Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

The Guile and Devotion of a Black Heir	By : StarLightMassacre Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male Views: 104307 -:- Recommendations : 9 -:- Currently Reading : 26
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Harry Potter; all rights go to J. K. Rowling. I make no money for this piece of fictional writing and never will.

Chapter List
- 22
- 23
- 24
A/N: For Heidi, one of the Facebookers. Happy birthday, lovelie, I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Last Time

He shut himself in his bed suite and he sat in his living room, breathing deeply to control the urge to cry. Every time something happened to make him even remotely happy, he was brought crashing down again with a harsh reminder that he wasn’t normal. He was trying so hard, but nothing he did was working, he couldn’t paste over the cracks in his life and pretend that they hadn’t happened in the first place, because things like this just revealed those cracks, exposed them in stark contrast. He wasn’t normal, maybe it was time to stop pretending that he was.
Chapter Twenty-Three – Summer Secrets

Harry had hidden in his room for the remainder of the day, and the night too. He’d taken his nutrient potion on an empty stomach and gone to bed miserable and hungry. It was almost like being back at the Dursleys, except this time it was his own fault.
He was not allowed to sulk for any longer than overnight. The next morning, as Harry was scrubbing himself clean of stale sweat, Rabastan came striding into his bedroom, pushed open the ajar bathroom door and inhaled a deep breath ready as he took a single step into the bathroom, intent of giving Harry a piece of his mind, and then he stopped, he exhaled sharply, almost painfully, and he stared at the sight of a gloriously naked, and dripping wet, Harry staring back at him.

“This is why we aren’t trusted together without a chaperone.” Harry said mildly, going back to washing himself.

Rabastan couldn’t say a word, he just stared. It was almost like he was seeing Harry naked for the first time, but he wasn’t, though the sight still affected him as if it were the first time.
Immediately the sight of so much glistening skin affected him, his blood pooling south and his breath coming faster, his heart racing. Harry was beautiful, so very beautiful, he couldn’t stand to look at him knowing that he was not allowed to touch. He wanted to lay Harry down on the bed and show him just how much he loved him, how much he cared, but it was forbidden of them. He’d never hated tradition so much.

“Are you just going to stand there?” Harry asked him curiously. “Hello…Rabastan?”

Rabastan blinked and then he breathed. He took several steps towards Harry and he pulled his Fiancé into his own body.

“Rabastan, you’ll get wet!” Harry complained.

“I don’t care.” He said huskily, before bending down and kissing Harry’s lips…hard.

Harry sucked in a shocked breath and he moaned into the kiss, wrapping his damp arms around Rabastan’s neck and holding him tight. A hand reached down and cupped his bum, squeezing and bringing forth a soft noise from Harry’s throat.

“I came up here with the intention of shouting at you.” Rabastan admitted. “For walking away without facing your problems head on, for leaving me alone all afternoon and all night, but most of all, for missing two meals. But the speech I had all planned out fled my mind the moment I saw your bare, wet skin.”

“I should run around naked more often then.” Harry chuckled, then he sighed and went serious. “I never meant to leave you alone, I always want to spend time with you, all of my free time actually, but…I just hate being reminded of what I went through. Draco made me feel like an oddball for never having gone on holiday before and I didn’t like it. I just wanted to be alone, but this morning I woke up feeling better and all the misery I felt yesterday has been pushed aside once again.”

“We’re having that holiday.” Rabastan told him. “There are a few properties we can go to that are completely private and belong to either my family or yours. No one will see us and if we choose right, we can even go out into public, as much as the thought of mingling with Muggles disgusts me.”

“You’d do that for me?” Harry asked, those beautiful eyes going wide and sparkly with happiness. Rabastan would never be able to say no to anything Harry asked with that gaze directed at him.

“Of course. I’d do anything for you.” Rabastan said gruffly, meaning every word.

Harry hugged him tighter and moved to kiss him. Rabastan squeezed the bum in his hand again, loving the feel of the flesh being in his hand. He lifted Harry from the bath and he walked back into the bedroom, carrying Harry.
He knew it was wrong, but he couldn’t help himself, he didn’t care for tradition in that moment, he only cared for touching and kissing his naked Fiancé.
Rough hands stroked over silky, damp skin, as much of it as could be touched and Rabastan was breathing heavily, his body almost trembling with restraint as he kissed Harry hard and passionately, trying to put all of his energies into the kiss, so that he wouldn’t be tempted to go any further and completely destroy the Pureblood traditions.
Maybe that holiday together wasn’t such a good idea, but the look on Harry’s face as it had been brought up, the excitement, the happiness, he couldn’t rip that away from his young Fiancé, he would just need to learn to control himself, so that he didn’t spoil anything.
Harry seemed to be thinking along the same lines too, as he groaned and pushed Rabastan away, taking a moment to breathe.

“We need to stop or we’re going to go too far to come back from.” He said sadly. “You wanted a virgin bride, so we need to stop.”

“It wasn’t my choice.” Rabastan insisted. “I would have much rathered the more casual betrothal and engagement, but grandfather insisted and Rodolphus backed him up because he never even had a betrothal. He was forced straight into engagement, and then a few weeks later he was unhappily married. He wanted me to have a long betrothal, a long engagement, to make up for what his lacked. I don’t blame him, or grandfather either, for wanting to give me more time to recover, and for you to get used to the idea, but now that we’re both ready for the next level of our relationship, we’re blocked from it.”

Harry nodded. “It seems ridiculous that we can’t develop things naturally, as we feel that we should. It should be our choice, not theirs, but I understand where they’re coming from. I just don’t particularly like it.”

“I feel the same way.” Rabastan sighed. “Come, you need to get dried and dressed before we’re caught. We’ll never get that holiday then.”

Harry laughed. “Let them try to stop me, I want a holiday, I’ll get one.”

“My, you are getting quite the spoilt, pampered attitude.” Rabastan teased.

Harry grinned at him and went to get dressed for the day.

“You said you came up to shout at me.” Harry said from his walk-in wardrobe.

“I did, yes. Mostly about ruining your health by skipping two meals. You can’t afford to do that when you’re not well, Harry. You wouldn’t let me or Dolphus get away with it, would you?”

Harry sighed. “No. I’d be right up in your faces about it, reminding you how important it was to keep to the scheduled, structured meal plan and how stupid it was to miss two meals.”

“You really pissed me off doing that.” Rabastan said. “Because I knew that if it had been the other way around, I’d never hear the end of it.”

“I am sorry.” Harry said, coming out fully dressed, minus a robe. He never wore robes unless he was going out or they were expecting company.

“Sorry isn’t good enough when it concerns your health.” Rabastan said fiercely. “Do you want to be sick again? Do you want to go back on those potions every day?”

“No.” Harry said, dropping his gaze to the floor.

“I don’t want to bitch at you, Harry, but it’s important. Your health is important to me, and it should be important to you too. You could have died from this disease. Do not give it a chance to take hold again, or for another disease to creep up on you.”

Harry nodded his understanding and he went to kiss Rabastan, to reassure him that he didn’t hold the harsh words against him. He’d known that skipping meals was a stupid, terrible thing to do, especially when Rabastan and Rodolphus still needed support through their own recoveries, when they forced themselves to eat even when they felt sick, or just straight up didn’t want to eat anything. He could have still been moody and alone and called Pimsey to bring him his meals in his bedroom, but he just hadn’t cared last night, he’d wanted to wallow and sulk in his misery, and that’s what he’d done, and now this was the result. Rabastan was unlikely to be the only one to chew him out over this incident either.

“Come, let us go down to breakfast and you can eat something. You’ll never be able to catch up on the meals that you’ve missed, but not missing any more is key now to helping you recover some strength.” Rabastan told him, taking his hand and leading him down the stairs.

No one said anything as they entered, but Harry could feel the tension in the room immediately, he was hyper aware of such things from his time at the Dursleys, it made him so uncomfortable that he was automatically preparing his fight or flight reflexes.
He sat beside Rabastan as he normally did, though he was right on the edge of his chair, and his Fiancé poured him tea while Harry served them both, as usual. He tried to ignore the awful tension that he could feel, but it affected him anyway.
He had to choke his food down, as he would only upset Rabastan further if he missed breakfast too, and he had been hungry upstairs, but this awful tension was killing him. It had never meant anything good in the past and he was half expecting to be hit.

“You’re very tense, Harry.” Narcissa told him. “You’re almost vibrating, relax and sit back. You are allowed to eat.” She told him.

Harry took a breath and he slid back in his chair a little. He ate more easily, a little less tensely, more assured now that he had permission to eat in peace. Rabastan’s hand touched his back, likely in silent support, but Harry almost leapt from his seat. His elbow went into his cup of tea and sent it all over the table. He closed his eyes in mortification, feeling his cheeks heating up.

“I only touched your back, Harry. What’s wrong? Are you in any pain?” Rabastan asked, not understanding.

“No, he’s not.” Lucius said, immediately realising what had happened. “He is expecting to be hit.”

Rabastan snapped his head back to his Fiancé. “You were expecting me to hit you?!”

