Author: enchanted nightingale
Disclaimer: The characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I merely use them in my plot for fun.
Chapter 20
A few days later find Harry finally having a lunch date with Lucius. It is the weekend and the two men had not seen each other in a while due to their busy work schedule. As things were, Harry practically molested the older wizard against the door of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, the moment Lucius arrived there. The blond wizard barely muttered a greeting before Harry embraced him in his arms and held him for a while.
"Merlin, I've missed you!" the green eyed wizard muttered against Lucius' lips, as he relaxed the embrace. Then he leaned forward for the kiss he had been aiming for.
The pregnant wizard practically melted against the enthusiastic greeting he received, returning the kiss with matching intensity. Lucius was the first to pull back from the kiss, but even then he did not step away from Harry's embrace. It truly had been too long since their last meeting. It was a novelty for Lucius. Being invested in a relationship, in how the other partner was doing, missing seeing one another and having so many emotions, so much intensity, everything was just more. And being around Harry somehow enhanced all that. It felt good knowing that Harry had feeling for him, but it felt even better when they were together. When Harry could show him and when Lucius could reciprocate. It was an all-around novel experience for Lucius and he found he enjoyed every moment of this.
"How are you?" Harry asked one hand around Lucius' neck and the other tentatively moving south until it was resting on the man's barely there belly.
The blond flexed the arms he had around his lover and smiled. "You worry about the most inane things. I am well. And the baby even better," he told Harry.
The green eyed wizard smiled and he was about to say something, when Andromeda walked into the room and saw them basically tangled up together.
"Like a pair of ill-mannered teenagers," she muttered and shook her head at them, her tone of voice teasing. "Neither of you is eating unless you wash your hands."
Lucius' cheeks flushed a bit at the insinuation while Harry rolled his eyes, more used to Andromeda's brand of affectionate teasing.
"You know very well that nothing happened," he told the witch.
"So you say Harry, but I don't care. Wash your hands! I will know," she insisted and sauntered off.
Harry sighed against Lucius' neck. "As much as I love the woman, she sometimes makes me want to just ..."
"Curse her?"
"No! She'd retaliate and she's a Black. She knows too many spells for that! I hardly want to spend a week bleating like a goat or sporting boils or anything more embarrassing. I was going to say tear my hair out."
Lucius chuckled.
"Let's go do as she said," Harry told him as he tugged the other wizard to the upstairs bathroom. "I know she does not count cleaning spells as 'clean enough' so water and soap it is."
"The things I do for you."
In reply the younger wizard pecked him on the lips and Lucius had few complaints after that.
"Come on," Harry cajoled. "Kreacher cooked some kind of game with brown rice and sautéed mushrooms; he hinted you have been craving mushrooms lately."
"How on earth could he know that?" Lucius wondered.
That one was easy enough to explain.
"House elves gossip," Harry told him. At the incredulous look he received he smiled. "They might have masters and are under orders and magic to obey them, but they are damn sneaky. When they want to please the family they're bound to, their magic allows them for a lot of leeway. I bet Kreacher asked the house elves at your Manor and they conspired to please you."
The other wizard looked a bit shocked, and a little bit bewildered at the information. "I would have never thought that possible. None of the Malfoy elves behaved like when Narcissa was pregnant with Draco. You know too many things about house-elves, Harry."
"Still smarting over the fact that Dobby tossed you on your wonderfully shaped butt?"
"Harry?"
"Yes, Lucius?"
"Kindly change the subject."
The green eyed wizard smiled knowingly and did just that, turning the conversation to an anecdote about his day.
Luna hummed a bit under her breath, a habit of hers that had Draco looking at her. She caught him staring and smiled. They were both dressed casually and their date was taking place in a muggle restaurant that specialized in seafood. The blond witch had made Draco apparate them all the way to Watergate Bay in Cornwall, where an apparently muggle chef was in charge of the menu. She was good at doing that, taking him out of his comfort zone in any way possible. He was glad for his magic, because before they entered the restaurant she had them walking barefoot at the beach. Yes, the sand had been quite nice, but it was still too cold to dip his toes in the sea. Or get splashed in the face with sea water. Luna had laughed as she sprayed him. And Draco had enjoyed his retaliation.
They were currently waiting for their order to come and she had taken to admiring the view outside and humming under her breath. It was a very nice sound and he was getting distracted as well. Or ensnared by her. Yes, that was far more appropriate.
"Draco?"
"Yes?"
"You're smiling."
The wizard nodded. "I guess I am."
"You have been downtrodden lately. Since we had that lunch with Harry."
