Disclaimer: As much as I would love too, I don't own anything that has been previously mentioned in the Harry Potter Books.
Author's Note(s): This is the last proper chapter, so I've made it a bit longer then the others. Enjoy. There will be an epilogue so don't worry.
/parseltongue/
The Tale of a Dragon
Ch18: The Needs Of The Many, Out Weigh The Needs Of The One
"Sev, why'd you come to find me? The wind didn't do anything good for your health."
Severus stopped coughing long enough to shoot an intimidating glare at Kath. He stumbled across the hall and into the dingy bedroom he was sharing with Kath then collapsed on the bed.
"Kathy?" He croaked
"Yes?" She closed the door behind her. "What's wrong?"
"I think I know what happened with your stomach. It was the baby. It was doing protection magic."
"This early in the pregnancy? Are you sure?"
"Positive. It's the Dark Lords kid, it's bound to be powerful." He put his hand in front of his mouth and started coughing again. He pulled the blankets closer around him. Kath brought over a potion and handed it to him.
She sat on the bed. "If I keep it, it will be." She sighed. "I don't know what to do, Sev."
He reach up and put his hand on her cheek. "Dearest. Whatever you choose to do, will be the right thing to do."
Kath lay down beside him and stared at the ceiling. He propped himself up on his elbow to look at her. "I think if I have this child, and we can keep him on the light side of this war," she started slowly, "then we would have a great advantage."
Severus saw doubt in her mismatched eyes. "But…" He prompted.
"But, I wouldn't be able to love it as much as I think I should. It'd remind me of everything that's happened that I want to forget… plus, if this kid really is powerful, I won't be powerful enough to control it."
"I can see your point. It's a hard one to call." He stopped, covered his nose and sneezed his biggest sneeze yet.
Kath got out of the bed and went over to Severus's trunk, which had been brought over by Dumbledore. She pulled out a handkerchief for him and noticed a small box underneath it. She took it out and crossed back over to the bed.
"Here, take it."
He blew his nose wetly. "Thanks"
"What's this, Sev?"
"Erm… Nothing. Give it here."
Kath kept it out of his reach. "I can't believe you kept the engagement ring!" She exclaimed as she opened it. Inside was a ring that was a bronze and silver snake with an emerald eye, and a sapphire eye. It was the ring he had given her, when he asked her to marry him.
"I don't know why I did." Kath looked into his eyes. "But yes, I kept it. Along with a broken heart, and a lot of false hope."
She smiled and raised an eyebrow, "False hope? How can you be sure it's false?" Severus held her gaze with a surprisingly large amount of will power. "Go take a hot bath, Sev, It'll help you relax and'll make the potion work faster. And you never know, I may just join you."
"I knew they were a couple!" Fred exclaimed as he pulled on an extendable ear.
The twins were keeping a lookout for Harry to come back and they had gotten bored. Fred had come up with the idea of eavesdropping.
"There's a lotta love going 'round the place." Agreed George, pulling on his own extendable ear. He paused. "Maybe we should forget what we heard. It was pretty personal stuff. Like with the baby."
"George, don't you see? It would be an advantage if she had the kid. But she doesn't want it. So someone else in the Order needs to raise it."
"Yeah, but who? It'd have to be more then just one person if it's You-Know-Who's kid, they'd have to be powerful too."
They looked at each other and identical smiles crept across their faces.
The wind thrashed around Harry and Draco and they walked slowly back towards Gimmauld place. Draco cradled his bandaged arm close to him, and Harry had one hand resting comfortingly on Draco's shoulder.
"They'll forgive you Draco. But I hope you'll forgive them, because you have to see this from their point of view. Things did look really suspicious."
Draco tried to keep the little dignity he had left by not looking at his feet. "I know. It was suspicious enough for you to believe it."
Harry stopped. Draco turned to look at his mate.
"I was in shock. And it hurt so much to see you look so betrayed. My chest tightened and my throat felt like it had closed up when I saw the tears in your eyes." Harry closed his own eyes so he didn't have to look at Draco. "When I saw what you were doing with that glass. I'd have done anything, and I do mean anything, to stop you."
