Alrighty, this one needs a bit of explaining: this is a giftfic for my lovely Hannah (aka x-Scarlett-x), who is possibly the most filthy-minded individual I have ever had the misfortune to come across. No offence there Hannah! But to make a long story short, the two of us were at Christian camp (I am personally amazed she wasn't struck down as we went in, haha) and as we all sat eating our lunch, we were suddenly awarded with the sight of five hot, sexy men on horseback. It was a gift from God!! (All the girls nearly choked, by the way, we weren't the only ones.) This naturally was divine inspiration for a fanfic- and Hannah demanded I make it her favourite pairing, LuciusxHarry, and then dedicate it to her. So here I sit before you, offering up this fanfic, which I hope you all enjoy- and I hope you have no corruptive, evil friends yourself! (I don't actually ship this pairing, you know, but hey- it seems to be working so far!)
Summary: AU, LuciusxHarry. Harry is less then impressed when he's informed his horse riding isn't up to scratch- and even less impressed when he's told he needs lessons! But maybe his sexy riding teacher Lucius can change his mind.
Disclaimers: Please, don't make me laugh. Most definitely not mine!
Art of Riding
By RinkyPink
James Potter ran his hand through his hair with a groan for the third time that morning. Harry was going to kill him. Actually kill him dead. This would not be a good thing, James felt. Which was why he was sitting at the kitchen table, mentally constructing explanations and arguments that his son would accept. So far, he wasn't doing too well.
"Well, Harry, you see… Alright, it's like this… Son, I think that it's time… It's your mother's idea!"
The last one, James decided, was easily the best one he'd had so far.
His internal musings and mental ratting out's were interrupted by the arrival of his wife, who sighed impatiently when she saw him.
"Oh for goodness sake James, have you still not spoken to him? It's not like you're condemning him to be hanged, you know!"
"Easy for you to say", muttered James, tilting his head back to glare at his wife. She stood in the kitchen doorway, still in her dressing gown and slippers and with her long red hair loose over her shoulders, an exasperated expression on her face. Despite himself, James felt his face soften as he gazed at her. Even after almost twenty-one years together, Lily Potter (nee Evans) still had the power to take his breath away.
Lily smiled inwardly at the besotted expression on her husband's face, but outwardly she presented an air of faint irritation. (It wouldn't do for James to think he could sway her, now, would it?)
"James Potter", she began, sweeping into the room and dropping elegantly down in the kitchen chair beside her moping husband, "I cannot believe you are making such a big deal out of this! Harry is a mature seventeen year old, who will be turning eighteen in a couple of months. He is not going to have a deranged fit over the fact that he has to take riding lessons!"
"But Lily", whined her husband, flopping forwards onto the table and sprawling across the wooden surface with a look of despair on his bespectacled face, "It's not really the lessons part that's bothering me! (Although that won't be much fun to try and explain either.) It's more to the issue of the person who's going to be doing the teaching that has me considering the (not so absurd, might I add) notion of suicide right now!"
Lily rolled her eyes, but she had to admit that James did have a point. Neither subject was going to be much fun to bring up, especially considering their background.
The Potters had always been an exceptionally wealthy family, thanks to generation after generation of Potter men working in the stock market. However, all this had changed when James Potter came onto the scene- his parents later declared that he had been born with "a need for speed". By the tender age of eight, young James had already decided that when he grew up, he was going to race motorbikes, and that nothing on this earth was going to stop him. When, at eleven years old, he met Sirius Orion Black, his determination and passion was only fuelled further. Together the two best friends overcame every obstacle in their paths, becoming renowned on the racing tracks by the time they were seventeen.
Although James later retired from the track, he never lost his enthusiasm and ended up founding and managing his own motorcycle firm: The Seeker. As a result, the Potters now owned a very reasonable sized fortune. And baby Harry James Potter had been raised to possess the same passion and love for motorbikes as his father.
So, seeing as his son could (literally) ride circles round any professional on the racing track, it was going to be… interesting, having to tell him that he needed to take riding lessons. This was going to go down well. Not.
"Right, fine! I'll tell him, but I am going to make damn sure that he knows this is all your idea!" declared James, sitting upright abruptly and pointing an accusatory finger at his wife. "In no way, shape or form am I to be associated with this!"
Lily simply rolled her eyes again, reaching out for the coffee pot. Honestly, James was such a drama queen. Thank God Harry hadn't inherited that particular strand of genes.
