Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

The Optimal Balance	By : TheMightyFlynn Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 17125 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: The Harry Potter universe and characters belong to JK Rowling and associates. This was written for fun. I make no money from it.

Chapter List
- 1-The Optimal Balance
- 2-Ch. 2
- 3-Ch. 3
- 4-Ch. 4
- 5-Ch. 5
- 6-Ch. 6
- 7-Ch. 7
- 8-Ch. 8
- 9-Ch. 9
- 10-Ch. 10
- 11-Ch. 11
- 12-Ch. 12
- 13-Ch. 13
- 14-Ch. 14
- 15-Ch. 15
- 16-Ch. 16
- 17-Ch. 17
- 18-Ch. 18
- 19-Ch. 19
- 20-Ch. 20
- 21-Ch. 21
- 22-Ch. 22
- 23-Ch. 23
- 24-Ch. 24
- 25-Ch. 25
- 26-Ch. 26
- 27-Ch. 27
- 28-Ch. 28
- 29-Ch. 29
- 30-Ch. 30
- 31-Ch. 31
- 32-Ch. 32
- 33-Ch. 33
- 34-Ch. 34
- 35-Ch. 35
- 36-Ch. 36
- 37-Ch. 37
- 38-Ch. 38
- 39-Ch. 39
- 40-Ch. 40: Epilogue
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Harry’s attention had been on the bloody snake locket the entire morning and it was starting to get on Draco's nerves. Admittedly, it was only half eight, but still… If he was going to be ignored completely, then he would have preferred for it to be over something other than a bloody piece of old jewellery. Taking up the butter knife sitting beside his plate, he sent it crashing down onto the floor, causing Harry to jump.
“So sorry to have interrupted the two of you. Would you prefer some time alone?”
Harry’s responding grin caused Draco's shoulders to tense and his eyes to narrow. That was just what he needed right at that particular moment: to be laughed at. He ducked quickly under the table to retrieve the knife, hoping that when he resurfaced, he would have been able to relieve some of the tension that had been running though him ever since Harry had discovered the stupid locket two days previously. He took a couple of deep breaths before grabbing the knife and slipping back up to sit on his chair. When he glanced up, it was to find Harry still smiling at him.
“You’re cute when you’re jealous.”
“It is not possible to become jealous of a piece of jewellery, Potter.”
“Fine. You’re cute when you’re grumpy.”
“Fuck off,” Draco spat before grabbing his plate and moving so he could toss it into the sink.
It shattered the second it landed, spraying the sink and bench with tiny shards of ceramic. Instead of relieving some of the anger and nerves tensing his shoulders, it only increased it, causing him to huff out a somewhat shaky breath. Placing his hands flat on the edge of the sink, Draco leant in, bowing his head and closing his eyes.
“I can’t do this.”
Harry’s arms were around Draco's waist within seconds, pulling him away from the mess and turning him so Harry could embrace him properly. A quickly mumbled charm obviously cleaned the sink of the remains of the plate before Harry leant in close enough so his lips were pressed to the shell of Draco's ear.
“You’re not alone.”
Harry’s hands moved in a slow pattern up and down Draco's back, soothing some of the tension from him, but it wasn’t enough to cause Draco to want to respond. Shaking his head, he wrapped his own arms around Harry’s waist, pulling them tightly together.
“I’d never leave you to deal with this on your own, Dray. Neither would Tori.”
“I don’t want to have to be dealing with this at all.”
He was being petulant and childish, he knew. Boo fucking hoo, poor me. Everything is going to hell and all I’m doing is whinging about it!
“I didn’t–” Shaking his head again when his voice wobbled, Draco clamped his mouth shut and just leant into the embrace, hiding this current bout of weakness from Harry’s eyes.
Friday had been a rather stressful day for the both of them, as they had searched through the old Black family records on where each piece of family jewellery had been distributed. There had been a number of necklaces that had been taken to Grimmauld Place over the years, but none of them matched the locket Harry had left sitting on the kitchen table. Draco had begun to wonder whether this was something that hadn’t come from the Black side of the family at all, but as a gift from one of the families of a female who had married into the Black family a number of generations ago. There would be no way they could discover which of his ancestors the locket had belonged to if she had brought it with her into the family from another house, as all of the pureblood families Draco knew were extremely secretive about the types of jewels they kept in their homes. Hell, he had had difficulty getting the records from his own Mother so they could search them, let alone from someone else’s.
“Harry?”
“Mmm?”
“How are we going to deal with this?”
Harry took a deep breath and let it out slowly before loosening the grip he had around Draco and pulling back so he could look him in the eye. “Would you hex me if I said ‘together’?”
Looking at the part-questioning, part-amused expression on Harry’s face, Draco couldn’t help but offer up a small smile in response. “Yes, I believe I would.”
