Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Fairest Creatures	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 22177 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this story.

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Chapter Nineteen—A Courtship Visit

            “Welcome to Malfoy Manor.”

            When Draco bent over in front of him, his wings first spreading out as though they would touch the sides of the gates and then falling like giant palm fans to the ground, Harry had the urge to laugh. But only for a moment, until Draco straightened and posed as if framing himself in the gate.

            Then he saw the fire in Draco’s eyes. It was like the light glinting off a sword, and Harry swallowed and held out a hand. Draco took it and bowed over it. If he flicked out his tongue to touch Harry’s palm, the way Harry thought he had for a moment, it really was too faint a touch to feel.

            “Thank you for coming,” Draco said, and waited until Harry had edged past him, sideways because of his wings. Then he fell in behind him as Harry walked slowly up the curving gravel path towards the front of the Manor. Draco was almost prancing, his wings fluffed out like a peacock’s.

            It was still a little amusing, but Harry was feeling something else stir slow and heavy through him. He remembered the mirror that had materialized as the first courtship gift, and the way he looked in Draco’s vision.

            This is for me. He wants to be impressive and get his house ready and show off his wings for me.

            It struck him differently, for some reason, than the stupid showy things that other people had always done to get his attention—hell, the things he could argue Draco had done back at Hogwarts. Maybe it was just because he was a Veela now, and had to have some instincts that were pleased by that sort of thing.

            Or maybe it was because Draco looked protective and smug and proud and apprehensive all at once, and most of the people who tried to appeal to Harry were only smug.

            The doors of the Manor floated open as they neared, reminding Harry of the way Draco’s wings had moved. He glanced at Draco and raised his eyebrows, tilting his head a little in question.

            “There’s a little enchantment I can use,” Draco said. “Veela magic. I wouldn’t have been tempted to use it very much before today, but then…” He dropped his eyes and slowly brought them up again, which made Harry notice their grey color in a way he wouldn’t have before. “I never had someone worth using it for before now.”

            Harry was glad that he had got over blushing most of the time when he was around Draco now. He stepped into the entrance room and looked around. No, there really wasn’t a house-elf behind the door.

            There was a mirror on the far wall, which seemed to be the door of a cupboard. Harry blinked at what he saw in it. There were swirling clouds and blue sky, but it did look like a mirror, not an enchanted window.

            “That’s the current weather at Hogwarts,” Draco said, stepping up behind him and nuzzling the curve of Harry’s right wing. Harry had to catch his breath and then hold it, shutting his eyes, at the feeling. “I thought I would hang up this mirror because Hogwarts was your first home. It’s only appropriate you should be able to look at it and see what’s happening at your first home all the time when you’re in your second.”

            Harry reached over his shoulder. Draco was right in place to catch his hand, and kiss the center of the palm.

            “What other surprises do you have in store for me?” Harry murmured.

            “They would hardly be surprises if I told you,” Draco said, and sailed along in front of him now, his wings lightly flapping and his heels leaving the floor the way Harry had seen him do in the school. Harry followed, frowning a little. I forgot to ask him how to do that.

            The entrance hall gave way to a series of corridors that Harry didn’t try to memorize. He kept his eyes on Draco instead, because he knew Draco wouldn’t let him get lost. And he didn’t see anything that reminded him of cellars or the way Bellatrix had tortured Hermione.

            Of course, I also trust Draco to have got rid of anything that would remind me.

            They finally halted in front of a poor of doors that had panels of glass in the middle of them, but wavy glass with blue lines in the middle of it, which meant that Harry couldn’t see into the room. He was craning his neck to try anyway when Draco reached out and caressed his wrist, catching his attention.

            “I hope the sight of this will cause a second courtship gift to materialize. But I understand if it doesn’t.”

            ”Absolutely no pressure about that second courtship gift, of course.”

            Draco looked startled for a second, and then snorted. “I didn’t mean it that way, Harry. I was only telling you what my hopes were, not my requirements.”

            “Okay,” Harry said, after a long moment. He nuzzled Draco’s wing again in apology, and Draco closed his eyes and chirped before he broke away and opened the doors.

            “You are so bloody distracting,” Draco muttered under his breath as Harry stepped past him and into the room. It had the tone of a comment he hadn’t meant for Harry to overhear. Harry grinned to himself and tilted his head back. The room was immense, and open at the ceiling, with what Harry thought at first was a skylight.

            Then he saw it was too big for that, and thought for another second that it was a ceiling enchanted with the same kind of magic as the Great Hall at Hogwarts.

            And then again his perception changed, and Harry bit his lip to avoid saying something sudden. Draco would probably take that the wrong way. He turned slowly in a circle, letting his senses absorb every beat and essence of the room.

