InsaneJournal

Harry jerked awake. Immediately, he noticed, he couldn’t see a thing, nor could he move anything other than his head. Taking stock of himself, he realized he was tethered spread-eagle to something — a bed?

“Draco?” he called out meekly, silently hoping this was just a dream.

“Easy, Pet,” a deep voice said as a hand stroked the fringe back from his sweaty forehead.

“Is the memory loss going to be permanent?” The same voice asked.

“No, he should regain his memory within a few weeks at the most. Worst case scenario is that it will take months. But I’d wager that’s highly unlikely,” a new voice answered.

“Draco?” Harry tried again. This time his voice quivered, betraying his fear, “Draco, what’s going on?”

“Lucius, maybe you should let him rest,” the second voice said.

“Lucius!” Harry cried. He struggled at his bonds to no avail. “This isn’t funny anymore! Let me go! Let me-“

Lucius placed a hand over Harry’s mouth and Harry promptly bit him. Without warning, Lucius smacked the boy across the cheek with a loud crack. Harry remained silent, but he kept his face turned away, the red handprint blossoming like a blush across his pale cheek.

Taking Harry’s chin in his hand, Lucius turned Harry’s face back to him. “Love, I know everything is confusing right now. That’s because you’re suffering slight memory loss from the punishment.”

“P-punishment?”

Lucius sighed, rubbing his thumb over the bruise developing on Harry’s cheekbone. “How much should I tell him?” he asked the second voice.

There was a moment of silence.

“He’s your pet. But I would recommend you tell him as much as you wish he know.”

“What is the last thing you remember, lovely?” Lucius asked, addressing Harry once more.

Harry’s bare chest quivered as he took in a long, shaky breath. “I- I was in the A-stronomy Tower with D-Draco.” He took another breath, desperately trying to calm himself. His pink tongue darted out to whet his parched lips.

“Drizzle, get my pet some water,” Lucius interrupted.

Harry heard a loud crack! before a goblet of cold — blessedly cold! — water was placed against his lips. He drank deeply and then sank back into the pillow behind his head.

“Continue.”

Harry screwed his eyes up tightly behind the blindfold, as though it would help him remember. “Draco and I were in the Astronomy Tower. We had just finished — well we weren’t exactly prepared to be stormed by Death Eaters. One of them grabbed Draco and the other grabbed me and —“ he stopped, turning his head away from the direction of Lucius’s voice. “That’s the last thing I remember,” he finished quietly.   

The bed Harry was laying on shifted abruptly as Lucius stood up. “You didn’t tell me he would forget the last two years.”

“I swear, Mr. Malfoy, I did not know this could happen.”

“Imbicile!” Lucius growled. “Get out!”

The sound of someone packing a bag quickly and shuffling across the floor and a door clicking shut was the only thing Harry heard before the room was pitched into silence.

“Lucius?” he asked softly, as though the very sound of his voice would further the man’s wrath.

“Yes, pet?”

“Where is Draco?”

“He’s dead,” Lucius answered curtly. His footsteps echoed across the bare floor until Harry heard the door open and close, leaving him to mourn the loss of his beloved alone, in the dark, tethered to a bed for a reason he did not know.

Harry awoke sometime later. He couldn’t tell how much later because the blindfold was still over his eyes but his arms and legs were beginning to hurt from being tied for so long.

“Lucius?” he called out, hopefully.

A sharp crack! and, “Drizzle is here to serve Master’s pet.”

Lifting his head — the only thing he could move — Harry looked to his right, in the direction of the voice. “My name is Harry,” he said, defeated, and dropped his head back on the pillow. The blindfold felt stiff and sticky due to his crying himself to sleep the previous — night? Day? Harry had no idea.

“Can Drizzle help Master’s pet?”

“Yes,” Harry answered automatically, “you can bloody well untie me!”

“Drizzle cannot untie Master’s pet. Does Master’s pet need some water?” the elf asked, hopefully.

“Where is Lucius?” Harry asked, ignoring the creature’s questions.

“Master is out for the day. Master will attend to his pet when he returns.”

“How long will that be?” Harry asked, his frustration growing with every minute.

“About five hours. Can Drizzle fluff Master’s pet’s pillow?”

