I'm A Slave For You-Chp31

I'M A SLAVE FOR YOU

"You missed a bit of a spot right here, cute thing."

Harry pouted as he scrubbed the part where Moaning Myrtle was pointing. She giggled and carried on chatting about the days when she was alive, which wasn't that glorious, but bearable all the same. Harry responded to her story with either his facial expression or his mono-syllable words or a laugh, depending on the situation. Despite the fact that he could already speak in considerable complete sentences, he still preferred keeping quiet and let his actions speak for itself, lest he said the wrong thing to anyone. The ghost girl didn't mind. In fact, she continued on telling enthusiastically about how she was constantly bullied for her plain looks and being the butt end of the joke, and told him about her death that was caused by a joke went bad on her when the girls who picked on her went a little too far in giving her the daily dunking into the toilet sink and accidentally drowning her. Harry couldn't hold her or touch her to express his condolences, so he had to rely on giving her the "I'm so sorry" look, in which the ghost girl accepted wholeheartedly.

Semester break felt like forever since the first day Severus was gone and left him under the care of Albus Dumbledore. Despite knowing that Severus' departure was inevitable, he couldn't help bawling when he woke up on that fateful day to find Severus was no longer sleeping by his side. It took an hour and a half of coaxing from Albus' part and a trip down to Hogsmeade with Ron and Hermione to finally make him distracted and accept that Severus was going to be missing in his life yet again for a long while. A week after Severus left, he received a letter from him courtesy of Hedwig, and with the help of Hermione and Ron reading the harder words, he read of the journey and the updates he had while he was on his quest, and giggled when Severus mentioned dourly about the presence of Hagrid following him around like some stalker. Since then, every other week, Hedwig would dutifully send him letters of his progress and Harry would reply him with his limited vocabulary and slightly scrawny writing about how he was doing in Hogwarts, with doodles to illustrate his letters.

There was not much chores since most of the students except the ones sitting for O.W.L went back home for the semester break, so most of the time, when Harry was not required to do any chores, he would spend most of his time musing around the Astrology Tower where he could get a clear view of the school entrance, sitting there and staring out into the horizon, hoping that he would get Severus' letter for the week and hoping to finally see Severus coming through that entrance, regardless if he succeeded in his quest or not. Sometimes, Hermione and Ron would come up to accompany him whenever they wanted to take a break from cramming their heads in books while giving him new books to read and write, but most of the time, he would be up there alone, and this routine continued even when semester break was over and school term has started, although much less now that school life has returned to normal and chores returned to keep him busy.

As he continued cleaning the prefect's bathroom while listening to Moaning Myrtle's chatter, Draco just so happened to pass by. He was actually on his way to History class but seeing Harry in there, he stopped. Telling his goons to go without him, he entered the bathroom and smiled at the young boy.

"Hey, Harry."

"Hi, Draco," Harry smiled back and waved goodbye to Moaning Myrtle when she felt that three was a crowd and left through one of the toilet bowls. No matter how much Draco corrected him, Harry continued to pronounce his name as 'Drah-ko' instead 'Dray-ko', until Draco finally got tired of correcting him and allowed him to call him whatever he wanted.

"How are you? I have not seen you lately."

"I…I OK…" Harry replied, still feeling a little bit sad about Severus' absence.

"How have you been, really?" Draco probed with a smile as he petted Harry's head.

"I…I miss Master…" Harry admitted sadly.

"I miss Uncle Sev too, but you know he had to do what he had to do."

Harry nodded. He knew he was right, but it was still painful to accept that his beloved Master is risking his life for him or that the possibility of him returning alive was rather low. Draco gave him another comforting pat on the head before sitting next to him on the bathtub edge, wincing slightly as the bruise was still giving him problems. Sometimes in class, he would empty out his bag so that he could have a makeshift cushion for his butt whenever he sat for classes, but most of the time, in order not to let others find out, he would sit with his butt a few inches away from the seat and cast a freezing spell on his legs so that he wouldn't get achy muscles, though the downside was that once he took the spell off his legs they would forget how to move and he needed his goons to support him before he could finally feel them again.

"You OK, Draco?" Harry asked as he noticed the pained face Draco made.

"Yeah fine. Went up against an ass and lost."

Harry giggled at the statement Draco made and then asked, "You no have class?"

