A Year's Temptation, Chapter Six--June (Part Two)

[lomonaaeren]

Draco didn't know how Harry had done it—he suspected it was with the careful use of calming charms and spells that numbed the nerves so as to be indifferent to any sensation, pleasure or pain—but he was entirely unmoved when he came to Draco on the twentieth.

They met in the gardens, as before. Draco had Transfigured the bench in the gazebo into a bed, this time. He meant for Harry to be comfortable and lie between his legs as he sucked Draco off, and after that Draco would unleash his Veela allure, pin Harry to the bed as he was writhing, and return the favor.

But Harry didn't blink when he saw the bed. He just nodded, climbed onto it, performed the charm that Vanished Draco's clothing, and then bent to his task without a taunt, without a greeting, without an expression of defiance.

Draco's back had arched and his mind had gone blank. The sensation only satisfied his physical needs, without doing a thing about the Veela's—or his—emotional ones, but he'd gone so long without even a kind word from his mate, let alone a touch, that for the moment, that was enough. He would have sworn that perhaps Harry had used spells on his mouth to increase its heat and wetness, too, but he knew that wasn't the case. His body had simply needed Harry with so much desperation that anything felt good right about then. He came with a feeling that he had emptied everything, tears and anger and frustration and all, into the orgasm.

Harry stood up when he was done, cleaned come off his lips with a flick of his tongue, and performed the cleaning charms. Then he looked around for a moment and leaned off the bed.

Then Draco's robes landed on top of him, a gesture so casual that the Veela cried out in stunned pain, like a kicked dog.

A moment later, Harry had Apparated away.

Draco lay where he had been abandoned, and closed his eyes. The same crushing grip he'd first felt in the Ministry had hold of his heart, manipulating it, shredding it. He could feel the physical muscle laboring at exactly the same cadence as the emotional pain, and the fading of pleasure's aftershocks let him feel it all the more.

God, he wanted to kill something.

Harry was a blind idiot to think their marriages, their lives, would ever be the same after this. Even if the stupid bargain they had made had somehow endured, Draco would have dreamt of the heat of Harry's mouth and hand for the rest of his life, and wondered if it was only the Veela that made sex with Harry so much better than sex with Pansy. Eventually, Draco would probably have given in and pursued Harry so that he could find out.

The little Weasley's pull over Harry was too weak. Draco knew sexual compatibility wasn't everything, but it was a lot, and Harry's erection against his hip the other day, from just a kiss—in which he hadn't used a bit of Veela allure, thank you very much—was even more. He was fighting a futile battle. He had to give in. The Veela's longing for him would die. Draco's wouldn't.

Why is he fighting so much?

Draco went still suddenly, and frowned at the canopy of the bed. It did seem odd, that Harry had turned so suddenly cruel and callous. It wasn't like him at all. He had been open and compassionate until April, even after the little Weasley had made that rule he couldn't give himself to Draco. Was it really only the holiday that had changed him? Or the trick Draco had used on him to make him confess his fear and unhappiness? Harry could hold grudges, yes, but avoiding Draco would have made more sense than outright cruelty.

Someone moved at the edge of his peripheral vision.

Draco rolled his head, hoping against hope it was Harry come back, but Pansy stepped out of the darkness instead, and stood looking down at him in the bed. Her left hand held her wand, as expected. Draco thought she would make some comment about his state of undress, or the still large pool of semen splashed on his belly.

She coughed and made a little gesture with her wand towards her right hand. Draco followed the motion.

She held a camera in it.

Draco snapped his gaze to her, furious. Pansy smiled a bit and sat down on the far edge of the bed, the one Harry had occupied. She didn't seem to care how near her hand, even her robe, came to the mess. She just watched him with bright, slightly mocking eyes.

It wasn't Harry's idea to be that cruel, Draco thought.

The Veela uttered its raptor screech at the thought of someone actively interfering, trying to keep it from its mate. With a heavy effort and a visualization of the bare stone room, Draco kept it from transforming him.

"What do you want?" he asked in a level voice.

Pansy fluttered her eyelashes, but Draco wouldn't be fooled again. She was no more innocent than a succubus was. "Only what every wife wants," she said. "The love and loyalty of my husband."

