Author's notes: Okay, after this part, it gets a little odd. I don't think it really fits well with the story(this chapter is okay, it's the next one that bothers me.) and I may be making revisions. Also, I've gotten a lot of requests to know whats going on with the story, etc., so if you would like to know, send me an e-mail at Indigo_dreamer@hotmail.com and I will try to update you as often as possible on this story as well as others that I am writting or have written and am planning on posting. These people will be privy to the particulars of the chapter and upcoming events(since I usually am about three chapters ahead of what's posted) Also: does anyone know how to set up a mailing list? ~Lady Shadow~ *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Five: The Daylight

They were sitting in sheer darkness when the sound of nails being pulled out of the frame screeched through the closet.

"Close your eyes and turn away from the door." Harry ordered quietly. Draco did as he was told, feeling along the shelves until he was sure he was facing away from the door. Seconds later light flooded the closet and though Draco had his eyes shut tightly, his vision suddenly went bright red and he had to bite his lip to keep from crying out. Harry found his hand a squeezed it lightly. There was a dull thump on the floor and then the closet was plunged back into a partial darkness. "Becareful opening your eyes; you can really hurt them." Harry warned. Draco was nearly crying the pain in his head was so intense. Harry adjusted quicker, but continued to urge Draco to take it easy.

The 'thud' on the floor turned out to be a small packet of letters. All three of which from Hogwarts, one of them already opened. The first had been addressed to Vernon Dursley. It was a polite but firm letter insisting that Harry and Draco be picked up from the Dursely's a few days before school started; Dumbledore was sending transport to take them school shopping.

"No wonder he let us out early. We're getting picked up today instead of taking the train in a week." Harry told Draco reading the letter outloud. The other two were the usual; welcome back to Hogwarts...yahda yahda yahda...here's your school supply list...yahda yahda yahda...etc. Draco was slowly adjusting to the new light, though his eyes still watered badly and his head hurt with equal fervor. Harry carefully put everything back into its place and ran another check of the room, placing stray iteams in the bathroom for safe keeping or back up on the shelves. Harry was just finishing and Draco had stopping rubbing his eyes when Vernon came slamming back into the closet.

"What are you waiting for?! Get out!" To get them out of his house sooner, he unlocked the chests and cages then with Dudley's help pulled the heavy chests out to the waiting car, Harry and Draco tagging along behind with the owls.

"Thanks for letting me stay over this summer, Mr. Dursley." Draco said suddenly. The man was caught off guard and his eyes narrowed.

"Don't mock me you little freak! Just get in the car. And Harry? This is your last year at that god forsaken school, right?!" Harry nodded wordlessly, trying unsucessfully to stifle his laughter. "Good. I don't ever want to see you at this house again." With this as a farewell Vernon stormed back into the house and Harry climbed into the car. He felt flimsy and weak like he always did at the end of the summer, and knew he must look about as awful as he felt if not worse.

"Did you see the look on his face?" Draco asked, peering out the back window as four Private drive faded with distance.

"I wonder who they're going to blame Dudley's bad grades on now?"

"They'll probably still blame them on you. You just won't be there to punish." Draco guessed, sliding down in his seat. He felt tired; stretched.

"You two look like absolute crap if you wanted to know." Harry started and looked up into the rear-view mirror, desperatly hoping he'd mistaken the voice.

"Snape?! What are you doing here?!" He hissed, immediatly on the defensive.

"Dumbledore insisted that I pick you up, considering I'm the only teacher at the school save himself and Hagrid that would ransack the house if you weren't returned. Or at least threaten to turn those dispicable muggles multi-colored. Your aunt looks good in bright pink by the way." Snape commented drily. Draco laughed and Harry couldn't help but join him.

"I almost hexed the damn woman within the first five minutes of meeting her." Draco commented.

"Mr. Malfoy, you should watch your mouth around everyone's favorite hero. Not to mention a Hogwarts teacher...not that I would have said anything if that woman would have been turned into something despicable." Harry's shoulder muscles bunched up and Draco gently set his hand on Harry's shoulder to calm him. Snape did not miss the contact. Smiling he pulled the car over and turned around in his seat.

"Is there something I should know?" He asked, his generally scornful voice soft and a little teasing.

"No...!" Harry hissed, but Draco laced his hand into Harry's and gave Severus and unscrutnable look.

"I think you can see what you need to know perfectly well." Snape held Draco's gaze for a moment then turned back around and started the car again.

"I absolutly hate driving." He muttered.

"So much for easing him into the mindset." Harry whispered.

