#have fun because the tongue-eater certainly is

[naffeclipse]

Chapter 15: This Episode Consumes and Consumes and Consumes Part 2

FNAF Cryptid!Sun/Moon x Cryptid Hunter!Y/N (SFW)

“You can’t hunt this cryptid,” he repeats, voice lowering. “Let’s leave.” You stare at him, bewildered. The thought comes too late to duck your head and hide your hurt. At least Moon is being honest now; he doesn’t trust you to take care of the scary things. He probably never did.

Word Count: 10,200~ Warnings: Death, gore, decapitation, blood, violence, horror, anxiety, fear, and implied suicidal behavior.

A/N: I had a Time™ editing this one because of a few tricky scenes that took a couple of tries to turn into what I wanted them to be, but it's finally here! Please note the chapter warnings and take care. Enjoy!

You are dealing with your friend being where he shouldn't be, Moon visits with a cryptid, the hunt continues but not without another talk between you and Sun, Lambert grows suspicious of the animatronic, and then all three of you run into another canyon.

[goawaypopup]

Roddacember Day 18: Ripples

(A remastered rant from the depths of the Deltora Quest Discord server.)

There is a timeline out there where the quest failed because Queen Bee murdered the questers to death in her yard with her bees before they could explain.

She is a contact of the Resistance. Finding the Belt on Lief's body, complete with three gems in place, she'd pretty well know what was up. She doesn't strike me as the sort to cast off the task to anyone else, especially not with the burden of guilt for it.

The next-in-line is dead, but the resistance doesn't know that. The Belt has done what it never did in the series, swapping over to the next in line - Marilen? Or can it be anybody who shares Adin's line? Or does Marilen count as dead because she's currently a spooky ghost in the Valley of the Lost? Who knows. The resistance can figure that out and have their own Dain reveal on their own schedule after the Belt's complete.

The bees are very intelligent and very fast. They can follow directions and travel quickly and discreetly. Queen Bee may be more fragile than the previous heroes, but she doesn't even need to be there to get the last four gems. Luckily, Lief had a handy map to them too.

The Maze of the Beast would be pretty difficult to pull off, and might require some sort of human party. The hatch could be lifted by a human to let the bees in to search, and the Glus might not even sense them, let alone be able to take them out with its spit. If they could just have a way to actually locate the Amethyst, the stone is soft enough that they very well might be able to bore through it. There is a species of bee that does this with cliffsides!

The problem of finding it might call for some creative solutions. I guess there's no reason not to send a pack of bees down carrying the Belt? If they could lift Steven's cart they can certainly pull that off. Or, for a more fun route, capture a bunch of Grey Guards, tell them you'll pull them back up if they can find the Amethyst, and dump them in the Maze. Grey Guards are very self-serving, it'd work great. Probably fill the Glus up after a pod or two and leave the rest to tear the place up.

Gellick would probably require a strategy to actually kill him. The treasure cavern must have an opening to the air for him to breathe somewhere, and he probably can't spit poison quickly enough to take down an entire swarm of flying insects, but they couldn't really try to tear the gem from his forehead. He's probably at least somewhat poison-coated there, and no doubt he can reach there with his tongue.

Dreaming Spring water might work again here if Queen Bee learned of it, but my thought here is bees carrying Water Eaters - they're locally made, an easy size for a bee to carry, and will definitely cause immediate massive internal damage. And Lief could hold the emerald immediately after Gellick's death, suggesting bees could also.

The Shifting Sands are a bit of an unknown. They took a while to notice Lief, but the buzzing of a rival hive seems to me like something that would set them on guard immediately. And they're uniquely capable of wiping out swarms of small intruders.

I'm not entirely sure what would work best here - fortunately the bees are capable of trying multiple times. Perhaps the best strategy would simply be getting in and out as fast as possible, or doing a stealthy remove and replace like in the original, or something fun like dropping an entire carriage into the pyramid and escaping in the chaos.

There's also the opal's foresight to help out here, which I'm certain Queen Bee would be the sort to use frequently; being a Plains woman, and also just, the way she is.

I was going to delve into the plausibility of bees being able to open doors, but then I remembered the Valley of the Lost's animal-killing mist. That's pretty insurmountable. But this one is something that doesn't have an immediate physical risk.

We're finally going to have to send in the Resistance!

Doom did manage the test before, and even if he probably can't just play again, he can definitely tell others the answer. The question is whether he can be persuaded to help. To round off the theme, I'll propose bee torture for this.

And with that, we have a more or less clear path to Queen Bee of Deltora.

[murdercapitxl]

Contd Thread II @heartxshaped-bruises

"Hmm..." he considered the question with a drawn-out hum, wondering whether it was even worth answering. It all came down to the ultimate consequence of choosing an option, because then they would have to decide what to do afterwards. And Marko was barely in the right state of mind to even think. There was no denying what was going on here. A corpse with a huge chunk of flesh missing from the side of their throat was a major indicator, and it was certainly difficult to ignore the amount of blood staining his mouth, chin, and upper chest; he was such a messy eater. Even as he contemplated, the vampire casually ran his tongue along his bottom lip to collect any remnants. "...pass? Yeah, forget about it." He finally provided an answer with a brief snigger, settling the conundrum. There was no point in trying to deter the stranger from watching, because the damage had already been done. It was up to them whether they wanted to stay.

But Marko was at least going to have some fun with it. Maybe he could even find room for one more feed.

"You're going to watch from there?" His tone was curious, but there was a playful hint. Despite the darkness, murky yellow eyes were visible as they stared directly at the other. A flash of fangs revealed in a giddy grin could be seen if one was to squint hard enough. "C'mon, come closer," he added, extending a blood-soaked hand out towards the stranger with his little finger crooked, encouraging them to take it. "It's not a true pinky-promise if you don't seal the deal, dude!" A wild laugh followed, the sound echoing down the alleyway.

[entropii]

OC meme: any or all of -- shaved ice & strawberry for inga & enca! pancake & family for dandelion!

😭🧡!!

🍧 SHAVED ICE - do they still have any objects from their childhood? what significance does it have to them? what would their reaction be if they lost it?

INGA: I haven't thought about Inga's childhood too much yet, but she probably has a few things from back then. Inga and her siblings have always been very close with each other, even if they barely see each other anymore, so I like the idea that these things remind her of them. Perhaps a fruit tree that Vicia helped her plant and take care of at their childhood home. Something with pretty, red-purple leaves and rare, decadent fruits that Inga brought with her to the city she now rules over. Maybe a set of jewelry from Kuzu that he crafted himself. As showy as Inga and Kuzu can be, this set is a little more understated. Something with thin chains and delicate bells, earrings and necklaces and something to decorate her horns. She wouldn't be upset to the point of tears if she lost them, but she would still be very, very, Very upset. Bad mood. Wouldn't host any of her usual events for at least a week and a bit.

ENCA: They have an old, out-of-print vinyl record from one of Edith's first operatic recordings. I think in this iteration of Enca, it's a nostalgic reminder of their childhood. Warm sunset filtering through the windows, little dust motes in the air, the sound of her parent's singing filling the whole house. Edith twirling around with a young Enca in their arms, Enca making little half-chirps as they try to sing along. It's also just a warm reminder of Edith themself. I haven't decided if they just don't get to see each other as often, or if Edith is capital G Gone gone, but suffice to say Enca doesn't see them often (or at all) anymore. If they ever lost it, Enca would most certainly cry. Sure, they could easily find another recording, but it's not going to be this specific, physical copy that Edith gave to her because she liked listening to it so much.

🍓 STRAWBERRY - do they eat their fruit & veg? what is their favourite fruit or vegetable?

INGA: Loves eating exceptionally high quality fruit and vegetables, though she doesn't like eating raw veggies very much. She likes when they're in the upper extremes of texture and flavor. If she she's eating sweet mango, it has to be the sweetest! mango. If she's eating lettuce, it has to be the crispest! lettuce. This lemon has to be so sour that it hurts her tongue. She's not a picky eater, but she loves to indulge her senses as much as possible, whenever possible. Her favorite is passion fruit! Likes the tanginess against the sweetness and also thinks the pulpy seeds are fun.

ENCA: Also likes to eat fruits and vegetables, but they tend to like mild or bitter flavors. Things like pear or pomelo, watercress or bittermelon. She really likes blood oranges! Just sweet enough, not too tangy, has that sort of berry flavor, and a pretty ruby color.

🥞 PANCAKE - what is their comfort breakfast?

Mostly warm and savory things. Macaroni soup with chicken broth and chunks of ham, or rice porridge topped with a fried egg. Maybe a big, steamed or baked bun with roast pork or sweet red bean filling. Whatever combination of items, Dandi's comfort breakfast has to have at least a fried egg or some type of bright, round orange fruit (usually citrus). Really strong memory from their childhood in The Garage of sitting at the table, swinging their feet while someone peeled mandarins and fed them little slices, or helped them get a fried egg onto a piece of toast. A smile and a little nod while they ate and saying to Dandi, "Best to start the day with a bit of the sun."

👪 FAMILY - what is their family like? what is your ocs relationship to them?

The people of The Garage are a group of mechanics, pilots, and engineers who, upon finding a young Dandelion with nowhere to go, collectively went, "Our child now." I haven't thought out individual members so much, but I imagine they're an eclectic bunch who are nevertheless caring and supportive of each other. They're the kind of people who would do Big Sandwich Night. Most, if not all of these people never raised a child before, but they did their best to learn and sought help when needed. Did their utmost to be just as caring and supportive. Taught Dandelion different skills, fed them a lot of good food, instilled in them an appreciation for Big Robot.  

Dandi grew up close with their family, and they're still close with them now. They still frequently visit The Garage and go back to do maintenance on Lucky Punch. Always a good time getting everyone together to eat, or clambering up the scaffolding so they can get a better look at the cool new robot arm from the latest salvage run that somebody slapped onto their own mech.

[bonny-kookoo]

🪓 and 🔞

( i cant help it, you’re fun to mess with )

jungkook is, against what people might think, a total sweetheart.

You really don't get why everyone tells you to cut it with him and get as far as possible away- just because he's a vampire, doesn't mean he's a bad person. Sure, he has his quirks, but he's mostly just misunderstood. You don't get the worried looks and scared faces at all.

Maybe he's right. Maybe you should just stay with him, and not care about those people any longer.

He's nicer company anyways- he always makes sure you're happy and safe. He makes you smile, cuddles you at night, gives you all the attention you could ever want without calling you clingy or something similar.

But while you're walking around the yard of his large home, you're reminded again that it's not that simple.

There's still dangers looming around, ready to strike at any second. Vampire related crimes are still very high, humans constantly becoming prey to anyone hungry enough to dare disobey the law. Murder isn't something uncommon any longer. It's almost a daily news.

So when you hear something in the dark, you're painfully reminded of Jungkook's words to you, instructing you to never go outside the mansion at night. You should've listened. You really should've.

But now you're running, hiding in the main entrance hall from whatever is hunting after you. You're truing to stay unseen behind a large pillar, but it's no use when a hand grabs you by the collar of your dress, not anything more than a squeak coming out of you before you're held against Someone's chest, a deep chuckling heard as his breaths tickle your skin.

"Jungkook!" you whine, and he leans lower, head dipping down inti the crook of your neck where he runs his nose over the exposed skin, his hand already pushing the fabric of your dress away.

"I can't help it, you're fun to mess with." he shamelessly jokes, his he'd eyes staring you down darkly, before he places a kiss against your neck. "as if id let someone else have my meal.." he hums, before his hands travel, caressing your frame before one of his hands find it's way between your legs, fingers finding a wet patch on your underwear. "shameless little thing. Did that turn you on?" he wonders, teasing you, before his palm moves underneath your frilly underwear, effortlessly dipping in between your folds to find the sensitive bundle of nerves he oh so likes to play with, just to see you dance like a little doll. "Hm, you like it when I play with you like that, don't you?" he chuckles, your breaths quickening as he smirks against your skin, pulse racing just beneath his lips.

He's hungry.

And so he bites, right as you come undone under his hand, thighs trembling a little as he swallows your warm blood, thick liquid coating his tongue as he licks over the wound, lazily kissing the spot.

Jungkook is a messy eater, rather focused on enjoying his meal rather than staying modest.

And there's certainly nothing modest going forward from that moment on, as he takes you upstairs in his bedroom, bedsheets stained in blood and cum, creating a mess just like the love made between you two.

Chaotic, but too good to let go of.

[starlitspires]

The Kuranes Principle

The greater denizens of the Starlit Spires, as a rule, are the most human.

In the far outskirts, and the Bailey-Town, and all throughout the Spires themselves, you can find creatures that are fathomlessly foreign to any kind of mortal existence. They are driven by pure simple ideals, with no admixture of ordinary sentiment diluting their motivations -- or by urges so inhuman that they cannot even be expressed in language -- or by their understanding of transcendent principles. Their forms are unearthly, if not impossible. Within the physical spheres, most of them produce the miasma of alienation, because their very nature conflicts with the simplest demands of material existence. Communicating with them requires specialized methods. Understanding them requires insight that is tantamount to madness.

These are mostly the lesser daimons, the common beasts, the rank-and-file of the Spires. They do their strange doings in shadowed corners, or in isolated lairs, and the world continues on. They bend to the will of grander spirits, and sometimes even to the will of mortals, when they are bound into service as familiars.

Meanwhile, those grander spirits mostly speak in comprehensible tongues, and their desires are mostly recognizable to a mortal mind. They have their factions and their politics, their loves and their tragedies. Often they wear forms that are symbolic, or metaphorical; and the symbol and the metaphor rarely needs much explanation.

And the exalted powers of the Spires, the ones who dwell in the penthouse palaces and the deepest sanctuaries -- the Masters of the Thousands, the Paradox Eaters, the gods -- are almost indistinguishable from humans in their appearance and their behavior. Most of them look, and talk, very much like the mortals that they once were. Their agendas are often familiar. Their foibles are often relatable.

(In certain ways, of course, they are all very inhuman indeed. But their inhumanities are well-concealed, to an eye that is not searching; and, for most practical purposes, their inhumanities do not matter.)

This is the ordering of the spirit world. It is not always so; very few things are always so. But it is true far more often than not.

----------

Piero Greco once knelt in supplication before The Lady of the Blossoming Mysteries, on a field of knife-edged grass, and this is what she told him:

As a woman of flesh, I professed the life sciences, at a university with which you are familiar. I had wealth and security. I discovered new truths, from time to time. But I fled the world, because my days were consumed by the dramas of the faculty. Endlessly we sought to impress each other, and to ensnare one another in our pet projects. We feuded over meaningless slights, and over points of meaningless ideology.

So I turned to the higher mysteries. I became a spirit of immortal starlight, a devourer of gods. And for what? Now I live here in the highest reaches of the Spires, amidst the only beings who could dare to call themselves my peers, and -- we seek to impress each other, and to ensnare one another in our pet projects. We feud over slights and ideology, and it is all very cosmically meaningful, and yet.

----------

In the upper reaches of the Amber Spire, there is a Chili's. One of the lords of that place is devoted to the comfort foods of his human days. Becoming a Master of the Thousands, with all that entails, did nothing to change his outlook on this matter. And he wrought his will upon his domain, that he might take his ease amidst corporatized casual fun, feasting on nachos and margaritas with his hollow courtesans.

All the workers there are daimons. I could not tell you how the restaurant sources its materials, or whether the food is made from anything that remotely resembles the ingredients used by an earthly restaurant. I certainly could not tell you what relationship, if any, it has to Brinker International. But, apart from the oddities of the staff and the clientele, it is -- to my perception -- indistinguishable from any other Chili's. And it seldom lacks for custom. The ruling powers of the region convene there as often as anywhere else.

----------

Occultists and travelers often find it difficult to accept this. There are so many who insist on believing that the greatest beings of the spirit-world must be the strangest, the most abstract and elemental, the most inhuman. They cannot shake the idea that the terrible lords of the Spires, who seem so familiar, must be subordinate to something that is utterly unfamiliar.

They think, in short, that attaining power and wisdom is entirely synonymous with becoming unlike themselves.

Which says more about them than it does about the realities of spirit.

----------

In truth, it is not hard to see why things should be ordered in this way.

Almost everything in the Spires came from the mortal world, in one way or another. Physical reality is the crucible of spirit.

Many of the lesser daimons are fragments-of-people, in their origins -- fragments that can stand alone, conceptually, or fragments that have combined with similar fragments from similar people. They are lesser than human, in the very most literal sense, even if in some ways they may be stronger or more capable. Their simplicity reflects a lack of ontological depth. They do not encompass complexity because they cannot.

Certain lesser daimons were once people entire, travelers and occultists who left their human nature behind to become something wholly other. Some of them fell victim to traps, or predators, and were changed against their will. Some of them made unwise bargains, or engaged in arcane practices that they did not fully understand. Those who abandoned themselves willingly were -- the sorts of people who would abandon themselves willingly. Young, often, and full of high ideals, and monomaniacal. They had little to lose. They saw little value in themselves, only in what they might become. And so, when they transcended material existence, they didn't have much to take along with them into the Spires.

Humanity is like a pair of shoes, or a sweater. It becomes more comfortable as you wear it in. Eventually you find yourself loath to discard it, even when your reason tells you that you should.

The greater daimons, at the end of their mortal existences, were generally older and more attached to themselves. The greatest daimons were generally much older and much more attached to themselves. They bend much of their power, and much of their knowledge, to the preservation of their complex contradictory identities.

It is silly, perhaps. Many things, in the highest halls of wisdom, are silly.

[dreaming-about-fanfictions]

Choose Me Instead II Draco Malfoy x Reader II Chapter 10 of 27: Dating

Summary: Pretending to be in a relationship with Draco Malfoy to get back at your ex might have not been the smartest idea you ever had. Especially during your last year of Hogwarts where you should be focusing on exams and your future plans. However, you were just pretending. There was no way in hell you could actually catch feelings for someone like Malfoy. … Right?

CHAPTER 9

A/N: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR AMAZING FEEDBACK! I AM BEYOND GRATEFUL FOR EVERYONE WHO READS THIS STORY! This project has become so important to me and I have so much fun working on it! Thank you thank you thank you! Also - this chapter is a little shorter and more ‘calm’ at first. But be prepared, it’s still very important to everything that follows it!! <33 Enjoy!

Words: 3.1k Pairing: Draco Malfoy x fem!Reader Warnings: none

Two days after Hogsmeade …

Monday morning. You yawned and it turned into a chuckle when Malfoy mimicked you.

“It’s contagious,” he defended himself quietly to avoid attracting Professor Sprouts attention. He sat next to you, way back in the last row of the classroom. It had been your idea – after finding out that almost none of your friends believed your act, it seemed like a good idea to sit next to each other during classes. Maybe it would help convince them.

With a flick of her wand, Professor Sprout made an assignment appear on the blackboard. Nothing too difficult. You walked to the front to get the small flower you were supposed to work with and Ron glared at you from his seat. You ignored him.

Back at your table, Malfoy and you started working together quietly. When you looked at his notes, you leaned over a little too closely, feeling dizzy from the smell of his cologne. Whenever he reached for something, his hand brushed over yours. His comments were accompanied by smiles and direct eye contact. He played his part so well, you almost believed it. From the corners of your vision, you saw Ron staring.

You acted the same in every class that you shared. During breaks, you stayed together – always a few feet away from the others. You discovered how funny he could be when he gave you live-commentary of a fight happening between a Ravenclaw and Slytherin.

In the evening, you came back to your dorm, feeling unusually content. Not even the letter from the parents on your desk changed that. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound so harsh, your mother had written. I simply don’t understand and I am scared for you. I can’t lose you too.

“Oh, mum,” you whispered, rubbing your neck. Then you sat down and reached for a quill. She deserved the truth. At least, a little of it.

 ***

One week after Hogsmeade …

Draco was happy.

Well, maybe happy was a little exaggerated but he felt … calmer. He used to spend his free time by himself which gave him plenty of opportunities to think. About the war, his parents, himself – and it nearly killed him. The notebook was an escape, a good way to focus, but it wasn’t enough. No matter how many pages he filled, he still felt himself sliding away from his surroundings. Now he spent that time with you – and things began to change. In those few days he even stopped dreading getting out of bed because Draco had finally something to look forward to again: spending time with you.

Draco considered you his friend. A part of him had trouble with the realization since being around someone like you went against everything his parents taught him but he tried tirelessly to shut it off. No, you were his friend and being around you made him feel almost okay.

“What are you writing?”

The sound of your voice caused Draco to look up from his notebook. The two of you sat in the library. You were across from him, finishing up on some homework. Draco shrugged. What was he supposed to say? I’m writing about you? Certainly not.

“Can I read it at some point?”, you tilted your head in curiosity. You did that a lot, Draco noticed. It reminded him of a puppy.

Am I comparing her to a dog?, he scolded himself in the next second. No, he didn’t mean it like that. He meant to think that he thought it was cute when you did that. You … were cute.

“It’s okay,” you finally said with a smile when you sensed his hesitation. “It’s personal, I get it – or do you keep track of dirty dreams in it?” You teased him.

“Only of the dreams involving you,” he winked at you, causing you to snort. Despite the joke, Draco was relieved you didn’t dig any further.

From where he sat, he had a direct view of the huge door leading inside the library. This was the reason why he saw the Greengrass sisters walking in, their gaze immediately landing upon him. He casually reached over the table and softly began to draw circles on your soft skin with the tip of his finger. He smirked at your shiver.

“Ron?”, you asked, not looking up from your book.

“Astoria,” he replied.

A few minutes later, Astoria and Daphne left again. Draco didn’t pull his hand away.

 ***

Two weeks after Hogsmeade …

Snowflakes were dancing in the cold winter air as you sat on the bleachers with Malfoy. Down on the Quidditch field, the Slytherins were practicing under the strong rule of Zabini. Games were cancelled but they still needed to stay in shape.

“I never pictured you as an Auror,” Malfoy confessed. He had asked about your future plans just seconds before.

“Why?”, you wanted to know.

He thought about it for a moment. “I don’t know. I always thought you’d become … a healer. Or a teacher maybe.”

His words made you laugh. “Are you serious?”

Malfoy nodded.

“Well, no,” you shrugged. “I wanted to be an Auror since I was little girl. And I’ll make it, believe me.”

He raised his hands in a defensive manner. “I have no doubts about that. It simply surprised me.”

You chuckled another time at the thought of becoming a teacher. It had always been the furthest thing on your mind. You loved Hogwarts, it had been your home for years but you craved to see more from the world. Especially since the war happened. You didn’t want to spend your whole life in this castle.

“What do you want to do?”, you then asked, curious as to what his answer might be. It was hard for you to picture him outside of school.

Malfoy shrugged. “I don’t know.”

It surprised you. “Really?”, you wondered. “Pureblood families like yours normally have a plan set up for their kids, don’t they?”

“Normally,” he laughed bitterly. “My father wanted me to follow his footsteps and get some high-ranking job in the Ministry. That’s not an option anymore. For obvious reasons.”

He was probably right. The wounds were still too fresh. The chances for a former Death Eater to be employed in the Ministry of Magic were slim.

You stayed on the bleachers for hours. It had only been a little over two weeks since the Halloween party and yet you had become a lot closer to Malfoy than you expected. You felt comfortable talking to him. Both of you had very different childhoods and friends – you came from different worlds. However, it was precisely this fact that made it easy to talk to each other. You were almost certain that he felt the same.

 ***

Three weeks after Hogsmeade …

Draco watched you flick through the pages of a magazine and for the first time since that night in the storage room, he saw you. And by Merlin, how beautiful you were.

He sat on the couch in the Room of Requirements with you, listening to the flames crackling in the small fireplace in front of him. You were laying down on your back, head propped up against the armrest, a small wrinkle on your forehead as you read the descriptions in the magazine. Your legs were stretched out and on his lap. Draco wondered why – no one would be around to see you anyways.

“Stop staring, Malfoy, it’s creepy,” you giggled.

