Chapter 13
In Which We See That Patience Is, Indeed, a Virtue,
and Can Be Used to Dispense With Others of Its Kind

Eventually, after what seemed like hours but was really more like ten minutes, Harry managed to gather together his wits, their brooms, and his shattered pride. Intellectually, he knew that Draco had obviously enjoyed their kiss as much as he had, but emotionally he felt like a wreck. First his kisses had made Cho cry, and now just one snog and Draco had run off like he'd been slapped instead. Harry sighed, wallowing in self-loathing just as far as it took to get to the door.

Once he reached the castle, he forced that little voice back into its box. Something important had happened between them, and it scared him almost as much as it had scared Draco. Draco had initiated the kiss, but something truly magical had happened after that, something Harry was willing to bet that Snape had been expecting. Despite his irrational fear of becoming potions ingredients, he squared his shoulders, opened the door, and headed down into the dungeons.

Snape was in the Potions classroom, tutoring a pair of nervous fifth years for their upcoming OWLs. Harry briefly considered forgoing this part of his hastily-concocted plan, but he dismissed it out of hand. Instead, he waited patiently just inside the door, not missing the irony that it was in this very spot he'd first learned of what he suspected was the real motivation behind Draco's flight. He was nearly certain that Snape had spotted him, but of course made no effort to hurry his lesson.

It was nearly dinnertime when the students ran out of eager questions, and Snape dismissed them to their own study time. "And what can I do for you, Mr. Potter?" he spat venomously after they had fled.

Harry took a deep breath and spit it all out as fast as he could. "He's run off, and he started it so don't go looking at me like that. We were flying, and he kissed me, and there was magic, and he ran. Tell me what we've done so I can make him understand."

Snape glared, then rolled his eyes and sighed. "Fine. If you did, in fact, activate the secondary properties of the potion with a mere kiss, you would have felt a warmth that rose in you and spilled into him." Harry nodded, and Snape continued, disgruntled. "That is the first part of it. If you were to be so foolish as to consummate your relationship within seven days of that first kiss, then you would be bound, both of you, eternally and unbreakably."

Harry's eyes went wide. "You mean, if we, er... then..."

"You will always know where he is and how he is feeling, and vice versa. You will be married in the eyes of the magical community, your destinies forever intertwined. There is no divorce, no second thoughts. You and Draco have been enemies for seven years, and friends for nine days. Think about that, Potter. Think long and hard. If you let him go now, he has a chance at a normal life when this is all over."

"And if not, then we'll be together forever." It sounded romantic, and heartbreaking. He thought of Vernon and Petunia, unhappily ever after, bitter and worn in their ways. A house with no children, just the two of them growing old, puttering around with potions and transfiguring the furniture into small furry animals as pranks.

"Quite literally. Your hearts will beat as one, you will breathe as one being, and if one of you dies, the other will follow." Snape's tone was cold, like a death bell tolling.

Harry's fantasies were stopped short. His eyes flicked to Snape's arm, where he knew the Dark Mark lay in wait. "It works both ways? But he didn't take anything."

Snape snorted. "Your purity," he spoke the word like it was a particularly foul disease, "has lent its power to that of the unicorn tears, so that when you kissed, a part of their magic was planted in him. If you consummate your relationship, that seed will blossom into bonds even Dumbledore cannot undo."

"So if Voldemort..." Snape flinched from the name, glaring. "were to kill me, or I have to sacrifice myself to destroy him..."

"Then you will sacrifice Draco as well."

Harry stood silent for long moments, thinking on it. He turned to go when he kept returning to one thought -- it was not a decision he could make alone. He knew he loved Draco, but he also knew, had known for years really, that more than anyone else it was kill or be killed for him, and be killed had always seemed the most likely, Boy Who Lived or no. "Thanks," he called over his shoulder as he left, intent on finding those who knew him best.

---

Hermione was in the library, poring over books. She looked up when he came in, and waved him over. "Harry, I think I've figured it out..."

"It's a bonding spell, Snape told me. We have to find Ron, and Draco, and I think I have to talk to Dumbledore." Hermione gathered her things as he spoke, sensing the urgency in his tone. "Meet me by Draco's room as soon as you find Ron. And bring Crabbe and Goyle and Pansy, too."

