Summary: AU. A "faerie" tale with elves, vampires, and reincarnation. Draco's a transfer student who arrives at Hogwarts during Harry's seventh year, trying to fulfill a promise made nearly a hundred years ago. But what is this promise and does it have to do with Harry? D/H!
Great thanks to my beta, Mednar! *beams*
Shamera
As the prince's coming of age approached, the faeries grew increasingly alarmed. The vampire childe could do nothing but wait for his elvish friend to figure out a solution to the curse that had been inflicted on the faerie prince. He grew more agitated as time passed, as the prince continued to pay no special attention to him. What did that mean? Did it mean that the prince wanted to distance himself from the vampire childe? Did it mean that the boy vampire had been wrong in his assumptions?
It took a while for the vampire childe to gather his courage so that he could confront the faerie prince about the feelings that he had harbored for so long. It had been on a sunny, clear day that had made the vampire feel more confident so he could corner the beautiful and much loved faerie prince and pull him out into the faerie garden.
It was there, underneath the clear skies and fluttering of small winged animals, that the vampire childe declared that he loved the faerie prince, and offered his heart in a way that he had never done before.
The vampire childe waited on bated breath to hear the prince's response, but the prince only smiled a melancholy smile and reached up to cup the boy vampire's face.
'Are you sure about that?' the faerie prince asked. 'You should not love me, for I have been prophesized to die. You know the faerie customs- we can only fall in love once in our lifetime.'
'And vampires have but one mate all their lives.' The childe responded. 'I am sure of my love… and I will not allow you to leave me so.'
It was at that response that the faerie prince pulled the vampire childe down for their first kiss, sweet and unhurried. After they parted, the prince declared his own love, stating that he had been in love for a very long time… and had offered the faerie rose as a symbol of his love.
They announced their betrothal that night, but no one seemed especially surprised. In fact, many of the faeries in court had to hide a small smile at how long it took for their prince and the vampire childe to realize what the other felt.
It was the day before the prince's coming of age when the elvish princess pulled the faerie prince aside for an entire day to discuss with him an idea that she had formulated. Everyone waited with breathless anticipation for them to appear again, and when they did- it was the elvish princess who seemed unsettled, while the faerie prince was the picture of perfect composure. They assured the populace that yes- they had a plan, and not to panic even when the worst happens, for things were not always as they seemed.
'Then you have a plan to prevent the curse from taking your life?' the vampire childe asked anxiously, needing to hear a reassurance from the calm prince that their love would not fail when it was still so new.
'No,' the prince admitted with great reluctance. 'But don't worry- I'm not ready to let you go.' A smooth, tanned hand came to rest on the pale cheek of the vampire childe. Bright eyes were intense with the seriousness of the moment. 'No matter what happens, you were the one who found me on the day I got lost in the forest. You found my heart again after the war, battered as it was. Find me again, my love.'
The vampire childe could not comprehend what the faerie prince had said, but his question was lost when the prince pulled him into a passionate kiss, using that distraction to press a small scrap of parchment into the boy vampire's palm.
The next morning, a servant was the first to find the prince, lying still on the floor, with a beautiful faerie rose in one hand. Violet petals lay scattered on the ground next to him, and the thorns were wet with blood.
It was around midnight that night when Harry started regretting not having eaten dinner in his haste and nervousness about Draco's talk. He threw the thick blankets over his head and groaned into the pillow, trying to ignoring the grumbling of his stomach. It was still cold enough at night that Harry didn't want to leave his warm bed to grab a cold robe and have his feet on the freezing floor. It wasn't laziness per say… only that he didn't like being cold.
He didn't want to leave his bed, even though the calls of the food down in the kitchens were sounding ever more tempting. Getting food meant that he would first have to get to the kitchens. And in order to do that, he would have to get out of bed, sneak down to the common room, and then get out undetected.
His stomach growled angrily.
Harry finally relented to the insistent gnawing of his stomach, pushing himself up from his bed by his arms and grumbling quietly to himself the entire time. Damn insomnia, anyway. If he could just go to sleep, then he wouldn't feel the hunger until morning, when he could just go to breakfast with everyone else.
