Tempus, Chapter 20 (the end!), plus author's notes
Title:Tempus, Chapter Twenty (the end) and Author's Notes
Author: Ravenna C. Tan
ravenna_c_tan
House: Ravenclaw
Word Count: 2101 (chapter), 2800 (notes)
Challenge: The "Old Cliches, New Tricks" Fest at hp_cliche
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Homosexual sex, alcohol consumption.
Pairing:H/D
Beta Reader Thanks To:miraba
Cliche: Time-travel, but that isn't Snarry.
Disclaimer: Harry, Draco, Hogwarts, and the rest all belong to JK Rowling. I'm just having fun, doing it for the love, not any money.
Summary: Students at Hogwarts have always been warned about corridors that appear and disappear. Did you ever wonder where they go? Or when? Harry thinks he is late to his seventh year potions class, but he turns out to be more than seventy years early.
(The Archive of previous chapters is available Right Here)
[If you've been holding off commenting until the end, please do. Here it is!]
When Harry returned to the drawing room after having seen the two women off at the kitchen Floo, his voice was hoarse from hours of talking and his stomach suddenly began to flutter. Draco was here, now, not in some dream life but in Harry's real life, in what was now Harry's house. Harry's blood surged up at the thought. They had just spent two hours hashing out possibilities with McGonagall, about whether Draco should finish his schooling at Hogwarts, become a spy for the Order since the other Malfoy's death was yet a secret, or both, or neither. The headmistress was adamant that no decisions be made until they had slept the night through, though Draco had said repeatedly that fighting at Harry's side was what he most wanted.
Right now, though, fighting was not what was on Harry's mind. He stepped into the room and found Draco sitting up with his satchel in his lap.
The blond wizard tossed his hair out of his eyes--neither he nor Harry could wait for it to grow out longer again--and said "Have you got a couple of glasses here, somewhere?"
Harry summoned two small glasses from the cupboard and held them both in one hand. "What for?"
Draco pulled a bottle from the satchel and Harry recognized it as the cassis liqueur. Draco motioned for Harry to give him the glasses, and said with a sheepish smirk, "It was the only thing worth taking from that room." He poured two measures, then handed one to Harry. "I remembered that you'd never had more than the tiniest taste of it, and it was something I wanted to share with you." Draco's throat tightened and he felt his eyes go hot. "Something I want to share very much."
Harry rolled the jewel-like liquid around in the glass. "Thank you," he said, because he didn't know what else to say.
Draco stood, and they clinked their glasses together, and then each looking over the rim of his glass at the other, they drank. Harry just sipped at first, but when he saw Draco tip his glass back and drain it, he did the same. Sweet fire ran down his insides and through his veins. His skin felt as though gentle licks of flames were flickering all over, as an ember glowed from somewhere below his navel.
He gasped. "And you were going to add Heart's Delight to this?"
Draco laughed. "It's just liquor, Harry. Anything special or different you are feeling is all your own."
Harry tugged at Draco's hospital white robes, pulling him close. "Do you think two hours of parlay was enough time for your wound to heal?"
Draco leaned forward as he said "It had better have been, because I don't think I'll be sitting still for much longer." He tried to catch Harry's mouth in a kiss, but Harry ducked away.
"Let me show you upstairs." Harry pulled Draco by the robe again, and up the stairs they went, to the room Harry had stayed in upon his first trip to Grimmauld Place and the one that even now felt most like his.
And once through the door, he turned to Draco, pressing the other wizard's back against the wood with his body, the hard plane of his chest against Draco's as his chin tilted, seeking a kiss. Draco's mouth tasted of the same sweet fire as Harry's tongue, and again he felt the flames licking at his skin. He wanted to be rid of his robes, to fan the flames with air, to feel Draco's fingers adding to the caressing of his nerves, and for a moment he tugged at the top button on his shirt.
Draco, as usual, was quicker to try a magic solution, vanishing every stitch of clothing from them both and moaning into Harry's mouth as the sensation of Harry's hot skin against his was sudden and sweet.
Then Harry broke away, and laughed, and Draco laughed, too, and it was clear to them both that they both tingled with a little nervousness.
Draco caught one of Harry's hands, and kissed the tips of his fingers, one at a time, then said "It's like the first time all over again."
Harry seemed to have momentarily lost the ability to speak, and he merely nodded, stepping close again, his glasses now in his free hand, his mouth and tongue seeking out the sensitive warm places on Draco's neck, behind his ear, there, and there, where his neck became his shoulder, and there...
Draco gripped him by the shoulders, impatient for a kiss and needing a moment to not have his erection brushing hard against Harry, returning his mouth to Harry's and drawing Harry's tongue between his teeth.
Harry pulled him to the bed, walking backwards as Malfoy's head dipped forward again and again, trying to steal one more kiss from Harry's lips, until the backs of Harry's thighs bumped the mattress and Draco pressed him back onto the bed, then ran his hands down his chest, over his ribs, sliding down the V of his groin on either side of Harry's balls.