“Perhaps not you, but someone, anyone.” Lucius explained seriously.

“It’s an automatic response when I’ve displeased those around me.” Harry said quietly. “I learnt when I was very young that to displease the people around me is to…I learnt to expect pain from it. Those reflexes haven’t truly worn off yet, if they ever will.”

“It’s raised your fight or flight adrenaline reflexes.” Xerxes sighed.

“Not…not truly, it’s sort of like that, maybe they’re linked, but…but back then, fight or flight wasn’t truly…I mean, I couldn’t fight back, and I had nowhere to flee to, so can it really be called fight or flight if even those options are removed? It was more curl into a ball and hope it ended soon, or huddle down and try to present a smaller target so maybe I was overlooked.”

Harry looked at their horrified faces and he started to get upset.

“I don’t want to speak about this.” He said as firmly as he could, making himself another cup of tea with shaking hands.

“You need to.” Lucius told him. “They need to be prosecuted for what they’ve dared do to you.”

“I don’t want to prosecute them!” Harry said. “I want to forget about it.”

“How? How can you possible do that, Harry? Tell me.” Lucius demanded.

Harry said nothing. There was no answer, what could he say? There was no way that he could forget what those people had done to him, and maybe if he were any sort of lesser man he would just tell them where the Dursleys lived, but he wasn’t that sort of person and he didn’t want any of this dragged up, but what could he do? No matter what he did, his past life kept worming its way in and the more he revealed, the more those around him were affected by what he’d been through. He didn’t want that.

“I just want to be normal.” He said.

“You are normal.” Rabastan burst out.

“It is not your fault that those people harmed you.” Lucius told him firmly. “You are normal, as Rabastan says, you’ve just suffered through horrific abuse as well. You need to let us help you through what was done to you, but we can’t do that if you keep running away from the mere mention of it and lock yourself up in your room all night.”

“I don’t feel very normal.” Harry complained.

“I’m sure that you don’t, but you are. People don’t get over abuses that they’ve suffered on their own, Harry. You need help.”

“If I said anything to make you feel that you weren’t normal, I’m sorry. It was not my intention at all.” Draco told him, speaking up for the first time.

“You made me feel like a freak for never having been on holiday before.” Harry said quietly.

“Then I’m even sorrier than I can say. I didn’t mean to hurt you or make you feel abnormal. You’re not. It’s those Muggle monsters who are the abnormal ones for thinking that it’s alright to harm a child. They are the ones who should be sorry, not you.”

“On the subject of this holiday you wish to go on. I am happy enough to trust you to go, if you still wish, but precautions will be taken.” Lucius told him.

Harry peeked up at that. “Really?”

“Yes, absolutely. You will be seventeen in July. I think a week away in August will do you some good. It will have to be one of the more secluded, private villas, but I’m sure you’ll enjoy yourselves in ways that won’t break your contract, and will not result in an early pregnancy.”

Harry blushed, but he ducked his head to grin too.

“You might have to refresh me on the terms of the contract, so that I can find loopholes to exploit, but there will absolutely not be any babies before marriage.” He said. “My final NEWTs are this coming year now, I can’t afford to lax my attention on my studies right now and I still haven’t finished my potion’s regime, I’m not fit enough to carry a baby, not just yet, and I know it.”

Lucius nodded in satisfaction. “We can trust you to have a week to yourselves then, I will make the preparations and sort everything out, I will tell you when you’re going as soon as everything has been finalised.”

Harry was much happier then and he turned back to speak to Rabastan excitedly, his Fiancé promising to do anything and everything that Harry wanted while on holiday. Rabastan’s biggest challenge would be keeping away from anyone who might recognise him and inform the Ministry of where he was…or worse, with whom. It could put Harry in grave danger and he would not ever want that. He was in a position now where he could take care of himself, he was much stronger now than he had been when he was first broken out of Azkaban, but Harry would be exposed and this whole intricate plan would come crashing down about them.
They weren’t ready to strike yet, it would be time very soon, but not yet and until that time came, he needed to be careful and he needed to protect Harry at all costs. He would have because he loved him, regardless of the orders given to him, but those orders only made it more imperative that he took exceedingly good care of his little Fiancé, to do otherwise was to lose his love, but also to disappoint his Lord. Both were utterly unacceptable.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Harry was confused for all of a moment when he saw the cowering man on his knees in front of him. Then he realised exactly what was happening and he fought for control of his emotions, so that Voldemort didn’t realise that he was there. He creeped around and away from where Voldemort was standing.
He looked around from his new vantage point and he seemed to be in a fairly normal drawing room, there were two settees set opposite one another, an armchair off to the side, two low coffee tables, a bookcase and a roaring fire. The only thing out of place was the cowering man on the colourful rug.

“You have disappointed me.” Voldemort said, in the high, cold voice that Harry knew marked him at his most dangerous.

“I’m sorry, my Lord.” The man all but screeched in his terror. “I’ll do better, I’ll try harder, I swear. It’ll never happen again.”

“I cannot trust you.” Voldemort said softly, almost to himself. Harry swallowed, he could feel the burning anger behind the words, the frustration, the fury at this man’s failure. He got a flash of thoughts, Harry almost cowered himself at what he saw there, he knew what was coming.

“You can, my Lord, I am trustworthy, I am loyal! I am truly loyal.”

“Liar.” Voldemort said simply. “I can always tell when I am being lied to, you can never lie to me, for Lord Voldemort always knows. You joined me because you were scared. You are not loyal, and that was why you failed. You did so deliberately.”

The man on the floor looked petrified now, going as solid as ice in his fear, like he’d been caught in the gaze of a Basilisk’s reflection. “N…no. No, my Lord. I assure you, I am loyal.” The man tried to argue, but it was no use. Voldemort knew the truth, he knew the man’s thoughts and there was only one way to punish such disloyalty.

“Avada Kedavra.”

It was said calmly, the wand coming from the sleeve of the robe in the blink of an eye, and then the man was dead on the floor, only a slight widening of the eyes showed that he’d known what was coming, but it had happened too fast for him to react any more than that. He couldn’t have gotten away even if he had had more time.
Harry knew what was coming next, he’d seen it, he’d felt it, he could see the rage thrumming through the man in the room, he knew that it hadn’t abated in the slightest with the death of the failure lying on the rug.
Harry was sweating, he felt sick with terror, and then he was gasping for air as he woke up to be assaulted by noise and light and touch and he fought free, struggling, clawing, crawling to the edge of his bed so that he could vomit over the side of it.

“I told you that he was sick, Lucius! We need a Healer.”

“Two missed meals a few days ago would not have caused this, Cissa. It’s something else. I’ve only ever seen his scar bleed once before, when Dumbledore touched him. Dumbledore insisted that it was the Dark Lord’s doing, but Harry shouted out that that was lies.”

“‘Abastan.” Harry called out, weakly, his head splitting with so much pain that his vision was bleared. He couldn’t see anything more than colour and indistinct moving blobs, his attention divided and it made the pain worse as he tried to focus on something, anything.

“I’m here, my love.” Rabastan’s very worried voice came from his right, followed by his blurry face.

“Careful! Be careful!” Harry warned, trying to latch onto him to hold him close, it took him two attempts to find Rabastan’s shirt and clutch at him.

“Harry, what…?”

“Be careful!” Harry repeated louder. “Dolphus, careful!”

“You’re not making any sense, sweetheart. Let me call a Healer and…” He heard Narcissa’s voice off to the side of him.

“No!” Harry shouted out, turning, letting go of Rabastan and groping for his glasses on his bedside table.

The world came back into view and he moaned as his head spiked with a higher pain. There was blood pouring down his face from his scar.

“Is it Dumbledore?” Lucius asked.

“No! It’s him!” Harry panted. “He’s angry. Very angry, he’s going to call you both, soon, tonight.” Harry said, looking at the two brothers. “You need to tread carefully, be careful! Someone…someone failed to do something, a mission, it was very important and now you’re going to be asked to do it. It’s dangerous and very intricate. He doesn’t want to ask you, he doesn’t want to…to set back your recovery, but he needs it done and he trusts you both to do it, but if you fail, he’ll kill you too. It’s too important to risk, it needs to be done!” Harry babbled.

“How do you even know…?” Rodolphus asked him but Harry interrupted the question before it was even fully voiced by rolling and vomiting over the side of his bed for a second time.

“Are you hallucinating?” Xerxes asked.

“I’m not fucking hallucinating!” He screeched. “It wasn’t a bad dream, it’s nothing to do with Dumbledore. It’s him! He used my fucking blood in his resurrection and ever since this has been happening. I can see in his fucking head and I watch him torturing and killing people. I know what he’s planning, I know what he wants to do. I already know!”

Harry fell back against his pillow, panting, exhausted, his chest was rising and falling rapidly, like he’d just run a marathon, and he was shivering from a mixture of shock and the cold sweat dampening his body…he had not taken a nutrient potion last night.

