Chapter Nine
Share My Mind

When Harry awoke the next morning, it was to the strange sensation of being held by another person. It was strange because Harry had never woken up like that before.

The soft body pressed to his back, thin yet strong arms wrapped around his waist - Harry knew without seeing his face that Draco was the person behind him. Harry could feel it, as well as the fact that there weren’t a lot of people it could be since they were the only two living in the apartment.

His mind was silent now, he noticed; only his own thoughts were in there. That most likely meant that Draco was still asleep, for Harry didn’t think that the spell had been cancelled just because they’d fallen asleep. He knew it had to be more complicated than that to get out of the situation they’d created.

He wondered how Draco had ended up with him on the couch. As far as Harry could remember, the blonde had not been there when he’d fallen asleep. He didn’t even think he’d been in the same room. So what had happened?

He remembered his dream, the warmth and the softly spoken words.

Was that all Draco? Was it Draco of all people who’d made him feel so safe and protected? He couldn’t believe that… And yet at the same time he had no problem at all believing it. Draco had changed since they got here; he was no longer acting like the spoiled Death Eater son he had always been at home, at Hogwarts. Of course, that wasn’t entirely true either; Draco hadn’t been acting the part of a spoiled Death Eater’s son in quite a while. Ever since the start of their fifth year, the blonde had been much quieter. He hadn’t called Hermione ‘Mudblood’ very often; neither had he called Ron ‘Weasel’. In fact, he’d been keeping more and more to himself lately. He did still have the occasional fights with Harry, but the raven-haired boy began to wonder now if that was all an act.

Draco would have to continue playing the part of Muggle-hating brat so that his father wouldn’t get suspicious. If Draco had joined the good side at the beginning of their fifth year, then he would have to be a very good actor to get away with it without Lucius noticing anything strange about his son.

Yet at some point, Lucius would notice something odd. If the future they were living in really was what was going to happen, then Mr Malfoy would find something out about Draco and a kidnapping would follow.

If they came back knowing all this, would they try to change it? Harry wondered. Would Draco ask Harry to let Lucius live? Probably not since the blonde had told Harry he wasn’t sorry to hear about Lucius’ demise. Yet still… Would they try to avoid Draco’s kidnapping completely, and with that change the whole future? Was it even possible? Perhaps it was all planned out already. Maybe Harry and Draco were supposed to come here, to the future, and learn some things.

Harry’s thoughts were abruptly interrupted when Draco moved and moaned behind him. Harry could hear him waking up; his thoughts were beginning to seep back into Harry’s brain. He feel him stretch and then cuddle closer.

Then he froze suddenly.

‘Harry?’ came the uncertain question.

“Yes,” Harry said out loud, a small smile playing around his lips at the sound of Draco’s small voice.

‘What are you doing?’ The voice wasn’t accusing as Harry had thought it would be, but instead it continued in the same soft, small and confused tone.

“I was sleeping here,” Harry said, still talking out loud and still not turning around to face Draco. He didn’t think it would go over too well with the blonde to suddenly be face-to-face only inches away from each other.

“And me?”

“You were sleeping here as well.” Harry couldn’t help but tease the blonde a bit by replying with things that were obvious. This time, Draco took notice of the way he was being treated.

“Thank you,” he sneered, and began to get up from his position behind Harry. “I think I will just go away now. Or perhaps you would like to?”

Harry got up as well, without answering Draco. ‘Do you want breakfast?’ he asked, walking out of the room.

‘No, I’m going to take a shower.’

Harry tried hard not to let images of Draco in the shower flood his mind – it would be bad enough to think about it, but it would be even worse to have Draco know that he was thinking it.

‘Want to join me?’ Draco asked slyly.

‘No!’

Think breakfast, Harry, he thought and busied himself with making coffee for Draco and tea for himself. He took bread out of the freezer and warmed it with a wave of his wand.

