The first few days back at the Dursley's had been casual and rather calm but mostly because the boys were being especially careful of what they said and how long they took to get their chores done for whilst Dudley stayed well away from them, Vernon was watching them as though waiting for them to do magic. He eyed them whenever they were in sight and growled if they so much of did anything wrong. Magic scared him and when he was scared...he reacted angrily.

A week passed by without too many incidents, mostly just being yelled at or set to bed without dinner...but one afternoon that changed. And it was all because Dudley no longer avoided them.

Harry and Draco had been dusting in the living room when Dudley stuck his foot out, tripping Draco flat onto his face. The blonde got up angrily but Dudley shoved him over again until he growled in annoyance.

"Draco" Harry reminded him and the blonde forced himself to glance away but Dudley continued to shove or trip him with every chance he got or he would throw chips at Draco to make him clean it up.

"Stop it!" Draco scowled after another ten minutes but Dudley just laughed at him and decided to harrass Harry next.

"You're home early, dear" Petunia said to Vernon when he slumbered into the house.

"Boring day" He mumbled. "Are the Masons coming next week?"

"Yes, I just received the call an hour ago" Petunia nodded but if she was about to say anything else she never got the chance for Dudley ran into the hallway yelling.

"Dudders?" Petunia asked as he hid behind her, pointing wildly to the living room.

"D-Draco...he tried to use it on me!" Dudley yelped loudly.

"He's lying, I did not!" Draco called back and it was true, he had merely thrown a chip back at Dudley's head in annoyance but of course the pig knew his parents were right there and never missed a chance to get them in trouble.

"That's it!" Vernon raged and stormed into the living room.

"He didn't do anything!" Harry said defensively while Draco froze fearfully at the advancing man.

"Liar! Trying to blame Dudley!" Vernon grabbed Draco by his hair, his face turning purple by the second.

"Ow!" Draco yelled and tried to pry the fingers off his hair while Harry continued to protest.

"Let him go!" Harry said angrily. "He didn't do anything!"

"Harry, don't!" Draco said. "He'll just get you too-ouch!" He yelped again as he was thrown towards the floor and his wrist hit the fireplace quite hard and he clutched it while his eyes watered.

"Bloody runts!" Vernon continued, advancing on Draco again while Harry was torn between his brother's safety and request.

"Stay back, Harry" Draco pleaded for he knew that both of them would get it if he got involved and it would only be worst.

"Let go of me!" He cried out to Vernon but the man had his hair again and just growled even louder.

"Ungreatful brat!" Vernon said. "How dare you threaten Dudley! How dare you use that freakiness under our roof!" He bellowed and shoved Draco much harder, causing him to hit the fireplace once more and Harry winced at the sound he made upon contact and the sight of Draco doubling over, clutching his side as he tried to fight tears.

"I'm sorry!" Draco yelled out, his eyes squeezed closed as he crouched there. "I won't do it again, I swear sir!"

"Bloody hope you don't, boy!" Vernon said as he kicked his sore side.

"Because if you do..." He lowered his voice to a deadly whisper. "I will stand it no more! You hear me? One more ounce of freakiness from you and you're out of here!"

"Y-yes sir" Draco nodded and flinched as someone touched his shoulder.

"Sorry" Harry said. "He's gone...are you okay?"

"Do I look okay, Potter?" Draco spat at him and struggled to his feet. Harry helped him up to their room and saw how Draco clutched his left ribs and his right hand dangled painfully; they were already beginning to bruise.

"That was nasty" Harry gulped. "I hate Dudley!" He growled angrily as he kicked open their bedroom door and helped Draco lay on his good side on their bed.

"I'll go finish the chores, you stay here" He instructed and Draco was in no position to argue.

Once Harry had left, Draco pulled their photo album out from its hiding place and scanned over the photos of his parents at some function, their wedding and various pictures of them with him as a toddler.

"Why did you have to die?" He asked them softly although he knew they couldn't reply; they were only pictures that repeated a single moment over and over.

"I wouldn't be in this hellhole, I would't be hurting so bad...why did I have to get a screwed up life?" He sniffed and lay back down properly, trying to fall asleep and ignore the throbbing and aching in his side as well as his wrist.

"DRACO MALFOY!" Vernon's bellow awoke Draco from his slumber barely twenty minutes later and the boy jerked upright in reaction; crying out as he hurt his side again.

"Coming!" He barely called back and made his way downstairs, fearful of the reason behing being summoned like a rude house-elf.

"Y-yes sir?" He gulped and entered the kitchen. He spotted Harry nearby washing up with his face set in a scowl as he stared straight ahead.

"Get dinner started, now!" Vernon ordered him and Draco knew better than to reply.

"What happened?" Draco asked as he passed by Harry to get pots and saw the his brother was actually biting his lip to prevent himself from making a sound.