“He’s going to ask you to do this mission.” He said more calmly, staring at the two brothers. “The body of the failed Death Eater will still be on the floor when you enter the room, to serve as a warning, as a visual for what will come to you both if you fail too. He looks calm. He sounds calm, but underneath he is almost boiling over with rage. One wrong word, one misstep, and you’ll both be tortured. Be very careful.” He said, quivering like a leaf at the very thought of Rabastan and Rodolphus being tortured. It would almost certainly destroy any and all of their current progress and set them back months, if not an entire year or more in their recovery. “Please, be careful and try not to speak too much. That will only infuriate him more. Stick to the bare minimum, agree to anything and everything he says, just get out of there quickly, before he loses his already frayed temper.”

“Harry, I don’t know what you’ve seen in your dreams, but…”

“They’re not dreams!” Harry bellowed, before he moaned at the pain in his head spiking further, making him feel like his skull was about to split open with the pressure.

“The Dark Lord has said that he won’t use Basti or Dolphus until they’re healed, until they’ve fully recovered from the time they spent in Azkaban, they are truly loyal, he knows this and respects it.” Xerxes told him gently, trying to soothe him.

“He has no other choice. He trusts them to do it, he can’t afford another failure. It needs to be done before the end of summer, as soon as possible, and there have been too many setbacks already, this latest failure almost blew the entire plan, it was almost uncovered and then he’d never get another shot at it. I got…I got a sense that I had accelerated these plans, but I don’t know why or how I did so, it wasn’t on purpose. He was thinking of me and he thought back to the other times I’d interfered in his plans. I don’t know if he’s angry with me for it, which is why he’s chosen you both for this mission, or…I don’t know. He…he needs this done, as quickly as possible. It has to be Rabastan and Rodolphus, he will ask them tonight, he will call them soon. Be careful!” He called out to them again, willing them to believe him.

“Just get some more sleep now, Harry.” Rabastan told him gently, one hand cradling his face, the other resting on his chest, as if to hold him still.

“Promise me.” Harry demanded, straining against the hand on his chest to sit back up. “Promise me you’ll be careful, that you’ll be safe.”

“I will, I promise.” Rabastan said and Harry all but deflated under his hands, letting go of his tension and relaxing, allowing himself to be pushed back against the pillow.

Rabastan stroked his hair and face, soothing him and allowing Harry to relax enough to drift back into a restless sleep. He stayed for a moment longer, making absolutely sure that Harry was asleep, before he indicated the bedroom door and preceded everyone out.
They went back down to the drawing room they’d been in when Harry’s bloodcurdling screams had brought them running to his room, only to see him thrashing and convulsing, his face covered in blood and sweat, caught in sleep still. It had frightened him to see Harry like that.
They were all silent, sitting still and absorbing what they’d just observed and what Harry had told them.

“It was just hallucinations right?” Rodolphus asked, breaking the terrible silence at last. “Brought on by the resurfacing topic of his past abuse?”

“It’s possible.” Lucius said.

“No.” Rabastan interrupted, shaking his head. “He was serious. He was scared for us. Whatever this is, it was real for him. Real enough to drive him to that state, real enough for him to feel the need to warn us about it, and real enough for him to make me promise to be careful. He’s had nightmares before, and he’s never felt the need to ever do that before. This is different.”

“But to actually suggest that he has some sort of link to our Lord, Basti.” Rodolphus said, shaking his own head.

“Your brother is right, Rabastan.” Lucius sighed. “This is probably just Harry’s stressed mind playing tricks upon him.”

“No, Harry was right.” Rabastan insisted. “Our Lord did use Harry’s blood in his rebirthing ceremony, who’s to say the effect that had upon both of them?”

“Are you even trying to imply that you think that he and our Lord are linked in any way?” Rodolphus demanded.

“I am saying that it’s possible, we don’t understand the ritual involved, Harry wasn’t supposed to survive the ritual and he did, maybe it caused a backlash, or other complications, you know as well as I that ritualistic magic is dangerous at the best of times without it going wrong!”

“But to think that he can actually see into our Lord’s mind?” Rodolphus scoffed angrily.

“You don’t know what he saw or why! I’m saying we should heeded him, just in case, we’ll soon see if he was dreaming or not.”

“You mean if we are summoned.” Rodolphus said astutely.

Rabastan nodded his head. “If we are summoned and given a mission failed by someone else, we will know that Harry speaks the truth, and he really can see into our Lord’s mind. Remember his outburst a few days ago too, about him knowing what was going on, and to not think him a fool? That may have something to do with this too. Perhaps he didn’t mean that he’d been eavesdropping on our conversations at all.”

“This is…it’s ridiculous.” Xerxes shook his head. “Our Lord is powerful enough to block out anyone he pleases from his mind, to think that Harry, who isn’t even proficient in Occlumency, can breach those defences, it’s actually laughable!”

“I am only saying that we should be cautious, grandfather.” Rabastan said, unhappy that Harry was being slated in front of him.

“Of what? Harry’s dreams and fantasies?”

“He was upset!” Rabastan said furiously, finally losing his temper. “For whatever reason he believes what he saw to be real, and he deemed it important enough to warn us about it. Whatever he saw, for whatever reason, it upset him, truly distressed him, and I will not have him ridiculed for it in front of me!”

The room was silent after that, as they all absorbed those words, and then, very suddenly, both Rabastan and Rodolphus grunted and clutched their burning forearms together. Xerxes’ eyes widened.

“Do not tell me you’ve actually been summoned.” He said faintly, looking from one to the other.

The brothers didn’t answer, they both lifted their wands and conjured their Death Eater masks, placed them on their faces and as one, they Apparated with a crack, following the link to their Lord via the Dark Mark.
Once they landed, they shared a look from behind their masks, all at once remembering Harry’s dire warnings, and they lengthened their stride, quickened their pace, not wanting to keep their Lord waiting. It was time to see if Harry’s ‘dreams and fantasies’ were actually true, and see if he really could see into the Dark Lord’s mind…it was time to see if Harry really was linked to their Lord in some way, as he fully believed that he was.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Harry was up and awake not half an hour after he’d fallen back to sleep, full of anxious, nervous energy and he went downstairs to find Xerxes and Lucius talking quietly to one another. Narcissa was not in the room and Harry assumed that she’d gone to bed as it was rather late. All conversation stopped as he walked in and sat down to join them in the wait for Rabastan and Rodolphus to return.

“You should have stayed in bed, Harry. There’s nothing that you can do.” Lucius told him.

“Down here or upstairs, it makes no matter. I wouldn’t have slept either way. At least this way I can see him again sooner, hold him and touch him to make sure he’s alright.”

“What exactly did you see?” Xerxes asked him.

“Oh, in my fantasy do you mean? In my hallucinogenic dreams?” He glared.

“Harry, what did you see?” Lucius asked him sternly.

“It’s…it’s less about what I see, though I can watch everything he does perfectly, but it’s more about how I feel, what I think. We’re linked, so when I have these visions we share emotions and thoughts. He was so angry that this person had failed his mission, so angry that he killed the Death Eater for his failure. It was a very important mission. He couldn’t afford the lost time with the failure, it has to be done before the end of the summer, and before anyone cottons on to what he’s doing or why, particularly Dumbledore, and this latest failure almost got him caught out. He immediately thought of Rabastan and Rodolphus to replace this man for the mission. He was reluctant to call them, but he needs this mission completed in order to move forward with his plans. It’s very important to him and he trusts Rabastan and Rodolphus to do it. But he was furious, that anger was there, boiling away under the surface despite his rather calm exterior. I know that if they make one false move, say one wrong word, then it’ll be too much, and that anger will boil over and he’ll punish them both. They need to be careful.”

Lucius and Xerxes shared a look and Harry lay back against the settee cushions wearily. Everything was so complicated, he was so abnormal that even his adopted family and his in-laws were casting him strange looks now. Why couldn’t he have just been normal?
Thankfully he didn’t have to put up with it for much longer, as with twin pops, Rodolphus and Rabastan were back in the room. Rabastan discarded his Death Eater mask the moment he saw Harry sat on the settee watching him. Rodolphus did so more leisurely.
Rabastan sat next to him and Harry snuggled in close, laying his head on that chest, listening to the heart beating underneath, it was nice and steady, very calm, even as Harry’s hands searched Rabastan’s body for injuries or any tremors that would indicate him being tortured. There were none.

“Will we have to cancel our holiday?” He asked into the awkward silence.

“No.” Rabastan said immediately.

“It will be done before August.” Rodolphus insisted arrogantly. “I would not want to ruin your first holiday, your first with Rabastan.”

Harry smiled tenuously and he craned his head back and puckered his lips, begging for a kiss that Rabastan almost dived upon him to give.

“Perhaps you should go back up to bed, Harry, now that you’re sure that Rabastan is alright.” Lucius suggested softly.

Harry snorted. “You mean so you can talk about it and discuss what to do as if I wasn’t the one to personally witness it? As if I don’t know what’s happening and what’s going on. I know it involves someone called Pius Thicknesse and someone called Rufus Scrimgeour. It also involves replacing Fudge. You don’t need to keep me in the dark about these things. I already know.” He said fiercely.

