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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
- 17
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- 19
Thank you again for all the reviews!
Chapter Eighteen—An Unexpected Holiday
“I think you need to be placed on leave, Harry.”
Harry swallowed and tried not to think about how it might look to Kingsley, to have Draco’s hand locked on his shoulder. “I—why is that?”
“Because we’re going to have all sorts of complications from your fight with Nathan.” Kingsley was rubbing at his eyes with the pad of one finger. He sighed and lowered his hand to study it. “I know you’ll be cleared, especially since the witnesses say he started it. But the Veela factor complicates things. Sometimes it’s the mate and not the Veela that gets irrationally jealous and attacks others. My fear is that’s the defense Nathan will use. You’ll need to go on leave while we gather memories to prove that’s not what happened.”
Harry gritted his teeth and nodded slowly. The adrenaline high of absorbing Nathan’s magic had died down, and he reminded himself that he had dueled someone right in the middle of the Department. “You’re right, Kingsley. All right, Draco?”
“Yes, of course.” Draco was standing casually behind Harry’s chair, the way he had been since Kingsley came in, both hands resting on Harry’s shoulders now. “And it’ll give me some time to do something that would usually be required the minute we came back.”
“What’s that?” Kingsley asked. Harry was glad it was him. It would make him look ignorant to ask the question.
Draco bent down and rested his cheek against Harry’s. Harry caught his breath. It felt so—warm wasn’t the word.
“We need to properly register as Veela and mate,” Draco said, and his voice was like liquid sugar poured down Harry’s spine. “That will keep foolish duels such as the one Nathan forced on Harry from happening again. And it will make it possible for me to defend Harry with all my strength.”
That’s why he held back in the corridor. He might have killed Nathan. Harry reached up and caught Draco’s left hand. “I don’t want you to ever feel like you have to kill anyone.”
“Oh, I don’t mind feeling that way at all.”
Harry opened his mouth, but Kingsley intervened before he and Draco could start arguing. “An excellent idea, Veela Malfoy. Might I suggest also casually appearing in public, in a place other than the Ministry? That will accustom people to the idea that you’re Veela and mate.”
Harry closed his mouth and went along with the nodding and the soft little agreements Draco made. There was enough time later when they could argue, or rather when Harry could hopefully convince Draco not to kill people who just made the mistake of brushing up against Harry when they were in Diagon Alley or something.
Draco led him out of the office with an arm around his waist and a wing draped over his shoulders again. Harry waited until they were away from the neck-craning, gape-mouthed Aurors to say, “Don’t kill people.”
“I legally can.”
“But I don’t want you to.”
Draco ducked his head and rested his nose near the nape of Harry’s neck. “Even someone who attacked you with the intent to kill? I know what that curse he used does, Harry. You would have been in a coma for months at the least.”
“But it was never going to land.” Harry tried to pull himself away from Draco’s hold, and only succeeded in having Draco resettle himself in place like a calm snake. “You know I’m a better Auror than that.”
“I know that I want to be able to legally protect my mate any way I desire.”
“And what about what I desire?”
Draco hesitated. Then he said, “This would have been easier if I’d grown up with my Veela heritage, or you’d grown up with some expectation of becoming the mate of a Veela.”
“Sure.” Harry led him further down the corridor and back to the lifts, not really in the mood to encounter anyone right now, even if they weren’t going to champion Nathan. “But that doesn’t mean that you would get to kill people even then. There are so many other ways you can handle them,” he added, when he saw Draco’s eyes starting to swirl silver.
“I’d like you to tell me what they are.” Draco’s voice was soft and cutting, and he leaned more heavily on Harry than he had.
“You can kick them in the stomach,” Harry said, and stepped into the lift, and shut the doors behind them. He ignored his own excitement at being alone with Draco in a private space. Now was not the time for that. “You can take off and then do that. I know Veela can land heavily. Or you can fling a fireball at them.”
“How would that not kill them?”
Harry gave him a withering look. “Please, Draco. Pretend to other people that you’re not in control of your instincts or your magic, but don’t do it to me. It’s insulting.”
Draco paused, then smiled a little. “You’re right. I could manage a fireball that would inconvenience but not kill someone.” His face was softly intrigued as he caressed Harry’s shoulder. “Are you going to tell me how I can hold back the instincts when I see you in danger? Or see someone touching you?”
Harry cocked his head as the lift reached the bottom of its shaft. There was a familiar voice out in the Atrium. He grimaced. “I think you’re about to find out,” he said, and then opened the door while Draco was still staring at him in surprise.