Ten minutes later, Draco entered the kitchen, showered and dressed. He was wearing Muggle clothes, Harry noted.

“I’m going to the library,” Draco said, hearing Harry’s thoughts. “Can’t walk around there in robes, now can I?”

‘Just never thought that the day would come when I saw you in real Muggle clothing,’ Harry told him, taking a sip of his tea. ‘Didn’t think you even knew what they looked like.’

Draco grabbed the cup of coffee. ‘There are a lot of things you don’t know about me.’

‘I’ve noticed.’

Draco spent the entire morning, up until noon, at the library. They could still hear the other one’s thoughts as clearly as if they were standing next to each other, they noticed with distaste. Harry could hear everything that Draco was reading, and because of that, he had to point out things quite often. This resulted in a very annoyed Draco – and then an irritated Harry when the blonde wouldn’t listen to him. All in all, it probably took Draco three times longer to find the right book than it would have if he’d been alone in his mind.

He was reading a book about counter spells of all kinds when he finally found the right one.

‘The counter spell to the famous Audiosis spell is the less common Mutus spell. It works just like Audiosis – just say, ‘Mutus’ together with the person in question’s name, and Audiosis will be cancelled.’

Draco was home only two minutes later. They stood in the living room just like they had the afternoon before, facing each other.

‘Let’s put a stop to this, shall we?’ Draco asked and Harry nodded.

“Mutus Draco!” Harry said clearly.

“Mutus Harry!” said Draco at the same time.

Suddenly, it got very quiet inside Harry’s head. He could no longer hear Draco’s thoughts run amok in there, and it felt very nice to be alone again.

“I can’t hear you anymore,” Draco said, obviously relieved. “You can’t hear me either, right?”

Harry shook his head. “Nope, it’s just me and my thoughts, alone at last.”

They did do the spell again during the following days. Now that they knew the counter spell, neither one minded practicing the spell very much. It would take them a long time before they could do it without saying the spell first, but it was getting better. As soon as it got annoying to have the other person prowling about in their heads, they cancelled the spell. Of course, that happened quite soon, so their practice sessions were never very long.

Five days after their first attempt at the spell, they were still training when the doorbell rang. They looked at each other, confused, for it was the first time anyone had used the doorbell rather than entering through the fireplace. Well, they hadn’t had much company in the apartment at all really, since the Weasleys had been there over a week ago.

“Are you going to open it?” Draco drawled.

Harry glared at him, wondering why the blonde couldn’t do it. The other boy just ignored him and continued to read.

The Boy Who Lived got up from his place in the couch and walked down the hallway to the front door. The doorbell rang again; apparently he was taking too long. He opened the door, not expecting anyone in particular. Perhaps someone had the wrong address?

He stared at the people outside of the door.

“Um, hi, Mr Potter,” Mr Hanawalt said.

Harry continued to stare at them, his dreams flashing by him. “It’s your fault…”

“Did we come at a bad time?” Mrs Hanawalt asked, bringing him back to the present time.

The raven-haired boy shook his head. “No, no, you didn’t,” he said, trying to stop staring at the family. “Come in, please.”

Riley and Brian, the couple’s children, walked inside with tentative looks on their faces. The little girl took off her coat. She was wearing a denim dress, white tights and black polished shoes. Her shoulder-length brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail, with her bangs still covering most of her forehead. In short, Riley looked adorable – much better than the last time he’d seen her. Tears running down her cheeks, unable to speak… The dreams and memories assaulted him yet again.

While the others took their outdoor garments off, Mrs Hanawalt held out a bouquet of flowers to Harry.

“I know it’s not much, but it’s something,” she said.

Harry took the flowers – a beautiful arrangement of Irises – looking completely flabbergasted. “What – why?” he managed.

“We are so sorry that you got involved in… what happened,” Mr Hanawalt said. “I still don’t know exactly why they were so interested in us, but I’m very sorry for the pain you were put through.”