Draco's face last a bit of the smile. "Yes, that matter... It's not over, but I'm on top of the situation."
"As long as you are a happy dragon, that is all I care about," the former Ravenclaw told him.
"Sometimes, you scare me with how insightful you are."
"Only sometimes?" she teased.
Draco just smiled fondly at her. "Stop fishing for compliments."
It was the middle of July.
Several teams of Unspeakables stood at attention not unlike soldier as the Head of the Department debriefed them of their upcoming mission and went over the rules with them (again).
"Stay in units of three at all times. If at any given moment you feel nauseous, flashes of dread, or any kind of feeling that is not your own, inform your teammates and back the hell away from that area or artefact. These wards are dangerous and unlike anything we've encountered before. You are to keep your damn distance and stay cautious. If you get killed out of stupidity I'll laugh over your graves."
His gaze zeroed in on Harry's team. The green eyed Unspeakable and Luna Lovegood, along with one of the Vampires that answered to Madam Xyza were a team of their own. The Vampire, a slim man of Korean ancestry, had been a soldier for hire and then posed as a scribe for a century or two in various royal south-east Asian courts. He had been with Madam Xyza for about six centuries and went by Hyon (no last name). He and Luna had hit it off immediately and Harry had been out for drinks with the Vampire a couple of times. They were one cohesive unit, and had after a couple of unfortunate incidents gathered quite a reputation. The phrase 'Trouble just finds me' continued accompanying Harry even in his adult life.
"Potter."
"Sir," the green eyed wizard intoned, trying to keep a straight face and not pout like a child at being singled out, again.
"Try your best not to have your usual fanfare, please," the Head of the Department asked of him. He then eyed Luna and Hyon. "You two just... keep an eye on each other, and him."
He averted his eyes from his most troublesome group and addressed the gathered people as a whole.
"Remember people! Potter is in charge this time. He tells you to touch, you do. He tells you to keep your grabby paws to yourselves or get the hell out you do, no questions asked. He is our resident Parselmouth and you will listen to him. If you don't and you get eaten or cursed, don't you dare try to haunt me! Got it?"
"Yes sir!" came from the Unspeakables standing at attention before him.
"No pressure," Hyon teasingly whispered to Harry, who rolled his eyes at good-naturedly.
The mission was nothing new. People with special skillsets, or knowledge in obscure languages often were appointed to head a mission. The Usnpeakables as a department did not believe in nepotism, like the majority of the Ministry of Magic. They usually only hired people who were a good fit to the department and missions were planned accordingly. In this case, Harry was among the very select few who had a unique talent in a magical language, as Britain's last Parselmouth, and often got to head missions because of that. His Parseltongue abilities had earned him this spot twice in tombs in Egypt, once in a temple in India and another time in a crypt in Persia. They had a witch of Aztec descent that was fluent in Beast Speak, (usually she could converse with felines like panthers and tigers and such). She and Harry had gotten drunk together a couple of times, bemoaning the stupidity and general prejudice exhibited by the majority of their fellow wizards.
During Harry's first mission, one of the senior Unspeakables had expressed a dislike that someone like him (celebrity / young / green recruit the reasons had been multiple) had been the lead. Harry had tried his best to keep the spirits light, but in the end the disgruntled Unspeakable managed to get one of the team killed when he steamrolled in a room Harry had not cleared. The wizard had earned himself a bite from a Runespoor. After he recovered he was summarily booted off the Unspeakables, his mind whipped of all his time with them and he also paid a fine to the family of the colleague that lost his life. The subsequent lectures that followed ensured the event did not happen again.
Still, after such a first mission, Harry always kept an extra eye of for any weariness. He hated repeating mistakes. And this time it had the potential for an even bigger failure. Apparently, Atlantis had a special place for people who knew the 'Snake Tongue'. There was a section that was part of the library that was apparently closed off by the statue of a snake, much like the one he had seen years ago in the Chamber of Secrets. Harry had seen the Pensive memories and was able to deduce from carvings and the like that only Parselmouths could enter through the doorway. Whether they would find books, relics or nothing at all did not matter to them. Sometimes only passwords in Parseltongue protected such passages.
Other times, like a specific mission that had taken them to a temple in the Madhya Pradesh region in India, one had to cross several types of snakes to get further inside the temple. Whether they were real magical serpents preserved magically or animated statues, it did not matter. Without a Parselmouth the previous teams that had attempted entrance had failed spectacularly.