Harry moaned.
"Impertinent!" came a voice from a picture frame on the wall.
Draco froze, while Harry burst out laughing. "Oh, god, I forgot. The portrait."
Draco's eyes flicked from the frame to Harry and back. "Is that who I think it is?"
Harry couldn't contain his laughter now, though he tried, holding his sides. "Yes." Two hours of talking and they had barely scratched the surface of all the things Draco needed to know about Harry. "This was the Black family home. My godfather willed it to me." He got up on his knees on the bed and reached out to stroke Draco's slender and elegantly curved erection. "The headmaster splits his time between here and his portrait at Hogwarts."
Draco bit his lip, arching with urgency toward Harry's stroking but clearly distracted. "I'm not sure I can... I mean, given what he was doing..."
Harry silenced him by inserting his index finger into Draco's mouth. "I don't know. I rather relish the thought of making the sadistic old closet case suffer."
Draco sucked by way of answer.
"I love the thought that you give me what he had to scheme for," Harry said. He pulled his wet finger from Draco's mouth and circled one of Draco's nipples with it. Draco's spine snaked and twisted, and when he opened his eyes, he knocked Harry flat beneath him on the bed which creaked invitingly.
Draco thrust the bone of his hip against Harry's erection, or maybe it was his erection he thrust against Harry's hip--the effect was the same. He shifted over a few inches, so his cock and Harry's touched, and he settled back, then pulled himself up on his arms, making a long stroke of sensation for them both. Harry cried out and clutched at him, but closed his eyes, letting Draco set the rhythm and pace. Draco rubbed him that way over and over, the slickness of their sweat and dots of pre-come making him press all the harder as time went on.
His shoulders began to tremble as he got close, and he rolled to his side next to Harry, his cock twitching needily, his throat dry as he said "It's your turn."
Harry's eyelashes fluttered apart. "My turn to what?" He traced Draco's eyebrows with his fingers.
"Be inside me." Draco's insides convulsed a little in anticipation. "Please, Harry."
"Oh, absolutely." Harry rolled Draco onto his back and kissed him again, a deep, hungry kiss that shifted the control back into Harry's hands. "You don't have to beg." He took Draco's hand in his and guided it down to his cock. Harry shivered like a plucked bow string as Draco grasped it and stroked it, making him harder and whetting both of their appetites.
"Draco," Harry breathed. "We still didn't come up with a nickname for you."
"What's wrong with 'Draco?'" Draco asked, as he closed his fingers over the petal-soft head of Harry's cock.
"It sounds so... formal. And I want to call you something different from what... anyone else called you." Harry's cock twitched in Draco's hand and again that fierce sense of possessiveness welled up in him.
"And what about you?' Draco said, slipping his fingers down to curl around Harry's balls. "Harry isn't short for Harold or anything, is it?"
"Nope, just Harry." Harry summoned his wand, applied a lubrication charm to Draco's hand and then moaned deep in his throat as Draco slicked him thoroughly.
"Something will present itself in time, then," Draco said, scooting a bit lower on the bed, and spreading his legs.
"Will it, now," Harry whispered, meant to be a joke, but he was suddenly intent on positioning himself. He slipped one slick finger inside Draco, but knew not to go too deeply and did it mostly just to tease. Draco liked it best when he took as much as possible as quickly as possible. Harry had read his mind so many times in the past, he knew the feeling Draco loved, of being taken, being transported by that one searing stroke into a different plane of existence.
Harry smiled as his slick cockhead nosed at Draco's entrance. Because isn't that exactly what I've done? Harry thought. He'd taken Draco out of his old life, and brought him into Harry's.
"I thought you said I didn't have to beg," Draco wheedled.
"Sorry, love," Harry said. "I wasn't making you wait on purpose." He bent his head, though, to suckle Draco's nipple for a moment before he set his hips and pushed. There was the initial resistance, and then he sank deep into the tightness and heat that was Draco.
Now it was Harry's turn to set the pace, and he set it languid but regular, in no hurry to either come or bring Draco off, luxuriating in the feeling of being seated deep inside Draco's body, the sensation of stroking back and forth, the taste of cassis still on his tongue. After a few minutes he slipped into the trance-like state he was beginning to associate with long-term magic, losing himself in the pendulum quality of time repeating itself as he fucked his lover.
Harry came to himself some time later, fucking a bit faster and bit harder than he had started, but he felt a tension change in Draco. "What's wrong?"
Draco kissed him on the eyelids. "Nothing wrong. You know, my mind was just drifting, and I realized you haven't told me what happened to LeStrange."
Harry did not pause in his motion, but slowed just a bit. "I'm not sure. He was hit by a hex that knocked him out of my view."
"I don't suppose it matters now," Draco said, his breath catching as he felt a ripple go through his insides as Harry changed his angle slightly. "He would probably be dead and gone no matter what, by now."
"I am so lucky," Harry said into Draco's ear.