"What, why?" asked Hermione, confused.

"Because I think Draco and I both need our friends for this. I love him, Hermione, whether it's the sodding potion or a real feeling I've had hidden away, I love him and I want to be his forever. But my love might kill him, and I, oh bloody hell, I dunno. Just find them, all right?" Harry was babbling as they left the library, practically shoving Hermione down the hallway.

"All right, all right, hold your knickers. I'll find them, but how do you know where Draco will be?" she said crossly.

Harry felt inside himself, felt that warm fluttering, felt it pulling him towards the dungeons, towards the quiet echoes of Draco's indecision and pain. "I just know, all right?"

Harry split off from her and headed for Dumbledore's office. "I've got to talk to him, please, can you just tell him?" he asked the gargoyle, frustratedly unable to come up with the password.

"Why don't you tell me yourself, dear boy," said a familiar voice behind him, and Harry had to restrain himself from jumping in fright, or running into those welcoming arms.

"I suppose you know what's happened with me and Draco," said Harry, eager to get to the real issue at hand.

Dumbledore nodded, saying, "Mint humbugs." The gargoyle stepped aside, giving Harry a smirk.

"Well, he kissed me, and we've got a week to decide if we want to be mystically married or whatever, at least according to Snape..." Harry trailed off, trying to gauge Dumbledore's reaction.

"That is also my understanding of the potion's function," said Dumbledore encouragingly.

"Well, I know you've got some idea of what's got to happen with me and Voldemort," Harry thought Dumbledore might object, but he simply held his peace. "You've studied that sodding prophecy, and you know more about Voldemort than just about anyone, and I need to know what my chances are." Harry finished in a rush.

"Ah. If you are finally asking the question, you are ready to hear the answer," said Dumbledore, taking a seat behind his desk. "Tea?"

Harry nodded, realizing his throat was parched from the wind and worry. He sat when motioned, grinning as the tea cart trundled over to them, first offering itself to the Headmaster, then to Harry. Harry fixed his tea sweet and creamy, blinking a bit when he remembered his picnic with Draco last Sunday. So much had happened in the last week he hardly believed that he'd felt so tentative with him once, so afraid of his own hands in Draco's heavy, soft hair.

"Your blood gave him life," said Dumbledore suddenly, and Harry sloshed his tea. "It is a very odd sort of bond, since the protection in your blood was his undoing when he marked you, and now it flows through his veins, binding you tighter."

Harry nodded, unwilling to interrupt. "Your blood is both strength and weakness for him. You needn't fear, Harry, that your death will be the answer you are looking for -- the prophecy is very clear that 'one must die for the other to survive,' and I fully intend for that survivor to be you. I believe a bond like the one that you are proposing would give you a strength which he does not and cannot have, but also a weakness he can only exploit."

He took a long sip of tea, peering at Harry over his glasses. "Draco is far more of a danger to you than vice versa. If you lose to Voldemort, in that final duel, he will undoubtedly be killed regardless. He, on the other hand, will probably be kidnapped in less than a month, tortured and killed for his loyalties to his house and his friends."

Harry blanched, but nodded. "We have done what we can to prevent this occurrence, but as we do not truly understand how it happened last year, what we can is not nearly enough. Draco would be a strength at your side, quite possibly the difference between success and failure. Certainly he would give you something you are sorely lacking, someone to live for after the war is over. But taken from you, he would most definitely be your downfall."

"So, you're saying that I'm not so much a risk to him, as the other way 'round?" asked Harry, wanting to be very sure.

Dumbledore nodded, motioning for the cart, which toddled over so he could grab a biscuit. "These are excellent biscuits, Harry, you should try one."

The cart moved back to him, and he took one mechanically, dunking it in his tea before letting the sweetness dissolve on his tongue. The subtle spice reminded him of the cake he'd gotten for Draco, and the fairies that had scattered sugar all over the bed, and left chocolate kisses in their wake. He thought back further, to the way Draco had knit the Slytherins into a group even before he stopped being nasty to the Gryffindors, using their common enemy to make allies of them all. He'd retained their respect even after his father had gone to jail, keeping them together when his own life fell apart.

