Life Long Love—Chapter Three
Author: Emerald Thorn
Disclaimer: Not mine, I just play with them.
Rating: Definitely R.
Genre: Slash, AU, Romance/Adventure, Fantasy, Veela!Draco (if that could be considered a genre)
Author's Notes: Reviews at the bottom. FYI: ouroboros are dragons that are eating their own tail and are the symbol for immortality in alchemy.
Severus Snape was in a foul mood, actually foul didn't begin to scratch the surface of how utterly miserable he was making the students of Hogwarts, but it was a good starting place. Coming back from the Death Eater meeting last week with orders to find out who had stolen Potter away had been only the start of the worst and most trying week of Severus Snape's life. The explanations floating around about his godson's temporary absence from school was adequate but didn't stop all sorts of nasty little complications that he'd had to personally deal with. It didn't help that there were two official reasons for Draco's absence and Dumbledore had 'decided' to let Severus do most of the dirty work. Just because Severus worked for Dumbledore did not mean that he liked the man most of the time, especially like now when he wondered how the hell Albus thought he was helping the situation by staying out of it.
Severus was not by any means a morning person, preferring instead the coolness of the night because of his grandfather's vampire blood, so when he was sitting at the staff table that Friday morning he was not thrilled to see the ebony goshawk that was Lucius' personal bird. Tied around the left leg was a small scroll. Eyeing the scroll with a sour look on his face, Severus cracked a small smile as the goshawk screeched and shook the leg at him, waiting impatiently to have the message removed. Removing the message from the bird, Severus opened the seal nonchantly as if the message was not anything important.
Severus,
Draco has mated and will be returning to Hogwarts with his bonded this Friday night. Please have the attached prepared. I will speak with you in person Friday evening. The Plan will be going into action.
Lucius
Severus, who had been drinking his tea as he read the message, almost choked at the first line. The rest of the small note wasn't much better and it was very obvious to him what Lucius wanted to discuss. Grabbing the last bit of toast, Severus crumpled the note into dust as he excused himself from the staff table and headed back to the dungeons to start laying wards.
Lucius watched in amusement as his son and bond mate scrambled into the kitchen over an hour since he had left them in their room. The pair of them avoided meeting his eyes and seemed to be constantly reaching out to touch the other as they sat across from him at a small table near the large cooking fireplace. The table was filled with breakfast foods, everything from scrambled eggs to steak. After a quick "Hello dad, sorry we kept you waiting" the two had buried their faces in their food, eating like starving wolves.
Sitting back, Lucius waved his dishes towards the sink before staring at the two bowed heads and wondered which would finally say something. It took a good ten minutes before Draco put down his knife and fork, wiping his mouth daintily with a napkin.
"Yes Dad?" Draco asked sheepishly, hands reaching under the table to grip Harry's thigh.
"You two certainly are a pair," Lucius chuckled, eyes twinkling in a way that reminded both Harry and Draco of Dumbledore when he was going to suggest something that would not be well received.
Finishing as well, Harry also set down his silverware and placed his hand over Draco's. "I suppose we are. We are um… what's the word… bonded."
Switching gears so quickly it was frightening, Lucius immediately became the overly serious persona Harry was used to seeing. "Unfortunately, we only have two days before you both are expected back at Hogwarts. I'll give you two hours and then I expect you both to meet me in the practice hall."
"Why the practice hall?" Harry asked hesitantly, feeling Draco's trepidation at what his father had said as he gripped Harry's thigh more firmly.
"He's going to test our bond," Draco told Harry quietly, his eyes not moving from his father's. "He's also going to see what he can determine about our power levels. Normally a veela and their mate have a bit of a boost when they mate because of the power generated by the bond. Ours is unusual so it may be more than just a bit boosted. You're not going to hurt him are you Dad?" Draco pleaded the last bit, his eyes worried.
"I don't intend to seriously injure either of you but this needs to be done or there may be unforeseen complications down the road. I'm giving you alone time beforehand so you may heighten your bond before we test you."
"Can't we have more time? Harry and I need to talk…" Draco whispered.
"I would if I could Draco. This is not exactly an ideal situation," Lucius answered softly. "After you've been tested you will have until Friday evening to prepare for going back to school. The testing will only take a few hours."
'Come on Harry,' Draco mindspoke, 'I plan on making the most of the two hours.' Pulling Harry up with him, Draco practically dragged Harry back to their rooms which had been mysteriously righted while the pair had eaten breakfast.
