Indago:3

Author's Note: I promise you that all questions will be answered and yes, there is a reason we are counting down. It may seem like we are skimming over years and only hitting on certain events, but that is, in fact, what we are doing. There is a reason for this. These scenes are pertinent to the story that is coming and some were pertinent to the previous stories. Promise. Also, I wanted to bring a bit of levity to this last fic in the Indago world. But this is not all fun and games. Would I write you an Indago tale without angst?? I should hardly think so. Just trust me as the author and I will respect you as the reader and will do everything in my power to give you an enjoyable read.


Chapter Nine

Nine years ago…


Harry smiled as he heard the giggling while he climbed the stairs. It was a very welcome homecoming. Having spent three hours listening to a lecture on the care and breeding of the newly discovered Malententious Snake, which had turned out to be mostly guesswork on the part of the discoverer, followed by a horribly uncomfortable luncheon that included British attendees making sure to speak to him and asking for his autograph on their programs, Harry was ready for a nice quiet evening at home. Perhaps he could con Draco into giving him a back rub.

“No, Father! Louder!” He heard Maia demand as he came to the second floor landing. “It’s not at all like the ones at the Reserve. They won’t think they are really there if you’re not louder.”

Smiling in confusion, Harry crept up to the twins’ open bedroom door. He nearly burst out laughing at the sight that greeted him.

The two-year old twins were standing in their cribs, clapping and giggling as they watched the goings on. Maia was standing self-importantly nearby, a clipboard in her hand, and dressed in khaki coloured clothing. But the most astonishing sight was one Draco Malfoy, hair in complete chaos, wrapped in an old purple cloak from who knew where and roaring loudly as directed. He stomped about and flapped the cloak like a set of wings.

“This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the Amph… Amphithere Dragon,” Maia began reciting in a precise manner. “It is from South America and has very beautiful feathers. It eats llamas and buffalo and… um, orange monkeys.”

On cue, the ‘dragon’ swept down and ‘attacked’ a stuffed orange orangutan that had been lying unaware on the floor. The monkey fought for its life, but the dragon won. The monkey ‘disappeared’ down its gullet. The audience was awed by this and began jumping up and down in their cribs, squealing in delight.

“Oh. Hi, Dad. Do you want to come to our Dragon Reserve?”

A rapid flurry of purple cloth and the orange monkey, having miraculously survived its horrific battle before being thrown across the room, greeted Maia’s words. Smiling knowingly, Harry watched Draco try to quickly regain his human composure, pretending that he hadn’t just had it out with a stuffed toy.

“You’re back early,” Draco commented in a roar-roughened voice. Clearing his throat, he dropped the cloak and walked toward Harry.

“Father! We still have two more dragons!”

“Not now, Maia.” Draco moved past his irritated daughter and straightened his clothes.

“I decided to skip the late afternoon speaker and the dinner,” Harry explained with a smirk. Nodding at the cloak and monkey, he added, “Having fun were you, Lord Malfoy?”

“Father? You’re a lord?” Maia asked as she dragged the cloak towards a large teddy bear in the corner. “Did you get to see a queen?”

“I was teasing, Maia,” Harry answered while smiling up at his husband. “Your father just thinks he’s a lord.”

“Maia required my assistance in a project that would entertain her brothers,” Draco said in a superior voice. “Since I will do anything in my power to support my family, I acquiesced, of course.”

“Of course,” Harry agreed. “I am sure that Maia will appreciate the sacrifices you made by eating a monkey.” He couldn’t hold it in any longer. “Now I know why you are such a good solicitor. Your acting is brilliant,” he said inbetween his laughing.

Narrowing his eyes, Draco nudged Harry out into the hall. “Maia, you will need to entertain your brothers on your own,” he called out before pushing a laughing Harry into their own bedroom.

“Merlin! If your father saw you just then!” Harry laughed as he leaned against the bedpost. “Big bad Malfoy. And you were a Dragon!” He fell onto the bed and cackled. “That couldn’t have been any better!”

“Yes, well, laugh then, Potter. I was merely being a generous and benevolent father,” Draco growled as he stepped closer and then stood between Harry’s legs as they hung off the bed. “While you, I might add, had run off and abandoned them!”

“I’ve been gone for a matter of hours, you prat!” Harry snickered. “While you, I might add, have been gone for days and weeks at a time. In fact, I was the one at home while you were out everyday.”

“As it should be.” Draco smirked. “I still haven’t decided if I should allow you to work or not.”