Draco blinked as he snapped back into reality. “I’m not staring, I’m thinking, Y/L/N.”

“Think without staring at me.”

Easier said than done.

Draco cleared his throat. “What are you looking at anyways?”

“Christmas presents for my parents. But,” you clicked your tongue, “I can’t find anything good.”

Draco grabbed your legs and lifted them slightly while moving over closer to you. “Let me see. I’m awesome at getting gifts.”

 ***

Four weeks after Hogsmeade …

When December arrived, Hogwarts felt like home again. A cheerful atmosphere filled the castle, accompanied by snowball fights outside and hot chocolates in the common rooms. As if a spell was lifted, something changed within the students and parents alike.

You happily noticed how Ginny needed less and less of her sleeping medicine. The nightmares slowly faded, being replaced by happier memories. The letters from your mother barely mentioned your sister anymore. Instead, she talked about carriage rides in the snow with your father and her plans for Christmas dinner. For the first time in a while, you looked forward to going home.

You wondered if it was the same for Draco. When they put up the Christmas tree in the Great Hall, he got even more quiet than usual. It planted an idea inside your head and on that same day, you wrote a letter to your parents, asking them if he could spend the holidays with them. They agreed. It came to no surprise to you; your mother was eager to meet him and see if her prejudices and fears would be proven right.

“I don’t want to impose,” Draco said with a stern voice when you told him after dinner.

“You’re not! I asked them and they want to meet you. Come on,” you insisted.

He watched you with uncertainty and furrowed brows. “I don’t know. I can’t –”

“What are your plans for Christmas?”, you interrupted him.

Draco looked away at the question; that same expression of bitterness on his face that you’d seen too often for your own liking.

“I thought so,” you said softly. “Please, Draco, come with me.”

He sighed and wiped his hands over his eyes. “Why would they even want to meet me?”

You smiled widely. “You’re my boyfriend.” Never would you have thought it would sound normal to say that.

“Yes, but –”, he lowered his voice, “– but not really.”

True. For a weird reason, it stung a little to be reminded by him. “I am your friend though, aren’t I?”

He blinked at the word ‘friend’ and you wondered if he felt differently about it. Then he nodded.

“Awesome!”, you exclaimed, shooing away your worries. “Then it’s settled. Christmas at my place.”

In that moment, Harry and Ron walked passed you. Ron didn’t even glance at you. How weird, you wondered, this was the first time in days that you thought about him.

 ***

Five weeks after Hogsmeade …

 My dearest Draco,

I am delighted to hear that Y/N’s family invited you for Christmas. They are very kind to do so. Please remember to bring a little housewarming gift. Although it hurts me to be away from you this Christmas, I do believe it’s a better option for you than visiting your grandparents with me. I’m sure the holidays will be spent in a rather somber spirit this year as your father will be unable to join us. I want you to have at least a little fun and am looking forward to your stories.

Lots of love, your Mother

P.S.: I met with Mrs. Greengrass yesterday. She is not upset and gave me her word to wait until you are ready.

Draco shook his head in amusement when he finished reading the letter. Only his mother could wish him a nice time with his (fake) girlfriend and then continue with ‘if you’re done having fun, your fiancée is still available’.

“That’s why pureblood traditions are fucked up,” was something you would say right now. But you weren’t here. You were practicing for the first Quidditch game in the new year and Draco sat in his dorm, waiting for Blaise to get ready.

Reading the letter a second time, he started to wonder. Why would Mrs. Greengrass wait? Why did their family want this union so desperately? The questions were lingering on his mind ever since you brought them up months ago. He failed to come up with an answer to this day.

“Please don’t tell me that’s a letter to Y/N,” Blaise announced when he stepped out of the bathroom.

Draco rolled his eyes. “It’s from my mother, idiot.”

“Good,” his friend sighed dramatically. “Because I rarely get to see you now that you have her. No need for you to start writing love letters when she’s not around.”

Even though his nagging slightly annoyed Draco, he realized something in this moment: it had worked. The whole PDA and ‘being-more-affective-in-public’- thing worked. It had been almost two weeks since Theo or Blaise (or even Astoria) tried to get him to confess that they were faking it. His friends started to believe them.

“Yeah, whatever,” Draco gave a dismissive wave of his hand and put the letter away. “Maybe I just don’t want to see you, Zabini, and it has nothing to do with Y/N.”

Blaise laughed. “No, you love me too much. Now, let’s go. Theo’s waiting for us.”

 ***

Six weeks after Hogsmeade …

A loud shriek echoed through the classroom and you almost dropped the container of cat teeth on the floor. Parkinson jumped up and down, trying to get a slimy violet mass shaken off her leg. It didn’t budge and made its way up her pants, accompanied by absolutely disgusting slurping and smacking sounds. You tried hard to suppress a laugh but when you saw the way Harry grinned behind her, you couldn’t stop yourself from chuckling.

Professor Slughorn hurried over and quickly cast a spell. The mass fell down to the floor and stopped moving. “Oh well, Ms. Parkinson,” he quickly glanced inside her cauldron. “It’s important to add the cat teeth before the mandrake juice.” Then he knelt down in front of her, inspecting her pants. “It looks like nothing got on your skin. If I am mistaken, please go and see Madame Pomfrey. It can leave nasty burns behind.”

The Slytherin girl nodded, still in shock.

“What happened?”, Draco joined you at your table. He had gone to the backroom, to gather missing ingredients.

“Parkinson got attacked by her potion,” you sneered while counting the cat teeth. “It was hilarious.”

“I bet,” he grinned, before skimming over the instructions again.

“I think I need to go and see Madame Pomfrey,” Parkinson whined behind you. “It got through the fabric of my pants.”

As if, you thought and rolled your eyes.

“Please go,” you heard Slughorn say. “Better not take any chances. Interestingly, this modified form of the potion has been used in the past. They removed foreign magical particles with it, such as certain marks that resulted from dark spells. It is very aggressive though and since then, the healers have invented different potions. However, when it touches your normal skin, it only leaves burns and scars. Please, Ms. Parkinson, please go. Mr. Nott, you can accompany her.”

“Huh,” Draco made next to you. “What did she do wrong again?”

You sighed when you saw that you had miscounted the teeth. Damnit.

“Y/N?”

“What?”, you looked at him.

Draco stared at the liquid inside the cauldron, a blank expression on his face. “What did Pansy do wrong?”

“She put in the mandrake juice before the cat teeth.” You frowned. “Why?”

“No reason.”

 ***

That same day …

It was late when you returned from Quidditch practice; tired and sweaty. All you craved was a shower and then your bed. Playing that sport in your free time was one thing but practicing under Ginny as Captain? You were glad that you didn’t die yet.

“Y/L/N!”

Someone shouted your name as you walked inside the castle.

“Y/L/N!”

Irritated, you turned around, trying to make out the person that voice belonged to.

“Y/L/N, here!” Theodore Nott sprinted down the stairs, coming from the direction of the Gryffindor common room. “Fuck, we looked everywhere for you!”, he cursed, completely out of breath, when he finally reached you.

“We?”, you asked with wide eyes. “What’s going on?”

You then noticed the fear in his eyes. He gripped so tightly onto the stair railings that his knuckles turned white and his whole body was trembling. Panic began to dwell up inside of you. Draco.

“It’s Draco, something happened,” he panted. “You have to come, please!”

Your blood froze. “What’s going on?!”, your voice turned shrill but he ran down the stairs again.

“Come!”, he shouted. “Now!”

The two of you sprinted down stairs and hallways, passing confused classmates on the way. Adrenaline pumped through your veins and you repeated the same sentence over and over again in your head: Something happened to Draco. The thought of it was unbearable and it hit you like a brick wall, making it hard to breathe. Please, no. Not him.

When you reached the entrance to the Slytherin common room, Theodore turned to you abruptly. He grabbed you by your shoulders. “Act normal,” he hissed. “Walk slowly. They don’t need to know.”

You nodded absently. Your hands were clam and you tried to calm down your breathing.

“Okay,” he didn’t seem convinced that you understood him. Then he mumbled the password and the door opened.

Under normal circumstances, you would have stopped in the middle of the room, looking around in awe. You’d never been here before; it was a mystery to you. But now, you only briefly glanced at the green and black furniture. There weren’t many students around. The ones that saw you, stared at your red Quidditch robes.

“What the fuck?”, someone said loudly. “What’s she doing here?!”

Nott ignored them, leading you quickly to the stairs that must have led up to the dorms. You noticed the windows on the way up and gasped when you realized that you didn’t look at the fields of Hogwarts. You were under the Black Lake.

“Finally,” Zabini exclaimed. He had waited in front of a door, looking just as shaken up as Nott. “You found her.”

“What’s going on?”, you asked for the third time now. “Where is he?”, your voice trembled a little.

“In here,” Nott pointed at the room. “In the bathroom. He locked himself in.”

“He wouldn’t let us in and asked for you,” Zabini continued with a quiet voice, fidgeting with his hands. “It’s … you’ll see. Just go in and help him.” He paused briefly. “Please.”

You nodded and reached for the door handle. Three deep breaths. One … two … three.

You pushed open the door and stepped in, closing it softly behind you. Looking around, everything looked perfectly ordinary. Three beds, three wardrobes, a table. Your gaze wandered over to the door that lead into the bathroom. Then you heard it – a sob. And another one. Someone was crying. He was crying. Your heart broke at the sound.

“Draco?”

 ***

A/N: Thank you so much for reading! <33 Also: did you notice Y/N stopped calling him “Malfoy” halfway through the chapter and switched to “Draco”? 

CHAPTER 11

“Choose Me Instead” Masterlist HP Masterlist

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[saveourskinship]

100 Ways To Kill Voldemort

“We could just yeet him into a woodchipper,” Harry suggested cheerily, “Write that down.”

Hermione went to, then paused, “With what?”

“Huh?” Ron asked.

“How are you yeeting Voldemort?” Hermione queried.

“Well, we could conjure a catapult or, you know, Scorpion him. ‘Get over here’!” Harry turned his voice low and gravelled, making a whipping motion in the air.

“What the fuck are they doing?” Draco hissed at Theo.

“Obviously,” Theo drawled, because it was obvious, “they are writing a list of ways to kill our Lord and Saviour.”

“In the library?” Draco sputtered, flabbergasted.

“I hate to repeat myself,” Theo crossed his arms, “so indubitably.”

“Malfoy and Nott are eavesdropping,” Ron stated.

“Well, anyone who thinks we aren’t planning on killing Voldemort is an idiot. It’s not like we have to hide it,” Hermione sniffed, writing down Harry’s Scorpion idea.

“Hey Malfoy! Nott! Come help us!” Harry called.

“Muggle Jesus wank, they know we’re here,” Draco panicked.

“I’m just going to be relegated to one flock of synonyms, aren’t I?” Theo inspected his fingernails. “Unquestionably.”

“Malfoy and Nott are here?” Hermione blinked in their direction before turning back to Harry. “They could be quite helpful.”

“Are you both mental?” Ron whisper-yelled at them.

“Undoubtedly,” Theo commented, rolling his eyes. “Honestly, I don’t even know why I’m here. I’m just a Rick-Roll of the same quips. May as well make this interesting.” 

He walked over and conjured a chair right in between Harry and Hermione, distinctly closer to Harry, then leaned his upper arm flush with the table and rested his head on an elbow. “Hello, Potter.”

“Errr, hi?” Harry frowned a little at him.

“Salazar’s holy taint and balls,” Draco uttered under his breath, walking over too, glowering over them. “And how the ever-loving fuck do you think I could help?”

“Well, you are a Death Eater,” Harry said. 

“Yeah,” Hermione chimed in.

“Wait, what? You’ve been telling me all year I was wrong about that!” Harry said, outraged.

Hermione tsked and placed her quill down primly on the table, “Harry. I’ve barely been speaking to Ron this year because of Lavender and so I needed to be contrary with someone. And I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be right too often. You have a lot of dangerous ideas.”

“Where is Lavender?” Ron said, looking around for her. “Feels weird having my tongue in my own mouth.”

“Ugh,” everyone said.

Except Theo, who disgustedly enunciated, “Incontestably.”

“My idea’s aren’t dangerous,” Harry insisted.

Draco scoffed, earning him a nod of approval from Hermione.

“Here are your contributions thus far,” Hermione told him with a cough to clear her throat.

“Stop,” Ron shook his head as if clearing it. “I think I broke up with Lavender because when Malfoy poisoned me I think I asked for you when I woke up, ‘Mione? Aren’t we supposed to be getting together now?”

Everyone turned to Hermione for her answer. She sighed and rubbed a weary hand across her forehead, “Look, Ron, we probably are going to awkwardly fumble around each other for another year and then finally kiss over the corpse of some heinous monster somewhere and we will try, but our puppy love will fade when we are faced with the real world. Because it’s a bit weird for too many people to marry their highschool sweetheart, takes the sweetness out of it, you know.”

They all nodded like that made sense.

“So we will amicably split up and I will travel and fuck my way around the world for a bit then come back a changed woman but not so changed that I won’t utilise my contrarian charms on someone like Malfoy.”

“What?” Draco balked.

“Certainly,” Theo shot her a finger-gun to show he gave his blessing.

“So you end up with Malfoy? That’s gross.” Ron screwed up his face.

“It’s not that gross,” Draco said, so tellingly it was basically a Witch Weekly article.

“What about me?” Ron waved his arms around a little madly.

Hermione waved his offense away, “Don’t worry, from my calculations you end up with Pansy or Daphne or both.”

“Gross,” Draco parroted.

“Oh, okay. That’s cool then,” Ron bobbled his head.

“Definitely,” Theo added. “Do Harry now.”

Hermione looked at him like it was obvious and as Captain Obvious he should know that.

“Clearly,” she began, “Harry will be straight until the end of the year when he’ll finally realise that oh! you can be attracted to boys, too!” she gave Theo a Significant Look™.

“Naturally,” Theo inclined his head, returning said Look with a nice lob.

“Of course,” Hermione returned the swing.

“Unmistakeably,” Theo hit back.

“What is happening?” Draco edged out the corner of his mouth to Ron.

“No. Idea.” Ron gritted back.

“Enough.” Hermione ended the volley. “Now, Harry, your list -” Hermione flicked the parchment.

“Nothing wrong with it!” Harry harrumphed.

“Without doubt,” Theo shifted even closer to Harry.

“Aside from yeeting Voldy-Knob Knees into a woodchipper with a Scorpion style Accio, you have also said we should: shoot him with a bazooka; ask for the Time Turner back to kill him at the orphanage; conjure him into a wetsuit with a Portguese Man o’ War inside it; use your connection to his mind to convince him he’s not an evil wizard but actually a McDonald’s employee. Specifically a bad one; drop a hive of murder hornets on him and..” she scanned the list, “Oh yes, blow up Malfoy Manor.”

“You can’t blow up my house!” Draco yelled, outraged.

Harry shrugged, “I’m more partial to the wetsuit/jellyfish idea anyway.”

“See, dangerous,” Hermione concluded.

“Rather distinctly,” Theo agreed, fanning himself.

“Well, when we started this list in fifth year, your best idea didn’t exactly work out, did it!” Harry accused Hermione who raised her eyebrows.

“It will work... eventually. It’s more a long-term plan.”

“What is it?” Draco asked, curious.

Harry tucked his chin downward and whispered Parseltongue in the direction of his crotch.

“Whaaaaat the fuck?” Draco took a step back as Harry’s belt slithered out from the loops and snaked up his back to rest on his shoulder, forked tongue darting out to lick Harry’s cheek .

“What the fuck are you doing using a snake as a belt?!” Draco cried in shock.

Hermione cooed at it, scratching under its chin as it cutely rubbed against her finger. “She’s not a snake, she’s a basilisk. Hatched her last summer. Wasn’t hard, all you need is a chicken egg and a toad.”

“Evidently,” Theo inserted excitedly, clapping his hands at the chaos he’d walked into.

“She’s still young, so it will take a few years for her to gain her glowy eyes death thing, but I figured if a basilisk can be trained to Petrify me, I could do the same thing to old Volder-Boulders. Repay the favour so to speak.”

There was a moment of silence where ridiculousness met insanity and settled into a weirdly sane set of logic.

“Float him into space,” Draco suggested, sitting between Hermione and Ron, reaching over her to write it down himself under number 100. “We get enough people to cast Wingardium Leviosa on him and float him into space. He can only use the Bubblehead charm for so long before it fails. And he’ll probably freeze to death first.”

“Surely,” Theo concurred, placing his hand on Harry’s knee who looked at it curiously, but didn’t remove himself.

“Not bad,” Ron mused, rubbing his chin.

“What else you got?” Hermione asked Draco, leaning over his elbow to watch him write.

“More than you can handle, Granger,” Draco smirked.

“True. Right now at least,” she conceded. “But once I’ve satisfied my wanderlust in a few years, you’re going to be shocked, Malfoy. Shocked.”

“This is fun,” Harry piped up, nuzzling his basilisk, which was sadly not a euphemism at that point in time, “we should do it again.”

Theo grinned at him and licked his canine wickedly.

“Obviously.”

[spitfire-of-the-sea]

Welcome to the Crew

Ever wondered how Kotatsu joined the Spade Pirates? We know a tiny little bit - that Ace freed him from a trap, but not much more than that. Why not elaborate a bit on that? :D

Welcome to the crew

 „Ace, no!“ Deuce said with emphasis, crossing his arms in front of his chest. It was much the same tone he had used earlier in the day, when Ace had been about to take a bite out of a very colorful mushroom that Saki had mentioned being probably poisonous.

“It’s a freaking tiger! You can’t just go there and release it! It might try to eat us all! You first, because you’ll be right where its mouth full of sharp teeth is. You know, the end where food goes in?”

“That’s not a tiger, that’s a lynx,” Saki corrected him, already following Ace as he approached the animal. On their hike through the forest, they had heard strange noises and had followed them to the trail they were currently on – and had come upon a trapped animal that was desperately trying to free itself.

“Who cares, they are practically the same! We are not unleashing a wild animal! We don’t even know why it’s been trapped! It might be a man-eater!” Deuce answered hotly, hurrying to keep up with them. She didn’t turn to look back at him, too busy picking her way through the undergrowth and not getting too far behind Ace, who always seemed to find his way through a jungle without any problem.

“It’s quite the difference. First of all, you can see that their pattern is completely different, tigers have stripes and lynx most certainly do not. There’s also the tufts on their ears and their ability to climb. Fun fact: Lynx can purr continuously, tigers only as they exhale,” she explained with a smile, completely unperturbed by Deuce’s increasing annoyance level. “I doubt it’s a man-eater, I have never heard about a lynx that was. This looks more like it was just unlucky enough to step in one of those shitty traps laid out by shitty poachers…”

Ace had almost reached the big cat, which frantically tried to get away – futile attempts that only made it yowl in pain even as it hissed and snarled at them. Saki clicked her tongue and followed him, but stopped when the cat grew even more panicked. It was big – much bigger than any normal lynx should be, its head easily reached Ace’s navel. Its fur had the color of ash, with an ivory colored stripe running along its spine and widening along its head towards its snout; it was the same color as its paws and the underside of its belly. An usual color for a lynx for sure, but then all the animals on this island seemed a bit different.

“He’s going to tear his paw off, Ace,” she said quietly, hoping to not distress the animal even further. “You have to be quick about it.” It looked like a nasty wound already, the metal clamping down hard around its leg and blood drenching its fur.

Deuce sighed heavily. “Okay, fine, so we free it – and then what? Look at it, it’s completely feral. If it runs off into the forest with that wound, it’ll get an infection and definitely die. Then this whole little rescue operation here was for nothing anyhow.”

“It’s just scared. It might have been here for days already,” Saki mumbled, slowly taking off her jacket. “I’ll have to keep it still and then Ace can open the trap and you can treat the wound. It’ll be fine!”

“You make it sound super easy…! It can seriously hurt us! And I’m not a vet!” Deuce insisted, but she knew he had already accepted his fate, it was just a grumpy façade he put up whenever he thought they were doing something probably dumb. Which, admittedly, was the case almost every day at least once. Sometimes more often.

Ace had reached the lynx now, murmuring softly under his breath. The animal had backed away as much as it possibly could, fur bristled and teeth bared. Before Saki could move towards them, he had closed his hands around the trap and was pulling it open.

The lynx lurched forward with a growl, burying its teeth in his arm, eyes wide with fear and claws raking skin. Unflinching, Ace pried the trap open bit by bit.

“Oi! You should have given me a second!” Saki moved in, throwing her jacket over the cat’s head and closing her arms around its chest and head, trying to press it against her body and keep it still. Even using all her strength, she wasn’t overly successful – she felt the claws of its hind legs cut into her skin and barely managed to hold it in place. At least with the jacket blocking its view and her arms around it, it had stopped to bite at Ace - and only managed to nip Saki twice, before she finally got a good grasp on it.

The second the trap was opened and the paw freed, Ace moved to her side, gently pushing her to the away. “Let me hold him down, he’ll hurt you more than me,” he said quietly and she made room for him. Within a moment he had the big cat in his lap, bleeding arms firmly clasped around it as he pressed it to his chest and held it in place – much more easily than Saki had. Blinded by the jacket, it was bucking and snarling, claws digging into Ace’s legs. She winced at the sight of his blood.

Deuce sighed and dropped his backpack to take out medical supplies. While Saki held the affected leg still as he set to work in silence, disinfecting and stitching the gaping wound and finally bandaging it up. When he was done, he looked at his friends with a sigh. Both were bleeding from deep scratches – Ace worse than her, the teeth marks on his arm still bleeding profusely. The cat had settled down, somewhat at least. It was still snarling and growling, but kept still for the most part.

“Take the jacket off,” Ace said, barely audible, and Saki let go of the paw to slowly slide the cloth off the lynx’s head. It looked around widely, from her to Deuce and then back at Ace, who was loosening is grip. “He likes the warmth. I think it calms him down.” A smile appeared on Ace’s lips as he looked at the cat and then slowly let him go, opening his arms.

The animal looked at him hesitantly and then hobbled off his lap, but then just stood there, tail twitching and ears flattened. Ace sat still, fire blooming over his back and shoulders and illuminating his smile. “You wanna come with us?” he asked. “We’ll take care of your wound and keep you safe. You don’t need to be scared.”

It kept standing there, staring at him. When he shifted his weight and moved, it immediately bared its teeth again with a snarl, but didn’t run off. Ace reached for the trap and then, his fire flaring up even more, tore it apart and threw it to the ground. “See? It’s gone. It’s fine now.”

Saki started to rummage in her backpack and with a triumphant grin pulled out her last sandwich. Inching forward slowly, she set it on the ground in front of the lynx, trying to ignore the way it hissed at her when she got too close for comfort. “You must be hungry, here, eat! It’s turkey sandwich!”

The animal looked at her and then quickly darted forward to snatch it, gobbling it down in three quick bites, before backing away again, licking its mouth with its eyes still on her.

“Now you probably just made it think about how tasty we might be…,” Deuce muttered darkly, glaring at her. She had not expected Ace to glare at her, though, and arched an eyebrow quizzically at him.

“You told me you don’t have any more sandwiches,” he said and looked an awful lot like he was really pouting. Furrowing her brow, she put her hands in her hip and returned the glare.

“I said I don’t have any more sandwiches for you. You already ate six, Deuce had two and I only had one! That was my second sandwich, and I chose to give it to the poor guy over there and not the guy who already had six sandwiches,” she stated, clearly irritated – even more so, when Ace pressed his lips together in obvious disappointment. She threw her hands up and shook her head. “Well, then pack your own lunch next time!”

“But Saki,” Ace whined, “Your sandwiches are better than mine! And I’m hungry!”

“Your sandwiches,” she bit out, “are only cold slices of meat. That’s not a sandwich. That’s barely a meal. And you’re always hungry.”

“Well, we walked a lot today!” he replied, standing up. “That would make anybody hungry. I would have just eaten those mushrooms back then, but Deuce said not to. Don’t we have anything else with us?”

