Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Self-fulfilling Prophecy	By : Sasunarufan13 Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 6342 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter nor make any profit of it. J.K. Rowling owns it

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
- 4
Author's note: And here I am with the third chapter. As promised, you'll find out what Draco got Harry as a Christmas present :)

Thanks to the following reviewer: Anon

Warnings: dash of drama and cliffhanger

I hope you'll like it!

Chapter 3: Tension Rising

The argument during the Christmas party seemed to have been forgotten; neither one of their parents talked about it, though Albus caught his mum scowling at his stuffed dragon multiple times. He had placed the stuffed toy next to him on his pillow and the invitation was kept safely in his top drawer. Dad had promised to take them to the sanctuary soon and he could hardly wait for that to happen! Even though the gift had been the reason for yet another fight between dad and mum, Albus adored his dragon. Not only because it had carried the invitation to the sanctuary, but also because it was soft and beautifully made. Seeing it sitting on his pillow every day filled him with warmth and not even mum's disapproving looks stopped him from cuddling with it every night.

As the weeks passed and they entered a new year, the tension in the household lowered and ebbed away until it was as if the argument had never happened in the first place. Albus had discussed with James a couple of times why mum was so bothered by the fact that Mister Malfoy had sent them gifts, but neither one of them could figure out the exact reason and neither felt brave enough to ask mum about it. Essentially Mister Malfoy had become a taboo subject at home.

It became a forbidden subject after one particular Sunday afternoon at the end of January …

"Twenty, nineteen, eighteen, seventeen, …"

As soon as James turned around, closed his eyes and started to count down from twenty to zero, Albus ran out of the living room and hastily looked around, trying to find a decent hiding spot. He and his older brother were playing hide and seek since they had finished their homework and the throwing of the Galleon had appointed James as the one who had to start searching first. It had become a competition of sorts between the two of them to find the best hiding place in the house. Last time James had won when he somehow had managed to fit himself into one of the lower cupboards in the kitchen; it had taken Albus almost an hour before he had finally found him and now he wanted to outdo his brother.

This time he would be the one leaving James to wonder where he was hidden!

But first, he actually had to find a good spot and he needed to find one quickly before James would start searching.

Hurrying past dad, who came down the staircase and gave him an amused look, Albus looked right and left and then ran to the left. A bright grin unfurled on his face; he had found the perfect hiding place.

He came to a momentary stop in front of his dad's office and hesitated, biting his lip. He actually wasn't allowed to be in here; dad worked on his cases in this room and he had forbidden both him and James from entering the room, because they could mess up the files. He didn't want to disobey his dad, but this had to be the best hiding place in the house! James would never even think of trying to search for him here. Besides, as long as he was careful and he didn't bump against anything, it should be fine, right? And if he stayed hidden for more than an hour, he had automatically won their game of hide and seek and he could sneak out once there was no risk of encountering someone near this room.

It was a fool proof idea.

"Zero! I will find you, wherever you are!" James sang from downstairs and that made Albus stop dawdling.

If he didn't hurry now, James would find him already. Opening the door slightly – it was much heavier than it looked like actually – he slipped inside the crack and closed it carefully, making certain that he didn't make a sound. The thick carpet covering the wooden floorboard muffled his footsteps and he looked around; curiosity growing. He had never been in this room before and he found himself wanting to wander around and take a look at the desk where several files were placed. Three boxes stacked upon each other stood next to the desk and a bookcase next to the large window contained several thick tomes, which looked somewhat forbidden. It made Albus shudder for some reason and his attention was drawn towards a closet on his right. It looked like the wardrobe that stood in his parents' room, but it couldn't be one, right? Why would dad keep clothes here?

Outside the room he heard the staircase creaking, signalling that James was coming up and heart slightly racing in anticipation, Albus hurried towards the closet, praying that he could hide in it. Luckily for him the first door he opened, showed just one package placed on the bottom of the closet with some cloaks draped over an iron bar – which hung a couple of inches above Albus' head – and he could easily fit inside. He stepped inside and managed to pull the closet door until there was less than an inch opening left. Shuffling around, he was relieved to discover that the closet had been equipped with a limited version of wizarding space and he could easily sit down, without his knees accidentally bumping against the door.

Giggling quietly, he heard his brother wander around in the hallway, opening doors before going to the opposite of the hallway.

Just like he thought: James didn't even think of checking inside this room.

