Visions of an Empath

Chapter 12

Harry sighed and pushed his book aside, reaching for another. He scowled at Ron when the redhead tossed his own book onto the floor and grumbled once again about having to research even though they weren’t in school. He dearly wanted to take that book and smack his friend upside the head, but Hermione beat him to it.

Hermione slapped Ron on the back of the head and glared at him. “Honestly, Ron, it’s your own fault we’re having to do this. If you’d just sit still long enough to actually meditate, we wouldn’t have to search for a spell or potion to tell you what your animagus form is.”

“Ow, Hermione. Why do you have to hit me all the time?” whinged Ron pitifully, rubbing his sore head.

Hermione glared and raised her fist threateningly, making Ron squeak and lean back. Harry grinned at the scene and returned to his book. The next chapter caught his eye, detailing a potion that could be used to reveal animagus forms.

“I found it, Hermione. I don’t know if we have all the ingredients, though.”

Hermione took the book and read the ingredient list, biting her lip thoughtfully as she did a mental inventory of the ingredients they had on hand. She grinned when she realised they had everything they needed. Even better, the potion only took thirty minutes to brew.

“Give me about thirty-five minutes, Ron, and you’ll get to see your animagus form.”

Ron whooped in excitement. He couldn’t wait to see what his animagus form was. He hoped it was something interesting. A tiger would be awesome, or maybe a bear. Something big and fearsome would be perfect.

Harry just smiled fondly at his excitable friend. “How about we play a game of chess while Hermione works in peace?”

As Ron happily agreed, Hermione gave Harry a grateful smile and slipped out of the room. Harry nodded slightly and turned his attention toward the game. He wouldn’t win, of course, but he’d like to draw the game out for as long as possible to keep Ron occupied until Hermione was done.

Despite his best efforts, though, Ron trounced him three times by the time Hermione returned. Ron grinned at the disgusted look on Harry’s face and clapped the brunette on the shoulder. “You’re getting better, mate. It took ten whole minutes to beat you each time.”

“Yeah, thanks. That makes me feel heaps better, Ron,” Harry pouted, scowling at the chessboard. No matter how much he practised, he never got any better at the bloody game.

“Are you ready, Ron?” asked Hermione, holding out one of the potion phials.

Ron nodded and grabbed the phial, gulping it down quickly. A ghostly image of red fox formed in front of him. He looked down at the image and scowled. How did he manage to end up as a puny little fox? After a moment, though, he shrugged. “I was hoping for something bigger, but a fox is good, too. What do you think you’ll be, Hermione?”

“I don’t know,” said Hermione. Taking a deep breath, she quickly gulped down her own potion. A ghostly image of a calico cat with fluffy fur formed in front of her. “That makes sense, I guess. I do have an insatiable curiosity.”

“Now you just have to work on the actual transformations. They’re relatively easy,” said Harry. “Watch me.” He transformed into his drake form, the transition between forms coming easily from practice.

Hermione gasped in awe at the beautiful drake and hesitantly reached out to touch Harry, gently stroking the side of his face. “Isn’t he just gorgeous, Ron?”

Ron scowled playfully at his girlfriend calling his best friend gorgeous. “Hey, no hitting on Harry, Hermione.”

Hermione just grinned at Ron. “You’re just jealous because you’re not a beautiful drake, too.”

“You’re damn right,” said Ron judiciously, smirking at Harry. He moved closer to Hermione and reached out to touch Harry, as well, but stopped short when twin angry growls sounded in the room. Hermione and Ron whirled around and came face to face with a very pissed off drake and vampire.

“Get away from my mate,” snarled Lucius venomously, glaring furiously at the two encroachers.

Harry quickly reversed his transformation and stepped toward Lucius. “Lucius, what are you doing here? I thought...”

Lucius pushed the impudent girl who had touched his mate out of the way, completely ignoring the redhead’s cry of protest, and grabbed Harry, lifting the brunette into his arms and heading toward the stairs. “We need to talk. Severus?”

