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The Horns of Elfland	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 8726 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this story.

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            “Can I talk to you, Ginny?”
            Harry wondered for a second if Ron had been wrong, if Ginny didn’t want to be with him anymore. The way she turned to him and blinked instead of blushed said that. But then she blushed on cue and stood up from her conversation with two of the Gryffindor fifth-years. “Sure, Harry,” she said, and walked out of the Great Hall with him.
            Harry’s hands were shaking, he noticed. He curled them into fists and stuffed them back into his robes. Ginny was walking beside him with her eyes on the floor, except when she glanced at him quickly and then away again.
            Harry hated this. He wished the thing with Malfoy had worked out, if only because it would mean never asking anyone on a date again.
            That’s a stupid reason for wishing it had worked out, he told himself abruptly, and turned to hold Ginny’s eyes. She came to a stop and looked around as though wondering why he wanted to talk to her in the middle of a corridor. Harry hastily raised some Privacy Charms. He had talked to Malfoy in almost the same place, so he didn’t think it was so weird.
            Stop thinking about him, he told himself sternly, and whispered, “I’m going to take down a glamour, Ginny. Don’t be startled, all right? It’s still me.”
            Ginny stared at him. “Were you trying to hide your scar again? You didn’t do a very good job of it. It’s still right there.”
            Harry smiled weakly. If Ginny could make him laugh, then maybe she would be a good choice for a mate. He waved his wand and canceled the glamour, and then leaned back against the wall to see what she would do.
            Ginny frankly gaped for a moment or two, then shook her head as though waking up from a nap. “What are you?”
            “I’m turning into an elf,” Harry said. “I got scraped by elf-shot in the Forbidden Forest.” He nodded a little grimly when he saw the way Ginny’s eyes turned to him. “Yeah, I know. If it was going to happen to anyone, it would have to happen to me.”
            Ginny’s lips twitched, but she still looked concerned. “And that means what? What does it have to do with me?” She was blushing again, but also looking at Harry’s newly-pointed ears and glowing eyes as if they fascinated her.
            At least she doesn’t think I’m ugly. “Elves need mates, or they start fading because their essence is going back to Elfland,” Harry explained. “Some other world. I wondered if you would…”
“No.” Ginny stuffed her fist against her mouth a moment later, and blushed more vividly than ever, but shook her head. “Harry, I can’t.”
            Harry shut his eyes. “You can’t?” He knew his voice sounded dead, and maybe that was unfair, but that was the way he felt. Ginny had been his best hope, and he had hoped, so much, from hearing what Ron and Hermione said, that she liked him well enough to go through with this and they would find love later. Harry ought to fall in love with someone who loved him back, right? Which would never happen with Malfoy.
            Stop thinking about him.
            “I care about you too much,” Ginny whispered. “I would do almost anything to help you, but…” Harry opened his eyes and found that her eyes were clouded with tears. “I want to do it because you need help that wouldn’t be permanent. I can’t just consent to become your mate and hope you’ll love me back someday.” She paused. “Besides, most of the time elves don’t choose their own mates, do they? I’ve read enough stories about them to know that.”
            “I don’t know,” said Harry, startled into the simple truth. “I haven’t read any stories about elves. I only know this much about them because I started turning into one and then Hermione looked them up for me.”
            Ginny pinned him with a considering glance. “Who’s your real mate?”
            Harry flushed. “It doesn’t matter. They refused to have anything to do with me. And as long as I can get them to renounce me—which they will—then I can choose my own.” He reached out appealingly. “Ginny, please?”
            “It’s not fair,” Ginny said. “Not to me, and not to you. I would do it if you loved me, Harry. But you just need someone else, and you don’t even really care who it is.” Her eyes were wide and aching. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have waited this long.”
            Harry winced. “I did find a true mate, and he did reject me. That much is true.”
            “But?”
            “Ron was the one who thought that maybe you would go along with this because you were in love with me and I could fall in love with time,” Harry whispered. His chest still hurt. He wondered dully if that was a sign that he was fading. “And I’ll simply fade out of existence if I don’t have…someone to hold me here.”
