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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
- 21
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Thank you again for all the reviews!
Chapter Twenty-Two--Malfoys Who Are Not Idiots
"What's that?"
"A letter from my mum."
Harry spent a few minutes eating, his eyes on Draco. Draco was untying the letter from the leg of the owl with a slight frown. For a minute, Harry wondered if that meant that Narcissa wouldn't be able to help them, and Draco already suspected it because of the owl she'd sent or the parchment she'd written on or--
Harry cut himself off with a slight gasp of breath. No. He was trying to worry less about people betraying him or Draco deciding that he needed to find a different partner or side with the rest of his family instead of Harry. He had promised.
He looked back at Draco to find him watching with slightly raised eyebrows. Harry just nodded and returned to his scrambled eggs. He trusted Draco would tell him when the time was right.
"She's having some success with the lesser reporters," Draco said casually, when Harry had swallowed the last mouthful. "The ones who just report on you as celebrity gossip, not serious news. But she thinks that you'll need to give at least one public press conference regarding the political implications of our bonding for the ones who think that reporting on you is a matter of national importance."
"Political implications of our bonding?"
"Of course." Draco gave him a narrow smile that came off more like a grimace. "All the people who think that the Boy-Who-Lived shouldn't be bonding with a Death Eater, all the ones who think that a Veela bonding is some kind of enslavement, all the ones who think that an Auror shouldn't bond with a Dark wizard--"
Harry groaned and dropped his head on the table. "Of course."
"Are you ready to go back and face them?"
Harry blinked and looked up. Draco was considering him with such a serious expression that in that instant Harry just knew. He knew Draco would owl his mother if Harry asked and extend their holiday. He would let Harry stay here and hide from reporters, where no one else knew him and only one person cared. Harry could go somewhere in the Muggle world if he wanted, give up being an Auror, only cast the absolutely necessary spells, and Draco would follow him and defend him and do everything he could to take care of him.
That calmed Harry's churning stomach.
"Yes," he muttered, with a shake of his head. "We have to face them sooner or later, and I'd rather do it when your mother has earned some goodwill and it's pretty clear what we think of them."
Draco took up his hand and kissed it, looking delighted in a deep way that had more to do with the shine of his eyes than any open curve of his lips. "Good."
*
He's stronger than he knows.
Draco only saw the little flinch Harry gave when he stepped out of the fireplace and into the crowd of reporters waiting in the Ministry Atrium because he was looking for it. By the time the reporters saw Harry and started shouting, Harry had put on the mask of a confident smile and was striding forwards.
So strong, Draco marveled as he followed behind Harry, his eyes skimming everything from who had a wand up their sleeves to who was reluctant to move out of Harry's way. And all mine.
Harry stopped next to the Fountain and looked around. The more he looked, the more quiet spread. Draco snapped his wings off his back and then tucked them back again when he noticed some heads turning to look at him. Even granting that his mother would have picked the most compliant reporters she could, that was still impressive, for Harry to make everyone pay attention to him.
"Auror Potter! Is it true that you're mated to Draco Malfoy?"
Harry offered a friendly smile to the grey-haired witch who'd asked. Draco was sure, again, that he was the only one who saw the way Harry's foot twitched with the longing to step backwards. Draco stepped up behind him instead, lowering his head to nestle his chin against Harry's neck.
Everyone stared. Cameras flashed. Draco didn't mind. They would snap pictures of him snuggling with his mate. That was true enough, and it was a picture that would make some people decide he wasn't dangerous and Harry had suffered enough. That was a gain.
"We can't find out if you interrupt me every time I try to say something, can we?"
The reporters took the hint, and the yelling quieted down. Harry sighed a little and said, as if it wasn't a prepared speech, "Yes, I am mated to Draco Malfoy. It began as a temporary bond to save his life when we were on a mission for the Ministry together. But it's evolved into a true bond." He turned his head so that he was meeting Draco's eyes, his own soft. "One that I never want to give up."
Draco's body tingled. That shine, that vulnerability, that softness--that was the kind of thing Harry would ordinarily hide and keep from showing at all in front of other people. That he was willing to show it out in public made him braver than Draco's own parents had mostly been, who always kept their affection hidden no matter the impulse.
I chose the right person.
"But why did it evolve into a true bond?"
That was Rita Skeeter. Harry tensed, but didn't look away from Draco. "Because I fell in love."
Questions erupted as though they'd only been pent by respect until then. Draco snorted into Harry's neck. Right, as if the reporters had any respect at all for his mate.
Harry soothed him with a gentle touch to his cheekbone, and said, "I can't answer your questions when you're shooting them like arrows."