“There’s a difference between hearing the orders and then listening to the mission set up.” Rabastan said gently. “I’d rather you didn’t see this side to things, Harry. There’s no need, you’ve already watched a man being killed tonight, you don’t need to listen to the plans to kill more.”

“So Harry was right about that too? The body was left on the floor to serve as a warning.” Xerxes asked.

“He was right.” Rodolphus said. “I have no idea how he is right, but he was. As if Basti or I would ever care for the death of a failure to our Lord. Of someone who wasn’t even truly loyal.”

Harry sighed and he stood. He bent to kiss Rabastan again.

“I’ll see you in the morning.” He insisted. “Don’t stay awake all night, you’ll mess up your own sleep pattern.”

“Goodnight, Harry.” Rabastan said quietly, giving the tiny waist between his hands a gentle squeeze.

The four of them watched him leave the room and then turned back to one another, everything remaining silent for several minutes as Lucius called for tea to be served along with a tumbler of Firewhiskey each.

“So Harry is linked to the Dark Lord.” Xerxes sighed, picking up the tumbler immediately when it arrived and savouring a sip.

“Everything he said, it was true.” Rodolphus said, nursing his own glass of Firewhiskey, even though perhaps he shouldn’t drink alcohol with the potions he was on. Rabastan was more sensible, and he was sipping on a cup of strong tea.

“He knew about the body, about the failed mission and he knew what the mission was too, we have to dispose of Rufus Scrimgeour and make way for Pius Thicknesse to take over as Minister when Fudge is inevitably kicked out of office over the summer. He knew. Which means he’s been keeping an eye on our Lord’s movements, on his plans, perhaps for years, and he hasn’t done anything to interfere in those plans, at least not recently, or purposefully.” Rabastan pointed out. “None of the plans and missions within the last year have hit any blocks or unexpected resistance. He’s stopped being the Order’s informant on such things since his adoption.”

“I never would have expected that.” Xerxes said, shaking his head.

“It is not so hard to believe when you scratch at the surface. Family is important to him. Very important.” Lucius insisted. “I am surprised that our Lord wants to dispose of Fudge however. I am not questioning the mission, but I believed him to be doing rather well.”

Rabastan smiled grimly then. “It’s thanks to Harry that these plans are needed, he was right about that too, this mission is because of his actions, though that was not why Dolphus and I were chosen.”

“Harry? What could he have possibly done to set a mission into motion?” Xerxes said questioningly, then understanding dawned on his face.

Lucius laughed as he too cottoned on. “Oh my, would this have anything to do with the ‘inquest’ that Harry manoeuvred Fudge into?”

“Exactly that.” Rodolphus said with a nod. “As soon as the results of that inquest are published, Fudge will be finished and someone needs to be in position to take over. It is tipped to be Scrimgeour, who is next in line after Fudge, so he needs to be eliminated and then it has to be rigged so that Thicknesse, who is under the Imperius curse at the moment, is the next Minister for Magic. We have to ensure that.”

“Well, Fudge will take care of himself.” Lucius said. “Or rather Harry has taken care of that for us. Scrimgeour is the main concern, he needs to be eliminated as soon as possible. Thicknesse is already under the Imperius curse, so that is of little concern, we just have to make sure that he is in position, ready to take over.”

“We?” Rodolphus asked.

“Believe it or not, but your brother will become my son-in-law, that makes him family, and as family of his, it makes you family too. You are no longer family friends, but just family via the marriage to Harry.”

“They’re not married yet.”

“If everything stays on track then they will be. Harry is committed, I would hope that you were too, Rabastan.”

“I am.” He answered immediately. “Harry and I will be married.”

“Which takes me back to the point of you being family, not just family friends.” Lucius added. “As such, your problems and concerns are also my own, I will have nothing upsetting Harry’s happiness and his heart is set on marriage and children.”

“Then let us get down to planning then. Boys, I hope you are up to this mission, how are you both feeling?” Xerxes asked them seriously.

“Like I have a purpose again.” Rodolphus insisted. “I’ve been waiting for a year and a half for the chance to prove myself. I’m feeling better, stronger. I’m ready for this.”

“Good. Basti?”

“The same, only I was such a wreck when I first got out that I didn’t have much in the way of thoughts for anything. Harry changed that. Harry was my purpose and now that I’m feeling stronger and healthier, I am ready to prove myself.”

Xerxes smiled at his two boys proudly and he took in a deep breath and he set out to helping them plan their mission. If it needed to be done by August, so that Rabastan and Harry could still have their little holiday, then it would have to be fully planned in the next few weeks, which was rushing things a little, and then the plan would need to go off without a hitch in order for success. The boys were certainly pushing things, but Xerxes understood. The very thought of disappointing Harry was painful after seeing how happy and excited he was to be going on his first ever holiday, and wasn’t that just a very sad thought, that he was going to be seventeen, a legal adult, before he had his first ever holiday?
Xerxes sighed and set himself to assisting his boys to get this done as quickly as possible while still ensuring success, with Lucius’ help too they would assuredly succeed. Harry would not be disappointed, their Lord would not be disappointed, Rabastan and Rodolphus would be back to doing missions, as they’d been wanting to do for months, or a year and a half in Dolphus’ case, and things would progress much more smoothly now, especially as it seemed that Harry was, not entirely on their side, but he was no longer interfering or getting in the way, and more importantly, he wasn’t informing the Order, or Dumbledore, of their Lords plans, and as such, everything was going much more smoothly. He did worry about what would happen if the Dark Lord found out about Harry’s little gift of seeing into his thoughts and plans, but he truly hoped that being paired with Rabastan in a marriage and with shared children (when the time came), and the fact that Harry was no longer passing such sensitive information back to the Order, that their Lord would be content to leave Harry alone. The other option would be to eliminate Harry, which would destroy Rabastan, and perhaps turn his steadfast loyalties too, and that worried Xerxes. It worried him to death.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

The next morning Harry was awake well before anyone else, his lingering headache had made it very difficult to fall asleep, and almost impossible to stay asleep, so he had gotten up and he went perusing through his family portfolios, looking for more dangerous abnormalities taking place in the early hours while most people would be asleep, and less of those who were awake would even think of looking in their portfolios at this time of morning.
He had taken up the kitchen table, as he wanted to sit upright in a chair for once, not lounge on the floor at a coffee table. His portfolios were all open, he was watching the stock prices of shares he owned in foreign countries rise or dip or remain level, while those he had in British companies were still, frozen overnight…that was how he had caught out the strange movements of the company he had pulled out of, they had been moving at night, when they should have been frozen, hoping that no one would notice, and no one had for who knew how long.
Harry checked the Black family portfolio and he smiled at the name Andromeda Tonks that had been added back, ever since Harry had officially removed the disownment status on her and Nymphadora, who were once again members of the Black family, and under his protection. Not that he was expecting any thanks for it, considering who he was living with, but that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t help them out if they needed it.
He was also working a little more on his creature law reforms, several ancient books were open around the area he was sat at, each showing the same article of law, but worded in different ways. Harry was making use of all the different wordings to make sure his new laws were airtight and had no loopholes to them. He would have Lucius, Rabastan, Xerxes, Rodolphus, Narcissa and even Draco read through it to make sure. He would have his law read by as many eyes as he possibly could, just to make sure that it was airtight and that there were no loopholes.

“Well, you look very productive, and so early in the morning too.” Narcissa said approvingly as she walked in.

Harry looked up and smiled. “Good morning, Mother. I have been productive this morning. I have several more paragraphs for my creature reform law written out and I’m keeping a close eye on my stocks and shares, just in case. I was up early and decided to do this over carrying on my recreational reading. This is more important.”

Narcissa came over to kiss Harry’s cheek and she sat on the edge of his little work station and ordered some tea and fruit granola from Pimsey.
She ate her breakfast and drank her tea, all the while silently observing her younger son as he worked diligently, reading several books, one after another, then going back to the parchment in front of him, dipping his quill in a standard black ink and then writing carefully, so that he didn’t smudge the ink, nor make his handwriting illegible through rushing.
When the morning paper came, the owl landed on the back of Harry’s chair and he took the single Knut from the centre of the table, where it was left the night before in preparation, and he showed it to the owl, gently stroking the feathered head and cooing softly to it. Narcissa smiled to see him, he was so gentle and loving, she had never known anyone quite like Harry, and she already knew he would be just as loving and fiercely protective when he became a Mother himself.
He paid the owl, let it drink some water from his own glass, then saw the bird away with a smile. Then he turned to the paper in his hands and made to hand it to her, as he knew she liked reading the paper in the mornings, but he stopped as it flipped open over his fingers and he caught sight of the front page. He yanked it back to his own face, reading so quickly that his eyes were darting, his mouth slightly opened, his lips sounding out the words he was reading silently, and Narcissa was rather worried about what the paper contained. She was getting ready to send Pimsey to wake Lucius, regardless of his late night, when Harry threw his head back and he laughed so hysterically that it was almost frightening in itself.

“Whatever is the matter, darling?” She asked him.