"It's just History. I'll live," Draco replied with a shrug. He had blown the class off more times than he cared to mention. He didn't think the ghostly Prof. Binns would even notice anyone falling asleep in his class, let alone skipping it. He barely even knew that he was already dead as he did his daily classes droning on and on as if it was the most natural thing to do. Besides, Draco had read the History book on his own inside out and practically knew everything with the back of his palm.

"Remy OK?"

"Yeah, running his legs off, but good."

At that very moment, while Harry and Draco continued to chatter on merrily, Ron and Hermione had just finished their Transfiguration class and happen to pass by the bathroom. Ron told Hermione to wait for him as his nature called and was shocked to see the two together talking like old friends. His urge to pee forgotten, he stomped towards Draco with an angered face almost as red as his hair.

"Oy, Malfoy! What are you doing here?" Ron demanded loudly, shocking the duo, but Draco immediately regained composure. He got up, biting his lip to prevent himself from wincing and glowered at the redhead.

"This is a bathroom, Weasel, what do you think?"

"Then go piss or whatever and leave our friend alone!" Ron scolded, then took Harry's hand. "And you, Har. You know better than to associate with a lousy Slytherin like him. C'mere!"

"No!" Harry pulled away, giving Draco a "Help me" look.

"Leave him alone!" Draco pulled Harry against him. "If he wants to stay he will."

"Since when are you friends with slaves, Malfoy?!" Ron tried to reach for Harry but was shoved away by the blonde. "I know you well enough not to!"

"How little you know, Weasel!"

"No! No fight, please!" Harry begged. He had seen many fights, but a fight between friends was something he liked the least.

"Ron, Malfoy, stop," Hermione, her duty as School Prefect kicking in, came into the bathroom regardless it being the boy's bathroom and stood between them, barring them from getting at each other's throat. She turned to Harry and asked, "Harry, are you friends with him?"

Harry nodded timidly.

"How could you?!" Ron exclaimed in distraught and disbelief, ranting and raving like a madman. "How could you do this to us, Har? We're your friends, not him! No one makes friends with Slytherins, especially no Golden Boy here!"

"Hey, I knew him before you, dumb ass!" Draco wanted to lunge forward but both Hermione and Harry held him back.

"Yeah, right, like anything that comes out of your mouth is true, Mommy's Boy!" Ron sneered, then turned to Harry just to make sure, "Is that true, Har?"

Harry nodded, "Master is Draco's family."

"Prof. Snape is my godfather," Draco declared.

"Humph! Figures," Ron looked grudgingly at Draco. "No wonder he treats you as if he's in love with you or something."

"Draco very nice person. He very nice to me," Harry pouted, feeling annoyed that Ron did not believe him.

"The sky would be raining fireballs by the time he's nice to anyone, Har!"

"Ask my slave that," Draco retorted, flipping him the bird and stuck his tongue out at him.

"Why you…" Ron was clearly offended at that gesture as he lunged over to punch him. Hermione wanted to hold him back but Harry beat her to it as he ran forward to block him, guarding Draco from being hit. Ron wasn't able to stop his punch, but he managed to hold back a little so that Harry only got a scrape on his cheek from Ron's knuckles. Draco, seeing from his point of view and thinking that Ron had hurt his godfather's beloved, brandished his wand and shouted a spell to shove Ron across the room until he rammed against the wall. Ron wanted to return the favour but Harry quickly jumped onto Ron, using his weight to hold the redhead down before he could do anything with his wand on his blonde friend.

"No! No fight! No hurt Draco! Draco is nice person. He tell Master what to do to free me. He give me book to read. Draco is nice person. No hurt him!"

"G…Get off me, Har! Bloody hell, I won't believe that…"

"You heard him, Weasel," Draco said as he kept his wand while Hermione tried to pick Harry up and off her fiancé. "I am not hurting him or whatever you think in that red hot mind of yours. When has that boy ever lied to anyone of you?"

Ron was a little speechless, not sure what to retaliate. He hated to admit that Draco was right; Harry had never lied to them since the day they knew him. He was the most honest—probably the only honest—soul they have ever met in Hogwarts. Even Luna Lovegood, their little odd acquaintance wasn't as honest as little Harry could ever be. Seeing Ron grudgingly put his wand away and patted the dust off his robes, Harry quickly tottered back to Draco and hid behind him, gripping his sleeves tight. Draco patted his hands, reassuring him that nothing will happen while he was around. Seeing the trust they had between them, Hermione sighed and went over to Harry, petting his unruly mop of ebony-black hair.