“Deuce said not to,” Deuce butted in, “because Saki said they were probably poisonous!”

“Saki said they were probably poisonous because they were probably poisonous”, Saki deadpanned and sighed, giving up. She reached into her backpack again and handed first Ace and then Deuce an apple, before pulling out a chocolate bar and breaking it in three, giving each of them a piece and plopping the remaining one into her own mouth.

“There, that’s everything I had with me. Literally everything, except my notebook and pen and even you can’t eat that.” She plopped to the ground and looked at the lynx, which had settled down, carefully licking its bandaged paw while it didn’t let them out of its sight. “I’ll be honest, if you come with us, we can give you more food, but you’ll have to share with them,” she said to the big cat pointed at her two friends. The lynx cocked its head to the side.

“What, we’re gonna adopt it now? It’s a wild animal!” Deuce asked incredulously, taking a bite out of his apple with a crunch.

“So is Ace, we still love him,” Saki replied with a shrug and felt Ace settle down next to her, bumping his shoulder against hers.

“Saki, do you want the second half?” He held out the half-eaten apple, looking at her as if he felt guilty. She knew he was probably still hungry - he was always hungry – but felt bad for eating so much more than they did. She took it silently from him and bit into the apple, chewing thoughtfully.

“What’s even in your backpacks? They looked super full!” she asked.

“Medical supplies because one or both of you always manage to stumble into some problem. Like an animal in a poacher’s trap – and my own notebook and pen. And a book to read, in case we have a quiet moment. Plus a change of clothes, in case we end up like last time,” Deuce explained with a shrug. “So we’re gonna adopt the cat?!”

“If he wants to come with us, we’ll adopt him!” Ace confirmed, looking at the lynx with a grin. “I’ve already got a name in mind!” Opening his backpack, he set it down next to Saki to let her have a look. “I brought a jacket, because you always get cold. There’s also a map of the island, a bag in case we find treasure and another bag in case we find food and want to bring some back. I also brought a rope. You never know.”

Staring at him, she started to smile at the sight of the jacket. It was one of his big ones that she had borrowed a few times already – she did get cold in the evenings when they were out and about and she liked that jacket, because it fit her easily even over her own and was nice and cozy.

“So you brought a backpack to transport a bag and another bag?” Deuce asked, shaking his head – to which Ace only grinned. Transferring his look from Ace to the cat, he eyed it thoughtfully. It seemed to be unsure what to do next, something Deuce understood only too well. He felt like that most of the time. “What’s the name?”

“Kotatsu, because he likes it warm,” Ace said happily and watched the lynx perk up, ears twitching.

Saki and Deuce groaned almost in unison. “You can’t be serious,” Deuce said, pinching his nose. “I have to stop letting you pick names.”

Saki laughed. “Well, you did let him choose yours, Deuce. I guess if Kotatsu here likes it, there’s nothing speaking against it, except for good taste perhaps. But neither of you has ever let that stop you.”

Ace bumped his shoulder against hers again, a bit harder this time. “Oi!” “Ah, shut up, Saki!” Deuce mumbled, flushing as he re-adjusted his mask. The cat was still looking at them, waiting for something with its tail twitching nervously.

Deuce looked both of his two friends up and down. “We gotta get back to the ship anyhow. I have to give you a tetanus shot, and disinfect all those scratches and bites. I’ll need a ton of disinfectant.” He groaned. “It’ll take the rest of the afternoon… I better not hear a single complaint from either of you. I warned you.”

Saki and Ace threw each other a look, grimacing. The disinfectant Deuce had managed to buy in the village was vile, it burned like hell whenever he used it. “I anyway never get sick, my fire burns away everything. I don’t need that,” Ace said and was met with a stony glare from Deuce.

“You don’t know that, you just assume so. We’ll play it safe and I’ll disinfect them and you’ll not say a single peep while I do so. Now, let’s go!” Deuce shouldered his back and slowly towards the direction of the coast.

“You coming, Kotatsu?” Ace called out, crouching down and stretching out a hand towards the lynx. It looked at the hand intently before it started to tentatively sniff the air, not moving forward yet. Saki stepped behind him, looking at the cat. “We have food, we can give you some if you come with us. Plus, you really shouldn’t be running around on your own with that paw. You won’t be able to hunt.” Its ears twitched and it let out a chuff. The tail still twitched nervously.

“Want me to carry you?” Ace offered, cocking his head to the side.

The lynx mimicked him, then averted its eyes, almost as if it was embarrassed. “Me-ow!” it uttered and Saki bit back a delighted squeal. How cute was that?! It had the voice of a little kitten, not at all that of a giant lynx that had been snarling and hissing at them just before.

“Alright then, Kotatsu! Welcome to the crew!” Ace grinned and went to pick him up, ignoring the bristling fur and grunt as he hauled the big cat up into his arms and started walking after Deuce.

[stitch1830]

Joy keeps yelling at me to update this story, so here I am. Updating.

Here is the original plus add ons, and Here is where you can read it on ao3 (eventually, still uploading chapters lmao). This is a long chapter, my apologies.

......

First Date

“All right, ready to go?”

Toph muttered and grumbled obscenities under her breath in the passenger seat, and Aang just chuckled as he started the car up and drove off to their first date destination.

After sitting in silence for a few minutes, Toph finally spoke. “Where are we going?”

“A special breakfast awaits us.”

“You sure you’re not just gonna kidnap and kill me, Twinkles?”

“I mean, let’s see where the day takes us, don’t you think?”

Despite her sleep-deprived state, Toph couldn’t help but laugh. Aang seemed to have that effect on her.

When they arrived at their destination, Aang quickly hopped out of the car to meet Toph outside her door because he was giddy with excitement. Toph raised an eyebrow at her potential kidnapper. “You’re awfully excited for some breakfast food.”

“What, are you telling me that you’re not a fan of,” he paused for dramatic effect, “breakfast food??”

“I am, but unless I’ve stayed up all night, I’d rather not get up at seven to eat,” she groaned.

“Not to worry, date buddy,” Aang began as he wrapped an arm around Toph’s shoulder. “This food will not only wake up your taste buds, but it will fill you with all the love and happiness you’ll need to continue on with the day!”

Toph sighed, “You really are a morning person, aren’t ya.”

“Oh, yeah. If that wasn’t clear earlier, I am most definitely a morning person.”

“Charming.”

Aang continued to grin like a 3rd grade schoolboy and led Toph inside the establishment.

When they settled in their seats, Toph leaned across the table and asked, “Alright Twinkletoes, how are their eggs and bacon here?”

Aang hummed, “Eggs are good, can’t say I know what the bacon is like. I’m a vegetarian.”

Toph’s mouth was agape. “What?”

The man chuckled. “Is that a problem?”

“I mean I’m on a date with a fuckin’ plant eater!” She practically yelled at him, but her tone was facetious and the smile that played across her lips told Aang that she only pretended to care.

“Don’t worry about food though, Toph. I’ve got it all planned out.”

And he did. At the crack of dawn, Aang called the restaurant owner to relay his brilliant breakfast sampler idea.

He also made a few other calls, but those date activities were for later.

An amused but skeptical look graced Toph’s face, and it didn’t leave until the food was presented in front of them.

“Okay,” Aang began to explain. “We’ve got lots of options to sample in front of us, all meat free sad to say for you, but all food items are absolutely delicious and have the owner’s honor on them.”

Toph laughed. ��What does that even mean, Twinkletoes?”

“Uh, just that he vouches for the food!”

She let out a sigh. “All right. What should I try first?”

And so they sampled everything on the table, smelling and tasting every item with precision and order. Aang somehow planned out every bite to be better than the last, culminating to the pièce de résistance: Belgian waffles.

Now, that wasn’t to say that the other food was subpar. Far from it. But as far as Toph was concerned, the owner of the establishment knew his way around Belgian waffles and it was the absolute best breakfast food she ever had.

As Toph leaned back in her chair, stuffed, she wondered what else could be on the ‘date list,’ considering they just spent almost 2 hours over indulging themselves with breakfast food. Not to mention the pair had spent the entire day yesterday talking to one another. There wasn’t much else to talk about, and Toph was worried they might lose their momentum for the remainder of the date.

She was wrong.

Their second stop on the date was a music museum. One that carried a collection of songs and instruments from around the world.

“Okay, date spot number two, let’s go!”

“And what’s the plan here?”

“We are gonna be traveling all over the world, Toph!” he exclaimed. “And we’re gonna do it in style.”

All of a sudden, a popular trumpet melody and lick blared around the entire museum (empty museum. Apparently it was closed to all except Toph and Aang).

Because of the oh so mushy and romantic gesture, Toph had to scoff at the song selection. “'Come Fly With Me' by Frank Sinatra?” she teased. “What are you, 80, Twinkletoes?”

“Hey! I’ll have you know that this is a classic and it was my foster father’s favorite song!” he defended. “And, it is the perfect song for this, because we are going to fly.”

“What??”

“Well, not really, but use your imagination will, you?”

So she did.

They walked around the museum, listening to different types of music around the world. Aang made her pay special attention to the different rhythms of the world, and they went back and forth listening attentively for special sounds in the songs. The museum curator, Chong, apparently gave Aang a list of facts and interesting tidbits about the music as well. It certainly added to the experience, even if Aang was just reading what was on the cards. And while they ‘travelled’ to different parts of the building, Aang put on his cheesy Sinatra song and even skipped around the museum to the beat of it.

It was absolutely ridiculous hearing him dance around the museum, but also absolutely endearing.

When they completed their trip around the world, Toph and Aang drove twenty minutes off campus to a small vineyard. Toph raised a skeptical eyebrow toward her date, then asked, “What’s all this about, Twinkletoes?”

She could practically feel his grin from where she stood. “We’ll find out soon! Come on, I think you’ll really like this one.”

“Well if we’re at a vineyard, you’re damn right I’m gonna like it.”

Aang clicked his tongue at her. “Not like that, Toph. Just wait.” He grabbed her hand and led her into the building. Aang led her through the building and suddenly stopped the two of them. His hand squeezed hers, motioning her to reach out in front of her. What Toph found was something that felt like a large, metal tub. She wrinkled her eyebrows and turned the corners of her lips down. “What is this?”

“It’s a tub filled with grapes. We’re gonna crush them.”

“Crush them?” she questioned. “Like, with a grape stomper—”

“—With our feet!”

The woman maintained her skeptical look. “Don’t they have machines for this?”

“Yes, but stomping grapes with your feet gives the winery more control on the seed separating process. They can control the amount of tannins—”

“—Okay too many fancy words, Twinkles.” Toph playfully put a hand up to stop his ramblings and smiled at him. “What are we waiting for? Let’s stomp some grapes!”

So they did.

They stomped, smashed, and crushed grapes with their bare feet as Toph and Aang held onto each other for support. The grapes poked and tickled at their feet, but it was such a fun experience. Toph even challenged Aang to goof around and jump in the vat of grapes to crush them. A silly dare that ended in near failure (Aang almost landed in the crushed grapes and juice on his ass), but all was well and no clothes were stained during the dare. Toph even promised she wouldn’t hold it over his head… Well, not for long at least.

Once they finished their stomping session, they cleaned off their feet and ventured into the restaurant part of the winery for dinner. This time, Aang promised Toph that she could choose her own meal, and she was adamant on getting a plate that served some sort of meat.

“You deprived me of meat all day, Twinkletoes,” she began. “If this was an all-you-can-eat buffet, my plate would be stacked this high with meat.” Her hand went above her head for her meat tower reference, and Aang laughed at the visual aid.

“Hey, you have to admit, those waffles were good though!”

Toph smiled genuinely. “They were.”

They spent the next five minutes going over the menu and choosing their respective meals and drinks.

“Hey, do we get to taste the grapes we just stomped?” she teased. “Hmm,” Aang jokingly pondered. “Maybe in a couple years, but we can buy a bottle right now to remember the experience,” he offered.

“Make it two.”

Dinner was a delight, and so was the company. It seemed that conversation topics were in abundance for the couple, and the only time they were silent was when they ate their meals (which were delicious). Then, it was time to go home.

As they were driving back to Toph’s apartment, Toph’s mind simply wandered back to all the activities and things they accomplished in the last few hours. It was a sensory overload kind of date. Every activity focused on a different sense, and Toph loved every second of it. So much thought and care went into this day, and she only gave the man 6 hours at most to prepare it all. Needless to say, Toph was impressed with Aang.

When the night came to a close and they were preparing to say their goodbyes at Toph’s door, it was only fitting a bit of banter was thrown around.

“Thanks for not kidnapping me.” She grinned.

“I was close near the middle when we went to Peru, but by the time we were in Acapulco Bay, I decided against it.”

“Hey, at least I didn’t nearly stain my entire outfit by taking a swim in freshly squeezed grapes!”

“I take no blame for that you egged me on! And I didn’t fall in, so it’s not as funny.”

“Still, the thought is funny enough.”

Aang chuckled and smiled at Toph. “I suppose.”

A comfortable silence fell between them, and now was the time for sincerity. For the first time in a long time, Toph didn’t want the day to end. She didn’t want the date to end. Toph broke the silence and began by saying, “Aang.”

Aang looked at her. Even though she only made up a nickname for him yesterday, it was weird for her to use his actual name. He stopped talking and looked at her. “This was…” Toph paused to form the right words, and a great big smile grew across her face. “This was the most amazing day ever. Thank you.”

“I’m so glad you liked it, Toph. It was the best day ever for me, too,” he grinned.

“How did you even reserve some of these activities? I mean, the stomping grape shit? C’mon.”

Aang shrugged. “I’ve volunteered at a lot of places around campus. I guess you can say I’ve got the connections.”

“Wow, who would’ve thought being a good samaritan would pay off?”

“Pretty sure Jesus did, Toph,” he teased.

And for that, he received a good punch to the arm.

“Whatever, Twinkles,” she jabbed. “But if that was the first date, can’t imagine what the second date will be like. High expectations, my fancy dancer.”

“Oh, so there will be a second date?”

It was Toph’s turn to shrug. “Well, you said there was more to me, and there seems to be more to you that I would like to find out.”

Aang couldn’t help but smile at Toph. Goodness, she was something else.

“Date number two can be arranged,” he began. “Although it sounds like maybe this is your date to manage.”

“Absolutely not, I already challenged you to outdo yourself,” she smirked.

Aang playfully groaned. “Fine! But… There is one last thing we have to do before date night is considered over.”

Toph raised a skeptical eyebrow at her date. “What else could you possibly have planned for—”

Her sentence was interrupted by his lips. It was just a light peck on her lips, and when he pulled away, Toph immediately dragged him back to her to kiss him. This time, it was longer and harder, and she pulled him just a little too hard, because they stumbled into the apartment door. But they didn’t break apart for a second. The most exhilarating first date culminated into the best first—er—makeout session?

Their little stumble into the door must’ve been interpreted as a knock, though, because suddenly Katara opened the door and the couple nearly fell into her arms.

“What the fuck?! You guys!” Katara exclaimed. She was rather surprised by the scene in front of her, but not completely taken aback. She playfully chastised her friend and yelled, “Quit defiling my roommate, Aang!”

Aang turned beet red, but Toph just cackled at the inconvenience. She straightened herself and called back to Aang as Katara pulled her into their place. “Night night, Twinkles! Bring your A game next week, will ya?”

The door was shut in his face before he could reply.

But Aang was pretty sure he floated back to his car. He was on cloud nine after that kiss, after the most perfect day.

[1littleshippergirl1]

They know

Summary: Harry and Percy are getting closer when the family finds out

@curiousfeline

--

To be clear, it wasn't their intention to try and leep their blossoming friendship and subsequent feelings hidden from the family. They weren't ashamed by any means, but Harry was always getting whisked away by Ron or Ginny for one reason or another.

So, they made it a habit of Harry sneaking out of bed to tip-toe down the hallway down to Percy's room, knocking gently with his knuckles until Percy would open the door and they would stay up for hours, just talking about anything and everything.

After the war ended, Percy temporarily moved out of his flat that was near Diagon Alley to come back to the Burrow and into his old bedroom. They were all hurt and in need of healing after what happened to Fred; Percy felt deeply guilty and sorry for everything he'd done and vowed to make it up to them.

Harry was there, too. Mrs. Weasley insisted he stay there now that Voldemort wasn't a threat anymore. The Dursleys certainly wouldn't welcome him back with open arms or at all, really. Last he heard, they were still in hiding for the time being; just until things settled down more.

Harry had always had mixed feelings regarding Percy. At first, he was just the somewhat stuck up, no fun older brother that scolded him and Ron sometimes. But than again, Harry never had an older brother figure in his life so maybe most of them were like that.

But, as he grew older, feelings started to arise that were far from friend or brother-like. It further complicated things, causing a swirl of anxiety to feel as though it was being dropped in his stomach like a ton of bricks. He was sure that Percy would never see him beyond being Ron's best mate.

Until, lately, that is.

Harry didn't see Percy as being much of a flirt, but as he would come to find out, there was much more to Percy Weasley than meets the eye.

A subtle brush against him as they passed each other, a shy smile exchanged more than once. They would glance at each other, quickly turning away. Harry once laughed a little too hard at a joke that Percy had said while talking to Charlie. Those nearby-Ron and Ginny-stared at him in bewilderment. Charlie raised his eyebrows and Percy looked downright amused.

Harry promptly turned red.

--

Harry was laying on Percy's bed, on his side with his head propped up with his elbow. He was listening attentively to Percy describing the work that the new Minister-Kingsley-had him doing as they diligently worked to repair what had been damaged during the time that the Death Eaters had taken over the Ministry.

Percy was always so passionate when he was talking about something that interested him. And Harry saw that shining through, with the redhead waving his arms around and his tone becoming excited.

Harry could have listened to him talk for hours, as cheesy as it was.

Percy abruptly calmed down, adjusting his glasses and giving Harry a sheepish smile. "I suppose I'm boring you aren't I?"

Harry shook his head. "No. Definitely not."

"You're sure?" Percy said, frowning. "I know it isn't the most riveting work out there."

"I'm sure," Harry reassured him. "Really. I'm glad you're sharing it with me. You don't really talk about it, otherwise."

Percy lowered his gaze. "Yes, well, no one wants to hear it. You've seen how everyone thinks of me as boring. I'm not deaf, you know. I hear them pretending to yawn and ask when it'll be over. I just act like I don't hear it."

A sense of shame filled Harry. He'd done that before, growing immensely bored at listening to Percy talk of cauldron bottoms and had nudged Ron to see if he was bored as Harry felt. It never occurred to him that Percy had caught what he said. "I'm sorry."

He needn't explain it. Percy came closer, standing up from his spot on his desk chair and sitting on the bed. He ruffled Harry's naturally untidy hair and the younger boy rolled his eyes. "It's alright," he assured, Harry.

"But it isn't," Harry protested. "You didn't deserve to be made fun of for that. No one makes fun of Charlie when he talks about dragons for hours and they don't pretend to be sleeping when Bill tells us the same stories about his job." He sat up, scooting closer to Percy and looked at the man earnestly. "It isn't fair to you."

"Harry-" Percy blinked, apparently caught off guard. "I...I didn't know you cared that much. I-thank you. I really appreciate it."

Harry leaned over to hug him, surprising them both. He wasn't all that affectionate, usually. "Of course I do," he muttered, getting momentarily distracted by the smell that was coming from Percy. He was wearing cologne. It suited him well.

It also was making Harry's brain short circuit.

Slowly, to linger to keep absorbing as much of the aroma as possible, Harry pulled away. A bit saddened at the loss of contact. But he didn't vocalize it.

Percy was looking at him quite funny. It made his stomach do that flip flop, like when he had his brief crush on Cho. He swallowed.

"What?"

"Nothing," Percy shook his head, giving a sound that was between a scoff and a breathy laugh. "I just- your eyes are very green, that's all."

"Err, okay," Harry said, bemusedly.

"S'stupid, I know. I just-"

"It's not," Harry interrupted him. "Guess I've just heard that a lot. I mean, I thought you knew."

" I did," Percy said, maintaining eye contact. "But I've never seen them this close up before. It's different."

"Oh," Harry whispered. "Alright."

"I like them," Percy said, quietly. "Your eyes. They're your best feature, really."

A brilliant flush washed over Harry's face. He wasn't used to being complimented for his appearance, much less from the man he'd taken a serious fancy to. "Thanks," he ducked his head. "I mean, they're alright, I suppose."

"I mean it," Percy licked his lips and Harry zeroed in on his tongue that lightly brushed over on the pink flesh.

Godric, help him.

"You're staring," Percy breathed and Harry knew he was caught.

"Sorry," Harry muttered. He was going to move, go back to Ron's bedroom where he found bury his face in the pillow to forget about this moment when Percy took ahold of his wrist, preventing him from leaving.

"Don't be," Percy's eyes were dilated. "I'm rather glad."

"You are?" Harry's own eyes widened slightly at the confession.

"Indeed. I quite like you, Harry."

"How do you like me?" Harry deliberately kept his voice low.

"I think you know," Percy said smoothly.

Harry's heart gave a leap.

"I want to kiss you," Percy admitted. "But this isn't the right time. We hardly know much about each other, not as much as we should."

Harry nodded wordlessly.

He longed to pull the other man by the loose tie he was still wearing and smash his lips against him, but Percy was right.

They both felt that connection.

That feeling of electricity that Harry had previously dismissed as being real.

They would take it slow. They wouldn't rush anything. Because they both wanted it to work.

It had to.

"We'll get there," Percy cut through his thoughts, speaking softly. "I promise you."

Harry could only nod again.

"Suppose I should go, then..."

"You don't have to," Percy shook his head. "If you don't want to, I mean. I like having you here." He laid on his back, his head resting against the pillow and he gestured for Harry to join him.

"Really?" Harry gawked at him. "You don't think it's too soon for that?"

Percy seemed a bit startled and propped himself on his elbows just as Harry had done earlier. "Do you?"

"I don't know," this was new territory for him. "I've never done this before."

"I understand," Percy said, sincerely. "You certainly don't have to if you dont want to."

Harry glanced over his shoulder at the closed door and back to Percy's slight apprehensive and hopeful face.

"I want to," he decided. He crawled next to Percy and the red head wrapped an arm around his shoulder, pulling him closer.

Harry's heartbeat quickened, the cologne infiltrating his nostrils once again. He'd never been that close in proximity to Percy before, where the freckles that were scattered on the man's face became more pronounced.

"Do I make you nervous?" Percy murmured. He'd turned his head, his breath hitting Harry's temple.

"A bit." Percy was having more of an affect on him, more than simply nerves. He was hardly doing much, and he might not have even known it, but the slight touch to Harry's skin was like fire.

Harry had never experienced such a feeling with anyone else and he didn't want it to end.

"A bit, how?" He could hear the smile in Percy's voice. His words were coquettish, thoroughly un-Percy-like.

"I think you know."

Percy's soft laugh reverberated off the walls.

They laid there for the longest time. Harry eventually allowed himself to relax, the tension from being so close to Percy fading away. For a while, until sleep began to override the red head and his hand went limp, his fingers had been running through Harry's hair.

It might've been Harry's imagination or a bit of a hallucination from exhaustion, but out of his peripheral vision, Harry could have sworn that Percy was going to kiss his forehead-before he retracted.

--

Harry noticed two things when he awoke the next morning.

One, he was laying right on Percy's chest. The red head was still asleep, blissfully oblivious to it, but his arms were wrapped around Harry's frame, keeping a decent grip for not being awake.

And two, Ginny was standing in the room, wide-eyed with her mouth agape, frozen.

"Ginny," he started, then stopped because what was he supposed to say that would somehow this when he was on her brother's chest, in his room when he should have been with Ron?

Ginny held her hands up, coughing lightly. "Mum, erm, was wondering where you went. Said to tell you, Ron and Percy that breakfast is ready."

"Right," Harry muttered. "Thanks."

Ginny nodded. A smirk came onto her face, now that her own awkwardness seemed to subside a bit. "Tell that to Percy when he wakes up, will you?"