"Why?"
"You know LeStrange really had a thing for you?" He shuddered as Draco tightened around him.
"I know. I saw in your memory."
Harry nodded. "I am lucky because I get to have you. For my own. No hiding. No secrets."
"Yes," Draco said, clenching suddenly. "Harry!" he said urgently.
Harry nodded, reaching down to Draco's throbbing cock, and bringing him off knowingly, lovingly, even as he began to thrust harder himself, until they were both lying there, sweaty and spent.
They slid under the covers, then, and talked quietly for a time.
"If I enroll at Hogwarts, which house will I be in?" Draco wondered.
Harry yawned. "I can't imagine you as anything but a Slytherin. And if you're going to try to take Malfoy's place, that's the only thing that would make sense."
Draco nodded. "There's really only one reason I want to be sorted there, though," he said.
"What's that?"
"I want to find out if that cracked flagstone is still there."
"I know the one you mean." Harry felt his magic curl contentedly in his belly. "The tower is going to seem awfully small and cramped to me, now."
"I'll teach you the silencing charm for the curtains," Draco said, settling his face against Harry's shoulder and closing his eyes sleepily. "In the morning."
"In the morning," Harry agreed.
Tomorrow they would look up LeStrange's records. Tomorrow there would be decisions to make. Tomorrow there would be the threat of Voldemort and the prophecy. Tonight, there was a twosome of wizards, falling asleep in each other's arms.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-
THE END
-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Author's Notes on "Tempus": (2800)
Okay, this is the section for you people who like to watch the "making of" features on DVDs almost as much as watching the movies themselves. Here's where I tell you a bunch of behind the scenes stuff about the creative process, the gaffes, challenges, kludges, tantrums, and the like.
ORIGINS OF TEMPUS
When I sat down to write this fic, I had no idea it was going to turn out to be novel-length. Actually, some part of my brain probably did, but most of me was in denial about it. I figured it would be a kind of longish story, maybe 10,000 words. Try more like 85,000, which is the same length as most commercial fiction novels. Probably not a coincidence.
Miraba was there when I got the flash of inspiration that became "Tempus." We were in my kitchen; she had come over for dinner and to watch anime (we were watching 'Berserk' if you must know) and I was peeling carrots or doing some other kitchen-type task. She was telling me about an alternative universe fic in which Draco is a Ravenclaw, which I have not read. I suddenly flashed on this idea of Harry going back in time, pre-Voldemort, and being a Slytherin. I think I said something at the time like "Holy crap, I just got an idea of how to make Harry a Slytherin." And also how to do a Harry/Draco pairing in it without it being an "alternate universe." It's our same Harry, HBP-compliant, which is why I don't consider "Tempus" an "AU" story, though it is, of course, a different Draco. (More on that later.)
Anyway, this little nugget bumped around in my brain not very long when regan_v announced the formation of a new LJ community and a new "fest" to revisit well-worn HP fan fic cliches, but give them new twists. She compiled a massive chart of possibilities--for example, there are scads of forced-bonding stories involving Snape and Harry. Why can't it be someone ELSE who has to bond with Snape for once? (One of the best stories in the Fest has Snape and Lupin doing just that. V. hot.) Anyway, one of the available categories was "time travel" with an H/D pairing. Bingo. I signed up and started writing.
FIC AS DRUG
The fest ran the month of April 2006, and I thought for sure I would be done with "Tempus" by the time the month ended. Well, I got halfway there. I might have gotten further if my RSI flaring up hadn't cut my typing time down severely, oh, and also things like sleep, eating, work...
I really could have sat here on an IV drip for days on end, doing nothing but write this fic. I'm sure we've all had the experience of *reading* a fic being addictive, but writing one can be, too. During the six weeks or so I was working on the novel, I slept only 6-7 hours a night and I didn't feel tired. (Then I finished chapter 19, the last 'plotty' chapter, at 3am one night, and the next day was wrecked for the entire day... my body finally said "enough" and shut down on me. I finished chapter 20 the next day and then slept for ten hours straight.)
WHY 1926?
I settled on setting the story in 1926 for a number of reasons. First, I wanted it to be before the recent rise of Dark Wizards like Grindelwald and Voldemort, Second, I also wanted to be sure it was after Dumbledore had left Hogwarts as a student (around 1863) but before he began teaching at Hogwarts. Third, I wanted the background to be 20th century enough that nothing is that different to Harry within the castle walls. Fourth, I wanted to go far enough back in time that it was feasible for there to be a Malfoy ancestor we have never heard of, and the timing works out for a "Draco" who is the great-grandfather of "our" Draco to have been in his seventh year at Hogwarts then. (Rowling has not said what Abraxas Malfoy's father's name was, but the various family trees we have definitely show a penchant for re-using first names, so it seemed quite feasible to me.) And finally, what clinched 1926 for me, is that according to the Black Family Tree that J. K. Rowling drew, Phineas Nigellus Black dies in 1926.
