Soar on Delicate Wings

**Please do not comment on how I write. It's simple. If you don't like it, you don't have to read it. If there are mistakes however, you are more than welcome to point those out. This is Harry/Draco you must like it if you're in this section.**


CHAPTER TWO: PAST AND FUTURE COLLIDE


The next morning saw two figures standing outside the school gates waiting for a third party member. As soon as she arrived her brown eyes met Draco’s silvery ones.


“Malfoy,” a nod of her head.


“Granger.” Draco, Hermione and Ron were still having difficulties with each other, but they were trying, for Harry’s sake.


“All right let’s get going.” With that the three of them Apparated away.


Their first stop was the closest manor, and the last one used. At first they didn’t see anything, until it seemed like an Invisibility Cloak had been taken off. Both Hermione and Harry stood in awe of the sheer size of the building. Draco however figured it was much smaller that he one he grew up in. The building seemed to be in good shape, but the yard obviously lacked attention. Finally Harry was able to step forward, through the wards that still protected the place.


Walking up to the front door Harry was surprised to see two house elves in the large entrance way. Their potato sack outfits where definitely the worse for wear, but their faces were bright when they saw Harry and his friends.


“We has waited so long for Master Harry Potter sir to return,” the first one said, who appeared to be male.


“Return?” Harry questioned.


“Once Sir James bring young baby to see Master and Mistress Harold Potter. Then the sad news. All gone, but Master Harry Potter sir still lived. What joy! So Milly and Sidy, we keep cleaning, knew you’d come someday.”


“Please just call me Harry,” Milly snickered, before explaining herself.


“Sir James asked same thing of us, Sir Harry.”


“Well we’re going to look around. Could you show us where the library is?” Harry asked.


“Most glad to!” With that the two of them were off.


While they followed behind, Hermione hissed at Harry. “This is horrible. All these years by themselves, cleaning.”


“I know, but I don’t think freeing them will be good for their sanity. But I can talk to them about staying here, but working for something. After all you’ll need someone to help you with the library and it’ll get them used to people again,” The group stopped just outside the double doors that stretched all the way to the ceiling. The doors opened to reveal the huge library which had three suspended walkways. All three of them stood in shock at the amount of books lining the walls and several bookshelves in the middle of the room.


“Master Potter enchanted room so that books come when you speak title or author or subject,” Milly said.


“I knew the Potter’s liked to collect books, but not even the school library has this many,” Draco said, scanning the titles closest to him.


“Master Potter collected books from all of the other Potter dwellings. Just before death,” Sidy said, bursting with pride.


“So how’s this for a starting library?” Harry grinned at Hermione.


Draco, intent on testing to see if the enchantment still worked, decided to try it. “Books on Fae.”


Several books flew out of their space on the shelves and landed in a neat pile on one of two tables. Curious to see if the other table did anything he pulled a book off the shelf and set it on the other table. It sat there for only a moment before whooshing back where it came from.


“Well that’s handy for putting books away,” Harry laughed.


“So does that mean that there aren’t any books in the other Potter homes?” Hermione asked Sidy.


“Master Potter fairly sure he got all , but insisted that more be some in hiding,” Sidy said.


Draco listened while he looked through the books that came on his request, putting several on the table to send them back to their places. Coming to the bottom of the pile he had to restrain a gasp, quickly opening and flipping through its pages. Harry stood on his toes to get a good look at the book over Draco’s shoulder.


“What is it?” Harry asked.


“This is a book lost by the Fae over two hundred years ago. We thought it was lost forever. Where on earth did he find this?” Draco asked.


“Master Potter keep book in study where found all the books,” Milly said.
“Can you take us there?” Harry asked.


They nodded eagerly and left the room expecting them to follow. Harry noticed that Draco clung to the book desperately wanting to take it, and Hermione looked like she wanted to stay with the books. Noticing the look on his friend’s faces he sighed.


“You can have the book Draco. I guess if there’s anything important you can just show it to me later. Hermione you can take some books, but no more than you can carry out of here. After all, this will be yours soon. So any other Fae books you don’t have, Malfoy?” At the blonde’s nod he continued. “You can take those too, but I can have copies made for the Malfoy collection. I’m going to the study, you two can stay here if you want.”


