A Dark Time For The Light

55

The doorbell rang as the blunts were finished, and Draco shot off to answer. He shot Sev and Remus a look, mouthed, “Don’t let Harry leave the room”, and went to answer the door. Harry rose to greet his new guests, but the men forestalled him. Harry heard many feet running up the stairs and itched to do his host thing, but was stilled by Remus pulling him into his arms. “I don’t believe I’ve given you a birthday kiss, Harry”, whereupon, he pulled the younger man to him and snogged him hard. As he relinquished him, Harry heard a hurried conference outside the lounge door, recognised the girls’ voices, heard a giggle, made to rise again, only to be tugged back to the ground by Severus.

“You think I’d let my Wolf kiss you like that and not want one myself?”, he purred, taking Harry into his arms and kissing him until his lips swelled. They were caught thus as Draco entered. “You distracted him then?”, a slow, distinctly Malfoy drawl. Severus chuckled as he let Harry go with a final closed-mouth kiss. “Happy birthday Harry”, and a gift appeared out of nowhere, thrust into Harry’s hands by Remus. Severus leaned in, “I suggest you open this gift in private, when you and Draco are alone”, he whispered. Harry blushed a pretty pink and stashed the parcel behind the TV with a wink.

The rest of the House crew jostled into the room, Harry turned the music up a notch as the doorbell rang again. As he got up to answer it, he heard Draco’s phone ring, yet again. “Just jump in a cab, I’ll pay when you get here...”, he heard as he bounded down the stairs.

Jacinta and Sebastian. He greeted them warmly, then directed them upstairs, was following, when the bell sounded again. Steffie, with Alice and Tony in tow, Matt and a younger man behind them, all bearing loaded carrier bags. He barely had time to stash the beer in the fridge, dole out cans to his guests and be introduced to Michael, Matt’s boyfriend, when the bell rang again.

Josie and Steve, also bearing beer. He directed them upstairs as the bell rang again. The guests arriving thick and fast. Cellan and his wife, Rosie, followed by Saskia and her boyfriend, then Caroline, Marcus and Bronwen, followed two minutes later by Alan. The party was complete. Harry went back up the stairs. Draco was busy making sure everyone had drinks. After catching and kissing his lover, Draco directed him into the lounge, “I think you have some presents to open, love. But if the doorbell goes again, then I’ll answer it”. Harry was puzzled, “Everyone’s here now. We’re not expecting anyone else are we?”

Draco just grinned and kissed him. “You never know. Now, back into the living room with you”. Harry entered the room to a ragged chorus of ‘Happy Birthday to you’. There was a pile of parcels on the floor in front of the fire. Harry was awed as he sank to his knees in front of it. In his entire life, he had never had so many presents on his birthday. His eyes teared and he swallowed a lump, remembering birthdays past, but only for a moment. Draco sank to the floor beside him and hugged him, “Come on, baby, time to open everything”, kissed him and released him.

Harry started slowly, amazed. Picture frames. A cashmere sweater. CD’s. DVD’s. A t-shirt that pertained to a series that Harry was hooked on on TV. A panel of brightly coloured stained glass depicting a magnificent Snowy Owl, reminding him of Hedwig, that was designed to be hung in a sunlit window, a pair of tall plain dark wooden candlesticks, a throw for either bed or sofa, a beautiful glass bowl.

Alice tapped his shoulder then handed over her gift, from her and her husband. An old wine bottle cleaned and drilled, the hole an inch from the base of the bottle, and a pristine pair of tongs. Harry laughed and thanked them both. “Well, you did seem like a natural”, she grinned. His smile equally as wide, “I don’t think I’ve ever been that wrecked in my life. Thank you. Maybe we’ll try them out, later”.

He stacked his gifts carefully at the edge of the room after effusively thanking everyone. The doorbell rang again and Harry quirked a look at his lover, who shot out of the room and down the stairs. There were voices heard on the stairs, then Draco called, “Harry, this is your surprise. Not your prezzie, but my little extra surprise. Come out here, love”. Harry stood, confusion knotting his brow. He stepped out of the living room. Ginny counted down to Hermione at her side, “Three, Two, One”, and they all heard Harry’s scream,

“RON”.

