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I Give You a Wondrous Mirror	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 17806 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 25
- 26
- 27
Thank you again for all the reviews! I had a few questions
about why Draco would claim he didn�t love Harry or wasn�t sure, which are
(hopefully) addressed in this chapter.

As for the angst, it still marches on. Starting with the
chapter title, as you can probably see. But it starts getting a bit better
towards the end.

Chapter
Twenty-Six�Corpse of a Marriage

�� Harry let
the door fall gently shut behind him. He would have to have his conversation
with Ginny now�it was already the middle of the morning�although weariness
pulled at him like the wings of a lethifold. He could
hear her moving quietly about the kitchen. Apparently James and Al were still
asleep, or asleep again after breakfast, or perhaps over at Molly�s.

�� Over at Molly�s, Harry decided, when he
stepped into the kitchen and saw it clean of any traces of milk, cereal, orange
juice, or pumpkin juice. Not even a Scourgify could make it look this neat when the children had
been eating.

�� Ginny,
balancing Lily against her arm as she fed her, started when she saw him. Then
her mouth drew tight, and she nodded once. �I�ll put her down in a minute,� she
whispered. �She�s almost asleep. Then we can talk.�

�� Harry
nodded absently and sat down at the table, trying to decide if he was hungry.
He didn�t think so. The collision with the dragon�s tail seemed to have knocked
the hunger out of his stomach along with his ribs out of their proper
alignment.

�� He wondered
what Draco would say about that�probably gripe, it was what he did�and then
banished the fond smile he could feel forming on his face. Ginny. This was
about Ginny now. He would tell her the pure and absolute truth, and let her
make the decision about what they should do.

�� He was
startled to feel an odd, cool sensation a moment later, as though his entire
left side had been plunged into running water. He glanced down, and felt the
scar shiver at the same time as it gave him the cool sensation again. It wasn�t
entirely pleasurable, but it wasn�t painful, and it had the effect of
scattering his thoughts.

�� I suppose this is one way to ensure that I
focus on my own happiness, too, Harry thought, but he had ignored stranger
things. He faced the doorway, even as the tingling from the scar grew more
insistent, and waited until Ginny stepped back through, brushing her hands
together briskly to remove small bits of baby-debris.

�� She�s
asleep,� she said, sitting down across from Harry. �And the boys are at the
Burrow. What happened?�

�� The
warning Hermione received was correct,� Harry said simply. �The Masked Lady
attacked Hogwarts, with dragons.�

�� Ginny�s
hand twitched, lifted halfway to her face, and then dropped again, as if the
shock were too much for such a mundane expression as covering her mouth or
eyes. �Did any of the children get hurt?�

�� Harry shook
his head. �The Masked Lady didn�t seem to have expected such opposition, and
she fled. But Hermione�s arm was in a sling, and Ron had to have several
healing potions.� He hesitated, then added, �And I got torn up by a Hungarian
Horntail, and Draco saved my life.�

�� Ginny�s
hands twined tightly together now, apparently for comfort. �I see,� she said.
�And how many life-debts is it that you owe each other now?�

�� Six
altogether,� said Harry. �Three on his part, three on mine. He�s asked for, and
received, payments for all of his. There�s still one of mine outstanding.� He
met Ginny�s gaze and forged into the most difficult part. �And I discovered
that I�m in love with him.�

�� Ginny�s
eyes shut, very gently.

�� You wanted
to be,� she said.

�� I didn�t,�
Harry said. Shouting would do no good, he thought. Rational, calm, as
reasonable as possible. That was the way to go. But he wouldn�t let her think
things that weren�t true. �It makes everything harder. And of course the
marriage vows bind me to your side. You�re the only spouse I�ll ever have, Gin.
I don�t intend to betray you.�

�� No, it
just happens anyway,� Ginny muttered, and looked at him again. There was a
shine to her eyes that might have been tears. If they were, she was keeping
them tightly veiled. �I need�something more than this, Harry,� she said, with a
vague gesture of her hand. �Something more than this empty exercise where you
continue to make excuses for things you claim you can�t help, and then you go
off and do them again.�

�� Harry let
out his breath. This was actually a better reaction than he had anticipated. �You
have suggestions?�

�� No,� said
Ginny, and her mouth had turned into a flat line. �The therapy and the
Dreamless Sleep potion were it. What do you
propose to do?�

�� The cold
tingling of the scar on his ribs was really quite annoying, Harry thought as he
shifted in his seat, only as ignorable as the taste of mint in his mouth. �Not
sleep with Draco, obviously,� he said. �Spend more time around you and the
children.� The scar tingled again, but Harry refused to say aloud that he was
seeking his own happiness. Ginny was likely to snap that he did nothing but, and Harry couldn�t stand to hear
that right now. �Help Hermione with the war; that might give me something else
to think about besides Draco.� Not
likely, with him always haunting your mind. �Continue with the therapy and
the use of Dreamless Sleep potion, since you asked. Help you through your grief
over George.�

�� Ginny
glanced down, picking at the surface of the table. �I notice that nowhere in
your list is �sleep with your wife,�� she said.

�� Harry froze
and then swallowed. The tingling of the scar had multiplied, so that now it
seemed to have an echo on the right side of his body. But he wasn�t paying
attention to it; he wouldn�t begin scratching madly in the middle of a serious
discussion with Ginny, which had suddenly turned towards the sour again. �Would
you really want me to, in this
condition?� he asked.

�� What
condition?�

�� This
condition of lusting over and falling in love with someone else.� Harry held
her eyes, though it was difficult, especially with the scar buzzing behind his
teeth now.

�� You think
you�re in love,� Ginny said.

�� I know I
am.�

�� And Ginny
spun to her feet, seized an empty bottle�of Firewhiskey,
maybe?�that had stood on the counter, and hurled it against the wall. �I hate this!� she screamed, loudly enough that
Harry tensed, expecting a complementary scream from Lily any moment. But no
wail followed, only the sound of Ginny�s voice, half-words and half-sobs. �It
couldn�t just�our life couldn�t just continue,
could it? Or even just continue with a war
in it and my brother dying! There
always has to be some fucking
complication! I hate this�I hate Draco Malfoy�I hate�� And then she was crying
flat out, gripping the table as if it alone could prevent her from sliding to
the floor.

�� Harry stood
up and came awkwardly around the table to cradle her in his arms. He wondered
if he should, if he had the right to, but if he hadn�t, then he would have
endured a tirade about that later.

�� Ginny clung
to him, and shook and shook and shook, her voice the raw, helpless sound of
Al�s when he�d been teased and harassed by James all day. Harry stroked her
hair and worked to hold her up through sheer strength, since all her muscles
seemed to have gone limp. Finally, he picked her up and carried her into the
library, where they could sit down on a sofa together.

�� Through it
all, his own helplessness twisted in him like a blade, and the scar buzzed and
buzzed and buzzed until the cool tingle of it occupied half his thoughts. Harry
almost wished it hurt instead. He was better at ignoring pain than simple
peculiarity.

�� You�re
going,� Ginny whispered, when Harry had spent ten minutes trying to find the
right combination of words that would let her know he loved her and stop the
crying. Her voice was small and simple and exhausted now. �I�m trying to keep
hold of you, to keep our love alive, but you�re going.�

�� Harry,
startled by both her speaking and another surge of shivering from the scar, had
a sudden clear thought: Is this really
what love feels like? I don�t think it is.

�� He buried
the thought, shoved it behind several impenetrable doors and piled rocks in
front of it. No. He was not leaving
Ginny behind. He was not doubting her love for him. There were certain things
he could not do, not even for Draco.

�� I�m not,�
he whispered, cradling the back of her head and kissing her brow. The scar buzz
sent his lips cutting into his teeth. �I�m sorry. What can I change, Ginny?
Tell me what to do.�

�� I�m so
tired,� Ginny said, voice almost reduced to a slurred murmur against his neck. �I�ve
made so many suggestions, and they haven�t worked. You come up with something now.� Her hands curled around his neck,
and she clung there, waiting to be comforted.

�� Like a spoiled child�

�� Harry
buried that thought, too. Was it the scar introducing these strange concepts
into his head? He felt growing anger against Draco for demanding this
particular life-debt. He just didn�t have time
right now to acknowledge it. He would have to, because he had no choice, but he
really had no time for it.

