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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
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Thanks again for all the reviews!

This is very nearly the last chapter of I Give You a Wondrous Mirror. There will be an epilogue after this,
but nothing further. Thanks for coming along!

Chapter Forty-Three�I
Give You a Wondrous Mirror

�� Draco could
feel his heart pounding as he settled himself in front of the large mirror that
had apparently hung on the wall of his and Harry�s bedroom in the Manor every
day of this reality. It was a handsome piece, though not one he�d owned at
home�

�� The other home�

�� Highly
polished glass with an inner fire almost like a diamond�s, in a gilt frame
carved with sporting lions and snakes. Draco thought it made an acceptable gate
through which to allow Harry his first glimpse of the place they�d left behind.

�� Harry�s
face was pale as he sat down to watch the mirror under Draco�s arm. Draco could
understand that. He�d looked into a mirror already himself, wanting to
experience the shifting images and test whether they would afflict him with
guilt or sorrow, and it had taken him long moments to overcome the flinching
sensation. This was the first mirror in ten years that hadn�t tried to attack
him or show him things he didn�t want to see.

�� At first,
the glass solely and simply reflected him and Harry. Harry stirred restlessly.

�� Concentrate
on what you want to see,� Draco whispered. �That�s the only way it works. I
think the life-debts saw no need to have every random person who might look
into a glass at the same time we did spying on our doubles� lives.�

�� Harry took
a deep breath and leaned forwards, squinting. Draco wrapped one arm around
Harry�s shoulders and one around his waist. That was only partially because he
thought his partner might need support, depending on the image that appeared. Most
of it was just sheer pleasure in the fact that he could finally touch Harry
without punishment.

�� Their
reflections stretched, wavered, and then dissolved into boiling shadows, blue
as the light of the sun on snow. A moment later, those shadows spun out,
bleeding color, and formed into a small dining room that Harry recognized, from
the way he quivered.

�� The other
Harry and his wife sat facing each other across a small table�Draco wondered
how their house-elves managed to place all the food properly on it, and then
reminded himself that they didn�t have house-elves�arguing quietly. As the
picture grew sharper and clearer, echoes of their voices began to emerge.

�� His Harry started. �That�s new,� he
murmured.

�� Perhaps we
would have heard sounds from the images that haunted us, too, if we had wanted
to listen,� Draco said, and then quieted, because the other Harry�s voice was
canting upwards at a sharp pitch.

�� don�t
think it�s going to be easy. But I want
to do this, Ginny. I want to come back and be a part of your life and the kids�
lives again.�

�� Draco�s
Harry bared his teeth. Draco ran a hand through his hair and down to his
shoulders. It really was all over, and he could watch his other self�s life but
he couldn�t help him. That was another thing Draco was hoping this glimpse of
the secondary world would teach Harry.

�� Why should
I believe you?� Ginny�s eyes were red, and she rubbed at them now and then with
the edge of her palm, making Draco fight to hold back a snort. There was acting
and there was acting. �Just a day ago,
you were willing to give yourself to Malfoy, and you didn�t want me around you
anymore.�

�� That was�� The second Harry closed his eyes and swallowed. �I
listened to James,� he whispered. �And Al. They missed their mum. And I missed
you, too. I never realized just what it would cost me to become part of the
Malfoy family. I never imagined that they had secrets like the ones they did
hiding down in the crypts.� He opened his eyes and mustered a faint smile. �And
it�ll be good for Scorpius Malfoy, too. He really needs his mum around. That
would be much easier for Marian if I�m not clinging to Draco�s side.�

�� Coward,�
Harry hissed.

�� Do you
think it would have happened that way, if we stayed in that world?� Draco
asked, not taking his eyes from the reflection.

�� Of course not!� Harry said fiercely. And then his voice got
softer, and not just because the reflected Ginny was speaking again. �I can see
the seeds of it in me. Wanting to make other people happy
instead of myself. Being frightened by how much effort it took to go
after what I really wanted and needed. Using my children as
an excuse to shelter from passion. But I can�t become that person, not
now.�

�� Draco
nodded, satisfied, and then paid attention to what the she-Weasel was saying
again. Something about not being sure she could trust Harry, but that she
wanted to, and she�d missed him, too. Now she leaned forwards, and put her hand
on the other Harry�s, and said, �It�ll be a long, hard road, but I�m willing to
try and reconcile if you are.�

�� The Harry
in the mirror gave her a reprieved, guilty smile. His Harry hissed again. Draco glanced sideways at him. �Do you want
to see anything else of their lives, or look at me and Marian now?�

�� You and Marian.� Harry�s lip was curled with disgust, his
eyes flashing in a way that made Draco suppress a moan; he badly wanted to
change his suggestion to �shagging Harry through the mattress� instead. �I
don�t think I can take any more of this.�

�� Draco
nodded, and together they faced the mirror and concentrated again. The shadows
ate the other Harry and Ginny�whom Draco would be just as glad not to watch�and
then formed into the shapes of the other Draco and his wife. This time, Harry
flinched.

�� Draco could
see why. His other self�s face was pale and lost, and he kept glancing to the
side, as if he imagined that Harry would be sitting in a chair next to him if
he just looked hard enough.

�� Marian, on
the other hand, was bent over a long scroll, murmuring to herself and ticking
off items on her fingers. �And of course I�ll be there for important public
events, and to welcome Scorpius back from Hogwarts, and for holidays. And you
can keep an eye on me to make sure that I don�t kidnap him and take him to the
Hebrides.� She flung her head back defiantly and stared at her husband, as if
to say that Draco would have no reason ever to suspect her of that again.

�� The
reflected Malfoy nodded heavily. �Yes, all right,� he said, and then leaned
over to sign the scroll, followed by Marian signing it in a slightly different
place. A legal contract, Draco knew. It was the only way his other self would
be able to trust his wife around Scorpius.

�� Marian
stood and walked out of the study then, and that Draco closed his eyes and sat
still for a long moment. There was an expression of such desolation on his face
that Draco thought he would have been moved himself, if he could have reached
through.

�� But then
the Draco in the mirror sat up, and set his jaw, and muttered, �Even if Harry
was too scared to stay with me, there�s still Scorpius.�

�� He walked
out of the room with unexpectedly steady steps. Draco approved. If the poor
bastard couldn�t have a lover or a partner suited to him, then he would live
for his son. There were worse things he could have done, such as sliding back
into the apathy that had consumed the past ten years of his life.

�� His life. Not mine.

�� That was
the most satisfying thing about their escape, to Draco. In a world where he and
Harry had honored the call of the life-debts in the year after the war, they had
both been stronger, more eager to defy conventions, more stubborn and apt to
struggle against what their family and friends thought best for them. They
still had children, but they weren�t bound to distasteful agreements in the
creation of them.

�� Altogether,
life was better for them here, and that was all Draco needed to relieve him of
any false notions about going back and settings things right.

�� When he
glanced at Harry, though, he surprised a look of intense pity on his lover�s
face. Harry had even stretched a hand out to the mirror, but let it fall when
the shadows ate that reflected Draco. Now he shook his head, his lower lip
caught between his teeth.

�� Draco took
his jaw in one hand and turned Harry about to face him. �Now do you see there�s
nothing we can do?� he murmured. �We have our lives, and they have theirs. Will
you feel guilty for decades because we split the parts of ourselves that had
courage apart from the pieces that didn�t, and obeyed magical law?�

�� No,� Harry
whispered. �Not now. I can�t, now that I�ve seen them. That Harry could have tried
to keep in contact with his Draco, even though the marriage vows would have
prevented them from sleeping together. He could have faced up to the fact that
he didn�t love Ginny anymore. But he�s retreating into the shell you rescued me from, with the scar and Tutela, and that�s his own fault. And doing those things is
far more selfish than I ever realized.� He lifted his eyes to Draco�s, and
determination had mingled with the sadness in them. �I won�t regret he can�t
follow my path. I do feel sorry for the other Draco, though.�

�� He lifted
his hands and clenched them in the front of Draco�s robes. �And I won�t lose my
own joy because I�m brooding over them, either,� he said, and hauled Draco�s
face down to kiss him.

*

�� Making love
in reality turned out not to resemble the dream-world very much after all.

�� Harry had
never realized how much the dream-world took care of, what with instant
cushioning and lubrication and robes that simply vanished when one willed them
to. For the first time, he had the experience of stumbling on the robe that he
tried to haul off, and knocking his teeth against Draco�s as they kissed, and
gazing at Draco�s entrance, when he spread his legs, with something like
dismay, because it didn�t seem as if Harry�s fingers would fit in there, let
alone his cock.

