Life Long Love: Chapter Nine
Author: Emerald Thorn
Rating: R
Pairing: Draco/Harry
Disclaimer: Not mine—I only manipulate the characters as I see fit.
Author's notes follow after chapter.
Lucius leafed through volume after volume of dusty parchment once he had gained the necessary legal paper to gain entrance to Dragmount. It had been surprisingly easy to gain entrance through the historic homes division of the ministry. Evidently access to family vaults could be granted if there was no current of age family head to give permission. Lucius had checked to make sure he was the only person who had requested access to the Potter vaults. According to the eager-to-please secretary the old law was not used much and usually only in cases where there was a contested will or question of heritage.
Unfortunately, since Harry's grandparents had died the house elves had been freed from their obligations and there had been no one to keep up Dragmount Keep—which Lucius intended on rectifying as soon as he returned home. So far, nothing of terrible interest had been found. Lucius had read everything he could find remotely related to Harry's bloodline or the Potter family assets.
Fingering the edge of yellow parchment, Lucius skimmed another long scroll of some obscure branch of the Potter family. Interestingly enough Lucius had found ties to Merlin, and three of the founders. The Potter's were descendents of Godric Gryffinydor's eldest known son, Rodderick. They were also obscurely related to both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw though neither connection was as strong as the Gryffindor tie. Lucius didn't know what to make of the Gryffindor tie—Rodderick was obviously not the child of Godric and Salazar. Rodderick must have been one of the children Godric had after he married. Unfortunately, most of the tree surrounding those generations was not filled in or the ink was too faint to read. Lucius had noted with some humor that Godric had been from what seemed to be a large family since there were many lines descending from his parents that twisted and combined with several other very old pureblood families. In fact, when Godric had died his brother had married his wife and had children with her. How very archaic.
So Harry's bloodline was probably not directly responsible for the strangeness of Draco's and his bond. The possibility wasn't totally eliminated but it was unlikely. No ties could be found to Slytherin as of yet and Lucius had not recognized any veela clan names.
The search for a comprehensive financial ledger was even more frustrating than Lucius thought possible. Without house elves, the spells that were used for home indexing had gone inactive and Lucius was not capable of resetting them by himself. He would need to make a second trip with either Severus or Narcissa to reset the spells.
About ready to give up, Lucius picked up several rolls that had the runes for 'veela' and 'magical creatures' on their cover slips that he had found on his latest search down one of the archive tunnels. Opening the veela one, Lucius studied the runes. He hated reading runic. Head hurting from the translation, it seemed to him as if it was a normal report on what a veela was and why they were so special until he was two-thirds of the way through the lengthy scroll. Off to the side of the scroll was a familiar symbol—the oroubous.
Sitting up straight, Lucius stared in surprise at the sigil. Turning the paper every which way, Lucius could not find anything else related to the drawn figure. Muttering 'immortal love' did not trigger a response as it had with the journal. Taking his wand out, he tried several encryption revelation spells. None worked. Mouth twisting in a frustrated grimace, Lucius stared at the musty parchment. There was no signature to indicate who had authored the scroll and the ink was different for the sigil than the rest of the writing. It was possible that someone had added the symbol at a later date. So much confusing evidence was making Lucius' hair to frizz and tangle from running his hands through his hair in frustration.
Mentally categorizing any and all spells related to finding things, Lucius could not remember anything that would be useful. Sneezing from the prolonged exposure to damp, musty rooms, Lucius decided that there wasn't anything more he could do for the day. Taking the veela scroll with him, Lucius left the other scrolls laying on the reading desk. He would be back when he was able to reset the indexing system.
oOo
Draco ate quietly as Severus and Blaise sat across from him also eating their breakfast. Severus was not quite completely awake yet and would not be until nearly nightfall. It was a common misconception by those who didn't know him that Snape was always foul tempered when really it was that he wasn't a day person because of his vampire blood. However, Draco and Blaise would not be telling the Gryffindors that the reason Severus was so biased towards Slytherin—especially first thing in the morning on Mondays—was that Severus hated being awake in the early light when vampires had just gone to bed.
Severus finished first and carefully wiped his mouth with the snake embroidered napkins that the house elves had sent with the meal. "You need to glamour your eyes Draco," he reminded his godson.
Looking up from the piece of fruit he was tearing apart, Draco nodded once as he swallowed the bit of orange. "Is there any specific charm that will work best to cover them up?"
"No but I could give you a potion that will work for several weeks or you could transfigure them back to the color you were born with."