�� All
right,� he said, and closed his eyes and thought as hard as he could, hoping
for some sudden inspiration to hit him.

�� The scar
kept cutting through any chains of logic he formed, rattling and shaking his
head, and the words your own happiness began
repeating in a dull mantra. Harry wondered irritably if one of his own
suggestions to right matters should be �killing Draco.�

�� I think,�
he said at last, �that I may have fulfilled my obligations to the Malfoys as far as the first life-debt goes. I�ve learned
the reason that Draco was framed for murder, and while I haven�t captured the
people who actually did it, stopping the Masked Lady will stop them.�

�� Ginny
tensed on his lap, but said only, �Malfoy might not agree.�

�� Narcissa was the one who claimed the debt, so she�s the one
who has the right to say when it�s fulfilled.� Harry shrugged, as much as he
could when holding his wife so close. Your
own happiness, your own happiness! He might say those words in a minute,
and though Ginny probably wouldn�t take them the wrong way, Harry hated the
amount of control this one debt appeared to be exercising over him already. �I
have an excuse to stay away from them now. Oh, I can�t cut off contact with
them altogether,� he added, as Ginny�s face suddenly shone. �Another life-debt
payment was a friendship with Draco. But there�s no reason for me to spend
every morning over there doing research, when we�ve learned��

�� His tongue
escaped him for a moment, and tangled behind his teeth. Harry coughed to cover
it, and fought grimly against the sudden conviction of what he had to do.

�� The debt wants me to make a promise that
will assure my happiness. Bastard! Harry wasn�t sure if he meant Draco with
the word, or the particular debt the scar represented, or life in general.

�� Yes?�
Ginny prompted him.

�� We�ve
learned what we needed to learn about this thing creating the fading and the
visions in mirrors and the dreams between us,� said Harry in determination,
though his mouth tried to twist away from him and say, I want to just spend time with Al and Teddy, because that will make me
happiest right now, and I want to spend a morning thinking about Draco and
nothing else.

�� Between you?� Ginny�s voice was shrill.
�You�you told me that you were the only one who had the dreams!�

�� Harry
grimaced. If he hadn�t been fighting a losing battle with the debt, he would
have known better than to say that. �The dreams have changed,� he said. �Not
all of them are about sex, but Draco�s having them too.�

�� The exact same dreams?�

�� Harry
nodded.

�� Ginny�s
head fell limply against Harry�s chest, as if all the hope had been drained
away. �Please take Dreamless Sleep as long as you can,� she mumbled. �Harry, please. I don�t ask for much, you know
that.�

�� You do, Harry wanted to say, but that
was the debt�s fault; he was more aware of the cool pulsing along his ribs now
than he was of the warmth and weight of his wife in his arms. And any moment
now, he would say something that would deeply sour relations between them.
Already, the impulse to say No to her
request was trying to take him over.

�� Goddamnit.

�� In silence,
Harry made the promise to himself to spend time with Teddy today, doing nothing
but play games or go to Diagon Alley or whatever else
his godson wanted to do. He would do it regardless of what else happened,
regardless of what Ginny or Draco or George�s ghost demanded from him.

�� The cool
tingle retreated to what was almost a pleasant sensation. Harry blinked, and
then shook his head, but when Ginny wanted to know if that meant he was
refusing her, he murmured, �Of course not, love. I�ll take the Dreamless Sleep
tonight and as many other nights as it�s safe. What else would you like?�

�� Ginny suddenly
took a deep breath, and said, �You�ll do it.�

�� Yes.�
Perhaps Harry simply had a clearer perspective now that the scar was no longer
trying to inundate his brain, but he thought it was odd she had given in with
so little fuss. He frowned. �Love, what�s wrong?�

�� I�ll�I
just wanted�� Ginny shivered a few times, and then absently caressed his arm.
�I just wanted to know that you would,� she whispered.

�� Harry
blinked, but he was all too glad to think they had avoided several deeper
problems with such a simple solution�that Ginny had not started blaming him for
falling in love with Draco, for example, or that he would have been required to
have an argument about staying away from Malfoy Manor altogether. He proceeded
to spend some time stroking her hair, before he stood and prepared to visit
Andromeda and Teddy. He could check on their health and keep his promise to
himself at the same time.

