Disclaimer: Not mine. Never was, never will be.
Warnings: Slash, Oblivious Harry and Draco in love. Maybe male preg. In the very, very far future.
Hey all, I've changed my pen name. It means Strong Serpent, but I doubt you care, so we'll get to the story.....
A couple thing to say before we enter the wonderful world of slash:
1)Thank you to semisweet for inspiration for this chapter. You will be a character later on. Sumi Pham will enter next chapter. I'm sure of it.
2)Thanks to Lady Slone of Snow Mt., for answering a burning question of mine and encouraging me to get my useless ass in gear. I actually felt like someone cared about my writing. This chapter is for you!!!
3)Like it says above, this chapter is dedicated to Lady Slone of Snow Mt.
4)Thanks to my awesome Beta, oOJade-DragonOo. Otherwise known as Chelsea. Couldn't have done this without you. Can't believe you put up with my constant changing of the plot. You rock, girl!!!
5)I know Tom plan is irrational and could be done in so many ways, but he's insane. He doesn't know any better. He'll grow a brain later on.
6)If anyone's interested, Alena means light. (You'll get it when you finish the chapter.)
6)I worked out the exact date. It's April 15th.
Enough of me, time to see Draco. Poor Guy... Do you think I should give him a break? Nah....
Love of a Prince
By Nyoka Li
Chapter Three: Wise Old Woman
Draco POV
"It's brilliant" I say.
I honestly thought the plan could work. After all, all I wanted was to make my best friend fall in love with me, no big. I realized long ago that I wanted more than his body. At first I was unsure, seeing as the dreams were always very physical. It was obvious that I wanted his heart as well after I started picturing our children. There would be three boys and a girl. The boys would have my hair and Harry's eyes and the girl would be the exact opposite. Messy raven locks and piercing silver for the eyes.
Despite this, I'm still inexplicitly nervous about the whole thing. Thousands of questions roll through my head. Well, not questions, more like 'what ifs?' You know how it is. You worry about every single thing that can go wrong, and everything that can't. That's exactly how I feel.
Now, onto the plan. Harry is in love with love first and foremost. The number of times he has confided in me about his need, and desire, for love is incredibly large. Because of this, I also happen to know exactly what he wants in a relationship. He'd love to get love letters, flowers, chocolates, and, given time, kisses. So, naturally, I'll give them to him.
Turning back to Hermione, and completely ignoring Ron, I state this. My plan is then carefully laid out there in the alley. Not the smartest of my many plans, as I would later find. It takes about ten minutes. Ron constantly expresses the notion that Harry will find us, but we dismiss this immediately. Seamus has more then enough personalities to keep Harry completely occupied for quite a while.
"Draco, are you sure about this" Hermione queries after I've told her my entire plan. I stare.
"Guys....."Ron mummers softly, staring at the main street.
"Not now Ron." I snipe offhandedly before turning towards Hermione. "'Mione, this whole thing was your plan. I just came up with the minor details. Why is this a problem all of a sudden?" I'm starting to get frustrated. Why is it that whenever someone does something not according to her plans, she immediately dismisses it as a bad idea?
Again, Ron pipes up. "But Draco....I really think you should know about this....."
"Ron, later!" We both yell. Frustration is overwhelming me at this point.
"Fine." He grumbles under is breath, glancing up the alley before racing off down the street. We both pay him no heed. What ever he needs to say can wait till we're done. Yes, he'll be angry for a few days, probably hanging out with Seamus and Dean for a while and completely ignore us, but he'll get over it. He always did have a red- haired temper.
"Oh but Draco, this is practically suicide on your part! Harry tends to be quite a bit homophobic. Either that or he has no idea to the possibility of two men being together. You're one of my best friends, and I really, really don't want to see you hurt. And that's exactly what'll happen when Harry catches wind of this. You know Harry better then anyone. He'll rip out your heart, put it in a blender and hit frappe. And he won't even realize he's doing it. If you tell him, it'll be the end of you!!"
"That's exactly it Hermione. If he finds out. Hint the key word 'if' in there. He doesn't need to find out until the end. As a matter of fact I'd bet my life he won't, until I tell him."
"'If'..." Hermione mummers softly under her breath before smirking, "'If' is good. 'If' works for me."
Normal POV
Harry Potter sat silently at the stool of a local pub, listening to Seamus Finnigan, a close friend of his father's friend's son or something of the such, drone on about curtain designs for his new castle. As you can imagine, it was not the most interesting conversation that one Harry Potter had ever had. He was now very much over his drunken like state, and desperate to get out. Thinking quickly, Harry thought up an excuse.
".....and in forest green room, you know, the guest bedroom, I was thinking of getting those gold curtains I saw in the market yesterday. What do you think?" Seamus looked towards his raven haired friend, eager for his input.
