Draco\'s Insignia

Draco’s Insignia~ Part eleven

Warnings and notes: This is a slash fic, which means that it involves two guys having strong feelings for one another. This is your only warning; so if you do not like reading about two men in love, then don’t read. Go read some other fic. Do not harass the author, please.

Rating: NC-17

Pairings: Draco/Harry

Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of these characters! J.K. Rowling is the wonderful person who does.

Author’s plead: Can I say how incredibly sorry I am for taking so long? Blame RL and my muse. Honestly, I “knew” what I wanted to write, but it wouldn’t come out. And then my muse goes: ‘write this instead!’ and I had to obey. I’m sorry.

Muse: SURE! Blame me!

It is his fault. All his fault…

Muse: *glares*

.-.

“Hermione?” Harry repeated. Then his face split into a wide grin, “Hermione!”

Last he heard of her was what she wrote in the letter to him. She sounded rather flabbergasted about Harry “seeing” Draco, and that Harry was going out with another guy in the first place. He was hoping that she wasn’t too upset with him about it, especially the fact about him being with Draco Malfoy.

He practically ran downstairs to the kitchen, almost tripping on his own big feet. He wasn’t sure if Draco was even awake when he had left the room, nor did he know if his aunt noticed anything out of the ordinary in their room. He was sure that she must have stuck her nose in, being a nosy person that she was, to see just what kind of state the room was in. Harry didn’t want to worry about that at the moment as he eagerly picked up the receiver from the table and stuck it to his ear with a smile.

“Hi, Hermione!” Harry answered cheerfully.

“Harry!” Hermione’s voice said with equal amount of force, but didn’t seem as happy-go-lucky as Harry’s; “I’m glad that your relatives are letting you talk with me on the telephone. I meant to owl you, but I figured that I should call you instead, since it’s easier.”

“Yeah, I was wondering when you’d answer me back,” Harry smiled. He actually forgot all about it.

“Well, I’ve been rather busy. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Hermione. So, what’ve you been up to?”

“Oh, nothing much. Been mostly helping with special cases for the Ministry and such, figuring out certain curses that splinch people’s body parts without Apparating to do it. How about you, Harry?”

“You’ve been what?” Harry gasped.

“Well… I suppose that I should have told you in the letter, but I was so flabbergasted about the news about you and Malfoy that it simply left my mind. That and it wasn’t entirely a for sure thing. I didn’t want to tell you until I knew that I had this job positively.”

“Hermione… we’re not even in our seventh year yet and you’ve got yourself a job already?”

“Part time job, Harry. It’s part-time.”

“Whatever. It’s still a job!” Harry smiled, despite his slight envy. “What kind of curses did you say you were working on?”

When he said this, he heard Petunia gasp from the dining room. Harry winced slightly, accidentally forgetting about his aunt possibly being around. He turned quickly to give her an apologetic look, but she continued to glare at him, pursing her lips together in a thin line. Harry knew what that look meant.

“Sorry,” he muttered to her.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing, Hermione. I was talking to my aunt. Anyway, what exactly have you been doing?”

Hermione sighed softly, “I can’t tell you everything, but the fact of the matter is, is that somebody has found a way to make a person splinch without Apparating. In other words, it’s some kind of hex that makes you split in half, or make a large part of your body disappear and reappear in a different location. It’s been real hectic around here about it. It’s actually the main reason why they accepted my application in the first place. They said that they’ve heard great things about me, and that they’d love to have me on the team, helping them to solve this disaster.”

“I wish you luck on that then, Hermione.” Harry said.

“Speaking of wishing luck… I wish you all the luck in the world with Malfoy.”

“Um… thanks,” Harry smiled. He leaned back against the wall next to the phone.

“I really don’t understand what you see in Malfoy, really. So, what suddenly made you decide to stick it out with him? He didn’t put some sort of hex on you, did he?”

“No,” Harry laughed, “of course not.”

“He didn’t make you drink a potion? Or put the Confundus Charm on you? Or threaten you, or-”

“No, Hermione. But will you be at the Weasleys’ place on my birthday?”

“Of course I will, Harry!” she sounded restless. “But, what does that have to do with anything?”

“There’s something that I need to show you. It’s rather important.”

“Are you injured?”

Harry worried his bottom lip for a bit with his teeth, “No. Not necessarily injured. You’ll see when you see me. Um, was there anything else you needed to tell me? I think my aunt wants me to get off the phone here…”

“Oh, um… I just wanted to talk to you about Malfoy, but I guess that will wait until I see you at the Weasleys. I’m glad that you’re all right. Are you serious though, Harry?”

“Serious?”

“About Malfoy.”

Harry sighed, but he was smiling slightly, feeling his cheeks warm up.

“Yes, Hermione. I’m serious.”

.-.

When Harry finally finished his talk with Hermione and hung up the phone, Aunt Petunia shooed him back upstairs in a slight rude manner. He had a feeling that she was going to be making some kind of important phone call, but Harry decided not to let it bother him.

The moment Harry stepped into his room, he noticed that not only was Draco awake and out of bed, but he was sitting by the closet with his crystal ball out of his suitcase and in his lap. Draco was speaking in a low voice; Harry could barely make out what he was saying to Professor Snape. He just caught the words: “Okay”, “of course”, “yes”, and “all right, sir”.

