Life Long Love: Chapter the twelfth
Author: Emerald Thorn
Rating: R
Categories: Drama, romance, veela!Draco, odd bits of humor scattered about.
Author's notes: Reviews at the end. Surprisingly this is getting out a bit quicker than normally for me… don't try and cause a repeat though. I really shouldn't listen to Escaflowne music while writing Blaise. He comes out mean and depressing… very Folkenish. (don't mind my random anime metaphors…)
Written while I was listening to "Arcadia", "Episte", and various other tracks from Escaflowne's "Lovers Only" soundtrack (gotta love Yoko Kano's music even if some of it is seriously sad sounding).
Lucius was pondering his latest statement of finances when the fireplace in his study flared and turned green, snapping him out of his contemplative daze. He hadn't noticed that the sun had set and the candles placed strategically around the luscious study had lit themselves to light the room. Severus' head soon appeared floating in the wild green blaze. Severus did not appear to be in a good mood, not that many could tell the difference between a good and a bad mood on Severus but Lucius could. Releasing the bottom of the parchment to allow it to roll back into the canister, Lucius turned to face the fireplace.
"Severus?" Lucius inquired tiredly. He had been putting off fire calling in hope that the tangle in his mind would unravel while he stared at the finances.
"There has been a complicating issue come up." Severus intoned, his voice more monotone than usual indicating not only was Severus in a bad mood but that he also wasn't feeling well.
Truly worried, Lucius barely stopped himself from instantly traveling through the floo to Hogwarts. "What kind of complicating issue?"
"There was an unexpected visitor to your son's rooms, a Ronald Weasley. I've managed to make the Headmaster delay contacting the boy's parents but he will have to contact them first thing in the morning." The tight lines around Severus' eyes betrayed just how worried he was as well as the slight drag on the visitor's name.
"Was Draco or his mate hurt in the incident?" Lucius asked calmly.
"I'm not sure. I was not allowed to question them as they had other visitors and then could not be reached. Draco and his mate were both seemingly well enough to talk when I left them and did not seem to be in any pain or worried for each other. I am not sure what to do." Severus rarely did not have a contingency plan already in place when he contacted Lucius.
Lucius sighed and tiredly rubbed between his eyes. "I'll be there as soon as I can via carriage. It would not do to appear suddenly at the castle with how closely it is being watched. We may have to use Draco's illness further."
"I'll await you in my office then." Severus waited for the nod of confirmation before his head left the flames. The emerald flames blazed even higher before the color gradually bled back to the original red, orange, and gold.
Looking around his office, Lucius grabbed the scrolls from Dragonmount Keep and the journal and tucked them into one of the hidden bottomless pockets in his robe before snatching his favorite cane from its holder. Picking up his light midnight sapphire cloak off the stand, he swirled it on before heading off to find wherever Narcissa had gone to.
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Hermione finally decided that she should at least check the hospital wing before she fell asleep. It was after curfew and all she would need to avoid was Filch since Crookshanks was on good terms with Mrs. Norris. Wrapping her favorite robe a little tighter around her body and securing it with the belt, Hermione stepped cautiously out of the portrait hole and began to make her way to the hospital wing.
Moving through Hogwarts with the ease of a student in their last year, Hermione saw no one on her way to the infirmary. Entering the main ward, there was only the Slytherin Blaise Zambini sleeping peacefully on Harry's preferred bed. No Ron here. Remembering the isolation rooms that Ron had checked for Harry just two nights ago, Hermione decided to check them just in case Harry or Ron was in one of them by chance.
Pushing the door open, not noticing that a silent alarm spell was tripped, she quickly stepped into the room and shut the door after herself. Lying asleep in the only bed in the room was Ron. A very pale and sickly looking Ron.
