Disclaimer: see prologue
Guide: "Speech", Thoughts, ~letters and other written things, "Parseltongue"
Warning: sexual themes and kinks
AN: As promised, even if it is a day late, the other half of the chapter "Christmas preparations". There'll be a third part that includes the Christmas shopping. Happy holidays to you all!
-~-~- Altair -~-~-
-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-
-~-~- Chapter 36 – Christmas preparations- Part II -~-~-
Sunday, 21st December 1997, Malfoy Manor
"Morning," Harry greeted Draco, raising his head from the blond's chest to give him a kiss on the cheek.
"Good afternoon," the blond answered, stressing the last word.
"Afternoon?" Harry wondered.
"Yes, it is already ten past twelve," Draco explained with a smile. "But don't worry, my parents weren't expecting us for breakfast anyway."
"Really?" Harry asked, only grudgingly getting up from where he lay on top of Draco's body.
"Yeah, mum said something about letting us sleep in because we have to perform the ritual tonight."
"That's good to know," answered Harry, looking away from Draco, his voice getting softer with every word he spoke while his cheeks turned redder. It was obvious that he was uncomfortable with Draco's parents knowing exactly what he would do with their son tonight.
"Don't be embarrassed, Harry," Draco chided. "Compared to what they are doing, our homework is nothing."
"It's still weird," Harry commented, putting his pyjama pants on. However, he was appeased by the thought that the Malfoys would more likely see today's ritual as a simple act of performing magic than him having sex with their son.
"By the way, why didn't you come to me last night if you couldn't sleep either?" Harry wondered as he slipped his pyjamas shirt over his head.
"Because it is impolite to crawl into a guest's bed," came Draco's answer from somewhere inside his spacious walk-in closet.
"You purebloods and your sense for propriety," Harry said.
"Master Malfoy, Mister Potter," a house-elf interrupted them as he suddenly spoke up from near the door, bowing towards Harry as Draco was out of the elf's line of sight. "Mistress kindly asks you to be in the family dinning room in half an hour."
"We will be there," Draco called from his walk-in closet.
"Mister Potter is staying in Master Draco's room. Temmy shall move Mister Potter's things into Master Draco's room," the elf stated when he saw the state of Draco's bed and made his own conclusion about what they'd been up to, wanting to be of service.
"That won't be necessary, Temmy," a now dressed Draco answered as he joined Harry before the other could say anything.
After the house-elf popped out of the room, Draco turned to face Harry and saw the questioning, slightly hurt look on his face. "If you want to, you can move some of your clothes into my room. However, I thought that you would like to have a room of your own if you are in need of some alone time or just want to escape all the Malfoys here," the blond joked.
"Let me guess, there's a rule about not disturbing a guest in their room?" Harry asked, as he walked out of Draco's room into his guest room.
"Not at all. We're free to knock on your door in the middle of the night and sent house-elves in whenever we want," Draco said joyfully. "It's just impolite to enter the room without the guest's permission."
"I see..." Harry said, his attention concentrated on the contents of his trunk. "Er, what should I wear to lunch?" Harry asked, not having concerned himself with his clothing yesterday as there hadn't been any time to change for dinner when they arrived from Gringotts.
"Just choose something you're comfortable with; my parents won't mind," Draco answered. "But maybe not this sweater in combination with these pants," he added when he saw what Harry'd picked out. "To think that I thought you'd developed some fashion sense," he said as he gave Harry another set of pants to put on.
So much about wearing whatever I want, Harry thought as he took the pants from Draco's hands.
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After lunch, Draco and Harry decided to grab their brooms to fly around the manor. Playing catch, racing each other and just enjoying the feeling of the cold wind against their skin as Draco showed Harry the area where he'd grown up.
"They are perfect for each other, aren't they?" Narcissa asked her husband as they watched the boys flying around each other in circles from the window of their sitting room.
"They seem to make each other happy," Lucius commented in an emotionless voice.
"Oh, Lucius. You can't still be mad at Harry for freeing one of the house-elves," she chided him, having asked Harry that they call each other by their first names during yesterday's dinner. Lucius, of course, had refused to give Harry the same curtsey.
"I'm not," Lucius answered, his voice firm. Rather, I'm mad at myself that it had come to this, he thought. He hated how the Dark Lord's diary and latter the Dark Lord himself had turned him into their will-less servant who treated his elves in such a cruel way that an outsider felt the need to free one of them.
"It's getting late," Narcissa said. "If they want to perform the ritual on time, they should start getting ready soon."
"Then why don't you call them in, while I start to prepare our own room?" Lucius asked, already on his way to the Sexual Magic room he and his wife would use tonight.
After casting a Sonorus spell, Narcissa called out of the opened window, "Draco, Harry!" Cancelling the spell, she waited for the boys to fly over.
"Yes, mother?" Draco asked, once they were in hearing range.
"The two of you should get inside if you want to perform the Promising Ritual punctually at eight."
