Title: Trick of Fate
Author: I_nv_u50
Pairings: Harry/Draco
Disclaimer: Alas, alack, I own nothing but the plot…
Rating: PG13 because technically they haven't done anything wrong yet…
Summary: Harry depressed, and Lily is getting depressed just knowing he's upset. So, naturally, Lily and James go down to earth to try and cheer Harry up. How they do it comes as a surprise to everyone - themselves included.
Categories: Romance, Humor
Warnings: I see stormy seas of slash ahead. If that floats your boat, go for it ^^
Author's Notes: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night!! … Now that's over, onto the slash!! .. New story this. I don't know what I was thinking, starting a new one now, but the others are going reasonably well (don't mention when times change, please) and this one wouldn't leave me alone (glares at Draco&Harry)
Draco: (smugly) I don't have a clue what she's talking about.
Harry: No indeed, why should we know?
Draco&Harry: (exchange innocent looks)
They're not fooling anyone. Anyway, read, enjoy, and please review!! ^^
Lily sighed and readjusted her cloud so she could recline back more comfortably and settled back again, glancing idly around. It was very pretty here, drifting clouds that were waiting for someone to claim them, and claimed clouds floating about at varying speeds, all determined by the people - or thing - that rode them.
She was bored, James was nowhere to be seen, and her one and only son appeared to be suffering a midlife crisis.
Granted, he hadn't quite reached midlife yet, being only seventeen years old, but he was starting to look very depressed all the same. Lily didn't believe that the war was the only reason It might have been a big part of the reason, but it was far more than that that was troubling Harry.
She watched him as often as she could, including herself in his life without his knowing, and she knew him as well as a mother could know a son. Or maybe a little more than was average, because she could see him when he and his friends thought they were perfectly alone.
They were almost as wayward and mischievous as James and his friends used to be, but for Hermione. Hermione, although loosening up much more after becoming friends with the two, was still the most practical of the group, a good friend and well grounded.
There was also another boy that intrigued Lily, a pale blonde, maybe a little older than Harry. She couldn't watch him, even though he and Harry got into fights to rival those of James and Sirius against Lucius and Severus. As Sirius and Severus were worst enemies, so had been Lucius and James, although theirs was a more silent battle, James letting out all his verbal comments for Snape and Snape alone.
She couldn't watch the blonde boy that reminded her so much of Lucius, because all spirits who weren't ghosts had a very faint but tangible presence. They were there, and you couldn't mistake those kinds of auras no matter how hard you might try. She could safely watch Harry and his friends, because although Ron might have known what he was feeling somewhere in his mind, he couldn't be bothered with analyzing it when life was busy going on. It was his nature; he didn't really have any interest in that sort of thing just yet, if ever he did.
And Hermione, had she recognized it, would know, but she didn't think about it frequently, only vaguely registering the feeling in an unimportant part of her mind, so it almost always got lost in the schoolwork.
Harry felt it clearly, being not only a powerful wizard in his own right, but also because he was her blood relation and the one she died for. Thankfully though, he assumed it to be normal for all wizards and didn't talk about it, taking it for granted that all wizards felt it and were used to it.
But Draco, the blonde boy, would know what he was feeling, and would know that it was rare, unusual, and who knew what he might do then.
It wasn't really allowed for spirits to be known in the real World. It wasn't illegal for them to be there, because the Powers That Were knew very well how boring it could get for those spirits who didn't have a specific job to do, but they weren't supposed to be there.
Lily sighed again and leaned forward, resting her chin in her hands, her eyes fixedly following her son as he lost track of the conversation and drifted off into his own world, his eyes bored, almost sad.
A cloud zoomed past her, making her sit up at the speed, and laugh when she was confronted with warm hazel eyes.
"Go away James, I'm busy."
James pouted then grinned at her. "I could accuse you of voyeurism, you know."
Lily gazed blandly at her husband. "I'm surprised you know such big words."
James laughed, and looked down to see what had her attention so thoroughly. He had almost been planning to try out that new trick he had, but she had looked deeply engrossed in what she had been doing, and he had decided not to cause her wrath, hilarious as it was to watch.
James' eyes beheld a mirror of himself, gazing off into the distance just as his mother was doing next to his father. The green eyes looked sad, but weren't, almost thoughtful. Moreover, they were bored.
"Harry's bored."