“Oh really, then?” Harry shifted up and rested on his elbows as he looked down his body and then up Draco’s in a highly suggestive manner. “And whatever shall I do if I don’t have anything to occupy my time?”

Draco chuckled at the plaintive tone in Harry’s voice. “Ah, well, I suppose I could find you things to do,” he answered. With a gleam in his eye, he slowly came down and over Harry, resting on his fists before speaking directly into his husband’s mouth. “I wouldn’t want you to get bored, now would I?”

“No,” Harry whispered, his eyes heated. “You wouldn’t want that.”

“Dad! May I have an ice cube, a lotion bottle, and a snake?” Maia called through the door.

Both men groaned, but not in the way that they had wanted to.

“Whatever she wants them for, you had better stop it,” Draco warned as he was pushed onto his back when Harry got up to answer the door.

“That was never a question,” Harry said with a laugh and went to discover what his children were up to.


*_*_*


“You know, when you discovered your own little powers, I never thought you would stoop as low as this.”

“It’s just for fun.”

Draco narrowed his eyes and glared at the back of Harry’s head. How could he have married such a cruel and malicious bastard, he asked himself. How could Snape not have known about the little something special that Harry had recently discovered? Allure. Harry had figured out that he could switch on his allurement with a scent that was nearly as powerful as the one he emitted at Lustrum. And he was using it in cruel and unusual ways!

“Bran! Don’t touch that! It’s used,” Draco hissed at the three-year-old boy.

“Draco, it’s all used. That’s the point. No one is going to put out things they just bought,” Harry said with a laugh and a shake of his head. “Yard sales are for used items to find a new home.”

“If they are used and unwanted, they belong in a trash bin. Do these people have no shame? Palming off their rubbish on unsuspecting people for money? Do you have no shame? Forcing your children to take on another child’s cast off?” Draco demanded.

Harry stepped away from the elderly Muggle couple who were sitting among some beaten up garden furniture next to their boxes of junk with a murmured word, which Draco was sure he would not have been happy to hear, and came to face him. “Draco, please. I thought it would be a nice outing. It’s a beautiful day, the children are excited to be out, and it’s just for fun.”

“But you tricked me!” Draco whispered angrily. “You made a promise. A very vulgar promise and then forced me out here!”

“And I intend to keep that promise,” Harry answered with a coy smile. “Indulge me in this and I will do as I said I would.”

Draco drew in a deep breath and considered.

“Please, Draco. It won’t be long before we are back in England and we won’t be able to do something as simple as walking down the street without people hounding us or gawking at us.” Harry ran the back of his hand down Draco’s arm. “Please?”

Draco sighed and rolled his eyes. “Fine! If you wish to slum, then do so. But I will be Obliviating the children after this.”

Smiling, Harry whispered, “Thank you, mon mari dominant.” He turned away just as Draco’s eyes became lit with desire at the provocative words.

The children each had the chance to pick one toy from any of the people who had their wares on display at the neighbourhood yard sale being held in the park. Bran scooped up a Muggle train that he promptly began taking apart. Azeas carefully chose a picture book about whales. But Maia thanked her dad politely and declined to choose anything. Draco gloated while Harry tried to impress upon his daughter the wonderful treasures that could be found in another’s garbage. However, as soon as he said the word ‘garbage’, her face glazed over with scepticism and she took her father’s hand. Harry gave up and instead enthusiastically spoke with the boys about their own treasures.

“Father,” Maia whispered. “What is that man doing there?”

“Don’t point.”

“The man just over there by the tree. His face is covered in white paint and he’s wearing all black.”

Draco looked over to where his daughter had indicated and, sure enough, found a strange man acting bizarrely while wearing a strange costume and make-up. “Harry! What is that and should I put it out of its misery?” Draco called out imperiously, pointing at the outlandish person.

Harry stood up from where he had been crouched with the boys and looked. His face became blank and he shuffled the boys into a huddle with Draco and Maia.

“That is a mime. It’s performance art. It’s harmless,” Harry explained quietly.

“He looks like he’s in pain,” Maia murmured while watching the man.

“He isn’t. He’s pretending to um…” Harry looked over his shoulder briefly at the scene. “He’s pretending to climb into a car and drive.”

“But… Is the car invisible?” Maia asked with a frown.

“No, Maia, he is pretending. That’s all,” Harry explained.