"It's OK, Harry. If you trust him…" Hermione's voice wavered a little as she continued, "then we will."

"Mione!" Ron exclaimed, looking at his fiancé in disbelief.

"Harry has a good judge of character, Ron," Hermione noted. "Remember Cho Chang, Luna Lovegood, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Oliver Wood, Cedric Diggory and all the other friends we had that we thought before was trouble? Who got them to be so tight with us now? And don't forget that it was because of Harry being close to Prof. Slughorn because he knew his mother that now he is giving us pretty good marks so far and not to mention…"

"Alright, alright, I get the idea, Mione! But…Mione, it's Malfoy we're talking about here!"

"Yes, I know that, Ron, but I didn't say we were going to call him friend," she said, still hurt about being calling Mudblood during their 3rd year. "I said 'trust'."

Ron glared long and hard at Draco again, but seeing Harry behind him begging with pleading eyes, he finally sighed and said, "Alright, Har. We trust your judgment, BUT," Ron stressed, pointing an accusing finger at Draco, "That doesn't mean we're all hanky-panky and hunky-dory friends now, you hear?!"

"Fine by me," Draco shrugged nonchalantly. "Though I don't know what Granger sees in you anyway."

"And you, Malfoy!" Ron growled, his face flushed red with shyness and anger, "If I hear you or your father dare make him lose even one hair on his body, I don't care if I break any laws, I will use all three Unforgivable Curses on you!" he took Hermione's hand and said aloud, "C'mon, Mione! We've wasted enough breath with that pretty boy! I'll go answer nature's call somewhere else rather than here."

"Hey, I am not my father's keeper!" Draco yelled, offended by that remark. "I can't even make him keep his hands off my lover!!"

"Your lover?" Ron blinked in disbelief as he stopped in his tracks, looking at Draco like he had just announced that he was next in line for the Headmaster's seat or something. "Since when do you have a lover? I thought you shagged everyone around, that slutty Parkinson included."

Draco blinked for a moment there, not sure what to reply and taken aback at his own sudden outburst. He never thought he would've said it; it just came out. Harry understood what he meant, but was worried when he heard Draco's father had done something to his friend. Slowly, Draco looked down, tears in his eyes. He clearly wanted to tell his predicament to someone else; he had been bottling this pain up for so long that his heart couldn't take it anymore, thus the outburst. He just didn't think the person he would confide to was his two worst enemies.

"I don't want to talk about it."

Ron was not blind not to notice the tears threatening to pour out of the blonde's eyes. Somehow, despite the fact that he still thought Draco was a downright foul git, he couldn't help feeling sorry for him now that he had allowed his mind and heart to open for the blonde just a little bit for the sake of Harry. He looked at Hermione for a while for a second opinion. Hermione shrugged, giving him an "It wouldn't hurt to talk" look, and Ron sighed in defeat before sitting in front of him.

"You've blurted it out, Malfoy, so you might as well tell all. You want us to trust you with Har now, don't you?"

Draco, seeing that the Old Married Couple of Hogwarts were genuinely curious about his situation, sat back down (wincing slightly as he did), hastily brushed his tears away and explained, "I have a sex slave named Remus Lupin. But he is not a slave to me."

"Remy my friend too," Harry smiled as he pointed to himself.

"Ah, so this Remus Lupin is actually your lover and is Har's colleague," Ron nodded in understanding.

"Yes. He was once my Father's sex slave, then he was given to me as my 15th birthday present. For that better part of the year he has stopped touching him, but last week…" Draco took a breath before continuing, "He…he touch him."

"He's public property," Ron's tone did not sound too surprised. "You can't deny that. It's the law."

"You wanna bet?" Draco asked grudgingly. "Have you seen my father showing up in school since then? He's been using ice on his nose since I've showed him a thing or two."

Ron's eyes widened as he pieced the two and two together, "Bloody hell, Malfoy! You don't mean you socked your old man now, do you?"

"Goodness, Malfoy, you really shouldn't," Hermione commented, equally surprised that Draco would do such a thing.

"I don't care. He hurt my lover, so I will hurt him. Simple as that."