Harry was trying to move at least one of Percy's arms, which was keeping him trapped. "Right," he said. "I'll do that. Close the door behind you, yeah?"

Ginny did just that and he was sure he heard her snicker as she turned away.

Once they were safe, privacy restored, Harry shook the red head gently. "Percy," he whispered, urgently. "Percy, wake up!"

Percy's face scrunched up and he looked blearily at Harry. "Hmm?" He grunted.

"Wake up," Harry repeated.

Percy released Harry when he moved his arms to rub at his eyes. "What time is it?" However, before Hary could get a word out, he sat straight up, suddenly looking more awake. "Oh, Merlin. We fell asleep."

Harry exhaled. "Yeah."

"You have to leave," Percy told him, quickly. "Mum's going to be wondering where you're at."

"Too late," Harry mumbled. He hesitated. "Ginny was here."

Percy groaned, falling back. "Merlin's beard, this isn't good."

"Sorry," Harry muttered, looking on over at the wall instead of Percy's eyes. "Should've left last night."

Unbeknownst to him, Percy frowned and sighed. "It's not your fault, now stop it. I was the one that invited you to lay down. I should've known better, we were both tired by that time."

"What will we tell them?" Harry wondered. "They're going to have questions."

"The truth," Percy shrugged.

"Really?" Harry blurted out.

Percy looked at him strangely. "Yes, if that's alright with you."

"Oh, yeah! Yeah, that's fine. I....I didn't think you'd want them to know."

"Why?" Percy was surprised. "Why would you think that?"

"I don't know," Harry shrugged now. "Figured you'd want to keep it quiet."

"But why?"

"I'm," Harry mulled over what he'd say, "not exactly the best person to be with right now."

"Harry, if this is about the war, I completely understand," Percy said softly.

"It's not that....people are going to talk, Percy."

"Let them," Percy said, immediately.

"But your job-"

"My job isn't going to dictate my personal life," Percy said, matter-of-factly. "If I want to see you and you're alright with that, then that's what I'll do."

A warm sensation filled Harry from his toes to his face. A goofy grin came onto his lips. "Oh," he murmured.

"Indeed," Percy agreed. There was a two second pause. "Shall I take it from your smile that you wouldn't mind seeing me?"

"You'd be right, Mr. Weasley," Harry said with a sense of playfulness that he didn't know he had in him.

Percy grinned.

--

Most of the family was there at the table, eating breakfast and drinking their tea without much talking going on. Bill and Fleur were back at their cottage, they'd decided against staying at the Burrow. And right after the battle, Charlie was summoned back to Romania to tend to one of the dragons that was injured from some falling debris.

Ron wasn't down there, yet, either. Harry was thankful. Perhaps he hadn't realized he was gone. Of course, that wouldn't stop Ginny or Mrs. Weasley from asking him about last night. He imagined they were bursting to know why he was in Percy's room, of all people.

"Morning," Harry kept his head low. Percy let him go ahead of him, while he dawdled.

Mrs. Weasley glanced at him, smiling. She was pouring tea in Ginny's cup. "Good morning, Harry, Dear. How did you sleep?"

Ginny snorted.

Harry cleared his throat. Mrs. Weasley was most likely not trying to tease him, but he still couldn't help but feel cornered. "Fine, thanks."

"Bet you did," Ginny mumbled.

Harry blushed, taking a seat.

"I noticed you weren't in Ron's room, Dear," Mrs. Weasley said.

"Err, yeah."

"Ginny told me you were in Percy's room, is that right?"

"Yeah," Harry said, quietly.

George almost spit out his tea. "Percy's room?" He said in disbelief. "What in Godric's name were you doing in there?"

Now Harry definitely felt cornered. "Nothing," he said hurriedly to avoid any unnecessary belief in thinking that they'd done more than they did. "We just talked, is all."

"Talked to who?" Ron came down, yanking behind his hand.

"Harrykins was talking to Percy," George informed him. "Last night in Percy's bedroom."

"Why?" Ron looked at Harry, blankly.

"Hush up, all of you," Mrs. Weasley had mercy on Harry. "If Harry wants to tell you, that's his business. And be nice, Percy is your brother. He's working hard to mend things so we should be making am effort as well." She gave her children a stern gaze, silently daring them to contradict her.

"Oh, come on, Mum," George protested, "you aren't the slight bit curious why Harry was with Percy, of all people?"

"No," she retorted.

Harry grimaced when Percy appeared, smiling at them. "Good morning," he greeted, kissing his mum on the cheek. "This looks delicious, Mum." He took a seat adjacent to Harry's.

"Why was Harry in your room, Perce?" Ron said, dumbly.

"It isn't it obvious?" Ginny mumbled under her breath.

But Ron didn't hear her.

"Not that it's any of your business," Percy said, pointedly, "but we were talking."

"About what?" George was confused. "What could you two have to talk about?"

"Plenty," Percy raised his eyebrows.

Harry itched to intervene before Ron or George said something hurtful, as they prone to do.

Ron blinked. "But why?" He pressed. "Harry never talks to you."

"Actually, Ron-"

"We do," Harry said and everyone's attention turned to him. "Talk, I mean. We've been doing it every night since Percy came back."

Ginny looked thoughtful. George and Ron were astounded. Mrs. Weasley had a smile on her face.

"You have?" Ron couldn't believe it.

"Yes," Harry said, slowly. "And that's not all." He glanced at Percy for permission. The red head nodded subtly. "We're, err, well-"

Percy, thank Godric, was able to articulate it for him. "What Harry means to say is, we've come to have certain....feelings for each other."

Mrs. Weasley squealed and gave them both a bone crushing hug. Harry had a nagging suspicion that wedding magazines would soon be popping up all over the place.

"Oh, that's wonderful!" She gushed, clapping her hands together.

Oh, yes, Harry could see the wedding bells in her eyes.

"We aren't together yet, Mum," Percy said, gently. "Not yet. We want to get to know each other first."

"Oh, nonsense. You've known each other for years!"

"But not on a personal level," Percy explained, patiently. "I know Harry as Ron's friend. But I want to know him further. I want to know him intimately."

Harry's felt awfully like a teenage girl, but he could not stop the happiness that was roaming around within him. He couldn't remember someone ever saying something like that to him before.

"You really like Percy like that, Harry?" Geotge spoke up, glancing between them. Ron was looking just as confused.

"Yes," Harry affirmed.

"Like a-a lover?" Ron was having difficulty getting the question out.

Ginny narrowed her eyes. "Ronald Weasley, if you even think about-"

"I don't care that he's gay!" Ron said, defensively. "He already told me, anyway. S'just weird, is all, liking my brother."

"You didn't react well when he was with Ginny, either," George snickered.

Said Weasley rolled her eyes.

"But I do agree with Ron on this," George continued, sobering. "Why Percy?" He looked to Harry.

Percy was trying to appear as though he didn't care that much about Harry's response, trying to nonchalantly stir the sugar into his tea; but Harry saw through that. He was obvious (to Harry), there came the little glances out of the corner of his eye as he waited for Harry to speak. "He's just..." Harry paused, "different. He made mistakes but he's trying to fix them and there's so much more about him that I never realized."

"Like what?" Ron asked.

"He's really passionate about things and he's got a wicked sense of humor."

"Percy?" George snorted. "Our Percy? Him? Percy Weasley?"

Percy looked mildly annoyed.

"Yes, him," Harry said. "You'd know if you paid more attention to him."

That got them thinking.

"Alright, then, why Harry?" Ron directed to Percy.

"He's different," Percy chuckled when his siblings rolled their eyes. "He makes me feel appreciated and I don't have to worry about boring him. It's just a different feeling, one that I never even shared with Penelope." He then added, "He's quite good looking, too."

Ginny laughed.

Mrs. Weasley beamed.

Harry shot him a dirty look, his cheeks reddening.

"Oh," was all Ron could say.

"You're not angry, are you?" Harry was concerned.

Ron immediately shook his head. "Course not. It'll take some time to get used to but you don't have to worry about anything, Harry. You're my best mate. I'll support you no matter what."

Inwardly, Harry gave a sigh of relief.

Ginny kicked George from underneath the table. "Ow! Sheesh, Gin. What was that for? If Harrykins likes Percy, then that's fine by me. He's just going to regret not picking up on a such a handsome bloke like myself," he said with an air of fake arrogance.

"You're not even gay," Ginny pointed out.

"The point still stands," George sniffed.

The Weasley siblings shared a laugh. Harry watched as Ginny affectionately ruffled Percy's hair and George promised to give Harry a "talking to" and later on, when Mr. Weasley came back from whatever he was working on in the shed, he was informed of the events he missed.

Now that it was out in the open, he and Percy didn't have to be so secretive. So, at dinner, they sat next to each other and Harry was free to glance over at his potential lover, observing how he easily brushed off his siblings' teasing about his (possible) relationship.

It was a good time, indeed.

--

I hope y'all liked it! I would love to do more Percy/Harry so if you guys have any requests, don't be afraid to message me!

[halothenthehorns]

THE SECOND TASK

Before Lily could take the book, she decided to pass the child along to his father. She'd seen some of the often pained looks he'd been getting lately and understood more than anyone what he'd be feeling, and James wasn't going to argue as he eagerly cradled his care.

Lily may have taken the book with a friendly enough smile, but she was not fool enough not to realize that second task was fast approaching, and she did not want the honors of enduring whatever that was. Still, it was her or somebody else she'd have to be listening to, and at least this way she could more easily cut the boys off when she felt like it.

Hermione was scolding Harry that he'd told he'd figured out his egg long ago.

"He said he was very close," Sirius corrected and defended Harry at once.

"And she can't really think he would have figured it out and not told them," James agreed.

Harry told her to keep her voice down, and he hadn't really been lying, he just needed some time to hammer out the details.

"You mean figure out the whole second part of it," Remus muttered.

    The three friends were currently having this discussion in their Charms class, and with all the commotion of the rest of the class it was a good place to have this conversation. Today they were working on the opposite of the Summoning Charm, the Banishing Charm, and the object was to try and target pillows into a box on Flitwick's desk, the idea in this being if the pillows hit anyone at least it wouldn't hurt.

"Clearly Professor Flitwick has never had a pillow fight with Padfoot," Remus absently rubbed his throat in remembrance as he explained, "he goes for the jugular no matter what weapon's in his hand."

"You deserved it for trying to smother me with yours," Sirius said back instantly.

"What even caused that fight?" James asked, trying to spin his mind back to before feathers had flown.

"Sirius wouldn't go to sleep, nothing too unusual," Remus shrugged.

"Oh I remember," Sirius snapped his fingers, "I was trying to figure out why your name is plural. Why is it James, more than one Jame? What happened to the other?"

"Okay, I need another pillow," Remus grumbled, but trying to force past all of Lily and Harry's combined giggling, Lily managed to keep herself going.

Which was all good in theory, but then there were those like Neville with such horrid aim he was more likely to hit other objects than said pillows, like the Professor.

Breaking up the boys argument as well so that now everyone was trying to laugh and listen at the same time.

Harry told Hermione to drop the egg for a moment, he was trying to explain about the rest of his night.

"A much more important topic I'd like resolved," James instantly agreed, honestly wishing the teachers were the most interesting thing to think about this year rather than his son being in that tournament.

Ron was stunned that Moody had searched Snape's office, not paying a bit of attention to his own spellwork and banishing Parvati's hat off her head.

"Ron clearly has the useful aspects of this spell down," Sirius snickered.

Asking if Moody was here to watch Snape as well as Karkaroff?

"If so, he's doing a terrible job," Lily rolled her eyes, still smarting over his treatment of Hermione and Neville as much as Harry.

Harry admitted he didn't know if Dumbledore was telling Moody to do so,

"If so, then Dumbledore just got a lot more interesting," Remus arched a brow, thinking Dumbledore should trust his staff enough he should never have done this, but then again Dumbledore had also hired a Death Eater, so that man was as unpredictable as it could get.

but Moody was doing it anyways. Harry was paying no more attention to where his pillow was headed, so it instead did a belly flop off the desk.

More giggles for that lovely mental image.

Harry continued by repeating that Snape was apparently here on a second chance.

Ron asked if it was possible it had been Snape putting Harry's name in the Goblet?

They were all in such a good mood, nobody wanted to sit and dwell on how that could honestly be a very real possibility. They certainly hated him enough to believe he'd done it, but they had no more proof it was him than anyone else, so no one tried to say otherwise.

Harry most of all felt deep inside him that this answer wasn't even close...but something in that sentence felt like it should be...

Hermione told him off for that, reminding of the last time Ron had tried to blame their woes on Snape, and he'd in fact been saving Harry's life.

James' nose crinkled in agitation at the reminder, he'd called himself even with Snape in gratitude for that, but he'd done nothing since then but treat his son, well like he'd treated him so he was far from liking the guy, and that was before what he'd done to Remus and tried to do to Sirius.

Even while chatting, Hermione perfectly aimed her cushion into the box they were supposed to be aiming for.

"Oh, you were actually supposed to be aiming for something?" Remus asked with a strained smile, looking for something to laugh about again. "I'd never have guessed the way you and Ron were casting around."

Harry stuck his tongue out at him.

Harry considered what Hermione said, but couldn't quite rule him out as a suspect as the man had never likened himself to Harry in any way shape or form by never missing an opportunity to have Harry suspended.

"Suspended," Sirius scoffed, "is too kind, he'd have you expelled the second he could get away with it."

"No matter how many times I see it, I still can't believe he's so petty he treats Harry like James," Remus snapped in agreement.

Hermione said she didn't care what Moody did, Dumbledore wasn't a fool. He trusted Hagrid and Lupin, when no one else would, so he must have a reason for Snape as well.

"I don't think those comparisons should count," James grumbled, drawing his wand and creating a few colorful puffs of smoke to amuse his kid, at least someone in here deserved to be having fun since the mere mention of Snape had ruined theirs. "Moony and Hagrid aren't gits who treat children like his personal voodoo dolls."

Lily sighed, still wishing more than anything that wasn't true, but knowing it was didn't make it hurt less. She wished she could disagree, that Snape being a Death Eater really was his only fault, but after everything he'd done, she honestly agreed with the boys he was past redemption taking whatever his problem was out on those kids.

Trying to say even if Snape was a bit-

Ron cut her off by stating he was pure evil. What other reason did all of these Dark wizard catchers have to be snooping around him?

"And yet not one of them could find anything," Sirius sighed in disappointment. "What is the matter with our justice system they could get rid of me, but not him!"

James would have reached around and smacked Sirius senseless for that joke he still hated if he hadn't been holding baby Harry. Remus also temporarily considered cursing Sirius, but chose to ignore him rather than acknowledge that.

Hermione moved on to ask about why Crouch would be acting ill? It was all very odd of him to be doing that while having missed the Yule Ball.

"One of our main main problems right now, yes," Lily agreed.

Ron told her she was being to uptight about Crouch because of how he treated Winky while one of his pillows hit a window.

Hermione snapped back Ron just wanted to blame everything on Snape, while sending another pillow into the box.

"Got to be impressed with Hermione's skill of multitasking at least," Sirius put a winning smile in place to stop his two friends glaring at him. "She's arguing and still managing to keep at her work."

Harry belayed both of them by asking the real question, why was Snape on his second chance? What had happened to his first one? He'd waved his wand carelessly while speaking, but to his surprise his cushion had landed where it was supposed to.

"Apparently Harry can to," James laughed in surprise.

Adhering to Sirius' wish of hearing about anything odd at Hogwarts,

"Oh yeah, I think this qualifies," Remus gave an odd smile, thinking, 'he can't do anything worse than come back, right?'

Harry sent him a letter telling of his midnight experience.

"Can't wait to hear that response," James muttered without enthusiasm, silently agreeing with Remus, Sirius could do something equally as stupid like try dogging Crouch next to see what he was up to, he wouldn't put it past him.

Harry then turned his attention to his real problem of breathing underwater for an hour.

"The only thing I can think of," Lily sighed, "is a potion to turn you semi aquatic, but that's so advanced for you dear."

"Same with Transfiguration," James scowled, his mind trying to go back to something lower level that could help Harry out, but he was drawing a blank.

Harry had previously mentioned aqua-lungs to Ron, and he offered up the idea of Harry summoning one of those to him.

Sirius turned to explain the concept to James while Remus adamantly shook his head and said quickly, "no offense, but I hope you don't follow that advice. Mostly because you are so far away from anything Muggle, I don't think even Dumbledore could summon something from so far away."

James looked disappointed, now that he knew what these things were they sounded really cool, he'd have liked to hear about Harry using one.

Hermione pointed out all the flaws of this, like Harry would have to learn to use one in under an hour,

"You mean you can't just slip it on?" Harry asked in surprise.

"You might try and let the teachers let you go to the nearest Muggle place so you can buy one," Sirius offered. "Then you'd have time to practice."

"Much less fun than stealing it and making it up on the fly," James pouted even if he did agree.

plus the act of Summoning it would most likely draw Muggle notice flying from where ever it was.

"A fairly good point," Lily chuckled.

Hermione offered Harry should try and Transfigure himself into a submarine or something,

"Machines are harder to pull off then animals," James shook his head in disagreement.

but that might be beyond Harry as they didn't start human transformations until sixth year.

Harry agreed he didn't fancy trying, he'd likely end up with a periscope sticking out of his head forever.

"Such a missed opportunity," Sirius smirked.

Harry suggested he should piss off Moody, he'd turn him into something

All four of them started laughing raucously, Harry's continued fear of being Transfigured because of that instant still hadn't worn off in hilarity.

but Hermione corrected she doubted Moody would let him choose his Transfiguration in a very serious voice.

Sirius was still to busy getting his breath back to make his favorite joke, in fact his laughter had doubled that Hermione had thought Harry meant that as more than a joke.

She insisted Harry should try a Charm to work this problem out,

Lily huffed and pouted she couldn't think of one to help with this.

so Harry resigned himself to another seemingly endless bout of page flipping in the library.

"Most students reach that conclusion by their first year," Remus agreed, "and you seem to double the amount of time you spend in there above them."

Harry tried everything revolving the text, even going to ask McGonagall if he could peruse the restricted section, even asking the librarian Pince for advice, but still found nothing that would help him to live underwater for even an hour.

"This is not encouraging," James started to frown, getting a little twitchy at his own blank mind. This felt like a real laps in his magical education that above some high level magic, some kid could have fallen in the lake in all these years and could have drowned because Hogwarts had never taught them to survive the instance. True when this had happened the giant squid was prone to save people, but that wasn't the point right now.

"I'm sure there must be something," Sirius groaned as he ran his hand through his hair, "I know I've heard of people visiting mermaid villages before, so it is doable."

Harry could feel that old feeling of panic seizing him again, now watching the lake on the grounds in a whole new light. He'd always looked to it as a bit of scenery, never before really seeing the stone gray surface like a deep void.

Remus started fidgeting with the sleeve of his robes, his eyes squinting at nothing, but it really was frustrating them they were drawing a blank on this matter as much as Harry. Not to mention they already had some unpleasant memories about that stupid lake nearly having been the sight Sirius had been Kissed, so they weren't keen on Harry having to be back near it.

Time started jumping in intervals again, weeks turning into days and Harry growing more and more desperate to find something, anything!

Lily's voice was starting to get pitchy in concern, she really had no clue what was going to happen to her baby if he couldn't go through with this task. The magical binding contracts of the Tournament forcing Harry to participate in these contests were the reason he couldn't voluntarily leave, but what would it do if Harry just wasn't able to complete a task? Would his magical core be damaged just because of some stupid event like this?!

With two days left Harry started to go off food again.

After James accidentally released a foul smelling gas from his wand that was mustard yellow, he quickly tucked it away and decided enough of that game, and instead starting bouncing his toddler around on his knee, managing to keep him happy and thump out his nerves all at once.

The only bright spot he had left before the 24th was Sirius' returning owl, which was one sentence: to tell when his next Hogsmeade weekend was.

"Because that was encouraging," Lily snapped at him, having to fight down the impulse to strangle Sirius when he technically hadn't done anything wrong, but they were all so stressed that Sirius being unhelpful felt like an extra kick in the rear.

Sirius raised his hands up in surrender at once, just as annoyed at his own self no matter how muddled that made his mind.

"Why do you even want to know?" James demanded of him. "You're not actually stupid enough to come onto the school grounds again."

When Sirius didn't answer, that only managed to make them all squirm to another degree. They knew he could get away with it, if anyone could survive on the grounds of Hogwarts it was a Marauder, but they'd still felt a lot safer with Sirius being far away from where Snape and an Auror, even a retired one, were.

Harry even flipped the paper over to find the rest of the message.

Remus had to plug his nose to stop himself snorting with laughter, but the indignant look on Harry's face really would have been priceless under any other circumstances, as that really was possibly the shortest note Sirius have ever sent anyone.

Hermione whispered the answer to him which Harry quickly wrote down and sent back.

"That would be so helpful if I lived that long," Harry said with a forced smile in place, at least giving them all the reminder that he had.

Harry felt his anxiety somehow ramp up all the more as the owl took off again. He'd somehow thought Sirius would come back with an answer as well, but in his haste to write down the Crouch/Snape/ and Moody stuff he hadn't even mentioned his egg.

"Not like I'd be much help anyways, clearly," Sirius grumbled, starting to feel an ache in his chest that he'd been so useless lately. He hadn't been able to help Harry with any of these tasks, and had in fact been causing Harry more sleepless nights than anything remotely helpful.

Ron asked why he'd even want to know, and Harry responded back lifelessly, trying to cling to that flare of hope he'd had at Sirius' note.

Sirius forced himself to perk back up at that though, at least he was helping in some way by keeping Harry's moral up even for a second.

James recognized the same thing, and responded by making faces at his baby.

They were due at a Care of Magical Creatures lesson, where Hagrid had thankfully stopped forcing interaction with the Blast-Ended Skrewts.

"Well this is a pleasant start," Remus managed a smile, very thankful if Hagrid had moved on from those illegal things.

Maybe because there were only two left,

"More good news," Lily chirped.

or because he was trying to prove he could do anything that Professor Grubbly-Plank could,

"I already knew he could," Sirius scoffed.

Hagrid had instead been continuing on unicorn lessons.

"Can't deny I'm relieved to hear that," James beamed.

"No offense to Hagrid, but I do hope he does follow this more common line of thinking," Remus agreed, thinking that whole ordeal with the skrewts would be worth it if it had finally made Hagrid realize the things he should and shouldn't be showing classes.

It turned out that Hagrid knew quite as much about unicorns as he did about monsters,

"Well I already knew that," Sirius smiled, "he just doesn't show it as much."

"Could have fooled me," Lily shook her head affectionately.

though it was clear that he found their lack of poisonous fangs disappointing.

"Oh boy, poisonous fanged unicorns," Remus shook his head at the thought, "please don't tell Hagrid about that, or he might start up more crossbreeding."

Today he had managed to capture two foals.

"Ha!" Sirius barked in triumph. "Let's see that Grubbly woman get away with that."

Lily was smiling privately to herself behind the book, thinking those boys had taken that woman way to personally, but as loyal as the Marauders were, she wouldn't be surprised if they resented any teacher taking over a position of someone they liked. It certainly explained the lackluster way they were treating any mention of Moody.

Unlike full-grown unicorns, they were pure gold.

Harry's eyes flipped wide in surprise as he remembered those beauties.

Parvati and Lavender went into transports of delight at the sight of them,

James couldn't stop his own triumphant giggles at Hagrid not only one upping Grubbly-Plank, but also managing to stun those two uppity girls.

and even Pansy had to work hard to conceal how much she liked them.

"Glad to hear she's not a completely heartless monster," Remus smiled, as he'd never met a person who resisted those babies charm.

Hagrid was going over their growth ages, noting how much easier they were to spot at this age and didn't start to change silver until two, nor grow horns until four. They didn't go pure white until seven.

"How long do they live?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Average age is twenty," Remus happily supplied, "some up to thirty. Those that are domesticated and in captivity can live up to forty or fifty."