Albus felt slightly guilty, because he was wilfully disobeying his dad, but he would be really careful. He couldn't do much harm, sitting here in this closet, right?

The guilt was shoved away by the growing amusement as he heard James walking around, opening doors and drawers louder as he grew frustrated with every minute that passed without him finding the younger boy. James had always had less patience than Albus; one of the reasons why their hide and seek games never lasted long.

After a while, his butt felt rather numb and he shifted around, trying to regain the feeling in his buttocks again; listening to James walking back and forth in front of the room. In doing so, his left knee bumped against the package and he froze as it bumped against the wall of the closet. Holding his breath, he only relaxed when he heard James walking away. Good, he hadn't heard the thumping noise then.

His gaze was drawn towards the box again. The little bit of daylight that managed to filter through the crack fell partly on the box and he gasped surprised when he recognized the package. A familiar dark blue wrapping paper with golden roses outlined shone weakly in the light; it was missing its silver bow, but Albus was certain that this was the present dad had received from Mister Malfoy. Why was it here? And why was it still in the box?

Eyebrows furrowing in contemplation, he cocked his head and leant forwards. Why would dad hide Mister Malfoy's present in this closet? And what else was in there besides the invitation to the dragon sanctuary? If it only contained a card, it wouldn't have made so much noise when he bumped against it.

His hand was already hovering above it before he realised it and he retracted it hastily, biting his lip in shame. It was one thing for him to sneak into his dad's office, but it was a whole other thing to peek into the present he had received. It wasn't polite, Albus knew that. He had already crossed a boundary by entering this room despite not being allowed to and it would be really bad if he also looked inside the box.

But he was just so curious …

A Christmas present couldn't be that weird or bad, right? True, it was odd that dad kept it inside this closet, but maybe he hadn't found an appropriate place for it yet? He should just leave it alone; it wasn't any of his business what Mister Malfoy had bought for dad.

And yet …

Fidgeting, his emerald green eyes were once again drawn towards the box. It wouldn't hurt to just sneak a peek, right? Dad would never have to know about it and it wasn't like he would take it out of the box, whatever it was. Just a quick peek and then he would ignore it.

Led by his burning curiosity, he sat up on his knees – wincing at the way the wood dug into his knees through his trousers – and pulled the box towards him. Carefully, tongue poking out from between his lips, he opened the lid with both hands and peeked inside. He blinked bemused at the content of the box.

The invitation card was the first thing he saw; dad's first and last name were written in the same flourish handwriting that had written Albus' name. The card wasn't attached to a stuffed dragon toy like it had been in the case of Albus and James, though. Instead, it was placed on top of several other objects. One of them was a small key, though it didn't look like any of the keys Albus had seen before. He doubted it was meant to open a door. Right underneath the odd key, a folded piece of heavy parchment was placed and he slowly extracted it from underneath the key. The parchment smelt ... old, as if it had been stuffed away for years before it was picked up again. Curiosity growing even more, Albus opened it and became confused at the content. He couldn't understand most words, though he picked out words like 'manor', 'Potter', 'belonging to the heir' and 'Charlus Potter'. Long paragraphs filled with difficult words filled the paper and then switched over to a long list, which enumerated things like 'two kitchens'; 'six bedrooms' and 'eight sets of silverware'. The list went on and on; talking about rooms and content of the rooms and it only served to confuse the boy even more.

Not able to make any sense out of it, he folded the parchment again and placed it next to him on the floor.

A necklace with a flower pendant and two rings, which vaguely resembled the rings his parents wore, followed the paper soon.

The last object covered the bottom of the box and it took him several tries before he managed to retrieve it from the package. He placed it on his lap and discovered it was a photo album. It had a dark red cover and in the middle of it, in gold letters 'The Marauders' had been printed.

The Marauders?

Frowning, he recalled Teddy mentioning that word years ago when he had been talking to dad about his own father. Albus couldn't remember what exactly the conversation had been about it, but he was certain that Teddy had mentioned that his own father had been a Marauder – whatever that meant.

Okay, now he was really curious.

Opening the photo album on the first page, he was surprised when he was greeted by a picture of three boys, dressed in Hogwarts robes, laughing as they chased after each other with snowballs ready to be thrown. His dad occasionally let him browse through the family album he had got from Hogwarts' groundkeeper Hagrid and thanks to that album, he could recognise his own dad's dad in the picture, chasing after a boy with half long, dark hair, who stuck his tongue out, while a brown haired boy shook his head at his friends' antics. The caption underneath the picture read, "James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. December 1974."