STICKING TO THE CANON VS. ORIGINAL CHARACTERS
Yes, I like sticking to the canon as much as possible. That's part of the fun. I didn't have to make up Regulus Black either, he's also on the Black family tree. I had to fudge his birth date a little, but Rowling herself admitted that some of the dates on the tree are a bit dodgy, so I feel I stuck as close as I could.
Once I had the year, I started writing. The first original character I came up with was Galatea Gullwing. I wanted a potions teacher who was about as un-Snape-like as I could get, and what I ended up with actually was a character very similar to what my first impression of Minerva McGonagall was. ( I don't know why, but when I first read book one, I thought McGonagall was much younger, and I had to revise my image of her as the series has gone on.) Her counterpoint, of course, is Gaius LeStrange.
I chose the name Galatea Gullwing to follow JKR's habit of giving people alliterative names (Filius Flitwick, Severus Snape, Poppy Pomfrey, Minerva McGonagall). And I chose "Gaius" for LeStrange as a nod to another smart but often hapless character who is constantly caught betwixt and between: Gaius Baltar on the new Battlestar Galactica.
BUGS IN THE CANON
In the course of the story, though, I couldn't help but air some of my pet peeves with the canon, like the whole issue that if we have magical medicine, why does anyone still wear glasses? JKR has never answered the question as far as I can tell, so I provided my own answer here: the eyes are inherently difficult to work with magic. Also, what is the deal with wandless magic? Why do wizards need wands, anyway--are they mostly a crutch or a shortcut to channeling one's magical energy? Why don't wands seem necessary for Apparition, one of the most difficult of all spells? Also, after the fight with Malfoy in the train in HBP, Harry is in a full-body bind, but tries to summon his wand to his hand. He fails. It's never explained whether it's just impossible to do or if it is just something Harry hasn't learned, or if being bound by another spell keeps it from working. My supposition is that it IS possible to do, just Harry couldn't do it in those circumstances. (They really only start to learn non-verbal spells in the 6th year.)
Somewhere around chapter 3, I began to twig to the fact that I wasn't being consistent with the canon in a couple of other picayune ways, the most obvious of which was that I was not capitalizing the way they do in the books. But there is a part of me that says the capitalization is out of control in the books. Why is Muggle always capitalized, but wizard not? Why is Quidditch capitalized, as is Quaffle, Snitch, etc... when for example cricket (and bat and ball) are not? Why does Invisibility Cloak always appear in caps--is it a brand name?
So I started teaching some of these capitalizations to my spellchecker. Unfortunately as the document got longer, Microsoft Word eventually decided there were so many spelling questions, it would no longer check as I went along. And here's something interesting. Dumbledore was *already* in the Word dictionary. But when I tried to get it to accept Voldemort, it crashed. He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Spellchecked.
REFERENCES
Next, I realized I needed some spells and incantations not in the canon. I've been using two main references besides the books themselves whenever I need to look up a spell, potion, animal, place name, or family tree, the Harry Potter Lexicon (http://www.hp-lexicon.org/) and the Wikipedia entries on Harry Potter. I use the lexicon more, but Google searches often led me to the Wikipedia entries, too.
One of the interesting tidbits I stumbled on was the following, about Phineas Nigellus Black's name:
From the Lexicon: "'Phineas' is an English variant of 'Phinehas,' a name from the Bible. 'Phinehas' probably means "Nubian," though some believe it means "serpent's mouth" in Hebrew."
From Wikipedia: " J.K. Rowling's choice for his first name is also a meaningful one. In the Bible Phinehas, grandson of Aaron, is a high priest who kills two persons who have sex because they belong to different ethnic and religious groups. His example has been used to justify attacks on interracial couples over the centuries. This corresponds to the Black family motto."
I was already nearing the end of the writing when I came across this and it confirmed my suspicion that the headmaster was indeed capable of murder.
Now, you might not believe this, but when I started writing, I plotted out the events pretty well, but what I didn't know was at the very end whether we were going to end up with a tragic scenario (where Draco dies, for example) or a happy one, where everyone gets what they deserve. I knew Harry would be going back to his own time--my fetish for sticking with the canon meant he has to be there for Book 7, but beyond that I really wasn't sure. Realizing that Black could and would AK Draco in the back if given provocation was a big one for me. But in the end, this story was not about death and is not a tragedy. The greater payoff for the emotional investment in the story for me (and the readers, I bet) came in getting them together, not in killing Draco off. (I killed the other Draco, instead.)
INVENTED SPELLS
Anyway, earlier in the References section I was talking about inventing incantations. I don't know crap about Latin, never had it in school, nothing like that. So I totally have fudged these. JKR seems pretty creative about the way she bends the Latin roots to her own purposes, so I hope mine are not too too far off. I often used an online English-to-Latin dictionary to find word roots and the like, from University of Notre Dame: http://cawley.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/lookdown.pl
Hence a few of the ones I invented:
Saggito Flammare: from the words meaning "shoot" and "flames"
Demeto: "to mow, reap, cut down or cut off"
Obliviate exculpo memoria commutato: The modified version of the memory charm "Obliviate" which LeStrange uses specifically says that not only are the memories being erased, but changed and replaced. Exculpo means "to scratch out, erase," memoria is memory, and commutato is change or mutate.