"Burnt my hand" Harry replied. "He's sour today, had a really bad complaint at work and-"

"Hurry up!" Vernon snapped at Draco, making him drop the pot he'd been holding. "Why you useless brat..."

"Sorry, sorry!" Draco said hurridly and went about his tasks as fast as he could with an injured wrist and trembling hands.

The boys worked on their tasks (when Harry was done washing he helped Draco with dinner) and remained quiet but no matter what they did, Vernon always found something to yell about.

"Bloody Smiths!" Vernon contined his rant about work and threats of shutting down some funds. "Who does he think he is? And how am I to use my money properly with these lot in here?" He growled, glancing over at the boys.

"We have to leave this room...he's gonna blow" Draco gulped as he could see Vernon's temper rising and his face getting redder.

"We're nearly done" Harry said. "Just keep going."

"If their bloody freaky parents hadn't of barked up the wrong tree, we wouldn't be stuck with them!" Vernon said and each boy had to bite their tongues not to reply.

 'Useless freaks! Bet they couldn't earn a dime either, Marge is right...they're probably just good-for-nothing freaks!"

"Draco!" Harry hissed as his brother had been ginding his teeth and behind them a neatly washed pile of plates shattered, sending glass all onto the floor.

And Petunia's new roast dish went after that before Draco forced himself to calm down. But the damage had been done.

"WHAT DID I TELL YOU?!" Vernon roared and got up, sending his chair flying backwards as he stared at Draco.

"I...I..." Draco stuttered and desperately tried to find a way around more injuries while Harry stared wide-eyed at Vernon and glanced sideways at Draco's concealed ribs.

"No!" Harry stepped in front of Draco protectively. "Shut up or you'll end up in hospital" He hissed to his brother.

"Harry, no..." Draco said with a pit of fear and guilt swelling inside him.

"I did it!" Harry said to Vernon. "Leave him alone, it was me! I swear!"

"I don't care which one of you did it!" Vernon said and grabbed Harry by the front of his shirt.

"Go, Draco" Harry hissed.

"No, I'm not leaving you...he'll kill you!" Draco said, his eyes tearing and his voice breaking as he desperately tried to think of a way around what was happening.

"Go!" Harry yelled and while Vernon had been bellowing and canceled his voice out, Draco had heard him.

He stared at Harry but saw no other choice. If he didn't go his ribs were going to cause internal bleeding or something horrible, but he just couldn't leave Harry.

"Draco, please!" Harry said. "Please!"

Draco swallowed all the guilt he had and ran past Vernon, up the stairs and into his bedroom. He slammed the door and made his way to the bed, clutching his side in pain before sliding to the floor and wrapped his arms around his knees to sob.

He had left Harry down there and even as he covered his ears he could not block out the unmistable sounds of leather against flesh and while Harry hardly cried out, Draco still heard him a few times and it made him feel worst.

Draco's face had tear trails and his wrist was bleeding a little again but he vowed to distract himself and fed his owl before moving to feed Hedwig as well who was trying to fight her way out of the cage. In a desperate moment to feel something other than cold fear, Draco let her out and held her close on his lap and she stayed there, nipping his good hand softly as if she really was trying to comfort him.

They sat there like that for almost an hour until the house suddenly became deadly quiet and Draco almost launched from the floor to run downstairs but forced himself to stay. He still didn't know why he had listened to Harry or why he had stayed in the room as he was told.

--

Draco gasped fearfully as he heard a noise and then a car engine. He'd had enough; Draco got up and left Hedwig there as he pulled open the bedroom door and ran downstairs, ignoring the stabs of pain in his side.

"Harry?" Draco trembled as he looked around, finally finding his brother staggering from the kitchen, blood oozing from his lip and he could barely stand.

"Oh my..." Draco felt sick at the sight of the pain his brother was obviously going through and the fact that he hadn't stayed to help. "What...what did he d-do?" He gulped.

"Belt" Harry gasped out and reached to Draco for support. "Back...hurts" He winced.

Draco looked around but the Dursleys had left. "Where did they go?" He asked worridly.

"Get...ice cream" Harry said.

"Okay, come on" Draco barely felt his own pain as he wrapped an arm around Harry, flinching as Harry winced to the contact on his back. He helped him upstairs and Harry lay on his stomach, biting back tears still.

"I'm so sorry! I left you!" Draco's lip trembled and he had never felt so bad in his entire life. "I should've stayed...I could've helped..."

"No" Harry croaked.

"It was my fault!" Draco hissed. "You're like this because of me!"

"Accident" Harry said again but his mind was foggy and his eyes were closing against his command.

"Harry?" Draco stared at him while tears continued to roll down his cheeks.

"Oh Merlin save us!" He said, burying his face in the bedsheets to sob; completely unaware of the missing snowy owl...