“That won’t be necessary, Drizzle,” the unmistakable voice of Lucius Malfoy said. Harry heard his boots clicking across the floor. He shuddered involuntarily as the sound got closer to his prone form. He felt a slight gust of wind and shivered involuntarily, noticing, not for the first time, that he wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing. He shivered again, but this time not from a chill.

“Yes, Sir. Drizzle is always serving Master, Sir.” Another crack! and Harry knew he was once again alone with the Master of the house.

“Still having problems with that pesky memory, pet?” The boots clicked closer, and although Harry steeled himself for it, the bed did not dip with Lucius’s weight.

“What do you keep calling me that? Pet?” Harry shot back, his bold streak showing itself once again. “And why am I tied to this bed? And why am I wearing this bloody blindfold!” His chest heaved with the force of his breath.

“Now, now, lovely.” A hand smoothed itself down Harry’s bare chest, making him painfully aware of how truly nude his was — a fact which he had tried to ignore previously. “The blindfold and the ropes were just for your protection. If you promise to play nice, I’ll remove them. However, one wrong move and you’ll find yourself in the dungeon faster than you can say,” he paused, Harry’s veins turning cold with the anticipation, “Draco Malfoy.”

Harry clenched his teeth and counted to ten silently. “You have my word,” he answered finally.

“Brilliant.”

Immediately, the ropes binding Harry and the blindfold covering his eyes disappeared as though by evaporation. All at once, Harry opened his eyes and attempted to pull his sore limbs closer to himself. “Argh!” he cried, turning his face away from the bright light.

“Ahh, yes,” Lucius murmured, “you might allow your eyes time to adjust to the light.”

From behind his eyelids, Harry could tell Lucius dimmed the lights for his benefit. He cracked one eye open carefully, to keep himself from being blinded a second time. This time, however, he noticed that his eyes were nearly glued together with dried tears and the crust from sleeping. From what little he could see without his glasses, he could tell there was a blurry shape sitting next to him, but other than that the contents of the room looked like little more than a mess of colours blended together.

“Where are my glasses?” Harry asked.

“All in good time, my little lion,” Lucius answered, smoothly. “Tell me, after your little outburst yesterday, do you remember anything yet?”

Harry attempted to pull himself into a seated position, noticing for the first time the heavy bandages wound around his feet and the pain he felt when he tried to lay them flat against the bed. He cried out, straightening his legs to ease the discomfort.

“What happened to my feet?” He asked, panicked, instead of answering Lucius’s question.

“Oh, that.” Lucius merely glanced downward, as though he had only just noticed the bandages. “I suppose you wouldn’t remember trying to run away, either?”

“I don’t even remember being here!”

Lucius raised his hand to deliver a slap, but lowered it when he saw the way Harry turned his face and screwed his eyes shut, bracing himself for the blow.

“I suppose it would be unwise to punish you when you do not even remember your place in my home,” he said, more to himself than to Harry.

“Nevertheless,” he continued, “when you attempted to run away, I had to do something to ensure you would not try that little stunt again. I had the skin on soles of you feet magically removed. When you can prove to me that you have been satisfactorily reprimanded, I may repair your injury. Until then, I can assure you, it will be nearly impossible for you to walk without causing yourself enormous amounts of pain.”

Harry could only gaze wide-eyed from Lucius’s face to his own bandaged feet. Although he had no prior knowledge of skin removal, he was sure, given the pain he felt, that beneath the bandages he would find a bloody mess on the soles of his feet.

“According to the medi-wizard with whom I was speaking yesterday when you awoke, somehow during the entire episode of your near-escape, subsequent retrieval and punishment, you seem to have lost the last 2 years of your memory.” Lucius sighed, pushing the hair back from his face, causing a long blond strand to fall from the leather thong holding the mass back. “As much as I want to be angry with you right now, I find that I am unable, given you have no recollection of our time together. However, I think it is necessary that I fill you in on a few necessary details.

“Two years ago, while you and Draco were in the Astronomy Tower, the Death Eaters successfully took control of Hogwarts after gaining entrance to the castle through the vanishing cabinet, which my son so graciously fixed for that very same purpose. Unfortunately my heir,” he said this last word with great distain, “found himself in love with The Boy Who Lived and was unable to complete the task the Dark Lord had given him. Nevertheless, Severus killed Dumbledore himself and we took control of Hogwarts. Two days later we took control of the Ministry and the Wizarding world has been ruled by the Dark Lord himself ever since.”