The green eyed wizard had read an older case report where it took fourteen Unspeakables to bring down a nest of magical vipers once. They had been cursed by their original owner and they were harder to take down than a fully grown Nundu. Since then there was no such phrase in the Unspeakables' vocabulary as 'over prepared'.
"We want a map of the area and for you to catalogue the place. Do not, I repeat DO NOT, take out any books, or other artefacts you see. There will be time later. If you lose a finger to a book I will laugh. And then put you on babysitting duty."
Now, 'babysitting duty' was actually a very serious threat that gathered several dismayed sounds from the gathered group.
Harry just plain shuddered. Babysitting duty was the worst. It could include anything from keeping an eye on the Aurors they had on loan, to training newbies at the Auror academy, to actually babysitting someone young, usually persons of interest to the Department. And those were usually that included anything from celebrities to dangerous creatures. Luna had once sought babysitting duty on purpose. Later he found out it was because she got to babysit a dragon hatchling. Harry still had fresh memories of Roberta as a hatchling and was not eager to repeat the experience.
Luna elbowed him gently and he sighed. He looked at Hyon and then her.
"No, I don't care if you have a feeling that whatever you might babysit will be cool, you will behave," he told her. "And no making bets with her, Hyon. You're supposed to be the responsible older one."
"She's way more fun than you," the Vampire grumbled.
"I'm surrounded by unruly children," Harry groaned.
Luna and Hyon both grinned at him unapologetically, making several of their nearby colleagues shoot Harry pitying looks.
Their supervisor cleared his throat. "Mr. Potter," he commented, sounding more like his former professors at Hogwarts than a department head dealing with adult wizards.
"Shutting up, Sir," the green eyed wizard replied.
He got a small smile in return and a barked order to get ready for the expedition.
Lunda carefully nudged his side and shot him a smile.
"Will you behave?" Harry practically pleaded. "I'd really hate to get a reprimand. Again."
"The last one was your fault," the blonde witch reminded him.
"Like you are not a horrible enabler," Hyon told her.
The witch smiled and shot them an innocent look.
"That looks as innocent as a Niffler getting ready to filch my wallet," Harry told her and led the way to the lockers. He vaguely heard Luna complain to Hyon that she was losing her edge, and the Vampire comforting her. He inwardly prayed for patience and good luck.
Draco had Teddy in his lap. The boy was sporting his uncle's pale blond hair and grey eyes, and a huge smile on his face. They looked more like siblings now that Teddy was mimicking the Malfoy heir. Both of them were content and Draco was more at ease now, around the child than the first time he visited.
Andromeda now hardly blinked at the sight of them together. It was after the fifth or so visit (which spanned three weeks) that her sister's son was a guest in No12 Grimmauld Place. Sometimes he visited in order to have dinner with his father and Harry and twice just so that he could spend some time with Andromeda's grandson. Like today that he had come to speak with Harry but the green eyed wizard had fire called warning the blond that both he and Luna would be late meeting his for dinner.
The Malfoy heir had shrugged when he was given the message and said that he could wait. Just about then Teddy woke from his nap and when he learned that Draco was there he insisted having the blond read him a story ('Toothy the Curious Iron belly' was apparently a favorite for the two cousins). Still, Andromeda found it a novelty seeing the two interact. Just like she still had to look twice whenever the older Malfoy was in a room. It was amusing how things have changed so radically between the families. Lucius' pregnancy and subsequent blossoming relationship with Harry was bringing changes in their lives and more people in their home. Harry could actually claim to have a social life outside of work now. It also got Teddy to meet more family and the boy had so few of them left. Day by day things were better for them and she felt the positive changes.
Draco looked up then, catching her look.
"Draco..." Teddy pouted when his cousin stopped reading to him.
But the blond was looking at Andromeda. "Aunt Andromeda," he greeted her.
He was still careful around her, and he always did a double take when he saw her, like he was always looking and her dead sister first. Then the uneasiness would pass and he would relax in her presence again.
Andy smiled, and let him take his time, not taking it personally. She was aware of her similarity to Bellatrix and how odd it was for people who had known her late sister to see Andromeda smile, sans the insanity.
"How many times had he gotten you to read him this story?" she asked teasingly, recognizing the book her nephew was holding.
Draco slowly grinned. "A thousand times less than I had my father read it to me," he replied and she laughed.
"Harry and Luna just stumbled in the floo. Give them a few minutes to short themselves out and freshen up, perhaps even down some 'Pepper Up' and then we're having dinner together," Andromeda told him. "I will go and check what Kreacher set up. You and Teddy can come join us soon."
