Ame's Insanity (amejisuto) wrote in the_playground, @ 2008-09-12 12:33:00 |
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Current mood: | blah |
Entry tags: | ame's fics, drarry |
Haven HP/DM Rated R 8/?
Title: Haven
Chapter Eight
Author: amejisuto
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Harry/Draco, various background pairings but the main one will be Fred/George/Lee.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. .
Warnings/Squicks: Manipulative!Dumbles. I wouldn't go so far to say Weasley!bashing but um, I'm close. A few minor character deaths are mentioned, but not any of the main characters. Mpreg of secondary character. More warnings may be added as I write the story.
Summary: Harry's graduated from Hogwarts, turned eighteen and defeated a Dark Lord. Now what is he going to do with his life?
Find the previous parts here.
Beta'd by the wonderful suki_blue. Thank you dearest!
Notes: First of all, I tend to totally ignore HBP and DH. I tend to think JK lost the plot sometime halfway through OotP, but that's just my opinion. So yeah, this is a total AU after book five. Don't look for quick updates with this story, I'll try to put up a new chapter once a month. Oh, and for any HP reading that haven't read my Spander epics, I tend to suck at writing smut so there will be much on the friendship and THEN the relationship and then a tiny bit of smut. LOL Hope y'all enjoy the show!
Previously on Haven:
"I am not staying in some tatty Muggle flat in the middle of Surrey of all places."
Harry grinned. "Too bad you've been such a prat and not answered my mail, otherwise you'd know I've moved. Just for that, you'll have to wait to see where you're staying. I'm not telling you a thing!"
Harry would have to contact Alfie and Penny, let them know they were going to have a guest. Maybe the bedrooms in the Family area of the castle would be ready, that would be nice. He just couldn't see Draco Malfoy staying in a tent, even if the tent was fancy enough for a Rajah.
The thought of having Draco over made a huge smile want to appear on his face and Harry struggled to keep it inside. He didn't want to look like an idiot or, worse, a besotted, lovesick teenager.
Still he couldn't wait until Draco saw Caer Gwydion. The look on his face was going to be priceless.
*****
And now, on with the story ...
Chapter Eight
"Welcome, to Caer Gwydion, Draco Malfoy."
Harry purposely Apparated into the gazebo with their backs to the castle, just so he could see the look on his friend's face. He wasn't disappointed. Draco had lost that superior, Pureblooded mask of indifference, and was standing there with a look of shock on his face.
Of course it wasn't as fun as it could have been, since Draco had bags under his eyes. It was the middle of the afternoon but Harry hadn't had lunch yet. He'd feed his friend and then let him sleep himself out. A good meal and a rest without the ghost of his parents haunting him would do the blond a world of good.
"Come on, let's eat and you can gawk for a bit and then have a kip. I found out from my accountant at Gringotts that this place has been here for centuries, so it'll be here long enough for you to get yourself together."
"What ... how ...?"
Harry grabbed Draco by the elbow and pulled him to the picnic table he'd set up beside his tent. "Yeah, I was shocked too when I saw this place. I mean, I have no idea why it was abandoned, or why my parents didn't have a clue about it or anything. Apparently this place is in a sub-pocket of the universe or some such. I have no idea. Mr. Montgomery is going to be explaining it tomorrow, along with how the wards work and how he managed to make Muggle appliances work. You're welcome to sit in if you like. Maybe you could update Malfoy Manor a bit, or at least explain the runes and arithimancy stuff to me."
Draco sat down on the bench rather hard and that seemed to shake his brain into gear. "Yes, you would need someone to break it down into two syllable words, wouldn't you?"
Harry grinned and refused to take offense. "That's about how I look at it." Harry sat down and thought about which Elf he needed to call. He needed a chart of some sort to figure it out. Finally, Harry just decided to call Alfie and let him figure it out. "Alfie!"
There was a popping sound and Alfie stood by the table. Today in addition to his frock coat the Elf was wearing a gray waistcoat as well. Harry really needed to go shopping at some point, his House Elves tended to dress better than he did.
