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lomonaaerenTitle: Lilies Are Lovelier (Than Narcissus)
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing this story for fun and not profit.
Pairing: Harry/Theo, one-sided Draco/Theo
Content Notes: Hogwarts “eighth year,” angst, humor, courting
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 1200
Summary: Draco has taken all the trouble to follow a Nott courting tradition. Too bad that Harry got there first.
Author’s Notes: This is one of my “Solstitial Shorts” being posted between Halloween and the winter solstice.
Lilies Are Lovelier (Than Narcissus)
“Theodore.”
Theo twitched a little as he looked up from his homework on the couch in the Slytherin common room. He hated that name. But he could have excused it from one of the returned Slytherins who didn’t know him well and was speaking to him mainly because there were so few Slytherins to speak with. From someone he had grown up with, someone who had always known him as Theo, it was unforgivable.
He stared when he saw Draco kneeling before him, head bowed, holding out a carved ivory narcissus flower. Theo shook his head. “You didn’t do it right.”
Draco’s head popped up, and he scowled at Theo. “I most certainly did do it right!” he snapped. “I carved a flower that resembles my mother’s name, and I’m offering it to you in token of my intention to—”
“Draco, please. You didn’t carve that.”
A flush made its way up Draco’s cheeks the way it always had when someone called him out on doing something wrong. “So what if I didn’t? The tradition says that it doesn’t need to be—”
“Actually, it does. The suitor is supposed to carve the flower.”
“Well, so what?” Draco shuffled closer on his knees and took out his wand. Theo tensed, but Draco simply raised a Privacy Charm so that he could yell at Theo without anyone else hearing. “You ought to be impressed and grateful that I want to court someone like you.”
Theo narrowed his eyes. “Someone like me.”
“Well, no offense, Theo, but with a Death Eater father on the run and your only controlling a fraction of the money that you used to have because the Ministry took so much of it, I’m lowering my standards a bit. I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t find you fascinating.”
Draco added what he probably thought was a seductive purr to his voice on those last words. It wasn’t. Theo closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“What’s wrong with my flower?”
“You didn’t carve it—”
“Besides that! You wouldn’t have rejected me if it was just that.”
Theo wanted to say that he would have, but it was true that he might at least have considered Draco’s suit if he had followed all but one bit of proper protocol. And if he hadn’t spoken insultingly. And if he hadn’t got there too late. And if he hadn’t been Draco.
“Someone else is already courting me,” Theo said calmly, and pulled at the slender silver chain around his neck that hadn’t attracted any attention because he had always used to wear an old portrait of his mother there. Now, he pulled out the wooden flower dangling from it and displayed it to Draco.
Draco gaped at it in silence for a minute. Then he looked up and said, “That’s clumsy carving.”
“He did it by hand, as he was supposed to do.”
“Why do that when you can buy it?”
Theo shook his head. “It doesn’t matter, Draco, because you’ll never understand.” Draco’s flush, which had started to subside, surged up again. “And because I love him in a way that I don’t love you.”
“I could come to love you!”
“My feelings don’t matter?”
“I mean, they would. Eventually.”
Theo sighed very loudly, stood up, dissipated the Privacy Charm, and started towards the door of the common room.
“Theodore Nott! Don’t you walk away from me!”
Well, fine. Theo had wanted to keep this private, but if Draco insisted on dragging it into the open, then Theo would tell him what he thought. He turned around. Draco was back on his feet and waving the narcissus flower at Theo as if he thought that would get him to come back.
“I don’t want someone who cringed like the coward he is at the Dark Lord’s feet,” Theo said, and Draco flinched, eyes wide with pain.
Theo turned and walked away.
That had been a lower blow than the ones that Draco had tried to inflict on him, but it didn’t matter. What Theo had wanted was to make sure that Draco never pursued him again and gave up this farce of thinking he and Theo were meant for each other, or whatever he had decided.
It would work.