Standing up, Harry pays for his drink before scooping up his coat. Turning to Seamus, he speaks quite quickly, as though trying to get out, and fast.
"Look, Seamus, don't think I'm not having a blast talking to you, cause I am, but Draco just came into town for the day, and I really should be with him. Sorry."
He turns and strolls regally towards the door. Turning once more towards Seamus he says, "Oh, and Seam? If you're going to put green with gold, you'd be better off getting the sheer curtains. Without them, you would have the room looking stuffy and overdone."
"Uh, thanks. I guess." Clearly mad about getting his ideas shot down, Seamus nods before turning back to his drink.
The prince steps out the door into the fresh spring air. It was still very cold, at least for April 15th. Wondering where his friends could be, Harry simply walked around. Suddenly, passing an alleyway, a flash of vivid orange hair caught his attention. 'Yep, that's Ron all right.' He thought, before sneaking forward. Slinking quietly around the corner, Harry peeked in the alley and tried to hear what was being said.
Draco's baritone voice fills the air first. Leaning little closer, I catch most of what he's saying. "I know! What am I supposed to do? Waltz right up to him and say, 'Coco, dearest, I love you. Do you love me too?'"'What?! He loves me?! He can't possibly....' But Draco's not done breaking down my world.
"Yea right. He's a gorgeous guy with an amazing body. He'd think that I was just trying to gull him into giving himself to me. Look, I know Harry doesn't think of me like that, romantically of course. I'm just a friend. Friend who is too old for him. And I....accept that. Don't you see guys, that's just the way things have to be"
'He sounds so weary, as if this has been on his back for years. But it couldn't have it...'
Thoughts fill his head as he slides down the stone wall, a shocked expression on his face Passers-by stare, before resuming their daily lives. One woman is kind-hearted enough to help me. She crouches down near me and mummers softly.
"Hello dear. Don't mind an old lady asking, but are you quite alright child. Tell Alena, Alena knows a thing or two about a thing or two. You don't live as long as me and pick up on some stuff. I can help sweetheart."
"I don't know," Harry snipes sarcastically to the woman. "Try shattered illusions, lost dreams, and fallen friendships."
"Hmmm..."she says. "Normal kid stuff then?" The prince nods. She continues, as though she never even noticed a reaction from him.
"This is about Master Malfoy, isn't it." Seeing his incredulous look, Alena smiles. "Some things are sacred my dear, and so are couples. People try not to interfere with some couples because they are meant to be. Take your lovely friend Hermione for a moment. Do you remember when that handsome warrior from Hufflepuff, Krum came to town and everyone tried to break them up when they showed an interest in one another? It's because everyone who knows her realizes that she belongs to Lord Ronald, just as you belong to Master Malfoy. No one interferes. And everyone tries to keep you from that awful Riddle character."
Now that this surprising revelation has been made, Harry gets a good look at this woman. She seems about 80 years old, but doesn't look it. Her kind, sensible looking face is framed by a crown of long white locks, with lilies intertwined. Her chocolate eyes are filled with sympathy for the young prince, as well as a hidden sorrow that time has placed there. All the while, she is smiling sadly, occasionally glancing down the alley where the royals are talking.
Harry gasped and his eyes widened. 'The alley!' They could see him at any moment!! Still facing his friends, Harold takes a deep breath and murmurs something, more to the wall then anyone else.
"So everyone expects me to wed Dray? Just like that? I'm sorry ma'am, but I can't do that." Suddenly, Ron turns around, and stares, wide- eyed at Harry. Taking off down the street, Harry rounds the corner and disappears from Alena's sight. Continuing on her way, the old woman sighs and whispers to herself as she walks, attracting the stares of many others.
"So what they say is true. Denial is not just a river in Egypt....how interesting....very interesting..."
Harry POV
I run down the street, tears streaming down my face as I race towards my palace and childhood home. How could I have not have realized this before? I could have prevented it from happening all together!!! How could he love me??!! I'm a guy and he's my best friend. I never should have left Seamus's side to look for them, but I must admit I did want to see Draco again. I waited all week to see him and I was not going to waste a second. You can only imagine how much I regret that now.
I heard the a lot. Maybe not a lot, but I defiantly heard enough. I'm almost worried that I'll never be able to think of him the same way again. I think Ron may have seen me at the end before I took off. He won't tell though. Knowing them, they'll disregard him for a while and he'll storm out in a huff. Maybe after me. I hope so. I really need someone to talk to about this.
I never gave much consideration to the fact that someone could love me. I mean really love me. I mean, my parents love me, and so do my friends, but that's not the same as someone being in love with me. I always assumed I would be forced to marry some girl from a highborn family to take the throne with me as my Queen. There would never be anything but children and hopefully respect between us. All the peasants and commoners admired me for being the prince, not for just being Harry. But no one really knows the real Harry, except for Ron, Hermione and Draco.
