A Year of Open Skies
by Pinkwhirlwind
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, JK Rowling does.
Have you ever loved someone you couldn't love, shouldn't love. Someone that you have done things to that you shouldn't have done? There were plans, when we were kids, in school, about how everything was supposed to come out. He'd marry a Weasley girl and I'd marry someone of good bloodline. There would be children. Society would be saved. Splendid. The only problem with this great happy plan is that somewhere in all that disaster that was our education, I fell in love with Harry Potter.
I mean... who won't? He whines and there is that ever present prophecy and impending doom. My entire family and everyone who's ever had any power over me hates him like the Weasley's have renounced any sense of style.
And I love him.
For his strength and his courage and his utter stupidity sometimes. I see his dark eyes when I close mine, his dark and unruly hair.
I think it was that as he grew up, as he succeeded again and again, against all odds, pushing back at the forces that had seem so omnipotent to me as a child - I realized I could be free too.
So here I am... a fine wizard of good bloodlines, fine grades on my NEWTS, not a sliver of gold to my name because - really my family did not see the world the way I wanted to.
It was the final slide down that when Hermione Granger offered me a job, which I'm pretty sure she only offered because the was a serious potential for bodily injury, I took it. I won't have if I'd known that Harry Potter was her secret partner and he was coming along on this mission as well. I definitely would not have taken the job.
The world is full to death of half breeds. Blood gets muddier all the time until maybe it's more some fancy new pottery than any kind of mud. So what you get when a leprechaun and a langolier get a little too frisky? It seems to happen more often than one would think, but the offspring is a lisp and the breath of one of these creatures, not like their breath, just get them to blow into a bottle or something, undoes forget charms. This might be very useful, if you're say Hermione Granger.
"I don't think this is a good idea," Harry said softly, wand at the ready. "I still don't trust you."
"Well, thank you for being so forthcoming," Draco snarked back. "Who asked you along anyway?"
To either side of the least frequented flue in Knockturn Alley, they pressed back against the wall, hoping their charms would keep them invisible until they sprung their trap. Both of them wore black slacks. Draco's shirt was button up, with a black tie, his longer dirty moonlight blond hair pulled back into a ponytail. Harry, still just a little shorter than Draco, wore a black tee-shirt and every irritated expression he could find. "Just shut up, will you? I'm not going to let you ruin this for Hermione. All we have to do is grab this thing, get it to breath into the container, and problem is solved."
"And I get paid," Draco said firmly, triumphantly.
"And I get rid of you."
Waiting stretched out a bit, both of them silent in the abandoned flat.
Waiting made neither of them less irritated.
"Are you in love with her?"
"Excuse me?"
"Are you in love with Granger?"
"I don't see how as..."
The lisp came through the flue like a swirl of Champagne mist, swirling around their ankles before either of them realized. Warm tendrils of might-have-been slipped under Draco's pant let, winding up his leg like temptation incarnate. Draco started the capture charm, his wand moving impossibly slowly, no matter how much he willed it faster. By the time he was half way done, the lisp's presence reached his lips, his thoughts, promising him forever and happiness with Harry. Harry would forgive him everything. Harry secretly loved him back. Hermione was planning their wedding. It would be at the Weasley's and his father would be let out of Azkaban for the ceremony. Ginny Weasley would be his best mate.
"This is preposterous!" He screamed, breaking free of the spell so that he could finish the charm.
Harry half floated in the arms of something much less friendly than a leprechaun. It had deep like a diamond studded paper shredder. Instead of fingers it had tentacles, which were wrapped around an unconscious Harry, sliding under the thin tee-shirt, and not by way of getting frisky.
Draco attacked, throwing himself at the creature, his job forgotten. Magic might catch the air around a lisp, but it would never touch such a creature directly. The creature's defenses were through mirage, seduction. It had no defense against physical violence. Draco screamed, body slamming it, even though the flue behind it would be solid stone.
His arms went around Harry, holding him, pulling him closer as the stones failed to stop either of them and they fell into a well of dreams. Draco, a hand at the back of Harry's head, cradled him, muttering protective charms as they fell through no space that Draco had ever heard of before.
"Breath, Harry," Draco hissed, "If you make me give you mouth-to-mouth, I am going to give you bruises, you ponce!"
The bruises came for free as they landed without ceremony in a great field of tall grass. A buffalo snorted through the grass, eyed Draco with great big dark eyes. It took another great tearing bite of grass, then looked away. Draco took a deep breath, aimed his wand threateningly at the great furry beast, then gave his attention back to Harry. He was breathing, which was proof that threats can be quite effective, but he wasn't awake and he looked as if someone had tried to suck the soul out of him. "You better wake up, Potter. I think we're a little far from home and you owe me my pay."
Hermione apparated in the moment her spell told her that Draco was gone. With confidence she walked towards the pinned lisp, caught what she needed of its breath, then freed it.
Angry, the lisp fluttered glitter in an agitated snow globe. "I'm going to eat them both!"
"Nonsense," Hermione said firmly. "You'll never be able to touch Draco because he's not got a flicker of love in him and just what you mean them both?"
The lisp smiled, golden eyes narrowed. "Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy are in love with each other and I'm going to eat them both... so very slowly." With that the lisp sucked back into the flue.
Hermione stood there covering her mouth for a good ten minutes. "Oh Harry, what have you done?"