Draco nodded and thanked her. He managed to coax Teddy up with the promise of dinner with his godfather. The two of them met up with Harry and Luna right outside the dining room door. The two Unspeakables had changed into more comfortable clothes. They had both obviously taken showers and a dose of 'Pepper Up', since they were sporting red ears and the flushed face that came from that particular potion.
Upon seeing his godfather, Teddy reached for him, and Draco handed him over to Harry.
"Harry, your godson," he commented as he passed the squirming toddler to the green eyed wizard.
"Thank you Draco. Hello, Teddy! I missed you!" Harry said as he pulled the young boy close. He was still tired from the days long mission with the Unspeakable and the slight weight of his godson made him slightly uncomfortable, but he refused to let the boy out of his arms.
Draco took the time to greet Luna with a kiss to the cheek. "Hello! You look good."
"Kind of you to say. You should have seen us before we took the potion," Luna remarked as she pecked his lips.
"You both look rather exhausted," the blond wizard admitted.
"Mostly the lack of sleep, for me at least, is to blame for the exhaustion," Luna commented. "Harry did perform a couple of demanding spells, but that was not the most demanding magic he has performed so it was really a rather ordinary expedition."
Draco shot a look at the green eyed wizard who was nuzzling his godson with a smile. There were obvious scratches on Harry's hands and a hint of a bandage was peeking from his collarbone. He wanted to ask, he really did, but knowing that both his girlfriend and her best friend were bound by serious Oaths, he kept his mouth shut and drew Luna in a short hug, before he followed Harry in the dining room for the meal. The days he was over, spending time with all of them were getting more as the time went by. It was nice having a meal with family. His father arrived with only a ten minute delay and joined them for a rather lively dinner.
It was a Thursday morning soon after. The group of witches Andromeda considered friends met again. The Black witch received them in Grimmauld Place this time, where most of them had not stepped foot in for a while now. Andromeda had sent out letters to Minerva, Augusta and Molly, inviting them to Grimmauld for a tour of the renovated house, and to catch up. All of them had turned up, eager to see her and of course to see the house and what had become of it, since they had not been to the house since before the war.
"Remarkable," McGonagall kept muttering as Andromeda gave them a tour of the common areas and Teddy's nursery and play room.
Minerva MacGonagall and Molly Weasley in particular had been to the Black ancestral house while it had doubled as a safe house for the Order. They both recalled the spider webs, the doxies, the smell of mold and stale air, the floor that creaked ominously and the various Dark artefacts that had been scattered all over the place, leaking malicious magic all over. The house they were now walking through looked nothing like that. In fact it was practically modernized (for wizarding standards) and looked cozy and welcoming.
"I never really believed this place could change so radically," Molly admitted, impressed at all the changes. "Harry really did wonders with this place."
"The nursery for Teddy and even the playroom were his ideas," Andromeda told the witches."
"Truly remarkable," Augusta muttered as she and the rest of the witches were led down the stairs and back to the sun room, where they were having their get together.
Kreacher had prepared everything for them, a bit more extravagantly than what Andromeda had requested of him, but thankfully he had not gone that much overboard. It appeared he shared the excitement with his mistress. He was not even bothered, when Augusta had a few choice words to say about the last lady of the house.
"Walburga never really had any taste," the witch muttered. "Now you and Narcissa, even your sister Bellatrix had more taste. And I know what I'm saying. I visited Lestrange Manor before... everything. The Gothic style was really not to my taste, but at least it was a recognizable style and not out of the hut of a Hag."
Andromeda laughed at the caustic remark. "Our mother never really cared for the horror chic Aunt Walburga favored," she commented.
Her reply was met with amusement from the other witches as they all sat down again and reached for the refreshments. She was the only one remaining standing in order to serve the tea.
"I have Kreacher keeping an eye on Teddy for now, not that he does not do it on his own. He likes the boy well enough."
"Well, bring Teddy over," Molly said, excited. "I'd love to see him again."
Andromeda shook her head. "And have Teddy hog all your attention? Maybe a bit later and after Kreacher wears him out some. I'm not as young as I used to be."
"And I have a school full of little hellions, I could use a bit of a break," Minerva McGonagall stated as she accepted a cup of tea from her hostess.
"Kids bring joy to a house," Molly sighed into her cup.
"Well, you and Arthur had plenty of your own. Merlin's knows how many grandkids they'll give you," Minerva told her, though she sounded rather fond.
"You have a full school of them, remember?" Augusta told her.
"Yes, and none of them act like we ought to be coddling them," the Scottish witch said. "Apparently I'm lucky after all."
