Chapter Twenty-Five of 'Bonded Consort'- Lily and Her Children
Chapter Twenty-Four.
Title: Bonded Consort (25/28)
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing this story for fun and not profit.
Pairings: Harry/Draco eventually, one-sided Draco/OFC, Lily/James, Lucius/Narcissa, mentions of Pansy/Blaise
Content Notes: AU, courting, weird marriage customs, bonding
Rating: R
Summary: Nineteen years ago, the Potters betrothed their firstborn child to the firstborn Malfoy child. Eighteen years ago, Voldemort was defeated for good. Seventeen years ago, the Potters changed the contract so that their secondborn child was substituted for their firstborn. Now, Draco Malfoy is trying to work out what happened.
Author’s Notes: As you can probably see from the summary, this is a massive AU, some of the background of which will be explained as the story goes on. The most important facts to know are that Voldemort was vanquished for good in 1981 and thus the Potters are still alive; Harry did not attend Hogwarts; and Harry and Draco have never met. This story should be between eight and eighteen parts long, and will update on Tuesdays.
Chapter One.
Thank you again for all the reviews!
Chapter Twenty-Five-Lily and Her Children
“I don’t know why Dahlia did that. I don’t know what to think about her now.”
That had been the last thing James said before he left, and the words had rung in Harry’s ears most of the day. He stepped out of the shower and began to thoughtfully dry his hair. He wondered if that was one reason James had apologized multiple times, for multiple things, fretful and distracted.
He wondered if that was one reason Lily hadn’t tried to reach out to him yet: because she was still trying to come to terms with what her daughter had done.
“Harry?”
“In here.” Harry wandered into their bedroom, and watched Draco step back from the window. A streak of pink light had joined the muted green glow of the other wards. Harry raised an eyebrow. “Expecting an attack?”
“Expecting that what they tried once, they might try again.” Draco turned away from the window and embraced him, nuzzling into Harry’s shoulder. “This will prevent anyone from using wandless magic to get into the house. And it will prevent anyone from walking out of the house if they’re under the influence of wandless magic.”
“Hey.” Harry gently turned Draco’s head so he was looking at Harry. “I think that was a one-time thing. I was never susceptible to that magic Dahlia used, for whatever reason. I don’t think Dumbledore would try an attack on you or me with her again.”
“Do you want to risk it? Because I don’t.”
Draco’s eyes were dark and burning, and Harry recognized the need in him. “Of course not,” he said, and stretched his neck up so that he could kiss Draco. “Thank you for taking care of me.”
Draco’s hand slid down his back as they kissed, and he pulled away the towel draped around Harry’s hips. Then he moved him towards the bed. Harry went, grinning a little. Sometimes he thought Draco was overprotective, but mostly he reveled in the way Draco wanted to take care of him.
Draco licked the side of his neck, and then worked his way down Harry’s body, with nips and breaths and touches of his fingers, until Harry was writhing. Then Draco spread his hand out over Harry’s groin and held it there, staring into Harry’s eyes.
Harry licked his lips. He didn’t know what Draco wanted. “Like this?” he finally asked, and thrust up with his hips.
Draco shut his eyes and hissed as Harry’s cock slid across his palm. “Yes, just like that,” he whispered, and turned his hand sideways, and closed his fingers loosely around Harry’s shaft. “Thrust for me. Fuck my hand.”
Harry was doing it almost before Draco had finished the words, the sudden need in himself burning like the hot water from the shower and as comforting. He could be a good lover, he thought with the last part of his brain that wasn’t dissolving in the rush of pleasure. It was okay, he could be good for Draco, he didn’t need to worry about being alone for the last five years hurting Dr-
His mind slammed shut, and he could feel himself coming, and he was yowling or doing something that sounded like it, and Draco pulled back with a look so satisfied that Harry couldn’t get angry about the way that he then wiped his hand on the towel that Harry had been wearing.
“You get to use the Cleaning Charms,” Harry muttered, struggling to keep his eyes from slipping shut.
“I don’t think I should have to,” Draco answered, and eased forwards, his hands already busy with his robes. His cock was so straight and hard that Harry reached out to touch it before he thought about it. Draco hissed and said, “Your mouth, please.”
