(no subject)
Title: Steady Red Light
Author: original_lie
Genre: Romance?
Rating: PG-13 - soft R
Pairing: Harry/Draco
Disclaimer: JK is the master of this puppet show.
Warning: Angst, flangst, fluff, ooc.
Length: ~3200
A/N: Originally written for the awdt prompt "Boys don't kiss boys", it wasn't finished then so it's going up now after I've finally had time to read it through and correct any glaring errors and plot holes. Due to the fact it hasn't been looked over by another person and only run through Word. If you notice any glaring errors feel free to inform me and I'll do my best to correct or clarify whenever I can.
Summary: Harry loves Draco. Draco loves Harry. So why then is Draco pushing Harry away?
Steady Red Light
:::
“Boys don’t kiss boys! That’s what my parents said, Potter.” Draco drawled, well it was more like slurred elegantly, waving his hands as if to emphasise the point. “This - whatever it was - is nothing more than an unnatural perversion that needs… needed to be purged.”
Harry’s eyes bugged a little and he scoffed - loudly. “You don’t believe that.”
“I do! They’re right. This is so many levels of wrong.”
Harry shook his head, and then smiled kindly as though he was looking at a child who was a little slow to the uptake.
“You don’t believe that, Draco. That’s why you’re so upset. Your problem is that you don’t want to do anything else to displeasure your parents, and that is why you’re fighting this - us.”
“You’re wrong.” Draco whispered.
“No. I’m right and you know it. You hate that I’m right. You hate that you want me so bad it hurts. You hate that you wake up in the early hours of the mornings thinking of me, craving me, wanting me to fill you. Complete you. And moreover, you hate that I know this.”
“You’re wrong.” Draco whispered again, his voice breaking, a sob wracking his body.
“I’m right. You know I’m right.” Harry insisted, refusing to give Draco the easy way out. “Just admit it. Forget about your bloody parents and think about what you want. You don’t want pussy and tits, you want arse and cock, you said it yourself months ago, just tell them all the truth and it’ll all be over.”
“I don’t want to marry Daphne.” Draco whimpered, turning his body away from Harry, dangling his long legs off the side of the bed like a lost child. “I don’t want what they want for me. I don’t want soft curves, tits and pussy; I want hard angles, arse and cock. I want you. I need you.”
The last part was whispered so softly, so heartbreakingly, that Harry wanted to take Draco in his arms and kiss his worries away. Instead Harry opted for a doting smile, moving the sheet to crawl closer to Draco.
“But,” that one word stopped Harry in his tracks. “But I can’t just give up on my family. I can’t turn my back on them. Not after everything we’ve been through. Not after everything that’s happened. I love them. I need them too.”
Well that didn’t settle too well with Harry. Lucius and Narcissa may have loved and raised Draco, but Harry loved and protected him now. As far as Harry was concerned Draco was his. Draco wasn’t going to marry Daphne Greengrass, have a dozen towheaded brats, and live in blissful ignorance of who he truly was.
“So what about us? What about what we’ve been through? That means less than what your parents did, turn their backs on a lost cause, a psychotic madman? You’d give me and everything we could have up just because?”
Draco turned his head a little, looking at Harry out of the corner of his eye over his shoulder. “Its how it has to be Harry. Don’t fight it. Just let me go and find someone who can give you everything you need. Everything you want. I’m not worth it.”
Draco shoved the sheet aside and slid his robes over his head, gathering his trousers, shirt, shoes and wand in hand before Apparating away.
:::
It was the event of the season. Daphne Greengrass looked resplendent in her wedding robes, Draco Malfoy dashing in his. Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy, and Everard and Morgiana Greengrass all positively beamed from their positions in the first row. In fact the entire congregation of the who’s who of British and European Witches and Wizards looked so radiant and happy that it was almost sickening. The only exception of this rule however was Harry Potter who was glowering in the wings, barely constrained magic leaking from his person.
The minister stepped up to the pulpit and smiled at the assembly before droning on about the sanctity of marriage and what a blessing it was. Harry continued to glare, opening and closing his fists, his jaw clenching to the point of pain. There was no “if anyone objects” part during Pure-blood Wizarding wedding ceremonies, the parents at this point would have consented, received the dowry, etc., so the people that would object during the ceremony, if there was anyone, wouldn’t matter one whit in the end.