Theo’s hand closed around the carved wooden lily again, and he smiled a little. Yes, he might have accepted Draco’s suit not that far in the past.
But now he had someone who had told him he was worth more than that, and Theo believed him.
*
“Theo.”
Harry’s face was bright as he reached out to draw Theo into their private dungeon alcove. There had once been an ugly bust there, but Theo and Harry had moved it, carved a small room into the stone behind it, and set the bust and its plinth up in front of the door again. No one appeared to suspect.
Harry was looking at Theo as if the sun spun around him, and Theo smiled back.
He had never, even once, considered that Harry Potter might want to court him before it happened. Let alone that Harry would look up Nott courting traditions, which included presenting a hand-carved flower that represented the suitor’s mother in some way, and follow them when he hadn’t been raised with them.
That had been the first thing that captured Theo’s attention. Harry was doing it because he knew Theo would appreciate it.
Theo leaned in and kissed Harry. Harry kissed him back, escalating to slipping his tongue into Theo’s mouth when Theo didn’t object. Theo let himself be pressed back against the stone wall behind them, but gently, the way Harry did everything with him. Harry’s eyes were closed, his face intent.
Theo had asked Harry, once, why Harry had decided to court him. Harry had said simply, “You’re strong. And you don’t care about my fame. And you’re handsome. And you act like you were changed by the war, when too many people are trying to ignore it.”
Theo wasn’t sure about the strength or the handsomeness, although the other things were true enough—
His thoughts fractured as Harry moved his mouth down and sucked gently at the side of Theo’s neck. Theo entwined his fingers into Harry’s hair and pulled. Harry chuckled, which only made the sucking better.
But what mattered was that Harry wanted him, and he wanted Harry, and together, they were becoming something much stronger, much better, than any future Theo had thought he would have for himself after the war. He was learning to believe they would have their future, too.
Then his thoughts fractured again, and he went back to kissing his betrothed, a much more worthwhile endeavor than thinking about things that weren’t going to happen, because this was happening right now.
The End.
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing this story for fun and not profit.
Pairing: Harry/Theo, one-sided Draco/Theo
Content Notes: Hogwarts “eighth year,” angst, humor, courting
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 1200
Summary: Draco has taken all the trouble to follow a Nott courting tradition. Too bad that Harry got there first.
Author’s Notes: This is one of my “Solstitial Shorts” being posted between Halloween and the winter solstice.
Lilies Are Lovelier (Than Narcissus)
“Theodore.”
Theo twitched a little as he looked up from his homework on the couch in the Slytherin common room. He hated that name. But he could have excused it from one of the returned Slytherins who didn’t know him well and was speaking to him mainly because there were so few Slytherins to speak with. From someone he had grown up with, someone who had always known him as Theo, it was unforgivable.
He stared when he saw Draco kneeling before him, head bowed, holding out a carved ivory narcissus flower. Theo shook his head. “You didn’t do it right.”
Draco’s head popped up, and he scowled at Theo. “I most certainly did do it right!” he snapped. “I carved a flower that resembles my mother’s name, and I’m offering it to you in token of my intention to—”
“Draco, please. You didn’t carve that.”
A flush made its way up Draco’s cheeks the way it always had when someone called him out on doing something wrong. “So what if I didn’t? The tradition says that it doesn’t need to be—”
“Actually, it does. The suitor is supposed to carve the flower.”
“Well, so what?” Draco shuffled closer on his knees and took out his wand. Theo tensed, but Draco simply raised a Privacy Charm so that he could yell at Theo without anyone else hearing. “You ought to be impressed and grateful that I want to court someone like you.”
Theo narrowed his eyes. “Someone like me.”
“Well, no offense, Theo, but with a Death Eater father on the run and your only controlling a fraction of the money that you used to have because the Ministry took so much of it, I’m lowering my standards a bit. I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t find you fascinating.”
