A/N: Geez! I'm so sorry this is late! –blushes- I'm sooooo sorry!

Chapter 9

He wanted to rush over to his mate, though he knew that would ruin the peaceful atmosphere around the other man.

Gods! Lucius thought with exhausting lust. He's so much more beautiful and attractive and… younger than I'll ever be. I'll never look so youthful. I'm so old. How could he ever want me?

The blonde felt a stab of his Malfoy pride intervening. He was a Malfoy! Malfoy's are perfect! Some plain wizard who isn't even pureblooded can't outdo a Malfoy, and a veela at that!

Yet his veela side was disagreeing wholeheartedly. Beautiful. His mate would always outshine himself. No creature, not even himself, could ever compare to such beauty! Bloodlines had nothing to do with it. His mate had been well bred and had turned out to be the most gorgeous, most powerful wizard in all of the magical world.

How could he possibly compare? It was a crippling thought… to hope to be with such beauty one day and to know that you could never compare to such a shining enigmatic form.

He could always…

No.

No. If he did that…

Could it work? Would his mate want him then?

It was a thought… but how?

No. He wouldn't even consider it…

And yet…. It was so enticing –the thought of finally being able to earn his mate. To be able to 'reach for the stars', so the saying goes.

Could it work? It could. He would just need…

No. That was a stupid thought. He had to stop thinking these things.

But it could work!

Lucius looked back to his mate –glowing in the gentle rays of the warm sun in this cold atmosphere that seemed so much warmer now that he was looking upon his mate again. It was as if all of the tense feelings of sadness and pain and loss that had been building up for more than a year, were finally being released. And to think… he was only looking at his mate.

Earlier that day…

Crookshanks lounged leisurely over the back of the couch sleepily as the sun shown through the large bay windows across the room over him.

He had been trying to sleep for the past few hours, but his restless master had made that task quite impossible. She hadn't been able to sit still the night before, and now she was shuffling around everywhere, with circles under her eyes, cleaning everything in sight. The night before she had taken it upon herself to keep her cat company, which –unfortunately for him- also included talking to Crookshanks through the better part of the night.

She needs another stupid human. The wise cat thought to himself as he watched her rush back and forth, wiping every table with a cloth that had been doused with a terrible smelling potion the witch had been up the rest of the night brewing. Someone to take her mind off of everything else. He scrunched up his nose. Especially cleaning. Damn her and her horrid female instincts to clean. This smell is bad enough to wake the dead!

All the windows had had to be opened to air out the house and now the downstairs was beginning to get a bit cool.

Crookshanks leapt from his perch and quickly shot through the room before he could be noticed, or caught in another attempt from his master for 'small talk'.

The cat slinked up the stairs stealthily, skipping the cracked step, so as to avoid slivers in his paw, which would draw the insanity that was his master's attention. He stalked over to her bedroom and used his head to push the slightly ajar door opened enough for him to get through.

With one graceful leap, he was up atop of her writing desk in front of the open window –again in the sun.

His master's room had been the first thing to have been gone through thoroughly, but because the window had been left open, the smell was mostly gone, and any lingering scent wasn't so bad that Crookshanks couldn't ignore it.

Finally. Some well-deserved rest. He sighed softly.

As the brindle cat finally fell into a gentle slumber, a familiar snowy owl flew through the window and practically crashed onto the desk in a tired ungraceful way.

By the Cat Goddess! Crookshanks snapped into a defensive stance, his hackles raised as he glared at the owl with homicide clearly intent in his eyes.

Where is she? The snowy owl asked with a wise air about her.

Holy hairballs, Hedwig! You bloody owl! How dare you disturb my rest! The cat snapped back in silent reply as he glared hatefully at his flying feathered friend.

You sleep more than three halves of the day away, what will three seconds of your time really cost you? The owl responded reasonably.

I have been up all night, placating my master, then trying to sleep, but as you can plainly see, I failed at both! She is below, cleaning with that foul potion again! I daresay I shall leave a lovely little treat in the shoe of the bastard that taught her that potion! He growled menacingly.

Hedwig seemed to smile in that moment. I believe my master would gladly help you in your escapades. She responded. Thank you, Crookshanks. I am terribly sorry to have bothered your rest.

With that said, Hedwig turned and flew back out the window to swoop around the misty house and find the correct window that would lead her to Hermione.

