Harry had never been held as a child and he liked the feeling of arms around him. At first Draco had seemed slightly perturbed when he had not pulled away after they had satisfied their mutual desire, but his mate seemed to have warmed to the idea. They were lying on the bed, half propped up on pillows, with Harry draped across Draco's chest in a very decadent fashion. Draco's arms were wound loosely around Harry's shoulders and they had lain there for a good few minutes in companionable silence.

"Draco," Harry asked eventually as his curiosity from earlier made it back into his mind, "how come there are sex supplies in the bedside table?"

"What else would go in the little drawer?" Draco asked as if it was a very strange question.

"Tissues, soap, writing paper, pens?" Harry offered with a small shrug.

"But what happens if your guests choose to have sex and they require some assistance?" Draco countered in a very reasonable tone. "It would be terribly impolite to leave them in the lurch like that."

The idea of supplying your guest with sexual aids rather scandalised the Muggle raised part of Harry's brain, but he had to admit that he rather liked the more practical approach to sex. It occurred to him that the fact that the Wizarding world had never had a Dark Ages was a good thing.

"You may have a point," he agreed and snuggled closer to his lover once more.

Draco seemed content to leave the conversation there, which was fine by Harry and he settled down to enjoy the silence again.

"Will you teach me to use these wings properly?" Draco suddenly asked. "I tried, but I didn't get very far."

"It's tricky to begin with isn't it," Harry replied with a small laugh. "I use the room of requirement; we can go there when we get back to school if you like. It's not very nice for flying outside at the moment, so it might be an idea to wait."

Draco responded with a noise that could have been a yes, or a maybe, but Harry was enjoying their current position too much to worry. For all he knew Malfoy Manor had its own room of requirement and his lover was thinking about using that.

The silence embraced them again, but it was a warm lapse in conversation rather than the angry coldness that had been between them since their first coupling.

"How long did it take you to figure it out?" Draco asked a few moments later.

"About a week for the basics, but I was practising every day for a couple of hours," he replied honestly. "It takes a while to figure out how they feel, but once you have it, everything else is second nature. It's not really like learning to use another part of your body, more a way of thinking."

Draco made another unintelligible noise that Harry did not try too hard to decipher and they lapsed back into not talking. Almost without his volition Harry found himself stroking his fingers up and down his lover's side. Draco had a very nice body; fine muscle tone and a strong frame, especially since his rather abrupt change thanks to their tryst. Harry found he liked to touch, and he couldn't help smiling when he found a spot that made Draco shift somewhat. Filing the knowledge away for another time he noted that his lover was ticklish. He felt as if he could stay this way forever.

"Do you mind if I ask you something?" Harry finally voiced what he needed from their meeting.

Sex was good and definitely important to the Seraphim part of him as well as his teenage libido, but what he really wanted was to know his lover. There was a very large knowledge gap in his head with the label 'Draco' and he desperately needed to fill it.

"Okay," Draco replied after a moment's pause and he sounded vaguely nervous.

This was strange for both of them, Harry realised that. They had been enemies so long that opening up to each other was not going to be easy. They were physically intimate, but they were far from intimate on an intellectual level. Running through all his possible questions he realised there was one that was more important than anything else; it was part of what defined them both and it needed to be asked.

"Why did you do it?" Harry asked evenly. "Why did you turn your back on Voldemort?"

The enquiry drew a sharp laugh from Draco and Harry shifted slightly in his lover's arms to look up at his mate's face.

"Merlin's beard," Draco said and shook his head, "you don't believe in asking the little questions first do you."

For a while Harry was worried he had pushed too hard and that Draco would not answer, but Draco did not change the way he was holding him and he sobered quickly.

"I'm sorry, if you don't want to answer..." Harry apologised when they fell into silence.

"No," Draco interrupted him, "don't be sorry; your direct approach is so thoroughly you I'd be worried if you tried something else. It makes a change from what I'm used to if nothing else."

He still didn't have an answer, but at least Harry knew his lover was not offended.

"I'll make a deal with you," Draco said eventually in a very Slytherin like way, "I will tell you why I did what I did and then you will answer one question of mine: anything I want to know."

It was so typical of Draco not to specify what he would ask. Harry instinctively knew it was his mate's way of regaining control. He did not believe that Draco realised that his request was not as frightening as it once would have been; Harry wanted to tell his lover everything. With a nod he agreed, and Draco relaxed back with a concentrated expression on his face. Harry did not push and waited for Draco to begin.

"It was the Avesbury massacre," Draco started eventually in a rather distant tone, "you know it was Voldemort's way of testing those he broke out of Azkaban?"

Harry nodded again to show that he was aware of that. The Dark Lord had freed his supporters from Azkaban and then sent them to kill a coach load of school children who were visiting Avesbury, on a holiday just before Christmas. The Muggle news had reported a terrible coach crash, but that had been the Ministry cover up.

"My father came home afterwards," Draco continued quietly, "still covered in blood, and I ran to see him like a dutiful Death Eater's son, only Azkaban changed him. I think it gave him time to think and he had to face things that had never occurred to him before. He went to my mother and fell apart. I don't think he even knew I was there. My dad fell to his knees in front of my mum and cried into her skirt, telling her everything about the massacre."

Draco paused as if the words were difficult and took a deep breath, Harry tightened his embrace slightly.

"I had never seen my father cry before, and I hadn't faced the horrors of war," Draco said eventually. "He told my mother that Voldemort was not the man he used to be and that he regretted how deeply he was involved. It was not a war about purebloods anymore, it was about vengeance and it was wrong. My father actually said what he was doing was wrong, but he couldn't stop. It rather blew my mind. I left then and I never saw him again. It took me days to get past the shock, but when I did, I realised that I could not end up like him. I began to plan and when I returned to school, I started the coup."

