Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Yaayyyy! A thousand reviews! :D Now I can die in peace. Or live and finish this story because you, my fabulous reviewers, deserve at least that much for showing me such amazing support! :D Thank you again!
amy: We will eventually know what was in the letter, but not precisely, and not before a good while. At least, that's how I'm planning the story so far.
FanFiction Lover: I think I give up. I said Harry, Voldemort, Lucius and Severus already. Who else could manipulate the twins? Last guess...Sirius? Also, you want Voldemort to disregard Harry's sanity for his own sexual satisfaction? Well. That sounds like him. And Harry is a bit of a horny teenager, so who says he'll be able to stop either? He's just traumatising a bit. And it has to get worse before it gets better again, but don't worry, Harry will not be a weepy wuss about it either. Tonks doesn't know Harry well, I agree with you. Harry has changed a lot since she last saw him, after all. And lastly, yes, I agree with you. Lucius was stupid to burn it, but he didn't think that this one would just..burn. All the other messages had been more resistant than that.
Enjoy!
Chapter 38th: 15th of December 1997: Draco's return
Draco Malfoy sat in the Hogwarts Express, looking at the scenery passing rapidly before his eyes. He couldn't help but feel a bit nervous.
His fiancée was sitting next to him, presiding a discussion over the upcoming NEWTs to which the other occupants of the compartment were eagerly participating. Astoria herself was a year younger than them, but it didn't prevent her from contributing to the talks and drawing out the interesting ideas put forward by the other 7th years. It was an ability to which most Pureblood ladies aspired, but where most sadly failed because they tended to be too self-centered. Astoria managed it effortlessly. Draco expected nothing less of the future Lady Malfoy, but congratulated himself again internally on making the marriage contract fall to the younger of the two Greengrass sisters.
When the train pulled in King's Cross, he looked at the family and friends gathered to welcome the students. He quickly spotted his parents standing in the middle of the platform, the crowd respectfully standing a few feet away from them and their Aurors bodyguards.
Harry wasn't with them. Draco had been told, when he left for Hogwarts in September, that Harry would accompany them today if he could. 'If he was still alive' had been implied. Nothing in Harry's last letter to him had warned him for this, but he knew that, with the Dark Lord having such a volatile temper, and with Harry being so headstrong, the situation between them could have gone downhill very quickly.
Draco let out a breath slowly, his eyes closing briefly before he adopted his perfect mask again. He felt Astoria squeeze his hand once in support and suddenly felt very grateful for her presence in his life. He looked at her while he was waiting for the compartment to empty. Her blond hair was elegantly twisted and rested delicately on her left shoulder. Her turquoise eyes were watching him with an unmistakable concern buried under a layer of neutrality. Her lips had tightened minutely, expressing loudly to those who knew her well that she was distressed by his reaction. He sent her a quick smile to reassure her. She drew a bit closer to him and whispered in his ear:
"Such a crowd can be distressing. When I was younger, I preferred to wait for my sister at home."
Her words made him feel better. He tipped his head forward slightly, to let her know that he understood and agreed to reign in his fear until he was home.
He exited the compartment and the train with his natural poise. A sea of redheads frantically hugging each other and shouting boorishly temporarily blocked his way. The Mudblood wasn't with them, at least, or she would probably be nagging her little weasel boyfriend. She had opted to stay in the castle instead of returning to her loving adoptive family.
She had been lucky to be adopted at all, in his opinion. Her new family gave her too much leeway; it was positively scandalous. The Macmillans let her publicly deny any real bond to them and shout loudly to anyone who wanted to hear (and the unfortunate bystanders) that her parents were Muggles and that nobody could take away her love for them (even if she couldn't remember their names, let alone her brief stay with them). He had heard a hundred times already the sob story of how she could still fleetingly remember a smell of mint and 'freshness' when she thought of them. Salazar forbid, but he sometimes got the impression that her family let her venture into the Muggle World in search of her 'real' parents. Such behaviour would be properly scandalous, not to mention illegal. Too bad the Mudblood was too clever to say anything incriminating on the subject...
