Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Opening Salvo	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Threesomes/Moresomes Views: 4991 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this story.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
Title: Opening Salvo

Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing this story for fun and not profit.

Rating: PG-13

Pairings: Snape/Harry/Draco, established Snape/Draco, mentions of past Harry/Ginny

Warnings: Angst, suicidal thoughts, AU in that Snape survives

Summary: Harry, consumed by his memories after the war, finds himself guided by Luna to Severus and Draco, who have lived in seclusion since the end of the Death Eater trials. Now Harry is face-to-face with old enemies he testified for and a place of peace where he has no choice but to think.

Author’s Notes: Another one of my Wednesday one-shots, written for an anonymous prompt that asked for: Harry living in the Muggle world, struggling with PTSD, and being brought by Luna to Draco and Severus, who owe her and Harry debts; angst with a happy ending. This will probably have three parts.

Opening Salvo

            There was a soft white glow in front of him, so unexpected that Harry turned his head back and forth several times, squinting, before he managed to identify it.

            “Luna?”

            As if speaking her name had called her back into form, suddenly he could see her clearly. Luna stood in his bedroom in a sparkling white set of robes, which flowed around her like the fronds of a plant. Harry smiled at her.

            “What are you doing here?” he added, sitting up in the bed. He spent a lot of hours lying around, thinking, and sometimes so consumed with emotion that it was as if he was back in the memories he was trying to deal with. Really there in the cupboard, or there in the Chamber of Secrets, or there in front of Voldemort as he died.

            But right now, he had an obligation to be here, with Luna, who was politely waiting for him. Harry put his feet on the floor to remind himself of the reality other people inhabited, and nodded. “What are you doing here?”

            “You already asked me that, Harry,” Luna murmured, drifting towards him. She reached out with a hand as soft as spidersilk and caressed his cheek.

            “Did I?” Harry shook his head with dismay. “Sorry.” He turned his head and spent a moment smelling her scent. His memories didn’t include a lot of strong scents, except blood. It was refreshing to smell ordinary salt and skin.

            “You don’t have to be sorry for me,” said Luna. She frowned, and Harry stared at her. He couldn’t remember her doing that before. “The nargles are the ones who should apologize to you, confusing you like this. How dare they.”

            “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Luna,” Harry said, and touched a hand to his hair. He grimaced a little when he felt how greasy it was, but then shook his head and dropped his hand into his lap. He could barely handle the ordinary chores of keeping himself alive. He couldn’t cast the Cleaning Charms when he hadn’t known Luna was coming.

            “The nargles are making you dream of bad things all the time,” said Luna severely, and put her hands on her hips. “They’re the younger cousins of Dementors. They were always jealous that Dementors got to feed on happiness, because they can’t. But they can make you feel bad.” She cast a disapproving glance around at Harry’s flat, and Harry looked with her, wincing as he saw the piled boxes in the corners, still full of clothes and Quidditch gear, still half-packed.

            “How long have you been feeling this bad, Harry?” Luna asked, turning back to him. Her voice was gentle, but Harry still hesitated before the supreme effort of thinking of the date. Luna made her voice coaxing. “I can’t tell how bad the nargles are unless I know when it started.”

            “Right after the war,” Harry murmured. He lay back in the bed. He would probably return to another memory in a minute, and it was best—he’d learned from hard experience—not to be sitting up when he did that. “I started thinking about what I was going to do, and I realized I didn’t want to do anything.”

            “That might be the Wrackspurts,” said Luna thoughtfully. “What about Ron and Hermione?”

            “In Australia searching for Hermione’s parents.” Harry winced and shut his eyes. The last owl he’d had from Hermione had said that apparently her Memory Charm had implanted a few more memories than she’d meant to give her parents; they thought someone was hunting for them and were trying to hide. No wonder she and Ron kept stumbling on clues and then losing the trail.

            “I’ve mislaid my father in many places, but I don’t think I’ve ever mislaid him in Australia.”

            Harry only shook his head, and said nothing. Luna was quiet, watching him. Harry thought she might vanish as suddenly as she’d arrived.

            But then she said, “Would friends help you drive the nargles and Wrackspurts away?”

            Harry swallowed. “I don’t think so, Luna. The last time I went to the Burrow was pretty disastrous.”

            He didn’t mean it to be. But it was like his tongue ran away from him, and he couldn’t talk about anything but Fred. And then, when he was quiet, he saw the way Molly stared with brimming eyes at the empty place she’d set at the table, and he’d tried to comfort her.

            Harry winced away from that memory, too, and looked at Luna. She was standing on one foot now, reciting a quick rhyme under her breath.

            “Just to make sure the nargles don’t follow us where I’m going to take you,” she said, and put the foot down, and reached for Harry’s hand. “Can you unpack some clothes to take with you?”

            “I—what? Luna, I’m not going anywhere.” Harry tried to pull free. He thought it would be easy, but maybe he was weaker than he knew. He found himself blinking in shock at the slender fingers that still clasped his wrist.

            “Yes, you’re right,” Luna said. “It would be better to find clothes fit you there. I think you’re about Draco’s size.”