Draco looked over to Daphne and gave her a half-hearted smile before looking over his shoulder to see his mother dab at her eyes and father smile, although it did look more like a grimace. Draco turned back to the minister and straightened his shoulders, waiting for the metaphorical axe to fall.
Harry saw red the moment Draco smiled at his would-be-bride. Unable to stop himself he stalked forward, walking half the length of the hall before stopping; glaring malevolently at Draco’s back.
“Excuse me!” Harry started in a loud, clear voice.
Everyone, except Draco, turned to look at Harry; The first murmurings beginning to sweep through the crowd. Everard and Morgiana looked from their daughter to Harry, before looking at Lucius and Narcissa and shrugging slightly. Lucius in turn glancing from the stiff form of his son to the frightening pose of the Boy Who Killed He Who Must Not Be Named.
“I know this isn’t the right time or place, but this wedding is not going to happen.” Harry insisted, not once turning his gaze from Draco.
The chatter from the people around him grew louder. Insinuations that Harry was in love with Daphne Greengrass, that he was jealous of Draco, etcetera, so on and so forth and all the rest.
Harry stepped closer, waiting for Draco to turn around and face him. Harry actually made it all the way to the ‘happy’ couple without being stopped, not that anyone would actually stand up to one very pissed off Harry Potter - no one was that crazy.
“I’ve waited six months for you to come back. Six fucking months. I read the notices in The Prophet and spat on them, ‘You won’t go through with it’ I said. ‘You can’t live without me’ I said. I thought you would just give your parents the time they needed to digest the news; that you couldn’t do this. What a fool I was. I thought that you loved me, you told me you did.”
Harry laughed, and people in the back shuddered. It was cold and embittered; Draco was the only one who didn’t flinch. Didn’t move. Refused to turn around and face Harry once and for all.
“I loved you! I would have done anything for you. Everything I’ve done for you the last two years has been for you and you threw me away.”
Harry would have cried if he wasn’t so angry. He would have broken down and sobbed like a little baby in front of the cream of society and not cared, if only he didn’t feel like he was about to implode with pure rage.
“I fucking loved you and you can’t even look at me!” Harry screamed.
The gasp and outraged ‘no’ was lost on the chattering behind them that grew at that last statement. Everard Greengrass stepping up to Lucius Malfoy and demanding to know just what the hell was going on. Narcissa sobbing and wailing like a banshee, crying something unintelligible into her handkerchief.
“So I guess this is goodbye. I guess this is how it ends. You really want all this so bad,” Harry asked, waving his hand about. “You can keep it. You marry your Pure-blood princess, you have your dozen towhead brats, you live in denial. You. See. If. I. Care. Anymore. Malfoy.”
Harry hiccoughed, and turned on his heel; eyes bright red and shoulders slumped forward, his shaggy head of black hair hanging forlornly as he hurried from this purgatory.
:::
The entire Wizarding World was in a furore over the Greengrass-Malfoy wedding debacle. No one had seen hide nor hair from either Harry or Draco and the respective camps for both sides stayed silent on the subject.
Draco himself had stayed holed up in his room for two weeks after Lucius managed to whisk them back to the Manor. Two weeks of avoiding his parents, unable to get the gasped no and fervent pleading for Draco to deny everything out of his mind. The look on his parents faces when he’d finally turned around, just in time to see Harry leave the hall. Hell even the look on Daphne’s face, that stunned-mullet, “What the fuck is going on?!” expression was ingrained in his mind. How Draco loathed Harry for publicly outing him. For ruining his future. For forcing him to accept the truth. Fucking Potter.
Harry too had locked himself away. Not in a luxuriant room with house-elves to bring him food at the insistence of an overly concerned mother, but in the dingy master suite of number twelve Grimmauld Place. Harry had really, really, come to hate that house with a passion that exceeded no other. Everywhere he looked there was a sullied memory. Sirius. Hermione & Ron. Ginny. Draco… Fucking Draco Malfoy! The ungrateful git hadn’t even had the balls to turn around and fucking look at him when he’d poured out his heart and soul in front of the world. And so Harry had shut himself away, speaking to Hermione only when he really had to, which was becoming more frequently now that there were reports of him having popped up in places as far away as Goa and Guyana. Total and utter bollocks. Fucking Malfoy.
