Slash after slash after slash the whip came down on him. Each tormenting lash it scarred his back, the wound opening immensely and gushing out the oozing substance of red thick liquid. The sound of the whipped cracking down on his tainted flesh made the demon hold back grunts of pain. His fist tightly scrunched together and forehead dripping in sweat, he dared not to say anything.

The ghoul giving the punishment, covered in a black trench coat that resembled the myth of the grim reaper the mortals had come up with, held the weapon in his hands, ever now and then asking a question Harry could simple not answer.

"What a mistake," the creature hisses absurdly, raising his arm up high and letting his strength pile down on the demon below him, allowing another wound to open up, the blood flowing down the back elegantly.

Harry's eyes twined together, feeling the burning sensation of each cut spread across his entire body like fire. He began counting the slashes, now at eight exactly and his punishment was to be ten. Therefore, he calmly awaited the next mark to be placed on his back.

"What made you make such a slip up?" The man in the trench coat asked through gritted teeth, having enjoyment within his own actions.

Harry only stayed silent, not daring to mention the Angel that has come down in Hell. If he were to do that then chaos would ensue, something Harry didn't want to happen. Although, he knew he had to give answer, but not exactly the right one.

He breathed out, mouth inching apart to let some blood seep through his teeth from biting his gum too much. He spit on the ground, saliva now a grainy velvet color. He slowly reopened his eyes, keeping them locked on the dirt his hands were covered in. "I got distracted with other duties," he muttered out, voice hoarse and scratchy, throat burning.

"Ah," the man hummed, refusing to give a warning as he slashed Harry's back once more, going over a previously made scar. "Foolish."

"You have a main job, focus on that," were the words that were said to Harry as the tenth, and final, whip came down. Not as painful as the others since Harry had fairly gotten used to the pain after the sixth time.

"Get out of my sight and back to work," the man ordered, setting his blood soaked whip back in its holster, turning around dramatically and walking away from Harry. With the footsteps growing fainter and fainter, Harry collected himself, breathing heavily as he struggled to get off his knees and to his feet with a mangle of noises from the pain surging through his entire body.

The demon took no time on heading straight out, going directly towards Limbo to make up for the lost work. Anger coursed inside him, mostly at himself for making such a stupid mistake and all because he was fooling with an angel, a thing he already knew not to do.

Regardless, his emotionless state returned and he exhaled hatred. The fire in his lungs rebuilding, and with blood steadily running down his back, he regained himself and returned to the torturing of the souls.

† † †

Draco couldn't stop pacing back and forth while he picked at this nails, muttering his worries about Harry to himself as the demon had not returned for hours on end. Being left alone to his thoughts only made him more anxious and frankly, he was ready to leave the house and go venture out to find Harry on his own.

The only thing stopping him was fear, but even that started to diminish slowly. The angel desperation grew immensely, and no one had come by to visit him or tell him what's going on. Everything was silent, too silent for his liking.

Whilst all this was happening, Draco had another worry the began to grow along with his concern for Harry.

A single feather, a golden ombré part of his wing had mysteriously fallen off.

Draco hadn't realized this until he finished touching himself. He got up to clean himself and saw the shimmering feather laying on the bed spread. The petite boy panicked quickly, wondering what happened to his wings or if more would fall of, but thankfully, none had. It was just the one.

That was another problem. His current one was predominately Harry. His mind became frustrated, and impatience filled his lower stomach. Fear seemed to vanish completely from his system and he edged himself closer to the door, hand grasping the doorknob carefully. Ever so slightly tuning it to crack the door open to take a peak outside.

Nothing seemed to be there. Mercury eyes scanned through his surroundings to make sure nothing dangerous awaited for him as soon as he took a step out the safety of Harry's house.

The angel's wings closed tightly around his fragile body, keeping him somewhat safe from any harms. And with a whine emitting from pursed lips, he took the tiniest step out the door and closed it firmly behind him.

This is the first time he would go around Hell all by himself, usually having Blaise or Harry around him in order to protect him, but with neither of them to be seen, he would have to manage by himself.

Thankfully, Draco remembers his way back to the house if needed be. But, the place he desired to go was the first place he had been harmed. The wound on his thigh just now forming a thick scar.

He shielded himself with his wings whenever he heard unpleasant sounds like snarling or screaming from the damned, even the crunch of bones underneath his feet, but with persistence, he continued on.

It felt like forever until he finally reached the crumbled stone building, not met with much friendly or familiar faces like Ron or Blaise. Instead, he was met once again with Cormac and two girls.

One he remembered went by the name of Pansy, but the other blanked in his mind. The girl with horns and fiery red hair just like Ron's.

