Life Long Love: Chapter Seven
Author: Emerald Thorn
Rating: R overall... but probably not this chapter...
Genre: Veela!Draco, Romance/Adventure, AU, overused soul mate theory involving Harry and Draco and a special mushiness warning specifically for this chapter.
Author's Notes: Reviews at the bottom. Sorry this is sooo late....
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Their new rooms were absolutely the best place Harry had ever been in his entire life—even better than the vale which he knew would always have a special place in his heart because that was where he and Draco had bonded. The large sitting room, which was really more like an antechamber from a palace, reminded him vaguely of the Far East but the next room Draco and he discovered was definitely European. Following the narrow channel of water through the doorway revealed a study with two enormous mahogany desks on a sea of emerald granite bordered by floor to ceiling glass encased shelves filled with books of all sorts.
Before Harry could so much as reach out to touch the nearest bookcase Draco was tugging on his hand towards a set of double doors set off to the right. Pushing the doors open, with a brief tingle of magic passing over the pair, revealed an even bigger library that was easily twice the size of the school library. A lightly glowing waterfall tumbled down in the center of the room from the ceiling to create a large pool filled with brightly colored fish in every hue of the rainbow that provided the light source for the room. Comfortable looking couches surrounded the pool and the scent of jasmine and musk came from the water lilies floating in the water.
"How come this isn't used by the rest of the school?" Draco asked in amazement, his ocean colored eyes wide as they took in the library. "I can't believe Dumbledore knows this is here..."
"I wonder if Sev knew this was here before Blaise told him it was here." Harry asked, sharing in Draco's wonder.
"We'll have to ask. I hate to admit it, but now that I know this is here I don't want to share it with anyone but you," Draco turned to Harry as he admitted the last bit. "It's like a place separate from the rest of the school, someplace where we're not rivals but can be our true selves."
Smiling softly at Draco, Harry felt the tentative happiness in Draco. "It's home, like the vale, but different. And I agree that I don't want to share it with anyone else. Blaise and family can visit but I don't want anyone getting past the sitting room."
Cuffing his mate lightly, Draco clasped Harry to him and tucked Harry's head under his chin. "I wonder if we can set wards to not allow anyone past the door to the study unless there is an emergency that requires entrance?"
Voice muffled from being buried against Draco's throat, Harry agreed. "Super. Now let's explore the rest of this place."
Later, closer to midnight of the same day found Draco going through his new wardrobe looking for his favorite pair of school robes to lie out for the next day. All of their things had been moved from the dorms to their shared bedroom by Dobby. Dobby had been quite excited to discover Harry and Draco were back to Hogwarts and had insisted upon being assigned to care for his Masters. Evidently, the fact that Harry had arranged for Dobby to be given clothes had not put the slightest dent in Dobby's devotion to his Master Dragon. In fact, as Dobby proceeded to explain to an exasperated Harry, that by giving Dobby a sock Harry had offered Dobby a job as his personal house elf. Evidently, Hermione had not informed him that because of his impending attachment to Draco (which Dobby had been aware of since Draco had recognized Harry) he needed to make the same agreement with Dobby that the Malfoy's had originally started.
According to Dobby, he had been offered a job as a life servant of the Malfoy's some two hundred and so odd years ago by the offering of a servant's garment. Dobby had accepted proudly then and was still proudly serving the family. He told a flabbergasted Harry that by accepting the sock, from Lucius that had originally belonged to Harry, Dobby had accepted that he would also serve Harry. The whole time Harry had known Dobby was filled by wrong assumptions Harry had made. Dobby was not freed of his contract by any means, nor did he wish to be. He had made a promise and he intended to keep it, thank you very much for your concern Master Harry. When Harry had first met Dobby, Dobby had been under very specific and careful instructions from Draco to protect in any way possible and keep Riddle's Diary away from Harry. Lucius had been forced to dump the diary on poor, unsuspecting Ginny Weasley and report back to the rest of the Death Eaters that he had done his part of the bargain. Lucius had then personally ordered Dobby to see to it that Harry had as little contact as possible with the diary. Dobby had done that by distracting Harry.
Harry was a bit put out with the house elf and proceeded to sit in the middle of his shared bed and pout. Draco was pretending to be oblivious but was really quite well aware of how upset his mate was but was unwilling to apologize for trying to keep Harry safe. It was actually fairly amusing to Draco to watch his mate pull a perfect Malfoy pout. Harry looked quite irresistible actually, his hair was sticking out at odd angles and the way he was glaring off into space was quite intense.