Lily made a noise in agreement. James switched his gaze to her, studying her. She also looked sad, but eve more bored. It was boring here, especially without Sirius and Remus to help him play pranks still. Fun wasn't fun if everyone always knew it was you. Of course, it was actually, but it made the punishments easier to bear if you had someone to banter back and forth with, and no one was quite equal to Sirius and Remus in that respect.
Lily suddenly sat up straight, her eyes lighting up in a way that meant she had an idea. A well thought, planned idea, which were the worst types, in James' humble opinion. Plans were best spontaneous.
"What's up, Lil?"
The blazing green eyes caught and held his. "Let's go get our wings."
James blinked at her, trying to see where the idea was going. "Uh huh. And the what?"
"We go guard Harry."
James nodded his head n a way that always made Lily scowl at him. "All right, then what?"
Lily's scowl faltered as she thought. "I'm not so sure about that."
James sighed, and spoke very slowly, deliberately trying to irritate his wife. She was too placid lately for her own good anyway. "Why would you want to get wings if we don't have a good reason. You know that's one of the requirements."
Lily frowned and waved a hand outwards and down, towards Harry. "My son is depressed, James. I would like to go help him."
James shook his head, the glint fading slightly in his eyes. "Lil, how many other people up here have children? Children who are sad, depressed, starving, whatever."
Lily huffed at him. "Well, it's their problem that they didn't think of this before we did."
James gazed at her in frank admiration. "So we're the test subjects?"
Lily beamed at him proudly. "Yep."
James nodded, the glint back in his eye, an almost predictable part of him plotting. "All right then. So we apply for wings. We get them in what, ten minutes?"
"Helen said they were looking for more."
"That's good…" James mumbled, "so we get our wings, then we apply for our applicant. Should they be in Hogwarts?"
"Yes, I think so…" Lily mused, staring down again as Harry started out of his reverie and started laughing at something Ron had said.
"Lil? You still here?"
"Hm? Yea."
"So we're all clear on that?"
"Of course."
James gave her an expressionless look. "You have no idea what I just said, do you?"
"No," Lily admitted, "but let's go anyway. The faster we do this, the faster we can go help Harry."
James snorted slightly, an unsubtle attempt at stifling laughter. When Lily glared at him, he shook his head helplessly. Let her find out. It would be more fun that way, and James was bored enough to seek amusement in the most dangerous places.
Down below, Harry was getting ready for bed. His progress was somewhat detained by Seamus and Dean's comical antics, designed to have the whole dorm laughing uproariously before one of the girl prefects came in. It was plain and obvious that Ron and Dean, Gryffindor male prefects, could care less about the rules tonight. Harry had just won another quidditch match, and even though it was still somewhat expected now after seven years, they still had good celebrations.
If only Harry's heart was more into it.
He smiled absently at something Seamus said, and grinned when Ron made a snide remark in return, hearings words, but not listening, not absorbing them in.
He eventually made it into his bed, gave a huge, not so fake yawn, and said goodnight to everyone. They quieted down a little in respect for the quidditch hero, but not enough for Harry to actually get to sleep.
He eventually gave up, and sat up on his left elbow, leaving his right hand free to grip his wand. He spoke a few words, and swished his wand, and there was a silencing spell separating him from the rest of the dorm. He put his wand back down on the bedside table, and lay down with a heavy sigh, staring up at the ceiling in the almost deafening silence.
You never knew how quiet it was until you were alone, and the spell gave an illusion of solitude, making Harry feel completely alone.
He rolled onto his side and stared at the blurry movements of the curtains around his bed, waving lazily with the movements of the boys on the other side. There was an extra light now; one of the girl prefects had opened the door. Harry could almost hear the jesting complaints of his fellow male Gryffindors, but Hermione, because it was obviously her, didn't really take no for an answer. She was a lot like Percy had been in his days at Hogwarts, but he had loosened up, and to be truthful, so had Hermione. She only reported a quarter of what she could have.
Eventually the shapes and silhouettes he could see through the deep red curtains around his bed disappeared, and the light dimmed. Evidently Hermione had gotten her way, and they were all in bed and on their way to sleep. By all rights, he should have been as well.
After a long wait, that might have been minutes, or hours, he grabbed his wand and muttered the counter spell before sliding his feet off the bed and pushing his glasses further up his nose from where they had slipped. After completing that motion, he just sat there, having no idea what he was going to do next.
The curtains of the bed next to him rustled, and Ron's face, his red hair messily rumpled, poked through the divide. "All right there, Harry?"