He said it as if he thought Harry might refuse. Harry smiled at him and moved himself around on the bed so he stood a chance of sucking Draco off without getting choked. Then he took the whole thing in his mouth at once and had the satisfaction of seeing Draco lurch forwards, his eyes wide.
“Like this?” Harry muttered, but his words were just reduced to a floppy vibration because he didn’t dare speak in the normal way in case his teeth scraped something vital. Draco, who was not floppy, moaned anyway.
Harry hollowed his cheeks and relaxed his jaw and licked. Draco immediately began bucking and straining forwards. Even though Harry had to crane his neck to keep from getting gagged, he felt the urge to chuckle.
Then he decided he didn’t need to hold that back, and he did chuckle, and Draco made a sharp noise and came.
Harry hastily gulped and swallowed, determined to prove that he wouldn’t need a Cleaning Charm, although he cheated by turning and rubbing his cheek on the towel for a second while Draco had his eyes closed. Then Draco toppled slowly down like a falling leaf, and Harry wrapped himself around Draco and sighed. No need to go through such subterfuge after all.
“Thank you,” Draco said.
“Well, thank you,” Harry said, and was glad Draco simply gave him an exhausted smile and went to sleep instead of staying up arguing whether they needed to give each other more thank you’s or not.
It was the kind of thing Harry had once spent nights worrying about. If he ever did get a lover, how he could act normally? He didn’t know the things everyone else knew and took for granted. He couldn’t say the simplest thing without revealing that to someone else.
And now it was all going to be all right, because Draco let him keep it casual and sweet.
Harry sighed and abandoned himself to sleep and the feeling of being wrapped in someone else’s arms.
*
“It’s up to you to decide what to do,” Draco said, speaking through his teeth. It might sound incoherent, but it was better than leaping up and yelling the way he wanted to. “Meet her or not. But if she brings the rest of them with her, then I’m not coming anywhere near Dahlia.”
“I would never ask you to.”
Draco paused and sat back a little. He’d been blindsided by Harry’s response to James’s letter, but it seemed that Harry wouldn’t give all his former family the same chance. He had a distasteful frown on his face as he stared at Lily’s letter.
“What does she say?” Draco finally asked.
“That she’d like to meet me in a neutral place, the way James did,” Harry said. “She doesn’t say she’s going to apologize. She says she’ll ‘explain.’ And she wants to bring Dahlia with her. That’s non-negotiable, according to her.” He rolled his eyes and reached for a piece of parchment. “I’m going to decline.”
“I said that you could go, if you wanted.”
“Do you think I want to spend any more time around Dahlia than absolutely necessary?”
“Well, no,” Draco said, feeling his words stretch out like treacle, and unable to help it. “But-well, I thought you wanted to reconnect with the Potters, and if it’s non-negotiable for her to bring Dahlia along….”
“I understand why it happened now, but I still lost my childhood to her.” Harry shook his head and kept writing, just a few scrawled words. “I don’t want to see her. I don’t want to make up with her. I don’t want to listen to apologies for her-and I’m not sure she’d give them, anyway. Maybe in a few years I’ll change my mind. But for now, no.”
“What about Lilac and Eric?”
“I’d like to see them. But not at the cost of seeing Dahlia. If it’s all of them or none of them, then it’s going to be none.”
Draco stepped up behind Harry and kissed the back of his neck. “Have I ever told you how much I love you?”
“Well, it’s been a few hours.” Harry grinned up at him, and then snapped out something short in Parseltongue as M.H. tried to creep up on the owl that had delivered Lily Potter’s letter.
“Then let’s get to remedying that,” Draco breathed, sliding a hand around the back of Harry’s neck, “the moment your letter is on the way.”
*
Dahlia was a child…she didn’t do it on purpose…you have to understand and give her another chance…
Harry read only bits and pieces of his former mother’s letter as he sat up in bed. Draco had left to go discuss “bonding plans” with his parents earlier that morning. Harry didn’t have to go with him. He trusted Draco not to make decisions that were truly repugnant for the both of them.
Why can’t I eat the owls?
“For the same reason I wouldn’t let you eat the dogs and cats that people had in Diagon Alley. They perform a service for us. They aren’t wild. I wouldn’t let you eat the snakes and lizards I used to cure, either,” Harry answered, and turned the letter over. He could write his response on the back. It was going to be a short letter.
