And here's another just because they go hand in hand. Thank you guys for your reviews, favorites and follows as I take this trip down memory lane.
Many rooms away, in the wing farthest from the group of submissives, a healer dragon was surrounded. Metteri was restrained against a stone wall, drunk from a calming draught Draco had prepared weeks before. The prince and the lords of the house were waiting in half-form, wings spread in a protective stance around him, ready to strike at any moment. Tensions were high as the more treatments that they administered, the less effective they were. Time was very quickly running out for everyone involved. Draco could only hope that Katrina was okay, and the Ladies were doing everything they could.
"My prince, has the King been contacted?" Lord Airee asks quietly, not taking focused eyes off the current threat.
"No, there was no time. He isn't due to return for another week at least." Draco said with a clenched jaw, also not reverting his gaze. "Besides, we are perfectly capable of handling this. It's not the first time a child has been born around here. I'm certain the women are doing just fine, and we will be hearing from them shortly."
From the floor, Metteri began to come to his senses, directing a deep growl to the men in front of him. The healer dragon looked absolutely insane, growling, snapping his jaws and attempting to draw his wings out. This had already happened quite a few times in the night. Draco merely moved closer to make eye contact with the man, focusing his powers on willing the man to contain his wings once more. Metteri quivered with anger but did not falter from the gaze.
"Metteri, you don't want to do this. I know you are in there somewhere. You are going to remain here until everything is clear. Retract your wings this instant!" Draco commanded, his body shaking with the power that had bubbled to the surface of his skin. But Metteri was getting stronger by the minute. With each passing moment, he was getting closer to the dragon soul taking full control, which was the worst possible outcome. A dragon taking control meant that any level of remaining human morals would quickly fly out of the window.
"You have to let me out of here! She's hurting! So much pain! You don't know how this feels! She'll die without me! I'll kill you all!" The captive man screamed angrily while tugging violently at his bonds. Dark blue wings exploded from the mans back as he reached his half-form. The power of Draco's hypnotic gaze was no longer effective on the rage-fueled Draconian.
"Your highness, you should get out of here while you still can. He's starting to go too far, and we can't risk you being in this kind of danger." Lord Riccous said quickly.
"I will do no such thing! What kind of leader would I be to run from something as common as this? I have no intention of leaving my post and I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself." Every word from the blonde was true. No more was the cowardly Slytherin that hid behind henchman and bullying in his school days. He had grown with his coming here and learned more about himself than he had in all the years prior. No, he had reason to leave his men behind.
Suddenly, a sharp sound of a chain link cracking resounded over the room. Metteri had lurched forward in the direction of the prince, who remained unaffected by the movement. Each of the Lords jumped toward Draco in a protective response. Unfortunately for them, the angry dragon saw this as an opportunity to look for a weakness in the wing-built barrier the men had formed. He suddenly dove for an empty space, ripping the chains from the wall with supernatural strength, and ran across the room.
The men forced themselves to remain unfazed for the sake of keeping their focus. Each Draconian chased after their target with lightning speed, their sanity being the only advantage over Metteri. Multiple pairs of hands quite literally clawed after the escapee in hopes of getting some sort of grip. Draco took a chance to take to the air and land in front of the hoard of chaos. His body collided with the crazed man, knocking him to the floor. Multiple men landed on top of him, each pinning a limb to the floor with all their collective might. Draco once again took his place to attempt to form a mental connection with Metteri but struggled to find a sound mind to hold onto. The room had been drowning in the sound of growling and snapping teeth, but suddenly went quiet.
Metteri had completely relaxed and gone limp in his attackers' forces. A dazed look went across his face as he took in his surroundings. "What happened? Where is Katrina?" He asked in a panicked voice.
Draco smiled at that. "Well, based on your coming back to reality, I believe you just became a father. Congratulations. Let him go."
The Lords obeyed the command, albeit cautiously, still not turning their sights away from the healer. With all the grace and calm of the Malfoy that he truly was, Draco merely straightened himself and started slowly to the door, opening it before turning back to the men. Metteri carefully stood, following the unspoken request to enter the corridor.
"Where is she?"
"She should still be in your own quarters. You should bear in mind that you have a throng of very strong Draconians following you and myself at your head, should your dragon think of taking over again. Understood?" Even though Draco was by far the youngest in the room at only 18, but he had long ago proved he was worthy of respect, even without the royal title. Metteri took the young man's words to heart, swallowing hard at the memory of where his mind had gone not moments ago, and nodding his understanding.
