Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Returning to Sanity	By : AchillesTheGeek Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 31212 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter books or films, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 62
- 63
- 64
63 Confidence Returned, Conspiracy Revealed, Counsel Ratified.
Friday, 31 July
"You wanted to see me, sir?" the Auror asked as she entered Robards' office.
"Ah, Glinda, yes, I wanted to talk to you about this weekend's assignment."
"Babysitting school children," Glinda Dalben-Chun replied in an exasperated tone.
Robards sighed inwardly. It was fair enough, he supposed; Glinda was an experienced Auror, and it did look like a rookie's assignment.
"Not really," he said, spelling the door shut and setting up privacy wards. "As you know, Auror Banks has been working at Hogwarts seeking the person who attacked Harry Potter. He is reasonably certain that one of the three girls you are to 'baby-sit' is the culprit; and I have reviewed the case, and I agree with him," he said quickly before Glinda could interrupt and question Robin's experience. The young man had all the makings of a first-class Auror; but he was young, and people like Glinda, who had been an Auror for years, and a Senior Auror for the last three months, might well see his youth only as a lack of experience and look down on him because of it.
"Are you sure?" she asked quizzically. "The boy is only just out of school!"
"Robin has my absolute trust in this investigation," he continued, giving her a hard stare. "You know we wanted a younger Auror at Hogwarts to blend in; he has done so magnificently. So, officially your role this weekend is to ensure the safety of Eva Thillin, Marie Thibault and Danielle Thibault; but in reality I want you to spy on them. In particular, we believe Anton Rosier is their ministry contact; as you know, they will be seeing him tomorrow morning. We want to know everything that happens. If he wants to spend time with anyone in particular, facilitate that; but monitor it."
Glenda's eyes lit up. This was much more like it. Obviously she was being brought in to an established operation that was bigger than it looked. One that the Minister would definitely be interested in. It would do her no harm, and much good, to be part of such an operation, especially if her work helped stop the conspiracy in its tracks.
"All right," she said. "What are the details?"
They chatted for another half an hour, before Robards had another meeting to sort out the security arrangements for the afternoon tea being given for Harry Potter.
"The Minister is breathing down our neck over this," he warned her as she left. "I'm sure you'll do a good job; just, don't screw up."
"I won't," she replied as she left.

As she sat after supper in her room at the Leaky Cauldron, Glinda Dalben-Chun was surprised at how easily the afternoon had slipped past. Despite being French, and from the oh-so-snooty Beauxbatons Academy, the three were surprisingly unaffected, and seemed to beam with pleasure that they were allowed to wander Diagon Alley. Glinda rather gathered that they were used to outings involving what they called 'le crocodil', where the girls would line up in columns and march around the place, never being allowed out of sight of their chaperones; but with just three girls, and Diagon Alley being comparatively safe these days, especially now that there were Auror patrols, she was happy to allow two of the girls to go off together into one of the shops. She was careful to rotate them, so that of the three spent roughly the same amount of time with her individually, and thus the same amount of time darting off shopping. This seemed to work very well; she missed out on all the time they spent in shops comparing one dress with another, trying them on and so forth, the general business of girls' shopping that she hated with a passion; and the girls would show off their purchases with great delight when they had finished.
She reflected on what they had told her, and compared it to what the Chief Auror had had to say. Danielle, she knew, was in the clear. Of the other two, either Marie was being blackmailed by Rosier and dragging Eva along for the ride, or Eva was the villain and Marie was being influenced in some way. Given what Armand Ionescu had said, she tended to the latter view. There was, of course, the question as to how Marie was being influenced; but from the afternoon's chats she was beginning to see the way clear, and it was not a pleasant act. If she was right, Anton Rosier and Eva Thillin were being particularly nasty.
Tomorrow, they had a meeting with Rosier. He had suggested taking them to the Tower of London, particularly as they would be able to see the Crown Jewels. The teenagers, predictably, had been very excited at the idea of getting close to such wonderful and expensive objects, so it was agreed.
Glinda was sure that Rosier would find a way to take one, or both, suspect aside for a quick heart-to-heart at some point. She was also sure that her tracking charms would not be discovered, and would enable her to reconstruct the conversation as well as a Pensieve could.
It was now just a waiting game.

Saturday 1 August
"Mmm – mmmm."
Harry chuckled at the delicious noises his fiancé was making while Harry gently combed his fingers through the silky blond strands.
"I love you, my Dragon," he said, and was rewarded with a smile which formed itself slowly on Draco's face. The blond turned over and snuggled into the black-haired boy, and Harry happily moved his arms to cuddle him.
"What time is it?" Draco asked lazily.
"Coming up to eight o'clock," Harry replied.
"So early?" Draco asked languidly. "And you are awake because why?"
"You remember Teddy and Miriam were staying the night?" Harry asked, and Draco nodded in reply. "Well they were making a fuss which woke me originally, and then I discovered this gorgeous man in my bed."
This time Harry was rewarded with a kiss.
"Outrageous flattery, Potter," Draco said, as they pulled apart.
"Nonsense," Harry replied mischievously. "Although it's probably a good thing he left before you woke up."
"He— what?" Draco said, suddenly awake. He jumped up and out of bed, ready to defend his claim; but then he saw the evil smirk on Harry's face, and relaxed.
"You bastard," he said, pummeling Harry with a pillow.
"Got you up, though," Harry replied. "And may I say you are a wonderful sight so early in the morning."
Draco grumped, only somewhat mollified, and went off to have a shower.

