𝐁𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐎𝐓 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒

Chapter 1

"He'd already taken possession of everything we owned; my father was in Azkaban; our lives were the only things we had left."

A tense silence filled the room as his voice petered out. Ron moved away and sat in an old comfortable looking chair near the fire. He stared into it and didn't speak again until Draco had eaten his fill. Then he turned and pinned Draco with a look that left him in no doubt that if Ron weren't one of the good guys he'd be lying on the floor dead.

"I'll show you where you can sleep. I'll be putting a spell on the door so it won't open unless I want it to; I don't want a Death Eater wandering around my home unescorted." Draco nodded he would abide by any rules Ron set; as long as he didn't have to go back he didn't care if he had to sleep in the basement on a straw mat.

Ron led him to the spare room, showed him where the bathroom was and then disappeared off. Draco didn't hang about he was as close to exhausted as he'd ever been. So he slid off the clothes he'd been wearing for too long and slid into bed. As his head hit the pillow Ron appeared in the doorway.

"Tomorrow you'll tell me everything, including how you found my house, and then I'll decide if you can stay." As the door shut it clicked loudly Draco closed his eyes feeling as close to safe as he had for the past ten years.

==

It had been a long long day. Ron had interrogated him repeatedly until Draco's throat was raw from all the talking. He hadn't hidden anything no matter how ugly. Now they sat around the fire again and Ron was giving him the verdict on his life. If Ron threw him out he'd be caught within a day; he knew it so he sat hiding his nervousness to hear his fate.

Only Ron could pour such disgust into the two syllables of his name. He supposed he couldn't blame him. They'd been enemies for so long it was hard not to say the things that could wound and destroy. Ron had no reason to avoid them whereas Draco was one misplaced word from being out on the streets. He was getting an ulcer from all the words he had to force back down his throat. But he'd eat razor blades if he could stay here where it was relatively safe. So yet again he swallowed the insult that jumped to his lips and turned away from Ron's harsh words.

Ron was cleverer than Draco had ever given him credit for at Hogwarts. He was more ruthless too maybe that was part of the auror training. Ron insisted that if Draco was to stay he would submit to a compulsion spell. Draco had no choice really; although a deep feeling of dread had suffused him as he drank the potion and said the incantation. He didn't feel any different but he knew his

own will was being subdued and he knew somewhere at the Ministry his and Ron's names were being silently added to a list. It wasn't as if he could have stopped Ron if he'd wanted to, so being given the choice, even if it was to be his last free one ever was relatively kind of Ron. It was certainly kinder than he would have received elsewhere.

Once the potion was drunk and the spell was cast Ron compelled him to always answer his questions with the truth and Draco blanched in fear. Ron asked him every question from that day again checking to see where Draco had fudged the truth and catching him in a few half-truths. Finally Draco was smarting from revealing himself so abjectly.

"Look Ron, I let you cast your compulsion spell on me so you'd feel safe and then you'd keep me safe, but it's not fair asking me things you know I don't want you to know."

"It's how I know you really are compelled." Ron replied without sympathy.

"Bastard." Draco muttered mutinously.

Ron raised an eyebrow and slowly and deliberately compelled Draco not to swear or insult him ever again. Draco opened his mouth but found that nothing came out. Ron watched him struggle for a few seconds then burst out laughing. He laughed so hard Draco thought he was going to fall off the sofa. But Draco couldn't say a word because every word that came to his mind was insulting.