Chapter 11
Shanara faced the dawn quietly, standing on the balcony surrounding her room. Looking inside through the French windows, she saw her siblings, sleeping peacefully.
Alex sprawled across half the bed, spread eagled; Roberto slept easily, his head tilted to one side, his arms thrown behind him in youthful slumber and Marya, dainty and doll like even in sleep, was curled up at the foot of the bed.
Shanara smiled silently at them, loving the feeling of belonging that came to her so rarely these days. She alone had not been able to sleep, ideas and half realized dreams making sleep impossible.
Moving as quietly as possible, she dressed herself in a set of Alex's riding clothes. It was early enough for her to sneak out dressed in boys clothes unnoticed and she knew if she was caught the worst that could happen was a good scold which would be worth it – she hated riding in dresses, it was so impractical.
Easing herself out of the room, she lightheartedly ran down to the stables. This was her home, where she could be free, be the Shanara she had been before Draco, before Hogwarts.
Three hours later, when she endeavored to sneak back into the house, she found herself guiltily trying to plead her case with her uncle Miguel. Though he found his niece's antics hilarious, Miguel knew better than to encourage her and told her to go report to her father. Grimacing, Shanara ran up to his study and barged in, only to find her father entertaining Lucius, Draco and Harry there. Embarrassed, she tried to withdraw but was brought up short by her father demanding to know what devilry she had been upto.
Laughing, she said ' I was riding, papa'
'that I can see….why must you insist on wearing Alex's clothes I will never know !'
'Because riding in a dress is horrible'
'you are a lady, you know that, what would your mother say?"
'nothing if you don't tell her' said Shanara, hopefully.
Laughing at her and gently swiping at her playfully, her father commanded her to be off and to make herself respectable.
She fled and as she ran to her room, she heard him make excuses for her unconventional behavior to Lucius. She knew she was safe, Uncle Lucius would never spoil her fun in something as simple as riding merely because of what she wore.
As Shanara ran out of the study, Draco found himself staring at her retreating back. He had never seen Shanara like that – laughing and free, carelessly dressed in boys clothes, sauntering into her fathers study as if she didn't have a care in the world. Shanara had always been quiet and conventional. Though she had a wicked sense of humour, it was strictly tongue in cheek and she had certainly never ignored convention by doing things normally forbidden to pureblooded women. He almost said something about it but catching his father's eye, he decided to keep his mouth shut.
Excusing themselves a little later, Harry, Draco and Lucius left the study and as they walked down the corridor, Lucius looked around carefully and indicated that they follow him into an empty room.
From the looks of it, it had been a morning parlor which had been unused for years. Lucius surveyed the room rapidly and turned back to Draco and Harry who were looking at him, confused.
Lucius shut the door and cast an imperturbable charm on the door and then a silencing charm so that noone would hear their conversation.
Finally, precautions taken, he turned to the now slightly worried duo before him.
'Alright, now we can finally talk' said Lucius, his eyes glinting dangerously.
'Yes' said Draco, moving forward slightly as if shielding Harry from his father's fury.
His movements merely served to infuriate Lucius further.
Ignoring Harry, Lucius glared at Draco and said 'well, what do you have to say for yourself?'
'I love Harry, father, and I'm not about to apologize for that'
'No, but I damn well deserve an apology for putting me in this position'
Storming around the room, Lucius let loose the rage that had been consuming for days now.
'How could you, Draco? The Montgomery's are our FRIENDS. They stood by us when no one else in the pureblooded community would. They pledged their daughters to us – the ultimate gesture of good faith. They are the reason that we are not dead! They are far more influential in this world than we are…'
'The Malfoy's aren't paupers, father, we are powerful….' ,Interrupted Draco.
'You fool!' screamed Lucius, ' We are but children in comparison to the Montgomerys ! The blood of Merlin runs through their veins – how can we possibly be more powerful than they are. They are being infinitely merciful by allowing us to keep up this sham of a friendship. They are fully within their rights to cut us down like animals'.
'I don't care about what they do! They can do nothing to hurt us' returned Draco, stubbornly.