Pyramidus inturbidus -- literally "cone of quiet."
I have never specified the incantation for the cleaning charm(s) used post-coitus, but I have a feeling it is probably something gentler than "Scourgify."
THE SLYTHERINS
For the most part, the other original characters I invented make up Harry's Slytherin cohort. I didn't just want to populate the entire cast with ancestors of people Harry knows, so there are a few, like Hector Crabbe, but most of them I invented. Barnabas Carrow might or might not be an ancestor of some Death Eaters we know. Whittington, Frost, Fogg, Phillips, I invented them all as far as I know, and no, they aren't based on people I know. I tried to portray a somewhat-cliquish, morally neutral bunch of mostly upper class kids.
SLYTHERIN GAMES
I would have liked to have had more time to explore the Slytherin common room games, but the plot was crying out to move forward, so there are only three. "Truth or Dare" should be pretty familiar to most English-speakers. I poked around trying to do some research as to how long people have called it that and whether it was played in Muggle Britain in the 1920s... hard to tell, but probably it was. I looked into the rules and there are various variations, but I think I went with the one that seems most like the one I played as a teenager. "Bell, book, and candle" has the identical rules to the "rock, paper, scissors" I played in junior high school, including the penalty swat on the arm. (Probably one of my earliest exercises in consensual masochism, now that I think about it. Man, I loved that game...) The phrase "bell, book, and candle" is usually recognized by people from an old movie by that name about a family of witches. The phrase is a fairly old British one which people think refers to witchcraft as if witches and wizards would need those three items for spellcasting, but what is ironic is that the actual derivation of the phrase comes from the Catholic Church. The ceremony to excommunicate a witch uses a bell, book, and candle, as per http://www.phrases.org.uk: "In the excommunication ceremony officials close the book, quench the candle and toll a bell, as for someone who had died." The galleon rolling game is my magical version of "quarters" or maybe "flip cup" but without the drinking. Spanking is much more fun.
DRACO'S CHARACTER
So, I wanted a Draco Malfoy who was believably Draco-like, who answered the following question: what might Draco have been like without Voldemort in his life, i.e. without a Death Eater for a father and the shadow of evil in his house? Draco in the canon, books 1-5, really doesn't have much of a character. He is one-dimensional, mostly a foil for Harry and a plot device, but in book 6 JKR began to give us a bit more. We see more of him interacting with other Slytherins (in the train compartment), proving his prowess as an actually pretty powerful wizard, standing up to Snape, and on the tower maybe even coming to realize that he doesn't have to become what his father has pushed him to be. Knowing that the 1997 Draco Malfoy had previously unseen depths of character made this Draco much easier to envision.
DRACO'S MASOCHISM
The one part of Draco's character that I inserted purely on my own was this--I don't think there's much canon evidence that Draco is a masochist. I wrestled with this quite a bit. The easier route would have been just to make Draco a run of the mill victim, and not a masochist. He is gay at a time when the Wizarding World does not accept it, which gives him a somewhat skewed view of what love is or can be, but deep down his masochism is NOT based in self-hate or self-destructive impulse. He feels suffocated by his safe, pampered life and he feels the most alive when he's in pain. As a teenager he has discovered the erotic potential for pain play as well as the relief that comes in the bedroom when he goes from being the one in charge all the time (prince of the Slytherins) to being bound and helpless. It's his need for it that makes him vulnerable to Reg Black in the first place, and unfortunately that is what opens the door for the non-consensual rape and abuse which follows at the hands of the Polyjuiced Phineas Black. (Trust me, even the deepest-entrenched sexual masochists do not want to be raped.) It would have been so much easier for Harry to help Draco heal after the rape if Draco didn't have a masochistic streak to deal with, too, but well, nothing is ever that simple in Harry's life, is it?
MOST DIFFICULT THING TO WRITE
The thing I had repeated trouble with was tracking Harry's glasses. Is he wearing them? Is he not wearing them? If he takes them off during sex, where does he put them? Did I remember to have him take them off? Or put them back on? Please Harry, when you get out of Hogwarts and defeat Voldemort, please consider LASIK surgery. That or magically charm them to disappear when you get amorous and reappear when you are finished.
THOUGHTS ON A SEQUEL?
Well, now of course, as it turns out, this novel ends in such a way that if I had the time and inclination, I could now write a nice H/D sequel--and who knows, maybe get Snape involved, too, because of course now we have the perfect tool for infiltrating the Dark Lord's inner circle, a dead ringer for Draco Malfoy... but right now my arm needs a rest. Anyone else want to give it a try? (Please?) That's a story I'd really like to read, and trust me, I don't mind giving the boys to someone else to play with for a while...!
