Short today, I know, I know. Only two parts and they're short ones at that. However, I didn't want to put five, and there's no real way I could break up the promise ceremony, so there you go. One short part today.

In other news... I've got a job! I am now officially a fourth grade teacher, and I am so unbelievably thrilled!

Part 76/?

The hall was dazzling in the light of the torches. Gold and jewels encrusted every inch of the walls, columns and ceiling of the large room. A lavishness echoed by the men and women both on the dance floor and seated at tables set about the room. Each trying to show, by the clothes and jewelry they were wearing, their worth and status. Some knew how to do it, those in whom it was inborn or those trained from the moment they were born with impeccable fashion sense and good taste; who could wear a gunnysack and make it look like the finest gown. Others however, far too many others, believed the secret was to wear the brightest colors possible, with the largest, most ostentatious jewelry available. Still others seemed to feel they were nothing but backdrops for their magic, wearing fairy lights and flashing jewels, with animals frolicking over their clothes as if it was a meadow.

Into this bright vista moved two flickers of darkness. A darkness surrounded by silence as it rippled out around them. They were the negative image of two flames surrounded by darkness, and just as all eyes move towards the only light in ever darkness, so did all eyes move towards the only dark in this too bright room. As light hypnotizes, so does darkness.

He was a tall imposing figure in classical, traditional black robes. The bottom opened as he walked to highlight sleek black trousers and black dragonhide boots. His white-blond hair was pulled back with a simple black velvet ribbon. The only color came from the silver buttons and the silver snake head on the cane he carried in one hand.

She was in a green so dark it would look black against any backdrop but that of her date. There was a nearly indistinguishable pattern picked out upon the cloth, shown only by the occasional sparkle the lights caused from the jet, black diamonds or metallic silver thread. The black pearls and black threads were more sensed than seen and only the occasional impression of the pattern was ever seen by others eyes. Her black hair was a riot of curls around her face, held back by only a slim silver ribbon, the rest rippling down her back in a cascade almost indistinguishable from the cloth it whispered against.

The two stopped in the middle of the room, not quite posing, but definitely making sure their appearance and presence was noticed. For an instant, total silence blanketed the room. Noise exploded quickly in its wake as those already there began to talk. Those who considered themselves important hurried, while trying to make it look as if they never hurried, to be the first to greet the new arrivals, interested in the identity of the one the Minister had brought to this ball.

A glance from the man's eyes caused the band to start playing and with a tilt of his head to his companion he led her out onto the dance floor. Most of the crowd watched, mesmerized, as the two moved in perfect sync around the ballroom floor. Their bodies wrote a poem as they floated together through the steps of the dance. Their eyes never left each other, completely sure that no one else would ever dare impede them as they drifted and swayed, commanding the dance floor as they had commanded the room upon their entrance.

The night passed with the two remaining the center of attention. They spoke to others only as much as necessary to be polite, their attention caught up in one another. They separated occasionally, he to be surrounded by those in his favor, or wishing to become so, she surrounded by bright and glittering wives and daughters. He was as he always was, calm and in control, powerful and forbidding. She was kind smiles, gentle words and an insurmountable will. When they had had enough of others, they moved together once more, becoming caught up in each others eyes and arms, spinning a web that drew others towards them, but only so far and no farther. No one was allowed to truly touch the perfection shining between these two, only watch and envy.

They kissed. The end of a dance, a meeting after a separation, even as short as those were. A brush of lips; something deeper. Those who thought they had a chance at him learned differently. Those who wished to go after her, never even bothered to try. They were together, a matched pair, so unlike each other, yet their pleasure and happiness in their companionship glowed brighter than any torch or magical light.

When they left, their dark forms merging with the darkness outside the doors, the room they left behind seemed immeasurably... less. All that was left was light. The room should have seemed so much brighter now that the only spots of darkness had left... but the torches didn't burn as brightly, the fairy lights and jewels didn't twinkle as merrily. The shine had left now that the darkness was gone.

Part 77/?

Harry came down the stairs to breakfast the next morning with a spring in his step and a smile on his face. Lucius followed behind him, not quite as obviously happy, but showing his contentment all the same. Draco and Severus were already at the table, looking over articles about the ball.

