Chapter Twenty-Nine of 'There's a Pure-Blood Custom For That'- Some Semblance of Peace
Chapter Twenty-Eight.
Title: There’s a Pure-Blood Custom For That (29/?)
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing this story for fun and not profit.
Rating: R
Warnings: Partial AU after DH (Draco has Scorpius but is not married to Astoria, Harry is not married to Ginny), some angst, off-screen violence
Pairings: Harry/Draco, past Draco/Astoria, Ron/Hermione
Summary: The day that Harry stops Draco Malfoy and his son from being bothered in the middle of Diagon Alley starts a strange series of interactions between him and Malfoy. Who knew there was a pure-blood custom for every situation?
Author’s Notes: A series of loosely chronological, short “chapters” based on silly pure-blood customs, and a developing relationship between Harry and Draco. This is more humor and fluff than anything else, despite the angst warning.
Chapter One.
Thank you again for all the reviews!
Some Semblance of Peace
“We didn’t catch all the Risen Cobras,” was the first thing Harry heard when he pulled up a chair in front of the fireplace.
“I didn’t think you did,” said Harry, and smiled reassuringly at Ron, who was peering at him hard enough that Harry’s face felt dented. “I didn’t think they would waste all their strength attacking a heavily warded house, even if they knew I was there. I remember that much of Auror training.”
Ron gave him a strained smile. “We-we learned some things other than just that they didn’t commit all their strength to this attack,” he said, and cleared his throat. “We learned it from the interrogation, I mean.” He cleared his throat again. “It was really disturbing.”
Harry raised his eyebrows. Ron had his nightmares and problems from the war, but he had seen more Dark magic than Harry had since then through his job. “It must be,” he commented lightly, and waited for Ron to recover himself.
It took Ron a moment, but he sighed and mopped his forehead with the back of one wrist. “Sorry, mate.”
Harry shook his head and smiled at him. Compared to some of the things he had waited through or nursed Ron through, this was nothing. Maybe Ron was thinking of that, too, because he hurried briskly on with his words. “I think that the Risen Cobras weren’t formed to get Voldemort back to life, which I know you thought.” He paused until Harry nodded, this time. “They were formed to destroy you, and nothing else.”
Harry blinked. That was disturbing. “Did the ones you arrested say why?”
“It’s still the same motive,” Ron said grimly. “Because you destroyed Voldemort. But apparently not all of these people were Death Eaters, or even family members of Death Eaters.” Harry blinked again. His main theories for the culprits behind the attacks on him had been family members angry that some of their relatives had gone to prison on Harry’s testimony, or died because of him. “They think that Voldemort was the greatest Dark wizard ever or something. That he was going to lead a revolution of magic and make them the masters of the world.”
“Well, that was what he preached,” Harry pointed out.
“But they thought they were going to be the ones to rule the world if he won, instead of him,” Ron said. “You have to admit, that’s pretty bloody delusional.”
Harry nodded. But, well, he had never thought that Death Eaters had many brains. “Fine. They want to destroy me. How many resources do they have left?”
Ron studied him for a second, then seemed to decide that Harry was really okay, even after his announcement, and he could go on. “They have about twenty wizards left. And at least one werewolf. They’re-I don’t know, they said that they didn’t have much magic left, but I think they meant it a different way than we did, even though they were speaking under Veritaserum.”
“Ask them more piercing questions, then,” Harry said quietly. “Draco will want to know, and so do I.”
Ron gave him an offended look. “It’s not like we were planning to let it go, mate. It’s just hard to think of any more questions to ask them.”
Harry nodded. “All right. Then ask what you can, and report back to us when you can.” He gave Ron a smile, but then blinked when Ron chuckled. “What?” Harry had to admit, while he was glad to know more about the Risen Cobras, he didn’t see much about the situation that was funny.
“It’s just,” said Ron, once he managed to choke down the chuckles, “that you refused to stay and become Head Auror, but here I am taking your orders anyway.”