That was enough to calm most of them down, but Skeeter still jumped in before anyone else. "Then you were carrying on an affair with Draco Malfoy all this time? Behind Michael Corner's back? Even Ginny Weasley's?" She looked absolutely delighted.
Harry rolled his eyes and sighed softly, brushing his arm against Draco's as they both tensed. "Of course not--"
"But how could you fall in love so quickly?"
"I thought you would know that, Rita, seeing as you regularly print that I'm in love after the first date."
That caused Skeeter to pause enough that others could jump in. Draco half-shut his eyes and focused on the feeling of Harry leaning against him and his firm words when he said he'd fallen in love. He didn't have to consider his rivals. He didn't have to fear that Harry would leave him for them.
He wondered what Harry would say if he knew the tendency of Draco's thoughts. Reassurance? Incredulity that he and Draco had the same fears, of the other person wanting out of his half of the bond?
Then he felt the pressure of Harry's body on his increase, and opened his eyes to see how knowing Harry looked. He didn't need to know what Harry would say, because he already knew what Harry would do.
The interrogation went on for a while, with questions that Draco thought ridiculous (concerning things like the decorations and pudding they would choose for their bonding, and whether they would attend public galas together). Then, as the grey-haired woman who had tried to speak first paused for breath, Skeeter jumped in again.
“The Malfoys still have immense wealth even after that little war,” Skeeter said, raising one hand as though the war had been a mass of cobwebs she could simply brush aside. “Do you intend to retire from the Aurors, Mr. Potter? Become a kept man, perhaps?”
Harry began to laugh.
It was the right response, Draco thought as he relaxed again from his instinctive need to spring forwards and beat Skeeter about the head with his wings for saying such ridiculous things about his mate. Harry didn’t instinctively know how to handle reporters, not in the way that Draco’s parents had evolved the skill, but sometimes he hit the right notes anyway.
If his increased confidence comes from the bond…
It was entirely possible that it did. Draco had heard about true bonds having all sorts of beneficial effects on the human half of the pairing, including making them more relaxed and more well-spoken.
“It was just a question, Mr. Potter. I don’t know why you’re laughing.” Skeeter was stiff and sulky.
“Because of the notion that I would simply give up everything I’ve worked so hard for,” Harry said. “And because of the notion that I’m tempted by wealth to that extent, when I have enough of my own.” He put his hand over Draco’s and squeezed, stilling the little tremor of agitation that had started there when Draco began to think that Harry might not let Draco take care of him in a way befitting his mate. Harry’s eyes were more than soft as he smiled up at Draco. “And because you don’t understand Draco at all if you think he would ever ask me to retire from the Aurors.”
Draco ducked his head at once and let his chin rest against the top of Harry’s head, his eyelids drooping. Merlin, this man. Draco thought he could have courted people for years, searched among all the Veela enclaves in the other dimension, and flown over the whole of Earth, and never found anyone who matched him the way Harry did.
“But Veela are protective.”
“Yes, and they also want to make their mates happy above all else,” Harry said firmly. “This isn’t enslavement. This isn’t the kind of bond that corrupts people’s minds like one created by the Imperius Curse does. Draco knows it wouldn’t make me happy to retire from the Aurors and depend on him.”
“And the assault that we’ve heard rumors of?” someone else called out.
“I’m sorry that I can’t give you more information on that,” Harry said, “since it hasn’t come to trial yet. But yes, I was assaulted by a fellow Auror. He’s being investigated, and I’m on holiday to recover and to settle my bond.”
“We heard you assaulted him!”
“Heard from who?”
That made the grey-haired woman fumble with her words, of course. Draco smiled into Harry’s hair. He saw one reporter clearing his throat with difficulty, and nudged Harry’s side a little, pointing to him. Best to squash Skeeter and the other impertinent ones for right now.
Of course, that question turned out to be the most impertinent one of all. “Is it true that when humans transform into Veela, their cocks grow in size?”
Draco could feel the roar building up in his throat, and his hands beginning to spark with fire. But Harry seized his fingers and held them still, saying only, “I’d think you’d know better than I would, seeing as I’ve never even heard that rumor.”
The reporter promptly flushed. “I’ve never mated with a Veela, Auror Potter!”
“Then you’ll just have to live in ignorance.”
“I can’t help but notice that you are skirting around the subject of your sex life,” said Skeeter loudly, her hand bobbing up and down in the air as though she’d made a pretense of raising it before this. “Tell me, Mr. Potter. Do you think that you’re having more satisfying sex now than you did with other partners?”
Draco clenched his teeth. He wanted Harry to answer that in the affirmative. And he wanted to take Harry away right now so that he could lay him down in the bed and change his perception of the sex they were having if the answer was negative.
“Again, Miss Skeeter, I think you know more about my sex life than I do, given all the articles you’ve written about it.”