As soon as they reached their room, Harry found himself pinned to the back of the door with a very eager Draco removing both their clothes as they kissed. Half naked, Draco pulled back. "I love you Harry."
Harry looked at his mate, feeling Draco's thoughts and feelings running through him. It was hard to wrap his mind around what he had done the past week. Bonding with Draco had rearranged his mind. Seeing what Draco's life had been and his side to every argument had changed Harry in ways he was only beginning to be aware of. Draco was right when he had told his father that they were now one person. Harry could sense that elements of his personality were integrating bits and pieces of Draco as Draco was taking bits of him into himself. It was all very confusing when Harry tried to visualize what had happened and he knew it was going to be very hard to explain to everyone when it did come out. What he did know for certain was that life had suddenly become very focused on being with Draco and exploring the intensity that Draco provoked in him. Mating had been a complete surprise to Harry, he had never thought of another bloke that way before and had never ever contemplated his life partner would be Draco.
However, when he thought back to meeting Draco on the pathway in the woods he remembered the pang he had felt within himself. The needy want that told him that everything would be okay and that this was his destiny. It had nothing to do with Draco being a veela, it had everything to do with something his soul had sensed at that moment. It was as if a switch had been flicked and the world became inverted. It had been the most natural thing for Harry to let Draco kiss him, and after Draco had kissed him the first time there had been no way for Harry to turn off the burst of feelings Draco evoked in him. Years of antagonism between them faded into the background, no longer important to either of them. Those years were gone and would not be revisited ever again.
Resisting the pull of the bonding was not a possibility, Harry felt more alive than he ever had—and he wasn't attributing it just to the mind blowing sex either. Speaking of mind blowing…
Harry curled both hands into his mate's hair, looking deeply into his mate and stimulated Draco's body, specifically his groin area. Draco's whole body seized as Harry reached into him. Even though he was aware of Harry's hands in his hair and his own hands on either side of Harry he felt as if he had just been caressed everywhere. The sensation continued and Draco felt his hold on reality slip away. Harry was everywhere teasing, stroking, kissing, licking, and holding Draco safe in his strong arms. Still half dressed, Draco was unaware of Harry's lips on his as all sensation overloaded him into orgasm with the added pressure of a gentle, closed-mouth kiss.
Harry felt Draco's orgasm as if it were his own and felt his own release follow his mate's. Draco fell against him, shaking and breathing as if he had just run a marathon. Burying his face in Harry's neck, just under the chin, Draco placed a soft kiss on his mate's throat. Clasping Draco to him, Harry kissed the top of Draco's head. "I love you too, Draco."
Draco looked up and met Harry's eyes again. "I don't know how you did that but… wow…"
Smirking in a very Malfoyish way, Harry gave his mate a lusty look. "I learned from the best. I think there's something else I want to show you that I picked up the other night and I think it's perfect for strengthening our bond. It's called reenacting the bonding with reversed roles." And with that he threw Draco over his shoulder and headed towards the bed, ignoring Draco's indignant squawk of protest as he was manhandled.
Lucius shifted through several books splayed out on one of the library desks. Nothing in the various books on veela mating bonds mentioned anything like what Harry and Draco were describing in their indexes. The general books on veelas were not much better, having been written mostly by non-veelas or veela mates but by various wizards who claimed to be experts but mostly got things wrong and only occasionally right. The Malfoy's owned one of the most extensive libraries in the wizarding world, if the answer could not be found on the shelves it most likely did not exist in anywhere in the British Isles or most of Europe. The most useful book in his search so far had been Salazar Slytherin's personal memoir about his mate and their bond. Salazar never specifically named his mate but there was evidence it had been one of the other founders. Salazar's memoir mentioned that his mate and he experienced an unusual closeness he had not previously heard of and that his mate and he were overly sensitive to any magic performed around them. Other than those little tidbits, there was nothing else even remotely relevant to what Lucius was looking for.
Slamming Salazar's memoirs closed Lucius stared at the embossed cover. On the cover was an imprint of a serpent-like dragon coiled around a sword. The breed of dragon portrayed had been extinct for nearly two millennia, even before Salazar's time. The dragon was an ouroboros, the symbol for immortality that disappeared from Egypt for no known reason. Why had Salazar chosen this symbol for the cover?