Harry crept up to where Draco was and loomed over him for a while, just to see if Draco could sense he was behind him. When Draco made no show that he knew Harry was standing there, Harry spoke up.

“What are you doing?”

Draco jumped about a foot off the floor and gasped so loudly that it made Snape worried.

“What’s going on, Mr. Malfoy?”

“Nothing, sir. Just Potter scaring the daylights out of me.” Draco looked up and glowered at Harry.

“Quit scaring my godson, Potter, and go do something constructive with yourself,” said Snape from the crystal ball. “Our private chat does not concern you.”

“Of course it doesn’t,” said Harry with slight venom, “when does it ever concern me?”

“Oh, stop feeling so neglected,” said Draco.

“I’m not!” Harry huffed. He sat down on the bed, facing Draco and the closet. Draco gave him a significant look, and then went back to talking in a low voice to his crystal ball.

After a few minutes, Draco said goodbye to Snape, and then turned to face Harry.

“So, who were you talking to downstairs on the telebone?”

“Telephone,” Harry corrected, “and it was Hermione.”

Draco stood. “What does that… what does she want?” he corrected himself.

“What else?” Harry said, leaning back on the bed, “she wanted to know about us and if it was true.”

“What? She didn’t believe you in the letter? I thought she was a good friend of yours.”

“She is, but she just wanted to talk to me about it, I guess. She’ll be at the Weasleys for my birthday too, and she wants to talk more about it.”

“I’ll bet you’re looking forward to being clingy with me in front of her,” Draco grinned impishly.

“Yeah, right.”

“Hey, aren’t I good enough to show off? I think so.” Draco sat down heavily next to Harry on the bed. Harry stared at him for a bit, smiling slightly.

“You’re so egotistical.”

“You love me anyway,” Draco grinned.

“That’s beside the point,” Harry said. Draco smacked Harry lightly on the thigh, emitting a sharp gasp out of Harry as well as a glare.

“You like that, do you, Mr. Kinky?”

“What? I’m not kinky like that! You just surprised me.”

Draco lay down beside Harry, propping his head up on one elbow and looked down at Harry. He ran a finger down Harry’s chin and then down the exposed skin of Harry’s neck. Harry instinctively tilted his head back to allow Draco to fondle more of his skin. Draco moved his hand from Harry’s neck to the bottom of his shirt. He slipped his fingers into Harry’s shirt, lightly touching the little hairs that ran down into Harry’s trousers, and then brought his hand up Harry’s stomach to his chest. Draco gently rubbed at Harry’s chest for a bit and then moved his hand over to softly tweak at a nipple. Harry hissed, closing his eyes, and Draco continued to work on Harry’s nipple for a bit.

“Why don’t you just take off my shirt?” Harry said, without opening his eyes.

“Well, why don’t I?” Draco smirked. He carefully lifted Harry’s shirt so that it bunched up under his armpits, and then leaned down to capture the nipple he’d been pinching between his teeth. Harry let out another soft hiss, but then moaned when Draco’s nipping became suckling. Draco moved to give the other nipple the same attention.

Harry sighed at the feel of Draco on him, licking him, making love to his chest… it felt so wonderful that he didn’t want to do much of anything else. Draco’s tongue circled one nipple, and then the other, and then slowly worked its way down to his bellybutton. Harry jerked in response to Draco’s tongue dipping in, and then his breath hitched as Draco made his way down to the waistband of his jeans. He kissed across the top of Harry’s jeans, over his skin, and then slowly unbuttoned them. Harry sighed, feeling heat pooling far below his gut as Draco lavished at every inch of exposed skin. Draco buried his nose more into Harry’s pubic hair, inhaling the sweet male scent of Harry, before slowly unzipping his trousers.

Harry felt as if he melted the moment he felt Draco’s mouth. He closed his eyes, enjoying the warmth envelope him slowly and effortlessly. Harry had no idea how many minutes had gone by, but before he knew it, he was moaning Draco’s name and arching into his mouth.

“Was that good?” Draco drawled as he licked his lips. Harry sighed in bliss, unable to speak, and just nodded. “Perhaps,” Draco said, “we should go a little further in our relationship…”

“But—we’ve only been together, what? Four weeks?”

“Four and a half.” Draco corrected.

“I think we should wait a bit… you know what I mean? It would be… sweeter, I think. It would mean more…”

“I had a feeling you’d say that,” Draco sighed. “All right, Potter. You win. We’ll wait. But just so you know, I don’t take to waiting too long real well. When I want something, I get it. Understand?” Draco rose up from between Harry’s legs to poke at his nose. Harry laughed softly, and then caught Draco’s finger and placed it into his mouth and sucked. Draco’s eyes fogged with desire at just the sight. Harry bit Draco’s finger gently, and then sucked and popped it out of his mouth to give it a swift swipe of his tongue.

“You’re going to kill me, Potter,” Draco panted. “Stop being such a tease or give yourself to me.”

Harry grinned, slightly impish. “I can tease all I want, Malfoy.”

“You cannot!” Draco growled. “I am the one in charge here…”

“Oh, you? YOU’RE in charge?” Harry snorted. “I highly doubt that!”

“You will see, Potter… I am the more dominant one out of the two of us.”

“Bull!” Harry said, smirking. “You’re way more gay than me.”