Moving to her boyfriend's side, Hermione stroked his cheek gently hoping to wake him up gently. Usually all Ron needed was a light touch from his girlfriend and he was wide awake—or a room full of Gryffindor males noisily getting ready for the day. However, Ron didn't stir at her touch. Shaking his shoulder lightly gained no response. Worried, she took out her wand and cast eneverate.
Ron immediately opened his eyes wide and grabbed her arm that was still resting lightly on his shoulder while gasping for breath like he had just run a mile. "Hermione, Harry… oh bollocks… Harry!"
"What about Harry, Ron?" Hermione asked, her voice laced with worry.
"He's… I can't tell you. I'm going to kill that blonde Slytherin!" Ron, if Hermione had remembered it, would have later reminded her of a raging bull.
"Malfoy's not here. Zabini is in the main ward though."
"I need to talk to him. You stay here." Ron got up and left after pushing Hermione to sit on the bed he had just vacated and closed the door after himself leaving a puzzled Hermione alone.
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Blaise woke up shortly before curfew, his dark ebony hair sticking with dried sweat. The hospital wing was dark, all the lights extinguished for the night except the one guide light to the lavatory to that Madame Pomfrey always left lit. He was in the main ward and there was not another soul around. Madame Pomfrey's door was closed and no light was evident below the door—she must have already headed to bed.
Severus had not waited around for him to wake, which wasn't surprising. It was expected that as a servant of the Malfoy's he would take care of himself or learn the hard way. The visions he had had were nothing new, just repeats of the vision he'd had his first night at Hogwarts. The visions were gaining in frequency which was indicating that he should take notice. The visions were never given to him without purpose. His gift was trying to prepare him and with the added weight of the blood oaths he'd taken to be a protector and servant of the Malfoy's his vision had kicked into overdrive the last several days.
Too many visions in such a short time were wearing heavily upon him. He hadn't been able to eat much more than a scrap of bread at breakfast and some water sporadically throughout the day. Blaise needed to eat or he would start loosing weight again and he didn't have any extra to loose at the moment. Draco would start badgering him as soon as they shared a meal together like he always did.
Blaise pushed back the blankets and reached to the floor to rummage for his shoes. Fingers catching on the expensive leather, Blaise curled his fingers and lifted the shoes to his lap. As he reached for his feet he noticed he was no longer alone in the infirmary. At the end of his bed sat a very angry looking Ron Weasley.
Face pale in the moonlight that streamed in from the skylights, Ron's freckles stood out even more than usual and his eyes were giving Blaise a glare fit for a Malfoy. Weasley's hunched shoulders emphasized their broadness, and the hands that clenched around his ankles obviously were fighting to end up around Blaise's throat. Blaise swallowed heavily, unsure what Weasley was doing at the end of his bed—seemingly in one piece.
Clearing his throat rather more than was strictly needed, Blaise cocked his head to the side and put on his best confused expression complete with scrunched-up nose. "What are you doing here Gryffindor?"
"I could ask you the same question considering you were in perfect health when you were talking to Malfoy at breakfast," was the sneered reply. Weasley must have hit his head harder than usual since he was being this unreasonable.
"It is none of your concern Gryffindor why I am here. I am leaving and going back to my dorm." Not really, he was going to see Severus and then maybe knock on the suite's door to see if Draco or Harry would speak to him then to bed, that is, if nothing else came up.
"I don't believe you." Weasley was being difficult—what he did best in Blaise's opinion.
"Well I don't care. You can spend the night in here if you want but I am going back to my room." Blaise put one of his shoes on and tied it. When he reached for the other, Weasley caught his wrist. Blaise normally avoided contact with people he didn't know extremely well—they tended to throw him into unexpected visions that sometimes really hurt.
Unfortunately, Weasley didn't know Blaise was a seer and even more unfortunately for Blaise he wasn't expecting skin-to-skin contact. Blaise was immediately thrown into a vision. He saw a young redhead boy in a family full of redheads growing up happily—pranks pulled by the twins, a loving set of parents, and the token little sister. All of them were seemingly very happy. Then the darker images started, the darkness of the Forbidden Forest, dementors causing a younger Harry Potter to scream before blacking out, and a falsely accused Sirius Black falling through the veil.
