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Honour Bound	By : Draeconin Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 42041 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Chapter 1
- 2-Ch. 2
- 3-Ch. 3
- 4-Ch. 4
- 5-Ch. 5
- 6-Ch. 6
- 7-Ch. 7
- 8-Ch. 8
- 9-Ch. 9
- 10-Ch. 10
- 11-Ch. 11
- 12-Ch. 12
- 13-Ch. 13
- 14-Ch. 14
- 15-Ch. 15
- 16-Ch. 16
- 17-Ch. 17
- 18-Ch. 18
- 19-Ch. 19
- 20-Ch. 20
- 17
- 18
- 19
Honour Bound

by Draeconin

See Chapter One for disclaimer and details.

Chapter Eighteen

Harry and Draco hadn't forgotten the other secret passages, but Draco insisted that a contingent of house elves clean them first. It took two weeks. The passage that he had chosen that first time, and then abandoned, led to the Gryffindor suite. It was done in all wood tones, with touches of green and fall leaf colours here and there as accents. The effect was so warm and welcoming that Draco almost insisted they move to it. Only his pride and loyalty to Slytherin kept him quiet.

The other passage off of the alcove under the Slytherin apartment did a split of its own. The one that meandered off to the left wound up at the Slytherin House common room. The one to the right eventually opened up into a small cave in the Forbidden Forest, the door cleverly camouflaged to blend in with the cave wall - likely an escape route.

The passage behind the wood box led both to the royal suite and, after meandering around a bit and going up several flights of stairs, went up a spiraling staircase, and wound up in a small, semi-circular room barely larger than a closet at the top of a tower. A door led out onto a small balcony. The only clue to the use of this tower was an empty broom rack, with spaces for several brooms; another escape route.

Harry made a mental note to buy a few brooms with which to stock the rack. Even if it was never needed, it would be a good investment. Come to that, installing a broom rack, with brooms, in the tunnel that let out into the Forbidden Forest would be a good idea, as well. With the passages they had found out of the Slytherin suite, there surely had to be more out of the other suites. One escape route for them, when Salazar had two, didn't make sense. That search would have to wait for a time when they had more leisure, however. Lilorienne should be a great help there, if only indirectly, as she had done with the Slytherin suite.

Also, during those weeks, Harry and Draco had spent quite some time in the libraries; the school's, and the ones in Slytherin's and Gryffindor's suites. Each time they found a spell revealing charm they tried it on Harry's wand. They must have tried out over a dozen before one that they'd found in a book in the Gryffindor suite made Harry's wand glow a pale, sickly blue - a positive. That was good, because Harry had been about to give up and put it all down to paranoia. Now that they knew which spell detection charm was on Harry's wand, they had to find the spell to remove it. The spell name was included in the text accompanying the revealing charm, but now they had to find its counter. That took another three days, utilizing the greater portion of their free time between classes, meals, homework, and other necessary activities.

Draco prepared the potion in which Harry's wand would need to soak. When it was ready, they set Harry's wand to marinating in it, and set up everything else that would be needed. Since it was Harry's wand that was needing to be de-spelled, it devolved upon Draco to do the work. It took the whole of the weekend, what with time needed between procedures, and another soak in a different potion, but finally Harry's wand was free of detection spells.

"I'm going to kill that crazy old goat," Draco growled softly, and sighed as he sank into a comfortable, cushioned chair. "He definitely didn't want anyone taking that spell off your wand." He then grinned with grim satisfaction. "But he can't track what you cast, now!"

Harry had sat at the chair's side and put his head on Draco's leg during this time. "Thank you, love," he said, kissing the nearest portion of Draco's leg that he could reach. He, too, was tired. He had stayed by Draco's side the entire time, assisting where he could, and offering moral support when he couldn't do anything else, despite Draco's sometimes acerbic protestations.

o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o

"We've been wandering around for ages, Harry! Are you sure this is the area?"

"Yes!" Harry was very frustrated. He'd seen the memory. He knew the cave had to be around here somewhere. It was a dead certainty that it hadn't been moved. But perhaps... "Right!" Harry exclaimed, causing Draco to jump slightly. "It's been hidden!"

