Furry Magic

Title: Furry Magic, chapter 78

Disclaimer: I do not own HP...


Tanith looked up when she heard the knock on the door frame. She saw the two young men, Harry and Draco, standing, waiting for her leave to enter. She made no attempt to keep the smile from her face as she waved them in.

Draco was up and mobile at last, and heavily pregnant. Harry was supporting the taller youth with a hand under his elbow, an arm comfortably around his back. Tanith frowned, cocking her head to the side, peering closer at the dark haired young man. There was something...different about the boy. He stood straight and had a new air of confidence. He had always seemed a bit confrontational when they had met previously. Wary and ill at ease. Now, he seemed relaxed, solicitous, and resolute. She wondered what had happened to him to change him so.

"May we speak with you, seer Tanith?" Harry asked, helping Draco to settle in one of the large chairs in front of her desk. He was careful, paying close attention to the other young man. He propped Draco's feet up on an ottoman, and then took a seat of his own. Draco let out a sigh as he sank into the deep cushions. Tanith remembered her pregnancies, the sore feet, aching legs and screaming lower back. The ankles that had felt ready to burst. She imagined he must be feeling all those things.

"Of course you may, Chosen." Tanith replied to the shorter of the two. She turned to Draco. "Any of the pride may speak to me if the have need. Are you well, Draco? The child? I was so disappointed in your mother's choice. She did not make me aware of her intention, or I would have done all possible to talk sense into her. You have stood at her side and supported her for years. I am ashamed that she chose to reject you and the child who was the heir."

"I am doing well." Draco said in return. "But, there is a problem in the pride we need your help to address. It has to do, in a way, with the heir."

He called his unborn son, the heir. Tanith raised brows and pursed her lips. The pride had taken a relieved breath when they heard the heir had been conceived. The heir had been what they all needed. A secured future. Narcissa had made that a pipe dream.

Tanith was furious with the inconsiderate female. It was abundantly clear she had not cared for the wellbeing of the pride and it's members. She had not made any decisions that were not motivated by pure selfishness. In a strange way, Tanith was grateful Narcissa was resistant to lycanthropy, and that she could never be turned, never be the Queen, and head of the pride's females. One's Queen should be sensitive to the needs of her subjects at the very least. Narcissa had not been able to accomplish that.

"That is one reason we are here. To give the pride it's heir back." Harry responded, steadfastly. He wore an _expression of determination, his jaw set, extraordinary, emerald green eyes fierce. "We need to speak with you, because you hold the highest rank among the pride's females."

"I am intrigued." Tanith said, smiling, leaning forward, elbows set on the desk top, hands clasped loosely in front of her. Her lined face was kind, affectionate. "So. Tell me. What news?"

"I would like for you to be the next Queen of the pride." Harry Potter said, his beautiful face serious as he delivered this most astonishing statement, one Tanith had never expected to hear directed at herself. "We hope you will hear us out before you answer, I am sure we have managed to surprise you."

And, indeed they had. The female's seer stared at them, mouth agape, certain she must have heard them wrong. An older woman such as she, did not aspire to the Queen's position, and to sharing the bed of the king. There was no reason Lucius would want her, despite that they got along well, king and seer. He was handsome, powerful, and personable, he was kind, well liked, why would he have to ask one older than himself? A woman who could not give him more children, a new heir? There were literally hundreds of females who wanted to share his bed, and his glorious body, and who had the ability to give him the desired children.

"That is not what I thought to hear." Tanith managed at last. It was inadequate as a response, and she tried to think of something else. Something profound, something witty. But the look on both young men's faces told her this was not a prank. They were completely serious. She swallowed hard. "I am afraid that Lucius won't agree at any rate."

"The king will agree." Harry told her quietly. "My teacher has pointed out that if I insist that no woman be Queen, then I am taking the traditional power base away from the females of the pride. I do not want to do that. Yet, I find it impossible to agree to any woman marrying my chosen king, and expecting him to lay with her." Harry lifted his chin, defiant. He showed his teeth lips peeling back before he got himself back under control.

"I heard what happened in the Arena. When the brides came...." Tanith acknowledged, softly. "I did not know what to make of it."

Harry looked away for a moment, but not before the seer saw the look in his eyes. Harry was not going to back down on this.

"Why would you want me to sleep with the king?" She inquired, puzzled.

"I do not. I will not share him that way. If you agree to be the pride's queen, then there will be a few stipulations that we wish for you to agree to." Harry asserted.

She leaned back into her chair. Her gaze was fixed on them, assessing. She looked over to the quiet Draco. He looked...serene. The pregnancy suited him well. He was older, more mature, with an undeniable appearance of contentment. He smiled at her confusion.

"He means it. He wants you to be Queen, but he won't share Lucius. He considers my dad to be his. As far as women are concerned. And I have to admit, I don't want to compete with any more of father's children. Nor a new and difficult wife. I would rather work something out amongst us." Draco said quietly, folding his hands across his nicely rounded middle. He moved his hands up and down, as if petting the baby inside of his belly.

"I...well." Tanith took a moment. Then she plunged into the idea. "What stipulations?"

"You will not have sex with *my* chosen." Harry said very firmly and without hesitation. "You will not seek to bear him children. And you will adopt Draco and declare his child the heir. That is it."

"Don't have sex with the king? I am disappointed, he is a beautiful man, but I will manage. I am well past the age to bear children by any means, and besides, I am lycanthrope, I can not carry a child to term any longer. So that one is a given. And adopting Draco...I have always loved him like he was my own son. When it turned out he could not be one of us, I cried for him, for the pride and for myself. There was nothing I wanted more than for him to be pride. I will happily adopt him. For any reason." She paused. Her eyes widening when they did not leap in and declare the joke.

"You are serious." She said, astonished all over again. "You want me to be Queen."

"Yes. And we want you to marry my father tonight." Draco said apologetically. "I know it is not much notice," he patted his tummy. "But, I want things settled before I give birth. Snape says that could be anytime now." His pale blue eyes pleaded. She looked at him, then to Harry.

Two young men, asking her to do something very unconventional, and daring. To benefit the pride. She had no doubt but that the news of the reconfirmation of the heir would bring joyous celebration. Draco was much loved. His child most welcome. A new heir, ready to be born any moment, a blessing. And no need to tiptoe around a new wife, who would be seeing just how much power she could wield, who would be testing every boundary, throwing her weight around...Ghod, if only for that she should agree.

Tanith, seer to the females of the pride, took a deep breath, she let her eyes move from Harry to Draco. Draco reached out, clutching at Harry's smaller hand. Harry grabbed it in his own. They sat, holding hands, these two very different boys, and waited for her answer.

If she said no, she had no illusions about Harry backing down. He would not. No foreign woman was going to be brought in to be the king's wife. Harry had sent the first brides back to where they had traveled from. Snap, easy as you please. Stunning power. Like none she had seen before. New brides had been turned away by a stony faced Chosen, who mysteriously seemed to know when they were coming and where they would appear. None reached Lucius. None were granted any access. Harry refused to budge. No one had been foolish enough to insist.

She took another deeper breath, closed her eyes for strength, then nodded her head. "If the king allows, I will do it."

Harry and Draco were silent for one long tense instant, then they threw their arms around each other and hugged each other tightly, Draco had big tears running down his face.

"Thank you, Tanith. Thank you. I would do anything for my child. And I thank you for this. From the bottom of my heart." Draco sniffled, Harry held him fiercely, his eyes suspiciously bright, he pressed a chaste kiss on the other youth's cheek.

"Oh, Draco," Harry whispered. "We have done it."

neichan
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