Harry was a bit surprised that the Ministry had let the Hanawalts remember anything about the kidnapping at all – considering how much magic had been involved – and then he realized that perhaps the Ministry didn’t know at all. After all, it was the Order who’d known about the operation, and Ron and Hermione had been ordered to keep the Ministry far, far away from it.

“It’s not… I mean,” Harry muttered, “I’m sorry for what happened. It wasn’t your fault at all.”

The elder Hanawalts just smiled at him while the children began to walk further into the apartment.

“We know about the failed operation,” Mr Hanawalt said.

Harry stared at him.

“Mr Dumbledore visited us at the hospital,” Mrs Hanawalt filled in. “He thought it would be good for us to know just what happened and why.”

Dumbledore had talked to the Hanawalts? Why hadn’t he been informed? Harry wondered. They hadn’t seen or heard anything from the Headmaster of Hogwarts since Harry’s hospitalisation, and the Boy Who Lived wondered how the old wizard could have kept something like this from him.

“Oh,” was all that he could say to the Hanawalts.

“Harry!” Draco’s voice made the raven-haired boy turn around.

“Yes, Draco?” he asked, and fought not to laugh. Both Riley and Brian were climbing all over the blonde, and he looked none to happy about it. “We have guests,” Harry said simply, for he knew it would be the best way to annoy the blonde.

“Thank you, Potter,” Draco growled.

“I do believe you’ve met each other before?” Harry said to Draco. “This is Mr and Mrs Hanawalt, and their children, Riley and Brian. Dumbledore seems to have told them just why they were kidnapped.”

Now it was Draco’s turn to stare, first at Harry, then at the elder Hanawalts. He woke up when Riley grabbed hold of his hair and pulled it.

“Ouch!” Draco exclaimed. Riley looked at him with a scared look on her face and ran to hide behind her mother. The blonde didn’t do anything to comfort the child; instead he just looked at Harry. “And he didn’t see fit to inform us of this?”

“Apparently not,” Harry sighed. He turned to the Hanawalts. “You’ve met Draco before, I’m told, but I’m going to assume that you haven’t been introduced. Mr Hanawalt, Mrs Hanawalt, this is Draco Malfoy.”

“It’s so nice to finally be introduced to our rescuer,” Mrs Hanawalt said and Draco blushed to match the hallway walls.

“I’m not – I mean – that’s not,” he muttered incoherently.

“Let’s go sit down in the living room,” Harry suggested. Now that Draco had taken over the part of the stuttering, disbelieving host, he would have to be the one to get a real conversation going. It would certainly be interesting to see just how much the Hanawalts knew.

They moved through the hallway, and Brian exclaimed, “Mum! Look at the pictures! They’re moving!”

Harry grinned at him. He’d reacted about the same way the first time he’d seen the moving photographs and paintings. In fact, there were still times when they amazed him.

Riley asked her mother to lift her so that she could see properly, but Harry was faster. He grabbed her under her arms and lifted the happy three-year-old into the air. Her eyes widened as she saw the people moving in the pictures, and she stretched her hand out to finger them. When she found that she couldn’t actually touch the little people in the pictures, she frowned.

A few minutes later, they’d managed to make it through the corridor and sat down on the couch. Riley and Brian were running around the room, looking at the moving paintings on the walls and chasing each other all over the place. Mr and Mrs Hanawalt sat on the couch while Harry pulled another chair to the low glass table and Draco sat in the armchair.

Harry thought for a moment, then muttered, “Audiosis Draco,” and hoped it worked.

‘Draco, can you hear me?’

The blonde nodded to him, and did the same thing himself. “Audiosis Harry,” he said so quietly Mr and Mrs Hanawalt couldn’t hear. Harry was amazed when Draco’s spell also worked the first time he tried it. They must be getting used to both each other and the spell.

Harry turned to Mr and Mrs Hanawalt. “Please excuse the rude wording of the questions I’m going to ask. But we need to know exactly how much you know and remember.”

