A/N : I own nothing, I'm still as poor as ever, so definitely not making any money from this

Thanks to my beta, Salce, who only read the preliminary version of this chapter, so hopefully the changes will be a nice surprise for all his hard work.

Big thanks to the rest of you, I still try to reply to you all, thoughts and ideas are always welcomed, this is quite an important chapter, I hope you like it. There are some naughty words in this chapter, be warned

Chapter Nine

Peace Hath Her Victories

"Harry? Harry?"

His chin was resting against his chest, he didn't remember dropping off, he slowly opened his eyes, Narcissa was gazing at him inquisitively.

"You weren't asleep, but you were miles away, a knut for your thoughts"

"I was thinking about the night we spent with the Pensieve"

"That was a good night, I could scarcely believe what you showed me, anyway, I'm sorry for pulling you out of your thoughts but I was thinking about food, are you hungry?"

"Not really, you?"

"Perhaps I'll have something in a little while" she bit her bottom lip and looked at him lasciviously

She sat up suddenly and repositioned herself onto his lap, draping her arms around his neck, she nibbled on his ear and kissed his neck.

"Tell me you love me" he capitulated "tell me you want me" again he submitted to her request, she kept her voice seductively low, he complained loudly as she stood and moved back "then come and get me"

Narcissa fixed her blue eyes on him, he looked back at her with lust flaring in his green eyes and then she disapparated. He cursed the unfairness of it to the room at large, her tactics were just so, well Slytherin, he sucked in a deep breath and set off to locate her, the game was on.

He headed out into the entrance hall and climbed the grand staircase to the floor above, long corridors stretched off in each direction, with no idea where Narcissa's room was, he chose a direction at random, and set off looking for any clues that may point to her location. Halfway towards the first door he stopped dead and pressed his palm to his forehead, he took out his wand and cast 'Homenum Revelio' with her location revealed he turned on his heel and walked off in the opposite direction.

He entered her room, if he had been asked to describe the bedroom, Harry wouldn't have the faintest idea, he only had eyes for the woman lying in the middle of the bed, she was obviously naked, covered only in thin sheets that hugged her shape perfectly, accentuating each curve. Unable to tear his eyes away from her, uncooperative fingers attempted to remove his own clothes.

"You cheated"

"You didn't say magic wasn't allowed, um, this isn't the room you shared with..."

"No! Do try not to kill the mood, this is my room"

"Sorry"

Sliding in beside her she turned to face him and pressed her body up against his, his hands travelled a slow path around her body and up into her hair, he slowly moving in for a kiss and she closed her eyes in anticipation. In their time together she noticed that they were very well matched as lovers, both happy to submit or dominate depending on their mood or need.

She kissed him fiercely, he caught her bottom lip with his teeth which caused the blonde woman to let out a small moan, he seized this small advantage and claimed her mouth with his tongue, she flexed her nails across his back, he let out a small yelp of pain and pulled back to look at her, they lock their eyes on each other, she wasn't the least bit sorry, she slowly ran her tongue over her lips and winked salaciously at him.

Not to be outdone, he kissed her moistened lips with renewed vigour, moving along her jaw and down her neck, he stopped at her pulse point, sucking gently, she threw her head back offering all of her neck to him, he lingered there awhile before trailing hot kisses across her chest and stomach, her pale skin was flushed, and thin sheen of sweat caught the light and made her glisten.

He pushed his arms straight, holding himself above Narcissa, he would occasionally take a few moments to enjoy this view, when he first did it she had felt shy and self conscious, but now she enjoyed his attentions, hungry green eyes took in every detail, he wet his lips, the slight salty tang lingered from kisses placed on her glistening skin. Pleading blue eyes go unnoticed, a leg hooked round his waist and arms wrapped around his shoulders, nails scraped long red paths down his back, she was successful in pulling their bodies back together, moans of pleasure vibrate against his neck, muffled, she revelled in his tenderness, and despite the slow pace, it was no less intense.

When Narcissa craved control, she was wild and vocal, nothing at all like Ginny, Harry couldn't help compare, as she was the entire scope of his sexual knowledge, and compared to this fabulous woman, well, in truth, there was no comparison.

Eventually they had some time out for food and drink, with their thirst and hunger sated, the appetite for each other was not. Narcissa had once told Harry that he made her feel like a horny teenager, something she had never really experienced in her youth due to the restrictions of her upbringing, she did not appreciate him laughing, once he explained that he'd never expected to hear those words from her mouth, coupled with a few placating kisses thrown in for good measure, she stopped sulking.