Harry winced. “Sorry, Ron. I didn’t think-”
“Do you think I would have said it in such a calm tone if I minded?” Ron looked at him with eyes that showed his affection so clearly Harry caught his breath. “I wouldn’t have thought like this even a few weeks ago. Thanks for waking me up.” He extended a hand to the edge of the fire, and even knowing they couldn’t actually shake, Harry reached out anyway. Ron grinned at him again, and faded from view.
“Am I allowed to give myself the credit for this?”
Harry twisted around. Draco stood in the doorway of the sitting room, his thoughtful eyes on the fireplace instead of Harry’s face for once. But his smile was slow and passionate when he looked at Harry again, and Harry smiled back.
“Credit for what? Ron and Hermione waking up and realizing they needed to change a little?” Harry cocked his head and stood up. “I think it would have happened eventually. There would have been a problem, even something related to the war, that I couldn’t help with. Or I would have got fed up and told them to go find Mind-Healers after all.”
“But they might have got upset at you if you did that,” Draco murmured, moving towards him and tilting his head back expectantly. Harry gave him the kiss he wanted, and Draco uttered a wordless murmur and rested his head against Harry’s chest. “This way, they didn’t.”
“No, they were just upset that I was dating a Malfoy,” Harry pointed out dryly.
Draco’s shrug indicated how much time he’d spent worrying over that. “They’re not now, are they?”
“No,” said Harry, thinking of the way Hermione had teased him over his last courtship gift for Draco, and the casual way that Ron could come to Malfoy Manor and firecall him there without grimacing. Hermione might not ever visit the building, but Harry could understand that. And at least they were happy for him instead of trying to persuade him to date someone else. “So maybe you can give yourself the credit for that. For a gentler transition.” He put his hand behind Draco’s head and drew him close for another kiss.
“Come on! We have to practice Quidditch!”
Harry blinked, and had the pleasure of seeing Draco do it at the same time. At least he knew he wasn’t the only one caught entirely off-guard. Harry stepped back with a small shake of his head and focused on Scorpius, who was standing in the doorway of the sitting room with a toy broom over his shoulder. “What do you mean? Why do we have to?”
“Because Teddy said that he and Great-Aunt Andromeda could beat us at Quidditch!” Scorpius shook his head. “I said that you played Quidditch, Daddy, and Teddy said that didn’t matter, that he could still beat you!” He looked at Harry. “And then I said Harry played Quidditch, and Teddy said he could beat you.”
Harry hid his smile quickly. He thought Teddy was probably lying on purpose to make the game more fun for himself. It was true that Andromeda was more than competent on a broom, but she didn’t play Quidditch, and hadn’t when she was still in school. Teddy’s boasts were outrageous, and he had to know it.
“Then we’d better go and practice,” he said to Draco, who stared at him. “He’s right.”
“You know that you could beat the rest of us if you had no practice and the rest of us had hours,” Draco said, shaking his head.
“I haven’t flown after a Snitch in years, even though I have kept up on flying,” Harry said mildly. “I’m rusty.” He caught Draco’s eye. “Besides, this time I won’t be trying to beat you. We’ll be on the same side.”
He could see that this view of the game hadn’t occurred to Draco before now. He took a small breath that brought a lot of color into his cheeks, and he nodded firmly. “Then let’s go out and practice,” he said, and reached out with one hand to catch hold of Harry’s. His other hand was held out to Scorpius.
Harry happily followed them outside. He just hoped that Teddy wouldn’t take it too badly when they beat him and Andromeda utterly.
*
“Catch it, catch it!” Teddy screamed madly as he zoomed under Harry on his broom, aiming straight for the Quaffle. They had decided to use a Quaffle instead of a Snitch, in deference to Andromeda’s eyesight and to make things a little more fair, since both Harry and Draco had been Seekers and were expert in finding the smaller ball.