:::
Narcissa Malfoy was nothing if not resourceful. Draco had locked himself in his room for over a month and because she couldn’t care if her son was gay, straight or a pink and purple slug with one eye; she was going to do anything and everything to ensure her son was happy. That was why Narcissa was standing on the doorsteps of her ancestral home waiting for someone, anyone to open the door. After the third ring of the doorbell, heavy footsteps and shrill screaming echoed through the thick front door.
“Goway!” was the shouted response. “Shut up you filthy, rotten, old hag. Nobody cares what you think.”
Sighing heavily Narcissa rang the bell again, cocking her head to one side just as the door was opened and revealed a half-naked Harry Potter in all his miserable sleep deprived glory.
“I said, Go. Away.” Harry hissed, his eyes widening when they focused and he spotted Narcissa Malfoy of all people standing on his front stoop. “What the hell are you doing here?!”
“Nice to see you too, Mr. Potter. Mind if I come in?” Narcissa said genially, stepping around him and into the hallway.
“Mrs. Malfoy, what are you doing here?” Harry asked again, hitching the band of his trousers up so they were no longer riding dangerously low on his hips.
“I think you know why I’m here, Mr. Potter.”
“Draco.”
“That would be right. Now there’s no need for me to beat around the bush I can get right to the point. Draco loves you, Mr. Potter. I don’t know you but I think, owing to your little performance that day, I can safely say that you love him. The thing I don’t understand is why you’re here and Draco’s holed up in his room at the Manor.”
“I’m not sure where you’re going with this Mrs. Malfoy, but let’s get one thing straight. I let Draco know how I felt. I gave him the chance to tell you and Lucius, I gave him chance, after chance, after fucking chance and he did nothing but throw it back in my face. I waited for him. I’ve kept waiting for him and for reasons only Merlin knows I’ll probably continue to wait for him. But I’m not going to make a complete arse out of myself again.”
Narcissa sighed and smiled, reaching out to rub Harry’s arms. “I know he’s a handful, but would you want him any other way?”
“No. But I’m not sure I can be with someone who can’t even acknowledge my feelings. Someone who can’t even admit who they are. Someone who’s too scared to tell their parents the truth.”
“Oh, Harry, we knew. We’re his parents, how could we not. We waited for him to tell us and when he didn’t we went to the Greengrasses. Daphne’s a lovely girl, we’ve known her since she was a child, but she’s not what Draco wanted. We wanted him to see that, to see what is that he truly wants.” Narcissa explained.
“That’s a touching story Mrs. Malfoy but what about ‘boys don’t kiss boys’?” Harry asked. “It was, after all, the whole basis for Draco’s reasoning that we couldn’t be together; that you wouldn’t approve or two boys - men - being together.”
“He was seven! And they were Muggles, how did he remember that?” Narcissa babbled, truly horrified. “Times were different then, Harry, everything has-”
“No offence Mrs. Malfoy but I have to say I’m not really interested. I hope Draco finds whatever it is he’s looking for; I do want him to be happy. If you please, I have something that needs attending to.”
Harry motioned for the door, his head hung low as Narcissa Malfoy swept past him with a brief nod to Walburga Black’s portrait who harrumphed loudly and muttered something about Harry’s poor manners.
Oh how Narcissa wished the moment she closed the front door behind her that she could get Harry and Draco in a room together long enough to smack their heads together for being so stupid and pigheaded.
:::
“Draco?”
Narcissa walked into Draco’s rooms to find him lying on his back in the middle of his bed, long legs dangling over one side, his head off the other staring at a random spot on the wall.
“Goway.” he murmured.
Rolling her eyes Narcissa sat on the edge of the bed and patted Draco’s leg fondly. “You’re the second person to tell me to ‘goway’ today. Honestly is it so hard to say ‘Go away’?”
Draco frowned and lifted his head just enough to look at her. “Father or Tetty?” he asked, dropping his head with a sigh.
“Harry Potter, actually”
Draco had never moved so fast in his life, his body folding up on itself in an effort to get upright. “You saw Harry?”
“I did.”
“Why? Where? How was he?” it was a mad rush of garbled words, and the first time that Draco had looked alive in weeks.
“I went to Grimmauld Place.” Narcissa said slowly. “And honestly, he looked terrible. He misses you, Draco.”