Severus glared at Hermione and Ron as he silently stalked passed them, following Lucius and Harry up the stairs.

Ron scowled at their retreating backs as he helped Hermione to her feet. “Those bastards. Who do they think they are?”

“They feel threatened,” said Hermione reasonably. “The bond isn’t complete, so they’re afraid someone else will take their mate.”

“We’re his best friends. It’s not like we’d ever do that,” said Ron indignantly.

Hermione just smiled ruefully. “Right now, everyone’s a threat.” She looked up toward Harry’s room and sighed. “Come on, Ron. We have more research to do.”

***

Harry got over his shock rather quickly and tried to struggle free. “Let me down, Lucius!”

“I think not. You might decide to run again,” said Lucius bluntly, stalking down the corridor to Harry’s room.

“I did not run away,” snapped Harry. “Now put me down, dammit!”

Lucius ignored his mate as he walked into the bedroom. While Severus shut and locked the door, Lucius reluctantly set Harry on his feet. Harry scowled at the blonde and moved to the other side of the room.

“You dragged me up here to talk, so talk,” said Harry grumpily. Although he was happy to see Lucius, he was a bit irritated at the blonde’s high-handed attitude since he’d arrived. Really, did Lucius have to push Hermione down for no reason?

Lucius sighed softly and sat down on the edge of the bed, patting the space beside him pointedly. Harry started to refuse, but the mulish look on Lucius’ face changed his mind. He knew that if he didn’t do as Lucius wanted, he’d never get any answers.

Harry huffed irritably and sat down beside Lucius, arms crossed stubbornly across his chest. He looked over at Severus, but the vampire seemed content to stand against the wall, staring intently at him. The look of hunger in Severus’ eyes brought a blush to Harry’s face.

“Severus and I had a long talk this morning, and we’ve decided that...” Lucius paused and took a deep breath. “We decided that sharing you was the only option for us.”

“Excuse me?” asked Harry incredulously. “You can’t decide something like that without talking to me first. What if I don’t want both of you as my mate? Did you even once think about how I may feel about this decision?”

Both Slytherins looked taken aback by that question. Honestly, the thought hadn’t even occurred to them. They’d been more focussed on settling the tensions between them rather than how all of this truly effected Harry.

“So tell us,” said Severus curtly. “If you won’t have both of us, which of us do you want?”

Harry looked at them both for a long moment before turning to Lucius. “I love you, Lucius, and even though you’ve never said as much, I know you feel the same way about me.” He kissed Lucius chastely on the lips before turning to face Severus. “Severus, I honestly don’t know how I feel about you right now. I... you’re a snarky bastard, but I actually like that about you now. I respect you for all you’ve done in this war, and those feelings have only grown stronger over the last few months. How do you... Is it just your vampire side that wants me?”

“It started out that way,” said Severus bluntly. “However, that is no longer the case.”

Harry looked at Severus thoughtfully. Because of the vampire’s proficiency with Occlumency, it was harder to read Severus’ emotions. The only time he really could, in fact, was when the vampire was in a state of high emotion. As he mulled over his thoughts, Harry unconsciously reached toward Severus with his empathy, needing to feel the true extent of the vampire’s feelings toward him.

Severus felt a small brush of magic against his skin and tensed slightly until he realised it was Harry’s magic. He slowly released his rigid control from his emotions, allowing Harry to feel what he truly felt. Harry gasped in surprise when Severus’ emotions rushed through him. He could feel how much Severus and his vampire loved him along with the vampire’s possessiveness and longing for him and Severus’ protectiveness.

“Wow,” said Harry dazedly.

Severus nodded curtly and pulled his emotions back. He glanced at Lucius and saw the blonde staring at Harry with a sad look on his face. Harry seemed to pick up on it, though, and he turned to face Lucius.

“What’s wrong, Lucius?”

