Durmstrang
Year 3
Round 5
Theme: Spare Theme: Harry walked right by the diadem without noticing it a few times while going through the Room of Requirement. Write about something hidden in plain sight.
Buzzwords:
Friends to lovers
Blending In
Misleading appearances
Main prompt: 11. [Plot point] Accidental marriage
Optional prompt : 8. [Object] Magic feather
Word count: 2918
Author's Note: Post-War Fic, goes Alternate Universe.
Warning: It includes a cross-gen pairing with quite the age difference. If this isn't your thing, feel free to not read. They just kiss a bit though. Nothing else.
Special thank you to the mod or mods. who came up with the prompts: 8. [Object] Magic feather
10. [Pairing] A pair with less than 30 fics written on
11. [Plot point] Accidental marriage and The bees gathered over the flowers. I couldn't have done this story without your inspiration.
And Special thank you to my friends:
To Amira, you're a legend for choosing prompts for me, inspiring me, letting me use your phone…
Mathilde for letting me ramble and allowing my ideas to develop while you listened to me.
Irem, without your help I'd be nowhere.
To Corrie, Becca, Mia and Oni who have betaed this.
I love you all so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
The bees gathered over the flowers. It was truly beautiful, Draco noted. He'd never taken the time to enjoy his work trips before. But something about the spring air and the sun shining down upon the flowers made it impossible not to. And besides, the island he was on now, Tristan da Cuhna, was breathtakingly beautiful. It seemed every creature had come out of hiding and enjoyed the warmth after the cold winter. The bees looked happy and peaceful while collecting the sweet pollen.
Draco didn't particularly enjoy the sun. It made him feel… exposed. He also didn't like wearing short sleeves. His eyes turned involuntarily to the place where he knew that the Dark Mark rested, uncovered now that he'd taken off his jacket. It was the sign of his mistakes and a past he couldn't leave behind.
Not that he hadn't tried. He'd watched Harry Potter and his friends marry and have children. He'd married too. And his wife had been Astoria Greengrass, a fellow Pureblood his parents approved of. It'd taken him five years to realise that doing what his parents thought he should wasn't right. He had to find his way. He didn't love Astoria, and she didn't love him, so they'd parted ways. Draco couldn't exactly say it was a mistake. Their marriage had given him Scorpius, and his son meant everything to him. The times he shared with him were his happiest.
And yet, now his son was all grown up and in a higher position than Draco himself. Astoria had once accused him of being in a dead-end job with no ambition. Perhaps that was true, but Draco loved his job. It gave him the thrill he needed at times and stability. It sent him to places like this beautiful meadow, where he could admire flowers and bask in sunshine without feeling exposed. He could admire the bees and the trill of the birds.
People came and went from the Bureau of Ancient Magical Artefacts, but Draco stayed. At forty-five, he was the second in command in the office. Ironically, it was young blood who'd surpassed him once he'd passed the promotion again.
Rose Weasley. Daughter of his enemy, his son's best friend along with Albus Potter and his only friend at the Ministry.
"I thought we were supposed to come here at noon. You're rather early, aren't you, Draco?" Rose's voice stirred him from his musings. She looked beautiful in the sun with her lovely blue dress decorated with flowers on the hem.
"Is it not half past eleven now, Miss Weasley? I think it means you also came early. Planning to catch me off guard?"
She chuckled. "Of course not. I couldn't help but be a bit excited at this assignment and came a bit early. I just didn't expect you to come early as well."
He frowned at her. "Why ever not?"
"Because it's sunny outside. It's spring! You never liked the sun before." Her gaze dropped, and it was then when Draco realised she could see his Dark Mark. He made the move to pick up his jacket, but in three steps she was next to him, her hand stopping him.
"No, don't cover up on my account. You know I know that you have it. My father made sure of that when we saw you fourteen or so years ago at King's Cross, for my first year."
"Of course, Weasley would do that," Draco murmured, but her words helped.
"Besides, look at me! I came to explore a cave with a dress on. I think we're both a bit incongruous."
"Indeed. We may have to hurry, lest the bees to confuse you with a flower," he said.
She blushed, and Draco noted for the first time how different she looked from both of her parents.
"I think roses are a bit out of season, don't you think?" she asked, and then turned to face the cave. "We need to get started. The villagers who've tipped us off about the lost Artefact of Union from the witch hunting times said it should be inside the cave. Now, remember do not touch anything. The transcripts we have do not explicitly describe its powers, but they do mention immutable consequences!"
Draco rolled his eyes fondly. At least one could never doubt she was Hermione Granger's daughter. As they walked inside the cave together, Draco took one last look at the meadow, the bees, and the flowers. He found himself murmuring, "I don't think roses are ever out of season."
"Did you say something?" she called out, but he couldn't bring himself to answer. Where had that come from anyway? She was just his friend. Nothing more.
The cave was unlike any cave he'd ever seen. Which, thanks to his job, had been a lot. A lot of artefacts were hidden inside caves in the mountains of Scotland, Italy and Switzerland. Who knew?