Harry couldn't imagine anyone actually owning a unicorn, let alone riding one, but he'd certainly love to see that.

The babies were more trusting than their older counterparts, so the boys were welcomed to come forward and pet them, Hagrid encouraging them all to offer sugar lumps.

"They'll never let you leave if you do that," Remus chuckled.

Hagrid called Harry over to him, while the others swarmed the babies,

"Not all at once," Lily couldn't help but caution, "still only a few at a time, don't want to startle them."

"Yes Mum," Sirius picked at her, which she ignored.

and asked how he was doing?

Harry agreed he was fine, and at Hagrid's prompting, a bit nervous. Hagrid clapped Harry on the shoulder, saying he wasn't surprised one bit, he'd be fine!

Even though he knew Hagrid to be wrong, Harry still couldn't help a warm rush of reassurance that Hagrid had such unwavering confidence in him. Harry knew right then he'd come out of this task on top just for that alone.

Asking if he had his clue all figured out?

"For the most part," Sirius rolled his eyes.

Harry hesitated answering at first, wondering if he should ask Hagrid for advice. Had he ever gone into the lake to deal with those creatures?

"That's actually not a bad idea," Remus said in surprise.

"I'll bet Hagrid would be more than happy to spill," Sirius agreed, "it might even be something insanely easy to get a hold of, since Hagrid's no great shakes at magic."

Harry just sighed though, feeling confident he wouldn't be asking Hagrid for help with this considering that would be confessing to the man who'd just given him such comfort that he had no idea what he was doing.

Hagrid hadn't waited for an answer, already patting Harry's shoulder with confidence that he'd win, while Harry sunk a few inches into the soft ground.

They all realized that at the same moment as Harry, so it was only strained smiles for Hagrid's over enthusiasm.

Harry couldn't bring himself to ask after that, and ruin Hagrid's proud smile.

By the night before the task, Harry was sure he was in a living nightmare.

Even Harry couldn't stop a forceful shiver at that, he'd only had just this amount of time before to practice a Summoning charm he'd already heard of, now he was supposed to find one and master it in less than twelve hours!

His panicky feelings managed to subside the moment he blinked his haze of fear away and realize where he was, at least feeling safe in the knowledge those around him weren't blaming him one bit for this mess he was in.

He knew that even if he found a spell by now he'd still have to learn it in time to use it. Why had he done this to himself? He should have been working on this since the beginning!

"Oh I don't think that's your fault," Lily said instantly, "you acted like everyone else in that situation would have."

Harry had to bite his tongue from bitterly pointing out Cedric had already figured it out first, and he'd probably come in first place by doing some masterful thing. At this point Harry wouldn't be surprised if the perfect Hufflepuff invented his own spell to combat this! Still he said none of that aloud, it wasn't his mother's fault she'd gotten him instead.

He was berating himself for all four years of his schooling and his slacking off, what if a teacher had ever mentioned how to breathe underwater?

"Then Hermione would know how to do this," James soothed, "and if she doesn't know and she's at least a year above you, then I'm confident this isn't your fault in lapse in knowledge."

Harry actually did feel himself relax at that being pointed out.

Still he and his friends were frantically turning pages in the library, but whenever the word water came about, it was usually some potion ingredient.

Ron snapped in frustration that this just wasn't a task to be done! The closest he'd found was a drought spell to clear puddles,

"But that's not strong enough for the whole lake," Lily sighed, that charm had crossed her mind but she hadn't suggested it for this reason.

but it wasn't powerful enough to drain a lake!

"Not now Sirius," Remus cut him off before Sirius could point out Lily had finished Ron's sentence. He pouted at his friend but didn't argue the point, he wanted to hear about this task being over already as much as anyone.

Hermione was still being insistent, saying it must be in here somewhere!

Ron ignored her, saying Harry's only option was to go down to the lake, stick his head in and demand they give back whatever they took.

Tension broke in the room once again because of Ron, Harry actually laughing so hard he started listing in his seat and he couldn't help it. He truly missed his best friend.

"I genuinely hope you try that," Sirius happily brushed some hair out of his face, "you will definitely get points for originality."

Remus held himself back from pointing out that it wouldn't work, but at least no one could say Harry hadn't tried.

Hermione hissed at him he was being ridiculous, there must be a way! She seemed to be taking the fact that she hadn't found her answer in the library as a personal insult, it had never failed her before.

"Actually it has several times now," James happily pointed out. "You didn't find out about the Stone in there, or the Chamber of Secrets."

"Technically the Stone was in a book she'd previously checked out," Lily countered just to poke back at her husband.

"And she did find information about the Basilisk in a book from there," Remus agreed.

"Okay, fifty, fifty," Harry pacified before Sirius could argue anything back.

Harry bemoaned that he hadn't ever tried to become an animagus like his godfather.

"Why would that have helped?" James asked in surprise, ignoring his internal wince that of course Harry would say Sirius' name rather than his, he'd actually seen Padfoot as more than a memory.

"I didn't know you couldn't choose the animal," Harry shrugged.

Ron agreed Harry could be a goldfish by now.

"Even if you could chose, I'm sure you would have picked something better than a puny fish," Remus sniffed.

"Like an alligator," Sirius happily agreed.

Hermione snapped they were being ridiculous, it took years to be one of those and you had to take the time to register and all sorts,

"That's half a lie," James raised a challenging brow, "you don't have to register."

Lily ignored him, she knew Harry had meant it as a joke and James returning Hermione with sarcasm wasn't helping anything.

Sirius clearly didn't as he kept going sadly, "but that first half is true, we started at the end of our third year and didn't manage it until the beginning of our fifth. Even if you had been practicing from the whole time you knew about them, you would only be able to go about half way."

"Still," Remus couldn't help but point out speculatively, "he could manifest certain parts, so if he had been something aquatic, it may have been enough to get him through this."

"None of this is helpful," Lily cut them all off for good.

still pointing out that the Improper Use of Magic Office kept a very strict list of people who could so that the power couldn't be abused.

"Hermione is clearly focusing on the wrong things here," Sirius muttered so Lily wouldn't snap again.

Harry told her to cool it, he'd been joking.

Hermione was ignoring him now to as she snapped how useless half of these spells were, who wanted to make their nose hair ringlets?

"And why wouldn't you?" James returned innocently.

Fred popped up then to say it was certainly a conversation starter.

"There's my point," James gestured vaguely to Lily's ever growing annoyance that she couldn't be done with this.

The three looked up in surprise to ask what the twins were doing here.

"Lost I'd guess," Remus snorted.

George told they'd been sent to get Ron and Hermione to see McGonagall.

"Why?" All of the boys asked at the same time Lily read out;

Hermione asked why, and Fred said he wasn't sure, but she'd looked grim about something.

"Well that's not encouraging," Sirius frowned.

"What could she be talking to them for and not Harry?" Remus agreed uneasily.

Harry exchanged an uneasy look with his friends, wondering if their head of house was going to tell them off for Harry getting help from them.

"Oh she wouldn't," Lily wriggled with unease at the idea.

"I'm positive that's not what this is about," James said with conviction, their old head of house was bound to give Harry more slack than that.

Still, they had no choice, so they promised they'd meet Harry back in the common room, to bring as many books with him as he could so they could keep looking.

Harry was left on his own through another mountain of books with such titles as A Guide to Medieval Sorcery, An Anthology of Eighteenth-Century Charms, and Dreadful Denizens of the Deep.

"Really, those last two sounded promising?" Remus said.

"I don't even remember what they're about anymore," Harry sighed, "even if I had found a spell, I was so tired by then I'd have read right over it."

They were all shifting around again in unease, that worry creeping up again of how had Harry lived through this one. It was much less scary than the dragon, and yet still somehow more stressful.

Harry eventually was kicked out because of curfew and did indeed drag many more thick spines with him up to his common room, where Crookshanks took to settling on his lap and people passed Harry by wishing him luck.

"Never mind that you must have looked like hell by then," James muttered mutinously.

All seemed convinced Harry would do something just as spectacular as his first event.

"Oh hey, what if you used your firebolt again," Sirius suddenly yelped in excitement. "You'd pelt through the water faster than swimming, and so long as you were fast and held your breath the whole time, you could be in and out."

"Have you ever flown a broom under water?" Lily asked in honest curiosity.

"Well, no," James answered, "but I think the idea has merits."

Remus clearly didn't agree as he quickly poked holes, "well it's still not a good idea not to test the idea first incase there is resistance, in which case Harry wouldn't be able to move any faster than normal, plus I'm positive for mermaids to be in there that it's going to be very deep and large, he still might not be able to hold his breath long enough to find what he's looking for."

"Well you're just no help at all," Sirius pouted as he sat back.

Harry couldn't find the breathe to answer them, and by midnight he was all alone.

"Where'd Ron and Hermione go?" Lily yelped in concern.

"They never came back," Harry admitted, starting to flatten his hair in nerves as he was sure he'd see them again sooner than he was thinking...but not how he was expecting.

He'd gone through his last book, and shame was settling in. He couldn't do this task. He'd have to go down there tomorrow and face Bagman's surprise, Karkaroff's smugness, Flure saying how unsurprised she was as he was just a little boy.

Harry slumped back in his seat, trying to ignore the mortification bubbling in him.

James caught sight of this and wasted no time in telling him, "you can't go blaming yourself for not getting this Harry. These were not designed for your age in mind, and honestly you still never should have been doing them in the first place."

Harry watched him for a moment before giving an honest smile. He didn't exactly feel better, but it still felt good no one in here was judging him for not being able to do so. He could suffer through all those other people's reactions so long as those in here shot their mouths off at them because of it.

He knew Malfoy would laugh himself silly, and Hagrid would be crestfallen.

Though Harry winced particularly hard at that one, knowing that would hurt the worst.

Harry stood abruptly from his seat, dislodging Crookshanks who gave him an unhappy hiss before slinking away.

"Yes, how dare the person move," Remus muttered to himself.

Harry made up his mind, going to fetch his Invisibility Cloak. He was going back to the library, and he would stay there until he found something!

"The fact that you've used that cloak to sneak into the Library more than anywhere else in that castle," Sirius shook his head, "I really never would have guessed it."

Lily quickly countered with, "well I'm not going to pretend to be disappointed."

Time kept marching on, soon it was almost three in the morning, and still Harry's nimble fingers kept pushing more pages along, one more book, it had to be in the next book...

The mermaid from the painting was still sitting on her rock, having a poke at Harry's head with his own broom while he floundered in the water.

"I'm thinking you finally fell asleep," James chuckled lightly.

"No, really?" Sirius challenged back. "I think Harry finally gave up and decided to hide in there with his broom."

Harry was trying to demand it back, but she just kept laughing and poking him in the head.

Harry told her to knock it off, that was hurting, but then another voice told him Harry Potter must wake up.

Lily sighed, hesitating before she read on to find out who was trying to wake her son up to face something like this, she really wasn't looking forward to the end results.

Harry insisted, with his eyes still shut, that he needed to stop being poked.

Dobby insisted he must keep poking Harry Potter, he must wake up.

"Why's Dobby the one fetching you?" Sirius did a double take in surprise.

"Why can he even see you?" James added, "you fell asleep under the cloak."

"Why didn't Ron and Hermione ever show up again?" Remus groused.

Lily was still ignoring all of those very good questions.

Harry sat up in surprise, the cloak had slipped off of him and he was still slumped over a book in the library, daylight shining on his face.

Dobby was still speaking to him, telling him he had ten minutes to get to the second task.

"Well at least Dobby poked you awake this time," Sirius offered helpfully, though he agreed he'd rather have just let Harry sleep through it at this point. "So at least he took your advice."

"As if I needed heart failure right before this," Harry absently agreed.

Harry repeated the time back in shock, even looking at his own watch to confirm, but when he saw Dobby was right, Harry slumped back in his chair in defeat.

Dobby was still being insistent, telling Harry Potter he needed to go, Dobby was going to help him.

"And how is he going to do that?" Remus demanded in surprise.

"Magic," James rolled his eyes, though now leaning forward eagerly as he was really curious to hear what Dobby had been up to so shushed Remus before he could respond.

Dobby had to help him, because Harry Potter needed to get back his Wheezy.

"His what?" All the boys asked at once.

Harry tried to ask what that was, and Dobby insisted Harry had to get back his Wheezy from the lake, the one who'd given Dobby his sweater.

Sirius flushed in shock, only just managing to stammer out, "they, they took Ron!"

"How on earth did they manage that?" James demanded of nothing, getting a little jittery at the thought.

"You think Hermione and him went down to the lake to test a theory of her's, and..." Lily trailed off as her mind failed to offer up anything after that.

Remus was shaking his head furiously as he objected, "I've never heard of Mermaids abducting anyone, there must be something else going on with this!"

Harry hadn't realized it before, but he was now feeling more panicky than ever about this task! Now not only had he no clue how to survive under the water, he had to find Ron as well!

Harry grasped what was going on, and began reciting that mermaid song again in horror.

"They wouldn't actually," Lily looked faint at the idea, unable to complete the thought aloud that they'd never really just leave them to die after an hour, then her mind flashed back to all those horrific stories she'd heard about the champions dying, and now they'd gone and put even more people into this Tournament! She kept reading in a feverish haste now, thinking that this school had officially lost its mind.

Harry begged Dobby for whatever help he had, and Dobby offered him gillyweed.

"Haven't I heard of that before?" James cocked his head to the side as it niggled at his mind.

"It's a plant," Lily yelped in shock, "used in potions to help you transform into aquatic life as it'll give you gills and fins. It's not native to Britain though, so I can't imagine where Dobby got a hold of that. I've only ever read about about it in an advanced Potion's text."

"Well whatever works to help me live through this," Harry said pointedly, and Lily took the hint and decided she'd figure out the elf later.

Sirius had to bite his tongue to caution Harry not take that, he still wasn't sure how much he trusted Dobby to be giving Harry anything.

Harry looked at the slimy green ball and asked what it did, and Dobby promised it would help Harry breathe underwater.

Harry couldn't help but ask how sure Dobby was, still remembering the last time the elf had tried to 'help' he'd gone a night without bones in his arm.

"Glad it's not just me," Sirius huffed under his breath, though Harry heard and acknowledged him with half a look of disbelief, and half agreement.

Dobby promised he knew what this was, he'd heard McGonagall and Moody talking about it! Dobby would not let Harry Potter lose his Wheezy!

"Well that we can agree on," Remus said.

Harry decided he'd have to trust this, he had no other choice. Stuffing the cloak and gillyweed onto his person, Harry thanked Dobby for his help as he sprinted out of the library.

"I can't deny I'm finally warming up to him," James grinned, Dobby had officially been very useful to Harry this year enough to make up for all his, err, issues in his second year.

Some people were still making their way out of the Entrance Hall from breakfast as Harry all but flew past them in his haste to make it down to the lake. Stands were already set up around it filled to the brim in anticipation to watch the lake.

"That's an interesting point I hadn't thought about," Remus couldn't stop himself blurting much to the annoyance of the others who wanted to get this task over with. "How on earth is this going to be spectated by anyone, wouldn't they just be watching the water's surface?"

"They could use Per Speculum," Lily offered distractedly, "cast it so that only the people in the stands could see through to the bottom of the lake."

"Can you use that spell to see through anything?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Inanimate objects," Lily agreed, "it's an old, tricky charm. I imagine some variation of it was used to create Moody's fake eye, plus whatever else was used to see through his own head as well."

While intrigued, Harry didn't press his mother for more details for now.

Harry came to a screeching halt in front of the judges stand, splattering mud on Flure.

"I'm sure she'll hex you for getting her dirty before she jumps into water," Sirius snorted.

A bossy voice demanded why he was so late.

"I hope Crouch is finally back," James said eagerly, "I want another look at him."

It was Percy, sitting in Crouch's spot.

"Why am I not surprised those two are described talking the same way," Remus snorted, as disappointed as the others Crouch had once again been a no show, but this just made his arrival in Snape's office all the stranger!

No one looked to question it now right before this task though.

Bagman waved him off, saying Harry should be allowed to catch his breath for a moment. Everyone except for Bagman and Dumbledore were smiling at Harry's arrival.

"Not sorry for your fortune," James grumbled.

Harry doubled over for a moment to indeed get back some air, and rub out the stitch in his side.

Remus couldn't help but think back and really realize how far Harry had just run in ten minutes, that really was quite a feet. He could have been a sprinter on the track team if he'd gone to a normal muggle school with that kind of talent.

He didn't have long as Bagman began spacing them out on the shoreline, pausing at Harry and asking if he knew what he was going to do?

"Even if he didn't, you going to teach him a spell in front of everyone in the next five seconds?" Sirius couldn't help but snap.

Lily rolled her eyes at him, Bagman was just trying to be friendly, but couldn't deny Sirius had a point this time.

Harry grasped the plant in his pocket as he said he was good to go. Bagman backed up then, turning on his Sonorous voice and calling for all to hear that on the count of three, the task would begin.

Time was up, a whistle blew, and Harry ignored everything around him as he struggled to remove his socks and shoes.

"You should have been allowed to at least do that," James sniffed. "The others showed up in swimwear."

"Price of being tardy," Lily sighed.

Then he stumbled into the icy waters, chewing furiously at the gillyweed. It was slimy and hard to force down his throat, his toes were numb and stumbling over the slick stones and smooth silt, and beyond in the stands Harry could hear laughter. He knew he probably looked ridiculous, wading in without seemingly doing anything.

"Not everything has to be flashy," Remus muttered, genuinely wondering what the other champions had come up with, but knew he could ask Harry later after the task.

Now he was up to his chest in the icy liquid, which felt more like fire the temperature was so unbearable, then a breeze blew through and Harry stood there shivering and waiting amid the jeering.

"How long does this stuff take to kick in?" Harry asked with unease, wondering if he should have been eating it on his run down there now.

"Only a few moments," Lily reassured, "it feels longer because you're waiting for it."

All at once he felt the change, the sides of his neck stung as his fumbling fingers felt slits appear there, his mouth and nose suddenly wouldn't take in air as if he had a pillow covering them.

"Fascinating," Sirius said genuinely, he'd never thought what it must feel like for a fish to be out of water, but Harry made a good point of it.

Without hesitating another moment, Harry flung himself into the water, sucked in the lake, and breathed freely again. Slamming his feet forward, Harry found he was suddenly moving much more easily through the water than he should have, and he looked down to see his fingers and toes were suddenly elongated and had bits of film between them all, he'd gone webbed with flippers.

"Looks like you got your wish," James grinned, "you sound like you've half turned into a frog."

"Frogs don't have gills by the time they have webbed feet," Remus reminded.

James rolled his eyes at him as that wasn't his point, but didn't start an argument over it for once.

The water now felt like the perfect temperature, and Harry could see much more clearly than he should have in the grime, plus he no longer needed to blink.

"I don't care what the others are doing," Sirius smiled, "this sounds by far the best way to do it."

Silence wasn't bleeding in, so as Harry propelled himself forward he had nothing to guide him through the foggy landscape. The smooth sand below quickly turned into a sea of seaweed and small fish occasionally flashed by and caught his eye, but there was no sign of Ron, merpeople, or even the giant squid.

"I think that would have been interesting to see up close," James snorted.

"Not if it decided you were shrimp," Remus said, trying to ignore the myths he'd heard about those things eating small whales in the wild, Harry didn't need to discover if that was true or not.

Nothing as far as the eye could see, Harry was staring unblinkingly ahead of him,

Sirius wished Harry would quit mentioning that part, he kept blinking spastically every time and it was annoying to have it pointed out.

trying to discern shapes through the gloom when, without warning, something grabbed hold of his ankle.

Lily couldn't help but startle just a bit, her foot trying to retract from nothing on instinct.

Harry twisted his body around to find a grindylow.

All five of them couldn't help a little shiver of unease at that, but were more thankful than ever Remus had been around last year to teach Harry about these things, Merlin knew what would be happening to him otherwise.

Harry went for his wand and shouted the spell Relashio, but to his surprise only a bubble came from his mouth, while a jet of water shot the creature in the head, creating a red welt in the green skin.

Harry couldn't help a little intrigue, he'd learned that spell over a year ago now but he'd only used it for the first time, and was honestly impressed it had even worked. While going over it in class, Professor Lupin had emphasized how hard this could be to pull off underwater where your spells could be temperamental since verbal spells were nay impossible to perform down there. Your best bet, if you hadn't learned silent spells yet, was to avoid them altogether.

Harry pulled his ankle free, but just as fast he had half a dozen chasing him and trying to pull him down. Harry kept swimming forward, shooting jets over his shoulder until another grabbed his and he gave a ferocious kick, knocking the creature loose and making it go crosseyed back into the weeds.

Lily forced herself to relax a bit now that Harry was away from that threat, still sending silent thank you's to Remus in her head for teaching Harry about those or this could have turned out much worse.

That excursion had done nothing to really help put him on a direction, so he was still pushing along when a voice asked how he was doing?

"Who's talking underwater?" James jumped in shock, the baby in his lap giving a particularly loud giggle for this.

Harry spun on the spot to find Myrtle.

"I don't want to know why she's down there, I do not want that image in my head again," Sirius groaned, covering up his ears and wishing he could do the same to his eyes to make that mental image go away.

"Who's using the bathroom during the middle of the tournament?" Remus muttered absently, but Lily ignored him more for not wanting to think about that than anything.

Harry tried to say her name, but all that came out was more bubbles, causing Moaning Myrtle to giggle.

"I think that's an oxymoron," James gave a surprised smile.

She pointed Harry in the right direction, but refused to come with him,

"It'd probably be cheating if she did," Lily agreed.

saying the merpeople chased her off when she went that way.

Harry gave her a thumbs up in thanks before heading that way, and knowing he was on the right path when he came across a stone statue depicting what must be merpeople chasing the giant squid.

"So, I'm guessing they don't get along," Remus couldn't help but be a bit interested at the idea of the conflict, he wouldn't deny he'd love to read a study on the matter if there was one out there.

The closer he swam, the more clearly he could hear that egg song again, now varying that his time was half up and if he didn't hurry, what he'd lost was going to stay here and rot.

"Gee, thanks," Harry shivered at the horrid idea, he half didn't want the memory back of what his best friend was going to look like in the mermaids clutches...plus he just knew there was someone else down here he was worried about.

Now Harry was swimming through the outskirts of an unmistakable village, some merpeople swimming to the windows of their houses to peak out at him. They looked nothing like the blonde in the prefects bathroom, these had gray skin and green hair, with thick burly features and powerful fish tails, and all were clutching spears.

All of them couldn't help but incline away from that thought, no one wanted to think what would happen if they all swarmed Harry at once. They were curious to know what had been done to even convince these mermaids to allow the tournament to go on in their dwellings, it was the height of uncommon.

Harry sped himself along, spotting a few features like gardens and pebbles lining a street way, even a grindylow tied to a stake like a pet.

"Bet you the equivalent of mermaid Hagrid lives in there," Sirius snorted.

Merpeople were emerging on all sides now, pointing at his webbed hands and gills, talking behind their hands to one another.

"Don't know why they bother," James said, "it's not like Harry speaks mermish."

"What would they even be whispering?" Sirius demanded, "hey look at that weird thing go, hope he drowns so we can have dinner."

"Don't make me silence you," Lily threatened without looking up.

Harry kept his speedy pace as he came across what must be the equivalent of their courtyard, the merpeople song louder than ever, and Harry laid eyes on a humongous statue of a merperson, four ropes bound to it.

"Guess I'm not surprised," Remus still couldn't stop the goosebumps climbing his limbs at the thought, "one for each person."

"I still want an explanation for how they ended up down there," Lily sighed, knowing she wasn't likely to get that until after the fact with the judges explaining, at least she hoped they would.

Ron was tied between Hermione and Cho.

"Why's Hermione there?" Harry yelped in surprise.

"There's no way you got two," James agreed.

Sirius couldn't help but snort in surprise though, saying, "Cedric's only been dating Cho for a few weeks, and she's the person he'd miss most?"

