A War at the End of the World

I don’t own Harry Potter. If I did I would have paid someone to take my wisdom teeth out and made it feel like a bubble bath.

Here is chapter…8? 9? Enjoy. Please Feel free to comment. I love comments. It’s like validation. Its not like, it is. If there are any plot holes sorry. I’m missing teeth out of my mouth, granted I didn’t use them, but there you are.


Oh and to those who want me to explain everyone right away. Not happening. Not yet. Too much exposition kills a story. Plus how else am I going to get you come back without all the cliffs hangers?


Chapter 8: Strange Bed Fellows


Hermione was hungry. It was breakfast time, there was food on the table, eggs, bacon, toast, and jams; but she wasn’t eating any of it. She and the boys had been getting up early every morning to have breakfast without the other students around since they had gotten back to Hogwarts. It was a nice tradition that they had started before the winter break and had carried over to the present. They knew that she always got up earlier then them to get a little extra reading in, but she always waited for them before she started eating. Just as she was waiting now, only this time Ron and Harry were fifteen minutes late, and she was starving.

She understood that Harry had just bonded with Draco the day before. Understood that a little bit better than she really wanted to. And she also understood that Ron had a life, a life he wasn’t quite share with either her or Harry. She was pretty sure the life involved a special someone though she couldn’t be sure, but it had been a long time since Hermione had been wrong. Actually she couldn’t remember ever being wrong when she had all the facts.

Hermione was after all a thoroughly clever witch.

But even understanding all that she did it bothered her to no end to be kept waiting for the two just to eat breakfast. Breakfast was an important meal and she shouldn’t have to be kept waiting for those two to finish shagging themselves silly just to have it.

Hermione cast a tempus and saw that the boys were now twenty minutes late.

That was it. Hermione wasn’t going to wait any longer. There was no way in hell that she would put off breakfast any longer. She might even read a book while she ate. That would show the boys that she didn’t depend on them. She was perfectly capable of doing well all on her own. She was a strong and independent young witch and she didn’t need anyone—any man—for anything.

Hermione was going to have her breakfast.

Right after she gave the boys another few minutes.


Early as it was, four Hogwarts students stood outside the Great Hall staring at each other. Harry, Ron, Draco and Blaise had all made it to the doors of the Great Hall at the same time and were now standing around trying to figure a way to break the strange tension that was filling the silence.

Harry stared at Ron in both curiosity and fear. He knew that he was going to have eventually tell the other boy that he had mated with Draco. It had been a thought that had crossed his mind a dozen or so times since he and Draco had gotten together. But still, knowing that he was going to have to tell his surrogate brother that he was mating with their school rival, and actually doing it were two completely different things entirely.

Though while he was worried that Ron might take the news poorly, Harry didn’t think he had to worry about the situation going to far south since Ron had showed up in front of the Great Hall with Blaise attached at his hip, wearing the same clothes he had been in the day before and a sweater that had the Zanbini crest stitched into the chest. Maybe Harry didn’t have to worry about the redhead accepting what was going on his life as much as he thought.

And maybe the redhead had a little explaining of his own to do.

Harry had at least thought to change the Malfoy crest into a more suitable Gryffindor one.



Draco, for his part, was torn. He was of course happy for his best friend that he had found his mate, but of course there was the issue that the boy was one of the Weaselys. It had already rankled just a bit to think that for the rest of his life whenever there was a special event that he and Harry would want to celebrate, he would have to deal with both the Granger girl and the Weasely. Now he realized that whenever the Zanbini family and the Malfoy family mingled together, which was actually quite often since many of the outskirt family members had intermarried, the redhead would also be there.

Draco sighed. Love was mean.



Ron is not a stupid boy. Not by any stretch of the imagination. He is actually quite intelligent, not quite at Hermione’s level, but well ahead of the average Hogwarts student. From the way he was standing next to Blaise it would have been easy for the other boys to assume that Ron was having similar thoughts as the rest of them. Worried how Harry would take the news of his relationship with Blaise, annoyed that he would have to deal with Draco for the rest of his life since he knew that the two pure blood families did quite a lot together, or just general befuddlement on how the situation came to pass in the first place.

But this of course would have been a gross neglect of Ron’s stomach and the power it held over him.

Yes, he realized Harry and Draco were somehow involved. That was obvious from the way Draco stood close to the smaller boy, his hand within grabbing distance of Harry’s. He was also sure that the other two could tell that he and Blaise were together. Blaise hadn’t bothered to move away from Ron upon meeting the other two and so was still plastered to his side, plus Ron hadn’t transfigured the crest on the sweater he had borrowed from Blaise.

So since the obvious conclusions were quite clear to him, and he was sure that Draco and Harry were smarter than he was, Ron was hoping that they could just skip whatever the other two thought needed to be said, in favor of doing it later, and just go in and getting some brekkie.