Draco hung his head, rubbing the heel of his palms into his eyes. “No he doesn’t.” Draco looked up at his mother, his bottom lip wobbling pitifully. “I couldn’t even look at him... I couldn’t even tell you... he hates me, and what’s worse is I don’t blame him.”
Narcissa pulled Draco into her arms, rocking him like she’s done a thousand times when he was a child. Shushing, cooing and kissing the crown of his head.
“Don’t hate you, Draco.”
Draco and Narcissa both whipped their heads around to look at the doorway so fast that they both nearly collided.
“Harry?” Draco whimpered, his hands tightening on the blankets at his feet as he struggled to his knees.
Harry nodded, standing nervously at the door wringing his hands. “I - your mum came to see me. I- she- she - I miss you. I miss you so bad it hurts. So bad that sometimes I don’t know what’s up from what’s down.”
Narcissa stood quietly, edging out of the room, not that either man noticed. Closing the bedroom door behind her she wasn’t all that surprised to see Lucius leaning against the wall, smiling - really smiling for once.
“I’m sorry I ruined your wedding.” Harry whispered.
“I’m not.” Draco murmured, shaking his head furiously.
“I just- I just couldn’t let her have you if it meant that I’d never get to see you again. Hold you again. Love you again.”
“I wasn’t going to. I couldn’t.”
Harry looked at Draco, his forehead creasing. “Wasn’t going to what? Couldn’t what?”
“I wasn’t going to go through with it. I couldn’t. I - I was about to tell them no, but you, you told them everything. You told them everything and left me there.”
“You wouldn’t look at me.” Harry flailed. “You didn’t even acknowledge me. I poured my heart out, I told hundreds of people I didn’t even know my personal feelings and you wouldn’t even look at me!”
“I couldn’t.”
“Couldn’t what?!”
“I couldn’t look at you!” Draco cried. “I would have fallen apart. I never, ever wanted to hurt you and then you said all that and I knew that I had - I couldn’t face you. I just couldn’t.”
Harry pressed his hand to his forehead, taking a deep breath through pursed lips. “Why are we doing this?” Harry whispered. “I don’t want to fight with you. I-”
Draco climbed off of the bed and curled the tips of his fingers of one hand around Harry’s; reaching his other hand out to cup Harry’s jaw.
“Don’t want to fight with you either. I’ve never done relationships before. With you is the closest I’ve ever come and after the whole thing with Daphne, I came to the realisation that you’re the only one that I want.” Draco let out a stuttered breath and dropped his gaze to their entwined fingers, their hands sitting palm to palm. “I can’t promise you forever. But I can promise you now, if you’ll have me.”
Harry nodded, reaching out to pull Draco’s head towards his, sealing his lips over Draco’s. It was a slow movement of lips and tongues. Heads tilting and hands brushing against arms, chests, cheeks and backs. The world was spinning and everything fell away, this was right, they were right; everything was going to be okay.
:::
It wasn’t that Narcissa was worried, she was just curious. She hadn’t heard a peep from Harry or Draco in hours, neither had snuck from the rooms, neither had requested one of the house-elves to send something up for them to nibble on, nothing. That was why Narcissa convinced herself that she was doing the right thing, checking on them to make sure they hadn’t killed each other... or something.
She wasn’t sure what she expected to find, but seeing Harry wrapped around her son in sated bliss, the sleep filled smile playing on Draco’s lips as he relaxed into Harry’s body, seeking more contact with hidden stretches of skin, brought tears to her eyes. Never had she seen her own son so happy, so content. Never had she thought she’d see someone so protective of her son, even in sleep.
With a fleeting smile, she closed the door. She didn’t see Draco roll onto his side, lying chest to chest with Harry. Slowly he dragged his fingers up and down Harry’s arm and side, his fingertip gently tracing the line of Harry’s jaw. Harry hummed in his sleep, nuzzling into Draco’s fleeting touches. Smiling, Draco pressed a kiss to the edge of Harry’s shoulder before fitting their bodies together. Closing his eyes, Draco whispered “I love you.”, not expecting the sleep roughened reply as Harry returned the same three words. Smiling they fell back in to a deep sleep, smiles itching at the corners of their mouths.
End
:::
Flist: Please note that I'm effectively taking a week off of LJ, I'll be working my arse off 8 of the next 9 days. If I have a chance I'll try to check my email and my flist, I unfortunately can't make promises this week. :( I'll get back to comments when I can.