The morning at the Tower of London was a great success. Anton Rosier had been charm itself. Glinda had been worried about the wizard being in Muggle society; she knew very well that wizards, particularly pure-blood ones such as Rosier proudly was, were wont to dress ridiculously. But when he turned up, he was dressed in an elegant, dark suit that, while not quite fitting in with the garb worn by most paying visitors to the Tower, suited the 'conservative Englishman' vibe that he projected perfectly.
The girls were dressed in their school uniform, which fortunately could be charmed so that Muggles would not be able to read the school name properly. They were stopped at one point by a rather gushing tourist who asked if they weren't just the quaintest things and asking if they were from an English boarding school.
"Non, non, Madame," Marie Thibault had replied. "We are exchange students, we are from Paris."
The lady clearly wanted to question them further; but, to Glinda's relief, the gentleman she was visiting the Tower with had moved on, so she pointed out to the tourist that her friend seemed to have left her behind.
"Oh, that's my husband! Now where has he got to?" she exclaimed when this was pointed out to her, and ran off after the man.
Both Rosier and the Auror were a little concerned by this; Muggles taking an interest was always a concern for the Statute of Secrecy. And they also did not wish to have their guests upset. But the girls seemed to take it in their stride and had happily wandered through everything, chattering like magpies the whole time, and now they were sitting at the Raven's Kiosk enjoying coffee and a variety of cakes and pastries.
As they ate, the girls were still talking at great speed; this time, it seemed, reviewing the diamonds they had seen.
"The Koh-I-Noor!" Eva said. "Wasn't it amazing?"
"Oh yes!" Danielle replied. "And the Cullinan diamonds! How amazing that zey were cut from a single stone!"
"Pardon?" Eva asked. "Cullinan? I do not remember zis?"
'You must 'ave seen zem!" Marie replied. "In ze Sceptre and one of ze Crowns?"
"No..." Eva said, slowly, disappointment in her voice. "I must 'ave missed zem."
"Oh, we can't have that!" Rosier said, putting his napkin on the table. "How about you and I go and see them? I'm sure the other ladies will wait here for us?"
All at once, Glinda saw the ploy; it was an act, unfolding in front of her. She had to admit, it was skillfully done. She waved them off.
"Yes, of course, do go," she said, while quietly activating the recording part of the tracking charm on Eva.

It was nine o'clock when Harry and Draco appeared for breakfast.
"And what time do you call this?" Ginny demanded, her hands on her hips.
"Er, I was rather hoping it was breakfast time," Harry replied, rather shocked at the belligerent young witch who had accosted him. His bewildered expression was too much for Ginny, and she cracked up completely.
"Your face!" she said, in between hoots of laughter.
"Yes, Gin, well, you've had your fun," Molly said behind her. "Now come on you two, come and get your breakfasts."
'Har!" they heard a voice call, and Harry turned to see Teddy crawling towards him. He and Miriam had clearly been playing together under her baby-gym; he could see that Andy and Margaret were both keeping an eye on them. The metamorphmagus must have heard Harry's voice. Harry made to walk over and pick up the baby; but Andy stopped him.
"Let him come to you, Harry," she said. "It is good practice for him not to get everything he wants straight away."
Harry stood up tall again, and the boy covered the ground between them surprisingly quickly, grabbing onto Harry's shins when he arrived.
"Har!" he said. "Up!"
"Well done, Teddy Bear," Harry said, and lifted the boy off the floor. "Come and help me eat my breakfast."
He turned and walked into the kitchen. As he did so, Miriam, who had been watching with interest, started squalling. She was not yet mobile, so all she could do was scrunch her face and scream with frustration.
"Teh!" she shrieked. "Teh!"
"Jealous, much?" Draco said, and went over and picked up the little girl.
"Oh, Draco, you don't have to do that," Margaret said.
"I think I do, really," Draco replied with a disarming smile, "Teddy will probably fuss when he realises they're not in the same room." And with that he carried Miriam into the kitchen, where Harry was already sitting at a large plate of ham and eggs, and a black-haired, green-eyed Teddy was 'helping' by trying to gum a piece of toast to death.
As Draco sat down, Miriam shrieked again, this time for joy at having spotted Teddy.
"Teh! Teh!" she called.
Teddy turned to look at her, and his hair changed abruptly to brunette. "Mi!" he called.
The two sat happily burbling at each other until Molly collected them both expertly.
"You boys don't need an audience when you're eating breakfast," she said, as she bustled them back into the front room.
"Of course they do!" a familiar, mischievous voice called as Fred came into the kitchen from the back door, George immediately behind him. "Our little brother / always deserves an audience / whatever he's doing!"
Harry laughed. "You two want more breakfast, I can see," he said, passing them some slices from the pile of toast in front of him.
"Hey!" Draco said. "That's my toast, too!"
"Boys!" Molly said, as she came back into the kitchen. "You two have already eaten! And there's plenty of toast!"
"Excellent!" George said. "Sausage and bacon on ours please!"
"You weren't going to leave me out, were you?" Neville asked as he entered the kitchen and made a beeline for his husband.
Molly sighed as she handed out plates with the requested sausage and bacon. She was obviously well used to the trencherman habits of her men, and it seemed that Neville must be the same as he had no trouble polishing off a plate that Harry knew would have defeated him.
"So, I guess you've all been up for hours?" he said.
"Well," George said with a wink, "Dad had to go into work / and we smelled his breakfast cooking / so we got up to keep him company-"
"And then went back to bed," Neville finished, neatly completing the twin's dialogue.
"Oh no," Draco groaned. "There are three of them now!"

