––––––
The New Dawning
Chapter Seventeen: Imprinting
""
––––––
February 20, 2000
Harry's fingers drummed irritatingly on the coffee table, eyes unseeing. Paul, who was sitting in the recliner across from the smaller boy, rolled his eyes and stopped the fingers from moving with a single hand over top of them.
"What is your problem?" he wondered gently, voice quiet. Teddy was upstairs asleep, and he'd realized that talking at regular volume would alert the kid to the fact that he was there. Teddy seemed to be particularly fond of Paul, which Paul couldn't really understand , himself.
"I'm anxious," Harry responded, strained. "I... I..."
"Don't worry so much," Paul sighed, lifting the hand under his own and kissing it. "We'll know as soon as they do."
The last four or five days had been spent making a plan. They – the Aurors and Harry and Draco, seeing as the Pack and the Cullens weren't really part of this – had all agreed that they couldn't alert Bellatrix that they knew where she was. They had to act in silence. Tonight, some of the Aurors were going to put undetectable wards on the Lestrange Manor – monitoring wards and the like. They'd put in anti-apparition wards the night they made their move, which would be within the week – and hopefully Harry would be there.
Things had been amazingly tense between Harry and Ron since the night Harry had whispered about Ginny's death. Ron couldn't look Harry in the face anymore – and Harry didn't blame his longtime friend. It had taken nearly three years for Harry to come to terms with Ginny's death and to stop blaming himself. It would be three years in May. It might take Ron just as long to stop blaming Harry.
Hermione, of course, could care less about their little arguments – she'd been around the two of them for long enough to know that Ron would always come back around. She'd contacted Harry two days ago to tell him about her pregnancy, which Harry was honestly stoked about. He loved kids, and Hermione's pregnancy just meant that he had more kids to be around.
Harry stood abruptly, smiling, and shuffled over to the recliner. "Can I sit with you?" he whispered.
Paul chuckled. "Of course you can."
Paul's body was warm against his, maybe a little too warm, but Harry didn't care. He crawled into the recliner with the other man, curling up. There wasn't much room for him, so he was mostly on Paul's lap (not that Paul cared, of course).
"So, why do you think Seth's been acting so funny?" Harry asked, eyelids dropping a little. He stifled a yawn.
Ever since the night Draco had told them where Bellatrix was, Seth had been weird. He'd been practically avoiding everyone, this lost little puppy-dog look on his face all the while. Harry was worried for his newest friend, because the boy had never acted like this before.
Paul squirmed a little bit. "I, uh..."
"You know, don't you?" Harry accused, pouting a bit. Paul laughed, leaning up to kiss Harry's lower lip.
"I do know," Paul responded gently. "But that's for Seth to tell."
Harry chewed his lip and then nodded. "Okay."
Paul smirked, then leaned up to kiss Harry again. "You're so cute," he whispered, eyes bright, watching the blush spread across Harry's cheeks. "I'm lucky to have you, you know?"
"You're silly," Harry responded, nuzzling his face into Paul's neck. "I'm the lucky one."
"Nah, I'm just a moody shape-shifter," Paul laughed airily, then yelped when Harry nipped his neck. "Hey!"
"You don't like biting?" Harry asked innocently.
"Oh, you-"
Harry gasped as Paul flipped them suddenly. "Paul, what are you-"
"Paybacks," Paul's cheek lifted in a lopsided smile and he bent down to Harry's neck, watching the smaller boy wriggle around in anticipation. He bit there gently and then pulled away, not expecting Harry's fingers threaded through his hair.
"Let's experiment, Paul," the boy's voice was barely audible.
Paul's eyes sparked with curiosity, and then darkened. "Let's."
– – –
February 21, 2000
"Uncle Howwwwwieee."
This call was followed by a slightly-muffled couple of thumps on the door. Harry tried, valiantly, to ignore these interruptions of his sleep, but after only a few more knocks he gave in and rooted around for some boxers before slipping out of the bed.
His godson had two fingers in his mouth and his other hand wrapped around his sippy-cup, which was empty. "Juice?" the boy questioned, purple eyes huge.
"Teddy," Harry muttered, but traipsed to the kitchen obediently. His back hurt a bit and he was eager to get back to his bed. He got Teddy some juice and then scooped the little boy up, the staircase seeming ten miles long as he clomped up it. He sat Teddy in his room at the little Teddy-sized table and set up a child ward on the door so that the boy couldn't go running around and getting into trouble. Afterward he set up a monitoring charm. "If you get hungry, just say so," Harry yawned. The clock on the wall across from Teddy's room said it was only five in the morning.
Silly morning people.
The bed was still warm (no surprise there) when he crawled back into it. Paul rolled over, still asleep, and cuddled Harry closer.
At smile bloomed across Harry's face, and his eyes slipped closed.
It was three hours later when they were disturbed again. This time it wasn't Teddy, but rather, Draco – bursting into the room without knocking.
"Agh!" Draco shouted, covering his eyes. "Merlin, put some clothes on!"
Harry nuzzled further into Paul's side. "Maybe if you knocked instead of just coming in, you wouldn't have this problem."
"Well, I need to talk to you," Draco stated, glaring at Paul's form next to Harry's. "Well? What are you waiting for?" he demanded when Harry didn't move.
"If you insist," Harry shrugged, tossing the covers off himself and stepping out of bed. He was naked, a fact that Draco quickly saw. "Out of my room, please, Draco dear. Check on Teddy for me, yeah?"
A very jumpy Draco met him in the living room five minutes later, though Teddy was nowhere to be found. "He's asleep," Draco informed Harry.
"Oh. What do you need?" Harry wondered, plopping down in the recliner he and Paul had shared last night. He winced a little as a shooting pain went through his body.
Draco was amused by this, but said nothing about it. Instead, he murmured; "Is it true?"
Harry's eyebrows shot up. "Sorry, Draco, you're gonna have to give me more than that. I'm not a mind-reader."
"Can the shape-shifters really...find their soul-mates with one look?" Draco whispered, tugging on a lock of his normally well-kept blond hair. It was now hanging in his face, clean but not styled.
Harry looked confused. "I'm not really sure. I'm still a bit skeptical, but that's what Paul told me. It's called 'imprinting'."
"And he imprinted on you," Draco stated. "And you're...okay with this?"
"I wasn't at first," Harry shrugged. "But now...I think I am. A little."
Draco looked away. "I'm not."
"You're not okay with Paul imprinting on me?" Harry muttered, looking just so confused that it wasn't even funny. "Draco – what is this-"
"No, you dolt, I'm not okay with being imprinted on!"
Harry's eyes narrowed in that sudden-realization way.
"Seth?"
Draco nodded helplessly.