"I'd have missed Lily the most even before we started dating," James said at once, more to get a rise out of Sirius than anything.

It worked, as Sirius liked like a kicked puppy at once while bemoaning, "what do you mean it'd be Lily down there!"

"Please keep going," Remus begged of her, though she was watching with honest amusement and a faint blush, admitting she never would have found this so endearing before she'd married James but now it was hilarious to watch Sirius actually acting like this. She did reluctantly turn back to the pages though, wanting to hear about Harry and his friends getting out of this more than Sirius throwing a fit.

The last was a girl of about eight, her features leaving Harry in no doubt to be Fleur's sister.

"I'm sure it'll break Roger's heart when he hears it wasn't him," Remus smirked.

Sirius though went from indignant at his best friend, to speculation as he asked, "What's up with that?"

"What do you mean?" Lily asked. "I think it's sweet." Her mind was honestly caught on a time where she knew she would have felt the same way about her older sister.

"Sweet sure, but kind of heartbreaking," Sirius said with a shrug, "I mean Fleur's little sister is there, so what's up with Krum not having some kind of family there, or even a random Durmstrang student Harry doesn't know. Cedric, fine, maybe Prongs is right and he's had a liking for her for ages, but are you telling me the person that kid would miss the most is some random girl he met that year?"

All four of them were looking at Sirius slightly slack jawed, until he gave them a sheepish smile and said, "What? Am I wrong?"

"No," Remus shook his head sadly, "You're right, which is why that was so depressing."

"That poor guy," James agreed

With nothing more any of them could think on the matter, Lily went back to reading.

All four were clearly in a deep sleep, faint bubbles rising from their mouths.

Harry continued forward, still half expecting to be attacked any moment, but the surrounding merpeople did nothing but watch. Harry investigated the ropes keeping them in place, but the knots were not to be undone, and Harry wished he'd brought along that new knife Sirius had given him.

"I doubt a severing charm would work any better underwater," Remus agreed with a sigh.

Harry instead turned for help, trying to gesture that he wanted to borrow one of their very sharp spears, but the one just laughed and said they were not to help, only watch.

Harry tried to shout in frustration, but only more bubbles appeared, causing them to laugh harder.

"I don't get why he's still laughing," Lily grumbled, "this isn't funny."

Still Harry went in search of something else, and went down to the rocky shore and found a rather jagged rock. It took some time to hack Ron free, but then Harry looked around expectantly and still found none of the other champions. Why didn't they hurry up already?

"I am positive they're not stopping to pet the grindylows," James agreed, his leg starting to jitter in unease for the victims of this, at least baby Harry found it amusing.

Harry turned his attention on Hermione in impatience, but was at once dragged away by the merpeople, telling him to only take his and leave the others.

"Well that's just cruel," Lily yelped fiercely. "Harry got there first, I see no problems he shouldn't be allowed to save everyone."

"What would happen if the others don't show up?" Remus agreed uneasily.

"Let's hope we don't have to find out," Sirius huffed.

Harry refused, trying to fight them off, but the merpeople weren't letting him go if he kept trying to help the girls. Harry looked from them to Ron, wondering if he'd have time to get him out and come back for the others?

"Most likely not," Lily muttered to herself, the effects of gillyweed didn't last that long.

Would he be able to find this place again? He looked at his watch to see how much time was left but it had stopped working.

"Because that's helpful," James scowled.

Around him the merpeople were muttering in excitement again, and Harry saw Cedric swimming for them with a bubble over his head, distorting his features.

"What spell is that?" Harry asked in surprise, managing to relax even just a bit now that he wasn't alone surrounded by those things.

"Don't know," James said, his face just the same as Harry's, "I've never heard of that."

He mouthed at Harry he'd gotten lost, as he came forward with a knife and cut Cho free in no time.

"Well he just came all kinds of prepared," Sirius rolled his eyes, unnecessarily annoyed at him for bringing that along.

He pulled her upward and out of sight.

"Good to know Cedric cares so much for the others," James couldn't help but snap, Harry could have won already if he wasn't so busy making sure everyone got out of there, like Cho.

Harry still hovered there, waiting for Fleur and Krum. Time was running out, what would happen to the hostages after the hour was up?

Again they all shivered at such phrasing, but really they hoped that was being exaggerated somewhat! They wouldn't really leave those kids down there to die if say someone like Harry hadn't been able to get there, right?

Water babble started up again, and Harry saw another moving in, Krum, with the head of a shark.

"You know, I still can't help but like him just for that," James smirked, "he happened to do what I would have in this instance."

"A shark though," Sirius snorted in amusement, "a fish just wasn't grand enough, no he went for the big one."

"Exactly what Prongs would have done," Remus repeated with a smirk.

His new jagged teeth tried to tear into the flimsy ropes, but they were too small for him to properly gnaw on. Harry feared he'd rip Hermione in half trying.

"Oh I'm sure he's more careful than that," Lily insisted for comfort at once.

"Sharks can feel pulses in the water," Remus offered helpfully, "so I'm sure he can be precise enough not to hit anything he shouldn't be."

Harry swam forward and punched his shoulder hard as he could to get his attention, offering his own jagged rock.

"It's too bad you didn't have that same excuse to hit Diggory," Sirius smirked, which Harry didn't deny.

Krum took the offering, freed Hermione, and was out of sight in no time. Still Harry couldn't swim away with Ron, his eyes trained every which way in hope for Fleur to arrive.

Time was running out, and Harry got desperate.

He took back the stone for himself and went after the little girls ropes, but again the merpeople tried to stop him. Harry pulled out his wand.

Remus couldn't help going a little wide eyed in fear for Harry doing that. He was lucky that whatever was going on these merpeople were playing along, they weren't known for cooperating well with wizards. Harry pulling a wand on them could break whatever truce had been called for this task to play out.

He shouted at them to get out of it, and while bubbles only came out, he got the feeling they understood anyways.

"Bit hard to misinterpret a wand on your nose," Sirius agreed.

They stopped trying to force him away, and Harry kept at his task. Still they were clearly not happy, but stayed well away from him now, so knowing he had the advantage, Harry told them they had till the count of three to get lost, holding up three fingers just to make sure they got the point.

"You'd be great at charades," James couldn't stop himself saying even as he wriggled around in anticipation for this to almost be over

By the time he reached two, they'd scattered.

They all released a breath of relief at that, Harry really should count himself lucky that hadn't gone worse.

Harry quickly got moving then with Ron and the girl, his mind still fearing what was going to happen when time ran out, would they pull him back to the depths?

Harry looked wildly around for someone to tell him he was being ridiculous at that thought, and when no one did but in fact looked slightly even more worried, it wasn't exactly a comfort. Now with both of Harry's hands tied in fact with these two, he couldn't even keep his wand on them as a threat, and what about when the gillyweed ran out?!

Did they eat humans?

Remus really didn't like the fact that he wasn't a hundred percent sure about that fact, he'd heard conflicting stories on the matter and now didn't feel like the time to get a confirmation.

Harry kept himself going, the water steadily growing bright around him, but not fast enough. His muscles were starting to cramp, he could feel himself getting waterlogged, the gills were vanishing and he could no longer draw breath, but still he paddled furiously on as the flippers vanished, he knew the air was above him if he could just get close enough...

Lily forced herself to stop reading no matter how much she didn't want to, just to look up at her son for a moment and tell him, "you and me really need to have a talk about how your mind comes up with the best ways possible to make this tension ten times worse than it should be."

Harry gave her an uneasy smile, unsure if he was being scolded or she was just looking for a release, but she was already turning back to the pages.

then his head broke the surface.

Finally they all managed to breathe with ease again as well, lighting another check mark down in their brain, two down, just one more to go! That last task wasn't going to be over fast enough for them.

Air washed over his face, he erupted in shivers again but he didn't care as he pulled Ron and the girl up with him. Along came several green heads, but they were all smiling.

"Well that's nice," Remus huffed, still half wanting to curse those stupid things for freaking Harry out as much as the grindylows.

The crowd in the stands was going crazy, shouting and screaming as many seemed to fear that Harry had reemerged with someone dead.

Harry suddenly spasmed, his eyes rolling into the back of his head for a moment and shaking so hard he nearly fell over, but the yellow haze swallowing his brain was over as fast as it had come, and he blinked back into the world around him feeling very close to vomiting but having no idea why. He tried to both explain himself and apologize around shaking lips, but though the tight worry in all of their eyes didn't lessen any, Sirius kept a tight hold on Harry's shoulder and James was juggling his infant and watching Harry like at any moment he was prepared to cast a protective charm on him to stop his head hitting anything, no one could bring themselves to ask Harry a single question of why on earth Harry would have a reaction to that. It didn't stop them from turning over what Lily had read over and over in their head...

The two seemed fine though, the girl glancing fearfully around her as she clung to Harry for support, Ron spitting out a bit of water and telling Harry how wet it was.

Harry forced out some approximation of a laugh, his skin still too white for it to be believable, still blinking far too fast for them to believe he wasn't still trying to process what he was hearing rather than some accumulation of memories.

Though for the life of him Sirius actually didn't want to make the joke, still far to worried about what Harry had almost remembered to feel it, he still said, "at least you can always count on Ron to point out the important stuff."

Harry gave him such a relieved smile it had been worth it, and James sat back in his seat and kept the baby in his lap all the closer to him to ignore the interaction while still keeping an eye on Harry.

Then Ron saw the little girl and asked why she was here?

"Did he actually expect him to leave her?" Remus asked absently, trying to refuse to allow his mind to guess where Harry's had gone and mostly failing so coming up with far too many options of what could be bothering him.

Lily fidgeted with the pages for a few moments, not particularly wanting to answer but it would still feel better than letting her own mind wander. "Well if that's Ron's first response, then I guess we were worried for nothing. Perhaps the merpeople would have brought up the unrescued kids on their own."

She tried to instill as much confidence as she could, especially into the first part of that statement for Harry's benefit, wanting to believe more than anything Harry's flashback or memory relapse of whatever he'd nearly felt wasn't going to be as horrible as they were all thinking...though no one really believed that.

Harry explained Fleur never showed up, and he couldn't just leave her!

Ron told Harry he was being a prat, had he really taken that song seriously?

"That's a good point," Sirius quickly shot off, now knowing there had always been one fell safe way to get Harry to laugh and hoping it would work now, "how come I wasn't the one down there! You'd miss Ron more than me?"

He splayed such puppy eyes, Harry really did cave and give a genuine laugh for that.

Dumbledore wouldn't have let them drown!

"He makes it sound so obvious," James grumbled, thinking Ron wouldn't have said the same if he'd heard of all the past tournaments like they had. Lily's panicky little worries at the start of this didn't seem so foolhardy now.

Harry insisted the song had said-

but Ron told Harry they'd only phrased it that way so the champions would return in the time limit. Had Harry really come up last because he was acting the hero?

"Acting is inaccurate," Remus said with a strained smile, but all for happily talking about before Harry came out of the water and they'd gained a new worry. "What Harry did is very brave, and I'm still offended Krum and Diggory clearly didn't even consider doing the same."

Harry gave a bone deep shiver, something of what Remus had said hadn't exactly made him feel better and in fact was making an onset of his migraine reappear, but Lily quickly realized this and kept reading loudly before Harry could lose whatever color he'd even partially regained.

Harry felt stupid and annoyed at the same time. It was all good for Ron to be saying this, he'd been asleep the whole time. He hadn't seen how spooky that lake bottom was.

"Remus' point exactly," James agreed.

Instead of answering, he told Ron to help him out with the girl, she didn't seem able to swim very well.

The three hauled themselves back to the shore, accompanied by the merpeople singing their screechy song above the surface.

"I'll bet the crowd just loved hearing that," Sirius rubbed his ear absently.

Madam Pomfrey was already tending to the other champions and their rescuees.

There it was again, Harry was now confident someone in that list of names had been the cause of such a powerful memory trying to swarm him, but even the thought of guessing had him wanting to press his hand to his mouth to wipe sweat from his lip and had his stomach curling in protest along with his mind growing in pain.

Dumbledore and Bagman stood nearest to the shore, smiling out at them, but Percy wasn't waiting. Looking much younger than usual and very white, he went splashing out into the water to meet them.

"Aww," Lily couldn't help but coo slightly, wondering just how much Percy had been told of what was going on, how seriously he'd have taken this task and if he'd been wondering about Harry taking so long because something was wrong with Ron.

Meanwhile Madame Maxime was trying to restrain Fleur,

"Oh good," Sirius said absently, he really had been concerned what had happened to her to stop her grabbing her sister and was glad she hadn't been a casualty this challenge.

who was busy being hysterical, fighting tooth and nail to return to the water.

"I don't want to hear anyone calling Harry over reacting now," James arched a brow, if honestly impressed at the girl. "She's the one who's clearly thinking her sister was really in danger."

"Apparently it was just the actual victims who didn't know they weren't really victims," Remus snorted, though that still didn't track right with Krum and Diggory. Either they'd worked out the hostages weren't really in danger, which was odd as Harry and Fleur hadn't gotten that memo, or they hadn't stuck around enough to care.

She was screaming for Gabrielle, demanding to know if she was okay, or hurt?

Harry tried to tell her she was fine, but was so exhausted he could barely catch his own breath.

Percy had Ron seized tight to him, while Ron was vainly struggling to get free.

Causing all of them to have smiles of happiness for that moment, erasing the last of their worry for whatever Harry had been feeling from the top of their minds, for now. Whatever he'd been remembering would come, and they'd deal with it then, for now it was to adorable to pass up the moment for Sirius to tease Percy, "I'm going to remember this the next time he's spouting off about how important his cauldron bottom report is."

Flure got herself free and came forward, clinging to her sister and apologizing that it had been the grindylows that had stopped her.

"Well obviously Beauxbatons doesn't have as good of a DADA teacher as Harry got," James smiled pompously for his friend, while Remus rolled his eyes at Prongs.

She was in tears as she sobbed over her sister, while Harry was forced over by the others and had a blanket wrapped so tight around him he felt like a burrito, and was force fed a potion that made his ears steam.

"Don't want you catching a cold on top of everything," Lily happily agreed.

Hermione waddled up to him, praising what a good job he'd done, figuring this out all by himself.

"She's so surprised when I can do anything without her," Harry mock pouted.

Harry was fixing to correct he'd had help from Dobby, but then he spotted Karkaroff trying to listen in. He'd been the only judge not to be so visibly relieved by their return.

"As if I needed more confirmation he was a heartless scumbag," Sirius scoffed.

Harry pitched his voice as loud as he could for him to hear that Harry had indeed done just that.

James let out a booming laugh of pride at that, ruffling his son's hair as the father told that had been a classic move.

Krum tried to draw back Hermione's attention that she had a beetle in her hair,

There was a slight buzz in the base of Harry's skull, something telling him he should know something about that, but since he was still suffering from his last memory shock he didn't even give the feeling a glance.

Harry was sure Krum was trying to remind her who'd really saved her from the lake

Lily couldn't help but feel just slightly bad for Krum, he clearly really liked Hermione and yet he was most likely jealous of any attention Hermione ever gave Harry.

but Hermione just impatiently brushed the bug away and kept talking to Harry, telling him he was way outside of his time limit though and asking if he'd gotten lost?

Harry didn't really answer fully.

"More like, I found you first, I just stuck around the longest," Remus finished for him when it was clear Harry was going to trail off, in modesty or embarrassment he wasn't sure.

His stupidity was growing by the moment, now that he was clear headed it seemed obvious Dumbledore wouldn't have let them die just because the champion had failed.

"Well sure, in hindsight," Lily rolled her eyes, "but no one had better blame you for thinking otherwise, I wouldn't have really put it past them at this point."

He should have just grabbed Ron and gone, Cedric and Krum had.

"I hope you don't start using them as role models," James sniffed in disgust, he wasn't particularly fond of either of them even if they did sometimes amuse.

They hadn't taken the mersong seriously...

"How do you know how I would have taken it?" Sirius demanded at once, "you never showed it to me?"

Harry still laughed again, whatever feelings he had at himself vanishing at Sirius' distraction.

Dumbledore was crouching at the water's edge in conversation with what seemed to be the chief merperson.

"Why am I not surprised Dumbledore speaks mermish," Remus chuckled, suddenly this whole task made a lot more sense to him, it wouldn't surprise him in the least if Dumbledore was actually on friendly terms with the merpeople.

When he was done he called the judges over to him so they could discuss all of the champions before releasing the scores.

Madam Pomfrey was now trying to rescue Ron from Percy, then tried to go for Fleur and her sister, but the elder girl refused and insisted her sister was to be looked after first. Then she swooped in on Harry, thanking him for saving her though he hadn't had to.

Harry belligerently agreed, now wishing he'd left her tied up with the rest of the girls.

Sirius released a sharp bark of laughter, guess Harry had a petty side when he got embarrassed.

"Oh I'm sure Hermione would have loved to hear that one," Lily giggled.

"Don't let Cho hear you thinking that one," James gave his son a winning smile, "she probably thought you grabbed the wrong hostage, she was likely thinking she'd been both yours and Cedrics."

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," Harry grumbled at the lot of them still smirking. "You know you were thinking the exact same thing as me."

"Yes," Remus agreed, "but we admit to it."

Fleur bent and gave Harry a kiss on each cheek, much to his burning embarrassment,

Harry was now wishing he'd passed out when he had the chance, it would have been much kinder than having to watch them all collapse laughing at his cherry red face.

then she turned on Ron and thanked him for helping as well.

Ron agreed he'd done a bit, still looking hopefully at her.

"I'm sure he's very hopeful for something," Sirius got out around his laughter.

Fleur swooped down and kissed him too.

Harry couldn't help joining in the laughter this time, Ron had looked so pleased and flustered at the same time.

Hermione looked furious,

"What's eating her?" James demanded lightly, "they're just getting thanked is all."

"I'm sure Hermione's just upset because she was fixing to, err, thank him as well," Sirius tried to insist around his chuckles.

but was interrupted by Bagman announcing for all to hear that the Merchieftainess had told of what all had happened and the scores were as follows out of fifty.

Flure had successfully used a Bubble-Head Charm,

"I've never heard of that," Lily pouted.

"You think it's a new spell invented?" Remus asked curiously. "Sounds simple enough in theory, wonder what year it's taught at."

"Clearly more than a fifth year, or Hermione would have come across it," Sirius shrugged.

but was attacked by grindylows, and failed to retrieve her hostage. So was awarded twenty- five points.

"Still half credit for the magic, seems fair," Lily agreed.

Polite applause followed while Flure told how she didn't deserve any.

Sirius couldn't deny he sort of liked her again for that, she clearly wasn't all about herself as she put on if she was humble enough to admit that.

Diggory, also using the same Charm,

"I'm extremely insulted for Harry," James pouted, "it would have been nice if he'd passed that along to Harry along with his stupid clue, or at least told him what book to be in."

Lily wanted to argue that would have been handing Harry the whole task, even Harry hadn't told Cedric how he was getting past his dragon, but really she wouldn't have been upset about it either as Harry had clearly needed the help.

"He should get points off for using the same thing as another champion," Sirius sighed. "I'd accuse them of conspiring."

was the first back but still outside his time limit of an hour by a minute.

"Wow, even first place didn't get there fast enough," Remus said in surprise, "I think they didn't estimate that time limit correctly."

"I'll send them a note," Sirius said with a careless shrug.

He was given forty-seven points.

His supporters went wild with applause while Harry's hopes plummeted, if Cedric had been late Harry was doomed.

Krum had used some Transfiguration work and came back second, winning forty points.

"I can see that," James nodded along, though he'd half been hoping both those boys would get some points taken off for not being like Harry and hanging around, though this could possibly be more of a reason why Cedric hadn't gotten a perfect score. James was certainly going to keep thinking so.

Karkaroff clapped particularly hard, looking very superior.

"I'm sure he would have awarded a whole fifty if he could have gotten away with it," Sirius muttered to no one's disagreement.

Then there was Harry, who'd arrived first but according to eyewitness had stayed behind until all hostages were safe, even retrieving the last hence his delay in returning. His two friends looked at him half in exasperation, half commiseration.

Harry couldn't stop a small smile though, he missed being around his friends and was imagining what they would have said to him had they been here with him now.

Most of the judges, Bagman paused to give a nasty look at Karkaroff, had felt this showed his moral fiber and should be given full points.

"Wow," all of them blinked in surprise, pleased beyond words Harry was getting recognized for this act, and Karkaroff could sod off for thinking otherwise.

Instead, he'd received forty-five points.

Harry blushed as he was congratulated all around for this, pleased beyond words at their praise no matter how much he tried to convince them to move along, it wasn't that big of a deal, it's what anyone would have done...

Harry laughed in surprised as his friends began jumping around for joy, Ron congratulating him he wasn't just thick, he'd been showing moral fiber!

"Technically you were doing both," James beamed at him, "you're just that good at multitasking."

Fleur was clapping along happily as well, and while Krum tried to turn away and talk to Hermione again, she was too busy cheering for Harry to notice.

"That's his problem," Sirius sniffed, "he should have used that stupid shark head for something more useful than nearly ripping her in half."

Bagman rounded off by saying that the final task would happen at dusk on June 24th.

Harry felt a mounting sense of doom at the very idea, but he was still enjoying himself just a little too much at the warm attention from his family to give it much thought.

The champions would be given more details before hand, in the meantime, they were free to go.

Harry felt dazed as Madam Pomfrey began ushering them all up to the school for a warm change of clothes. He had ages until June to worry about anything again.

"Which will hopefully be your problem," Lily shot at Sirius just to get him to stop smirking for a moment, which worked much to her pleasure.

Next time he was in Hogsmeade, Harry decided as he walked back up the steps into the castle, he was going to buy Dobby a pair of socks for every day of the year.

They were very happy indeed they could end a chapter once again laughing outright, no one denying Dobby more than deserved it as Lily got up to swap the book in her hand for her baby while James took the hefty object, noting they were well on their way to being halfway done this year. Hopefully nothing to much more exciting could happen.

[ghostlyandcoastly]

The Dusty (dramione marriage law fic)

Hi I posted my first real dramione fic (other one is probs dead and abandoned) last night I figured why not post it here too! You can read it on AO3 or read it below

Chapter One: Ginny brings the wine

Hermione returned to her flat drained of all energy. She was not a witch easily defeated. She fought Voldemort throughout her school years for Merlin’s sake! It took a lot for Hermione Granger to have the fight in her body and brain depleted. And this? This was what broke her.

She’d been in a twelve-round legislative battle. As a legislative aide to the Minister of Magic, one of the youngest and brightest, she’d been working against a certain bill. A bill Hermione saw as the end of peacetime. A bill that Hermione would go to her grave cursing. A bill Hermione thought immoral and suspect. It was a Marriage bill. Although she supposed now, she would have to come to terms with the fact it was now a Marriage Law.

She had made valiant legal and moral arguments. She had lobbied members of the Wizengamot. She had garnered support in the wizarding media. And yet, when the cards fell, she was on the losing side. She was not used to losing. It did not feel good.

The bill- the law, she corrected herself mentally- was called The Decree To Unite Wizarding Society Through Espousal (DUWSTE or “the dusty” as Ron and others had taken to calling it). It mandated that every unmarried witch and wizard ages 21 to 35 be married. Yet this was not the only mandate. It required pureblood wizards to marry muggleborns or first-generation half-bloods. And still, yet, this was not the most repulsive thing about the law to Hermione. The second most repulsive thing about this would be that the pairs would be determined by magic. The members of the Wizengamot who initially proposed this law had charmed a goblet (which reminded Hermione of the disastrous consequences of a certain goblet of fire in her fourth year) to spit out names “appropriately” matched. The pairs would be revealed in a ceremony in one week’s time. The worst item in the proposal- now law- was the Child stipulation. Couples must produce at least one magical child within three years of marriage. There were invasive measures to be taken which would determine levels of fertility and whether the couple has made attempts at the child-making process. Hermione found this despicable. No matter how sterile the language was, the details were reprehensible. The idea that any man or woman would be forced to stand by, having their privacy completely disregarded in such a crude manner was shameful.