He shuffled closer, mainly scared of the boy in the room, but he still felt comforted by Pansy's shocked look. Draco took a long stare at Cormac's current state, the sickened male had remains of Harry's punishment still upon him, highly prominent.

Staying clear away from the boy, he stood closer to the girls. He uncluttered his wings, making his body visible to the ones before him and he felt a bit uncomfortable by everyone's stare.

Draco had forgotten about the marks that covered his thighs and neck.

"Draco," Pansy's sharp voice interrupted his thoughts and he looked up instantly.

"Yes?" He asked, tone quiet and timid.

"What're you doing here all by yourself? You know that's dangerous!" She shouted at the sensitive ethereal being, regretting the raising of her vocals as soon as she spoke up since Draco took a step back away from her.

She sighed, looking over at Ginny momentarily before returning her gaze back to the shy boy.

"Sorry," Pansy breathed an apology, giving off a warm smile in return to hopefully make things a better.

Draco only shrugged his dainty shoulders, looking down at the ground to scared to meet eye contact with the by standing a few feet behind Pansy.

"It's okay," he whispered, glancing up for a second before reverting his gaze back down. "I'm here because Harry hasn't been to see me in the past eight hours. Neither has Blaise," he explained.

"Oh, well..." Pansy started, presumably thinking of the right words to say for this situation. "I guess you can stay with me until he returns."

A tiny hint of a smile spread across Draco's soft features, eyes finding a way to shine brightly at the statement. Ever so grateful of her nice upbringing.

"Really?" Draco smiled, not feeling afraid anymore therefore he scooted closer, Cormac's presence in the room not as prudent anymore, but he could feel the cold stare the other boy was giving, Draco receiving the unwanted message clearly enough. He stood away, mainly focused on Pansy's offer.

"Yeah. Since Harry's probably busy with Limbo after the accident I'll look after you," she placed her nimble hand on Draco's shoulder, giving it a light friendly squeeze of endearment, eyeing the marks on Draco's neck subtly, but she decided against on saying anything about them— already having an idea of where the might've came from.

The silence took over, a powerful radiance plunging itself through Draco's body. He felt uneasy, not because he wasn't used to it ( he was fairly used to Harry's ) , but this time, it changed. It lessened, not as powerful as Harry's energy, but almost enough to make the angel cower in fear.

He turned his head, blonde hair falling into his eyes as his vision shifted to the red headed girl giving him a very cold stare. He stepped away subconsciously, arms going to cross themselves over his chest.

"Ginny," Cormac's voiced raised, "What is it?"

Ginny huffed, bluntly refusing to turn her head in Cormac's direction. She stifled a chuckle, shaking her head towards the angel. "It's him, you know," she vaguely spoke, making Draco to turn his head on confusion. What was him?

"He's the reason Limbo fell apart. Look at those marks... I know Harry did them," she came to the conclusion easily, putting two and two together in no time at all. "It's a big danger for a demon to make any sort of tender interaction with an angel!" Ginny retorted, pointing her sharpened nail over at Draco.

"I know. So should Harry, it was one mistake. I'm sure Harry wouldn't make it again," Pansy defended, seeing how Ginny was beginning to get all riled up. Her face turning a faint shade of red, eyes darkening at the mere sight of the small angel just standing there, unsure of how to handle this.

"We don't know that."

"We do. Harry's received his punishment already. There's no way he would make the same mistake," Pansy informed, eyes becoming slits as she stared daggers over at her heated friend.

"Punishment already?" Draco questioned under his breath, eyebrows furrowing together. "Is he okay?" He asked in genuine concern, finally hearing something about Harry's whereabouts in the past eight hours of knowing absolutely nothing.

Sighing, Cormac took the stage, mustering past the flustered up girls in a heated conversation and went to Draco's aid. The angel whimpered and quickly moved away from, but Cormac stayed his distance away, having learned from his own punishment.

"He's tough. He should be fine, but you should know what you're doing is wrong. You can't—," an elongated pause filled the room. Both girls stopped chatting, and Draco anticipated the next few words hat would escape from Cormac's mouth.

And what he heard made his heart flutter and simultaneously drop at the same time.

"You can't fall in love with him."

Draco was taken aback, face contorted into an expression of shock and disbelief. He shook his head violently back and forth, pouting like a two year old child, promptly refusing the words. "I'm not!" He commented without a stutter, fairly sure of what he said. "I don't love Harry, how could I?"

Ginny chuckled at this. "I did."

Once again, caught by surprise, Draco looked at her with wide eyes. "You did?"