"You have nothing to fear from me on the matter, Mr. Potter. If it had been someone else I may have considered teasing them mercilessly and exposing it to the class, but odd as it may seem, I wouldn't do that to you or Draco." Harry's eyes narrowed. Snape was being much too nice and more over looked different as well. The man was dressed in causual muggle clothing, a long tan sweater with a lose but high collar and tight fitting black pants, his hair longer and pulled back into a lose pony-tail. He looked younger, nicer...good. Draco laughed at Harry's unease and as if to set him off balance, he slipped one leg over Harry's and kissed him passionatly. Snape made a slightly started sound that turned into one of amusement, but he said nothing as Harry haltingly eased his hand between Draco's legs, where he let it rest. They said nothing more the rest of the trip to london where they returned the car to a rental and headed for Diagon Alley.

The first place Snape took them to was suprisingly not anything to with school.

"A barber?" Harry asked inquisitively. Being in public, Harry and Draco had not so much as exchanged a glance yet alone touched.

"You both need it." Snape told them drily, pushing them into the small shop run by a couple of Muggles that lived and worked in the wizarding word. Harry looked into the mirror and laughed at himself a little. His hair had managed to grow down to his chin and was ragged around the edges; they had managed to keep their faces clean shaven, but hadn't even really noticed the hair growth. Draco was likewise looking a little ragged. Harry tipped his head to one side and surveyed his own appearance.

"I like it." He decided finally. The room was empty save the barber, so Draco set his chin lightly on Harry's shoulder.

"So do I. It makes you look less like a goody-two-shoes and more like a full-grown man." Harry smiled at the whispered comment; both tease and complement. Severus had already taken a seat and was getting his own hair trimmed, but like Harry decided to keep it a little longer this year. When Draco's turn came up he threw up his hands with a 'what the heck' and just asked for a trim. However, Harry declined even that.

"You should grow a gote." Draco commented in Harry's direction, brushing the hair off his chest. Harry made a face and ran his hand down his chin.

"I don't think so."

"You can always cut it off." Harry looked doubtful, but with a few comments from Snape-none of which exactly commplementry in the normal sense of the word-and the proffessional opionon of the barber, not to mention Draco hanging on his arm, he agreed. They finished their shopping over the next hour and returned to the hotel.

"Well you still have a week until school starts. We can head to Hogwarts, but I've been given permission to rent a hotel room if you would like to stay in Hogsmead." Snape told them over a steak dinner that the boys were devouring. When asked Snape told them that Dumbledore had forseen the boy's malnutritioned state and had already pre-ordered both healthy and fatty foods. The steak was on the fatty side but was balanced by the salad that had come before. Harry hastily swallowed and looked over to Draco. Draco had stopped eating so quickly and was chewing thoughtfully.

"I like the Hogsmead idea." He said finnally. Harry agreed with a nod and set back to his meal. Severus waited patiently for them to finish eating before attempting any kind of civilized conversation.

"Well I hope you two actually managed to fit some time in to do your summer projects." Harry snorted and Draco laughed.

"We had plenty of time. It's a good thing Harry knows how to pick locks though. That bastard muggle locked our chest with our wands in side. Then do you know what they did?" Draco was getting worked up, and though he was kind of cute when he was angry, Harry tried to calm him anyway. Snape shook his head and Draco continued.

"They threw us in a goddanmed six by five closet under the stairs that had an even smaller bathroom, shoved some "food" on us and left us there! The entire damn summer!" Harry re-doubled his efforts to calm his enraged lover, kneading his shoulders and gently kissing his neck. Draco was suffciently distracted and closed his eyes, leaning back into Harry's chest. In truth it was only Harry and Severus that he would allow himself to show any type of emotion that looked even remotly out of control, such as true rage, sadness, depression, or pleasure. And Harry's lips were certainly pleasurable.

"They locked you in a closet all summer!?" Severus hissed.

"Now you know why we look like crap." Harry put in before Draco could say anything. Snape nodded in mute horror and silently promised to have the misitry look into the matter. They carried on with something mildly resembling small talk before Draco finally got fed-up with Harry's ministrations and said goodnight before pulling the other boy forcefully into their room. Severus laughed softly, remember his own lover and reflecting that they had behaved very much alike Draco and Harry were now. He shook his head gently and crossed the joint commons room to his room on the other side of their suite.

Draco locked lips with Harry as soon as the door was shut, propelling him in the general direction of the bed until Harry's knees hit the edge of the bed and he fell over.

