Tiger & Dragon
By loverstouch
Disclaimer: All the characters belong to J.K Rowling. The story is based on Rowling's work, but the plot of 'Tiger & Dragon' comes from my own sick brain.
Summary: In the summer after his fifth year Harry is taken from the Dursleys to live with the Malfoys. The next day the Daily Prophet's headline read 'Boy Who Lived Died In Death Eater Attack' …
Rating: R
This is my first "Slash" fanfiction and the first fic I have published at all, so please go easy on me.
The story begins in the summer after Harry's fifth year, which means yes; it is post OoTP, but has nothing to do with HBP.
I'd like to thank Draeconin for being the beta for my story. I'm really grateful for your help.
Hope you enjoy it!
Chapter 20 – A Werewolf's instincts
It was indeed the best detention Tiger had ever had. The rest of the week he corrected the summer homework from the lower classes and the rewritten ones which the second years had handed in, in their second lesson of the year – all the while discussing potions with Snape or bickering with the man. He always stayed longer than one hour. Often, he didn't even come back to the common room until everybody else was already in bed. Draco would stay up and wait for him, but the last night he had fallen asleep in his chair in the common room, and Tiger had to carry him to bed.
When Tiger entered the common room Friday night after he had been away an especially long time, he noticed Draco closing his eyes just as he entered. He smiled to himself, and went over to Draco. Closing the book that lay on the blonde's chest and putting it aside, he bent down and picked the seemingly sleeping boy up and carried him to their dormitory.
After he had deposited Draco on his bed and had pulled of his clothes so that he was only in his boxers – without magic of course, and very slowly – he pulled of his own clothes, and lay down beside the blond.
"You know," He leaned closer and whispered in his ear, "You look like a fallen angel right now. Your hair is like silk, but all unruly." He ran his fingers through the blond strands, stroking Draco's head for a while. "Your face is so soft, but pale, like death – sweet death." He let his fingertips wander over Draco's face. "And your lips..." he continued, resting his thumb over the blonde's lips. "Your lips, so tender and… kissable." He mouthed against said lips, before placing his own on them in a tender kiss.
The moment Draco responded to the kiss, Tiger pulled away and smiled down at the other boy.
"Sleep well, my Dragon." Tiger gave him one last, chaste kiss, then he turned his back to Draco and closed his eyes. He smiled when he heard the blond growl and shift for a while. After a moment he turned over, only to be faced with Draco's back. He placed his hands on the other boy's hips, and pulled him around. Smiling at the pouting blond, he pulled him closer until Draco lay in his arms, head resting on his chest.
"You're cruel," Draco mumbled half asleep.
"But you love me nonetheless," Tiger replied, stroking his back until both of them fell asleep.
-------
Saturday morning, Tiger and Draco slept in. They slept through breakfast, and didn't even wake up when a big clamour broke out in the common room. They only woke up when the curtains of the bed were opened, and a voice spoke to them.
"You know, you two can be really grateful that it wasn't Theodore, or even Pansy who was sent to get you."
The two boys sat up, startled, and looked up at Blaise.
"What are you talking about?" Draco asked, annoyed that they were woken up.
"Your father is here."
"Father? Why is he here? Did something happen - with my mother?" Draco was out of bed and magically clothed within seconds, and was about to run out of the room when Tiger grabbed his wrist.
"Draco, calm down. Your father is here: that means he is okay. And your mum is here as well. I talked to her yesterday."
"You… Is she with Severus?" Draco asked, after he had deciphered what Tiger meant.
"Draco." Tiger looked at him, shocked, then indicated that they weren't alone.
"Don't worry. Blaise knows."
"Oh. And here I thought-"
"No, I'm not a dense Gryffindor who blabs out secrets in front of an unwanted audience."
"Hey! What do you mean by that?"
"Just what I said, my little Gryffindor; just what I said." Draco patted Tiger's cheek mockingly before he left the room.
"Bastard," Tiger growled, and followed Draco to the door, magically clothing himself, too.
