suki_blue | Fic: Parity Transformations - Harry/Draco - 20/21

Title: Parity Transformations

Fandom: HP

Pairing: Harry/Draco

Rating: NC-17 overall

Summary: Eleven years since he ran from Hogwarts, Draco has moved on. Now in his late twenties, Draco lives a reclusive life in a tiny village in Hampshire. Never in a million years does he expect to cross paths with Harry Potter again. But he does, and there are two, rather small and rather excitable, complications.

Beta done by

amejisuto. Thank you, darling.

A/N: Compliant with all canon up to HBP so there may be spoilers for any of the first six books. As this fic is already planned out in full, it will not be compliant with book 7 and will therefore contain NO SPOILERS.

Previous Chapters: HERE

March was the worst month of Draco’s life; at least it felt that way. The Prophet’s reporters were everywhere and the stories they were printing got gradually worse and worse as the days past. Ron and Harry were constantly bickering and one such argument resulted in Harry storming back to the house, past Draco and into the garden where Draco found him struggling to not to cry. Shocked and unsure what to do, Draco immediately baked an apple crumble and served it with double cream. It seemed to help and Harry kissed him so sweetly, but the peace didn’t last for long.

Everyday, the walls closed further in, the Prophet suffocating them and the spotlight blazing like a blue flame; it scorched and burned and Harry started to go slightly mad.

‘Is everything all right?’ Draco asked one afternoon, noticing Harry’s jigging leg and the absence of little voices.

‘I just flooed the kids to Molly’s,’ Harry said.

‘Why? What’s happened? Are they alright? Harry, speak to me!’

‘Why are we hanging around, Draco? Why are we just sitting here while they sit outside? They’ve got a tent up now, a bloody press tent. Have you seen it? I can’t stand this anymore. I can’t stand it!’

‘I’m sorry. We’ll move, we’ll just move. I’ll make a call. We’ll be out of here by tonight.’ A little part of Draco hated himself. It was his fault they’d delayed moving, hoping his plan would come through. But it had been over a month and so far no-one was biting. ‘I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault.’

Harry shook his head and got up. He paced and ran his hands through his hair, tugging at the strands with too much force for an absolutely sane person. ‘No, it’s not good enough.’

‘Oh …’ Inner Draco clutched at his broken heart.

‘No! No,’ Harry said, surging forward with alarming speed and grasping Draco’s arms. ‘I meant the moving isn’t good enough. It’s not going to solve anything, is it?’

‘I …’

‘Is it?!’

‘I don’t know!’

‘It’s not good enough,’ Harry said again. ‘I know it’s not. What will all this do to the kids?’

Harry walked to the window. ‘Look at them. They can’t even see the house but they’re still taking pictures. How crazy is that?’

‘Harry, there’s something I need to tell you.’

But Harry wasn’t listening. He threw open the door and stormed down the driveway.

Death Eater Attacks Press the headline said the next day, and there on the front page was a picture of Draco struggling with Rita Skeeter’s photographer.

‘I’m sorry,’ Harry said, hanging his head in shame. ‘I can’t believe they blamed you.’

Draco carefully folded the paper up and then tossed it straight out the open kitchen window. ‘The famous Potter temper,’ he said, and then smiled. ‘It was a damn good punch, though, Harry. Very impressive. I feel proud to take the blame for such an act.’

‘My selfless boyfriend.’

They held hands and leaned against the kitchen counter.

‘Do you feel better now?’ Draco asked. ‘You certainly don’t seem quite so psychotic.’

Harry squeezed Draco’s hand. ‘I’m better. I felt better the moment my fist connected with that git’s nose. Hey, violence really does solve some things.’

‘Yes,’ Draco said, bright and proud, ‘and crime also pays.’

A week later they were packing. Draco had found a lovely Georgian house for rent in Brighton that was gloriously spacious and only a short walk from the beach. He should have realised that property and contracts took such a long time, and Draco was so annoyed at himself for putting Harry through extra stress when they should have just upped and moved while Pansy kept an eye on everything else.

There was a flash of green fire from the fireplace and out stepped Ron, his face bright red and his brow dripping sweat. ‘Any more?’

Draco pointed to the corner of the room. It was bare now apart from a stack of boxes. ‘Those and this one when I’ve marked it.’

Ron nodded. ‘Right.’

‘We should try to get on,’ Draco said, his back to Ron. ‘For Harry’s sake. At least for now.’

Ron nodded again. ‘Right. For Harry.’

‘Good,’ Draco said, turning around. ‘And then when I turn evil you can feel free to tell him you told him so.’