He stopped in front of his parents, his mask carefully in place as the cameras of the various wizarding newspapers blinded him with their flashes. He approached his mother first, kissed her cheek delicately before shaking his father's hand vigorously. His arm went back around his fiancée's waist, nodding elegantly to her before facing his parents again.
"Son," said his father ever so coldly in his usual public persona. "I trust you had a good journey?"
"I did, Father, thank you," he replied.
He turned to his mother, who looked strangely flushed and, dare he think it, slightly less...slender than usual. He barely kept an eyebrow from lifting in puzzlement on his forehead. It wasn't like her to let herself go so.
"May I ask how you are faring, Mother?"
Narcissa Malfoy had a cool smile for his son.
"Never better, Draco, I assure you. And what of your lovely fiancée?" she asked.
He turned to Astoria, giving her the permission to answer for herself.
"I am well, thank you, Milady," said Astoria, curtsying lightly.
His mother nodded in acceptance.
His father lifted his head imperiously and declared that it was time to go back home.
Astoria bid her farewell and returned to her family while the Malfoys Apparated back to their Manor.
.
The entrance parlour was empty. Draco heaved a deep sigh, failing to keep his composure. If Harry wasn't here either, this didn't bode well.
His father saw the defeat in his posture and attempted to reassure him.
"Draco, it's not what you think, he is..." he began, before a loud voice coming from the corridor interrupted him.
"Stop it! I can't believe you! I had to change my clothes three times already because you just keep adding to them. I'll have to dress with a high-collar like Snape if it continues!"
Recognising Harry's voice, Draco hurried to the door and opened it. Harry was standing with his back to the wall and his hand readjusting the collar of his robes nervously, glaring at the Dark Lord who was standing close in front of him, a teasing grin on his face and his red eyes nearly sparkling in amusement. This was a flabbergasting sight.
"Harry!" he called, his voice dripping in relief. Too much of it, judging by the evaluating look the Dark Lord sent him.
"My Lord," he said in a solemn and reverent tone, trying to compensate...And being too obvious at it, judging by the amused look Harry sent him this time. He was losing his touch after all that time at Hogwarts.
"Well, brat, I'll see you in five days. Try not to go look for trouble in the meanwhile," said the Dark Lord to Harry in a teasing and (dare he say it?) nearly...fond voice.
His friend glared at the Leader of Britain in answer. Gryffindors, seriously. How had he even survived that long?
"I never go look for anything! Trouble finds me!" protested Harry, before calming down marginally. "But yeah, see you in five days, I guess. And good luck with, you know, whatever you're doing and wherever you're going."
Obviously, the mystery of the Dark Lord's destination was plaguing Harry and he was fishing for answers.
The Dark Lord just smirked at Harry before he nodded at him and turned to nod at Draco's parents before he left the Manor. Draco didn't receive a nod. He hadn't thought he would. The Dark Lord barely ever acknowledged his presence, for some reason. Sometimes he thought the Dark Lord still saw him as a whiny little child...
Draco snapped out of his thoughts and drew closer to Harry excitedly to catch up with what their brief letters couldn't have contained in the past four months.
.
o0o0o
A while later, his parents, Severus, Harry and he were sitting at a richly decorated table. His parents always made his first meal back at home a bit special, but Severus' presence was unusual in such occasions. His godfather was a long-standing friend of the family, but he normally preferred to isolate himself in his Headmaster's tower for the Yule holidays.
Draco wondered why this year's welcoming dinner would be the exception. Because of Harry, perhaps? No, the two of them had bickered back and forth during the meal. They obviously never got completely over their initial animosity. In Severus' case anyway. Harry looked like he was enjoying the verbal sparring...