"Draco's strong," said Harry quietly, taking another bite. He thought of Draco's hands moving like a dance over his Potions ingredients, a glittering knife adding danger to their motions, precise and deadly. Of those hands threaded through his hair, pulling his head back to give the love bite that was surely livid on his throat. Draco's endless plans to undermine him, the Potter Stinks badges and the Weasley Is Our King song.

"Draco's smart," he said. He dunked his biscuit, took a sip of tea, let the flavours meld in his mouth. He thought of Draco, young and arrogant and trying so hard, offering Harry his hand in friendship. He thought of Draco, head on his stomach, holding out a piece of his childhood like an olive branch. He thought of Draco's mouth, the taste of chocolate and wind, of his joy at their flight and his utter frustration whenever he lost at Quidditch.

"Draco's brave." He ate the last bit of cookie, finished his tea, and stood up. "He's more than he seems, and I love him."

"Well, there you are. But remember, Draco is also fragile, and he is a person with his own mind and his own decisions to make." Dumbledore lifted the lid of the jar on his desk. "Lemon drop?"

"No thank you," said Harry, turning to go. "The sourness? It's only an illusion."

---

The tiny hallway outside Draco's room was teeming with people. Crabbe and Goyle alone were enough to make the space seem cramped, and when you added in everyone else who had come along, it was positively claustrophobic. There was Hermione next to Ron and Eloise. Pansy was leaning against the wall, glaring at the three of them. Neville and Luna had somehow gotten invited along, and were talking animatedly with Blaise Zabini, who kept shooting glances at Draco's firmly closed door.

"Hermione, did you explain...?" Harry glanced around, suddenly nervous. It was one thing to have his two best friends knowing about his dilemma, but this was a rather large crowd for such an intimate decision.

"No, because honestly, you didn't either. Look, I know this is more people than you said, but I couldn't shake the extras." She looked totally frazzled, and Harry forgave her instantly.

"Let me see if we can't get Draco out here and then find someplace larger to meet," said Harry, suddenly having an idea. "I think the Room of Requirement."

"Brilliant," said Ron, smiling up at Harry encouragingly. Harry smiled back, then went to knock on the door.

"Fine, I'm coming," said Draco petulantly, his voice muffled by the door. When he opened it, he was wearing a suspiciously familiar green sweater over jeans Harry was absolutely positive were his. He was holding a chocolate frog and looking flushed and irritable, and Harry wanted to kiss him so badly it was like needing food, or air.

"I... I want to talk to you, and I want us to have our friends around for this decision. I can tell you first, and then them, or do it all at once." Harry started off stuttering and ended in a big rush, hoping to get the words out before the doubt on Draco's face became outright refusal.

Draco glanced at the crowd in the hallway, then back to Harry. "I suppose you've got someplace in mind?"

"Yeah. I'll even summon some more chocolate," said Harry with a soft, sad smile. He held out his hand to Draco, and his heart soared when cool fingers closed around his own. He leaned in close, whispering so no one else can hear, "I love you, you prat."

Draco's eyes went wide, and he started to pull away. "Peasant. And you do not."

"Do so!" said Harry, unable to hide the grin building inside him. "I can prove it."

Draco's eyes got wider, and flickered to their now-rapt audience. "Can you?"

Harry leaned in and placed a soft kiss on Draco's cheek. "You'll see." He turned away from the charming confusion on Draco's face, and tugged him towards the stairs. Draco followed behind, surprisingly compliant, and the rest of the mob trooped after them. No one, wisely, said a word about the kiss, or that they walked hand in hand.

"Snape told me about the potion," whispered Draco when they were almost there. "He told me all of it, that first night. I... I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

Harry squeezed his hand tighter. "I got there early, Friday night," said Harry softly, throat closed. "I heard. I knew."

Draco stopped for a moment, staring. Then he brushed a soft kiss on Harry's cheek, and they walked on. Behind them, a voice said, "Bloody hell."

Draco chuckled. "Blaise, you never had a chance," he called behind him, and Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy all snickered.

"Yeah, I know," said Blaise flippantly. "Had to try, though, didn't I?"