Ron pondered that. ‘Yeah, alright. You’ve got yourself a deal.’

They shook hands and Draco waited until Ron flooed out with another pile of boxes before he allowed himself a luxurious smirk.

‘What are you grinning at?’ a bemused Harry asked as he passed through the living room with a crying, mud-covered child who could have been either Kasen or James.

‘Nothing. Just got myself a good deal, that’s all.’

*****

The house was quiet and alien. It felt still, lifeless, strange and below him. He’d done his research into Muggle ways and was surrounded gadgets and ‘electrical’ items that made no sense and were ugly and black.

Draco picked up Kasen from his Moses basket and rocked him. Bright blue eyes stared up at him and tiny little lips seemed to smile.

‘Good afternoon, Kasen. It’s just you and me now.’

Kasen made a happy noise and he flexed his fingers until Draco offered him his thumb. Kasen held tightly to it.

‘I’m sorry we couldn’t stay. But … this is a nice area. At least it should be for the price I paid. Do you know what the galleons to pounds exchange rate is these days? Disgraceful.’

More happy noises and Draco forgot about the silence. He sat on the sofa with his son and talked to him, told him of all the fun they would have together and of all the security and safety Draco would provide.

‘And you haven’t seen the garden yet, have you? Would you like to have a look? Yes, I think you would.’

He wrapped Kasen in an extra blanket and carried him outside. The garden was overgrown with weeds – brambles, thistles and nettles waiting in every corner to tangle and snare.

‘Isn’t it magnificent?’ Draco said, proudly looking around the garden. ‘Well, not really. But it will be. I’m going to take up gardening.’ He looked back down at his gurgling son. ‘I’ve bought books on the subject and even something called a gardening ‘video’, whatever that is. I’m going to turn this miniature rainforest into something glorious, somewhere for you to play and somewhere for me to think clearly. Yes, I like it better out here. I like it very much.’

*****

The new house was cold and gloomy. Draco shivered and hugged a cushion to his chest. He stared out the window at all the other cold, gloomy houses.

The fireplace flared green and Harry half tripped out into the living room. ‘Why are you standing in the dark?’ he asked, flicking on the main light. ‘And why haven’t you put the heating on?’

Draco stared miserably over his shoulder and attempted to force a beaming smile. ‘No reason, Harry.’

‘No reason except?’

‘Except that I hate it. I miss Winchester.’

‘It’s been 12 minutes.’

‘I don’t like this house.’

‘Right.’ Harry disappeared from sight so Draco sat on the sofa and curled up as best he could considering his abominable surroundings. He closed his eyes and remembered Winchester with its green leaves and fresh scents of lilies and roses, Kasen running through open fields and falling down ditches, and his little broken farm house encased in poppies and bluebells.

‘That’s better,’ Harry said.

Draco opened his eyes, frowned and sat up. The room was no longer cold and grey, but snug and peachy. It was dark outside now, but the street lamp cast a warm orange glow. The fire was flickering and, along the mantelpiece, candle flames danced and welcomed.

‘What did you do?’

‘Turned the heating and the lights on. You okay?’

Draco swung his feet to the floor. ‘Sit with me?’

Harry sat down next to him and Draco fiddled with a loose cotton thread on Harry’s jeans. ‘I failed you, and I’m sorry.’

‘Is this about this big secret master plan of yours?’

Draco nodded and tugged at the cotton.

‘It doesn’t matter, Draco, honestly. Whatever it was, don’t worry about it.’

‘But it was going to be such a glorious surprise. A hundred birds with one stone.’ Draco breathed in, held it, then exhaled one dramatically long and depressed sigh.

‘Is there no chance at all?’ Harry asked. ‘Or have you been completely foiled?’

‘Foiled, I think. I don’t really know. It’s just not working out like I hoped it would. I thought … I thought … oh never mind. It’s obviously not going to happen.’

Harry put his arm around Draco’s shoulders. ‘I love how you plot for me.’

Draco snorted. ‘Plotting is the easy part. Evil Plans are a piece of cake; it’s actually pulling them off that’s the big problem. I don’t seem to have inherited that knack.’

‘Uh, I don’t think your father had that knack to pass down.’

‘My mother did. She always got what she wanted – more or less.’

They sat in silence, gazing at the fire and listening to the children pattering around upstairs even though they were supposed to be in bed. Kasen and James were adjusting well; it seemed they weren’t bothered where they lived, just as long as they had a plentiful supply of orange squash and Playmobile.

