The Boy with the Dragon Tattoo
Harry/Draco, Pansy, Blaise [PG-13, 2723 words]
Disclaimer: This is a remix of Tattoo by kjp_013. Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
A/N: Written for kjp_013/simeysgirl for Harry/Draco Remix Fest. kjp_013, you had so many fun and sweet fics that it was hard to choose just one. In the end, I wanted to know what tattoo Draco would pick to show his love for Harry. Thanks to the mods for this fest and to my beta C who did her best to catch all of my mistakes.
"Hey! Draco! Did you get the tattoo?"
Draco looked up from the menu to see Pansy and Blaise slide down into the booth across from him. He glanced around the room, but no one had paid the slightest attention to Blaise's outburst. For once, Draco was grateful that they were eating at a Muggle restaurant where no one knew him as a famous Quidditch player.
"Thanks for blurting out my secret, Blaise. And you, Pansy! Why did you tell him about the tattoo? Now I know never to trust you again."
Pansy snorted. "Right, darling. Trust issues are the least of your worries." She reached over and squeezed his hand. "As if you could ever keep anything from your best friends, especially me. Or were you having me on about getting a tattoo for your secret boyfriend of three years?"
"I haven't lied," Draco said, but he did regret ever getting drunk and telling Pansy he was getting a tattoo. "I do have a boyfriend. And a tattoo," he quickly added when Pansy raised an eyebrow.
The next thing Draco knew, Pansy leaned across the table and was right in his face, her eyes glancing over every inch of visible skin. She even brushed back his fringe to check his hairline, looked behind his ears and around his neck, before peering down his shirt collar, much to Blaise's amusement. Finally satisfied at what she saw, or rather didn't see, she sat back down in the booth and muttered, "At least you had the good sense of hiding it from the public."
"Don't be ridiculous, Pansy. I'm not hiding it. It'll be in Quidditch magazines the next time I do a photoshoot for the Falcons."
"As if you needed another reason to sell out every magazine you grace the cover of. So where is this tattoo? I have a bet with Blaise that it's either on your chest or your dick-"
"Pansy!" Draco said, turning red at both her remark and at the people turning around to stare at him. He didn't hide, but he lowered his voice as he said, "Don't say things like that out loud. Especially if you know they're not true. You know what the Prophet printed the last time someone spread gossip about me."
"Draco, we're in Muggle London. No one is going to go running to the Prophet." Pansy grinned. "Besides, until you prove me otherwise, I say your tattoo is on your dick. It's the only place your boyfriend has access to that we don't."
Draco groaned and looked over at Blaise to see what he thought about the entire situation. Blaise was no help; he was too preoccupied staring intently at Draco's chest.
"Both of you are unbelievable, did you know that?" Draco said, but that didn't stop him from rolling up his sleeve and letting his friends have a look at his tattoo on his left arm. "You can't tell anyone, okay?"
"It's fine, I suppose," Pansy said at last, "It's not like there's anything special about a dragon."
Blaise snorted, rolling his eyes. "Really, Draco? A dragon?"
"It doesn't even look dangerous," Pansy said.
"It's sleeping right now," Draco said as he looked down at his arm. A Hungarian Horntail decorated his skin, its spiky tail wrapped several times around his arm. The black scales gleamed in the light every time the dragon took a breath.
"Did it hurt?" Pansy asked, her hand reaching out to touch the dragon, only to hastily retreat it as sparks of fire came out of its snout. Draco quickly rolled down his shirt sleeve until the entire tattoo was covered.
Draco grimaced at the memory of biting his lips hard enough to draw blood as the tattoo artist began the long process of creating his dragon tattoo. "Like hell, but not worse than receiving the Dark Mark. At least I don't regret this tattoo."
"I think anything would be better than the Dark Mark," Blaise said.
Draco nodded. "I think this is my last tattoo, though. I have enough scars to last a lifetime."
"Pity," Blaise said, taking a sip of water. "I would imagine a ferret would have looked fantastic on you."
Draco hit him with his menu even as Blaise was still laughing. "Don't even joke about that."
"Did you have a Snitch tattooed as well?" Pansy asked after they had both calmed down. "Is that what the dragon was guarding?"
Draco was surprised. He didn't think that anyone would notice anything other than the Horntail.
"Yes. Did you know there are spells to hide something precious inside a Snitch?" Draco said, placing his right hand on top of the tattoo as if to protect even further.
"What's so precious about a Snitch?" Pansy asked.