�� Ginny let
him go with little more than a deep kiss and a sigh of relief. Her hand did
tighten in his hair, but overall she seemed to trust to his willingness to keep
his promises.

�� I do that, Harry thought as he
Apparated. Even the ones that somebody
had no right to ask of me in payment for a life-debt.

*

�� It was
occurring to Draco that he might, after all, be in love.

�� He sat in
the nursery, next to Scorpius�s bed�his son had
fallen asleep after a round of play intense enough to leave Draco
staggering�and held his arm over his eyes. Not that the ceiling was so
ornamented as to provide a grand distraction, but he thought it better to give
himself no escape from his thoughts.

�� He had
assumed that of course he wasn�t in love with Harry, or else that he didn�t
know, because he hadn�t felt the single grand, overwhelming realization that
Harry had.

�� But since
he�d never loved someone romantically, how would he know?

��

�� He had, of
course, never loved Marian. Lust and a basic politeness, when they could still
get along, did well enough. And his lovers were about physical expression of
the needs Marian couldn�t meet, and sometimes about annoying her or chasing the
forbidden. There had never been place or room in Draco�s life for overwhelming.

�� So perhaps
he wouldn�t recognize it when it came to him? Or perhaps he felt it differently
than Harry did, and judging his own emotions by the same standards naturally
wouldn�t work?

�� Experimentally,
he tried to picture Harry separating from his wife and cutting off contact with him�not taking another lover, so Draco
had nothing to be physically jealous about, but also refusing to spend time
with him, not being there to joke with, not being in arm�s reach when Draco
wanted to share the wonder that was his son or his own survival, not
encouraging Draco to reach for his potential�

��

�� A snarl
escaped Draco�s teeth, and he opened his eyes in startlement
as his hands clenched down on the arms of the chair and splinters drove into
the palms. Carefully, he released the hold and then glanced over at Scorpius. He was asleep, his lips parted, a soft baby
bubble of spit and air having escaped them to gleam on his cheek. Draco�s heart
contracted painfully.

�� And it went
on contracting when he thought of Harry parting from him. He felt as if he
couldn�t breathe. He needed Harry in his life, whether they ever became more
intimate than the kiss Harry had given him last night and the brush of skin to
scar. This was a requirement, not a luxury. He would have given up the chance
to see anyone in the world save his mother and his son in order to see Harry.

�� He
remembered the life-debt promise that Harry would continue in friendship with
Draco. He seized on it with a greed that startled him. There was at least that,
no matter what else tried to part them.

�� But couldn�t we still be friends�

�� Not unless
a friend was someone he trusted to lay his heart open and go through it with a
dozen small knives. Not unless he would have handed his wand over to a friend
without a second thought. Not unless he could watch a friend toss Scorpius in the air and not be alarmed.

�� His
relationships with Blaise and Millicent had never been like that, or with
Pansy, not back in the very headiest and closest days of Slytherin House. If
his experience with Harry was simple friendship, then Draco had never known
simple friendship before.

�� And the
other close ties in his life�to Lucius and to Snape�shared nothing in common
with his tie to Harry, either. And whatever he felt, it was the very opposite
of his fear around Bellatrix and the Dark Lord.

�� Draco
shivered. It was a strange and peculiar thing, to know the isolated Draco
Malfoy might have fallen in love, and might not realize it for certain only
because he�d never experienced it before.

�� He still,
perhaps, could not have Harry�s degree of certainty; Harry had been in love
before and would recognize his own behavior under the influence of such an
emotion. But he also didn�t want to make up excuses and categories to shove
what he felt into.

�� He was in
love.

�� And that
meant�

�� That meant
he had to show it.

�� Draco sat
up and clapped his hands. A house-elf appeared at once, with a muffled enough
sound that Scorpius never stopped snoring.

�� Bring me
the register of magical creatures bred in Britain in the last year,� Draco
commanded in a haughty whisper, and sat back with a satisfied smile as the elf
nodded and vanished.

�� Draco
already knew what he was looking for, but it never hurt to confirm his opinion.
Besides, he needed to check on prices.

�� He was
indeed going to buy Harry a snowy owl.

�� But not
just any snowy owl. The one he should have had all along, and the one he
particularly needed right now.

