Chapter two: Puzzle in a bank vault

By Sa1boy

Descending the stairs Harry gave one last discreet touch to his lover's shoulder and whispered the words, "It will be okay. Just remember I love you."

Hearing these words of comfort and love from the boy he cherished proved the catalyst Draco's soul required. Turning, he buried his head in Harry's robes, finally losing the Malfoy self-control he was trying so hard to maintain, and cried. The stairway, as if empathic to his pain, reversed itself. Before Harry could say 'lemon drop', he stood again in Professor Dumbledore's office holding his distraught boyfriend. Harry stood rubbing circles on Draco's back in an attempt at shushing his lover's pain and tears to the surface.

Taking the opportunity that the solitude of the headmaster's office provided, Harry ushered Draco over to a comfortable settee. Sitting them both down, he cradled Draco in his arms, rocking him back and forth until Draco's tears had depleted his energies and his low sobs had subsided. The emotional release exhausted Draco's body and forced him to seek out the refuge of sleep.

Harry thought Draco was a beautiful sleeper. As Harry ran his fingers lightly through the silky hair, he wished that having Draco's head on his lap was a result of a good shagging session and not the result of heartbreak. Shaking his mind clear of inappropriate thoughts, Harry let it wander back over the contents of the letter. Not being able to pick up on anything that seemed outwardly apparent, he returned to gently stroking his lover's hair only stopping when the Headmaster returned to the room accompanied by Professor Snape. Seeing the two men enter, Harry moved to wake his sleeping angel.

"That won't be necessary, Mr. Potter. Leave him sleep for now." Dumbledore spoke softly, giving Draco's snoozing form a sympathetic smile.

"The letter, Potter, where is it?" Professor Snape, speaking in a slow, deliberate tone, asked.

Harry gently retrieved the letter from Draco's robes and handed it to the potions master. Dumbledore joined Snape and took out his wand, tapping the parchment.

"Reveal your secrets," Professor Snape requested.

Dumbledore gave a wry look of confusion. "Harry, are you sure this is the letter Mr. Malfoy received?"

Harry repositioned Draco so that the boy was now propped against a plump cushion and stood up. Holding out his hand he retrieved the piece of parchment from the professors and looked at it, unsure what the professors were having a problem with.
He couldn't believe his eyes when the letter he had read over Draco's shoulder not half an hour previous was now just a blank piece of parchment.

"Hang on, I'll just check and see if Draco has another letter in his robes; this may be the wrong one." Both teachers nodded in agreement, standing back so as to give Harry more space. Kneeling down next to his lover, Harry brushed a few stray strands of hair from his angelic face and rummaged gently in his robes for the sign of a second letter.

There was none. With the original parchment in Harry's hand, and ignoring the impatient grunts from the dark-eyed wizard behind him, Harry brushed Draco's hair one more time. The letter briefly came into contact with Draco's cheek. But as soon as it did the writing reappeared. Harry watched as the page became blank yet again when not in contact with Draco.

Dumbledore also saw this and coughed a little at the sight, garnering the attention of Professor Snape. "It would appear Severus that this letter doesn't want to be read at this time. Can I leave this in your capable hands, please? I have ministry duties I must attend to immediately."

With that Dumbledore walked toward the door of his office, causing Harry to worry slightly. "Professor, when you gave Draco the letter, you said that it would explain all, and if he required further answers, he was to seek your help. If the letter is spelled to only reveal itself to Draco, how did you happen to know its contents, sir?

"Oh there is no mystery there, my boy. The covering letter sent to me with Mr. Malfoy's missive gave those instructions quite clearly." Dumbledore returned on his path out of the room, offering no further explanations as to the nature of the contents of the cover letter, or what Lucius had tried to convey within its lines.

"Potter, kindly wake Mr. Malfoy and report to my potions lab immediately with the now-you-see-it, now-you-don't missive." Nodding his head to the raven-haired pupil he turned, throwing up a sea of billowing black robes, and left the room.

Harry pondered Dumbledore's explanation regarding the cover letter with trepidation. But, just as quickly as he had allowed his mind to start plotting conspiracy theories, Draco stirred from his slumber. Seeing the soft grey pain-filled eyes, Harry asked, "Hi, Angel, feeling better?"

He bent over intending to plant a sweet and loving chaste kiss on his lover's soft red lips. Feeling the need from Draco for more, the kiss quickly became a symphony of sensual support. Draco returned the passion tenfold as their lips and tongues danced and battled together. Harry was Draco's rock. Draco didn't want to contemplate a life without the one thing in it that made real sense, his Harry. Draco had confessed his loved to Harry in what many would think of as the most romantic way possible… a letter filled of truths and love.