            “Draco?” Harry shook his head. Some of his most intense memories were of Malfoy, sobbing in the bathroom or standing motionless as death in the courtroom where the Wizengamot was deciding his fate or staring up hopelessly through the Fiendfyre. “I’m not going to visit Malfoy.”

            “I didn’t say it would be a visit.” Luna stepped back and put a hand on his shoulder as if she was measuring him. “Well. Perhaps Professor Snape’s clothes would be better. You’ve lost weight, and he’s thin. But I think Draco’s would be better for size.”

            Harry closed his eyes. “I know they live somewhere together. I’m not visiting them.”

            “No, you aren’t,” Luna agreed.

            Harry opened his eyes and looked at her again. She wasn’t acting very different from the way she always had, but at the same time, he wondered if this was another dream or hallucination. It didn’t seem to have any point. “Then I’m staying here. You can stay with me for a little while, Luna. I mean, you can visit. I can make some tea.” He looked around the flat. He knew he had some Muggle tea somewhere.

            And if he searched hard enough, he might even find his wand.

            “No,” said Luna patiently. “You won’t be visiting them. I’m taking you to live with them. They have a lot of nice friends around them who chase nargles away.”

            Harry recoiled before he could even think about how he’d react. The last thing he needed was a bunch of people who would look at him with pity in their eyes and see the deranged Boy-Who-Lived, maybe sell the stories to reporters. “I want to stay here, Luna,” he said.

            “But that’s the nargles talking,” said Luna. She looked around for a minute, as if searching for something, then solemnly reached into her pocket and took out a necklace of small shells strung on a piece of twine. She offered it to Harry. “I should have had you put it on right away, but I didn’t know they were this bad.”

            Harry shook his head, not touching the necklace. “I’m not going anywhere.”

            She smiled at him, took his arm, and turned them. Harry didn’t stand up from the bed, but he still found himself Side-Along Apparating. Suddenly he was sitting on a rock that was lower than the bed, low enough that he smacked his arse and gave a painted shout.

            “What did you bring us this time, Luna? Another sick Crup puppy we have to stay up all night with?”

            Harry turned his head. They were sitting outdoors—well, he’d already realized that, given the rock under his arse and all—in a small green valley between two extremely high hills. A pen of goats stood a short distance away, with a few taller creatures in it that looked like they had wounded legs. And in front of Harry stood Malfoy, with a tiny basket over his arm and, sure enough, a Crup puppy at his heels.

            “Oh, no!” said Luna, beaming. “Something much more—”

            “Troublesome,” Malfoy sighed out, eyes never leaving Harry’s. “Was it the nargles or the Wrackspurts?”

*

            Inwardly, Draco knew he should be glad Luna hadn’t brought them another unicorn to nurse. They already had three, and even with Severus’s potions, it could take months to heal the inner damage to their spirits as well as the outer damage to their bodies.

            That didn’t mean Draco was pleased to see Potter.

            Of course, he was mostly surprised to see Potter. No one had since the end of the war, from what he could remember of the stories in the papers. Someone would say they’d seen him, and that would set off a frenzy of hunting through Muggle London, and later it would turn out that person had been drunk or mistaken. And then Draco and Severus had moved into their valley, and covered it with some of the strongest protection spells they knew, and even reports like that had ceased.

            Luna was standing with her frown trained on Draco. Draco sighed. He and Severus owed Luna for wandering into their home one day and announcing that she’d found a valley occupied by magical creatures that would be perfect as a home for them. If nothing else, Draco would listen to her reasoning for bringing Potter.

            He just didn’t expect to be convinced of it.

            “It was the nargles,” Luna said, in the low voice she used whenever she talked about that particular set of nonexistent creations. “Infecting poor Harry’s head and making him think the worst thoughts.”

            Potter had turned enough to look at Draco with a blank expression on his face, like the one Severus had sometimes worn right after his trial. Draco resisted the urge to shrug. So it was memories of the war. Everyone got them.

            Potter has more right than most.

            “I wanted to bring him to the place with the least nargles I could think of,” Luna finished firmly. “And I know that you and Professor Snape like memories, too. So here we are.” She beamed at William, the Crup she’d brought them a month ago, and the unicorns and goats in the pen, and Potter, and Draco.

            Draco sighed and set his basket down. “We can’t do much for humans, Luna. You know that.” Since it was through her persistence—or rather, her blithe assumption that they would do it when she brought them injured magical creatures—that they’d become creature healers, he’d thought she would remember that, one fixed point in the floating sea of her delusions.

            Luna chuckled and reached out to pat him on the arm. “I do remember that, Draco! But wizards are a kind of magical creature. And Harry is less human than most.”

            Draco darted a quick glance at Potter, to see how he liked being spoken of like that. Potter only blinked slowly at him.

            Stupefied with depression? Maybe. And that made Draco even less sanguine about healing him.

            “I don’t know how Severus will react to having him here,” he said, turning again to face Luna. “And you know he’s the one who has to make the final decision.”

            Potter made a little move with one hand, but said nothing. Draco wondered if Severus’s name had a chance of reaching him, even now.