Why couldn't he sleep? Why did his mind keep going back to Draco smiling at him brilliantly, as if he were the only thing important in the universe?
Harry knew why. Draco's smile was beautiful. It would have made anyone delirious with happiness if the smile were directed at them. But that wonderful smile had not been directed at Harry, despite where he had stood in accordance. It had been directed at who Draco thought he was. It was directed at someone who had died a hundred years ago, to someone who Harry was not.
And for a reason unknown to him, Harry's heart ached.
But he could also feel the distant anger that had been a part of him since the end of the Triwizard tournament. A feeling deep inside himself that was furious at Draco, that never wanted to see the other boy again and was whispering for him to break Draco's heart. The pale Slytherin (a vampire, Harry reminded himself) had never liked Harry anyway. That incredible kiss had been meant for Emerald… not Harry.
Draco had told him the story of Emerald, of the beautiful fey prince who had been so sweet-hearted and kind. The more Draco had said about Emerald, the more Harry realized that he wasn't who Draco was looking for. The more he came to realize that, the more Harry hated the faerie prince.
That adoration the Slytherin gazed at him with; the gentle and reverent touches on Harry's face… they were all nothing more than the delusions of someone who had been driven mad with lost love.
And Harry felt bitter for it.
Drawing back his bed curtains slowly, Harry was surprised to see Ron still awake on his bed, the light on and with several parchments out, no doubt trying to finish some last minute homework.
The youngest Weasley boy looked up when he heard the soft rustling of the bed curtains, and blinked when he saw Harry half ready to step out of bed.
"What are you still doing up?" Ron asked plaintively. "It's past midnight, Harry."
Gah. Ron sounded like Hermione in one of her 'mother-mode' moments.
"I finally got hungry again." Harry explained. "And I couldn't sleep, so I figured I'd get something to eat from the kitchens."
Ron rolled over from the uncomfortable position he was in while doing homework, and stretched out over his covers, nearly knocking over the inkwell with his arms. "You mind if I join you? Think I'll get something to drink as well."
Harry shrugged, and waited patiently while Ron tossed his rolls of parchment onto a nearby table, not even bothering to organize it. The redhead was going to have a lot of trouble figuring out which roll contained which essay tomorrow, but Harry didn't feel like mentioning it.
The two of them made their way down the kitchens, where they were greeted enthusiastically by several house elves that were still on duty. The elves made sure that they were comfortably seated and had plenty of food before they left the two boys alone. Harry dug in happily, wondering why he felt so hungry now, when his stomach had finally stopped growling.
"You done with the essay for Transfiguration yet?"
The question caught him off guard, and Harry guiltily put down his fork. He had once again forgotten about that essay, especially with all the things that had been going on in his mind after his talk with Draco.
Ron noticed the action easily, and grinned around the midnight snack that he had picked. "I take it that you didn't do it?"
"I forgot all about it," Harry admitted.
"Don't worry," Ron replied. "Hermione makes everything seem so much more important than it is when it comes to schoolwork. It's really easy and won't take but a few minutes. I doubt that it would be very hard for you."
That was how it had been for the last few years. While Hermione still excelled in schoolwork far above her two friends, Harry had finally taken the time to study a little, and found that things were actually pretty easy when you read through the books. He relied on Hermione for everything he couldn't get from the books (sometimes, Harry swore, their school books weren't written in English. It was like reading something that Professor Snape wrote- biting and thoroughly uninteresting.). Almost immediately, he had seen an improvement in his marks.
"I'll probably have to do it in the morning," Harry mused to himself. "I Certainly don't want to do anything but sleep after this."
Ron shook his head with amusement. "You might have gotten it done if you hadn't been distracted today. Where were you during Care of Magical Creatures, anyway? Hermione wouldn't let me ask you that this entire day."
Hermione had interfered for him? Why would she do that, though? Wouldn't she be just as curious as Ron, unless she had actually seen….?
Harry turned a faint red, and tried to hide his face under the long bangs, tilting his head towards his plate to try and avoid Ron's eyes. "Ehh… I was talking to someone," He said evasively.