Seeing the wonder on Harry’s face as he felt Severus’ emotions brought a sharp pain to his heart. Lucius knew Harry loved him, he’d even admitted as much, but would that be enough for Harry to stay with him? Vampires could be very compelling when they wished, and it seemed that Severus did indeed wish. “You’ve chosen Severus, haven’t you?” He really hoped that wasn’t that case. He’d really hate to have to kill Severus.

“What?” asked Harry dumbly. “No! I love you, Lucius. Did you really expect me to just toss you aside like that?” He vaguely heard Severus growl at his answer and hurried to explain. “I thought... you’re really willing to allow Severus to claim me, as well?”

Lucius smiled wryly. “It’s either that, or Severus and I fight to the death over you. Which would you rather choose?”

“Would it really come to that?” asked Harry, aghast at the thought of the two men fighting to the death over him.

“Yes,” hissed Severus softly.

Harry swallowed hard as he looked at Severus. The vampire was deadly serious. A quick glance at Lucius revealed the same look on the blonde’s face. They really would kill each other over him. Well, he couldn’t let that happen, could he? He loved Lucius, and he cared for Severus, so it wasn’t exactly a hardship to be in a relationship with them both.

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing it won’t come to that then, isn’t it?” asked Harry.

A dark smile crossed Severus’ face, and he pulled Harry off the bed and into his arms. “So you agree to allow both Lucius and I to claim you as our mate?”

“Y-yes, I agree.” As soon as Harry verbally agreed, Lucius stood up from the bed and embraced the teen from behind.

“Then let’s get started, shall we?” asked Lucius seductively.

“Now?” squeaked Harry nervously. He’d never had sex before, and his first time would be with both of them. That was a lot to take in.

Severus smirked at his nervous mate. “Don’t worry, lovely. You’ll definitely enjoy the claiming. We’ll see to it thoroughly.” With that said, he suddenly lifted Harry off his feet and devoured the teen’s mouth hungrily, wrapping Harry’s legs around his waist.

Lucius kissed the length of Harry’s neck, nimbly unbuttoning the teen’s shirt and tugging it off his shoulders. Taking advantage of the newly bared skin, Lucius swept his hands across Harry’s chest, lightly pinching the brunette’s small nipples. The blonde smirked at the answering shiver he got from his mate, as well as the muffled moan.

“Do you like that, Harry? That’s just the beginning,” he purred seductively in Harry’s ear.

As Lucius continued to play with his nipples, Harry gasped and threw his head back against the blonde’s shoulders, breaking his kiss with Severus. Lucius smirked at Severus and leaned down to claim Harry’s lips in another deep kiss. Severus answered the challenge by kissing and nipping down the length of Harry’s neck, licking across his claiming mark on the teen’s neck.

Harry mewled softly, shuddering in pleasure. Ever since Severus had bitten him, the mark had been sensitive to the slightest touch. He yelled hoarsely when Severus sank his fangs into his neck, bucking uncontrollably against the vampire. When Lucius’ hand brushed across his groin, Harry came with a shout, shuddering fiercely with his release.

***

“I’m hungry,” said Ron, slamming his book shut. “We’ve been at this for hours.”

“Not even thirty minutes,” said Hermione wryly. “But if you’re that hungry, by all means, let’s find something to eat.”

“Great!” said Ron exuberantly, jumping to his feet.

Leaving their books on the table, Hermione and Ron headed toward the kitchen. As they passed the stairs, though, they heard Harry give a hoarse shout. Hermione gasped and started up the stairs, but Ron grabbed her arm to stop her.

Hermione looked at Ron in question only to see the teen’s face as red as his hair. “Ron?”

“You really don’t want to go up there, Hermione,” muttered Ron, looking cagily at the stairs.

“But something’s wrong with Harry. You heard him,” said Hermione worriedly.

Ron blushed even more. “That wasn’t a painful shout, Hermione. Do you even remember who’s up there with him?”

“What does that have to do with... Oh.” Hermione blushed just as fiercely when she realised what Ron meant.