But this… this was on a whole new level. It was incredibly cold, and the water on the walls had turned to ice. The stone walls were freezing and…bizarrely it was all covered in feathers. More feathers than he had ever seen in his entire life. By Rose's expression, he could tell that she'd never seen anything like it either.
"What is this?" she exclaimed, looking around. "Where did all these feathers come from? There's no way birds can survive at this temperature!"
"Undiscovered magical birds?" Draco quipped, but he was thinking the same. Half of them looked and felt fake anyway.
"Very funny. Let's get to work. I'm going east; you examine this room. The diagnostic spells are not picking up anything dark or anything magical so it is highly possible the artefact is not here. But we will do our duty and investigate. See you in a bit!"
She scurried off, leaving Draco in a sea of feathers. It was all very peculiar. Draco had to restrain himself from touching any of them with his bare hands. And yet, none of the diagnostic spells came back positive. In fact, he couldn't feel anything magical in this room, except the traces of Rose's magical signature.
After two hours of looking through every inch of the cavern, Draco reunited with Rose.
"Did you find anything?" he asked as a way of greeting.
"Nope. Just more feathers… This is like looking for an unknown colourful needle in a… feathery haystack."
"Indeed. Do you think the villagers pranked us? Decided that they wanted to send Ministry of Magic employees on a wild goose chase?"
She frowned, inching closer to him. "I hope not. It's taken us four international Portkeys to reach Tristan da Cuhna and the island is very beautiful, with all the flowers and animals, but this is a waste of time and resources."
They walked around the cavern for a bit, inspecting each feather. "Look at this," Draco said, picking out a feather from the floor. "This is quite beautiful."
"Draco!" Rose shouted. "We're not supposed to touch anything!"
"Relax, it's just a feather. Look!" he said, handing it to her.
Reluctantly, Rose reached out, touching the feather.
"It is beautiful."
"Like you," he murmured, and she blushed once more, retracting her hand from the feather.
"We have to go," she said. "There's nothing here."
He put the feather back on the ground. "You're right. Do you want to have lunch before we take the Portkeys back?"
She smiled at him. "An awesome idea! I brought food in my bag. We could have a picnic."
Draco looked at the tiny bag hanging across her chest sceptically.
"Undetectable extension charm!" She grinned widely.
Draco found himself smiling too. Usually, work trips that ended up without a resolution frustrated him, but somehow, this one wasn't that bad. Maybe the bees and the flowers had something to do with it… Although, if he were to be honest with himself, only one flower really had this effect on him.
The next day, both of them were back in the office. Rose was writing the report and Draco was focused on finding who exactly had told them that particular cave had a magical artefact worth their time. As such, they both were taken by surprise when the door blasted open and Harry Potter, Ron and Hermione Granger-Weasley stormed in, wands drawn and pointed at him.
Involuntarily, he drew his, but Potter was quicker.
"Expelliarmus!"
"Dad! Mum! Uncle Harry? What is going on?" Rose exclaimed, and Draco noticed she'd also drown her wand, but it was not pointed at him.
"What did you do to my daughter, you sick bastard!"
"What?" both he and Rose exclaimed.
"Weasley, I have no idea what you're talking about!" Draco spluttered. He truly had not done anything…
"Don't lie! Did you really think we wouldn't find out? My wife is the Minister for Magic! She sees all the forms!"
"Forms?"
"Don't play dumb, Malfoy." Potter's voice held a warning to it.
"I am not. I have no idea why you are all so mad!" Draco repeated.
For the first time, Hermione spoke. "So yesterday you did not marry my daughter?"
"WHAT?" Rose and Draco shouted, looking at each other.
"What do you mean married?"
"Mum, we're not married!"
The trio looked at each other and slowly put down their wands.
"Then," Ronald Weasley said, "if you two did not marry, why do the Ministry records say that you two are very much married in a binding ceremony. How do you accidentally get married?"
But, as Ronald was speaking, both he and Rose were looking at each other, a look of horror mixed with the understanding.
"The feather!" he exclaimed!
"I told you we shouldn't touch anything!"
"It was a feather! There were millions of them!" However, he knew that she was right. He should have never picked it up. He couldn't even think of a reason why he'd done it.
"What feather?" Hermione's voice was ice cold. Draco couldn't blame her. She'd found out in a most unsatisfying way that her childhood enemy was married to her daughter by accident. He couldn't imagine how it'd be if Scorpius came home married to Granger or even worse… Pansy. Pansy and Nott's daughter was much more similar to her mother than Rose to Granger.
Rose signalled to let her talk, so he did. She was the boss after all.
"We went to retrieve a magical artefact yesterday. However, the cave that supposedly held it was just filled with feathers. As we were about to leave, we picked one to inspect it and it must have been the artefact itself, hidden in plain sight. It must have married us. However, this is no reason at all to barge into my office and threaten Mr Malfoy here for something that could be discussed civilly." She spoke icily, her voice similar to her mother's. Potter and Granger had the decency to look ashamed, but her father held his stance.
"What were we supposed to think? Out of the blue? Married? To him?" Ron asked, his tone only slightly calmer.
