Disclaimer: see prologue
Guide: "Speech", Thoughts, ~letters and other written things, "Parseltongue"
Warning: sexual themes and kinks
AN: Happy New Year! I finally added a picture of Draco's promising ring on my Deviantart page. Check it out if you're curious.
-~-~- Altair -~-~-
-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-
-~-~- Chapter 42 – Anything but vanilla -~-~-
Sunday, 11th January 1998
After Harry and Draco enjoyed a nice breakfast in the Great Hall, Draco went back to their room to skim through Thothus Malfoy's journal while Harry started reading the chapter on journalism and press related laws in his copy of 'Wizarding Laws for Uprising Politicians', which the Malfoys had given him for Christmas.
The one thing that annoyed Harry the most was that, as the laws currently stood, the press could effectively print whatever they liked. While there was a law that forced a paper to recant a wrong statement, it was the task of the one who wanted the wrong statement to be corrected to irrevocable prove that the press had been wrong. And how did a fourteen year old prove that he was not disturbed and dangerous only because he could talk to snakes?
No wonder Skeeter is not afraid to write mainly lies and half-truths, he thought, resigned. And here I'd hoped to find something to keep the press under control.
As Harry continued reading, he found that there was a law that forbid the press to include the name of under-aged children in their articles. So Rita couldn't have written anything about me during the Tri-wizard tournament, Harry concluded. So why did she? Am I an exception just because I'm the bloody Boy-who-lived? he wondered angrily.
Since the book was intended for adults that intended a political career, it only advised the person to write a letter to the publisher that printed the children's name and sue them the lawful one hundred Galleons with reference to the above stated law and remind them that the amount of fine would be multiplied by the number of times the law is broken by the paper, thus discouraging them to ever again print the name of their child.
So why did the Prophet time and time again print my name? Harry asked himself, not thinking that they had so much money to spare and then remembered that Lucius Malfoy had offered to answer any question he may have. Of course, I could also just ask Draco, Harry thought. But the blond was so immersed in the journal that he did not want to disturb him right now. Besides, Harry believed that asking Lucius instead would be a good way to bond with his future father-in-law, thus he decided to write the man a letter. Maybe he even knows how I can sue the Prophet even years later for all the rubbish they wrote about me? Decision made, Harry moved up from the comfortable armchair he'd been sitting in and moved towards their dinner table on the other side of the room to write the letter.
By the time Harry returned from the Owlery, it was nearly time for lunch. Deciding that he would like to prepare some sandwiches for himself and Draco instead of going down to the Great Hall, Harry prepared two sandwiches for each of them.
"No luck with the journal?" the brunet asked Draco when he handed over the plate with the sandwiches and a glass of cola.
"Not yet. Sometimes I really wished that the journal had an index," Draco complained as he happily bit into the sandwich Harry'd prepared for him.
"So we'll perform the ritual without any changes, except for you preparing the tea this time," Harry stated and Draco just nodded in agreement. And so at half past one, they finished their second try at the ritual.
It was about half an hour later when Draco finally discovered an entry about changing the position of the sun to the desired position. "I found something," he called out to Harry who was working on his Charms essay. Putting down his quill, Harry walked over to sit in his armchair, keenly listening to what Draco told him.
"Here, he says that there is a way to make the ritual think that the position of the sun is different. However, he warns that it is not perfect and should only be used when one does not have the time to wait for the next day when the sun is actually in the correct phase. There are two possibilities, both aiming to turn back the time to where the sun was in the correct position at the place the ritual is performed."
"So nothing about changing the place of the ritual, like I assumed," Harry commented.
"Yeah. One option is to use a kind of henna colour on the skin, but as we need to drench ourselves with tea, I do not think that it would be safe to use," Draco explained and Harry nodded in agreement. "The second option is to perform a small ritual where a rune circle made of sand is supposed to turn back the time. Opposed the option one, here one can only change in full hours and not in fifteen minutes intervals. Still, to me, the option with the sand looks safe enough to try out without asking anyone for advise first," Draco finished, wanting to hear Harry's opinion.
"Do you know if we need to perform this ritual before, during, or after the Siméon Assay Ritual?" Harry asked, having no knowledge about Runes to ask a question regarding them.
"It should be performed before we begin the ritualistic part of the Siméon Assay Ritual," Draco answered. "I just need to look up if the part where I get drenched with tea is part of the preparation process or already the beginning of the ritual."