Speaking of Harry: he looked a lot happier and healthier than he had in the summer. Draco hadn't thought that a sojourn at the Dark Lord's Fortress would have had such a result on his disposition. Civilisation suited him, in any case.
Draco ate his delicious dinner (Hogwarts' cooking had never quite managed to equal the quality of his meals at the Manor), thinking over the scene he had witnessed between Harry and the Dark Lord. They had been standing strangely close to each other. They had been teasing each other. The Dark Lord had been amused. And nearly smiling! That was unheard of for Him! And it wasn't a normal behaviour when you are talking to your enemy. It nearly look like they were...flirting?
Before he could absorb and evaluate his strange hypothesis, his father cleared his throat to get their attention. He noticed that his mother was blushing. Blushing! In front of guests! Granted, it was only Harry and Severus, but still! What was happening here?
He felt so out of it after months at Hogwarts. Much had happened when he was away and he would find out what!
"Severus, I know you are probably wondering why we invited you today..." began his father.
"No, actually, I was wondering why you felt the necessity of inviting Potter here while I was present. Had I known of this unfortunate circumstance, I would have stayed at Hogwarts. I was so looking forward to a Potter-free Yule season," answered Severus in his snarkiest tone.
Harry inhaled sharply and drew himself up in indignation before painting on a calm mask and turning to Severus.
"Why do you persist to act as if you despised me? I know you don't. You even wished me good luck before my OWLs," shot Harry with a satisfied smirk.
"Brat, I only wished that you wouldn't fail so that I would be rid of this frustrating tutoring engagement the Dark Lord insisted I do.
-Ah, so you don't care which note I had, as long as I passed it, then?" asked Harry with an eyebrow lifted.
"You got your results already?" Severus inquired, unable to keep his curiosity completely out of his tone.
"Indeed," answered Harry in a self-satisfied voice.
"And?
-I passed. Of course. All of them. Even History of Magic, imagine that," Harry said, leaving it at that, knowing that Severus probably wanted to know the exact grades, but wouldn't ask for them after Harry had teased him about it.
"Which grades did you get?" Draco intervened. Those two could keep going forever, really.
Harry shot him a frustrated look for having ruined his 'let's annoy the Magic out of Severus' plan, but he answered anyway:
"I got O's in all my practical exams and, well...EE's and A's in the written ones."
Draco felt his eyebrows lift in surprise.
"That's really good. But I thought you told me you didn't have much problem with the theoretical ones either. What happened?" he inquired, puzzled.
Harry became beet red. Another first for tonight. He glanced around as if he was shy to explain what happened. That wasn't a Harry behaviour. He might not have known the other for long, but, from what he had seen, Harry was never this abashed when he made mistakes.
"Yes, Potter, pray tell what happened that shamed you so. I dearly hope for you that Potions wasn't one of your A's. I worked too hard at tutoring you to accept that," cut in Severus ever so helpfully.
"I, well, they said that they didn't manage to read my handwriting in a couple of questions...and that, in some cases, there were too many grammar mistakes that they didn't even try to decipher what was written," admitted Harry, his head bent down slightly and looking at his plate.
After a second or two, he suddenly straightened up again and looked at Severus with a defiant glare that was more like his usual behaviour.
"It's not my fault if the Rebels didn't think that handwriting and grammar were essential for the future killer of the Dark Lord!"
A heavy silence fell over the table. It was as if they had forgotten that this was what Harry came here to do. Draco hadn't, but he just thought that there was nothing he could do about it and that he should just try to enjoy his first genuine friendship while it lasted. He glanced at his father. The latter was looking at Harry as if he wanted to question him further, but was stopping himself. He probably knew something Draco didn't. Draco turned his eyes on Severus, who, to a trained eye, looked somewhat pained. Was he more attached to Harry than he had let on earlier?
"I'm not sure what is going to happen about that though now..." he heard Harry say in a hesitant voice, looking around the table at their reactions.
"What do you mean?" blurted Draco uncharacteristically.