FINALLY...
While writing this, I occasionally looked at fan art and things to give my mind more things to play with. Some nice Harry/Draco ones:
Gorgeous, this one, and one I especially like because they look like they are 17-18 years old and not 13:
http://community.livejournal.com/rahly_furverted/7291.html
This one has Harry in green boxers! I saw this long after writing the bit about Harry's boxers but it is a nice coincidence:
http://community.livejournal.com/rahly_furverted/5518.html
Eneada has a lovely one with them fully clothed, but in bed:
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d34/darkestmagic/Art%20Photo%20Manips/apm14eneada.jpg
And one not so clothed:
http://webzoom.freewebs.com/darkestmagic/Fanart/apm20eneada.jpg
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/1285742/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/2574269/ (though Harry's tie is the wrong color for "Tempus" in this one)
http://www.deviantart.com/view/15590066/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/19029277/
http://shin-e.livejournal.com/5001.html#cutid1
And I'm not the only one who likes a long-haired Draco:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/8876755/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/12595606/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/6523409/
http://www.squidge.org/%7Epraxisters/choices.html
Purely metaphorical:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/14689209/
And one angsty video fic but I really liked the song and the way the images were cut together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNWhKGLnab4
THANK YOU ALL FOR READING! I HAD A GREAT TIME WRITING THIS FIC AND I'M GLAD I SHARED IT WITH YOU!
Read my other HP fics at my livejournal:ravenna_c_tan or keep an eye on The Archive at the End of the Universe (http://www.the-archive.net) where I am archiving my fics as well, under the author name "Ravenna C Tan".
Author: Ravenna C. Tan
ravenna_c_tanHouse: Ravenclaw
Word Count: 2101 (chapter), 2800 (notes)
Challenge: The "Old Cliches, New Tricks" Fest at hp_cliche
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Homosexual sex, alcohol consumption.
Pairing:H/D
Beta Reader Thanks To:
mirabaCliche: Time-travel, but that isn't Snarry.
Disclaimer: Harry, Draco, Hogwarts, and the rest all belong to JK Rowling. I'm just having fun, doing it for the love, not any money.
Summary: Students at Hogwarts have always been warned about corridors that appear and disappear. Did you ever wonder where they go? Or when? Harry thinks he is late to his seventh year potions class, but he turns out to be more than seventy years early.
(The Archive of previous chapters is available Right Here)
[If you've been holding off commenting until the end, please do. Here it is!]
When Harry returned to the drawing room after having seen the two women off at the kitchen Floo, his voice was hoarse from hours of talking and his stomach suddenly began to flutter. Draco was here, now, not in some dream life but in Harry's real life, in what was now Harry's house. Harry's blood surged up at the thought. They had just spent two hours hashing out possibilities with McGonagall, about whether Draco should finish his schooling at Hogwarts, become a spy for the Order since the other Malfoy's death was yet a secret, or both, or neither. The headmistress was adamant that no decisions be made until they had slept the night through, though Draco had said repeatedly that fighting at Harry's side was what he most wanted.
Right now, though, fighting was not what was on Harry's mind. He stepped into the room and found Draco sitting up with his satchel in his lap.
The blond wizard tossed his hair out of his eyes--neither he nor Harry could wait for it to grow out longer again--and said "Have you got a couple of glasses here, somewhere?"
Harry summoned two small glasses from the cupboard and held them both in one hand. "What for?"
Draco pulled a bottle from the satchel and Harry recognized it as the cassis liqueur. Draco motioned for Harry to give him the glasses, and said with a sheepish smirk, "It was the only thing worth taking from that room." He poured two measures, then handed one to Harry. "I remembered that you'd never had more than the tiniest taste of it, and it was something I wanted to share with you." Draco's throat tightened and he felt his eyes go hot. "Something I want to share very much."
Harry rolled the jewel-like liquid around in the glass. "Thank you," he said, because he didn't know what else to say.
Draco stood, and they clinked their glasses together, and then each looking over the rim of his glass at the other, they drank. Harry just sipped at first, but when he saw Draco tip his glass back and drain it, he did the same. Sweet fire ran down his insides and through his veins. His skin felt as though gentle licks of flames were flickering all over, as an ember glowed from somewhere below his navel.
He gasped. "And you were going to add Heart's Delight to this?"
Draco laughed. "It's just liquor, Harry. Anything special or different you are feeling is all your own."
Harry tugged at Draco's hospital white robes, pulling him close. "Do you think two hours of parlay was enough time for your wound to heal?"
Draco leaned forward as he said "It had better have been, because I don't think I'll be sitting still for much longer." He tried to catch Harry's mouth in a kiss, but Harry ducked away.
"Let me show you upstairs." Harry pulled Draco by the robe again, and up the stairs they went, to the room Harry had stayed in upon his first trip to Grimmauld Place and the one that even now felt most like his.