�� But there
were other things that he had missed and rejoiced in having now, such as the
scrape of dry skin under his fingers when he first coated them with oil Draco
kept in the bedside table, and the sharp catch in Draco�s breath as he arched
his hips up, and how his muscles rippled and flexed when Harry repositioned him
on the bed for easier access.

�� And the
knowledge that, in this reality, they had made love again, and again, and
again, and that for them it was normal and expected.

�� Here, he
wasn�t an idiot who had only realized too late in life that he shouldn�t have
bound himself with such restrictive marriage vows, and whose every experience
of being in bed with Draco was shadowed by memories of being in bed with Ginny.
He still had those memories, of course; those things had still happened to him.

�� Or a version of him.

�� But, just
as it was his choice to feel guilt for his advantages over his mirrored self or
to reject that guilt, it was his choice to let those memories matter or not
matter.

�� In this
world, only he and Draco had those memories. No one else outside their two
heads knew their pasts had been different. No one else knew that Harry was more
familiar with itching vows than the taste of Draco�s skin.

�� Harry took
the first steps to correct that now, bowing his head in order to fasten his
mouth on Draco�s hip.

�� Draco
undulated in surprise and pleasure as Harry sucked on his skin, purpling and
marking it, and wearing out his own jaw. That hadn�t happened in the
dream-world, either. Harry finally sat back with a gasp, shook oddly
sweat-soaked hair out of his face�they�d barely exerted themselves, yet�and
stared into Draco�s eyes. Draco stared back at him,
face clouded with lust and excitement, and then made a pleading little push
with his hips, urging Harry to get on
with it.

�� Harry
smiled at him. He felt like laughing, and there were tears in his eyes.

�� The small
dots of blond hair covering Draco�s hips and stomach were springy against his
fingertips when he pushed his hand over them.

�� The taste
of the skin on Draco�s right hip was subtly different from the taste of the
skin on his left hip.

�� His tongue
pushed enthusiastically enough into Harry�s mouth when he was simply kissed,
but it was nothing like the push he gave when Harry�s tongue was in his mouth
and Harry�s first two fingers were in his arse.

�� He was
apparently capable of lifting his legs to heights when he was fucked
face-to-face that would have stunned Harry if he had known about it before.

�� The colors
of his eyes were mesmerizing, powerfully so, when Harry at last angled his cock
in the correct direction and pushed in.

*

��

�� Draco knew,
now, that he had never had Harry�s full attention before when they made love.
He�d always been distant, worrying about the marriage vows or the strangeness
of shagging another man. And there had been the doubt and shadow of their
situation with the life-debts and their children and the Masked Lady to worry
about.

�� Now, for
these few moments, there was nothing but the two of them together, and they had
nothing but time.

�� Draco
didn�t expect it to be this way every time. Sometimes it would be more
impatient, sometimes stronger and angrier�the way that the dreams had shown
them behaving when Draco was angry at Harry and pinned him down to really drive
his cock into him�sometimes tight with the resentment of unpatched
arguments, sometimes thicker with lust. The one thing the dreams, now their
history, had been clear on was that this was not a perfect relationship, and never would be. It had nearly cracked
apart more than once.

�� But this
was their phoenix moment, the one point in time when they first shared their
bodies fully and freely. It might never come again, but that did not make it
the less precious while it happened.

�� Draco
leaned back into the pillows and gave himself up to it completely.

�� His faint
fear that Harry would still need guidance melted when he felt the way Harry
pushed into him, gently enough to allow Draco time to adjust, but fast enough
that he never had to wriggle and whinge about Harry
teasing him. Harry paused when he was fully in, throwing back his head and
giving a long, loud exhalation of breath that reminded Draco of a horse at the
beginning of a race. His skin quivered and gleamed with sweat; Draco didn�t
have to concentrate to make his heartbeat out. He stood with his eyes closed,
and Draco was content to wait and rest and admire him.

�� Then Harry
opened his eyes and began to thrust.

�� Draco let
the fire burn him. He gave up on trying to hold back
the needy sobs and grunts and cries working their way out of his mouth. Let
Harry know he was doing a good job, so he wouldn�t hesitate to act the exact
same way in the future.

�� His eyes
rolled back in his head on a particularly well-placed thrust, and his mouth
hung open, emitting no sound at all. God love Harry for being observant; he
noticed, and thrust again at the same place and pace. Draco�s back arched, and
he found himself humping his hips in the air. His legs were already over
Harry�s shoulders, so that was quite a feat.