There was a time, before The Letter…when Draco didn't have this steady force in his life; before Harry realised that he needed Draco, just as much as Draco needed him. This was when there existed a triumvirate of unrequited and unknown love, between Harry, Draco, and of all people, Ron Weasley. Draco had unwittingly become the object of desire for Harry's best friend, Ron. Ron would look at Draco with so much loving adoration that it made Draco uncomfortable. At that time Harry fancied himself in love with Ron. Draco, however, was and always had been in love with Harry. Taking matters into his own hand Draco put his inner most feelings and desires in a letter hoping to break the triangle and get his Harry once and for all. Draco carried that letter around for a week before his inner courage outweighed his Slytherin self-preservation. Harry, realising the letter Draco sent him expressed the blonde's sincerest feelings and desires, opened his eyes and then his heart. Draco smiled as he remembered his father's words of approval of this relationship.

'Shit,' he thought, 'Father!' Blind panic set in as he remembered the other words in the letter from his father. Sitting bolt straight he looked at his lover with fear in his eyes. "How long have I been asleep? Harry, how could you let me sleep at a time like this? I have to save my father; I have to save Lucius!"

Harry pulled Draco into a warm embrace and kissed his forehead. "I allowed you to sleep because I love you and I just witnessed you in floods of tears; watching as the grief you're feeling shocked your system into shutting down. The least I could do was just hold you and wait for you to recover. We need answers before we can go looking for Lucius. More importantly we need to know why your father charmed the letter so it will only appear for you. Dumbledore was freaked when he realised that, and took off saying he had to go to the Ministry or something."

Draco opened the parchment and the same wording was on there. He couldn't help the soft smile he got when he notice the words 'pride', 'love', 'precious', and 'son'. Those words were one's he had longed his entire life to hear from his father, but he would gladly give them up, to know for a fact that the elder Malfoy was safe and alive. Tears started to well in his eyes again as he passed the letter to Harry. Harry took great care to keep it opened out to show that as soon as Harry's hand touched the missive and Draco's left it, the writing disappeared.

"Harry, I didn't realise before. But, how could Dumbledore…? He said…" A confused-looking Draco was starting to wonder as to the true nature of this correspondence. He didn't buy the cover letter story that Dumbledore had offered. Standing up from the sofa and resting an arm on Harry's shoulder, Draco touched the parchment again and all the words came back to life. He looked down at it again with tears again threatening to fall.

Harry loosened his grip and tucking the now folded letter up into his robes and pulled Draco to the door with him, "Come on, Angel. We have to go and see your godfather. Something tells me that he may have some of the answers that we need."

Draco nodded and said "Agreed!" as they left Dumbledore's office and headed to the corridors below.

Once at the foot of the stairs, the gargoyle did its customary impersonation of a marble crab and jumped sideways, allowing our two to leave the stairwell, but not before they stole another deep kiss.

Once outside and back in the hallway, Draco, checking left then right, and seeing the coast was clear, beckoned Harry to go first. The rest of the school – apart from Blaise, Pansy, Ron and Hermione – were oblivious to the relationship that Draco and Harry enjoyed. Although they now had the documented blessing of Lucius Malfoy, they still thought it better to keep up their pretence a little while longer.

Harry arrived at the potion master's dungeon a full three minutes ahead of Draco. When his blonde lover eventually did come into view, Harry knocked soundly on the door and awaited the customary caustic greeting from his long-time nemesis.

"Have you knocked?" Draco asked as he stood just behind Harry, receiving a nod as answer; Draco waited patiently as well. The sound of a key in a lock came from the door as it opened to reveal Professor Snape looking down his elongated snout at Harry.

"Ah…Potter, Malfoy. You better come in. And wipe your feet first." Harry and Draco did as requested and scuffed the soles of their shoes on the magical cleansing rug at the threshold to Severus Snape's private rooms.

Once inside the rooms, Snape's tough cold exterior disappeared as he embraced his godson in a loving, fatherly-type hug.

"Are you okay, Draco? I've heard about this elusive letter. Would you care to show its contents to me, please?" Draco gave a brave smile to his godfather, holding out a hand to a bemused Harry, who recognised the unspoken request and held out the letter for Draco.

"Professor, have you heard anything?" Harry asked. Snape shook his head but did not speak. Harry went to put his arm around Draco, but remembering where he was, pulled it back, although not quick enough that the professor didn't see.

"Do you love him, Potter?" Snape enquired. Draco looked startled at the question, but, felt a little assured that it wasn't a leading question when Severus gave him a gentle squeeze on the shoulder. Harry was speechless; he swallowed deeply, searching for the correct words to say.

"I love him more than life itself," Harry managed to blurt out. Freeing Draco, Severus pushed him gently into Harry, as he spoke firmly.

"Good, Draco deserves love. I have known of your union for quite some time. Like your father before me, I give you both my blessing. But…MARK MY WORDS, POTTER..." Severus spoke in a drawn out chilling voice. "If you so much as let a hair on this boy's head be harmed, Voldemort will be the least of your worries. Do you understand?"

Harry let out the breath he didn't know he was holding, and nodded quickly to his lover's godfather.

"Draco, if I may, could you let me have a strand of your hair, please?" Draco pulled a single strand of hair and passed it to Severus, who in turn tapped it three times, making it go rigid. Taking the letter from Harry, he placed it flat on his desk, and using the nail-like hair drove it into the parchment, securing it to the desk.