Harry stifled a yawn. "I'm fine Ron."
Ron nodded, and disappeared for a second before opening his curtains again. "Hermione is going to kill both of us if you leave now Harry, it's three in the morning. Go back to sleep, would you?"
The fight drained out of Harry. No wonder he was so tired. "All right Ron. Goodnight."
"'Night Harry."
Harry crawled back into bed, his body feeling much heavier than it should, and he mentally scolded it for feeling so burdensome. He lay on his back and took off his glasses to contemplate the dark, burnished wood blur that was the ceiling again.
The feeling that someone was watching him returned, and although he ignored it like he always did, it comforted slightly, bringing some sort of happiness that he could not place. He truly did not wish to, for fear of losing it if he did manage to identify it.
He drifted into sleep easily, surprisingly enough, and when he reached it, he didn't want to leave.
It was one of those peaceful dreams, where everything you could possibly yearn for lay ready and willing at your feet by their own choice, not by his.
Hermione was there, and Ron, and Sirius and Remus. His parents were there too, as they so often were, his mother smiling and happy, and his father, grinning and proud.
A flash of silver caught his eye, and Harry frowned slightly outside his dream, his brows drawing closer. Who was that?
But then it was gone, and his mother was stepping forward, holding her hands out to him in welcome and love, and he gladly stepped into them, returning the tight hug with all the strength he had in his arms. He missed her.
He missed having parents, and lately, the burden had gotten so much heavier, almost too much to bear. He half-heartedly almost wanted to join them, but those moments were few and far between, and he was usually able to push the desire to some deep and dark place that he had and hid from the world.
Lily's voice was soft and warm in his dream, and Harry strained his ears to catch her words, knowing instinctively that they were important, that they were best heard.
"Harry… I'll see you soon…"
After that, disappointingly, the dream dissipated, and Harry fell into a deep sleep, that held random flashes of silver, and carried a face he knew but could not remember.
Up above, Lily gazed down lovingly at her son. He slept like James used to sleep, one fist so close to his mouth that he might be sucking his thumb but you knew he wasn't. He looked younger than ever without his glasses on, and she smiled wistfully.
"Hang on, Harry. We'll help you sort this out."
Author: I_nv_u50
Pairings: Harry/Draco
Disclaimer: Alas, alack, I own nothing but the plot…
Rating: PG13 because technically they haven't done anything wrong yet…
Summary: Harry depressed, and Lily is getting depressed just knowing he's upset. So, naturally, Lily and James go down to earth to try and cheer Harry up. How they do it comes as a surprise to everyone - themselves included.
Categories: Romance, Humor
Warnings: I see stormy seas of slash ahead. If that floats your boat, go for it ^^
Author's Notes: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night!! … Now that's over, onto the slash!! .. New story this. I don't know what I was thinking, starting a new one now, but the others are going reasonably well (don't mention when times change, please) and this one wouldn't leave me alone (glares at Draco&Harry)
Draco: (smugly) I don't have a clue what she's talking about.
Harry: No indeed, why should we know?
Draco&Harry: (exchange innocent looks)
They're not fooling anyone. Anyway, read, enjoy, and please review!! ^^
Lily sighed and readjusted her cloud so she could recline back more comfortably and settled back again, glancing idly around. It was very pretty here, drifting clouds that were waiting for someone to claim them, and claimed clouds floating about at varying speeds, all determined by the people - or thing - that rode them.
She was bored, James was nowhere to be seen, and her one and only son appeared to be suffering a midlife crisis.
Granted, he hadn't quite reached midlife yet, being only seventeen years old, but he was starting to look very depressed all the same. Lily didn't believe that the war was the only reason It might have been a big part of the reason, but it was far more than that that was troubling Harry.
She watched him as often as she could, including herself in his life without his knowing, and she knew him as well as a mother could know a son. Or maybe a little more than was average, because she could see him when he and his friends thought they were perfectly alone.
They were almost as wayward and mischievous as James and his friends used to be, but for Hermione. Hermione, although loosening up much more after becoming friends with the two, was still the most practical of the group, a good friend and well grounded.
There was also another boy that intrigued Lily, a pale blonde, maybe a little older than Harry. She couldn't watch him, even though he and Harry got into fights to rival those of James and Sirius against Lucius and Severus. As Sirius and Severus were worst enemies, so had been Lucius and James, although theirs was a more silent battle, James letting out all his verbal comments for Snape and Snape alone.