Author: original_lie
Genre: Romance?
Rating: PG-13 - soft R
Pairing: Harry/Draco
Disclaimer: JK is the master of this puppet show.
Warning: Angst, flangst, fluff, ooc.
Length: ~3200
A/N: Originally written for the awdt prompt "Boys don't kiss boys", it wasn't finished then so it's going up now after I've finally had time to read it through and correct any glaring errors and plot holes. Due to the fact it hasn't been looked over by another person and only run through Word. If you notice any glaring errors feel free to inform me and I'll do my best to correct or clarify whenever I can.
Summary: Harry loves Draco. Draco loves Harry. So why then is Draco pushing Harry away?
Steady Red Light
:::
“Boys don’t kiss boys! That’s what my parents said, Potter.” Draco drawled, well it was more like slurred elegantly, waving his hands as if to emphasise the point. “This - whatever it was - is nothing more than an unnatural perversion that needs… needed to be purged.”
Harry’s eyes bugged a little and he scoffed - loudly. “You don’t believe that.”
“I do! They’re right. This is so many levels of wrong.”
Harry shook his head, and then smiled kindly as though he was looking at a child who was a little slow to the uptake.
“You don’t believe that, Draco. That’s why you’re so upset. Your problem is that you don’t want to do anything else to displeasure your parents, and that is why you’re fighting this - us.”
“You’re wrong.” Draco whispered.
“No. I’m right and you know it. You hate that I’m right. You hate that you want me so bad it hurts. You hate that you wake up in the early hours of the mornings thinking of me, craving me, wanting me to fill you. Complete you. And moreover, you hate that I know this.”
“You’re wrong.” Draco whispered again, his voice breaking, a sob wracking his body.
“I’m right. You know I’m right.” Harry insisted, refusing to give Draco the easy way out. “Just admit it. Forget about your bloody parents and think about what you want. You don’t want pussy and tits, you want arse and cock, you said it yourself months ago, just tell them all the truth and it’ll all be over.”
“I don’t want to marry Daphne.” Draco whimpered, turning his body away from Harry, dangling his long legs off the side of the bed like a lost child. “I don’t want what they want for me. I don’t want soft curves, tits and pussy; I want hard angles, arse and cock. I want you. I need you.”
The last part was whispered so softly, so heartbreakingly, that Harry wanted to take Draco in his arms and kiss his worries away. Instead Harry opted for a doting smile, moving the sheet to crawl closer to Draco.
“But,” that one word stopped Harry in his tracks. “But I can’t just give up on my family. I can’t turn my back on them. Not after everything we’ve been through. Not after everything that’s happened. I love them. I need them too.”
Well that didn’t settle too well with Harry. Lucius and Narcissa may have loved and raised Draco, but Harry loved and protected him now. As far as Harry was concerned Draco was his. Draco wasn’t going to marry Daphne Greengrass, have a dozen towheaded brats, and live in blissful ignorance of who he truly was.
“So what about us? What about what we’ve been through? That means less than what your parents did, turn their backs on a lost cause, a psychotic madman? You’d give me and everything we could have up just because?”
Draco turned his head a little, looking at Harry out of the corner of his eye over his shoulder. “Its how it has to be Harry. Don’t fight it. Just let me go and find someone who can give you everything you need. Everything you want. I’m not worth it.”
Draco shoved the sheet aside and slid his robes over his head, gathering his trousers, shirt, shoes and wand in hand before Apparating away.
:::
It was the event of the season. Daphne Greengrass looked resplendent in her wedding robes, Draco Malfoy dashing in his. Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy, and Everard and Morgiana Greengrass all positively beamed from their positions in the first row. In fact the entire congregation of the who’s who of British and European Witches and Wizards looked so radiant and happy that it was almost sickening. The only exception of this rule however was Harry Potter who was glowering in the wings, barely constrained magic leaking from his person.
The minister stepped up to the pulpit and smiled at the assembly before droning on about the sanctity of marriage and what a blessing it was. Harry continued to glare, opening and closing his fists, his jaw clenching to the point of pain. There was no “if anyone objects” part during Pure-blood Wizarding wedding ceremonies, the parents at this point would have consented, received the dowry, etc., so the people that would object during the ceremony, if there was anyone, wouldn’t matter one whit in the end.