Blaise gasped loudly, his eyes wide as he clutched at his heart in disbelief. "Did you really just ask Falmouth's best Seeker in a century that question?"
"What? It's a perfectly good question. Draco has an entire room at the Manor devoted to his collection of Snitches. He doesn't need one more permanently etched onto his skin." Pansy turned to look at Draco, one eyebrow raised. "To be honest, the dragon tattoo might be a little bit of an overkill as well."
"You just said you liked it," Blaise said, shaking his head.
"Of course I do. I just expected something, well, you know, better," Pansy said, pressing her lips in a thin line.
"Better?" Draco repeated. "What do you mean?"
"You say that got your tattoo for your boyfriend on your third year anniversary. You've been together, in secret I might add, for three years and no one knows who he is. That's a serious commitment and similar to Blaise giving me an engagement ring. I know it's a little bit too late to ask, but are you sure a tattoo of a dragon and a Snitch is what you want to give him?"
Draco ignored the sudden coughing that had come over Blaise and looked at Pansy and saw nothing but concern and curiosity in her eyes. He took a deep breath and decided to tell her as close to the truth as possible without giving too much away.
"Yes, I'm absolutely sure. Out of everything I've done in my life, he is the best thing that's ever happened to me and I want to show him that, even if no one else knows about us. He loves Quidditch, but that's not why I got a Snitch. Or the dragon," Draco added when he saw Pansy open her mouth to ask more questions.
"Let it go, Pansy. You'll be the first to know as soon as he's ready," Blaise said, smirking. "Just be grateful he's grown up since Hogwarts or he could have had something as idiotic as "The Slytherin Prince" tattooed right across his chest."
Draco hit Blaise's arm with his cloth napkin, but made no other comment about his tattoos as the waitress came over to take their order.
That night, Draco was in the middle of dressing for dinner when his boyfriend stepped into his bedroom and wrapped his arms around his bare chest.
"Harry!" Draco said, trying his best to turn around and kiss him, but Harry only hugged him harder. Instead, he got a kiss on his head and a laugh for his efforts.
"I've missed you," Harry said, resting his head on Draco's shoulders.
"You saw me a week ago."
Harry reached up and ran his fingers through Draco's hair. "That's entirely too long to go without seeing you. I think your hair grew a few centimeters since then."
Draco laughed, swatting Harry's hands away. "Let me finish getting dressed. I've spent a ridiculous amount of time preparing all of our favourite dishes for our anniversary for me to go sit down naked and eat dinner."
"I wouldn't mind you doing that, actually," Harry said, grinning.
"Of course you wouldn't. However, my mother would roll over in her grave if she saw I had disregarded all of my manners."
Harry let him go with a laugh. "We mustn't let that happen," he said, grabbing the white button down shirt off the bed and holding it open for Draco to slip his arms through the fabric. "The sooner you get dressed, the sooner I can undress you again."
Without thinking, Draco walked over with his arms outstretched, not noticing when Harry's eyes grew wide as he spotted the tattoo.
"Draco, what's this?" Harry said as he pulled Draco's arm up for closer inspection. His fingers poked at the dragon scales and just like Pansy, he was startled when the dragon breathed out fire.
This was not the way Draco had wanted Harry to find out, but it was too late to change that. "A dragon tattoo."
"I see that. But why? I thought you didn't want anything on your skin after you had removed the Dark Mark."
"I changed my mind," Draco said. He gestured at the front of Harry's thigh where he knew Harry had Draco's name tattooed. He was the one who had tattooed it there after all, at Harry's request. "I wanted something to surprise you with for our anniversary-"
"Well, you certainly managed that," Harry said, smiling. "If nothing else, you'll get a lot more Quidditch fans now that you've got tattoos. Skeeter will start writing about 'The boy with the dragon tattoo' or 'Falmouth's bad boy' or some other nonsense." Harry began to laugh and he had to hold onto Draco's arm so he wouldn't fall over.
Draco waited until Harry had calmed down so that he could ask him the question that had been on the back of his mind ever since Pansy had brought it up that afternoon. "I don't care what they think, Harry. I just want to know what you think. After all, this is for you."
Harry smiled at him, his fingers now stroking the dragon who had fully awakened at his touch. "Honestly? I think it's brilliant, just like you. I can't wait to see it fly. Did you design this yourself?"
"Yes," Draco said, giddy with relief as he lightly flicked at the dragon's tail. "I wanted something to represent the two most important people in my life. The dragon is for my mother. Did you know she was the one who named me? She and my father fought constantly about my name; he wanted to name me after his father, Abraxas, while my mother wanted to follow the Black family tradition of naming their children after stars."