Harry flung himself at his best friend and they embraced, threatening to asphyxiate each other by the tightness of the squeeze. They held each other at arm’s length and looked and looked. Harry was grinning fit to burst then kissed his best friend and hugged him, “I can’t believe you’re here. It’s so good to see you. Come on in, meet the crowd”. He fetched Ron a beer, then enquired, “No Blaise?”. Ron grinned, “Freya’s teething, he doesn’t want to leave her right now. Oh, fuck, Harry, it’s bloody good to see you”, they hugged again. Harry turned to Draco, “I suppose you’re responsible for this?”, catching his beloved and kissing him, “Thank you, baby”, he whispered.

The next surprise was when Ron was ushered into the living room. Two blurs of red hair and three of the Weasley clan were re-united. Every Magical in the room tried to hold back tears, blinking hard, knowing that there were two children dead and the parents incarcerated from the same family.

Harry joined the group hug, delighted that three of his favourite people were re-united again.

Draco then moved in front of the fireplace after turning the music down to background levels. He was standing. “Ladies and gents, if I could just ask you to squeeze up a bit. I haven’t given Harry his present yet, and now we are all gathered, I would like to do so. Before I do, I would like you, Harry, to show the Demi-magiques and the Mundanes amongst us your card as it’s the only bit of Magic we have. I bought this card for Harry for his eighteenth birthday. Two years later and I can finally give it to him, but it’s a Magical card. At the time I bought it, I thought nothing beyond, “It’s a cool card, I think he’ll like it” but now, it seems like a reminder of a vanished time”.

Harry stood and retrieved the card and laid it on the ground. Everyone gathered but there was an unspoken vibe, ‘let the Muggles and the semi’s see first’. The card activated, the Quidditch players zooming around, then it was opened and the Veela choir sang. As the song died away, everyone looked amazed. Two were wiping tears from their eyes, Caroline and Alice, awed and slightly stunned by the song of the Veela, feeling the pull as Magicals should. Alice spoke, “If I doubted you before, I don’t now. I could feel that, somewhere far down”, she dashed her fingers over her eyes and her best friend marvelled at her reaction.

Someone sniffed. Dean, “I’d heard of semi-Magicals, but I don’t think it’s semi. I think you are full-on, but Hogwart’s fucking selection policy was too picky. That’s all I want to say. This is a party after all. Happy Birthday, Harry”.

“Now can we all move back a bit? The room is pretty crowded and I need a bit of space here to give Harry his present”, Draco said, picking up the card and returning it to the mantelpiece. Everyone shuffled back against the walls. Draco stood and exited the room returning a short while later brandishing a teatowel with which he proceeded to bind Harry’s eyes. “Whoa, kinky. Do we get a floorshow, then?”. There was general laughter, female as well as male. Draco rolled his eyes, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet”, he purred, and left again.

In a moment he came back into the room to gasps from the Mundanes which he quelled by a finger to his lips and a “SSShhh”, fired at everybody. He laid the large item in front of the fire on the rug.

He knelt beside Harry, then took his hands laying them on the object. The first thing Harry felt was a stiff bow of satin, riffling his fingers in the folds and feeling the taut band running away to the four cardinal points underneath what was obvious to his questing hands, “I’d lay a Galleon to a knut that this bow is pink”. The whole room laughed with him. Draco was beaming. Harry found the loose ribbons by touch alone and undid them. The ribbon pooled on the ground. He turned his attentions to the parcel beneath.

He spread out the flats of his hands, the thing stood seven or so inches from the ground, it was long, at a rough guess, between three and a half feet and four. The surface was hard even though to the fingertips it felt soft, a leather-like coating over what?. Harry rapped it lightly with a knuckle. Several smiled at this, dying to tell him, but everyone stayed quiet. Not wood, nor metal. He knocked a bit louder, Fibreglass with a leather-like overlay.

He began to explore the dimensions with his hands, “There’s a wide bit this end and it narrows this end and...oh...fuck..it’s ...oh wow..is this what I......”, by now his fingers had plotted the top and were feeling the curve approximately half-way down the long black box, then tented over one end than quickly ran down either side, then drew back, tears escaping from under the blindfold, knuckles in his mouth. Everyone saw the tears and some held their breath.