So the Marauders … were his dad's dad and his friends? What a peculiar name; he wondered how they had come up with that.

Curiosity now at its full peak, he browsed through the album; smiling at how the boys behaved in the pictures. There were some of his grandfather snoring with open mouth as he was draped over a red couch; some of Remus Lupin, Teddy's dad, as he studied with an intense look on his face. Yet another one showed Sirius Black – dad's godfather if Albus recalled correctly – sitting astride on a Muggle vehicle with a large, mischievous grin plastered on his handsome face. Another one had both James and Sirius covered in some pinkish goo as Remus was bent double, tears streaming over his face as he laughed at the dumbfounded faces of his friends.

On the very last page, all three men were facing the camera with excited grins on their faces – though Teddy's dad's smile was more tempered – as they waved their diplomas of Hogwarts high in the air.

Closing the album almost reverently, he stared down at the cover; absentmindedly stroking it. He wondered how Mister Malfoy had managed to gather this much stuff. Especially the pictures had probably been difficult to gather, because dad had once mentioned that Hagrid had to contact a lot of people to gather pictures for his photo album.

Albus assumed that the rest of the stuff was related to dad's family as well. That would certainly explain why his dad had looked so sad and yet happy at the same time. The young boy knew that his dad didn't have much left from his family after they had been killed by a very bad man and so, he must have been really happy to get these items as a gift.

Albus found himself liking Mister Malfoy even more, despite only having talked to him once. Someone who went through so much trouble and effort to make his dad happy couldn't be a bad guy at all.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when the door to the office suddenly opened and he panicked, wondering whether James had managed to find him.

It was worse.

"Do you really have to leave tonight, Harry?" Mum asked worriedly as muffled footsteps walked through the room.

"I'm afraid so, Ginny," Dad sighed and a drawer was opened. "Kingsley said it was urgent and we need to leave around eight p.m."

"How long will the assignment last?" Mum inquired and she sounded unhappy.

Albus shared that particular sentiment; his heart was beating harshly inside of his chest and his arms clenched around the album. His dad had to leave for an urgent assignment tonight? That only meant one thing: it would be very dangerous. And chances were high that dad would get hurt.

He swallowed and closed his eyes, trying to ignore the fear swirling around in his belly.

"Kingsley estimates that we should be able to get it done in less than a week, depending on how many times the suspects leave the house," Dad answered and the sound of a zipper being drawn back rang through the room.

"How many of you will be going?"

"Three. More than that and we would probably give our position away," Dad muttered distracted. "Our informant told us that they have special wards erected that would alert them once more than three people come near them."

"And will three be enough?" Mum's voice trembled.

"Ginny, it'll be all right, I promise," Dad spoke soothingly and the soft sound of a kiss reached Albus' ears, making him slightly flustered. "We know what their weaknesses are and we have studied the plan thoroughly. All that is left to do, is catch them and deliver them straight to Azkaban."

"You know you can't promise me it'll be all right, Harry," Mum retorted heatedly and she sounded as if she was stamping her foot down on the floor. "I don't want to keep visiting you in the hospital! What if something goes wrong?! What if you don't …" She stopped, audibly choked and smothered a sob.

"Hey, hey, I'll be okay," Dad insisted. "Do you really think you can get rid of me so easily?"

Mum let out a watery chuckle. "You better return in one piece. Or else I'll kick your arse."

"I know you will," Dad snickered.

Albus was too late to react. Before he knew it, the door of the closet swung open and he was staring right into his dad's astonished face.

"Albus? What on earth are you doing in here? I thought I told you, you weren't allowed to be in my office?" Dad scolded and then his eyes fell on the gifts spread out on Albus' lap and the bottom of the closet and he visibly paled.

"Albus? What are you …" Mum trailed off as her own eyes caught sight of the various objects. She then looked at the empty box, still covered in the blue wrapping paper, and her cheeks reddened. "Harry, what is the meaning of this?"

Albus trembled at the dangerous tone, even though it wasn't aimed at him, and shrank back against the wall; his arms still clutched around the album.

Dad bit his lip and shook his head. "Albus, please put everything back and come out of here," he told him calmly and the young boy nodded jerkily, feeling his ears and cheeks burn in shame.

