Team: Holyhead Harpies
Position (Theme): Chaser 1 (The Number 4)
Prompts: [word] absence; [setting] Malfoy Manor; [song] If I had a Heart by Fever Ray
Reserve: Yes (Beater 2 writing for Chaser 1: Romystical)
Extension: No
Notes: AU! Tom, Abraxas and Minerva were in the same year at Hogwarts
WC: 1588
Beta: MissyAndTheDocs, TheMajesticDophin, bea weasley, Ash Juillet
Minerva stood outside the gates of Malfoy Manor. She held a carpetbag in one hand and gripped her wand tightly in the other. Abraxas had always said that she had a home with him. Maybe it had been the words of a younger naive type of loyalty, but she needed them to be true now.
The happiest memory of hers had always contained him. With dark corners and stolen moments in her mind, she whispered the incantation, "Expecto Patronum." A glowing, blue tabby cat scampered off to find Abraxas, betraying both the excitement and the fear that Minerva felt. Maybe she should've been polite and sent a letter first.
She need not have worried. Abraxas welcomed her into his life without question, like he always had. As if their long absence had not affected him any more than they had her.
Malfoy Manor was larger (and had way too many rooms) than the Gryffindor Tower. Minerva followed Abraxas, a stark reminder of the Prefect rounds that they had shared.
"Here's your room," he pointed, opening the door. She peeked in and took stock of the nearly psychedelic paintings and the lone portrait of a Malfoy ancestor.
"Where is your room?"
Abraxas rolled his eyes. "Minnie, it isn't proper."
"What if someone attacks you?" Minerva asked, her eyes pleading. "I can't go without you again." She took the necklace off her neck. The gold glinted in the late evening night. The locket opened up to a Slug-Club portrait of Tom, Abraxas and Minerva. "This is what got me through the war. So, your bedroom, please."
Abraxas sighed and Minerva felt herself tightening. "I haven't heard from him, have you? Us being together was an all-or-nothing deal for Tom."
"Well, Tom can catch up when he gets back from Albania," Minerva said, ignoring Abraxas' question. Tom would come back to them when he was ready, Minerva was sure of this.
Abraxas shifted. "Only if you are sure."
"I've spent four years in various hell-holes dreaming of you. I'm sure."
To Minerva's surprise, he pulled her to himself and buried his nose in her hair. She knew the scent that assaulted his nostrils would be so different from the floral notes he had associated with her during their time together at Hogwarts.
"Then promise that you won't leave me again," Abraxas begged.
"I promise to stay, to the extent I can control it," Minerva whispered, letting herself get lost in Abraxas' hugs.
Abraxas' room held a similar opinionated portrait, which Minerva immediately silenced. She didn't need any Malfoy ancestors screaming that she wasn't worthy of their heir because of her blood. Minerva had worked for her love and if she was going to drown (or fail), it would be by dragging Abraxas right down beside her.
She piled her stuff onto Abraxas' bed. "I am sleeping with you, right?"
Abraxas looked at her and she found herself blushing. She had thought that being a part of the war-relief efforts had gotten rid of that pesky reaction. The blush that seemed to pepper her cheeks when Abraxes looked at her. There had been no time for propriety when bombs fell and people needed saving. But the war was over and there were no more absent people that needed Minerva to save them.
"The couch is comfortable if you insist on staying. But I do suggest having your own room," Abraxas said, sitting down on his bed.
"The bed it is," Minerva said, fighting through her growing blush. "Seriously though, have you not heard from Tom?"
Abraxas shook his head. "You know Tom. He thinks a letter every blue moon is adequate communication and enough of an excuse for his absences at important occasions."
Minerva sighed and sat down on the floor next to Abraxas' feet. "I wish we were back at Hogwarts. Four years ago, this was so much easier. I thought I could change the world."
"But you will! You're not even a decade out of Hogwarts, you have a whole lifetime to want more, to dream bigger!"
Minerva found herself reaching for Abraxas' fingers. It was a gesture that made her heart ache with want and familiarity. "A half-mudblood like me? Don't make me laugh. I know what people say."
Abraxas moved and sat down next to her. He gently tilted her head and his blue eyes stared right into her brown ones. "Tom wouldn't have picked either of us if we weren't exceptional."
