Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Emergence	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 2816 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this story.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
“I want to ask you something, Harry.”
It was hard for Harry to force his eyes open, but he managed at last. They were relaxing next to the Quidditch pitch after their fourth game there. Harry had won this time, but it hadn’t been easy. All the passion that Draco had once put into casting magic, he seemed to put into Quidditch now.
But he was hesitating, and biting his lip, and looking so lost that Harry’s interest was piqued. He rolled over—he was lying on the ground, near the base of the bench he’d conjured for Draco—and propped his chin in his hands. “What is it, Draco?”
“Do you think that we could—continue being friends even when I’m able to be free again?”
Draco’s eyes were fixed on the green hills around the Quidditch pitch, and Harry moved around in front of him so they could see each other. “Of course we can,” he said. “I know you so much better now. I think it would be a shame if we gave up on each other and went back to being enemies just because it used to be that way.”
“That’s not exactly what I wanted to ask,” Draco mumbled, but his hands were opening and closing on the bench. Harry waited, still, not sure whether he should say anything, and Draco finally found his voice again. “I want to know—if—you think we could deepen our friendship in the months before I’m free again.”
“Of course,” Harry repeated. If Draco hadn’t said exactly what he wanted to say, Harry hadn’t understood what he wanted to understand. “What is it? Is there something else you want to ask? You can ask it, I promise. I won’t be upset no matter what you say.”
“It’s not upsetting. It’s embarrassing.”
Harry tried to think about the provisions the Wizengamot had laid down, and could come up with nothing that embarrassing. “Do you want to visit your parents?” he tried. “I don’t know if the Wizengamot would permit it right now, but I could ask.”
“No!” Even Harry recoiled from the force in that cry. Draco bowed his head and breathed harshly for a second, then raised his head and shook it at Harry. “I can’t. Not right now. Not when I’m still feeling so vulnerable and I know they’re having their dignity and their pride stripped from them. Maybe—later.”
“All right. Then think about what you want to ask, and ask me.” Harry shifted back a little so he was more comfortable on the grass, and waited.
Now that he thought of it, maybe Draco was working up to asking for his wand back. Harry would have to refuse, if only to keep him safe, but there could be ways around that, too.
Draco finally spoke, interrupting Harry in the middle of plans to sneak into Diagon Alley and get a second wand for himself. “I—want to know if you’re still dating Ginny Weasley.”
Harry gaped at him. Draco turned his head away, face scarlet and shiny and voice a muttering tumble of apologies. Harry shook his head and finally forced out, “No, it’s all right. It’s a fair question. I just didn’t think you were interested in it at all.”
“I don’t want to be. But I am.”
“Okay,” said Harry a little blankly, and once again put aside speculations about what in the world Draco wanted. “The answer is, no. I thought maybe we’d get back together when we went to Hogwarts. But now, I don’t think that’ll happen.”
“Because of me?”
Harry rolled his eyes. “If I really wanted to go back, or you did, then we would. But I just have so much to do. There’s these fortunes and gifts to put in order, and other trials they want me to testify at, and I want to sit my NEWT’s but I would rather study for them on my own instead of going back to the school, and someone has to keep an eye on George. It’s not fair to ask Molly to do all of it. And I have to decide what I want to do with the rest of my life. I did want to be an Auror, but—now I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
“Too much fighting. Too much risk of death.” Harry smiled a little at Draco. “And I want to stay alive to see what happens next. It has to be different from what I’ve done so far, after all. No Voldemort.”
Draco flinched at the name, but Harry thought it was mostly out of habit. He only nodded as though pondering something, and then whispered, “Is there a place for me in that future?”
“Of course,” Harry said for the third time. He was a little puzzled by what was bothering Draco. Unless he thought… “I promise that no matter how much time I spend with the Weasleys, I’ll always have some free for you.”
Draco stared at his hands, and said nothing. Harry got up and sat on the bench beside him, taking one hand and squeezing it until Draco gave a little gasp and stared at him. “Come on. What’s bothering you?”
“I can show you, but I can’t speak about it very well.”
“All right.”