�� Harry
laughed breathlessly.

�� Joy tore
loose in Draco like flying fire. He soared in the dizzy spiral towards
pleasure. Fear dropped away from him, and doubt, and uneasiness, until the only
emotion left winging beside joy was love.

�� And then
his orgasm hit, but while the physical side of it was a release, the emotional
side was an escape into freedom.

�� He managed
to open his eyes just in time, so he could carry a glimpse of green with him
into the golden moment.

*

�� Lying
draped over Draco, feeling his lover breathe hoarsely and deeply beneath him,
his fingers shaking with fine tremors and his back and hips complaining at him,
his mind still stupefied by what they had just shared, Harry was utterly sure
that this was where he wanted to be for the rest of his life.

*

�� The morning
brought a letter for Harry. Draco was trying to make sure James didn�t throw
any food at Al and Scorpius, while Teddy bolted down his own breakfast and
bounced out the door to ride his broom in the gardens. His mother sat nearby,
cradling Harry�s daughter in her arms and cooing at her. Draco smirked. Lily
would grow up as polished and correct, and as thoroughly spoiled, as any Malfoy
daughter in the last two hundred years, he knew.

�� Not that he wouldn�t be doing his fair share of the spoiling
himself, so perhaps he shouldn�t feel so superior, but it was the principle of the thing.

�� When the
barn owl alighted on the table in front of Harry, Harry�s brow furrowed and he
reached out hesitantly. He was quick enough, though, to catch James�s wrist
just as he was about to stick a sausage in his little brother�s ear. James drew
back his hand and pouted. Draco shook his head. He had managed to learn, by
now, that he�d been intimately engaged in James�s rearing from the beginning,
and yet the boy was still incredibly rude. Either he had an irrepressible
spirit, or it was the Weasley in him coming through. Draco knew which
explanation he preferred to believe.

�� It�s from
Hermione,� Harry said, with a tightness in his voice
that Draco knew he was the only one at the table to understand. Narcissa looked
up with a slight frown. Al leaned over to whisper something to Scorpius, who
giggled. James promptly tried to snatch the letter.

�� She�s
writing to me!� he said. �Aunt
Hermione is writing to me!�

�� Harry
casually batted his son�s hand away�it made no difference what they did to
James, Draco had already seen; he would just sulk and pout and try again
later�and opened the letter. He scanned the first few lines and nodded to
himself. Then he tucked the letter into his robe pocket and went back to
helping the children put more food into their stomachs than in their hair.

�� Draco
smiled slightly, proud of him. Harry must be dying to read the letter and learn
more details about how his career and relationship with his friends here was different
than in their original world, but his commitment to their family came first.

�� The fact
that he probably also wanted Draco with him when he read the letter was likely,
but Draco had already learned that Harry rarely did things for selfish motives
alone, even when he was trying to.

*

�� Harry
glanced sideways at Draco, who had sat on the couch beside him in the library.
Draco smiled and leaned his head on Harry�s shoulder, at an angle that would
permit him to read the letter while giving him the maximum amount of comfort.
Harry snorted and turned his attention to Hermione�s neat handwriting.

�� Dear Harry:

�� Of course I believe you lost some of your
memories in a magical experiment. You should really stop letting Draco use you
for a test subject. His field is abstract magical theory, remember? He doesn�t need to put every theory into
practical use.

�� I thought
so,� Draco murmured, sounding pleased. �The number of books on magical theory
in the library said so. Apparently I�m trying to learn exactly where magic
comes from, and why it marks some Muggles out as Mu��

�� Harry
coughed.

�� Muggleborns.� Draco pushed him in the side with an elbow.
�I would have said that.�

�� Harry
rolled his eyes and looked back at the letter.

�� You�ve worked in the Auror Department for
the past ten years, minus the times that you�ve taken off to pamper Draco when
his feelings were hurt or to go on mad holidays with Draco or to care for the
children when Draco�s help wasn�t enough.

�� I wonder,�
Draco said brightly, �does she blame me for a great deal of what goes wrong in
your life, do you think?�

�� Your partner was Ron for seven years, but
he�s taken up more responsibility for our children in the past three, so since
then you�ve been partnered with Ares Stevenson.