“Take that back, Potter!” Draco straddled Harry’s body, balling up his fists.

“Or else what?” Harry said challengingly. “Are you going to hit me? Your sweet, wonderful boyfriend?” he fluttered his lashes.

Draco growled low in his throat. “Stop that!”

“Stop what?” Harry said innocently.

“Stop batting your lashes like a little hussy! It won’t work!”

“Hussy!” Harry snarled.

“That’s right! You ARE the bitch here.”

“Take that back!” Harry sneered, balling his own fists.

“No,” said Draco, sticking his tongue out. “You’re the bitch, and you know it.”

“That’s it!” Harry shouted. Next thing Draco knew, he was lying on his back and had a Harry Potter towering over him, sitting on his chest. “Whose the bitch now, Malfoy?”

“You’re obviously delusional if you think I will say that I am. It’s very obvious that YOU are the bottom, here.”

“Fuck you!” Harry snarled. He moved down, grabbed onto Draco’s legs, and then forced them over his shoulders. Draco gasped from both the sudden manipulation of his limbs and the feel of Harry’s strength and weight pinning him to the bed. “You’re way more bottom than I will ever be, Malfoy.”

They stayed in that position for a while, glaring at one another, until they heard a soft tapping at the window.

“The hell is that?” said Draco. He looked at the window in an upside down angle.

“I don’t know,” said Harry, sighing. He slowly, and reluctantly, got off of Draco to open the window. The owl flew in and landed right on Harry’s shoulder. Harry shut the window and then walked over to the bed where Draco was still lying and sat on the edge, looking down at Draco. “I guess it’s an owl.”

“No shit,” grumbled Draco. He moved up on his elbows. “Who’s it from?”

Harry removed the letter from the owl’s leg. The owl hooted softly and started to rub up against Harry’s face. Harry chuckled as the feathers tickled him; he unrolled the letter.

“Dear Mr. Potter,” Harry read. “Please note that the new school year will begin September the first… Oh, it’s just my school letter. Yours is here too,” he said, handing the other letter, which was rolled up with his own to Draco. Draco snatched it from Harry’s hand and scanned it.

“Yup,” he sighed. “… We need some new books for our seventh year.”

“After the birthday party the Weasleys are throwing me,” Harry smiled. “I’m sure they’ll need to go to Diagon Alley for school stuff too.”

“Oh, lovely,” Draco groaned. “Are we going to walk around with them while we shop for our things? I don’t think it would be such a good idea that I act all buddy-buddy with them because of—certain circumstances.”

“Fine,” said Harry. “We’ll shop separately from them.”

Draco grinned, obviously very grateful. “Thank you.”

Harry set his letter aside, and then searched his drawer for some owl treats. The school owl hooted happily as it realized that it was getting a treat for doing the delivery. Harry gave the owl a few treats, and then let it out the window.

“N.E.W.T.S. this year,” said Draco suddenly.

“Yeah,” said Harry. He stared out the window.

“Oh, get back over here and resume your position.”

Harry whirled around and stared at Draco with wide eyes. “What?”

“You heard me,” Draco smirked. “Get back to that position you had me in. You know the one, don’t you? If not, allow me to remind you…” he laid back down and then lifted his legs so that they looked like they were over somebody’s shoulders. He winked.

“Oh!” Harry smiled, blushing lightly. He slowly walked back to the bed and moved back into the position that they had been in. Draco wrapped his legs around Harry’s shoulders harder so Harry had to lean down further. Their faces were only mere inches from each other’s.

“Going to study hard this year?” Draco asked softly.

“Probably. Will you help me if I need it?”

“Of course,” said Draco. They stared at each other silently for a while, and then Harry slowly moved forward to cover Draco’s lips with his own. Never in a million years did Harry think that he’d be doing such a thing with Draco Malfoy, but now he couldn’t imagine what it was like without him. They kissed sweetly for what seemed like forever, tongues hungrily tasting the other’s mouth, hands in each other’s hair, and limbs entangled together. With knowledge of them both, they were getting hard and out of breath. Harry let go of Draco’s lips slowly as he found himself rocking against his boyfriend, who was pushing back with as much fever.

“You’re such an animal, Potter,” said Draco huskily. Harry panted as he rocked into the nook between Draco’s behind.

“And it’s all your fault, too,” Harry whispered. He kissed Draco wildly for a moment, and then moved down to attack the little dip in Draco’s throat. Draco tilted his head back and moaned at the feel of Harry’s mouth, tongue, and teeth over his sternum.

Their Draconis Marks glowed softly, almost angelic. Draco began to pant more as they moved faster. Harry growled low in his throat, making Draco shiver.

“Harry…” Draco gasped. He tried to speak, but Harry silenced him with his mouth. They kissed for a long time, and then Draco finally got his lips back. “Wait, Potter… if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do this right!”

“What do you mean?” Harry asked, panting harshly.

Draco snorted. “You’re so innocent. I mean that if we’re to do this, we’re going to do it the right way… with our clothes off and you inside me.”

Harry’s eyes dilated and unfocused as he stared into Draco’s eyes. Draco seemed serious, which produced a shiver through Harry. Harry licked his lips nervously and said, “Are you serious?”

“Deadly serious, Potter… Harry. I want you in me.”