-------
When Severus Snape opened the door to his private chambers, Tiger and Draco found Lucius and Narcissa sitting on the couch.
"Enter," Snape said.
"Morning, Severus."
"Morning, Sir."
"Boys."
The two boys entered the chamber, and Draco went over to greet his parents. Tiger strolled in behind him, smiled at Narcissa, and shook Lucius' hand.
"Hello, boys," Lucius said, gesturing for the boys to sit down.
"Father, why are you here? What happened?" Draco asked, a bit concerned.
"I had an interesting conversation with one of my contacts. He had overheard Avery and Nott talking about an incident that had occurred Monday night in the Slytherin common room. Can either of you can tell me anything about that?"
Tiger and Draco looked at each other, then Draco turned to his father.
"We had a little discussion because of a potions incident. Why does Mr. Nott know about that? And what exactly did he speak about?"
"Obviously his son – Theodore, was it?"
Draco nodded in affirmation.
"Theodore told him that you had an argument." Lucius turned to Tiger.
"We just had a little chat about nothing in particular." Tiger smiled at Lucius.
"What exactly did you talk about?" Snape asked.
"I think it's best you tell us everything that happened that evening."
Flashback
When Tiger entered the common room after his first detention, he was surprised to find all the sixth year Slytherins still up. It looked like they had been having some kind of discussion. Draco sat in 'his' armchair surrounded by Blaise, Millicent, Crabbe, and Goyle, and facing Pansy and Theodore Nott. Pansy looked like she was about to cry, and from what Tiger could see of Draco's face, the blond was fuming. It would seem to anyone else that he was a bit angry, but Tiger saw the gleam in his silver blue eyes, on which he had been on the receiving end many, many times in the past.
"Tell me again, Pansy," Draco began in a seemingly calm voice, but everyone knew what it meant when a Malfoy spoke in such a tone. "Whatever made you poison me?"
"I- I n- never meant t- to harm you, D- Draco," Pansy stuttered in a fearful tone. "It was meant to hit only the G- Gryffindor queer. How could I know your little boy-" Pansy stopped dead, noticing Tiger standing at the door for the first time. Tiger suppressed a growl at this comment. He made his way over to Draco.
"My what?" Draco sneered.
"Maybe she wanted to say your little boyfriend? Boytoy?" Tiger stopped beside Draco's chair, resting a hand on his shoulder. Draco hadn't turned around, his gaze still resting on Pansy. But when Tiger squeezed his shoulder reassuringly, he felt the blond relax slightly.
"I- I- I never- Draco, please, you know I wouldn't say anything like that. I know you wouldn't do such a disgusting thing."
"What disgusting thing are you talking about?" Tiger asked, sweetly innocent. Inwardly he was fuming at Pansy's brazenness.
"You know what I mean," Pansy responded to Draco, ignoring Tiger. "…" She wanted to say more, but the look Draco gave her stopped her from doing so.
"I don't know if you already discussed this topic," Tiger filled the silence which had fallen upon them after Pansy stopped talking. "Why, exactly, did you sabotage Seamus potion?"
"Seamus?" Nott spat. The boy had been silently watching the discussion until now, but at Tiger's familiarity with Seamus' first name, he couldn't withhold his comments any longer. "Are you sure you're a Slytherin, and not a filthy Gryffindork?"
"How dare you?" Draco jumped up from his seat, wand in hand, pointing it at Nott, who had his wand raised as well. Tiger took a slow step forward and stopped midway between Draco and Theodore, facing the latter.
"I've never been a Gryffindor, or a Hufflepuff, or a Ravenclaw, at that, but if risking a fellow student's health and insulting a housemate is what it means to be a Slytherin, than I really don't know whether I'm in the right house."
The common room felt deathly silent after that comment.