Harry had not known what to expect, but he had not considered that Lucius Malfoy would have had anything to do with his son's change of heart. Suddenly he realised that the Death Eaters were human as well and it was a startling revelation.

"It must have been very difficult," Harry responded quietly; he remembered all too well what it was like to have your belief system completely uprooted.

"What, my father turning out to be fallible, or the coup?" Draco asked a little derisively.

"Both," Harry said honestly.

"The coup was easy," Draco said and Harry did not miss that his mate totally failed to mention his father, "it's in my blood. I've ruled my year for a long time and manipulating them was no trouble. To some of them I think it was a relief."

"It still took incredible courage and resourcefulness," Harry pointed out, unwilling to let Draco play down his contribution to the war

Draco snorted, but did not reply. Harry assumed Draco was thinking, but he did not look up to try and read his lover's features. There was tension in Draco's body that had not been there before, and it took a long time to flow away as Harry stroked his fingers along Draco's side.

"My turn," Draco eventually said in a falsely bright tone.

Now Harry did look up and there was definitely a hint of glee in his lover's eyes.

"Okay," he said in acceptance, "you earned it."

"Why did you go after Voldemort by yourself?" Draco's question was simple, but it lanced at a very private part of Harry's psyche.

The only people he had ever spoken to about his reasoning were Hermione, Ron and Poppy; not even Dumbledore knew why. By now the tale of how the Boy Who Lived had Apparated alone into the presence of Voldemort and vanquished the dark wizard with one spell was legendary, but few knew exactly how or why he had done it.

"I flipped," Harry said with a stark honesty that surprised him. "I hadn't been very stable since my godfather was killed and Voldemort pushed me over the edge. You probably didn't know him, but Colin Creevey, the boy who used to follow me around with a camera all the time had a brother, his name was Denis. He never came back after Christmas that year, he was killed in the Leeds bombing. That was when I realised that I was going to end up watching everyone die if I didn't do something."

He paused to gather his thoughts.

"The prophecy said one of us would die by the other's hand and we couldn't live while the other was alive. Without the worry of being sane I had a revelation," Harry continued slowly. "Voldemort and I were connected from the moment I survived as a baby and it occurred to me that we were two halves of the same magical entity, so I looked up spells for transferring magic from one half of something broken into the other half. There're several of them in '100 housekeeping spells for the magical family'."

Draco took hold of his chin and made him look at his face, his mate appeared shocked.

"Are you telling me you defeated the Dark Lord with a housekeeping spell?" Draco sounded amazed, offended and incredulous all at the same time.

Harry gave a little shrug.

"Um, yeah I suppose I did," he replied, although he hadn't actually ever thought of it like that. "I had to adapt it, but that was basically what it was. Anyway, do you want to hear this or not?"

Draco nodded and let him go so he relaxed back into his original position. Now that he was speaking, he found his did not want to stop.

"I asked Hermione to teach me to Apparate since she was the only one who I thought could manage it," Harry returned to his story. "I told her it was because I was having nightmares about being chased and not being able to escape. I don't think she's ever forgiven me for that. No one seemed to notice I'd gone off the deep end, which probably doesn't say a lot for my mental state before that. When I had learned how to Apparate and knew my power moving spell, I walked to Hogsmeade and used my connection to Voldemort and Legilimency to focus on him. It was easier than I expected and I Apparated straight to him. He was so surprised that he never even tried to defend himself. I grabbed him, cast my spell and sucked him dry. I don't remember anything after that until I woke up two months later."

Draco did not say anything for a very long time and Harry did not feel like reiterating any of his explanation, so he remained silent.

"That is the most foolhardy, ridiculously brave, completely Gryffindor thing I have ever heard," his Slytherin mate said eventually. "You had no idea if it would work; you did something I can barely comprehend when you Apparated; and it could have killed you anyway. What were you thinking?"

"That if I won no one else would have to die," Harry replied quietly, "and if I lost, I wouldn't have to watch all of my friends being killed."

The words slipped out with brutal honesty and caused silence again.

"What was it like," Draco asked after a few moments, "killing him I mean?"

"Horrible," Harry replied openly. "I've told the others that I don't remember much after I cast the spell, but it's not true; I remember every second 'til the moment he died. Only Poppy knows that and you now of course. He tried to fight me, but the power he transferred to me as a baby called to his power and he couldn't stop it. It hurt and I thought I might explode. Poppy says in a way I almost did, but when he died everything just stopped. I wish I could forget it, but I can't, so I keep it locked away and I dream of it sometimes. Is there anything else you want to know?"

When Harry had first explained what he had done to Poppy a few days after he had first woken up, he had cried and sobbed, but now he spoke calmly, keeping the memories distant with practice efficiency. Occlumency was a useful talent to have learned.

"I think I've heard enough for now," Draco said after a moment and he sounded a little shocked.

They lapsed into a rather awkward silence and Harry did not know what to say to break it. Maybe it had been rather a heavy conversation for their first real exchange.

"Oh, bloody hell," Draco said suddenly, "I refuse to lie here with a completely naked Gryffindor and get depressed. There are better things to do."

And with that Harry found himself rolled onto his back and pinned to the bed by Draco's body. He just about had enough time to breathe before his lover covered his mouth and began to kiss him passionately. He gave in easily and wound his arms around Draco, very willing to surrender to desire rather than having to think.