Harry sighed and bit his lip nervously.
"I think that, maybe, I don't know, but I think it would be better if I just forfeited," he confessed.
Everybody drew in a startled gasp at the unexpected declaration.
Lucius cleared his throat noisily before asking in a strangely strangled voice:
"Harry...has anything happened? About...what we discussed after the Ministry attack?"
Draco turned an incredulous stare on his father. What is he talking about? What does Father know?
Harry shook his head in denial.
"It's not that, it's just...I don't understand why I'd have to kill him, or why I'd have to fight him at all. It's not as if I chose to follow the Rebel ideology at any point. It just...doesn't make any sense! This regime isn't so bad. Ok, there are some bad things, but you don't assassinate the leader of a government when you aren't satisfied with everything that is happening in it. Especially not when you are trying to argue that you would bring democracy and justice in your next government...And you don't send a fucking kid to do it for you, for Magic's sake!" exploded Harry. He had started his explanation in a nearly demure voice, only to grow progressively more frustrated and angry as it drew to a close. The last few words were shouted. It had made Draco jolt in his chair involuntarily.
Harry slid his hands through his hair and pulled at it while his head bent down and he breathed in and out deeply. He looked...unsettled. Like he was having trouble to keep reign over his emotions. In Draco's mind, an image of how happy and content Harry had looked that afternoon when Draco arrived from the Hogwarts Express came up in contrast to how he looked now. Dishevelled. Jittery. A bit panicked at his own behaviour.
His face blanked suddenly, a stoic mask in place. Since when had Harry learnt to put on façades like that?
"I apologise for my outburst, Lucius, Narcissa. You had nothing to do with it...I think you had something to announce, before the conversation side tracked on the subject of my OWLs, hadn't you?" diverted Harry in a polite and detached voice.
Lucius raised an eyebrow at the abrupt change of subject. He glanced at his wife, who shrugged minutely before nodding.
Draco wondered what this was about. He watched his parents in suspicion. They still looked content together. His mother looked radiant, in fact, now that he looked at her closely. He mentally sighed in relief. They were not about to announce a separation or anything of the kind, at least.
His father took his mother's hand, smiling kindly at her before turning back to him.
"We have known for a while, but we were waiting for your return, Draco, to announce it officially. Narcissa is pregnant. At the beginning of April, you will have a sister, Draco."
He felt as if lightning had just struck him. His mother? Pregnant? That explained the sudden weight gain, but...he was nearly seventeen and he was supposed to start his own family in just a few years. Why now? He would have loved to have a little sister when he was younger.
"Why now?" he croaked inelegantly. Thank god they hadn't decided to announce it in front of a crowd. His reputation for being smooth in all situations would have been ruined.
"Well, after a discussion I had with our young guest here, I decided that it was time to take control of my life and have the second child your mother and I always wanted," answered his father in a patient tone.
Draco turned to Harry, who looked just as surprised as him, and back to his father. And back to Harry.
"You told him to go and produce more children? What is wrong with you?" he accused, indignant.
Harry spluttered and shook his head rapidly in denial.
"No! I didn't! I have no idea what he's talking about!
-Draco," interrupted his father. "Draco, look at me. Harry said something, and it gave me the idea, but we didn't talk about children per se. He didn't know that your mother was pregnant either, so you can stop looking at him like he betrayed you. I have to know, though, are you alright with this, Son?"
His voice was careful and understanding. As if he was speaking to a small child. Draco felt robbed of something precious. He would never be his parents' only child, their only focus anymore.
He huffed out a sarcastic chuckle.
"It's not as if it would change anything, if I was alright or not. You took the decision by yourselves without asking me how I'd feel about it.
-Yes, because we are your parents and we are the only ones who have the right to decide whether we have more children or not," said his father in an authoritative voice.
"It's creepy!" he cut in, although he knew he should probably be silent now. "I'm seventeen! My baby sister will be young enough to be my own child!"
