This is a submission for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition Round 12 Beater 2. It is also my submission for the Het vs Slash Competition.

Words: 3,259

Harry groaned and let his forehead fall to the table before him. He hated grading papers. He didn't understand why he assigned his students papers in the first place... no wait he did. Hermione insisted that he do it. Taking a deep breath, Harry sat back up and looked at the paper before him. The handwriting was so bad it was giving him a headache. Someone needed to create a spell to make illegible handwriting legible to the reader.

That was actually a great idea.

Pushing the paper from his mind momentarily, he began to think about how to make such a spell exist. His thoughts were interrupted by a tiny white owl flying through his window with a loud "hoot." Glancing up, he barely caught the light purple envelope the bird dropped. He smiled as he looked at the delicate writing on the cover.

Professor Harry Potter

There was always such a thrill seeing that written out. With a small smile, Harry opened the envelope. Luna had written a long letter that appeared to say nothing that was in proper English, but Harry could decipher her message and his smile was replaced by a frown. Jotting a quick note to the Headmistress explaining his absence, Harry left Hogwarts.

When Harry arrived at Luna Lovegood's house, his smile returned briefly. It looked much like her father's house except there was an inordinate amount of purple. Everytime he visited, he found the house a different color. Last week it had been maroon. There was also a new addition that seemed to jut out of the side like a sore thumb. This part was neon green.

Harry started walking toward the house, but he wasn't even to the door Luna was rushing toward him. She never rushed. She was calm and steady. With growing unease, Harry picked up his pace and met her halfway to the door. "Luna? What's wrong?"

"It's Draco!"

Harry blinked. He knew that Luna and Draco had become friends in the past year, but it still surprised him. Maybe it was because they had hardly known each other at school. Luna never was willing to explain the connection. But as he saw the worry in her eyes, concern replaced his wandering thoughts.. "What's wrong with him?"

"He's missing!"

Alarm shot through Harry. He immediately began to worry that Malfoy had been captured by some of the remaining Death Eaters. Images of a broken and scarred Malfoy shot through his mind and his blood ran cold. But he gathered his wits as much as he could. "How do you know?"

Luna grabbed his arm and pulled him into her house while speaking. "We owl each other nearly everyday. Two days ago I received this letter." She handed him a piece of parchment off of her coffee table. Harry quickly scanned it, he didn't see anything alarming about the letter at all, though he was fascinated by the willowy style of the handwriting. She must have sensed his momentary distraction because she pointed at the last line. "He says he will owl me in the morning with the recipe! But I didn't get an owl. I figured he must have been busy." Luna began to pace, talking mostly to herself. "But when I sent an owl later that day and then today both times my owl came back with my letter. I went to his house but the house elves wouldn't let me past the parlor room without Draco and they said they hadn't seen him since that night!"

Harry grabbed her arms and sat her in her favorite chair. "Relax Luna. How can I help?"

"You always seem able to find Draco, even when he is trying not to be found!"

"Be that as it may Luna, have you tried going to the Ministry?"

Luna's face darkened. "Yes. And they laughed at me, said I was being silly." Harry made a mental note to speak to the Minister about her mistreatment. Not many good things had come from his childhood, but having the ear of the Minister when he needed it was one. "You have to find Draco, Harry!" Once again, his mind had began to wonder.

Harry took a good look at Luna. Her hair was a mess, her eyes were sunken, and the garlic earrings she wore weren't as fresh as they needed to be for her purposes. With this in mind, Harry knew just how worried his friend was. He could tell that Luna would not relax until Draco was found. His own unease at the situation, while well hidden, was urging him to begin looking. "Alright Luna. I can't promise anything, but I will take a look."

When Harry arrived at Malfoy's house, he was grateful that Malfoy had moved out of Malfoy Manor. He didn't think he could enter that house again. Not after what had happened. He took a moment to look at this new house. It was a large mansion covered in ivy and dark wood. The front lawn was perfectly trimmed, with a few flower gardens scattered around. Harry licked his lips, it was gorgeous. Taking a deep breath and hoping that Malfoy would be the one opening the door, Harry approached the door and knocked.

There was no response. He knocked again. Nothing. Taking a deep breath and hoping that there weren't any traps, Harry opened the door. The hallway before him was spacious and covered with a dark wood. Various pictures of spectacular vistas covered the walls, though Harry immediately noticed that none of them included any people.

"Hello?" There was no reply. Harry started to feel chills run up his spine. Where were the house elves? A sound came from down the hall, and with his wand at the ready, Harry approached. He pushed through a door and found himself in an empty kitchen. The first thing he noticed was a sandwich sitting on the table. It had one bite taken out of it. As he approached the table, he saw something that made his face pale. Sitting next to the plate, was Draco Malfoy's wand. There was also some mail, and Harry cast a detection spell on all of the letters, looking for some clue. What he found was a shrunken creature container in one of the envelopes. A container that had been opened when Malfoy had opened the envelope. Stupid, stupid man. Harry froze as he heard a giggle behind him. Whipping around, his heart began to race as he saw no one. He took a step toward the counter and his foot stepped on something and a large screeching sound filled the room.

