Fic: Promised - Chapter 25
Title: Promised
Author: neddiheht (Ashavan Doyon)
Artist: ritalaura2000
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: All ATWT characters the property of P&G/Telenext. Harry Potter and the characters associated with that universe belong to J. K. Rowling, Warner Brothers, and Scholastic. No copyright infringement intended. No profit made from this fiction.
Characters/Pairings: Noah/Draco, Luke/Neville, Luke/Noah, Draco/Harry. Some mention of other fun pairings not involving Luke, Noah, Draco or Harry.
Word Count: 205,207
Warnings alternate universe, graphic sex, arranged marriages, mpreg, some mention of non-consensual sex. This is a Nuke fic set largely in the Harry Potter verse and combined with a Drarry pairing.
Summary: Luciano Grimaldi was a perfectly happy young wizard. His family carefully neutral during the war, he has found happiness in the years since Voldemort's fall with herbologist, hero, and friend of the Savior, Neville Longbottom. Only he's just been informed that in the tradition of ancient pure blood families, he was promised at birth, in an offering to keep his family safe, to the son of infamous American Death Eater Winston Mayer.
Noah Mayer is a very unhappy wizard. In love for years with fellow Death Eater Draco Malfoy, the two young men have secretly found solace and love in each others arms, dreading the day they knew would come. They are promised, in the traditions of the oldest families. Promised to young wizards who didn't know. Married, for all intents and purposes, almost at birth to strangers who will doubtless hate them. Now they must surrender to duty and obligation. Now they must turn their backs on a love they know and risk everything for what might be. Noah always knew he hated pure blood traditions. This was why.
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Chapter 25
To his Lordship, Count Luciano Eduardo Grimaldi --
As we are bound, so let us meet to discuss promises made and our intentions. I stand ready to fulfill my promises, to surrender to thee both body and soul. To embrace and cherish thee, and to see always to thy safety and protection. My promises are upon my lips to be spoken, thy token held close to my heart, awaiting only the opportunity to present it. I would open my heart to thee, If thou wouldst but allow such a gesture. Come to me, Luciano. Let us find solace in each other, and seek out a life together in fulfillment of our joint promises.
In Loving Anticipation,
Noah Mayer
After reading the letter several times, Luke cast it on the floor and banished it... only to find that the letter stayed put. Indeed he was not able to burn it either, nor cut it. The paper repelled all water, and all other inks simply flowed off of the page. When he tried then to hide it, he found it would reappear on his desk. His fury built as he tried to do away with the reminder of his binding as he cried curse after destructive curse upon the letter. But it stayed immaculate and perfect, oblivious to the curses that had destroyed his kitchen.
"Why!" he screamed at the letter and was surprised to get a reply.
"He has to," said Ginny Weasley quietly. "Don't worry, Casey is still sleeping, though how with you creating this racket is beyond me."
"What do you mean, he has to?"
"I... I probably shouldn't have said anything," said Ginny. "Sorry. Weasleys have a thing for speaking when we shouldn't." She walked up to him and gave him a friendly hug. "I always liked you. Thought Neville was a lucky bloke to have caught you."
"But you did say it, Ginny. What do you mean?"
Ginny sighed and pulled her wand. With a few flicks, the young witch had restored the kitchen table and chairs, and had a tea kettle warming. She pulled out a chair and sat down. "It's all a mess, isn't it. I'm so glad my dad insisted that we get to choose. I don't know how pure blood kids did it before."
"Ginny... so help me, if you don't tell me, I'll tell Casey that you kissed Harry Potter."
"Of course I kissed him silly! We used to date..."
"Casey won't hear that part, and you know it. I like him, he's one of my best friends, and Merlin, he's got a nice body, but he's jealous as all fuck."
"Yeah, and how far do you think he'll get. Have you ever seen Harry defend against Dark Arts, Luke?"
Luke shook his head. "No. And... I'm sorry Ginny. This just... it sucks. I miss Neville."
