Chapter Four of 'Temporary Mate'- Warding Mistakes
Chapter Three.
Title: Temporary Mate (4/?)
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing this story for fun and not profit.
Pairing: Harry/Draco, past Harry/Ginny and Harry/Michael Corner
Content Notes: Angst, violence, creature fic (Draco is a Veela), action/adventure, Auror fic, minor character death
Rating: R
Summary: Escorting Malfoy on a dangerous mission in another dimension to speak to French Veela, Harry and his fellow Aurors are attacked and left for dead. Harry and Malfoy are the only survivors, and wounds the attackers inflicted have released Malfoy’s Veela heritage. Now he’s probably going to die unless Harry can successfully bind himself to Malfoy as a temporary mate-and they still have to survive the trek to reach the Veela stronghold.
Author’s Notes: This fic will be updated whenever I finish a chapter. It should be anywhere from ten to twenty chapters long.
Chapter One.
Thank you again for all the reviews!
Chapter Four--Warding Mistakes
"Have you found out why my fireballs failed?"
Harry nodded absently without looking up from the boundary lines in front of him, the place where the fireballs Malfoy had created glowed on the ground. They'd both got some sleep last night while the other one patrolled. It wasn't as good as the way Harry had slept when he was wrapped in Malfoy's arms.
But that whiny part of him was unhappy about a lot of things, including the lack of holidays Harry had taken while he was serving as an Auror and his breakup with Michael Corner. It would have to learn better.
"Why, then?"
Malfoy's breath was right on his ear. Harry controlled his start. Malfoy couldn't help it any more than Harry could help reacting, and he probably wished he could. "There were thin lines between the fireballs last night. I barely noticed them, but now I think they must have been carrying a lot more of the power than I thought." He tapped his wand between two fireballs. "They've been broken."
"Been broken? Not broke?"
Harry shook his head and cast one of those spells Aurors hoarded and weren't supposed to show to outsiders. That part of him that considered keeping such secrets important would have to learn better, too. "Exhibeo abruptum."
The air between the fireballs swirled with sullen yellow, and then bright threads appeared, green against the yellow. Malfoy leaned in, steadying himself with one hand on Harry's shoulder.
A few hours ago, those hands had made him come.
Harry gritted his teeth and nodded to the evidence phasing into being in front of them. "See that? Those severed ends of the green lines? They're the lines that were connecting the fireballs. Magic that dissipates, even if it's with a Finite, would show as a softly dissolving end. This looks more like a broken thread. It was unraveled."
"I want to know what happened." Malfoy was flexing his hand restlessly, and it felt as if claws would emerge from his nails and slide under Harry's shirt at any second. "Nothing in this dimension should be strong enough to do that to a Veela's magic, or my kindred would never survive."
"We can't afford to remain here long enough to investigate it, though. We have to move on."
"Why?"
"Because those creatures might come back, or others like them." Harry turned around, still crouching, and looked up into Malfoy's eyes. Malfoy's nostrils slowly flared, but he said nothing, so Harry continued. "We don't know enough about them. We can't find out in time to fight them. My carelessness and lack of knowledge already got a whole escort of Aurors killed. So we need to--"
Malfoy immediately leaned down and embraced him, hands sliding down his back. "It wasn't your fault. It wasn't you. Don't say it was. It was the harpies."
Harry closed his eyes, trembling. The terrible thing was that he had always wished for someone to hang onto him like this, to reassure and comfort him when the guilt assaulted him like a whip.
It figured that, when it finally happened, it would be a counterfeit of the real thing.
He mastered his trembling, and said, "Well, I didn't know how to fight the harpies. I don't know how to fight too many of the things that we're ending up facing. It's not fair to you. You deserve a full escort and the best protection you can get, but I'm afraid you'll have to settle for me."
"You're the best. I want only you."
Malfoy's words and hands had both warmed up to the point that Harry knew he wasn't talking about protectors anymore. He sighed and forced Malfoy's hands off him. "We know now that something out there can break Veela protections. We'll back up those fireballs with my own wards tonight. In the meantime, let's eat something and start walking."
"I could carry you."
"Not for long, not without tiring your wings." Harry knew he was fit, but that just meant he wasn't a lightweight like he'd been when he was a teenager. He cast Malfoy a critical glance. "You'd use up a lot of energy. What do Veela do to restore their energy?"
"Let me show you, Harry."
Harry had his wand aimed before Malfoy took his first step towards him. "Back up, Malfoy. You don't really want this, and that's what you need to keep in mind as we walk. You're a human, not a Veela."
Malfoy flung his head back with a huff and closed his eyes. Harry honestly couldn't tell whether he was more frustrated or in pain. "You want me to use my Veela senses to locate this enclave of my kind, and we have to deliver a message to them, and the only way we survived was me going through the transformation, but you object to the natural consequences of that?"
"I mean that we have to keep focused on the mission. Not on doing something that would accidentally make me your true mate."