�� That�s a sign of love, isn�t it? Draco
thought, as he began to flip through the large, leather-bound book the
house-elf had handed him a moment later. Giving
your lover what he needs, not just what he wants?

*

�� Harry
ducked behind a tree, his heart hammering with excitement, his head spinning,
his mood more than a little giddy. He�d been through such extremes of emotion
in the last twenty-four hours�was it really only a day ago that his children
had been attacked in the kitchen of his own home?�and then got little enough
sleep that he probably should have been lying down.

�� But he
didn�t care.

�� There was
no activity from in front of the tree. Carefully, Harry edged his face around
the trunk�

�� And a mudball struck him solidly in the chin.

�� Flailing,
Harry kept his balance with a massive effort. He did flick his wand, and several of the mudballs
he�d had piled at his feet leaped around the tree and attacked his opponent,
who responded with a pattering flight and many squeals of, �Not fair! Not
fair!�

�� Laughing,
Harry wiped the caked substance off his face and watched his godson with a
grin. Teddy fled through a massive meadow that had been the Tonks
lawn an hour ago and now looked like the remains of a churned battlefield. Mud
coated the grass, and rivulets of water, perfect for packing the material into
balls, coursed everywhere between high and precarious furrows.

�� Andromeda
had reassured Harry that she and her grandson were both fine, but there was a sadness
about her eyes, and a relief when Harry had said he would take Teddy, that made
him doubly glad he�d come. Then he hadn�t the heart to refuse Teddy when he
suggested flooding the backyard, enchanting the ground to soften, and having a
mud-fight.

�� And not the
heart to refuse himself, either, if he told the truth.

�� Teddy, as
an underage wizard with a practice wand, couldn�t give Harry as hard a time as
Harry could give him. From the number of mudballs in
the air to the number of falls they�d both taken, Harry was leading the way. He
never used his full strength, of course, but nothing made Teddy angrier than
the impression that an adult wasn�t taking him seriously and holding back to let him win. So Harry had found a middle
ground that satisfied them both, and which took off the edge of the manic
excitement caused by sudden alterations of mood and too little sleep.

�� Suddenly
Teddy shouted an incantation, muffled by the dirt in his mouth, and two of the
balls still chasing him reversed and flung themselves at Harry. Harry aimed his
wand and coolly blasted them apart, then pretended not to notice the sudden
stirring of a rivulet behind him.

�� He still
yelped when the cold water blasted him and soaked under his robes, though.
There was no refusing to respond to that
surprise.

�� Teddy, bent
over laughing and laughing, made a tempting target, and for this hour or so,
Harry had banished his ability to resist temptation. A simple spell that he
often used for making fools of pure-blood or Muggleborn
extremists who might incite others to riot, and the ground heaved and twisted
and deposited Teddy flat on his face, arse in the
air. Harry twirled his wand and grinned, then conjured two small monkeys that
leaped on Teddy, hooting, and held him down.

�� Do you
surrender?� Harry called out.

�� Teddy tried
to respond, but he really did have a mouthful of mud this time and couldn�t
make the sounds clearly enough. Harry shook his head sadly. The monkeys jumped
up and down on Teddy�s neck and rump and shrieked in excitement.

�� That�s not
good enough,� Harry said.

�� Teddy, with
an enormous effort, turned his face to the side and shouted, �Yes, I surrender!
Get them off me!�

�� Harry
banished the monkeys out of existence�he thought they sounded disappointed when
they went�and then pounced on Teddy and hugged him. The wild energy was gone
now, leaving behind the good kind of fatigue that Harry usually felt after a
full day. He yawned, and sat down, lazily beginning to restore the lawn to some
semblance of normality.

�� He was startled
when Teddy hugged him again, hard enough that his wand movements were spoiled
and he had grasshoppers instead of grass. Harry corrected that, then returned
the fierce embrace and asked, �What was that for?�

�� I�m glad
you�re not dead,� Teddy said into his shoulder. �I don�t want you to die.�

�� Shaken and
touched both at once, Harry bowed his head and slung an arm around his godson�s
shoulders. Teddy sat against him, snuggling, though he would have been
horrified if anyone called it that, while Harry sent the water back into the
pond�s boundaries and dried the mud into harmless dust.