As Glinda sat with the Thibault twins, a raven came up to her. As she glanced down at it, she noticed that, unlike the Tower's own ravens, its wing had not been clipped. She looked at it closely and realised that it was one of the Ministry's ravens and had a letter tied to its leg. Clever, she thought; an owl would be suspicious, especially in daylight, but there were always ravens at the Tower. She removed the letter, and the bird hopped away before unobtrusively disappearing around a corner.
The letter was addressed to Rosier; but it was not marked Private, so, as his deputy for the moment, she had no qualms in opening it. Rather to her surprise, it contained a letter for the Thibault twins.
"Danielle, Marie, I think you should read this," she said, as she mentally consulted the tracking charm. It seemed that Rosier and Thillin were not very far through the exhibit; there were large numbers of tourists snaking through the films you had to watch before getting to the Crown Jewels themselves. Good.
She looked back at the twins to see a look of horror forming on Marie's face. As she read through the letter slowly, the look grew more and more alarming.
"'Ow can zis be?" she asked when she finally finished reading.
"What's wrong?" Gilda replied.
"It iz from our parents!" Marie said. "It seems zey are 'appy and well?"
"Of course," Danielle said, puzzled. "Why should zey not be? Zey are sailing in the Bahamas," she said, by way of explanation to the Auror, "so zey are not often in contact. Zey 'ave settled for ze night in a 'otel, and we can Floo call zem zis evening!"
Glinda thought furiously. This was a real stroke of luck; if the Thibaults were happy and well, it would prove to Marie that her confession was a lie, and maybe help them to piece together what had actually happened. Though she had a pretty good idea already.
"Yes, we can," she replied. "But I think, if you don't mind, we should not mention this at all to Eva or Mr Rosier."
"But why not?" Danielle asked.
"Oh…" Marie said at the same time as the sickle dropped. "You zink zat zey …"
"Yes," Glinda replied, "I do. And so I suggest a simple test."
She reached out her hand for the letter, and the twins handed it back to her. She carefully placed it back in the envelope exactly as it had arrived, and sealed it up with a duplicate of the spell that the ministry official who had forwarded it had used.
"Now," she said, "we wait. If Mr Rosier gives you the letter, we will know he is innocent."
"And if not?" Danielle asked.
"If not, we shall have to be very careful not to mention anything about it."

Harry and Draco spent a very lazy morning at the Burrow. As Harry was the birthday boy, Molly explicitly prohibited them both from doing any work to help clean up after the party. So they divided their time between lounging around playing with the babies and spending time in Harry's bedroom. Harry was still somewhat in shock at the generosity that had been visited upon him; but Draco pointed out to him in no uncertain terms that, as he had quite literally been prepared to give his life for the whole Wizarding world, it was their honour and privilege to be able to give him everything they would let him. At this point, Harry decided that things were definitely getting soppy, and challenged his fiancé to an impromptu wrestling match on their bed. He lost.
During the course of the morning, Harry was intrigued to notice how natural Draco seemed to be with Miriam and Teddy; and they, for their part, clearly adored him as much as they did Harry. It seemed strange that an only child would be interested in young children, and he said as much to Andromeda.
"Harry," she said to him in reply, "you really are oblivious at times, aren't you?"
"Pardon?" he asked, unconsciously proving her words true.
"The old Draco, the one you knew at school, would probably have been useless with children," she explained. "But a lot of that boy, and all of the nasty prejudices, seem to have gone out of him. And the reason is obvious to anyone who sees how he looks at you."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked, bewildered.
It was all Andromeda could do to refrain from bursting out laughing. Harry was so clueless, so beautifully innocent about the effect he had on people.
"He loves you, Harry. You've opened his heart up and poured your love into it, and it's starting to overflow into those around him. It is beautiful to watch."
"Oh," said Harry, blushing at the words. It seemed that everyone was trying to get him to see that he was something special today. It was a shame that he didn't really want to be special. Not that these people were calling him special because he was 'the Boy Who Lived' or even entirely because he was 'the Destroyer of Voldemort'. But all he really wanted was to belong. To be part of a family.
To have his own family, he realised. The words of Vernon Dursley came back with crushing force: "How are you going to have children? You aren't, are you? You don't deserve them!" But he discovered that those last words had lost all of their power, as he discovered that at some level he had accepted what Draco said: he deserved–- No, that was the wrong way to say it. It wasn't about being deserving. It was about accepting that he was allowed to have anything that came his way, and Vernon Dursley had no say in the matter any more.
He started to wonder. For the two of them to have their own children was impossible, he had thought. But if he didn't accept Vernon's words about 'deserving', perhaps he shouldn't accept them about children, either. Of course, in the Muggle world, he was right; male pregnancy was impossible. On the other hand, so were trolls in bathrooms; and flying on brooms; and killing basilisks with swords pulled out of hats; and turning invisible by wearing a cloak. One could do almost anything with magic, it seemed; did that include men having children? He made a mental note to discuss it with Hermione. It would be a very awkward conversation, that was for sure; but if they could …

It was not long before Eva and Anton returned. Glinda handed the letter to the Acting Head of the DIMC as she wordlessly stopped the recording charm on Eva.
"I suppose I should look at it," he said with a sigh. "It might be something important."
He opened the letter, scanned the contents, and then put it away in a pocketbook he drew out from his breast pocket.
"Was it something important?" Glinda asked.
"What?" Rosier replied, a little startled. "Oh, oh, no, just that idiot Pontefract forwarding something he should have dealt with himself. But perhaps I should return to the office anyway. Now, are you ladies ready to go?"
"Yes, thank you, sir," the three girls chorused, and they made their way to the exit. A few minutes later, they entered a very quiet little corner where Rosier bid them farewell and apparated back to the Ministry. A few moments later, the four witches returned to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch. And for a good deal of thinking for Glinda Dalben-Chun, the Auror thought, as she quietly retrieved the magical recording that the tracking charm had made.

