Not your usual Veela mate

Hurting

Harry slowly swam towards wakefulness. Something was telling him that he would not like what he would find once he opened his eyes, so he tried to remain in that state between asleep and awake for as long as possible. Unfortunately, his body had other ideas.

Cataloguing the sensations he could feel, Harry felt somewhat reassured that he was somewhere warm, since that ruled out the Dursleys. Besides, he was laying on something soft, which definitely ruled out the Dursleys. And was that arms wrapped around him?

Frowning slightly, he tried to figure out who was holding him. The only person Harry knew who held him that tenderly was Draco, but Draco would never be holding him again. Not after... The frown deepened. Not after what? What had happened?

"I think he is waking up."

Harry smiled gently; yep, that was Draco all right. The smile died and the frown returned. Draco wasn't supposed to be here. The Veela was supposed to hate him.

"Good, it is about time, he's been sleeping for far too long."

That was Severus. What was he doing here? None of them were supposed to be here. They were all supposed to hate him, weren't they? Struggling to remember what had happened, Harry gasped as his memory returned as if a floodgate had been opened. He had been furious with Dumbledore and with Ron. And Draco... Merlin, he had almost killed Draco!

Opening his eyes, Harry was dismayed to see that the arms that were wrapped around him did indeed belong to Draco. Scrambling, he tried to get as far away from the blond boy as possible, ignoring the hurt look that appeared briefly in the Veela's eyes. Better he be hurt now than killed later, Harry thought grimly, almost sobbing with frustration as the hold on him didn't lessen. In fact, it grew stronger and he was dismayed that he could not break it.

"Shhh, calm down, love, I'm not going to hurt you," Draco said in an attempt to soothe.

Harry froze, staring at the other boy in total disbelief. Draco thought Harry thought Draco was going to hurt him? Didn't he realise it was the opposite?

"You have to get away from me," Harry whispered, hoping to be able to talk to sense into the younger Malfoy since it seemed impossible for him to get away at the moment.

"No, I don't." Draco disagreed with a gentle smile.

"Draco!" Harry glowered, beginning to get irritated.

"I'm not letting you go, Harry," Draco said patiently, as if talking to a small child.

Harry bristled and tried to get out of the hold the other boy had on him.

"Listen to me, Harry, I'm not letting you go. You are my mate. You are my life. I love you, why should I ?"

Suddenly feeling beyond tired, Harry slumped to the bed. He could feel Draco gather him even closer, but he couldn't find the energy to fight him. Closing his eyes, he did the only thing he could think of, he began to retreat into his own mind. At least there, he would be no danger to anyone but himself.

"Oh, no you don't!" Harry could hear Severus say, and then a jolt of energy zapped through him, causing him to lose his focus. Snapping his eyes open, Harry turned his head slightly to glare at the Potions Master.