As it turned out, the beginning of the ritualistic part of the Siméon Assay Ritual was the drawing of the salt runes on the ground. When four o'clock arrived, the two began with half an hour long soaking of the feet and drinking of tea, before Harry for the third time on that day emptied a bucket of lukewarm tea over Draco's head. As Harry stepped on the tray in the middle of the room, Draco picked up the icing back filled with sand. He repeatedly wrote the twelve runes that, hopefully in the eyes of the ritual, would set time back by eight hours, until he finished a full circle. Afterwards Draco walked to Harry and bound the brunet's wrist and ankles together. From there on, it was just repeating what they had already done two times today, with the only change that Draco needed to be careful to not disturb the sand runes he'd drawn as he wrote the salt runes.
"Do you think it worked?" Harry asked, once they were showered and dressed.
"No idea. But I can go and ask Severus tomorrow if he has a poison lying around for us to test the stones," Draco answered.
"Just say that it is for me and I'm sure he'll gladly give you some," the brunet only half-joked.
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Monday, 12th January 1998
On Monday morning, while Harry was in Transfiguration, Draco went down to the dungeons and knocked on his godfather's office door.
"Enter," Severus answered in his usual grouchy voice. When he saw that it was Draco, he added much friendlier, "Good morning, Draco."
"Good morning, Severus," the blond returned. "Do you have a poison with which I can test if a Siméon Assay Ritual was performed correctly?"
"There are some poisons which can be used for this purpose. But they are not something I have in stock," Severus informed Draco.
"Something to poison Harry with?" Draco asked as Harry suggested, curious what Severus' answer would be.
"Did Potter tell you to ask me that?" the Potions master questioned with a raised eyebrow. "Fortunately—or unfortunately—Mister Potter does not need to fear for his life. Professor Immaculé asked me for such a poison some days ago and I still have a vial left. If you promise me to only use it to test the object you enchanted, I'll give it to you."
"Thank you, Severus. I promise you that I will not poison anyone with it, especially not Harry. By the way," Draco added, "did you know that Professor Immaculé is very interested in you?" Severus' enquiring look was all the encouragement the blond needed to continue. "We had to loan Black's portrait to her. When we got it back, he told us that she was asking him a lot of questions about you. She seemed overly interested about your time as a student here."
Severus groaned in annoyance. Of all the people—or portraits—Sirius Black was the worst person to ask for information about him. He could clearly imagine how Black had told her every humiliating story he could still remember, not holding back with all the vile nicknames they had come up with.
"The good thing is that he realised that she was more interested in you than him and stopped telling her stories of you out of spite," Draco tried to pacify him.
"Should I thank him?" Severus asked rhetorically.
"No, but you can instead explain to me how this potion is used to check if the Siméon Assay Ritual was performed correctly."
~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-
When Harry finally returned in the late afternoon from his Quidditch practice, he and Harry stood in front of their long Potions table in their bedroom, the spare stones Draco's parents had sent them next to a glass cylinder and large carafe filled with water.
"Testing the stones is really simple," Draco explained. "We just need to put the stones into the cylinder, cover them with water and then add about two spoonfuls of the poison. If the ritual was successful they'll glow."
They both did just as Draco had told, placing the turquoise stones from left to right in order of the time they were enchanted. To their relief all three stones glowed. Then, Draco slowly added more water to the cylinder, diluting the poison even more, until the middle stone stopped glowing.
"I would say that the trick with the sand runes was successful," Harry commented.
"Hmm," Draco hummed in agreement, happy that it had worked. As the blond added more water, the stone on the right side soon stopped glowing too. Curious how much water it would take until also the turquoise they enchanted in the morning would stop glowing, Draco continued to add water. The blond had to fill nearly the whole cylinder until also the last turquoise stone stopped glowing.
"I would say we did not so bad, don't you?" Harry asked.
"Yes," Draco agreed and gave Harry a kiss. Soon, the stones were forgotten as the two teenagers moved away from the Potions table towards their bed, where they properly thank the other for their good work during the ritual.
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Tuesday, 13th January 1998
Tuesday morning brought Harry an answer from Lucius. On the other side of the room, Draco raised a questioning eyebrow at Harry, wondering why his father's eagle owl had a letter for the brunet. Mounting 'later' at Draco, Harry eagerly opened the letter.
~Dear Harry,
Thank you for your letter. Gladly I'll answer your questions. What you must know about the law regarding a child's name in the papers is that only the people who have the custody of the child are allowed to legally press charges. In your case this would have been either your godfather or your Muggle relatives. While I do not know what the people at the Prophet were thinking, I can only assume that with your godfather in Azkaban they did not worry about any charges coming from him.