That evening in their rooms at the Leaky Cauldron, Eva Thillin excused herself soon after supper.
"I am zo sorry," she said, "I cannot stop yawning. Zo I shall go to bed. Good night."
"Good night, Eva," Glinda said. "We understand entirely; it has been a busy day for you."
And she did understand. She was only surprised that the girl had not fallen asleep at the dinner table; the sleeping draught she had spiked her pumpkin juice with was known to be both quick-acting and long-lasting. As it was also practically tasteless, it was something of a favourite of the Auror corps.
Once Eva had gone, she allowed fifteen minutes for her to be soundly asleep; then she and the other two girls placed a Floo call to the small wizarding community on Andros Island. They soon learnt that the Thibault parents were free and well, and having a delightful holiday. Danielle was relieved to learn that they were safe; but Marie reacted to the news very badly. By the time the call ended half an hour later, she was practically catatonic, not responding to anything her sister or the Auror said or did.
Somewhat desperate, Glinda made an urgent second Floo call to a Floo address that the Head Auror had given her in case of medical emergency. She had expected to get through to St Mungo's, so was rather surprised when Armand Ionescu answered the call, and much more surprised when he and Agnes Touauld accepted her request to come and check Marie Thibault. Agnes performed a number of diagnostics to check for potions and curses, and the mind healer spent ten minutes inside Marie's memories. Armand emerged looking as angry as Glinda had ever seen anyone look. He took up a piece of parchment and scribbled away for some time. When he finished, he sat still, staring into space.
"It's bad?" she asked hesitantly.
Armand looked at her, startled out of his own thoughts. "I'm sorry, forgive me, I got caught up in my own thoughts," he replied. "Yes, it's bad. The poor girl has had an entire fiction built on top of her normal memories by someone with some skill in Dark memory magic. Unfortunately, and you weren't to know this, seeing her parents and discovering that they are well and unharmed has caused further issues; a sort of brain-storm, if you will. I have pacified her mind somewhat; what she needs now is sleep."
He turned to Danielle. "Could you take your sister to bed?" he asked gently. "I expect that she will have recovered by morning."
The girl nodded, reassured by his kind words. "Yes, monsieur," she answered, and, with assistance from Agnes, she gently manoeuvred her twin out of the sitting room and into their bedroom, where they got her ready for bed and settled her down.
"I think it would be best for you to stay here for now," the elderly healer said kindly, and Danielle nodded. In truth, there was no way she was going to leave Marie alone until she woke up, and she was grateful that the healer evidently accepted this.
Agnes returned to the sitting room to find her husband and the Auror already deep in conversation.
"Ah, my dear," Armand said as he saw her, "Glinda was telling me there is to be a meeting of parties tomorrow about the matter of the attacks."
"Do you know who did it? Was it the Thillin girl?" Agnes asked bluntly.
"We believe so, ma'am," Glinda replied. "Is there any evidence you could give about Marie's state?"
"There was no particular evidence of potions abuse," Touauld replied. "Though of course that does not rule out her having been given one some time ago. There was evidence of some compulsion charms; I have rendered them dormant for the moment so that you can have a second opinion on them should you wish."
"Thank you," the Auror said. "Can I tell the meeting tomorrow? Or are there confidentiality issues?"
"The girl is not technically my patient, so, no, there are no confidentiality issues and yes, you can divulge what I found." She proffered a piece of parchment to the Auror. "Here is my official report; I imagine Armand has for you one as well?"
"Indeed," her husband replied, handing Glinda the top piece of parchment from the small pile in front of him.
"Thank you very much," the Auror replied. "And thank you for coming so promptly. I'm extremely grateful to you, it was a huge imposition."
"Of course," Armand replied, his tone making light of the burden. "It is part of having students. Good night, Miss Dalben-Chun."
"Good night, sir," Glinda replied as the two healers Flooed home.