It was the most important meal of the day.



“Hey Ron,” Harry said breaking the silence.

“Harry.” Ron said noncommittally.

The two boys were quiet again for a moment and then made as if to speak, but when they saw the other start to say something quickly shut their mouths.

It was that kind of awkward.

Draco and Blaise exchanged amused looks at each other from next to their respective mates.

“He’s a submissive,” Draco said and gestured at Harry with his thumb. Harry turned, horrified at Draco’s words.

Blaise smiled widely and made the same gesture towards Ron. “He likes it in the bum.”

Ron turned a deep shade of red that Blaise thought would make a nice shirt color for the other boy. Draco and Blaise both winced as both Harry and Ron both smacked their mates hard on the back of the head.

“That is not something we need to advertise,” Harry said.

“Ass,” Ron stated.

But with the small humiliation, the tension that had built was gone. It would have been a good time to laugh, but stomachs started rumbling and since it was hard to tell whose it was exactly, (though most money would have been on Ron) it was just a better idea all around to just go in and eat something.

“So breakfast then?” Harry asked Ron in a way that included Blaise.

“Nah. Blaise and I have to talk. Lunch though?”

Harry nodded, not bothering to ask Draco if that would okay.

“Good,” Ron said as he walked towards the doors, closely followed by Blaise. “See you then.”

“Alright,” Harry said as he slipped his hand into Draco’s and followed the other couple into the Great Hall.


Hermione watched in surprise as Ron and Blaise walked into the Great Hall. It answered her question as to who it was that Ron was seeing, but did make her wonder what had made them open up about their relationship. She then saw Draco and Harry walk into the Great Hall behind the other couple and had a small inkling of an idea as to why Ron was no longer hiding Blaise. Hermione made to put her book away, but then realized that neither pair were coming towards the Gryffindor table; and instead were heading to the Slytherin side of the Hall where they sat near by, but with enough space to give privacy.

The couples seemed to be talking and while she wanted to walk over and find out what they were all talking about Hermione knew three things.

The first thing she knew was that from the way Ron and Blaise were sitting they were discussing something very important, the way that they looked at each other, and the way that Ron leaned towards and away from Blaise told her that. The second thing she knew was that neither group would welcome her company at the moment. Sometimes even with the best of friends three was a crowd. And she wouldn’t consider herself good friends with Draco or Blaise. The last thing that Hermione knew, and it was without a doubt, was that boys were all complete and utter prats. In singles or groups, boys were made to make life hard for girls.

Hermione went back to reading her book, picking up a piece of toast that she bit into with a touch more gusto than was really necessary.


“So your some kind of magical creature?” Ron asked as he piled eggs and bacon on to his plate liberally. He was trying to look more nonchalant then he actually felt about the situation and was doing a fairly good job at it as well. If Blaise hadn’t cast his earlier spell he never would have been able to figure out then Ron was bluffing.

“Yeah,” Blaise said soothingly. “I was born a magical creature.”

“Okay.” Though the color on Ron’s face said that he was anything but. “So what kind of creature are you?”

Blaise finished chewing the piece of toast he had just been munching on before he answered.

“A walker,” he said in a way that almost sounded like lying.

“A walker?” Ron paused for a moment and then started to eat again. “I have absolutely no idea what that is.”

Blaise gave his mate a queer look that told him he probably should know, but didn’t say anything. Their relationship had escaped the Voldemort fiasco with little or no real harm done. Blaise knew it wouldn’t be smart to start pushing his boundaries at the moment.

“Okay. Well a walker can take the shape of an animal, any animal, like an animagus only it doesn’t require a spell. It’s just a something we’re born to do.”

“Oh, so you’re like a werewolf?”

Blaise choked on his pumpkin juice and shot the other boy a nasty look that made Ron swallow nervously.

“So you’re not like a werewolf?” Ron asked a mite sheepishly.

“No,” Blaise said gruffly. “We’re not like werewolves.”

“So if you bite me I won’t become a walker?” Ron asked. He was studying Blaise’s face and had a strange look on his face.

Blaise shook his head. “You don’t become a walker by biting. It’s actually impossible to become a walker that way.”

Blaise didn’t think that now was the time to go into how someone who wasn’t born a walker became a walker that was a conversation for another day and as much open ground as Blaise could hope to cover at a dead run.

“So your entire family—”

“Are walkers,” Blaise finished.

“Well then,” Ron began. “Can you do anything beyond turning into an animal?”

Blaise thought about telling Ron everything about walkers, but then decided against it. It would be better if he told him the other things later one when it wouldn’t be a shock. Or at least would be a little less unexpected. There was time for that talk. Blaise would make sure that there was.