“Oh, fuck…” Harry groaned. He didn’t need to be told twice. Harry started to rip at Draco’s shirt as Draco did the same to Harry, except not as savagely. Harry had seen Draco shirtless before, but this time all the blood in his brain went south for a vacation.

He could hardly believe his luck. Just moments ago, Draco had been complaining about being bottom, and then suddenly Draco wanted him inside. He decided to be confused later as he striped Draco of the last of his clothing, and then tried to kiss every inch of said naked body as much as he could. He enjoyed all the little noises that Draco made as he licked and kissed his more sensitive spots. When Harry took him in his mouth, Draco gripped at Harry’s hair so hard that it made Harry wince in pain. Draco wasn’t paying much mind at all about what he was doing to Harry, only what Harry was doing to him.

Harry took his sweet time bringing Draco to the edge and then back again. He did things to Draco and found certain spots on Draco’s body that Draco himself even didn’t know about. Draco melted like butter in a hot frying pan.

Finally, Draco couldn’t take anymore. He grabbed onto Harry’s shoulders and pulled him up so that they were face to face. He took Harry’s face in his hands and then gave Harry a deep, soul-piercing kiss. Harry kissed back just as deep and fierce before grabbing his wand and performing the lubricant charm. Just the feel of the cool substance on him made Draco moan in anticipation. He eagerly pulled at Harry’s body to get him close, and to show Harry just what he wanted without words.

Harry gave in.

He pressed the head of his cock at Draco’s entrance and started to push.

Draco moaned, gritting his teeth, and pushed his body down to meet Harry’s thrust.

Once the head of Harry’s erection broke through, he slid the rest inside Draco’s body in one smooth motion.

Draco let out a high-pitched moan, as if someone grabbed his balls a bit too hard.

Harry brought Draco’s legs up, holding onto the ankles, as he slowly moved in and out of him.

Draco tilt his head back. When he swallowed, Harry watched as Draco’s adam’s apple bobbed up and down. Harry leaned down to kiss it, thus changing the angle of his thrusting. Draco whimpered.

“Are you mine, Draco?” Harry whispered.

“Yes,” Draco whispered back without hestitation.

Their Draconis Marks began to glow brighter. Harry sped up his thrusts.

“Tell me.”

“I am yours,” Draco said, a little louder.

“Damn straight you are,” Harry said hoarsely. He leaned down more to take a nipple between his teeth.

“God, Harry!”

“Just Harry will do,” said Harry cheekily. Draco tried to glare midway through the bouncing, but couldn’t do it well enough—tossing his head back against the pillow again.

“Mine,” snarled Harry, thrusting harder. Draco screamed.

.-.

July 31st, midnight, Harry turned seventeen and officially became of age in the wizarding world. That morning, Harry woke up to the sounds of tapping at his window. He stretched, not completely aware of anything around him at the time except for the warmth of Draco’s body next to his. He reached for his glasses and put them on. Slowly getting out of bed without disturbing Draco, he went to go let the owl in.

When he opened the window, Errol flew, or what could be considered flying, in and landed with a soft thud on Harry’s desk. Harry immediately went to the old owl to make sure he was ok. When Errol seemed to be well enough, he untied the letter from Errol’s leg and then placed the owl into the cage with Hedwig, who hooted in some reproach.

It was a letter from the Weasleys, which wasn’t hard to guess before he even opened it. Errol was the family owl, after all. Harry opened the letter carefully and then read it.

“Dear Harry,

We sent this letter a couple days ago, knowing that Errol won’t get there until then for your birthday. Just letting you know that you are given the go-ahead to coming over for your birthday. We have all your presents and things here waiting for you. Come when you’re ready. If you wish to come before three o’clock, that’s ok. Don’t be late!

Sincerely, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley

P.S. Ron says hi and urges you to get here sooner than three.”

Harry snickered softly under his breath. He quickly looked back over at Draco when he heard a sudden movement—Draco was just turning in his sleep. Harry checked the time and when he noticed that it was 12:15 AM, he quietly put the letter away, and then slipped back into bed as quietly as he could. His body was still feeling heavy from sleep and he knew that if given the time he would fall right back to sleep, too. Thinking about the day that was ahead, though, filled Harry’s mind full of all sort of possibilities. He wasn’t sure what Hermione would think of the Draconis Mark once he showed it to her—she would be more understanding than Ron had been, that was for sure, but hopefully she would be more accepting of it.

Suddenly there was an arm around him, startling him, and then Draco’s face was pressed up against his neck. Draco mumbled something in his sleep, breathing hotly on Harry’s neck and face; Harry smiled.

“Happy Birthday to me.”

.-.

It took a while for Harry to get Draco in a better mood when they both woke up that morning. Draco had given Harry another ‘present’ for his birthday, but they were rudely interrupted by the sounds of screaming coming from downstairs.

“Let’s go see what scared my relatives this time,” said Harry. Draco groaned in annoyance and followed Harry’s example of getting dressed quickly and then running downstairs.

What scared the Dursleys was easy to spot; they were in the living room, huddled together on the couch and staring wide-eyed and white-faced at the fireplace. All at once, Harry and Draco looked over at the grate and saw the head of Ron Weasley poking out of the fire.

“Harry! There you are. Are you ready to come over yet?”