And once through the door, he turned to Draco, pressing the other wizard's back against the wood with his body, the hard plane of his chest against Draco's as his chin tilted, seeking a kiss. Draco's mouth tasted of the same sweet fire as Harry's tongue, and again he felt the flames licking at his skin. He wanted to be rid of his robes, to fan the flames with air, to feel Draco's fingers adding to the caressing of his nerves, and for a moment he tugged at the top button on his shirt.
Draco, as usual, was quicker to try a magic solution, vanishing every stitch of clothing from them both and moaning into Harry's mouth as the sensation of Harry's hot skin against his was sudden and sweet.
Then Harry broke away, and laughed, and Draco laughed, too, and it was clear to them both that they both tingled with a little nervousness.
Draco caught one of Harry's hands, and kissed the tips of his fingers, one at a time, then said "It's like the first time all over again."
Harry seemed to have momentarily lost the ability to speak, and he merely nodded, stepping close again, his glasses now in his free hand, his mouth and tongue seeking out the sensitive warm places on Draco's neck, behind his ear, there, and there, where his neck became his shoulder, and there...
Draco gripped him by the shoulders, impatient for a kiss and needing a moment to not have his erection brushing hard against Harry, returning his mouth to Harry's and drawing Harry's tongue between his teeth.
Harry pulled him to the bed, walking backwards as Malfoy's head dipped forward again and again, trying to steal one more kiss from Harry's lips, until the backs of Harry's thighs bumped the mattress and Draco pressed him back onto the bed, then ran his hands down his chest, over his ribs, sliding down the V of his groin on either side of Harry's balls.
Harry moaned.
"Impertinent!" came a voice from a picture frame on the wall.
Draco froze, while Harry burst out laughing. "Oh, god, I forgot. The portrait."
Draco's eyes flicked from the frame to Harry and back. "Is that who I think it is?"
Harry couldn't contain his laughter now, though he tried, holding his sides. "Yes." Two hours of talking and they had barely scratched the surface of all the things Draco needed to know about Harry. "This was the Black family home. My godfather willed it to me." He got up on his knees on the bed and reached out to stroke Draco's slender and elegantly curved erection. "The headmaster splits his time between here and his portrait at Hogwarts."
Draco bit his lip, arching with urgency toward Harry's stroking but clearly distracted. "I'm not sure I can... I mean, given what he was doing..."
Harry silenced him by inserting his index finger into Draco's mouth. "I don't know. I rather relish the thought of making the sadistic old closet case suffer."
Draco sucked by way of answer.
"I love the thought that you give me what he had to scheme for," Harry said. He pulled his wet finger from Draco's mouth and circled one of Draco's nipples with it. Draco's spine snaked and twisted, and when he opened his eyes, he knocked Harry flat beneath him on the bed which creaked invitingly.
Draco thrust the bone of his hip against Harry's erection, or maybe it was his erection he thrust against Harry's hip--the effect was the same. He shifted over a few inches, so his cock and Harry's touched, and he settled back, then pulled himself up on his arms, making a long stroke of sensation for them both. Harry cried out and clutched at him, but closed his eyes, letting Draco set the rhythm and pace. Draco rubbed him that way over and over, the slickness of their sweat and dots of pre-come making him press all the harder as time went on.
His shoulders began to tremble as he got close, and he rolled to his side next to Harry, his cock twitching needily, his throat dry as he said "It's your turn."
Harry's eyelashes fluttered apart. "My turn to what?" He traced Draco's eyebrows with his fingers.
"Be inside me." Draco's insides convulsed a little in anticipation. "Please, Harry."
"Oh, absolutely." Harry rolled Draco onto his back and kissed him again, a deep, hungry kiss that shifted the control back into Harry's hands. "You don't have to beg." He took Draco's hand in his and guided it down to his cock. Harry shivered like a plucked bow string as Draco grasped it and stroked it, making him harder and whetting both of their appetites.
"Draco," Harry breathed. "We still didn't come up with a nickname for you."
"What's wrong with 'Draco?'" Draco asked, as he closed his fingers over the petal-soft head of Harry's cock.
"It sounds so... formal. And I want to call you something different from what... anyone else called you." Harry's cock twitched in Draco's hand and again that fierce sense of possessiveness welled up in him.
"And what about you?' Draco said, slipping his fingers down to curl around Harry's balls. "Harry isn't short for Harold or anything, is it?"
"Nope, just Harry." Harry summoned his wand, applied a lubrication charm to Draco's hand and then moaned deep in his throat as Draco slicked him thoroughly.
"Something will present itself in time, then," Draco said, scooting a bit lower on the bed, and spreading his legs.
"Will it, now," Harry whispered, meant to be a joke, but he was suddenly intent on positioning himself. He slipped one slick finger inside Draco, but knew not to go too deeply and did it mostly just to tease. Draco liked it best when he took as much as possible as quickly as possible. Harry had read his mind so many times in the past, he knew the feeling Draco loved, of being taken, being transported by that one searing stroke into a different plane of existence.