Harry’s skilful fingers felt the clasps and the handle on the side of the shaped box facing him, in a practiced move undoing them, feeling around the end to the final clasp of four, then Draco gently lifted the blindfold as Harry lifted the lid on the box. Harry’s fingers covered his mouth, tears blurring his eyes, “My own, my very own”, he whispered, as he reached in and gently removed the velvet covered chocks of foam that protected the strings and lifted the finest guitar he had ever seen out of it’s flight case.

“Dragon”, he whispered, “Do you have any idea?....”, his voice tailed off in awe as he regarded the instrument laid now across his lap. Draco shrugged, “The guy played several for me, he knew I was serious about buying one, but the tone was too harsh. Then he brought this one out. I’m sorry it’s second-hand, but when he played it, oh, Merlin. It was beautiful”.

Harry’s grin grew and he took Draco into his arms and kissed him, “You bought me this after hearing me play twice?. Oh Fuck. You don’t realise”. Harry’s laugh was loud and infectious, “This is one of the best guitars made last century. It’s a fucking work of art, and I hope I am worthy of it”, he sniffled and set to tuning it. Draco turned the sound system off, his eyes shining.

“There’s a tuner in the case, Harry, along with an extra set of strings. When I said I wanted this one, he put them in for free”. Harry flexed his fingers then brushed tears from his eyes, leaning in and kissing his lover on the temple. Harry didn’t need the tuner, using first the basics then the harmonics to fine tune. There was a murmured, “Fuck, perfect pitch”, from somewhere in the room, then Harry strummed an open chord, launching into a song, something rollicking and Irish featuring Guinness. Seamus and Cellan howled, “Christy Moore” and laughed as the song related, ‘How yer man stands up on his surfboard after thirteen pints o’ stout’.

Harry slowed it down as his rusty fingers tried to adjust to the high action, “Wow, Dragon, this is a challenging instrument, but so beautiful, and mine, all mine. I never actually owned a guitar before. I learned on a cast-off of Dudley’s”. He re-tuned and asked the room at large, “Anyone heard of Joni Mitchell?”. Hermione squeaked, “I love her. She’s a favourite of my mum and dad’s, but she’s a brilliant songwriter”.

Harry leaned over his guitar and stroked the chords to ‘Blue’, and Hermione sang. Note perfect. As the song ended, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Hermione asked, “If you’re a fan of hers, do you know ‘Big Yellow Taxi’?”. Harry grinned and obliged, complicated chord changes and all, joining in the song with his own light tenor. After a couple of choruses, others started to join in.

Then Harry re-tuned and played ‘The Hangman and the Papist’ at Draco’s request, flinging his head back as he intoned the final refrain, “Forgive me, God, we hang him in thy name”, a paean to the hypocrisy of religion, with such power and passion that the room spontaneously applauded. He laid his new toy to bed with infinite care. He was entreated to continue playing but his softened fingers were sore. He lovingly fastened the clasps on the case, then turned into Draco’s arms, murmuring, “I’ll thank you properly later on”. He rose and removed the case and Draco set the hi-fi to playing once again.

Draco thanked all the people who had made Harry’s surprises possible, and the music was amped up. Harry returned having tucked his guitar under the bed, and grabbed his Dragon for a dance when he heard the track playing. One of the four. Draco moved into his arms and they danced. Others soon joining in, Harry oblivious, gazing into Draco’s eyes, feeling that blue-grey gaze bore into him in return. They melded into the hypnotised state, creating a bubble for two, dancing together, beginning to dive warm hands beneath each other’s t-shirts, until a shake and a cough brought them back to their living room with a few blushes and giggles.

After the dance, Draco led Harry from the room by his hand, leant against the landing wall and pulled Harry to him for another kiss, slow and sultry. They parted slightly and Draco gently cupped Harry’s face, “I’m glad you like your present, love. I was hoping I’d picked the right thing”. “Sweet Merlin, Dragon. It’s the best present I ever had, besides you, that is”. They were gazing into each other’s eyes, oblivious as Ron passed by.