“Yes, oh,” said Ron, pulling Hermione toward the kitchen. “And to be perfectly honest, I have no desire whatsoever to hear anymore.” Just as he said that, though, they heard Harry shout again. “Haven’t they ever heard of silencing charms?” moaned Ron pitifully, trying to cover his ears while still holding Hermione’s hand. “I’m going to be traumatised for life because of this.”

“I’m sure Harry said the same thing when he was forced to watch you and Lavender pawing each other in the Common Room,” said Hermione snippily, snatching her hand away from Ron. It still infuriated her when she thought about it.

“Come on, Hermione. I thought you’d forgiven about that,” whinged Ron.

Hermione just huffed and stalked into the kitchen.

Ron sighed. “I really need to learn to keep my damn mouth shut.”

***

By the time Harry regained his senses, he was completely naked, but Lucius and Severus were on the other side of the room, having a heated conversion. They were speaking too softly for him to hear the conversation clearly, though. As the argument continued, Harry began to get irritated. Apparently, they would rather argue with each other rather than have sex with him.

Harry climbed off the bed and grabbed Lucius’ shirt irritably, pulling it over his head. Almost immediately, it was pulled back off, and Harry turned around to see Lucius with the shirt in his hand. Severus stood beside him with his arms crossed.

“And just where do you think you’re going?” asked Lucius.

“To visit Ron and Hermione, of course,” said Harry calmly, turning to find his own damn shirt.

“Oh, no, Harry. We are far from done here,” said Lucius.

Harry turned to face the blonde with a scowl. “Really? I figured since you and Severus were on the other side of the room arguing instead of in the bed with me that we were done.”

Lucius scowled at Severus. “This is your fault, you know. Harry was my mate first, so I should be the one to claim him first. All you had to do was agree, but you just had to argue about it.”

“I marked him first,” said Severus stubbornly. “That gives me the right to claim him first.”

Harry stared at the two Slytherins incredulously. “You were arguing about who gets to fuck me first?” They both nodded. “Well, here’s the answer. Neither of you. I’m going downstairs.” Harry scooped up his discarded clothing and stomped out of the room. Ducking into the bathroom, Harry quickly redressed, cursing Lucius and Severus with every breath.

Taking a deep breath, Harry went downstairs to find Ron and Hermione. Noting the time, he checked the kitchen first. Harry snorted softly when he saw his friends at the table. Ron was so predictable.

“Hey, guys,” said Harry with forced cheerfulness. He still wanted to hit Lucius and Severus several times with something painful, but seeing his friends definitely put him in a somewhat better mood.

Hermione and Ron looked at Harry and immediately blushed. Harry blinked at the reaction, but a blush covered his own face when he realised they hadn’t put a silencing charm on the room. Could this day get any more embarrassing? Why, of course, it could.

Lucius stormed into the kitchen, wearing only a pair of trousers, with an equally undressed Severus behind him. Severus grabbed Harry by the arm and dragged him out of the kitchen, ignoring the teen’s yelp of protest. Lucius, on the other hand, handed Hermione a piece of paper.

“Memorise it and burn it,” said Lucius shortly, scowling at the pair. Without another word, he stalked out of the room.

Hermione and Ron looked down at the paper and saw an address. Hermione suddenly giggled. “I guess they’re tired of Harry running away from them, so they’re taking him back to the safe house.”

“What do you mean?” asked Ron curiously. “From what we heard, Harry wasn’t doing too much running, Hermione.”

“You have no observational skills, Ron,” sighed Hermione, shaking her head at her oblivious boyfriend..

“Hey, my observational skills are just fine,” protested Ron indignantly. Hermione just smirked at him. “What did I miss?”

“Severus and Lucius were definitely frustrated about something. Now what do you imagine that something was?” asked Hermione ruefully.

Ron thought for a moment and suddenly laughed. “I didn’t know Harry had it in him. They pissed him off somehow, so now he’s holding out.”

Hermione laughed and climbed to her feet. “Come on, Ron. We have a safe house to find.”

“Right behind you, love,” said Ron, following Hermione out of the kitchen.