"That why you butt have boo-boo?" Harry asked, then stated in a matter-of-fact way when Draco gave him a shocked look, "I can tell."

"Well…a cane is not only for walking," Draco blushed, muttering as he looked down in embarrassment.

"Ouch!" Ron winced, experiencing sympathy pains. "Does he realize how old are you already to still be caned?"

"If I disappoint him he would still cane me at age 30."

"You boo-boo OK now?" Harry asked, concerned.

"Getting better. Still sore but no longer black."

"Hmm," Ron considered for a while, then turned to Hermione, "Hey, Mione, you still got that insta-cure cream you bought in Hogsmeade to treat my bruises for Quidditch?"

"Yeah, I do," Hermione said as she dug her bag and took it out, handing it to Draco, "Here you go."

"You shouldn't have," Draco replied. "My Remus already has an age-old remedy for my bruises."

"It's alright. You can have it. I have a whole lot more of those silly tubes back in the common room. You don't wanna know how much I have to use it on him for just for one training session."

"Not my fault those balls kept aiming at my face whenever I try to block them from the goal," Ron muttered.

"Thanks, Granger," Draco replied as he accepted the tube of insta-cure cream and pocketed it into his robes.

"Yayy! Draco no more boo-boo!" Harry clapped his hands with glee, happy to see that Draco was going to get a cure for his bruised butt.

"Gods, Har. Look what you made us do," Ron chuckled in defeat as he noticed the atmosphere they were in, "We're actually talking like regular friends."

"He can do that to people," Draco ruffled Harry's hair as the younger boy flashed everyone a toothy grin. "And judging by what Granger said about Harry having a good judgment of character and bringing the most unlikely friends together, I suspect that probably it could be his true magic at work."

"He's an interesting kid alright. I heard from Dumbledore one night after his speech lessons that his parents used to be star pupils here in Hogwarts."

"Yes. That is one of the reasons that Harry is in great demand. I heard my father talking to someone that Harry is the perfect slave. A child of stars that fell."

Ron rolled his eyes, "Typical sadists. And another time, Dumbledore said his parents were killed by this crazy psycho wizard Tom Riddle for ratting on him and his crimes. Is that true?"

"Again, true," Draco nodded, while Harry sat there listening to the conversation, trying to pick up and learn some new words at the same time.

"I've run through some old newspapers," Hermione said, her studious mind reeling, "and they said that their only son survived barely in the assassination. So it's Har they're talking about."

"Yup, but he soon disappeared from sight, until Uncle Sev found and bought Harry from the business and Father went and researched about him. Now everyone in our community or those old timers who used to know Harry's parents knew that Harry's their son, and I've found out from Father's drinking buddies when they came for an occasional visit that they would pay a king's ransom just to take Harry off Uncle Sev's hand and have him for their own. Just last year, during my birthday party, Sirius Black who used to be friends with Harry's parents tried to make a pass at him, but Uncle Sev threatened to amputate his hand off if ever he dare lay a finger on him. Uncle Sev can be so possessive sometimes."

"But he didn't disappear from sight. According to the newspaper, three months after murdering Harry's parents and almost murdering Harry, he was arrested and been locked in Azkaban ever since."

"I meant Harry disappearing from sight after the assassination, Granger, not the mad man. No one knew what happened in between the years after the assassination and before he was sent into the business."

"Don't mind her. She gets ahead of herself sometimes. It comes with the territory of dating a smart-alec."

That comment earned Ron a slap on the shoulder by the said 'smart-alec' and tiny peals of laughter by Harry.

"Don't worry," Draco smiled at their antics, seeing the true meaning of their nickname as 'The Old Married Couple of Hogwarts'. "I hardly listen anyway."

"What exactly is this psycho guy anyway? Why did he go around killing people for no particular reason?"

"What I've read in a book called 'Villainous Villains'," Hermione's trait as a Human Encyclopedia kicked in, "this Tom Riddle guy is a Half-Blood. According to a thorough background research and numerous interviews on many involved parties by the person who wrote this book, his mother was a witch and was a little crazy in the head because of their family's tendency to promote in-breeding for pure-blood purposes. You know, like how Egyptians usually do within the royal families. She herself was a cold-blooded killer who poisoned her own family and ran off pretending to be a prostitute and killing people for their money. She met the Muggle father in one of her killing attempts but was so smitten by his looks, she became his stalker instead. You can say that she sorta 'raped' him one night when she put him under the Imperius curse and got herself knocked up with Tom."