Harry thought Draco would stand up and lead him away from the Quidditch pitch to some place where he’d hidden something, or maybe take out a piece of parchment and write the secret down. He definitely didn’t expect it when Draco leaned forwards, shivering a little, and kissed him hard on the lips.
Draco was doing it all by himself for a little while; Harry sat there, too stunned to do anything else. But in the second before Draco made a choked noise and started to stand up, Harry reached out and placed his hands on Draco’s shoulders, pulling him firmly in.
Draco still bucked under his hands, still made the choked noise, but now it was more like a sound of relief. He sagged against Harry and went on kissing him. Harry did the same, easing Draco back on the bench, aware of all the warm planes under his hands, and Draco’s ribs, and the way that Draco jumped when Harry slid his hand up under his shirt.
“I—I didn’t know you would take to it so fast,” he gasped, and pulled back, shaking his head a little as he tried to focus on Harry.
Harry grinned and kissed him again, unrepentant. “I hadn’t really thought about it before,” he admitted, and pulled his hand back out from under Draco’s shirt when he saw how much it was making Draco flush. Maybe he wasn’t quite ready for that yet. “But now I don’t know why not.”
“Really?”
Harry nodded and reached out to play with the edge of Draco’s hair. Draco went back to flushing and ducking his head, but Harry gently pulled on his hair until he raised his head and looked Harry in the face.
“Yes,” Harry said softly. “I’m not dating Ginny. I feel more comfortable around you than most other people except the Weasleys and Hermione. You’ve changed so much. I was worried about being able to care for you, but I thought protecting you would be easier. And then I discovered that I could do both when I was helping you recover from that fever.”
Draco’s eyes were fastened on him, intent, devouring. Harry smiled and leaned in for a chaster kiss, feeling Draco’s hands hover as if he was going to frame Harry’s cheeks and chin, and then drop.
“And I’ve been impressed by the way you fly, and the way you’re trying so hard to accept living without magic, and living with me,” Harry whispered against his lips. “It can’t be easy, but you do it as if it is.”
“Wait,” said Draco, eyeing him. “How can you say that I make it look easy and that I’m trying hard at the same time?”
“Because I knew how hard it would have been for you before the war.” Harry splayed his fingers through Draco’s hair and sighed when Draco leaned forwards to rest against him. “So that’s part of it. But you’re also—I could never do what you’re doing. I’d be cursing whoever had to take care of me, and struggling to escape.”
Draco was biting his lip about something, and Harry waited patiently until he opened his mouth again. “But I don’t think I could be as good as you, either, if I was in charge of you,” Draco said, like it was a shameful confession. “I’d hate you and try to punish you. You haven’t done that. Why?” He raised his head, obviously expecting some kind of answer in Harry’s eyes.
“Because the war cured me of smaller hatreds,” Harry said. “And because I didn’t expect your mum to go to prison; I was so sure you would have someone to take care of you. So—I’m going to do what I can to make it up to you.”
“If you’re going to talk about being my mum, Potter, you should choose some other metaphor,” said Draco, and wrinkled his nose.
Harry laughed, and leaned in to kiss him again, in a way that he sincerely hoped would drive all thoughts of his mother from his mind. Sure enough, when Draco opened his mouth again, he looked dazed and happy and not disgusted. “I will,” Harry breathed against his face. “I promise. And I’ll take care of you the way you deserve to be taken care of.”
He let his eyes drop to Draco’s groin, and then looked away again, smirking a little, when Draco squirmed as if he wanted to cover that up. Things like that could wait, though, since Draco had finally brought them to his attention and Harry was finally thinking about them.
Anticipation will make them all the better when we do get there.
*
“I—I thought Harry would be here.”
Draco sat back in the huge armchair he’d more or less claimed as his own, in the downstairs sitting room, and shook his head a little. “He said he was going to the Burrow to help your mum with your brother.”
Weasley—the original one—folded his arms and gave Draco a steady stare. “It sounds bad when you put it like that. George isn’t a thing. Or an animal.”