In regards to your relatives, they probably just waited after their first article if a sue would come from them. And once it was known that they were Muggles they could be fairly sure that they did not even know the law existed.
Since you are of age now, you could theoretically finally press charges yourself as the period of limitation is five years. However, I'll warn you that because your an adult now, they have every right to write an article about you suing them and to reprint the article you're suing them for.
I would advise you to do some careful consideration before deciding in favour of a law suit. If your decision should be positive, I'll help you as much as I can with preparing the necessary paperwork.
Best wishes and send my and Narcissa's love to Draco,
Lucius~
Hmm, Harry wondered. Do I really want to sue the Prophet now? It's not like I need the Galleons and knowing Skeeter, it would only encourage her to write an article about how greedy I am.
In the end, Harry decided that while it was nice to know why the Prophet did not have any qualms with using his name and also Hermione's during the Tri-wizard tournament, it would not be in his best interest to press charges now.
~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-
When it was time for their Basic Trance-sexual magic class, Draco and Harry both hoped that they would finally be introduced to a specialisation field that they could both feel completely comfortable with. However, their hopes were already destroyed when they saw what was lying on the teacher's desk: different floggers, paddles and whips, as well as a cane and a riding crop.
With a resigned sigh, the boys took their seats and waited for the lecture to begin. "Good morning," Professor Greige greeted them. "Today we welcome Mister Ammon who'll tell you about the use of impact play in Sexual Magic."
"Good morning," the about sixty years old man with a walrus moustache greeted them. "Since I saw some worried eyes, I'll start by telling you that choosing impact play as a specialisation field does not mean that all of the here presented tools will be used. As a part of your rudimentary course, Professor Greige will explain the proper use of a paddle," he informed them, holding up one of the paddles. "In the specialisation course, I'll theoretically introduce you to all of these tools, however, the practical aspects will be restricted to only two of the five choices, one more or less, depending on how much control you display and what your limits are."
This seemed to recapture the interest of some of the students for impact play as a specialisation field. But Harry and Draco just shared a look with each other. Too soon for us, they thought in resignation, hating that they still needed some time before they could approach the aspects of Sexual Magic that involved helplessness or pain on a higher level than what they could tolerate with right now.
~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-
The boys' continued frustration about finding a specialisation field was forgotten by the time they entered the Ritual Magic classroom and received their promising rings back in exchange for the box with their three enchanted turquoise stones.
Both Draco and Harry felt surprised when they realised how naked their hands had felt without their respective rings. They'd only worn the rings for some days before they loaned them to Professor Immaculé, but they symbolised the loved they shared. Neither of them listened to the comments Professor Immaculé made about how well they'd enchanted their rings, far too occupied with gazing at the promising rings.
"Ahem," Professor Immaculé loudly cleared her throat to get the boys' attention. "If you could stop staring at your rings, we can test how well you performed the Siméon Assay Ritual." While they looked in the direction of Professor Immaculé, their attention was still on their rings. Since they knew that she too had gotten the test poison from Severus, they already knew what her test would show and could concentrate their attention on retracing the shape of the rings.
"Anything you want to tell me?" she asked, when she saw that the stone enchanted in the evening had a higher sensitivity to the poison then the noon made stone.
"We may have added a little time changing ritual," Draco stated, not giving away any more than that.
"Ah, a time changing ritual, very old school," she commented. "But at least you thought in the right direction. Today we will talk about rituals that change your location. For sun-dependent rituals, these are much more effective than time-changing ones as the sun is in the correct position at the other place." And so, Professor Immaculé told them about how the Muggle's geographic coordinate system allowed the wizards to precisely change their position for rituals. And explained three different options to them.
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Thursday, 15th January 1998
Draco and Harry could not describe how happy they felt when they relaxed together on their sofa in the afternoon. When Professor Greige had started the lesson with saying that the last lesson was reserved for some of the rarer and more unusual specialisation fields, they'd feared the worst and they were not disappointed.
The talk about human fluids by Mister Merewether began harmless enough with a short introduction on how it is mainly used in Sexual Poitions, Enchantment and Warding as well as Ritual Magic. Human fluids such as saliva, urine, sperm, vaginal discharge and blood they had more or less expected from the title of the specialisation field, but when the instructor told them that also vomit would be used, all students looked ready to puke themselves. Draco even shortly reconsidered his choice to become a Potions master when he heard that vomit was especially used for the human cauldron potions.
The next talk was even worse. While the magic that could be performed with one of the participants in a subspace sounded very powerful, the ways how it could be reached did discourage many students. Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, though, seemed very interested as it would improve their Sexual Divination performance.