"It does not matter what you were supposed to think. What matters is this is the Ministry building and you're not a Ministry employee anymore. Furthermore this is not acceptable behaviour for the Minister of Magic and the Head of the Auror Department, even if you suspected something foul. Please hand my employee his wand back and if you want to be helpful, arrange for new international Portkeys for the two of us this afternoon. Then we can discuss things over dinner at my place if you want. Now, if you don't have any work concerns, please leave."
Draco was impressed with the way she spoke. He wasn't sure he'd be as eloquent in her place. In fact, he didn't know exactly what to say or think at all.
"But, Rose!" Weasley protested, but it seemed that Potter and Granger had reached the conclusion it was better to not disagree with Rose and dragged Weasley out of the room. On his way out, Potter tossed Draco his wand back.
Draco caught it and then turned to face Rose. She was looking at him strangely.
"So, now I'm Mrs Malfoy?"
He almost choked on air. "Yes, I guess you are."
Looking awkwardly at the floor, he moved to his now forgotten investigation. There was no point in it anymore. It seemed the villagers hadn't lied after all.
Potter and Granger moved pretty quickly and Draco and Rose had received their Portkeys before noon.
They arrived at the cave in complete silence. It seemed that neither of them knew exactly what to say. After all, what did you say when you found you accidentally married your boss? Or your parents' childhood enemy? A former Death Eater?
The meadow looked the same as yesterday. And yet, everything was different. The flowers were still around, but this time, no bees could be seen or heard. The cave felt different too. Less cold than it had been the day before. However, it was still filled with feathers and Draco had no idea how they'd find that one feather again. He could barely remember how it looked.
As they reached the cavern where they'd touched the feather, Rose suddenly turned to stare at him.
"Okay! I can't take this anymore! We need to talk!"
"Talk?" he echoed.
"Yes! This is beyond ridiculous! We have barely said two words to each other in the past four hours. We've found out we're married! And guess what Draco! We are married! A magical feather married us and we stopped talking with each other? I thought we were better friends than that!"
Draco looked at her. She looked so beautiful, even if her face was red from all the shouting.
"I don't know what to say exactly, you know. It seems so surreal to me. I never thought I would ever marry again after divorcing Astoria. And I made peace with that. But now? Now … I'm married to you!"
"Is it so terrible? To be married to me?" her voice was suddenly very small and nervous. She sat down on the sea of feathers, bringing the coat tightly around her.
He shook his head and came closer, sitting next to her as well.
"Of course not," Draco said, bringing an arm around her. "You're my best friend, Rose Weasley. Of course it's not terrible being married to you. But… you deserve better than just an accidental wedding. You deserve better than… me."
Rose looked at him, and for once in the time they'd known each other, Draco couldn't tell what she was thinking.
"Why do you say that? You're my best friend too!"
"I'm sure Scorpius will love to hear that," he quipped, hoping to ease the tension.
It worked, as she grinned and lightly swatted him.
"Shut up! He has Al. And you can have more than one best friend anyway. Look at Mum!"
Draco frowned. "She married Weasley!"
"And is it wrong to marry your best friend?"
He didn't know exactly what to say. Of course it wasn't… especially if you loved your best friend… and Draco knew that while Weasley wasn't perfect, he loved Granger and she truly loved him. But that was where the problem was, wasn't it? Rose and him hadn't been dating prior to touching the feather. They hadn't even considered it.
"No, but… me? I'm a former Death Eater. Your parents hate me and I don't blame them! I'm literally your other best friend's father! Divorced to boot!"
Then she started laughing. "Is that all? Should we add that you've passed five promotions in the past ten years? Or that you like rocket salad?"
Draco looked at her, torn between being amused and offended.
She held her hand up, not letting him speak. "What I mean is, yes, you're all that, but so what? You were a Death Eater. You paid for it and you've grown out of it. You treat me as if I'm perfect when I'm as flawed as any other human. It just happens I had a different childhood from yours. We're all grown-ups now and you know, I have always thought you were particularly handsome…"
Through her little speech Draco suddenly saw himself and her in a new light. Perhaps she was right. With a flash, he remembered how radiant she'd looked the day before in her blue dress, surrounded by flowers and bees.
"So, I'm asking again, is it that terrible to be married to me?"
Draco leaned in and kissed her softly. She smiled into the kiss, hugging him. "I guess not," he murmured, kissing her again.
And then, suddenly, the feathers in the room disappeared, one sole feather remaining right next to them.
"What?" he asked, confused.
Rose stretched her hand and picked it up. It was a blue feather with a flower motif.
"I guess it's part of this feather's power. Hiding in plain sight and showing itself when we stop hiding as well. It shouldn't have taken a magical feather for us to see this," she said, intertwining their hands and resting her head on his shoulder.
If he was honest with himself, he'd seen it before, but he'd been too afraid.
"So," he asked, "what are we going to tell your parents and Potter tonight?"
Rose chuckled. "The truth, Draco. We're married."
Draco found himself laughing too.
Forgotten on the floor, the feather glowed in the dark. Outside, the bees returned, gathering over the flowers.