‘I used to get everything I wanted,’ Draco continued, and Harry nodded knowingly. ‘But then there was that pesky war and, somehow, I lost my mojo.’

Harry’s shoulders were shaking. ‘Mojo?’

‘Don’t laugh at me. I’m being deadly serious.’

Harry lifted an eyebrow, then he looked up at the creaking ceiling. ‘ARE YOU TWO KIDS IN BED?’ he yelled, and Draco winced at the ear-splitting sound.

There was a noise of scrambling children upstairs, then a faint, ‘Yes!’

‘Maybe I can help you with that lost mojo,’ Harry said, then he kissed Draco’s jaw.

‘How so?’ Draco asked, receiving Harry over his lap, Harry’s hands undoing his shirt and Harry’s lips brushing his throat. ‘Oh, I see. Well, you can try.’

Harry smiled against Draco’s neck and sucked as his fingers popped buttons and Draco’s hands went off on their own private mission of sexual exploration.

‘I must say, I do like your endeavours.’

‘Shh,’ Harry said, sliding his hand inside Draco’s jeans. ‘There’s your mojo.’

‘Oh my god, my eyes!’

Harry jumped up, spun around, staggered back and tripped sideways over Draco’s foot.

‘Ow!’ Draco cried. He hastily retracted his foot and buttoned up his jeans. ‘Don’t you knock?’ he said to the face in the fireplace.

‘On what?’ Pansy asked.

‘Who are …?’ Harry squinted into the fire. ‘Pansy Parkinson?!’

‘Potter,’ Pansy greeted coolly, then she turned to Draco and grinned in true Slytherin style. ‘Draco, honey, I’ve got good news. No, scrap that, I’ve got fabulous news. No, bollocks to that, I’ve got—’

‘Pansy!’ Draco shrieked, just to cut her off. He glanced at Harry’s confused and slightly unhappy face and laughed pathetically. ‘Pansy, I thought we agreed to use the rings,’ he said, holding up his hand with the signet ring on the second finger. ‘Beep me, I said. Subtlety was the name of the game.’

‘Monkeys to that.’ Pansy said, her face almost one enormous smirk. She clicked her fingers twice. ‘My office, now. I’ve got cake. And did I mention the gorgeously fabulous news that will make you the happiest man on the planet?’

She disappeared and Draco was left with one highly un-amused boyfriend.

‘Erm …’

‘What,’ Harry said, ‘was that woman doing in our fireplace?’

Draco drummed his fingers at the sides of his legs. ‘Who, Pansy?’

‘No, Queen Elizabeth I. I didn’t realise you were such bosom buddies with our former Monarch!’

‘All right, no need to shout. Remember that surprise I told you about?’

‘Your ex is your big surprise? Oh, I’m so glad I waited.’

‘Urgh, don’t be so vulgar!’ Draco spat. ‘Girls! Pansy and I were never an item.’

‘Don’t lie, I saw you.’

‘Saw me what?’

Harry looked away. ‘She was stroking your hair,’ he said just loud enough for Draco to hear.

‘When?!’

Harry’s cheeks started to redden and he toed the corner of the rug with one socked foot. ‘Sixth Year. On the train.’

Draco looked at him blankly. He blinked once. ‘I don’t remember that.’

‘She did.’

‘Oh. Well, it wasn’t what it looked like.’

‘I’m not an idiot.’

‘Yes you are. Pansy was part of my entourage. She adored me, no doubt, but she was well aware I wasn’t going to plunge her sink.’

‘Excuse me, what?’

‘You know. Do it with her, a girl. She was my fag hag, Harry. She kept the other girls away and practised her make-up on me.’

Hesitantly, Harry looked up, and when he did Draco was right in front of him, smirking and leaning down to kiss him.

‘She knew?’ Harry asked. ‘In school? Did you tell her?’

‘I didn’t have to. She was my best friend.’

‘So you and her never …’ Harry waggled one hand back and forth.

‘Certainly not,’ Draco said, looking slightly green.

‘HEY!’ Pansy’s annoyed face said as it popped back into the fire. ‘Shift it, Malfoy, before I tear these very important parchments into itty bitty little bits.’

‘Coming, Pans.’

She popped out again and Draco took Harry’s hands in his. ‘I have to go, just for a while. And when I come back I’ll start trying to explain.’

Harry nodded and attempted a smile.

‘Don’t worry,’ Draco said. ‘I don’t know exactly how far along we are, but whatever Pansy says, we’ll talk about it, you and me. I promise. I love you, Harry.’

‘Okay, fine. Wait … What did you just—?’