Malfoy's eyes opened slowly. Silver swirled and danced in the depths of his grey eyes, an honest, separate whirlpool. "You are my true mate. Screw spells and distinctions and all the rest of it. I know I wouldn't feel as comfortable with you as I do if it was only the spell."
Harry sighed a little. Even though he knew nothing about the spells that made humans into Veela, he had been afraid something like this would happen. “And now it’s starting to confuse your brain.”
“What do you mean by that, Potter? Nothing is confusing my brain!”
Harry had to smile. As long as Malfoy sounded that indignant, and called him by his last name, too, then the chances were better that he was remembering who he really was. “You say things like I’m supposedly your true mate. Would you ever have said that before we came to this dimension?”
Malfoy spent a moment staring at him as if he didn’t remember, and then his cheeks turned a dull red and he looked away. “No,” he muttered.
Harry nodded and stood, stretching out the pain in his back from crouching. “So. You know now where one of the lines is. Whenever you find yourself thinking of me with too much affection, then you can realize that you’re thinking too much the way a Veela would.” He cocked his head at Malfoy, who stood there with his eyes closed. “Which way to the enclave?”
It seemed a struggle for Malfoy to lift his arm and point, but he finally did. Harry nodded and aimed their steps along that line. Their supplies were already packed. Harry did listen carefully behind him.
After a moment, Malfoy followed.
*
“Shit, Malfoy, are you all right?”
Draco gritted his teeth and stared down at the wound on his hand. He’d been walking past what he had looked like one more piece of humped, fluffy blue ground. And then it had turned into a mass of spikes that lashed out and impaled his thumb. Potter had arrived and froze the bush into a ball of ice before it could drain his blood through those hollow spikes, which Draco thought was what would have happened.
“The cut’s shallow. It’ll stop bleeding in a second.”
“Still.” Potter took Draco’s hand and aimed his wand at the cut before Draco could argue. “Episkey.”
Draco sighed as the magic flowed over him, and closed his eyes. Even though the pleasant feeling the minor charm gave him had to be a side-effect of his transformation, he didn’t think the power of the sensation was. Potter had always been a strong wizard.
“Ready to go on?” Potter rubbed his hand and stepped away.
Draco opened his eyes. “You have to stop doing that.”
“Healing you?”
“Treating me-gently. As if you feel affection for me.” When Potter only stared at him, Draco shook his head, and bitterness spilled over his tongue. “For Merlin’s sake, Potter! What do you think happens when you touch me like that and my body reacts? Veela mates care for each other, touch each other like that, perform minor magic to soothe pains and aches. It’s fine if you protect me. That only confuses my instincts.” Even as it also drives me mad. “But you don’t need to constantly do more than that.”
Potter stiffened his back and spent a moment looking like a statue of a noble warrior facing down the enemy. “You’re right, Malfoy. I didn’t mean to make things harder for you. I’m sorry. I’ll stop. I can keep protecting you and nothing more.” He turned around and began to lead the way carefully past a cluster of more bushes.
Not that that will work, Draco thought in despair, as he followed. The apology only meant that Potter seemed more gentle and considerate and desirable.
Draco hadn’t had many people in the last few years who thought of him as someone worth protecting. The other Aurors who had died under the harpies’ claws had barely been polite to him. Potter had been more than that, making sure Draco had a comfortable place to sleep and enough food each night. It made sense that he would keep that up after Draco had transformed.
Many people who wouldn’t have despised him for being a former Death Eater would have despised him for becoming a beast. Potter didn’t. He did what had to be done, and even let Draco make him come if that was what it took.
Merlin, Draco thought as they plunged down a dusky red hill and came up one that was almost orange, how am I supposed to keep from falling in love with him?
*
He’s bearing it so well.
Harry was resting on one knee as he peered through a small clump of trees-well, they were thin enough to look like toothpicks, and all silver and transparent, with small blue branches that grew straight above them, but “trees” was the only word Harry had to call them-at the animals below, and trying to decide if they were dangerous or not. Malfoy rested beside him, squatting, his head bowed and his eyes closed.
I couldn’t have borne transforming into something else and losing part of my natural human being so well.
Harry knew better than to talk about it, though. Malfoy had begged him to only say necessary things, and Harry would keep that promise.
The creatures below confused him. They were squat and small, although their bodies looked as bulky as a cow’s. Now and then they moved, and something stirred on their backs. Harry thought it was folded wings, but he didn’t know. He also thought they were grazing, but again, he couldn’t be sure.
And he was so fucking tired of not being sure.
“I don’t suppose you know anything about creatures like that,” he muttered to Malfoy, jerking his head at the field.
“No.”
Malfoy’s voice was tight, under strain. Harry glanced at him sharply. His head was still bowed, and his hands were trembling. As Harry watched, his fingers curled unnaturally, back in towards his palms, as if he was trying to grip his own wrists.
Harry moved around in front of him. He had said he would keep himself to himself as much as possible, but this had to be handled. “What can I do?”
Malfoy uttered a half-gasp. “You would phrase it like that,” he said, and gave Harry a dull, glazed glance. “Most of the time, I don’t notice when I cross the line over into my other self. But now I can hear its voice like a separate one in my skull. It wants one thing from you, and one thing only.”