"Draco?"
What?!
Ron's face split into a large grin as he saw Harry's surprise. "It's not that hard to figure out, mate- especially since he was the other person who had been missing. Not that Hagrid made too much of a fuss about it after the two of you came back. What were the two of you talking about? Should I be worried?" Ron looked a bit like Fred and George at that moment, with a devious smile on his face.
"Worried?" Harry asked. "Why should you be worried?"
"Don't think that I hadn't noticed that you were gone after dinner. Hermione may not have questioned it, but you certainly weren't in the library doing homework. And you weren't in the Gryffindor tower, either- so I figured that you were off somewhere… most likely with Draco."
Damn it. When had Ron gotten so intuitive?
"So?" Ron pressed after a minute of silence on Harry's part. "Have the two of you been talking?"
"Why would you want to know?" Harry questioned.
"Because I want to know if I should be worried that a Slytherin is trying to seduce you to the dark side." Ron replied with a smile. He was poking a fork at Harry's direction and hunched over across the small table in the kitchen.
It had been a running joke since sixth year that Voldemort had finally stopped trying to seduce Harry over to the 'dark side'. It didn't help that Ron had finally watched Star Wars that year (courtesy of Dean) and had jokingly said that perhaps the Dark Lord was actually Harry's real father. The joke had stuck with the other boys, and soon everyone was betting on whether Harry was in some way related to Voldemort- be it father, uncle, or distant cousin.
"He didn't say anything about that," Harry said. "We just… talked."
"Talked?" Ron prompted.
Harry finally set down his fork, his hunger suddenly forgotten again. "He thinks I'm something I'm not," He admitted.
Ron's expression sobered. "Is it something about being The Boy-Who-Lived?"
"Surprisingly, no." It was common enough for people to like Harry for being the one who had defeated the Dark Lord so many times. Although no one had actively approached Harry about his title, the trio had dealt with the Creevy brothers long enough to understand that there were people who liked Harry's celebrity status. But Draco had not even lingered on Harry being the mortal enemy of Lord Voldemort. "He just thinks that I'm someone else."
"It's pretty hard to mistake you as anyone other than Harry Potter." Ron said, clearly not believing his best friend. "I know there's more to it than that."
It wouldn't do to reveal Draco's status as a vampire, since it was a confidence that wasn't Harry's to break. But at the same time, he almost never kept anything from Ron and Hermione. Even with the prophecy at the end of fifth year, he had confided the secret to them during the summer. Harry didn't like keeping information from them.
"You can't tell anyone," Harry started, "And Dumbledore has already approved him to be here… but Draco's a vampire. He wouldn't harm anyone at school! It just… he's here because he's looking for someone. It has something to do with a promise that he made. He thinks that I'm the person he's been looking for."
Ron didn't react as much to Draco being a vampire as he did to Draco thinking that Harry was involved in a situation with a vampire. Perhaps it was because they knew Remus Lupin, who was a werewolf that had been their best Defense Against Dark Arts teacher so far. They had learned back in third year not to be biased against Dark Creatures.
"What kind of promise did he make?" Ron was suspicious that perhaps the Slytherin (who was a vampire!) had promised the Dark Lord or something like it to kill Harry Potter, and had finally found his victim.
Harry chuckled humorlessly. "It has something to do with a prophecy… now that I think about it, it sounds more like a romantic fairy tale."
Ron gazed at his friend for just a moment before figuring out what was bothering the dark haired boy. "You're unhappy because he took an interest in you because he thought you were the person he was looking for… and not because you're… you."
"That's part of it." Harry admitted. A large part of it. "But I also don't like the idea that he might be right… and there's another prophecy involving me."
"As long as it's a good prophecy," The redhead fumbled with his cutlery. "You shouldn't worry about it. You said it was like a romantic fairy tale. Just because he thinks that you're what he's looking for doesn't mean anything at the moment. You just have to make him realize that you're not only who he's looking for… but Harry, as well. Maybe right now he only knows you as a promise to be fulfilled… but you have time to convince him you're more than that."