"No more trying," said Harry, surprising everyone including himself with the ferocity in his voice.

"Right, right, best man won and all that." Blaise seemed to be taking this awfully well, and for that matter so was everyone else.

"They're kind of cute together, really," said Luna in her dreamy voice, and Pansy shocked them both by agreeing.

"It's kind of right in a really really wrong way," added Ron, with a grunt as Hermione smacked him. "What? Malfoy's been trying to get Potter's undivided attention since day one."

"Well, he's certainly got it now," said Pansy.

Harry was starting to turn a bit pink. "We're right here, you know."

That statement was true in more than one way, as they'd come upon the location of the Room of Requirement. Harry thought really hard about what they were there to do, paced, and opened the door that appeared. Inside, there was a long fireplace burning cheerily, surrounded by couches, chairs and ottomans like fat animals clustering for warmth. A full tea was laid out on a sideboard, complete with everything from gently fluttering fairy cakes to a little basket of tiny marshmallows next to a pot of hot chocolate.

Crabbe and Goyle headed straight for the food, beating out everyone, but deferring to Draco in the matter of choice. Harry and Draco each took a fairy cake, a slice of warm spice cake, and an assortment of chocolates. Harry took a treacle tart as well, and a cup of strong tea, while Draco ended up with hot cocoa and a small mountain of marshmallows. Everyone else fell to ravenously; they were missing dinner for this, after all.

Once everyone had settled in, with Draco and Harry squashed together on the perfectly tiny loveseat in the centre of their little semicircle, Harry cleared his throat gently and began to explain. Everyone listened raptly as he told them about his worries for Slytherin, and the botched potion, his own growing feelings for Draco and eventually a very edited version of their kiss and its potential consequences. When he was done, everyone looked vaguely stunned, except for Hermione, who just looked irritated.

"Well, so what are you going to do about it?" she said. "I mean, it's obvious you two are totally gone for one another."

Draco laughed, and Harry glared. "That's what we're here to decide. I thought... well, as much as I think this is between the two of us, it affects everyone in our lives, especially with the added dangers."

"I thought you two were already shagging?" said Goyle, confused.

Crabbe punched his arm and said, "Nah, you know how it is with virgins, everything takes an age." Eloise practically snorted her tea.

"Which one of 'em's a virgin?" said Blaise, looking confused.

"It's Potter, weren't you paying attention? It's his sodding purity that's got them into this mess." That was Pansy, who seemed to have an intense dislike for Blaise.

"Well, I haven't seen Draco shagging any of you," Blaise said rather bitterly, sinking down into his seat. Harry was starting to share her dislike.

"Shagging aside," Harry interrupted, before any more speculation could be voiced, "the question here is really how you would feel about us being, er..."

"Lovers," said Ron, not in the least bit helpfully.

"Bonded," said Harry, glaring some more.

"You seem awfully cranky about it, Potter," said Blaise, and Harry suppressed the urge to throw something at him.

"It's purely sexual frustration," said Draco smoothly, making Blaise sulk further and everyone else blush. "Now, seriously, what do you think?"

"I think it's romantic," said Luna.

"I kind of agree," said Neville, speaking up for the first time. "I mean, you were childhood enemies, and now you're going to fight You-Know-Who together?"

"If he doesn't kidnap us all," said Goyle darkly.

"If he does, I may be able to follow the bond to find Draco," said Harry softly. He felt like he was intruding on their very private fear here, treading on ground that he, as a Gryffindor, wasn't native to.

"Or he might just kill Draco, and therefore you, and we'll lose all hope," said Neville.

Harry scooted around so he was looking into Draco's grey eyes. He'd once thought them cold, but now he saw past the surface into the depth of feeling beyond. "It's a risk I'm willing to take," said Harry softly. "I've already decided what I want."

Draco's eyes widened slightly, then crinkled as he smiled. "Figures. So I've just got to take the fate of the wizarding world on my shoulders now, too, eh?"

"You're gonna do it, then?" said Crabbe. "Er, not here, though, right?"

Draco and Harry both laughed while several of the others looked rather distressed. "No, not here," said Draco. "But yeah, I think we are."

"Cool," said Luna, and oddly enough, they all seemed to agree.