She nodded her head, taking her nails to swipe her hair behind her ear, reconciling the memory of when she idiotically fell in love with the same demon. Even if it was less dangerous to do so, it never happened because of Harry's stoic state and the inability to fall in love himself. She gave up with time, and began to fall out of love with me.

"It never worked because of Harry. He couldn't feel love, so he never fell for me," the girl answered, anger slipping away from as she spoke on. She let the memory fade, bearing it would be too much pain to endure, but she looked over at the hopeful boy. She could sense some type of emotion the other felt for Harry and it couldn't become a thing.

If they got caught harboring an angel in hell, the would suffer dearly and more than likely to cease to exist by the hands of their creator.

"C'mon Draco," Pansy verbalized, sliding her hands along the the boy's lower back, ushering him away from the other two demons. "Let's go to my place."

Draco nodded, head dropping down and shoulder sinking. The mention of Harry not being able to feel love was like a dagger being stabbed through his heart over and over again repeatedly making him weaker by the minutes. The walk with Pansy remained quiet, throat dry and unable to speak; not like he wanted to anyways.

The walk was short and uneventful, Pansy's hand never left his side and when he was pushed inside a house he finally looked up to see a rather clean home. It was more furnished and well kept than Harry's, but he still missed Harry's place. It smelled like him and the way Draco dwelled inside of it had been like no other, but he guessed this would do for now.

"Thanks," the angel muttered, stepping further into the abode, unsure of what to do here.

"No problem, just make yourself at home and I'll be upstairs if you need me," she grinned over towards Draco, pushing herself up the stairs and just like that, she was gone of out Draco's sight.

He hummed amongst himself, fingers trace along the walls of the room as he walked, going straight to the pile of dirty cloths in the center of the room. Dirt from the outside and possibly even blood stained the sheets, and yet, Draco found it looking quite comfortable. That's when the tiredness began setting in his body and he ached for some sleep. Today had been long, he deserved a good rest.

He laid his exhausted self on top of the tattered cloths and made himself comfortable within in with his wings to provide him the necessary warmth. Eyes closed, a soft sigh released from fair lips and sleep enveloped him fully.

† † †

He didn't realize how long he had been asleep for until he awoken by a loud knock coming from Pansy's front door. He laid back down, hoping whoever was knocking would go away or if Pansy would come down and open the door herself, but whoever it is was consistent.

Draco grumbled, groggily waking up from his nap and stumbling to his feet, he trudged to the door and opened it harshly, yanking the door open only to face a tall tanned figure standing in his way.

"There you are, I was getting worried you wandered off somewhere," the scratchy, yet sweet tone came and Draco tiredness washes away instantly as his arms slung around the male's body tightly, hands firmly placed on the demon's back. He felt the wet substance on his hands, and released to look at it what is was.

Shocked to see blood covering his hands, he gasped, looking up at Harry with big, fearful eyes. "Harry?" He vocalized, peering down at his stained red hands, "What did they do to you?"

Draco felt like crying as Harry walked in Pansy's place, now standing behind him he was able to get a good look at all the opened gashes that marked various spots on Harry's back.

"This is all my fault," the angel sulked, tear ducts rimming with salted tears.

Harry turned, shaking his head. "No it's mine," he took the blame easily. The taller male bent down, cupping the angel's face in his dirtied palms, taking his thumb to gently stroke Draco's softened cheek. "I shouldn't have done this to you," he said, gesturing towards Draco's neck.

"But- But I liked it," he whispered faintly, aching to touch the wounds the littered the demon's body, wanting to heal him properly.

Instead, he cried in Harry's hand. All walls crumbling down and Draco's poor little heart broken into a million pieces, truly made of glass.

Harry stood there, unused to this certain of emotion and just in general not good at comforting others, but for some reason his own heart began to hurt for the angel. Pain that hurt worse than the wounds.

He needed to listen to his head, not his heart, but the only thing he was hearing was his heart. It was loud and containing powerful messages while his head gave the opposite.

"I know," he decided on. "I liked it too."

Draco looked up through wet tears and sticky blonde eyelashes, sniffling. "You did?"

Harry nodded his head in affirmation, yet no grin plastered his face. "Yes."

Draco's stomach doubled over, butterflies flying their way throughout his entire system. He went to put his hand on Harry's bicep, gripping it in his weak hold, wanting him closer, but the demon stayed put, blood dripping on the wooden floor.

"But," Harry spoke up again after a while of nothing but sniffles from Draco's end. "It can't happen again."

Draco's arm dropped to his side, a saddened expression falling into a pit of nothingness, face still held in Harry's warm hands.

The butterflies within him died. Only to be reborn again as raging wasps.