Draco made a face at the proposition of transfiguring his eyes. It sounded painful and a waste of time since a simple finite incantum could reverse his hard work. "I'll take the potion. Do you have any made?"
"It's in the cupboard under color transformation. Add a few tears to a spoonful and drink it."
Nodding Draco stood up and left the room in search of the potion. Severus waited until Draco was out of hearing distance before speaking. "Why were the two of you so late this morning?"
"Draco and Harry will still asleep and I had to wake Draco up. He had trouble getting away from Harry." Blaise said, nose buried in his morning tea.
"Trouble getting away? Elaborate," Severus said as he too continued to sip at his tea.
"I actually had to stun Harry in his sleep to keep him from grabbing Draco as soon as Draco tried to sit up."
Arching one eyebrow, Snape sipped from his tea while watching Blaise carefully. "I wonder if this is a daily occurrence for the two of them."
Blaise shrugged both shoulders before emptying his teacup and setting it down on the small breakfast table. Draco reentered the room at that moment with his eyes back to icy grey.
"Is this better?" Draco asked the two.
"Much," Severus replied while motioning Draco to finish his breakfast. "While you were gone we worked on a potion to help speed the growth of plants. It's in the seventh chapter of your book and is a variation of the general growing potion we covered in third year. I was forced to partner you with Potter since you were both absent so you are both behind. The class has already started brewing it but I will allow you and Potter to have as much time as you need to complete it."
Draco snorted as he finished the orange he had been eating earlier. "You could call him Harry. It wouldn't kill you."
Severus scowled. "I see no reason to mollycoddle him since I never have. It would be seen as out of the ordinary and attention is not something we need at the moment."
Draco sat his silverware down with a loud thud and growled at his godfather, his eyes seeming to glow slightly. "I would like it if you would call him by his given name in private. He does not need any more stress than he already has!"
Surprised and taken aback, Severus growled right back. "I will call him by his last name and nothing you can do can make me call him Harry!"
Blaise sat off to the side trying to hold back his silent laughter at the two.
"You just did! It's stupid anyway why you don't like him! He's officially part of the family now!" Draco had stood up by now and was leaning down menacingly while his blonde hair floating in an invisible current. Dishes were now hovering just above the surface of the table. "And if you won't do it willingly I'll have Father MAKE YOU!"
Severus seemed to have finally noticed the abnormally strong waves of magic radiating off Draco and his dishes hovering in midair around Draco without Draco concentrating on them. "You'll do no such thing—my calling him anything other than Potter will endanger him. And you'll put my dishes down carefully without chipping them. They were a present from your great grandmother."
Visibly seething, Draco waved his hands and all the dishes thunked down on the table—with no chipping. Draco immediately stood and left the room, the door vibrating from the aftershocks as Draco slammed it.
Severus remained seated during the entire episode.
Blaise had stopped laughing once the magic waves had started.
"Well, he's certainly the same temperamental brat as always," Severus remarked to Blaise.
"Yeah, except now he's a dangerously-radiating-magic-temperamental brat," Blaise answered.
"Indeed. Would you like more tea or should you make an appearance in the Great Hall?"
"I'll take another cup of tea but with sugar this time."
oOo
Harry awoke with a start, almost falling out of bed despite the size of the bed. Draco was pissed off at Snape but wasn't trying to directly throw his thoughts at Harry. Mentally reaching out for his mate, Harry watched from Draco's side as Draco snarled at Snape and stormed off. Calling to his mate to comfort him, Harry tried to calm Draco down before he reached the more densely populated parts of the school.
Pain radiated from Draco, causing both of them to feel as if they had the worst headache of their lives. 'Ko, you need to go back and get something for your head—and I don't care how surly Snape is being—school's about to start. If he pisses you off I'll get him back for it later,' Harry told his mate while stuffing his head under a pillow to block out the light that was hurting his eyes.
Mentally whimpering and wrapping himself around his mate, Draco turned back around to retrace his steps back towards Snape's office deep within the dungeons. Gently Draco eased the door to Snape's office open. Snape and Blaise had not moved other than to refill their respective teacups. Severus made no comment as Draco reclaimed his seat with an ungraceful half-tumble.
Covering his eyes, Draco heard himself whimper aloud as he fought the physical urge to curl up into a ball. Harry was too far away from him physically to make it back to their rooms in his current condition. His head felt on fire, like he had stretched muscles that were resistant to stretching.
Eyeing his godson with some concern, Severus took pity on him and told Blaise to fetch a vial he kept handy for headaches. "Is it your head?"
"Yes," Draco whimpered as he bent over to hang his head in-between his knees. "As soon as I set the dishes down it started. I wasn't really aware I was doing it at the time."