"Harry?" Harry opened his eyes. "I'm sorry." Whispered Draco
"I should be the one apologizing."
They started walking again. "You already have. More then once." They stopped outside the front door. "How come I can see it, when Dumbledore's the Secret Keeper?"
"You know about that? Well, I inherited the place, you're my mate, so, in my mind anyway, it's yours too. Since I can automatically see it, you can as well."
"…Do you think I should go in?"
"Draco, maybe not. Go in ferret form."
"NO! I'm hoping everyone was too distracted to pay any attention to what animal I was. I don't need to remind them. It's embarrassing." He took a deep breath to steady his nerves. "I'll go in normally."
They made their way to the lounge room. Draco let his hurt arm fall to his side before turning the corner to go in a few steps behind Harry. He tried not to look at his mate's butt, and succeeded, but only just.
Everyone looked at them and the first thing the two werewolves noticed was that Ron and Hermione had gone. The second thing they noticed was that Kath had gone too.
"Draco did not have me under the imperious curse. I can fight it, so it would have been impossible… I love him. And if he goes, I go."
Harry raised his chin and set his face in a way that made him look like the poster child for the Malfoy family. Draco smiled lovingly at the back of his head and welcomed the warm fuzzy feeling that spread through his body.
"I for one," Remus began when he saw no one was in a hurry to say anything, "support this relationship and wish you both the very best when you… Ahem… 'Bond'."
Harry blushed. Draco smirked.
"I suppose there's nothing we can do about this." Said Moody reluctantly. Arthur agreed with even more reluctance then Moody. Slowly everyone agreed that they could accept this but wouldn't support or encourage until they were sure Draco was on the light side.
Their biggest critiques were waiting upstairs with two twin security guards standing either sides of their door.
Fred put out a hand to stop Draco from following Harry in. "Not you. Our dad may have accepted it, but it'd be better if just Harry goes in."
"Yeah Malfoy, just let them sort it out."
The room was dark with only a small bit of light coming from the gap between the curtains. The streak of light fell across Ron's face.
It occurred to Harry that they would have spent a long time adjusting the curtains and the chair Ron was sitting on to get this effect.
"Ron. I'm sorry." He was starting to sound like a broken record. "I really am."
"No, you're not, Harry. You're not sorry. If anything Malfoy should be the one who should be saying sorry anyway. And he has no excuse for what he did to all of us for five years. Or for what he did to Hermione and her parents."
He gestured to the bed where the strip of light showed a figure sleeping soundly. Harry's eyes used the little bit of light to adjust his eyes to see the person's face.
It was Hermione, with a tear-stained face and her hair pulled back into a messy ponytail.
"She cried and cried and wouldn't stop until Kath came in and gave her a sleeping potion. Even after that, when she was asleep, tears were still running down her face… She punched the shit out of her pillow, too" He added as an afterthought.
"He did have a reason for ki…"
"What? What was the reason then?"
"… I don't know."
"How can you trust him, if you don't even know why he killed two innocent muggles?"
"… I don't know, but I just can. I love him, and am one hundred percent sure that he had a reason to do what he did."
"I doubt it." Ron turned away as if to end the conversation. Harry stomped out of the room and slammed the door behind him. Then he tripped on one of the twins' extendable ears and fell flat on his face.
Fred and George went to help him up. Draco was about to help him, but made a quick decision that Harry would probably prefer it if he tried to get Ron to understand, rather then helping him up.
He dashed inside the bedroom and was met with the sight of Ron's glaring face.
"Weasley, sit down." The Slytherin demanded coolly. "I need to get a few things straight."
"I'll stand, but I am listening."
Draco did his best to remain composed and to keep his icy demeanour. The last thing he wanted to do was give the redhead any sign of vulnerability.
"If you are wondering why I 'got rid of' Hermione's parents, it was because of my father." Ron opened his mouth to say something but Draco raised a hand sharply and winced when pain shot up his arm, but he hid it expertly. "Let me finish."