Harry blinked. "Ron…?"
The tall boy looked away, embarrassed. "I had been a little uncomfortable with you taking an interest in Malfoy," Ron admitted. "But both 'Mione and me want you to be happy. I think I'm starting to understand why 'Mione didn't want to tell me anything this afternoon. She had found the two of you… but she didn't want to tell me anything. I wouldn't have reacted very… calmly, I guess."
Harry felt like he was dreaming. Ron sounded like he understood the situation more than Harry did, and was advising the smaller boy on what to do.
"Although I don't think it's right for Malfoy to see you as someone else… I think it's a start. He'll pay attention to you because of that, right? And you can use that so Malfoy will understand who you are. And if he doesn't like you for being who you are… then you can happily dump him, knowing it would never work out."
"And if I fall in love?" Harry asked quietly. "What if I fall in love… and Draco finds out that I'm not who he expected?"
Ron fell silent. The two of them sat there for a few moments, listening to the distant sounds of the house elves working hard, already preparing for breakfast and cleaning up after the students of the castle.
Harry waited expectantly for an answer from Ron. If this really was a dream, and Ron really was someone who knew more than him and could give good advice, then he'd have to listen closely to what his best friend said.
"Well… I guess you can't fall in love until he falls in love with you." Ron peered at him. "You're not in love with him already, are you?"
Harry shook his head.
Ron looked relieved. "There. Problem solved."
The two grinned nervously at each other, and Ron finally set down the half-finished food as well. "Well, I'm certainly not hungry. And you haven't touched your food for a while now. Feel like going back?"
Harry agreed readily, and the both of them thanked the house elves before leaving the kitchens in a hurry, wanting to leave the thick and serious atmosphere behind.
The walked down the cold halls quietly, not wanting to attract any attention, but pretty sure that no one besides the house elves would be up at this hour. They walked in companionable silence, both relieved that the talk was over.
"Ron?" Harry said as they reached a corner close to the Gryffindor tower, but closer still to the Head Girl room that Hermione resided in.
"Yeah?"
"…Thanks."
Ron only grinned in response.
Hermione had been staying up late, doing some extra studying for the NEWTs. She honestly wouldn't have heard the quiet footsteps, if she hadn't known the people whom they belonged to so well.
What were Ron and Harry doing outside at such a late hour?
She pushed away from her desk, taking off her reading glasses and stepping towards her door. Pushing the portrait door open slightly, she spied her two best friends walking together, occasionally whispering to each other.
"Ron? Harry?" she whispered to them, watching as the two turned towards her door with surprised expressions. "What are you still doing up?"
"I got hungry." Harry said. "We were just coming back from the kitchens."
Hermione frowned. As Head Girl, she really should take points off them for wandering around after lights out, but she didn't feel like a Head Girl at the late hours, hair slightly rumpled from hours of slouching over books. "I told you to eat at dinner," She scolded instead.
"Sorry," Harry said. "But I honestly wasn't hungry then."
Her frown only grew deeper as she saw another shadow approach the two boys. If there was someone else there, then she would be forced to take points from all three of them, which she didn't feel like doing. "Who else is with you?"
"With us? There's no one else here…"
In a flash, Ron was interrupted by large green leaves that literally ran into him, making him lose his balance and crash into Harry, who had not been watching as he had heard something and was trying to look for who Hermione could have seen.
Both boys landed on the cold stone floor with an 'oof' and Hermione gaped as she saw a large potted plant try and regain it's balance, several large roots dangling out of the pot and steadying itself on the ground.
Did that plant have… legs?
"Bloody hell!" Ron exclaimed as he scrambled off the smaller boy, looking up only to see the large plant looming over them. "What in the-?"
The plant looked like it wavered for a moment before stilling again, seemingly taking a good look at the three people gaping at it before it turned to one side and scrambled away, running down the hall like a spider.
"That…" Harry gaped. "Ginny's plant!" He scrambled to his feat, and took off after the plant, dashing down the corridor after it.
"Harry…! Wait!" Ron started running after the ebony haired boy.
