Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.
Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Additionally, kidnapping & nonconsensual drug use (potions) are a key plot point. A neurological reaction to an allergen is also featured along with an implied temporary/near character death. Feel free to back out if need be.
Author's Note: I'm sure that Ron & Hermione were just young & dumb kids. Maybe this is the kick they both needed in their pants. Again, I want to stress that Harry has a severe allergic reaction to a potion he did not consent to taking and he nearly dies from it.
Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 12); MC4A
Individual Challenges: Green Ribbon; Greatest Gift; Two Cakes!; Yellow Ribbon (Y); Yellow Ribbon Redux; Click Bait It; Short Jog; Hold the Mayo; Letter of the Day; Flags & Ribbons; Rian-Russo Inversion; Quiet Time; Neurodivergent; Ethnic & Present; Themes & Things A [Love] (Y); Themes & Things B [Protection] (Y); Golden Times; Interesting Times; Sweet Music; No Proof; Shipmas; Unaccompanied Minors; Spring Rain; Brush; Lion's Moon & Shadow Bribery (Y); Sett to Destroy; Bow Before the Blacks; Death's Inevitable Master; Trio of Gold; Gryffindor MC (x3); Slytherin MC; Point of Know Return; Love Language; Fluent in Sarcasm; No Heterosexual Explanation; Clowder; More than England
House: Hufflepuff
Assignment No.: Term 12 – Assignment 4
Subject (Task No.): Charms (Task#2: Write about a love that is believed to be unreal but is real.)
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Insane Prompt Challenge [102] (Bed); 365 [104] (Fiasco); Gwen's Candy Shop [Bowl 1](Allergy); Baking King Cakes [Step One](Justice)
Other MC4A Challenges: Wi Bingo [2C] (Candy); Winter Big (Sweets/Candy)
Representation(s): Blaise Zabini/Harry Potter; Found & Rediscovered Family; Severe Allergy
Bonus Challenges: Fruit Fly; Second Verse (Over the Hills; Lettuce Hold Hands; Under the Bridge; Shiver & Shake; Bad Beans; Hot Apple; Casper's House; Rock of Ages; Muck & Slime; Trickster's Union; Lovely Coconuts; Lock & Key; Unwanted Advice; Spinning Plates; Mother Hen; Sneeze Weasel; Nontraditional; Found Family; Not a Lamp); Chorus (Hot Stuff; Not Mozart; Getting On; Sitting Hummingbird; Turtle-Duck; Seven Gates; Abandoned Ship; Unicorn; Larger than Life; Eternal Boredom; A Long Dog; Tomorrow's Shade; Mouth of Babes; Rediscovery; Peddling Pots; Wabi Sabi; Pear-Shaped; Odd Feathers)
Tertiary Bonus Challenges: T3 (Thimble); SN (Rail; Spare); FR (Satisfaction); O2 (Orator; Oath); SHoE (Oblique); FIN (Ensanguine; Fioriture); AD (Amphibian); DP (Immemorial; Keen)
Word Count: 2088
(^^)
Feeling a Little Peculiar
(^^)
Harry woke up feeling like her head had been stuffed with cotton. The last thing he remembered was entering the seventh-year dorms after returning from spending the spring break with Blaise and his mother. The trip was to satisfy the final traditions necessary for them to bond. Remus and the Tonks had stood in for Harry's family, being the closest that he had currently.
Well, mostly because there was no way that Harry was going to acknowledge Narcissa and Draco Malfoy as cousins, given how the war had ended almost two years ago now. Both surviving Malfoys had been vocal about how his defeat of Voldemort during Battle of the Ministry had been the reason for Lucius Malfoy's death. Narcissa had even tried to bring formal charges due to ancient laws concerning investitures. So, no matter how Narcissa was just as closely related as Andromeda, Harry was not going to give her any leverage to mess up his life.
Not when he had everything he wanted and no fear of Voldemort stealing Harry's new family like he had Harry's first one. If there was any justice in the world, Harry was would finally have his happily-ever-after ending.
With an instinct born of years dealing with the Dursleys and other people trying to kill him, Harry extended his senses carefully. The familiar thrum of Hogwarts' inherent magic met him, letting him know that he was still within her walls. That was both a good thing and a very bad one. If he managed to get out, then he wouldn't have to go far to find allies who would be able to help him. On the other hand, whoever was responsible for this has the connections to not only take him from his dorm but felt comfortable enough to hold him within Hogwarts. That not only narrowed the list but also heightened the danger.
