Harry was confused when he woke up in the Hospital Wing, how had he gotten there? He vaguely remembered Draco saying something about a blood quill, but not getting here. There were other students there, they looked like second years, but there were only 2.

Before Mme Pomfrey noticed he was awake, and while she was dealing with one of the other patients, Harry made his way to the exit. It sounded like she was berating them for doing something stupid, but Harry didn't stick around to listen to what it was about.

----

Standing outside the Slytherin common room, Harry noticed there was still a blood stain on the floor. He felt guilty for causing the house elves so much trouble, remembering how difficult it was when he had to clean up the blood when Vernon had caused him to bleed.

What surprised Harry, though, was that when he entered all the 5th year Slytherins along with Hermione and Fred and George, wearing Slytherin robes, were sitting in a corner surrounded by a pile of books. The pile of books would not be surprising for Hermione, but for everyone?

"I found it!" Theo called out, raising a piece of paper.

"Found what?" Harry asked, walking further into the room, causing the others to jump.

"Harry! Did Mme Pomfrey let you go?" Hermione asked, rushing over to him.

"Um.. About that... I kinda just left." Harry said with a shrug.

"Harry! You need to wait until she lets you go, what if you have other things that need healing!" Hermione reprimanded him.

"I know, I know, but I'm fine." Harry insisted, lifting his hands in a surrender. "What did you find?"

"A spell you should use before you have your next detention." Blaise said.

"Why not use it now?" Harry asked, reaching out for the piece of paper, only for it to be snatched away by Draco.

"Because you just got out of the Hospital Wing and we don't even know how this affects the caster." Draco glared at Harry, daring him to argue.

"Fine." Harry sighed, walking over to a sofa and flopping onto it. Now that he thought about it, he was starving. Of course, it wasn't as bad as it would have been if he was at the Dursleys, but he was still hungry.

"By the way Harry," Draco started, taking a seat nest to the smaller boy, "Why are you so light?"

"I'm a seeker, of course I'm light." Harry said, shrugging off the question.

"I'm a seeker as well, and heavier than you, even professional seekers are heavier than you." Draco said, not wanting to let Harry avoid the question, although it was obvious the latter wanted to.

"Fast metabolism?" Harry said, although it sounded more like a question and he was avoiding looking at anyone.

"If you had a fast metabolism you would eat more than you do and you would be taller." Draco said, before laying a hand on Harry's shoulder in an attempt to provide comfort. "Are you being treated right by the muggles?"

Draco had only asked because if not he would be able to use his family's connections to have him moved elsewhere. Obviously he wouldn't be able to stay at Malfoy Manor, but the Zabini family should be able to protect him. That is, if he managed to gain Blaise's parents' trust, after what happened 14 years ago, they didn't trust people very much, afraid for their remaining child.

Unfortunately, he had hit the nail on the head, causing Harry to dash into the boys' dorm and lock the door with all the spells he could think of, moving surprisingly fast, not giving anyone the time to either stop him or Draco to apologise.

Harry was stressed, he knew that responding like that was all the confirmation anyone needed. He had been trying so hard to not let it show, he hated the attention he would get from it, but now every Slytherin knew. It would probably be in the newspaper tomorrow, Rita Skeeter always found a way to get her hands on gossip, and what would cause more of a fuss than the Boy Who Lived being a victim of domestic abuse?

Thinking about that made him remember what his "family" had done to him, the scars, cuts, welts, sores, and bruises he always came to Hogwarts with. There was a reason his first spell he learnt how to cast was a glamour. He covered every wince of pain he could, hiding the injuries that were in view and the blood from the others.

He started to hyperventilate, wrapping himself in the blankets from the nearest bed, Draco's. When he realised they weren't his sheets, he started to stress even more, he had messed up Draco's bed, he had run from him, this was it. He wasn't going to get off easy as he had previously, exchanging a few insults, he was going to be hurt, badly.

At least, that's what Harry's mind was telling him.