Draco looked over to Daphne and gave her a half-hearted smile before looking over his shoulder to see his mother dab at her eyes and father smile, although it did look more like a grimace. Draco turned back to the minister and straightened his shoulders, waiting for the metaphorical axe to fall.
Harry saw red the moment Draco smiled at his would-be-bride. Unable to stop himself he stalked forward, walking half the length of the hall before stopping; glaring malevolently at Draco’s back.
“Excuse me!” Harry started in a loud, clear voice.
Everyone, except Draco, turned to look at Harry; The first murmurings beginning to sweep through the crowd. Everard and Morgiana looked from their daughter to Harry, before looking at Lucius and Narcissa and shrugging slightly. Lucius in turn glancing from the stiff form of his son to the frightening pose of the Boy Who Killed He Who Must Not Be Named.
“I know this isn’t the right time or place, but this wedding is not going to happen.” Harry insisted, not once turning his gaze from Draco.
The chatter from the people around him grew louder. Insinuations that Harry was in love with Daphne Greengrass, that he was jealous of Draco, etcetera, so on and so forth and all the rest.
Harry stepped closer, waiting for Draco to turn around and face him. Harry actually made it all the way to the ‘happy’ couple without being stopped, not that anyone would actually stand up to one very pissed off Harry Potter - no one was that crazy.
“I’ve waited six months for you to come back. Six fucking months. I read the notices in The Prophet and spat on them, ‘You won’t go through with it’ I said. ‘You can’t live without me’ I said. I thought you would just give your parents the time they needed to digest the news; that you couldn’t do this. What a fool I was. I thought that you loved me, you told me you did.”
Harry laughed, and people in the back shuddered. It was cold and embittered; Draco was the only one who didn’t flinch. Didn’t move. Refused to turn around and face Harry once and for all.
“I loved you! I would have done anything for you. Everything I’ve done for you the last two years has been for you and you threw me away.”
Harry would have cried if he wasn’t so angry. He would have broken down and sobbed like a little baby in front of the cream of society and not cared, if only he didn’t feel like he was about to implode with pure rage.
“I fucking loved you and you can’t even look at me!” Harry screamed.
The gasp and outraged ‘no’ was lost on the chattering behind them that grew at that last statement. Everard Greengrass stepping up to Lucius Malfoy and demanding to know just what the hell was going on. Narcissa sobbing and wailing like a banshee, crying something unintelligible into her handkerchief.
“So I guess this is goodbye. I guess this is how it ends. You really want all this so bad,” Harry asked, waving his hand about. “You can keep it. You marry your Pure-blood princess, you have your dozen towhead brats, you live in denial. You. See. If. I. Care. Anymore. Malfoy.”
Harry hiccoughed, and turned on his heel; eyes bright red and shoulders slumped forward, his shaggy head of black hair hanging forlornly as he hurried from this purgatory.
:::
The entire Wizarding World was in a furore over the Greengrass-Malfoy wedding debacle. No one had seen hide nor hair from either Harry or Draco and the respective camps for both sides stayed silent on the subject.
Draco himself had stayed holed up in his room for two weeks after Lucius managed to whisk them back to the Manor. Two weeks of avoiding his parents, unable to get the gasped no and fervent pleading for Draco to deny everything out of his mind. The look on his parents faces when he’d finally turned around, just in time to see Harry leave the hall. Hell even the look on Daphne’s face, that stunned-mullet, “What the fuck is going on?!” expression was ingrained in his mind. How Draco loathed Harry for publicly outing him. For ruining his future. For forcing him to accept the truth. Fucking Potter.
Harry too had locked himself away. Not in a luxuriant room with house-elves to bring him food at the insistence of an overly concerned mother, but in the dingy master suite of number twelve Grimmauld Place. Harry had really, really, come to hate that house with a passion that exceeded no other. Everywhere he looked there was a sullied memory. Sirius. Hermione & Ron. Ginny. Draco… Fucking Draco Malfoy! The ungrateful git hadn’t even had the balls to turn around and fucking look at him when he’d poured out his heart and soul in front of the world. And so Harry had shut himself away, speaking to Hermione only when he really had to, which was becoming more frequently now that there were reports of him having popped up in places as far away as Goa and Guyana. Total and utter bollocks. Fucking Malfoy.