Dinner at the Manor was very pleasant indeed. To Draco's great delight, Harry seemed to be getting more and more comfortable around his parents. They told them all about the celebrations the day before, especially the eating fest that had been the Hogwarts luncheon.
"Seven main courses? Careful, Harry," Lucius said archly, "you're becoming a Weasley!"
Draco's heart was in his mouth at this faux pas; but Harry just laughed.
"If you say so," he said. "I'd be more concerned about ending up a Dursley."
The three Malfoys looked at him, stunned.
"Harry!" Narcissa said, recovering first, "you can joke about them? That's wonderful!"
"Yes, I can," Harry replied. "I decided yesterday that Vernon Dursley has no say in any of my life any more. I don't care about offending him any more; it seems only fair, he never cared about offending me."
Draco smirked. "If we were still in Hogwarts houses, I'd demand a re-sort for you, my love," he said. "You'd be in Slytherin for a certainty."
"I think you're right there, Dragon," Lucius replied, picking up the open bottle on the table. "Port, anyone?"
It was a lot later, and the bottle had been squeezed dry, when Harry broached the question of where they were staying the night.
"Here, of course," Narcissa replied, and her tone made it clear that, for her at least, it had never been in question.
"Oh," Harry said, "thank you."
Narcissa fixed a beady eye on him.
"Harry James Potter," she began, and Harry quaked in his boots. It was never good when anyone used his full name. "This is your house, as much as Grimmauld Place, or the Burrow. You can stay here whenever you wish. Draco's room is your room, as much as I am sure your room at the Burrow is his. So I will not have you thanking me – you do not need an invitation to stay in your own house, and we do not need to be thanked for it."
"Oh." Harry gulped. "OK."
"Is it?" Lucius asked. "Understand Harry, as far as we're concerned, you're part of this family. And we know that that whale of a man we discussed before showed you nothing of the love and security that that should mean. But in this family, we look after one another. I'm glad you seem to be discarding everything he taught you about family; but please, learn from the Weasleys and us what a real family is like."
Harry found his mind was racing: did Lucius Malfoy really just group himself together with the Weasleys? He could see the truth of it, but the idea of the Malfoys seeing that they had something, anything, in common with the Weasleys was truly astonishing, and a sign of the truly remarkable progress that they had made in what? Just two months, since the end of the war?
At the same time, he found his cheeks burning. He didn't know if it was the unexpected emotion and support in the words, or maybe just the alcohol; he rather thought not the latter, but he could blame it anyway. But he couldn't blame the lump in his throat on it. He took a few seconds to calm himself of the emotion that these two speeches from his future in-laws had stirred up, composing himself to look Lucius in the eye.
"Thank you," he said, his voice quiet and constricted. "I'm so grateful for your love. I'm sorry that it means the Malfoys will die out."
"Oh Harry!" Narcissa cooed. "Are those words he said about children still bothering you? Put them out of your mind. It's too late to discuss such things. Let's all go to bed and look at them in the light of day."

Sunday 2 August
Draco woke at seven o'clock feeling that something was wrong. To begin with, he couldn't imagine what it was, so he ran through the last couple of days in his head. There was Harry's birthday: Quidditch, and that long lunch, and that interminable afternoon tea, and the party which he had enjoyed far more than he had expected to; and the sex after the party – and as he remembered that, his face flushed as he thought how perfect it had been to have Harry inside him. Was that it? Did he simply want to be shagged again?
Well, certainly that, if nothing else, he decided. He cast appropriate charms on himself and leaned over and stroked Harry, and his hand wandered down Harry's body, tickling and teasing as he went.
"Love," he said softly as he reached Harry's groin, and Harry stirred.
"Mmm?" he said indistinctly, and one blurry green eye blinked open.
"Is this for me?" he asked cheekily as he squeezed Harry's erection.
Harry came wide awake at this. Now that they had both made love to each other, he had meant to discuss with Draco what he preferred to do; but yesterday seemed to have gone past without an opportunity to do so. But it seemed that, for the moment at least, the discussion was moot.
"Would you like it?" he asked playfully in return.
For answer, Draco straddled his lover, cast breath-freshening charms on them both and then snogged him senseless.
"I'll take that as a yes," Harry said.
"You'd better," Draco replied, and slowly manoeuvred himself into position. He cast the lubrication charm, one piece of wandless magic he was becoming proficient at, and then, moaning with sheer delight, he sank down onto Harry's length.
The lovemaking was rougher than before; with Draco on top, he set a faster pace than before, and it was not long before both of them were close.
"Come for me, Dragon," Harry whispered, then repeated it in Parseltongue. The hissing noises made Draco completely lose it, and at the same time his muscles clenched, drawing Harry with him in a sweet moment of ecstasy.
The two lay panting for a few moments, then Harry quietly cast a cleansing charm. Draco shuddered.
"All right, Dragon?" Harry asked.
"No," Draco replied. "Much, much better than all right."
Harry cuddled him tight. "So, you're really OK with being the bottom?"
"I love it, Harry. Yes, I've been worried for so long that the Debt was going to force me into something I didn't want. But there's something about having you inside me that makes me feel – I don't know how to describe it. Connected to you, I guess. Like things are how they should be. Does that make sense?"
"Yeah, Dragon," Harry replied. "I feel about the same. Don't get me wrong, I love having you in me; but when we do it that way, it just feels like we're totally in harmony."
"You need a nickname," Draco said irrelevantly.
"What?" Harry replied. "Where did that come from?"
"Well," Draco said, raising himself on an elbow and stroking Harry's hair, "you call me Dragon; what am I going to call you?"
"True," Harry replied. "What do you want to call me?"
Draco thought for a second. What would suit Harry? He thought of what defined his lover – the fierce love for his friends; the incredible skill in the air; those green, green eyes; that raven-black hair …
"Raven," he decided. "I'm your Dragon, you're my Raven."
"OK," Harry agreed with a grin. He liked it a lot better than 'Scarhead', the last nickname Draco gave him; and it was a million times better than 'Freak'. "Is there anything else we need to discuss?"
Well, here we are being open, Draco thought. Let's put it all on the table.
"Children?"
"Yeah," Harry said with a sigh. "That's kind of a big deal."
"It doesn't have to be," Draco said. "For a start, we could adopt Teddy – he's your godson, a blood-adoption is quite common when the parents are deceased. Then he could be the Lupin and Black heir."
"What about Malfoy? And Potter?"
"We could adopt more children; or there's surrogacy; or …"
"Or what?" Harry asked, a small flame of hope starting in his heart. "Is there some magic? Some potion?"
Draco gasped. "Not that I know of," he replied slowly. "But maybe we should talk to Father about that. He'd know if there's something pure-bloods use. But even if there isn't…"
"What?" Harry asked.
"You're the impossible Harry Potter," Draco replied with a teasing grin. "You'll find some way to do it."