-----

Draco was shocked at Harry's reaction, expecting him to deny it, even though it was obviously true. Everyone was frozen for a moment, staring at the locked door that hid Harry.

"He's abused?" Hermione asked, her voice hardly above a whisper and tears glistened in her eyes. "How could I not have noticed?"

"Because, believe it or not, you're still a child." One of the seventh years said, looking at the group over the book they were reading. "And it can be hard to accept when your friends are being abused."

"Blaise, you try to get Harry to let you in and try to calm him down, I'll go get Snape." Theo said, getting up ant walking towards the entrance.

"Why me? We aren't that close." Blaise asked, looking shocked.

"Because you're a veela, you may not have come into your inheritance yet, but you can still use that charm." Theo explained, not looking back.

"But... My charm is undeveloped, and only veela girls can attract anyone, I can only attract boys who like boys." Blaise said, wanting to help, but worried he would be useless.

"Then let's hope Harry is at least a little gay." Draco said, pushing Blaise towards the door, the others standing back.

Blaise sighed, turning on his charm, making Draco stand further away, not wanting to be distracted from Harry by getting the hots for Blaise.

"Harry, please open the door, just for me? I just want to talk, no anger, I promise." Blaise called through the door, hearing fast, shallow breathing on the other side. At his words, the breath seemed to hitch.

"Please, you don't have to let anyone else in until we've talked if you don't want to, I'm not going to hurt you or yell at you." Blaise said, his voice soft and he was pushing his charm as much as he could, not having gone through his inheritance yet. His back was aching, but he ignored it as he had all of last year and the years prior.

He heard shuffling on the other side of the door and it opened, although it looked like Harry was hiding behind it. Blaise saw this as a good start and walked in, going over to his bed to place his wand on the bedside table to show he meant no harm. Harry had closed the door after Blaise, but it wasn't locked this time.

Blaise noticed the messy sheets on Draco's bed and guessed what had happened, but didn't comment on it. He walked over to Harry's bed and sat down, gesturing for Harry to do the same. The veela charm was starting to get tiring, but he kept it up, hoping that it would make Harry more willing to talk to him.

"Y-you're not angry?" Harry asked, trembling, looking as vulnerable as a 5 year old, which broke Blaise's heart, not that he could explain why.

"I'm not angry at you, I promise. How could I be? You've done nothing wrong." Blaise said, putting an arm around Harry's shoulders.

"But- But I-" Harry stammered.

"But nothing, none of us think you've done anything wrong, because you haven't." Blaise insisted

Harry grabbed onto the front  of Blaise's robes, hiding his face in them as he cried. Blaise didn't say anything, he sat there with his arm around Harry, the other one playing with his hair. Blaise decided then that he was going to write to his parents to ask for Harry to stay with them over the holidays, obviously he wouldn't tell them who he was asking to stay, because they would be overly worried.

Harry didn't notice when Snape entered the room, by that point Blaise having dropped the veela charm. The two taller wizards' eyes met over the crying boy between them, a shared feeling of surprise and sympathy passing between them.

"Potter." Snape said carefully, his tone kinder than normal. "Can you look at me?"

Harry had winced when he heard Snape's voice, but did as he was asked, not wanting to make the older and more capable wizard angry with him. The fear on the small, vulnerable boy's face made Snape internally cringe. How had he not seen this coming? Was he really so blinded by his hatred of James?

"Harry, nobody's angry with you." Snape said as kindly as he could. "Can you drink this for me?"

Harry looked at the vial being held in front of his face, Dreamless Sleep. He had just been sleeping for who knows how long, but if he was under the effects of the potion he wouldn't be aware of when the others got angry with him, unless they waited until he was just waking up, but they wouldn't do that, would they?

Harry decided if he slept he would probably be able to think more rationally, so he took the potion from Snape and downed it. He felt drowsy quite quickly, his weight on Blaise as he fell asleep.

Blaise carefully picked the small boy up, placing him in his bed to sleep, exiting the room with Snape.