Draco added what he probably thought was a seductive purr to his voice on those last words. It wasn’t. Theo closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“What’s wrong with my flower?”
“You didn’t carve it—”
“Besides that! You wouldn’t have rejected me if it was just that.”
Theo wanted to say that he would have, but it was true that he might at least have considered Draco’s suit if he had followed all but one bit of proper protocol. And if he hadn’t spoken insultingly. And if he hadn’t got there too late. And if he hadn’t been Draco.
“Someone else is already courting me,” Theo said calmly, and pulled at the slender silver chain around his neck that hadn’t attracted any attention because he had always used to wear an old portrait of his mother there. Now, he pulled out the wooden flower dangling from it and displayed it to Draco.
Draco gaped at it in silence for a minute. Then he looked up and said, “That’s clumsy carving.”
“He did it by hand, as he was supposed to do.”
“Why do that when you can buy it?”
Theo shook his head. “It doesn’t matter, Draco, because you’ll never understand.” Draco’s flush, which had started to subside, surged up again. “And because I love him in a way that I don’t love you.”
“I could come to love you!”
“My feelings don’t matter?”
“I mean, they would. Eventually.”
Theo sighed very loudly, stood up, dissipated the Privacy Charm, and started towards the door of the common room.
“Theodore Nott! Don’t you walk away from me!”
Well, fine. Theo had wanted to keep this private, but if Draco insisted on dragging it into the open, then Theo would tell him what he thought. He turned around. Draco was back on his feet and waving the narcissus flower at Theo as if he thought that would get him to come back.
“I don’t want someone who cringed like the coward he is at the Dark Lord’s feet,” Theo said, and Draco flinched, eyes wide with pain.
Theo turned and walked away.
That had been a lower blow than the ones that Draco had tried to inflict on him, but it didn’t matter. What Theo had wanted was to make sure that Draco never pursued him again and gave up this farce of thinking he and Theo were meant for each other, or whatever he had decided.
It would work.
Theo’s hand closed around the carved wooden lily again, and he smiled a little. Yes, he might have accepted Draco’s suit not that far in the past.
But now he had someone who had told him he was worth more than that, and Theo believed him.
*
“Theo.”
Harry’s face was bright as he reached out to draw Theo into their private dungeon alcove. There had once been an ugly bust there, but Theo and Harry had moved it, carved a small room into the stone behind it, and set the bust and its plinth up in front of the door again. No one appeared to suspect.
Harry was looking at Theo as if the sun spun around him, and Theo smiled back.
He had never, even once, considered that Harry Potter might want to court him before it happened. Let alone that Harry would look up Nott courting traditions, which included presenting a hand-carved flower that represented the suitor’s mother in some way, and follow them when he hadn’t been raised with them.
That had been the first thing that captured Theo’s attention. Harry was doing it because he knew Theo would appreciate it.
Theo leaned in and kissed Harry. Harry kissed him back, escalating to slipping his tongue into Theo’s mouth when Theo didn’t object. Theo let himself be pressed back against the stone wall behind them, but gently, the way Harry did everything with him. Harry’s eyes were closed, his face intent.
Theo had asked Harry, once, why Harry had decided to court him. Harry had said simply, “You’re strong. And you don’t care about my fame. And you’re handsome. And you act like you were changed by the war, when too many people are trying to ignore it.”
Theo wasn’t sure about the strength or the handsomeness, although the other things were true enough—
His thoughts fractured as Harry moved his mouth down and sucked gently at the side of Theo’s neck. Theo entwined his fingers into Harry’s hair and pulled. Harry chuckled, which only made the sucking better.
But what mattered was that Harry wanted him, and he wanted Harry, and together, they were becoming something much stronger, much better, than any future Theo had thought he would have for himself after the war. He was learning to believe they would have their future, too.
Then his thoughts fractured again, and he went back to kissing his betrothed, a much more worthwhile endeavor than thinking about things that weren’t going to happen, because this was happening right now.
The End.
