Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Temporary Mate	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 17288 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this story.

Chapter List
- 14
- 15
- 16
Thank you again for all the reviews!
Chapter Fifteen—Blue Flames
“We know that we will see you again shortly, Veela Malfoy.”
Harry smiled a little as he saw the spasm of emotion that passed across Draco’s face. Yes, he had agreed that he would come back to this dimension to escort the French Veela, but he had found no love or companionship here.
“And you, as well, Auror Potter.” Caleigh spoke the job title as though it was foreign to his lips, but he smiled a little at Harry. “I know that you would not let your partner make the journey by himself.”
“If only because he might kill someone who flirted with him,” Harry agreed cheerfully. “Or because he would do the same to anyone who flirted with me while he was gone. I’ll come with him.”
Caleigh stared at Harry as if trying to figure out whether he was joking. Harry wanted to roll his eyes. The man was a Veela, and lived among Veela. He ought to know what they behaved like when someone threatened their mate or their bond.
On the other hand, I suppose there are degrees of desperation even among the Veela, Harry thought, and let his gaze stray a little to the side, where Elentaeri stood on a high platform of the tower next to the one where they were taking leave of Caleigh. She had glazed, dreaming eyes. Harry hoped she was thinking of the mate she might be able to choose among the French Veela, and not him.
It seemed so. At least she didn’t blush or simper or even really notice that he was looking at her.
Draco did. He tugged Harry sharply against his side and almost blanketed his face with the wing that he draped over him. Harry coolly tucked Draco’s wing away from him and raised an eyebrow. Draco had the grace to flush, at least once he looked to the side himself and saw that Elentaeri was almost ignoring them.
“So,” Harry said conversationally, “you said that you had a gate back to our dimension right in Asovima, so we don’t have to go tramping through yours?”
“You could fly to the gate you used,” Caleigh said. “But it would take several days, with Veela Malfoy having to stop and rest and sometimes strengthen your new bond. We would like to see you again as soon as possible. So, yes, go through this one.” And he turned and casually lifted his hand. The air behind them, all over the top of the flat platform they were standing on, turned a brilliant white.
Harry lifted a hand to shade his eyes and didn’t curse even though he wanted to. Bloody Veela. No way they could give us a little warning?
Draco squeezed his arm as if he knew what Harry was thinking, but also as if he agreed. Harry smiled at him and looked into the light of the gate when it had dimmed to a more normal level. He almost drooled when he saw green grass. He hadn’t realized how much he missed the colors of his own world.
“We will come back,” said Draco. He had a greater sense of drama than Harry did, or maybe he just understood the Veela customs better. Harry wouldn’t be surprised, given that he had spent time around those French Veela. “Thank you for your hospitality, for your graciousness, for agreeing to take some of my distant cousins into your city.”
“We will see how well they fit.” Caleigh nodded to them, his back braced and his wings spread. “Good fortune attend you and your bond, Veela Malfoy.”
Draco wrapped his arms more strongly around Harry and soared through the gate before anyone could say anything else. Harry surprisingly sneezed as they passed through the white light, and again when they landed on what seemed to be the green grass of a meadow.
Not just any meadow, though, he realized as he leaned back on his heels and looked around. They were in the middle of the sweep of grass between Hogwarts’s lake and the castle. Harry sneezed once more at what was apparently the foreign smell of Veela magic, and then snorted. “Think McGonagall knows about the Veela gate so near her castle?”
“I doubt it.” Draco held out his hand and pulled Harry easily to his feet, grinning at him. “That’s not the kind of knowledge we share easily with outsiders.”
“But I’m considered worthy to know it.”
Draco’s smile turned quieter and more private, and he reached up to tuck a strand of Harry’s dark hair behind his ear. “You’re my mate, Harry. Of course you’re not an outsider.”
Harry found his breath not just catching, but stopping, as he stared into Draco’s eyes. Draco leaned slowly towards him, his soft, focused gaze making it perfectly obvious he was going to kiss Harry.
“Hold right there!”
Harry felt the stiffness of frustration that slammed through Draco’s wings, and he took a moment to caress his wings and lean against him before he turned around and met the gaze of the stunned woman on the other side of the path. “Hello, Headmistress. You’re looking well.”
“Harry?” Minerva lowered her wand, blinking. Then she reached up and rubbed her eyes with one hand, the kind of gesture she would never have let Harry or anyone else to see when they were still students. “I thought you Apparated onto the grounds somehow. It reminded me of my worst fears during the war…Did you Apparate? How did you get here?” She looked around as if she wouldn’t be surprised to see the castle rip free of its foundations and start to dance.
Harry hid his amused chuckle—it would be much worse for him if he didn’t—and inclined his head respectfully. “We came through a gate from another dimension, Headmistress. Don’t worry. I don’t think anyone who’s not a house-elf can Apparate into Hogwarts.”