“It is obvious from your dad’s furtive behaviour that this is a Muggle behaviour that is certainly not acceptable and we shall all look away from it,” Draco announced with a scathing look at the mime. “Come, children. We will go find something to eat while your dad rolls around in rubbish.”

Harry watched his family walk away and was actually relieved that Draco had decided not to continue the interrogation. He had been terribly afraid that Draco would figure out the silence bit in the art and do all that he could to make sure the mime spoke...or screamed. Probably scream if Draco had anything to do with it. Harry stopped staring at the mime and went to follow his family when he saw Maia waiting for him.

“I think he is doing a brilliant job of pretending, Dad,” she said with a smile. “I’ll stay and watch him with you, if you want.”

His face softening with a wide smile, Harry stepped over to his daughter and gave her a tight hug. “I love you too, Maia,” he murmured. Maia smiled up at him, took his hand, and led him to where Draco had set the twins up with ice cream on a bench overlooking a pond.

Harry would miss Vancouver.


*~*~*


The light filtered in through the floor to ceiling windows and the body standing in front of them. Draco smiled as he walked in the room and saw Harry looking out into their back garden.

“Enjoying the view?”

Harry turned and smiled. “Yeah. It’s nice.”

Draco came further in and leaned against the wall next to the window. “Then you’re happy with the house?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Then you will be especially appreciative to Sev tonight, won’t you,” Draco stated with a smirk. “I actually had him make the final choice after I’d come over here and picked out my top two. I liked the one near the sea, but he said you’d appreciate this one more.”

Harry moved a bit closer and leaned against the wall as well. “Did he? You know, I wish you’d have just let me have a say. I don’t know why you do this.”

“I wanted to surprise you,” Draco answered. “Besides, you had your hands full.”

At the reminder, Harry’s brow wrinkled into a frown. “Yeah. She’s still not happy. The boys are fine. But Maia is still….” He sighed and shook his head. “She’s silent.”

“She’ll come around,” Draco assured him. His hand came up and his fingers ran through the hair at Harry’s temple. “How do you feel about it?”

“Are you actually asking me, then?” Harry inquired with arched brows. “And here I thought you wouldn’t really care.”

“I don’t. But I figured it was the polite thing to do,” Draco shot back.

Harry smiled and leaned into Draco. “Always proper when need be, eh, Malfoy?”

“Better than you could ever do, Potter.” Draco jerked Harry up and kissed him deeply. With a turn of his foot, he slammed Harry into the wall, pinning him there with his own body while he continued to kiss him intensely.

“I thought,” Harry gasped out as Draco moved on to his neck, “that I was supposed to be appreciative to Snape? I don’t want to be worn out before then.”

“You’re a good little sub, Potter,” Draco murmured into Harry’s flesh. “You always keep up with us.”

Harry smiled at the hidden praise and then groaned as his neck was bitten and licked. “Dr-Draco… the kids…”

“They’re fine,” Draco growled. His hands came around and lifted Harry up against him. “This won’t take long.”

Harry was tossed onto the bed and summarily attacked. Draco was all over him, biting, licking, and sucking, through clothing or on bare skin. Apparently being back home in England was making Draco randier than usual, Harry thought with a mental chuckle while his body responded to the rough lovemaking.

Harry was being urged towards Draco’s now revealed erection by a hand in his hair when they heard the screaming.

“Maia! Maia! Daddy! Maia!”

“Oh god!” Harry was scrambling and falling off the bed as the twins’ panicked cries reached them from outside. Draco was just as quickly buttoning himself back up and they were racing down the stairs and outside into the bright and manicured back garden.

“Bran! Azeas! Where are you?” Draco shouted, but didn’t wait for an answer as he raced toward the rear of the garden, the area that was forbidden to the children and had had a protective ward in place. The ward that had obviously failed.

Harry and Draco burst through the broken-down wood fence and waded through the high grass while stepping over old garden tools. They followed their senses another few feet and then another cry had them running in the direction it had come from.

Behind a crumbling shed, they found their three-year old boys shouting down into a hole within a broken wooden platform.

Azeas saw them first and pointed into the hole. “Maia fell down!”

“Get away from there!” Draco barked and both boys scrambled away and ran to Harry. Harry watched while holding them as Draco moved carefully onto the platform and conjured up a ball of light.

“Maia!” Draco called down.

Harry strained to hear anything, but was relieved when he saw that Draco did.