"Draco told me a bit about the four houses before I came to Hogwarts, and the first thing I realized was that I would fit in all four of them perfectly. I think myself brave and loyal, studious and cunning. After the Sorting Hat put me into Slytherin, I thought I would have to neglect some of my characteristics; but then I heard the speech Professor Snape gave the new students. The first thing I noticed was that every single Slytherin was present at his speech, although most of them had probably heard it for years, already.
And then I heard what Snape said. Obviously Slytherin is a big, loving family with some discrepancies within these walls, but outside you stick together like nothing else. But then I experienced for myself how you stab each other in the back. And I thought cowardice was just a rumour for one of a Slytherin's characteristics." Now he looked at Pansy in a disappointed manner.
Pansy looked somewhat ashamedly down at her feet.
Tiger turned back to Draco, and noticed that the blond had put away his wand. When he turned to Nott he saw that the boy had lowered his wand, too, but made no move to put it away. Tiger stared at him, and spat. "No wonder everybody thinks Slytherins are cruel and insidious, when they don't even recoil from harming their own housemates." He turned around and walked back to Draco, who didn't meet his eyes.
What took place next happened so fast, that no one could really recall afterwards what exactly had happened.
"Tiger!" Blaise screamed.
Tiger just had to look where Blaise was looking, to know what was happening. He pushed Draco into his chair, and let himself fall to the floor. A red light missed him by mere inches, and hit the wall at the other end of the common room, where it left a nasty looking brand. Within milliseconds, Tiger was back up on his feet, wand raised, and sending a spell towards Nott, who fell to the floor after the curse hit him.
For a few moments, Tiger was the only one who moved. He walked over to Theodore, his eyes never leaving the other boy's which looked, horror stricken, up at him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Pansy standing there stunned, watching Tiger approach Nott. Everybody else was speechless as well. Draco sat in his chair, mouth open, staring at Tiger's retreating back.
When Tiger stopped over Theodore he looked down a moment longer before extending his hand, in a gesture to help the other boy up.
Nott looked a bit sceptically at Tiger before he grabbed the offered hand, and pulled himself up. Instead of letting go of Nott's hand after the Slytherin was standing again, Tiger pulled him closer and hissed in his ear.
"Don't underestimate me ever again, or you'll wish you'd never got to know me. I won't refrain from using my wand against whoever tries to hex me or my friends." He smiled sweetly, but his eyes burned with repressed anger. He handed Nott his wand, then turned and went to the dormitory.
Flashback end
"I don't know if anything happened afterwards," Tiger concluded, and turned questioningly towards Draco.
"Nothing happened after that. Nott and Pansy retired to a corner of the common room, and ignored us."
"Be careful around him," Lucius warned. "I don't trust the father, and I wouldn't trust the son, either."
"Do you think they would tell Voldemort something? Do you think they suspect something?" Tiger asked concerned.
"I don't know; but to be sure just be careful around Theodore." Lucius replied.
After that was cleared up, the five ate a late lunch in Snape's chambers. Later, the residents of Hogwarts told the visitors about what had been happening at Hogwarts.
Severus told them that he had a new assistant, thanks to a bet between Tiger and Draco.
"What bet?" Lucius asked, curiously.
So Draco and Tiger told him about the bet…
"And you lose fifteen points every lesson for being in incomplete uniform?" Lucius wondered. "Then Slytherin must have negative points, already."
"Yes, and no," Tiger smiled. "I earn at least twenty points every lesson for my good work."
"But no one else gave you detention?" Narcissa asked, with a sideward glance at Severus.
"Nobody but Professor Snape," Tiger answered. "But that's only because Draco is a cheating idiot. He told his godfather about the bet, and just because of that our dear Potions Master rewarded me with one hour of detention for every day I'm without a uniform. And in his two replacement lessons for Re- Eh… For Professor Lupin's Advanced Defence class yesterday and the day before, he gave me two extra hours, although he had already given me my daily hour in Potions."
"I had to punish you because Lupin wasn't there to do it himself," The Potions Master defended himself boringly.
"He wouldn't have given me detention. He hadn't even taken points from me on Monday." Tiger said, standing up and glaring at Snape a bit too harshly. But after a small warning look from Lucius, he looked away and began to pace.