Harry enjoyed the rare moments in which Narcissa opened up to him, he would always reciprocate, she kept her feelings well guarded while he would freely give a little bit more of himself to her, and in doing so, the often rare moments became less so.

Something had awakened in the blonde witch, she was frequently inappropriate, not that Harry minded in the least, but the change was sometimes so profound he almost had to do a double take. For years he had never ever seen her smile, granted, he had only ever seen her a few times, now he lived for her smile.

Finally spent, happy and satisfied they fell asleep, limbs wrapped around each other and tangled in sheets. In the morning Harry woke Narcissa up with gentle kisses, this was an act that she proclaimed she could very quickly become accustomed to.

"Stay with me today, Draco and Astoria are coming round, what better time to tell him" Harry looked nothing short of horrified

"I was hoping we could put that off as long as possible"

"You still need to offer him his promotion, so we can start with that, and when the moment is right, tell him about us"

"I'm not so sure" she propped herself up on her elbow to look at him properly

"This is important to me, please"

"How could I ever say no to you, probably shouldn't have said that out loud, I guess I'll have to trust you not to abuse the power you have over me"

"Would I?"

"All signs would point to yes" she put on her best look of mock hurt with a hand over her heart, the devilish smirk and fluttered eyelashes ruined the overall aesthetic, Harry rolled his eyes at her and threw himself back heavily onto the mattress.

When they eventually got out of bed and dressed, most of the morning had gone, they ate a very late breakfast. Harry had Kreacher bring him the paperwork for Draco's promotion, he was going to go back and get it himself, but Narcissa was unwilling for them to be parted, and he liked that side of her a lot.

As the time moved inexorably closer to Draco's arrival, every nerve in his body was on high alert and his stomach felt like it was on a washing machine spin cycle. They were sat together on a sofa in a cosy side room.

"Doesn't your hair ever do as its told" she laughed while half heartedly attempting to tame it

A noise from the direction of the door made the pair flinch and pull apart, both looking more than a little guilty. She composed herself in seconds, she stood and crossed the room to hug her son, she turned to the young woman at his side and they gave each other a friendly peck on the cheek. The introductions were made, Harry shook Astoria by the hand, and they sat back down at a small circular table, an elf appeared bearing a large tray of refreshments.

"I wasn't expecting to see you here, Potter" ever since they first met, Draco's distinctive drawl hadn't changed one bit.

"Be nice Draco, I invited him, he's here as my guest" the Malfoy heir raised his eyebrows but said no more

Astoria seemed to be a very pleasant woman, she smiled warmly at Harry and talked animatedly to him and Narcissa while Draco looked on in mild annoyance. Every now and again Narcissa gave Harry's knee a reassuring squeeze underneath the table, the contact became more and more frequent, until her hand was staying on his leg for longer, he caught her eye and saw the look of mischief on her face, thankfully Draco and Astoria didn't notice.

He found himself wondering what on earth the blonde was thinking, he didn't have to wait long to find out, her hand returned, warm on his leg and moved slowly upwards, her nails dragged teasingly up his inner thigh, he jumped a tiny amount, the sudden jerk made his chair scrape loudly on the wooden floor, Draco's eyes narrowed with suspicion, and Harry felt a flush of heat on his cheeks, Narcissa was the picture of innocence.

"A little jumpy aren't we Potter?" what he wouldn't give to wipe the smirk off Draco's face

"Just a touch of cramp in my leg" he rubbed his calf to keep up the pretence and shot Narcissa a dirty look

Harry set his chair back and sat down, the quartet picked up the conversation from where they left off, Astoria, a highly skilled healer at St Mungo's, was regaling them with stories of the more bizarre and amusing things she'd dealt with during her time there. Even Draco cracked a smile after a particularly entertaining story of emergency wand removal.

"All this talk of work reminds me, I have something work related to talk to Draco about, but I left the paperwork in the library, please excuse me for just a moment"

Harry stood and left the room, he crossed the vast entrance hall and found the library, the door clicked shut behind him. He searched the tables near the collection of chairs dotted around the large fireplace, he could have sworn this was where he had left it, walking between the towering shelves, he looked for the small desk he had seen once in passing.

He neared the back of the room and saw it a little bit further down on the right, he had a cursory look through the papers littered across it, so wrapped up in his search he failed to notice that he was not alone. Pale arms snaked around his waist, anticipating a fairly violent reaction of surprise, the arms held him with an unexpected amount of strength, the hands roamed up to his chest and laid flat, she could feel his heart hammering against his ribcage.

