The only way to describe how Harry feels at the moment is completely confused. He is so very confused. The most confused he's ever been in his entire life.
Not only was Lord Malfoy leading him to his son's bedroom to play, but he had been fed and not once did anybody hurt him in any way. The older blonde had even kept his word and didn't make Harry feel icky at all while he was being changed. On the contrary, both Lucius and Bella had held, comforted and fed him while Severus healed all his injuries. Even one of the Lestrange twins had tried to stop him from chocking, even if it was partially his fault. They still hadn't directly hurt him.
Harry doesn't blame the other for the little mishap in the throne room. That had to have been entirely his fault. If he wasn't such a coward then he wouldn't have been hurt and Professor Snape wouldn't have had felt the need to waste precious potions on him.
"Is everything alright, Harry?" Mr. Malfoy's voice breaks Harry out of his self-loathing long enough to realize that they've stopped in the middle the corridor, only a hallway away from the room they just exited.
"I'm sorry about earlier," Harry lowers his eyes in shame. They all must think he's incredibly weak now and they're only waiting for the perfect moment to start his torture.
"What do you mean? If you're talking about the incident when I was changing you that was completely my fault. You have nothing to--"
"It's not that, sir," Harry brings the hand not occupied by Malfoy's to his mouth to chew on his bear's ear due to a nervous habit. "'m sorry for before... in the throne room."
"No no no, sweetheart. That wasn't your fault," Lucius kneels down in front of the boy causing him to flinch back a bit, but not let go of his hand. He feels like they all will be apologizing much more than normal around Harry. "If anything I'm sorry you got hurt. That was and will never be our intention in this house. Do you understand?" As Harry nods Lucius can't help but feel like they all will be apologizing much more than normal around Harry.
It only takes a couple more minutes to reach Draco's bedroom. Once there Harry stands awkwardly in the center of the room looking around at the lavish decor and all the toys scattered around while the two Malfoys talk privately on the other side of the room.
"I need you to watch Harry for an hour or so while I speak with everyone downstairs. I don't think I have to warn you of the consequences if Harry is hurt in any way when I come back, do I?"
"No, father," Draco answers immediately, a little shock and appalled that his father would think he still holds some petty school-boy rivalry against the mini Gryffindor. "We will be fine. I know to call a house elf if there's a problem."
"And see if you can get him to eat something," he states almost like an afterthought. "He's much too thin. Harry?"
At the sound of his name being called, Harry jerks back from the model of Hogwarts he was about to touch. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have... I didn't mean to," he's quick to start apologizing.
"You can touch it if you want," Draco interrupts before his father could. "I have all the teachers and a few students. We could reenact a few classes with them if you want."
"I'll be back in a few hours. Play nicely you two for I will have a house elf checking in periodically and she will inform me of any disturbances," and with a swish of dark green Harry is left alone with his school bully.
"You never answered my question." Harry startles at suddenly being address after a few minutes of tense silence. "Do you wanna play Hogwarts with me?"
"No thank you," Harry answers as his eyes drift over to the opposite corner of the room where a bookcase and a mountain of blankets and pillows are situated creating a nest-like structure. It looks like the best place to be at the moment.
"You can go into my cozy corner if you want," the older boy offering seeing where his classmate's eyes are wandering to.
"Cozy corner?" Harry tears his eyes away from the structure to look at Draco.
"Yeah," gently taking the small child's hand he leads him over to the blankets. "When I was younger, father, mother, Uncle Sev, even aunt Bellatrix would read all sorts of stories to me here."
Thinking Harry would join him when he's ready, Draco goes over to his replica of the Hogwarts Express and starts putting figures on it. Roughly 10 minutes later Draco glances over to check on Harry only to find him fast asleep. Awe, how cute.
At some point, while Draco wasn't watching, Harry had curled himself into a tight ball on top of the blanket nest with his bear tucked completely underneath him, ear firmly in the boy's mouth. After a few seconds of watching the small boy sleep, he shuffles around, his face contorting in distress. It's only after Draco puts down his toys and joins Harry that he starts relaxing as the blonde rubs his back and starts talking.
"You're perfectly safe here, Harry. I promise you that as long as you're staying here with me I'll protect you as best I can. You seem like you could use a big brother and I've always wanted a younger sibling, any sibling really, but mother was never able to have more children after she had me."