"I told you I wouldn't take points from my own house. Anyway, you already spent more than one hour each day with me before I gave you those extra hours," Snape stated matter-of-factly.
"That isn't the point." Tiger countered childishly, continuing his pacing. "I didn't deserve the extra detention, and you had no right to give me them." He pouted when he saw all three Malfoys and Professor Snape smile knowingly at him.
"You know, Tiger," Lucius said, standing up and putting a hand on Tiger's shoulder, "when you pout like that, you remind me of Draco when he doesn't get what he wants."
"Hey!" Draco jumped up, and looked at his father indignantly.
"Add that to your spectacular Malfoy smirk, and I'd think you two were brothers," Lucius continued, ignoring his son's protest.
"God, no," Tiger exclaimed, disgusted.
"What, am I not good enough to be your brother?" Draco asked, hurt.
"I thank Merlin and all the gods there are that we're not blood related in any way," Tiger answered honestly, and stepped closer to Draco. "Just the thought that I've snogged my brother more than once – and also done more than that," he added in a whisper, as he leaned closer to Draco, "would make me rethink my sexual orientation." Everyone looked at Tiger, shocked, after that, and Draco's face had gone a nice shade of red.
"Now, if you'll excuse me, everybody, I'd like to visit my Defence Professor, for I have some urgent questions concerning the curriculum for this year." Without waiting for a reply, Tiger turned around and left Snape's chambers.
-------
It wasn't really for the curriculum that Tiger wanted to see Professor Lupin, but he thought it a good enough excuse for Narcissa and Snape.
In fact, he wanted to see whether Remus was all right. For the last three days, nobody had seen the Defence Professor because of the full moon, which had been two nights ago; and for the day before and the day after, Remus wasn't able to teach. Sometimes he was even too weak to walk around much, and preferred to spend the whole full moon phase in his bed.
Now it was the second day after the full moon, and Tiger still hadn't seen Remus. It could have been because Tiger hadn't been at breakfast and lunch today, but still the boy didn't know whether or not Remus had been there himself.
So that was why the young Slytherin was now standing in front of Remus' private chambers, and was about to knock when a voice spoke behind him.
"I missed you at breakfast and lunch. Did you sleep in that long?"
Tiger spun around, to be faced with a smiling Defence Professor.
"Remus- Eh… I mean, Professor Lupin." He lowered his head and bit his lower lip hard, for his slip.
"I told you to call me Remus when we're not in class. Unless, of course, you want to talk to your Defence teacher?" he said, while he opened the door to his private rooms, and then invited Tiger in.
"Well, that's the excuse I gave Draco and the others to get away from them." He sat down on the couch facing Remus, who had seated himself in an armchair opposite the boy. At his questioning look, Tiger went on. "We were in Snape's-"
"Professor Snape," Remus corrected with a smile, obviously not really caring what Tiger called the Potions Master.
"Severus," Tiger countered, and they both smiled. "Lucius and Narcissa were there, too."
Remus' smile died at Tiger's last statement, nearly dropping the tea pot which he had conjured, and from which he was serving Tiger with tea.
"He is here?" He asked in a cold voice. Tiger looked at him, confused, before it dawned on him why Remus reacted like he did.
"Oh. I thought you knew about him being a spy for Dumbledore. He told me why he had worked for Voldemort, and how he came to spying for the Light."
"I know he's a spy, and is one of the 'good' guys now; or so he pretends, anyway."
The last was mutter so quietly that Tiger nearly missed it. But because he had been watching Remus intently, he half heard and half read the reply from his lips.
"Do you think he's lying?" He asked, a bit hurt. "Do you think Professor Dumbledore wouldn't know if someone was trying to deceive him? He trusts Lucius."
"He wouldn't allow Lucius to take care of you if he couldn't trust him." Remus said as if he was trying to convince himself.'
Tiger's mouth fell open. He had to think, and think fast, to come up with a good answer.