"Am I always irresistible to you?" Harry asked, not shifting his glare from the spot between two carvings of more dragons swallowing their tails.
Pausing, Draco removed himself from the wardrobe and climbed onto the bed behind Harry. "Yes you are. It comes with the territory."
"Then even if I was being an utter prat you would still think it was perfectly acceptable?" Harry's voice was too neutral and the careful blankness that was flowing through their bond alerted Draco that something was worrying Harry.
Impulsively grabbing Harry from behind in a hug and resting his chin on Harry's shoulder, Draco eyed his mate with concern. "Harry, I've seen you at some of your best moments and some of your worst. I don't know if you've realized this but I was there when Sirius fell through the Vale. It just about killed me that night to not be able to grab you and wrap myself around you to protect you. I was very aware of how much Sirius meant to you and I was extremely worried how you would feel. I almost convinced myself that it was doing more harm than good keeping my secret from you but Uncle Sev told me that unless I could be sure that it wasn't my newly activated mature veela hormones I would be doing you a disservice."
"He convinced me that if I loved you I would put you first, above my mere mortal desires. I think even then I was picking up your feelings. Father ended up going to trial that summer and even though that was making me sad I think I was also feeling your sadness. And then when we returned to school last year I saw you not talking to Ron or Hermione as we entered the great hall... you looked so lost and it hurt so very much more to see you like that. To top it all off, you were angry with me because Father wasn't found guilty at the trial. I don't think I could ever feel worse than that moment last year when you told me to drop dead." Draco stopped, unable to say anything more immediately.
"I didn't mean it," Harry whispered, his voice somewhat detached yet mournful as he saw the memory through Draco's eyes. "I just... felt so bad that you were there, mocking me and Father was free and Sirius wasn't ever going to adopt me..."
"I know you didn't... that you couldn't understand all the whys and reasons so I forgave you immediately. What made that moment all the more horrid was I could tell you were so lonely..." Draco was cradling Harry even closer, if that was possible, his left hand running soothingly up and down Harry's spine. Harry, for his part, closed his eyes and snuggled into Draco.
'But we don't have to be lonely anymore Ko, not anymore...' Harry mentally sent, inhaling Draco's smell mingled with the jasmine and musk from the library pool. 'I like this place... it makes you smell good.'
Exasperated and amused, Draco attempted to retort, "And I didn't smell good before we came here?"
"Oh no... you've always smelled good. Kind of like some exotic fruit mixed with musk and err... mountain smell."
"Mountain smell?" Draco stared at Harry in disbelief. He smelled like a mountain?
"Yeah, and like rain too." Harry smiled as he opened his eyes and inhaled deeply a second time.
"Well, if I smell like a mountain you smell like an evergreen glade with a towering waterfall surrounded by mountains with a patch of fruit trees on the side."
"You're not serious are you? I smell like a picturesque tourist trap?"
"Hardly a tourist trap Harry. You smell like my private spot at the Vale, which I somehow managed to not show you while we were there."
"There's mountains at the Vale? I don't remember mountains..."
Kissing Harry to interrupt him, Draco mentally said, 'Well... there are but you have to be looking in the right direction at the right time of day. However, I think that kissing is better than talking...'
And Harry completely agreed with Draco once again.
Meanwhile...
Blaise fiddled with a quill he had suspended between his two spread hands, twirling and rotating the quill as he concentrated while Severus fiddled with a heavy book at his desk. Neither spoke as Lucius and Narcissa calmly observed them. It was irritating to listen to the silence in the room. Lucius and Narcissa were sitting calmly and sipping from the tea that Severus had told Blaise to serve.
Needless to say, Blaise was impressed by how little he was fidgeting—even though a well-brought up pureblood such as he should not have even twitched. Severus seemed to finally find what he had been looking for and handed one of the books he had leafed through to Lucius.
"This is the original source where we came across the symbol. It is based off an actual magical creature, an ouroboros. It's a little used symbol today, but is common in older alchemy writings. The most common meaning associated with the symbol is the renewal of life or the life cycle. It's also been known to stand for immortality but the ouroboros also is associated with a ying/yang balance to the universe. I'll have to do further research outside of Hogwarts to see if I can determine if there are any other meanings or links with the symbol." Severus seemed pensive, his normally impassive face showing slight tracings of concentration and worry showing how exhausted he was. Severus rarely showed emotion and it was usually only when he was too tired to expend the energy required to be emotionless.
