Alluring Lullaby

Authors Note: This story is moving quickly through my head. I don\'t currently have a beta for this series, so bare with me. Thanks to Imagination444 for his request of this story as well as for his entertaining reviews! I\'m posting this early (tonight instead of tomorrow morning) because I have no idea if I\'ll get the chance to post tomorrow or not.



Chapter 3



The Nix was perched on an outcropping of rocks in the center of the spring, watching the progression of the pale white steed carrying the hapless human who had found him the night before. It was just as he had suspected.



Flailing wildly as only humans do, Draco sat atop the horse, and would soon be pulled under the water to meet his watery doom. The Nix watched curiously, unsure of what he would do. Most of him wanted to leave the human to his fate, in which case he would no longer need worry about the young Malfoy boy stumbling upon his glade again. Who was he to interfere in the ways of nature and magic? He should just let the boy drown, and let the brook horse have its victory.



Another part of the Nix’s mind however was begging him to stop the horse and to save the lovely human boy. He really was quite beautiful, and it would be a shame to waste such stunning good looks in the depth of the water. But more than that the Nix felt a pull from the boy, something he had never felt toward a human in these many long centuries of existence.



This connection intrigued him, and as he saw the brook horse barreling down into the water, pulling the young boy with it, he decided at last that he wanted to explore this new feeling.



He leapt easily from the rocks and dove into the spring, never even making a sound or ripple on the waters surface. He pulled the limp and silent body from the back of the horse and swam easily with him to the rocks in the center of the pool.



The Nix placed the young Malfoy child on the rocks, stretching him out and ignoring the angry braying of the Bäckahästen as it climbed back out of the pool. “He is mine, I saw him first,” the Nix called, waving the great white horse away.



The creature obeyed with a huff and tromped back into the woods, leaving the Nix to focus his attention on the lovley pale boy lying in front of him.



Draco’s skin shown blue in the sunlight and the Nix stared at him curiously, tracing featherlight fingertips along his jaw. He leaned down and pressed his lips lightly to those of the dying boy and pulled back roughly as Draco sputtered to life.



Draco coughed and spat the water filling his lungs all over the rock while the Nix watched on, frowning at the display of fragile mortality. He wondered briefly if he would ever die, or rather if anything could ever kill him. Surely nothing so easily as a simple lungful of water nearly did to the Malfoy child.



And he was just a child, a mere infant in comparison to the Nix.



“Are you better yet?” he asked the boy, who was now shivering, his breath coming in quick gasps.



The boy started and looked nearly ready to scream, but the Nix held a delicate finger to his lips, quieting the boy instantly. “Y-You, you’re the one I saw last night,” he stammered.



The Nix grinned and nodded, happy that the chill water hadn’t dampened the boys senses too severely. He knew his voice would affect the young Malfoy child in an otherworldly way, so he refrained from speaking just yet.



“You saved me?” Draco whispered, and again the Nix only nodded, very pleased with himself.



Draco looked around the glade, but his eyes never left the Nix’s for long. For some reason this pleased him, though he couldn’t explain the reason for his happiness, not even to himself.



“Do you have a name?” Draco asked him.



The Nix thought about the ramifications of speaking to the boy, and whether or not he would be enchanted into a blithering stupor. He eventually decided that he would never be able to have his own questions answered if he couldn’t speak, so he tried. “I have many names,” he answered, waiting for those silvery eyes to glaze over with whatever emotion alleviated humans of their capacity to think clearly.



But it never occurred.



Draco blinked and shook his head slightly but was able to meet his gaze and smile. No trace of enchantment fogged over the boy’s stunning eyes and for the second time the Nix was startled by his own pleasure at yet another revelation about the boy. “What can I call you?” he asked.



“What do you want to call me?” the Nix asked curiously. The need to name everything was one of those human things that he did not quite understand.



“Surely you must have a name, hasn’t anyone called after you before?” Draco asked.



The Nix pondered, thinking back as long as he could recall and he couldn’t recount anything. “No, nothing comes to mind. You could always call me Nix,” he offered.



But Draco shook his head. “No, that just won’t do. You need a proper name,” he added. The Nix looked at him skeptically for a moment and wondered why this boy wasn’t adversely affected by the sound of his voice. The brook horse had ensnared him easily enough and their enchantments were very similar.



“I’ll call you Harry,” Draco said at last.



“Harry?” the Nix repeated with a frown.



“Yes, it’s the first thing I noticed about you, your long flowing black hair, plus it’s a noble name, the name of Kings,” he mused, reaching his hand out to touch the raven locks and then letting it drop immediately as if scalded by the air around him. “I could call you emerald, for your eyes if you prefer?”



The Nix laughed his tinkling laughter and shook his head. “No, no. Harry is fine. I’m sure the title will grow on me.”



“My name is Draco Malfoy,” he introduced, and Harry smiled.



“I know,” he replied.



“How do you know?” Draco asked, looking shocked.



“I know about all of you, what I don’t know is why, young Draco Malfoy, you’re down here in my glade… again,” the Nix added with a frown.



