Not your usual Veela mate [Chapters 39-69]

Picking Up The Pieces [45]

Draco felt like he was in heaven. He was with his mate. He was with his mate, lying on a sofa, holding him close. He did not care about the tears streaming down his face. All he cared about was Harry.

Harry who was sobbing into his shoulder.

"Love?" Draco managed to croak out.

"I though I'd never see you again, Draco. I thought... I thought you were gone for good. I thought He had gotten hold of you, and I was so scared I'd never see you again."

"Shh. I'm fine, love. I'm fine and I'm here and I am never going to leave your side again. You know how Weasley and Granger complained about you and me being joined at the hip? From now on, it is going to be the truth. I'll even search through the Hogwarts and Black libraries to find a spell to make sure it's true."

Harry chuckled weakly, punching Draco in the shoulder. "Prat."

"Just you wait. I will so do it, too! You just wait and see," Draco vowed, thrilled he had managed to lighten his mate's mood, if only a little. If he only could do something about his own mood. He hadn't known his uncle well. But his father had often talked about the mischief they'd gotten into growing up.

"Draco? What happened?" Harry asked tentatively, sitting up a little so he could look into Draco's stormy eyes better. He could sense that something had happened. Something bad, and he wanted to help. Only he did not know how to do it.

"She killed my uncle, Harry. And she almost killed my cousin," Draco choked out, feeling tears well up anew, and then spilling down his cheeks.

"Tell me," Harry whispered, allowing the Veela to pull him close. Taking a leaf out of Severus' book, he began to pet the silky soft hair, listening quietly to the horrors that had been unearthed that day.

HPDM

Harry lay listening to Draco's soft breathing. The boy had crashed once he'd told his story, quickly falling asleep while still wrapped tightly around his mate. It had horrified the brunet to hear about the horrors he had stumbled upon, and he found himself grateful that the children had sent that Portkey and that it had fallen through the safety net that supposedly was in place around them. Although Harry did wonder just how safe he and Draco were. So far, Dumbledore had done a splendidjob of keeping them safe, as bloody usual. Did the old man use a different manual when it came to him? None of the other kids were ever subjected to the things he was, that was for sure!

Shying away from the mess that was his life, Harry latched onto what Draco had told him, and he couldn't help but shudder. How could people be so heartless? So cold? So... bloody unfeeling? Hadn't those two women cared at all about the lives they had destroyed?

Apparently not.

Thinking about the lives of the Malfoy brothers caused Harry think about his own family. How would his own life have been if his parents had lived? Before, he'd always envisioned a happy family. Him and his mum and dad and perhaps a few siblings, living happily together, much as they did in the fairytales.

However, each fairytale had one or more baddies, didn't they? Knowing what he did of his father and Sirius, would they have been tolerant of him and the choices he wanted to make? Would they still have loved him if he had been sorted into Slytherin? Would they have supported him when they found out he was Draco's mate? They had been bullies in school. Had they truly outgrown that trait, as most insisted they had? Sirius sure as hell hadn't grown out of his childish grudge against Severus. Of course, his godfather had the excuse of Azkaban to fall back on, but Harry couldn't help but wonder.