"Hi Alfie! This is my friend, Draco Malfoy. I was hoping you could help me with a few things."
"Of course Master Harry, I live to serve and have nothing better to do."
Harry found himself grinning, both at Alfie's sarcasm and the look of horror on Draco's face. He really needed to buy a pensive so he could relive moments like this, over and over. "Right. First of all, we need lunch. Whatever Brownie has available, I know he bakes bread on Sundays. Secondly, Draco is going to be staying with us for a while, so if you could ask Nog if the family wing of the castle is ready, that would be great. I want him to be comfortable."
"On to the best news though! I visited the Twins and Lee this morning, and Forge and Gred managed to get Lee up the duff!" Harry couldn't help but bounce a little in his seat. Now that he wasn't quiet so worried about Draco, he could really be excited. "I'm gonna be a godfather!"
Draco groaned. "Not more Weasleys!" And banged his head on the table.
"Don't do that, you'll get the wood grain imprinted on your flawless forehead. Besides, I know you like the Twins, you're just complaining because you can!" Harry turned away from his friend, ignoring the blond's muttering about Grandma Weasels. "Alfie if the family wing can be prepared, I want you or Penny to choose a suite of rooms, something large since it looks like Lee will be having twins himself so I want it to be a set of rooms for a family to grow into. I want to assign them a House Elf as well, one who can read and is a bit ... well, tricky themselves. The Twins are good guys but I wouldn't put it past them to try to prank an Elf, nothing mean mind you but they prank EVERYONE. Plus I'm hoping that whoever you assign can help out at the shop, so reading would be a bonus, so they could stock shelves, help clean up the shop and take care of the guys, make their meals, that sort of thing. Do you have an Elf that might be able to do all that?"
Alfie tilted his head to the side and then gave an evilish looking grin. "I know just the Elf, Master Harry. You leaves it to me, Master's brothers will be taken care of!"
Harry shuddered and decided he really didn't want to know. While he trusted his House Elves not to hurt anyone he cared about, he bet that whichever Elf went to live with the Twins and Lee could probably give the three young men a run for their money when it came to mischief.
Harry decided that if he didn't ask, the Twins couldn't hurt him too much. "Right, I'll trust your judgment Alfie. Before you go, how are Dobby and Winky settling in?"
"Winky was a very bad Elf, Master! She be doing better now, Penny has her polishing all the silver and brass in the castle on her own with sock. After new wards go up and you take over castle, you can bond and she'll do better after, till then work be what she's needing. As for Dobby ... I puts him in charge of yous pets, since he bring Master Harry's huge doggy with him."
"Huge doggy?" Scrappy was big but not that big. "What ... "
"Oh Merlin! Look!"
Draco's voice had a wobble in it and Harry jerked around to see what he was pointing at. Harry groaned as he saw Fluffy running towards him, all three heads giving him a happy doggy grin, huge tongues rolling and spittle flying. On his back was a colorful speck hanging on to the middle head's collar for life and Harry assumed it was Dobby. Scrappy, instead of being afraid of the bigger dog, was circling her happily, barking and wigging his tail.
Harry barely had time to take in all of this, before two huge paws pinned him to the picnic table and Fluffy's three heads fought over who would get to slobber all over him first. Not to be outdone, Scrappy was licking at his legs, his denim jeans doing little to protect him.
Adding to the madness, Dobby was standing up on Fluffy's back and looking over her shoulder. "Master Harry! We is happy to see you!"
Harry groaned and wished someone would throw a really big tennis ball so Fluffy would get off him. He heard snickering and looked to see Draco had retreated a few meters away and was obviously enjoying Harry's predicament.
"Look on the bright side, Harry, they could be humping you instead of licking. That would make an embarrassing epitaph. 'Here lies the hero Harry Potter. He faced a Dark Lord only to be mistaken for a bitch'."
Great. There went any chance of Malfoy ever seeing him as something other than a prat.
This just wasn't his day.
*****
"Good morning."
Harry looked up to find a sleep mussed Draco looking at him blearily. His hair wasn't gelled down or even combed and Draco had a red crease on the side of his face from his pillows.