"Harry, I asked you a question," Mum said through gritted teeth and her brown eyes narrowed.

Dad released a sigh of exhaustion and crossed his arms in front of his chest, wrinkling his blue shirt. "That's Draco's gift. He sent it to me during Christmas, remember?" he replied calmly, though his jaw was clenched.

Meanwhile Albus was placing everything back into the box with trembling hands, carrying the futile hope that he just hadn't caused another argument between his parents.

"You told me it was simply an invitation card with that stupid stuffed dragon," Mum hissed and her finger shot out accusingly at the key that Albus was putting back on top of the parchment. "That doesn't look like a stuffed toy to me! What did he really give you, Harry?"

"Just some stuff that belonged to my family," Dad muttered and looked away. "Nothing more."

"What. Did. He. Give. You." Mum's voice was icy now and she seemed on the verge of snapping as she ground out each word.

"Sirius' motorcycle; a photo album of the Marauders; my parents' wedding rings; a necklace of my mum and the papers to a manor that belonged to my grandfather," Dad rattled off impatiently. "There. That's what he gave me."

"Your godfather's motorcycle was destroyed, remember? When Hagrid took you away from the Dursleys?" Mum said sharply.

"Yes, but Draco managed to find a specialist who could reconstruct the motorcycle from its pieces."

It was silent for a few long seconds and Albus looked up with baited breath. Mum had a very peculiar look on her face.

"What?" Dad frowned, looking at her warily.

"Why on earth would Malfoy give you all that? Why would he go that far for you?" she whispered and her eyes were alight with an emotion Albus couldn't decipher.

"How should I know? He said he wanted to give me something that no one else had." Dad rolled his shoulders and glanced away, clearly uncomfortable. "I thought that the vaults and my father's Invisibility Cloak and the Marauders' Map were all I still had left from them, but he managed to give me some of my family back. I don't care how he did it, but I'm really happy with it." His eyes softened.

"You think it's normal that he goes that far for you?" Mum asked shrilly.

"Draco's become a good friend to me, Ginny," Dad snapped. "He hardly did something impossible."

Mum shook her head in disbelief and seemed to want to say something, before she changed her mind. "Is he coming with you on the assignment?" she questioned abruptly.

"Yes, he is. Why wouldn't he?"

She chuckled oddly. "Yes, why wouldn't he?" She whirled around and marched to the door. "Finish your packing, Harry. You don't want to keep him waiting!"

The door was slammed shut, causing several files to tumble down, off the desk onto the floor.

Dad sighed and raked a hand through his hair, clearly exhausted.

"I'm sorry, dad," Albus whispered and looked down, feeling hot tears gathering behind his burning eyes. "I didn't mean to come here and I didn't mean to open your gift! I'm sorry! I'm really sorry! I won't do it again!"

Dad lowered himself on his knees and closed his arms around the young boy, making the boy scramble out of the closet into his lap. "I'm not mad," he murmured tiredly. "I should have known you would be curious. It's not that big of a deal. Just promise me that you stay out of this room from now on, Albus. It wasn't nice of you to peek here."

"I know," Albus whimpered, tightly hugging his dad back. "I'm sorry!"

"There, there, it's okay," Dad hushed him and brushed a kiss on his forehead. "I need to finish packing now. Can you wait outside this room, please? I need to lock it up anyway."

Albus nodded and walked out of the room on trembling legs. James rounded the corner at the same time and clearly wanted to shout something at him, until he got a good look of his face.

"Albus? What happened?" James asked, furrowing his eyebrows, as he drew closer.

Albus shook his head; not in the mood to talk about the argument between their parents – an argument he had inadvertently caused by sneaking around.

"Dad's leaving on an assignment," he croaked out in the end.

James' face fell and it was with a heavy heart that both boys said goodbye to their dad half an hour later.

Never before had the house felt so cold. Albus couldn't help but fear that something bad would happen.

Six days later, they received an urgent message from Saint Mungos. Dad had returned from his assignment in a really bad state.

The coldness only grew.

AN2: Only a small cliffhanger now, right, guys? :D But hey at least you know what Draco's present contained!

Next chapter will have Albus and James meeting Scorpius for the first time ^^

Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.

See you all in the next chapter!

Cuddles

Melissa
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Self-fulfilling Prophecy