Fic: 'Always now' Challenge 47, 'A new love for Harry'
Title: Always now
Rating/Warnings: R for sexual situations
Characters/Pairing: Harry/Ginny, Harry/Draco, Harry/others if you squint
Summary: It's always now, Harry thinks as everything around him shifts.
Word Count:1,293
Registered purchases?: Not yet - I'm new
It's always now, Harry thinks as everything around him shifts.
Harry lands on the floor in a heap. A blond boy who looks like an imperfect portrait of Draco Malfoy but is beautiful on his own terms scrambles out of the red velvet chair he is sitting in and says, shocked, "Albus?"
"It's Harry," Harry chokes out, pushing himself up off the floor.
The boy sags a little. "Father won't like your being here, Dad."
Harry can't make sense of that sentence. "Dad…" he repeats, confused.
"You said I could still call you that." The boy shifts. "Albus went to look for you. I don't know when he'll be back… How do you look the way you do?" he says suddenly.
A headache is clenching around Harry's mind. "I can't think," he says.
"You're so young," the boy says and Harry wants to tell him that thirty-seven isn't old enough for that sentence to sound so shocked but the headache is getting worse, worse and worse and Harry falls to the floor again…
…and lands on his back staring at the moulded chartreuse ceiling of a house he's fairly sure he can't afford to be in.
"Drink up," says a familiar drawling voice from the sofa as a hand appears above him with a glass full of what must be scotch. "It's not every day a man ends a marriage after all."
"My head hurts," Harry gasps.
"That shouldn't surprise you over much I wouldn't have thought," the drawl tells him. Harry squeezes his eyes closed and turns on to his stomach wondering if he's about to vomit.
He doesn't; he finds himself on someone's lawn with that wonderful scent of fresh-mown grass all around him. The headache has receded at least a little and when he manages to sit up, a little red-headed girl in a yellow sun dress is looking at him askance.
"Who are you?" she says. "I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."
"Quite right." Harry swallows hard. The pain may have abated but he's still a little nauseous. "Would you mind getting your mummy or daddy? I'm afraid I don't feel very well."
The girl says, "OK. Hang on. MUM!" she yells to the house behind her.
"What is it Ginny?" comes the reply, but the smell of summer is receding-
Now he's in his cupboard under the stairs and he can hear Uncle Vernon shouting from the next room, "Where's my coffee, boy?" Harry barely fit into the cupboard when he was eleven, never mind as a full-grown man, but he hears his own voice as it must have been before it broke reply, "Coming Uncle Vernon," and part of him wants to burst out of the cupboard and just punch that man, just once, but the headache's getting worse again and Harry lurches forward into nothing -
Except it's not nothing, it's the Room of Requirement and someone's crying on the other side of the shelf. This can't be; the tiara's still there and there's no fire damage so it must be sixth year he supposes, or seventh, and he looks around the shelf and there's Malfoy sobbing into the vanishing cabinet and he's trying to choke out some words and Harry can't make it out and then suddenly he can and it's I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry and Harry feels as sick as he did right after he sliced Malfoy open in the bathroom and he turns away-
And looks up into a kiss, Ginny's face warm in front of him and her fingers shaking and she looks older than she seemed this morning, older but still brilliant and shining, and he kisses her gently, surprised when it turns to something more passionate and grateful to have his wife back in his arms, his wife but then she pulls away and she is crying and she says, "I'm sorry I can't," and he shakes his head, nearly begging her as she pulls out of his arms and his stomach somersaults-
"Just so difficult, I do understand, darling," says a woman with long black hair, which covers her face as she roots around her handbag for - what? A cigarette, he finds out as she lights it and turns to him. The pug nose gives it away when he sees her face, but what is he doing having drinks with Pansy Parkinson?
She leans into him and he can't help but notice her cleavage, displayed as it is to best advantage in that dress. "Do remember you have options," she says as a hand snakes onto his thigh, and he throws up on the bar-
Or does he? He didn't fall into it and he's sure he fell forward. He's watching Ron kiss Hermione's forehead and she's holding a baby. He finds his arm around Ginny and tugs her closer and Ginny says abruptly, "I don't want any more children," and Harry remembers this day and-
"Tell Scorpius-" says the man, the terribly, terribly frail old man in the bed in front of him and Harry nods, "I'll tell him Draco," and he doesn't know how he knew, or why he called him Draco, but Draco relaxes and says, "I wish we'd had more time," and Harry opens his mouth and then-
"I'm sorry, Teddy, but I'm married, I love my wife, and I want you to know that while I care about you, this just isn't going to happen," Harry says firmly. Teddy's hair droops out its blue spikes into a brown floppy fringe.