"Well, you two certainly made an impression," Severus said snidely. "You're pretty much all anyone talked about."

"Good things or bad things?" Harry asked, not really caring. Absolutely nothing would be able to get his mood down this morning.

"Mostly just wondering about your identity," Draco admitted.

"Even the Prophet didn't say much that could be considered bad," Severus handed over the paper and Lucius snagged it.

"Nothing I can sue them over, hmm?" Lucius muttered as he looked it over.

"Not even a word about her age," Severus agreed.

"What's with them anyway?" Harry asked. "Why do they hate you so much?"

"Actually, they dislike you just as much, but with you being invisible lately, it's a little hard to write anything, though they probably will soon," Draco said thoughtfully. "Not to mention you're too well liked right now."

"The owner is Fudge's cousin," Lucius explained. "It's part of the reason he got elected and kept his job for so long."

"What I wish to know," Severus said as Harry was digesting that fact, "is what are you going to do when you graduate? You've put a lot of effort into making sure no one would consider Harry and Jade to be the same person, as well as linking Lucius with Jade. So, if you're going to eventually marry Lucius, as Harry, what are you going to do about Jade?"

Harry looked at him wide-eyed. "That's... a good question."

"You mean you hadn't even thought about it?" Draco squeaked.

"Um... no?" Harry admitted, pink with embarrassment.

Once the others stopped ragging on Harry, Severus handed over their rings, the emerald to Harry and the sapphire to Lucius. He warned them to keep the rings with them at all possible times, letting them tune in to their own personal auras. Once the rings were tuned and the spells finished, they would switch them, giving them a link to each other. Lucius conjured a pair of silver chains and both of the engaged parties slipped the ring onto the chains and placed them around their necks.

They spent the day as a family, investigating some of the other hidden rooms in the Manor. This time one of them made sure to use detection spells on every room before entering and no one touched anything that showed up as spelled until it had been checked out. They almost lost Severus several times, especially at one of the workrooms that was set up as a Potions lab and had a connected storeroom. They had to promise he could come back whenever he wished to finally get him out of there.

Draco got stopped dead in one of the libraries. Who knew he was secretly interested in alchemy? There were several alchemic texts in that library that he'd only ever heard of, but never dreamed he'd be able to get his hands on. He had to be dragged away to continue the tour.

Lucius' undoing? History. One of the floors in the unknown tower was almost a museum. With ancient artifacts Lucius had never dreamed had been a part of his family. Then again, he thought, as he took a closer look at one of the pieces, the fact that they *weren't* originally the family's, might explain why they were hidden away in an invisible tower.

Harry smiled a little wistfully. He'd found several of the books interesting, and some of the artifacts intriguing, but unlike the others he didn't have an all-consuming interest. He had things that he liked of course, DADA, Quidditch, truth spells, but nothing that could drag him in like the others did. Well, nothing except Lucius of course, but that wasn't exactly the same thing. He found a book on animagi and pulled it down to look through it, stopping at one picture his eyes wide. It was half an hour later before someone came to get him.

"What's so interesting?" Draco asked, plopping down beside him.

Harry dragged his eyes away from the book long enough to flip back and show his friend the page.

"Wings while human?" Draco's eyes were wide. "You keep reading, I'm going to go look at the other books."

Both protested bitterly as they were pulled away from their research. Flying was one of both of their greatest joys. Flying on their own wings in their animagi forms was even better. But to have wings while human? To fly under their own power, using their own muscles, but still having their own senses? Surely it wasn't possible... but oh, if it was?

Severus laughed when he saw what they were looking at. "Trust me," he told them as he dragged them away, "neither of you are anything close to angels."

The room that was supposed to be outside they couldn't find and the map was no help. Whatever the room was, it was buried and had been for long enough that the site was indistinguishable from the land around it. Sure they could dig down and try to find out what it was, but it was getting late and not a single one wanted to do that amount of work right then.

The biggest shock of the day however, didn't come from the map. It wasn't something in a room, or something in the newspapers. Instead, it was Flick.

