Furry Magic

Title: Furry Magic, chapter 73

Disclaimer: HP is not mine. Sorry. It is just desperation, the need for entertainment, for slashy entertainment, that drives me to use them.....if only JKR would write a bit of slash....sigh, I would read her books!!!!


"Harry?" Draco shuffled in to the room. He lowered himself gingerly onto the piled furs. He was stiff and creaky this morning. He let out a sigh as he sat down, then he shifted and lay down, ahhh, that was better. "I heard what happened. Can't say I am surprised. We've been pushing you, the pride, I mean."

"I had to Draco, I can' t take more than I already have. I know it's against the custom or the law, or tradition, but..." Harry shook his head. "Your dad is mad at me isn't he?"

"No. I thought he would be, but...no, he doesn't seem angry." Draco responded. "He is acting more like....he is surprised, than anything else. No one else could have done what you did, Harry. That kind of power within the pride, it is important, you know. He can't just tell you not to use it. It makes the pride stronger. It protects the pride, and that is one of the primary goals of the king, you know."

Harry nodded miserably. "I just...I can't, share any more of him than I am already, Draco. I am just now starting to accept the others, now this...marriage thing. Forgive me, but I really hate your mother right now."

"Nothing to forgive. I am pretty pissed at her myself. She has just rejected me and my *child*, in one fell swoop, and did it in front of the whole pride. After my father refused to dishonor her despite what she had done to him, and indirectly to me. He stood by her for *years*, refusing to deny her, protecting her. Then she has to make her grand gesture." Draco sighed, his hand fluttering tiredly, his back ached, he tried shifting position again.

"I am sorry that your mother left you to deal with it all. I can't understand why she would do something like that to you. If she'd warned you, or talked to you, maybe..." Harry said to him. He held a mug out to the other youth. "Hot tea, take it, there is a bit of honey in it, you look like you need it. What is going to happen to you and the heir?"

"That is one of the things we need to talk about. And how to solve your problem, too." Draco said, wincing. Harry helped his friend settle more comfortably, straightening the furs. He pulled a pillow over and wedged it behind Draco's back. Draco sighed in relief, smiling his thanks. His belly was rapidly growing and was visibly rounded now. Harry kept his hand on Draco's thigh, patting him comfortingly. Harry had a good touch, it was a healing touch.

"Like how? I am not backing down and letting Lucius marry one of those women." Harry pursued the conversation. He hand remained gentle, conveying nothing but caring, no misdirected anger. Draco pondered that. Harry, once he decided to be your friend, went all the way for you. "That is not going to be part of the solution." Harry said firmly.

"No. I don't think that you should give in. I know how hard it has been on you, learning to live with the pride like this. I think you have done better with it than just about anyone else could. It hit you out of the blue, I mean usually someone in your family would have been a were-animal and petitioned the king for you to be changed. We almost never take on new members who don't have a relative who is also were. It must have been hard for you. I know it was." Draco touched Harry's shoulder, squeezed it. Harry looked at him, concerned.

"Are you OK, Draco? I thought you were getting better." Harry said. Draco was pale and he was moving funny.

"I was, I mean, I am better. I just spent too much time in the stone room last night. Yaji and Mantheer are furious. It's...they....uhm...well that's one reason I was looking for a way to make this work. I don't want to have to do this again. Not because I have to. I am happy I am pregnant, I thought I'd hate it, but I don't. Next time I do this though, I want it to be out of love, not duty. I mean I love the baby, a thousand times more than I expected. I think I am in love with them, too, Harry. I don't want to have Amrys impregnate me again. The next time I have sex, I want it to be with Yaji and Mantheer." Draco was blushing. Harry stared at his friend. Then he grinned.

"Never thought I'd hear the day when you'd talk about wanting to sleep with a man! Congrats! But," He sobered quickly. "What were you looking for in the laws? How can that help, Draco? Everyone always uses the laws to tell me what I *can't* do. Nothing else. The laws have never been on my side, not for anything. I can't believe they'd help me in something like this, you know." Harry was bitter.

"I've had Kaithas call for Gwydion Llyr. I have some questions for him. But, I wanted you to know I am working on something. And if it works out I want you to promise me that you'll help me. Whatever it takes." Draco was serious as he sipped the hot tea, he put his free hand on Harry's knee. Harry moved his hand over it, and they held hands, comfortably, both at ease with the contact.