At breakfast, Lucius had told them of the meeting in the afternoon; so they naturally talked about that, asking who was coming, what would be required, and what they expected to achieve. Draco was a bit miffed that they had not been told earlier; but Harry waved that aside.
"It doesn't matter," he said. "We know now. It's actually good that we didn't know; it stopped me from worrying about it."
Lucius smiled, glad to have made the right call.
Rather to Harry's embarrassment, they then moved on to the subject of children.
"I know you're worried about it, Harry," Narcissa began, "but you really don't have to do anything while you are at Hogwarts. And frankly," she said looking at them severely, "I don't want you to do anything about it before you are married. And perhaps we should discuss the wedding first; it is, after all, only eight weeks way!"
"Um, what do we need to discuss?" Harry asked.
"Everything!" Narcissa replied. "Where will you have it, who will you invite, who will officiate, what vows will you have, what decorations, what time of day will the ceremony be …"
"Um," Harry said, desperately trying to staunch the flow of points without appearing rude, "what do we need to organise right now?"
Draco chuckled but decided he needed to come to his fiancé's aid.
"I think Harry's a bit overwhelmed, Mother," he said. "Harry, are you happy to have the wedding here? At, say three o'clock? On …"
"The twenty-sixth of September," Narcissa supplied helpfully.
Harry nodded, and Draco turned to his parents. "Would that be acceptable?"
Narcissa nodded in her turn. "Yes," she said, "and I suppose, if you are agreeable, Molly and I can organise the rest – except you may wish to help with the guest list."
"I'm sure Harry and I can get our heads together this morning and give you a list," Draco said, and this seemed to mollify Narcissa somewhat.
"How long have we got?" Harry asked. "When do invitations have to go out?"
"Ah," Narcissa answered, "pure-blood tradition says seven weeks; more, I suspect, because seven is a powerful number in arithmancy than for any other reason."
"So that would be…"
"Next Saturday, darling," Narcissa replied. "But don't worry, darling, Molly and I will take care of it. Just give us the list today and we'll make sure everyone who needs to be is on it."
The discussion then moved back on to children. The senior Malfoys made the same suggestions as Draco had about Teddy, and about surrogacy.
"Aren't we being a bit forward?" Harry asked. "Teddy is Andromeda's grandson; shouldn't she be part of the discussion about his future?"
"Of course we will sit down with her, once you have a plan," Narcissa replied. "And please don't worry about Dromeda; I have been discussing Teddy's future with her, and she's very keen for him to be with you."
"Really?" Harry said, rather surprised at this news.
"Of course!" Narcissa responded. "You would both be fantastic fathers. Don't think we ladies haven't been watching you both with the children, Harry. I had a long discussion with both Dromeda and Margaret Granger yesterday. They are both bowled over by how well Teddy and Miriam have taken to you."
"All right, thank you, Mother," Draco replied. "But Harry was also wondering if there was any way for us to have children? Magic? A ritual? A potion?"
"Ah," Lucius said. "As it happens, Dragon, Harry –"
"Raven," Harry replied.
"What?" Lucius asked.
"Raven," Harry repeated. "Draco's decided that's my nickname. So, if he's Dragon, I'm Raven."
"Are you sure you want us to use it?" Lucius asked.
Harry looked a bit bewildered by the question. To his surprise, Narcissa looked close to tears. "Of course," he said. "It can be my family nickname. Is that all right? Did I do something wrong?"
"Well, it's just that it could be a private thing between the two of you," Lucius explained.
"We are deeply honoured that you want to share it with us," Narcissa said, her eyes shining with tears. "Most couples would have kept it private between themselves. In turn, perhaps, our darling Raven, it is time you called us Mother and Father?"
Harry nodded, the lump forming in his throat making speech impossible. He really belonged to this family, now; all of a sudden, he had tears of his own in his eyes. He took a moment to get control of his emotions, then addressed the elder Malfoys each in turn.
"Mother? Father? Do you–" and, as they nodded, his face broke into a grin. "Really? You mean it?"
"Absolutely, Raven," Lucius replied as he smilingly shook his head at the beautiful innocence and generosity of his second son. But Draco had asked a question which deserved an answer.
"Dragon, I confess I have been researching this matter with some help from a rather expert researcher I know –"
"Would her name happen to be Hermione Granger, by any chance?" Harry asked.
"Of course," Lucius replied, his eyes twinkling. "As if I would discuss such subjects with anyone else!"
"And did you come to a conclusion?" Draco asked.
"Alas, we have found nothing," Lucius replied. "No spell, no potion. Though there are a couple of books that look like they might be written in Parseltongue that we were going to ask you help with?" he said, to Harry.
"Lead me to them!" Raven replied.