His laughter trailed off into the sweet giggling that he still did sometimes, when he was particularly, genuinely amused, and he smiled at her and handed over the paper.
She read the front headline and the Knut dropped all at once and she chuckled herself. The picture was of Harry himself, covertly taken, of when he had gone for the meeting at Gringotts a few days ago. He was dressed sharply, a folder tucked under his arm and he was wearing a very self-satisfied smile that made him look incredibly handsome. The article was all about Lord Harry James Potter-Black selling his shares in a company for massive profit, rumoured to be in the hundreds of thousands of Galleons, just days before he exposed an embezzling scheme which had caught out several top company bosses who had been rigging the share price to dive dramatically, lowering the price to mere Knuts, before hiking them astronomically to be sold at an inflated profit that the company couldn’t sustain. Harry selling all of his shares had all but drained the company of funds, leaving none for the bosses who had been so carefully playing the share prices, and now the company was forced into liquidation and all of the bosses were facing fines and possibly even a prison sentence. They had nothing for their crimes and Harry had gotten close to three quarters of a million Galleons for his eagle eyed observation of his family portfolios and for his quick thinking in selling his shares during one of the astronomical price hikes. She was so very proud of him and she couldn’t wait to brag about this when she went for afternoon tea with the other Ladies in a few days’ time.
She handed the paper over proudly to Lucius when he came down for breakfast, only half an hour later than usual and she watched his face, his expression, as he saw the front page.

“Well, you certainly take a good picture, Harry.” Lucius said, interrupting Harry, who having eaten his own meal was currently fawning over a sleepy Rabastan, feeding him and, in Narcissa’s opinion, heavily flirting with him.

“I thought so too.” Harry grinned.

“You have your picture in the paper?” Draco asked. “Why?”

“My letter must have reached Gringotts yesterday.” Harry said with a much wider grin.

Lucius turned the paper for the table to see the photo and the bold headline. Rabastan laughed and pulled Harry’s face around to kiss him soundly on the mouth.

“The company is now in immediate liquidation, so thank you, Father, Xerxes, for advising me to sell my shares immediately.” Harry said. “The bosses were embezzling.”

“Of course.” Xerxes replied amicably, taking the article from Lucius, who had finished reading it, and he read it for himself.

“Rabastan, can you read this for me, please.” Harry begged the moment Rabastan had finished eating, or rather the moment he had finished hand feeding Rabastan his breakfast.

He dug in his pile of books and folders and he brought out his proposed law reform. Instead of being rainbow coloured, as his usual format for Rabastan, there were coloured bullet points instead, marking the start and end of a paragraph. It was a step up to get Rabastan reading and focusing more normally, while also still giving him a helping hand if he still needed it.

“Is this…?”

“The creature law reform, yes. I did a lot this morning waiting for someone to wake up to keep me company. It was a long wait.” He teased.

“You shouldn’t have gotten up so early then, should you?” Rabastan teased right back.

Harry laughed. “I couldn’t sleep, at least this way I was productive about it.”

“Very productive, these new paragraphs are forming the backbone of your reform. Well done.” Rabastan praised and Harry puffed himself up happily. He loved it when Rabastan praised him for anything. “You really will be ready to submit this reform before the end of the year if you keep this pace up.”

Of course that just made Harry puff up even more and he heard Draco snigger. He sent his brother an evil glare, but he turned and rested himself on Rabastan happily, shifting his chair closer to manage it, waiting for Rabastan to finish reading what he’d written to get his feedback on it.

“This is wonderful.” Rabastan said once he’d finished, huffing at Rodolphus right after when his older brother held out a hand for the parchment, demanding it be handed over silently.

Rabastan handed over the parchment and Harry watched anxiously as the elder of the Lestrange brother’s read it through carefully. Harry didn’t even make it a secret that he was waiting for Rodolphus to finish and give his feedback, as he stared at the man obsessively.

“You need to calm down.” Rodolphus said suddenly. “I can feel you staring and it’s distracting. Rabastan, take him for a walk or something so that I can actually read this in peace for ten minutes.”

Rabastan chuckled and he stood, pulling a reluctant Harry up to his feet and leading him away. They only went down the hall, to the front parlour, and Rabastan sat them on the settee and set to distracting Harry by kissing him and stroking that unruly hair through his fingers.
Harry sighed happily and snuggled in tight, feeling very loved and mellow. Despite the rather…eventful night that he’d had, he was feeling more secure now that Rabastan, and Rodolphus too, had come out of that meeting unharmed and though he knew what their ‘mission’ entailed, he didn’t want to think about it. He tried to tell himself that it was none of his business anymore, it didn’t really work, but distracting himself with Rabastan helped, doing the creature law reforms helped, as did working on the proposal to remove the Dementors for good. It was all to distract him from the confliction inside himself over what he was doing, over what he wasn’t doing, the people whom he was condemning to death, like this Scrimgeour, just because they were in the way.
He sighed and tipped his head to the side, an invitation for Rabastan to start kissing his neck. Harry had found, very recently, that he very much enjoyed this. He made a soft, happy noise as Rabastan’s lips touched the skin on his neck very gently. A tongue came out, just slightly, to taste him, and Harry let out a ragged breath, trying to control the urge to moan aloud.
His hands, almost without conscious thought, rose to wrap around Rabastan’s head, to keep him in place, to keep those lips against his neck. He shuddered as pleasure made his body tingle in a very unfamiliar, but very welcome way.

“Don’t stop.” He pleaded breathily, very happy to stay like this.

“If we don’t, we’re going to get into trouble.” Rabastan warned.

“At the moment I’m failing to care overly much about that.” He said, peeling his eyes open, with some effort, to look at Rabastan’s dark blue eyes.

Rabastan laughed and bent down to kiss Harry’s neck one last time before he pulled back and separated them somewhat. Harry groaned in disappointment.

“Very soon I will have you all alone, in some luxury villa, perhaps even on a beach with a sea view, and I will not stop kissing your neck, your entire body, every inch of it.” Rabastan promised his young, ardent Fiancé, whose green eyes were wide and dark now with lust.

Lust for him…it was a heady feeling to think…to know that this young, beautiful boy wanted him, was sexually attracted to him, and wanted his touch, welcomed it, was all but begging for it. It made Rabastan feel like a man again.

“We will find those loopholes in our contract together.” Rabastan carried on. “And I will take huge pleasure in exploiting every single one of them with you.”

Harry’s breath came out on a moan, his eyes half closed and he nibbled on his bottom lip. Rabastan had to pull Harry’s head to his, to give him another kiss. He felt skinny arms wrap around his neck, he could feel Harry arch into his stomach, and he knew that they had to stop this now, before things went any further, because if they were left like this, then they really were going to end up with a baby too soon.
He kissed Harry hard and passionately, squeezing the young body to his own with his arms, and when air became a necessity, he separated them and he stood. He had to take control here, because Harry was too headstrong, too stubborn, and if they went too far then Harry would stand by that decision and damn the consequences. It was one of the traits in him that Rabastan loved, but it could bring trouble too.
He pulled a dazed looking Harry to his feet and he walked them around the corridors a little bit, to give them some time to ‘recover’ and then he took Harry back into the dining room, where the occupants were all done eating and had moved onto tea and conversation. Harry’s proposal was in his grandfather’s hands, and Lucius and Rodolphus seemed to be discussing the proposal.

“I am very proud of you.” Lucius said the moment Harry walked through the door. “Your wording is very specific and cannot be misinterpreted, it will go a long way to helping the magical creatures.”

Harry nodded and Rabastan saw him puffing up. He smiled, but said nothing about it. He found it sweet that Harry felt such pride in the things he did, though it was very upsetting that he was so affection starved that he looked for such praise so often. Rabastan hoped that soon there would come a time that such things weren’t a novelty to Harry anymore, and he came to realise that such praise and commendation from those around him and those he worked with were given to him because of his hard work and dedication, and that if he carried on in the same vein, then he would get much more used to it, because he deserved it.

“I could find no faults with it.” Rodolphus said with a slight incline of his head. “There are a few things I would add, if you are willing to hear them.”

Harry immediately hurried forward and sat beside Rodolphus. “Of course.” He insisted. “I’m all ears.”

Rabastan sighed and sat beside his Fiancé and he smiled as he watched him talk animatedly with his brother and grandfather. Harry was coming on so well, he fit the mould of Pureblooded Lord perfectly, even if he did sometimes slip from it with his strange ideals on certain issues, but Rabastan could live with that. He could live with anything that Harry did, because he adored the very bones of the young boy sat beside him. He loved Harry and he would do anything for him, he would even die to keep him safe if it was needed, and he was sure such sentiments would pass over to their children when they had them too, because their children would be little extensions of Harry himself, and he would love them just for that.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Fred was pacing the small space between the coffee table and the settee in the living room of the flat that he shared with George, staring at the fireplace, waiting for his brother, Bill, to arrive. Charlie was already sat on the settee with George, looking confused and slightly worried.
It had been three days since he and George had confronted Ron, and they had had plenty of time to think. This was the first opportunity they had had to get both of their older brothers over for a chat, but Bill was running late.

“What is this about?” Charlie asked again.