Draco looked at Harry as though his fiancé had lost his mind. "Who would hide an empty cave?"

Harry shrugged. "We are talking about Dumbledore, right?"

Draco's expression cleared. "Right." Dumbledore usually had a reason for the things he did. That didn't mean that the reason was logical or would make sense to anyone else, however.

Both young men started casting revealing and direction spells at likely-looking places; usually rock piles at the base of a steep slope. But it was Harry, a half-hour later, who found it by casting a revealing spell at a shadowed area behind a large boulder, causing the boulder to appear to reduce drastically in size, and the shadowed niche to expand into a small cave opening surrounded by rubble.

"I'm not about to crawl, to get in there!" Draco averred.

"You're exaggerating, Draco. It's not that small; and we'll only have to crouch a bit," Harry replied, eyeing the opening a bit doubtfully.

"Harry...did I conk you too hard when you made me fall in that puddle?"

Harry grinned wryly. "All right; it is quite small. But I'm sure we can make it."

Draco eyed the opening again. "Whatever you say - Your Majesty."

Harry grinned and aimed a light blow to the back of the blond's head, which Draco dodged easily, returning the the grin.

Draco's grin faded, however, as he watched Harry crouch down as far as he could, bending over, then folding his knees down before he started to awkwardly waddle into the cave opening. If it hadn't been winter, with the ground wet and muddy, it would have been easier to crawl in on their hands and knees. For a moment, Draco considered staying outside. But he reconsidered when he recalled that he'd be alone, and a few of his father's 'old crowd' might be wandering about. They'd like nothing better than to get their hands on Harry Potter's betrothed, unless it was getting Harry Potter himself.

Draco sighed. "The things I do for you, Harry Potter," he muttered in fond irritation as he readied himself to copy Harry's actions.

'Yes, I know; and I love you, too. Now get your delectable buns in here!' Draco heard in his mind.

"I swear, sometimes I do see why others have committed regicide," the blond muttered, despite his warm feelings at the comment, and the pictures that ran through his mind of things Harry had done with his 'delectable buns' (not that he hadn't returned the favour a time or two). Then he squatted down and 'duck-walked' (not even ex-Malfoys 'waddled') into the cave. He stood as soon as there was room to do so, and carefully made his way over to Harry, who had his wand lit, at the same time drawing his own and lighting it with a whispered "Lumos."

"Regicide, eh?" Harry asked slyly as Draco joined him. "Then I wouldn't be able to do a repeat performance of some of those things you were thinking of."

Draco blushed, but otherwise ignored him, choosing to look around, instead.

There really wasn't much to see. It was a fairly small, irregularly-shaped cave with an uneven, rubble-strewn floor. After a short conference, both young men started their search. They kept together, in case of any sort of nasty surprise, and so their combined wand light would eliminate as many shadows as possible. Then, starting on the right, they started their exploration of the cave.

Surprisingly, the little cave was larger than it looked. The main area was rather small, but the many offshoots, though not large or long in themselves, each added more space. They had gone about three-quarters of the way around the cave when they noted the first oddity; a regularly-shaped alcove about three feet in height, two feet wide, and two feet deep. In it was a shallowly cupped pedestal that would have been about the right size for a baby in a stasis bubble.

Harry just stood there, staring at it.

"Do you think that's it, Harry?" Draco asked in hushed tones.

There was a long silence during which Draco decided Harry wasn't going to answer, when suddenly, he did. "I don't know. Could be, I suppose. Right size, isn't it?"

Draco nodded, and as he did, another regular curve caught his eye. Turning his head a bit, he saw the arched top of what could have been another alcove, except there was a stone slab in place of an opening.

"Harry?"

"Hm?"

"Do you suppose you might have had a brother or sister?"

Harry shrugged, leaning in to examine the interior of the little alcove more closely. "I'll never know, will I?" he replied.

"You might find out sooner than you think," Draco replied, a strange tone in his voice.

"What? What are you talking about?" Harry asked, straightening up and turning to face his fiancé. There hadn't been anything more to see in there anyway; just a bit more rubble. Still, it was a strange feeling, to see where you'd 'slept' for almost a thousand years. And then he noticed that Draco had a rather strange look on his face, and followed the blond's gaze to...

