HP ficlet: Pearl of Great Price [Draco/Harry, general]
Title: Pearl of Great Price Author: celandineb Fandom: HP Pairing: Draco/Harry Rating: general Length: 370 words Summary: Something hard to endure can become valuable. Note: For quill_it, 100.3, prompt 13, "sand". This is in the Better Than Revenge universe, but stands alone.
When Draco left me to marry Asteria, it would be no exaggeration to say that my heart broke.
Not that it was a surprise. He had made it clear all along how important it was to his parents, and to him, that he pass along the Malfoy bloodline and name. We had argued over that time after time, until we were both exhausted, but I had never been able to shake his determination. The knowledge that he had not lied helped... a little bit.
I couldn't just forget about Draco and everything we had shared, though. He became like a pearl in my heart and mind. I'm not sure whether I learned about it at school when I still lived with the Dursleys, or if Hermione mentioned it some time, but apparently the reason that oysters make pearls is because a grain of sand has managed to slip under their shell. The sand irritates them, so they create layers of nacre, trying to smooth it down to where they can tolerate this intrusion that they are unable to get rid of. Draco was like that for me; once he had lodged himself in my heart, I couldn't get him out. All I could do was try to find ways that let me remember without too much pain.
He did come back, and that wasn't entirely a surprise either. I hadn't been sure whether his wife would agree to it, despite Draco's assurances. But she did, and he did, and at nearly the same time Ginny made her astonishing offer to have a baby for me if I wanted. In less than two years I went from being childless and single to having a husband and two children -- Horatio and Rosemary. To me that's almost more of a miracle than surviving my duels with Voldemort, but I suppose it's just another demonstration of the power of love.
Dumbledore always claimed that love was a greater force than magic, and perhaps he was right. In any case, it has been so for me. Off and on we have been together for the best part of twenty years now; for our tenth anniversary I gave Draco a platinum tiepin, set with pearls.