“We’re waiting for Bill.” Fred ground out.

Thankfully the fireplace flared green at that moment and Bill stepped onto the carpet.

“Finally!” Fred burst out agitatedly.

“I was finishing the readings for the Wizengamot. You know I’m playing catch up.” Bill told him. “Now what’s wrong?”

“We need to talk.” George said, calmer than Fred and less worked up.

Bill sat and Fred joined them. His foot bounced against the floor with the tension he was feeling.

“What is this about, at least?” Charlie asked.

“Harry.” George said, watching as Charlie suddenly went still and Bill’s face flashed with fury.

“What has he done now?” Bill asked furiously.

“It’s not what he’s done. Ron and Ginny lied to us.” Fred spat out.

“Lied to us, about what?” Bill demanded. “It wasn’t Ron and Ginny’s decision to saddle us with such a crippling debt.”

“It was their fault, though.” Charlie pointed out. “Dad was right, he taught all of us better and we always knew that if we broke something, we would have to work to pay for it.”

“He turned on them, they were upset!” Bill shouted.

“He didn’t.” Fred cut in harshly. “He didn’t turn on them, we confronted him in the Alley…”

“Oh, you mean when he was out getting even richer? Making more money than we could ever hope to see in our lifetimes?” Bill burst out, referring to the front page article that had been on the Daily Prophet that morning.

“He told us what really happened on the train, what…”

“What he says happened!” Bill interrupted. “He could be ly…”

“We confronted Ron.” Fred interrupted right back. “We threw what Harry had told us in his face and he admitted to it!”

“Harry greeted them normally, like a friend, and it was Ron, Ginny and Hermione who turned on him.” George said calmly, a rock in a turbulent ocean.

“So Ron and Ginny lied to us, so that we would blame Harry for everything.” Charlie murmured.

“He was being abused with the Muggles.” George said into the silence. “They were abusing him so badly that he would rather live with anyone else. He said that he would have even gone to live with you-know-who if it meant he was out of that house, that’s how bad the abuse was.”

“The paper, it mentioned something like that.” Charlie recalled. “The article said he was adopted by the Malfoys and stipulated that it was for unspecified abuse or something.”

“Exactly. Harry told us that when Malfoy found out about his home conditions that he was furious that he was forced to endure it and that no one was doing anything about it. Harry was living with the Malfoys just days later. Just days after. How often does that happen with adoptions? It usually takes a few weeks at least, it must have been really bad for it to have gone through and been approved within days.”

“That was probably Malfoy throwing around his money, you know he has Fudge’s ear.” Bill pointed out.

“Or his abuse was so horrific that those who found out about it immediately moved to permanently take him away from it.” George said darkly. “He was right, we ripped the bars from his window and had to pick the lock on his door to break him free when he was twelve. Ron even told Mum that the Muggles were starving him. Ron knew about the abuse. He knew, Bill.”

“He was only a kid himself…”

“No, if any of our friends had come to us and told us, actually told us that they were being abused, we would not have hesitated to support them in anything and everything.” Fred said. “Harry was always small and skinny, but worse than that, he always looked sickly. He was being severely abused from what is being implied, Bill. I don’t blame him for wanting to live somewhere else, anywhere else, regardless of who it was with.”

“The worst part is that his friends, those who were supposed to have supported him and cared for him, told him to just ‘put up with it’, that it would only be for a few weeks of the year.”

“They said that to him?” Charlie asked in shock.

“Ron told us himself that that was what he’d told Harry.” George nodded.

“They didn’t know what he would be suffering through in those weeks!” Charlie said angrily. “They didn’t know if it was just starvation and being locked up or if it was worse!”

“From what we can read between the lines it was much worse.” Fred pointed out. “Harry said that he was beaten too, that it was every day. That sort of abuse…no one deserves to live like that and you can’t tell me that you think otherwise.”

“I don’t.” Bill said eventually, letting out a harsh sigh. “I still don’t like him for what he’s done to us, but at least I understand now why he is trying to slot himself into the Malfoy mould. Abused kids do that.”

“You can’t blame him for the debt, Bill.” Charlie said. “He was legally entitled to charge Ron and Ginny for…”

“It’s not Ron and Ginny who have to work to the bone to pay for it.” Bill cut in furiously. “He billed them, knowing that it would be the rest of us paying, knowing that that sort of debt would cripple Mum and Dad! They’re not well, this debt is making them sick and I will never forgive him for what he’s doing to them.”

The twins and Charlie looked at one another, but they had nothing to say to that.

“If only they hadn’t go for his Firebolt.” George sighed.

“The rest of his junk was overly expensive too. I looked at the invoice.” Bill said harshly.

“He said that if they hadn’t gone for his Firebolt, one of his sentimental possessions, he never would have billed them. He said he wanted them to feel just the slightest bit of the pain that he had felt when he saw the Firebolt in that ruined state.” George explained. “It was going for the Firebolt that Sirius gave him that upset him so much.”

Bill opened his mouth, perhaps to argue, but Fred beat him to it. “If they hadn’t been so cruel as to go for the Firebolt none of this would have happened.”

“You don’t know that.” Bill pointed out. “Harry says that he wouldn’t have billed us if they hadn’t touched his Firebolt, but who knows what would have happened if they hadn’t?”

“He loved Sirius.” Charlie said softly.

“Clearly.” Bill scoffed. “Sirius hated the Malfoys, especially as Narcissa was his cousin.”

“You can’t say what Sirius would have thought of this. None of us know and Remus doesn’t have a problem with it, so maybe Sirius, who loved Harry too, would have cared more that Harry was being abused with those Muggles. Maybe he too would have cared more that Harry was out of that situation than he would have cared about who it was with.”

“I doubt it, Sirius hated his family.”

“But he loved Harry. More than anything.” Charlie said. “Love conquers hate, Bill.”

“I don’t care. I hate that little shit for what he’s done to our family, despite what he went through, despite everything, he chose to put that debt on us, knowing that it would punish all of us, it barely even touches Ginny and Ron. It’s us that it falls on. On Mum and Dad, and I’m not going to forgive him for that.”

“I understand that.” Fred sighed. “But Ron and Ginny have to take some of the blame in this.”

“It seems more like it was a series of events that led to this.” George added. “Telling him he should stay in an abusive household, them turning on him and isolating him and pushing him further towards the Malfoys, then the Firebolt. It wasn’t just one thing that tipped the scale, it was a lot of things, but going for his Firebolt is what pushed him over the edge.”

“Ron and Ginny certainly had a big part to play in this.” Charlie said. “The blame isn’t all on Harry.”

“I don’t care what you say, I’m standing by Mum and Dad.” Bill insisted.

“So are the rest of us!” Fred burst out. “Do not accuse us of not caring for our family, Bill. You know it’s not true, but what Ron and Ginny did made everything worse, if they’d been kinder, more understanding or even just more concerned about Harry then this would never have happened to us!”

“It did happen.” Bill said. “Now we have to deal with it and support the family as much as we can. We can’t change what happened, and we can’t change Harry’s mind about the debt. We have to just get on with it.”

Bill stood and turned on his heel, going for the floo. Fred sat back and blew out a frustrated breath. Bill had a point, there was no changing anything with this information. They still had the debt to pay off, and Harry had already told them that he would not take away the debt, because he wanted them to feel the pain he’d felt at seeing his ruined Firebolt.

“Bill’s right, even knowing that it was Ron and Ginny who were the catalysts, it changes nothing.” Fred said sadly.

“I wouldn’t fret so much over this.” Charlie told them. “Harry has changed now, and it’s for the better in his mind, so he won’t want to go back to what he was. It’s best to just keep your heads down.”

The twins nodded and Charlie sighed and stood. He patted both twins on the shoulder. He left them to it and he flooed out, back to his childhood home. No one was in sight and he was thankful for that as he slipped out the back door, went halfway down the path and he turned on his heel. This development needed to be reported.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Harry’s summer had set out to a good start. Just a few weeks after he’d come home he’d stopped having nightmares about being dragged to his death by inferi, he and Rabastan were getting much closer, which was more or less code for they couldn’t keep their hands from the other and were more often than not found snogging furiously and heavily petting one another by someone in a secluded area. Harry had had three talks already about the terms of his contract and he had been reminded several times that he could not have a baby until he was married…no, he could not even fall pregnant until after he was married.
Rodolphus had laxed his stance a little, after it had been pointed out that their betrothal contract had been signed almost a year ago, and they had been engaged now for six months. They had had a longer engagement than most Pureblooded contractees, even if they had had a shorter betrothal, but as Harry had pointed out, he had only been brought into these sorts of traditions less than a year ago, of course he wasn’t going to have a betrothal as long as Draco had, who had been betrothed to Astoria almost since infancy.
It was Narcissa who was the problem, as she steadfastly refused to have a son who was pregnant before he was graduated, and before he was married. So she was very severe with them having no contact that could result in them having sex. It was driving Harry mad, as he was so sexually frustrated that he just wanted to jump Rabastan, to hell with the consequences.
Narcissa had taken up her game recently, and Harry was horrified to come down one morning to a pile of wedding planning brochures and catalogues, two thick pads of parchment and swatches of coloured fabrics.