He heard a chair scrape on the ground and turned to see Harry stand up.
"I'm sorry to interrupt. I will leave you to discuss it between yourselves. I don't feel really good; I'm just going to my rooms. Congratulations, Narcissa. I know that your daughter will be very lucky to have you as parents," said Harry with a small smile that looked a bit pained. He exited the room, swiftly followed by Severus, who murmured his congratulations before saying that he would be waiting for Lucius in his study afterwards.
So, he had created a scene that had made the guests flee the dinner table? It wasn't as if he wasn't bringing relevant questions out. He frowned and turned back to his parents. Secretly, he didn't mind so much about the pregnancy. Having a baby sister would be nice as well, and it might prepare him for when he'd be ready to have his own children in a few years with Astoria.
But he was going to make his parents pay for keeping him in the dark for so long and for announcing it to others at the same time as him. He should have known well before anyone else. He was the big brother, after all! A small warmth lit up in his chest when he thought of his future little sister.
Another Malfoy. An adorable little girl.
Oh, Salazar, he thought worriedly. I'll have to beat the boys off her with a Beater's bat.
.
o0o0o
That evening, Draco was sitting in his parlour, staring mulishly ahead, thinking of everything.
After his parents explained it all, he had felt quite foolish for his reactions against Harry. It wasn't as if the other had done something against him. If anything, Harry was surprisingly open with him in their correspondence.
He got the feeling that there was something more happening with him, though, and that his father knew at least part of it, judging by his not so subtle comment at the dinner table.
Harry had looked quite troubled before they switched to his mother's announcement. Draco wondered why Harry had reacted so strongly.
He decided to go see the other young man. Remembering what the latter had said about not feeling well, he decided to go check Harry's rooms first to see if he was there. He knocked at the door, but nobody answered him. He opened the door silently and poked his head through the gap. The bedroom was dark and empty. He left the guest wing, wondering where Harry could be. He went to check the duelling room, just in case. It used to be one of Harry's most frequented rooms in the Manor, after all.
Indeed, he heard sounds of violent hits, tearing and breaking when he got closer to it.
He opened the door, only to stop in shock at what he saw. By now, he'd become used to see Harry training and to stumble upon him in the middle of a fight against spelled dummies. But this wasn't training. This was destruction. Long pieces of fabric were lying in every corner of the room and some were hanging from the chandeliers on the ceiling and the walls; the sand that filled the dummies covered the ground, their bodies disembowelled and their metal structure lying uselessly like skeletons in the middle of the desert. Harry was standing in the middle of the carnage, his head bowed down and his wand resting at his side uselessly. He seemed to be shaking slightly.
"Harry..." whispered Draco, stunned.
Harry snapped his head up and pivoted to face him, green eyes glinting strangely. They widened and cleared up when he recognised him.
"Draco? What are you doing here?" he asked calmly as if he hadn't just obliterated all of his father's duelling dummies in one go.
"Well, I wanted to talk to you about something, but it can wait if you...still don't feel well."
Harry shook his head and waved lazily in the direction of the dummies, which started to reconstruct and refill themselves under his magic. Slowly, the room was put back in order and soon the dummies were put away in their corner.
"No, it's fine. Let's go," was his delayed reply.
Draco preceded him out of the room and led the other back to his private parlour. They took place, Harry looking around in curiosity.
"Nothing has changed since last summer," he remarked.
"Of course not, I haven't been here since then," Draco replied, hesitating slightly on how to continue.
"Harry, you know I didn't mean the accusation I sent you earlier. I was merely surprised and my reaction to this important piece of news was rash and inappropriate. I hope you know that I didn't mean any of it."
Harry smiled at him a bit teasingly.
"Was that an apology? 'Cause I think you forgot an important word in it. It's called 'sorry', you pompous git. And it would have been sufficient without all the flourish you added.
