Madame Scarlet's

Author's Note: Thanks to Laurel for her brilliant beta skills. Also, thanks to everyone who reviews. I know I'm not as responsive to every single one as I used to be, but if someone has questions I can answer I try and do so, but I do read and enjoy every single one, so thanks again! My loyal readers are who keep me posting so frequently.

Chapter 7 Trials and Turbulence

The vast corridors of Malfoy Manor always evoked a sense of regal elegance in Draco’s mind; they also made him feel like a visitor in his own home. The palatial estate was so enormous that even having grown up there, Draco still hadn’t seen every room or hallway the Manor had to offer. The rooms would magically shift around, automatically attuned to where one wished to go. If he was in the dining room and wanted to go to bed, all he need do was walk into the next room and he’d find a door that would lead him to his private quarters. As a boy, when he wished to explore his ancestral home, Draco was forced to clear his mind of everything he knew about the Manor in order to be allowed to wander into new areas. Still, even with honed mental skills he would eventually find himself suddenly stumbling into the kitchen if he grew hungry during his exploration, or being eschewed into one of the many bathrooms if he had to piss, thus ending his exploration for that day.

His family home was fashioned with cold marble and pristine silk brocades, all far too opulent and expensive for him to be permitted to touch as a boy. In fact, he couldn’t even count how many rooms he was forbidden to enter, the first and foremost being his father’s study. He’d only seen the inside of the rich mahogany room once when he was seven. He’d been playing in the gardens and fell, scraping his knee quite badly, so he ran inside screaming for his mother or father. Narcissa had been away from the Manor, so the home showed him a solid ebony door instead, which Draco had foolishly opened without thought.

Lucius was inside leaning heavily against his desk, his face coated in a thin sheen of sweat. Draco recalled thinking his father was ill and immediately lost all concern for his own injuries as he went to his father’s side. It was then that he noticed the other person in the room. Severus Snape –although he knew little of the man at the time- was sprawled face down on the desk’s surface as his father pounded into the man’s arse. Draco stared with child-like innocence as his father continued to fuck the man unheeded, not even looking up until Draco gasped at a particular groan Snape had let escape from his mouth.

“Father, why are you hurting this man?” Draco asked, unsure as to why his father was dolling out such an unusual punishment.

“Draco,” the man hissed through perfect teeth. “What have I told you about entering my study?”

“Never to do so, Sir, but the Manor sent me to you,” Draco replied guiltily. He knew his punishment would be severe for disobeying his father and he rubbed his bum gently trying to ward off images of his father attacking him in the same way he was attacking Snape.

“I’ll deal with you later, boy. Get. Out. Now,” Lucius ordered between groans, not even slowing his rhythm with man attached to his groin.

Draco scurried from the room as fast as his tiny feet would carry him while curiously wondering why the man on the desk was begging for more punishment with words like ‘harder’ and ‘faster’ being shouted behind him.

Shaking his head at the memory, Draco imagined what it would be like to still be so innocent. Now he found himself nearer to his Father’s behavior than he ever wanted to be, and with no sign of it abating any time soon. Draco’s Mother might be a Succubus passing the thread down to him, but his Father was simply a whore, a trait that Draco seemed to have inherited as well; a dangerous combination. He wanted to be furious with Lucius for cheating on his Mother, but Narcissa was no fool. She traded a life of opulence and luxury for fidelity, and she did so knowingly. Draco was sure that she herself wasn’t so innocent either, with this burning in their blood he didn’t know how she could be.

He closed his eyes tightly and thought about her, her long blonde hair, the way she often smelled of magnolia blossoms, the way her dress flowed perfectly around her body when she moved, and when he opened his eyes a large gilded door had materialized in a previously blank expanse of wall.

“Mother,” he greeted upon walking inside to find her sitting in front of the fire in her private quarters. He didn’t both knocking because she had been expecting him.

“Draco,” she replied in turn, getting up to meet him at the door before enveloping him in a tight hug. “I’m surprised to see you in the middle of a term. What brings you here?”