"Professor Dumbledore knew that Lucius knew my mum and Dad. He was my parents' closest friend before they left for America. After my uncle's death, Professor Dumbledore brought me to the Malfoys, and Lucius didn't hesitate a second before taking me in." There was an uncomfortable silence while Tiger tried hard not to look too ashamed for his lie, and mot to turn away from Remus' probing gaze.
After a while the werewolf smiled, and spoke. "Why are you here, anyway? Don't you have anywhere else to be on a Saturday evening than drinking tea with your teacher? I remember from my time at school, and all the rumours I heard, that the first Saturday of the school year there was always a party in the Slytherin common room."
"It had to be postponed until next Saturday because of a little explosion in the common room this morning."
"What happened?" Remus asked curiously, when he saw the big smile on Tiger's face.
"Obviously the twins tried to 'improve' one of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes' products, and it went a bit wrong. I think they didn't know that Fred and George had placed their products under a spell which stops their customers from finding out the 'secret of their success', and to prevent unauthorized people from experimenting with their products."
"You know a lot about all this. Do you know the Weasley twins that well, that you know that much?" Remus asked. He had this knowing glint in his eyes again, and Tiger had to choose his words carefully.
"I visited their shop, and we talked about their products. I have some knowledge in this kind of business myself, so we discussed some of their ideas. But enough about twins, exploding common rooms, or myself." Tiger's voice became a serious undertone. "How are you feeling? The full moon was two days ago, but I hadn't seen you, so I thought I'd come around and see how you are."
"Thank you for your concern." Remus smiled at him. "I'm feeling fine, today. Yesterday I was very tired, but after a good night's rest, I am as good as ever."
"That's good to hear." Tiger smiled. "I already feared Professor Snape would have to teach us on Monday again."
"So that's why you came around: you just wanted to know whether you were released from your greasy replacement teacher? And here I thought you wanted to visit your poor old Professor."
"Ha! You're neither poor nor old. You're the same age my uncle was, and he would have accompanied me and my friends to parties if I had allowed him to. And poor is a word you can delete from your vocabulary after the amount of money you've inherited."
"How do you know about that?" Remus asked suspiciously. He still wasn't one hundred percent sure whether his suspicions were correct and this boy in front of him was really Harry Potter, but he knew if it was he, then he would have to be really patient, and maybe a bit sneaky to find it out once and for all.
"I was there at Gringotts. I heard you talking about it."
"Right," Remus nodded, accepting Tiger/Harry's answer. 'But I will get you some day,' he thought, while he tried to suppress a yawn. "Sorry," he mumbled sleepily.
"No, I'm sorry," Tiger answered, and stood up. "You still need sleep to recover from your transformation. I'll see you tomorrow." He turned and walked to the door.
"Oh, and Harry?"
"Yes?" Tiger said, turning around, but froze midway when he realized what had just happened. Slowly he looked up at Remus and found him walking over to him, his eyes gleaming with tears of joy. He took the last step up to the boy, and laid his hand on Tiger's cheek.
"I've hoped and prayed my instincts wouldn't play a nasty trick on me. I've smelled Harry in you the first day we met, at Gringotts, but I wouldn't have dared to hope. I told myself it came from Ron and Hermione, and from the letter you wrote to us. Then at the funeral I just wanted it to be you because I couldn't cope losing the last of my pack. Moony wouldn't believe that his cup was lost forever."
"It was around the full moon," Tiger said in a low voice. He grabbed the hand on his cheek and cradled it in his hands, then he looked back up at Remus. "The day of the funeral; it was only two days before the full moon."
Remus nodded. "My instincts were at their highest, and when I smelled you… I tried to tell myself that of course I would smell Harry Potter, because it was his funeral, but Moony noticed that something wasn't right. Somehow, he knew that you were still alive."
"It must have pained you when I told you I wasn't Harry."
"I felt my heart break again, and Moony howled inside of me."