“We just woke up,” said Harry in a scratchy voice. “There was no need to use the Floo…”

“Well, I tried to use the tele-tone, but they,” Ron nodded at the Dursleys, “kept hanging up on me!”

Harry turned and gave his aunt and uncle a scathing glare.

“If I were them,” said Draco, grinning in what Harry figured was a teasing manner, “I would have hung up on you, too.”

Harry gave Draco a warning look. “Don’t…”

“I was only joking!” Draco said, trying to sound sorry, but he was grinning.

Harry turned back to Ron’s head. “We’ll be there in a few minutes, ok? Give us time to pack. We’re staying for the rest of the summer, anyway, before we go to King’s Cross station…”

Draco grumbled something behind Harry, but Harry decided to ignore it for now.

“All right,” said Ron. “I’ll see you in a bit, then.” With a pop, Ron’s head disappeared from the flames.

“Right,” said Harry as he turned to go back upstairs, ignoring his relatives. “Let’s get packing.”

Draco looked over at the Dursleys for a bit, but then decided not to say or do anything. He had a feeling Harry was already annoyed with him as it was.

Before Harry had even reached the top of the stairs, Draco moved forward and squeezed both of Harry’s buttocks. Harry, not expecting Draco to flirt so soon in the waking hour, jumped from the contact and turned to give Draco a somewhat surprised look. Draco was smiling.

“What?” he said.

“Can’t keep your hands off me, can you?” Harry said.

“Well, we were interrupted of our post-snogging and groping session when we woke up, so I thought we could just continue with where we left off,” Draco said, wiggling his eyebrows.

“We’re not even in the room, yet!”

“So?” said Draco, and before Harry knew it, he was thrown lightly against the wall opposite their bedroom door and his neck was attacked by Draco’s teeth.

“I’m pretty sure they heard that downstairs—” Harry said, trying to protest, but it was hard to when Draco kept sucking on his neck like that.

“I don’t care,” came the muffled answer. “Let them hear us; let them see us, for that matter. I care not.”

“Well, I do,” said Harry. He grabbed onto Draco’s shoulders. “I don’t want Dudley’s piggy face staring at us while we go at it. Come on.”

Harry grabbed hold of Draco’s arm and forced them backward to the bedroom door. Draco reached back, blindingly, found the knob, turned it, and then they staggered inside. Once the door was closed, Draco had him up against it in a heartbeat, attacking his neck once again.

“Silencing spells, Malfoy.”

“Again, I care not, Potter.” Draco pulled Harry away from the door and made him go back toward the bed. “I think it will teach them a lesson, and lord knows they need a lot of teaching…”

“Draco,” Harry panted. “Draco, please… we need to get packed, remember?”

“It’s your party and you can be late if you want to.”

“Come on, stop it,” Harry sighed. “We just shagged last night, we don’t need to this morning.”

“I beg to differ,” said Draco. He bit a little hard on Harry’s collarbone, making Harry hiss in pain. “I don’t necessarily think we need to shag; there are other ways of getting off.”

“I don’t want to go to the Weasleys’ place looking like we DID shag before we got there…” Draco wasn’t relenting, so Harry tried again. “Look, we’ll shag tonight if you like, even if it’s at the Weasleys’. How’s that sound?”

Draco finally looked up at him. “You’d actually shag me there? At the Weasleys’ place… in Ronald’s room?”

Harry shrugged, blushing slightly. “Sure. I mean—if that will get you to stop now and wait until later…”

“You have nothing to be worried about, though,” said Draco, smirking. “I was the bottom last night, you know. Although, if you tell any of them that, I’ll skin you alive.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Harry smiled. “Come on, then; let’s get packing. I don’t ever want to come back to this place.”

“I know how you feel.”

.-.

When they arrived, they weren’t expecting so many others to be there besides the Weasleys. The usual redheaded children were there: Bill, Charlie, Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny—but to neither of their surprise, Percy wasn’t present. Harry was almost glad, yet he was a bit sad for Mrs. Weasley’s sake. The others that were there were Remus, Mad-eye Moody, Tonks, and Hermione.

“Harry!” said Remus, who spotted them first. Draco stayed close behind Harry, but not out of nervousness.

“Harry!” shouted Hermione when she saw him, too. “Happy birthday!”

“Happy birthday, Harry,” said Ron. Harry beamed at them, and before he could move, Hermione had wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek.

Draco cleared his throat and Hermione looked up and smiled. “Oh, hi, Malfoy.”

“Hands off, Granger,” said Draco immediately. Hermione raised an eyebrow.

“Draco, behave,” said Harry, and then he looked back at Hermione. “It’s good to see you, too, Hermione.”

“A bit overprotective, isn’t he?” she said, the corner of her lip quirking.

“A bit, yeah,” said Harry, blushing. He turned and gave Ron a slight, one-armed hug, and then was pulled away and given a warm hug by Remus. Before he knew it, he was being hugged by Mrs. Weasley, and then Tonks, and then was pulled out of Tonks’s arms and was given another hug by Ginny. Harry’s head was spinning from being so jerked this way and that, and getting hugged to death, that he didn’t notice Draco’s dark look. When the hugs stopped, he finally got to just shaking hands with the rest of the guys, and then was ushered into the kitchen.

Draco followed behind, scowling.