Sure enough, Estelle Williams, the woman who wrote the gossip column for Witch Weekly, was waiting for them. She was a tall, immaculately-made-up woman with grey eyes that always looked wider than they really were, thanks to her arched eyebrows and the blonde hair she wore tightly pulled back in a gleaming bun. She nodded to Harry and Draco and advanced on them, elegant grey robes swishing around her. “Ready to talk to me, Auror Potter?”
Harry gave her a smile that was more grimace than smile, and he knew it. “No.”
“But you must, you know, that’s the way things work,” said Williams chidingly, falling into step beside him. Draco kept his wing locked over Harry’s right shoulder and a low growl with a hint of a croon bubbling in her throat, but that didn’t bother Williams; she simply walked on Harry’s left side. “All of our readers will be thrilled to learn that you aren’t a bachelor anymore!”
“Thrilled?” Harry asked blankly. Williams had been teasing, or threatening, him for years that there would be a revolt when he finally found someone to date.
Williams smiled at him. “They know that Mr. Malfoy is a Veela, which means they have no chance. So they’ll sigh over the deep love of your bond instead of attempting to claim you for themselves.”
“That had better be what they decide to do,” said Draco in a bleak tone, ducking his head as if he was going to rest his chin on the back of Harry’s head. Williams glanced at him and blinked, then turned to Harry so she could keep her attention focused on him.
“They will,” she said. “But, of course, we want to hear all about how you became bonded, and what kind of daring and romantic exploits you and Mr. Malfoy have been up to since. Can you do that, Auror Potter?”
“No.” Harry wanted to go home and wait for the first Ministry investigator to contact him. It shouldn’t take that long, he tried to reassure himself. Most people in the Ministry knew about Nathan’s grudge towards him. Therefore, he would be cleared. But he still always got sweaty palms when an investigation started, and this one would be no different.
Williams stepped in front of him, with a smile that would have looked apologetic, except Harry knew what her eyes normally looked like. He instinctively stepped back against Draco, both to keep him from lunging and to get a feeling of protection.
“You’re talking about it as if you have a choice,” said Williams softly, shaking her head. “You know as well as I do that there will be a revolt without your cooperation, Harry. It will make the frenzy over your breakup with Michael Corner look small. All it will take is half an hour. Come. You can bring your interesting Veela with you.”
Harry opened his mouth, but he didn’t know what he would have said, because Draco leaned over his shoulder and spoke for him. His voice was edged with spite and ice, and still so beautiful that it was a little hard to realize the sense of his words at first.
“You wouldn’t threaten anyone else who wanted to refuse an interview. This is more of your tendency to treat Harry Potter as if he were a toy, yours to manipulate and do whatever you want with. I don’t know where you got this tendency—perhaps Rita Skeeter started it years ago with all her articles about the Triwizard Tournament—but it stops, now. I’m here in Harry’s life. It stops.”
The shudder of his voice all around them made Harry shudder for a different reason. He clenched his hand into a tight fist to keep from reaching back and grabbing Draco’s shirt and dragging him into one of the private rooms that he knew the Ministry kept off the side of the Atrium.
Williams did take a step back, but her eyes were large with indignation, not the fear that Harry knew Draco had been trying to inspire. “Mr. Malfoy! I am nothing like Rita Skeeter! She passed gossip off as truth. I write for a respectable entertainment newspaper.”
“And you still have no right to Harry’s time and company unless he feels like giving it to him. You still can’t threaten him.”
“I wasn’t threatening—”
“You’re talking about it as if you have a choice.”
Williams backed up again. This time, she didn’t look angry, but as if she was actually thinking through how she might sound. It was more than Harry had ever been able to achieve with her. He tilted his head back and gave Draco a small smile in thanks.
“You know that doing one interview with someone will be necessary to calm the rumors that are spreading out from this disturbance in the pool,” Williams said.
“And that interview will be with an official paper, not a gossip magazine,” said Draco sweetly, and guided Harry up to a fireplace with his wings spread and lifted. Harry grinned at the gesture. It would prevent the photographers Williams undoubtedly had with her from getting any “intimate” pictures.
When they were through the fire, Draco growled and began pacing back and forth in Harry’s drawing room. “Fuck, Harry. Do they ambush you like that all the time?”
“Pretty much.” Harry yawned and removed his Auror robes, tossing them at a chair. When they missed and slid to the floor, he rolled his eyes and Levitated them onto the hook in the closet where they spent their time when they weren’t on him. “Only worse. You handled it really well for me. Thank you.”