"I'm sorry," Tiger whispered, and a single tear wandered down his cheek. Remus lifted his free hand and caught the tear before it reached the boy's lips.
"You helped me, that day. When we talked about Sirius, and about our past, it reminded me of all the good memories. And then you made Ron and Hermione give me Sirius' diary."
"The book." Tiger hadn't forgotten about it, but had thought it would take a long while before he had a chance to read it. But maybe now that he had revealed himself to Remus, he could read it sooner.
"I haven't read it yet." Remus said when he saw Tiger's eyes shine at the mentioning of the book. He walked over to his desk and grabbed a book from one of the drawers. He cuddled it to his chest and walked over to Tiger. "When Ron and Hermione gave it to me, my first intention was to read it right that instant. But I told myself to wait, and read it at home. The moment I was back at Grimmauld Place I sat down and started reading. But I never read more than the first page, because there was this nagging feeling in the back of my mind. It wasn't meant for me to read; not at first, at least. That's what Sirius had written on the first page. You, Harry, could share these memories with others, but the first read through should be yours alone. So I stopped myself from reading further, because I thought that if I read it before you had the chance to, I'd have accepted the fact that you were dead after all."
"You mean you've had the book all these weeks and haven't read it?" Tiger looked at him disbelievingly.
"Oh, I read it; nearly every day for the first two weeks."
"But-"
"I just read the first page - over and over again - until I knew the contents inside and out." Remus laid the book in Tiger's hands. "Here. It's yours."
Tiger took the book and stroked fondly over the cover, but then he gave it back to Remus.
"I can't take it."
"Why not?"
"No one may know who I am. If someone finds the book in my possession, I'm as good as dead. After all, I'm in Slytherin now."
"A fact which made me wonder if I was wrong after all. How did that happen? How did that all happen?" So Tiger told Remus everything. From the moment when Lucius and Draco came to Privet Drive and rescued him, about Harry Potter's death and Tiger Ryan's birth, up until the Sorting, and what the Sorting Hat had told him this time, and at his first Sorting. The two had found their way back to the couch, and were now sitting beside each other, looking down at the book in Tiger's lap.
"His whole family was Slytherin, you know? He was the white sheep in the Black family." Remus smiled faintly at his late friend's joke.
"That's exactly what Narcissa said." Tiger smiled back, but his smile faded when he saw Remus' face harden at the mention of Narcissa's name. "Is there something wrong, Remus?"
"No, nothing's wrong." He feigned a smile, but it never reached his eyes.
"What is your problem with Narcissa?"
"I have no problem with her," Remus replied harshly.
"Oh, of course not." Tiger's voice was filled with sarcasm. "Nor with Lucius, either." He watched as Remus winced as the elder Malfoy was mentioned. "What happened between you? Is it because he was a Death Eater? Did something happen while you were still at school? Or is it because of Sirius? Because of Narcissa's relationship to him? If that's it, you should know that they were friends once. It had to end when Sirius came to Hogwarts."
"Because he was a Gryffindor," Remus spat, but Tiger's answer surprised him.
"No, because Narcissa was a Slytherin. She never wanted to be a Slytherin, and she never wanted to break the contact with Sirius, but she had to."
"Of course," Remus said sarcastically, "and she never wanted to marry Lucius, and she never-"
Is that it?" Tiger interrupted, confused. "Is that the reason why you don't like them? Because they're married? Did you love her?"
"No!" Remus' exclamation startled Tiger. The man had jumped up from the couch and glared down at Tiger a moment longer. Then he turned his head away, and spoke in a broken voice. "It's better you go now."
"What?" Tiger asked, hurt.
"It's late. I'm tired. Please go."
"But I want to read the book."
"You can come back tomorrow. Just go, now." Remus walked over to the window and looked at the night sky. Tiger watched him a moment longer, then walked out of the room without another word.
It would take nearly three weeks before Tiger could go back to Remus' chambers and have the opportunity to read Sirius' diary.
x x x x x x x x x x x x x
A/N – That's it for now. What do you think?