“Advice,” Draco admitted.

“Are you having trouble controlling your urges?” she asked gently. They’d had a long talk before he’d left for Hogwarts as to what he might experience when he arrived with his new inheritance, but she had no way of knowing for sure because the Succubus blood that ran through her veins was pure, not like Draco who was essentially a half-breed.

“I found my mate,” he told her without preamble. He wouldn’t be allowed to remain at the Manor for long; the other Slytherins would cover for him for a time, but not under threat of exposure. If Snape finished his detention with Potter and came looking for him, his housemates would rat him out. Just the thought of Snape defiling his mate made a shudder of anger ring down his spine. Severus would pay if he hurt even one ebony hair on his mate’s head.

“That’s amazing, Son, I’ve never heard of anyone locating their mate within the first year of their change,” she admired. “I shouldn’t be surprised though, you’re a strong wizard.”

“It’s Harry Potter,” Draco informed her before she could continue to gush. Her pale eyes flashed at the name but she otherwise remained composed. “You can’t tell Father.”

“That’s quite an understatement, Son. If he finds out that Mr. Potter is a Cambion as well then he’ll be auctioned off to the highest bidder,” she grumbled.

“So you know?” Draco asked, somewhat dumbfounded.

“About his twisted brothel? Of course I do, I’m not naive,” she announced haughtily. “I can smell my kind on his skin when he returns home, I’ve monitored our vaults closely and I have a fair idea of what he’s up to.”

“But-“ Draco sputtered inelegantly. “I don’t understand, how could you let him do that to our kind?”

Narcissa narrowed her eyes in annoyance. “Don’t think for a second that I have control over your Father’s activities. I might influence them, but he’s a man born of deception, it’s in his blood just as surely as the beast flows through ours,” she quipped. “In any event, what he’s doing couldn’t be too unseemly or else the Order of Merlin would be after him.”

“The Order of?” he began to question her, but his Mother cut him off with a wave of her hand.

“Yes, the Order of Merlin. It’s not just an award bestowed to established witches and wizards, Draco. It’s a group of Cambions, said to be Merlin’s direct heirs, who protect our kind through pain of death,” she informed him. “They are a mysterious and veiled clan, some even believe them to merely be a bedtime story gone awry, but I promise you they are real.”

“What, like Incubi Aurors?” he asked with a laugh, one he was quick to note his mother refused to return.

“Do not joke, Son. They will protect our kind from harm, but they are also judge, jury and executioner for those of our kind who step out of line,” she told him firmly. “No more talk about them, though. Harry Potter as your mate,” she mused aloud. “How did that come to be?”

Draco blushed furiously as he thought of the night he took Potter. “It’s a long story. Is there any way to test the bond? I want to be certain that’s what it is. What if I’m simply responding to another Incubus?”

“What does he smell like?” she asked.

“Like cloying vanilla, sweet and spicy all at once,” he answered softly, as if searching out the scent in that room.

“And you’ve been intimate with him?” she prodded, no flush entering her cheeks as she discussed the sex life of her own son; she was under to misapprehensions about how he spent his time now that he was of age.

“Once,” Draco admitted, “but now he’s refusing me at every turn, it’s as if he can’t feel it.”

“Curious,” she mused, pacing the room in fluid strides. “He’s quite powerful though, and perhaps his mother had a thinner strain of the Succubae in her blood.”

“How do you know it was his mother?” Draco asked curiously.

Narcissa gave as close to a roll of her eyes as a lady with her countenance would give. “I met James on several occasions and, though I could tell he was touched by our kind, I always assumed it was simply my cousin who did the touching. Nevertheless, James Potter was not one of us. He was a pureblood wizard, regal and true.”

“Your cousin?” Draco asked, hungry for any details of his kind.

“Sirius,” she amended. “Those boys he dawdled with, James Potter included, were all willing victims of the Incubi strain inside Sirius Black. Come to think of it, that might be the very thing that drew James to Lily. If she had even a fraction of Sirius’ pull then it might be clear why they married. Once one experiences someone of our kind, it’s very hard to go back to plain old humans. When Sirius chose Remus as his own it probably left poor James scrambling for some semblance of that pleasure.”