“Don’t move.” Draco turned to Harry. “It’s an old shaft to a cellar that was probably to the previous house or a bomb shelter. She’s all right,” he explained. “Just a tight squeeze and a bit far down.”

“I could fit down there and get her,” Harry offered as he moved forward but was stopped by a glare from Draco.

“Your Muggle senses are getting in the way of your brain again, love,” Draco bit out. A rush of magic was then swarming around him and Harry watched as his husband began moving the earth away from the hole. It seemed to shift away like water on the outgoing tide. Draco stepped back as the hole became wider and wider. “Pull her out of there, Harry,” Draco called out over the roar of magic.

Harry set the boys down and stepped closer. It had been a while since he had done more than accio something to him or warm bath water. With a deep breath, he focused and began feeling for his daughter. When he had found her, he began slowly wrapping his magic around her like a blanket and lifting her up. When her head appeared above the ground, Harry grabbed her and hauled her the rest of the way out and to safety. He held her to him as Draco began filling in the hole, causing it to cave in on itself. Finally, everything settled and all that was left was a wide ditch and a broken wooden platform.

“Are you all right?” Harry asked as he carefully looked Maia over. Except for a few scratches and a turned ankle, she appeared dirty but in good health.

“I’m fine,” Maia mumbled with her head down.

“Good,” Draco said as he stood over them. “Then you can explain exactly what happened and why you were back here.”

“Draco, now’s not the time. It’s just good that everyone is all right,” Harry interjected, trying to sooth his mate’s building anger.

“Now is an excellent time. Explain yourself,” Draco demanded of the girl.

“I don’t know,” she murmured.

“Really? Then I am to believe that you were kidnapped, Obliviated, and stuffed into the ground?”

“Draco…” Harry cajoled, his eyes begging Draco to stop.

“We were exploring our new home,” Maia answered nastily. Harry looked down at her in surprise.

“Maia…”

“You will not speak to me in that tone, madam,” Draco answered coldly. “You will also not disobey and take down wards you were instructed to leave alone.”

“It was a baby barrier! I thought we were supposed to get used to this place? How are we going to do that if you pen us in?” Maia snapped back.

“Because otherwise we were afraid you would get hurt in this area we haven’t fixed yet,” Draco snapped. “Of course, that must have been a ridiculous assumption on our part. How could you get hurt or come to any harm?” he asked with a sneer.

“It wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t come here!” she yelled and climbed to her feet. “There aren’t any stupid things like hidden holes like that at home!”

“You are home and you will stop with this now!” Draco shouted back.

“I hate England! I hate it here!” Maia stomped away with a decided limp. Harry grabbed Draco’s leg as he went to go after her.

“Don’t,” Harry said as he got to his own feet. “Let her go. She’s upset.”

“She’s upset?” Draco scoffed. “My daughter will not speak to me with such lack of respect! I will not tolerate her disobeying and then behaving like a cretin when caught!”

“Okay, we’re all upset,” Harry replied soothingly. “That was quite scary and we are all a bit on edge. But Maia just needs time to get used to the changes. I imagine she’s quite afraid of everything now. Especially after the lecture your father and we gave her on what is expected of her now that she will be in the public eye. It’s a lot for a nine-year old to take in. Give her time to process it, yeah?”

Draco continued to glare in the direction in which Maia had gone. Harry ran his hand down Draco’s arm persuasively. Finally Draco took a deep breath and glared half-heartedly down at him.

“Of course, the Gryffindor has no care that rules have been broken. Just trying to get the perpetrator out of hot water, like always,” he grumbled.

“No, just trying to sooth my family.” He smiled at Draco and glanced at the twins huddled together not far away. “Now go take care of them. I am sure they are distraught and afraid they are going to get yelled at next.”

Draco snorted and went to console the boys as Harry went off in search of Maia to tend to her wounds. He found her in her room face down on her bed, crying.

“Maia, you shouldn’t have been so shirty with your father, you know,” he said as he came to sit beside her. Maia thumped the bed with an angry fist and quickly sat up.

“I knew you’d side with him!”

“There are no sides,” Harry replied. “We all know that what you did was wrong. But your own actions caused your own punishment. What would have happened if we hadn’t heard the boys? How long would you have been down there? Or how would you feel if it had been one of them that had fallen in there and possibly gotten really hurt? You slowed your own fall. I could feel the residual magic. But they may not have been able to pull that off. How would you feel if we were carrying one or both of your brothers to a healer right now, all because you decided to break a rule to show us how upset you are?”