"The first was never yours," Draco said, in as distant a tone as he could manage while revelation and fury ate him alive. He could feel it as actual fire in his belly, building up in his flanks like the heat Harry had delivered from his orgasm in May. His shoulder blades quivered with the need to grow wings. He knew that if he did, when he lifted them again, the white-blue energy that had gathered under them in March would rise and devour Pansy. "As for the second, you think moving this obviously is the way to get it?"

Pansy gave him a slow, mischievous smile, which suited a girl much younger than she was. "I've already moved subtly, and shown you my disapproval, and it didn't really matter." She rolled a shoulder. "And I know that you're thinking of taking and destroying the camera, Draco. It won't matter. It really won't matter. I have pictures from the last few months, too. And the nights that I wasn't here, or that you thought I wasn't—" Her smile flashed with venomous sweetness, and Draco felt a stab of hatred deeper and stronger than any he'd felt in seven years. "The house-elves obliged me."

Draco spent another moment considering her in silence. He wanted to say the house-elves would never have turned against the master of Malfoy Manor that way, but he knew better. Pansy's status as his wife gave her a certain amount of power over them. If he hadn't specifically forbidden something, and she commanded them to it, then they would oblige her.

He could command them never to do this again. But that would not stop Pansy from publishing the photographs of him and Harry she already had, or showing them around more discreetly but still to their ruin.

It was not so much his own ruin that Draco thought of, though part of him shuddered at the thought of building his name up again after the Death Eater scandal had almost ruined it. He was thinking of Harry.

He's wrong. I was never selfish enough not to care about him, at least not after March happened.

"You know that I'll die if I give you my full loyalty," he said carefully. He had to be so careful. He had to project the image of a trapped beast to Pansy, showing her that he was desperate and angry and longing to get the photographs away from her. If he showed too much fear, though, she wouldn't believe it, and if he showed too much anger, she wouldn't accept the desperation, either. "Is that really what you want, for me to perish before the year's out?"

"No," said Pansy. "I only wish to have some say in how you arrange your trysts, Draco, the way any good wife would." She stroked his shoulder. Draco was glad that he had practiced the exercises to control the Veela, then, because it shrieked and screamed in his head in revulsion. It didn't like anyone save its mate touching it, anyway, but Pansy was worse, a traitor. Draco mastered it, though, and kept lying there with a calm expression. "You're to meet on the twentieth of each month, just as you did this time. Only and ever here. You'll inform me beforehand. I'll be watching from the shadows, though I quite understand if you never want me to bring a camera again."

She smiled. Draco kept down the effort to strangle her by sheer force of will.

"Potter will finish his business with you and leave." She arched an eyebrow. "The example he set tonight is quite instructive, and one you'll follow from now on. Should the beast inside you absolutely require it, then you can pleasure Potter as well. The exchange should never take more than five minutes either way. Men are randy creatures, aren't they, darling?"

Draco just tilted his head, seeking to make her go on. Visions of bloody death flashed across his mind, but they'd done the same thing when he trained with some of the Death Eaters. He'd kept them from noticing it, and he could do the same thing with Pansy now. At least his life wasn't in danger this time.

"And then you'll come with me, and we'll make love, so that you'll know whom you belong to." Pansy extended one hand and wriggled the fingers insistently. "In fact, we'll try that part of it right now. Do come with me, Draco. And remember that I'll know if you intend me harm."

She might think that, but it wasn't true.

Draco put the Veela away, in the back of his mind. Its screaming had calmed in the last few minutes. Perhaps it had seen his own daydreams, and realized he was thinking of ways to punish Pansy. At least it curled up and left him alone, so that he could do his own human job of acting.

He cleaned himself, and took Pansy up to their shared bedroom. He stripped her, murmuring endearments into her ears. He laid her on the bed and began slowly to worship her, his lips marking her skin the way they had when they made love on his birthday.

It wouldn't last. Come his next birthday, he would be doing this to Harry.

As always, the thought of Harry shot his arousal higher, and he sat back so Pansy could see his cock swelling between his legs.