"Thank you," Draco said and he and Harry made their way towards the back entrance.
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"Why didn't she tell us that it was already past four?" Draco complained as he led Harry towards the part of the manor where the Sexual Magic rooms were located. It was now just before five and he feared that they wouldn't be able to perform the ritual at the peak of the solstice.
"Come on, three hours are more than enough to get everything ready," Harry said calmly.
"But we still need to picked out all the gemstones," Draco worried.
"Which will take less than ten minutes because they all already sorted and labelled," Harry tried to appease the blond.
"Mum did say something like this yesterday," Draco muttered under his breath.
"She did," Harry confirmed.
"Here we are," Draco announced when they arrived in a light blue painted hallway. "Father said that we can use the second to last room on the right. The gemstones should be in one of the storage rooms on the left side."
"Are all the other rooms on the right Sexual Magic rooms?" Harry asked, curious.
"Yes. Each is designed to fit the needs of a certain branch of Sexual Magic," Draco explained. "But between my birthday and now, I didn't have the time to explore all of the rooms yet."
"Let me guess, you only looked at the Sexual Potions room," Harry asked. With Draco wanting to become a Potions master, it would have been the obvious choice.
"No, I checked out the Sexual Divination room," Draco said in a haughty voice. However, when he saw the look on Harry's face, he couldn't hold back the laughter. "Of course, it was the Potions' room," he corrected his earlier statement, earning himself a slap to the back of his head from Harry for teasing him.
"So, shall we find out if the Ritual Magic room is similar to the one at Hogwarts," Draco asked as he stopped in front of the second to last door.
"Hmm," Harry hummed his agreement and Draco opened the door.
"Nice to know that the room doesn't have to look like a dungeon," Harry commented, when he saw the midnight blue wallpaper, decorated with white ornaments.
"And I like that the floor is made of wood instead of stone," Draco voiced his opinion, hating the cold stone floor of Room Zero's Ritual Magic room.
"And here's the bathroom," Harry announced, having walked to the left of the room, where a white door led to the bathroom area.
"Let's search for the gems and chalk," Draco said as both boys finished their inspecting walk of the Ritual Magic room and bathroom.
"Shall we work our way from the right to the left," Harry asked once they were back outside in the hallway.
"Why not," Draco said, only for the first door to lead to the storage room where whipping benches and St. Andrew's crosses and similar items where stored. "No, this isn't our room," he said, his face turning pale as an image of his mother bound to one of the St. Andrew's crosses invaded his mind.
The next room turned out to store the collection of various sex toys. Starting from small items like blindfolds and handcuffs and ending with smotherboxes and long-range whips.
"I don't think that we'll need anything from here tonight," Harry said as he closed the door. I wouldn't mind exploring its contents at a later time, Harry thought along with Draco.
After taking a bathrobe each from the clothing storage, they finally found the room where gemstones, candles and other ritual items where kept.
"We'll need some pieces of chalk, two candles, matches," Draco listed as he placed the mentioned item into a small basket. "And of course the gems for the meaning we picked out."
"Hmm," Harry hummed, picking out his list of gemstones and grabbing another basket to transport his gems in.
"Let's see," Draco said, looking at his own list,. "I need aquamarine, blue topaz, chalcedony, diopside,..." Draco read out loud and put both a large and small variation of the gem into his basket.
As they were exactly the same stones that were also on his list, Harry just followed Draco through the well stocked shelves of gems and picked up the same gemstones as Draco, not even bothering to check the labels when Draco stopped saying the names of the stones he put into his basket. Harry just grabbed a second pair for himself, enjoying the warm feeling that spread through his body at the thought of them having decided to create the same kind of promising ring.
And so, when Draco put the final jewel, a sapphire, into his basket, Harry also put a small and large sapphire into his.
"Okay, I've everything," the blond announced.
Quickly counting the number of gems in his basket, Harry nodded his head and said, "I have all eight stones I need. Shall we leave?"
"Yes."
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An hour later, both boys had taken a cleansing bath, dressed in their bathrobes and were now doing the finishing touches to the ritual circle. Harry had already drawn a small infinity symbol on the ground with a larger infinity sign enclosing it, while Draco had written the necessary runes around the smaller infinity symbol. All that was left to do was to place their promising rings into each of the circles of the smaller infinity symbol and then place the stones at their respective places inside both infinity signs.
When Draco took his ring out of its box, Harry held out his hand. "It's beautiful, may I take a closer look?" he asked.
"Of course," Draco said and let the ring fall into Harry's hand.
"I love the design of the dragon," Harry said, following the Chinese dragon's slender body with his finger as he traced the infinity symbol it described. "Are the eyes made of rubies?" he asked.
"No, they are made of alexandrite."
"Ah, okay," Harry said, not having heard about the stone before. "À toi, pour toujours,*"Harry read the inscription of the ring. "What does it mean?" he asked Draco as he handed the ring back.
"That is for me to know and for you to find out," Draco told Harry as he place the ring in the middle of his circle.