She couldn't watch the blonde boy that reminded her so much of Lucius, because all spirits who weren't ghosts had a very faint but tangible presence. They were there, and you couldn't mistake those kinds of auras no matter how hard you might try. She could safely watch Harry and his friends, because although Ron might have known what he was feeling somewhere in his mind, he couldn't be bothered with analyzing it when life was busy going on. It was his nature; he didn't really have any interest in that sort of thing just yet, if ever he did.
And Hermione, had she recognized it, would know, but she didn't think about it frequently, only vaguely registering the feeling in an unimportant part of her mind, so it almost always got lost in the schoolwork.
Harry felt it clearly, being not only a powerful wizard in his own right, but also because he was her blood relation and the one she died for. Thankfully though, he assumed it to be normal for all wizards and didn't talk about it, taking it for granted that all wizards felt it and were used to it.
But Draco, the blonde boy, would know what he was feeling, and would know that it was rare, unusual, and who knew what he might do then.
It wasn't really allowed for spirits to be known in the real World. It wasn't illegal for them to be there, because the Powers That Were knew very well how boring it could get for those spirits who didn't have a specific job to do, but they weren't supposed to be there.
Lily sighed again and leaned forward, resting her chin in her hands, her eyes fixedly following her son as he lost track of the conversation and drifted off into his own world, his eyes bored, almost sad.
A cloud zoomed past her, making her sit up at the speed, and laugh when she was confronted with warm hazel eyes.
"Go away James, I'm busy."
James pouted then grinned at her. "I could accuse you of voyeurism, you know."
Lily gazed blandly at her husband. "I'm surprised you know such big words."
James laughed, and looked down to see what had her attention so thoroughly. He had almost been planning to try out that new trick he had, but she had looked deeply engrossed in what she had been doing, and he had decided not to cause her wrath, hilarious as it was to watch.
James' eyes beheld a mirror of himself, gazing off into the distance just as his mother was doing next to his father. The green eyes looked sad, but weren't, almost thoughtful. Moreover, they were bored.
"Harry's bored."
Lily made a noise in agreement. James switched his gaze to her, studying her. She also looked sad, but eve more bored. It was boring here, especially without Sirius and Remus to help him play pranks still. Fun wasn't fun if everyone always knew it was you. Of course, it was actually, but it made the punishments easier to bear if you had someone to banter back and forth with, and no one was quite equal to Sirius and Remus in that respect.
Lily suddenly sat up straight, her eyes lighting up in a way that meant she had an idea. A well thought, planned idea, which were the worst types, in James' humble opinion. Plans were best spontaneous.
"What's up, Lil?"
The blazing green eyes caught and held his. "Let's go get our wings."
James blinked at her, trying to see where the idea was going. "Uh huh. And the what?"
"We go guard Harry."
James nodded his head n a way that always made Lily scowl at him. "All right, then what?"
Lily's scowl faltered as she thought. "I'm not so sure about that."
James sighed, and spoke very slowly, deliberately trying to irritate his wife. She was too placid lately for her own good anyway. "Why would you want to get wings if we don't have a good reason. You know that's one of the requirements."
Lily frowned and waved a hand outwards and down, towards Harry. "My son is depressed, James. I would like to go help him."
James shook his head, the glint fading slightly in his eyes. "Lil, how many other people up here have children? Children who are sad, depressed, starving, whatever."
Lily huffed at him. "Well, it's their problem that they didn't think of this before we did."
James gazed at her in frank admiration. "So we're the test subjects?"
Lily beamed at him proudly. "Yep."
James nodded, the glint back in his eye, an almost predictable part of him plotting. "All right then. So we apply for wings. We get them in what, ten minutes?"
"Helen said they were looking for more."
"That's good…" James mumbled, "so we get our wings, then we apply for our applicant. Should they be in Hogwarts?"
"Yes, I think so…" Lily mused, staring down again as Harry started out of his reverie and started laughing at something Ron had said.
"Lil? You still here?"
"Hm? Yea."
"So we're all clear on that?"
"Of course."
James gave her an expressionless look. "You have no idea what I just said, do you?"
"No," Lily admitted, "but let's go anyway. The faster we do this, the faster we can go help Harry."
James snorted slightly, an unsubtle attempt at stifling laughter. When Lily glared at him, he shook his head helplessly. Let her find out. It would be more fun that way, and James was bored enough to seek amusement in the most dangerous places.