"Another alcove? But..."

Harry's thoughts became so chaotic that Draco closed their mental connection. He couldn't do it for long - neither of them could, although damping it down to give each other a little privacy was fairly easy - but they could close it for a little while. Normally neither of them would bother, even if they were having a spat, since it took more energy and effort than they liked to expend.

"Harry, calm down! For all we know, it could just be your spare nappies! The only way to know for sure, is to open it."

Harry immediately pointed his wand at the stone slab.

"Wait!" Draco said urgently, trying to keep control of the situation. "What spell are you going to use? You don't want to damage whatever's inside," he explained.

Harry hesitated. "Right," he replied. He was quiet for a few seconds as he thought it through, then cast the strongest revealing spell he knew to find out what defensive spells might be on the opening; and then another one to detect wards, and yet another one to try to detect anything that the first two hadn't. There were bare flickers of light, indicating that there had been anti-detection spells, avoidance and impermeable wards, and a couple of nasty defensive spells, but that they had long ago lost their strength.

"Can you think of anything else to try?" he asked Draco.

Draco was rather proud of Harry for being so systematic in the face of his emotional turmoil - after his initial intervention, of course - but he did know a few Dark detection spells that Harry hadn't learned, yet, and used them - with similar results. There had been Dark magic spells cast on the alcove, but as with the other magics, their strength had faded over the centuries. The only reason magical jewellery and other artifacts retained their strength was due to being in at least occasional contact with magical auras that their spells could feed from. These alcoves hadn't had that option - yet.

"Open it," Draco suggested.

Harry took a deep breath, then started with 'Alohomora', and worked his way up through the stronger spells.

Finally, Draco lost patience. "Partegio!"

The stone slab cracked. Draco kicked it. Harry pulled him back, having just recovered from the shock of Draco casting the stone-breaker curse, putting it to its proper use - and which could put a man in traction for a month, even with the best healing potions and charms.

"What are you... What was... What did you...?"

"You were being too blasted cautious," Draco said irritatedly. "We'd have been here all ruddy day!"

"It might be my brother or sister in there!" Harry retorted.

Draco drew a deep breath, then with exaggerated patience, said, "Harry - how did your alcove get opened?"

"How should I bleeding know?"

Draco sighed. "Sirius found you, but he obviously didn't find this one, or it would have been opened, too. Doesn't that suggest anything to you?"

Harry's eyes widened. "The earthquake," he said, as if it were obvious. Which, of course, it should have been. "If it broke that one open," he said, pointing at the one he'd been found in, "then he would have seen me, and wouldn't have looked around, for his haste to get me to Dumbledore."

"Exactly. So if an earthquake didn't damage you - and I don't count your hair -"

"Hey!"

"- then it's not likely anything we can do is going to damage whatever is in this one," Draco finished, ignoring Harry's protest. "If you don't want me kicking it in, then you do it.

Harry looked undecided for a moment, then with a look of determination, he turned to the now-cracked stone slab. With a few more strong kicks, the slab gave 'way.

Draco's delicate sneeze, due to the dust stirred up, was the only thing that broke the silence as both boys looked at the bubble resting on a pedestal identical to the one in the other alcove.

Finally, Harry asked, "What is it?"

Draco shook his head. "I've never heard of anything like it," he replied. "Obviously it's an animal of some type, but..."

"Are those wings?"

"They do look like it."

"I've never heard of winged cat," Harry said.

"I don't think it would be a proper cat, Harry, even without the wings. If you look closely, there are a couple of rather obvious differences. For one, its hind legs bend the wrong way."

"Are you sure? It's rather curled up upon itself."

"I'm sure," Draco replied. "For another-"

He was interrupted by a voice in their minds.

"Master? You're awake?"

Although neither knew how, both young men knew that the mental voice was addressing Harry.

"Wha-?" But before a flabbergasted Harry could say anything more, the form within the ball began to glow, brighter and brighter.

"I think that's another difference," Draco called out over his shoulder as he sped for the opening to the cave.

Harry only just noticed, but he was totally caught up in what was happening before him.

"Harry! Get the bloody hell out of there!" Draco yelled at him.

But Harry ignored his fiancé, caught up in the wonder of what was going on in the alcove.