            Ginny hesitated for a long moment. Then she said, “If you’re almost gone and you still need someone, then I’ll do it, Harry. I don’t want to see you die.” She stepped up and kissed him on the cheek. “But I don’t want to see either of us trapped in a loveless marriage, or mating, either.”
            She gave him a sad look and stepped back, passing out of the sphere of the privacy charms before Harry could decide if he wanted to call to her. Harry sighed and leaned against the wall, rubbing his eyes with one hand.
            “Already moving on, Potter?”
            The voice made Harry start violently enough that he almost fell to the floor. He spun around and saw Malfoy standing down the corridor. His arms were folded, and he was sneering. He hadn’t done much of that this year so far, but Harry supposed it didn’t matter; when Malfoy did have a chance of making Harry’s life hell, then he was always going to go back to that.
            “I have to,” said Harry dully. “I have to find someone who can keep me from fading, since you’re not going to be my mate.” He straightened up and shook his head then, remembering what else he needed Malfoy to do. “And you have to make a formal renunciation.”
            “Of what?” Malfoy’s eyelids flickered fast enough that Harry wondered if he had blinked. “I never agreed to anything that I had to renounce.”
            “Of your status as my mate,” Harry said, keeping his voice as calm as possible. “That way, I can still choose someone else.”
            “You’d like that, of course,” said Malfoy. “If Girl-Weasley won’t oblige you, you’ll find someone else you can raise a pack of half-elven brats with and someone you can reminisce about Gryffindor with.”
            “I don’t know,” Harry said tiredly. Was being an elf going to be passed on to his children as well? He had to admit he hadn’t thought about that. On the other hand, he also thought Hermione would have mentioned it if there was a real possibility. “But a Gryffindor is probably going to be my only option. Anyway. You have to appear at the bonding ritual and speak the formal words of renunciation. I’ll let you know when it’s going to be.”
            “If I don’t want to appear on your schedule and do something that might disoblige me? If I have exams the same day that might help me get into the Ministry, or if I want to spend time with my friends instead of someone forced on me by magic?”
            Harry rolled his eyes openly, not caring whether Malfoy saw it. “Why would you want to delay something that’s going to benefit you as much as it is me? You say the words, you’ll be free.” A sharp ache sliced into his chest, and he closed his eyes and rubbed his scar again, by sheer force of habit.
            “And you won’t,” said Malfoy. “Because you’ll still have a mate that you have to hold onto, to keep from fading.” He cleared his throat. “If you still believe that. I’m half-convinced it’s a lie you made up to try and persuade me to be your mate.”
            “Go read the books yourself if you’re so bothered, Malfoy,” Harry snapped, and stalked past him, banging one shoulder against his. Malfoy squawked and started to say something, but Harry gave him a glare that rendered him speechless. Harry nodded sharply and moved past him down the corridor.
            Good. Malfoy should have at least a little discomfort and inconvenience out of the whole thing, considering what more Harry was going to have.
            And Harry…well, he needed to find a mate. He understood what Ginny was saying, but in the face of dying because he was fading like a sodding shadow, he was pretty sure he would end up begging her for help after all.
*
            Harry leaned back in his seat, staring up and down the Gryffindor table, trying to figure out who he could approach next. He didn’t know most of the Gryffindor girls at all, he thought. Well, he at least knew some of their names, but that wasn’t the same as knowing them. And he doubted that most of them would be willing to abruptly give up whatever plans and dreams they might have to bond with him. And the ones who were willing…
            I don’t know if I could put up with someone who only wants to be my mate for the fame, even if that kept me from death.
            Harry sighed. Which didn’t leave a lot of choices, he had to admit. He turned and looked down the table again, this time at the Gryffindor boys.
            Am I gay? Is there a reason that the magic chose a male mate for me? Harry sighed again. But I would still have the same problem even if I am. Choosing someone who only wants to be with me because it gets his name in the papers isn’t any better than choosing someone who wants her name in the papers.
            He reached absently for his fork, and started, looking down a second later. It seemed as though someone had moved the fork from its usual resting position, and he hadn’t even noticed who’d done it.
            Then he realized that the fork was still in its usual position. What had happened was his hand passing straight through it.