Draco shook his head and motioned to the books on the table. “Those are the ones I don’t have or haven’t seen.”


“I’ll stay here, just for a little bit,” Hermione said.


Nodding, the boys left her there with the books, following after the two house elves. They stopped in front of a set of French doors and the creatures looked up at Harry.


“This door is locked, only Potter blood can open. Milly and I clean with magic from outside.”


Harry nodded, placing his hand on the silver doorknob it squeaked a little from misuse but there was a loud resonating click and the doors swung open. Inside the study was a comfy looking couch, a large ancient mahogany desk and a black leather chair. On either side of the room were more bookshelves, filled with ancient looking books. Walking into the room, green eyes fixed on the desk, there was the usual writing supplies, two books and a letter.


Sitting down at the desk he looked at the letter, his name scrawled across the slightly yellowed envelope. With shaking hands he opened the envelope and unfolded the letter.


“Dearest Harry,


If you are reading this letter than you are possibly the last of the Potters. When your father brought you over, I could tell that you would grow up to be a wonderful man. I am sorry that your great-gran and I couldn’t get to know you better. It is hard for me to write this, knowing that only several days ago your parents were murdered. We would have loved to take you in, Albus even offered, but we won’t live much longer. Your great-gran is sick, and with her I will die as well. It is very possible that you now know your heritage, and if you know any, your question is even though we may not be pure-blooded Fae your great-gran is still my soul mate, my life and without her I will become weaker until the end. When that day comes, everything the Potters own will belong to you and your descendants.


I am spending my last days collecting the Potter’s books, placing them here, where Milly and Sidy will care for them. I tried to free them, before the end, informing them it could be years until you came, but they insisted on staying. Please care for them in my place. This room is filled with a lot of my favorite books, a whole section dedicated to your heritage. There are also journals, from past Potter’s even your parents left one before…


Enough about that, these two books on the desk are very important, one of them is a catalogue of every book in the house, including where I found them and the other is a book that needs to be returned to the Fae council. Please use the Potter estates however you see fit although one is in fairly bad condition. There should be enough gold to restore it in the family vaults. Please remember that we will always love you.


Your Great-Grandfather, Harold Potter”


Harry wasn’t even aware that he had started crying until a smudge appeared on the letter. Carefully folding the letter back up Harry tucked it back into the envelope. Using the back of his sleeve to wipe away the salty drops, green eyes turned to look at the two of the books. First picking up the Fae book he opened it, and it seemed to be a list dating back before the time of Christ. Flipping towards the end he noticed the list stopped about a third of the way through the book. Finding the end of the print he noticed it was his name, and next to it was Draco’s. Confused he pointed it out to Draco, who took one look at it and dropped the book he was currently holding.


Gently he took the book out of Harry’s hands, turning back a few pages before tensing and nearly dropping it also.


“What is it?” Harry asked.


“This is even more important than the other book I found…” The blonde paused, taking a deep breath. “This is a record of every Fae, full or less, and the name next to them is a name of their mate. This book hasn’t been seen since shortly after Christ’s death.”


“Whoa, wait?! Does that mean you’re my mate?” Harry asked, freaked out.


“Yes Potter, I believe it does. It might also explain why there are now two full-blooded Fae at the same time,” Draco said.


Harry waited in silence for a moment before nudging the blonde to continue.


“There has not been two full-blooded Fae since shortly after Christ’s birth, and before that, all the matings were two full-blooded Faes. Then the Fae started mating with muggles, wizards and witches alike. There is a rumor, that when two full-blooded Fae once again mate, a dangerous enemy to the Fae will rise, intent on eliminating the Fae. To be completely sure I’ll have to translate the other book, which if filled with predictions and prophecies.” At the mention of prophecies Harry groaned, the boy had certainly had his fill of them.


Harry bent and picked up the book Draco had dropped and put it with the other one on the table. Then scanning some of the books on the shelves he noticed his parent’s names on the spine of a worn red and the other green book. Removing them from the shelf he realized that these were the journals his great-grandfather spoke of. Also setting them with the others on the desk, fully intending to take them with him. Finally he wanted to see the rest of the manor, asking Milly and Sidy to show him around. Both of the boys marveled at the state of each room, surprised they were in such good shape. Harry tried not to think about the boy next to him being his mate, but now that Harry thought about it, Draco had always seemed more relaxed when it was just the two of them. Shaking his head clear of any thoughts of them being together for the rest of their lives he put his mind back into the tour.