“I was looking for… hey, that’s mine,” Draco shouted, pointing at the ring on Harry’s right hand.



The Nix grinned wildly and held the ring up to the afternoon sun, letting it sparkle and shimmer in the light. “I know. I took it from you.”



Draco stared at him with a mixture of awe and resentment. “Why would you do that?”



“I think the better question is, why wouldn’t I?” he replied with a mischievous grin.



“Well, give it back,” Draco demanded with a huff, causing the Nix another bought of jubilant laughter.



“I’m not sure I want to,” he replied at last. “I rather like it. It matches my eyes, don’t you think?”



The breeze shifted and Draco shivered again, not from the anger of Harry’s taunting but from the cold air still wafting against his wet clothes and hair.



“What’s wrong with you?” the Nix asked, concern lacing his voice.



“C-cold,” Draco replied through chattering teeth.



“Well, don’t you have a charm or something you can use to dry yourself?” Harry asked.



“D-dropped wand,” he shivered again.



The Nix looked at him curiously and smirked. “If I fetch you your wand, can I keep the ring?” he asked, knowing Draco couldn’t really take it from him regardless.



“It belongs to someone else,” Draco said.



Harry sighed and pouted but Draco wouldn’t waver. “Fine,” he said at last and dove into the glistening water.



--



Draco watched the place where Harry had jumped into the water for several minutes, waiting for him to reemerge, but nothing happened. He figured the beautiful boy had left him to wander back on his own, now without a ring or a wand.



He silently cursed himself for venturing into the woods and cringed from the inevitable tongue-lashing he would get from his father for his recklessness. Maybe if he told his father first about the near death experience he might be so overwhelmed with protectiveness that he’ll spare him a nasty punishment, but Draco rather thought that wouldn’t be happening.



He began to slide from the rock, preparing to get back into the water in order to swim across when thick black hair and brilliant green eyes arose from the clear depths of the spring. “Where are you going?” Harry asked, staring at him in confusion.



Draco blinked against the intoxicating sound of the Nix’s voice. It was like drinking too much fine wine and finding his mind suddenly fuzzy every time the Nix spoke. But Draco fought hard against the languid feeling that tried to claim his mind. He was fascinated by the Nix and wanted to be sober for their exchange. “I thought you’d left me,” he replied at last, his toes wiggling in the icy water.



“I wouldn’t,” the Nix said, his voice caressing over Draco’s skin like a cool breeze, sending a renewed bought of shudders through his body.



He held out his shimmering white hand to Draco, and in his palm was the wand Draco had dropped while drowning.



Draco took the wand and after several minutes and three drying and warming charms, Draco felt better, though he quickly realized he was still on the rocks and would have to get back in the water to leave. Still, maybe the Nix wouldn’t kick him off his rock immediately and Draco could learn more about the beautiful creature.



It seemed at least that Harry was equally fascinated with him, though how someone as ethereal and otherworldly as the Nix could find anything interesting in Draco he could only guess.



“My ring?” he asked at last, when fully dry.



“Not yet,” Harry replied and stared directly into his eyes with a grin.



“When?” he asked, feeling less annoyed and more curious then before.



“Possibly once I let you leave,” the Nix replied, that wild smile making his face look both beautiful and wicked all at once.



Draco shivered again, but this time it was not from the cold, but from the intensity of Harry’s gaze. It was then that Draco noticed the severe lack of clothing covering the boy and he blushed furiously.



“What? Are you still cold?” Harry asked.



“No, you should be though. You’re not wearing a thing,” Draco commented, averting his eyes.



The enchanting creature looked down and the glade filled with his bell-like laughter. “Does this bother you?”



It didn’t, and that was the real thing that bothered him. Draco began removing his coat and handed it to the Nix. “Here, you can wear this while I’m here.”



Harry shook his head, sending ebony locks dancing in the breeze. “That will be unnecessary,” he replied as the air shifted around him forming a flowing ice blue toga-like covering over his body.



Draco missed the sight of exposed flesh at once, but was quickly burying the regret deep within himself. “How did you do that?” he asked in awe, masking his disappointment at losing the previous view.



The Nix lounged gracefully along the rock, his hand just a hairsbreadth away from Draco’s as he made slow circles with his fingertips over the stone. Draco wanted badly to reach out and touch him, but Harry’s words distracted him. “I can make myself look like whatever I wish,” the Nix answered at last.



“But this is your true form?” Draco asked, still resisting the urge to reach out and touch the beautiful faerie boy.



He titled his head to the side in thought. “I suppose, but only because I use it most often. In fact, I’m not sure I know what my true form is, or if I even have one for that matter,” he said with a frown.



Draco sighed, the beauty of the Nix’s face and the intoxicating sound of his voice overwhelming him for a moment.



Like lightning the Nix was kneeling in front of him so that they were knee to knee, and leaned into Draco, carefully keeping his body hovering just in front of him and never touching any part of himself to any part of Draco.



When he spoke his voice was like wind chimes right beside Draco’s ear, his sparkling eyes never leaving the other’s gaze for even a second. “You can touch me if you want, Draco,” he whispered, his breath washing over him. Harry smelled of water lilies and sunshine and he knew in the moment that touching the boy would not be enough.