“But are you really going to be satisfied dating a man for the rest of your life? You dated a woman before. Don’t you want children?”
“Is it true that Veela Malfoy would strangle any other people who flirted with you?”
“What did you think the first time that you had sex with Veela Malfoy, Auror Potter?”
Harry’s face had shut down by the time Draco managed to calm his own rage at the impertinence and look back at him. Then he shook his head slightly and said, “I didn’t agree to talk about frankly vulgar subjects. And I know that nothing I said would get reported as true, anyway. You’d find a way to twist my words.” He stepped back and raised his hand. “This conversation is over.” He turned to walk towards the fireplaces again, and Draco immediately followed him, wings spread so that he could shield Harry against any curses frustrated reporters might decide to cast at his back.
“It almost sounds as if you’re ashamed of your Veela mate,” said Skeeter then. “As if you want to keep some secret away from us. Tell us, Mr. Potter. Is he horribly scarred? Does he hurt you in bed?”
Harry turned smoothly. One hand clenched around Draco’s wrist, keeping him on the floor instead of flying over to savage Skeeter like he wanted. The other pointed a finger at Skeeter, and he said, “That’s it, madam. I will be bringing a lawsuit against the Daily Prophet for the things that you’ve said about me and my mate. Your lack of respect has become inexcusable.”
Skeeter’s mouth fell open, and she stared. Then she found a smile from somewhere, although Draco thought it looked shaky. “Surely you won’t do that, Mr. Potter. I mean. What I’ve said about you before has been as—as speculative, and you’ve always responded with—”
Harry leaned forwards. His eyes were so dark green they looked poisonous. “But before, I didn’t have someone I was in love with who had such insinuations being made about him. Listen to me, Skeeter. Shut up or get ready.” And he spun around and grabbed Draco’s wrist again and dragged Draco after him towards the fireplaces.
Draco went with him, only looking back once to take in the stunned expressions on Skeeter’s and the other reporters’ faces. Then he faced forwards with a smug little smile and put his hand on Harry’s back.
His mother might not approve of them leaving the conversation so abruptly, but Draco knew she would hardly be able to object once she realized why.
*
Harry Flooed back to the house in France without even thinking about it, and then turned around and winced as he watched Draco come through. “Sorry—did you want to be here? If you want to stay in Britain, I’ll—”
Draco kissed him so hard that Harry swooned against the wall. Then Draco pulled him up the stairs and into a bedroom that Harry hadn’t seen before. At least the walls were less overwhelming in their gaudiness than some of the others, and the windows looked out on a rather nice view of the gardens.
Draco’s wings had flared out. He kept his gaze on Harry as he undressed, and then reached over and gently swatted Harry’s hands away when he tried to take his own clothes off.
“Draco—”
“Let me take care of you, love. Let me show you I think as highly of you as you do of me.”
Harry lost his breath. Draco’s eyes were shining with such love and pride that they honestly almost hurt to look at. Harry licked his lips and nodded, and only raised his arms or his arse or his feet as he needed to to let Draco move cloth or take clothes off. And he tossed his head back and lost all sense of himself and the world around him when Draco’s mouth closed around his erection.
There was magic in it, Harry thought hazily. Nothing had ever felt this good—this warm, this gently pulling, this soothing, this wonderful.
But it didn’t matter when he came some endless time later, and opened his eyes to see Draco settling on the bed beside him. Harry tried to lift a hand to touch his cheek, but his body had gone liquid with pleasure. Draco kissed his chin and curled up next to him, cradling Harry against his chest.
“Don’t you want me to.” That was as much of a sentence as Harry could manage right now.
“Taken care of when I saw the expression on your face.”
Harry closed his eyes and smiled slightly. This was so nice. More than that, but his brain was starting and stalling from word to word, and that was the one that kept popping up. “I meant what I said.”
“About suing Skeeter?”
“Yeah.”
“I know.” Draco’s hand slid up and down Harry’s body, from chest to groin, in long, soothing strokes. “Right now, why don’t you go to sleep and let me take care of everything? There’ll be food when you wake up, and you won’t have to talk to anyone or do anything that you don’t want to.”
“’Kay.” Harry let his head roll to the side, his eyes shut. There was warmth before him and behind him and inside him and above him where Draco’s wings drooped, and he absolutely believed those words. He didn’t have to do anything he didn’t want to.
Because Draco was here.
Harry gave himself over to sleep, led down into it, or maybe followed into it, or maybe both, by Draco’s soft croon.
*
Thunderbird: Thank you! And yes, at this point they have a really solid bond.
SP777: Harry would commend Draco on his restraint, too, if he knew how strong it was!
Yes, my e-mail address is the same.
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Temporary Mate