They’d also used a Sticking Charm on Scorpius’s broom, which was the only thing that made it possible for Harry to relax as he watched Scorpius circle past below them, leaning hard to the side and laughing gleefully. There were already at least fifty feet higher from the ground than Draco usually let Scorpius go.
“I’m going to catch it from this side!” Andromeda called back, and rose up from beneath the Quaffle in what would have been a neat move if Draco hadn’t leaned over just then and batted it out of her reach. Scorpius, who sometimes seemed to forget what side he was playing for, shrieked again and changed direction.
Draco craned his neck back, at an angle that would have made Harry wince a little while ago, before the game began, and caught Harry’s eye. They hadn’t planned this, but Harry suddenly knew exactly what to do. He whirled to the side and down, to catch up with the Quaffle that had reached the top of its arc and begun to fall.
For a second, the grass of the Malfoys’ Quidditch pitch whirled underneath him, and he felt as though he was going to be sick; his stomach seemed to be trying to jump out of his mouth. Then he pulled up the broom and skimmed to the side, and there was the Quaffle, right where he put his hands.
He lost a moment when he fumbled the Quaffle, which he had automatically tried to catch like the Snitch. Then he had his hands in the right place again, and he tossed the Quaffle as hard as he could towards the side of the pitch.
“No fair!” Teddy complained, although he was laughing so hard that Harry couldn’t be sure what was unfair. He only knew that there was wind around him, and the laughter made Harry feel as though he was younger than he was.
Then he saw what Teddy meant. Draco was in the right place, faster than he should have been able to be, and he winked at Harry.
And threw the ball to Scorpius.
Harry caught his breath for a second. The Quaffle was flying through the air so fast, and Scorpius looked so small, even with the solemn, unafraid face he lifted to the ball.
But his arms caught it, although they had to wrap almost completely around the Quaffle before they could, and he whirled to toss it to Harry. Harry made sure he was in the right place, both to catch the ball and to make sure that Scorpius saw his proud smile.
Scorpius tossed it to him with the ease and grace of someone bigger, and Harry grabbed it and ducked a reaching arm from Andromeda. Teddy tried to crash into him, but Harry zigzagged underneath him and tossed the Quaffle through the hoop they had set up to receive it. Scorpius cheered madly, and almost fell off his broom despite the Sticking Charm. Draco laughed.
Teddy crashed into Harry again, landing this time because Harry let him, and shook Harry’s shoulders a little. “No fair,” he complained once more, while his hair changed to dark mourning colors. “You should have let us win!”
“Where did you get the impression that I intended to?” Harry asked, and grinned at Andromeda. She had pulled up her broom with far more grace and was surveying Teddy with a tolerant expression.
“I don’t think it ever occurred to you, but boys will have their little ways,” she said, and nodded at Teddy.
"I am not a boy," Teddy said, and his hair turned green, although how that was supposed to prove that he was an adult, Harry didn't know.
"Of course not, dear," said Andromeda. She gave Harry a small salute. "Perhaps next time, we can have a balanced team. You or Draco can be on our side, and the other one of you can play with Scorpius."
Harry snorted as he directed his broom towards the ground. "As I remember, we did offer you that. We asked if you wanted to play with me, and Teddy was the one who said that Scorpius would drag us down." He winked at his godson. "And that he was the best player of us all. So we would have to have three people on the other team just to oppose the Mighty Teddy."
Teddy rolled his eyes, and his hair turned to blond this time, the color of the Malfoys'. "Very funny, Uncle Harry. Are you going to keep rubbing that in, or am I going to be allowed to forget it at some point?"
"Well, I think part of this was the contest between you and Scorpius as to who was the better player, right?" Harry grinned at Teddy when he nodded hesitantly, and turned Teddy around by his shoulders as they both climbed off their brooms. Scorpius was coming down at a more sedate pace. Apparently, Draco was okay with letting his son dart around the Quidditch pitch, but he wouldn't let him drop to the ground. "So you could apologize."