The table was filled with all sorts of delicacies, and in the very middle was a five-layered chocolate cake. Harry just stared, dumbfounded, at it all. He vaguely heard anyone speaking to him, he was so shocked.

“Harry,” said Draco, shaking his shoulders from behind. “Come on, take a seat already; I’m feeling a bit claustrophobic from being closed in by all these Weasleys.”

When he snapped out of it, the twins grabbed onto each of his arms and pulled him toward the middle of the table, Draco and Hermione behind them. Fred and George made him sit down right in front of the cake, and with a word, Mr. Weasley had the candles on the cake lit; there were seventeen of them.

“Red and gold candles,” drawled Draco. “How original.”

“Shush, you,” said Harry, playfully batting a hand back at his boyfriend. Draco smiled, and then leaned against Harry, placing his arms around him.

“Make a wish,” he said in Harry’s ear.

Harry knew everyone was staring at him while he was thinking. He didn’t care, and he didn’t think saying his wish out loud would be a good idea; he heard it was bad luck. The last thing Harry needed was MORE bad luck on his side. Bad luck meaning Malfoy.

He filled his lungs full of air as much as possible, and then blew out the candles in one go. They all clapped and cheered, making Harry blush, and then they were tossing presents at him to unwrap.

“What did you wish for?” Draco asked in his ear.

“That’s none of your business,” Harry said quietly, and then he began to take the ribbon off of the nearest gift. It was a small book with a lock and key Spellotaped to the side. Confused, Harry searched the wrapping paper for a tag and on it he saw that it had Ginny’s name on it. “Thanks,” he said to her, glad to know that she wasn’t still too mad at him about the Malfoy ordeal. Ginny blushed slightly and shrugged. Harry turned his gaze back to the little book and finally realized that it was a journal. Harry wasn’t sure whether he should be embarrassed or not.

“A diary?” said Draco looking very amused.

“Shut up,” Harry warned. Then he went to open the rest of his gifts. Mrs. Weasley had given him the traditional green jumper with the golden ‘H’ on it, along with some baked biscuits. Fred and George got him something that looked like they had just invented it; it looked to be a normal looking quill and inkwell, but Harry knew better. He decided to ask them about it later. He opened Ron’s gift next, out of guilt that he hadn’t done his first, and was surprised to see that it was some sort of Secrecy Sensor like Mad-eye Moody (the fake one) had in his office, except it was a bit smaller.

“To add to your Dark Detectors collection,” said Ron as he went a little pink.

“Thanks,” said Harry, smiling. He went about opening the rest of his gifts—Tonks, Moody, and Remus even gave him something. Harry wasn’t shocked that Remus gave him a present, but one from Tonks and Moody was new. Tonks gave Harry a book called How To Be More Prepared For Auror Training, in which Harry was very thankful since he was sure, so far, that he was still planning on becoming an Auror. Remus had given Harry what he thought was just an ordinary book bag, but he was very surprised to learn that inside it was something that his mother and father used to own.

“It’s… a bunch of rolled up parchments,” said Draco, looking confused.

“Their old notes,” said Remus fondly. “It’s back when they first started to date each other, and when your father wasn’t talking to Sirius through his mirror, he was writing notes to Lily.”

Speechless, Harry unrolled one of the parchments and scanned it. It most certainly looked like teenage writing—teenagers in love, at that.

“Wow,” was all Harry could think of to say. “This is—thank you so much, Remus. But isn’t this a little… I don’t know… weird for me to be reading my parents’ love notes?”

“I thought you’d like them,” said Remus, frowning a little. “Just so you know for sure that they really loved each other—you know?”

Harry blinked; still a little shocked, but then looked at the parchment and began to read a bit:

Evans,

It’s very boring here. I just finished with scrubbing out the last of the cauldrons and now I have to sit and wait for the professor to come and inspect them. I wish it were the weekend, you know? Then we’d be walking around Hogsmeade and we’d be sharing a banana split or something, and then after we’ve exhausted ourselves there, we could go up to my room and exhaust ourselves another way…

Harry stopped there, his face feeling a bit warm. Rolling the parchment back up and sticking it back into the bag where the rest were, he quickly looked up at Remus, trying to get his mouth to work. He didn’t know what to say.

“You’re welcome, Harry,” said Remus. Harry beamed.

“All right, open mine, Potter,” said Moody. Harry jumped at the sound of his voice, but then went over to where Moody’s gift was. It looked huge, and Harry was hoping that Moody didn’t buy him something too expensive. He didn’t think something like that was worth it, especially for his birthday.

Harry kneeled in front of the giant, box-like present and slowly began to unwrap it. Draco had sat down next to him, looking very curious. When the wrapping was finally off, Harry sat backward on his hunches, stunned.

“It’s—it’s a trunk,” said Draco, confused.

“Is this-?” Harry turned to look up at Moody, who was oddly smiling. “This isn’t your old trunk, is it?”

“That it is, Potter,” said Moody.

“I—I can’t accept this.”

Moody frowned slightly. “Of course you can. I no longer need it. After being locked up in it for so long, it’s become something that I don’t seem to care for any longer. You can have it, Potter.”