Minerva had her reasons for coming back to Abraxas. Most of which, as usual, were selfish.
"I need to become an Animagus," Minerva said desperately over breakfast.
"What's wrong with a respectable career as an Auror?" Abraxas asked. "You've already spent so much time on it."
Minerva looked at him with an unfriendly glint in her eye. The kind she got when Abraxas had spoken with ignorance.
"While purebloods get to ignore wars and climb up ladders based on lineage, it isn't the same for the rest of us," Minerva spat out.
Abraxas knew better than to flinch. Minerva, like Tom, pounced on perceived weakness.
"No one would care if you were Lady Malfoy," Abraxas offered. It was the fourth time he had made the offer since she had come back and Minerva gritted her teeth.
"I will not be kept, like some animal, Abraxas. You would have gotten yourself a pureblood wife years ago if you cared about finding a Lady Malfoy!" Minerva's anger seemed to swamp the room. Almost as if it had a voice of its own.
He put his hands up. "It was just an offer, Minnie. You know I only want what's best for you."
Minerva frowned. "Please, I need this."
It didn't take a Seer to know that Abraxas would move mountains for Minerva. So when she pleaded prettily, he crumbled under her request.
Minerva filled the absences in Abraxas' life. The spaces in Malfoy Manor were now occupied with Minerva's presence. Abraxas hadn't realised how loud she had been until she stopped talking. He had read the Animagus transformation books with her years ago. However, he hadn't realised how her voice had filled Malfoy Manor until she had to keep the Mandrake leaf on the roof of her mouth for an entire lunar cycle. Her silence had been deafening in its absence.
It had taken exactly four full moons for Tom to appear and for Minerva to successfully complete the first stage of her Animagus journey. Abraxas remembered the exact moment she had spat the Mandrake leaf into the phial, a tired grin on her face.
Her voice had been croaky when Tom had appeared in the fireplace, looking far older than he had been when he left four years ago. Abraxas had let go of the breath he hadn't realised he had been holding.
Tom's absence was no more and Abraxas hoped that this meant that they had stepped into an era where their relationship would grow stronger.
Tom had forgotten how demanding Abraxas could be. Between the three of them. Abraxas was obsessed with the idea of asking more than Minerva and Tom wanted (or were able) to give.
Where Minerva was pleased with light kisses, regardless of the length of his absence (as long as he was on time for dinner when he was in town), Abraxas kept track of him like a clock. The vastness of Malfoy Manor felt much smaller when Abraxas was the one in charge.
While Tom could admit having both Minerva and Abraxas around felt too good to be true, he resented the idea that he had put them through more than any regular couple in a relationship. They weren't a regular couple though. The four-year absence had taken its toll on Abraxas. It was evident when he lingered on kisses longer than he should have and obsessively checked their bed each night. Abraxas had resented that both Minerva and Tom put themselves above their relationship, and Tom knew that better than anyone else.
However, this was reality, and fairytales (even ones four years into the making) had a chance to crumble.
Tom had resented the fact that Minerva had scored her apprenticeship so easily with Dumbledore. She seemed to have everything she ever wanted, when it came to the old wizard, handed to her and that wasn't fair. Minerva wasn't the heir of Slytherin and she did not belong to Hogwarts the way he did.
Tom had so desperately wanted to teach, to mould the minds of the next generation of students that he hadn't thought of anything else over the last four years. Minerva loved being back in Hogwarts, and Tom had automatically assumed that there was a place for him too. It hurt, even more, when Abraxes had come back to the Manor, grinning that he had been granted a position on the Hogwart's School Board.
Tom remembered clearly the day of his rejection. Minerva had just gotten the hang of her Animagus transformation (her fourth attempt at it). Abraxas was away championing his fourth bill at the ministry. All that was absent was Tom succeeding in his fourth attempt at getting the DADA job. Four was a lucky number in his menage, and Tom held onto it desperately, just as tightly as he held onto his fourth Horcrux.
Four years apart. Four months reunited. Three people, two employed.
And him. Rejected. Forgotten. Cast out on the edges.
No longer.
Who was he to declare a number as arbitrary as four lucky, when true magic came in sevens.