"God your such a tease...." He accused, kissing Harry eagerly while he worked off their clothing. Harry let Draco strip them before he took back some ammount of control and rolled him over, cradling the back of his head. He was so busy with worshiping Draco's neck that he didn't notice the other boy's actions until he had two hands wrapped around his errection. Harry sucked his breath sharply through his teeth and whimpered while Draco guilded him into his body.

"Fast, Harry..." He whispered and Harry snapped like a stretched rubber band, thrusting in roughly and pulling out only to do it again. He was covered in sweat and praise and pleas and hopelessly undecernable jumble of syllables poured from his mouth. Draco wrapped his legs tightly around Harry's hips and desperatly kissed any part of the other teen that came into range.

Afterwords, laying against Harry's chest, Draco reflected on the nights they had spent together. They weren't exactly numerous despite Snape's former comment, infact for two homone ranging boys, four times in three months was a tight lid on sexual intercourse. But the odd thing was thus; like Harry, Draco had not come into this relationship a virgin, but it almost felt like he had. And the thing he like most about Harry was how considerate a lover he was. He read clues and moved accordingly, gentle when need harsh when requested. To Draco it felt as though he had some how gained back some ammount of innocents, of purity and though it was just an illusion, Harry treated it as if it were very real and very fragile. Sighing, Draco checked to make sure Harry was asleep before crawling out of the bed and located a robe before quietly creeping out of the room and falling into a chair.

"Tea?" He started and jumped, but it was only Severus, hovering in the kitchen. Draco nodded and Severus quickly poured two cups of the already boiling tea. Draco took the cup greatfully and settled further into the chair. "Didn't want to sleep with your lover tonight?" Draco sighed, he had known the second Severus had made his presents known that the other man would see something was troubling him.

"I don't feel I have a right to." Draco whispered to his cup. Severus was silent for a long moment.

"Why is that?" He asked finally. Now it was Draco's turn to plunge them into a stretch of silence. "He's so pure...so innocent, noble...and I'm completely opposite. Every second I spend with him I feel like I'm taking something that doesn't belong to me." Severus waited for the younger man to continue, sipping at his tea in a patient comfortable manner. "When I'm with him...I feel like I am pure still...I do still have that innocents...but only because he's seeing what isn't there and he's making me believe it might be...and then...when he leaves me, he curls up next to me and I rest my head on his shoulder...he tells me I'm beautiful...but I'm not. I can't possible be 'beautiful' anymore. And then I look at him and I feel like I've tainted him somehow...decived him..." Draco was near tears, so he stopped barely believing that he had put words to thought and feeling he hadn't even completely shifted through yet. Now Snape put his glass down and locked Draco with a penatrating gaze.

"Draco, as much as it may seem otherwise I not only like Harry, but I pay a great deal of attention to him. You are wrong when you say he's innocent. Pure maybe...but innocent, no. He's seen too much, done too much to be innocent. And he's intelligent, sure I've noticed more than a few wanton stares in his direction from both sexes and all houses, but I can tell when someone's not interested. Though he's probably slept with half the school he's never made any indications of being interested. He's never so much as held hands, or passed love notes...but with you, Draco he openly kissed you in front of his least favorite teacher, he put his hand between your legs...in front of me! And I could tell it wasn't just a sexual thing. He really loves you, Draco. And Mr. Potter is no fool, he doesn't pass his heart out to any witch or wizard that lands in his bed." Draco considered the jumble of words carefully. The potion's master had never really been very good about such things as heart-to-hearts, but Draco got the point. He smiled-maybe Severus was right-and bid his teacher, mentor, friend and protector a fond goodnight before leaving his barely touched tea and heading back to the safty of Harry's arms. Still asleep the boy-no, man-didn't so much as stirr when Draco crawled into the bed, he did however subconciously slide his arms around Draco's waist and pull him close to his chest.

They spent the rest of a pleasent week in Hogsmead, before returning to the school. No one was at the school yet save some teachers, so Harry walked Draco to his dorm and gave him a lasting kiss before pulling away. Draco ran a hand down Harry's newly aquired facial hair. Harry was actually a little taller than he was and the gote and long hair accented his height beautifully.

"It looks good on you, dear." Harry smiled shily and ran his own hand down his face. It would take a lot of getting used to, having hair on his face, but he did have to agree with Draco on this matter. He pulled Draco up for one more kiss before retreating down the hall and heading for the Griffindor dorms to await the arrival of the students.
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Author's notes: Okay, kind of ooc-ness huh? but the whole thing really is. Should I change it, leave it the same, what? Reviews, comments, flames, anything?