Draco gaped; he knew he shouldn’t and that the action was far too undignified for someone of his stature, but he was unable to help it. “But, what about Nymphadora?”

Narcissa chuckled. “We weave quite the tight little web, don’t we? Yes, your cousin also carried the Succubus strain within her, but it was faint, diluted by Muggle blood more than it would have been with Wizard blood. When Sirius died, Remus was left wanting, then in waltzed Nymphadora.”

“Potter’s going to go ballistic when he finds out,” Draco groaned.

“Then don’t tell him,” his Mother chastised. “At least not right off.”

“That should be easy enough since he won’t speak to me,” Draco huffed, throwing himself rather violently into a nearby armchair. “I’m in pain, Mother, and he doesn’t care.”

“He’s in pain too, I’m sure,” she soothed quietly before pulling a heavy tome from her bookshelves. “Take this, it may help. It’s the oldest volume I have on our kind. It has every truth and every legend there is about what you are. Perhaps it might lend you help in attaining the trust of your mate.”

Draco took the book with a sigh and with another hug for his Mother, returned to Hogwarts through her personal Floo. He poured through the book all night, searching out information about Incubus mates. He knew Lucius was not his Mother’s mate, not in the true sense of the word. Her mate had been a human wizard who had died many years ago. She no longer felt the pull of her blood as she once did, but Draco couldn’t imagine the excruciating pain she must have felt at losing her one true mate. Draco couldn’t even bear to think of Harry getting hurt and the boy refused to see him, he couldn’t fathom what it might be like to share the bond that Incubus mates were said to have. If the inexorable draw toward Harry so far was any indication, Draco could expect a wild ride ahead of him.

**

The book Hermione found offered very little information on his kind, but what it did say all matched closely with Malfoy’s brief explanations. Still, the idea that he might belong with the snide Slytherin git rankled him and he strove to find a way to disprove that very theory. So far he’d been rather unsuccessful.

Before this year Draco smelled of expensive cologne and dirty looks, but now he smelled like warm apple pie and happiness. It was both intoxicating and revolting all at once. Harry felt as though he needed the blonde, wanted him always by his side, but his stubborn brain knew it was folly to even consider letting that happen.

Draco was a Malfoy, a prejudiced Slytherin, a bully and a cad –he was very nearly a Death Eater and suddenly he wanted to possess Harry as his own? Nothing added up and no matter how many times the thick book in his lap told him it was true, Harry refused to believe that Draco was meant to be the person he would spend the rest of his life with. Fate couldn’t possibly be so cruel, could it?

Harry shook his head, knowing full well that fate could be precisely that cruel, especially when it came to him. So far it had dealt him death and war; why not also send him a vicious partner that repulsed him?

Although repulsed wasn’t entirely accurate, at least not anymore. These days Harry spent every moment dreaming of Draco’s milky white flesh and pale blonde hair. The Slytherin boy was like a magnet for his libido, and if Harry didn’t give into his urges soon he’d probably allow the gray-eyed Git to lead him around the castle by his cock.

He needed to see him, that much Harry knew for sure. He needed to speak with him and find out if there was some fraction of a decent human being under the Slytherin’s haughty exterior. Perhaps if he found something good in him, even minor, Harry could live with the fact that he might need to have sex with Malfoy for the rest of his life. He certainly was nice enough to look at…

Even that thought left Harry feeling guilty. He didn’t want to be some shallow shell that indulged in sexual pleasure with a man he loathed. His mate could have been anyone else, even Flitwick would have been preferable to Draco Malfoy, why did it have to be him?

