Chapter 25 - Breaking the Thrall

                                        

                                              
Published: May 2nd, 2025
TRIGGER WARNING: mentions of non-con, r-word

"Harry? What were you thinking?" 
He whined, still looking at the stairs that Draco had left. He didn't know if Draco was okay. His emotions were all over the place. Shock, anger, fear, shame, anger, fear... anger. Draco was afraid of him, despite his ability to make him do anything. It was so confusing. Still, he wanted to... needed to know if Draco was alright.
"Is Draco okay? I don't think he is," he muttered, looking at the stairs. "I need to know he's okay."
"I don't know, Harry. I doubt it. But he's in the shower, and I don't think he'd appreciate any of us bursting in on him. You'll have to wait."
"He's upset... I need... I can't get up!" he growled, trying to fight Draco's order.
"What? Why?" Ron asked.
"He told me to stay here!"
"Well, I can't do anything about it and again... he's in the shower," Hermione pointed out.
Harry buried his face in his hands. "I didn't think...."
"Clearly," Ron muttered and Harry looked at him. "What? You asked for this! You went on and on for weeks... no months... about Draco's every emotion."
"I did not go on and on!"
"If the conversation lasted longer than a minute, you did," Ron scoffed and Hermione sighed.
"Ron, enough. Harry, please explain why you did this?" she asked, sitting next to him.
Harry shook his head. "It made sense to me. The wolves weren't going to stop unless we killed them all... and I don't want to kill them all. If I became a wolf... I could challenge the Alpha to fight for leadership."
"Oh, Harry..." she said, looking dubious. "And what after? The pack leader stays with the pack... that's why they have legal sovereignty. They live separately from everyone else."
Harry frowned. "We'll deal with it. Can I ask you... to...."
"Guard you at the moon? Of course, we will."
Harry lowered his head and resisted the urge to whine. "Thanks. I'm sorry... it felt right... in my mind. I didn't want Draco to face it alone anymore."
"He wasn't alone, Harry," she said, sounding exasperated. "But what is done is done."
"He smells... angry and afraid."
Hermione brought her hands up to her face like she was praying and closed her eyes. After a minute, she sighed and made a sweeping gesture with her hands. "Alright! I am not going to spell everything out for you, Harry. Far from wanting to reassure you... I want to make sure that you don't hurt him."
"I would never...."
Hermione smacked his leg. "Listen... Harry James Potter!"
Harry's spine locked up when she used his full name. She was pissed.
"Draco just went through hell. He was just brutally and repeatedly assaulted... gang raped, Harry, by werewolves. And more importantly... by the wolf that bit him... the Alpha! Whom he just casually mentioned, not ten minutes ago, made him do unimaginable things! Well... unimaginable for me... but were very, very real... to him."
Harry's eyes watered at her tone and the things he could only imagine... had happened to Draco. He murmured, "I know... about the obeying thing... Draco did... tell me some of things about what happened."