"I don't know that I believe that's for me," she murmured.

Draco climbed back up the bed to her and set about, very coldly and deliberately behind his lover's mask, bringing her to such heights of pleasure as she had never felt. When he thought it safe, he let a little touch of Veela allure leak through here and there, though it made the Veela whinge weakly in the back of his head. It wanted to save its allure for its mate.

All the time plotting her murder, he made love to her delicately, gently, tenderly, with such techniques that she writhed beneath him, incoherent with desire, by the time he entered her.

Draco kept his thrusts at a leisurely pace. Since Harry had taken the edge off for him, it was no effort to do so.

He made sure she came twice before he did. He gazed at her, memorizing the pleasure-flush of her cheeks, the way her hair sprawled about her on the pillow. He wanted to remember what she looked like, wanted to remember it deeply and dearly, and cradle and treasure the memory in the back of his head.

She would suffer.

And he knew how she would by the time he finally succumbed to his orgasm, and then to sleep beside her, cradling her as though she was indeed his mate. His dreams burned in pleasant ways, full of vengeance sometimes, and of a far different, sweeter-smelling body lying beside his at other times.

*

Harry had had a wonderful evening.

There was, after all, something that made him happy: the company of the Weasleys. Harry still found it hard to face Molly and Arthur, knowing he'd killed one of their children, but when they invited him and Ginny over for a dinner to celebrate the twins opening their first shop in Hogsmeade, it would have been even harder to resist. So he and Ginny, still walking carefully without the aid of her crutches, went to the Burrow for dinner.

The twins were there, and so was Angelina Johnson, who had recently started dating Fred. Bill and Charlie remained abroad, but Fleur had come in for a visit, along with her five-year-old daughter, Roxane, petted and the treasure of the entire family, but too shy to be spoiled. Percy was also missing; his reconciliation with his family was still partial and painful.

But nine people, counting Roxane, was more than enough to make the table feel crowded and the house dense and warm. Harry laughed at some of the twins' genuinely funny stories, and Ginny did the same thing, for once without a trace of bitterness in the sound. Roxane was passed from adult to adult, her feet rarely touching the floor. She was fond of Harry, but her means of showing affection was mostly to cling to him in silence, burying her head in his shoulder. Harry felt he was healing as he held her. There was something different about holding a child.

Once he looked up across Roxane's head and saw Ginny watching him with a steady expression. Harry smiled hesitantly. He couldn't make out anything behind her eyes. He hoped she was thinking of the children they might have someday.

That we will have someday, he decided firmly, and handed Roxane on to Angelina.

Molly and Arthur were solicitous to Ginny, willing to listen to Harry's talk of Ministry business, and always conscious of where their granddaughter was at any given moment. Sometimes, listening to them talk to each other, practically finishing each other's sentences the way Fred and George did, and watching them exchange secret smiles, Harry felt he might be able to tell them he had killed Ron, after all, and that they would weep, but still accept him.

He did not feel like testing it, of course.

When he and Ginny stood to leave, Molly dragged her daughter aside for motherly advice about not pushing herself too hard while recovering. Harry, standing and watching them with a faint smile, was more than a little surprised when Fleur took him aside in turn.

Years had only turned her more beautiful, and stately, so that she carried her long pale hair like a crown. She had also mostly lost her French accent, though it hovered around a few of her words. "Ah, 'arry," she said. "You will forgive me, yes? I noticed that you 'ad a scent of the Veela on you."

Harry could feel his ears heating up. He hoped desperately that anyone watching would just mistake it for the embarrassment most men felt when talking to the beautiful Veela woman. "Yes," he admitted. "I—that is to say—" He reminded himself that he couldn't really deny it, that his stammering only made the matter seem more serious than it was, and that if anyone would understand this madness that had taken over his life, Fleur would. "An old acquaintance of mine had his Veela heritage pushed to the forefront of his life by a magical accident last year," he admitted grudgingly. "It turned out I'm his mate. We've found a solution," he added quickly, seeing Fleur's eyebrows fly up. "I only have sexual contact with him once a month, and that's enough to content his Veela. And it should fade away at the end of this year."