“That’s the way Harry said it,” Draco said, which was true, and turned back to the book in his arms with a shiver. It was only a history of the Black family, nothing Dark about it, dry and boring as some of Binns’s lectures at Hogwarts. But Draco could all too easily envision Weasley getting upset, taking it away, and beating him over the head with it.
Weasley, however, only mumbled to himself and stomped around the room for a little while, kicking the walls. Then he spun around abruptly. “Do you know why Harry wants to stay here, Malfoy?” he asked.
Draco put a finger in his book as if marking his place was of the utmost importance, and shook his head. “No.” And he didn’t know why Weasley wanted to have a conversation, either. Draco had expected him to head home as soon as he heard Harry was there, at least if he really wanted to talk to Harry.
“He told me that it’s because he wants to get to know you better. And you should have some space and privacy.” Weasley dropped into another chair, a less comfortable one that Draco never sat in, and stared at him gloomily. “Why does he care so much about you?”
That, at least, Draco thought he could answer. “Because he has a strong sense of duty. And he likes me. I’ve changed since the war.”
“I know that.” Weasley ignored Draco’s gape and waved his hands around again. “But so has Harry! And I don’t know why. Do you?”
Draco thought he could explain it, but he wasn’t sure if Harry would want him to. It involved lots of things that he would probably rather say in his own words.
On the other hand, Weasley sat there, staring at him with pleading eyes. So Draco nodded and tried. “He really expected my mother to get out of being sentenced, you know. He thought she would be free to visit me and take care of me. He wasn’t worried about me. But when he saw that he’d been wrong, he decided that he had to grow up and take care of me.”
Weasley jerked a little. “And he’s trying to take care of George, too.”
“Yes,” Draco admitted, thinking of what Harry had told him about encouraging Angelina Johnson to visit George, and joking with him, and dueling with him. Draco had tried not to feel jealous, and found it was easier than he’d expected. After all, he and Harry played Quidditch together, which Harry didn’t do with George.
And Draco was damn sure that there was nothing involving kisses going on between Harry and George. Harry just wasn’t that kind of person.
“So he’s grown up and he wants to take care of people,” Weasley muttered, staring at his hands. Then he looked up with his jaw working. “But it has to be more than that. Harry was always taking risks for other people before the war, too. I know he has to have changed more than that. Because this is different.”
Draco smiled a little. He had thought he would save this particular revelation for the whole Weasley family, but for all he knew, Harry had already told George and Molly, who seemed to be the ones more likely to accept it. “Well, there’s another difference.”
“What?”
“We’re also dating.”
Weasley sprang to his feet, and then didn’t seem to know what to do. Draco thought he would have drawn his wand at one point, but Draco couldn’t use magic, and he remembered that. There was also the fact that they’d gone too far for him to punch Draco like a Muggle. He scowled and settled for sitting down and insisting, “Repeat that.”
“Do you really want me to?”
Weasley rolled his eyes and said, “You and Harry are dating.” He said it with a faint distaste in his voice, but nothing that made Draco feel inclined to murder him. Weasley had changed since the war, too, it seemed. He lounged back in the chair and shook his head at Draco. “What—why did you start?”
“I like him. He likes me. Isn’t that the way you and Granger started dating?”
“Merlin, don’t involve me and Hermione in your weird relationship.”
Draco couldn’t help laughing. And I’ve changed, too, or I would have found that too insulting to do anything but sneer at. “Okay, not exactly the same. But it’s pretty close, honestly. I wanted to, and Harry means a lot to me. And I mean a lot to him. I think.”
“I know you do.”
Draco looked up before he could stop himself, and then glanced away. It was one thing to think he saw that in Harry’s eyes, and another to hear one of Harry’s friends who was probably still a bit hostile to him say it.
“You do,” Weasley repeated more firmly. “It’s—strange to me, but I’m glad that Harry had someone now that Hermione and I have each other.”
“Now who’s making the strange comparisons?”
Weasley rolled his eyes, but said only, “Okay. That explains a lot of things I’ve been wondering about, especially why Harry decided to move out of the Burrow.”
Draco held his peace. He still didn’t know exactly what Harry would have wanted to say to Weasley. If he wanted to correct him on the point and tell him that Harry and Draco hadn’t been dating until they moved to Grimmauld Place, that was fine.