Down below, Harry was getting ready for bed. His progress was somewhat detained by Seamus and Dean's comical antics, designed to have the whole dorm laughing uproariously before one of the girl prefects came in. It was plain and obvious that Ron and Dean, Gryffindor male prefects, could care less about the rules tonight. Harry had just won another quidditch match, and even though it was still somewhat expected now after seven years, they still had good celebrations.
If only Harry's heart was more into it.
He smiled absently at something Seamus said, and grinned when Ron made a snide remark in return, hearings words, but not listening, not absorbing them in.
He eventually made it into his bed, gave a huge, not so fake yawn, and said goodnight to everyone. They quieted down a little in respect for the quidditch hero, but not enough for Harry to actually get to sleep.
He eventually gave up, and sat up on his left elbow, leaving his right hand free to grip his wand. He spoke a few words, and swished his wand, and there was a silencing spell separating him from the rest of the dorm. He put his wand back down on the bedside table, and lay down with a heavy sigh, staring up at the ceiling in the almost deafening silence.
You never knew how quiet it was until you were alone, and the spell gave an illusion of solitude, making Harry feel completely alone.
He rolled onto his side and stared at the blurry movements of the curtains around his bed, waving lazily with the movements of the boys on the other side. There was an extra light now; one of the girl prefects had opened the door. Harry could almost hear the jesting complaints of his fellow male Gryffindors, but Hermione, because it was obviously her, didn't really take no for an answer. She was a lot like Percy had been in his days at Hogwarts, but he had loosened up, and to be truthful, so had Hermione. She only reported a quarter of what she could have.
Eventually the shapes and silhouettes he could see through the deep red curtains around his bed disappeared, and the light dimmed. Evidently Hermione had gotten her way, and they were all in bed and on their way to sleep. By all rights, he should have been as well.
After a long wait, that might have been minutes, or hours, he grabbed his wand and muttered the counter spell before sliding his feet off the bed and pushing his glasses further up his nose from where they had slipped. After completing that motion, he just sat there, having no idea what he was going to do next.
The curtains of the bed next to him rustled, and Ron's face, his red hair messily rumpled, poked through the divide. "All right there, Harry?"
Harry stifled a yawn. "I'm fine Ron."
Ron nodded, and disappeared for a second before opening his curtains again. "Hermione is going to kill both of us if you leave now Harry, it's three in the morning. Go back to sleep, would you?"
The fight drained out of Harry. No wonder he was so tired. "All right Ron. Goodnight."
"'Night Harry."
Harry crawled back into bed, his body feeling much heavier than it should, and he mentally scolded it for feeling so burdensome. He lay on his back and took off his glasses to contemplate the dark, burnished wood blur that was the ceiling again.
The feeling that someone was watching him returned, and although he ignored it like he always did, it comforted slightly, bringing some sort of happiness that he could not place. He truly did not wish to, for fear of losing it if he did manage to identify it.
He drifted into sleep easily, surprisingly enough, and when he reached it, he didn't want to leave.
It was one of those peaceful dreams, where everything you could possibly yearn for lay ready and willing at your feet by their own choice, not by his.
Hermione was there, and Ron, and Sirius and Remus. His parents were there too, as they so often were, his mother smiling and happy, and his father, grinning and proud.
A flash of silver caught his eye, and Harry frowned slightly outside his dream, his brows drawing closer. Who was that?
But then it was gone, and his mother was stepping forward, holding her hands out to him in welcome and love, and he gladly stepped into them, returning the tight hug with all the strength he had in his arms. He missed her.
He missed having parents, and lately, the burden had gotten so much heavier, almost too much to bear. He half-heartedly almost wanted to join them, but those moments were few and far between, and he was usually able to push the desire to some deep and dark place that he had and hid from the world.
Lily's voice was soft and warm in his dream, and Harry strained his ears to catch her words, knowing instinctively that they were important, that they were best heard.
"Harry… I'll see you soon…"
After that, disappointingly, the dream dissipated, and Harry fell into a deep sleep, that held random flashes of silver, and carried a face he knew but could not remember.
Up above, Lily gazed down lovingly at her son. He slept like James used to sleep, one fist so close to his mouth that he might be sucking his thumb but you knew he wasn't. He looked younger than ever without his glasses on, and she smiled wistfully.
"Hang on, Harry. We'll help you sort this out."