"What happened to your arm?" Ron butted in. He grabbed it roughly and Draco yelped. Ron undid the cloth over it and his eyes widened. The motion of the cloth coming of had opened the wounds and Blood started oozing out if the Mark. "Did you do that?"
"I tried to carve it out of my arm." Draco answered quickly and pulled it away from Ron and cradled it again. "I'm used to cuts and bruises and things. It's fine."
"How can you be used to them?"
"My father. He beats me, for any reason. Mostly for disobeying orders… That's why I killed the Grangers. If I didn't, then I wouldn't have put it past him to kill me." Draco looked at his feet, finally swallowing his pride and dignity. "I did it to save my own skin… It was a typical Slytherin thing to do." He looked up. "I'm sorry."
Ron shifted his weight to the other foot. "I need to think about this." He said.
Draco bowed slightly and left the room; Harry was waiting for him in the hall. "How'd it go?"
"He needs to think about it. But I think it went ok. I need to get this looked at." He moved his arm slightly and Harry gently rested his hand on it.
"I'm sure Remus will fix it. He's really good at healing cuts and things. It comes with being a Werewolf before Wolfsbane I suppose."
Severus walked down the hall with a satisfied smirk on his face. His nose was slightly pink, but looked a lot less coloured then before he had preformed a concealing charm on it. His hair was clean, but sill looked oily because of the silkiness of it, which annoyed him to no end.
The potion Kath had made for him had helped greatly, but he still couldn't help sounding a bit nasally when he talked.
"Hello Professor."
"Good Afternoon Professor."
Fred and George Weasley appeared next to him out of nowhere. He had learnt to tell the difference between them, so concluded Fred was on his left, and George was on his right.
"What have you been up to?" Fred asked with an all-knowing smile that put Severus on edge, though he would never admit it (to more then one person).
"What I do in my spare time is none of your business." He answered coolly.
"Anyway." George said warningly at Fred, before turning his attention back to Severus. "We wanted to know the situation with Kath and her pregnancy."
Severus stopped abruptly, and was careful to make sure his face remained as blank as possible, with the minor exception of one raised eyebrow.
"Well, we can't ask her." Explained Fred. "We were asked not to."
"So we thought you'd be the person to ask."
'They know something. And they're not going to say what' He decided. "What gives you the notion that I would be the one that would know?"
"You two are sharing a room."
"We're not as naive as you think we are."
Severus rolled his eyes and did his best not to loose his temper. "Nothing has been decided." He said with a note of finality, and started walking again, but they both came around him and blocked his path.
It was obvious that they were ignorant of attempts at ending the conversation. 'Subtlety is wasted on Gryffindors. At least now they might cut to the chase.'
"We have an idea."
"We think that she needs to put the baby…"
"Once it's born."
"Yes, Fred, once it's born, up for adoption."
"Then two powerful Order members, that will love it, can adopt it and raise it."
Severus went over the idea in his head a few times. It could work. But would anyone be willing to take in the spawn of Satan, so to speak.
"Two powerful Order members?" They nodded hopefully. "I hope for everyone's sake you don't mean yourselves."
"You think we're powerful?" Fred clutched his heart. "Sevvie, I'm touched."
Severus hissed between his teeth at then name, and narrowed his eyes.
"No, we don't mean ourselves." George put in quickly. "We meant two people who have no other way of forming a family other then adopting, who both had horrible childhoods and would want to see this kid raised properly because of that."
Then both smiled innocently and Severus looked away from their faces and at the dark hallway. He knew exactly whom they meant. 'It could work'
Draco pushed Harry onto the bed with his newly healed arm and climbed on top of him before starting one of the most passionate kisses either of them had ever had.
One of Harry's arms snaked it's way around Draco's neck, while the other went around his waist. Their tongues caressed each other at the same time as they fought for dominance.
They lost control of their senses and both inhaled each other's sent. The smell of Vanilla and Lavender calmed Harry and made him feel truly loved. It was almost hypnotic. The Blueberry smell of Harry drew Draco deeper into the kiss and it awoke a fire inside him that felt so… right.
