In Between

Between my pride and my promise
Between my lies and how the truth gets in the way
-Linkin Park, In Between

---
Year 2002, Four Years After

"Draco, hurry up, the new Terre book is coming out today, and I'd like to be there to get it," Narcissa Malfoy said, hurrying in an unladylike fashion.

She and her son, Draco had been cleared of all charges during the mass Death Eater trials that were still going on. Voldemort had been found dead in his house, but there was absolutely no trace of Harry Potter beyond the wand he was reputed to use on the ground. The check for spells revealed protego, avada kedavra, and obliviate as the last used before the wand was abandoned, and no one could figure out who or what was being obliviated.

If Harry'd done it to himself, then they surely would have found him roaming around with no memory, but there was simply no trace of him. It was as if he'd cast the spells and dropped into the Earth, never to be seen from again. As the years went on, and still there was no hints from him or guesses as to what had happened, he was written off as a casualty of the war, and hailed a hero.

The Death Eaters had put up a strong fight, resisting to the last - which strangely was Bellatrix Lestrange, and her husband Rodolphus who was still at large, presumed dead - but finally, Bellatrix had been sentenced to the Dementor's Kiss, and executed, leaving the list of known Death Eaters still alive a frighteningly short one of two.

With her husband in Azkaban and no hopes of his escape, Narcissa had turned her thoughts away from the things he'd demanded of her, and towards the things that truly interested her, such as muggle literature.

It was this love of books that had lead her to begin reading the Throne of Terre trilogy, currently at book two. She'd found the first one, Passion's Fruit, in the small muggle bookstore in the town that the Manor rested on the edge of, and picked it up because the man on the cover reminded her of Draco. Upon reading it, she wondered if someone hadn't penned him into their book, as the main character Neirin Glyndwr was a carbon copy of the pretentious young man who still called her 'mother'.

The author's name was Ellie Prowers, however, and though the About the Author in the back of the book said it was only a psuedonym, neither she nor Draco could think of who could have written it. Draco, in a fit of boredom, had also picked the book up and read through it, and was just as anxious for the next installment as she, though he wouldn't be caught dead going out into public looking anything less than perfectly immaculate.

Finally, he came down the stairs calmly, as though she hadn't wanted to leave ten minutes ago, and nodded. "Shall we go?"

Narcissa barely held down the urge to ruffle his hair. On second thought, she mused as they stepped out of the manor and into the blustering winds and his hair moved not at all, maybe it would have been more satisfying to take a hack saw to it.

Clearing her throat demurely, she stepped into the waiting car, resisting another childish urge to close the door on Draco's face. Their relationship with one another had become much less formal and a lot more fun after Lucius' incarceration. Occasionally, she became nostalgic thinking about how it might have been if she'd had this sort of relationship with him all along.

"Have you any thoughts as to who the author might be?" She asked, seeing him poring over the About the Author.

"None," he said, dropping the book. "But one day, I'll figure it out. Obviously it's someone who went to Hogwarts; how else could they have described both myself and Potter so completely?"

"By Potter you mean Seren?" Narcissa asked, smothering her laughter behind a delicately manicured hand.

"Who else? Wild black hair, big green eyes, fierce temper?"

"Fair hair and grey eyes with a mouth like a privy?" Narcissa asked rhetorically, quoting the description of Neirin from the first chapter. Draco shot her a dirty look. She grinned at him smugly.

"It must be one of Potter's fangirls, who wanted to see us together." Draco said finally, slamming the fist of one hand into the palm of the other. "Maybe a Hufflepuff."

"Do you recall any Hufflepuff's by the name of Ellie Prowers?" Narcissa asked, and watched as Draco ran the name through his memory.

"No, but remember the about the author claims it's a psuedonym. It could have been anyone!" Draco looked fierce, and Narcissa agreed. There was no doubt that the author had gone to Hogwarts and known Draco, as he and Neirin were almost interchangeable.

"There's to be a book signing at the release of the third installment," Narcissa said. "We'll go and meet this mysterious Ellie Prowers ourselves, then."

Draco looked almost excited. "Great! When is it?!"

She sighed, looking out the window. "This is only the second book, Draco. The third one won't be out until next year sometime at the soonest. The projected release date for the third novel is June fifth."

"Fantastic," Draco said, looking grumpy. "I have to wait a whole year?"

Narcissa sighed again, a long, drawn out sigh that spoke of long suffering at the hands of her much too intelligently idiotic son. The driver, a muggle who had been serving the Malfoy's for so long that he barely even noticed their oddities any more, agreed. Draco had been a terror as a child, and he was no less a menace for his advanced age of twenty two.

