Title: Payment of a Life Debt
Narrated: TorringMay
Typed by: Sorringmay
Pairing: Harry/Draco
Rating: PG13 / Teen
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Warning: This story contains SPOILERS from all seven books. This story also disregards everything about the DH eulogy (19 years later)
Summary: When the Ministry arrests the Malfoy's, the only way Harry can save Draco from the Ministry's attempts to make an example of the former Death-eater, is to call upon archaic laws embedded in life debts Draco owes Harry.
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Chapter 6
Padding quietly down the spiral staircase the platinum blond teen tried to erase the image of what he had just witnessed. The odd thing was, after years of wanting to see Potter in pain, to actually witness it had been disconcerting. He had expected to feel satisfaction as he had when he had smashed the Gryffindor's nose, instead he felt something more akin to nauseas.
Perhaps it was due to the fact that Potter was not truly in physical pain, but caught in the clutches of a nightmare. Perhaps it was his own recent experience with pain, having had the Dark Lord use him as punishment and persuasion against his parents. Or, if Draco was honest with himself, perhaps he was tired of seeing people in pain.
A vivid image of his father on the ground gasping from the cruciatus curse that he had cast, the threat from the Dark Lord ringing in his ears. What kind of leader tells you to curse your own father or they would kill him? How could everything have gone so horribly wrong?
He entered the kitchen thankful that the magical candles would react with out him having his wand. Making his way to the stove he grab the kettle grousing under his breath about having to make tea the muggle way. As the water began to heat, Draco took his first true look around the kitchen. While it was nicely done nothing in particular jumped out at him that was until his eyes landed on a magazine.
Curious he picked up the most recent copy of Witch Weekly, an eyebrow rising over the fact that Potter would have such a feminine publication. Perhaps Granger or the Weasley girl had left it, he thought till he saw the script on the front cover proclaiming the article about Potter remodeling his house.
Placing the magazine aside he turned to fix his cup of tea wondering what Potter had done to the house. After all it had belonged to the Black family, and they were pure-bloods which meant the home had to be rather grand to begin with. His musings however were interrupted by another voice almost causing him to drop his cup.
"Is there more water?"
He placed his cup down before spinning to face the other teen. "Potter if you must insist on waking me in the middle of the night, please refrain from making it worse by startling me with your unwanted presence."
Potter only tilted his head to the side as he pushed his glasses up his nose. "So is there water left?"
Sighing in exasperation Draco waved absently towards the kettle to indicate there was before he grabbed his own cup and the copy of Witch Weekly. Stiffly he made his way to the table hoping Potter would take the hint and leave after getting his tea.
Luck however did not seem to be with him as Potter dropped rather noisily into a chair across from him. Doing his best to ignore the Gryffindor, the Slytherin flipped open the magazine to distract himself from his unwanted company.
He flipped past the ads for various magical remedies, past the article on one of the Weird Sister's and her new baby, to the article about the Noble House of Black. To his shock and dismay the pictures of the original house were far from the spender that the Black family should have been living in. Instead it looked liked nothing more than a dilapidated muggle home with a few magical trinkets. Pathetic was the first word that came to mind.
Flipping a page in disgust he was confronted with pictures that showed the massive reconstruction project in the process. There was a picture showing the installation of a section of the spiral staircase, the workers meticulously charming the banister into place. There was another showing three workers carefully cutting a section of wall that held a portrait of four young men, one of whom looked suspiciously like Potter. As he turned through several more pages, he realized what a tremendous project it had been to make the house he now lived in…livable.
The final pages of the article showed completed pictures of a number of the room that now occupied the house. He of course recognized the kitchen where he now sat, there was the study and the library along with one of the guest rooms with its adjoining bathroom.
Overall it was not as grand to any extreme as Malfoy Manor, but the new renovations defiantly made is plausible for being a wealthy pure-blood home. Except it wasn't a pure-blood's home any more, it was Potter's home, a home he was now forced to live in.
As he began to close the magazine he noticed a quote from the worlds bloody Golden-boy himself. Opening the article up once more, the words printed there stared up at him left him.
"It was imperative to me that my Consort had a home that would be worthy of him. The former Black home was by no means adequate."
The thought that Potter would actually care what he would find adequate was baffling to the Slytherin. Surely Potter had done all of the renovations for himself, after all who would have wanted to live in the house as it had been. Then again Potter wasn't exactly known for living in the lap of luxury if his friends and clothing were any indication.
Unbidden his eyes traveled over to where the other teen was sitting, his head bowed over his cup of tea. Currently he was clad in a dark grey tee shirt with a pair of matching grey pajama bottoms that looked like they were made of rather soft cotton. Surprisingly the clothing fit the Gryffindor as the material of the shirt revealed the sculptured chest muscles underneath it.
Feeling a blush warm his cheeks, Draco stood abruptly jostling the table. "I'm going back to bed Potter. I hope this won't be a nightly occurrence." He watched as the dark haired teen flinched but the feeling of gratification at having affected his rival didn't come much to his annoyance. Reaching the door he turned to look back his brows furrowing as he watched Potter drop his head onto the table.