"Doing what?" Snape asked as he tilted Draco's head up to get a look at his godson's eyes. Draco's pupils were dilated and he was shivering badly.
"Levitating the dishes or putting them down. I didn't know I did it until Harry told me to calm down," Draco resisted the urge to shrink into a ball as his godfather checked his eyes.
"I know your father said that you had the potential to learn wandless magic when you were tested when you were first born. It seems that it is now manifesting as your magic levels fluctuate. You will need to carefully measure how much power you put into your spells until your magic stabilizes or everyone will know something unusual is going on." Severus allowed Draco to put his head down after swallowing an entire vial of anti-headache potion.
Draco stayed with his head turned down for over five minutes before the potion took full effect. During this time, Blaise and Severus stayed quiet to try and minimize the amount of pain Draco was in.
"You can talk now," Draco mumbled as he reached for the teapot.
"I will visit you and Harry later tonight or tomorrow after curfew to see if we can work out what happened. I may or may not have to proctor Mr. Weasley's detention tonight but I will see if Minerva will do it instead."
"Thanks Sev. Blaise and I should be going to breakfast," Draco said quietly.
"Yes we should. Same time as always tonight?" Blaise asked Severus.
"That would be fine."
oOo
Hermione kept one eye on the door as she sat across from Ron at the Gryffindor table. Seamus and Dean were having a rather loud and obnoxious conversation about the current volume of Witch Weekly. Neville was sitting next to the two rowdy and gay Gryffindors with a slight red tinge to his face while making eyes at Ginny who was ignoring Neville and listening to Lavender and some first year talk about a new facial cream that Lavender had just discovered and claimed had done 'wondrous things' to her face. Ron sat across from Hermione blissfully unaware of everything going on around him as he sleepily shoveled porridge into his mouth with an occasional gulp of tomato juice.
In Hermione's opinion, one of the worst things about Harry not being there was the lack of intellectual talk at the breakfast table. Harry at least tried to talk during breakfast, being much more of a morning person than Ron and much less focused on food. Sighing into her own porridge, Hermione continued to watch the double doors as students slowly trickled in.
Halfway through breakfast, Draco Malfoy finally entered with Blaise Zambini right beside him. Several Slytherins left their table to go and greet the prince of their house. Draco seemed irritated by the attention and waved everyone back to eating as he sat down and served himself orange juice and toast.
He looked good, Hermione noted but not any better or worse than he normally looked. Everything normal and Malfoyish about Draco, it was as if he had never missed a day of school. Unsure what to make of this, Hermione resolved to continue observing the Slytherin prince.
Eventually it was time for potions and the Gryffindor seventh years that had slowly left the table as if they were going to a funeral. Hermione made sure she was within hearing distance of Malfoy and his gang as she herded a reluctant Ron, Seamus, and Dean to potions class. The parts of the conversation going on around Malfoy seemed normal—the other Slytherins were updating him on what he missed as he nodded or shook his head. Draco was very quiet and was walking very fast, but Hermione admitted that they were all going to be cutting it very close to being on time so it wasn't entirely out of the ordinary.
By the time everyone was seated in potions and class had begun, Hermione reluctantly turned her attention to Professor Snape as he lectured briefly over what changes should occur as they worked on their current potion. Taking detailed notes on observations while brewing was one of the factors that made Hermione one of the best potions students in school. Snape only lectured for ten minutes before releasing them to continue working on the potion. Snape then approached Malfoy and discussed what he needed to do to get started on his potion. Nothing out of the ordinary was happening so Hermione turned her attention to helping Ron.
Before she knew it, class was over and Ron was more awake. Quietly discussing her observations with Ron, Hermione and he agreed that he would go back to the dorm before his next class and grab the marauder's map and Harry's invisibility cloak. Ron would skip class in order to follow Malfoy around. Hermione hated encouraging Ron to skip class but knew that following Malfoy was top priority at the moment—she would end up tutoring Ron later anyways.
oOo
Draco felt his headache returning after an hour. Potions had gone fine, but transfiguration had been horrid since he had been unable to properly manage how much power he put into transfiguring his ink bottle into a candle. He had transformed his ink bottle into a candle but McGonagall had looked at him in shock when he had accidentally first transfigured his ink bottle into a crystal chandelier with over a hundred candles which had caused his desk to collapse under the weight.