You would not let me eat the snakes and lizards because they are kin to me. Owls are not kin to me.
Harry had forgotten he’d used that particular response, actually. But he had a new one now. “Actually, they are. I’ve read books about it. Owls evolved from dinosaurs long ago.” “Dinosaurs” came out in Parseltongue as “dead two-legged lizards,” but that wasn’t really a problem. M.H. could still understand.
M.H. thought about that for a while, lurking under the perch. At least this owl was paying more attention and seemed ready to fly if it needed to. But the relation is distant?
“Not distant enough for you to eat owls if they’re serving humans.”
I will find a wild owl, M.H. decided, and slithered out of the room.
Harry snorted. It had taken him a while to choose the words he wanted to use, but he had them now. He wrote them rapidly onto the back of the letter, thinking all the while about the childhood he’d never had.
I’m not going to forgive Dahlia, and neither is Draco. I’d like to get to know Eric and Lilac, and maybe you. But Dahlia has to stay home. If I show up and she’s there, then I’ll just leave and burn all your letters from now on.
There couldn’t be any way she could possibly misconstrue that, Harry decided as he held up the letter, and the owl adroitly swooped across the room, snatched it up, and fled out the window.
Then again, there shouldn’t have been any way that his parents would have believed Dumbledore when he said Voldemort was still alive and controlling Harry. All Harry could really do was hope for the best.
*
“Harry. Hello.”
Lily Potter’s voice was low and tremulous. Draco decided he liked the sound of it a lot more than when she’d been shouting at the man she’d been stupid enough to lose as her son.
“Hello, Mrs. Potter.” Harry’s greeting was distant and formal. He was paying a lot more attention to the two children with her, Draco realized. They were once again in Diagon Alley, but this time in a narrow space between two shops that only a few people knew about, and used only as an Apparition point.
Draco took the time to look them over himself. He supposed that Lilac looked acceptable. Too-wide eyes and clasped hands, but then she would have been-four years old, perhaps, when Harry was exiled. It made sense that she didn’t know how to react now.
Eric came a step forwards and stared at Harry. “You used to be our brother, but you aren’t now,” he said. “How does that work?”
Lily caught her breath, but if she thought Harry would explode in insults against his former family, Draco’s opinion of her intelligence would have to sink even more. Harry only smiled at Eric and said, “A magical ritual that means I’m not a Potter anymore. It’s all right. My last name is Black now. But you can still call me Harry.”
“Oh. Can you be my brother anyway?”
Harry chuckled and ruffled Eric’s hair. “I can be if you want me to and your parents agree.” He looked up and straight at Lily. Draco looked, too, and saw that her eyes were closed as if in pain.
“I don’t understand one thing,” Lilac said, her voice hesitant. “You said that Dahlia used her magic on everyone to make us think she was the perfect daughter. But I don’t think she ever used it on me. I’ve argued with her plenty of times.”
Harry gazed at her with a yearning expression. Draco thought that even he didn’t realize how yearning. This was the one sister he could have, now that Dahlia was permanently out of the picture. “I don’t think she concentrated as much on you. You didn’t really know me, and you’re a sibling, not a parent. You could argue with her and fight with her. It didn’t matter as much because you didn’t supposedly have Dark magic, and you weren’t competition for-your parents’ attention.”
“Harry,” Lily breathed. “I am so sorry.”
“That’s nice to know,” Harry said, in a quiet, neutral voice. Lilac was nodding, her hazel eyes intense. “I think that maybe we can reconcile someday. But not if you insist on bringing Dahlia along.”
“Why would you do that?” Lilac stared at her mother.
“When are you coming to visit?” Eric demanded, obviously less concerned about all the adult undercurrents swirling around him. If he can even sense them, Draco thought. He would have at that age, but he’d also been an only child whose parents doted on him and taught him to pay attention to all the subtleties of politics.
“I think you should come visit me,” Harry said, and cast a spell that flicked Eric on the nose. Lily looked briefly horrified. Draco controlled the impulse to tell her that Harry had learned it first to make M.H. pay attention. “I have two houses, you know? One where I’m living with Draco, and one that’s a Black house where I live with Sirius. So that way, we can have a lot more room and different places to play.”
