Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Under the Manor	By : WillGirl Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 13318 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Disclaimer: I make no claims to Harry Potter, either books or movies, and all rights belong to JKR. No money or other recompense is being made from this story.

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
Harry smiled. “See?” he said. “Everything really will be okay.”

Draco rolled his eyes and pulled his hand away. “You’re an idiot, Potter,” he said, but his voice lacked its usual venom.

Harry shrugged. “Yeah, probably,” he agreed easily. “But it’s true, whether you want to admit that you believe me or not.”

"Fine,” Malfoy drawled, “I believe you.” He sounded totally sarcastic and utterly unconvinced; sardonic and wry enough to make Snape proud. But Harry knew that underneath the lie, Draco was telling the truth.

He smiled, and patted Draco on the shoulder, and drew away gently. “See you around, Malfoy,” he said.

“I certainly hope not,” Draco replied drily. Harry chuckled, and walked slowly out of the hospital room. He felt pounds lighter than he had when he’d walked in; lighter and brighter and full of good cheer. He felt like he’d really meant what he’d said, every last word of it.

He felt like they really would be okay, all of them.

It felt good.

Harry turned the corner so absorbed in his blissful contentment that he ran right into the girl coming the other way. “Sorry!” Harry exclaimed, and bent to help pick up the papers and bottles she had dropped when they collided. He swore at himself under his breath, and muttered, “at least none of them broke...”

“They’re enchanted, actually,” the witch replied.

Harry looked up, really noticing her for the first time. She was short and pretty and very young, and she looked vaguely familiar. Her wavy brown hair was pulled into a knot at the back of her head, but several strands had escaped to curl around her face. She looked like the kind of person who tried very, very hard to be stiff and dignified, but was just too kind and sweet to ever pull it off. And she was smiling, despite having been knocked nearly off her feet by a distracted Auror.

“Ah...what?” said Harry.

“The bottles,” the witch replied. “They’re enchanted so they won’t break if we drop them. They tell us that all the bottles here are, but I think they probably only bother bespellings the ones they give to us trainees.”

“Oh, ah...” said Harry, sounding very intelligent and quick-witted, he was sure. “Right,” he said. “So, um...you’re a Healer here then, are you?”

“Just a trainee right now,” she corrected him. She didn’t sound impatient, despite having to repeat herself. Harry figured that such endurance was probably a valuable trait in a healer. “Astoria Greengrass, Mister Potter,” the witch introduced herself. She took the bottles back from Harry and then shifted them to one arm so that she could politely shake his hand. “We were at Hogwarts together, but I don’t believe we ever really met properly.”

“Oh,” said Harry again, “right, of course. I thought I knew you from somewhere...”

She grinned at him. “No you didn’t,” she said, “but that’s quite all right. I daresay you had several other things to worry about at school than little Slytherin girls two years behind you who were too shy to pop out of their books and converse with anyone, let alone big heroic Gryffindors.”

“Um,” said Harry, “that isn’t, I mean...”

“Besides,” Astoria Greengrass continued slyly, “you were in several classes with my sister, so I can hardly blame you for choosing to ignore any other Greengrasses you might have come across. I have, after all, met my sister.” Her grin was terrifyingly mischievous, and Harry revised his earlier opinion; sweet and kind though she might look, this Astoria clearly still had some bite behind her pretty little smile.

“Right,” said Harry. He edged backwards, out of the way. “Well, um, I won’t, uh, get in your way any more, then,” he stammered. “I’m sure you’re, um, kept very busy. Even when, um, when bumbling Aurors aren’t knocking you all akimbo. Um, sorry about that, by the way,” he added, cheeks burning.

The witch shrugged. “Don’t worry about it, Mister Potter,” she said sweetly. “No harm done, after all.”

“Right,” he said, “well...right. Good bye, then.”

“Have a pleasant evening,” Astoria Greengrass told him politely, and Harry beat a hasty retreat.

He shook his head, and grinned. The Healers certainly had gotten prettier than the last time he’d been in St. Mungo’s. He’d better be careful not to get hurt on the job; if Ginny caught him being tended by Healers who looked like that, she’d camp out in the hospital until he got better.

Harry’s grin widened. He was pretty sure he wouldn’t mind that one bit.

He glanced over his shoulder and saw Greengrass juggling her bottles aside so that she could pass through the door to Draco’s room. He hoped, for her sake, that she got done with her duties and out of there before Draco’s parents showed up to fuss and fidget; Astoria seemed like far too nice a person for Harry to wish the tribulation of fretting parents (especially those parents) upon.

Then he looked away again, and walked down the long hallway, and out the door. Halfway down the steps it occurred to him to wonder how Ginny would feel about ropes, and he grinned. Harry gave a jaunty wave to the Welcome Witch, and a wink that was not forced, and then he left the hospital.

Harry Potter paused for a moment on the sidewalk, and took a deep breath. When he let it out again, he was smiling. The sun was setting over the tall roofs of London. It was going to be a beautiful evening.

And maybe, just maybe, it all really would be well, for everyone.

And that's the end. I hope you all liked it, and I want to thank you all for not just encouraging this story, but actually creating it yourselves. It was your reviews that turned this into more than the one-shot it was meant to be, and I really enjoyed writing it, and finding out what was going to happen next myself, so thank you. Please, speaking of reviews, do not hesitate to let me know what you thought, good or bad or ugly or all three at once. This story happened because of you, so I would absolutely adore finding out what you think of it, now that it's found its winding end at last.

(Oh, and CJB, I am very sorry that it didn't end the way you had predicted. If you wanted to write up a version that involves a stalker, rather than a randomly opportunistic bar patron, I know that I, personally, would love to read it, because that sounds awesome. So you should do that, and then let me know. Hint, and hint.)

And again: thank you, everyone.
- 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

Under the Manor