Drarry One Shots

New Horizons

A/N This story starts with a violent physical attack, and references DV throughout – if you think you may find this triggering or disturbing, please skip this story. Uses film rather than book canon.

It seemed to Draco that Harry just didn't stop rescuing him. Of course, the first time was from the fire in the Room of Requirements. But then there was the episode immediately after the war, which led into more episodes, not all saving his life but certainly impacting upon it and changing it for the better each time.

During the final battle, his father had stopped Draco for re-joining Harry's side after he 'came back from the dead', instead Lucius had fled, dragging his son and wife with him. But Lucius wasn't scared, he was furious: he knew Voldemort's time was over and they had failed and he blamed his son for his part in Harry's escape from the Manor. As they reached the end of the Hogwarts' bridge he turned on Draco and raised his cane, striking his son over and over again as he screamed wildly at him, accusing Draco of being a blood traitor, a liar, and a disgrace to the Malfoy name. When Narcissa tried to protect her son, Lucius turned on her too before continuing to beat his son with the familial ebony cane with its solid silver snake-head handle. And Draco knew better than to cry out, despite the pain, because it would only prolong his punishment but he couldn't stop the silent tears, not this time. Lucius left his broken, battered, and bruised son for dead in a crumpled heap amongst the rubble as he gripped his wife by her hair and apparated them back to the manor.

Unable to move from a severely shattered leg, from broken ulna and radius bones from where he used his forearm to protect himself, broken ribs, and barely able to see from his beaten and cut face from where his father had used the snake-head handle to inflict the worst damage, Draco watched the battle end. He saw Voldemort's demise and sighed in relief despite the agony he was in. He lay in the eerie silence after the battle, in the calm and the loneliness amongst the dead, and he wanted to die too. But death didn't come, instead Harry came and rescued him for the second time in little more than a few hours.

He watched the Golden Trio pick their way through the rubble on the damaged bridge and saw them stop. He watched Harry break the Elder Wand in two and throw it from the bridge into the abyss below and, even through his pain, he snorted at the virtuosity of the hero. Perhaps it was the slight noise that drew their attention. Perhaps it was because Harry always seemed to him seek out, no matter where he was.

Draco barely registered the looks of sheer shock on Granger's and the Weasel's faces as Harry muttered 'Ferula' spells so that his legs were bandaged together with a splint and his broken arm was bound to his chest. He was in too much pain to complain, what was a bit more in a lifetime of abuse? Then Harry carefully scooped him up bridal style and apparated Draco straight to St Mungo's for immediate care.

Healer Anastasia Medina was horrified and hurriedly led Harry, still carrying Draco, through the hospital to a private room. Harry was immediately shoo-ed away and it was all Draco could do to utter a small 'thank you' as Harry was ushered from the room by the rotund and scarily fierce Medina. It turned out that she was one of the healers who refused to judge Draco on his past or name and she was fiercely protective over her patient as she cared for him.

His father had shattered Draco's leg so badly that he couldn't be healed with Skele-gro or normal magic. They needed to use muggle methods, operating and pinning his tibia and fibula in four places and reconstructing his knee cap. He needed to remain in bed with his leg in a hoist. Thankfully, some quick 'Episkeys' and 'Vulnera Sanenturs' dealt with the rest of Draco's other injuries, though his arm needed careful tending because the breaks had severely weakened it, particularly from where it had been broken previously.

Harry came back that evening and sat with Draco. And the next night, and the next, and every day thereafter. At first, Draco would turn his head away from Harry, ashamed of who he was. And they didn't have much to talk about, how do you turn seven years of animosity around? Harry started to bring Draco things to aid his stay, from nice pyjamas to expensive toiletries, from fresh fruit and chocolates from his favourite chocolatiers in London to books and puzzle magazines to keep him entertained. Slowly the conversation began to flow as Harry told Draco about the repair works at Hogwarts or the failings of the Ministry until Draco began to look forward to his daily visits. In fact, Draco was surprised at the acidity of Harry's tongue, he hadn't expected it of the Golden Boy, especially when it came to the Ministry, and Draco found it refreshingly appealing, he had always thought that Harry would be a Ministry Man through and through.