"You two!" Hermione wondered if she was dreaming. "You'll get in trouble if you don't go back to the tower! Hey…!" They were already disappearing as the plant took a sudden turn down another corridor. The two boys didn't stop, and turned to chase after it.
Hermione didn't have time to consider her actions before she dashed out of her door, mentally thanking whatever deity was there that she was still wearing her school uniform and hadn't changed into her nightgown yet.
"Damn it… Wait for me!"
It was the next morning when Draco woke up that he found most of his housemates down in the common room, conspiring among themselves. There was a great hush that descended on them when Draco came down the stairs.
"What's going on?" The vampire childe demanded, not liking the fact that everyone was eyeing him warily. He had found out earlier on that in order to not be ostracized by his house, he had either confide in his non-human status, or claim that he was a supporter of Voldemort. So he had used his last name in order to gain respect among the pure-bloods of the wizarding world.
It helped that he was the childe of the infamous Lucius Malfoy. While most people didn't see the connection between Draco Malfoy and Lucius Malfoy, most Death Eater children would understand- since Lucius Malfoy was an avid supporter of the Dark Lord.
"Where were you last night, Draco?" Pansy Parkingson demanded to know, her expression hard and unmoving as the pale vampire approached the group.
"I was feeding." Draco lied easily. "You don't expect me to go hungry when I'm rooming with you, correct?"
There were a few boys who shifted uncomfortably, not wanting to know the details at all.
"You missed the message sent by our Lord." Pansy said, ignoring the explanation that Draco gave. "He needs all of us now. Our Lord has finally found a source of power that will ensure that we defeat the dimwits who are relying on Potty to help them."
Draco had to shove down the urge to attack Pansy as she sneered out Harry's name in that derogative tone.
"What has he found now?" Draco managed in a languid and bored tone. "Another plan to capture the Golden Boy and bribe the Wizarding World to 'give up or the boy gets it'?" He snickered to himself at the subtle muggle reference.
Many of the other Slytherins gave him a sneering glare, although none of them dared to speak out against him. They didn't want to anger a vampire… especially not the childe of Lucius Malfoy, the Dark Lord's lead correspondent for Dark Creatures.
"Our Lord has wants us to make sure that Potter does not leave Hogwarts." Blaise said in Pansy's place, seeing the girl to be too angry at the blonde vampire to continue.
"But why?" Draco asked, trying not to sound too curious. "If Voldemort wants to take Harry Potter out, then he'd want Potter on the battlefield, not protected by this castle."
The others winced when Draco mentioned the name, but Blaise continued, "The Dark Lord has found the power to control the forces of nature." He explained. "And he doesn't want Potter to interfere again."
Control… the forces of nature?
Draco distinctly remembered a time when Emerald had been the garden, and had laughingly told Draco about why there was no one else who could sit in the throne of the faerie realm.
"The royal blood is thick." Emerald had explained with a smile as he tended to a fluttering fern which had perked at the prince's attentions. "And it is different from the blood of other faeries. Only those with royal blood- and it has to be a direct decent of royalty! –can activate the powers of our throne. The throne protects this entire kingdom, and is the reason that most people can't find this place. We're protected by the forces of nature, because my father can use the throne to call upon the forests to help him."
Shit. Voldemort was trying to find the faerie throne.
But that meant that that the Dark Lord had faerie blood… or didn't. What did it mean?
He had to talk to Luna.
continued in chapter 7
Authoress' Notes: I just couldn't get into the mood for writing this entire week- probably due to the fact that there were a million things I had to do. ^^;; So I used the five hours of Wesley's therapy to bring my laptop and write this entire chapter in one sitting. So sorry if it's really short; I wanted this chapter to be funny, but it was kind of hard to do that when things get so serious.
Responses in LiveJournal. ^_^ I know that plant is really weird... but I needed a pointless part inbetween all this seriousness. XD And now we finally know! Voldemort's after the faerie throne, so Draco would have to think up something to stop him. Ron's really out of character, but I figured that he would really mature by seventh year, since he matured so much in fifth year alone.