Harry immediately took a step backward and watched as a deep blue pixie flew up, anger making the air around it boil. Harry held still. He knew this creature. It was a Japanese pixie. It was similar to the Cornish pixie Harry had encountered in Lockhart's class, but these ones had more magic at their disposal. As expected, magic flew from it's fingertips to Harry. Harry cast a shielding charm, but he watched in shock as the pixie's magic kept coming. He blinked.

Harry looked around himself in panic. He was in a dark space that seemed to be moving. He also had a sudden realization that he wasn't wearing a stitch of clothing. "Oh no." Harry hoped that he was in a dungeon of some sort and the guards had undressed him. Harry pushed his way out of the space and found his hopes dashed. That pixie had shrunk him, and the space had been his once well fitting robes. His wand lay just a few inches away, but it feel like it was almost a mile. He began to run toward it, hoping that if he touched the handle, he could channel enough magic to return him to the size he was supposed to be. No such luck.

The Pixie grabbed him by the wrists and began to fly away with him. Harry struggled for the first moment then stopped in the moment after. If he had been his normal size, they would have only been about five feet from the ground, a perfectly safe distance to fall. With his current size, there would be no way to survive without his wand. So he held still and hoped he wouldn't be dropped.

The pixie made its way through the kitchen, down the hall, up the stairs, through a door, and up another set of stairs. They ended up in the attic, if Harry's guess was correct. What he saw there made his blood freeze. There had to be two dozen of the pixies in this space. Some of them were flying, some were sitting buzzing at one another, a few were playing some sort of dark version of tag involving a little knife, but his pixie flew straight toward a bird cage. It was hanging from the ceiling and Harry knew that even though he could squeeze through the bars, there would be no escape. The door to the cage opened with the pixie's magic, and it threw him in.

He tried to catch himself, but his knees gave way and he rolled and tumbled a bit, before finally stopping about midway across the cage facing the roof of the cage. Closing his eyes, he mentally checked to see if he had hurt anything important. After a moment he stood up, knowing he had only been bruised. He rubbed at his sore shoulder as he started to look around. He immediately spotted a naked, blindfolded, tied up Malfoy. He found himself staring, but shook his head and rushed over, trying not to analyze why that image didn't bother him as much as it should have. "Malfoy? Malfoy are you ok?"

Malfoy's face turned in his direction. "Potter? Is that you?" Harry was able to remove the blindfold. Malfoy looked up him in a mixture of disbelief, relief, and horror. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Harry frowned, but turned his attention to the ropes that were knotted around the man's hands. Considering their size, he could only assume that they had been magicked on the man and hoped they weren't magicked to stay on as well. "Luna was worried."

"So you decided to come and get captured, did you?" Harry didn't answer, he was aware only of the knot in front of his eyes, and perhaps the blush that stained Malfoy's cheeks as the man avoided looking between Harry's legs.

"Got it!" The rope fell off of Malfoy's wrists and the man immediately began to rub them. Harry took a few steps away from the man before he sat down next to him and leaned against a bar. He closed his eyes and felt relief flood him that Malfoy wasn't seriously harmed.

His relief was replaced with agitation when Malfoy spoke up. "So what's the plan genius? Now that you ruined mine."

Harry glared at the man next to him, finding Malfoy's eyes shut and turned to the other side of the cage. "You had a plan? Because it looked to me that you were tied up!"

Malfoy turned to him with a frown. "Well... once I had escaped those ropes I would have been fine."

"Oh? Well please tell me how. Because you don't have your wand, and not even you could survive the fall to the floor."

"Shut up Potter."

"No. Please tell me your glorious plan." Harry growled. Not even a thank you. What else could he expect from a Malfoy. Malfoy was just the same snobby brat he had been in Hogwarts.

"I don't have to tell you."

"Just tell me Malfoy!" Harry didn't remember when they had both stood up. But their faces were only inches away now. Malfoy's glare faltered.

"Fine!" Malfoy stepped back and seconds later two wings appeared behind him.

Harry's mouth dropped. "Um..." His brain was more occupied with the wings than with creating words. The wings were the same silver of Malfoy's hair, but in the wings was a delicate pattern of forest green. It swirled and spiraled and the more Harry looked, the more detailed it seemed to become. The wings hardly looked large or strong enough to lift Malfoy off the ground. Suddenly, his hand was mere centimeters from touching the left one. He paused, unsure of when he had stepped forward and turned to look at Malfoy's face.

Malfoy's eyes were closed and he seemed to be holding his breath. That was all the permission Harry needed and his eyes turned back to the wing. The first touch made both of them shudder. It was as solid as Malfoy's arm, which was pressed against his own arm, but was as soft as silk. Harry traced one of the streaks with a finger. Malfoy's hand grabbed his arm tightly. Harry turned to Malfoy and found the man having difficulty breathing. "Did that hurt?"

Malfoy made a noise almost like a moan. "No Potter."

"But..." And that's when Harry realized that the touching wasn't hurting Malfoy. No, Harry could see quite clearly that Malfoy enjoyed it. Jerking backward, Harry sat back down and put his face in his hands to hide his embarrassment from Malfoy.

