Title: In The Interests Of …
Author: I_nv_u50
Pairings: DracoXHarry; SquallXZell
Disclaimer: I own a copy of every book published for Harry Potter, and a copy of the FFVIII game. Unfortunately, that's as far as it goes.
Chapter Rating: PG13 for my wayward sorceress' vulgar language. :D Actually, I edited most of her original crudeness out. She wasn't too happy with me.
Author's Notes: So far, I've only gotten one reply with my happy/sad ending thingy. Its up to you. The way I'm feeling now will have everyone dead before the story is over, but I'm refusing to write the final chapters until I get over it. How's that for an offer? :D
Also, with school, it's gonna go a bit slower, 'cuz I actually kinda need to work this year (bawls) But anyway. Isn't it weird how you're sitting, listening to a lesson, and you suddenly get an idea for the next chapter? I am so glad I can write and save on my calculator. That's where most of my maths lessons went. Maybe that's why I barely scraped through? Probably. Anyway, No muses now, sorry, they're all too busy having a dance in my head, which, of course, results in a thumping headache. I apologize if this, or my miserable moods carry through into the writing.
As such, this chapter is pretty short, but the next one is, I think, a little longer. Which means we're also nearing the ending of my pre-typing pages. Ah well. We can hope Draco and Harry get off their asses to actually get some work done.
I plan to wake them up nice and early tomorrow morning. We'll see how much they like drinking, sorry, partying instead of working then (evil cackle)
Anyway, enjoy, and please review!! Tell me how you want the ending!!!
The last person Draco would have expected to see, or to wake him up so horrifically early, was one Ron Westley. But that was exactly who he grudgingly opened his door to at three o' clock in the morning.
Ron, he could plainly see, even without the help of magic, was not in the best of moods, quivering with effort as he restrained himself from attacking Draco, even as Draco bypassed his own irritation at being woken.
"What do you want?" Draco snapped, his voice harsh and hard, remarkably awake, given the hour.
Ron shuddered with the effort required to keep his clenched, white knuckled fists at his sides. "Where is he?" Ron managed to bite out, keeping his eyes carefully on the floor.
Draco was honestly surprised, and not just a little annoyed. "Harry? Why are you looking for him this late?"
Ron muttered something, but repeated his question, refusing to answer Draco's.
Draco felt the simmering jealousy arising in him; he waved the answer away with a deceivingly nonchalant air. "When I left, he was heading for his room."
"Well, he's not there now."
Draco looked up at the ceiling, blinking back the last remainder of sleep and pushing apart the malicious and wholly unwholesome thoughts as he searched mentally.
"He's with Zell and Seifer and … Squall? Squall."
It was Ron's turn to blink, and he betrayed himself to look into the mocking, subtly dangerous eyes of the blonde. "Huh?"
Draco smirked at him, exerting a superior air that he knew would anger Ron all the more. "He'll be here in a second. Why were you in his bedroom this late?"
Ron flushed at the implied reason, and started to heatedly answer when Harry came around the corner, blinking in pleasant surprise to see his best friend inside the Sorceress' Wing. Then he caught sight of Draco, and scowled, ignoring Ron to stalk up to him. Rinoa's knights turned the corner, slightly less than serious.
"You… ASSHOLE!" Harry stopped right in front of Draco, eyes narrowed, jaw clenched and almost growling in frustrated anger.
Draco stepped aside, outwardly serene, and Harry pushed past him with an exasperated noise. Draco simply smiled sweetly and mockingly at everyone watching, and calmly shut the door in their faces.
Zell was the first to move; he laughed and caught hold of Squall's unresisting arm. "C'mon, baby! Let's get to bed."
Seifer just grinned in appreciation of the incomprehensible look on Ron's face. Ron was staring in shock at the closed door, mouth opening and closing silently as he blinked at the door.
"Don't worry about it, Westley. They'll have quite a few more fights before everything's sorted out between them." Seifer told him, and Ron snapped a salute before heading in the direction of the wing's exit, presumably going to his dorm, or, Seifer mused as he walked back to his own chambers, maybe his girlfriend's.
Ron had a sinking feeling that neither the sorceress nor the knight was going to leave the bedchambers anytime soon, if at all tonight.
As it turned out, he was right.
Draco had promptly put a silence spell on Harry after shutting the door, leaving Harry angrily mouthing words that Draco felt all too clearly in his head.