�� Harry made
a sharp noise of surprise, and Draco lifted his head to blink at him. �Is that
good or bad?� he asked.

�� Good.�
Harry shook his head, marveling. Ares Stevenson was a pure-blood who, thanks to
a remarkably liberal upbringing�his parents had eloped against their parents� wishes and raised their
son primarily on various ships and the road until it was time for Hogwarts�had
sympathized and helped with most of the Blood Reparations work back in their
original world. Harry couldn�t imagine he would be much different here. There
seemed to be a limit to how much the life-debts would let this secondary world
vary from its original, since Julia had
said only their last ten years of history were different. �It would be hard for
me to find a better partner, in fact.�

�� Hermione�s
letter continued, And while I don�t think
that I�ll ever become quite reconciled to your dating a Malfoy, I know better
by now than to think he�s going anywhere.

�� Even the
brightest must admit defeat around me,� Draco murmured smugly.

�� Harry
shoved him again.

�� Your arrangement with Ginny that produced
your children is your own business, and I�ve never pretended to understand
that, either, but you both seem happy, so why should I concern myself with it?

�� Draco
frowned this time. �Are you certain
it�s Granger writing this letter?�

�� I don�t
think she�s hardened quite as much in this world,� Harry said quietly. �At least, not to me. If I stood up to her earlier, she�s
probably had time to accept it.�

�� Molly is still eager to see you, especially
since George died in that Auror raid gone wrong in Diagon Alley a few months
ago. She knows you tried your hardest to save him, but he was just too far gone
even before they got him to hospital.

�� Harry
swallowed. Well, it had been too much to hope, really, that George would still
be alive in this world.

�� Draco�s
hand found his shoulder and gently squeezed.

�� And before I tell you anything else, I want
to see you, damn it. It�s been too long. Come over to our house tomorrow. I�ll
owl you Floo instructions if you need them, too.

�� Love,

�� Hermione.

�� Harry
folded the letter slowly.

�� This will be
risky, you know,� Draco muttered. �We still stand a chance of being caught out,
since we don�t remember everything. And it will be hard to adjust to these
lives outside the areas covered by the dreams.� He hesitated, then added, �That would be a legitimate reason to prefer our
old lives over these.�

�� Harry
turned to him. Draco looked a bit disdainful, but he had tried to be sensitive
to Harry�s feelings, and Harry appreciated the gesture.

�� He leaned
in to kiss Draco, long and slow, and then sat back and said softly, �This
solution isn�t perfect. But I didn�t
expect anything to be. And I�m so much happier here�� He
shook his head. �It�s hard to recognize
as happiness. I keep expecting to fetch up against one of the things I was
unhappy about in the first world and not finding it. I�ll never regret what we
have. No, I don�t want to go back.�

�� This time,
it was Draco who dragged him down on the couch, and
James who banged on the door and shrieked an interruption. Harry laughed as
Draco sat up and pushed his disheveled hair back with a soft curse.

�� There�ll
be other times,� he said.

�� Draco�s
gaze suddenly sharpened, and Harry felt as if someone had plunged a sword
through his body and transfixed his heart.

�� Yes,�
Draco said. �As many as we can bear.�

�� He took
Harry�s hand and kissed the knuckles, causing James, who burst in a moment
later, to wrinkle his nose and proclaim kissing �ew.�
Harry laughed, but his eyes were on Draco�s, returning the piercing gaze, and
the sentiment behind it.

�� It doesn�t matter how much we had to fight
to have this life. We have it now, and any future struggles will be easier than
what we�ve gone through already, because we�re together.

�� This is our time.

*

�� Dezra, Lilith: Thanks for reviewing!

�� Mangacat: In this world, Ginny had to accept from the first
that Harry wasn�t going to marry her, because he�d answered the life-debts
before renewing a relationship with her. So the women had a chance to develop
differently.

�� Myra: The
price of having different pasts is one they just have to pay. The life-debt
magic could make their lives happier, but not problem-free

�� Listener: I
know what you mean, but I had so many questions after Chapter 41 that I thought
it would be better to spend part of Chapter 42 on the explanation rather than
just assume that everyone understood and confuse the hell out of people. As you
can see, this chapter�and the epilogue as well, which takes place some time later�are not spent on Draco and Harry
negotiating their new world, but taking advantage of it and reflecting on what
they left behind.
- 42
- 43
- 44
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I Give You a Wondrous Mirror