We are just finishing dinner when Dumbledore says something to Harry across the table. Something about someone, he, returning to see him. Harry’s face is a picture, going from a frown to delight in about a nano-second, then he’s off, running up the Hall towards the door like a greyhound from the traps. Hermione nudges me in the ribs and cocks her head at Harry’s retreating back, “D’you want to find out who it is then?. Come on”. She gets up and runs after him and I follow. Dumbledore is calling us back, “Miss Granger, Mr Weasley”, but we cheerfully ignore him. Harry’s been keeping this little liaison of his secret and ‘Mione and I are burning with curiosity and no amount of dirty tricks have wrested the truth from him. Sly bugger, going all cloak and dagger on us, his best mates, more like Invisibility cloak and Marauder’s Map, but now we will finally find out.

Hermione is standing stock-still at the head of the stairs. I am beside her in an instant. There’s a look of faint horror on her face and I turn to look down the steps. Harry has his arms around a boy and they are snogging for Britain. I can’t see the face, but there’s no mistaking that hair. Malfoy!!! Has he hexed Harry or something?, this is disgusting and I can feel rage flare in my gut, but Hermione digs me in the ribs again. We watch, aghast. Then they pull apart a bit and Malfoy’s holding Harry’s face and whispering something, it looks like he’s trying not to cry. Harry slides his hands around Malfoy’s waist and replies. Then I am shocked to see Malfoy smile widely, not sneer, not smirk, but smile, then throw his arms around my best friend. I can see the ecstatic look on his face as he squeezes his eyes shut and a tear escapes from each.

Whatever this is, and, frankly, I’m appalled, but it looks a lot like love from where I’m standing. They pull completely apart and Harry grabs Malfoy’s bag. Malfoy picks up his broom and they hold hands as they climb towards us. Harry’s look is defiant, daring either Hermione or myself to say something. I am jolly well about to, too, but it’s the look on Malfoy’s face that stops me, Pleading and apologetic. A look that says, ‘Please don’t hate me any more than you already do because I am in love with your best friend’.

Harry leaned into Draco, “I know now that you will always love me, no matter what, and I know that I am yours. Whatever may come. I love you Draco, and I always will”. Draco’s eyes were soft as he claimed Harry’s mouth and was answered with a loving tongue. “Mine, my Harry. You are mine and I am completely and utterly yours”. Ron grinned and headed for the bathroom.

They circulated as the party spread out. Harry spent time in the kitchen with Steffie and Alice. Draco noted Severus, Steve and Tony deep into a conversation on motorbikes and rallies. There’s a gale of raucous female laughter from the corner. Josie is regaling Hermione, Jacinta , Saskia and Bronwen with rude stories about life as a working girl. As Hermione was by now, fairly drunk, she countered with a few of her own. Draco’s brows raised and he left them to it. There’s a clutch of boys around the games machine in the spare room gathered around Remus and Seamus who are intently playing the driving game Harry loves.

He circulates a second time, more in the kitchen now. Back in the living room, Draco notes with a smile that George and Caroline are deep in conversation. Wandering on the landing, he hears soft notes from the bedroom and pokes his head around the door. Harry is completely alone sitting cross-legged on the bed with his guitar in his lap gently fingering chords and humming, completely absorbed.

Draco watches him, chewing his lower lip as he fluffs a note, then re-tries it. Harry suddenly sensed Draco’s presence and looked up guiltily, grinning, “Sorry, love, couldn’t help myself”. Draco crossed to the bed and leaned down for a kiss, “Don’t ever be sorry for being an artist, or for dipping out of the party for a bit. Oh, and by the way, George is getting mighty cosy with Caroline”. Harry laughed, “That’s brilliant. He’s been subdued hasn’t he?, poor guy. It’s great to see the three of them together again, too. Thanks for organising it”. Draco shrugged, “Actually it was Hermione who first mentioned it to me, and we all plotted and schemed behind your back. Getting the guitar back involved Jacinta and her motor and it staying at the House for a couple of days. The pink bow was entirely the girls’ doing”.