"I never wanted to come between you and Ginny," Teddy whispers.
"Because we're going to have a baby!" says Ginny, grinning at him widely. "Oh, Harry, I thought I'd be so afraid but I'm not, I'm not, I think it's just wonderful!" she says, and throws her arms around him. The headache is back again but Harry holds her anyway, feeling the thrill of James' birth in the air-
And the arms have tightened and they are both naked and Ginny feels wrong, she's muscled and taut instead of curved and yielding, and Harry looks and she's not her at all, she's Draco Malfoy and this time Harry knows it's him, and Draco's pulling down his trousers with a look of absolute glee on his face and then his mouth is on Harry's cock and it's glorious, glorious, glorious and Harry fists his hand in Draco's hair and rides the nausea, rides the headache, rides the mouth surrounding him-
And falls to the floor, face-down in the Department of Mysteries with Hermione screaming at him, "Harry are you all right?"
Harry rolls onto his back again. "I think I hit my head," he says. "I had some kind of vision or something."
Hermione, though, is already scolding him. "What have I told you about just walking into the office of an Unspeakable? They're building Time Turners in there, it's top secret, I know," she holds up a hand to prevent any argument, "I know you have clearance but it's still dangerous Harry."
"Am I staying here?"
"You should," Hermione says, helping him up. "We managed to get you out of the temporal influence field."
Harry rubs his head, still trying to sort through all the images. "Time Turners don't take you to the future, do they?"
"No," says Hermione, eyeing him nervously. "Harry, we'd better get you to a healer."
"It wasn't the past," Harry says, willing her to understand. "Not all of it."
"Granger, would you please get that infernal nuisance out of my lab?" says that drawling tone and Harry turns to meet the grey gaze that begged him to understand, to stay, to let him, Harry's eyes meet Draco Malfoy's and he doesn't know what any of it means.
~fin.
Kit // Ravenclaw
Rating/Warnings: R for sexual situations
Characters/Pairing: Harry/Ginny, Harry/Draco, Harry/others if you squint
Summary: It's always now, Harry thinks as everything around him shifts.
Word Count:1,293
Registered purchases?: Not yet - I'm new
It's always now, Harry thinks as everything around him shifts.
Harry lands on the floor in a heap. A blond boy who looks like an imperfect portrait of Draco Malfoy but is beautiful on his own terms scrambles out of the red velvet chair he is sitting in and says, shocked, "Albus?"
"It's Harry," Harry chokes out, pushing himself up off the floor.
The boy sags a little. "Father won't like your being here, Dad."
Harry can't make sense of that sentence. "Dad…" he repeats, confused.
"You said I could still call you that." The boy shifts. "Albus went to look for you. I don't know when he'll be back… How do you look the way you do?" he says suddenly.
A headache is clenching around Harry's mind. "I can't think," he says.
"You're so young," the boy says and Harry wants to tell him that thirty-seven isn't old enough for that sentence to sound so shocked but the headache is getting worse, worse and worse and Harry falls to the floor again…
…and lands on his back staring at the moulded chartreuse ceiling of a house he's fairly sure he can't afford to be in.
"Drink up," says a familiar drawling voice from the sofa as a hand appears above him with a glass full of what must be scotch. "It's not every day a man ends a marriage after all."
"My head hurts," Harry gasps.
"That shouldn't surprise you over much I wouldn't have thought," the drawl tells him. Harry squeezes his eyes closed and turns on to his stomach wondering if he's about to vomit.
He doesn't; he finds himself on someone's lawn with that wonderful scent of fresh-mown grass all around him. The headache has receded at least a little and when he manages to sit up, a little red-headed girl in a yellow sun dress is looking at him askance.
"Who are you?" she says. "I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."
"Quite right." Harry swallows hard. The pain may have abated but he's still a little nauseous. "Would you mind getting your mummy or daddy? I'm afraid I don't feel very well."
The girl says, "OK. Hang on. MUM!" she yells to the house behind her.