Hermione accused the law of depriving wizards and witches of agency and publicly ridiculed the idea that whatever charm the proponents had placed upon the goblet would result in “loving and harmonious couples” as a farce. 

But all of her fighting was for not because the bill had passed, although narrowly. She had been biting at her nails as the final votes were cast. When Wilhemina Walters cast her yay vote, Hermione had nearly broken down in tears. There were two more members to vote after that but Wilhelmina, one of the swing votes, had put it in the pocket of the bill’s proponents. Once the final result was called, (“The Decree to Unite Wizarding Society Through Espousal has passed the Wizengamot for immediate enactment. Notices to the relevant wizards and witches will be sent out on Monday via the Minister of Magic’s office. This session of the Wizengamot is hereby adjourned.”) Hermione fled from the chamber and found herself bent over the toilet, throwing up her guts like her lunch was slugs and she was Ron in second year.

Hermione shook her head as she felt another round of tears welling up. She could not believe this was happening. In one week, she would find out who she was marrying. Her mind drifted thinking of the possibilities. There were few men she actually liked and was comfortable around. There was obviously Harry and Ron whom she loved. But neither of them was an option. Harry and Ginny had been married a year and a half ago. Ron was engaged to Susan Bones as of seven months ago, prior to this bill being an issue. The Dusty (she was now resolved to not give it more respect than it deserved) had a stipulation that if you were engaged prior to the enactment of the law with proof of the date, you were not subject to the matching “service”. However, if you submitted a waiver under the engagement clause you must marry within three months of the enactment of the law. The other male friends she had were similarly tied up in relationships. Neville proposed to Hannah Abbott a month ago- not because of the law, but because they were in love. Although Hermione had her suspicions about whether Neville and Hannah rushed it because of the law. There was George who had eloped with Angelina Johnson (now Weasley) a few months ago. They both outright admitted that it was because of the law. They did not see any purpose of waiting if they were going to be forced to marry. There were Dean and Seamus but they’d been married since the day after the Battle of Hogwarts. 

The only single male friend she had was Blaise Zabini. Zabini was also a legislative aide to the Minister of Magic. They’d fought together against the bill but he hadn’t been quite so invested. He proposed to her daily, knowing she was annoyed at the prospect of marrying not out of an abundance of choice and love. The proposals were never serious. Blaise had said if the bill passed, he was sure he could put up with whoever he was matched with. He knew he was charming and he didn’t really believe in true love after all. Blaise made fun of Hermione for being a closet romantic. She huffed but she knew it was true.

A knock at her door pulled her from her reverie. She made her way to the door without much enthusiasm. Looking through the peephole which glowed green for “safe and familiar”, she saw it was Ginny. She opened the door to her friend’s too bright expression.

“I have wine and I have chocolate. Let’s mourn the end of your singlehood.”

Hermione felt her eyes well up.

“Oh, no. Don’t do that. Drink!” Ginny shoved her way into her flat and pushed Hermione to the couch and went about getting wine glasses from the kitchen, leaving the large bag of chocolates on Hermione’s lap. Hermione sighed deeply before tearing into a hazelnut vanilla chocolate.

They spent hours gossiping about anything other than the law. They got drunk and they ate chocolate and called for takeout delivery. But once properly lubricated, Ginny broached the topic.

“Soooo… at least this means you’ll finally get laid again.” Ginny said with a slight but noticeable slur to her voice. Hermione, being a lightweight, had a loose enough tongue to not just shake her head at Ginny.

“No way! I don’t wanna get ministry-mandated-sex for the rest of my life! I should-” She hiccoughed. “I should have gotten laid more often.” She sighs.

“You should have. But you were too busy fighting the damn dusty to do much of anything except eat, sleep, and be dragged for-forcibibibily to social gatherings on the weekend sometimes by my husband and me.” Ginny finished her statement and Hermione was about to reply indignantly (she didn’t have to be dragged per se) but Ginny sat up abruptly. “I have an idea! An excellent idea!”

“Oh no. What?” Hermione knew to be on guard when drunk Ginny had an idea.

“You still have time! You have a week til you get your partner. Even then, who says you can’t have a fling before you get married? It’s not like it’ll be a particularly romantic relationship in the three months they give you to get to know each other before marrying you off.”

“You want me to have a fling?”

“I want you to get laid. I want you to have sex that you won’t hate. I know you. No matter how nice the guy is, how attractive he is, or how big his cock is, you won’t be satisfied with ministry-mandated sex!”

“That’s right at least. It’ll always be in the back of my mind that this is something that I didn’t want, that would be forced upon me.” She sighs, expecting tears to come but they don’t. Maybe she’d run out.

“So that’s that. Tomorrow we’ll go out for a girls’ night, inviting Luna and Susan and Hannah, that will result in you getting laid at some bloke’s apartment and us married and engaged folks will go home and get laid by our husbands-fiances.” Ginny lacked tact sober. When drunk, she certainly didn’t pull punches. “One, way to put a fine point on it. Two, you expect me to have a one night stand?” She said doubtfully. “How am I gonna find someone? I know all of wizarding London pretty much. I’ve been out with a couple of people and either they were deeply uninteresting or uninterested in me.”

“I doubt the latter was true for anyone, first of all. Second of all, we’ll go to a muggle club. You can have hot, completely noncommittal sex with a muggle and it’ll be fun! I promise!” Hermione looked at her friend with doubt, amusement, and a bit of insecurity in her eyes. “I promise!” Ginny repeats. With that, they move on to other topics but the idea Ginny has planted has taken root in Hermione’s mind. She had one week of freedom where she wouldn’t be government-mandated engaged. She’d spend it having fun and thumbing her nose at the ministry.

That had been a Wednesday night. Hermione woke up Thursday with a hangover and owled in sick for the day at work. She wasn’t ready to show her face. If she saw Joanna Gibson or Todd Travers, she might have punched their pretty little noses. Joanna and Todd were both legislative aides of Norris Baumbach, the senior member of the Wizengamot who was responsible for pushing the bill through. Hermione despised the two of them. Travers was the cousin of a convicted Death Eater and his Slytherin ambition was crystal clear to Hermione. Travers would do anything to clear his family name- and that included playing dirty, provided he wasn’t caught. Joanna Gibson was an obnoxious Ravenclaw half-blood who, while she wasn’t as dirty as Travers, was significantly more a bitch. Hermione didn’t want to see their smug expressions. All the legislative aides worked on the same floor and there would be no avoiding them once at the ministry.

She spent Thursday eating fast food and peanut butter cups. She watched The Notebook and caught up on a muggle romance novel she’d started months ago. She received several owls from friends with good wishes but she didn’t have the energy to respond. She promised herself she would wake up early tomorrow and reply but today was a day that she reserved for herself.

On Friday she woke up early like she said and responded to everyone.

To Harry, she wrote,

I’m fine. Ginny should keep her mouth shut. I know you’ll always be there for me and I appreciate it. I’m getting ready tomorrow at yours so we can talk more then. Love you.

To Ron and Susan (though the note from them had been distinctly Susan with a postscript distinctly Ron), she wrote,

I’m fine. I always knew it was a possibility. Love you guys. We should meet for lunch next week. Trust me, I’m determined to have this damn thing affect my life in the least amount of ways possible. Speaking of, Susan, would you like to join Ginny and a few others and me on a girls night out tomorrow? Also, Ron, I happily accept your offer to blow my future husband’s bits to smithereens if he lays an unwanted hand on me. Love you guys too.

She answered Luna, Kingsley, and Neville’s notes next before moving on to the final one. The one from Draco Malfoy. They rarely spoke. Malfoy was occasionally around the office when he came to visit Blaise and they had worked together once when Hermione was working on legislation that she needed a master potioneer’s help with. Hermione found him to be every bit as arrogant and obnoxious- though even she could see he was not the boy he once was. For one, he was very much a man, as loathe as she was to admit such a thing. Yes, Draco Malfoy had grown into his pointy features and his skin no longer looked unhealthy- though it was a far cry from tanned.

The note from Malfoy had been short and had sparked a fire in her that had previously been put out.

Granger,

Blaise tells me you owled in sick to work. Never thought you’d be so easily defeated. All these years of poking at you and you let a little thing like a ‘lowly despicable immoral’ law that cast shade on all our futures defeat you. Tsk, tsk. What’s that muggle saying? Don’t let the bastards get you down? Get back up, Granger.

She was irritated. She was mystified. She felt like she had been confunded. So she wrote back to the best of her ability.

Malfoy,

Firstly, you made an inaccurate assumption. I simply wasn’t feeling well. Don’t presume to know me. Secondly, why must you Slytherins be so shady about your meaning? I can’t tell where you stand on this law. You certainly never spoke out against it. Nor in favor of it. Though I’m guessing your bigoted little mind would be against it- poor Draco Malfoy could never sully himself with a muggleborn, surely it’d be beneath him. Curious that you didn’t speak out. Or did you just not want to be on the same side as me? Thirdly, you made a common muggle mistake. The actual phrase is don’t let the bastards grind you down. Don’t worry, happens to the best of us. Fourthly, I will be back at the ministry today but not simply because you told me to so don’t go getting a big head thinking your words of wisdom somehow prompted my miraculous recovery. Fifthly, why are you writing to me? What do you get out of this?

Sincerely sod off,

Hermione Granger

Hermione made a noise at the back of her throat, proud of her note but distinctly uncomfortable that Malfoy had contacted her about this. Even more so uncomfortable that he was encouraging her. Albeit in a very arrogant way. Could she expect anything different from Draco Malfoy?

She shook it off and hurried off to the ministry, determined to turn her legislative tide. She was at her desk for only a few minutes before Blaise sat down across from her and slid a steaming cup of coffee her way.

“Oh, bless you!” Hermione gushed. 

Blaise smiled and replied, “I didn’t sneeze but you’re welcome.” Then his expression changed from jovial to sober which was a disturbing trend as Hermione had so rarely seen that change. “So how are you feeling?” Hermione huffed at this question. She’d probably be fielding it a lot for a little bit.

“I’m fine.” She insists. He gives her a look that says don’t lie to a liar. “I’ve made a plan. All I’ve ever needed was a plan.” Blaise snorted.

“You’re not running off with Potter to defeat You Know Who.” Even after all these years, many still wouldn’t say his name. No matter how often she would insist to Blaise that fear of the name blah blah blah. “You’re going to be married. And he could be the most charming bloke and you’re going to despise him. You’re not fine.”

“Ginny said something similar.” She blushed remembering Ginny’s comments about her mystery husband’s dick. “There’s nothing I can do about it now. There’s no more fighting it. At least not outright.” Blaise squinted in a very Slytherin manner.

“What exactly do you have planned Golden Girl?” He asked.

“Wouldn’t you just love to know.” She winked at him. He leaned back and grabbed his heart in a sarcastic but friendly manner. She laughed at his antics. “Back to work, back to work.” She made a shooing motion with her hand and he rolled his eyes at her.

Hermione was working on another Goblin fair pay bill because the last one had come out so toothless its supporters waned and its antagonists still voted no. Getting the Goblins to work with her on it had been a beast of a task in the first place. Now she had to go back to Moregi, the appointed Goblin liaison to the ministry, and beg for his cooperation once again. He was a cynical creature, to begin with, and with the latest defeat, he was growing more so. She couldn’t blame him though. It was rather defeating.

She shook her head and ran her fingers through her hair. It seemed nothing was going right. She knew when she took the job that it would not be easy and she was not the kind of person who could leave work at the office and not pour every ounce of herself into what was in front of her. Before The Dusty, Hermione had fantasized about true love, being the closet romantic she was. She had dreamed of a partner to come home to, a partner who would make her want to leave it all behind her when she stepped through the floo. Her heart twinged as she kissed this fantasy goodbye. She’d be chasing work even harder than usual once she had her ministry-appointed husband in her ministry-assigned place of residence.

“So is that what you do all day to get it to look that way?” A distinctly arrogant voice pulled her out of her reverie.

“What are you on about this time Malfoy?” She groaned, not looking up. He came around from time to time despite not having any official ministry position. Malfoy was the first of the Malfoy men to take up an actual career that wasn’t flitting about in politics and investments. He was an apprentice to Ollivander. Hermione always did wonder about that relationship given that Ollivander had been trapped in his family’s dungeons.

“Your hands. Mussing about in the mess you call hair.” He drawled. She looked up at him and gave him a cruel look.

“I imagine your hands spend plenty of time in your hair, massaging the pounds of hair product into it.”

“Yes, and I imagine it would take absolutely massive pounds of hair product to tame your hair an inch.” He tossed back.

“Pounds can’t be massive. It’s a definitive measurement, you can’t qualify it.” She informed him, satisfied with herself. Malfoy opened his mouth to retort but found himself interrupted by his best friend.

“What are you annoying Granger about this time, Draco?” Blaise asked.

“Oh, we all know Granger’s apparent annoyance at me is all just an act for how much she fancies me.” Blaise raised an eyebrow at this. Malfoy just smirked.

“You possess the charm of an acromantula to me, Malfoy.” She put her head down, back to the legislative work that awaited her. Blaise laughed at his two friends and sat back with his feet up on his desk.

“What brings you this way, Draco?” Blaise asks.

“Checking to see that Granger hadn’t offed herself yet and to take you to lunch, Blaise.” Draco said casually. Hermione looked up sharply and stood in the next second.

“I’ll have you know I’m doing perfectly fine!” She’d reached her wit’s end of everyone treating her like she’d suffered a personal tragedy and Malfoy’s casually cruel comment set her off. “Or I will be, very soon.” She said more to herself than the two men in front of her.

“Ah, yes. The plan.” Blaise said.

“Yes. The plan.” Hermione turned up her nose, resisting the urge to stomp her foot.

“What plan are you referring to?” Draco asked Blaise, knowing he wasn’t likely to get a response out of her.

“She won’t tell me. Just something that involves her indirectly fighting The Dusty.” Blaise informed Draco.

“Zabini!” Hermione reprimanded. She didn’t need Malfoy peering into this. Meanwhile, Malfoy just scoffed.

“The language of the law is quite precise. You know it damn well. What could you possibly do?”

“I’m taking back control of my life.” She said vaguely.

“What does that mean?” Blaise asks, unable to resist a puzzle.

“It means… well…” She wasn’t sure how to continue this. But Malfoy’s eyes were challenging her and she was always up for a dare. A Gryffindor, indeed. “The law says nothing about a pre-marital fling.”

She waited while the boys digested this. Then they looked at one another and burst out laughing. This led to her hands situating themselves on her hips in a haughty manner.

“What is ever so funny?” Hermione hissed.

“Your plan is to become a hussy?” Malfoy smirked, still chuckling.

“Excuse you!” She nearly screeched, causing the few in the office to look over at them. Well, those that hadn’t been looking before.

“C’mon, Hermione. It doesn’t exactly seem like you.” Zabini added.

“Yeah. Come off it. Haven’t you already turned to ice and stone from the lack of taking control as you put it?”

“You don’t think I’m capable? Neither of you?”

“Of casual, adult fun? No, I don’t.” Malfoy shrugged.

“Not that you’re incapable… just not necessarily comfortable doing something like that.” Blaise countered.

“I-I! Well! I’ll have you both know that I am not some sexless amoeba. I am an adult woman perfectly capable and willing to have a tryst with a man.” She resolutely exclaims.

“Alright. I’m sure you are.” Blaise held up his hands innocently, admitting defeat. Malfoy had not gotten the stand down memo.

“Prove it.” He says.

“Excuse me?” Hermione balks.

“Come to the pub tonight. We’ll pick a fellow out and you have to seduce him. Unless you’re incapable and unwilling.”

“Well, as shocking as this may seem to a prejudiced fool like you, Malfoy, the plan is to go to a muggle club. I’ve found them to be much more attentive than wizards anyways.” She added the last part, trying to make him blush as much as he was her.

“Well you have fun with that, Herm-” Blaise is cut off from his peacemaking efforts.

“We’ll come.”

“What?!” Blaise exclaims.

“We’ll come to your muggle pub. Meet you at the Leaky at nine?” Malfoy challenges her. She squints at him, trying to determine his game here.

“Sure. If you can stand to breathe all those muggle germs.”

“You know nothing about me, Granger.” He says cryptically before turning to Blaise who looked stricken, an uncommon occurrence for him. “Ready for lunch?” Without another word, he turned and started walking out the door. Blaise sighed heavily and stood to follow him but stopped at Hermione’s desk.

“Do you want me to talk him out of this?” Blaise asked, giving away his secret that he is actually a good friend.

“No. It’ll do the both of you some good to experience some culture that’s not prickly wizarding society. And do me some good to the surprised look on your faces when I do snag a man.” Hermione said more confidently than she felt. Blaise smiled and kissed her cheek.

“I’m sure this will go swimmingly.”

Hermione slumped to her chair. She was really going to do this now, wasn’t she? The thought of The Dusty popped back into her mind- her reason for this whole plot to begin with. A twinge in her gut reminded her how sharp the loss still was. The nervous fluttering in her stomach reminded her how very trapped she felt by it all. But the solid beat of her heart in her chest reminded her that she was a Gryffindor and Malfoy had baited her- she wasn’t about to back down.

[marriedmormon]

Kasey pt 2

Posted Aug 2020 Sorry this has taken so long to post. COVID has prevented private time and the kids are finally back in school but the wife is still home 99% of the time. Some of you who found me of Flickr have already read part 2 but I will share it here still.  After a fun night of playing games and making out with Kasey (see part 1),our relationship turned up a notch.  We were sexting, skyping, chatting all the time, planning when to meet up again, etc. Kasey was not unhappy in her marriage but it certainly wasn’t bliss. I saw this hot young Mormon mom think and say things that I never expected. Late one night, I was returning home from a quick trip that I flew out for, she texts me and then calls me. She had gone drinking with a friend and was totally tipsy. She told me to come over before going home. She said she didn’t care what happened and willing to throw her marriage out the window. I drove as fast as I could to her house where she had snuck out. We drove around for a little bit until we found a nice dark secluded place where we jumped in the back seat of my car. We started making out which quickly led to dry humping. I was so ready to fuck her and I thought with her previous comments that she was too, but when I slid my hand down her pants she stopped me. She said she wanted to continue but was scared. I let her know that we wouldn’t go any further than what she wanted.  I began to finger fuck her and quickly learned that she was a loud woman. Her panting and noises only got me more excited and my eagerness to fuck her was only getting worse. Finally I slipped down her shorts and underwear where I could see her neatly trimmed bush. It was such a beautiful triangle. Awkwardly in my car I adjusted my body so I could plant my face in between her legs. She tasted so sweet. Within just a few minutes she was grabbing my head in total ecstasy. She came so loud and hard she basically ripped off my head forcing me to stop. I kept teasing her sensitivity and she loved it. It was getting really late and I didn’t think I could use a delayed flight excuse with my wife so I was left hanging. The next weekend my family was out of town but I needed to stay in Utah for work. With a little help from her friend Brooke a “Girl’s Night” was planned and Kasey’s husband decided to take the opportunity to take their boys camping. This was our chance. Brooke had a bunch of friends over for some girl fun. They had all been in the hot tub and had left when I showed up. Brooke had changed out of her suit and was being a very gracious host keeping her kids and husband away. Kasey was still in her 1 piece suit and I was just dying to get it off. We started making out and I kept pulling her top down and she kept pulling it back up because we weren’t “alone”. One of the times that I had her top down Brooke walked into the room and totally caught us. At this point I knew we weren’t going to get any further in her house so we made a quick plan to go somewhere. Neither of us wanted to go to the others empty house but we totally had to go somewhere. As we left Brooke’s house we talked on the phone where to go. I just pulled over to a park and said that we shouldn’t just drive around. This park was very dark and mostly private so i figured why not. We jumped in my backseat again and quickly picked up where we left off. This time there was no reservations when I pulled her top down. I quickly kissed and sucked her nipples but decided that I wasn’t done undressing her so I slipped off the rest of her swimsuit. I ate her pussy and again it was only a few minutes and she was cumming so hard. I wanted to feel her tasty pussy with my dick so I slid my pants off. She was still reserved about penetration so I just rubbed my dick up and down her pussy. I told her that when she was ready to let me know by wrapping her leg around me. It wasn’t long before she did just that. I followed  my signal and quickly slid inside her. I thought she was loud with just my tongue but this was a whole new volume that I had ever heard before. We fucked and fucked and fucked.  She came 2 more times before I needed a break but I didn’t want to stop. As I rested, I went back down on her. I stuck my tongue so deep inside her to taste every bit of her that I could. Without fail she came again. It was my turn to cum. I went back inside her and started just pounding her as fast and as hard as I could. She knew I was getting close and this got her more excited. Her panting and volume increased and brought me to my explosion. I pulled out just in time to cum on her belly. When we had finally finished we noticed that we had been at it for almost 4 hours. She came a total of 5 times and I came once but that one time was amazing. The next day she told Brooke all the details and how I was the best pussy eater ever (see true story about Brooke). Kasey and I kept our little thing going as often as we could for the next 6 months. I still saw here almost every day for a few minutes. We fucked over and over again, took a trip overnight trip together, almost had a three way with Brooke, and kept the fun alive. It has been six years (in 2020) since we stopped fucking around. Today, Kasey is back to being a dedicated mom and trying to be a good Mormon. We are Facebook and Instagram friends and still throw out the banter when it is football season. Every now and then I get a little something from her, sometimes a text, sometimes a memory, sometimes just a birthday wish. We both know that we were awesome in bed together and now we have great memories.  Here is the link to another pic of Kasey on my Flickr account. https://www.flickr.com/photos/123073719@N03/46546763851/in/album-72157703553109144/

[vermiculus-incipiens]

OOC INFORMATION:

What’s your name? Nat

Preferred pronouns: She/her/hers

Timezone: EST

IC INFORMATION:

Character Name: Lucius Malfoy

What’s a hobby or pastime that your character enjoys? Quidditch. Out of practice now but he still has the occasional habit of flying for fun. His second through fifth year of school was spent playing as a chaser. Unfortunately, the hobby was given up the summer after his fifth year. His father took one look at the captain pin he received and told him to send it back, declaring that his son did not have the making of a quidditch player and needed to focus on his academics (the expectation of his heir securing a Ministry position upon graduating) instead of wasting time on something he wasn’t good at.

Do you have any preferred ships or anti-ships? Ships: Lucius/Narcissa Lucius/Severus Lucius/Narcissa/Severus (either a poly sort of deal or a powerful friendship because oh my goodness, do I love how the Malfoys made Severus one of their own) Anti-ships: Anything forced. I headcanon Lucius as demisexual - valuing emotional connections before looks - but he would claim he is straight if asked since that term definitely is not something that exists in the group’s time period.

What do you think your character’s Boggart would be? If their greatest fear isn’t something that could easily take a solid form, what is it? Why? His wife and son are dead. Pre-Draco’s birth had him focused on keeping himself alive long enough to welcome his child. Now the plan is to keep the whole family intact, hoping that they will be given a moment of peace once the dust settles. He has enough faith in Narcissa to know she would be able to manage if anything ever resorted in his death but things seeming to drag out has him certain the war won’t leave his son without one or both of his parents. As for why - Although self-centered, Lucius cares deeply about his loved ones. He is in the habit of referring to Draco as his son, not his heir. The need to produce an heir is a topic his father cares deeply about. Lucius would have been happy with a little girl and trying again or even just having one child, given the amount of struggling it took to bring their first kid into the world.

What’s your character’s biggest pet peeve? People that stand in the middle of the lift when he and they are the only people in the one at the Ministry. Especially if they don’t move to step aside. Arthur Weasley - there’s just something about the man’s very existence that gets on his nerves.

What would you consider to be an eccentricity of your character? His morning routine. Looking good takes a lot of time, money, and effort. The routine involves thoroughly cleaning himself before work, tossing on moisturizer, and making sure his hair is presentable enough to venture into the Ministry. The Malfoy name alone is powerful enough to not need to worry about looks, but Lucius likes accentuating that power with good looks and confidence.

