Chapter Thirty-Two of 'There's a Pure-Blood Custom For That'- Announcing the Engagement
Chapter Thirty-One.
Title: There’s a Pure-Blood Custom For That (32/35)
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!
Announcing the Engagement
"We have them all, mate." Ron slung his legs across the top of his desk, grinning at Harry over his knees. "The ones we caught right before you went into hospital practically shit themselves trying to give us information, they were so terrified."
"What a graceful way of putting things, Ron," Harry said, and rolled his eyes at his best mate. Inwardly, though, he was rejoicing. Maybe Ron had also needed a major triumph like this, of capturing criminals who threatened Harry, to bring him back into a normal mood. Harry had barely seen him grin like this since the war.
Harry shook his head a little and moved on to the question that he knew Draco would want him to ask. "And what exactly did they want? Were they only after me, or did they have a larger purpose?"
Ron tilted his chair back further, to the point where the legs scraped on the floor and Harry was certain he was going to fall out of it. He bit his tongue to avoid saying something about it. Ron had chosen to do this. Harry couldn't always be running after him and trying to save him bumps on the head. It wasn't right, and it wasn't fair.
"I think they had a larger purpose originally." Ron shook his head, his eyes grim. "That's something some of the Aurors are still questioning them about, you know, seeing if they can tie them to any crimes that took place in the last few years."
"Besides the attacks on me," Harry muttered. Although, even then, he had to wonder whether some of the attacks he had taken for lone grudge-matches were tied to the Risen Cobras. He hadn't always bothered to ask before he trounced those people and handed them over to the Aurors, and he hadn't always asked any follow-up questions, either.
Talk about shitting themselves. Draco would do that if he knew how few questions I used to ask.
"Yes," said Ron. "Besides that. From what I can tell, they did form to follow this principle of Dark wizards ruling society." He rolled his eyes, and Harry smiled. Few Dark wizards could play nicely enough with others to hold together their own groups for long, never mind ruling the whole of society. "They thought Voldemort was the greatest example of that type, and they wanted to get vengeance on you for killing him. And for spoiling their little dream that they would have stood at his side as he ruled, I think."
Harry grunted and picked up Ron and Hermione's wedding photograph from Ron's desk to admire it for a moment. "What idiots. It wasn't as though Voldemort would have shared power with anyone, even his own Death Eaters."
Ron shook his head sadly. "Dark wizards. What can you expect?"
Harry shook his head at him around the corner of the picture frame, and covertly compared the mad way that the Ron in the picture smiled with the way he was smiling now. Yes, they looked a lot more like each other than any smile Ron had given in the last five years looked like the one in the photograph. "Yeah. But they eventually turned to focusing solely on me?"
Ron sobered, and nodded. "Yes. I think they meant to take vengeance on you and move on, but they were appalled at how stubborn you were." He leaned across the desk to poke Harry gently in the shoulder. "How arrogant of you not to die when you were supposed to."
"My heart bleeds for them, truly," Harry said. "And then they came up with these plans to get the blood past my defenses and torture me with it?"
"Yeah." Ron shook his head. "I saw some of their private spellbooks. Magical genius turned twisted, just devoted to persecuting you and nothing else. It's nonsense." He punched Harry on the shoulder, caught his eye, and then looked away. "But it could have been dangerous nonsense, especially when they had spells that could gnaw through wards."
"I'd like to know how they did that. I know Draco wants to make sure that his wards are stronger in the future." What Draco had actually said was I'm going to guard the things most precious to me behind blood wards, if I have to, but Harry wasn't going to tell Ron something he would have to take professional notice of. He was courteous like that.
"We'll find out and pass the notes on to you." Ron suddenly blinked and sat up. Harry hid his own grin. "What's that, mate? I don't remember you wearing that before."
"This?" Harry casually picked up the necklace of electrum links around his throat, although he knew full well that was what Ron was talking about. "Oh, it's a gift from Draco." At Ron's gesture, he pulled the end of the necklace out from beneath his shirt, showing the teardrop-shaped pendant there. It was nearly flat, except for a slight hump in the middle, but the gleaming silhouette of entwined roses on it showed up easily.
Ron coughed behind his fist. "His gifts are never just gifts, mate. What's this one mean?"
Harry paused, but this was as good a moment as he was going to get, he thought. Ron didn't have any food or drink in his hands, or his wand, either. "It's a sign that he proposed to me, and I accepted him."
Ron gasped anyway, his hands flying out as if he was going to catch something and use it to save him from falling to the floor. Since he was already sitting down, Harry didn't think he was in much danger. But he did catch one of Ron's hands and place it gently back on the desk.