�� He caught a
glimpse of Andromeda watching them from the window. Her own face was weary and
set, her eyes full of yearning. Harry supposed she was missing Tonks. She had never got over the loss of her daughter, any
more than George had over the loss of his twin.

�� But they
were survivors, all of them. George had lived until he had no choice. Harry was
bearing up under his burdens, and had decided it might not be a bad idea to
take the time to make himself happy now and again�especially when it was
concealed from Ginny under the guise of making someone else happy. Andromeda had committed herself to the task of raising
her grandson, when she could have refused and asked Harry to do it. She�d climb
past the emotions that afflicted her right now and go on.

�� He saluted
Andromeda with his wand. She nodded at him, and turned away.

*

�� But what is it?�

�� Harry
smiled as he let himself into the house. He was in such a good mood after the
three hours he�d spent with Teddy that even the excited sound of James�s voice,
which usually promised object damage at best and mayhem at worst, couldn�t
dampen his spirits. He strode into the drawing room, caught his eldest son up,
and enchanted him to hover in the air. James promptly floated towards the
walls, from which he could kick off with much glee. It wasn�t flying, but it
was, as far as he was concerned, the next best thing.

�� Ginny
greeted him with a strained smile. She had Lily in one arm, and Al hunched on
her lap. Harry picked Al up and hugged him, so tightly that his son gave a
little muffled exclamation. When Harry looked again, Al was staring at him with
brilliant eyes. Harry tried to think how long it had been since he hugged Al like
that, for sheer joy, and thought it had been far too long. The panicked embrace
of yesterday morning didn�t count.

�� I love
you, Daddy,� Al whispered, so that only Harry could hear. He had already
discovered James made fun of him when he said that.

�� I love
you, too,� Harry said back, and turned away to finally stare at what seemed to
have attracted everyone�s attention. It sat in the middle of the room with a
cloth over it, but he could see the cloth swelled out at the top of the thing
and then fell in loose waves to the sides. His puzzlement increased. He glanced
at Ginny and raised an eyebrow.

�� It�was
delivered,� she said tightly. �By a Malfoy
house-elf.�

�� Outrage
flayed Harry�s throat like bile at the tone she gave the name, but he was
holding his child. He was not about to show animosity to Al�s mother by
tightening his grip or allowing a grimace to cross his face. He just nodded, ducked
a happily flailing James, and then stepped forwards and tugged the cloth off.

�� Harry!�
Ginny screamed, making Al flinch at the noise and bury his face against Harry�s
robes. �There could be any number of hexes��

�� I trust Draco,� Harry said, because
letting that pass uncountered was more than he could
bear, and faced the shape again.

�� It was a
birdcage. He should have known it would be. And inside sat a snowy owl�but with
a hood over its head. Harry blinked, as he wondered for one insane moment if
the owl was trained for hawking. Those were the only birds he had heard of that
wore hoods.

�� Letters
popped up in front of him, bright cloudy sparks of blue and red, and swam into
words.

�� Dear Harry,

�� This is a special type of owl called the
Guardian Angel, bred to protect and defend one single human. She�ll still
deliver post, but she�s also yours�and will make you hers, from what the seller
told me. The snowy you owned during the war was probably an earlier type of
her, but untrained. Guardian Angels imprint on the first person they see after
certain spells are cast and the hood is put on. Make sure that she�s looking at
you when you pull it off. I would be extremely upset to find that she�d bonded
to your wife or something, No Weasley deserves her.
Besides, I spent quite a lot of Galleons on her.

�� Love,

�� Draco.

�� Harry had
to close his own eyes when the message was finished. The continuing prejudice
towards Ginny�s family, the mention of the cost of the gift, the fact that he
had bought an owl who would aid Harry in keeping his promise�all of it was so
very Draco.

�� The �love� is new, though.

�� Harry
licked his lips and turned to put Al gently on the floor. He unlocked the cage
door, ignoring Ginny�s shriek of alarm, and swiftly reached in and pulled the
hood away even as the owl began to shift.

�� The large,
intense golden eyes locked on him.