Chewing on his lower lip he contemplated the situation sighing before he addressed his Associate. "If this is going to be a common occurrence though Potter, perhaps I could brew you some Dreamless Sleep potions." Upon seeing the questioning look Potter threw him he quickly added, "So that I don't have my sleep interrupted."
He was surprised when he received a smile for his words.
"Can't have you missing your beauty sleep now can we," Potter said his confidence obviously back.
Draco snorted before turning and stomping up four flights of stairs to be followed by the sound of a door slamming.
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"So where is the fer…umm Malfoy?"
Harry smiled at Ron's obvious attempt to be polite, after so many years of insulting the Slytherin. "He's pouting in his room, which reminds me, Hermione do you know any spells that will protect his door, he keeps slamming it shut."
The brunette looked at him questioningly. "Well I could put a cushioning charm on it, but if Malfoy is using it to vent angry it's likely that he will find another means to do so."
"I think," Harry said with a sigh, "I will stick with the door slamming." He fiddled absently with the book that was resting on the table in the sitting room where they had finally settled. "So 'Mione were you able to find anything about…well Malfoy and why people were treating him so weird."
Watching as Ron rolled his eyes and made a rather unpleasant face, Harry waited for his friend's response.
"Yes Harry I did and you won't believe it." Hermione leaned forward as if to add to how unbelievable the situation was. "Malfoy is basically wizarding royalty."
"What?"
"Malfoy's a bleeding princess," Ron added his face warring between disgust and humor.
Harry rubbed the spot under the bridge of his glasses before turning to Hermione. "Ok so how exactly is it that Malfoy is a… is wizard royalty."
Hermione huffed at his near slip. "Honestly," she said eyeing him before continuing. "Well the Rights of Life Debt Claims is rather old Harry. Some books I read went back well before the time of Merlin. It's like this Harry," she said gesturing to the air, "long ago when there were no kings, either in England or the continent, the lands were ruled by individual lords, some of whom were wizards. Actually many of them were, but they would fight over lands and such.
"Of course wizarding lords would go to war against other wizard lords which in turn created a lot of life debts. To protect these lords from the possibility of life debts being used against them, they come up with the Rights of Claiming. The greatest of those rights is that of the Consort."
"But why," Harry asked not understanding why a lord would want to be a consort.
"Because Harry, they would give their daughters mainly and sometimes their sons as a consort to repay a debt. When a lord gave his child as a Consort, he was say that his child's life meant more than his own how many times over. In turn, an Associate who accepted a Consort was also saying that his Consort was worth his life that many times over."
"So basically Harry," Ron cut in, "by claiming Malfoy you were saying his life was worth your own life twice over."
"The reason they are considered royalty is because they basically were, and by accepting Malfoy as your consort…" Hermione's voice trailed off and finally she shrugged. "Harry, as people find out about the old laws; which if the press continues as they have they will; everyone is going to treat Malfoy like a prince because of you. They have to treat him as your equal since that is what you have claimed him as."
"Someone should inform Parkinson of that," Harry snapped remembering the previous encounter with the witch.
"I'm sure she will learn, and after her…display this morning, I venture to guess she will think before opening that big mouth of hers again." There was a rather smug look on Hermione's face as she finished.
Eyeing his best friends suspiciously the raven haired Gryffindor arched a brow at them. "What did you two do?" he inquired, noticing from his seat facing the archway, the blond who had stopped his decent down the stairs to listen.
"We didn't do anything," Ron said with a huge grin, "Lavender did though. Parkinson showed up today to take her NEWTs and was running her mouth about how you and Malfoy were living in an alley."
"And you know Lavender had at least one copy of Witch Weekly on her," Hermione cut in excitedly, "well she and some Ravenclaw shoved the magazine at Parkinson, quoting verbatim about all the changes you made here and how they knew you had spent a small fortune on all the other stuff for Malfoy."
"Parkinson was left sputtering Harry, it was great mate, and you should have seen it," Ron added animatedly. "Even the Slytherin turned on her telling her she didn't know anything and pointing out how you were following pure-blood tradition."
"One of them even brought up Malfoy's mom dressing her down in the middle of the Leaky Cauldron." Hermione was almost as enthusiastic as Ron. "Deserves her right for what she did to Malfoy, betraying him as she did. Honestly, you would figure she would have been at least a little loyal to one of her friends."
Ron nodded his approval, "I just can't believe how they all turned on the git…err Malfoy, the way they did. First Crabbe, then Parkinson and Goyle, what type of friends were they?"
"At least his parent care about him," Hermione added as Harry watched over her shoulder where the blond was still standing rather tense. "During that last battle the only thing they cared about was finding him, making sure he was safe."
"Makes you kind of wonder," Ron added after several seconds of silence, "Did his parents sever you-know-who cause they wanted to or to keep him safe."
"Probably some of both…Harry where are you going?" Both watched as their friend stood and walked out the door following the blond who had suddenly flown back up the stairs.
He reached Malfoy's room as the door was sent flying. Lifting his forearm it bounced out of the way harmlessly leaving Harry full access to Malfoy's room.