The group followed the new father apprehensively, with their prince leading the way to the healer's chambers. The Ladies of the house and various staff were gathered around the door, talking amongst themselves. Draco nodded to Lady Adelaide, who stepped away from her position closest to the door to allow Metteri to pass. The prince sighed and tucked in his wings as the man went inside to meet his child, satisfied with the outcome of the potentially fatal situation. No one in this castle had been killed under his watch, and it wasn't about to become a trend.
He was smiling until he noticed a certain dark head of hair facing the opposite wall. The smile twisted into a frown as he made his way over to the group, distracting them from their conversation. Slender fingers grabbed onto a broad shoulder and turned the man around.
"Harry James Potter, what in the hell are you doing out here? I thought I told you to stay safe in my chambers." He all but yelled. Green eyes widened at the use of the full name, but the eyebrows above them stitched together in annoyance very quickly. Harry jerked his shoulder out of the tight grasp and stood as tall as he could before speaking.
"I came out here to help. I couldn't stay cooped up in those rooms while there were explosions and screaming right outside the door." The smaller man was standing firm, fully prepared to defend his decision.
Draco groaned and rolled his eyes at the very Gryffindor response he had just heard. "You could've been hurt. Why must you be so stubborn?"
"Malfoy, you can't make me sit back and just let this kind of thing happen! I might be a submissive, but that doesn't mean I will just sit in a room like some happy housewife waiting for you to do everything." Harry spat.
A sigh was the only response for quite some time. "Harry, please, I was simply worried for your safety. I couldn't bear to lose you, especially not when I held responsibility over the danger itself. What if I had failed?"
Harry deflated a little at that. In the midst of his battle with the fight or flight instinct, he had forgotten what had led him to agree to retreat to the rooms in the first place. He sighed and stepped forward to close the gap in between them, resting his head on the blonde's collarbone and wrapping his arms around the dominant. "I'm sorry for going against you, but I've been fighting too long to go straight into sitting back and watching."
Draco accepted the embrace, wrapping his arms around the shorter man and burying his nose in the captivating scent of Harry's hair. "It's okay. I'm sorry for expecting you to lie in wait. I should have at least taken the time to explain the situation to you. Maybe then you wouldn't have been such a Gryffindor and couldn't applied some Slytherin tact." He said with his telltale smirk.
Harry couldn't help but laugh at that. "You do know I was supposed to be in Slytherin, right?"
"Bugger off, really?" Harry only nodded in response. "As absurd as that sounds, I think I just might believe you."
"It's true. I can tell you later but for now, I think you should know what happened in there."
Before Draco could continue the conversation, the door maintaining the new parents' privacy swung open. Metteri appeared with a bright smile on his face. "Would anyone like to meet Isabella?"
"What a ridiculous question!" Lady Matilda exclaimed. The group of Draconians slowly began to pour into the room that had vacated not too long before. The women gathered around the bed that housed a very exhausted human-form Katrina and the small bundle of blankets in her arms. Metteri moved to talk with the men, exchanging apologies for their previous events.
Harry and Draco kept their distance from the crowd. Draco's hand found itself settling against the small of Harry's back. Even with all of the voices chattering, the scene was positively peaceful. All these people were crammed into this room to revel in the beauty of birth. It was just like a big happy family getting worked up over their newest addition. When it came down to it, everyone in the castle was a part of a family. They protected each other, raised each other, and grew together. Harry couldn't help but sigh with contentment; he finally felt that he had a family again. Draco was the one to break their own personal moment of silence.
"What were you going to tell me?" The blonde was also watching the scene and had absentmindedly started rubbing Harry's back.
"Well, I'm not entirely sure what happened. I haven't had much time to put thought into it. When I heard an explosion, I came out to find Lady Adelaide. She filled me in on how complicated Draconian births were. She let me go inside to at least see if I could help. All I did was sit near her to try and comfort her, but the weirdest thing happened. My vision went really dark except her body was glowing with this white light. There was this tiny part of the light that was a really bright red. It reminded me too much of how I used to be able to feel Voldemort in my head. Something told me to get rid of it, and it just happened. I just watched it disappear. I still don't understand it but after that, her contractions started back up. That's when we had to leave the room."