Immediately the magical signature present in Draco's hair strand activated the missive allowing the writing to appear.

"Neat." Harry said.

"So pleased that I have impressed you, Harry," came Severus's reply. "Well, what did you expect? That I call you 'Potter' for the rest of your life? You're part of my family now." Harry wondered if this day could get any weirder, then joined Draco in studying the letter he had received earlier.

They read the letter over and over again for a hidden meaning, or a hidden clue, but it just didn't seem to have any. Severus knew from the last Death Eater meeting he was at that Lucius was missing; he didn't know why until seeing this letter. One thing that Draco didn't know about his father's acceptance of his same sex relationship with Harry was because for the past twenty years, Severus and Lucius had had the same loving relationship as he. Unfortunately, their relationship could never be allowed to be public knowledge; there was too much at stake.

The calm of the room was broken, surprisingly by Harry, who had noticed that there were three discrepancies from what he knew about the Malfoy family. "Draco, didn't you tell me that the only time your mom and dad got on was when she was in France, and he was in Malfoy Manor?"

Draco's answer was a little abrupt at first, but, then he saw the significance in the words. "Go on, Potter, what are you thinking?" asked Draco, who immediately followed that with "Sorry, love, I'm just so worried." Rubbing soft circles in the small of his back, Harry understood perfectly the anxiety his lover must be feeling.

"It's okay, Angel, I understand. It's just that if your parents didn't like each other, then by calling her his 'Sweet Narcissa', I think he's trying to say something else.

"Also you told me that when you rode your first broom, your father was in a different country, and how you wished he'd been there to see you…"

Severus pinched the bridge of his nose, attempting to stave off the headache that was rising; he hadn't counted on this letter being some kind of elaborate clue as to the possible safety or whereabouts of Lucius.

Severus joined Draco in silence as they listened intently to the third and possibly the biggest and most glaringly obvious clue of all, which Harry had noticed.

"The most noticeable discrepancy I see in this letter is this part here." Pointing to a specific section of the letter, he allowed them both to catch up before continuing,

I have transferred all stocks and bonds under the name Malfoy over to a joint account for you and your lover. When you marry the name Malfoy-Potter will be the most revered name the magical world has ever known.

When it was obvious that the two pureblood wizards were no match for Kojak (A muggle TV detective, who would solve mysteries) loving Harry, he continued. "Draco, if? Sorry when, I marry you… Do we have to adopt the name 'Malfoy-Potter'? Couldn't we just drop the name 'Potter' altogether and I be called 'Harry Malfoy'?"

Draco wasn't quite sure what the implications meant but answered all the same, "When you walk me down the aisle, it will be your choice as the active partner, as to what name I take. If you decide you want to do away with the names, Potter and Malfoy, and take one of the other surnames available to our houses, you are freely at liberty to do this. I wouldn't refuse; it would be my honour at that time to be called by whatever name you chose."

Severus stepped in, complete with rarely-seen smirk, realizing these revelations by the boy he had secretly quite liked all these years may, just may, find out where his lover was. "Harry, you are indeed observant."

Harry was beaming from ear-to-ear; that was as near to a compliment as you got from Severus Snape. Harry continued, "So a wizard would not pre-empt a union with a huge transference of funds, not before knowing the names first?"

"Certainly not," Draco said "My father would be far too careful than to leave all our money….." The penny dropped.

"Precisely. If Lucius is trying to be found, he would leave a message. Where would he leave it?"

"Somewhere it would be safe, but somewhere it could be found," ventured Severus.

"Agreed!" Draco added, tears freely running down his face again. Harry moved over to him and was held him back against his chest in a lover's embrace. Raining little butterfly kisses on his neck, and feeling grateful to Severus for the ability to do this, Harry closed out his thoughts.

"So…where is the safest place in the known world?" Harry asked to a chorused answer of "Gringotts!"

"Come on, Draco! We need to go to Gringotts."

Severus stood upright and moved to the door, suddenly stopping and blocking their path. "Hold it right there. What are you going to do when you get there? And may I remind you that you are both in term time. You will need a teacher's permission to leave the grounds and an adult's company to enter Gringotts."

Harry looked at Draco and they turned back to Severus and spoke as one, "Better get you coat then, looks like you're coming with us."

Half an hour later, Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, and their potions master and Draco's godfather, Severus Snape, walked to the outer boundaries of Hogwarts. Once there, Severus instructed the two younger wizards to hold onto his cloak as he apparated them directly to the Leaky Cauldron.

He had left behind a permission slip for both boys to be away from school for the next two days, and a cancellation notice of his future classes for that week.

Once at the Leaky Cauldron, Severus arranged for two rooms for the night. The significance of this action did not escape the boys.
This would be the first time they would have been afforded the opportunity to sleep with each other, the first time without having to hide behind an invisibility cloak, or a disillusionment charm.
Tonight Harry could make love to Draco like he'd always wanted to.

But first, they had a date with a puzzle in a bank vault.

Beta work by the lovely DracosMinx and Bonfoisbkar