“And Mr. Malfoy?” Minerva considered Draco’s obvious wings and subtle attempts to shield Harry from her for a moment, and then nodded. “Or should I say Veela Malfoy?” Draco blinked. Minerva waved a hand. “Of course I know that form of address. I have had some Veela students in the past, you know. You have a tale to tell, and it’s cold out here. Let’s go to my office and have tea.”
She turned around and walked away. Harry blinked at her back, then blinked at Draco, who exhaled slowly and shook his head.
“At least she didn’t attack us when she thought we were Apparating onto the grounds,” he pointed out, and started after Minerva. Then he glanced over his shoulder. “It is cold out here, and I want my mate inside where it’s warm.”
Harry smiled faintly and followed.
*
Draco made sure that both their chairs were the same distance from McGonagall’s desk and that he kept his wing casually draped over Harry’s shoulders in a claiming gesture. He wasn’t worried about McGonagall as a rival for his mate the way he had been about Elentaeri, but he did know that she might decide that they should be separated “for Harry’s own good” or some such nonsense.
At the moment, the Headmistress of Hogwarts didn’t seem inclined to do that, though. She sat behind her desk and sipped her tea and nodded a little as though complimenting the flavor to herself. She waited until Harry had got through most of a cup and Draco half of one before she spoke.
That really did prove to Draco that she was familiar with Veela. Most Veela didn’t feel the cold as much as humans.
“Now.” McGonagall set the cup in the exact center of her desk and looked from one to the other. “The last I knew, you were a full-time Auror, Harry. Is that still true?”
“He won’t be in as much danger as he usually is,” Draco said at once.
“I can answer for myself, Draco, thanks,” Harry said, and rolled his eyes a little at him. Draco draped the wing tighter in retaliation. Harry took no notice. “Yes, it’s true. I accompanied Draco on a mission to a different dimension where groups of Veela live.”
“And you’re the only one who came back?” McGonagall was studying everything, it seemed, from the feathers in Draco’s wings to the way he held Harry. “What precipitated Veela Malfoy’s transformation?”
“The same attack that killed the other Aurors that were with us,” Harry said, and grimaced. Draco knew the grimace was a mask for grief, and ducked his head, gently crooning in Harry’s ear. Harry reached up and squeezed his hand in silent thanks. “It nearly killed Draco, too. He had me cast a spell that bound me to him as a temporary mate until we could reach refuge.”
“Temporary?”
“Not anymore,” Draco said. He hoped that Harry didn’t want to reveal any more than that. They were going to attract enough negative attention and publicity as it was.
McGonagall watched them as though she could imagine lots of explanations for the way things had turned out and liked none of them. Then she nodded. “Very well. You are welcome to stay in Hogwarts for an hour or two to recoup your strength. Then I think you should return to the Ministry.”
“Are they looking for us?” Harry lurched up beside him as though he was going to charge to the rescue of whoever was sobbing in pain at the Ministry right now. Draco rolled his eyes and held him easily in the chair.
“As far as I understand it, no. But there was a newspaper article yesterday questioning your absence, Harry.” McGonagall paused. “And accusing Veela Malfoy here of kidnapping you.”
“Of course there was,” Draco muttered in irritation. “We both disappear at the same time, and it couldn’t be a mission they didn’t want to tell the public about or that I was helping him on a case. No, it must be a crime.”
“I did not believe it,” McGonagall told him quietly. “But it does mean that your return could be—explosive.”
Draco grimaced and reached for his tea again. Suddenly the Headmistress’s office, which he had only been prepared to tolerate, felt like a sanctuary.
*
Harry sighed heavily. He had suggested that he and Draco could Apparate back as close to the Ministry as they could get and use a spell to hide Draco’s Veela heritage until they were alone with Ron, Hermione, Kingsley, and other people who immediately needed to know. To him, it was the best way to keep Draco safe from a possible angry and public reaction, and to let them announce the news in their own time.
And of course Draco didn’t agree.
“You’re mine. You’re acting as though you’re ashamed of that!”
Harry winced as the air around him seemed to ripple impressively with thick, heavy magic, and shook his head. “I am not ashamed,” he stressed, looking up at the sky. They were outside Hogwarts right now, on the road to Hogsmeade and the point where it was normal to Apparate from the castle grounds. “I just thought that it would be better if we could release the news quietly and slowly—”
Draco whirled him around and backed him towards a tree. Harry went with it, partially because he could see the blue flames shining in Draco’s eyes and didn’t want him actually hurling them.
“Why are you doing this?” Draco asked him, crowding him close. “You seemed so adamant that you were my mate when there were other Veela around. Are you ashamed of appearing as my mate in front of humans?”
“No. I was trying—”
“To protect me. I’m strong enough to protect myself, and you.” Draco hissed at him, flashing impressive teeth for a part-bird creature. “I thought we had this settled, Harry.”
Harry narrowed his eyes. “Fine, let’s talk about things we thought were settled. Why did you alternate between accepting the bond and tearing yourself away from it so much at first, and then act like of course we were going to bond and I was ridiculous for ever trying to keep my distance?”
Draco blinked. The flames in his eyes died a little. “I thought you knew. I was still seesawing back and forth between the Veela and the human sides of myself.”