Knowing that there was no way that either of them would wait for the other to finish the book to be borrowed, after arriving at the bookstore in the mall Narcissa simply picked up two copies of Strangers in the Dark, Book Two of the Throne of Terre series. Draco immediately flipped to the back of the book. There was the same image in place of the author's picture of a cat batting at fish in a pond. He'd read somewhere that the author herself had drawn that of her own cat and pond, and then turned all his attention to the About the Author.

About the Author

Ellie Prowers is the psuedonym of a young man living in a small town in Wiltshire County, England. He lives with an ornery cat named Faydra, a garden snake by the name of Kushiel, and has been adopted by a crow he calls Imriel. His life is dictated by the characters in his head.

"Mother, he lives in Wiltshire!" Draco said, excitedly. Narcissa turned an amused look on him.

"He?" She asked, lifting an eyebrow. Draco pointed to the short Author spiel.

"That's what it says. It says he has a crow, snake, and fish, and lives in Wiltshire."

Narcissa considered this. It wasn't anyone she knew of, but then it wasn't surprising. After Lucius' downfall, she retreated from her old social circles, and didn't keep up with the local gossip. She was certain it was no one who lived in her town, because if they had a snake, bird, and cat in the same house word would have gotten around.

As soon as they'd made it back into the car, Draco had his nose in the book, devouring it like a starving man set before a feast. Narcissa's curiousity about who could have written something so clearly about her family, and captured Draco's attention so completely, increased exponentially with every page he turned. It wasn't a long ride back to the house, and she held off on opening her own copy until she could sit down in the comfort of her own sitting room at home to read.

*

"Congrats on the new book, Har," Shawna said, seating herself on the toilet lid. Harry, who had been relaxing in the tub before she invited herself in, flushed, and lowered himself further into the water.

"Shawn!" he said, pressing close to the edge so there was no chance she'd see anything untoward. "Where'd you come from?"

"My house," she replied easily. "The brown-eyed kid was a no go," she added. "He's married, but his husband's cute."

Harry's already red face turned scarlet. "Shawna, I've already told you, I'm not interested in a relationship. Just because I might - MIGHT - prefer blokes it does NOT mean that you've got to set me up with one."

"Oh, Harry," Shawna said, and reached into the bag she'd brought. "I really liked this Melisande girl. She sounds mighty familiar." Flipping through the pages, she cleared her throat and began to read. "With wispy blonde hair, and big blue eyes, Melisande was beauty personified. Too bad she's petty, undignified, and a mooch," Shawna added.

"Uncouth, uncivilized, and walks in on people in the bath with no regard for personal space," Harry added.

Shawna laughed. "You should write that into the third one. Melly walks in on Neirin and Seren in the bath!"

Harry often bounced his ideas off of her, seeing as it was her own idea to get the books published in the first place. Harry could hardly believe he'd actually done it, but felt accomplished, as though he'd actually done something with his boring life by getting out there and putting his ideas to the masses. "Maybe just Neirin," he said, thinking it through. "Get my notepad, and write this down for me."

She scurried out of the bathroom, and returned with a yellow pad and a pen. The note pad was nearly full of notes and ideas the two of them had cooked up. Shawna was imaginative when it came to thoughts, but neither of them were any good with names and titles, which was how the first book had come to be called Passion's Fruit. They'd been standing in the super market staring at it, and suddenly exclaimed at the same time that it would be a perfect title.

Of course, that was when he wasn't really planning on having it published, but the name stuck. He'd tried a lot harder on the second title, and had a third title already thought out. He'd been having strange dreams about magic, and had decided to call it Star Magic in honour of the inspiring dreams.

Once Shawna was ready to write, he dictated out the scene to her. "Neirin's in the bath, relaxing after a long day's journey. He's thinking about Seren, and what he'd like to do to her, but he's not really giving it too much thought; he is, after all, in the bath. He's probably drinking, as well. In walks Melisande, and she tries to take advantage of his nakedness, but he's clearly not interested. As Melly's leaving, she runs into Seren, and tells her in a moment of spite that Neirin's gay."

By this point the two of them were laughing so hard that they had to stop before adding more. "Seren, of course, takes this to heart, and immediately begins thinking of ways to set him up with a boy, all the while ignoring the fact that she really is falling in love with him."

"Only falling, Har?" Shawna asked. "Look, they've been travelling together for two whole book lengths, if she doesn't realize that she's in love with him already then she's got some issues."