“But—I—are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure,” said Moody. He limped over to the trunk and pointed at the locks. “When the first lock is opened, the trunk holds spell books of all kinds, in which you can keep all your books in. When you open the second lock, it reveals Sneakoscopes and whatever else you have for Dark Detectors or other trinkets, like your Invisibility Cloak—and so on, and so on, until you get to the last one, which opens an empty pit in which you can hide anything you wanted… and as you recall, that is where that bastard Crouch put me.”

“I remember,” said Harry. He continued to stare at the trunk, and then finally looked back up at Moody. “Are you sure you really want to give something like this to me? I have quite the record for breaking rules, you know.”

“And you do it all for a good reason,” said Moody. “I trust you with this, lad. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have given it to you.”

“Quit being so moral, Potter, and accept the damn thing!” Draco huffed. “Honestly, if I were ever given something this grand, I wouldn’t be making such a fuss!”

“That’s you, though,” said Harry with a cheeky grin. He looked back at Moody. “Ok, I accept it. But you don’t have to get me anything for Christmas, then.”

“We’ll see, Potter,” Moody smiled.

After they finished eating, and had as much cake and ice cream as they could—Harry, Draco, Hermione, Ron, and Tonks all walked upstairs to Ron’s room. Ginny was still skittish about being with them at the moment, so she just went into her room.

“Ok, Harry, what’s going on?” Hermione rounded on Harry the moment the door closed. “What’s this rather important thing you wanted to show me?”

Ron looked sideways at her, and the rest of them stared at Harry.

“You’re going to show her it, aren’t you?” said Draco, sighing.

“Of course I am,” said Harry. “I told her that I would over the phone.”

As Harry began to roll up his sleeve, Tonks and Hermione edged closer. Ron had already seen it, but he moved slightly closer too, so that he could get another look at it. When Harry finally revealed the Draconis Mark to them, Tonks and Hermione gasped about the same time, almost sounding like they were in stereo.

“What is that?” said Tonks, looking pale.

“Good question,” said Hermione, sounding more anxious about it than shocked. “That is no Dark Mark, that’s for sure.”

“It’s called the Draconis Mark, or Dragon Mark,” said Harry.

“It’s… all shiny,” said Tonks as she stared at it in some awe. “Like some weird Muggle sticker. Where’d you get it?”

Harry looked over at Draco, who looked at Tonks and Hermione with a raised eyebrow.

“You gave this to him?” said Hermione. Harry wasn’t sure if she was angry or not.

“Yeah, I did,” said Draco in a daring voice. “So what?”

“What spells did you use?” she asked. “It wasn’t anything Dark, was it? You could get into big trouble for it.”

“I just altered a spell to my taste, that’s all,” said Draco, slightly defensive. “It’s nothing bad, if that’s what you think.”

Hermione turned to Harry again. “Honestly, Harry, what were you thinking—letting Malfoy put something like this on you? He could have possessed you or taken control of you!”

“With this?” Harry said, raising his arm with the Mark on it. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m not!” Hermione huffed. “I’m serious, Harry! Malfoy could have tricked you—instead you LET him put this on you?”

Harry went red. “Well… not exactly ‘let’ him…”

Hermione narrowed her eyes, looking between the two boys. “What do you mean you didn’t let him? He forced himself on you?”

“Hermione, calm down! It’s no big deal, ok? This Mark isn’t bad.”

“You don’t know that, though, do you? No, you don’t!”

“Hermione, listen—this Mark… so far it’s been helping. It—it—Malfoy, tell her what we discovered about it!”

Draco blinked, clearly shocked to find out that he was supposed to be the one to tell Granger all about it. With a few more prods from Harry, however, he did tell Hermione everything they had learned about it together. When Draco finished, she looked somewhat better, but not completely convinced.

“You WERE dabbling in the Dark Arts, then?”

“It’s only dark if you use it for… for bad stuff,” said Draco, trying to explain. “And I’m not going to use this for anything bad. Just think, since we have these Marks on us, there’s no way we can get the Dark Mark.”

“Because your body already has a magical mark on you,” said Hermione, acknowledging. “But still—you two don’t know the half of what it does.”

Harry looked at the floor, sheepish. “We’ve got some ideas.”

“The bonding thing? Honestly, that’s probably just because you’re the only two that have them.”

“I think you’re wrong,” said Draco. “Our Marks are connected because I had mine on first, and when I put Potter’s Mark on him, I made sure that it was in sync with mine.”

Harry looked over at Tonks, who was still staring dumbfounded at it. Hermione was frowning.

“It’s fine, Hermione. Really, it is.”

“I don’t know, Harry… I think you should show Dumbledore…”

“NO!” Harry shouted a bit too loudly. “I don’t need to show him anything!”

They were silent for a moment as they stared at Harry, and then finally Hermione let out a long sigh. “Fine,” she said. “Do what you want. You always do.”

“Don’t you worry about Harry,” said Ron. “I’m sure he’ll be fine. Won’t you, Harry?”

“Of course I’ll be fine.”

Hermione glared at Draco. “And I suppose I should be happy for you now, Harry? Now that you’ve got yourself a boyfriend, who is, let us not forget, Draco Malfoy.”

“Who doesn’t have parents anymore,” said Harry, annoyed.

“Right,” Hermione sighed, looking tired. “Sorry. I guess Dumbledore had a good reason to keep him at the Dursleys with you for the summer, but…”

“Hermione… let’s not worry about anything anymore today, ok? I was just starting to have a good birthday…”

“All right, Harry, I’m sorry. What do you want to do for the rest of the day?”