“Then it’s a good thing I didn’t.” Harry chuckled when Draco rolled his eyes. “To be perfectly honest, I have no idea what we can do. I mean, if we allow the boys to go through Grimmauld now, then at least we’ll know if we have the right piece of jewellery when they can’t find it, but…”
“But that locket was found under a pile of cockroach shit in the corner of the attic.”
Harry sighed. “I know, it doesn’t seem like the perfect hiding place for a dangerous Dark object, does it?”
Draco was about to respond when he was interrupted by the sound of several pairs of footsteps trumping down the hall towards them. The owners of the feet entered the room in the next few seconds, causing Harry to pull away from Draco completely.
“Oh, hey, cool locket!” Albus grabbed the necklace and held it up in the air, only for it to be snatched out of his hand by Scorpius, who arrived a few seconds later.
“What would a Gryffindor know about snakes?”
“Al!”
“Scorpius!”
The two boys froze when first Harry, then Draco snapped at them. Scorpius held his hands up in an almost comic imitation of a criminal who had just been caught by members of the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol, the locket dangling from his fingers. Letting out a sigh, Draco ran a hand through his hair.
“Sorry boys, but that locket isn’t a toy.”
Scorpius rolled his eyes. “I’m too old for toys, Dad.”
It was Albus’ reaction that caught Draco's attention more than Scorpius’, though. His eyes widened and he turned slowly towards Scorpius, his eyes obviously fixed on the locket. Draco's heart seemed to almost skip a beat when Al stretched his fingers towards the locket.
“Is it cursed?”
There was such a reverence to Al’s voice that a cold shiver ran straight down Draco's spine. He shoved himself off from the sink, but Harry beat him to it. Striding over to the boys, Harry took the locket from Scorpius’ hand and pocketed it without a word.
“Dad, if it’s cursed, you might not want to stick it in your pocket.”
“Albus–”
“What’s cursed?”
“Dad has a cursed necklace in his pocket!” Albus turned eagerly towards the doorway, where James was just entering the room. “He says we’re not allowed to see it, though.”
Scrubbing a hand over his eyes, James let out a huge yawn before responding. “A necklace?”
“Yeah.”
“Boys, boys!” Harry held his hands up and stepped forward, interrupting whatever Al had been about to say. “The necklace isn’t cursed.”
“Then why can’t we see it?”
Three pairs of eyes turned to pin Harry with equally curious looks. Unable to help himself, Draco looked to him as well, wondering exactly how he was going to talk his way out of this one.
“Well, I, er…” Harry turned to Draco, pleading in his eyes.
Draco sighed. “Because he said so.”
“That’s not an answer, Dad.”
“It is the only answer you are going to receive, young man. Now go upstairs and prepare for the day, thank you. We are due to meet the Weasley family for a picnic at ten.”
Scorpius looked for a second like he was going to backtalk Draco, but thought better of it. Scowling, he turned and stomped away, with Al and James following behind a few seconds later. Draco could have sworn that Al shot a look at Harry’s pocket that held the necklace before he left, but knew that it could have also just been his overactive imagination. When he refocussed on Harry, it was to see him grinning at him again.
“What?”
“You remembered the picnic.”
“Of course I remembered the bloody picnic, Harry! You did make the plans directly in front of me, after all.” Draco watched as Harry ran a hand through his hair, causing it to stand on end. Stepping forward, he hooked his finger into the top of the pocket that held the necklace. “What are you going to do with this?”
Harry’s grin dimmed a little as his gaze dropped to his pocket. “I have no idea. I was thinking that I should just keep it with me, but now they know I have it…” He shrugged. “What do you think?”
Draco took a few seconds to properly consider his answer, wondering just how much trouble their three boys could get themselves into. “I have a lockbox that will only open to my wand.”
“Perfect.”
Draco nodded and began to move out of the room, but was halted by Harry grabbing his wrist. He turned just in time to be pulled into a soft kiss. The scent and taste of chamomile flooded his senses and Draco smiled.
“What was that for?”
“Because I can.”
Harry grinned at him before moving past and through the door into the hallway. Shaking his head, Draco followed, completely unable to prevent the wide smile that crossed his face.
*~*
“I hear you have a cursed necklace in your pocket, Harry?”
Hanging his head as Bill made his way slowly up a small hill towards him that afternoon, Harry grinned. They had just finished stuffing themselves with more food than Harry knew he should have eaten and were currently watching as the older children – as well as Teddy and Victoire – played a pickup game of Quidditch in the field behind Luna and Rolf’s house in the Lakelands. Lazing in the sun, full of good food, Harry had caught himself almost nodding off a number of times during the course of the day, but had thankfully caught himself. A sunburn was the last thing he needed a week before the wedding.