"I haven't found anything definite," Harry said at lunch, "but there is one thing, one small clue. The pages that document the ritual Voldemort used to give himself a new body have some scribblings on them; but I can't really work them out."
"Hmm," Lucius mused. "Can you write them out for me?"
"Yes, I have done," Harry replied. "They're on a desk in the library."
"Thank you," Lucius replied. "I may not get to them before our meeting this afternoon, but I'm sure Hermione will be most interested."
"Yeah," Harry replied, "I – er – did make two copies."
Lucius chuckled.
"And did you get a guest list started?" Narcissa enquired.
Harry blushed. "We have a list, but it's huge," he admitted.
"How huge?" Narcissa asked.
Harry steeled himself. "Once Draco added families, it was nearly two hundred people!"
Narcissa gave a short laugh. "Two hundred? That's less than we had. Don't worry, Harry. That will be no problem. Draco, you can give me the list later."
"Told you," Draco said under his breath to his fiancé.

The meeting was, naturally, held in Lucius's study. The house-elf had set up a board table for them, with Lucius at one end and Kingsley seated at the other. Arthur Weasley was seated on the Minister's right, with Robin Banks next to him, then Draco sitting next to his father. Harry was sitting on Lucius's right, then Glinda Dalben-Chun and finally Gawain Robards on the minister's left.
"Thank you all for coming," Lucius said, all brisk and business-like. "I believe we should hear from Auror Banks to begin with."
"Thank you, Mr Malfoy," Robin replied, "and thank you for agreeing to host this meeting at such short notice."
Lucius inclined his head, but made no comment, and Robin went on.
"I have been asked by Head Auror Robards to give you a full report of our investigation into three matters that have been shown to be related: the breakout from Azkaban of three prisoners, namely Dolores Umbridge, Tobias Barnes, and Augustus Rookwood; the attacks at Hogwarts on Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, and Hermione Granger; and the possible existence of a mole inside the Ministry. It is this last matter that has caused us to have this meeting in a private residence, rather than a Ministry meeting room.
"Let me turn first to the events at Hogwarts." Here Robin discussed the attack on Harry during his own Defense Against the Dark Arts class, that had put him in the hospital wing for three days; the attack on Draco in his Potions class which had been contained by the Haussmann Shield; and the candle and charms used on Hermione Granger. He explained the evidence given by Anders Anderssen and Ivan Smetana and how he had come to the conclusion that, while the coin had almost certainly been thrown by Michael Corner, he did not know what it was, and the true villain was one of the Beauxbatons students, eventually settling on Marie Thibault or Eva Thillin as far and away the most likely suspects.
"Shouldn't they be here to defend themselves? Or Rosier or Madame Dubois, to speak for them?" Kingsley asked.
"Ah," Robin said, "that would not be wise, Minister. This is not a trial, but a presentation of the investigation that has been made and the evidence that has been collected. If I may continue?"
Kingsley nodded.
Robin went on to explain the events in Ionescu's occlumency class, which had ended up with Banks performing legilimency on Marie Thibault. He explained the image he had seen of Thibault cowering in a corner while her parents were threatened.
"Mind Healer Armand Ionescu told me at the time that he felt something was wrong with the memory. Subsequently, he explained that the lack of any reference to her twin was highly suspect. Based on this view, the most reasonable hypothesis was that Eva Thillin was the culprit, with some person or persons in the Ministry supplying the Dark artefacts that we found.
"I would like to leave this part of the story there for the moment, and turn to Mr Malfoy to tell us what he knows of the breakout from Azkaban."
At this point, all eyes turned to Lucius. That he knew anything was news to most of them, and for a second he basked in the knowledge that he could still surprise.
"Thank you," he said in his most patrician tones. "In the week after the break-out, I had a visit from someone who is, I'm sure, known to you all: Rita Skeeter. It seems that she was contacted by someone at the Ministry who leant pretty heavily on her. Even though she is now registered as an animagus, he convinced her that he could inject enough irregularities into the process to send her to Azkaban. That was the stick he used; and the carrot was two-fold: money to do as he asked, and the right to write articles about whatever she learnt.
"Now, I suspect that the stick was largely illusory; but the money was real. So she did a little bit of spying in your office, Head Auror Robards, and learnt about you sending some Aurors to Azkaban; and hitched a ride."
"Hang on," Robards said. "Was it she who changed the order I wrote?"
"What order was this?" Kingsley asked, and Robards explained how 'Auror Crockford is not to guard' had been changed to 'Auror Crockford is to guard'.
"Oh, almost certainly," Lucius replied. "But you'll have a devil of a job proving it. You'll never get her to accept Veritaserum or Expositor Falsitas – too many journalistic secrets. Anyway, she came to me and told me about the break-out, and how the three escapees had hid in a lair that Rookwood had set up in a rock near Azkaban."
"We have since found and secured it," Robin interjected.
"Yes," Lucius continued smoothly. "From the description Skeeter gave me of the modus operandi I had a very strong suspicion that her contact at the Ministry was my very unlovely cousin-in-law, Anton Rosier."
"Ah!" Kingsley said. "That would explain why he was not invited to this meeting."
"Quite so," Robin replied. "The three escapees went quiet for a while – we believe that they visited Mr Goyle for a few days. We know they were at the Carrows' house briefly as a proximity ward was set off. My guess is that they recovered something from the house, but that will come later. The next thing we knew of them was a bit of a fluke. Mr Potter, would you like to continue?"
"Spinner's End?" Harry asked, and Robin nodded. "Right. As you probably know, Professor Snape left me his house at Spinner's End together with pretty much everything else that he didn't leave to Draco. During our Potions class on the ninth of July, Professor Slughorn gave me a note he had left me reminding me about it. So Draco and I Flooed there on the eleventh of July. While we were there, Auror Banks came to check up on us."
"And while I was there," Robin continued, "our three escapees turned up. It seems that they needed a book from Severus Snape's library, and rather foolishly mentioned it by name to one another; and they decided that Spinner's End would make a good hide-out. So Mr Potter cast an Unbreakable Ward around the study, Mr Draco Malfoy found the book they needed and I removed it and returned it with the Memory ritual they were going to use slightly amended."
Robin went on to discuss the events at Devil's Crag, including the use of what was almost certainly Circe's circlet, the artefact retrieved from the Carrows. He explained how, with the help of Bill Weasley, they had been able to spy on the three, and, as a bonus, had seen Anton Rosier at the site.
"So Mr Rosier is definitely implicated with the escapees," Auror Robards said to sum up. "And is he definitely implicated on the other side, with these two girls?"
"I can speak to that, sir," Glinda Dalben-Chun said, and Robards indicated for her to continue.
"I was given the task of 'baby-sitting' the two students in question over the last two days," she began. "At first, I confess I was a bit miffed at such a low-level assignment; but Auror Robards explained that this was not a routine job, and that there was definitely something fishy going on. Accordingly, I placed standard tracking and monitoring charms on the girls."
Glinda then described the little subterfuge Rosier and Eva used to go off together; the arrival of the letter and the flap it caused Marie Thibault; and then, most damning of all, played the recorded conversation. She lifted her wand and cast Repetitatas!; the voices of Eva and Anton filled the room.