"It's not that bad," Molly said.
"It is," Andromeda insisted. "Your brother's kids are how old now?" she asked McGonagall.
Minerva smiled. "Old enough to have kids of their own. Six boys and four girls."
"Gryffindor's the lot of them?" Augusta asked.
"Yes, and I'm glad I'm not a Head of house anymore," she guiltily admitted and the witches laughed.
"How about Teddy? Will he be a lion?" Molly asked. "Or is it too soon to tell?"
"Probably green colours," Andromeda mused. She found it funny, because she was the only former Slytherin among this group pf witches. At the others used to belong to the 'House of the Brave'.
"It would have been funny if Harry had been in Slytherin," Minerva commented. "He was certainly sneaky enough. I'm certain I will never know the full extent of mischief and trouble he got into. He was exceptionally good at covering his tracks and that was all him, not Hermione Granger and certainly not your son, Molly."
"No, my Ronald was never sneaky, not like his older brothers, Percy excluded. But while you find it funny, Severus would have found it terrible," Molly reminded her and both witches snorted, Andromeda too.
"Really?" Augusta asked.
Minerva nodded, "Albus once told me that Harry, brilliant lad that he was, could have been a great Slytherin, a pride for the house," she quoted the exact words the late Headmaster had used.
"And he would have looked adorable in green," Augusta commented.
Andromeda watched and listened as the conversation turned to other subjects soon after that, inwardly musing about how right they were. It was an opportunity, this get together and several others she was planning to do to pave the way for what was to come. With the direction Harry's life had taken Andromeda felt it was her duty to help prepare (and perhaps manipulate) people into thinking of the green eyed wizard as more than a poster boy for Gryffindor. The Black witch hoped to even get them used to Lucius Malfoy, or at least mildly tolerable of the man. Even if half the witches she was friends with supported the unlikely pair, then her Harry would not be alone. And that was what mattered to her. So like the Slytherin she was, Andromeda started planning seeds. And what better way to start than mention Draco's reconciliation with Harry and how the Malfoy heir behaved around his younger, half-blood cousin.
Hermione Granger was on a mission.
Ever since she saw Luna with Draco Malfoy at that store in the Muggle world, she had been trying to track the blonde witch down. In order to do that, she had tried to find out the exact Ministry department she and Harry were part of. She had come across a dead end as soon as she attempted it. Months ago, when she had tried to find out, she had similar results.
Since then, she knew that there were certain Ministry Departments were the employees were not listed, or were unavailable for the general Ministry personnel. These departments included the Hit Wizards, who were a department adjacent to the Aurors, the Warding Department, and the Department of Mysteries.
Hermione was mostly certain that Harry was not a part of the Hit Wizards. Since he and Luna were colleagues, and she was certain that Luna could never kill someone in cold blood, that department was out.
That left Warding and the DoM. And Hermione was lately leaning more and more to the option of them working as Unspeakables. She also recalled Bill Weasley's reaction to that offhand comment Harry made, back at the lunch at the Barrow. It was the most probable option. And one she had not really expected of the green eyed wizard. Luna Lovegood had several characteristics that could possibly land her in that department, but from what she knew of Harry, he was never motivated enough, or interested enough to study further than what was expected of him.
Despite all that, Hermione decided to go with Harry and Luna being Unspeakables. She had not shared her suspicions with Ron or any of the other Weasleys. The Muggleborn witch knew she could ask Harry and Luna, but she doubted they would give her a straight answer. And it was not something you could ask over a letter or a Floo call. She also knew just how out of the blue this whole thing was. No, this was something that had to happen in person.
So Hermione waited. She often used a different entrance to the Ministry just to keep track of any Unspeakables coming and going. Most of them used the hidden entrances their department had all over the Ministry, but a couple of them came from the public spots.
She kept that up for several weeks, until one day she came across Luna as she was crossing a corridor heading back to her office.
The blonde witch was walking with a bag of what looked like take-out Indian food, and humming under her breath.
Hermione immediately changed direction and headed towards her.
"Luna!"
The other witched stopped humming and turned to her, looking completely unsurprised at this.
"Hello, Hermione."
"Can we talk? It's important."
Luna cocked her head to the side, her dangling earrings (small glass iridescent pixies), catching the dim light and sparkling. Hermione was so caught up in the jewelry that she missed the expectant and somewhat sad look that crossed the younger witches' face.
"Of course," Luna agreed. "It won't take that long and I will be able to take my lunch break on time. Your office I assume?"
Hermione nodded.
End of Chapter