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

“You’re not going to tell me,” Ron asked around a mouthful of eggs.

“Not if you keep talking with your mouth full of food,” Blaise said turning his head away from the other boy.

“I don’t see any reason why that should bother you considering.” Ron glared at Blaise out of the corner of his eye.

“You mean considering I’ve seen you naked? Or considering that you have the manners of a large dog?”

“You know, someone could get real tired of being the butt of the joke,” Ron said slightly red.

Blaise moved closer to Ron and leaned his forehead against the other boy’s. “You’re not a joke Ron. Not to anyone. And especially not to me.”

The redhead swallowed hard, but didn’t try to move away.

“Does anyone actually fall for corny lines like that?” Ron asked.

Blaise made the small shift in his head again and saw that the red cord was slightly redder and had become just that much thicker.

“Just you love. Just you.” Blaise kissed the redhead briefly and then they both set about eating their breakfast in a companionable silence.


“What do you think that was all about?” Harry asked Draco who was eating from a bowl of Treacle pudding.

“Blaise is saying something womanish to Weasely and Weasely is responding womanishly,” Draco replied without looking up from his meal.

Harry turned back to Draco. Draco had answered his question and if he didn’t know better he would have thought that Draco was making a joke. But Harry did no better and he hadn’t spent the last six years fighting with the other boy and come out of it not knowing anything about him. Draco didn’t make jokes. Not normally and most certainly never on purpose. He wasn’t really a funny person. Not that Harry really minded that. He didn’t consider himself to be very funny either and while he could appreciate a good joke, he’d rather not have to spend the rest of his life attached to someone who was always trying to make him laugh.

After sharing a house with the twins Harry was of the impression that being funny got old.

“How did you know what they were talking about?” Harry asked curiously.

“I can hear them,” Draco said. “I’ve good ears. Like a—”

“Veela?” Harry offered.

“I was going to say bat, but I suppose that would be more accurate.”

“So super-hearing? Is that normal for veelas?” Harry asked blandly. It was weird knowing that neither of them were totally human. It brought a whole new dimension to how he had to think of their relationship. If Draco had been a normal wizard, the worse Harry would have to think about is whether the boy snored or not. Now, now he had to wonder if Draco would be able to ease drop on him from another room. Not that he intended to start keeping secrets from Draco, but the impossibility of keeping secrets, the loss of the opportunity sat weirdly with him.

“Not really,” Draco said after a short silence and a spoonful of pudding. “I can here them now because I’m close to you and that let’s me tap into some of the more physical virtues of being a really. Otherwise I don’t really have enhanced senses unless I take on the veela’s true form.”

Harry made a face at that and broke the yolk on his egg. “The veela’s true form? Sounds disturbing.”

“Could be,” Draco replied. “Depends if I’m angry or not. But it really isn’t something you’ll ever see a lot of so I wouldn’t worry about it.”

Draco became thoughtful.

“Unless I’m jealous.”

“Brilliant. I’ve always thought possessiveness and strange shape changing in a mate unbelievably sexy.”

“Well then it seems you’ve done yourself a bit of good getting on with me then,” Draco said with a cheeky wink.

“Oh certainly” Harry said with an eye roll. “A real smash up job.”

“Tremendous,” Draco stated, enunciating every syllable so that his face contorted as he made the sounds.

The boys broke into small chuckles and continued on eating.

“ So what about you?” Draco said as he bit into a sausage link. “You’re a fae. What do you know how to do?”

Harry was thoughtful for a moment. “I know I can get turned into a dog by mate.”

“So I’ll take it you don’t even know what your capable of?”

Harry only shrugged.

“Looks like we need to take a trip to the library today,” Draco said. “I’d at least like to know what kind of fae you are.”

“There are different kinds?” Harry asked. The idea that in addition to being a fae, he could also be a specific kind of enthralled Harry. And though he didn’t realize it, but Draco being the one to take control of the investigation, instead of Harry having to grope blindly through books of things that he may or may not be, eased a worry that he had been holding since Dumbledore had told him about his inheritance.

Plus he really hated research.

That’s what Hermione was for.

“Do you ever read anything that you aren’t assigned in classes?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Idiot,” Draco said fondly.

Harry smirked, took a sip of his pumpkin juice and scrapped a bit of jam across his toast.

“You do realize I’m going to make you help me research this?”

“I don’t see why,” Harry said half jokingly, the other half just a touch bitter. “Aren’t you the Dominant in this relationship? You’re supposed to take care of me. ”

Draco for a moment thought Harry was making a joke, but then saw the expression on the other boy’s face and began laughing. Harry ignored Draco’s laughing for two gulps of pumpkin juice and one eaten waffle.

“Mind telling me what’s so funny?”

“Is that what you think of out relationship.”