"Proposed," Ron said, gasping, and staring at Harry. "Proposed to you."
Well, at least he doesn't think the biggest part of the news is that I accepted Draco. "Yes," said Harry calmly. "I don't know if he would have that soon, but my getting injured the way I did shook him up. We had a talk, and I promised to try and be better about getting injured, and he asked if I would enter into a different sort of commitment with him. I agreed, and so he gave me this white rose made of silk and silver that turned real when I touched it."
By the end of his announcement, Ron had gone a little pale and was looking at him fixedly. Harry regarded him back. "What's the matter? Is that a pure-blood custom you've heard of?"
"Yes," muttered Ron. "It's the custom that my dad used to propose to my mum, although they--well, the rose wasn't made of silk and silver. They couldn't afford it."
Harry was a little ashamed to realize that his first thought had been to wonder how a change in the materials that made up the rose would change the meaning of it in the custom. He wasn't Draco, no matter how close he felt to him sometimes. "I'm sure it was fine," he told Ron, as kindly as he could manage.
Ron shook his head, snapping out of his trance. "Okay, so I've heard of it, and he proposed to you. Mate, that rose...it's the deepest commitment that someone can ask of someone else. It's only used between people who are absolutely sure that they want to stay together for the rest of their lives." He hesitated. "I didn't even use it to propose to Hermione."
"I think she liked that just as well," Harry said firmly, and caught Ron's eye. "For one thing, she probably wouldn't appreciate a pure-blood custom being used like that when she's Muggleborn."
"Sometimes, mate," said Ron, his voice going dry, "you stun me with how much you don't know about witches. Maybe it's a good thing you're not marrying one." He hesitated and eyed Harry almost over his own shoulder. "You're sure? Really sure?"
Harry nodded and tucked the chain back beneath his shirt. Draco had told him that the necklace wasn't a separate gift from the rose, especially since it had the pattern of roses engraved on it, that they meant the same thing. But it would let other people know, visually, the status of his engagement to Draco.
Actually, what Draco had told Harry originally was that the "real" custom called for the person who had accepted the proposal to wear a loose collar made of chain links. Harry had explained why that wasn't acceptable, and he had even done it without swearing. At the end, Draco had looked thoughtful and proposed a real chain holding the pendant. It would still have the same symbolism as a collar with the pendant clipped on the front, he had said.
"I don't know how you got so sure when you haven't known Malfoy for long," Ron said, and shook his head. "Better you than me."
Harry snorted despite himself. "Yes, I think Draco would agree with that."
Ron flicked a small piece of paper at him. "Anyway. I'm happy for you, mate, as long as this is what you want. The minute it isn't, tell me and Hermione and we'll come rescue you, and I don't care if we have to storm the gates to do it. I happen to know the wards of Malfoy Manor are weak right now..."
Harry pushed Ron's shoulder roughly. "I wouldn't have agreed to the commitment in the first place if I wasn't sure."
"All right," said Ron, and then made a face at Harry. "As little as I can understand it, I meant it when I said that I was happy for you."
"I know," Harry said, and then they went on to talk about more interesting things, in Harry's opinion, like how George was doing a little better running the shop by himself and wanted to see Harry as soon as possible, and how they were going to announce the engagement to the rest of the Weasley family.
*
"Harry. Congratulations."
Harry turned around with a small smile. "Hello, Daphne." He didn't bother saying anything about the bracelet she had guided him into choosing. He was sure that it was deliberate, now, but on the other hand, it was about as far from an expression of ill will as he could imagine, when he was so happy with Draco. "Thank you."
Daphne raised an eyebrow, as if she knew that Harry was thanking her for more than the congratulations, and looked down at the small rank of cut jewels that Harry was examining. "You read up on the customs enough to know which return gift is appropriate, then. Congratulations for that as well."
"Yes," said Harry, and turned and lingered over the gems again. He knew that certain gems meant certain things, and the cut of them, and the color, meant even more. After looking over the whole list of meanings in secret--sort of hard to do in Malfoy Manor; he'd had to go to the shop and help George for a while to have the needed privacy--he'd decided on what he wanted. However, this shop didn't seem to have it.
"What are you looking for?" Daphne showed no interest in moving on, or doing anything other than looking over his shoulder. Harry reckoned it was her own sign of approval, and it was hard to resent her, when they'd parted so amicably and she had helped him and Draco before.
"A cabochon-cut ruby," he said. "You'd think they would have one, right? I don't see one, though. They don't have many rubies, anyway." He had looked again and again over the rows of gems in the display case to be sure, but he was as sure as he could be without asking the shopkeeper what every single one of the gems was. He'd memorized the look of the ruby in the picture in the customs book carefully.