While they were outside, Flick started herding them around to the far edge of the garden. The only thing Harry could get from her was a feeling of excitement and trepidation. They reached the edge of the garden and found an overgrown greenhouse. Obviously it had originally been used to grow tropical plants that later generations didn't care about and so had left them to die off. They didn't. They had flourished and spread. There were small trees growing in the middle of the greenhouse and vines growing up the sides.

/Why are we here?/ Harry asked. He suddenly jerked around as he felt... /Hello?/ he called out.

"What is it?" Lucius asked, having seen his abrupt movement.

"I thought... I felt..." Harry muttered incoherently, still staring into the greenhouse.

Lucius' answer came from that same place. Flying out from inside the greenhouse... was an Alaspinian minidrag. His first thought was that it was much larger than Harry's pet.

Everyone was utterly still as the larger flying snake hovered in front of the four of them then settled around Severus' shoulders. "Um... Harry?" Severus said softly.

Harry was still staring into the greenhouse. As if in answer to his stare, more minidrags came flying out. Two, three, four...

"Harry?" Draco was the one asking this time as the unknown, very lethal, flying snakes hovered around them.

Harry moved forward and started talking. Hissing came from seven different directions. Finally everything seemed to settle down. Harry turned around to look at Lucius. "They didn't get along with the rest of their nest," he explained. "They're from Flick's old nest and pretty much just followed her out here since they knew she was searching for her person." He pointed towards the greenhouse. "They really like this place, it's very warm. They'll be glad to help with the defenses of the Manor if you allow them to live here in peace."

"Considering no one has used this place in generations, I have no problem with it as long as they don't harm any of the people or animals that live here." Lucius told him. He really didn't see that he had much choice, who or what did he have that could get rid of half a dozen Alaspinian minidrags? Without getting themselves killed in the process anyway? Besides, they could be useful. And since Flick belonged to Harry, getting her mad at him was likely to get Harry mad at him.

After Harry spoke to them, the last four minidrags hovered in front of Lucius, almost seeming to bow before flitting back into the greenhouse.

"What about this one?" Severus asked, motioning to the large snake still wrapped around him.

Harry blushed slightly. "That's Flick's mate. He's the one she disappeared to be with last week. He knows that I'm going to be living far away and that you live there too, so he wants to go with you. He says that while you don't have enough empathy to link with him, your emotions are easy enough for him to live with. You're not as... cold as Lucius and Draco." He hastened to reassure his lover. "Not that you're cold, it's just the way your emotions feel to them." He turned back to his father. "If you really have a problem with him, just tell him. I'll take him with me and we can find someone else for him to pair up with."

"Why does he have to be with anyone?" Draco asked with interest.

"Don't forget, they're empaths," Harry reminded them. "That's why you'll hardly ever see one by himself. They need to either be with a group of minidrags, or linked with another empathic person. Since..." he thought for a moment. "I guess it translates best as Spitfire. His name means something like 'he who spits a venom hotter than fire'. Anyway, since Spitfire is mated to Flick who's linked to me, if he could stay with us, he'd be fine, but there's no way I'd be able to get away with having two of them. Flick is the one that suggested he could stay with you while she was busy with me. You have enough emotions that he feels comfortable, but very rarely loose control of them." He shrugged, knowing he wasn't explaining this well. "He just likes the way you feel." He finally settled for.

Later, Harry was curled up against Lucius. Severus was talking to Flick and Spitfire with Salazar translating as best he could. He couldn't get all of the nuances, since minidrags used empathy to add extra emphasis and levels. Unsurprisingly, the portrait couldn't hear that part. They still managed fairly well, leaving Harry free to talk with his lover.

A lot of talking went on that week. A lot of other things went on as well. Neither of them could forget that Harry would be heading off to school in little more than a week. Lucius still had to go into work and spent most of the first day refusing to answer questions about his ball date from the way he told it. When he came home the three or four of them, depending on if Severus was there or not, would eat dinner together. Lucius also made sure to spend some time with Draco every day, refusing to give up that relationship for his new one.

The true nights however, belonged to Harry and Lucius, and at least half that time was spent simply talking. Curled up together on their bed or in Lucius' chair in his study, they talked about everything they thought and hoped and had lived through, even those parts of their pasts they had never spoken of before.

Finally, it was the day they had waited for. The promise ceremony.