“Sex?”
Harry felt as if he’d fallen off a cliff when Malfoy shook his head. “No. I must-I want-it wants-a kiss. Kiss me like you mean it, like you’re my true mate.” His body shimmered, but his wings didn’t manifest. Harry wondered if he was too tired or under too much strain for that to happen. “Harry.”
He’s crossed the line again, Harry thought, his heart heavy and soft. But when he opened his mouth to explain why he shouldn’t do that, Malfoy simply closed his eyes and turned his head away.
And Harry couldn’t leave him like that.
He gently touched his fingers to Malfoy’s chin, turning his face back, and then kissed him like he meant it. His lips were soft, warm, and suddenly open under Harry’s. Harry gasped sharply, but didn’t rein himself back in. This was something Malfoy needed, something he had to have if they were going to survive at all.
Harry wouldn’t let himself doubt. His hands wrapped around Malfoy’s neck and back, and he pulled him into it. Malfoy rested his own hands on Harry’s shoulders, but he didn’t move them other than that. His breath was tugged from him in short, disbelieving gasps.
His tongue in Malfoy’s mouth was setting off lightning in his brain. Harry pulled back with a cry at last, when he knew he would do something stupid if he kept this up for one more moment. He braced his forehead against Malfoy’s chest and licked his lips. There seemed to be a taste of salt there that wasn’t his.
“Thank you, Harry.”
To his surprise, Malfoy’s voice really did sound free of strain. He slid a hand down Harry’s cheek, and Harry raised his head, blinking. Malfoy smiled at him, gentle, tender, and stood up. For a moment his wings shimmered about him. Then he pulled them back in towards his body, and they faded from sight.
“Sometimes I think a small gesture towards the Veela will soothe it better than a big one,” Malfoy went on briskly as he moved towards the far end of the “trees.” “It makes it think more is coming.”
“Oh.” Harry licked his lips twice more, and hoped he could stop himself soon. “Talking about it that way doesn’t make-I mean, the Veela can’t hear us?”
“Right now, it’s so drunk on your kiss that it isn’t listening to anything but its own memory,” Malfoy said dryly. “Those creatures don’t have teeth, but they might be prey that would attract a predator. Let’s go around them. We can do that without getting far out of our path.”
“Right.” Harry nodded and braced himself with a hand on a tree for a minute, lowering his head as he breathed.
“Potter?”
“You go ahead.”
Malfoy had one eyebrow raised when Harry glanced at him, but he nodded, and strode out into the open. The cattle-like creatures started at the sight of him, but didn’t fly or run. Harry stood with his eyes closed before he followed.
It didn’t affect him at all. Not the real him, the part that isn’t Veela. I should be grateful for that. I know I should. It would make this a lot harder if he was-ravening and wanting to pin me down all the time.
Harry sighed and lifted his head, following. If he could do so many other unselfish things for Draco’s sake, then he could certainly keep his disappointment to himself.
*
It was only Draco’s training in Occlumency that kept him from going back, pinning Harry to the ground, and fucking him.
That kiss had been good enough to break through any kind of barrier Draco had between himself and the Veela. Now he walked lightly and shuddered the entire time, licking his lips and cupping his hand up around his face so that Harry wouldn’t see.
He’s doing this because he knows he has to to keep us alive. It’s the same way that he cast the spell when I asked him to. Because he wants to keep me alive so I can fulfill the mission, and he wants to live himself.
Draco quickened his steps. Really, he thought, the sooner they reached the Veela enclave, the better. That meant Draco could be unbound from Harry and find a mate who was interested in him because of what he was, not what he had been: a human and the Ministry’s messenger.
The Veela part of him insisted that he would never find someone who suited him as well as Harry, but then again, he had never thought of Harry as a mate before they cast the spell. One sensation would replace another. He would get over this.
And he tried to keep his mind away from thoughts of how noble and stubborn and self-sacrificing and generous Harry was by looking over the slope in front of them, which was gradual but long, and descended to join what looked like a small range of orange hills.
At once, his spine stiffened. There were several creatures watching them from further down the slope. Draco couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen them before, but maybe the “trees” had blocked his eyes.
These creatures looked almost like ostriches, tall birds with folded wings and long legs. But their colors were shimmering gold and red like autumn leaves instead of black and white, and Draco could see the obvious. There were huge, curving claws on their feet instead of smaller toes, and their beaks were curved, too. It looked like an eagle’s beak, except a lot larger.
Predators. And they were watching Draco and Harry, who had emerged from the copse behind him.
“Trouble,” Draco breathed, without looking around. Harry stepped up beside him. “What do you think-”
The birds charged them, wings beating. Those wings couldn’t lift them from the ground, Draco realized, but they could sure speed them along, and they were coming faster, even uphill, than Draco had thought they could move.
“We defend, of course,” Harry said lightly, and moved in between Draco and the birds, his wand already whirling.
Draco snarled and called on his wings. His stubborn mate was not going to defend himself, by himself, again.
Chapter Five.
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