Duet

Beta: Lori Sammy (glockgrrl)
Warning: Slash, consensual encounter.
Summary: ´This fic was originally part of the ´Beloved Enemies´ Harry/Lucius Fuh-Q-Fest (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HarryxLucius/). 89. Harry and Lucius have a secret relationship. Lucius is still a Death Eater (you decide whether it's willingly or not), and Voldemort is still around. No one, none of Harry's friends, none of the Death Eaters, not Voldemort or even Dumbledore, knows about the relationship. Somehow, Lucius gets Harry pregnant. Lucius is very possessive and protective over Harry, and resorts to "kidnapping" him and hiding him in Malfoy Manor. Draco, suspicious, searches for and finds Harry in his rooms at the Manor. What will Draco do? How does Lucius react? And what about poor pregnant Harry? (Selene la Luna)

Disclaimer: The story is based on characters created and owned by J.K. Rowling, various publishers including, but not limited to Scholastic Books and Warner Bros. No copyright or trademark infringement is intended; no monetary gain will be made from this story.

Author’s Notes: The characters depicted are slightly AU and some of their personalities have been changed to suit my muse. Before anyone chastises me for my use of owling letters (as used in Maeglin Yedi’s wonderful “Sleeping With The Enemy”), I needed Harry and Lucius to communicate in private; since wizards don’t use telephones and having Harry “floo” a conversation from Privet Drive was impractical we are left with Owl Post.

This is the first fan fictionI ever wrote for public consumption and it always suprises me how many of my readers request a link to it. This was written long before OPP and HBP.

*~*~*~
Prologue

In the end, it was a photograph that started it all. Who ever would have thought that such a small thing could come to mean so much?

*~*~*~
An Unexpected Birthday Present

A sharp rap at the door woke seventeen-year-old Harry Potter from a light sleep.

“Time to get up, boy,” snapped Aunt Petunia. “Breakfast won’t make itself.”

Harry smiled to himself as he put his eyeglasses on and looked at the tidy row of wizard birthday cards that had arrived from his friends the night before. They were slowly drifting apart as their interests began to shift, but Ron and Hermione had been his first friends and it was nice of them to remember his birthday.

Another sharp rap came to the door. “Aren’t you up yet?”

“Yes, Aunt Petunia. I am getting dressed.”

Harry slipped out of the t-shirt and boxers he had been sleeping in; he pulled on a clean t-shirt, boxers and a pair of jean shorts that were only slightly too large.

*~*~*~
The shorts and t-shirt were the last part of an odd gift of friendship he had received from his dorm mate, Dean Thomas, early in the fourth year. Dean, as many teenaged boys do, had shot up more than six inches in the course of several months and was left with a trunk full of clothes that no longer fit him. The clothing, being of muggle manufacture, could not be magically resized, as could wizard-produced articles. When he owled his mother, asking if he should send them home, she had replied that since it was doubtful that his little sister would ever wear them, that he should donate them to charity.

Dean watched his thin dorm mate pull on one more whale-sized t-shirt that came past his knees. It was no secret to the other boys in the dorm that Harry’s family hated him. And year after year, the horrible hand-me-down clothes had gotten worse. Harry always put on a brave face and tried to joke about it, but Dean knew that it embarrassed him to no end.

Dean replaced the oversized clothing with those he had outgrown. They would still be too large for Harry’s slight frame, but they would not fall off him either. When Harry discovered the clothing, he had first thought it was a miss-delivery from the house elves in the laundry, but three shirts in the colors of the West Ham Football team revealed the truth. Dean, of course, denied all knowledge of the charitable donation, but he was the first one to toast a marshmallow when they incinerated Dudley’s old clothes.

*~*~*~
Harry hurriedly washed his face in the bathroom sink and attempted to control his wildly spiking raven black hair. He had grown a little over the year, but was still one of the smallest students in his grade; years of malnutrition at the hands of the Dursleys had seen to that.

Aunt Petunia clicked her tongue sharply as Harry finally arrived to make the breakfast. He quickly gathered the eggs and bacon from the refrigerator. The coffee pot was on a timer, so it was happily percolating in the corner.

Uncle Vernon arrived just as Harry placed a large plate of buttered toast on the table. Dudley lumbered into the room minutes later. He was now nearly as wide as he was tall.

Aunt Petunia prattled on about their plans for this special day, Harry half-tuned her out. He knew that they would never acknowledge that today was his birthday. As Aunt Petunia was winding down her conversation, Harry began to listen to her again as she began to list the chores she wanted done while the Dursleys were out for the day.