            Harry made a grab again for the fork before he could restrain himself. This time, he managed to take hold of it, and wriggled his shoulders to try and relieve the tension. He hadn’t faded.
            Not yet.
            But sooner or later, if enough things like that happened, then people would start noticing that something was off with him, glamour or no glamour. Harry shut his eyes and brushed his fingers against his scar again. He would almost rather have Voldemort back again than this to deal with, at least if he could have made it so that Voldemort would only affect him.
            I wish I knew someone I could ask. Someone who already liked me enough to consider it, but not enough to be in love with me. Someone who wouldn’t want the fame. Someone who knows a little of what I’m really like and could accept it as more revelations leaked out.
            Harry scratched his scar. If he had thought there was the slightest chance that Neville was gay and liked him, then he would have asked Neville. But Neville had eyes only for Hannah Abbot these days, and Harry would rather die than condemn someone who was already in love to sharing this loveless existence with him.
            His ears tingled and vibrated for a second. Harry looked up at the same moment as he reached up to touch them, wondering if this was some new phase of his illness, and found Malfoy staring at him from across the room. He sneered and looked away pointedly when he saw Harry considering him.
            Harry sneered back and stood, legs clenched so that he wouldn’t simply bolt from the room. It looked as though he was going to have to start considering people from other Houses, as well.
            And that did make one choice come to mind. Harry considered it, then shrugged. Worth a try. That’s all I can say.
*
            “I’m flattered you would think of me, Harry. Elves are very choosy. I met one that told me all about it.”
            Harry sighed and leaned back against a tree. It did make him feel more comfortable to be at the very edge of the Forbidden Forest, under its eaves. He made sure that he didn’t touch the bark with his bare skin, though. With his luck, he’d scrape himself on something else, and end up turning into another hideous creature. “That’s a no, though, right, Luna?”
            “It is.” Luna smiled at him. “I would have to stay with you, or you would have to travel with me. And I don’t think Crumple-Horned Snorkacks like elves.”
            Harry stared out across the lake. He could see Hagrid standing on the other shore, showing something blue-green and gleaming that was half in and half out of the water to a group of curious students. Harry swallowed. He wished with all his might that he was standing in that group and had nothing more to worry about than his marks.
            “I would help you if I could be your mate,” Luna went on seriously, drawing Harry’s attention back to her. “And if the Snorkacks liked elves. But I’m not your mate. Why don’t you find the mate that has horns sounding around them?”
            Harry started a little, but then relaxed. It made sense that Luna, of all people, would know some of the more obscure magical creature lore. “I found him. Draco Malfoy,” he added, when Luna stared at him with the eerie patience that Professor Flitwick sometimes used when he thought someone just needed one more try to get the Charm right. “He said that he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life tied to something when he was just now free.”
            Luna considered that, then waved a hand. “But that’s silly. He would be freer than ever if he was your mate. He would get to see Elfland in his dreams and travel with you to it if he wanted to.” She brightened up. “I’d like to go to Elfland.”
            “Would he?” Harry asked, startled. That hadn’t been in the book. “I didn’t know elves and their mates could do that.”
            Luna looked at him patiently. “Your inner essence is fading because it wants to return to Elfland,” she said. “How can you soothe it if you don’t go there sometimes? Of course, you could wear a necklace of noodles,” she added then. “But I don’t think you want to do that. They don’t last for long, and they’re inconvenient when you have to keep replacing them all the time.”
            Harry pictured himself trying to tell Malfoy about journeys to Elfland, and snorted. “No offense, Luna, but I don’t think Malfoy is going to be my mate no matter what. And I don’t want to bribe someone into it.”
            “I understand.” Luna took his hand. “It’s so nice to have friends who don’t want something from you.”
            Harry nodded, and tried to relax and pretend that he could feel her fingers on his hand in the same way he’d always been able to, instead of distant and drifting sensations that flickered in and out of his awareness. “Yes, it is.”
*
            The facts that Luna had mentioned about Elfland were in the book, Harry found out, when he borrowed the tome and returned to the lake later that week. Hermione had given him an uncomfortably pitying look when he’d had to Levitate the book instead of carrying it. At least once he was out of most people’s sight and down next to the lake, he’d managed to comfortably hold onto it with the aid of a Strengthening Charm cast on his wrists.