What ever Harry had been expecting, the fist flying at his face was not it. He quickly ducked away before grabbing Malfoy's wrist to keep any further assault from taking place. Malfoy however was not that easily deterred and the other fist was in motion. Grabbing the second wrist before the punch could connect Harry stepped towards the Slytherin making him back up till the blond fell backwards onto his bed.
Harry adjusted his hold so that his Consort's wrists were pinned to the bed near his ears as Malfoy continued to struggle against him.
"Let go of me Potter! Let me go! Let me go!" Malfoy's screams were painful as the reverberated through his ears.
"No, you're too upset right now" he shot back shifting his legs to pin Malfoy's before the other could think to kick him. "Calm down first."
"Bloody Gryffindor, get off me!"
"No!" Harry yelled back, "I'm not getting off of you nor am I going to leave you alone till I know you aren't going to hurt yourself."
"What do you care?" The words were delivered with a fresh round of struggles. "What do you care?" Harry watched as tears leaked out of the corners of the Slytherin's tightly shut eyes. "My own friends…they don't even…they…"
Malfoy's struggles stopped as he gave way to tears. Harry felt rather awkward not knowing what to do. He had never been good at comforting others, but he figured attempting would be better than leaving Malfoy alone, when he already felt everyone had deserted him.
Shifting to sit down on the bed he pulled the taller boy into his lap holding him close. Rubbing circles absently across Malfoy's back, he rocked the two of them gently back and forth waiting for the blond to calm down.
"Shh Draco, its ok," he whispered surprised at how easily the blonde's first name slid from his lips. "I'm sure your friends – "
"I don't have any friends Potter," came the sobbed reply. "Crabbe is dead and Goyle…You have always had your friends you don't know what it's like."
"Yes I do, but that's not the point."
"They hate me Potter." A fist hit his chest but there was no power behind it. "They hate me, everyone hates me." The last was said in such a pathetic whisper that Harry couldn't help himself but to respond.
"Not everyone Malfoy," he whispered back holding the blond tighter, "not everyone."
He wasn't sure how long they sat there, but it really didn't matter much to him. He was aware at one point that Hermione silently signaled from the door that she and Ron were leaving, giving him a warm smile before she left. He had also been aware of Kreacher showing up with teas and scones, which, while welcome, went untouched.
Eventually the tremor of sobs settled into a gentle breath against his neck. Harry readjusted them so they could both lie down on the bed, doing his best not to wake Malfoy who had finally fallen asleep.
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Sweet smells permeated his senses as he grasped on to awareness. The gritty texture surrounding his grey eye told him that he had once again cried himself to sleep as he opened them to find the source of the scent. Groggily he sat up his eyes focusing on the array of white roses that filled his room. Blinking several times he rubbed his eyes to insure that he was actually seeing display of flowers.
His confusion was almost enough to overcome the blush he felt creeping into his checks when he pushed the blankets off to reveal that he had been stripped to his boxers. Had Potter undressed him? Considering the options he would have preferred that over the batty old house elf Potter owned.
Grabbing his robe he headed towards the shower mystified as to why Potter would make such a display of…affection? No, Draco doubted that Potter had any fond thoughts towards him. Then what would explain the roses? Taking a last look at the pale beauties he opened the door to the bathroom.
Upon entering he found himself surrounded by even more of the white roses, but his attention was drawn to a single red rose sitting alone resting atop a card.
There are things in our lives we can not change, things we can not control, murky pasts and uncertain futures, and though the road ahead may not be easy, there is no reason to doubt that you wont make it, and if you ever do, just remember I will be right there with you.
Draco read and re-read the messy script in the small card hardly believing it was there. Dazed he set the card back down and turned on the shower, the words blazoned in his mind. He undressed letting his robe and boxers fall to the floor before stepping under the warm spray, wondering what Potter could be up too.
There was nothing left in Draco's life that he could imagine the other teen wanting. After all he was only worth as much as he had to offer, and he had nothing left to offer, Potter had it all, his whole life was in the Gryffindor's hands.
So why the flowers, and even more so, over the sappy note? Was Potter trying to imply that he wanted to be friends? The roses were white, the color of friendship, and he supposed the note was friendly, after all this was a Gryffindor he was dealing with.
But could he trust Potter?
Trust was not something he wanted to give out freely, especially after the betrayals he had recently faced. The lunatic of a Dark Lord who had no calms about having him torture his own father, his supposed allies in the death-eaters who had no issue with turning on a fellow death-eater, and then Crabbe, Pansy and Goyle. Just remembering what his three friends had done was painful. He still wasn't sure where things were with his parents.
And now Potter seemed to be reaching out to him to be friends. Would a friendship with Potter be worth the risk? Was he willing to put himself in the position to be hurt again? What would he be able to get out of a friendship with Potter?
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TorrinMay: Back from mom's so here is the next chapter. More of the courtship and a visit from Draco's mom to come, plus the "friendship" with Potter…
SorringMay: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, I am however getting a few "your spelling sucks" (ok they were much nicer than that) but I need a beta since my spelling does suck and Torring's is worse. If anyone is interested let me know, I really need someone who can catch my use of wrong words (there, their, they're) since I know I do that a lot. Thanks!!!
As always reviews are most welcome!!!