To Harry he looked utterly adorable.
"Morning, Draco. Have you heard of someone named Morguese Treeleaf?"
"She's one of Fudge's cousins or in-laws or something. She's always throwing parties to convince the aristocracy she's more important than she really is."
"Urgh. No." Harry picked up the invitation he'd been looking at and waved it in the air, performing a wandless burning charm on the parchment so it quickly went up in flames, letting the ash fall on the blotter on his desk.
Draco sat down in the chair across from him and leaned his head on his hand. "What in Merlin's name are you doing?"
"Getting a stiffy over setting things on fire." At Draco's incredulous look Harry gave a snorting laugh. "Okay, not really. I'm going through my mail and burning anything from idiots."
"Ah. Almost the same thing then, isn't it? Too bad one can't set the idiots themselves on fire."
"Then we'd have a bigger inferno than The Great Fire of London." Harry picked up an invitation to join the Unspeakables and, with a flip of his wrist, sent it to the fireplace before casting Incendio. No need to take chances with something the Unspeakables had sent. The flames burned a bright purple for a moment before flashing out and Harry was glad he'd taken the extra precaution. A request for an interview with Witch Weekly was next to go up in flames, followed by an offer to write his biography.
Draco watched him, more than half-way asleep. That was one thing he was thankful for with Draco. If his other friends saw him, Ron would be dying of jealousy and Hermione would be lecturing him on being responsible and using his powers 'the right way'.
"I wonder if you have enough power to light the Ministers in-box on fire without being in the room?"
Draco was instead wondering how to cause havoc, which was pretty much on par for Draco.
"I doubt it, unfortunately. You should go wake up and I'll have breakfast served here in my study. Mr. Montgomery will be here soon to explain the wards and the new wiring in the castle and you'll want to be awake."
Draco sighed and brushed his hair out of his eyes. "I suppose I must. I need to gel this mess out of my face at the very least."
Harry rolled his eyes. Despite his crush on the other man, he knew his faults as well and Draco, given the chance, would spend hours in front of the mirror. "You shouldn't do that, that gel shit will make you prematurely bald."
Draco's eyes widened. "It will not!" He paused and narrowed his eyes at Harry. "Will it?"
Harry worked hard on keeping a straight, but innocent, face. "Why do you think Hermione never mussed with her hair? She said she'd rather be frizzy than bald. Think of it, in twenty years we'll go to our reunion and there Lavender and Parvati will be with thinning hair and widening hips. It should be fun to see."
Draco however, wasn't willing to snark with him. He seemed pre-occupied with his hair and had pulled several strands forward and was currently looking at it cross-eyed. Harry snickered. It was too easy to pull one over on the normally suspicious Slytherin. He'd have to make sure to see Draco first thing in the morning more often.
Or course the twelve-year old girl part of his brain agreed with that, but Harry shoved that part of him back into his mental closet. "Look, why don't you go owl Pansy and ask her. Alfie will see that she gets it and for Merlin's sake tell her where you are at the very least!"
"Uh-huh." Draco pulled his hair away from his face. "Seriously, does my forehead look bigger than it used to?"
Harry frowned. Draco's behavior just proved how tired and out of it he was. Normally Draco would never show such weakness in front of him, much less fall for such an easy prank. Narcissa's ghost must not have been letting him sleep for all three weeks she'd been corporeal.
"Alfie?" The Elf popped in and waited for instructions. "We'd like breakfast served here in about a half hour if that's okay, and in the meantime can you bring a pot of really strong tea or maybe some of that coffee that the Goblins like to drink?"
"Of course Master Harry, yous is already short so yous don't need to worry about stunting your growth."
Harry grinned. "It's for Draco, not me. I'll stick with whatever Penny and Brownie has decided for me, it's easier on everyone that way."
Alfie popped away, and a few moments later Penny showed up with a small demitasse cup of the thick Turkish coffee the Goblins preferred for Draco and a glass of orange juice and a cup of green tea for him before popping away.
Draco absently took sip of his coffee and then spluttered. "Potter! Not only are your Elves mouthy but they make a horrid up of tea!"