"Kaithas!" It came out as a groan. Harry smiled in spite of himself. "I don't think he'll ever forgive me. I sent him out in the middle of a swamp, Draco. He was soaked with water and sludge. Lucius made me wash his hair and help him with his bath, it took hours to scrape it all off."

"He is still annoyed with you, that is for sure." Draco confirmed. "That's not why we need to talk though."

Harry nodded. "Anything I can do, you are my friend Draco, you know I don't abandon my friends. I'll stick by you."

"I know Harry. But this is different, it is sort of....well...weird." The blond said.

"Weird? Now I am getting interested. I can do weird. Weird how?"

"I sat in that room and read every word in it. Every law that might pertain to the wife of the king I wrote it down." Draco shook the sheaf of papers he'd brought with him at the other man. Harry looked impressed at the stack. "Don't look impressed, I wasn't' studying them and I might be wrong."

"Wrong about what? I 'm still waiting to hear this idea of yours. Are you going to keep me in suspense or tell me?" Harry was wheedling when he finished his request. He was very curious. "Come on Draco, tell me. What your plan?"

"None of the laws that I read specified the wife of the pride's king had to be female. In fact the word wife is not used at all. Not once that I found. The word used is mate. The mate of the king.... that is what is said in the laws. The king's mate.... that is also used. But, no where does it say she or her, or anything like that. No specific gender identification. And I thought if I can be the Mother, why can't you be the Mate? I can't see much of a difference between the two situations."

"But, I can't bear him children, doesn't it say something about that? Doesn't his mate have to bear him children?" Harry asked, unwilling to believe that it could be so simple, so easy. That he actually could marry his love.

"Not exactly. A child carried by the mate of the king is the pride's heir. But. It doesn't say that the mate of the king *must* bear him children. Just what fate those children will have if they are born." Draco shrugged, wiggling on the furs again, readjusting his position. "Besides, Harry, even if most male were-leopards can't have children, I bet you could, you are that powerful. I wouldn't say anything was impossible."

"Are you sure?" Harry asked, brow furrowed in concentration. "Not about me having kids, about me being able to marry Lucius?"

"No. I think I am right, uh, but I am not sure. That 's why I am going to talk to Gwydion. The Seer. You remember." Draco replied. He squeezed Harry's hand again.

"I do remember. And I also remember his friend , the other seer. The one who couldn't keep his hands off of my man. He won't be coming back will he?" The growl was unmistakable. Draco bit his lip hard to keep from laughing at Harry's outrage.

"Why should you care if we find out what we need to know, Harry?" Draco asked. "No one is going to mess with you after what you did to the bride-candidates. Not even that skinny Barethes."

"Barethes." Harry breathed. He showed his teeth at the memory of Barethes sprawled happily, and clingy, on top of the pride king. Draco, bit his lip harder. He cleared his throat to distract the raven haired Chosen.

"He isn't important, Harry. Listen to me. If I am right, that means you can marry my father. And if you marry my father that means you can adopt me, and my child. The line moves through the female. The queen's side." He said urgently. "Would you be willing to do that for me, for us?"

"What?" Harry burst out, obviously disconcerted. "I am not a queen."

"If you marry my father you will be. The mate of the king is the queen." Draco asserted. "Like I said, the situation is the same as with me. I am the Mother, or at least I was, yet I am still male."

"Draco, I am definitely getting a headache, here." Harry moaned. "Scoot over I want to lay down."

"It is simple. The Mother is sacred to the pride. The mate of the king is sacred to the pride. The female is sacred to the pride. She is the bringer of life. My father is king. His father was king. My son will be king. If I am adopted by my father. Then I will be his son again. But that takes time. More time than my baby has. My mother denied that I was her son when she renounced Lucius and their vows. So the new queen must adopt me as hers. Do you see?"

"Nope. But, tell me what you want me to do. I'll do it." Harry said, snuggling up to Draco. He was beginning to see why the lycanthropes liked to be in piles of cuddling bodies. It was nice to be up close and personal. Even with people who were not his lovers. He sure liked sleeping with Lucius, Amrys and Graeme. Probably as much as he'd like to sleep with Lucius alone. He just wasn't going to admit it out loud. Not yet.

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