Take Me As I Am

Take Me

After being discharged from St. Mungo's Draco and Harry made it back to Hogwarts, not ready to see or speak to anyone. It was all finally over, lives were lost but in the end it was all for the safety of everyone at the school. Severus, Remus, and Sirius were let home after a few days of intensive care, told they needed to recover before returning to their daily activities.

Harry helped Draco inside their private room, noticing his was still in a considerable amount of pain. "Do you want to take another pain relief potion? Maybe some muggle pills to ease the stiffness?" He set him down on the edge of the bed, moving the curtains.

"No...no none of that, I'm just happy to be home." Draco winced, taking his clothes off. "Bloody hell!" He hissed, his muscles sore and aching.

Harry looked at the remaining bruises and small cuts all over parts of Draco's body. "Draco I'm so sorry...I wish there was more I could do."

Draco weakly shook his head. "The Healers said the pain might take a while to lessen...I told you many times it wasn't your fault."

Harry sat next to Draco, carefully massaging his legs and arms. "You need to sleep, you woke up in the middle of the night before." He tried to push Draco onto the bed more.

"Rubbish I don't want to sleep! I feel disgusting let's go to the bath." Draco pushed Harry off him, standing in just his briefs. The cold floor soothed his feet, sighing as he rubbed his sore neck.

"Draco please walk slowly." Harry pleaded, taking his own clothes off.

Draco glared. "I'm fine dammit!" He wobbled over to the closet to take out some towels.

Harry stripped down to his boxers, following Draco close behind. "Slower!" He scolded lightly, putting his arm around his waist for support.

"If you keep fussing over me I'll smack you!" Draco growled, but he was thankful for the support, everything hurt.

"Shut up Draco." Harry playfully pinched Draco's side, helping him inside the bathroom.

"I'll say this, that was the worst Cruciatus curse I've ever felt, so much for compassion and fatherly love huh?" Draco darkly joked as he turned on the large bath faucet.

The minerals and herbs poured out of the crystal tubes, mixing in with the steaming hot water that quickly filled the large bath.

Harry took his glasses off once the temperature fogged up the lenses. "Out of curiosity...how many times have you felt that?" He asked, shuddering horribly at the memory of the graveyard. I only had a few seconds of the curse...I can't imagine 15 minutes of it...

Draco took off his last article of clothing, standing on the edge of the full bath. "5 times."

Harry felt his heart lurch at such a number. "5?!" He came up to his very naked boyfriend, joining him by removing his boxers. "All because of Lucius????"

"No." Draco shook his head, slowly sinking up to his shoulders into the hot water. "3 from my Father, and 1 from Voldemort, and the other from Bellatrix."

Harry sunk down next to Draco, sitting on the water bench. "That's horrible...how are you still sane?"

"Well...to be honest it's alot harder than just being normal, it took a long time for me to put that pain out of my mind." Draco winced, the hot water stinging his cuts. "But I wanted to live, I want to feel...life was worth existing even after experiencing such distress."