"If you would have been awake, you would have realized that I asked for coffee for you, not tea. It's Turkish coffee in fact, something that I've been told is incredibly posh and very strong. Now, drink the rest of your thimbleful there and go have a hot shower. Mr. Montgomery will be here soon." Harry repeated the last part, unsure if it had gotten through to Draco's muzzy mind the first time he'd said it.
Shortly thereafter Draco left, still trying to discreetly feel his hairline. Harry was torn between amusement and guilt. He would have never said it if he'd thought the blond would take him seriously. Then again maybe Lucius had worn a wig and Draco did have something to worry about.
The image of a bald Lucius Malfoy had Harry leaning back in his chair, giggling. After his laughing fit he continued to lean back in his chair, feeling rather warm and fuzzy over his current situation. Only part of it was from Draco, the rest was the fact that for the first time in his life, he'd slept in a bed that was all his own. Oh, the tent was his and had been new but it wasn't the same.
Last night they'd been given the all clear and despite not everything being finished in the castle, he had moved into the Master Suite, which had a huge sitting room, two small bedrooms and two master bedrooms. There had been three smaller bedrooms but Harry had decided he'd rather have a larger master bath and between Penny and the castle that wish had been granted.
He'd spent a wonderful hour last night after dinner, relaxing in his bath. It was large enough for the Twins and Lee to fool around in, not that he'd let them, and had Jacuzzi jets and ever warming charms. The best of both the Magical and Muggle worlds and the only reason Harry had climbed out was because his skin was starting to slough off.
He had then dried himself on one of the towels he'd bought, that were in a warming cabinet next to the bath. Afterwards he'd put on a brand new set of pajamas and crawled into a bed that was nearly as big as his room at the Dursleys had been.
Okay, Harry admitted he was exaggerating, but it was a big bed with fluffy pillows and a goose down duvet. The House Elves had to magically enlarge the sheets he'd bought for himself to fit the bed though, despite the fact that he'd bought king sized.
Now he was sitting in his very own office, which was situated a few doors down from his living quarters. There was a huge desk made out of mahogany and somewhere or other the Elves had found a modern, Muggle office chair made out of leather. Harry suspected that Penny had seen something like that at the department stores they'd visited and replicated it for him, which made him all warm and fuzzy inside. He'd have to do something special for her later, like a year's subscription to Better Homes and Gardens.
There were two parts of his new study that fascinated Harry. The first was a tapestry, ages old that worked rather like the Marauder’s Map. The difference was that it covered his entire estate, from the wild forest that eventually led to the Forbidden Forest, or at least that's what the tapestry said, to the rolling hills that led to Surrey. There were also points on his map that were woodlands, or mountains that lead to other places in the Muggle world, although how Cardiff could be on the other side of one of the mountains, Harry didn't quiet get.
He'd spent a good half hour this morning, playing with the tapestry. If he put his finger at a certain point, the fabric somehow zoomed in. It reminded Harry of how Hermione trying to explain Mapquest to Mr. Weasley, only on his map he could actually see a herd of deer grazing in a clearing. He'd even been able to zoom into Caer Gwydion itself, finding the potions lab and the infirmary in the sub-levels of the castle.
He also found a level in the dungeons that was apparently the quarters for the House Elves. One of the Elves working for him was wearing a bright pink waistcoat and a hat with a feather in it. The most shocking part is that it wasn't Dobby. Harry had never wondered about the secret lives of House Elves and he really, really wished he didn't know what little he did.
The second thing he loved about his study was his things. Books actually, journals from past Heads of the Family. Grimores, spell books, scrolls, three walls lined with information about his family's past.
To Harry, these books and scrolls were more valuable than all the gold and jewels in any of his vaults. For once he couldn't wait to start reading, he just wasn't sure where to start.
For now though, Harry had to wait. The tapestry showed a man in a bright red polo shirt had portkeyed into the gazebo. Mr. Montgomery was here to teach him a few things about the wards and how they worked. Harry grabbed a few Muggle notebooks and pen to take notes with. Hopefully with Draco's help he'd be able to follow along.
*****