"Fine, Scorpius, you're really good," Teddy muttered under his breath, so softly that Harry knew Scorpius couldn't hear it.
Harry poked him in the back, and Teddy pouted at him and changed his hair to a messy black mop. He knew as well as Harry did that that usually got Harry on his side. But this time, Harry only looked at him, and Teddy sighed and turned back to his cousin, who was waiting expectantly.
"You're a lot better than expected," Teddy said. "I didn't even think you could grip the Quaffle. I thought your arms were too short." Harry poked him in the back again, and Teddy didn't bother pouting this time. "But you got it, and you were good. Truce?" He held out his hand.
Scorpius shook it. "You didn't know about my arms not being too short," he said. "They look pretty short."
Harry held back his smile. Right now, Scorpius was adorable, but it was also a sign that he could be mature and generous for his age. Those were attributes that Harry wanted to encourage instead of discourage, especially if he was going to carry on being pretty closely associated with Scorpius and his dad.
Draco was standing next to them, watching everyone involved with a proud expression. He caught Harry's eye and smiled, and Harry smiled back. I don't think I have much of a choice about staying with Scorpius and his dad.
Andromeda opened her mouth to say something. Harry did wonder, afterwards, what it might have been. Probably something complimentary. She had to like it that Teddy was acting like a good kid, and a good loser.
He didn't feel the same thing he had done before, the thunderous pounding at the wards. Instead, something soared glittering overhead and dropped smoking on the grass in front of them, rolling back and forth like a ball made of light and mist.
Harry whirled hard in place, using his arms to block Teddy when he started forwards, and then seizing Scorpius and tossing him into Draco. Draco grunted and staggered as he caught his son, and whatever motion he had been about to make in Harry's direction got stymied. Harry yelled, "Go! Go! Go!" Andromeda, no fool, was already herding Teddy in the direction of the Manor.
The more distance they can put between them and this thing, the better, Harry thought grimly, and drew his wand.
The bright ball in the center of the smoke had begun to glow as if a fire inside it had abruptly been built up. Harry concentrated all his will and all his power on a certain shield spell he had learned in the Aurors.
"Protego Maximum," he said, making sure to enunciate the words correctly even when the ball began, shrilly and abruptly, to whistle.
A second later, flaming pieces pinwheeled out of the ball, each glittering facet becoming a separate dagger flying in a circle. Harry's shield came to life at the same time, a rapidly expanding blue-white dome that shot out above Harry, and then the garden, and then the walls, and then the house.
The daggers slammed against the shield and fell short, and the center of the ball, an immense black seed that rose up into the air, hit the dome and silently exploded. Harry wrapped his head in his cloak and ran for the house.
A second later, the backlash of the spell caught him, and he stumbled. Protego Maximum didn't just create a bigger shield than the traditional Shield Charm, but one that could be infused with will. That meant nothing would harm Malfoy Manor or the people inside it as long as Harry willed that it shouldn't be so. And he could will pretty hard.
But in the meantime, that meant he was the one suffering from the deferred damage. He was breathing hard by the time he got to the side door of the Manor that Scorpius and Draco had already disappeared through. He thought Andromeda might have Apparated Teddy away.
Draco looked at him with a white face, and then pulled him in. Harry cried out. He had broken ribs, and pressing on them hurt them.
"Firecall the Auror Department," he told Draco, and then turned and looked out through an enchanted window that he knew could show him a view of the front gates if he tuned it appropriately. Harry tapped the window with his wand, and the view flickered.
When it showed the cluster of figures gathered by the gates, Harry nodded. He didn't want to do this, would have preferred to handle it with help, but for the moment, he was the Manor's defense until the Aurors could get here. The blast the Risen Cobras had engineered had already taken down most of the wards.
Harry bared his teeth a little. The Risen Cobras might have made a mistake.
As hard as Harry would fight to protect his own life, that was nothing compared to the way that he would fight to protect the people he loved.
Chapter Thirty.
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