“I don’t know. That’s what you made it sound like yesterday.” Harry was a bit perplexed and just a touch miffed at Draco at the moment. “You hunt and gather I pick curtains. It’s what you were doing with the entire ‘you live with me’ routine, wasn’t it?”

Draco wiped a tear from his eye.

“If you hadn’t noticed last night, I have a private room, I don’t care where we sleep, but I assumed you wouldn’t want me shagging you through the mattress in the same one as your little Gryffindor friends. I told you then and I’m telling you now, I only said that yesterday because I was trying to help, not control.”

“Oh bother,” Harry said, the entire argument yesterday suddenly his fault. Not even a full day into a mated situation and Harry was making it more difficult than it needed to be.

Typical.

“I didn’t see it that way,” Harry stated lamely.

“Obviously,” Draco said. “I’ll make sure I don’t try clubbing you over the head with my wand and drag you by the hair to my cave in the future though.”

Draco began to laugh again and Harry went back to eating his toast and glaring at everything, but Draco. After a few more pieces of toast and almost a full pitcher of pumpkin juice, Draco stopped laughing, but then got up from his seat and grabbed Harry around the wrist pulling him out of the Great Hall with him.

“Where are we going?” Harry asked as he shoved a last bit of bacon into his mouth.

“To the library. You need a serious education in mating and I need to know what kind o fae you are.”

“Oh,” Harry said. “Alright.”

With that Draco and Harry walked out of the Great Hall. That it looked like Draco was dragging Harry off to some dark cave didn’t really register with either boy.


Near the dark woods, close to the whopping willow, Ginny Weasely and Colin Creevy were taking pictures.

“Colin, why couldn’t this have waited for later?” Ginny was still half asleep and dressed in her jammies.

“I told you Ginny. This bird is only visible in the early morning.

“I hate stupid birds.” And silently Ginny also hated Colin. But that was a morning grump.

“Alright Colin, but you’ve got exactly two minutes to snap a shot and then I’m going back to bed. Why I had to come out here with you in the first place is a bloody mystery to me.”

When Ginny didn’t hear anything from Colin, the redhead girl turned to her friend only to find him slumped on the ground, his camera smashed. A wizard was standing over him, his wand leaking a pale green-ish light.

“What the hell did you do to Colin,” Ginny screamed, pulling her wand from the pocket.

“Nothing personal love,” the Aurora said. “It’s ministry business.”

With that the wizard sent a killing curse off at the youngest Weasely.

Ginny had a moment to be scared before all of her training in the D.A. came to her and she dodged. She quickly fired off five spells of her own, all different to stop her opponent from erecting a shield against her. The man blocked the first two charms, but staggered at the hex that followed, and was floored by the charms.

Ginny smiled to herself. She had learned from the greatest duelist alive. Or at least in Hogwarts. No one was considered proficient in dueling until they could stand on the platform with Harry for ten minutes.

Her best was fifteen.

Ginny started over to check on Colin, but knew that there was nothing she could do for him, when she was suddenly flying through the air. She slammed into a tree where she slid down to the ground.

A different Aurora appeared from behind a boulder and helped up her fallen comrade.

“Beat by a wee lass, Rooney? Your old.”

“Quiet. That’s the Weasely girl. She’s been training with Potter all along. She’s good. ‘sides, I didn’t see you calling her out proper, unless a spell to the back is on the up and up now a days.”

The woman sighed and scratched her head with her wand. “This is the bloody worst assignment.”

“Aye, but we got our jobs to do. The Creevy boy should be dead, so let’s finish off the girl and go. Though you should of done it when you hit her the first time.”

“I shot the girl in the back with a hex,” the female Aurora said. “I think she at least deserves to be killed face-to-face.”

“Softy.”

Both Auroras turned to the tree where Ginny had slumped unconscious, but all they found was flattened grass. They checked and saw that Colin was still lying, staring lifelessly at the sky, but there was no sign of Ginny.

“She couldn’t have gotten far on her own.”

“She couldn’t have gone anywhere on her own. Not with what I hit her with. She should have been down for a while more.”

The male aurora ran his fingers through his graying hair.

“This is bad. This is very bad.”


Running through the Dark forest Narcissa Malfoy hung behind her companion, making sure that they were not followed.

“I understand that the Darklord wishes us to work together with Dumbledore, but ordering us to keep the students safe, just seems a bit excessive.”

“Ministry’s targeting all the children at the castle Narcissa, if it was Draco, you’d want a Gryffindor parent saving him, wouldn’t you?” The other woman replied.

“Goes without saying, Alana,” Narcissa said. “But a Weasely?”

Alana Zanbini chuckled. “War makes for strange bed fellows.”

“Indeed,” Narcissa said, and then was silent as the two concentrated on making a hasty escape.