Noticing that most of the rooms were large with lots of wall space he decided this would be the best place for a library. When they finished the tour it was well after lunchtime and Harry remembered the lunch he had Kreacher make this morning. Collecting Hermione they sat at the dining room table.


“Anything we can get?” Sidy asked.


“Some tea and water would be nice,” Harry requested.


With a loud crack the two of them were gone.


“So Hermione, I think this place would be perfect for a library. There are lots of big rooms and a couple of smaller ones. I was hoping that maybe when you and Ron get married you could live here, you know, to watch over the place. There would be two bedrooms, a study and this dining room for things like guests and family.”


“Oh Harry I would love to, but you know Ron wouldn’t take it for free,” Hermione said.


“It wouldn’t be free, after all having an Auror living in what I hope will be the largest library in England will scare away those pesky thieves. Plus he’ll only really be getting those five rooms, the rest will still belong to the Potters. I’ll even ask him to put up all the defense wards, that way it won’t be for free,” Harry grinned.


Hermione smiled back. “What about the other two Potter manors and the cottages?”


“Well I’ll probably keep both a manor and a cottage for myself, but I was thinking of renting the other cottage to George for another store. His business is booming in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. As for the other manor I was thinking of either an orphanage or perhaps a werewolf safe haven. It depends on what the place looks like,” Harry said thinking.


“What about the Black estates?”


“Merlin, Potter, how many estates do you own?” Draco teased.


“Seven manors, five cottages, the Order of the Phoenix headquarters and the land my parents used to live on. As for what I’m going to do with the Black estates I guess I’m not really sure yet. I suppose whichever other Potter manor doesn’t get used as I’ll make a Black manor it. I want to donate one to St. Mungo’s, I’ll keep one and not sure what to do with the fourth one. As for the three cottages I want one for Hagrid so he can take care of injured creatures, one for Kreacher and keep one for myself,” Harry said, taking a bite of his food.


“What about Milly and Sidy?” Hermione asked, watching him intently.


“I suppose I’ll ask them if they want to go free and if not I’ll have them stay with one of the manors. Of course they’ll be treated just like I do Kreacher,” Harry said.


A loud crack and the two house elves in question were back, with two trays one with water glasses and the other tea. The glasses were set before them and the tea was poured.
“What do you think of being set free?” Harry asked.


“Oh no Sir Harry. The Potters have always been good to us. Would never think about leaving,” Milly said.


“Do the Potters have any other house elves beside you two?”


“Just one, takes care of the cottages, Twill,” Milly said. “He visits often.”


“Then what would you two think of either: helping Hermione here, building and managing the biggest library England will ever have. Or working at an orphanage.” With that Milly squeaked.


Sidy smiled and explained at Harry’s curious look. “Milly always love children. She was happy to see Sir Harry when just a babe. Sidy have always liked Master Potter’s books, would like to stay here.”


Hermione was about to protest when Harry held a hand to silence her. “Well Hermione and her future husband will be living here eventually, so all I really want you to do is help out with the library. Miss Granger won’t like it if you help her out with the household chores. The same will go for you Milly, you’ll be there for the children, making sure they are well cared for and happy. I’ll have to find someone to run the orphanage, help restore it and everything.”


“We thank you for your generosity,” Sidy said.


“You’ll do well to get some presentable clothes, after all, you’re part of the Potter family.” Harry said, smiling at them.


“I’ll do it,” Hermione said, also smiling at them.


With that they finished their lunch, bid farewell to the house elves and took a tour of another manor. Harry who deemed that this one would make a good orphanage, as it only needed a few small repairs and other inside preparations he began to think that Ginny would be good to take care of children. He began to think about what to do with the landscaping and an image of Neville leaning over his plants came to Harry’s mind. By the time they were done it was starting to get dark and they decided to call it a night.
As Harry and Draco trekked back to the castle an uncomfortable silence fell between them. Harry was about to open his mouth to comment on their mating when Draco shot him a look.


“We can take this as slow as we want, Harry. It doesn’t have to be instant. Just take some time to think about it first.” With that the blonde was gone with a billowing of his cape that Snape would have been proud of.