Flinching away as soon as the images let him, Blaise clawed his way out of Weasley's grasp before scrambling to put several feet between them while clutching his abused wrist to his chest. "Don't ever do that again Weasley. I'm not some soft-hearted Gryffindor who doesn't mind casual touching. If you ever do that again I'll remove your hand from your body."
Weasley was scowling at him in anger and confusion. "You're one of Malfoy's best mates and that means you know what he's been up to. You know what he's doing to Harry."
"I don't know what you're talking about. Draco doesn't want anything with your Gryffindor Golden Boy." Sorry Harry, he amended mentally as he put one of his many masks on his face. Blaise needed to make sure that whatever Weasley knew he didn't share with anybody. As quickly as he could without drawing attention to his hand, he wrapped his fingers around his oak wand, prepared to hex or obliviate Weasley as needed.
Weasley didn't buy Blaise's denial. "I saw what he was doing to Harry. He was raping him, on the floor in that room deep in the dungeons behind the dragon ring. I saw Malfoy enter and I saw him fucking Harry into the floor and Harry was screaming with tears running down his face. Don't you dare tell me you didn't know what he was doing to Harry."
Blaise thanked the gods that Weasley didn't seem to have his wand anywhere. Drawing his wand out in front of him, he went for non-harmful spells first. Firing off a rapid binding curse followed quickly by a silencing curse, Blaise fastened Weasley onto his second wall in the last twenty-four hours. Stalking into striking range with the practiced grace of a full grown pit viper, Blaise became every bit as dangerous as he had been trained to be since his first vision of Draco and Harry. His Grandmother would be proud that the training she had issued him would be finally put to use. "It's too bad really that you think Draco was hurting him. He wasn't. What they were engaging in that you witnessed was fully consensual and an act of love. Since you can't seem to handle the thought of your best friend being with my best friend I'll have to make sure you will not let the rest of the school in on their secret."
Weasley struggled and trembled against the invisible bonds as Blaise pressed his wand to the stretched neck right next to his bobbing Adam's apple. His eyes were wild and darting around looking for escape but there was none to be had. Blaise's expression of malice twisted into a smirk. "You don't mess with a bonded servant. You won't remember any of this in the morning or probably the last two days but you will remember this lesson. Do not go near Draco Malfoy. He is under my protection and I will see you dead before any harm befall him or his chosen partner."
"Obliviate," he whispered, watching the terror in Weasley's eyes fade to be replaced by a glazed blank before the closing eyelids hid them from his view. Blaise was extremely well versed in memory charms and knew exactly how to properly apply them so they were permanent. Thanks Grandmother, Blaise sent mentally.
"Drop your wand," a female voice called out to him from behind as he lowered his wand after completing the spell.
Turning slowly, Blaise didn't show any surprise as he noticed a fuzzy haired Granger in a pink terrycloth robe, nightgown and slippers pointing her wand directly at his heart from where she stood at the entrance to the private observation rooms.
"I will not Gryffindor. If you do not want to end up the same as your boyfriend you will cease and desist that silly wand pointing immediately." Sometimes Blaise swore he was channeling Severus even if that wasn't one of his many talents.
"No," Granger's voice wavered slightly. She was not concentrating wholly on Blaise, half her attention was on the limp form of her boyfriend she could partly see behind Blaise.
Taking advantage of her divided attention, Blaise calmly lifted his own wand so that it was pointing directly between Granger's eyes. "Want to see who is quicker?" Now that was a tempered comment truly worthy of Draco, Harry or maybe even Weasley. Bad channeling Blaise! Bad! Blaise couldn't believe his internal dialogue. The visions must have changed him again or split his awareness. He hated the off feeling that sometimes lasted for days after touching someone unexpectedly.
Granger was obviously afraid. She was chewing on her lip and still not totally focusing on the danger right in front of her. Granger may have the brains but she lacked the spirit to be a truly gifted dueler. No wonder Snape was especially contemptuous of her magical abilities. Severus had explained to him while correcting papers that while Ms. Granger had a knack for theory and the patience to learn how to do wand work with the limited power she had under her control, she lacked the force of spirit that came from the old lines that allowed a pureblood to have the fine control. Granger would have to work her entire life and never compare to the abilities of the elder lines. Weasley came from a long line of wizards that did not strive to use the entirety of their abilities. The blood of the elder ran diluted through the Weasleys and hence Weasley was weaker than his best friend who had elder blood on one side only. Whatever modern muggle genetics said, there were just some things that could not be explained scientifically about magic heritage and how power chose the child, not the parents.
Granger tilted her head back and redoubled her glare yet her hand was trembling in either anger or fear. Blaise thought it was a combination of the two. "You will put your wand down."
"I will not. Do not force my hand as your boyfriend did." Blaise refused to be moved. He had duties to fulfill and Granger and her boyfriend were not helping him.
"Why are you hesitating?" Granger asked, a note of curiosity slipping into her voice.
"I'm not. I've given you a way of peacefully surrendering but it seems that my hand will be forced again tonight." Blaise calmly cast expelliarmus and caught Granger's wand in his other hand.
Granger stared at him in shock, her hand trying to grasp a wand.
"Don't worry Granger. I won't cause you unneeded pain."
"You Death Eater!" she hissed.
Blaise was amused. "Now that I most definitely am not. Stupefy."
Granger fell sideways onto a nearby bed as she was knocked unconscious. Looking around the room, Blaise sighed in frustration. Two unconscious Gryffindors later and now he had even more work to do tonight.
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Lucius strode confidently and calmly through the main doors of Hogwarts. It had taken him almost two hours to reach Hogwarts from Malfoy manor which was in Wales. The drive was always a lovely one but unnecessarily long if you were a worried parent. Flicking his blonde locks over his shoulder, he tapped his cane on the flagstones as he turned down the side corridors that eventually lead to the lower levels of the main section and eventually into the dungeons. There was no such thing in Hogwarts as a direct route anywhere.
Passing the turnoff to the Headmaster's office and the great hall, Lucius was surprised when he walked right into Severus who was almost running. Stopping himself just short of toppling over by snagging Severus' shoulder, Lucius took a few moments to right himself and get all of his hair out of his face.
"Severus?"
"Luc? Thank Merlin. The alarm to the hospital wing just went off. I need to get there now."
Quirking an eyebrow, Lucius followed Severus as he broke out into a run headed in the direction of the school infirmary.
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Blaise's wand was instantly pointed at the entrance to the room the moment he heard the rapid approach of two sets of footsteps. Crouching in a defensive position, he prepared to fire off stupefy.
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Lying atop Draco with his head resting directly above his mate's heart, Harry felt content as he never had before. Hands and legs sprawled to the sides of Draco's body where they lightly supported some of his weight so he wasn't crushing Draco, Harry nuzzled the steady beat under his ear. One of Draco's hands was tangled in his hair and pulling lightly in a combing motion while the other ran up and down his spine, rubbing each and every bone until it reached the beginning of his cleft. Draco's hair was a sweaty, tangled mess of spun gold that in places was plastered to the side of his face. Draco's eyes were only slit open, the icy blue of his eyes more stunning because of the darkness of his lashes. A small smile graced the pale pink mouth which twitched in amusement as Harry moved his back into the light caress.
The still perfectness of the room suited the pair and neither one wanted to move and destroy the moment. The room was awash in the blues and grays of moonlight, but the room was warm and no blankets were needed.
"I could stay here in this moment forever, I think" Harry said, his voice rough and scratchy.