Fleur stared at him for a moment, then turned to look at Ginny. "It is 'ard on her," she murmured.

"It is." Harry looked back at his wife, who was listening patiently to her mother. God, she was beautiful, enough to make the breath catch in his throat. Fleur and Malfoy both had that distant kind of cold, hard attraction, like a snowy mountain, but Ginny was as lovely as fire was. "But she agreed, like the rest of us did. It's—hard. But it's working. It's just a few more times."

Fleur made a low, thoughtful sound. Then she said, "Forgive me again, but—you speak of the Veela as if eet were an animal inside this—acquaintance—of yours. You know that is not true, yes?"

"It's not precisely true," Harry said, shrugging. "I know that. But he can control it like a part of himself."

Fleur sighed. "Over time, the Veela blends with the wizard," she said. "We 'ave seen eet many times, because many of those awakened late in life come to us for 'elp. So the Veela wants you, but over time, the wizard will want you, too."

"He can't have me." Harry shifted his shoulders. "I've taken steps to discourage his interest in me."

"I can only 'ope for you," Fleur said seriously. "This is a dangerous situation, very delicate. The Veela 'ave their mates for a reason, yes? To content them, but also to content the mate. They will do anything to make their mates 'appy."

"I'm happy with Ginny."

Fleur only looked at him with pity, kissed his cheek, and then turned away to catch up Roxane, who was saying, "Mummy, mummy," over and over in a soft voice.

Harry shook his head, and turned to take Ginny's arm. She looked up at him with the same steady expression she had used during dinner, but leaned against him willingly so that he could carry her through the Floo.

They had barely arrived home, though, when she stepped away. Harry shut the Floo connection behind him and faced her, not sure what she wanted. His heart was pounding in his ears with a muffled knocking.

"It's over," Ginny said.

Harry felt as if a giant had punched him. He tried to muster some words from his throat, some saliva in his mouth, but a dry croak came out.

Ginny didn't seem to notice. She was looking down. One hand ran over and over the mantle above the fireplace.

"I looked at Mum and Dad tonight," she said into the silence, "and then I listened to Fleur talking about Bill. Those are—that's the kind of marriage I want, Harry. A strong one. A solid one. One nothing can tear apart." She suddenly let out a harsh, quivering breath, which was the only sign Harry had of how close to tears this conversation had already carried her. "One where one partner would never consider cheating on another."

Harry opened his mouth to answer as he always did, that Malfoy's mortal danger hadn't left him a choice, and then closed his mouth again. He had had a choice. He had even told Ginny that he would rather go to Azkaban for conspiracy to murder Malfoy than make her unhappy.

He'd made his choice, and he had to live with the consequences. He'd done the wrong thing, even though he had thought it was the right thing. He cast his own eyes down and waited.

"I deserve more than this half-existence you've inflicted on me in the last six months," Ginny said quietly. "I deserve more than to be cheated on, slept around on. I deserve more than a husband who will—commit adultery. And I also deserve more than a husband who keeps giving pieces of himself away to other people."

Harry could just see her hands twisting furiously together in the corner of his vision.

"This is so hard," Ginny murmured. "I do love you, Harry. You're an easy man to love.

"I don't know if you're an easy man to continue to love.

"You're so righteous. Sometimes it's self-righteousness. You do the right thing, and I love that about you, but it's at such a cost. You've been good, in the past, about making sure that only you pay for it, but now it's costing me. And I just—I don't know. Either you're too good for me, or I deserve something more than this, even with all your sacrifice. I deserve more."

Harry nodded, still not looking up.

"None of this," Ginny said, coming close to him and whispering into his ear, which made him start, "disturbs me as much as what I saw you doing with Malfoy. I think I could forgive the cheating. What is it but giving each other a little physical release? And if you'd remained distant from him and treated him with the same contempt as you did at first, I could have borne it.

"But you got closer and closer to him. You gave him pieces of yourself, and not just to bandage his wounds, but to keep. He brings a passion leaping out of you that I can't. You—you provide the memories in the Pensieve, but you don't experience them from the outside, so I don't think you've really seen the expression on his face when he holds you, kisses you. He's falling in love with you, Harry. Maybe he's already there." She hesitated a moment more, than added, "And from the outside, it looks awfully like you're falling in love with him."