Not wanting Harry to wake up from his much-needed nap Draco chooses a book from his large selection and continues his petting of the smaller child as he reads quietly to himself. Not much time past, maybe an hour or so, before Harry once again becomes distressed. This time Draco heaves the much too light child into his arms before making his way to his bed to lay him down.
Harry will be much more comfortable here, he thinks to himself.
Deciding that it would be much too difficult to remove Harry's fingers, which have tightly wounded themselves into his robes, and risk waking him. Therefore he opts to simply lay down with Harry snuggled into his chest.
That's how Lucius and Severus find the pair an hour later after finishing up talking with everyone.
"Well isn't that just precious, Sev?" Luci can't help but coo softly.
"Adorable," the dour Potion's Professor drawls out but the smallest hint of a smile gracing his lips tells others of his real emotions.
"Stay here and make sure they don't move," the older blonde whisper-shouts as he rushes out the door. "I'm going to go grab the camera."
He returns a few minutes later, quickly snapping a few photos as the pair find a more comfortable position with Draco on his side and Harry curled up under his chin. The child still fisting the other's robes.
The move doesn't seem the help with the younger's sleeping though as he starts becoming antsy in his sleep. What starts off as small whines and whimpers soon escalated into cries and thrashing, the child basically convulsing on the bed. Draco paying no mind at first, mostly still asleep himself, and tries rubbing and patting Harry's back as a way to calm him, but soon jumps awake when he starts thrashing and tries to wake Harry up.
"Come on, Harry. You're fine. Everything is okay. It's only just a dream. Wake up. Come on. Wake up." Draco tries shaking him as Severus goes to grab a calming draught and some water, but that only seems to make it worse as Harry fights against his arms even harder. Words soon start falling out of his mouth causing the situation to escalate to new heights. Begs of not being hurt and incomprehensive whimpers leave the sleeping child's mouth.
Draco has never felt greater relief until the moment his father snaps out of whatever frozen state he's been in since the departure of his uncle's and immediately rushes to their aide. At seeing the distressed child Lucius only hesitates for a moment before taking Harry into his arms and starts bouncing him, something you used to do to Draco when he had a nightmare at a young age. It seems Lucius had fallen back into his parenting role and has taken to treating Harry like a small child instead of his true age. The boy just seems so fragile and innocent that he- along with the other members of the household- can't help but sympathize but sympathy doesn't help anybody.
Harry continues to cry and beg for mercy for 10 more minutes until the blonde suddenly feels his arm, where he's supporting the boys bottom, get warm just before jumping awake startling the both of them with his next choice of words.
"Mummy! No!" It's a few seconds of tense silence while the boy catches his breath and remembers where he is before he realizes who's arms he's in and the tears start up again.
"Sorry! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I'll be quiet. I'll stop. Please! No more hurts. Don't hurt! Please!"
"Harry, all is well. Can you tell me what your dream was about? What happened?"
"No! I didn't mean-- There was just-- And she's gone-- forever," Harry starts screaming and whithering in Lucius's hold only to get quieter the longer he spoke. By the time he utters his last word, it's barely higher than the softest whisper and Harry is completely curled into himself.
Severus chooses this moment to return with his items, only to find that they are mostly unneeded.
"How is he?" he asks once he notices to tense atmosphere that seems to suffocate everyone within the room.
"'m fine. Always fine."
"Not too good." Lucius and Harry answer at the same time only one is must more believable with the accompanied flinch.
"I believe this was some sort of flashback rather than a typical nightmare."
"Harry come you please share the events in your nightmare with us? No one here is going to judge you in any way. What Dumbledore did wasn't your fault."
Harry doesn't quite know what caused his to reveal his secrete. Maybe it was the fact that they automatically blamed Dumbledore for his suffering. Or perhaps it could be caused by how emotionally drained he now feels. But the biggest has to be Harry's deep-seated need to be physically hurt. By somebody. Anybody. Too long has gone by without so much as a smack to the back of his head and the boy just isn't used to this type of nonviolent treatment. The dark haired boy knows that they will be furriest with him once he says it out loud. So instead of his fearful silence, the boy typically falls into after being questioned about one of his nightmares he starts sobbing in earnest, completely captivated by fear.
"Mummy!" he cries. "S-she's gone! She was-- and the screaming-- she always screams-- and-- and-- there was--the man-- bad light! Bad green light!" Harry manages to gasp out something tangible if the looks of horror on each of their faces is anything to go by.
"Harry?" Severus calls getting the child's attention. "I believe it's time that you speak with Tom about the night your parents were murdered."