Only after confirming that he was alone in whatever space this was did he shake his head in an attempt to clear it of the fuzziness. A sharp spike stabbed through his head, so reminiscent of what Voldemort used to cause that Harry did a quick check of the mental shields that Blaise had patiently helped him build over the last few years. The Slytherin had been insisted on Harry learning actual Occlumency after he had found Harry suffering a migraine from Snape's version. Blaise was going to be livid about this entire situation.
"Hello?" Harry called as he struggled to sit up. He felt weaker than he ever had in the past. Even after expending most of his magic pulling all of the scattered pieces of Voldemort to the piece that had invaded his own body, Harry hadn't felt this wrung out. His stomach ached just like it always had when he had lived with the Dursleys. To make matters worse, it twisted threateningly at the change in position. He swallowed hard and did what he did best when put into a situation with dangerous unknowns. "Is my kidnapper available for a consult?"
Harry rolled his eyes at the furious whispers that sounded on the other side of the door. They weren't even trying to be subtle about not being heard. Harry also recognized those whispers. Up until his relationship with Blaise had been revealed, Hermione and Ron had been his best friends. When Blaise had taken Voldemort's sudden demise as tacit permission to openly hover over Harry protectively, Ron had blown up both because of Blaise being a Slytherin and because Harry had kept his relationship (tentative and confusing as it had been at the time) a secret. Hermione had also been hurt about the secret thing and had sided with Ron. All of their sixth year and until this point in their seventh, neither of them had spoken more than a handful of words to Harry.
He shoved himself to his feet. Then he immediately fell back to the bed as the fuzziness made the room swirl like it had been flushed down a toilet. His stomach jolted as the threat from before upgraded to a warning. Something cold and dark settled within his gut, as foreboding as any danger he had ever sensed before it fully manifested. What had they given him that was making him feel like this?
"Harry? Are you alright?" Hermione asked, suddenly crouched down before him instead of not even in the room. How did he miss them—because Ron was also in the room now, too—entering? Andy was going to be so upset that he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings like she had spent the last few breaks stressing the necessity of with Dora imitating Mad-Eye in the background. Harry forced himself to focus as Hermione continued fretfully. "What's wrong?"
"Wha..." Harry took a deep breath before trying again. "Wha' you do ta me?"
"We didn't do anything!" Hermione protested before flushing hard enough that Harry thought she might actually turn red despite how dark her skin already was. Her curls shook from the fine tremor that Harry knew she got whenever her anxiety started playing up. "It was only a little Sleeping Draught in the bon-bons Ron left on your bed. You've had it before, so that can't be the cause!"
"Unless it's interacting with whatever Zabini's been giving him," Ron said. Harry looked at the redhead in confusion. Ron glowered and crossed his arms. "We don't know what love potion he's been fed, only that it is too long lasting to be a spell."
"Oh, that is very true," Hermione agreed. "Do you think we'll need to take him to Madam Pomfrey?"
"Are you kidding? That's the first place that Death Eater reject would look for him! The whole point of this is to keep Harry away from him!"
"You t'ink Blaise gave me potion?" Harry struggled to keep following what his two ex-friends were saying. Talking was becoming just as much as a struggle. "All he did was love me."
"No, Harry," Hermione said gently, like she was explaining something to a child. Harry felt a spark of anger flare before something smothered it. "We're the ones who love you. We're going to keep you safe from whatever nefarious plans Zabini has for you. We heard about what his family does to their spouses."
Harry could have rolled his eyes at the obvious dig towards Claudia Zabini's string of dead spouses. If anyone had cared to actually ask her, Claudia would have been upfront about the familial curse that punished outright betrayal of her bloodline. Combined with being a neutral person (that is not aligned with either Voldemort's pseudo-Nazis or Dumbledore's militia) during the first war and therefore a tactical target, and it was rather surprising that Claudia was only five times a widow. But that's not what sold newspapers, was it?
Something nagged at him when he felt only mild annoyance about that train of thoughts.
"Wha' else?" he demanded. He had to swallow against the sudden flood of sour bile in his mouth. "Wha' else did you gimme?"