“And I suppose I don’t mind,” Weasley went on, talking to himself, much to Draco’s astonishment. Not just what he was saying, but that Weasley was relaxed enough with Draco to let his mouth and mind ramble. “Harry needs people. Not just us. Dad and Percy are so busy in the Ministry, and I’m with Hermione, and Ginny’s getting ready to go back to Hogwarts in the autumn, and Mum’s so busy with George, and Bill and Charlie are never there.” He nodded firmly to Draco. “Of course you know what I’m going to do to you if you ever hurt Harry.”
“I’m more worried about what your mother would do.”
“She’d probably just give you a big, sad-eyed, broken-hearted lecture.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” said Draco dryly.
Weasley chuckled abruptly. “You’re all right, Malfoy,” he said, standing. And then he held out his hand.
Draco blinked at it long enough that he knew there was the possibility of Weasley being offended, but he was honestly stunned by the offer. Then he lurched up from his chair and clasped Weasley’s wrist.
“This is a nice sight to come home to,” said Harry’s voice.
*
Harry grinned as he noticed the way Draco and Ron were springing apart from each other. Ron rolled his eyes a second later and ambled over to Harry, watching him with a sharpness that made Harry blink.
Then he realized what was probably going on.
Draco told him.
Harry smiled at Draco. It was nice to have someone else who knew, plus it said a lot about the way Draco felt that he wanted someone with ginger hair and the last name Weasley to know.
Draco seemed to bask in the smile. Harry sighed a little. He was glad that Draco was comfortable with at least one Weasley. It would make it easier for him to look to people other than just Harry for socializing. Harry didn’t want him to become isolated this year and unable to deal with other people when his magic was restored and the custody over.
“Good,” said Harry, and turned to Ron. “George is feeling better. But your mum wants to talk to you about going to Diagon Alley with him on Sunday. I promised I’d tell you if I saw you.”
“Oh. Is she sure he’s ready for that?”
“I don’t know,” Harry said truthfully. “He was doing better today, when Angelina came to visit, but…” He had to shrug. George still mentioned Fred with a disturbing obsessiveness, and sometimes acted like he refused to believe his twin was dead. And sometimes he would draw his wand and point it into corners, even though he never said anything when he did. He would only sit there, trembling and clenching his fingers around his wand, and staring.
“Well. I’ll see when I get home, I s’pose.” Ron sighed and nodded to Draco. “And you’re to come for dinner Sunday night. Both of you.”
Draco choked a little, but Harry nodded to Ron. “Thanks. We’ll be happy to.” A glance at Draco showed that he didn’t have any real objections. So Harry walked Ron to the Floo and punched him on the shoulder as he was about to get through.
“Say thanks to your mum for inviting us. And…thanks for coming to deliver the invitation.”
Ron relaxed and grinned a little. “I didn’t believe it when Malfoy first told me, but I’m happy for you, mate.” He punched Harry back, and then stepped into the fire with his handful of Floo powder. Harry heard him calling “The Burrow!” as he went back into the sitting room where Draco was.
“I’m glad you told him,” he said quietly, shutting the door.
“Good,” said Draco. “Not everything. He seemed to think we’d been dating since we moved out of the Burrow, but I reckoned you could correct that misconception if you wanted to.”
“Yes.” Harry leaned forwards with his hands on the arms of Draco’s chair. “Have I told you lately how much I like you? How glad I am that you chose to kiss me?” He might have come up with the idea on his own in time, but he didn’t know that he would have had the courage to put it into effect, as silly as that seemed. He didn’t want to force Draco into anything, especially not while Draco was in his custody.
“You’ve told me,” said Draco in a soft voice, and reached out to hook his fingers in Harry’s robe collar, pulling him closer. “You could tell me again.”
Harry laughed and kissed him, letting his hands slide down from Draco’s shoulders to his chest. That was all that either of them really wanted to do for right now.
But there would be time. Even after the year ended and Draco left his custody, there would be time for them.
Harry was certain of that, now.
The End.
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Emergence