“What made the difference for you? I mean, why did you decide to accept the Veela side?”
“Because I realized that you were the kind of person I could also fall in love with as a human. And because—fine, I wanted to have sex and call you mine.” Draco’s cheeks were flushing a furious rose, but he met Harry’s eyes fearlessly. “I didn’t want you to get away. Maybe I made the decision at a moment when I was acting more Veela than human, but I still made it.”
“And are you always going to act more Veela than human? Like, around my friends?”
“Only as much as I need to to make them keep their hands to themselves.”
Harry rolled his eyes again. “Listen to me, Draco. And don’t interrupt. Ron and Hermione have never been interested in me. They were always pining for each other almost from the moment they were in fourth year. Or maybe even before that. I don’t know, I try not to think that much about my best friends’ sex lives! You don’t need to intimidate them.”
“I was thinking about the Weaselette.”
Harry promptly jerked hard enough that Draco’s hands went flying away. Draco stared at him with dropped jaw. Harry probably wasn’t supposed to be able to do that when he was exercising his “Veela powers.”
“Don’t call her that,” Harry hissed.
Draco continued staring for a second. Then he dipped his head and cuddled close to Harry, his eyes becoming softer than Harry had seen them since they got back. “My apologies,” he said in a voice that was almost a warble, tracing his fingers down Harry’s jawline. “How can I make it up to you?”
Harry’s mind pictured a few, unhelpful ways. At least, they were unhelpful when he was trying to concentrate. He reached up, firmly caught Draco’s hand, and tugged it away from his face. “You can promise that you’ll never say that again.”
“I won’t say it again,” Draco murmured with an agreeable nod. “But you can’t stop me from thinking it.”
“You have no reason to think it,” Harry snapped at him. “Ginny and I dated years ago. We broke up because it wasn’t right for either of us. But I know she doesn’t want me back. You managed to go around without insulting Elentaeri, even to me. Why is Ginny so different?”
Draco paused. Then he said, “Because I knew you didn’t want Elentaeri back.”
“I don’t want Ginny, either!”
“You did at one point.” Draco leaned heavily on him, almost enough to knock Harry away from his “perch” against the tree and onto his back. “I just want to know if you’re going to turn around and offer her your bed again.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Harry rolled his eyes. “Are you asking me to tell you the gory details of our breakup?”
“Yes,” said Draco, without an ounce of shame.
“Fine,” Harry muttered. “Listen, then. Ginny and I were really young when we started dating. We became different people in the war. She faced the dangers at Hogwarts without me. I went off on that quest with Ron and Hermione without her. She thought she forgave me for breaking up with her to put her out of danger, but she didn’t—”
“I won’t put up with you if you try to break our bond because I’m in danger. You know that, right?”
“I won’t do that.”
“As long as you know.”
Harry sighed and went on. “But she didn’t realize that it hurt her a lot. And she watched me go off to Auror work, and sometimes not tell her the details of the cases because I couldn’t tell anyone outside of the people I was immediately working with, and she got fed up with being left out of important parts of my life. Some of it I didn’t even know I was doing. It was just natural for me to tell Ron and Hermione lots of secrets and not other people. But that doesn’t excuse it. We’d changed, but—not enough, in the end. Not enough in me, not enough for her.”
“I won’t allow you to do that.”
“What?”
“Keep secrets from me.”
“Draco, we were discussing the reasons that you and Ginny were different—”
“Well, in one respect, she’s smarter than I thought,” said Draco, in the tone of someone making so magnificent a concession that Harry rolled his eyes again. “But you won’t leave me out of anything you’re doing.”
“If I can’t tell you the details of an Auror case—”
“You’ll make an exception. I’m surprised that you stuck to the rules when it came to her, honestly.”
Harry felt his face flame. That was an almost exact echo of some of the last words Ginny had said to him the night she left. “Yeah, um. In retrospect, that was probably another sign that I didn’t feel as close to her as I should have.”
“You’re going to be so close to me that no one can tell the difference,” Draco insisted softly, reaching up to stroke Harry’s hair back from his forehead. “You have to. This bond is permanent, but our trust won’t survive otherwise. And then, eventually, we won’t, either.”
“Yeah, I—get that.”
Draco continued studying him for another minute, then nodded. “Let’s go to the Ministry, then. Through the front door. We can still go straight to your Shacklebolt’s office, but we’re going to walk with my wing around your shoulders and make it obvious that you have a Veela mate. All right?”
Harry might still have bristled, but he could hear the faint traces of uncertainty in Draco’s voice. Part of him still feared rejection even now.
Harry only nodded, and leaned in to gently kiss Draco on the lips. Then he let Draco Apparate them, because it meant more to him than it did to Harry.
I think I’m already learning how to pick my battles.
*
Thunderbird: Thank you!
SickPuppy: Draco may end up having to smack other people! But not her.
SP777: Or occupy her so much with keeping them in line that that she doesn't cause any more trouble!
- 14
- 15
- 16
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

Temporary Mate