"Nah-nothing," Hermione squeaked. She began wringing her hands together. Ron rolled his eyes before signing like Harry was being ridiculous.
"I added a few drops of Calming Draught," Ron confessed. Hermione turned around so quickly that she fell on her bum. Ron threw his hands in the air at her appalled look. "What?! You saw how bad he got back in fifth year! It was just a precaution to help him listen instead of working himself into a strop."
"Calming Draught has peppermint leaves in it," Hermione said flatly. Ron gestured to indicate that the information meant nothing to him. Harry just breathed and tried not to throw up while trusting Hermione would have remembered the incident in last year's Potions class despite their estrangement. "RON! Harry's allergic to peppermint!"
"Wan' Blaise," Harry muttered in the silence that followed Hermione's shout. Then the fuzziness dragged him back under and he knew no more.
(^^)
Harry blinked at his surroundings, once again confused about how he had come to be somewhere. He turned carefully in a circle but there was only a strangely neutral gray around him. There wasn't even any real way to tell what was land and what was sky.
"Dreary, ain't it?"
Harry spun to face the sudden speaker. She was a petite woman—even shorter than he was. She was pale, like spilled moonlight had taken human form. Her hair was the color of the darkest night and bounced around her head in curls even more wild than his own. A simple stud was in her left nostril and glittered like fresh blood. Yet it was her eyes that made his heart lurch with longing and recognition. While only one of them featured a winged eyeliner sharp enough to stab a person, both were the same violently vivid green as his own.
"I know you," he whispered without thinking. "I know you."
"Of course, you do," she acknowledged. Her fingers played with the charm of her choker, a silver ankh no bigger than her thumb. Her black lips ticked upwards into a smile so mischievous it would have made the twins green with jealousy. "Like calls to like, after all, and a good master knows their subjects."
"I'm no one's master," Harry argued. He felt his face grow hot as she laughed like that was the best joke she had ever heard. "Oh, shut it."
"I can't help it, little master," she said, still smiling. "You're so sweet. You're going to be my favorite; I just know it." Her smile faded a bit. Even the dismal grayness around them dimmed in response. "But I don't like seeing you like this, love. Your beloved likes it even less, I wager."
"You'd win that bet." Harry smiled at just the thought of how much Blaise would fuss after this fiasco. He was always so protective, and Harry loved every moment of it honestly. He had never had anyone whose only priority was his wellbeing. Harry glanced around himself as a thought occurred to him. "It was really bad, wasn't it? I mean, it has to be for me to be here with you, doesn't it?"
"Yeah," Death agreed quietly, "visiting me in the between isn't a good thing."
"But I can go back?" He took in her solemn nod. "How?"
"It's as easy as waking up from a dream, little master," she whispered. Her eyes glowed in the near darkness. "You just take a breath and listen."
(^^)
Harry woke up to the sound of someone singing softly and so badly off-key that it could only be one person. For all of Blaise's many, many skills, the other boy simply could not carry a tune to save his life, not even in a bucket with a lid on it. He could play five different kinds of instruments, and Harry gave up trying to figure out how many weapons he was proficient with after Daphne had pointed out that Blaise wanted to become a weaponsmith, so had started learning about them when he was small. But Blaise couldn't sing worth a darned sock.
Normally, Blaise couldn't be convinced to sing where anyone was likely to hear him. That meant he must be doing it to comfort Harry. Along with fingers in hair or a hand holding the back of his neck, hearing Blaise sing to him was always guaranteed to make Harry feel better no matter what was ailing him.
Harry sighed happily as the still-foreign feeling of being loved washed over him. Then he whined because the music stopped. A warm breath washed over his face as he felt a kiss land on his forehead.
"Back with us now?" Blaise murmured, still not moving his lips away from Harry's skin. "You scared me, my love."
"Didn't mean to," Harry muttered. He couldn't really find the strength to open his eyes. Already, he felt sleep lapping at the edges of his awareness. "Thought the candy was from you. Twas nice."
"I will endeavor to remember that, then," Blaise promised. Harry smiled and just breathed in the scent of his betrothed. He felt a million times better just having him near. "I will get you all the bon-bons you will ever want, and in any flavor you can imagine. Just stay with me."
"Love you, too," Harry said as he slipped into a more healing rest, safe in the knowledge that Blaise would protect him, even from those who wanted only to 'help'.