            Elfland sounded like, well, probably like the wizarding world would have sounded to Harry if someone had described it to him before he came to Hogwarts. There was magic everywhere, apparently. There were magical creatures that lived freely alongside the elves and seemed to help them do most of the things that Muggles achieved with technology. Harry read about dragons that incinerated rubbish and small lizards that licked plates clean and winged dogs that carried the post until his eyes ached. Then he put down the book and rubbed his hand against them.
            His eyelids didn’t feel substantial, either.
            With a sigh, he leaned forwards over his legs and stared into the lake. He didn’t have any idea why so many people seemed to consider turning into an elf a blessing. Maybe it was if you had a mate who’d secretly been in love with you all along and then they were the same one who sounded like horns, but not the rest of the time.
            Hermione had been looking up ways to reverse the transformation, too, but she hadn’t stumbled on anything so far. Harry wondered, for a second, whether getting stabbed with another piece of elf-shot would do. He had found nothing that suggested that would work, but nothing that suggested it wouldn’t, either.
            He was about to draw his wand when a voice sneered behind him, “Sitting down here all alone, Potter? Brooding on the impossibility of having me as your mate?”
            “Brooding on trying to do something about this,” Harry said, rolling his eyes. Honestly, Malfoy had left him alone for weeks after the start of the year, and he should have been perfectly happy to walk away and leave Harry to fade into nothingness if what he’d said about not wanting to be Harry’s mate was true.
            Maybe he’s afraid that he only has a limited amount of time left to get his taunts in, Harry thought idly.
            “You won’t convince someone to mate with you if you simply sit around all the time looking pathetic.” There was a rustling sound in the grass as Malfoy walked a few steps closer. “You have to be out actively looking for them.”
            “You don’t have to worry,” Harry said mildly, still keeping his gaze aimed straight ahead. It seemed to annoy Malfoy when he did that, which was as good a reason as any. “I have someone who’s promised to mate with me if I can’t find someone else, and to do it before I fade completely.”
            “The Weasley bint?” Malfoy laughed, and there was something coarse in the sound that Harry hadn’t heard from him in a long time. “Of course, the Great Harry Potter can’t find someone to love him for himself, can he? The tragic hero.”
            Harry decided he was tired of this. Hoping that his hand wouldn’t suddenly dissolve around his wand, he turned it in Malfoy’s direction and muttered, “Silencio.”
            Malfoy gasped in the second before the spell hit him. Harry turned around, stood up, and stalked towards him. Malfoy stood staring at him from not far away, his hands shoved into his pockets. They clenched there as Harry approached, but he didn’t try to do anything that would threaten him.
            Harry tapped his wand lightly against Malfoy’s chest. “You don’t want to mate with me?” he whispered, and ignored the persistent soft song of hunting horns in his ears. “That’s your right. But you’re being a git about renouncing me, too. And this taunting. There’s no reason for that. You ought to be relieved that we’ll both be out of the situation of you having to mate with me.” He pushed Malfoy with the wand one more time. “Stay away from me, don’t taunt Ginny, and make sure that you’re ready to renounce at the right time. Then things will be just bloody fine between us.”
            And off he stalked, leaving Malfoy gaping after him. Harry was tense all the way back up to Hogwarts, expecting a curse to his back at the very least.
            But nothing happened. Harry shrugged and relaxed a little as he came into the entrance hall. He reckoned Malfoy must have decided it wasn’t worth it.
            With a tinkle, his wand dropped through his fingers.
            As he bent over to retrieve it, Harry half-closed his eyes. He hoped that he could get Ginny to reconsider.
*
kain: That’s exactly what Ginny thinks. Harry, at this point, thinks it’s a choice between that and death.
Clau: It’s fine if you think this isn’t a good story. However, since I’m working with a prompt, that’s what I have to keep to. Also, I disagree that Harry wouldn’t do something he had done in canon—in the second book, as a diversion—when Hermione gets insulted.
starr: Draco meant what he said about wanting to be free.
SP777: Ginny meant what she said about not wanting to be tied to Harry, either.
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The Horns of Elfland