Daphne was quiet beside him. Harry thought she'd gone away for a second, but then he turned around and she was looking at him as though he was an interesting new specimen of fungus, the sort of thing she'd have a scholarly interest in.
"A cabochon-cut ruby," she repeated, as if testing the words. "You really mean it, then."
Harry nodded. "But if they don't have one here..."
"I know where they have one," Daphne said abruptly. "But you're not going to find the sort you need in a common shop like this." She swept her hand disdainfully along the four walls, ignoring the gaping shopkeeper's gasp of outrage. "You'll need to come with me and be prepared to pay more than you might have thought you'd have to." She looked at Harry with a measuring eye, and then nodded. "Are you prepared?"
"Yes," said Harry, and followed her, with only a placating shrug at the shopkeeper. He knew from long experience that trying to get Daphne to apologize was futile, one reason that he'd done a careful dance when she was around his friends. At least he could come back sometime next week and get the ruby set in a ring or something here to give the shopkeeper some business.
The shop Daphne showed him was as expensive as she'd said, but the ruby, gleaming like a beating heart, was worth it, and Harry took it home tucked carefully into his pocket, his breath short as he thought what Draco would say when he saw it.
*
"Harry."
Draco rose to his feet as Harry crossed the sitting room to him. Scorpius had been with them only a few minutes earlier, and although Harry would do anything to spend time with him most days, this evening it had started to feel as if the kid would never go to bed. Once he had dropped off, and then he had popped up again and complained that he didn't feel tired and he wanted Harry to show him some spells that would change Golden's color.
But now he was bundled off to bed, and Harry had even waited a few minutes in the corridor beyond the sitting room when he came back from saying good-night to Scorpius, breathing evenly so he wouldn't look like a complete fool.
Draco, though, had seen something in his face that gave him away. Harry took the ruby out of his pocket and held it out to Draco, hoping he hadn't got something wrong now. The instructions in the customs book said the chosen gem had to be given to your beloved in private, on your hand and nothing else, which had seemed so simple that Harry had read that section ten times looking for more complications.
But Draco looked at the ruby, and his eyes began to blink rapidly. He looked Harry in the face and stepped towards him, one hand coming to rest on the side of his neck and the other on his palm, covering the ruby.
"Yes," he whispered. "Oh, yes."
Harry smiled at him and kissed him gently on the lips. "Do you want me to recite the lesson I've learned about this gem?" he whispered. "To prove that I chose it with full knowledge of what it implies?"
"Yes," said Draco, giving him a brilliant look. "Please."
Harry dropped to his knees in front of Draco and reached out to close his hand around the ruby. "Rubies are at once hard and soft," he said. "Their actual hardness, combined with their living color. It signifies that I see you as another heart outside my body. Especially that deep red hue this one is."
Draco watched him with soft, narrow eyes, as if he wanted to shut out the sight of anything beyond Harry, anything but the lover who had chosen him, and chosen to follow one custom at least in honoring him with this. His heart filled with a glittering, transcendent pride, Harry wondered why he had never done this before. Sure, there were still some pure-blood customs that he didn't want to embrace, but there were plenty that were fine, and when it made Draco so happy...
"Why does the hue matter?" Draco asked, as if he was a child who needed the lesson.
"Because the deeper the hue, the deeper the commitment," Harry replied quietly, his voice reassuring, but he knew from the way Draco swallowed that he wasn't thinking about Harry the way he would a parent. "And the cabochon cut. That's important, too."
Draco opened his hand so Harry could see the ruby again, but Harry already knew what it looked like. Besides, he didn't really want to take his gaze from Draco's face. "Tell me why it's so important," Draco whispered.
Harry took his hand. "Because the jewel that Merlin supposedly gave to Nimue was in a cabochon cut. And he gave that to her even when he knew that she was going to trap him in a tree forever. He gave it to her because the cabochon cut meant love so deep to him that no turning back was possible." He rose to his feet and leaned in to rest his cheek against Draco's. "And that's what my love for you is like, too."
Draco swallowed and laid the ruby carefully on the table beside him, and then wrapped his arms in a furious hold around Harry's neck. And after that, there was no more talking for the night.
But Draco wore the ruby proudly in the ring Harry bought him the next day, and if Harry doubted this was real, all he had to do was look into those eyes that smiled whether or not Draco meant them to.
Chapter Thirty-Three.
This entry was originally posted at http://lomonaaeren.dreamwidth.org/713841.html. Comment wherever you like.