I've been admired--worshipped even—all my life. I'm the crown prince for heavens sake. It is only natural. But people tend to think I'm a demi-god or something. They were too dumb to realize that they weren't actually seeing my true self, or they wanted so desperately to believe that what they were seeing was truly the way I was. That it was real, when it wasn't. But what they were actually seeing was a carefully constructed facade. A fake persona created to protect me from them getting to close to find the person inside of the crown. And I was good at it. Amazingly good. No one ever got close to the core me that was me.
Then, Draco Malfoy steeped in. We had been meeting since I was a baby, but, contrary to popular belief, we hadn't gotten along very well at first. It's weird, everyone in both of our countries thought that we had immediately become friends, but they thought wrong. I think we only became friends after three to four years or something. I had dirtied my new outfit when we were at his palace. I was crying, because I could only imagine how angry my father would be, let along my mother. That day, Draco came to my rescue for the first time, but certainly not the last. Despite him being three years my senior, he was far too short for his age. That's changed quite a lot. Now I'm the one who's too short while he towers over me. He lent me a similar pair of cloths till we got home. I don't think my parents noticed. If they did, they didn't say anything. It wasn't much, and it wasn't an epic story of bravery and heroics, but from that day on, Draco Malfoy was my best friend. That hasn't changed at all. Till now.
I don't know what I should do. Should I confront him about the conversation or should I continue as I was and pretend that this isn't tearing me up inside? Or maybe...maybe I should.....but that's cruel.....
Normal POV
After Ronald Weasley took off in a huff, he headed directly towards the local pub. Pushing the door so hard that it smashed against the opposite wall, splintering, he walked angrily towards the bar. Sliding into his seat next to Seamus Finnigan, he ordered a firewhiskey that he was too young to drink. However, rules are bent for friends of the royal family. The bartender put the drink in front of him and took off, not wanting to be caught serving a drink to an underage.
"Bad day?" Seamus drawled slightly drunkenly from his seat.
"And getting worse..."Ron replied.
"What could possibly be so bad?"
Ron snorted before putting his drink back to his mouth. "Draco!" He spat afterwards, as if that explained everything. It did.
"Ahhhh.... Coming up with another of those 'Seduce Harry ideas' that don't have a hope in the world of working." Obviously Draco's under thought plans were quite common.
"Well, this one could work. But now things are complicated. Harry heard. I'm not sure how much, but he defiantly heard. What do I do?"
"Sounds to me like you ought to talk to him. He'll need you more then anything." Seamus said.
"Yeah..." Ron said thoughtfully. "Yeah!!! Seamus, you make a lot of sense when you're drunk. I gotta go find Harry. See ya around!!" Ron ran outside after throwing a few coins on the counter to pay for his drink.
Seamus Finnigan watched Ron race out of the pub in search, before ordering another drink. Raising it to his lips, he smirks.
"Drama, drama, drama..."
A.N.
Definitely not worth the wait. Next time it won't be so long. I swear. If I get anywhere close to being more then a month, send me an angry email. I do appreciate them!!
To my Reviewers: I love you all!!!!
child of the new dawn- I'm no good with dialogue, but if you like it..... NayNymic- you deserve it. Makes mine crawl too. I'm see what I can do. Lady Slone of Snow Mt- See the top. You rock!! I can speak French quite fluently. It's writing it that I have a problem with. IceAngel8- It's really not that hard. I write what I want, when I want, whether you like it or not. I'm kidding. Thanks!! Chelsea- Again, see top. You still rock!! Yana5- Not drank, just on a sugar high. He's too young to drink. Even though he did in this chapter. But he's a prince!! Driven to insanity- Don't worry about that guy, he's nothing on Draco. BTW, next time you're strangling Tom, invite me. Then I won't feel so left out. KaLyN- My MSN isn't working. And sure, he's hot.....for an insane guy..... Don't hurt me!!!! Lady Mona- 1) Tom is insane; he's not supposed to make sense. 2) He ain't clueless anymore. HEE HEE HEE 3) I'm sticking with vengeful!! It suits the situation a little better, but he may grow a brain a little later on. 4) I'd like some suspense, so I'm switching between Draco and Harry with a few random characters in between. Thanks for your input!! SadieW- I love fuffy!Draco!!! He's so cute!! A-Brighter-Dawn- Got it, another chapter. Not a problem. After all, nothings impossible for SuperMeaghan!!! Lol. iluvwillturner- Thanks. Oh, and your story, it was nothing. Ladyshinigami- Thanks for your input and answering my email. FadedGlitter- What a strange coincidence. I like your work too!!! Thanks for adding me to you favorites. Rock on!!!
Well, that's it for me. Good authors don't beg for feedback. But no one said I was good. Please review. If you want of course.
