lomonaaeren

Thank you again for all the reviews! This is the end of this little story, but I haven’t given up thoughts of continuing it.

Part Three

“Nott. Could I talk to you?”

Theo tilted his head. He had lingered in the corridor outside the Defense classroom waiting for Harry, because Professor Fletcher, the retired Auror who had taken Umbridge’s place, wanted to talk to him. “All right, Granger.”

“Not here.”

“I’m not willing to go any further from Harry.”

Granger, who had already been walking down the corridor, paused and turned around. “But what could happen to him while he’s speaking with Professor Fletcher?”

“What could have happened to him with Umbridge?”

Granger considered that for a long moment, then sighed and flicked her wand, raising a Privacy Charm around them. Theo ignored the itching in his skin that wanted him to transform and crawl out of the Charm. People didn’t always get everything they wanted, and that included Slytherins who were Harry Potter’s boyfriend and snake Animagi.

“I’m concerned about the way that you and Harry orbit each other. The way that you barely spend time with anyone else.”

“I thought Harry was still making time and room for you and Weasley.”

“Well, yes, us. But no one else, besides you.”

“Did he ever?”

“What?”

“I thought Harry only had two friends, Granger. He was well-known for it in the dungeons, where we all had to listen to Draco complaining that he’d missed out on the chance to befriend Harry. So who else did he spend time with, before this year, that you’re concerned he’s not spending time with now?”

Granger paused, frowning. Theo gave her the time to think. His attention was trained on the closed classroom door, and the vibrations of Harry and Fletcher’s voices, poised to intervene if he heard distress from Harry.

“I suppose—no one on a regular basis. But right now, no one else can even get close to him. Because of you.”

“Harry’s not interested in dating anyone else.”

“Well, he doesn’t know that, because you’re with him all the time.”

“If he is interested in dating someone else, then he’ll have to tell me. And that will be a conversation between the two of us. Not between him and you, or between him and whichever person who wants to date him that you’re here on behalf of.”

Theo knew he had struck home when he saw how Granger flushed. She folded her arms, though, and went on. “And is that such a bad thing? Harry doesn’t need to date you for the rest of his life.”

“Not if he doesn’t want to.”

“But what if—”

“What?” Theo asked, because she had trailed off.

“What if he spends the rest of his time, all his time, with you and us and no one else? What if he misses out on someone who would make him happy?”

Theo leaned a little towards her. He knew he had something of the serpent in his eyes and bearing, because Granger went very still, and her hand inched towards her wand. Theo ignored that. He had no reason not to, as long as she didn’t actually cast a spell at him.

“I make him happy. Never doubt it, Granger.”

“I don’t need all the details!”

“And he doesn’t need this person you might be trying to force on him.”

“I’m not trying to force anything on him—”

“What’s going on?”

Theo turned around with a small scowl. He hadn’t heard the door open or Harry come out of the classroom. That was unacceptable. He had to know where Harry was at all times if he was going to defend him from enemies.

“Nott and I were just talking about how you seem to spend all your time with him and not with other people who want to date you.”

Harry was opening his mouth, probably to say that he spent plenty with Weasley and Granger, too, but he stopped and stood looking at her narrow-eyed when she finished. In a moment, Granger was shifting from one foot to another.

“So you think there’s someone who would want to date me?”

“I know there is.”

Harry nodded thoughtfully. Theo held back, with difficulty, the impulse to transform and go hunting.

“Well, I’m with Theo,” Harry said with a shrug, as if it was a foregone conclusion. “And this person didn’t come and talk to me before I started dating him, so they can’t be that interested.”

“Harry—”

“The only person they might even have thought I was dating was Parvati Patil, since I took her to the Yule Ball, and that was almost a year ago.” Harry shook his head and turned to face Theo. “Do you want to go outside and practice some of our spells near the Forbidden Forest?”

Theo looped his arm around Harry’s and tugged him down the corridor for an answer.

“Harry, maybe you could—”

Harry rolled his eyes and called over his shoulder, “Either they’re brave enough to talk to me, Hermione, or they aren’t. And I don’t have interest in anyone but Theo, anyway.”

Theo didn’t stick out his tongue at Granger, but it was difficult. He did press Harry flat against the wall when they got around the corner and lean close enough to almost hiss the words into his ear. “What did Professor Fletcher want to talk to you about?”

Harry, shivering, raised his hands to frame either side of Theo’s face. “What? Oh, just that he heard I could perform a Patronus, and it would add to my marks on the Defense OWL if I could do it.”

Theo smiled and leaned closer, closer, closer. He let Harry make little impatient noises of anticipation before he fastened his mouth over Harry’s.

And if he went on kissing far longer than he would have if Granger hadn’t brought up other people dating Harry, that was his business, and Harry’s. No one else’s.

*

“Expecto Patronum!”

Theo shivered with possessive desire as he watched the silver stag explode into being from the tip of Harry’s wand. The magnificent creature tossed his heavy head and turned liquid eyes on Theo.

“Go on, Prongs, make friends. He’s mine, too.”

Theo tried to hide what hearing those last words did to him, but from the slight smirk lingering on Harry’s face, he knew. Theo lifted a hand and let it run down the cool silver magic of the stag’s face. It felt almost solid.

Prongs nudged him with half-lowered antlers and disappeared again.

“I call him Prongs because my dad was a stag Animagus, and that’s what the Ma—his friends called him,” Harry said softly, staring at the place where his Patronus had been. His hands were stuffed in his pockets, and he looked as if he were vibrating. As if he wanted to know what Theo would make of his Patronus.

And he clearly still had secrets from Theo, by the way he had cut himself off. Probably ones that were more profound than just his father being an Animagus.

In time, Theo would earn them all.

He took a step forwards, and Harry’s head rose immediately, eyes tracking Theo, locked on him. Theo leaned in, and Harry strained up towards him, although he wasn’t bound by anything more than the bonds of air.

“Harry,” Theo whispered.

“I’m right here. I’m here, and it doesn’t matter what other people say, or who wants me to date me. I’m always here for you, Theo.”

Theo leaned down, and Harry leaned up, and their lips touched, there in the cool air at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, and Theo’s hands tightened on Harry’s shoulders, and Harry made a little impatient sound and surged into his hold.

They were there. They were here. Harry’s scent and heat flooded Theo’s senses as clearly as they ever did when he was a snake.

He was here. And he wasn’t going anywhere.

The End.