For the first time ever, Aunt Petunia’s list consisted of only one item, but what a large item it was. She pointed toward a pile of flattened Grunnings Drill boxes, a tape gun, cleaning supplies and her second best vacuum cleaner. Harry’s job was to clean out the attic.

Dudley was waiting for Harry as he carried the vacuum cleaner and cleaning supplies up the stairs. He snorted as Harry pulled down the folding staircase leading to the attic.

“Happy Birthday, Cousin,” he sneered as he slapped Harry roughly on his backside.
”Here’s one to grow on.”

He was still laughing as he thundered down the stairs to his waiting parents. Uncle Vernon shot the young wizard his usual warning of “no funny business while we’re out”.

Harry could feel the stifling heat of the attic as he climbed the stairs. He left the boxes and the cleaning supplies on the lower landing, just bringing the vacuum. Everything in the room was covered in a layer of dust and cobwebs. Harry pulled the cords, turning on the two bare light bulbs and paused to figure out where to start.

It was several hours later when a tired, filthy Harry leaned against a stack of boxes in the corner. He drank deeply from a glass of water and rested his head against the stack of boxes. He felt the stack shift slightly and heard a box slide off the top of the stack and fall down behind them. With a curse and a sigh, Harry examined the fallen box; thankfully, he had not heard the sound of breakage.

Harry picked up the box, still held closed with old, cracked tape. It was the kind of box department stores gave out at Christmas for clothing. With the exception of a crumpled corner it appeared to be undamaged. Harry was about to set it aside when he saw what was written on the side of it. In a neat script that was not Aunt Petunia’s it read, “Lily’s Music”.

Harry clutched the box. Could it actually be something that had belonged to his mother? He hurried to look out the small attic window and sighed in relief when he did not see the Dursley’s car.

Hands trembling, he knelt beside the box and worked a piece of the brittle tape loose. Carefully, he lifted the lid to find several soft cover music books; the top book read “Beginner’s Piano.” In a neat, childish script on the top right of the booklet cover was the name “Lily Evans”.

Harry stopped himself from touching the booklet – his hands were filthy. He replaced the lid back on the box and hurriedly looked at the other stacked boxes. No other box had his mother’s name on it. Creeping down the stairs, box in hand, Harry stopped to wash his hands in the bathroom. Car doors slammed outside of #4 Privet Drive. The Dursleys had returned.

The excited wizard flung open his school trunk and set the box inside covered with his school robes. Aunt Petunia would never look there.

Harry was back in the attic when Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon climbed up to check on his progress. As instructed, Harry had the Grunnings boxes lined up and unsealed, filled with various degrees of trash. In a move of inspiration, Harry had several boxes labeled “Dudley’s Baby Toys”; in them he had placed toy after toy in various stages of destruction. As expected, Aunt Petunia gushed when she saw the motley collection of battered stuffed rabbits and cars missing a wheel or two.

Removing only a few items, the Dursleys determined which boxes were trash and which were charity. Harry had cleaned up all but one stack of boxes. Aunt Petunia didn’t even notice.

Taking one look at how filthy Harry was Aunt Petunia ordered him to clean himself up before she made “Dudleykins” an after-dinner snack. The hot shower water felt wonderful against Harry’s aching muscles.

Slightly refreshed, Harry pulled on a West Ham t-shirt and a Chudley Cannons pair of boxers. He was too tired to eat dinner even if Aunt Petunia had offered him any.

Harry lay down on his bed, waiting for the Dursleys to drop off to sleep. When he was certain that they were down for the night, Harry opened his school trunk and lifted out the box.

The box contained six piano music books, various pages of sheet music, Muggle school concert programs with his mother’s name listed and three music medallions. Smiling softly, Harry ran his fingers over the name on the cover of a book called “Intermediate Piano Duets.” As he placed the book on top of the others, several photographs slipped out on to the floor.

Harry stared at three photographs of Lily Evans as a small girl. They were Muggle school photographs with the year written on the back. Harry picked up the music book again and one more photograph fluttered out.

It was a wizard photograph of his mother and another Hogwarts student playing a duet on a piano. The heat of the attic seemed to have damaged it because the images barely moved. His mother’s long red hair was in a thick braid down her back; the other student had shoulder length white blond hair. Harry could not see the face of the other pianist. In her neat script was a notation on the back – “Luci and Lily – Hogwarts Fourth Year.”

Harry held the photograph in his hands for a long while before packing everything back in the box and putting it back in his school trunk.

Harry’s last thought before he drifted off to sleep was that, unintentionally, the Dursleys had finally given him a birthday present.

*~*~*~*
TBC