"Mine is much simpler," Harry said as he pulled it out of his bathrobe pocket and handed it to Draco for inspection.
"It may not be as fancy as mine, however its simplicity suits you much better than any overly ornamented ring could...Besides, I really love the inscription: 'Today, tomorrow, always.'"
"Thank you. It was my mother's idea," Harry told the blond. "Though, I can't imagine for the life of me why she would give a ring with such an inscription to Snape."
"You could always ask him," Draco offered.
"And lose ten thousand house points. I think not," Harry answered as he reclaimed his ring to set it down in the middle of his part of the infinity symbol. "Let us put the gems into place," he said, standing up to grab his basket, Draco following suit.
Once all the stones were in their destined positions inside the two infinity symbols, both boys sat down in the middle of their half of the larger infinity circle.
"Ready?" Draco asked, to which Harry nodded his head. "Let's begin then."
"We call to you, Artemis, on this holy night,
to grace us with your sight.
To grant us our plea,
we ask thee," they both began to chant in synchronisation the spell that invoke the Promising Ring ritual.
"The goddess of the moon,
who brings light into darkness,
who covers the night in silver brightness,
we hope for your boon," they continued.
"And even in this longest night,
there will still be a glowing light," they called out as they each lit the candle in front of them.
"Igniting an infinite ring of fire,
which carries my heart's deepest desire."
"By your sake,
the form of a ring it shall take.
The seed of life we offer you in exchange,
for the intent of the rings to change," they finished the spell and about an inch high flames started to rise from the outlines of the two infinity symbols, luckily not burning the wooden floor.
And now, the hardest part, Harry thought as he discarded his bathrobe, Draco copying him.
Hesitantly, Harry brought his right hand to his flat cock, slowly stroking it. He didn't dare to look up, feeling queasy by the knowledge that Draco was sitting right across from him, wanking just like him. This thought prevented Harry from getting into the right mood to fulfil his task.
"Look at me, Harry," Draco commanded, making the brunet raise his head.
When their eyes connected, Harry was caught in the intensity of the other's gaze, unable to look away from the intense stare. "Lean back and just enjoy the show, Harry," Draco said in an enthralling voice, moving his unoccupied left hand to his face to catch Harry's attention.
In lustful fascination, Harry followed the movement of Draco's hand. Watching how the blond's fingers circled the pink and so very kissable lips. Licking his own try lips as the hand sensually moved down Draco's neck, not even noticing that his own cock hardened from the sight in front of him. And as the blond began to tease his nipples, Harry unconsciously began to move his hand up and down his now fully erect arousal.
"Hgnn," Draco moaned, which Harry answered with a groan of his own.
Shit, was all Harry could think, when he saw Draco's hand wandering further down the blond's body to join the right hand in Draco's groin area. "So hot," he hissed when the blond started to play with his ballsack. "Hnn, Draco," he moaned, stroking his cock even faster and harder.
"En—joying...the..show?" Draco asked between heavy breaths.
"Yesssssss!" Harry moaned, his stomach muscles already contracting in preparation for his impending orgasm.
"Shit, Draco," the brunet called out, followed by the blond's cry of "Harry!" as they both came, letting themselves fall back on the ground.
They both watch in exhausted fascination how the flames from the larger infinity symbol moved towards the centre where it was connected to the smaller infinity sign, the flames increasing in size the closer they moved towards the middle section. And then, with a final roar and hiss, the flames surrounding the small infinity symbol rose towards the celling, feasting on both of their magic, before they vanished.
"We did it," Harry said happily.
"Hmm," Draco just hummed in agreement, still trying to get his strength and breathing back.
Nearly five minutes passed, before either boy was ready to move again.
"You really enjoyed that I was watching you touch yourself," Harry stated, as he picked up his promising ring.
"Not as much as I enjoyed hearing you switch to Parseltongue," Draco answered. "It's such a tell-tale sign for how turned on you are."
"I'm sure that I can make you come just by hissing at you," Harry answered, wearing a satisfied look on his face when he saw Draco's cock standing on half-mast.
"What were you saying?" Draco asked challenging.
"Nothing you should worry about," Harry answered, patting the blond's shoulder while he pointedly looked down at Draco's penis. Then he walked over to where he left his clothes to get dressed, feeling smug. Dad was right. This ritual is really enjoyable, he thought, licking his lips at the image of Draco touching himself. That is definitely the most perfect wanking material in existence..
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Promising rings: You can now find a sketch of Harry's promising ring on my DeviantArt page. Draco's will follow when I find the time to draw it.
À toi, pour toujours: French, "forever yours"
~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-
AN: While I researched for gemstones that had meanings of love, friendship, fidelity, commitment and the like, the meaning of the gems vary from sources to sources.
Next: The rest of the holidays. Update probably on the 30th/31st December. But one never knows what the holidays will bring, so the chapter may be belated or cut in half and part of it updated early. Who knows?