The final specialisation field that was introduced to them was Kamasutra. It was presented by a twenty-three year old young man with honey blond hair. He started his talk with "My subject is often smiled at" and his likeable nature already won over the majority of the students. When he went on to describe that it would not include any toys and that it really was only about flexibility, many students decided that compared to the other more kinky choices it was rather boring. But Draco and Harry liked the sound of it, especially when he continued and told the class how different positions can positively influence a ritual and that they would have a basic course on when which position should be used.
"He certainly is someone I can see myself work with," Harry said into Draco's chest as his head rested over the blond's heart.
"As long as you do not develop a crush on him, I am all for choosing Kamasutra," Draco joked.
"No one will every take your place in my heart," Harry said full of love as he turn around and lean up to kiss the edge of Draco's lips. "Expect maybe Hedwig," Harry added in good humour. In reaction Draco sat up and turned them around so that he was looming over Harry.
"Oh, you'll pay," Draco said before he started to tickle his boyfriend. When Harry was out of breath from laughing, he relented and started to kiss Harry instead. By the time they heard a knock on their door, their clothes were crumpled and their lips swollen. "Argh," Draco groaned in annoyance. He'd totally forgotten that Hermione and Blaise had wanted to come over this afternoon.
"Do we need to let them in?" Harry asked.
"If we do not want Blaise to constantly comment on our sex life for the next week, yes," Draco answered as he slowly disentangled their bodies.
"Ah, I see we arrived at just the right moment," Blaise said when he took in the state of their clothes and lips.
More like wrong, Draco and Harry thought.
"So, have you already decided on a specialisation field?" Blaise asked them as they walked into the living room.
"Yes," Draco answered.
"Oh, what did you chose?" Hermione asked interested.
"That's our secret," Draco answered with a smirk.
"But I'm counting on you to loan me your notes on your specialisation field," Hermione told them.
"What if we choose something you're not comfortable with?" Draco asked. "The sadomasochism talk sounded really interesting," he said in a serious voice.
"I'm comfortable enough with all introduced subjects to at least study them in theory," Hermione said
"Besides, you do not look like the S-M type," Blaise interjected.
"It's so unfair that we can only choose one field," Hermione complained before Blaise could begin on talking about what sex type he believed Draco and Harry were.
"Even if the Ministry still had some Time-Turners, do you really think that they would hand them out to randy teenagers so that they could learn several kinds of kinky sex magic?" Harry questioned.
"But it is for learning!" Hermione exclaimed.
The boys just shook their heads and changed the topic to Quidditch.
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Friday, 16th January 1998
Draco was more than relieved when Hermione asked their Sexual Potions Professor about the use of vomit. While Mister Merewether had told them that nearly every third potion brewed via the human cauldron method required vomit, Professor Essentjelly told them that only every fiftieth to seventieth human cauldron potion included vomit.
Professor Essentjelly was so angered by Mister Merewether's wrong statement that they had a rather intense argument during the informal question and answer session Professor Greige organised for the afternoon. While the argument was amusing to watch if you decided for another specialisation field, the ones who had considered human fluids were unsettled. Who could they trust? Professor Essentjelly or Mister Merewether? And why did Professor Greige not interfere?
What surprised Harry and Draco even more was that, because of the argument, one of the Hufflepuffs actually considered to ask Professor Snape for his opinion. "Snape may be an ass, but he knows what he's doing when it comes to Potions," Dean commented. "I really hope that they'll go through with it. Snape's reaction is sure to be hilarious." Harry, on the other hand, hoped to be far away if the Hufflepuff really should ask Snape about anything related to Sexual Magic.
Going around, Harry and Draco listened to an interesting talk between Ernie Macmillan, Blaise and Mister Cathen about the art of bondage. Their own talk with Mister Harper fortified their decision to choose him as their specialisation teacher. The chemistry between the three of them was good and relaxed. They talked about Kamasutra and Ritual Magic, but also about Quidditch and joked about the argument between Professor Essentjelly and Mister Merewether. All in all, the meeting Professor Greige had organised was a one hundred percent success. Everyone had a good time in a relaxed and open atmosphere, could test out how comfortable they felt around their potential teacher and thus, nearly everyone had decided on a specialisation field by the time they left the room.
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AN: I want to thank AnimeBook's for inspiring me to write about the protection of under-aged children in press articles.
Poll: There is a new pole. It's about Harry and Draco's next ritual. Vote if you want to have a say.
Next: Their first Kamasutra lesson.