Draco made a hasty and strategic bee-line for the fire. In other words, he legged it. ‘Parkinson & Sons!’

‘Wait!’

*****

Draco tripped out of Pansy’s office fireplace.

‘Hey, Daddy Cool, smooth entrance.’

‘Never mind that. I just did something supremely stupid.’

Pansy shrugged and flicked her long hair over her shoulder. ‘What’s new?’

‘Oh fine, if you’re going to be unhelpful.’

‘Unhelpful? Draco, sweetie pie, I’m your angel in disguise.’ She grinned and Draco had the urge to shield his eyes from the brilliant illuminations Pansy called her teeth. It was her ‘I’ve been a bad girl’ smile and once upon a time it would have made Draco grin in kind.

Her smile faltered and she placed her fingers at the corners of Draco’s lips and tried to lift them. ‘Smile, honey, it’s all good.’

‘Is it?’ he asked, ‘because I feel like everything is slipping away from me. I feel like it’s all going wrong. I feel like—’

Pansy rolled her eyes and moved behind her desk. ‘Don’t be so overdramatic. Nothing could be further from the truth.’ She pulled an enormous pile of parchments from her drawer and placed them in the middle of the desk.

Draco eyed them from across the room. ‘Then you really do have good news for me?’

‘The best. It’s done, Draco.’ Pansy sat back in her chair and folded her arms.

‘It sold?’ Draco sat down and picked up the first parchment slowly and carefully, as though any quick movements would scare it away. He skimmed over the contract and looked up into Pansy’s smug face. ‘The Manor, the land? Everything?’

Pansy nodded. ‘Everything.’

Draco felt his hands begin to shake and he quickly put down the parchment. ‘Oh my Merlin.’

Pansy silently nudged a small glass of firewhisky towards him, and Draco snatched it and downed it without a second thought. ‘Who bought it?’ he asked.

‘Sorry, anonymous buyer.’

‘I see.’

‘Are you okay?’

Draco swallowed and seriously thought about that question. He’d just sold his family home to a stranger, betrayed his name, thrown away his heritage. He felt sick, he felt gutted, he felt …

‘Wonderful,’ he said, and then he finally smiled. ‘I feel wonderful. What next, Pansy?’ he said, sitting forward eagerly.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, what do we do now? What’s the next step?’

‘I’m going to sit back and enjoy the fee you’re going to pay me. As for you, sit back and enjoy, baby. It’s Christmas!’

‘It’s April, what are you talking about?!’

‘What do you mean?’

‘What do you mean what do I mean? I mean I don’t understand what you mean.’

Pansy frowned and delicately chewed one brightly polished purple nail. ‘Meaning?’

‘Pansy,’ Draco warned. ‘I know you of old. Stop toying with me.’

‘You’re no fun,’ she protested, although she had that huge smile on her face again. ‘Fine. The Manor and all its “accessories” have been sold, for the asking price I might add, and the proceeds have been used to purchase the Prophet. The previous owners have scarpered, one to the Bahamas to start his life of luxury and the other to deepest Mongolia in fear of his reputation and his Squirrel Girls.’

‘Squirrel?’

‘Think Bunny girls, but smaller ears and much bushier tails. My private dick is the best in town, Draco, literally.

‘Anyway, it’s yours, sweetheart. Run it into the ground, turn it into something respectable, the choice is all yours. Oh, but be careful or you’ll be broke before the year’s out.’

‘But …’

‘But?’

‘I … I thought it was going to be hard.’

‘Bloody cheek! It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.’

‘Oh, Pans, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. I just thought I would have to do something dastardly.’

Pansy got up and walked around the desk. She propped herself next to Draco and tapped his chin until he looked up. ‘That’s what I’m here for,’ she said. ‘So, did I do good?’

‘You know,’ Draco said, standing, ‘I think you inherited my mojo.’

‘I’m sorry?’

He hugged her, squeezed her until she was laughing. ‘I love you, Pansy. Oh Merlin, I’ve got to stop saying that. I must have opened a gate. Don’t let me near anyone else.’

Pansy pulled back enough to kiss his cheek, then she laid her head on his shoulder and said, ‘Be happy, Draco. I love you, too.’

Draco kissed her cheek and sat back down, leaving Pansy holding on to air. He clapped his hands twice and scraped his chair closer to the desk. ‘Chop chop, where do I sign? I’ve got to get back to Harry.’

‘He’s a lucky man,’ Pansy said, passing over the first stack of contracts with a sigh.

Draco grinned and was sure Pansy needed to shield her eyes. ‘I know.’

To Be Concluded …