him. All he'd done was prove how deadly he was.

"Oh Harry, you really don't see it do you?" Remus said, sounding just a little sad. "What have we done to you since you stepped into our world?"

Harry frowned; he still didn't understand. He remembered the events in the courtroom all too clearly and he really didn't think he'd done himself any favours. When he'd read the paper he'd assumed Dumbledore had had to have done something to force them into printing nice things.

"They saw you, Harry," Remus told him while looking him straight in the eye; "they saw a scared teenager trying to deal with things no one should ever have to cope with. You are not a monster, Harry; I wish you could see that. With every day that passes you change, you adapt. You have come so far in such a short space of time."

"But I still can't control myself," he insisted; he really didn't know how people failed to see that. "I do things before I can stop. Look what I did to Ron."

That earned him a very fatherly look from Remus, clearly Remus knew all the details.

"Harry," the werewolf said simply; "you have not killed, drained or seriously injured another human being since destroying Voldemort and his inner circle. That is, quite simply, miraculous."

Harry didn't really know how to respond to that.

"I get the feeling only time is going to prove that to you," Remus said eventually with a sigh when he did not reply. "Shall we pick another topic?"

It was easier to nod than to find a comeback.

"So how are Snape's potions coming?" Remus asked as he gave the affirmative.

Harry just made a face.

"I may have to wave the ban on killing people," he replied grumpily, which made Remus laugh.

"That bad?" Remus asked and Harry made a throwing up motion; experiments were definitely not his favourite thing.

~*~

Harry was so nervous his hands were shaking. After the hearing the last thing he really needed was more stress, but considering everything that had happened he was hungry and they had had no choice but to move feeding his vampire up by a day.

Draco had offered to fill in the gap, but after the strange light show from their encounter earlier Harry had decided that he'd rather face the nerves than endanger his lover, no matter how remote the possibility that there might be something wrong. Harry wanted to know more about what was happening between them before he fed his vampire as well as the incubus from Draco.

Hence Dumbledore had arranged for Ron, Hermione, Neville and Draco to all have dinner in Harry's room. With his vampire awake and needing to feed Harry could not face normal food, so he was going to have to feed before they sat down. It had him so on edge that when the door opened the first time he nearly jumped out of his skin.

"We could just nip into the bathroom and deal with this before your friends arrive," Draco said the moment he set eyes on Harry. "I'm sure they wouldn't mind a change in schedule."

"No," he replied rapidly, although the idea did sound very attractive and his voice was nowhere near as firm as he wanted it to be, "thank you," he added as an afterthought, "I'll be fine."

Draco did not argue any further and walked across the room to place a gentle hand on his arm. It was a welcome gesture of support and Harry gave his lover a small smile of gratitude even though he didn't feel much like smiling at all. What if Hermione hated the experience? What if it embarrassed her? Ron seemed to have found it appealing, but that didn't mean it would be the same for everyone. If he hurt Hermione he did not think he would ever be able to look at himself in the mirror again.

"Stop worrying," Draco said and, although his words were short and to the point, his tone was gentle.

It was of course a much easier thing to say than to do and Harry began to fidget with the buttons on his shirt. After getting up, he'd chosen something more casual than the robes he'd worn to the Ministry and the buttons on the untucked shirt made good worry beads.

"If you keep playing with it, it's going to fall off," was Draco's observation and when Harry looked at his lover, Draco gave him a very suggestive eyebrow wiggle.

Harry's mind was not working at full speed thanks to his nerves, but he picked up the double entendre in that one without problem. Part of him thought it was very inappropriate to be making jokes, but he did not try and stop the bark of a laugh that escaped him.

He knew he was being an idiot, since all of the arrangements had been discussed and decided on in great detail and, at a logical level, he was fully aware that Hermione was fine with the whole arrangement, but that didn't stop his anxiety. At Draco's chiding, he mentally slapped himself around the face and did his best to calm down.

"I can do this," he said, more to himself than Draco, and took a deep breath to steady his nerves.

He still started when the door opened again, which made him swear colourfully under his breath, at which Draco looked rather impressed.

"Didn't know you knew all those big words, Harry," his lover said so that everyone could hear.

"Hey," was Harry's response before he realised that Draco had successfully distracted him from the approach of his other friends.

It didn't take him more than a moment longer to realise that the tension in the room was palpable and for a change it had nothing to do with him. In his anxiety over the upcoming feeding it had totally escaped him that this would be the first time his Gryffindor friends and Draco had been in a social situation together. To the outside observer Draco's stance was casual, but to Harry his lover was radiating tension. It occurred to him that he had been being a self-centred git, since this had to be difficult for his friends as well.

"Malfoy," Ron greeted in a polite tone.

Harry awarded his best friend points for making the opening move.

"Weasley," Draco replied in kind.