His thoughts drifted unerringly back and forth between wanting the blonde in his bed and wanting to kill him so that the draw would fade. There were still his friends to consider as well. They might know about his yearnings now, even where they stemmed from, but they hadn’t a clue about why he needed Malfoy so badly. How was he to explain to them that sex with Malfoy was like sinking into a warm fragrant bath after a long day? How was he supposed to live a life with someone that his friends hated nearly as much as he did? ‘Oh, hello Mrs. Weasley. I’m bringing Malfoy to Christmas dinner just in case I need to have sex with him before the meal is through. Yes, I’m aware that he let Fenrir into the castle allowing him to maul your son, but I thought it would be okay to bring him anyway.’

Harry ground the heels of his palms into his eyes, trying to rub away the image of Malfoy sprawled nude across the bed Harry usually shared at the Burrow. It was too much, it was unreasonable to expect other people to understand and accept them, especially when it was more than even Harry could logically accept and he could feel the effects of his bond with the blonde prat. With trembling hands he began searching the tome for spells or potions that might dampen the effects of his hunger, something that might make his life livable without his Slytherin mate by his side.

***

Severus stormed up the stairs of Madame Scarlet’s in search of his business partner, having shooed away the delicate Muggle girl who had greeted him at the door. He wasn’t in the mood to waste time; he wanted to give his information to Lucius and hoped to receive the reward he’d been looking to get from Potter. His body still shook with anger and desire from watching the luscious young man slip through his fingers and into the corridor to search out Draco.

Favorite student or no, Godson or no, Draco was wearing on his nerves already. Severus desperately wanted Potter as his own plaything, and what better way to make up for all the taunting James had put him through than to defile his only son. Ever since his lonely existence was turned upside down by a single intoxicating night with Lily Evans, Severus had been seeking the touch of a Cambion. James stole Lily away, concern for Draco stole Lucius away, and now Severus would do everything within his power to steal Harry away. He no longer desired the pale flesh of Lucius’ clone of a son, he now wanted Potter, he wanted to watch those green eyes glow under his touch, hear those pink lips scream out his name, feel that tight arse slam against him.

Without bothering to knock, Severus burst into the office where he knew he would find Lucius with one of their whores –or three as the case might be. Tightly leashed slaves sucked and prodded at the Lord Malfoy while the man pounded into one arse after the other, like a game of Duck-Duck-Goose. “After all these years your lack of propriety shouldn’t astound me, but I’m afraid your whorish ways always amuse me, Lucius.”

“Someone forgot to knock, I see,” Lucius snarled, sheathing himself into the current slave one last time and shuddering slightly with his release before casting a quick cleaning charm and striding toward his discarded trousers. It was all in a day’s work to Lucius Malfoy. Send the invoices, run a tight household, fuck the slaves, make sure his most important clients were happy –sex was simply another business transaction to the man.

Lucius strengthened the spells on the slaves leashes, ones that would ensure they remain docile, before even bothering to look at his guest and business partner.

“I had some news I didn’t think should wait for such a trivial detail as knocking,” Snape sneered.

“And you hoped to catch a glimpse of me nude as well, I’m sure,” Lucius replied hotly. “You really should have the hostess announce your arrival next time. That’s what she’s here for after all.”

“This is my business too, Lucius, or have you forgotten,” Snape growled.

“I haven’t forgotten our arrangement, Severus. Why aren’t you at Hogwarts living up to your side of the bargain?” Lucius replied shortly.

A slow menacing smile curled upon Severus’ lips and a gleam shone in his obsidian eyes when he spoke. “I’ve found us a new candidate.”

“Only one?” Lucius barked. “You’ve been there for weeks already –and with my son’s help no less- and you’ve only found one?”

“Ah, but this one will bring in a fortune so great that all of our slaves combined wouldn’t equal it,” Severus rasped, his throat going dry from remembering the boy’s taste.

Lucius scoffed and rolled his eyes. “It would have to be Harry Bloody Potter to pull in that kind of income.”

A liquid chuckle escaped Snape’s lips at his partner’s words. “Well, I suppose we’re in luck then.”

Author's Note: bum bum bum. So does Snape really tell him? What will happen to Harry if he does? Or Draco for that matter? Ah, how I love cliffhangers!