A low chuckle resonated though the Nix’s body as if he could read his impure thoughts. Draco tried to cast away the embarrassment he felt and reached a tentative hand out to the Nix.



Harry caught Draco’s hand with his own and guided it gently to his face, coaxing Draco’s fingertips along his jaw, his chin and then up to his lips where Harry kissed each fingertip individually, sending a cascade of sensations and emotions over the boy’s body.



Part of Draco wanted to run and hide from the pleasure he was feeling, because surely it couldn’t be normal. But then the rest of him, the much larger part at the moment, wanted to harness the feelings and ride them over the edge.



He wasn’t sure what he expected exactly, when he touched Harry’s cool flesh. He thought it might feel like an ocean mammal, firm and rubbery, or perhaps it would feel soft and wrinkly like his own did when he lingered in the bath too long.



But it felt like neither of these things, in fact, it felt like nothing he could describe. It was both hot and cold simultaneously, burning into his flesh and soothing it after. It was soft, but taught and left his fingers feeling numbed and tingly, like he was grazing his fingers across a dream.



All at once the world caught up with him when the Nix sighed and closed his eyes, releasing Draco from his captivating gaze. Draco was about to drop his hand, which was now running through the soft damp locks of Harry’s wild mane, when the Nix murmured in pleasure against his face, his lips so close to Draco’s that he could feel Harry’s breath mingling with his own.



Draco nearly whimpered in defeat as the side of his brain, which craved the Nix, banished the rational side, which had been telling him to run back to the manor and never come back. Harry’s eyes flew open at the sound and they were alight with a hunger that Draco had never before seen in any human.



“I want to kiss you,” the Nix purred, sending shudders down Draco’s spine.



“Please,” Draco moaned in response, not sure if he wanted it to be ‘please do’ or ‘please don’t’ but knew it was really up to Harry regardless.



Slowly and carefully the Nix’s lips covered his own, as if the mythological being were afraid to break him, and perhaps he was. This was what Draco had wanted all along, not to merely touch the ethereal beauty in front of him, but to taste him, and he wasn’t disappointed.



The Nix tasted of wild berries and salt, the flavor of which coasted over his tongue like a fragrant wine. A jolt of electricity shot through him as the Nix threaded fingers through his blonde hair and pulled him in, so that their body’s touched in a line all the way down to their knees.



Draco was lost in the feel of the Nix’s kiss, the tongue deftly probing his mouth, the taste and scent of him, it was all overwhelming his dull human senses and he wondered briefly what it felt like to Harry.



The Nix broke their kiss reluctantly, and ran his fingertips through Draco’s hair once more before opening his sparkling eyes and gazing at the conquered Draco.



That was how he felt, conquered, as if his whole world now belonged solely to this magical being, with just that one kiss.



He leaned into the Nix, craving his touch again, feeling barren without it, and Harry chuckled low and seductive as he ran fingertips over Draco’s swollen red lips. “Your father is in the forest looking for you,” Harry whispered. “He’s getting rather close,” he added with a frown.



It took several moments for the meaning and impact of the words to settle into Draco’s mind, which was still clouded with the blissful taste of Harry. But eventually, and reluctantly, he nodded and moved a little further away, noticing the further he got, the more clearly he could think.



The Nix stared at him through thick black eyelashes and pouted. “You father always spoils my fun. I intended to keep you, but Lucius has been here before, and he’ll find my glade again if I do not bring you back to him.”



At the thought of being ‘kept’ by the Nix and shiver composed of want, need and fear drilled down his spine. “How long?” Draco asked, hoping he could still spend time with his Faerie boy before having to leave.



“Not long,” the Nix replied with another pout, holding his hand out to him. Draco placed his hand in Harry’s and their fingers intertwined as one, then a moment later, Harry was jumping them from the rock and across the water in a single graceful leap.



Draco was relieved that he didn’t have to get wet again, and marveled at the speed and agility with which the Nix pulled him through the forest underbrush. It wasn’t long before he could hear voices and see wand light in the distance. “He’s there,” the Nix whispered against Draco’s ear, sending a fresh wave of shudders through his body.



Nodding, Draco took one last lingering gaze at the ethereal and luminescent Harry, and started trudging though the underbrush. He only got two steps when he remembered what had brought him into the wood in the first place. “My ring,” he called back to Harry.



The Nix smiled and waggled his fingers under the approaching moonlight, showing off the sparkling bauble still on his finger. “Maybe next time,” he replied with a tinkling laugh and disappeared into the forest canopy.



Draco shook his head, but was unable to free himself of the grin plastered onto his pale face. He knew he would get help with that however, when it came time for him to explain the loss of the ring, and the reason for him being in the woods. He was catching up to his father slowly, and dreaded the encounter, wishing he could run back to the glade and stay with his lovely water sprite.



Authors Note: I hope you are all enjoying the fic. I\'m sure you can tell it\'s different from my norm, but I find it a refreshing change of pace. For reviewing this chapter I\'m giving out faerie harry\'s. I just like the sound of that.