:::
Narcissa Malfoy was nothing if not resourceful. Draco had locked himself in his room for over a month and because she couldn’t care if her son was gay, straight or a pink and purple slug with one eye; she was going to do anything and everything to ensure her son was happy. That was why Narcissa was standing on the doorsteps of her ancestral home waiting for someone, anyone to open the door. After the third ring of the doorbell, heavy footsteps and shrill screaming echoed through the thick front door.
“Goway!” was the shouted response. “Shut up you filthy, rotten, old hag. Nobody cares what you think.”
Sighing heavily Narcissa rang the bell again, cocking her head to one side just as the door was opened and revealed a half-naked Harry Potter in all his miserable sleep deprived glory.
“I said, Go. Away.” Harry hissed, his eyes widening when they focused and he spotted Narcissa Malfoy of all people standing on his front stoop. “What the hell are you doing here?!”
“Nice to see you too, Mr. Potter. Mind if I come in?” Narcissa said genially, stepping around him and into the hallway.
“Mrs. Malfoy, what are you doing here?” Harry asked again, hitching the band of his trousers up so they were no longer riding dangerously low on his hips.
“I think you know why I’m here, Mr. Potter.”
“Draco.”
“That would be right. Now there’s no need for me to beat around the bush I can get right to the point. Draco loves you, Mr. Potter. I don’t know you but I think, owing to your little performance that day, I can safely say that you love him. The thing I don’t understand is why you’re here and Draco’s holed up in his room at the Manor.”
“I’m not sure where you’re going with this Mrs. Malfoy, but let’s get one thing straight. I let Draco know how I felt. I gave him the chance to tell you and Lucius, I gave him chance, after chance, after fucking chance and he did nothing but throw it back in my face. I waited for him. I’ve kept waiting for him and for reasons only Merlin knows I’ll probably continue to wait for him. But I’m not going to make a complete arse out of myself again.”
Narcissa sighed and smiled, reaching out to rub Harry’s arms. “I know he’s a handful, but would you want him any other way?”
“No. But I’m not sure I can be with someone who can’t even acknowledge my feelings. Someone who can’t even admit who they are. Someone who’s too scared to tell their parents the truth.”
“Oh, Harry, we knew. We’re his parents, how could we not. We waited for him to tell us and when he didn’t we went to the Greengrasses. Daphne’s a lovely girl, we’ve known her since she was a child, but she’s not what Draco wanted. We wanted him to see that, to see what is that he truly wants.” Narcissa explained.
“That’s a touching story Mrs. Malfoy but what about ‘boys don’t kiss boys’?” Harry asked. “It was, after all, the whole basis for Draco’s reasoning that we couldn’t be together; that you wouldn’t approve or two boys - men - being together.”
“He was seven! And they were Muggles, how did he remember that?” Narcissa babbled, truly horrified. “Times were different then, Harry, everything has-”
“No offence Mrs. Malfoy but I have to say I’m not really interested. I hope Draco finds whatever it is he’s looking for; I do want him to be happy. If you please, I have something that needs attending to.”
Harry motioned for the door, his head hung low as Narcissa Malfoy swept past him with a brief nod to Walburga Black’s portrait who harrumphed loudly and muttered something about Harry’s poor manners.
Oh how Narcissa wished the moment she closed the front door behind her that she could get Harry and Draco in a room together long enough to smack their heads together for being so stupid and pigheaded.
:::
“Draco?”
Narcissa walked into Draco’s rooms to find him lying on his back in the middle of his bed, long legs dangling over one side, his head off the other staring at a random spot on the wall.
“Goway.” he murmured.
Rolling her eyes Narcissa sat on the edge of the bed and patted Draco’s leg fondly. “You’re the second person to tell me to ‘goway’ today. Honestly is it so hard to say ‘Go away’?”
Draco frowned and lifted his head just enough to look at her. “Father or Tetty?” he asked, dropping his head with a sigh.
“Harry Potter, actually”
Draco had never moved so fast in his life, his body folding up on itself in an effort to get upright. “You saw Harry?”
“I did.”
“Why? Where? How was he?” it was a mad rush of garbled words, and the first time that Draco had looked alive in weeks.
“I went to Grimmauld Place.” Narcissa said slowly. “And honestly, he looked terrible. He misses you, Draco.”