"Damn. She knows more than my father," Draco commented, suppressing his impressed tone.

"Unlike you boys, I actually read," Hermione folded her arms across her chest.

"Like I said, smart-alec," Ron rolled his eyes, getting slapped again on the shoulder. "Ow! Will you cut it out, Mione?!"

Harry roll on the floor laughing at their antics. No matter how many times he saw them bicker with each other, they never failed to amuse him.

"Ha ha," Ron grumbled sarcastically. "Not funny, Har."

"Sorry, but I have to agree with Harry on that one," Draco tried to hold back his chuckle, earning a challenging glare from Ron.

"Anyway, Dumbledore showed me Tom's past in the Penseive when it was my turn to send Harry off after speech lessons. He said it was a sort of gift for helping Harry so much on his communication skills. Anyway, what I saw was that Tom Riddle's mother gave birth to him at Azkaban within the prison walls when she was finally arrested for murdering an Auror who was in the Muggle world investigating on a case. Her killing spree was enough to earn her the Dementor's Kiss, but since she was pregnant, they decided to let her carry to term and give birth before giving it to her. They traced Tom's Muggle father and made him take Tom in, in which the father abused him everyday. Finally, driven by madness, Tom poisoned him like his mother did to her family. A traveling warlock found him living in the Muggle streets and took him in. As soon as he came of age, he poisoned the poor warlock like he did his father and inherited his fortune, and became a legitimate wizard ever since. It seems that his mother's cold blood ran in his veins and he had a deep hatred for any wizards or witches that were not pure because of his own damned half-blood. Har's parents witnessed one of his murders and helped the Aurors track him down, and the rest was history."

"How come you get to look into the Pensieve??" Ron exclaimed. "Not fair!"

"Because she's smart, Weasley, that's why," Draco said, then turned to Harry and said sympathetically, "It seems everyone is out to get you, Harry."

"Why say that?" Harry asked curiously.

"Never mind, forget I said it," Draco shook his head and petted Harry's head. It was obvious that all this mature talk was still a little incomprehensible for the boy and Draco thought it best that he was left ignorant of his past.

"At least Snape's doing something about getting him outta the dumps," Ron commented.

"Yes, that I agree," Draco sighed, still wishing that Remus would let him do the same.

"Master say he might die doing it," Harry whimpered, thinking about his beloved out there, not knowing what misfortune may have befallen him.

"Now you dunno that, lad," Ron tried to persuade Harry otherwise.

"It is true, in a way," Draco replied. "In order to set a slave free you have to do a dangerous task to retrieve the payment for them. Remus said back then, they asked a Master to bring them a rare dragon egg. The Master died just half way on his trip."

"Ouch…" Ron winced as another sympathy pain hit him. "That's a bad way to go."

"No wonder no one has ever heard of slaves being free or have any record of it," Hermione noted. "The process itself is too ridiculous."

"Yes it is," Draco agreed. "But it is worth it to Masters who love their slaves, trust me."

"I no want Master to die…" Harry whined in the brink of tears.

"He won't. If I know Uncle Sev, he will do everything to win and at worst he may be burned a bit but nothing a potion of spell cannot fix," Draco tried to smile to make the situation better than it sounded.

"I no want him burn either…"

"Oh, Harry," Hermione reached over to hug him. "Prof. Snape'll be alright. You'll see. I'm sure of it."

"I agree," Ron chided in. "Did you know that Seamus and Dean blew up the lab once because they put the wrong ingredient for the Revival Potion during the 4th year? Caused almost everyone to slip into a coma for a week, and yet Snape managed to walk around unscathed because he drank a counter-potion beforehand and managed to send them to a month's detention as soon as they woke up. If he can survive that, I'm sure he'll survive this."

"Yeah," Draco confirmed his words, "he is untouchable, Harry. Don't worry."

"OK…" Harry replied as he allowed Hermione to dry his tears. "If you say so…"

"I know so, by the way, Weasley," Draco turned to the redhead. "Weren't you going to answer nature's call?"

Ron's full bladder immediately kicked in and was soon seen dashing into one of the cubicles to relieve himself, with Hermione rolling her eyes and sighing in defeat, Draco grinning naughtily from ear to ear and Harry rolling on the floor laughing again.