“It’s not cursed and isn’t in my pocket any longer, sorry.” Shielding his eyes from the sun with his hand, he raised his eyes so he could look up at Bill standing over him. “Which of the boys told you?”
“It was Louis, actually.”
Harry’s eyebrows shot up into his hairline at that. So the boys had been talking to the younger kids about this, had they? This was an interesting development, although Harry didn’t know whether it was a good one or not.
“What’s going on, Harry?”
There was an overly familiar ‘don’t lie to me’ tone to Bill’s voice; one that Harry had always associated with Molly. Sitting up a little straighter, he gestured to the chair beside him, indicating that Bill should sit. He had known that they would have to inform the rest of the family about their suspicions about what the boys were up to and now seemed like as good a chance as any. Glancing around quickly, Harry also gestured to Hermione and Percy, who were sitting not that far off. He was unsurprised when he turned to find Draco sitting in one of the chairs on the opposite side of the small circle the adults had formed while eating lunch. Making eye contact with him showed Harry all the support he could want in Draco's expression and he smiled back in thanks.
“Harry? Is something wrong?”
Taking a deep breath as Hermione and Percy seated themselves, Harry began explaining what they knew. It was fascinating to watch both Hermione and Percy reacting to his words, as it was clear from their equal looks of concentration that they were already working through things for themselves. Bill, however, was a much harder read for Harry. Things had been chilly between the two of them both during and after Ginny’s trial, but they had been getting much better over the past few months. Bill had yet to start treating Harry with the same familiarity that he had before the mess with his marriage exploding into tiny shards around him, but Harry would take whatever he could get when it came to his family. If Bill was speaking to him like a normal human being, then he was happy. Silence surrounded them when he and Draco had finished their explanation. It was Bill who spoke first.
“So, you think that this locket that you found in the attic is what they’re after?”
Harry couldn’t help frowning. “I’m taking all precautions just in case it is, but I am honestly unsure. Draco?”
“Considering the boys’ reactions to seeing it on the table this morning, I wouldn’t rule it out definitely.”
There was a formal tone to Draco's voice that Harry was sure only he could make out. It told him how nervous Draco still was when around the Weasleys, but he figured as long as Draco hadn’t mentioned it, it had to be dissipating; at least compared to when they had first begun trying to combine Harry’s families.
“However,” Draco continued, “I would also love to know exactly which portrait they have been speaking to. The portrait of Phineas Nigellus Black was removed from the house in the first clear-out Harry did after the War, so I doubt that it could be him, but there has to be a limited number of people who knew that house intimately enough to have hidden something in there.”
“Why do you both seem so certain that whatever they are after is dangerous?” Percy’s tone was more curious than accusatory. “If you don’t know who they have been speaking to, then you can’t know the person’s motivations behind telling them to go looking for this… thing.”
Harry nodded slowly. “Astoria said nearly the exact same thing.”
“We’re only being cautious. My family doesn’t have the cleanest record when it comes to enchanted items that are being kept in the house, so there’s no point in not being ready just in case it does turn out to be dangerous.”
Harry couldn’t help nodding again. “The locket Horcrux was hidden in there, after all.”
“That was Regulus after he changed sides in the War, though.”
Instead of nodding again, Harry froze at Hermione’s words. Regulus! He was one of the people Harry had not considered hiding something in the house, but who had obviously done it before. Maybe the boys had managed to find an old picture of him at Hogwarts? Maybe they had even found it in Grimmauld when they had been there last. Was it possible that they had been planning this for much longer than Harry and Draco knew of?
“Harry?”
“Huh?” His eyes narrowed when he heard a stifled snort from Draco's direction. “Sorry, I, er… Sorry, Hermione; Regulus hadn’t occurred to me before.”
“Well, perhaps he should have. The house was his and Sirius’, so he must have had plenty of opportunity to hide something. Since it was only he and his Mother there at that stage, most of the house would most likely have been closed as well, which would give him even more opportunity.”
“True, but there’s also no guarantee that it could be him,” Harry couldn’t help pointing out.
“Which is exactly why we are taking all these precautions,” Draco added.
Unfortunately for Harry, it didn’t seem like either Bill or Percy had anything else to add to the conversation at that point in time. Bill promised to spread the word through the adults the very first opportunity he got before standing and moving over to where the kids were playing Quidditch. Harry watched him go before turning his attention back to the conversation going on around him. It had changed to Ministry gossip, which he really wasn’t all that interested in, but he smiled and nodded along anyway. He had to figure that being able to let the others know of their suspicions could only be a good thing, as it meant more sets of eyes watching out for the boys. And, it being only one week before the wedding, the more people watching out for his children while he was distracted, the better.
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The Optimal Balance