“No.” He said immediately, wondering if it was too late to run back to his bed suite.

“Your wedding is next year.” Narcissa said fiercely. “You are entering your final NEWT year now, when do you think you’ll have time to plan this wedding if not now?”

“Next summer!” Harry said.

“Absolutely not. I refuse to allow you to have a last minute, hastily planned wedding with nothing in place.” Narcissa said sternly. “Now sit down and let us sort this out.”

“Where’s Rabastan?” He demanded, looking directly at Xerxes.

“He is out.” Xerxes told him. It was said in a particular way that Harry knew that Rabastan was doing something for the mission set to him by Voldemort…that and the fact that he was risking himself by going ‘out’ in the first place. He wouldn’t do that if not for his mission.

“I am not planning a wedding without him. What if he doesn’t like anything I choose? This is his wedding day too!”

“It is typical for the bride to plan…”

“I’m not a bride!” Harry snapped immediately, angrily. “I might carry the gene, but I’m a man, and I will be treated as one! Rabastan will be an equal part of this wedding, so he will have equal responsibility in planning it.”

Narcissa blew out a breath. She nodded sharply. “Okay this will be your big day, if you want Rabastan to have an equal say, then we can sort that out. But there is no reason why you can’t make a start and run any decisions by him when he is home.”

Harry sighed and sat down next to his Mother. He unhappily pulled the nearest catalogue towards him and flicked it open…and he saw wedding dresses.
He turned his head to look at his Mother in barely concealed fury and she huffed out a breath at his look and flicked the catalogue further towards the back, where there were more traditional dress robes for men and more modern suits with half robes attached.

“I would rather it if you didn’t buy your wedding clothes from a catalogue, I would insist on having them tailor made, but I got this to give you some ideas as to what you might like.” She told him.

Harry got an idea then, and he swiped one of the pads of parchment and picked up a quill. He wrote down what he wanted and then Narcissa looked at what he’d written.

“Harry.” She sighed. “Astoria is a fifteen year old girl. She has no formal training in making robes.”

“She’s apprenticing under the seamstresses at Twilfitt and Tattings this summer.” Harry said. “I want her to make my wedding outfit for me.”

Narcissa looked like she was regretting this wedding planning already.

“Let us move onto the cake.” Narcissa said quickly.

“I want it in the shape of a snitch.” Harry said immediately, seriously, then he burst out laughing when he caught sight of his Mother’s pinched face. “As long as it’s chocolate I don’t care.” He said with a smile.

“Do you want a floral cake then?” She asked him poisonously.

“No, no flowers.” Harry said immediately.

“Then do not tell me you don’t care what it looks like as long as it is chocolate flavoured.” She snapped at him.

Harry groaned and he pulled the nearest cake brochure he could see towards him, flipping through it disinterestedly, looking at all the overly elaborate floral decorations, all the girly, frilly looking designs and he sighed. Clearly it was a good thing to start planning this now, as there was nothing he actually liked and that meant he would have to design it all himself. He wanted Rabastan here, in his opinion if he had to suffer through this then his husband-to-be needed to suffer too.

“Is there anything that you even partially like?” Narcissa asked him desperately over an hour later, as Harry flipped through his third brochure.

“No. I hate all of them.” Harry declared. “They’ve all got flowers on them and both Rabastan and I hate flowers, or they’ve got lacy detailing or frilly bits. I can just imagine having this cake…” Harry said jabbing his finger at the page he was currently on. “…and serving it up to Rabastan. Oh, here you go love, have a pink, icing ruffled heart to eat. It’s just not us.”

“What about this one?” Narcissa asked, turning the brochure she was looking through to face him, her own pad of parchment by her hand with nothing written on it.

“It is covered in purple butterflies!” Harry said, aghast.

“You can change the colour scheme to fit in with your own.” Narcissa insisted.

“Oh yeah, that’s just what I’ve always wanted on my cake. Insects.” He said. “No, I don’t like it.”

“What about this one?” Narcissa asked.

“It has bows on it.” Harry shot down. “Take them off and maybe it’s salvageable.”

“It would be plain without them. Is that what you want, a plain white cake?” She demanded.

“If those are my only options, then yes.” Harry said. “I would rather it be plain than covered in bows, lace, frills, flowers, hearts or butterflies.”

Narcissa sighed and opened the next wedding magazine and Harry turned the page in his. This was getting painful now. Where the hell was Rabastan?

“I like this one.” He said with a grin, watching as his Mother all but dived on his interest. Her face fell as soon as she caught sight of what he was looking at.

“You are not having a tower of doughnuts.”

“Why not?” Harry asked. “I like doughnuts. I think it’s clever and contemporary.”

“You are having a normal, traditional wedding cake.” Narcissa told him.

Harry sighed, looked up at the ceiling and then turned the page.

“Ooo, what about this one?” He said, showing her the white cake covered in black feathers that he was looking at. “I like this one.”

“It has feathers on it, Harry.” Narcissa said, completely aghast at her son’s taste.

“What’s wrong with feathers?” Harry asked.

“It’s for a wedding cake.” Narcissa told him impatiently.

Harry sighed and pushed the catalogue away from himself. He was bored of this now.

“Okay, Harry, let us put this aside for now and try to find a colour scheme.”

“I want blue.” He said immediately. “Dark blue.”

“May I ask why?” Narcissa asked him, looking at him warily, feeling weary already. She had set her heart on just attending Draco’s wedding, it was the bride’s family who planned the wedding, and when Draco had tested negative for the gene, she had known then that he would have a wife, who would be planning their wedding with little to no input from Draco, let alone her. Then Harry had come into their family, and he had tested positive for the gene, and he preferred men. She had some small hope of being able to help plan a wedding after all, but Harry was not big on tradition and he was a very headstrong young man. He had his own ideas and if tradition didn’t fit into those ideas, he would ignore them or push them off. He didn’t care for tradition or for what other people thought of him.

“Because of this.” He said simply, raising his hand and showing off the blue tungsten ring on his finger. Harry kissed it, as was his habit whenever he and Rabastan were separated, and Narcissa relaxed a little. She could understand his choice for colour scheme, if he was attached to the ring that Rabastan had designed personally, she could work with that.

“Dark blue and white?” She asked, actually pulling her pad of parchment towards her, finally feeling like they were getting off the mark. “White to represent the platinum and the diamonds?” She explained, so he didn’t reject the idea.

Harry considered that and looked at the ring, studying it, and he smiled. “I like that idea, but only if Rabastan agrees.”

“I’m sure that he would.” A rather frazzled looking Xerxes said from the other end of the table, where he and Lucius were trying to discuss business or some such. They were getting edgy just listening to them trying to plan the wedding.

“I want to run everything past him first.” Harry said stubbornly. “This is his wedding too.”

“He’s not going to care, Harry. Not as long as he is marrying you. You could dress him in a pink, flowery dress, put him in a wig and high heels and serve him a heart and bow cake and he would endure it all, because he would be marrying you.”

“I don’t want him to ‘endure’ our wedding. I want it to be as wonderful and memorable to him as it will be to me. For that to happen, I want him to know all the details of the planning and have a say in them, but more than that, I want him to agree to everything and have an equal part of the planning. And as much as the thought of him in a flowery pink dress and heels amuses me, I would rather have us in matching dress robes.” Harry insisted.

“You want dress robes?” Narcissa said, looking at him much more happily.

Harry nodded. “Yes. I know Rabastan wants to keep to tradition in certain aspects. He would never wear anything resembling a Muggle suit, so it’ll have to be dress robes. I will not have house-elf servers though.” He said suddenly, having just thought of it, remembering the Wizengamot party he’d gone to in April. “I will either have a self-serve wedding, or there will be human servers.”

Narcissa sighed and noted that down too, knowing that Harry would never change his mind on that issue, regardless of what anyone else might say and to argue with him over that issue would be a pointless waste of time and energy.

“Human servers it is.” She said as brightly as she could.

“Can I have them half naked and oiled up?” He joked.

“No you may not.” His Mother said.

“Who do you want half naked and oiled?” Rabastan’s furious voice asked from behind him.

Harry turned with a huge smile and he leapt up to greet his Fiancé, who had been gone before he’d woken up that morning, and whom he hadn’t seen all day.

“The servers at our wedding.” Harry chuckled. “I was only joking. This wedding planning is boring, come and sit down and suffer with me.”

“I…it’s usually the…”

“If you even dare say to me that the bride plans the wedding, I’ll happily curse you out of existence and there won’t be a wedding to bother planning.” Harry said through gritted teeth. “I am not a woman, I am not a bride, I am to be your husband, if I have to endure this then you can damn well do it with me! Now sit down before I have you turning up on our wedding day wearing a flowery dress, pink heels and a matching hat and handbag!”

Rodolphus laughed before reaching out to ruffle his hair affectionately.

“Listen to him, Rabastan, that stubborn nature of his will actually have him keeping his word.” Rodolphus told his younger brother before going to sit up the other end of the table with his grandfather and with Lucius.