“Why did we have to come here? Why did Father have to take a new job?” she hissed, angrily wiping at the tears on her face. “We always do what he says!”

Harry sighed and clasped his hands behind his head before lying back on her bed. “Maia, you know why.”

“No, I don’t! Just because he’s better than you? Just because he’s bigger?”

Looking at her for a moment, Harry waited until she had stopped. “Your father and I have been through a lot. More than you could ever possibly imagine or understand, thank Merlin. It took us years to get to where we are now through a lot of fighting and hurt feelings and fear. But we worked through that and we are very happy to be raising our family and, as much as you want to be angry at him, you have to understand that he has and will continue to do anything in his power to keep you happy and safe. You scared him today. You scared us both and then added insult to injury by starting a row.”

“It’s not fair!” she whispered harshly.

Harry snorted. “Love, life isn’t fair. It gives us tools and raw resources and then shakes us up and sends us out. You should appreciate the fact that your parents have struggled to keep you happy and safe. You like your grandfather because he gives you things, but imagine being raised by him within his high expectations and rules. I have nightmares thinking about,” Harry added with a dramatic shudder but got no response. He smiled at his daughter’s back. “Maia, I know you miss your home and your friends and your school. I know. I missed my own home and friends when we left for Canada. It’s terrible to move so far away and I am sorry that you have to experience it. But you’ll like it here. And Sev will be able to visit more often. In fact, he’ll be here tonight.”

Maia turned and looked at him over her shoulder. “He will?”

“Yep.” Harry smiled, sat up, and gave his daughter a one-armed hug around the shoulders. “Your father and I love you, Maia. We would never cause you sadness if we could help it, right? So try being a bit nicer and stop glowering so much. I bet if you do, you’ll see why I was sad to leave here in the first place.” Getting to his feet, he walked to the door. “And make sure to apologize to your dad, yeah?” Harry shut the door before she could utter a response to that suggestion and moved down the hall and to the first floor where Draco was with the twins, eating muffins.

“Did you beat her and use an Unforgivable?” Draco asked casually as he leaned against the kitchen counter.

Harry gave him a disgusted look tinged with a smile. “She is one sad, non-British little girl,” he replied as he picked up a muffin. He winked. “And still quite cheeky, so I left her with a sore ankle until she has the manners to come and apologize and ask for help.”

Draco smirked. “Good show.”

“Daddy? Can we go flying?” Bran asked with crumbs on his mouth.

“I think we’ve had enough adventure for today. Besides, your Sev is coming tonight, so why don’t you go get your presents for him finished?” Harry answered.

The boys took off, nearly killing each other as they tried to beat the other up the stairs.



While Snape and Harry looked over the twins’ homemade gifts that night, Draco sat on the settee reading. He felt more than heard the presence come up behind him. He waited as he felt the burn of pride being swallowed, knowing its awful taste. Slowly, Maia came around the furniture and sat down on the edge of the seat, watching Draco apprehensively out of the corner of her eye. Finally, once her courage was apparently gathered or her pride sufficiently silenced, Maia inched over and laid her head on his lap. Draco held still and waited, not able to see her face.

With a small motion, Maia rubbed her cheek just above his knee and murmured, “Sorry, Father.”

Draco’s fingers slowly began to card through her dark blonde hair. “Is your ankle better?” he asked politely.

“Yes.”

“Good.”

Harry looked over at the two and smiled. Catching his eye, Draco smiled back. Well, Harry thought, he knew Draco was smiling even if his lips weren’t turned up.

“Well, I suppose we will need to test your potions then.” Snape’s voice brought him back to what he was doing and he looked at his sons, who were both holding out their concoctions.

Blinking, Harry looked at Snape in bemusement. “Why do I need to be the one to test them?”

“Because they wouldn’t dare try to poison you, would they?” Snape asked with dark mirth.

“Oh? Well, here is hoping that they don’t make me ill, then, since Draco says that I am to be especially admiring of you tonight,” Harry retorted with a raised eyebrow and smirk. Snape seemed to consider the matter and then turned to the boys.

“The best potion makers test their creations on themselves,” he explained. “So you drink it.”

The boys looked at each other and giggled. Harry winced as the concoctions went down their throats. He didn’t know how dirt, grass, apple juice, and pudding would taste, but at least it was harmless.

“Yuck!”

“Eww!”

“I suppose the potions were failures,” Snape announced dryly when neither boy turned into a bird as they had hoped.