            The gap above him was an actual hole in the center of the ceiling, surrounded with a ring of marble that projected downwards. Harry could see velvet wrapped around the marble, and thought he knew what it was for: padding to protect his wings when he flew through it.

            The whole room was full of sunlight and silence and green growing things. There were flowers tumbling so wildly down the walls that Harry only knew they were the walls because he got a glimpse of stone—sometimes. There was a small stream running over the floor at his feet that he stooped down and slid a hand through.

            No, it was real, clear, cool water. Probably magically produced, but not an illusion.

            Harry stood up and gaped around again. There were huge vines, too, as if Draco wanted him to think he was in a jungle, although so many different kinds that Harry was sure no real jungle looked this way. And gigantic bobbing orchids, and darting hummingbirds, and butterflies as big as his palm and as blue as Draco’s hopeful eyes when he looked at Harry.

            “This is beautiful,” Harry said, his real and honest reaction, and watched Draco beam. “But I’m curious. Do I look like a jungle person?”

            “You look like someone who needs more color in his life,” Draco murmured, and came forwards to wrap his arms around Harry. Harry started, and then realized Draco had wrapped his arms around Harry’s torso, beneath his wings. Harry relaxed and swept his wings forwards around both of them.

            Draco gasped, maybe at the touch of the soft, warm feathers against his back, but continued. “And someone who needed beauty.” He bit his lip, was silent a moment, and then stroked a hand down Harry’s back and continued. “Someone who needed something completely different than my home used to be. I wanted to show you that I’m not afraid of transforming my home completely.”

            “I trust you,” Harry whispered, and nuzzled against Draco’s throat. “I trust you to achieve what you wanted, and to take care of me. It’s lovely.”

            “Thank you.”

            They stood wrapped up in each other for a time, and then Draco let him go and led the way to the stream. When he lowered himself into it, Harry blinked. The running water hadn’t looked that deep. He was sure he’d touched the bottom when he reached into it, in fact.

            Draco leaned back, looking up at Harry with a flirtatious smile and his eyelashes speckled with clinging water. “This stream has some bathing places and some drinking ones. Join me?” He extended one wing back over the bank.

            Harry hesitated only once before he plunged in. He supposed if Draco didn’t mind about getting his clothes wet, Harry shouldn’t, either.

            As they drifted around in the stream, Harry turned slowly towards Draco. The sense of that warmth not far away was exhilarating. He rested his cheek against Draco’s and sighed. The combination of the water’s coolness and Draco’s heat was perfect.

            “It’s wonderful, isn’t it?” Draco said, and ran his fingers through Harry’s hair, scratching semi-sharply at his scalp. Harry jumped, and Draco chuckled, low and knowing.

            “Yes,” said Harry, flushed, and not knowing why. It wasn’t like they had any audience here but the butterflies. “Did you expect a courting gift to appear by now? I’m sorry it hasn’t.”

            Draco shook his head, eyes bright and meditative and fixed on Harry. “We’ve hardly done anything to encourage it yet.”

            “I think this is something.” Harry gestured with one hand around the miniature jungle, and blinked when he heard hidden birds singing. He hadn’t realized they were here, either.

            “But what really makes a courtship isn’t just one partner doing something for the other. It’s the partners reacting to what they do, and reciprocating.”

            “Okay. So how do you want me to react to you so that a courtship gift shows up?”

            Draco laughed breathlessly, eyes locked on him. “I can’t tell you the right way to react. You have to find your way to it on your own or not at all.”

            Harry acted on the first impulse that came to mind, and reached out and brushed his hand down Draco’s cheek. He watched the way Draco’s breath grew faster and his eyes so bright that they reminded Harry of some of the fireworks that Fred and George had created. “Like this?” he whispered.

            “I can’t—I mean—no courtship gift has appeared yet.”

            “But I might want to touch you like that just because I like you,” Harry said, drifting closer to Draco and watching the way his eyes fluttered shut in response. “I might want to warm you up and make you like me.”

            “Harry…”

            “Or if I can’t make you like me,” Harry said, and fluttered his fingertips along the sides of Draco’s soaked shirt, feeling his ribs and soft skin and sheathed muscle, “I can at least make you feel good.”

            “Harry,” Draco repeated, and this time it was a breathless moan, and he swayed as if he was actually going to sink into the water and drown. Harry reached out and held him up, fingers still brushing back and forth to send little shocks of sensation through Draco.

            “Yes, I like the way you say my name,” Harry told him conversationally, and turned Draco carefully so that he was leaning against Harry but in no danger of falling beneath the surface, and he could keep his wings dry, too. It was a while since he had been this close to being in an embrace of Draco’s wings, and Harry rubbed his face against the warm feathers and inhaled their sweet smell. “I like it so much, Draco.”

