Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the HP Universe except those items which I have purchased.

Free Bird

Draco smirked as he looked across the room to where his parents sat. Both parents held in their arms a beautiful baby. It was a day of crowning glory for the Malfoy family. And he had brought it about.

Today was a day of joy in the Malfoy house. There had been many over the last nine months. Draco watched his parents holding his sons in preparation of their naming ceremonies and felt a wild and tremulous joy sweep over him. He was surrounded by the love and admiration of the whole Wizarding world. He had it all…and his mind drifted back over how he had managed to get to this point.

Draco had approached Dumbledore some nine months ago regarding the possibility that he had knowledge that would be of assistance in finishing the war between Voldemort and the Wizarding World. In return for his assistance, he was to receive the hand of Harry Potter in marriage.

Harry's reaction had surprised everyone at the meeting. The black haired boy had stood up after listening to Dumbledore present the Malfoy offer. He had looked at the ceiling instead of at any one person because really there had been no need for him to ask anyone for help in avoiding the trap that had been so neatly set for him.

He had smiled sadly at Dumbledore and spoke the words that Draco wanted to hear. "I will do all that you ask of me to end the terror of Voldemort. I will fulfill all the contractual obligations that you have set forth and when there is nothing left of me, I will that my ashes be scattered on the winds so that I may know at least one freedom in my time."

Hermione had stood and slapped him across the face. "You myopic, self-centered dwarf! You are being offered everything."

Harry had merely bowed his head and waited for her and the rest of the assembly to have done with him. It seemed like everyone there had an opinion…

The bonding ceremony took place two days later. The happy couple celebrated their bonding with the whole Wizarding world. Draco was more than thrilled to learn that his spouse was a virgin. Somehow he had not really expected that. It was amazing actually to learn that the beautiful creature that adorned his bed broke the Malfoy curse in every way possible.

Draco had woken the next morning and felt the change in the manor. Previously where there had been gloom, there were airy rooms full of light. He stretched luxuriously and reached for his spouse only to find the bed empty beside him. After listening for Harry and not hearing him, he sat up and called a house elf.

The elf was ordered to bring Harry back to their room. When he did, Draco calmly cast Avada Kedavara on the elf for having to go get him. It had set the tone for the rest of their marriage. Draco insisted that Harry stay in bed with him until he was ready to rise.

It did not take Harry long to meet and destroy Voldemort after that incident. If mere hours were to be counted that is… After that incident Harry's first order of business had been to read his marriage contract and understand every word of it. Draco had laughed to see him poring over the ten parchment document and could not help but bait him. "Looking for a loop hole out of the contract, wife?"

Harry had not risen to the bait.

Draco grinned as he pulled Harry's chair away from the desk and leaned up against it. "You realize that there is nothing you can do to escape me, right? Dumbledore gave you, all your lands and properties, and your children to me. And the best part of it all is that you did everything you were supposed to and defeated the Dark Lord without my help."

Harry merely nodded his understanding and went back to reading.

Draco watched him silently for several minutes before touching the side of his face gently. "Harry, I love you. I will give you anything you ask, except I cannot set you free."

The tear filled green eyes never raised to meet the grey ones. He had heard the words and they left him unmoved from his course of action. Harry simply refused to believe that anyone would love him...control him, use him, tear his world apart and put it back together to suit themselves, but love him…NO.

Draco let him to his own devices and went in search of his parents. His parents were acting a bit odd, but that could have been the result of everyone knowing the curse had been broken.

Draco, in his misguided delirium that everything was perfect, spent the months after their bonding in a blissful haze of making love to his husband as often as possible when he wasn't studying for his NEWTs or playing Quidditch.

There was no need to question whether or not Harry was happy with his lot in life. Draco was joyful, therefore the logical conclusion was that Harry was also. When Draco announced that they were expecting a child the Wizarding world rejoiced wildly for the couple.

In all the excitement and preparations for the arrival of the most wanted child in the world, Draco was too busy to notice that the bond did not take. Draco had assumed in the beginning that since Harry was a strong wizard that the two of them would share power. Once Harry began showing his pregnancy, Draco stopped worrying about not getting any empathetic feedback from him because he could feel not one but two small heartbeats.

Snape had informed Draco that he and Potter would once again make history with the birth of their progeny. No male had given birth to twins since Grindelwald's father had delivered him and a sister.