-A Malfoy never says 'sorry'. That word is for the common people, for those who make mistakes. We both know that I am too perfect to ever need to apologise so crudely. I might commit a slight blunder from time to time, but never to such a degree," Draco said, lifting his nose up in the air in parody of his own behaviour.
Harry burst in laughter. When he calmed down again, he looked happier than before and had a healthy glow to his cheeks.
"Alright, annoying brat, I accept your gracious apology. I know the news must have been a shock for you. How are you holding up?" he asked solicitously.
Draco shrugged and looked to the side listlessly.
"Well, it's not as if there's anything I can do about it at the moment. I don't know what I think of it. You can't imagine the amount of times I pleaded with them when I was younger to have another child so I could have someone to play with, and then you come along and make one vague comment to my father about controlling his own life and they decide to have a baby now when I'll be gone from the Manor and having my own family in a few years?" He sighed. "It just feels so absurd. I'm fine, though. I'm not angry or anything. It will just take a while to get used to the idea.
-But it's a good thing, right? You're going to be a brother like you always wanted," Harry pointed out.
Draco nodded.
"Yes, it's a good thing. Definitely unexpected, but good. And who knows, maybe it will reduce a bit the pressure Astoria and I will have on us about having our heirs early," he reasoned.
Harry's eyebrows lifted in surprise.
"You think they'd have forced you to have kids right after Hogwarts?"
Draco shook his head.
"Not forced, no, but strongly encouraged? I don't know. For all I know, Astoria will still want children early. She's been talking about her dream of becoming a Healer recently, though, so we might have to wait a few years for her to get her formation before we start a family.
-How is it going with her, by the way?" asked Harry.
"Oh, it's doing good. We are getting along well and I feel that she really wants to support me in my life...she's the perfect Malfoy wife," he revealed. He suppressed a small smile when he thought of his fiancée and how she had supported him today.
Harry lifted an eyebrow at his words.
"Isn't that a bit boring, though? I mean, I hate to have people decide things for me. If I had had a betrothal contract, I think I would have pitched up a huge fuss and refused to marry the person by principle, even if I'd like them..." confessed Harry, relaxing back on his chair, loosening his collar.
Draco frowned when he saw the skin on Harry's neck that had been revealed. It nearly looked like there was...a bite mark. He gasped at the sight. Harry stiffened, closing his collar back up and shielding his whole neck from view before he got up and went to a mirror in the corner to make sure nothing was apparent.
Draco got up and followed him there, gripping the collar and peeling it back.
"Salazar! It looks like a savage beast got to you! Look at the size and the colour of that one!" he exclaimed, trying to poke at a bruise before being harshly pushed away by Harry.
The other was flushed in embarrassment and looked mortified. Draco chuckled.
"Aww, come on! You found someone! It's great! Who did you meet at the Dark Lord's Fortress? There's got to be some nice secretaries working for him, right? She got to be a little vixen to leave bruises that big! Where's the problem in that?" he smiled indulgently to Harry, who looked impossibly ill at ease.
Draco frowned and narrowed his eyes at him.
"No, seriously, why do you look so anxious? If you don't want the Dark Lord to know about it, it's fine. I can keep it for myself," he offered generously. It's not as if the Dark Lord would care if Harry had found someone, after all.
Harry snorted in disbelief and only shook his head.
"No, really, I can keep a secret, you know. I didn't tell anyone about the practice duel we had, right?
-Right, because your father walking in on us duelling didn't make the whole 'secret' aspect of it void already," teased Harry.
"Don't change the subject! So, who's the lucky girl? Come on! I want to know!" Draco insisted with a smile.
Harry sighed and looked at him fixedly.
"It's not that simple," he declared flatly after a moment.
"Why not?" pushed Draco, now frowning.
"The Dark Lord...doesn't want people to know what is happening in his Fortress," continued Harry hesitantly.