"What is it!" Hermione screeched in annoyance as she glared at all the clean objects around her. Not a speck of dust anywhere and it was only six twenty-nine in the morning. What would she do for the rest of the day? She would drive herself mad thinking of what was wrong, but wasn't. It was like that feeling that you had to go somewhere, and you know you've forgotten something, but you can never quite figure out what it was. "Why do I have this feeling?" She asked herself. It had been terrible. All night her woman's intutition had told her that something was going to happen. She was sure that she was missing a piece to the puzzle somewhere, but she neither knew the problem, nor the missing piece.

She huffed as she plopped heavily down into the chair that was Harry's favorite. She tried not to sit in it too often, or to let anyone else sit in it. It was Harry's; and that was that.

As she began to ponder the wonders of Harry's chair, said-man's owl came swooping into the room through one of the open windows.

"Hey, girl!" She called happily as she rose from her seat. "Have you got a letter from Harry for me?" She asked stupidly.

Of course the owl had a letter for her. It was wrapped around Hedwig's leg! Had Hedwig been more of a juvenile bird, she would have rolled her eyes at the question? She impatiently held out her leg to the bushy-haired woman, wanting to be free of the parcel she had flown so far to deliver during the night.

She knew the witch would probably want to pen a reply, but she didn't honestly desire to stick around any longer.

Hermione read the note quickly, then pulled a piece of parchment from a hidden draw beneath a side-table beside the luxurious couch. She took the quill that tourists always thought was cute, off of its fancy perch and dipped it into a bottle of ink she also kept in plain sight.

Without sounding like she was too worried, Hermione wrote a reply detailing her thoughts to Harry that something might be happening soon, and she dreaded that it would probably be happening to Harry. It was better to warn the man ahead of time, rather than tell him some time later that she might have known.

With a gentle smile and an owl treat in hand, Hermione tied the letter back to Hedwig's leg and sent her off.

Bloody witch! Hedwig chirped bitterly. Didn't offer me to stay, or have any water or anything! How indecent! She flew off to a nearby birdbath that she knew of in a neighbor's yard. At least my master has the decency to feed me when I need it, love me even when I don't require it, and set me free when I desire.

Ah. Now to get back to the Malfoy Manor. That would be another few hours from then before she even arrived.

She sighed. It would probably be near midday before she arrived for another rest, but she needed to get back to her master. What if he was in desperate need of her whilst she was gone? It wasn't as if he could use one of those other owls. They were so terribly frosty and unreliable. She was trustworthy and dependable.

Just that knowledge in mind made Hedwig proud. It made her want to fly back all the faster and be there for when her master did need her.

I'm coming, Master. She thought determinedly.

Present time:

Harry stared up at the sunny sky as he felt a change in the breeze. Sunbathing was lovely. Just letting yourself absorb the sun like that, but it also made your body very sensitive to any kind of changes in the weather rather drastically.

Ceres was off somewhere to the side; sleeping in the sun probably, but the snake had clearly wanted to be alone.

He tiredly looked around the skies for whatever had disturbed his rest.

Ah! There's his distraction.

Hedwig soured gracefully through the air above like a hawk searching for her prey before diving down toward her master and using the wind to flutter effortlessly down until she had landed beside the dark-haired wizard.

"Hello, Hedwig!" Harry exclaimed happily as he affectionately rubbed the curve of her neck. "Did you deliver the message to 'Mione?" He wondered.

The owl puffed up indignantly, as if to ask, 'Where the hell else do you think I was?'. He smiled at her and laid back down.

"I'm sorry. I don't have any treats with me at the moment, but I left my window open for you." He spoke as he unraveled the tie to set her free of her burden. "There should be some food and water on my desk below the window. You can rest in there, if you like." He went to pet her soft feathers again and she nibbled lovingly at his fingers before taking back off into the air and using the current to help guide her tired body to her master's room in the maze of windows that made up the outside of Malfoy Manor.

Harry breathed in deeply, then slowly let it out as he watched her fly away. He tried vainly to remember if he had actually left his window open. He paused in thought. He hoped that he had, or he would have one very angry owl coming after him soon. It was a very long trip from Hermione's house to the Manor, and there weren't many places to stop for water along the way without going a great distance out of one's way.