"Immortal love?" Lucius said aloud, wondering if that was the answer. To his surprise, the book opened itself and flipped to the back cover where there had previously been several blank pages. The pages were now covered in masculine writing that was dissimilar to Salazar's upright angular writing before switching back to Salazar's writing. Reading, Lucius became more and more thoughtful as he read the older English and translated in his mind to more modern prose.
Congratulations on finding the hidden section, whoever you are. Sal wanted me to write something but I thought it might be better that it not be quite as obvious as the rest of this journal is. The world does not know of me and it will be better in the long run for everyone if our relationship stays secret until it can no longer harm either of us as it is seen as unnatural for two powerful wizards to not settle down with a nice witch apiece. Times have been difficult for Sal and myself, but we will always I hope be able to work through our difficulties and persevere in the face of the challenges we must face.
Tomorrow Sal and I will be finishing the final wards on our school, Hogwarts, which has been running for several years now. Tomorrow, Sal knows I must marry a young witch my parents long promised me to and he knows there is nothing I can do to prevent this short of exposing ourselves to the public eye. Sal and I cannot do this. He is with child by me and must soon leave to bear our child safely. I am writing this in hope that some day my child will be able to read my words—that he or she will know that they are first in my heart with their other father and that I am not willingly leaving the two of you. I will love you forever, even beyond the grave. Someday I hope I will meet you, possibly in this school Sal and I have built together.
Remember that you are born out of a love unmatched, a bond that is the strongest ever seen by a mated veela couple—even if we were not traditional parents. You are my true heir.
Lucius stopped reading at this point. It was very obvious, even unsigned, who had written these last pages. What had become of their child and Salazar? Lucius knew that Salazar had died in obscurity, ostracized supposedly by the other three founders for his beliefs that only purebloods should be allowed inside Hogwarts. None of the histories from the time said anything about a child of Salazar's attending Hogwarts. Supposedly Salazar had married after leaving Hogwarts and had several children with a pureblooded witch of Merlin's line. Tom Riddle was the last descendent of that line. What had happened to the other child?
Setting the book down, Lucius thought hard. 'Ah! The Inventory List!' Practically running, Lucius went deeper into the library until he came upon the accounting section which had every financial ledger ever used since the early 600's AD by a Malfoy. Taking down a slim volume from the top shelf, Lucius opened the surprisingly heavy book. Placing is wand on the first page, Lucius stated "Salazar Slytherin personal memoirs."
On the page three entries appeared slowly:
October 4th, 1352—received memoir of Salazar Slytherin as bride price from Lukas Potter in payment for his sister's marriage into the House of Malfoy. D.P.M.
April 28th, 1402—Salazar Slytherin's memoir spent as payment of bet to Reginald Zabini. A.M.D.
April 29th, 1402—Salazar Slytherin's memoir received as bribe from R. Zabini. A.M.D.
"Potter?" Lucius asked aloud, not expecting an answer.
"Yes Dad?" came Harry's voice from the door way where he stood with Draco.
Startled, Lucius turned to face his son and Harry. "Has it been two hours?" Lucius asked, mind still stuck on the entries.
Arching an eyebrow, Draco regarded his father with curiosity. "It's been almost three. Harry and I were waiting in the practice room but you didn't show up. Have you found something?"
"I may have. Harry, have you ever been in the Potter vaults?" Lucius asked, trying to remain coldly calm as his thoughts raced faster than the speed of light.
Harry shook his head, puzzled as to why Lucius would want with the Potter vaults. All that Harry knew was in the vaults was money, which Lucius didn't need. "No I haven't. I'm not supposed to technically have access to them until I turn twenty as part of the trust fund my parents signed. It's just money anyway."
"There's more than you think in those vaults. I need to get into Castle Dragmount and check the Potter library for their accounting records. Have you been there ever? That's where the Potter vaults are located."
"No I haven't, I've never even heard of Castle Dragmount. Should I have?" Harry asked, worried about why Lucius was questioning him.
"I need to make a few fire calls. Draco take Harry to the practice room and warm up—and no making out. I don't need to walk in on the two of you," Lucius said as he left the library, heading in the direction of his own suite.
"Do you know what's gotten into him?" Harry asked Draco, unsure what had just happened.
"Don't know, but I think we should do as he says. He usually tells me things when he's got most of it worked out or needs my input. However, I think he'll be awhile so I don't think we have to worry about him 'walking in on us' anytime soon," Draco said with a slightly mischievous smirk on his face, "What do you say to a little snogging? "
end ch. 3