"What do you mean 'what is happening'? My father goes there all the time! I think I'd know by now if there were orgies and sex parties going on, or anything scandalous... Oh, Merlin, you're not in love with a prostitute, or a slave or anything of the kind?" he asked, horrified.
Harry startled and looked bewildered before he started laughing for no reason and shaking his head.
"Ok, no prostitute or slave. Good. A Mudblood, then?" Draco tried again.
Harry stopped laughing immediately and looked at him with a sneer.
"Don't use words like that. My mother was a Muggle-born. And slavery of humanoid creatures above a level two of consciousness is illegal, by the way, or so said the Dark Lord...I thought you'd know it, with your father being the Minister and all," said Harry, now looking suspiciously at him.
"Well, I thought that maybe the Dark Lord was the exception to this law," Draco explained to be appease him. He had no idea if such a law really existed, but he wouldn't contradict his Lord about it.
Harry shook his head.
"Anyway, there aren't any orgies or parties at his place, so no, I didn't meet any 'nice girl' there," he answered with a mocking tone.
Something clicked in Draco's mind suddenly.
"A nice boy, then?" he asked.
He hadn't thought that Harry was queer. In his preconceived notion of the Boy-Who-Lived, he had always imagined Harry going out with a redheaded Gryffindor girl like that Weasley chit, matching in a disturbing way his parents' couple on the picture he'd seen of them. Apparently though, the real Harry insisted on destroying all the stereotypical ideas he had of him.
"Something like that," conceded at last the secretive young man.
Draco came up to him and seized his arm, whining:
"Come on, come on! I got to know! Who is it? The suspense is killing me!
-Draco, stop that!" said Harry, while trying to pull his arm out of Pureblood's grip.
He pouted petulantly.
"I don't understand why you wouldn't want to tell me whom you met at the Dark Lord's Fortress. You said you didn't meet many people there, so it's not as if He wou..."
He stopped abruptly. Then shook his head, then paused again and then looked at Harry in disbelief.
"It's not...Him...right?" he asked hesitantly.
Harry just stood there rigidly, looking at him without saying a word.
Draco blanched.
"You know, there's quite a gap between deciding that you might not want to duel him anymore, and being his lover. I was still getting slowly over the first and I can't even begin to wrap my head around the second...How long has this been going on?" he asked, trying to be marginally tactful, but seriously, he was flabbergasted.
His eyes drifted down and he looked at the other boy's collar again. He choked.
"You mean it's Him that made those bruises? HIM? Oh, Magic and the gods above...Am I stuck in the middle of a nightmare? I am probably sleeping. I am, right?" he asked Harry.
The latter shook his head in denial.
"Oh, Circe and Morgana...Seriously, how long has this been going?
-Since the beginning of September, more or less."
Draco exhaled slowly, lifting his hand to rub his forehead.
"Let me get this straight. You have been the Dark Lord's lover for the past...four months and that's the first I hear of this?" No wonder I felt so out of the loop! And my father probably knew about it too? And didn't even tell me! It was positively scandalous.
"I understand if you feel offended by the secrecy, but it was complicated... and it's not as if we were in an official relationship or anything..." Harry continued as an explanation, before Draco's loud snort interrupted him.
"No, no, of course not," he replied in derision.
-What are talking about, Draco?" asked Harry with a puzzled voice.
The blond shook his head.
"Of course you aren't in an official relationship. The Dark Lord doesn't do relationships. He has lovers that he fucks hard into the bed and discard when he's not satisfied with them anymore. He breaks them, then he throws them away like they're rubbish. And to him, they really are. I don't know what you were thinking when you got into it, Harry, but nothing good can come out of this...'thing' you have with the Dark Lord," warned Draco warily.
Harry shook his head in denial.
"No, you don't understand, it's not like that. I'm different from his past lovers.
-Harry, they all think they'll be the one who gets to stay by his side forever; they all hope that, no matter how horribly the Dark Lord treats them..." Draco said tentatively.