Mr Hanawalt smiled to him. “Everything, Mr Potter. Dumbledore gave us the option of a forgetting-spell, but we said no. He did perform one on the children, though; we don’t think that they should have to remember any of it.”

Harry nodded gravely. “Sounds like a good idea,” he said. ‘The poor children shouldn’t have to remember that.’

‘No,’ Draco agreed. ‘In fact, I’d rather not remember it, either.’

“What did Professor Dumbledore tell you?” Draco asked, tilting his head slightly.

“He’s a Professor?” Mrs Hanawalt asked, interested.

Harry nodded, “Yes. Well, actually, he’s the Headmaster at Hogwarts.”

“That’s the Wizarding School, right?” Mr Hanawalt asked. “I’m having a hard time remembering the names…”

Harry nodded again. “Yeah, Hogwarts is the Wizarding School. Now, to get back to the topic at hand…?”

Mrs Hanawalt gave him a gentle smile. She said, “He explained to us about Volde- sorry, You-Know-Who.”

Harry smiled slightly at her. “It’s all right. We use his real name here.”

‘Just here? Have you ever used anything but his real name?’ Draco asked him. Harry shot him a look.

“Okay, well, he told us about Voldemort, and that he was the one behind the kidnapping. He said he didn’t know why he kidnapped us, but he also told us that it might have to do with Carl’s knowledge of guns?” Harry and Draco nodded at her.

“Then, when he’d told us about Voldemort, he had to explain to us about… magic. He explained about your school, though he didn’t mention that he was the Headmaster there, and a little about your world. My guess is that he didn’t even begin to cover it all, but we gained some understanding at least.”

‘But why did Dumbledore feel it was better that they know?’ Harry asked.

‘I don’t know, but there must be some reason. The Headmaster doesn’t do things just like that,’ Draco replied. He looked around the room, and his eyes stopped on the children. ‘You know what?’

‘What?’

‘I think I know exactly why Professor let them know.’

Harry followed Draco’s gaze to look at Riley. She was holding something in her hand… and in front of her a piece of paper was floating calmly in the air…

“My wand!” Harry exclaimed and jumped up from his seat. He ran over to the child quickly and took the wand from her in one fluid motion. The piece of paper fell to the ground as he picked the little girl up in his arms.

‘I think we have a future student for Hogwarts,’ Harry heard Draco think.

‘Most definitely.’

Riley’s parents were staring at their daughter. She in turn was trying to get Harry’s wand back from him, and pouted when he held it out of reach. He shook his head at her. “No, I don’t think so,” he smiled at her. She just pouted more.

“What – what did she just do?” Mr Hanawalt said, still staring wide-eyed at his daughter.

“It seems your daughter is a future witch,” Harry replied calmly, “Which would explain why Dumbledore decided that you could and should remember about the Wizarding world.”

“Our daughter? A witch?” Mrs Hanawalt asked. She didn’t sound disgusted by it though; more shocked and a little bit curious.

“Seems like it,” Harry said again.

While the grown-ups were talking, Riley seemed to have decided that Harry’s lap was a comfortable place to be. She snuggled closer, wrapping his robes – which Harry now realized probably were quite odd to the elder Hanawalts – around her tightly. She yawned and closed her eyes, oblivious to the shock she’d just given her parents.

‘Looks like you have a fan, Potter,’ Draco smirked at him.

‘Oh do shut up, Malfoy.’

The afternoon proceeded calmly after that. Harry and Draco continued to speak to each other telepathically whilst talking to Mr and Mrs Hanawalt at the same time. Riley slept for nearly two hours on Harry’s lap, looking completely content where she was.

Harry explained more about Voldemort: some background history, excluding the part about him being the famous ‘Boy Who Lived’. He didn’t need that attention added to the way the Hanawalts were already looking at him. He guessed that for two grown-ups, the information about a hidden Wizarding community was quite overwhelming. It must be easier for a child to accept; Harry himself only remembered feeling excited about the new world he was led into by Hagrid at the age of eleven, never overwhelmed.