He looked down at the envelope and decided he would read it later. After folding it up, he stuffed it into his back pocket and laid back down with a heave of fresh air.

Lucius watched his mate with lust brimming inside him. So close. So very close. What could he do? To get closer…

He had it! Brilliant!

The blonde casually left the tree he had hidden under, making his way to the path of the garden without making a sound. (Thank Merlin for his veela grace!)

Lucius brought out everything from himself that was veela and walked confidently down the path toward his lounging mate.

At the gentle sound of footsteps on the stone path Harry's eyes broke open when he noticed that the steps were too heavy to have been his younger blonde friend.

He closed his eyes again as he decided that Lucius wasn't enough of a threat to warrant him sitting up, especially when he felt this comfortable laying out in the sun.

"Hello, Harry." Lucius greeted, slowing his pace and stopping in front of Harry, but so that he wasn't in his mate's sun.

"Lucius." He responded tartly without moving.

When Harry sensed that the other man hadn't moved he opened one of his eyes and squinted the other open, shading his face with his hand to be able to see the blonde's face.

His hair looks like threads of gold in this light. Harry thought idly, also wondering why he hadn't noticed that about Draco's hair. Probably because it wasn't as long as Lucius'. The younger blonde seemed to like his hair much shorter than his father's. Either that, or Lucius just hadn't gotten around to having his hair trimmed down yet.

"Did you want something?" Harry demanded after the other man merely stood there for nearly a minute.

"Yes, actually." Lucius nodded once, then said no more.

Harry growled in irritation, watching the Malfoy smirk down at him as he rose from the ground, dusting himself off and snapping again:

"Well, what the bloody hell is it?"

"Is what?" The blonde responded innocently, loving the way Harry looked when he was agitated.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" He asked dangerously, and Lucius realized how little patience his mate had at the moment. It was probably from having his sunbathing disrupted.

"I was curious to whether you would like to go flying with me?" He finally asked, inwardly cringing at the possible retorts that might come back at him. "Perhaps a game of Quidditch between us?" Lucius queried with an elegantly raised brow.

"Quidditch?" Harry responded; intrigued, yet confused and doubtful.

"Yes. A one-on-one for Seekers." Lucius added helpfully.

Harry's brow shot up underneath his long bangs. "You play Seeker?" He questioned disbelievingly.

"Why do you think Draco took that position instead of Beater?" The veela asked, a golden brow arched handsomely above his crystal blue eye.

The brunet decided not to respond, but Lucius could definitely tell he was intrigued by the idea of getting on a broom again.

"I don't have my broom here." Harry spoke finally. Lucius almost sighed with relief at the consent, but held it in, just incase the dark-haired wizard decided that he wanted to retract his acquiescence.

"We have a broom shed, but I'm afraid the newest broom it contains is only a few Firebolts. None of the new models."

Harry shrugged with a slight smile forming on his lips. "That's the last broom I bought as well, so it should be fine, as long as they're not hexed or anything." He glared warningly at the blonde.

"Why would I hex them?" Lucius asked, slightly miffed at the thought that he would intentionally harm his mate.

The young wizard chose not to respond to that, and instead looked around the vast garden again. "So, where shall we fly then?"

"A few miles to the East is a large open field. That should prove sufficient for our game, yes?" Lucius asked with a raised brow, trying to seem uncaring though his heart was really beating a mile a minute. His façade must have worked because Harry nodded in compliance.

"That sounds fine."

They both began walking toward the Manor for their supplies. The veela felt his body heat up with warmth as he watched his mate out of the corner of his eye. There was a slight bounce in his step that let the blonde know he was eager for this game.

"It shouldn't take long for me to beat you, anyway." Lucius spoke snidely without looking over to his mate, who immediately snapped his head toward Lucius about to jump at the bait. At the last moment he caught and restrained himself, which was quite the difficult task with his Gryffindor pride being questioned.

"We'll see if you can keep up…" Harry responded casually, though his entire manner was quite playful indeed, "… old man."

Lucius' eyes snapped wide open as he turned to look at Harry, but the youth was fighting a wide grin. The blonde had been terribly insulted that his mate would think him an old man and it only made him feel more self-conscious, but with his mate joking with him now, he really couldn't think of anything else aside from:

I caused him to smile. He smiled because of me! And a proud smirk appeared across his features as they stalked into the Manor.