"He doesn't treat me horribly. I mean, yes, sometimes he's a bit rough, but I like that too, you know?" Harry's face was completely red by now. "And, well, it's a bit more complicated than that anyway...I can't tell you why, but I know that our relationship is not like that. He's different with me."
Draco pondered this. He had seen the Dark Lord briefly earlier that day, and the man did look strangely...happy. Usually, after a few months, he'd be bored and ready to pass to the next. Like he had done to Draco's cousin years ago...
"I know you said you can't tell me why you think your relationship is different, but can you at least give me something? I'm slightly...I'm worried for you, Harry. Can you give a hint, to reassure me?" he pleaded, knowing he was playing with the other's compassion, but he really needed something to put his worry at rest.
Harry sighed, and relented.
"Alright, how about this. He lets me call him Marvolo in private. Do you know anybody else who is allowed to do that?"
"His name is Marvolo?" asked Draco, furrowing his brow in puzzlement.
Harry frowned at him in return.
"You don't know his real name?" he replied, his voice incredulous.
"Hey, not everybody here grew up in the rebellion. How should I know his name? I know 'My Lord' and 'Voldemort' and that's sufficient...and, you're right, I've never heard of anybody receiving that kind of permission...but then again, maybe he tells that to all his lovers and we just wouldn't know because they can't speak about it," Draco pointed out.
Harry huffed in disbelief, but suddenly looked a bit worried.
"So you mean they are still alive somewhere? Thank the gods I never met any of them...
-You might have, they just can't speak about it," revealed Draco.
"What do you mean? He made them take an oath of silence, or something like that?
-Something like that...only, more disastrous I'm afraid. If they intend to speak about it at all, they die in excruciating pain. It happened a few times years ago, but by now, they really know better," explained Draco.
Harry shook his head.
"I don't even want to think about it. But, see, I didn't have to take an oath like that, doesn't that prove something?
-Yes, that for once his lover has more than him to lose if his status becomes known," he reasoned. "But, anyway, Harry, regardless of if he's serious or not...the Dark Lord has never kept a lover longer than a few months. Doesn't that worry you?"
Harry sighed.
"Of course it does, but I have stuff planned for when that happens. I'm not going to hang around to get to know my successors, you know? I've got another place to go, people who might support me...Don't tell anyone that, though," he replied before looking at him worriedly. He really should. He had just confessed that to the Minister's son, after all.
Draco frowned and pondered the question. Suddenly, a sly grin took over his face.
"You know, I might be persuaded to keep silent about it if you answer a question for me..." he suggested, before pausing to see how Harry would respond. His friend nodded briefly, biting his lip nervously.
"Blaise and I at some point theorised that he had put these oaths because he was afraid of people talking about...performance issues...or maybe...size problems? So...since you didn't make any oath of silence, can you please tell me how the Dark Lord is in the sack?" he pleaded eagerly.
Harry burst in incredulous laughter.
"As much as it would be funny to ruin his perfect image and take his ego down a few pegs, I really can't fault him on any of that. I won't go into details, but I'll just say this: he's got nothing to be ashamed of and he's a bloody genius in everything he does. Everything," revealed Harry with a shit-eating grin before winking at him (winking!) and exiting the room quickly before Draco could ask for precisions.
Dammit. He should have known. Now he lost ten good Galleons...
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Voilà! A bit of a lighter chapter here. I know I seem to be throwing pregnancies in right and left those days, but this one is more important than the possible multicoloured cub ;)
How did you like Draco's relationship with Astoria? It won't be important that much, but I wanted to put a rest on some people's worries that Draco might have a crush on Harry. Draco, in this story at least, isn't gay. The only declared sexual orientation I changed in here is Harry's.
So, next chapter is the rest of Harry's sojourn at the Malfoys and the result of his little experiment. So far, it already looks as if something is itching him, right? And he still has 4 days to go...
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to drop me a line to tell me what you thought of it ;) See you soon for the next one!