Malfoy sat down moments later and Harry glanced over to see the wings gone. Malfoy was breathing deeply and Harry fought not to look and see if the man was still excited despite not being touched. He succeeded, but was somehow disappointed.

"...punish ourselves." Harry caught the last of Malfoy's muttering.

"What was that?"

Malfoy sighed. "I was just saying a quote to myself."

"Oh? What quote is that?"

Malfoy sighed again before answering. "'God grants us a long enough life to punish ourselves.'"

"Oh." There was silence once more and Harry couldn't stand it so he finally asked the question that had been tumbling through his head. "So you are a Fae?"

Harry caught Malfoy's surprised look. "How do you... yes."

But Harry knew what the question was going to be. "When I was looking up mermaids in fourth year, I ran into a reference on the Fae. When I went back to Hogwarts last year to teach, I remembered and so I started to read about it."

"Oh." Again silence.

This one seemed filled with little bugs that crawled all over Harry. And he could stand it for only a moment before asking. "So you were going to fly out?"

"Yeah. I'm faster than a pixie when I fly. Even in this size."

"You could still do that."

Malfoy looked at him in disbelief. "Thanks for the confidence Potter, but I can't fly that fast with someone else hanging onto me. And I won't leave you behind."

"I... thanks."

Malfoy looked away. "Whatever."

Harry was trying to remember all he knew about the Fae. Of course there wasn't much to know. The Fae kept to themselves. They usually only mated among themselves. There were very few confirmed cases of Fae. Only when the wings were out was there any kind of proof that a person was a Fae. Harry perked up as he remembered something. "Why don't you give me wings?"

Malfoy looked at Harry with a new sort of horror on his face. "What?"

"I read about it. The Fae can give wings to others. Although I don't know much about it. It might not even be true I only read one line about it in one book..."

"It's true."

"Then let's do that!"

"It's not that simple Potter."

"Than it explain it to me!"

Malfoy growled. "We become connected to those we give our wings to..."

"Like vampires and having sires?"

"No! Like being a Veela and their mate. We would always be able to feel each other's emotions. We would always be connected."

"I would rather that than die here."

"You still don't understand..." Malfoy growled. He then took a deep breath and turned to Harry. "Look Potter. Ignore everything you have read about the Fae and listen. There are many Fae in the world. Very few Fae know every other Fae, but we can recognize Fae right away. Regardless of whether their wings are revealed or not. It's in the air around them, I don't know how to explain it. First of all, if I did give you wings, you would be a Fae. The Fae around you, the Fae that you don't even know are there, would immediately know it."

"So..."

"Don't interrupt Potter." The man snarled. "If it happens, the Fae genes you would get from me, would force you to find a safe place with each other and show your wings. It's like a dog sniffing another dog's ass. It is a way of identifying each other. Now I have run into many of the Fae around you, and they know me and my wings. They would all know it was me who made you Fae."

"How?"

Malfoy took a breath to calm himself. "Every Fae has unique wings. It comes from our parent's genes so it will have similar shape and coloring, but even identical twins born as Fae have very different wings. When I say give you my wings. I mean give you my wings. Because you weren't born Fae, the wings you get would be an exact replica of my own. So when you show your wings to other Fae, they will see my wings. It may not be a magical binding, but the Fae would always see us as bound."

"That still sounds better than dying."

Malfoy seemed to be thinking of something for he paused. But then he climbed onto Harry's lap straddling him. His face was dead serious as he leaned close and whispered to a now frozen Harry. "You don't even know the process we would go through to give you my wings."

"Show me." Harry don't know where the words had come from. They seemed to have come from his lips, but he couldn't have said that... because those lips were being sealed by Malfoy's.

A moment later, Malfoy leaned back and said, "Scared yet Potter?"

Harry didn't answer, just wrapped his arms around the man's neck and pulled him in for a deeper kiss.

The two of them went straight from Draco's house to the Ministry to report the infestation. With Harry Potter standing there, a team was immediately dispatched to gather the pixie. Harry then grabbed Draco's hand and apparated them just outside Luna's house.

"Harry..." The man began, but he trailed off as Luna flew across her yard to wrap her arms around Draco's neck.

"Thank Helios you are safe Draco!" Hair raised on the back of Harry's neck and he almost believed he was jealous. But then Luna leaned backward and green eyes met silver eyes. Immediately, two sets up wings appeared, and Harry studied Luna's. They were full of every color imaginable, and they seemed to always be moving. The wings were longer and pointier than Draco's... Harry blinked and looked at Luna's face and found the woman grinning like the cat that caught the canary. Draco was suddenly in front of Harry, his matching wings spread as though protecting Harry. Harry stepped forward, knowing Luna was safe. Their wings touched and both men gasped. Luna laughed outright before saying. "Shall we go inside and talk?"

Draco and Harry nodded and followed her into her house. Their matching wings were gone, but matching smiles that were barely there were on their faces. And when Luna glanced back, she found their fingers intertwined.

The prompts used were:

Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition:

Theme: Thumbelina

#2 - (word) sore

#6 - (word) Helios

#15 - (Quote) "God doesn't need to punish us. He just grants us a long enough life to punish ourselves." Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible