Life Long Love: Chapter Thirteen

Author: Emerald Thorn

Rating: R overall

Warnings/Genre: Slash, Veela!Draco, Romance, AU

oOo

Severus swept into the hospital ward with Lucius close on his heels. They both managed to deflect the rapid fire expelleriamus from Blaise with practiced ease. Blaise, once he realized who he had cast at, blushing bright red and stammering an apology as he immediately pointed his wand at the floor in acknowledgment with a slight bow from the waist to acknowledge the patriarch of the Malfoy family. Standing uncertainly in the middle of the ward with his eyes downcast, Blaise was unsure what he should explain first as he nervously shuffled his feet in a habit he thought he had trained himself out of years ago. The question was how he was going to explain how Granger or Weasley came to be in the ward at this time of night.

Blaise wasn't in his usual top form, Severus noted. Dark circles shadowed under bright eyes hidden behind thick lashes and long curly raven hair that tended to fall forward when not clasped back in its usual tail. The alert, flint-colored eyes were set in a face with a sallow and grey tinged skin masked the exhaustion Blaise must surely be feeling. Both Severus and Blaise had not had more than a few hours sleep at a time in over a week. Under closer inspection, Severus thought that perhaps the boy was loosing weight that his already slender and tall frame could not spare. Draco was going to be irritated again—he had somewhat of a soft spot for the young seer even if he was head-over heels in love with Harry. Severus didn't quite understand why the two were close but respected his fellow oath-giver.

The barest hint of a smile on Lucius' full lips as he saw Weasley pinned to the wall opposite the door soothed away most of Blaise's more immediate worries. Obviously Lucius wasn't overly alarmed which was good.

"It's all right Blaise. Would you explain how Mr. Weasley managed to move from his bed?" Lucius' eyes then caught on the sight of the mousy haired, pink garbed female who was dangerously close to falling out of the bed she had, luckily for her, landed on. "And her? What is she doing in the ward?"

Sighing, Blaise ran his fingers through his dark ebony curls, tousling them and pushing them back so Lucius and Severus could see his face clearly, revealing a tired and stretched look. "I think that Granger there," he gestured to the unconscious female, "woke Weasley up because she was looking for him since he hasn't been seen since lunch by the rest of the school, though I can't be certain. She and Weasley are Potter's best friends and they haven't taken his disappearance very well. Weasley then came out here and tried to threaten me into telling him where Draco was. Evidently he remembered at the time what he saw earlier."

Lucius' perfectly shaped eyebrow raised questioningly as he looked over his shoulder from where he was inspecting the wall Ron was stuck to. Gesturing for Blaise to approach him as while he was looking at the Gryffindor, Lucius wondered how they were going to be cleaning up this particular mess. "At the time?"

Nodding slightly, Blaise handed his wand over to his Lord. "I've erased his memory of that and of tonight. He will not remember a thing other than a lingering fear of Draco and me. His memory loss can easily be explained by the blow to the head he took earlier when Draco stuck him to the wall. Dumbledore and Pomfrey won't know the difference since they haven't seen him awake yet."

Holding Blaise's wand lightly in his fingers, Lucius inclined his head that he understood as his forehead wrinkled in thought. "That will work out nicely then as I'm sure you are almost as good as your Grandmother at these things. However, the girl does present a problem."

"She's only stunned. I hadn't decided the best course of action yet." Blaise tried to sound neutral on the subject but he was fairly irritated at Granger for calling him a death eater and he was quickly developing a massive headache courtesy of her hotheaded boyfriend. Really, there had been no reason for Weasley to go after him in the first place. Evidence suggested that Granger was not wholly objective or reasonable when it came to Weasley or, to a smaller extent, Harry. However, Blaise didn't like being called a death eater and was tempted to recommend something nasty if he didn't hold his tongue.

Lucius and Severus both seemed to sense that Blaise wasn't very happy with Granger. Severus broke the silence after a look from Lucius as he bent over to examine the girl, his forehead creased in thought.

"What about Ms. Granger? How did she come to this state?"

Swallowing to clear his throat, Blaise carefully considered his words. "She saw me erase Weasley's memory. I do not know how much Weasley told her but he was under the impression that Draco was raping Harry. After I had cast the memory charm she told me to hand over my wand and move away from Weasley. I refused to and demanded that she stop pointing her wand at me. We had a bit of a disagreement and it ended with her face down on the bed."

"I assume she took offence to you pinning Weasley to the wall? Gryffindors..." Severus did not look amused. Severus' biggest problem was—aside from the fact that his childhood tormentors had belonged to the house—that Gryffindors, no matter how smart or clever they were in school lacked the ability to plan out their attack and had ridiculously short tempers that were more likely to get them in more trouble than they were already in. The lack of patience in that house was absolutely astonishing sometimes.

"Yes she did." Blaise tiredly sat back on the bed he had recently vacated.

"How would she react to the truth of the matter? Could she be depended upon to cooperate if it was for her friend's protection?" Lucius asked, still not having moved from his position by the wall with the Gryffindor decoration.

Blaise thought for a few moments before answering with a shrug of his shoulders. "If she didn't we could always wipe her memory and start over again. However, I don't think she'll believe us without hearing it from Harry himself. I'd definitely take her wand though before Harry spoke to her though."

"It might perhaps work if we could convince her of the direness of the situation," Severus offered. "Miss Granger, despite her Gryffindor tendencies, may see that our course of action is for the best. Perhaps it would be best if I monitored her thoughts while she spoke with Potter."

"Can you do that?" Blaise asked. Mind reading, at best, was only semi-legal and usually only in special cases. Should anyone find out what they were planning on doing they could all go to Azkaban for a very long time. And although the conditions around the newly restructured prison were much better than they had been when the dementors ruled, Blaise did not ever want to experience a place so saturated in human sadness and pain. With gifts as sensitive as his, Blaise might not survive an extended stay in the dreary detention center.

"Yes, with the proper preparation Miss Granger's mind will be an open book both to myself and Mr. Potter. In this way, we may work together to convince her and if her mind defenses are as poorly built as I believe them to be, we may even be able to influence how she thinks about Draco."

"Do you need to be in the same room to influence her?" Lucius asked.

"No. If I were perhaps in the sitting room with a focus placed in the library where she and Potter were talking I would be able to influence her thought process as well as monitor her sincerity. With the right combination of potions and occlumency it should not be hard for both Potter and I to work on her. If necessary her mind may be wiped and the convincing restarted." Severus seemed to pause in thought slightly before continuing. "It might not be a bad idea to make her give a wizard's oath with all of us as witnesses."

There was a long thoughtful pause before Lucius finally broke the stillness.

"I will go awake my son and Harry then after we have an oath of silence from her."

oOo

Harry dozed lightly, held firmly by his sleeping mate. In his sleep, Draco tended to cling tightly to Harry as if he was afraid that when he awoke he would be alone and had only dreamt the last week. Last night, Harry had slipped away to use the loo and come back to find Draco still asleep thrashing around, searching the sheets for the warm body that had previously been snuggled tight against him. Harry had paused in the doorway, surprised at the plaintive calls of his name issuing from Draco's throat. When he'd rejoined Draco in the bed, Draco had latched onto him like a limpet as his body shivered despite the warmth of their bedroom. Harry had been shocked to find tear tracts and had returned the tight embrace. It had taken almost a half hour for Draco to loosen his hold enough so Harry could sleep.

Fingers twined in their light doze, Harry nuzzled Draco's lightly defined chest as he moved to find a more comfortable position. He was instantly wide awake as the loud scrape of a chair on the floor echoed in the room. Harry could feel every muscle in Draco's body go from relaxed sleep to full alertness, ready to attack and protect Harry.

Opening his eyes, Harry saw Salazar and Godric had pulled chairs up next to the bed and were looking at the two of them with 'oh how sweet' looks as they held hands. Harry suspected that once he came to know the pair better he would be teased mercilessly. It was a good thing that they were just as sappy of a couple. Bitter archrivals made excellent lifemates—they kept your life interesting.

Not lifting his head, Harry felt Draco move underneath him so he could comfortably look at the other couple. Neither of them made any move away from each other.

Salazar smiled and coughed as he elbowed Godric in the ribs. "I believe we came here for a reason in the middle of the night."

"Err right," Godric started, looking somewhat embarrassed by being caught looking at his mate lovingly. "I believe Sal and I have gifts for you which should allow you to be apart longer without feeling like your minds are being ripped apart—at least until we can train you to the point where tools are not needed to sustain your bond."

From his lap, Godric took a thin black box with a small golden keyhole with the initials SS GG etched deeply into the metal on either side. Salazar handed him a matching golden key with a long cobalt velvet ribbon attached to it. The key was heavily tooled with oroubous', the entire length including the teeth were covered in the serpents. With a slick click, the box opened.

Taking the key out, Godric handed the box to Harry as he sat up to accept it. Taking the slender but heavy box in his hands, Harry pushed the lid open to reveal several pieces of jewelry resting on black velvet. Inside were two torcs and two pairs of matching armguards. The torcs were beautiful pieces of jewelry, each resembling an oroubous. One of the oroubous' scales were done in emerald colored jade and the other in midnight blue lapis lazuli with gold and platinum accents to indicate ridges and designs on each scale. The eyes of both of the dragons were sea blue colored diamonds and seemed to burn with an inner fire. The armguards were similar to something an archer would wear. Made out of braided gold colored silk and platinum, they too had oroubous' beautifully wrought into the metal with jade and lapis used to represent the dragon scales and blue diamond eyes.

It was one very expensive gift and Harry didn't quite know what to make of it. Neither did Draco. Looking up at the expectant faces of the two men, Harry managed to stammer, "Thank you. They're beautiful."

Draco added his own thanks as well. Salazar smiled and nodded before indicating that they should take the pieces out of their box. "You can put them on now. We made them specifically for both of you so no one will be able to remove them except yourself and only under certain conditions so you cannot be forced to remove them. There are also locator spells woven into the magic that Godric and I can access and eventually we hope to teach you also to do so. If either of you are in danger you will fell a sense of uneasiness, even if you are unaware otherwise of the danger and should actual physical danger be imminent you will feel the torc become cold to the touch."

Picking up the jade colored torc from Harry's hands, Salazar pressed slightly behind the eyes of the dragon causing a hissing noise and the dragon to release its tail and become flexible. Salazar then placed the jewel-encrusted circlet around Harry's throat and hissed "close" in parseltongue. The dragon slithered around Harry's throat twice before swallowing its tail to complete the circle, scales tightly but comfortably close around his neck. The eyes glowed briefly before once again becoming radiant blue diamonds. Godric then did the same with the other circlet for Draco, and surprisingly speaking in parseltongue to command the necklace to close.

Draco fingered the scales that felt cool to his touch, unconsciously stroking the necklace like a pet. "It is a magnificent gift. I cannot express how much gratitude I feel for you to give me another way to protect my mate."

Godric smiled brightly at the slytherin. "I would expect nothing else but there is no reason for thanks. You and your mate have a long life ahead of you but you still have much to learn. Sal and I wish to pass on some of our knowledge that has been long forgotten by the majority, if not all, of wizarding kind. The state of academia these past few centuries has steadily declined and we cannot simply appear and expect them to believe we are who we are."

"So you will teach us to do stuff?" Harry asked, semi-confused.

"Oh much more than just simple stuff. Both of you have trace amounts of our bloodlines within you and I feel that it is our prerogative to make sure that you are fully able to defend yourself and to fully use your abilities which the school has not been developing as well as I would like. Teaching everything else will just be for amusement and practical reasons," Sal said with another smile except instead of the bright happiness of earlier this one was more serious.

Sal then pulled both sets of armguards out and handed them to the boys who slipped their arms into the smooth silk which form-fitted immediately to their wrists. "Put these on. I will feel much better once I have a way of tracking you if you disappear by accident or design."

"I don't feel any different," Draco said after a few moments. He glanced at his mate who also shrugged his shoulders and felt around their mental bond to see if anything was different with the accessories on. Harry added his own assessment via their link and could not find anything different.

"You should not feel different. The purpose of these is only to modify the outward expression of your bond. Also, you are very close to each other right now. One of the main design factors was to allow you to be separated for up to ten hours before needing to ground yourself again in your mate," Godric told them. "You should be able to keep a tighter control on how intense your magical output is as well. If you concentrate hard enough you might even be able to completely mask your magical signature to prevent detection by spells. We felt that in the interest of time you could experiment with the protective measures in your free time."

"When will we be having tutoring sessions with you?" Harry asked, his hands tangling in the coverlet as Draco leaned heavily into him and draped himself over Harry's shoulders.

"We need to know how soon your regular schedule will be resumed and we will work from there. In the meantime, we will use some of your spare time while we wait to work with you." Salazar, noticing Draco's glum look, smiled again. "We will be going easy on you for the next two weeks so that you may continue to cement your bond. If circumstances were better we would give you the traditional month but so much time has already gone wasted."

"Thank you," Draco said as he wrapped his legs around Harry's waist and burrowed even closer. He really wanted to snuggle with his mate, and maybe some further action but he was unwilling to actually do anything inappropriate in front of the other wizards.

Tilting his head to the side in concentration, Godric suddenly snapped to attention. "You have visitors again. Your father, and the two servants as well as a girl I have noticed snooping around the dungeons the past week."

"We must go then. We do not want the entire school to know we are still here," Sal said as he laid his hand on his mate's arm. "We will see you sometime tomorrow when you are alone and rested."

"See you then," Harry and Draco chorused in tandem.

With a nod of his head, Sal and Godric both touched one of the panels on the wall and exited through a doorway that seemed to dissolve out of the wall just long enough for them to leave.

oOo

"Enevreate," Lucius said in a calm manner as he pointed his wand directly at Ms. Granger's throat. Hermione made a funny noise in the back of her throat before groggily opening her eyes and scrambling backwards off the bed and tumbling onto the floor at the sight of Lucius standing at her bedside.

"What are you doing here?" She screeched. Unfortunately for the girl they had thought ahead and cast a silencing charm around the perimeter of the ward and a sleeping charm on the other patients.

Blaise abruptly cut of anything else she might say with a muttered silencio. Lucius gave Blaise an approving nod before turning his attention back to the outraged gryffindor who was staring in fright and anger at Ron's pale form which was still, amusingly at least to Blaise, attached to the far wall.

"Now Miss Granger is it? I have a few things I would like to discuss with you," Lucius said in his best infuriating aristocratic drawl, "and I would like your cooperation at least until I am done explaining what I will require of you."

Hermione only stared in shock like a deer caught in the headlights of a Mack truck. Sighing, Severus took over from Lucius.

"Ms. Granger, there are certain times when it really is irritating that you and Mr. Weasley fail to follow simple guidelines and rules that are put in place to ensure the best outcome for everyone involved—and in this case especially Mr. Potter. Because of your audacity, there are several security concerns we must address with you since Weasley has proved he is unable to deal with current events surrounding Mr. Potter. I would like you to swear a wizard's oath that you will not disclose what we are about to speak with you about to anyone unless you have my or Mr. Malfoy's permission."

Slowly, Hermione nodded.

TBC...

(and it really isn't evil to stop here since I'm sure everyone is happier that they actually got to read this sometime this year...)

oOo

Response to reviews: (general this time because I really have stayed up way too late trying to get this out)

Gah! Sorry this is so long delayed—and I did leave it in a horrible spot didn't I? Hopefully you all haven't abandoned me as dead by now... I promise to never leave a story unupdated for so long ever again. I didn't exactly have a lot of choice in the matter. I do have the next chapter mostly written but first I have to type it then edit and finish so it could be a few weeks (two I hope but I'm back in school again so anything's possible). In the meantime, you can check out the beginning of the backstory for Sal and Godric I posted earlier called "Roads of Destiny"(I'm assuming no one has read it since it only got one review...). I only have the prologue posted but I actually have more on disc somewhere in my luggage (but that means I'll have to unpack to find it...).

Thanks to everyone who reviewed. The response to this fic has been more than I ever imagined it would be. The plot should be picking up pace a bit in the next two or three chapters but let me know what you think about Harry and Draco.