What is/was your character’s favorite subject in school? Why? Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Lucius excelled in those classes and took his education very seriously, to a point of earning top marks, a head boy position, and a non-entry level position at the Ministry during his seventh year.

What time of day is your character’s favorite? What time of year? Sunset. There is something blissful about looking over the garden, spotting the silhouette of the peacocks, and watching the sun go down over his property. Summer. Cold weather makes Lucius miserable. He got sent to the hospital wing during a quidditch incident in his fifth year and is still doubting his knee fully recovered from the bludger that hit it — snow and rain bring the aches and pains out.

What’s your character’s Patronus? If they can’t conjure one, what would it be if they could? Why? A peahen. No reason outside of admitting it seems fitting for him.

What is your character’s biggest vice (bad habit or immoral craving)? Cigarettes. They serve as something to keep his hands busy if his anxiety spikes.

Is your character an introvert or extrovert? How well do they handle social situations? Extroverted introvert. Lucius doesn’t mind having eyes on him but would happily pick curling up on a chaise lounge with a book in one hand and a glass of wine in the other over having to deal with people. People are exhausting. He’s never particularly liked crowds but can navigate them without issue. His upbringing involved his father forcing him into social situations and sternly making sure his heir knew how to behave when out in public. Protesting about not wanting to be the center of attention was not an option.

What is your character’s diet like? What’s his or her favorite food? Lucius prefers the best food money can buy. Main preference for greens — he takes his salads seriously. Does wine count as food?? No? *sighs* Alright, well I guess that makes four-layer caviar dip his favorite food. Has to be the recipe his mom preferred or he won’t touch it.

How do you think your character’s psychological issues have manifested and changed your character up to this point? Snob - Very aristocratic. Focused on appearances. Does not associate with those he believes are lesser than him. Do not ask him about his son since he will more than likely go off about how thankful he is for his wife for bringing their child into the world and insist on talking about Draco’s coos and smiles being cuter than anyone else’s kid. Draco being brought up is truthfully the easiest way to crack through the confident mask he usually uses — the kid has him wrapped around his fingers and isn’t even a year old yet Confidence - Lucius naturally oozes confidence and seems calm and collected when in public. However, he is using it to mask the feelings of anxiety and paranoia that are beginning to grate his thoughts. The birth of his son made him aware that he intends to stick around and start doting on his family. He has an underlying fear of doing something that further jeopardizes his family’s safety. Love - Obsessed with his reflection, Lucius has been spending a lot of time focusing on himself and his family. Certainly, he loves every perfect aspect about himself and his wife. The addition of their little bundle of joy has left him realizing he has more love to give than anticipated. Most of which is no longer dedicated to himself. Loving himself proved to counteract the feelings of disappointment and loss that accompanied the physical and emotional distance his father used while raising him (and still uses). He has a decent self-care routine down because of this Proper - Everything has its place in the manor. Appearances must be kept up and things must be clean. Anything remotely out of place can cause him to feel anxious. Lucius seldom wears the same outfit more than twice. He keeps up with fashion and is one of the first to obtain new looks from the top lines Head over heels for his perfect life, wife, and son — definition of the proper pureblood family Mock - snobbish tendencies have left him quick to mock others. At this point, he barely needs to think before a rude comment or scoff passes his lips. Devastating - “It is often said of the Malfoy family that you will never find one at the scene of the crime, though their fingerprints might be all over the guilty wand.” Lucius has a vast knowledge of poisons and no shame in paying others to do the dirty work for him. His ranking at the Ministry has him more in the know about what’s going on than others in the cause. Lucius is also fairly experienced in using lies to undermine coworkers, having an eloquent and confident enough way of speaking to get others to believe what he says Power. Influence - The two practically go hand-in-hand for Lucius. He can pull a lot of influence from the confidence and better-than-everyone facade he typically hides behind. The power comes from having a liar’s tongue, the ability to speak confidently even though he may not truly support what he says, and his having more money than he knows what to do with Close Calls - The near misses have left Lucius anxious about permanently losing his wife. The raid on the manor should have been something he was prepared for. Not feeling prepared followed by his wife getting sent away left him truly believing the love of his life would be gone for good Less Important - as a high-ranking Ministry official and liking to think he’s been fairly dedicated to the cause, Lucius is above menial tasks. He’s not liking being sent on mission after mission and is reading too far into it, truthfully wary that he did something that may have caused the Dark Lord’s feelings toward him and his abilities to shift. Tired - a general way of describing Lucius. Things have hit the point of feeling monotonous. He feels as though he’s just going through the motions when it comes to working and the cause, wanting nothing more for things to settle down so he can shift his focus to his wife, son, and nothing else. Loyal - Once earned, Lucius’s loyalty is unwavering. It is beginning to crack a little in regards to the cause but he is doing his best to keep that to just himself, knowing things will go poorly if he does anything to hint at his being discontent about not being able to focus on family Fear - With the family line secured by having produced an heir, Lucius’s fear of losing his wife all together has slowly begun to dissipate. He is incredibly fearful of doing something to jeopardize the little family they have started and will do whatever it takes to ensure his wife and son are kept safe. This has left him shifting his focus on the cause to ensure he doesn’t do something to fall from where he is currently ranked with the death eaters. One wrong move could prove disastrous.

Give us a headcanon for your character. Anything is acceptable. Lucius’s father is incredibly controlling. The first decade of his son’s life involved strict instruction and proving he was worthy of being the Malfoy heir. Likely took things as far as claiming he could replace Lucius with a better son as a means of controlling his behavior. Abraxas was not opposed to laying a hand (wand in extreme cases) on his son if the situation called for it. He micromanaged Lucius’s life while he was at school, often requiring the head of house to serve as his eyes and ears. Lucius does not like using contractions when he speaks. He tries to avoid words like “can’t,” “don’t,” and “won’t” and prefers sticking to using the full word(s) instead. The only agreement he and his father shared when he was little goes out to him thinking contractions are a lazy way of speaking Lucius is fluent in English, French, Latin, and Italian. Lucius does not like getting his hands dirty. The thought of another’s blood getting on him makes him feel sick to his stomach. He prefers a more behind the scenes approach when it comes to the cause: researching poisons, flowers, etc. and ways of doing damage that doesn’t involve the more sadistic ways of the other death eaters; paying outside sources to go in for the kill; spreading rumors at work to bring down other ministry employees; planning large scale attacks but not usually placing himself in as a main part of the plan; Let the new recruits tackle that and give him something interesting to do He’s hit the point of getting tired of menial tasks and wanting to retire at home with his wife and son

[llendrinall]

Omg what if Draco was also a spy for Dumbledore? Like imagine him biting his tongue when everyone is hateful and cruel to him cuz he's gonna have the last laugh when it comes out he was a spy. And in this version Percy still fucks off. Draco stays behind cuz he wants to see everyones reactions (especially his asshole boss that made his life fucking hell) He could be a seer in this and secretly became friends with Harry during Hogwarts. Idk, add whatever you want ❤

Ha! I don’t know why that “Idk” at the end made me laugh.

I have different mental versions of Draco. I can see him more or less happy, more or less certain of what he wants to do or of his relationship to the wizarding world. Other things are fixed, they are the things that make him Draco and appear in all versions of him, like:

1.- He can draw. He might have more or less practice, but he can draw pretty well.

2.- He is smart in the sense of doing very well academically, being able to understand something instantly. He doesn’t need to put many study hours, so he doesn’t.

3.- He doesn’t like Dumbledore. Regardless of his relationship to his father and Voldemort, he just doesn’t like Dumbledore as a person. It has nothing to do with how Dumbledore treats people (although that certainly doesn’t help) it’s more visceral. Just like some people will look at an actor or celebrity and go “no, I do not find Jimmy Fallon funny and can’t tell you why”. This is the same.

So Draco would never become a spy for Dumbledore. Dumbledore’s spy, hell no.

However, at some point Draco looks at Voldemort’s white flabby face and thinks “oh, no, I’m not doing this.” He decides he is going to work against Voldemort, but with whom?

(Draco is very proud of knowing when to use “whom” and also lives in fear of getting it wrong).

Draco has to find someone who can be an actual challenge against Voldemort. The Ministry is out because they are stupid, incompetent and infiltrated to the brim. And who else is there? Potter? Draco goes to class with Potter. He has seen how he spells, meaning both his charm use (Potter knows one a half spells and that’s it) and his orthography. He simply can’t consider Potter a serious contender against Voldemort. Nothing against him, Draco actually, (secretly) kind of likes the guy, but Voldemort can read minds, knows all kind of ancient magic and performs incredibly complex curses and conjurations.

Draco has seen Potter lick ice-cream out of his t-shirt.

If Draco wants to get rid of Voldemort, there is only Dumbledore. Draco doesn’t spy for him. He does nothing regarding Dumbledore that involves the preposition ”for”.

But he shares information. There is a “to” in there. Give information to Dumbledore. He can do that. Draco is quite smart, so he is able to deduce Voldemort’s strategy from little clues. He knows about Voldemort’s quest for information (both for the prophecy and the elder wand) months in advance.

This does not happen in the same universe as Percy Ministry Spy, but Percy is acting as a spy nevertheless. This means that Dumbledore has a pretty easy run setting his plans in motion and ensuring Voldemort’s defeat. It also means that he suffers though some absolutely miserable months which probably have something to do with his enthusiasm for the let-Draco-kill-me plan.

Each and every interaction with Draco is a reeling experience. Draco is not handing the information for nothing. He wants Voldemort dead by next month and when Dumbledore doesn’t deliver, he complains. He complains (note the italics). Draco doesn’t ask for the manager because there isn’t one, but he actually asks if Dumbledore has any older siblings Draco could talk to. You could say Draco acts entitled, demanding and full of expectations, but those words mean nothing. Draco breathes past entitlement to land somewhere between “Angel of Vengeance” and “Greek fury”, only instead of a flaming sword or claws, he has attitude and an excellent command of grammar. What a horrible little child.  

Meanwhile, Snape has developed the habit of twisting every conversation so he can say “pity you don’t have any other orphan available to sacrifice” and “oh, if only we had a child to endanger” and “yes, but how can we solve this by killing a child?”. It is very rich coming from him. Dumbledore is not amused. Apparently there is a line for Severus Snape and that line is drawn when sacrificing oneself for the greatest good.

(“Ah, but it is not yourself who will do the sacrifice, is it?” Snape says, and a week later Dumbledore tells Draco that of course he will let him kill him. Draco scoffs and rolls his eyes as if somehow that wasn’t enough).

And then, there is Percy Weasley. Neither Snape nor Draco are supposed to know about him, but they both know and it is unclear how. Probably Percy himself let them know (no, he didn’t). He would do something like that (no, he wouldn’t). Percy is a horrid nightmare (he… he may be). Dumbledore despises him (and how!). Snape will talk about Dumbledore not doing the greater sacrifice but Dumbledore honestly can’t think of anything worse than working with Percival Weasley.

(70% of Dumbledore’s dislike comes from the suspicion that Percy might be two or three points more intelligent than him. After almost a century used to being the most intelligent person in the room by far, Dumbledore does not like this new scenario. He misses Grindelwald.)

Dumbledore dies. Then so does Potter (briefly), followed quickly by Voldemort (permanently). Surprisingly, Snape also jumps into this dying fashion until he thinks better about it and survives, although severely wounded. Percy doesn’t die but as soon as the battle had ended and all Death Eaters are either dead or apprehended, he dissaparates right there from the Hogwarts grounds.

He sends a postcard to Draco a month later, which is kind of nice. There is also one for Snape and Draco props it next to the vase of flowers by his sickbed.

Thus begins the After-War.

By day two, Draco understands why Weasley left so quickly. It is a fucking disaster. Potter has to plant himself by Snape’s bed to stop the Ministry from arresting him. The man is barely coherent and barely alive and yet they wanted to interrogate him and transport him to a holding cell. The Ministry. The ones who allowed themselves to be infiltrated.

It is perhaps unsurprising that when the Ministry sends a hastily formed examining tribunal to Hogwarts, so students can sit their OWLs and NEWTs in August, the examining tribunal refuses Draco.

Draco doesn’t particularly care. He is rich enough that he doesn’t need to work and, in any case, once they finally start proper investigations and find Dumbledore’s trove of notes and testimonies in his sealed will, Draco will be exonerated and recognized as the hero he is. This insult or punishment, whatever you call the Tribunal’s unfair treatment of him, doesn’t hurt. Draco is immune to their attacks.

Soon after, he receives a letter from bloody Hermione Granger saying of course he can sit his exams, they expect him on Tuesday at ten. McGonagall will be there to put the fear of herself on the Tribunal and ensure they are fair.

And… he appreciates her intervention, he really does. Awfully nice of her. True moral backbone. It’s just that… Draco actually enjoyed the insult? He realizes now that he only attempted to sit the exams because he expected them to say no.

He sits the exams and aces them. They are particularly hard in the last one, the astronomy test. McGonagall coughs three times, rolls her eyes and finally says “bloody enough, don’t you think? He has shown he knows the material.” He sends her a handwritten thank-you letter just to be annoying.

Draco realizes that his behavior is very odd, but given that Weasley has fucked off to somewhere and that Snape refuses to heal so he won’t have to talk to people, Draco believes he is entitled to some oddities of his own. Thus, he begins collecting insults. From the low-brow and simple “Death-Eater scum” to the vitriolic “murderer”. The best, and the worst, are the ones that don’t come wrapped in words. Shunning and discrimination. Oh! He can’t explain it, but they taste tart and sweet.

He likes it. Not the dismissing, no, but the idea that they don’t know him and that their judgment of him is wrong. If that means they will also wrong him and treat him badly, so be it. It doesn’t change that he and Snape and Percy Weasley, are the heroes of the war.

He applies to a mediwizard program and is naturally denied. Then he tries a traineeship at the Wizengamot, also denied. Just for the fun of it, he applies to the Auror Office and receives a wonderful letter of rejection that has an actual dead spider inside the envelope.

It has been three months since the end of the war, now, and Weasley refuses to let himself be found. Snape barely manages to stay awake for three hours, and only with Draco. Evidently the stress of the war did a number on them, so it’s perfectly understandable if Draco keeps prodding and asking and applying to things knowing full well that he will get a resounding “no”.

You would think this was some sort of atonement for his past misbehavior and his admittedly awfully narrow views and even more abysmal manners regarding muggleborns. But Draco is quite sure he atoned for all of that when he lied to Voldemort’s face and, more terrifyingly, he lied to Aunt Bella’s face, stole their secrets and passed them to Dumbledore. He doesn’t need to punish himself any more.

No, it’s just… it’s just hard. He has spent three years with a carefully crafted lie as his only protection. It is not so easy to discard it. He liked that lie. It kept him alive.

And then, come October, the Ministry takes Malfoy Manor and all associated assets. Just like that. Puff. Seized. They haven’t even begun an official investigation on Draco, but they have taken his house as a precaution.

Now it’s personal.

It turns out that Draco is a vindictive asshole, who would have guessed? Probably everyone but him. Doesn’t matter. He will make them pay. The Ministry, the papers who ran the headline about Draco becoming homeless and the people who cut the page and framed it. They will regret it.

He moves into Snape’s ugly cottage because he has no other place to go and if Snape has any objections, he can say so when he pleases. Oh? He can’t talk? Too bad, then.

The Ministry has also seized his funds and Draco draws a line at using Snape’s meager savings (he assumes they are meager, he hasn’t actually checked) so he gets a job in the only place that would employ him: a seedy tea shop in the North side of Diagon Alley. The only reason the owner hired him was because the previous assistant tried to burn the place down and he was in a bit if a rush to find a replacement. After a week, Draco understands why someone would want to burn the place down, and that’s before his boss realizes that Draco is drawing a small crowd of people who like seeing him serving tables. From then on, he takes to screaming and insulting Draco for absolutely everything before turning to his customers with a smug smile.

Every time he or any of the customers complains, Draco smiles a cheap version of the smiles he used to give Voldemort and vows. Sometimes their words sting and sometimes they break against his armor. He lives in a weird state between immunity and pain.

Dumbledore’s actual true will, to be open by Hermione J. Granger (funny how he didn’t address it to Potter) is found in late December. Given the state of the Ministry, Draco expects that they will only get around summoning Granger by early February at best.

Weasley sends another postcard around Christmas. This one comes with an address, in case either he or Snape also want to drop everything and fuck off, he supposes. Draco writes back explaining he is bidding his time to exact just retribution over all those who wronged him and Snape is in no condition to travel. Weasley writes, well, he doesn’t write, he sends a third postcard with quite a nice drawing of a thumbs up.

Snape can now sit up and read the paper. He still can’t get a single sound out, but he can manage sighing in a very meaningful way. They receive another summon to have Snape declare before a Tribunal and he groans before passing out and staying unconscious the next two days.

All things considered, Draco is evidently the one coping better so he feels he can afford a little extravagant behavior like sitting in front of a mirror and practicing his own sighs of heroic suffering for when the vindication comes.

It comes in March.

The world goes absolutely insane. People knew that Snape had done… something, mostly because Potter had very obnoxiously advocated on his behalf.

(Potter is so obnoxious. He comes every Tuesday to Draco’s tea shop and asks for a cup of tea that he barely touches and stays there for an hour saying nothing).

But they had no idea of the extent Snape’s involvement. None. All the curses he surreptitiously knocked aside, all the misfired spells. It wasn’t just gaining Voldemort’s trust and acting on Dumbledore’s plans, he, Snape, personally saved two dozen lives with none the wiser. He was so good at acting covertly!

That should be enough to make any good newspaper editor foam in their mouth, but there is more. There is Weasley, going twenty steps ahead and being ridiculously clever and talented and just… knowing what to do. There is already a shrine to him in Coleraine because he did something very important there and the locals were merely waiting to find a name to put to it. Percy Weasley has been declared tax exempt in all of Ireland.  

Draco merely has a meager thirteen lives saved on his ledger, but he also has three years of cleverly betraying Voldemort. It doesn’t look like much, but once details emerge of how he stole information and passed it to Dumbledore, the whole thing becomes charming. Double-o-Drac-o, is what the muggleborns are calling him. Snape assures him it’s a good thing, but he doesn’t elaborate because he is a bastard who pretends that writing tires him horribly.

Snape wasn’t planning on surviving the war and for the first time in years he is unprepared. He deals with it by trying to shut the world off. If he wasn’t so weak from his wounds, Draco is quite certain that he would have buggered off to wherever Weasley is now, to sit on the sun and be silent together. He certainly does not appreciate the wizarding world’s earnest interest in him. You would think that the fact that he can’t (or, at this point, won’t) speak would deter them a bit, but it only adds to Snape’s tragic charm. Some women and many young men are particularly attracted by it. Fortunately, Draco has only had to chase two of them out of the house because even though Snape can’t say a word, he remains very skilled at non-verbal magic so he hexes every journalist and deranged fan that has the misfortune of coming close to him. Meanwhile, Weasley doesn’t want to be found (“nooooo” says his last postcard, Draco is a bit worried at the lack of capitalization) and has a ten-month head start. He won’t be found.

This means there is only Draco. Shameful bronze medal in the saving-lives business, but with a delicious aura of cleverness and bravery, a whole year of suffering in silence during the post-war, and a face that was made to be dramatically lighted, photographed and printed in the front page.

Wil you answer our questions, Mister Malfoy? Oh, but he will, he will answer every one of their questions and give all details. No one has given so much, sacrificed so much, suffered so much as him.

“I literally died, Malfoy.”

“And I couldn’t afford dying, Potter. I had to survive. Now, get out, these people have some more questions.”

Potter has moved from coming every Tuesday to the stupid tea shop to visiting them at Snape’s cottage. Draco only lets him in because he might annoy Snape into talking. Plus, he is nimble, he can avoid all of Snape’s hexes and the extra exercise will do Snape good.

His relationship with Potter is… strange, but fittingly so. Everything else has been weird lately, why not this? Potter had always elicited interest, but once people learn that Dumbledore had more or less raised him for the slaughter and that when Potter found out he nevertheless went ahead and died, the press and the public in general goes even more rabid. You would think that with so many shocking stories the scandals would dull each other. But, far from that, the public is on fire, incensed, and each piece of news is kindling for the flames.

Potter, unfortunately, does not have a photogenic face (he tends to look like a sad lost deer in all pictures) and all the attention stresses him out. Draco offers him a mutually beneficial deal: Draco will take care of the press for him and Potter will stop the Ministry from returning the manor and his fortune.

“How is that beneficial?”

“I want to tell the press that they took it from me with no evidence before they have the chance to hand it back.”

“Ah, fair enough.” Potter says. He does not seem to be a big fan of the Ministry, which is a pity because this time the Minister is not attempting to kill him, use him, or run a smear campaign against him, unlike the previous ones. It seems that the odd behavior isn’t restricted to Weasley, Snape and him. The other Weasley (Ronald), Granger and Potter are also displaying oddities. Mostly, there is a lot of yelling at the Ministry (Granger) and at every single adult who ever interacted with Potter (Weasley, Ron). Potter isn’t doing any yelling, but he has taken to following Draco around and chatting at Snape.

(No, not “to” or “with”, “at”. He chats at Snape and Snape suffers in silence having accepted that Potter will deflect every hex thrown his way).

Draco doesn’t judge. He is still working at the horrible tea shop with the even more horrible and petty owner (who has no idea how to treat Draco now and spends every waking second alternating between insults and clumsy flattery) simply because he wants to lord over the Ministry that they took his house and money. If Potter feels like he has to follow Draco and harass Snape into making a full recovery, so be it.

There is, of course, the question of Weasley (Ronald) wanting to know where the only tolerable Weasley (Percy) is. Draco doesn’t tell, despite having his address on postcard number 2. That would be a betrayal bigger than anything he did to Voldemort. He could never do that to a person who managed to annoy Dumbledore so much.

What he does is sit down with two cups of tea and explain to Weasley (Ronald) what his brother did and what he went through and why he might not want to interact with any one he knows when, instead, he could be lying face down on a nudist beach in Spain. It helps. Weasley (Ronald) doesn’t track his brother down, but he manages to get him to reply to his letters. He is overjoyed.

The news about having lost his ancestral home and fortune come out and people are adequately irate. He enjoys it, but not as much as he expected. Some people squirm and blush and walk into doors with the embarrassment of how badly they judged him. Some even apologize to his face which is frankly disrespectful because then Draco has to be civil to them. Overall it is unsatisfying. He wants more, but he doesn’t know what he wants.

He almost accepts one of the multiple offers he keeps receiving to enter this or that prestigious program. He would make a good a lawyer. Fortunately, Weasley (the cool one) talks him out of it via postcard. The postcard has nothing written on it other than a smiley face (evidently the brother talks are going well) but it shakes something inside him.

This gives him the idea of apologizing to Longbottom (extremely uncomfortable for both of them) and Granger, who gets him in a number or boards and committees as punishment. Draco competes to be the most disliked person in each committee, which is hard because Granger is in some of them. She asks for immediate liberation of house-elves and a transition program for them and Draco finds himself demanding (just like he did with Dumbledore, full of bile and entitlement) historic reparations. Each blood-line who ever held a house-elf will contribute proportionally to the transition program. He gets death threats over it, it’s great.

Two years after the end of the war, Draco finds himself back in his manor, with most of his money (he doubled his contribution to the elf fund because then the families who want to wash their names would have to do the same) and, mysteriously, Harry Potter in his bed. He has no idea how that happened. He is quite certain he was too busy being a little shit to seduce anyone. Was he seduced when he wasn’t looking? How dare he?

He also has half a dozen very important postcards on his mantelpiece. The only thing he doesn’t have is an ex-Death Eater, ex-potion professor, living in his mansion because the old bastard finally got well enough to say “bugger off, both of you” and then fled to Ireland where the nice Weasley has got a nice little cottage of his own.