"Eva!" Lucius called out as they entered the Manor. He slowly placed one hand on his mate's shoulder daringly and felt the man flinch in surprise, turning to look at him.

"What?" He demanded, a bit startled.

"I just wanted to take your cloak for you." Lucius responded coolly, though he felt deeply saddened that his mate would flinch at his touch. He told himself quickly that he had merely startled the other man, and it wasn't really just because he had touched him.

Harry looked pleasantly surprised and untied his cloak with deft fingers as Lucius came up behind him and slid the cloak off his shoulders delicately. It gave him shivers, but he chose to ignore those.

"Master?" Eva called softly through the silence between the two men, and the blonde remembered that he had indeed summoned her.

"Please pull out my old Quidditch robes, and find Mister Potter suitable robes as well." He told her handing her Harry's cloak. "And hang Mister Potter's cloak for him."

"Quidditch?" Draco called out as he stepped into the Manor through the same door they had. He gave a sharp bark of laughter. "You can use my robes if you like." Draco told Harry as he measured him up silently.

The way Draco looked his mate over made Lucius fiercely jealous, but his more rational adult side told him Draco didn't think of Harry like that. It didn't help his jealous veela side any though.

"You look about my size. Maybe a bit bigger around the chest, but they should fit you well enough for a play-match. Hope you don't mind green?" Draco teased with a smirk.

Harry sneered for a moment, then shrugged with a sigh. "We all know I'm Gryffindor. I suppose it doesn't matter what robes I wear."

Lucius' eyes widened as he heard these things. Where was the boy that he had remembered from so long ago? He had matured, and grown into a real man. It had happened some time in the past two years and Lucius felt proud that his mate was so mature; it seemed to almost bring their ages closer together, but the veela still knew his mate was hardly an adult. He had experienced many things most adults never would, and yet he was still a child at heart. He was playing a part by being an adult, but deep inside, the older blonde could see his mate wanted to release the child inside of him. Hopefully he would help with that during their little Quidditch match. Maybe it would bring back the laughing sparkle to those gorgeous green orbs behind those thick black lashes.

Beautiful.

"Oh, but you'll look so cute in my old robes!" Draco exclaimed.

"I could just go retrieve my old team robes from one of those boxes I left in your attic." Harry suggested, but Draco was already shoving him up the stairs toward his room.

When Draco walked back after Harry had started to move by himself, Lucius was about to snap off Draco's head for his comments when his son winked at him.

"My robes will be too small on him." Draco told his father suggestively. "I hope you enjoy the view. It might get kind of hot out there… he might want to… you know… take off the robes and play without them."

Now that his son's logic was clear, Lucius smirked devilishly at his flesh and blood.

"I taught you well."

"Yes, of course. Now, go change!" He shoved his father off toward the West Wing with a gentle smile. "We need to speak together later after this is through. Meet me in my room before dinner." Draco spoke deeply and Lucius knew it was serious, but it could obviously wait a while longer.

He continued toward his room at a happy pace, totally ignoring his Aunt's curses at him as he walked silently by, whistling softly to himself in some random tune.

Draco sighed as he watched his father climb the stairs.

Did he hear whistling?

No. Couldn't be. He shrugged it off, then thought of their later conversation again.

He didn't want to burst the other blonde's happy moment. He would be spending the entire afternoon with his mate. Perhaps Draco wouldn't even have to break the news to his father.

He highly doubted that… but it was a possibility.

A/N: Ai. This was a bit late, but things are definitely progressing, very soon. Even if you don't think this part was crucial, it was in my mind. –blush-

To those wonderful reviewers that keep me going:

Strega: I don't think you mentioned how much you liked the screaming portrait, but I'm glad you do, it has to be my favorite part of the story so far. We'll get to that bit where Draco tells Lucius about Harry leaving –probably in the next chapter, but I'm not sure. The next chapter might have to be extra long, or a little short to accommodate. I'm not sure yet.

Shewolfe7: Thank you. I'm glad you like it. The next chapter should prove to be a bit… interesting. I hope you stick around for it!

DaftMeg: You see into the characters so well. It's stunning. I'm happy you like the story so far.