But now it was time to come back to the present. It was time to name the children. While he had been day dreaming about his perfect life, the room had filled with all the guests. It was logical to carry on with the naming ceremony, the reception, and finally it was time to retire for the night. The wizarding world did not even notice that Harry was not standing beside Draco as the children were named, even Hermione and Ron accepted the situation.

It was after he made his way upstairs to bed that his perfect day was tipped on end. As he made his way into the room, he saw Harry sitting at his dressing table with the marriage contract spread out.

Draco felt his anger flare. "What the hell are you on about now, Potter?" He sneered.

For the first time since Harry Potter repeated his wedding vows he opened his mouth and spoke. In a voice little more than a whisper he began. "All my life I have been led from pillar to post. Never have I had control of anything. I was sent to the Dursley house where I was starved and beaten to keep me in line. I went to Hogwarts and learned through trial and error that I was still nothing more than a pawn. I was told that if I saved the world from the Dark Lord then I could be free, but even that was taken from me. You and Dumbledore conspired to buy and sell me like cattle."

Draco shrugged. "When you are finished with the self-pity come to bed." He flinched as the green-eyed boy rose and stepped toward him.

"I am finished with the self pity. I am finished with fulfilling the contract that you and Dumbledore set for me. I am finished with my whole miserable existence."

Draco's eyes flared wide as he saw Harry reach into his robe pocket and pull out a vial of an unctuous green liquid and tip it into his mouth. He recognized the smell immediately as the same as that which had been used on Voldemort. He watched in horror as his spouse sank to the floor.

Draco's screaming soon woke the inhabitants of the manor. Lucius and Narcissa made their way into the room to find their son sitting on the floor, clutching the dead body of his husband and keening his distress to the world.

Lucius could not abide the grief of his child and sat down with him to help in any way he could while Narcissa called for the house elves to take the body away. When Draco finally settled down to a low sobbing he managed to gasp out, "Why, Daddy? I loved him. Why did he kill himself?"

Narcissa sank to the floor with her men. Taking him gently in her arms she said, "Draco, he was never yours. Your father and I both knew this when the Malfoy curse was broken. Do you remember the conditions of it?"

Watery pink and grey eyes stared into pain darkened blue. "To break the curse a Malfoy will marry a virgin in body, mind, and spirit."

Both parents nodded their heads in agreement. "Harry was all of that, Draco. He never knew love before he wed you, and did not learn it afterwards because he was determined to fulfill the wedding contract to the letter so nothing else would ever die because of him."

He gasped between sobs, "But we got pregnant. Doesn't that mean that we bonded?"

Lucius coughed delicately before speaking, "Harry asked permission to brew the male pregnancy potion. After consulting Severus who assured me that Potter is useless at potions, I gave my permission. He said that he felt honor-bound to accomplish everything as quickly as possible because of all the death and destruction that seemed to follow him around."

Draco remembered the house elf he had killed so casually the morning after their consummation. Harry had gone silent after that…

He moved and stood up. After helping his parents to stand, he walked over to the desk where the much thumbed through contract lay. Tears dripped from his eyes as he looked at the final lines of the contract. He would be given a boon after the birth of each child he presented to the Ancient and Honorable House of Malfoy. Listed under the name of his first born child was the request: Death by my own hand. Signed by Harry James Potter-Malfoy. Under the second child's name flashed the request in red to let the family know that it was as of yet, unfulfilled: I wish to be cremated and the ashes sprinkled across the lawns by a house elf. This too was signed by Harry James Potter-Malfoy.

Draco blinked at the request. Normally Malfoy wives joined their husbands in the family mortuary vault. They would remain forever preserved. He finally choked out, "Why does he deny me at least the image of his body?"

Narcissa picked up the last page of the contract and found a small note underneath. With shaking hands she handed it to Lucius to unfold and read aloud. He read in a solemn, even tone.

To Whom it may Concern:

All my life I have been controlled by others; first the Dursleys, then Dumbledore, now the Malfoy family. I have tried for years to do what was expected of me, and for the first time I have accomplished everything that was asked of me. With the birth of two children, there were no more expectations and so my usefulness was concluded. Dumbledore was wrong when he told me that I would learn to love because I never had anyone to teach me. I will not speak of that which I learned from my esteemed spouse except to say that the lessons which a teacher so often wishes to impart are often not that which a student learns. The past has taught me that I do not matter. That which I want does not matter. I find myself finally stepping past all my contractual obligations with one last boon granted to me, and I welcome it. There was never anything beyond the helpless longing of a wild thing to be free. Maybe in death I can be set free…

Harry James Potter-Malfoy