He smiled at Draco. For the first time, Draco didn’t smile back. There was dark intent on his face as he paced and prowled, and his wings beat up and down as though he was going to launch himself into the air. Harry had just decided on a kiss to calm him down when Draco spun to face him and cocked his head. “I wasn’t going to do this for a few days, but I think we need to.”
Harry felt a tremor of unease in the pit of his stomach. “What are you talking about?”
“I didn’t want you to meet my parents until we had more chance to settle the bond and all the rumors that are spreading around us.” Draco took his hand and stared deeply into his eyes. “But my father is the best in the wizarding world when it comes to projecting haughty disdain. And me being a Veela will inspire contempt for me in some people—”
“Stupid people.”
“Thank you. But what I was going to say is, not everyone will back away like Williams did. Will you let my father handle this for you?”
Harry frowned and lowered his eyes. He didn’t have as much anger towards Lucius as he had in the war, but… “Doesn’t that all depend on whether your parents accept me as your mate?”
*
Draco lifted Harry’s chin so that he could see into his eyes. He never wanted his mate to look away from him. It was too much like not being able to see into his soul or feel him through the bond. And Harry did stare into his face after that tremor of looking down.
Just the way Draco wanted.
Draco bent over and said gently into his ear, “My parents have no choice about whether or not you are my mate. I will make that clear to them. They can approve or disapprove, as they will. I am still going to be yours.”
Harry’s hand rose and clenched on his. His breathing began again, and Draco nestled into his neck. That Harry had been worried about losing him was as much confirmation of their bond as Draco required.
“But you’re right that they might not like you very much. That they might not agree to help us in any way. That’s why I want to go and speak to my father first.”
“Without me?”
Draco nodded. “Will you trust me to do that?”
Harry swallowed and said, “Of course. I—I love you, Draco. And I don’t think that you would betray me to your father.”
Draco blinked. He hadn’t expected Harry to name the fear he was obviously feeling outright like that, but then again, Harry was a different person than Draco when it came to the way he handled intimate information.
“Of course I won’t,” he murmured, and brushed his hand down Harry’s cheek. He looked at him once only, and then turned around and said in some determination, “I’ll be back in an hour.”
Harry nodded and smiled after him, and sat down on a couch in front of the fireplace. When he flicked his wand, a golden clock appeared, shimmering in the air. It wasn’t a spell Draco knew. “I’ll be counting down the minutes,” he said quietly.
Draco looked back again before he picked up the Floo powder. Harry was waiting for him, quietly, his arms clasped around his knees.
Draco took a deep breath, cast the Floo powder into the flames, and shouted, “Malfoy Manor!”
*
He came out, with his wings banged and bruised, in the small parlor that his parents used for receiving guests they were uncertain they wanted to welcome. Draco lifted his chin. He’d never been shunted here before. Very well, then. He thought he could understand some of how his parents were feeling about this.
It didn’t matter. He would still have Harry as his mate and support from his family. Anything else was unacceptable.
When he straightened up, a house-elf appeared, bowed, and disappeared again. Draco stood waiting, his wings spread and fluttering and his hands in loose fists at his sides. His heart was beating harder than it had been any time they faced the Veela of Asovima.
It doesn’t matter, he told himself again and again. We are going to be a family.
His mother walked into the room and stood for a moment looking at him. Her eyes had crinkled up. Draco honestly couldn’t tell whether she was displeased or not, and that frightened him a little.
Mother looked down and sighed, and then looked up again. “The rumors didn’t lie, then,” she said quietly.
Draco shook his head. “Are you still going to welcome me as—your son?”
Mother moved forwards and put her hands on Draco’s shoulders, examining his wings without touching them. Draco was grateful for that. He only really wanted Harry touching his wings.
“I am,” Mother said finally. “Whether your father will think himself able to do this, I have no idea.”
Draco sighed and leaned forwards to kiss her. It had to be on the cheek rather than the lips, now that he was mated, but at least he still had a parent to kiss. “Thank you, Mother.”
“I find myself able to accept that you are a Veela,” Father’s resonant voice said then from the doorway. Draco looked up quickly and found Father standing there studying him coolly. “There is only one thing I am unable to accept.”
“What is that?” Draco asked, and kept his voice as calm and clear as he could.
“That your mate is Harry Potter.” Father took a step forwards, cane swishing next to him. “Bonds that started as temporary can be broken even if made permanent, whereas bonds that come from a Veela’s free choice cannot. Choose someone worthier of you, Draco, take them as a mate, and break this bond, and then you will have my blessing.”
*
Zoha-Lixue: Thank you! And, well, Harry is independent and probably always will be.
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Temporary Mate