“You’re lying,” Harry said, shaking his head. “You’re lying. This isn’t real. I don’t know how I got here, but it’s not real!”

Lucius rolled his eyes. “Don’t make me smack you again. This is real, Potter. Haven’t you noticed? You woke up and it wasn’t from a dream. You are still in the manor. What do I have to do to convince you? Would you like to see Draco’s grave again?”

“Again?” Harry asked, his eyes filling with fresh tears.

“Yes, again. The first time I brought you here, you refused to do anything — even eat — until I showed you the proof that my son was in fact murdered for speaking against the Dark Lord. The filthy little traitor.”

“Don’t say that. Draco loved me.”

“I don’t want to go through this with you again. Everything will be fine once you get your memory back.”

“I have my memory! Draco’s not dead and this isn’t real and any minute I’ll wake up and you’ll be gone!”

“Oh, Potter, do quit your blubbering. I’ve had quite enough. Now I can either leave you here or if you are going to act civilly, I can take you down to breakfast.”

Harry stayed silent for a moment, staring down at the bandages covering his feet. Then slowly, very slowly, he looked up at Lucius and nodded once. Before he could ask for one, a robe landed atop his shivering body. Hastily, he pulled the garment on, steadfastly ignoring the fact that it smelled like expensive aftershave.

“Obviously you will be unable to walk.” To Harry’s surprise, Lucius’s tone was satisfied, rather than angry or even sympathetic. “Your collar has also been removed temporarily. The medi-wizard thought the magic on the collar would clash with your punishment and cause you even more discomfort. It will be replaced later today, so don’t get comfortable.”

To Harry’s surprise, when he reached up to his neck, he could feel a thick line of tender stick winding around his neck — a sure sign that he had indeed been wearing a collar for some time. Then to Harry’s even greater surprise, Lucius picked him up, cradling the boy to his chest like a babe, and strode out of the room. Lucius walked through so many hallways, around so many corners, and down so many stairs, Harry was sure he would be unable to get back to his — the — room alone, even is if he was able to walk. When Lucius pushed open a huge set of double doors, Harry found himself in a dining hall nearly as large as the Great Hall at Hogwarts.

“Wow,” he whispered before h could stop himself.

Instead of appearing amused, Lucius sneered. “Of course,” he said, his voice dripping with contempt, “You can’t remember your Master, so how can I expect you to remember the informal dining room?”

Torn between a desire to understand what was going on and a desire to please Lucius, Harry said softly, “I’m sorry.”

“That was a rhetorical question.”

Cowed, Harry bowed his head and buried his face against the fabric of Lucius’s robes feeling even more embarrassed at his extremely close proximity to the man.

Lucius crossed the room to the head of the table. He lowered Harry to his knees next to the chair and sat down at the table himself.

“Uhm,” Harry started, “I need help getting into my chair.”

Lucius looked down at him, narrowing his eyes.

“I do want you to know that I am not enjoying the fact that I have to take you back through your training from the beginning. That is your place, pet. Learn it.”

Harry sighed, but once again struggled to obey. He found that when he stayed on his hands and knees too long, his knees began to hurt. However, he couldn’t sit back on his heels either, because of the sharp pain it caused. The only compromise he could find was to spread his legs farther and sit his rear end on the floor, with his legs bent on either side of him. It wasn’t the most comfortable position, but it was the most comfortable, given his options.

When Lucius looked down at him for the first time, the blond man let out a chuckle and carded a hand through Harry’s messy black locks.

“I knew you still had obedience in you, Pet. It’s just like riding a broom, hey?” Lucius reached up to his plate and offered Harry a piece of bacon.

Harry’s stomach gave a loud gurgle at the offer of food. He had no idea how long it had been since he’d eaten last, and the bacon in Lucius’s hand looked like the best thing he’d even been offered. He even licked the grease from Lucius’s fingers when the man kept his fingers in front of Harry’s mouth.

They continued like that until every piece of bacon was finished from Lucius’s plate. Harry still wasn’t full, but he wouldn’t dare ask Lucius for more.