Harry looked over at Draco, who shrugged. He guessed that meant that Malfoy didn’t care either way. He was glad, because he had truly missed his friends over the holiday, and would love to spend some time with them. When he told them this, they looked rather pleased, but when Harry looked back over at Draco, he couldn’t tell if Draco was upset about his choice or not.

“Is Ginny all right, then?” Harry asked, feeling somewhat worried about her.

“She’s getting better,” said Ron. They all sat down on the bed that would be Harry’s for the rest of the summer. Draco sat the closest to him, and he leaned back so that they were supporting each other.

“She still seems a little down sometimes,” said Tonks. “I wish I knew how to cheer her up. I even tried to do the really weird noses and ears and such for her, but she would only crack a small smile. She used to really laugh at all the weird ones I did.”

“I’m sure she’ll come around,” said Hermione. “We’ll talk to her when we go into her room for the night.”

“You’re staying too?” Harry asked Tonks.

“Yup,” she said, smiling. “That doesn’t bother you, does it?”

“No, of course not,” said Harry. “It’s better than when Percy was here.”

Draco snorted. “That’s for sure.”

“Why? What happened?” Tonks asked. Together, Harry, Ron, and Draco told her about what went on during their last visit. During the appropriate times, Tonks laughed or frowned. “Oh, I shouldn’t be so amused by what you guys did, or what the twins did, but it seems like it was for his own good. He’s always been such a stick in the mud.”

“Speaking of the twins,” said Harry. “How’s their shop coming along?”

“Just fine,” said Ron. “As you saw, they’ve made quite a few new items.”

“The quill and inkwell?” Harry grinned. “What do they do?”

“I’m not sure,” said Ron. “I never asked.”

“If it’s from them, I’d be skeptical,” said Tonks. “I could check it over for you, if you want me to.”

“Are you that good at checking for dark spells?” Harry asked.

“Well, I’m not the greatest, but I’m ok. Comes with the job, see.” Tonks took out her wand and then tapped it on the quill and inkwell when Harry had pulled them out from the trunk Moody gave him. She announced a spell that Harry didn’t catch, and then the quill and inkwell glowed blue.

“Is that a good thing?”

“It’s good… at least, I’m sure it is. My spell can’t detect anything, but there are ways of concealing stuff within items where it would have to take a strong bit of magic to show it.”

“Hey, this is the twins we’re talking about here,” said Ron. “I doubt they’d give Harry something really dangerous. Plus, they made it! If anything happened to Harry, they’d be in real trouble, and I’m not talking about the Ministry either.”

“Mrs. Weasley,” said Tonks, nodding and smiling.

“Right you are,” said Ron.

Draco had leaned over Harry’s shoulder to get a good look at them, too, but didn’t say anything.

“Couldn’t you use that spell on their Draconis Marks?” Hermione asked Tonks.

“I could, but I doubt I’d find anything wrong. Like I said, my spell isn’t the greatest, but Moody could probably do it better than me.”

“I’m NOT letting anyone else know about these Marks right now, ok?” Harry said in a serious tone. “So just drop it.”

“All right, I’m sorry!” Hermione said.

The rest of the time spent they talked about everything they could—even Quidditch. Harry and Draco didn’t say a word about how they would be feeling about being against each other this year, so they changed the subject to something more pleasant. When it was almost ten, Hermione finally yawned, and then bid them all good night. Tonks decided that she should go too, and so the girls left the room for Ginny’s. Harry, Draco, and Ron all stared at one another for a bit, and then Draco sighed, ending the silence.

“Well, we should go to bed too,” he winked at Harry. “Wouldn’t you agree, love?”

“Huh? Um… Oh!” Harry blushed.

“What?” said Ron, glancing back and forth between them. “You two aren’t going to do what I think you are…”

Harry fidgeted in one spot. “Well, Ron, you see… I promised Draco that we’d…”

“Oh, no… no, don’t you dare…”

“I’m sorry, Ron! We’ll, um… we’ll use a silencing spell. I promise.”

“Bloody hell,” Ron groaned as he got up from the bed as if it burned him. “This is not happening…”

“Ron, I’m sorry,” Harry tried, “I’ll make it up to you.”

“You better!” said Ron as he began to get his pajamas on.

Harry and Draco stared at each other for a bit. Harry was blushing slightly as Draco wiggled his eyebrows. Harry wished he hadn’t made that promise… doing it at the Dursleys was one thing, but here at the Weasleys?

“Well, Harry? What are you waiting for? Strip.”

Ron made a small choking noise. Harry blushed, again.

“Don’t make me strip you myself,” said Draco, trying to sound intimidating.

Harry glared slightly, but then slowly started to take his shirt off. The moment he had, however, Draco pushed Harry back onto the bed and started to attack his neck again.

“Draco!” Harry squeaked. Draco just hummed something into Harry’s skin, and then started to make little kiss trails down his chest. They both heard Ron groan in disgust from the other side of the room.

“Oh, right… silencing spell,” said Draco, grinning. He took out his wand and easily preformed said spell.

“Now,” said Draco as he put away his wand and looked down at his boyfriend, “where was I?”

Harry smiled. “Right here,” he said, pulling Draco down for a deep kiss.

TBC…