�� Harry
gasped as he saw flecks of green rise up like a storm from the bottom of the
owl�s eyes, tumble around the black in the center, and then fall back to gleam
in the corners of her gaze. Her shifting feet clutched the perch sternly, and
she uttered a single, soft, �Hu.�

�� And then
she spread her wings. Harry pulled back quickly, his heart beating so hard that
it hurt, cast a Cushioning Charm on his arm, and held it out.

�� She ignored
the invitation and fluttered to his shoulder. Harry winced in anticipation, but
her talons didn�t cut him. Perhaps they were soft to the Guardian Angel�s
owner, he thought in a daze. The green flecks shone in her eyes as she stared
steadily at him, wings still beating to keep her balance. Then she dropped them
and put a possessive foot near his throat.

�� Harry had
never felt so much controlled strength near him, intent on a fierce
protectiveness. Perhaps his parents had held him like this, once, but of course
he was too young to remember it. All the breath left his lungs, and more so
when he saw cloudy colored letters forming by magic in front of the owl�s
breast feathers.

�

�� Did I mention that Guardian Angels are also
extremely careful of their charges� happiness? They�ll protect them against
anyone who threatens that happiness�even the owners themselves. Even me.

�� This is insurance that I can�t harm you any
more by leaning on you too much, Harry.

�� I love you.

�� Draco.

�� Bastard,�
Harry whispered, but his throat was tight with joy, and the wound he�d taken
when Draco said he wasn�t sure if he loved him and carefully ignored since
closed. He raised one hand to touch the Angel�s feathers, and she dipped her
head and rubbed her beak against his cheekbone.

�� Why did
Malfoy give you such a dangerous present?� Ginny asked, fury apparent in her
voice. �What if she attacks the children?�

�� She�ll do
what I tell her to, I think,� Harry said softly. �Won�t you, girl?�

�� He was
startled when she bobbed her head in a nod, but then had to smile. Hedwig had
often seemed to respond the same way, though not usually with such human
gestures.

�� She could
hurt��

�� Goddamn
it, Ginny, she will not,� Harry snapped, his impatience overflowing. �Draco has
a son himself. He wouldn�t endanger a small child. He knows how much my
children means to me.�

�� And not
how much I mean to you. Obviously.�
Ginny turned away with a sob of fury.

�� Mummy?�
James said uncertainly.

�� Harry
spelled James back to land on the floor, and then turned and picked up Al.
Ginny had taken Lily out of the room. For once, he felt no inclination to go
after her.

�� Draco had
taken the initiative to show Harry that he didn�t just value him for what Harry
could do for him.

�� Draco had
protected Harry against himself.

�� Draco was
in love with him.

�� No one
could take that away, and Harry was not inclined to let Ginny try right now. He
wanted to go out in the backyard, and let his owl fly, and spend time with his
children. He had almost forgotten what happiness tasted like.

�� I want to
name the owl, Daddy,� said James, with a large amount of false innocence. �Can
I call her Doesn�t Like Al? Because I don�t think she does.�

�� Harry said
firmly, �She likes Al as much as you,� lifted his younger son to rest against
him, and then turned and looked at the calm green-golden eyes that never left
him, even as she did a little dance on his dipping shoulder. �Besides, I think I�ll be naming the owl.�

�� The world
seemed breathless with joy, and despite the fact that this made things harder,
because Draco wouldn�t go free of him to find someone else now and he and Harry
still couldn�t have sex and Ginny
would probably hate his Guardian Angel, Harry still felt like laughing, because
of the one simple fact that gave him the breathlessness.

�� Draco�s in love with me.

�� And God, I�m in love with him.

�� I can�t leave him. I never can.

*

�� Myra: Well, Hermione heard the conversation; how much
attention she paid to it is a different issue.

�� And yes, it�s
fine for you to feel angry at her. I am not the Character Police. :)

�� Rainwater: Hermione
does treat Harry as an adult, most of the time, but in this she thinks he�s
behaving as recklessly as any child.

�� Boo too
late but wait�love: Thanks for reviewing! All I can say is that the Masked Lady
is honest about her motivation, but revenge on whom is not revealed for some
time.

�� Feeling
Good: As you can see, Draco�s reluctance to name what he felt love springs from
simple inexperience of it.

�� Amiyom, Mephistides, Mangacat, thrnbrooke, Soria: Thanks for reviewing!
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I Give You a Wondrous Mirror