But even that had stopped when Draco stepped forward with a smile that made Harry dazedly forget everything else. Draco perceived this, and it made him smile harder, gratified that his jealousy was slipping away in the reassuring presence of his angry knight.
"Stop that. I'm going to give you two options. I can make you stay, or you can choose to stay. Which is it?"
He felt Harry's helpless anger flare up again, and sighed. "No, we're not going to do that. Not yet. It's a simple fact that the bond gets stronger through contact, right?"
Harry nodded warily.
"Right. And we know that this escaped sorceress is sleeping with her knight, in all possible meanings of the word, right?"
Harry just glowered at him.
"Right. So the fact is, I can get stronger, and, indirectly, so you can you, if we sleep together. No, not like that. Does that sound logical?"
Harry couldn't argue with that reasoning, even if he had been able to. He nodded slowly.
"Right." Draco stifled a yawn, and gestured towards his bed. "So, you get a choice."
Still glowering at him, Harry slowly and reluctantly clambered onto the bed and lay down; taut, fighting and unyielding.
Draco had no such problems with the idea, He had been curious ever since the actual bonding about what it felt like to hold someone as close to your mind like a knight was.
He crawled into bed smugly and wrapped his arms around Harry's waist, drawing him closer.
Harry remained forcibly tense in his arms.
Draco lowered his head so that his lips brushed against Harry's ear. "By the way," he purred softly, in a tone calculated specifically to seduce, and he was gratified when a fine tremor ran through Harry's body. "The silence spell will only wear off while you sleep, and you'll never fall asleep when you're that tense. Relax Harry; just give in to the bond, would you? I know you can feel it. Can't you tell what it wants? What it needs? I know you know." Draco added in a low whisper, his lips barely touching Harry's ear, and Harry relaxed suddenly, muscles untightening automatically.
Harry had no protection against the bond, especially when it was this close and personal, and well he knew it. Knights weren't supposed to be able to resist the bond, which was why the final enthralling could only be achieved by the ultimate act.
Even though they were only cuddling, Harry's reluctance melted away, and he helplessly snuggled in closer against Draco's chest, deeper into his arms, head tucked in under Draco's chin.
With a sigh, they both fell asleep.
Squall, in another room, wasn't having it as easy. He had his head buried into the side of Zell's neck, arms around his waist, and was mumbling quietly.
Zell was murmuring reassurances, seemingly to perfectly understand the disjointed sentences coming out of Squall's mouth, his own arms loosely wrapped around Squall's back.
"She can't be too far away, not if her knight is in Timber."
"Squall…" Zell almost sighed, but he understood what the other knight was going through. He felt it all to clearly, both through the tie between them, and his own feelings, which were incredibly similar. "Look, Draco's a smart kid, he might be able to do it."
Squall snorted. "Quoth the graybeard."
Zell laughed, but his arms tightened. "Just believe Squall. I know optimism isn't your strong point, but he has a good knight, and even Seifer says we have a good chance."
Squall snorted again, but dropped the subject, knowing it also made Zell uneasy, which would, in turn, echo back to Rinoa and make her cranky. He'd do anything to protect either of them. But at the moment, he rather preferred to kiss Zell's collarbone. Zell made a small sound of startlement and approval, and Squall smiled a rare smile again Zell's skin.
Yes. He'd do anything for them. He loved being a knight.
In an inn, just on the outskirts of Timber, a young man was cherishing the feeling.
His sorceress was in the next room, and waiting for him in the next room, he could feel her shining presence in his head, all shiny and blue swirls that might have been white.
She opened the door for him before he got there, and smiled at him in a way that made his whole body heat up with love and incredulous joy. That she should choose him-!
"Good evening, love. Would you like something to drink? They gave me my own bar, you know."
"Did they?" he followed her in, silently worshipping the ground she walked on.
"Yes indeed." Her voice got a little harder, a little more irate, different from her usual sweet tones.
He didn't notice the difference.
"What would you like to do tonight, Kieren? Would you like to play, or talk?"
In his ears, her voice sounded silky smooth and seductive, rendering him powerless to the wave of lust she purposely sent surging through the bond.
He gasped at the heat that was suddenly consuming him, burning him alive, and when she opened her arms and mind to him, he entered them willingly. He knew she would be able to prevent him from turning into ashes, knew she would help him not to incinerate, not because she had no choice, but because she loved him, she would aid him whenever she could.
He trusted her completely.
Extra AN: They just got back. They're not happy. Tell me how you want the ending to go ^^;;