            “Harry.”

            If Draco went on just saying that for the rest of time, Harry thought, he’d like that, too. He tilted Draco’s chin up, and Draco let his eyes open for the one moment Harry thought they needed eye contact before Harry kissed him.

            It was melting warmth, the way Draco seemed to be feeling, and it spiraled through Harry’s mouth like the taste of hot chocolate. Draco made a noise that could have been a grunt or a whimper; the most important thing about it was the subtle buzz it made on Harry’s tongue, instead of exactly what it was. Harry bent back until Draco was almost floating on his chest, and kissed him again.

            The warmth flared and blazed, and suddenly there was light around them, so much light it was like the roof had been ripped off. Harry backed off from kissing Draco, blinking.

            “No, what are you doing?” Draco whined, reaching out to cup the back of Harry’s neck and pull him in again.

            “The light,” Harry said, and took another glimpse around the jungle. The vines and the flowers and the water were shimmering with reflected radiance. “I think maybe something’s gone wrong with the spells for the jungle.”

            “No,” said Draco, and at least he finally seemed to be paying attention to the things around them again. He took a deep breath and shook his head. “It’s a courtship gift. It’ll coalesce into something solid after a moment.”

            But as they waited, drifting in the unexpectedly warm waters of the stream, the light didn’t coalesce, and didn’t coalesce. It seemed content to drift along the surface of the river instead, and get itself caught in tree branches, and surround the nodding heads of flowers. Harry shot Draco a baffled look. “Is it normal for the magic to take this long to make up its mind about a courtship gift?”

            Draco shook his head. “Most of the time, the gifts are things like mirrors or blades or food. It’s easy to see what relevance they have to the courting pair.” Then he caught his breath.

            Harry turned, thinking the light had finally settled, but it was still dancing, that odd, shadowless mixture of white and gold and silver. Harry looked back at Draco and saw his face soft with wonder.

            “It could be that the gift is the light itself,” Draco whispered. “I’ve heard of a few situations like that, although mostly legendary ones.”

            “Well,” said Harry comfortably, “I suppose it could be useful to light our way in the darkness and so on.”

            “We don’t even need it to do that,” said Draco, and turned to him with a smile so bright that it competed with the light, for Harry. “It’s a sign that we’re already enlightened, that we already found the way to each other—what’s so funny?”

            “Enlightened.”

            Draco glared at him. “I’m talking about one of the rarest courting gifts a Veela pair can receive, and you want to talk about puns?”

            Harry leaned forwards and kissed Draco on the nose, which at least make him look adorable, if not less angry. “I’m sorry. But I thought you loved me for my sense of humor.” He let his head hang and looked up beneath his eyelids at Draco.

            “I—well, it doesn’t hurt,” Draco said, and then apparently attempted to recover his dignity. “Except when you say something this silly.”

            “I’m sorry, Draco. I shall attempt to be properly respectful of your dignity and heritage from now on.”

            “This isn’t about my bloody heritage! It’s about the rare courting gift that we got.” Draco turned and held out a hand to the light, and coaxed it from hovering around an orchid to hovering on his finger. “I want you to pay attention enough to properly respect it.”

            “But what do we do with it?” Harry held out his hand, too. The light was perfectly content to migrate from Draco’s finger to his. It didn’t feel like much of anything, except perhaps a faint heat on the back of his hand. “Parade it around to impress people?”

            “They’re going to be impressed, one way or another. We’re hard to ignore.”

            Harry felt his lips quiver, and leaned towards Draco, sliding his wings around Draco’s cheeks and cupping them. He no longer cared if the feathers at the tips dragged in the water or got wet at all. It didn’t matter. The only important thing that happened was Draco’s face becoming softer and warmer than the light.

            “Of course they’re going to be impressed,” Harry whispered, sliding his fingers against Draco’s cheeks. “Who’s captured the best and most beautiful Veela around here, I’d like to know?”

            “Me.”

            And then it was Harry’s turn to be overwhelmed as Draco pressed him back against the bank of the stream and kissed him hard enough to make his lips bleed a little. And the light, although it flickered and leaped around them and went back to clinging to the orchids, was forgotten for a little while as they kissed and kissed.

            When Harry woke in a tangle with Draco on the bank, later, he found the light perched above their heads like a watchful phoenix. He gave it a sleepy smile, and the light wound itself into a braided shape and jumped back and forth from flower to flower, and maybe even birdsong to birdsong. That was what it looked like to Harry, at least.

            “Thank you,” he whispered.

            The light glowed softly down at him.

*

            SickPuppy: Thank you! And the Healers are just so puzzled! How can Harry do anything without knowing the color of his stripes?

            SP777: Well, if it would make people listen to him as something other than The Hero, he would be willing to do it.
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