"That's a sweet way to honour her memory, Draco. She was a brave woman and was proud of you until her death."
Draco couldn't speak for a few moments, trying to compose himself after hearing Harry's words. Instead, he watched Harry take a closer look at the dragon as it uncurled its tail from Draco's arm and got up from its sleeping position. As the dragon shook out its wings, there was a glimmer of gold as the Snitch came out of its hiding place.
"Is that a Snitch?" Harry asked, delighted. He watched the Snitch fly up and down Draco's arm until Draco touched it with his finger to make it stop midflight.
"That's you."
"What?" Harry said. He looked up and pushed his glasses farther up on his nose, but that did nothing to improve the confused look on his face.
"I got the Snitch for you." Draco cleared his throat so that nothing could stop him from getting the words out. "Remember how you told me about the Snitch Dumbledore left in his will for you? About how he had enchanted it so that he could hide the Resurrection Stone until you accepted the fact that you had to die to help end the war?"
Harry frowned, the way he always did when he didn't want to talk about the war. "It's really not the right time to mention Dumbledore right now, but yeah, I remember."
"Well, I've done the same. I just want you to know that I love you-"
"Draco-" Harry said, and this time there was no mistaking the panicked look on his face. Harry had once told him that the one thing he feared more than anything, even death, was having the people he loved leave him.
"No, Harry, let me finish. I know I don't say those words a lot and that's not fair to you, because you're always saying them to me." Draco grabbed both of Harry's hands and held them tightly. "Harry, I want you to know that I've accepted that you're always going to be an important part of my life. No one is ever going to replace you. Even if we keep this relationship a secret for the rest of our lives, I would be happy as long as the two of us knew the truth."
Harry was silent after that and Draco was pleased to see the panicked expression fade away. Draco knew that for now those words and the tattoo were the closest thing to promising Harry everything.
"There's one more thing I need to show you. I promise you that once you see this, you'll know that everything I've said is true," Draco said when Harry was finally able to look at him without the threat of tears spilling down his cheeks.
"What?"
"I told Pansy that inside the Snitch was the most precious thing in my life. She didn't believe me at first and I don't know what your reaction will be, but I need you to say the words you thought about to open the Snitch all those years ago."
Harry forehead creased in confusion, but he did as Draco asked, even if his voice was shaking when he whispered, "I open at the close."
Draco felt the tingle of magic on his forearm, but he focused only on Harry, wanting to see his reaction. Draco knew that once Harry said those words, the Snitch on his skin would open to reveal Harry's name in Harry's own handwriting (taken from one of Harry's letters to Mrs Weasley).
Draco wasn't disappointed; the look Harry gave him was one that Draco would never forget.
Harry's green eyes widened as his fingers traced his name written on Draco's skin, whispering something that Draco couldn't understand. Draco shuddered under the light touch. He remembered feeling the same way when Harry had found him in a tattoo shop a few years ago. He had felt a spark where Harry had touched his newly healed forearm where his Dark Mark had been removed.
"It's me," Harry said softly, looking up at last. "Out of everything that you could have chosen, I'm the one inside the Snitch?"
Draco frowned at the disbelief he heard in Harry's voice. Something was not right. This was not what he had expected. He thought that Harry would be happy, not disappointed. "How could you ever doubt that?"
"I don't, not really," Harry said, shrugging his shoulders. "It's just, I know that it's unfair to ask you to keep our relationship a secret, especially with all the press surrounding you and all your Quidditch admirers, but-"
"Harry," Draco said, placing a finger over his lips to silence him, "I don't regret anything. You're the one who always knew that despite our years at Hogwarts, we'd end up together. You're the one who had my name tattooed on your body only after a few months of us dating, remember? You're the one whose tattoo is a thing of legend-"
"You know it wasn't my fault. I still blame Ron," Harry said. "He's the one who blurted it out in the Leaky."
"Despite everything, I'm still here. I won't leave you even if our relationship goes public and we're back to having the press follow you, and now me, just like they did when trying to find out what tattoo you had," Draco said. That seemed to be the right thing to say because Harry relaxed and he gave a small smile.
"Your Quidditch fans won't like that," Harry said, but he had let go of Draco's arm and was now hugging him tightly.
"I think I'll survive," Draco said, pulling them both down onto the bed.
The kiss Harry gave him was better than any victory Draco had ever achieved.