"I tell you, eet is getting too 'ard to do anything," Thillin said. "That Auror—"
"Banks?" Rosier asked.
"Yes, 'e is a sly-boots that one. 'E 'as tracking charms on us 'for our protection' 'e said. But I can do nothing!"
"Well, it can't be helped," Rosier replied after a short pause. "You'll just have to lie low for a while."
"Lie low? What iz this?"
"Sorry, of course, you wouldn't understand."

("Patronising git," Draco interjected. No-one disagreed.)

"You must just forget about the plan for the moment. Do nothing; contact no-one. There's not much you could achieve anyway at this late stage; if anything happened to Potter now, it might cause problems with the timing. Unless you actually killed him. No. Don't do anything about Potter, I'll handle that. But perhaps … yes. Get Thibault to suddenly 'remember' something about Devil's Crag on the eighth of August."
"Devil's Crag. Eighth of August. Remember what?"
"Remember just 'someone said it and it seemed important'. Got it? Right, it's time we were getting back."

"Seems pretty open and shut to me," Kingsley said. "Are the twins' parents really in any danger, by the way?"
"No sir," Glinda replied, going on to explain the Floo calls and the visit from Ionescu and Touauld.
"Is Marie all right today?" Arthur asked.
"Oh yes, sir, she woke up right as rain. But the two of them manufactured a little snit with Eva Thillin at breakfast time, so they are officially 'not talking'."
"So there's no danger of her suspecting them. Clever," Kingsley added. "Why don't we pick them all up and charge them?"
"We'd like to be certain we've got everyone, Minister," Robin replied, and Robards nodded his head in agreement.
"With such an important suspect involved," the Head Auror added, "we would like a cast-iron case; which really means catching him with the curse on his lips, as the saying has it."
"You'd probably like to know what they're up to, as well," Arthur said shrewdly. "Apart from killing Harry; though that was presumably a diversion?"
"That is my guess," Robin agreed. "I know Rosier has his sights on power—"
"You think he wants my job?" Kingsley asked with a chuckle. "Most days I'd say he's welcome to it."
"No, sir, I don't," Robin replied, with a little chuckle of his own. "I think he wants to be Chief Warlock."
"That sounds right for a Rosier," Lucius added. "A job with very little responsibility and a ton of influence. And you think Umbridge wants the Minister's job? And they've cooked up some scheme involving false memories to get her there?"
"That's my guess, sir," Robin answered.
"What about Thillin?" Harry asked. "What does she stand to get out of it?"
"Money," Robin replied. "I checked out all the students; Eva's family was not well off, and her parents died when she was young. So she is a poor orphan; and from what Ginny found out from the other students, she hates it and would do anything to get money."
"All right," Kingsley said. "What are we going to do about Skeeter?"
Lucius coughed. "It would be very hard to get a case to stick," he replied. "From what she told me, she was desperate to get information about the Death Eaters; so she must have changed your order as a way to get down to their cells. In the end, her information has been invaluable in tying everything to Rosier."
Kingsley looked at Robin. "Do you agree with this?"
"Yes, sir," the Auror replied simply.
"All right. We'll leave Skeeter alone." He turned to Harry. "In fact, we might use her again. Harry, so far we've kept the ceremony at Gringotts out of the press; we thought you didn't more media coverage before your birthday. But it might be time to let the Prophet explain just why the Sword of Gryffindor is at Gringotts, if you are happy to let the news out?"
"Yes, of course," Harry replied. "It'll be good to have something about me that's true." He looked at Arthur. "But you should probably get Ron and Hermione to agree too, sir."
Arthur's eyes twinkled. "Ahead of you, there, Harry, for once. They said they'd agree if you did."
"Very good," said Kingsley. "To sum up, no action on Skeeter, article to be published, and we put in place a watching operation until Rosier and Umbridge act next. How long do you need it to run for?"
"The ritual needs a setting step to be performed at the next full moon, which is on Saturday," Robin replied. "I expect them to make a move the following week."
"You have two weeks, gentlemen," the Minister said. "If matters are not resolved, we'll meet here again on Sunday week. With your permission, of course, Mr Malfoy?"
"I would be delighted, Minister," Lucius replied, and the meeting was adjourned.
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