That, at least, Harry could answer.

"I'm not," he said quietly, studying the floor. "In fact, Pansy asked me to keep as much of myself back as I could. She doesn't want to lose her husband, either. I taunted him and made him suffer as much as I could bear to."

"Really?" Ginny's voice held a lilt of surprise.

Harry's heart did leap, then.

"It's not enough," Ginny said after a pensive silence. "Not right now, at least. But—I suppose it couldn't hurt to give you a few more months. Six more months, Harry." She stepped away from him, and he finally looked up at her.

Her eyes were sad and soft, but determined. "If you still love me in six months—if you're not in love with him—then come to me, and we'll take up where we left off."

Harry nodded, the hope high in his throat, keeping him silent. It wasn't much, but it was something.

He helped her pack up in silence, and listened to her low murmured stream of instructions about sending on her post and when he should come to visit her. She would stay at the Burrow, of course. It was already arranged with Molly and Arthur.

She kissed him once, and then she stepped through the fire, as steadily as if she had never crashed a broom, and was gone.

Harry leaned his forehead against the mantle, his hands clenched around the sides of his head and his eyes tightly shut. His happy mood of the earlier evening had vanished completely, but something better had taken its place: determination stronger and fiercer than Harry had felt when he'd hunted the Horcruxes.

He fixed an image of Ginny in his mind, set it to burn there like a candle.

That was the woman he loved. That was what he should aspire towards. And he would. It didn't matter what measures he had to take along the way.

Malfoy could fall in love with him all he liked.

Harry was not going to fall in love back.

Comments

[megyal]

*sneaks onto internet*

This is a fantastic chapter. Keep up the brilliant work.

*slinks off*

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I hope that you're doing better.

[nomeci.livejournal.com]

*locks gazes with Harry.... Yes you will! I insist! hehe

loving this babe!

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

And, well, Harry is tremendously, hugely, relentlessly stubborn. But so is Draco in this fic.

[fathomlessspite]

Fantastic chapter, this story is just getting better and better

thank you!

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[silverferret89.livejournal.com]

Oh boy, Harry. You're only making this hard on yourself. *sigh*
This is developing very nicely, very nicely indeed.
I actually like that Pansy has been spying on the pair for a long time, and that she thinks she's in control.
Plus Harry's little rendezvous with the stalker (Or what you call him) was great^^ I like a little show of powers and fighting!
Uh! And the kiss! *dreamy smile* And the fact that Draco didn't use a single bit of Veela allure makes it all that much better! xD

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Harry's major problem at this point is that he has no idea what the right thing to do is- and he's always had that. No matter how he acts, he hurts someone. He finds it very hard to accept that the right thing to do might also be the thing that hurts someone else.

Pansy's behavior has an underlying reason (beyond just her arrogance and desperation to remain Draco's wife), explained in a few chapters.

There is more battle in the upcoming chapters, I promise you!

Draco is rather proud of that kiss.

[ura-hd.livejournal.com]

Great chapter!

I can see now why Draco thinks that Ginny does not take a good care of Harry. It is all about what she deserves and what makes her happy and no single word about what Harry deserves and how to make him happy.

Please do not make Draco to kill Pansy. There should be other ways.

Great writing. You are extremely good at getting at complex human emotions.

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Ginny thinks Harry has had it too much his own way already. I've tried to hint at their married life before the story began, though I'm not sure I did a sufficiently complex job. In her POV, his job- which has always been more dangerous and more demanding in terms of sheer time- has caused her to give up a lot for him, but he hasn't seemed to be as devoted to her. The Draco thing is the last straw.

You'll see Draco's plan in a bit.

I've worked hard at the emotions (I don't really get people), so thank you.

[majzen11.livejournal.com]

Oh no!!! Now I'm really torn... Now I want him to stay with Ginny. But I also want him to get together with Draco. Though I want him to get together with DRACO, not the veela. =( Hmmm... What to do? What to do?