Blaise had chuckled at Draco, but looked concerned as Draco began to show how bad his head was hurting him. Adding to his stress was Harry calling for him. Harry was trying not to, but his subconscious was demanding Draco right now. Harry was valiantly trying to hold back and had half-constructed a mental wall between them after extracting a promise that as soon as Draco was back in their rooms sex would ensue. However, the wall had not totally blocked the large amount of need Harry was broadcasting through the bond along with very arousing thoughts. Combining the arousal Draco was feeling with the amount of pain using his magic was causing was wearing heavily on Draco.
Making it through arthimancy with Professor Sinistra had been even worse. Sinistra seemed to feel that even though Draco hadn't been in class he should be up to speed with everyone else, including Granger. In fact, Granger had volunteered to let him borrow her notes later to catch up.
By the time that lunch rolled around Draco was ready to break down and cry even though he showed no outward signs. Speaking mentally with Harry convinced him to fake a headache to get out of the rest of his classes for the day. Checking to see that no one was following him, Draco sped up as he neared the dungeons.
'Come to me Draco,' Harry called eagerly as he waited for Draco.
'I'm coming Love. Hope you're ready for me,' Draco replied while amplifying the feelings he was getting from Harry back down their bond.
'I want you as soon as you are in the door. I think sex on that fur rug of ours sounds interesting.'
'As you wish Love,' Draco replied as he followed the twisting corridors deeper into the dungeon, not noticing the faint smell of Ron Weasley following him.
Reaching the entrance to their rooms, Draco shouted the password before closing the door as he ran down the steps to their rooms. Entering the sitting room, Draco was pinned to the floor by Harry who was wearing only an open emerald silk robe. "Hey," Draco whispered, grinning happily up at his mate as his headache disappeared along with all the stress of the morning.
"Hey," Harry returned before leaning down and kissing Draco hungrily. Moments later both boys were tearing at Draco's clothes as they rolled around on the luxurious fur carpet. Sensory overload was quickly becoming an issue for Draco as he inhaled deeply Harry's scent before lightly biting Harry's earlobe as the last offending piece of clothing was removed.
Rolling Harry over, Draco smirked as Harry informed him that he was slicked and stretched—having prepared for Draco's return. Tossing one of Harry's legs over his shoulder and wrapping the other around his waist, Draco entered Harry slowly to prevent any discomfort.
Moaning and writhing against Draco, Harry screamed in pleasure as the drives that had been irritating him all morning were satisfied as his mate filled him. Draco's thrusts caused him to move slightly on the fur, making him feel as if his whole body was being caressed. As Draco continued to passionately send waves of feeling through their bond, Harry continued to scream aloud as the pleasure built.
Before they could climax, Draco was suddenly blasted by a curse and thrown off Harry into the far wall. The impact stunned Draco into unconsciousness as Harry screamed in fury and turned to see who had attacked his mate.
TBC....
Response to Reviews:
Elebereth: I know what you mean. So often only one of them is interested in the other and has to persuade or trick the other into giving in. I like that I did something different but it does have a bigger part to play in the plot. Thanks for reading!
SweetPea-Fairy: eh... recommend I post where? Can you email me those sites? I've started posting the other story on ffnet but it's going to be heavily edited and I hate doing that. Glad you're enjoying the story and I'll try and work faster but I've got a lot going on right now.
Siggie: Blaise is kind of a loose cannon at the moment but I have managed to work him into the plot with a lot of rearranging my original ideas.
Sky: Thanks for reviewing. The mind meld is quite useful isn't it?
Child-mage: You've just stumbled across this type of story eh? Well, there's some very well written and thought out stories out there and some not so good. Thanks for the compliment—it means a lot to me since my college professors have told me repeatedly that I'm not the best writer when it comes to papers—maybe I've missed my calling (but I like science better so....). I have heard of the Potter Slash Archives but I'm kind of looking into my options right now. I've started posting an edited version, but it'll be awhile before the first few chapters get edited and posted.
Lady Jam: I hope I answered part of your question--the other parts will have to wait!
Eden's Echo: Poory Harry. He's getting emotionally attached and is having problems. Stay tuned for why he's acting the way he is.
Yana5: ::whistles innocently:: wrong? What makes you think something's wrong with Harry? Yes Hermione is nosy but it makes for a very good plot device.
Sak: It's good to have a few surprises happen in a story otherwise it becomes too easy to anticipate how things work out. It is odd that Draco isn't feeling the same way...
Dead yet a love sick puppy: hee... you'll find out eventually.
Mon2: Everyone likes seeing a clingy Harry. Hm...
Brenna8: Hm... who gets the sitting room?
Thanks to all who reviewed. It seems the more reviews I get the more I am compelled to write!