The sound of steady footsteps and a cheerful whistling coming down the hall announced the arrival of their son, and the object of their discussions. (Lily watched with amusement as James' face turned several different colours in a matter of seconds.)
The kitchen door was pushed open and a tall, skinny teenager strolled in, smiling at his parents. "Morning Mum, morning Dad! Are you two all right? I could hear Dad shrieking from up the stairs."
"I was not shrieking!" James protested, spinning round in his chair to glare playfully up at his son. "I was expressing my opinions at a very manly decibel, you cheeky little toe rag!"
Lily smiled, watching as her unabashedly grinning son raised an eyebrow at his father. It never failed to strike her how alike the two of them were, from messy black hair (honestly, she had just given up trying to make it lie flat after a while) to wire-rimmed glasses and identical grins. The only differences lay mostly in their builds; Harry was slightly more slender and delicate looking then James had ever been. The other difference was their eyes. Harry had Lily's eyes, almond shaped and a startling deep emerald green. Lily had to hold in her proud motherly outburst again- her son was just so good-looking!
Harry had obviously conceded to his father's point, as he was nodding and looking very grave (an expression that fooled nobody) as he sat down opposite his parents and grabbed the cereal box.
"All right then, Dad, what exactly were you 'expressing your opinions' about then?"
"Ah-" James suddenly looked thoroughly uncomfortable, running his hand through his hair again (something he always did when he was nervous) and clearing his throat several times.
Harry quirked an eyebrow at his now thoroughly unsettled father and glanced at his mother for some idea of what was going on. He began to get a very bad feeling when he saw her sipping steadily at her coffee and studiously avoiding eye-contact. Something unpleasant was about to go down, he could just feel it.
"Okay, well, um… Harry, it's like this," James began, leaning forward to look at his son, an uncharacteristically serious expression on his face.
"You'll be eighteen in a couple of months, and I know you want to join the race track and become a professional racer. That's fine with your mother and I, because we know how skilled you are, and we know that you also intend to teach other people how to ride as well, so it's not as though your education's going to waste. However…"
Here James broke off to look beseechingly at his wife, who was gazing innocently at the ceiling, before continuing, "However, because we want to make sure that you're perfectly safe, your mother… has decided that you need horse-riding lessons."
And with his unpleasant speech out of the way, James sat back with a relieved expression, folding his arms and looking pointedly at Lily, who was now directing evil looks in his direction.
Harry sat there for a moment in total shock, brain processing the information it had received. Then he found his tongue again.
"Wha… why… what? What are you talking about? How in heaven's name is learning to ride a horse going to help me out on the racing track?!"
It was now Lily's turn to lean forwards, face earnest. "Sweetheart, studies have shown that people who know how to horse ride as well as bike are five times less likely to have a motoring accident! (1) It's proven to enhance your ability to concentrate on various things simultaneously, and help you be aware of other people and objects in the direct vicinity. Not to mention improving your balance; not that I'm saying your balance needs improving, dear. You're our only child, and we want you to stay as safe as possible. Riding a horse won't be that bad! After all, your father can do it!"
"Thank you for that darling."
"Shut it Potter. So please Harry, what do you think? And bear in mind, darling, we've had a long time to think this through, and we are therefore sufficiently prepared with arguments that will be used to shoot you down."
Staring at his parent's faces, Harry first thought was that he had forgotten how conniving and manipulative his mother could be. Well, that'll sure teach me… His second thought was that his parents actually had a good point. Growing up practically on a race track had allowed him to see firsthand some of the horrific injuries that could be gained from biking accidents. If learning to ride a horse could save him from that, then he would be a fool not to accept the offer. Not to mention, he sort of had the distinct impression that he didn't really have much choice in the matter anyway…
Letting out a sigh, the coal-haired boy leant back in his chair and nodded firmly. "Okay. Yeah, I'll take the lessons."
Lily beamed and James let out a loud sigh himself, closing his eyes in relief. "Whew! Well, that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."
"Um, except there's one other tiny detail we forgot to mention", said Lily sweetly, giving her son her most innocent expression. Beside her, James' eyes snapped open in horror.
Harry was beginning to think he really couldn't take much more. He fixed both parents with a flat look as he asked expressionlessly, "What. Tiny. Detail."