"What is it Ginny?" comes the reply, but the smell of summer is receding-
Now he's in his cupboard under the stairs and he can hear Uncle Vernon shouting from the next room, "Where's my coffee, boy?" Harry barely fit into the cupboard when he was eleven, never mind as a full-grown man, but he hears his own voice as it must have been before it broke reply, "Coming Uncle Vernon," and part of him wants to burst out of the cupboard and just punch that man, just once, but the headache's getting worse again and Harry lurches forward into nothing -
Except it's not nothing, it's the Room of Requirement and someone's crying on the other side of the shelf. This can't be; the tiara's still there and there's no fire damage so it must be sixth year he supposes, or seventh, and he looks around the shelf and there's Malfoy sobbing into the vanishing cabinet and he's trying to choke out some words and Harry can't make it out and then suddenly he can and it's I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry and Harry feels as sick as he did right after he sliced Malfoy open in the bathroom and he turns away-
And looks up into a kiss, Ginny's face warm in front of him and her fingers shaking and she looks older than she seemed this morning, older but still brilliant and shining, and he kisses her gently, surprised when it turns to something more passionate and grateful to have his wife back in his arms, his wife but then she pulls away and she is crying and she says, "I'm sorry I can't," and he shakes his head, nearly begging her as she pulls out of his arms and his stomach somersaults-
"Just so difficult, I do understand, darling," says a woman with long black hair, which covers her face as she roots around her handbag for - what? A cigarette, he finds out as she lights it and turns to him. The pug nose gives it away when he sees her face, but what is he doing having drinks with Pansy Parkinson?
She leans into him and he can't help but notice her cleavage, displayed as it is to best advantage in that dress. "Do remember you have options," she says as a hand snakes onto his thigh, and he throws up on the bar-
Or does he? He didn't fall into it and he's sure he fell forward. He's watching Ron kiss Hermione's forehead and she's holding a baby. He finds his arm around Ginny and tugs her closer and Ginny says abruptly, "I don't want any more children," and Harry remembers this day and-
"Tell Scorpius-" says the man, the terribly, terribly frail old man in the bed in front of him and Harry nods, "I'll tell him Draco," and he doesn't know how he knew, or why he called him Draco, but Draco relaxes and says, "I wish we'd had more time," and Harry opens his mouth and then-
"I'm sorry, Teddy, but I'm married, I love my wife, and I want you to know that while I care about you, this just isn't going to happen," Harry says firmly. Teddy's hair droops out its blue spikes into a brown floppy fringe.
"I never wanted to come between you and Ginny," Teddy whispers.
"Because we're going to have a baby!" says Ginny, grinning at him widely. "Oh, Harry, I thought I'd be so afraid but I'm not, I'm not, I think it's just wonderful!" she says, and throws her arms around him. The headache is back again but Harry holds her anyway, feeling the thrill of James' birth in the air-
And the arms have tightened and they are both naked and Ginny feels wrong, she's muscled and taut instead of curved and yielding, and Harry looks and she's not her at all, she's Draco Malfoy and this time Harry knows it's him, and Draco's pulling down his trousers with a look of absolute glee on his face and then his mouth is on Harry's cock and it's glorious, glorious, glorious and Harry fists his hand in Draco's hair and rides the nausea, rides the headache, rides the mouth surrounding him-
And falls to the floor, face-down in the Department of Mysteries with Hermione screaming at him, "Harry are you all right?"
Harry rolls onto his back again. "I think I hit my head," he says. "I had some kind of vision or something."
Hermione, though, is already scolding him. "What have I told you about just walking into the office of an Unspeakable? They're building Time Turners in there, it's top secret, I know," she holds up a hand to prevent any argument, "I know you have clearance but it's still dangerous Harry."
"Am I staying here?"
"You should," Hermione says, helping him up. "We managed to get you out of the temporal influence field."
Harry rubs his head, still trying to sort through all the images. "Time Turners don't take you to the future, do they?"
"No," says Hermione, eyeing him nervously. "Harry, we'd better get you to a healer."
"It wasn't the past," Harry says, willing her to understand. "Not all of it."
"Granger, would you please get that infernal nuisance out of my lab?" says that drawling tone and Harry turns to meet the grey gaze that begged him to understand, to stay, to let him, Harry's eyes meet Draco Malfoy's and he doesn't know what any of it means.
~fin.
Kit // Ravenclaw