Ginny sighed. "My parents were promised. Mum credits the promise with the fact that they're such a good match. I still think that's why she was so upset about Bill and Fleur. It's not a match she would have made. Her own prejudices, I think... doesn't approve of the veela influence." She looked at Luke as she set the tea steeping. "And she'd have known about Charlie, of course. She was totally taken back when Harry told her that coming out that way, as teens or adults, that that was how Muggles did it. Surprised her even more when he told her that's why he broke up with me. She'd clearly never caught him ogling George's arse. Or Neville's."
"You didn't... I mean. You were quite an item, as I understood it."
"No, we didn't. And not for lack of trying on my part, though now I'm glad. I... I liked him rather a lot. Loved him a bit, I think. Bugs me a little. His parents knew. He could have been spared that."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm... I'm not really supposed to say, am I? Hermione will kill me."
"Yeah, well, she's your sister-in-law. What about me, I'm your friend, that lives with you. I... shit. Neville and I broke up. I'm probably going to have to leave, aren't I? You don't think that's why he's not coming back?"
"Come have tea, Luke. Everything is better after tea." Ginny glanced at the letter. "Count, huh?"
"Yeah. I'm a bloody rich bastard. I'd give it up in a second to spend one more night with Neville."
"The problem is that your money and influence isn't what you'd be giving up," said Ginny.
Luke's brown eyes lit up and he smiled, his dimples showing. "You are going to tell me..."
"Yeah, well... you're lucky. The whole deal involves Harry, or she'd never have said a word to me. She tells me most everything about Harry. I'm not sure why. It's rather like torture."
"You really liked him."
Ginny nodded and flicked her wand again, pouring the tea into perfect tea cups on perfect saucers. Grimaldi saucers, with Grimaldi tea cups. She sighed. Neville and Luke hadn't just been playing house, they'd been sharing their lives. She couldn't imagine how much this must hurt. She'd only just started with Harry, and it still burned her up deep inside some nights. "I did. And that's why, I think, that Hermione tells me things. Not because she wants to hurt me, but because she knows that I love him. He's family to me, Luke."
She hesitated for a moment before continuing. "You know that Malfoy and Mayer, they were..."
"Yeah," said Luciano. "The snog on the front page of the Prophet was hard to miss."
"They'd been a couple for years. Quietly and secretly... Mayer joined Voldemort because he couldn't bear to know that Malfoy was in danger and no one was there to protect him. So he followed Malfoy. Not really Voldemort, just Malfoy."
"What does this have to do with me? Or Potter?" asked Luke.
"They were both promised. And they knew it. Noah to you, and Malfoy... well, Malfoy was promised to Harry."
Luke looked as though he'd just been stupified.
"Yeah. Could have saved me a lot of heartache if Harry had known. Luke. I know this sucks. I see it with pure blood friends. I'm a Weasley, they don't all think of us as blood traitors."
"But I didn't know!"
"Yeah, think of how Harry must feel," said Ginny. "Given a choice to hide... he's good at that granted, but Malfoy is a resourceful bastard, or to either accept it and actually marry Malfoy or reject it and be obligated to ground the Malfoy name into the dust. What's he supposed to do?"
"Promise bindings were never meant to have that choice," said Luciano quietly. "An honor, my father said. To be promised to a house, to a boy who would be my perfect match. As if they know."
"They determine it with Arithmancy at a very high level," said Ginny. "Hermione told me. Said that when it wasn't done right the binding would be weak, easily broken."
Luke's eyes glinted at that revelation, but Ginny continued quickly. "Noah and Hermione got Os in their Arithmancy NEWTs, Luke. If it could be broken that way, you'd probably be with Neville on a beach laughing this off right now."
"Dark Arts?"
"Noah was a Death Eater. He has access to people like Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy. You think if he could have broken it that way that he..."
"What if he's not trying to break it?"
Ginny sighed. "He's not. Not anymore."
"Why? What changed? He... he told me that Draco would have come back to him if he asked. And if they felt for each other as I feel for Neville, I don't doubt that. So why'd he give it up? He said he'd agreed to forsake any chance of asking Draco to come back to him as payment to restore Neville's memory. Why would he pay that cost for me?" Luke paced around the kitchen. "I just. I don't understand."
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This story is written as part of the Nuke BigBang challenge. Check out the other authors' and artists' great work!