'Beren Montgomery can bankrupt me in a heartbeat', returned Lucius, 'how long would you stay on your high horse without everything you grew up with, Draco? No money, no power, no respect – you would lose everything!'
'He'd still have me' said Harry, in a low voice.
Lucius turned to him and said quietly 'And he would hate you'. Holding his hand up to stall Draco's protests, he continued 'He would have to live with the knowledge that though he loves you, you were the reason that he had disgraced the people who brought him into the world, the ones who were everything to him before you came along; that he had single handedly broken down the work of centuries of Malfoys….do you really think that Draco would love you for long?'
Both Harry and Draco looked at him and in his glance they read anger, compassion and was that fear?
Turning away from them and walking towards the window, Lucius said 'All that stands between us and total annihilation is the fact that Marya is married into our family and that Shanara has shown a remarkable tendency towards forgiveness'. He paused for a second and said 'Something that the world will not show her, I'm afraid'.
'I don't understand', said Harry, 'Draco broke off their engagement and I understand if she is upset but it's not the end of the world'.
Lucius remained silent and as Harry looked at his lover, he was shocked to see how drawn Draco looked.
'It's not that simple, my love' said Draco, running his fingers through his hair nervously. Without looking Harry in the eye, he continued 'Purebloods live by a code. They are pledged to eachother while they are still children, they grow up together and finally marry and are bound together magically forever. When they are pledged to eachother, in other words, when they are engaged, they begin to share a magical bond', glancing up at Harry, he said 'There is a ceremony that joins us together – makes our magic one'.
'I don't understand' said Harry, confused 'What do you mean makes your magic one ?'
Draco tried his best to explain, 'The engagement is supposed to be the first step of our life together…the first step is for us to bond our magic together – that way we are of same magical capacity, neither is stronger and we are equal in our partnership.'
'But you broke the engagement' said Harry, uncomprehending.
'Yes,' said Draco, 'It is also a rule that the man's level of power determines the balance of power in the relationship'.
'So you're saying that no matter how powerful or weak the woman is, from the moment she is engaged, her level of magic will be the same as her betrothed?' asked Harry incredulously.
'Exactly' said Draco, glad he had grasped the concept.
'I still don't see what the problem is' said Harry.
'The problem, Potter, is that once the engagement is broken, the effects are two fold, firstly, she will be considered an inferior member of society – a magical slut….she has shared her magic with someone who won't eventually be her husband. And in our world, magic is more important than even the chastity of the body, though' he glared at Draco, 'I'm sure Draco has taken care of that as well'.
Draco flushed and refused to meet Harry's eyes.
Harry felt his whole world crashing down upon him. All his life he had tried to make things right in the world and though he realized now that that was an impossible ambition, he never thought that he would be one to make someone else's life so miserable. The severity of Shanara's punishment suddenly made sense to him, how bitter and angry she was as well and the true weight of how forgiving she had been settled now upon his shoulders. Draco had condemned her to a life of misery. Harry was no stranger to the rigidity of pureblood society, had he not listened to a thousand of Sirius's rants about his family and from what he understood, the Black's and the Malfoy's were mild compared to the Montgomery's. With a pang he found himself wondering what Sirius would've said – what his parents would have said. Pushing this uncomfortable thought to the back of his mind, he asked 'What is the second thing?'
Lucius finally faced them and said 'when a magical bond is broken, the two bonded recover their pre-bonded levels of magic'. Looking Harry in the eye he said 'The unfortunate side effect is that they will always retain a little bit of the person they were bonded to'
'what do you mean?' asked Harry, worried for Draco.
'It means that because Draco's power was the deciding force in the bond, he will come away unscathed but Shanara will always have the imprint of Draco upon her soul. In other words, Draco will always be a part of her and she will have to live with the memory of him branded into her very being'.
With these parting words, Lucius opened the door and left the room, leaving Harry and Draco together.
Looking into Harry's eyes, Draco realized that though Harry was right next to him and that he held Harry's hand in his, once again he was all alone.