Draco hung his head, rubbing the heel of his palms into his eyes. “No he doesn’t.” Draco looked up at his mother, his bottom lip wobbling pitifully. “I couldn’t even look at him... I couldn’t even tell you... he hates me, and what’s worse is I don’t blame him.”
Narcissa pulled Draco into her arms, rocking him like she’s done a thousand times when he was a child. Shushing, cooing and kissing the crown of his head.
“Don’t hate you, Draco.”
Draco and Narcissa both whipped their heads around to look at the doorway so fast that they both nearly collided.
“Harry?” Draco whimpered, his hands tightening on the blankets at his feet as he struggled to his knees.
Harry nodded, standing nervously at the door wringing his hands. “I - your mum came to see me. I- she- she - I miss you. I miss you so bad it hurts. So bad that sometimes I don’t know what’s up from what’s down.”
Narcissa stood quietly, edging out of the room, not that either man noticed. Closing the bedroom door behind her she wasn’t all that surprised to see Lucius leaning against the wall, smiling - really smiling for once.
“I’m sorry I ruined your wedding.” Harry whispered.
“I’m not.” Draco murmured, shaking his head furiously.
“I just- I just couldn’t let her have you if it meant that I’d never get to see you again. Hold you again. Love you again.”
“I wasn’t going to. I couldn’t.”
Harry looked at Draco, his forehead creasing. “Wasn’t going to what? Couldn’t what?”
“I wasn’t going to go through with it. I couldn’t. I - I was about to tell them no, but you, you told them everything. You told them everything and left me there.”
“You wouldn’t look at me.” Harry flailed. “You didn’t even acknowledge me. I poured my heart out, I told hundreds of people I didn’t even know my personal feelings and you wouldn’t even look at me!”
“I couldn’t.”
“Couldn’t what?!”
“I couldn’t look at you!” Draco cried. “I would have fallen apart. I never, ever wanted to hurt you and then you said all that and I knew that I had - I couldn’t face you. I just couldn’t.”
Harry pressed his hand to his forehead, taking a deep breath through pursed lips. “Why are we doing this?” Harry whispered. “I don’t want to fight with you. I-”
Draco climbed off of the bed and curled the tips of his fingers of one hand around Harry’s; reaching his other hand out to cup Harry’s jaw.
“Don’t want to fight with you either. I’ve never done relationships before. With you is the closest I’ve ever come and after the whole thing with Daphne, I came to the realisation that you’re the only one that I want.” Draco let out a stuttered breath and dropped his gaze to their entwined fingers, their hands sitting palm to palm. “I can’t promise you forever. But I can promise you now, if you’ll have me.”
Harry nodded, reaching out to pull Draco’s head towards his, sealing his lips over Draco’s. It was a slow movement of lips and tongues. Heads tilting and hands brushing against arms, chests, cheeks and backs. The world was spinning and everything fell away, this was right, they were right; everything was going to be okay.
:::
It wasn’t that Narcissa was worried, she was just curious. She hadn’t heard a peep from Harry or Draco in hours, neither had snuck from the rooms, neither had requested one of the house-elves to send something up for them to nibble on, nothing. That was why Narcissa convinced herself that she was doing the right thing, checking on them to make sure they hadn’t killed each other... or something.
She wasn’t sure what she expected to find, but seeing Harry wrapped around her son in sated bliss, the sleep filled smile playing on Draco’s lips as he relaxed into Harry’s body, seeking more contact with hidden stretches of skin, brought tears to her eyes. Never had she seen her own son so happy, so content. Never had she thought she’d see someone so protective of her son, even in sleep.
With a fleeting smile, she closed the door. She didn’t see Draco roll onto his side, lying chest to chest with Harry. Slowly he dragged his fingers up and down Harry’s arm and side, his fingertip gently tracing the line of Harry’s jaw. Harry hummed in his sleep, nuzzling into Draco’s fleeting touches. Smiling, Draco pressed a kiss to the edge of Harry’s shoulder before fitting their bodies together. Closing his eyes, Draco whispered “I love you.”, not expecting the sleep roughened reply as Harry returned the same three words. Smiling they fell back in to a deep sleep, smiles itching at the corners of their mouths.
End
:::
Flist: Please note that I'm effectively taking a week off of LJ, I'll be working my arse off 8 of the next 9 days. If I have a chance I'll try to check my email and my flist, I unfortunately can't make promises this week. :( I'll get back to comments when I can.