            “I don’t want you to do anything extraordinary, Draco.” Luna smiled chidingly at him and went over to pet one of the goats in the pen. The large black-and-white one, Sniffing, Draco saw, when she moved a little to let the goat nuzzle closer. “Only heal Harry and make him happy to live again and get him back on his feet.”

            “Right,” Draco said a second later, when he’d had a chance to feel as if he’d stopped reeling. “Nothing extraordinary.”

            Luna smiled at him. “It’s always nice when my friends agree with me.”

            “Why here?”

            That was Potter’s voice, dull and uninterested. Draco shook his head a little. So this had all been Luna’s idea, with Potter having no input? They were even less likely to heal him than they had been.

            “Because you’ll recover best here, dear Harry,” Luna said, and for once her eyes were sharp instead of distracted when Draco looked at her. “With people to challenge you and for you to struggle against, and who will wake you up.”

            Draco looked at Potter, wondering if those words had some special significance to him, but all Potter did was blink and shake his head. “I don’t need to wake up, Luna. I’m not dreaming. I don’t have nightmares.”

            Draco snorted a little. “Even I can hear that something is wrong, Potter. You sound like you’ve had too much to drink.”

            “No, you sound that way,” Potter muttered childishly.

            Before Draco could answer, footsteps sounded up the pebbly hillside. Draco sighed and turned around. “You should be resting, Severus.” The day after a ritual with one of the unicorns to take willingly given blood was always best spent in bed.

            But Severus, although he was walking with the aid of a cane and the scar lines on his throat from the snakebite seemed especially vivid today, hadn’t lost any of the alertness in his eyes. He turned his head back and forth from Potter to Draco, and said nothing. Draco sighed and started to explain.

            Luna did before he could. “It’s like Harry is a wounded unicorn without a horn and hooves,” she said earnestly. “And without fur. And with a horrible burden in his heart.” She paused. “That’s it.”

            Potter pushed himself off the stone and stood up with a horrible dragging slowness to his movements. Draco savagely bit his lip. They could do nothing for a Potter who didn’t want to recover, and frankly that was what this looked like to him.

            But all Potter did was bob one of those heavy, half-drunken nods at Severus and say, “Professor Snape, sir. You survived even after the trials.”

            Severus paused. Draco could see his fingers working on the top of the cane. “What kind of healing do you need, Mr. Potter?”

            “I don’t think I need any. I mean, I know it’s not healthy, but other people got over it after the war. I will, too.” Potter folded his arms and glared at them all.

            “He needs healing for his memories,” said Luna. “They’re overtaking him. Hunting him down. I know you caged some of your memories, Professor Snape. Would you show him how to do the same thing?”

            “That would involve Legilimency,” said Severus at once. Now he was standing straight and no longer leaning as much on his cane, but his eyes, fastened on Potter, were still brilliant with dislike. Well, Draco could hardly blame him. “An art in which Mr. Potter and I have equally bad experiences.”

            Potter breathed out slowly through his mouth. Then he said, “I don’t care if you want to poke inside my head. I just don’t think it’ll do anything.”

            “And what about you peering inside mine, Mr. Potter?” Severus’s voice made William the Crup slink behind Draco’s legs.

            “Since you’re not trying to teach me Occlumency and I don’t know Legilimency, I wouldn’t be doing that,” was all Potter said, simply, before he turned and looked at Draco. “You wouldn’t mind me staying here?”

            “I thought you didn’t need to.” Draco shifted the basket from one arm to the other, and saw the goats’ eyes focus on it. He almost snorted. Of course. They hadn’t been fed yet, and most be wondering where in the world their food had gone.

            “Luna wants me to. And I don’t have anything tying me to the flat.”

            “Your friends?”

            “In Australia still looking for Hermione’s parents.”

            There was a story there, but not one Draco cared to pursue. He only nodded and said, “Well, we owe Luna a debt for finding us this place, and you life-debts. I can put you up. And I can practice Legilimency on you if Severus has objections.”

            “Good,” Potter said vaguely, and sat down on his stone again. Draco glanced at Severus

            Severus was looking at Luna. Luna had gone back to petting Sniffing. Severus said softly, “And you think this is for the best, Miss Lovegood?”

            Luna beamed at him. “For everyone.”

            Draco turned back to his partner. Then it was just up to whether Severus could tolerate Potter’s presence in the house.

            Severus examined Potter in a way Draco had come to recognize. It said that this particular magical creature would be a challenge to heal, and that was a good thing. Severus’s constantly critical, thinking mind would get bored with no challenges.

            Finally, Severus looked up and nodded.

            “Good, then,” said Luna, and Apparated out of their valley, the only person other than them who could. Potter continued to sit droopily on his rock. Draco exchanged a glance with Severus over his head.

            An unpromising beginning.

            Then again, some of their other healings had had unpromising beginnings, Draco told himself as he finally moved to feed the goats. And there was the possibility that they would get some profit out of it, the way they did selling magical hair and horns and the like with permission from the creatures they healed.

            Then Draco looked again at the motionless Potter on his rock, and had to wince.

            Maybe some profit. Maybe.
- 1
- 2
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Opening Salvo