Jesse: I'm sorry this took so long, and you check for updates every day? I am not on your author alert list? I hate to disappoint you daily without updates. I only update every two weeks or so though. I write it, then take time to stew over it before adding, to make sure everything will fit well. Oh, and you know, I was actually thinking of putting Hermione and Draco together at first. Key words… "at first". I actually read one fic where they worked well together, but I doubt I could live up to that, so I'm going a different route. You'll see. All in due time.

HecateDeMort: Thanks. –blush- So glad you put in your own two cents. If there's anything you'd like to see, please speak up, I'm open to suggestions. It's not all set in stone… yet.

GothicAnn87: Oh, yeah! I way appreciate every last word, even if the only word on the review is 'Great'. It makes me very happy to know that someone took the time to say anything at all. Most people just read it and say, 'well, now I have to wait for the next update' instead of encouraging the updates. It's that last review I usually get like the day before my next update that gives me the energy to write for like six hours straight, you know? I'm babbling. Sorry. And sorry this took a while, but I … eh, life happened. –smile- -shrug-

Lykaois Nyx: I hope I spelt your name right. I had to go back a forth a few times. Maybe I'll do better the next time you review? –hint hint- Your birthday was a while ago? Congrats! Happy belated Birthday! Yes, I like the bickering between Draco and Harry as well. It's fun to write. At first I had them as perfect friends, but then I realized what a crock that would be in real life, so I used my special talent for sarcastic and lewd remarks, and made some conflict.

Immortal Memories: Yes, I suppose it would be funny if Neville were Draco's mate, but I never saw them as anything together. Perhaps Neville and Ginny, but not really anyone else. I've read fics with him paired with Snape, or Ron, or someone and it's just… not real… Anyway, sorry about the delay!

A-Brighter-Dawn: I saw you started a new story. Is that going to interfere with your updates on your others? –whimpers- I hope not. –blushes- Thanks for the compliments. I learned to add those small details a long time ago when my teacher told me to summarize this huge story into twenty-five words. I couldn't do it in less than thirty, and it's just become a huge thing with me since then. –blushes deeper- Your comments are so nice. I try to make stories flow, and that's where it usually catches me and makes me take longer, because something doesn't flow, so I have to get my creative juices flowing again before I can continue. It's always better to look at something with a fresh set of eyes. Thanks for reviewing, and I can't wait for you to update again either!

Salena-Jagonashi: Sorry it took me so long to update, but I'm very glad that you liked the story! I appreciate your input bunches!

Anux: Your name makes me think of the movie 'The Mummy' with Brandon Frasier. Anux-unamoon or something. I probably just murdered her name, but that's what it made me think of, but if you don't live in the US you probably have no idea who and what I'm talking about. Sorry. The Harry/Lucius interaction will begin shortly. The next chapter will be… interesting. I haven't written it yet, so I can't say if anything… definite happens, but I have a vague outline. –smirk- You'll have to wait and see.

Megami101: You're right. It is a shame there aren't more Lucius/Harry ships out there. There are so few good ones, and a lot of people just stop them half way through, or abandon them. I totally have this ending planned out though. This will be my second fully completed fic. –jumps with joy- I don't know how long it will take, but I'm looking forward to my mini celebration for myself before moving on to the next one I have planned and half written already, which also includes Harry and an older man.

Fragonknight01: Okay, Arwen, no stolen kisses in Harry's sleep or anything… I mean, he is an Auror after all, but that doesn't mean some interesting stuff might not happen in the next chappie. I'm getting all sorts of evil ideas even as I write this. I better get to it, neh?

Scorpion Moon Goddess: So sorry to torture you by just leaving it at that last thought, but I can't really help what my hands do. It's kind of automatic. You know? –shrugs- Sorry! It's been a while since my last update, but hopefully this makes up for the time difference.

The True Silver: Yes. Harry knows that he's Lucius' mate, but he's trying to work it all out in his head. He's not quite sure what to do, but he doesn't just want to jump into some relationship with someone he doesn't know at all. He's a suspicious Auror, and he's matured and grown quite a bit since a year ago. He won't rush in to things as easily as he once did for reasons I will explain in later chapters. So, read on! –chuckles-

Lionnes: Sorry about the lack of chapters for a while, but I only overshot my goal by two days. I was supposed to update on Monday and it's only Wednesday. I'm still kind of within range. I kind of had a report due on Monday though, so that left no time for updating. –begs forgiveness-

A/N: SORRY AGAIN! Please review this love-starved author! –pouts cutely-