Draco in turn explained more about their work as Healers. The little he and Harry knew, that was. After all, Harry and Draco didn’t know even close to everything about being Healers.

“I hardly remember it,” Mrs Hanawalt said when Draco had told them about the healing he’d preformed after the kidnapping. “All I can recall is warmth, and that it felt good inside.”

Mr Hanawalt agreed. “I don’t think we were too coherent at the time,” he smiled gently at them. “I remember the fear for Riley and Brian, and then, just like Anna said, the warmth.”

“I can’t tell you how thankful we are for what you did,” Mrs Hanawalt said. “Without you, I’d be either at the hospital still – or perhaps I’d be dead.”

She shuddered, and Harry saw Mr Hanawalt squeeze her hand in comfort.

Draco’s cheeks were red, Harry noted out of the corner of his eye. The young man obviously wasn’t used to people thanking him so much. Harry decided to add a little to it.

‘I think that goes for me too, Draco,’ he thought, filling his inner voice with both a bit of irony – to annoy the blonde – and a bit of honesty – he was thankful, after all. ‘So thank you.’

He watched with amusement as Draco turned a deeper shade of red. ‘Oh sod off,’ he muttered in his thoughts.

Finally, three hours after they’d arrived, the Hanawalts stood to leave. Riley had just woken up, so she was rubbing her eyes as her mother put her coat on. Brian, who’d been reading some book he’d found in one of the bookcases, didn’t want to leave.

“Oh,” Draco said, “You can borrow the book if you want to.”

The boy’s face lit up and he threw himself at Draco as Harry stared at the Slytherin. Who’d replaced Draco with this child friendly alien? The blonde seemed to be ignoring Harry, for he was hugging Brian, but then Harry heard, ‘What? You’re the only one who’s allowed to have a fan club?’

Harry grinned at him. ‘Nope, you just go right ahead…’

He turned to Mr and Mrs Hanawalt. “I hope that the afternoon wasn’t wasted?” he asked with a grin.

Mrs Hanawalt smiled at him. “Definitely not. Thank you, Mr Potter. For everything.”

Harry returned the smile. “Please, call me Harry.”

“And call me Draco!” the blonde told them from behind.

“If you call us Anna and Carl. ‘Mr and Mrs Hanawalt’ make us sound so… old.”

Draco and Harry grinned and nodded at them. They said their goodbyes, and Riley hugged both of them, before the family left. Harry stood and stared at the closed door after them.

‘Well, that was certainly an interesting afternoon,’ Harry heard Draco say.

‘Interesting is not a strong enough word for it.’

‘I can’t wait to see those two at Hogwarts.’

‘Those two?’

“Oh come on,” Draco said. “Don’t tell me you didn’t feel the magic radiating off the boy.”

Harry shrugged. “I guess I wasn’t concentrating on that.”

Draco smirked at him. “No, you were too busy cuddling the little girl.”

The raven-haired boy ignored Draco’s comment. “She’s cute,” he said, remembering how it felt to have Riley sleeping in his arms. “Do you want kids?”

Draco stared at Harry. “What did you say?”

“I asked you if you want kids. You seemed to be quite happy with Brian, just like I was with Riley,” Harry said, shrugging.

The blonde gave him a small smile. “I want kids. Someday.”

“Don’t you think it’ll be a bit hard?” Harry asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if this is the future or a future at least, which we’re fairly certain it is, then you and I will be… together… for some reason I can’t explain,” he added, and continued, “And if we’re together, we really won’t be able to have children.”

‘If we’re together, then we’ll find a way,’ Draco said to him.

Harry paused for a moment, then asked, ‘Have you gotten used to it yet?’

‘Used to what?’

‘Us being together here in this place,’ Harry said.

Draco looked at him. “It’s getting easier.”

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