Harry pushed himself towards Draco and forced them both to roll over on the wide bed, so now Harry was on top. The wolf inside him made it clear the blonde he was laying on top of was the Alpha-male, but he wasn't going to submit without a fight.
They rolled back over as Draco asserted his dominance. They broke apart for air and Harry gasped as Draco moved slightly and he could feel their erections rubbing together as they tried to break free from their restraints (better known as jeans).
Harry clumsily undid the buttons on Draco's deep purple shirt, shaking with anticipation, and then started licking the scar that used to be Draco's infecting bite. Draco barely restrained a yelp; he wasn't expecting that.
"Fuck." He breathed.
Harry lay back and looked into Draco's bright blue eyes with the amber mixed through.
"Sorry."
"For the love of Merlin, Harry, don't stop."
Harry tipped his head to the side, moving the light on his face and changing his eyes from yellow to light green because of it.
He continued his licking, but added some sucking as well. Draco's hands made their way down to their pants to free their pulsing members.
Harry lay and panted while his newly bonded soul mate was nestled in his arms. Even though they were both hot and sweaty, they made no attempt to move away from each other.
Happy with the silence and the feeling of Harry's heartbeat in his ear, Draco closed his eyes and felt himself dozing off.
Gently sliding away from Draco, Harry got out of bed and went to have a long shower to wash the sticky substance off his skin.
Once this had been accomplished (it wasn't an easy task), he went down to the kitchens and prepared a breakfast for his lover on a tray. He really wanted to make up for what he had said and done the day before, but felt that nothing would ever be able to compensate.
He didn't know that Draco felt just as guilty as he did.
Harry sat with his legs crossed on the end of the bed, looking lovingly at the beautiful creature that was sleeping so peacefully. Love was a wonderful thing, and Harry felt cheated that he had never experienced true love… Until now, that is.
Draco stirred slightly. "Harry?" he asked, without opening his eyes.
"What is it?"
"As flattering as it is, could you stop staring at me?"
Harry chuckled and a smile lit up his face. Draco rolled onto his back and stretched, yawning as he did.
"I made you breakfast in bed. Too say I'm sorry."
"What for?" he sat up, leaning against the bed board, "There's nothing to say sorry for, Love, last night was amazing."
Harry chuckled again, this time at Draco's messed up hair, and in return got a smile that could have won more awards then Gilderoy Lockhart's.
"There's nothing you need to be sorry for. If anything I should be the one apologising."
"Shh." Harry lent across the bed and gently rested his hand on Draco's slightly swollen lips. He lent in and they kissed softly. Suddenly, Harry remembered reading something.
/I love you/ He hissed in Parseltongue.
Draco's eyes widened. /I love you too/ he replied in the same language.
"Looks like you're a Parselmouth too."
Draco smirked "I'm going to have a shower. Want to join me, perhaps."
"I've already showered." Disappointment flashed in Draco's eyes, it didn't go unnoticed by Harry. "Another one couldn't hurt though."
They made their way to that bathroom, the tray of food lying forgotten on the bedside table.
Severus sat across the table from Dumbledore with his hand gently holding Kath's left hand, and on her finger lay her engagement ring, the snake's eyes sparkling in a way that would put Dumbledore's to shame.
Dumbledore had his eyes closed and his elbows resting on the tabletop, his hands clasped together as he thought.
"It could work." He started, slowly. "It would make sense too. Now that they've completed the bonding ritual, they will both be Parselmouths. This child will undoubtable be one as well. If they refuse however, I'm sure the Weasley's will be able to raise the child. They, unfortunately, will need financial support."
"If Potter…" Severus paused momentarily when Kath gave him a look. "If Harry and Draco do refuse guardianship," He continued, as if he hadn't been interrupted, "I will be more then happy to give them unlimited access to the riches I inherited when my parents died."
"I'm glad to hear it." He smiled, his eyes twinkling in the way that made Severus grit his teeth. "Congratulations on your engagement. Now, do send Minerva to me if you happen to see her, I believe she owes me fifty gallons."