“Oh.” Eric blinked, and then Lilac interrupted.
“Mother. I’m still waiting for an answer. About Dahlia.”
“I never intended this to happen,” Lily said, and sighed a little. “I thought that we were doing the right thing. Remembering the last ten years is like remembering a dream.” She looked straight at Harry. “I’m sorry for what we did. But Dahlia is part of the family, too. We can’t just abandon her.”
“You can keep her home for something like this!” Lilac snapped.
“Of course she’s part of the family,” Harry said at the same time. “And I’m not.”
There was a long moment of immense confusion when it seemed as though everyone was trying to understand both of them. Draco simply looped his arms around Harry’s waist and waited. He would be right here if Harry needed him, and if someone insulted Harry, he would make sure they got insulted back. Otherwise, Harry had asked that he not interfere.
“What does that mean?” Lily asked, her face white. “I mean-why meet with us at all if you don’t want to be part of the family?”
“I can’t be part of the family ever again,” Harry said, and inclined his head a little. “Because I’m not a Potter. I still want to know the people who would have been my siblings. Maybe my parents.”
“But Dahlia-”
“I have no interest in connecting with her.”
Standing behind Harry as he was, Draco couldn’t see his eyes, but he didn’t have to. The way Lily Potter made a choking noise and covered her face with her hands told him all about what was in Harry’s eyes.
“And you shouldn’t have to!” Lilac took a step forwards. “You probably don’t know this, but I’m studying to be a Healer-”
“We all know that,” Eric muttered. Harry winked at him, and he cheered up a little.
Lilac paid no attention to that, but plowed ahead, which Draco supposed was probably part of having a little brother. “And it would be horrible Mind-Healer etiquette to try to force you back together with someone who wronged you! The way the memories would mix with your magic-it’s horrible!” She threw a burning glance at her mother, and then focused on Harry again. “You don’t have to see Dahlia ever again.”
“Thank you,” Harry said gravely. Draco hugged him. He could almost feel the confusion dancing in Harry: shock, amusement, and yet gratitude that a thirteen-year-old was standing up for him.
“I know why Mother wants you to forgive and forget,” Lilac went on. “Dahlia didn’t mean to. Okay. But she still did. And if you don’t want to forgive that, you shouldn’t have to. That’s not what The Book of Mind-Healing for Beginners of All Levels says, and I trust that book.” She paused, and her voice became a little more uncertain. “I can send you my copy.”
Harry huffed a little breath. “That’s kind of you, Lilac, but I don’t want to take your book. I can find it in a shop and buy it.”
“Okay.” Lilac stood taller. She hesitated one more time, and then added, “Maybe you can come and take us on visits sometime.”
“Not right now?” Eric sounded wistful.
Lilac glanced over her shoulder, and said quietly, “Mum needs a Healer right now.” She added to Harry, “I hope you understand. I think she was stupid to suggest Dahlia coming along today, but Healers go where they’re needed.”
“Of course they do,” Harry said, faintly dazed. Draco is feeling a bit of that himself. He knew Lilac Potter was intent on becoming a Healer. He hadn’t realized she already thought and acted like one.
“When can we come see you?” Eric whined.
“We’ll talk about that in a while,” Harry said. Lily was white, and put a hand on Lilac’s shoulder without taking her eyes off Harry. “For right now, go with your mum. I’m glad that we got a chance to talk.”
Eric pouted at him, but he hugged Harry, looked sideways at Draco, and then went to Lily for her to Apparate them away. Lily extended her hand once.
“Harry-”
“Not today,” Harry said calmly, and stood there, unmoving, until Lily bowed her head and Apparated.
“You were magnificent,” Draco said into his ear. Harry just nodded without looking away from where the Potters had been.
“Yeah.” He hesitated. “They’re good kids, aren’t they?”
“Yes.” Draco turned and kissed him behind the ear. “And you don’t have to have anything to do with their parents or their older sister if you don’t want to.”
“I know that.” Harry sounded surprised, pulling back to stare into Draco’s eyes. “I was just happy to realize there are some Potters I really want to get to know.”
Draco smiled and kissed him, before taking them home. More joy had come out of this meeting than he foresaw.
Chapter Twenty-Six.
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