Rabastan unhappily sat in a seat by Narcissa, leaving a seat between them for Harry to sit down.

“How far have you gotten?” Rabastan asked, committed to doing this just to make Harry happy.

“I’ve got an idea on a colour scheme, if you agree.” Harry said tentatively, all the fire and fury going out of him suddenly and he turned more into an insecure, unsure little boy.

Rabastan sat forward, and he had more interest in this planning now, as he came to understand that Harry was afraid of disappointing him. It wasn’t fair to put all this pressure on Harry, tradition be damned. It was usually the bride’s family who planned the wedding, but Harry was not a traditional bride, he was right, he was a man despite the fact that he would be bearing their children, and he didn’t deserve to have the pressure of an entire wedding upon him, especially when he was so affection starved and so afraid of disappointing those around him. It would be enough to drive the poor boy into a nervous breakdown.

“How do you feel about dark blue and white?” Harry asked after a small pause, perhaps to gather himself, or even to prepare himself for rejection.

Rabastan considered that, and he saw Narcissa touch her wedding ring behind Harry’s back and all of a sudden, he understood, and he was very touched that the ring he had designed and had custom made for Harry meant so much to him.

“Like your engagement ring.” He said, a lump almost obstructing his throat. Harry nodded slowly. “Of course I love the idea. Dark blue and white it will be. Now, what else have you decided?”

Harry looked slightly embarrassed, but Narcissa just looked tired.

“We’ve decided that you will wear traditional dress robes and that Harry wishes for human servers.” She said.

“That’s it?” He asked, stunned. “How long have you been…?”

He looked at Harry blushing and Narcissa looking tired and his heart dropped.

“About four hours.” Narcissa said. “Harry doesn’t like anything that he has seen thus far.”

“It’s all so girly and it’s just not us!” He defended. “Look at this.” He said, grabbing another catalogue and flipping through it, angrily turning the pages, showing feminine cake after feminine cake. Truthfully Rabastan didn’t like any of them either.

“Traditional wedding cakes do have flowers and bows on them, Harry.” Narcissa tried.

“I don’t care, they’re hideous.” Harry insisted. “I did like this one.” He admitted, showing a white cake with black silhouettes of feathers on it.

“You’re not having a cake with feathers on it for your wedding, Harry.” Narcissa said sternly.

Rabastan was grateful for her stance, as he didn’t like that cake either. He was sure this was why the bridal family always planned the wedding, so that the bride and groom didn’t end up arguing over every detail, thus putting the actual wedding at risk of even going ahead in the first place.

“I’m sure we’ll find something suitable that all of us can agree on.” He tried diplomatically.

“I assume you don’t want any flowers to be involved in the wedding?” Narcissa sighed.

“I don’t like flowers.” Harry said stubbornly.

Narcissa sighed. “I can hardly show my face in public having let you get married on a Quidditch pitch with half naked servers and an undecorated cake.”

“I never said I wanted it on a Quidditch pitch and I was joking about the servers. I want them fully dressed, and matching the colour scheme. Dark blue suits, white accents.” Harry said, puffing out his cheeks angrily.

Rabastan could feel Harry’s tension, and how anxious he was, and he set to take control of this situation for his younger Fiancé.

“It is almost time for lunch, I believe that we should leave things here for now and pick them back up later. Four hours of planning is enough for one day regardless of how much has actually been achieved. We have a starting place with the colour scheme, a bit of time to think about everything else could be good.”

Narcissa sighed and started packing away, she knew what he was doing. So did Harry, but he was much happier about calling a halt to the planning as he turned to him and puckered those plump lips at him. He happily dived down to kiss Harry for the first time today.

“I would happily wear the flowery dress and the hat if it meant marrying you.” Rabastan whispered to him. “I might have to pass on the heels and handbag though.”

Harry laughed, as Rabastan had known that he would, and he felt wonderful for having made Harry happy, even as he watched his young husband-to-be stifle his laughter and look around to make sure he wasn’t being watched. He wasn’t, which settled him down and brought his attention back to him.
Harry reached out to cup Rabastan’s cheek and he brought their mouths together for a sweet, chaste kiss this time. He wanted to deepen it, but he couldn’t in current company, he would likely get a stinging hex aimed at him, and he hated those.
Lunch was a simple salad, with lots of raw vegetables and a steamed salmon fillet to bulk it up. Harry prodded at something strange in his salad and he frowned at it, before unearthing more strange things under the lettuce leaves that he’d never seen before.

“What’s the matter? Are you not hungry?” Rabastan asked worriedly, watching Harry poke an olive around his plate with his fork, but never actually eating anything.

“Harry, you need to eat.” Lucius said sternly.

“I…it’s not that.” He said, startled at being spoken to, looking around the table and hunching his shoulders as he realised that he was centre of attention. “I am hungry, I just…” Harry blushed and then sighed. “I don’t know what it is.”

Rabastan was furious at those Muggle beasts on Harry’s behalf, but he calmed himself so that Harry wouldn’t feel worse.

“They’re olives, love.” He said gently. “They’re soft and they have a salty taste to them. They’re very good for you, Dolphus and I have a handful of them as one of our approved snacks on our diet plan. Try one.”

Harry speared the pitted olive on his fork and he looked at the dull, murky green coloured oval with distaste. He nibbled it like a squirrel with an acorn and Rabastan tried not to smile at him. Harry was adorable sometimes.

“It’s better if you just put it all in your mouth at once.” Rodolphus insisted. “I’m not much a fan of the taste either, but the health benefits of them cannot be ignored, thus I force them down.”

Rodolphus took his own advice and popped his own olive into his mouth, he barely shuddered any more, but Rabastan remembered the faces he used to pull, how he would declare that taking potions tasted better. He himself enjoyed olives, though he did prefer them stuffed and slathered in garlic.
Harry took Rodolphus’ advice and he put the whole olive in his mouth and chewed. Rabastan was expecting a pulled face, for Harry to maybe even spit it back out as he usually did with new foods that he’d never tried before, but Harry only chewed thoughtfully. Then he swallowed.

“I think I like them.” He said, finding and spearing another olive and putting it straight into his mouth, chewed and swallowed. “I do like them. But, what are they?” He asked, jabbing his fork at the quartered fig.

“That is a fig, Harry.” Rabastan told him. “It’s very sweet and the seeds in the middle are crunchy. Both figs and olives are fruits.”

Harry picked up the quarter of a fig with his fingers and he bit into it. Rabastan was again expecting him to maybe spit it out, but Harry surprised him again by humming happily and taking a bigger bite from the fig.

“I really like it.” He said with a smile.

Rabastan smiled back at him and slipped his hand to Harry’s thigh under the table, squeezing it lightly. He was proud of how much Harry had grown. He was proud that he was unafraid to face things he didn’t know, even if it was just food. It was a big deal for Harry, which made it a big deal for him too and he was willing to show his pride at Harry’s achievements in any way that made Harry happy.

“I love you.” He said softly, just for Harry’s ears and a flutter went through his belly when Harry turned to him and smiled so happily, those beautiful green eyes sparkling with the unexpected declaration.

“I love you too.” Harry said. “Thank you for wanting to marry me, and thank you for putting up with me, even though I’m making the planning a million times worse.”

“This is going to be our big day, we’re only ever going to have one. I understand that you want it to be perfect, not just for yourself, but for the both of us. Thank you for that. We have all summer to plan it, an entire year to change our minds and to get it prepared ready in advance. We’ll get there in the end, and it will be perfect. You will be perfect.”

Harry grinned so happily. “And then afterwards we’ll have a honeymoon and maybe, just maybe, I’ll be coming home off of that with our first child.”

Those words caused a bolt of lust to spike through him and he had to clench his muscles and press his thighs together, lest anyone see his embarrassing problem. By Merlin Harry certainly had a way with words and the thought of a honeymoon, with them married together and left completely alone to do as they pleased with not a chaperone in sight…Rabastan could imagine, very well, that Harry would come off of that pregnant.
He could not wait for that to happen, just one more year and it would be a reality. He would have a beautiful, kind, supportive husband, and he would have a child. The thought was almost enough to bring tears to his eyes. He had a future, when he had fully believed before meeting Harry that his life had ended at nineteen, when he had been sentenced to life in Azkaban. Not even his escape from the prison had given him his life back, he had been a husk, a jerky, dribbling cripple who had needed others, mostly Rodolphus, to help him bathe and sleep. It had only been Harry coming into his life that had given him his life back, had given him a purpose, a reason to pull himself together and sort himself out…for Harry, who had given him back a future, and would give him a family of his own.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X
A/N: We’re moving now with this fic, and I have a lot to cover during Harry’s summer break, including the Ministry party and a holiday for Harry and Rabastan too. So there will be a lot going on in the next couple of chapters. There will also be more from the Wizengamot and now that Harry is ‘involved’ with the mission, there will be more Voldemort coming up too. So some exciting chapters are coming.
StarLight Massacre. X
- 22
- 23
- 24
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

The Guile and Devotion of a Black Heir