"Sometimes I wish the world would just fade away and it would be just you and me with no one to listen to and no worries. Just you and me." Draco's wistful voice was just as worn as Harry's.
"Someday I want to see the world with you. It'll be our honeymoon."
"Someday I want to give you the world."
"Ah, there's my over-ambitious Slytherin."
And just because it seemed to fit…
Adesso e Fortuna (from Record of Lodoss War)
Moonlight comes down through the fluttering wings of the wind,
above the blue waters of the night,
with warm finger-tips,
composing memories forever.
Io sono prigioniera
Embrace me
tightly from behind.
The foreign words you whisper to me
are a bit heart-rending and romantic.
I am your prisoner.
Io sono prigioniera
Tonight, you held me tenderly.
Even after the morning light comes,
your dark eyes
are still shining before me.
Instrumental
Once more,
please bring me into the deep night
with those half-said words of amour.
Your dangerous
but attractive lips
melt me.
Io sono prigioniera
Tonight, you
held me tenderly.
Even after the morning light comes,
your dark eyes
are still shining before me.
Ah…review response time:
MerlinHalliwell: All in good time will you find out. Thanks for the review.
Jade: Get some sleep! I know how it is to be sleep deprived and it's not good! I get what you mean with the blaise/severus thing but not meant to be in this story. Thanks for the review.
Kyra: (I'll call you Kyra so at least someone calls you by your name ;-) ) Backstory will have to wait. I've got my hands full at the moment with school and this story—I already had to put my other hpdm story on hold until this one is done. Poor Blaise indeed… especially after this chapter.
D EDMUN: Hope you continue to enjoy it and thanks for letting me know what you thought.
KatFay: ::enigmatic smirk:: wouldn't you like to know? Well, that's a story you'll have to wait for Sal's version of events in a sequel maybe but you'll eventually find out what he meant for Harry being affected…
Chaolioe: It's good that I'm keeping people guessing…it means I haven't gotten predictable (which can turn off some people).
Arigazi: It was shorter than usual but I had a major case of writers block because I was in the middle of writing a term paper. This chapter's longer than usual so it'll make up for it. Consider this chapter your Christmas present from me.
White Dragon Priestezz: Poor Blaise, too many visions must be headache inducing. More ahead on Blaise's visions. We'll see about the eyes.
Sheree: I've yet to see a perfectly written Hermione and Ron—my version included—in a hpdm story. Quite often they're too involved or not involved enough unless they've been killed off. (Killing them off is sometimes tempting just so I don't have to get in the mood to write one of them… I swear they're my antipersonalities…) I say go Harry go!
SaFire flame: Glad you love it and here's your better-than-average-sized update.
Hellwithit: glad you think so!
Yaoi no Megami: hm… yaoi no megami… is megami priestess? ::Japanese is a bit rusty, but if it means what I think it means…XD:: It was a bit long between the last two updates wasn't it? Hope you remember it this time!
Blahness Mucho: Here's to keeping you in good humor.
Mon2: Salazar is Malfoyish isn't he? ::innocent look:: I will do a prequel about Sal and Godric after I get this monster finished. Maybe I'll be able to start it after the school year ends. Severus may need that migraine potion yet.
SheWolfe7: YOU WRITE PERFIDY!!!? I love that fic… sorry I haven't reviewed. I tend to not sign in if I'm just reading and well… yeah. No excuse really. Thanks for reviewing. ;-)
Yana5: :P yourself. Glad you liked the chapter.
Elebereth: Thanks!
Brenna8: I wonder what they do with all those unused classrooms—especially since the population has been growing… so why would they have unused classrooms? It really doesn't make sense but everyone uses them… arg… that didn't make sense did it? Oh well… throwing a party would be cool but who is throwing it? Personally I think the twins should throw it as a surpise party—even though they don't go to Hogwarts anymore. And you can have Gred and Forge if I get Blaise, Sev and Luc. Harry and Draco can have themselves (they're more fun to watch even in cannon).