Loved the chapter, though! Can't wait for more! =)

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

And you may or may not be satisfied with the outcome of the story, but I can promise (hopefully) that it will make sense with what has gone before. From here on out, the story still has about 60,000 words to go, after all.

[majzen11.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I'll be happy with it, no matter what! =) (But it has to end with Harry/Draco... I am a H/D shipper after all!) =)

[free-the-goats.livejournal.com]

Weirdly enough, I want to smack everyone in this story except Harry... wait, I want to smack him for not telling anyone he's being stalked.

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

*snicker* I've sometimes been told I write frustrating characters. If it keeps you reading, though...

[lycias.livejournal.com]

I just...love. Love, love, love. This is probably one of the most realistic H/D stories I have read in terms of the relationship dynamics between Harry, Ginny, Draco, and Pansy. You never seem to make it easy or simple; everything is intricate and complex--the way life really is. I find that too many authors hurry through this necessary development to get to fluffy h/d love, when in real life there is a painful and arduous process. Wonderful work.

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much!

I know exactly what you mean with hurrying development. That's okay for me when I'm in the mood a quick fluff fix, but fluff is so much easier to find than stories that do try to work out a way there (or that dare to be different and leave Harry and Draco's relationship extremely angsty or unresolved). I'm not quite ready to try the 'unresolved' thing as yet, with all the time I've spent writing to get them together, but I've tried to make the path they're taking work.

I definitely hope you'll find more to like as the story progresses.

[spae.livejournal.com]

Oh oh oh ... poor Draco! do love that he doesn't just curl up though, he remains angry and bitter and plotting murder while he fucks ... *heehee*

And mhmmm good ... Ginny out of the way - though that'll make Harry more determined to keep her, I guess. Interesting chat with Fleur, too.

I do love the fact that I don't have to wait too long between updates.

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

One thing Draco isn't is helpless. (I think that's canon; even in the sixth book, he's still plotting and planning and trying to do something).

Harry can idealize Ginny when she isn't there, and especially since they won't be communicating for a while. That definitely makes it harder for Draco.

I hope to be able to keep up this update pace until the end. I have two chapters left to write on this, and if I can write them before the end of twelve days from now, I'll have it done.

[lily-firebolt.livejournal.com]

I love this story so much. I think it's because it's complex. You don't just give Draco Veela heritage make him fall for Harry and in the process have Harry fall for him.
You're making it hard on all involved.
Pansy is such a CUNT, I'm sorry I have to be vulgar, but there is no better word.
And this is the first time I've liked Ginny in the fic, I'm all for the "if you love something let is go...." philosophy if it ends up that Harry gets to explore his feelings for Draco.

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I adore psychological complexity, so I'm glad you like it for that reason.

Draco would probably agree with you about Pansy.

I'm trying hard to make Ginny sympathetic all the way through. But this speech may be the one moment where the most comes out.

[oops-in-the-apt.livejournal.com]

He made sure she came twice before he did. He gazed at her, memorizing the pleasure-flush of her cheeks, the way her hair sprawled about her on the pillow. He wanted to remember what she looked like, wanted to remember it deeply and dearly, and cradle and treasure the memory in the back of his head.

She would suffer.

*loses breath* Hot...hot...omg.....*panting*

The suspense is killing me...so hard.

H/D for life! =)

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

The suspense does not let up much in the next few chapters, alas. Or maybe not, if you like that kind of thing. :)

[dana-aeryn.livejournal.com]

I won't have internet access often anymore, but I love this story. I've friended you and I'm really looking forward to the next part.

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I hope to keep up the regular posting, since I'm a few chapters ahead.

[aquila-star.livejournal.com]

Oh, Harry. He's trying so hard, but even Ginny knows it's not working. Hell, een Fleur knows.

Great chapter.

[tarotgoddess108.livejournal.com]

ginny you ungrateful whore!
OMG I could just smack her! Doesn't she see sh'es tearing Harry apart instead of supporting him in what SHE agreed he should do! Oooo this Ginny burns me on so many levels. She deserves to lose Harry!

And Pansy! I want to smack her too!
They are both coddled way too much, spoiled brats who care for nothing but themselves!

*pants*

*shakily clicks the button to go read the next chapter*