Neither wizard had noticed, but Metteri was listening in on the conversation and came over to them. "Harry, I know exactly what that was. Those are auras. That's what I see when I'm treating someone. You must be a healer." The man said excitedly.
"Well that solves that mystery." Draco offered. "So, you really saved the day, didn't you?"
Harry shied away from the accusation, looking to the floor. "No, everybody worked really hard. I just followed my instincts."
"No, Harry, you don't understand. If you hadn't been here for my mate, she might not still be here. I may not have been able to meet my daughter. You saved her when I was stuck in a useless state of blinding rage. I will never be able to thank you enough." Metteri started to get emotional with the outpour.
"Really, don't stress it. You've done so much for me too. I'm just happy to be a part of this family." Harry said with a smile. With that, the healer returned to his mate's bedside to coo at his newborn daughter. Draco took that as a sign to regain control of the group of Draconians.
"Alright great work everyone, but let's leave the new family alone. Everybody out." He said with the most princely tone he could muster with the smile he had on his face.
The crowd begrudgingly followed the orders, but Draco held Harry back from leaving. The couple looked on for a moment at the family of three before the prince spoke.
"Congratulations to you both. I'm glad everything turned out okay despite all of the difficulty. I wish Father was here to give you his blessing as well."
"Thank you to you both. Without either of you, our family would be non-existent." Katrina told the pair. "Harry, Metteri and I would love to help you hone your healing skills once we are both back in order."
"I would love that. You two enjoy your privacy. We will try to keep everyone at bay for you."
The wizards said their goodbyes and left the parents alone in the chambers. Just as Harry predicted, everyone that was just in the room was still waiting outside, eavesdropping.
"Get on, now. Don't you people have lives?" Draco asked with a raised eyebrow, causing them to scatter.
"You seem to scare them just a little bit." Harry snickered as the pair walked back in the direction of his quarters.
"Perhaps. I'd rather believe that they simply know that I was serious." There was that trademark Malfoy smirk again.
"If that makes you feel better, Malfoy." He retaliated as they reached Harry's door.
Hearing the teasing tone Harry used with his surname, Draco stopped and spun to look at the submissive next to him, pulling him close. Their eyes met and Harry was suddenly aware of how little space there was in between their bodies. The blonde's head had dipped down just enough to bring their noses no centimeters apart. Harry felt Draco's warm breath on his face as he spoke.
"Scared, Potter?"
A shiver ran down his spine at the question. If he wasn't in such a vulnerable position, Harry would've laughed at the memory of their dueling class in second year. He did, however, manage to maintain his confidence and teasing tone with his answer.
"You wish."
That brought a gleaming smile to Draco's lips. The brunet thought for just a moment that the dominant would lean down to grace his lips with the perfect ones in front of him. Harry closed his eyes in anticipation, but it was meaningless. Instead, Draco brought a hand up to take the shorter man's chin in between two fingers, gently tilting his head to one side. Soft lips ghosted over Harry's cheek, lingering for just a moment before drawing back to make eye contact again, still holding onto the submissive's chin.
There's that damn smirk of his again. Harry thought to himself, or so he thought.
"Is that a complement, Potter?" The answer was a simple eye roll. "As for your sense of disappointment, I meant what I said about doing this right. While I would love to treat you to a proper goodnight, I intend to take it slow. For now, I want you to get some rest, because I've decided to skip on my princely duties tomorrow. You and I are going to spend the day together."
Harry was speechless. He had never seen this side of the man. The over-confidence, yes, but not when it was used in a smooth-as-silk seductive tone. He found it made him melt into nothingness, and yet, he was okay with it. All he could do was nod and mutter a soft, "Ok."
Draco was laughing again. "Ever the eloquent Gryffindor." With a quick motion, Draco repeated the soft kisses, this time with one on each check. "Goodnight, love. I will come get you for breakfast in the morning." The prince released Harry's chin and backed away, turning to head off for his own chambers not too far away.
Harry stared until the man was finally out of sight and released the breath he didn't know he was holding, before walking into his rooms. He felt lighter than air as he sauntered off to his bedroom, changing into sleepwear and collapsed onto his bed. For what seemed like the hundredth time since he arrived at the castle, Harry fell into a blissful slumber.
I will try my hardest to get the next chapter up soon, just bear with me
Love, Aera