"You scared the shit out of me"

"Watch your language, I didn't mean to scare you"

Narcissa circled round until they were face to face, she jumped back to sit on the desk top, papers scattered all over the floor, she pulled him closer with her legs, now she had him right where she wanted him, she grabbed a handful of shirt and pulled him into a kiss, once Harry had recovered from his initial shock, he kissed her back with just as much passion. Her hand found the back of his head, the points of her nails set off a prickling sensation across his scalp, he gently placed his warm hands on her hips and slid them around to the small of her back, she likes being kissed there, so he traced his fingers gently over that spot.

An almighty bang rattled the windows, the two lovers sprang apart, green eyes and blue eyes turn to the source of the noise, Draco looked apoplectic, red sparks fired intermittently from the tip of his wand, which he was gripping so tight his knuckles were white and they could see the remaining colour draining from his pale face.

Another bang, nowhere near as loud as the first, caused Harry to slam backwards against the shelf, he slid to the floor grunting in pain, he picked himself up, extracted his wand and cast a simple shield charm. Narcissa whispered a barely audible plea for him to not hurt her son causing a severe crisis of conscience. He forced himself to swallow his pride, he would let Draco vent his anger, he was confident in his defensive abilities and his feelings for the beautiful witch mattered more than scoring a few points against his old rival, who, in all fairness, had every right to be angry.

Straightening his glasses, he stepped away from the bookshelf, he walked out into open space and stared into Draco's cold grey eyes, Harry could see the anger flashing in them. Several spells were cast in quick succession and bounced harmlessly off Harry's shield, a vase shattered, a painting became dislodged, much to the displeasure of its occupant. Harry cast a few simple hexes, not intended to hit his target but cast with enough power to force his opponent on the defence.

"I'll make you pay for whatever charm you've used on my mother, fight me Potter, or are you just a coward" flecks of spit flew from his mouth as he shouted the words

"There is nothing cowardly about not wanting to hurt someone"

The growing sneer across Draco's face was twisted, ugly and full of hatred, Harry recast his shield charm, stronger this time, a few beads of sweat betrayed the fatigue of the angry young man, spell after spell flew from the tip of Draco's wand only to be rendered impotent by Harry's shield charm.

"Draco! What in merlin's name is going on?"

"Stand back Tori, this is between me and Potter"

He sent a few more jinxes towards Harry to no avail.

"Tell me what this is about or I swear you'll be sleeping on the sofa until I decide otherwise"

His wand arm droped slightly after sending one last, half hearted spell towards the black haired man. Narcissa walked over and stood next to Harry. With Draco momentarily distracted by his furious wife, his mother took the opportunity to quietly thank Harry, she gave him a peck on the cheek and he felt uncomfortably hot all of a sudden, the blonde witch chuckled softly, and playfully pinched his backside, the woman was totally inappropriate.

Astoria's voice cut through the silence "So?" she crossed her arms across her chest, Draco had the good sense to look a little ashamed

"I caught Potter violating my mother, he has obviously bewitched her" she looked incredulously at her husband.

"Violated?"

"He was kissing her, it amounts to the same thing" he looked like a scolded child complete with pout

A gentle tap on his arm and Harry tuned out of the brewing domestic to look at Narcissa.

"While it's like this perhaps it would be best if you went home and I'll deal with this"

"I don't want to leave you"

"That's sweet, but I can deal with this, Astoria will help"

With no reason to argue with the woman, her eyes flicked to the room's other two occupants and then back to Harry, they kissed and then he headed to the fireplace. As he's walking towards the fireplace he heard his name and he couldn't help eavesdrop.

"Draco, I highly doubt Harry would do anything to your mother, or are you forgetting what a powerful witch she is?

Draco mumbled something unintelligible, Astoria ignored him and continued

"You said yourself that she had been miserable stuck in this place, then all of a sudden she was happy, you said she was like a new woman" she poked him hard in the shoulder as if to emphasise her point "I think it's great, there hasn't been a union between the Potters and Blacks for over fifty odd years, you should be happy for her"

Harry couldn't believe his ears, he never thought that Draco's wife would be fighting in his corner, feeling strangely uplifted by what he had just heard he stepped into the green flames and returned home. He stopped by his tapestry room, the link between himself and Narcissa had fully formed not that long ago, but that was not why he was here, he walked back through the decades until he saw two names, Charlus Potter and Dorea Black, it seemed that Astoria was spot on and was surprised he hadn't noticed before, after all, he had spent a lot of his spare time poring over the tapestry.