The glow was now bright enough to fill the offshoot of the cave, and was spilling out into the cave proper, but only enough to relieve the dark. It didn't fill the whole space.

And then suddenly the light died. In the aftermath, Harry's still-lit wand seemed dim. Indeed, it took awhile for Harry's eyes to adjust to where he could see anything at all. When he could, it was to see the cat-like creature sitting up alertly, tail curled 'round its feet, wings folded neatly, and regarding him with what seemed to be great curiosity.

'It is obvious that you were woken long before me, but why did your fathers leave me here so many years, and then send you to waken me?' it asked.

Harry was struck dumb for a few moments. How did you tell - whatever this was - that nobody knew of its existence, and that it was found mostly by accident?

"It's been almost a thousand years," Harry began.

"Harry?" Draco called.

"It's alright, my brave hero," Harry called out teasingly.

Draco was stung. "I'll leave the bravery and damsel saving to you," he replied cuttingly, coming into sight. But when Draco spied the winged animal awake and alert, he stepped back and leveled his wand at it.

"Harry?"

"It doesn't seem to be dangerous, love," Harry said, trying to reassure the blond.

'I assure you, I am quite dangerous, or I would be of no use as a guardian for you,' the beast inserted.

"You're supposed to...guard me?" Harry inquired.

'Yes. But I assume,' it said, a tone of humour in its voice, 'judging by the endearments you're using with this one, that you don't need to be guarded from him.'

"Um... No," Harry replied, blushing. "We're to be wed."

'Then perhaps you need guarding, after all.'

"What?" Draco exclaimed in outrage. "I'll have you know, you unnatural beast, that-"

'Lacks a sense of humour, does he?' the animal asked Harry, interrupting Draco's rant.

"Ah..." Harry squirmed a bit, having been put on the spot, but ex-Gryffindor that he was, he grabbed hold of what bravery he had, and said, "Only on certain subjects - and you happened to pick one of them."

Draco glowered at his lover. "It's the couch for you, tonight," he murmured murderously.

Eyeing the blond with humourous caution, Harry addressed the beast. "I see what you mean." A mental snicker from...the thing was his reward.

"Do you have a name?" he asked it, tired of mentally stumbling over things to call it.

'Hrawn, Master,' it answered.

"Hrawn, then," Harry repeated, noting that Draco seemed to be pouting. "And if you don't mind my asking, what are you?"

'I used to be a fire elemental, although I still retain many of those abilities,' Hrawn replied.

"And now?"

'Your parents made of me a sort of demon,' it said, 'in order that I could interact with the physical world without harm, and be a guard for you - a job which I seem to have failed at so far.' Still, Hrawn didn't seem too upset with the fact. 'But you were saying it's been a thousand years? Surely you haven't been awake all that time?'

"Not at all. Just a bit over sixteen years, in fact."

While talking with Hrawn, Harry walked over to Draco, but the blond turned away from him, spurning his overture of peace.

"Don't be like that, love," Harry cozened his fiancé. Taking Draco by the shoulders, he manhandled him around and drew him into a hug, although truth to tell, Draco didn't struggle very hard, and latched onto Harry quite firmly once the blond had been completely 'captured'. At the same time, however, he kept a watchful eye on the now reclining, and self-confessed 'demon'.

Hrawn had watched the byplay with interest, holding his questions in check until full attention should come back to him. Not that such activity was new to him. But it was interesting how similarly these two interacted to the little he'd seen of how Harry's parents had interacted before they'd hidden the two of them away. But a thousand years? What could have gone wrong, that he and the boy hadn't been retrieved? Come to that, who had finally retrieved the boy, but neglected to retrieve him? Hopefully there would be answers to these questions.

"Um, Hrawn?"

'Yes?'

"Draco suggests that you might know what my name was?"

'Heremon. I think your fathers said it meant "handsome and fair",' Hrawn replied.

"Where would they get a name like that?"

"It's Irish - I think," Draco said, snickering.

"What's so amusing?" Harry wanted to know.

"A thousand years ago or now, you're still a 'Harry'," Draco explained, breaking out into full laughter.

o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o
- 17
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- 19
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Honour Bound