Harry patted the bed and Draco hopped up. Harry played with the tuning a moment, then started a fast picking, then changed his mind and started to strum gently and sing a sweet little love song. He sang a couple of verses and a chorus then stopped, “That was as far as I’d got with that, but I can finish it now”. He smiled at his lover’s mild confusion. “I started writing it the summer after lower sixth. It’s for you, babe, and I’ll finish it for you”. Draco’s bottom lip trembled and he bit it taking a deep breath, “I can’t believe you’ve actually written me a song, Harry”, he was blinking rapidly. “Well, half a song, strictly speaking, but I’ll give you the rest as soon as I know what it is, I promise”, surprised at Draco’s moved reaction.

He leaned towards his lover and palmed his face gently, “What is it, love?”. Draco opened his eyes and two fat tears rolled down his cheeks, “Harry James Potter, you are such a bloody romantic, and I love you for it. You’ve got me crying like a love-struck girlie”, he smiled as Harry thumbed the tears away. They kissed again and Draco lay down to listen to Harry play. Inevitably, a head popped around the door, “Is this a private party or can anyone join in?”. Ron.

“ ‘Course you can. I feel I should be out there circulating, but I couldn’t resist a play with my new toy”. Ron sat on the floor as Harry did a quick re-tune, then launched into a few old Beatles tracks, “You’ll have to forgive me, guys, but most of the stuff I know is ancient. Stuff I learned from Dursley senior’s record collection, mainly”. No-one seemed to mind. As he played, more folk drifted in and the next time he raised his head, he had quite an audience that applauded his rendition of an old Pink Floyd track, particularly the elder of his guests. He realised his guests ranged in age from Ginny and Caroline’s eighteen to just over fifty. This pleased him immensely. His oldest visitor, Tony asked him if he could take a look at the guitar and Harry handed it over. “Oh, wow. A Fylde. Bloody hell, this is some box, man. A sixties one at a guess. This is incredible. One of the best British guitars ever made”, he bent his long frame over it and started to play. A fast and furious instrumental piece, his fingers flying up and down the neck. The rest applauded as he finished. He handed it back, “That is one gorgeous guitar, and I’m dead jealous”. Harry laughed as he took it back.

Alice entered just then, Matt at her back. She leaned over and whispered to her husband who looked at his watch and jumped up. “Bugger. I’ve got an early shift tomorrow and so has Matt. We’ll have to get off now, I’m afraid. Shame. Nice party”. Harry laid his guitar aside as his guests made ready to leave. Matt had called a cab and the four made to leave. Harry called Alice back, momentarily. “It’s not a quarter of each, more like an eighth, but here’s a sample of the grass. I couldn’t get a price yet, as none of them could afford to get here for the party, but I’ll find out and let you know”. She thanked him, kissed his cheek and joined the others waiting in the taxi.

Harry sat on the stairs in a reflective mood until he heard feet behind him and Ron sat beside him, his arm draped around his best mate. They really talked then and spent a good half-hour just the two of them. Draco came looking, but spotting them deep in conversation, left them to it with a smile. He only wanted to spread the gossip that George and Caroline were now engaged in tonsil-tennis in the corner of their lounge. He shrugged, one for the post-mortem tomorrow.

Somewhere around dawn, the party broke up. The birthday boy was kissed plenty as guests piled into cabs and left. Eventually it was just the two of them. Severus and Remus were staying, but had retired, shattered, an hour ago to the spare room, the point at which the sounds were turned down to a level people could talk over.

Harry sagged in the doorway to the lounge as he surveyed the wreckage. Cans everywhere. Overflowing ashtrays. The bong spilt on the carpet. A woman’s cardigan lying forgotten squashed down the back of the sofa, some crushed crisps in the fireplace. He shook his head and went to bed. Oh for house-elves!.

His guitar was in it’s case under the bed. His lover was sprawled across the bed on his front, naked. A bit of sheet covered his arse, but the rest of him was in plain view and Harry drank him in by the light of the small lamp on his bedside table as he undressed. So beautiful, luscious, edible, and such a flippin’ bed-hog!. It took Harry a good ten minutes to manoeuvre his beloved’s dead weight to his side of the bed without waking him, then Harry climbed in with him and wrapped him tight. “This is the best birthday I ever had”, he murmured into an unresponsive ear and slept with a big grin on his face.