He stepped into the living room and poured himself a drink, he set his wand and glass on the table and sat himself down, picking up that day's Daily Prophet. There was nothing in the paper that really grabbed his attention so he threw it onto the chair opposite, unable to quash his anxiety and restlessness, he stood, picked up his drink and walked over to the window to look out onto the square outside.

As he gazed into the middle distance sipping at the amber liquid and savouring the burn, he smiled to himself, it seemed that every time Narcissa had come to visit she would find him staring out of this window, he found it relaxing, Kreacher popped in, muttered something and popped out again, Harry just shrugged his shoulders at the world in general.

Trusting his instincts had served Harry well in the past, he was no longer alone.

"Evening Draco, have you come to kill me?" he turned to his guest, he stood in the doorway, his wand pointed right at Harry's chest "How did you manage to get away from your wife and mother?"

"Still so cocky, you don't even have your wand, the manor is a big place, I stormed off to cool off, I had no end of opportunities to slip into a vacant fireplace"

"Can I get you a drink? It's Fire Whiskey, I assume it's a good one, it came from your father's liquor cabinet" the anger flared in Draco's grey eyes and his wand arm twitched

Harry moved over to the drinks cabinet and the wand trained on him followed his every move, he fetched a second glass and poured out a generous measure.

"You think you're so fucking funny Potter"

"Kiss your mother with that mouth?" he regretted the words as soon as he said them, visibly shaking with rage, Draco shot a spell at Harry leaving a nasty cut across his cheek, a small amount of the fire whiskey he held splashed over the rim of the glasses, he placed them down and wiped blood from the stinging cut.

Harry could feel his own anger rising, he strode over to Draco who was too slow to react, he stood there wide eyed as he's grabbed by the arm and dragged to a room opposite. He was roughly shoved over to Harry's section of the tapestry.

"Look, I assume you've seen this kind of tapestry before, tell me what you see"

"That's not possible" Draco had all but gone limp. "It's still wrong to drag my mother into a sordid affair, don't you think her reputation has suffered enough"

"What are you on about?"

"You, carrying on with my mother and then you head home to fuck the weasel"

Harry took a deep, steadying breath, feeling glad that his wand was in the other room as the temptation to cause Draco some serious harm was overwhelming.

"Remember the day I had the Minister in my office?" He just nodded "that was so he could finalise my divorce, he dealt with it personally" it was almost funny watching Draco unravel before his eyes.

"I divorced her because I wanted to be with Narcissa"

"I should have noticed, it's all so obvious now" this statement had Harry confused

"What do you mean?"

"My job, the Auror's looking after my mother, it was all too good to be true" his voice was full of bitter resentment

"I thought you loved your job"

"I do, but I fooled myself into thinking I got it on merit, and that mother's name was worth something and that's why she had preferential treatment"

Harry felt the conversation getting away from him, so he concentrated on the parts he did understand.

"All my staff choices have to go through Kingsley, I gave him several candidates each time an assignment came up, you were chosen because you are the best choice, so get over yourself"

Draco might not want a drink, but Harry needed his and returned to the living room, Draco drifted along behind him, he shoved the second glass into an unresisting hand and sipped from his own.

"As for the Aurors, I requested them before anything happened between Narcissa and myself (Harry wasn't at all comfortable referring to the woman as Draco's mother all the time) but Kingsley decided that she was no longer at risk and pulled all the funding, so I fund it"

"Why?" all the fight had been knocked out of him it seemed

"She protected me, I want to protect her"

The young blonde man collapsed into the nearest chair and took a big gulp of his drink, shuddered slightly at the intensity of it and coughed violently, Harry slapped him on the back until he was able to get it under control.

"I have also put your name forward to take the place of that miserable old fossil when he leaves, that's if you're interested? Make no mistake, I'm not doing it to put your nose out of joint, I had to give Kingsley the best, annoyingly it happens to be you"

"Purvis is leaving? Thank fuck for that, everyone hates him, but that would make me your second in command" Harry just nodded while Draco finished his drink, more carefully this time.

"No need to make your mind up now, just ask your mum for the paperwork, I couldn't find it and then I was distracted"

"I'm still not happy about this Potter, Tori is furious with me, mother wasn't best pleased either, will you come back to the manor? It might get me out of some of the shit I'm in"

"I wasn't expecting acceptance quite so quickly" Harry grinned into his drink

"I wouldn't go that far, so will you come back?"

"Fine, but I'm coming back because, well, just because, it's purely coincidental that it also benefits you"

With a temporary truce declared, the two men headed to the kitchen to floo back to Malfoy Manor.