“What did you do that was supposedly bad?” Harry asked calmly.
“I got my new robes dirty when I went outside. Father had told me to be careful and I wasn’t,” Draco admitted.
Harry took a deep breath. “Did he take you to the dungeons again?”
Draco’s shudder wracked his whole frame, which was answer enough.
“Did he cast Crucio on you again?” Harry asked evenly. Ron’s grip on Harry’s shoulder tightened painfully, but Harry was thankful because it was helping to ground him better than he ever would have thought possible.
Draco nodded his little head. “But there was no body this time,” he whispered.
Ron’s grip tightened even more in his horror, but those words actually made Harry feel a touch calmer. At least Draco hadn’t had to see a dead body in his nightmare this time.
“Is that everything?” Harry asked.
Draco nodded once again, and Harry hugged him tightly. “It was good that you told me, angel. I’m proud of you.”
Harry pulled back from Draco a little and tilted the boy’s head up so he could look at him. Draco met his gaze willingly and trustingly. “Remember what I told you. I’m going to keep you safe and your father’s not going to hurt you anymore. I know that you love your father and that’s all right, but it’s not all right for him to hurt you like that. It was very wrong for him to punish you so severely.”
“But he told me to be careful and I wasn’t,” Draco whispered.
Harry shook his head. “That doesn’t matter. What you did was not nearly that bad to be punished so harshly. Besides that, your father should know that little boys are going to get dirty sometimes. That’s what little boys do,” Harry said.
“Really?” Draco asked, sounding bemused by that idea.
Harry chuckled lightly, which went a long way towards breaking the tension in the room. Ron could literally feel Harry’s magic calming down as well.
“Yes, really,” Harry said smiling. “When I was your age, I was always getting dirty.”
Draco looked at him wonderingly.
“Me, too,” Ron spoke up. “I would get dirty all the time because I liked being outside and I liked exploring in the field by our house. It was dirty, but a lot of fun.”
Dean decided to add to the conversation that was distracting Draco so well. “My big sister used to make me play house with her, which I didn’t always like, but I loved it when she let me make pretend pies out of mud. I was always a filthy mess afterwards,” Dean said laughing.
“And your father didn’t care?” Draco asked skeptically.
“Nope!” Dean said with a grin. “Either him or my mum would just pop me in the bath to clean me up.”
“I was like you, Draco,” Neville said quietly. “I was supposed to be a proper pureblood wizard and I wasn’t allowed to get dirty.”
That, Draco understood. “If you did get dirty, how were you punished?” he asked softly.
“Well, I remember once when I got some of my brand new robes dirty because I wasn’t careful. I had to wash them myself so that I’d remember not to get them dirty again,” Neville answered quietly.
“Oh,” Draco said. He looked up at Harry. “Is that what you meant by ‘not harshly’?” Draco asked.
“Yes,” Harry agreed. “Neville’s punishment wasn’t pleasant for him, but it wasn’t nearly as harsh or as bad as yours was.”
Draco’s brow was furrowed as he tried to think all this out. “Were you allowed to get dirty?” Draco asked Seamus, wanting the opinion of the last person in the room.
“Sometimes yes, sometimes no,” Seamus said. “Sometimes I was told to go outside and play and it didn’t matter how dirty I got. But other times, like when we had company, I was supposed to stay clean.”
“See, that’s probably the best way,” Harry said. “There are times you can get dirty and times that you shouldn’t. But sometimes accidents happen and you get dirty even when you shouldn’t. Accidents aren’t your fault and you shouldn’t be punished in any way for them,” Harry said firmly. He locked eyes with Draco. “And under no circumstances are you ever going to be punished so painfully anymore. Understand?”
Draco took a deep breath and nodded. Then he yawned.
“I think it’s time for you to go back to sleep, little man,” Seamus said with a grin. His yawn was causing all of the older boys to yawn, too. It was almost one o’clock in the morning by now. Draco already had his eyes closed and was snuggled up into Harry’s chest before Seamus even finished his sentence.
“You all right, mate?” Ron whispered.
“Yeah, thanks,” Harry said gratefully.
“No problem,” he said, giving Harry’s shoulder a squeeze before he let go.
“He asleep already?” Neville asked, as the other boys got up and they all prepared to go back to bed.
Harry looked down, checking on Draco, and smiled gently. “Yeah. It’s been a rough day for him.”
“Been a rough day for you, too, mate,” Seamus said knowingly.
Harry gave a heavy sigh. “Yeah, it has. Look guys, will you promise not to say anything about Draco and his father?” Harry asked.
“We don’t say anything about your nightmares, and don’t give away your secrets; we won’t be saying anything about his either,” Dean said, and they all nodded in agreement.
“Thanks,” Harry said with a sigh of relief.
“His father was what all those outbursts were about yesterday, isn’t it?” Ron asked.
Harry’s expression darkened but he remained calm with Draco in his arms. “Yes,” he answered simply.
Ron nodded. He wouldn’t ask for any more information and let it go at that. Ron went back to his bed and the others did the same. Harry lay back down and got him and Draco situated comfortably once again.
Harry’s magic was thankfully under control, but his mind wasn’t. He lay there thinking about everything that had happened. He was still incredibly angry, but knowing what he would hear and with Ron there to help ground him, he’d been able to keep his magic under control this time while he’d talked with Draco about his nightmare.
He supposed that a lot of the problem had been the shock at what he’d discovered the day before that had contributed to his loss of control. The shock at breakfast, of discovering that Lucius had been hurting Draco, had gotten both him and Snape angry enough to want to release.
The even larger shock of discovering just how Lucius had been hurting Draco caused such a build up of shock and rage that Harry needed more of a release and his magic had gotten involved with the intensity of his emotions.
Harry hoped that Snape and Dumbledore had been able to figure out exactly what had happened with Harry’s magic and what he could do to keep it under control. He certainly didn’t want to hurt anyone accidentally.
He’d love to release his magic on Lucius Malfoy, though. The man didn’t deserve any mercy after what he’d subjected his child to. He’d threatened the tiny boy’s life and forced him to look upon a tortured and murdered body while Draco himself was tortured under the Cruciatus curse. It was cruel and unbelievable, yet Harry didn’t question the truth of what Draco had told him.
Harry knew that Lucius Malfoy was a cold, cruel man, but he had never thought that the man would subject his own son to such cruelty. Harry shuddered to think what else Draco had been subjected to as he grew older. Harry could easily believe that as he grew up, Draco was forced to watch as his father tortured and killed.
As he continued to lie there thinking, Harry realized that Draco still hadn’t actually asked where his father or his mother was. Was Draco so terrified of them that he didn’t want to know, or was he so used to their long absences in his life that he was used to them being gone? It wasn’t hard to believe that his parents would leave the actual child rearing to the house elves or other hired help, like nannies and tutors.
Whichever the case was, Harry was determined to make the next four months enjoyable for Draco. With that thought firmly planted in his mind, Harry nuzzled his face in the little boy’s soft hair and hugged him a little closer while finally drifting off to sleep again.