Lucius seemed to digest the tidbit of information that Severus had given him. "The password for the journal entries was 'immortal love' which may mean several things. Slytherin may have just intended it to be a play upon his personal symbol and what he was, combining the veela need for love and the sigla's meaning of immortality. Or it may mean something that I cannot yet fathom. So little is actually known about the founders today that it would be very difficult to trace family lines but I do know that the journal belonged to the Potter's before the Malfoy's."
Raising one eyebrow in surprise, Blaise watched as Professor Snape's breath latched. Lucius continued unfazed. "According to the Headmaster, Harry has the Potter Gringotts' vault key in his possession and the keys to Dragmount are in that vault. Hopefully I can convince him to let me borrow them for a short time so I can access the record books."
"It would be a place to start looking at least," Blaise paused before continuing with Lucius' slight nod of acknowledgement. "Is there any chance that the school library might have something useful? And how much do we know about the ouroboros as a creature? I may be able to research in the library as a student with less notice."
"There may be something in the library, it is worth a look," Narcissa told Blaise, an odd sort of half-smile on her face.
Feeling unsettled by the odd smile, Blaise could only nod. Severus seemed amused by this and chuckled quietly. Lucius and Narcissa only exchanged a brief glance before turning their attention collectively back to Severus.
"Severus, let the boy do the research in the library. It would appear unusual to have you rummaging around in the magical creatures section and Merlin knows how many busybodies this school houses. Narcissa and I will concentrate on efforts outside of Hogwarts while you concentrate on keeping the boys secret out of public knowledge. I have the feeling that you will have more difficulty than we will." Lucius reached out to pick up Narcissa's hands in his, warming them as he noticed the slight chill she had picked up from the cool dungeon air.
Severus nodded, his face tightened into a pensive frown. "I have no doubt that my godson is perfectly capable of making this as difficult as possible. Is there anything else that Blaise or I need to help you with?"
"Not that we can think of," Narcissa said, as she stood to leave with Lucius. "I'll send my weekly owl to Draco with an additional note for him to hand to you if we come across anything of interest."
Before the couple could leave Blaise interrupted with a question, "What are we going to do about their eyes?"
Looking at Blaise in puzzlement Lucius asked, "What about their eyes?"
Now appearing nervous, Blaise's eyes darted back and forth between the three adults. "Their eyes... they've changed color. Surely you noticed?"
"I didn't notice anything different, but I was not paying close attention to them, I was mostly focusing on Dumbledore," Severus told Blaise, wondering why he hadn't noticed anything.
"I don't know if it is a permanent change or just a newly bonded temporary expression of their magic sharing. A simple glamour charm should cover it," Lucius told Severus and Blaise. "I'm sure that if Draco hasn't done anything when you get him for classes you will point it out to him?"
"Sure," Blaise said, still feeling as if he was forgetting something.
Response to Reviews:
Noali: eer... update soon... I tried but life squashed me like a bug under it's expensive sneaker. I agree that Dumbledore in the dark is a bit odd compared to most fics out there, but it fit for this one. Harry is a bit shorter—it's because of his malnourishment and tendency to get crammed into small enclosed spaces.
Mon2: Crying? I didn't think it was that bad... well... maybe this chapter was a bit mushy but then I don't really get teary eyed easily.
Willowstar: I will try to keep the fluff in balance with the angst and humor... hopefully you won't have to kill one of them!
Isis-mystic: Your wish to see their rooms will gradually be granted... I'm only describing a bit at a time so I don't over saturate the audience.
Pixie Goddess1: Smoothly? ::anticipates bumpy roads ahead with Voldie and the rest of the trio::
BlueEpiks13: erg... I'll get the next one out more quickly since I'm back at school again.
Iluvdraco334: If you like the bloodlines part of the story stay tuned next time when Lucius gets his hands on some answers.
Killer-the-cat: Yep... Blaise is male... but the update kinda stalled on it's way out the door.
Brenna8: The eyes are fairly obvious to Blaise because he's looking at the two of them and comparing them to his visions. Kinda freaky for him isn't it? I don't know how soon I'm going to clue Dumbledore in... it kinda depends on how the next chapter flows but we'll see. I don't plan on outright having anybody tell him anything...
Dead yet a love sick puppy: ::nods:: nice rooms—I wish I lived there.
Yana5: There seems to be a consensus that nobody wants Dumbledore to know... but we can't have him in the dark forever...