James put a hand over his eyes as his wife said with manic brightness, "You're going to be taught by Lucius Malfoy!"
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"WHAT?!"
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"Are you serious mate?" asked Ron Weasley incredulously. "The Lucius Malfoy?"
"Yes," groaned Harry, who was sitting face down on his desk. "Can you believe this? Seriously, what kind of a parent does this to their own child?"
There was a reproving tut from beside Ron, where Hermione Granger was sat, flicking through one of her textbooks. "Come on, Harry, they're just trying to look out for you! I for one am very happy with this decision, if it means you're less likely to get hurt."
Ron gave her an exasperated look. "Hermione, he's going to be taught by Lucius Malfoy. If you ask me, he'd be better off getting mangled by his bike!"
Harry heartily agreed with this statement. Hermione, it seemed, did not.
"Ronald Weasley! Don't say such horrible things! The last thing we need is Harry getting hurt- again."
Harry eyed his bushy-haired friend with slight suspicion- he hadn't missed the emphasis she had placed on "again". Good grief, he didn't get hurt that much!
But his fingers, of their own accord, drifted over the scar on his forehead gently. Perhaps Hermione had a point…
"Look, Hermione," he began, leaning forward over Ron (who was now sitting sulking in his chair), "I really don't have a problem with learning to ride- I just wish my parents had found someone else to teach me. Out of all the dozens of riding instructors there are out there, they had to pick the most sarcastic, cold and jaded one there is going!"
Hermione rolled her eyes as she picked up her pen, clearly intent on making some notes in her copy of Psychology: An Intricate Look at the Behavioural Patterns of Human Beings and the Influences on Those Around them. "Harry, he might be cold and jaded and even perhaps a little evil (Ginny's words, not mine), but he's also the best. The Malfoy family have been breeding and competing event horses for years. Lucius had more rosettes and trophies by the age of ten, than most people can collect in thirty; it's been very well documented in fact. They've made a fortune out of it. You really can't ask for a more skilled and capable teacher."
Harry slumped back into his seat, the childish part of his mind muttering rebelliously about not asking for a teacher at all. With a defeated sigh he glumly picked up his own textbook and stared at the front cover without even registering which book it was. He knew that most of his problems with Lucius Malfoy stemmed from being rivals with his son Draco, and the fact that his own father and godfather hadn't gotten along with him in school; but another, much smaller part of him quietly admitted that he was, (and not without reason) afraid. Not of Lucius, so much, but of what he represented- a powerful, haughty man who could make people feel worthless with a single scathing look. The idea of making a fool of himself in front of this man made Harry want to shrivel up and die inside, especially because he knew full well that he couldn't defend himself properly. He had inherited the stubborn Potter pride, but also seemed to have inherited the inability to make sharp and witty comebacks on the spot. And that wasn't good when you were dealing with a member of the Malfoy family, all of whom were renowned for their sharp tongues.
A familiar voice broke into his fretful thoughts. "Hey Harry, what do Sirius and Remus have to say on this? I mean, your dad usually listens to them, so…?"
Harry sighed and shook his head in response to Ron's query. "Nah, I already tried that one, it didn't work. They're not overly thrilled with the idea, what with Sirius being related to him and hating his guts, but they want me to be taught by someone who knows what he's doing, so they agreed." And they were my last line of defence too, damnit!
The emerald-eyed teen stretched his arms over his head before shaking out his body, face determined. "Look, I don't want to do this, but if it means that I can race, then I'm willing to bear through it. No way am I going to let a member of the Malfoy family stand in my way!"
Ron raised his hand enthusiastically. "Amen to that!"
Hermione shook her head and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "Boys…"
But despite these bold words, a nasty little voice in the back of Harry's head and a knot in his stomach told him that maybe his fast approaching first riding lesson wasn't going to be easy as he hoped.
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(1) Um yeah, that's a total lie… I have no idea if that's true or not! I'll do some research for the next chapter though, promise!
There, first chapter done! I know, shock horror, Lucius isn't even in this one- but fear not, for he shall be in abundance in the next chapter! Hopefully we'll also see a bit of Draco too, so have no worries! Please leave a review on your way out… Lucius wants one. :)
Until next chapter!
RinkyPink over and out.
Oh, and a quick note from my new beta: she doesn't agree with this pairing, but for mine (and x-Scarlett-x's) sake she is willing to make an exception! Cheers crouchingdragoness!