"Well that is the issue, Shawn," Harry said. "She's trying to deny it because she doesn't know how she could have fallen for a nasty, spiteful, loathsome dirtbag like that."

"Well, it's obvious," Shawna pointed out. "He's really a big softy at heart, under that nasty exterior, isn't he? So really, she's fallen for those little glimpses into his true self that he's trying to protect by being a rotten blighter."

"Get out so I can get dressed," Harry said finally. "I need to work on this some more."

The door opened and Shawna made to move out, or would have had there not been a mob waiting for her in the hall. "You need to feed your animals," she said, stepping over the cat and snake, only to be ambushed by Imriel.

Harry listened to her fighting with them for a few moments before getting out and slipping into his trousers. Imriel had come to him the past winter with a broken wing. Against everyone's - read, Shawna's - protests, he'd taken it in, nursed it back to health, and hadn't been able to get rid of it since. His telekinesis had expanded as well, and he was now able to do quite a lot. He could lift his entire car with barely a thought, and he'd accidentally set his curtains on fire. He didn't think that setting fire to things was a telekinetic gift, but he hadn't told Shawna about it, and wasn't sure what to think of it. Occasionally he actually turned one thing into something else. He grabbed the pepper once by accident, and had been going for the salt. He'd only just realized it when the pepper in his hand turned into salt, and he hadn't been able to change it back.

Imriel, Faydra, and Kushiel often talked amongst themselves, atlthough Kushiel was the only one Harry could actively understand. It no longer seemed as strange to him, although it was one of the things he didn't dare tell Shawna about. Faydra tangled herself up in his legs, purring, and he picked her up, heading towards the kitchen to feed them. His garden was as large and beautiful as ever; in the beginning, he'd been afraid that he would neglect the garden in favour of his writing, but soon found that he had his best ideas while out in the sun, mindlessly working and letting his thoughts roam.

With three happy animals and his nosy friend convinced that she'd be happier at her own home for the time being, Harry settled into his living room to watch movies. He'd finished going through the collection he'd found, and had started again at the beginning out of a lack of anything else to do. He didn't have much interest on what was shown on the television, and the movies were often his only source of amusement when Shawna was busy. At the very least, they were a source of another human voice.

Not long after he'd settled in, Kushiel crawled up the chair and settled on his shoulder. Faydra followed a few minutes afterwards, curling up in his lap, and Imriel waited just long enough to fly over that it didn't seem as though he were following them. Obviously he'd just decided on his own to join the motley little group, although the opposite was obvious to the other three.

Harry smiled, content with his life.

---
TBC

What do you think!? ^___^ I'm having a lot of fun writing this, or at least I would be if I could concentrate more on it. I'm going to write out the short-story version of The Throne of Terre (because I could never write a full, novel length story, not even if I was being paid XD Although, someday I want to.) There's nothing there yet, but the stories will be just like Harry's version, only shorter, and under the penname Ellie Prowers. When I get them written and posted, I'll leave the URLs in the bottom of these chapters, but I'm resisting the urge to write them now (I did say that I would finish what I started before working on something else, and I intend to hold to it.)

Now, I think I'm a bit overdue for some review answering. Sorry this AN will be so long, but I've got to say something to some of you (besides thank you for reviewing XD You have no idea how much I like reading what you think!)

Myraa and Briar, Prophecies answered the question. Harry's gotten himself a spare wand and left his original at his home with the note after he decided to obliviate himself, for the reason Prophecies stated.

Prophecies, you're entirely correct ^_^ Thank you for the review, and the brainwork. :3

Mystiedaze, he didn't see anything wrong with talking to snakes when he went to the zoo, either, so I figured randomly summoning the salt would freak him a bit more. XD

Maizeysugah, thank you for reviewing! And Draco'll show up... eventually XD It's been a few years, mind, and he's pretty much pushed it out of his mind that he did that for Harry. It didn't seem important to him at the time, and a few years later? He probably doesn't even remember the name of the town he went to. And I know, most people would see it as a Big Deal, but it IS Draco we're talking about XD

Thrnbrooke, thank you for reviewing ^___^

And Lupinslady, the brown-eyed boy was just a regular muggle bloke who happened to move into Shawna's neighborhood, not Draco. Although, it would be a bit funny if Draco had shown up like that, eh? XD

To anyone I didn't mention outright, OMGTHANKYOU for reviewing! Your reviews make this story possible. :3 Keep it up!