Harry smiled as his slick cockhead nosed at Draco's entrance. Because isn't that exactly what I've done? Harry thought. He'd taken Draco out of his old life, and brought him into Harry's.
"I thought you said I didn't have to beg," Draco wheedled.
"Sorry, love," Harry said. "I wasn't making you wait on purpose." He bent his head, though, to suckle Draco's nipple for a moment before he set his hips and pushed. There was the initial resistance, and then he sank deep into the tightness and heat that was Draco.
Now it was Harry's turn to set the pace, and he set it languid but regular, in no hurry to either come or bring Draco off, luxuriating in the feeling of being seated deep inside Draco's body, the sensation of stroking back and forth, the taste of cassis still on his tongue. After a few minutes he slipped into the trance-like state he was beginning to associate with long-term magic, losing himself in the pendulum quality of time repeating itself as he fucked his lover.
Harry came to himself some time later, fucking a bit faster and bit harder than he had started, but he felt a tension change in Draco. "What's wrong?"
Draco kissed him on the eyelids. "Nothing wrong. You know, my mind was just drifting, and I realized you haven't told me what happened to LeStrange."
Harry did not pause in his motion, but slowed just a bit. "I'm not sure. He was hit by a hex that knocked him out of my view."
"I don't suppose it matters now," Draco said, his breath catching as he felt a ripple go through his insides as Harry changed his angle slightly. "He would probably be dead and gone no matter what, by now."
"I am so lucky," Harry said into Draco's ear.
"Why?"
"You know LeStrange really had a thing for you?" He shuddered as Draco tightened around him.
"I know. I saw in your memory."
Harry nodded. "I am lucky because I get to have you. For my own. No hiding. No secrets."
"Yes," Draco said, clenching suddenly. "Harry!" he said urgently.
Harry nodded, reaching down to Draco's throbbing cock, and bringing him off knowingly, lovingly, even as he began to thrust harder himself, until they were both lying there, sweaty and spent.
They slid under the covers, then, and talked quietly for a time.
"If I enroll at Hogwarts, which house will I be in?" Draco wondered.
Harry yawned. "I can't imagine you as anything but a Slytherin. And if you're going to try to take Malfoy's place, that's the only thing that would make sense."
Draco nodded. "There's really only one reason I want to be sorted there, though," he said.
"What's that?"
"I want to find out if that cracked flagstone is still there."
"I know the one you mean." Harry felt his magic curl contentedly in his belly. "The tower is going to seem awfully small and cramped to me, now."
"I'll teach you the silencing charm for the curtains," Draco said, settling his face against Harry's shoulder and closing his eyes sleepily. "In the morning."
"In the morning," Harry agreed.
Tomorrow they would look up LeStrange's records. Tomorrow there would be decisions to make. Tomorrow there would be the threat of Voldemort and the prophecy. Tonight, there was a twosome of wizards, falling asleep in each other's arms.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-
THE END
-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Author's Notes on "Tempus": (2800)
Okay, this is the section for you people who like to watch the "making of" features on DVDs almost as much as watching the movies themselves. Here's where I tell you a bunch of behind the scenes stuff about the creative process, the gaffes, challenges, kludges, tantrums, and the like.
ORIGINS OF TEMPUS
When I sat down to write this fic, I had no idea it was going to turn out to be novel-length. Actually, some part of my brain probably did, but most of me was in denial about it. I figured it would be a kind of longish story, maybe 10,000 words. Try more like 85,000, which is the same length as most commercial fiction novels. Probably not a coincidence.
Miraba was there when I got the flash of inspiration that became "Tempus." We were in my kitchen; she had come over for dinner and to watch anime (we were watching 'Berserk' if you must know) and I was peeling carrots or doing some other kitchen-type task. She was telling me about an alternative universe fic in which Draco is a Ravenclaw, which I have not read. I suddenly flashed on this idea of Harry going back in time, pre-Voldemort, and being a Slytherin. I think I said something at the time like "Holy crap, I just got an idea of how to make Harry a Slytherin." And also how to do a Harry/Draco pairing in it without it being an "alternate universe." It's our same Harry, HBP-compliant, which is why I don't consider "Tempus" an "AU" story, though it is, of course, a different Draco. (More on that later.)
Anyway, this little nugget bumped around in my brain not very long when regan_v announced the formation of a new LJ community and a new "fest" to revisit well-worn HP fan fic cliches, but give them new twists. She compiled a massive chart of possibilities--for example, there are scads of forced-bonding stories involving Snape and Harry. Why can't it be someone ELSE who has to bond with Snape for once? (One of the best stories in the Fest has Snape and Lupin doing just that. V. hot.) Anyway, one of the available categories was "time travel" with an H/D pairing. Bingo. I signed up and started writing.
FIC AS DRUG
The fest ran the month of April 2006, and I thought for sure I would be done with "Tempus" by the time the month ended. Well, I got halfway there. I might have gotten further if my RSI flaring up hadn't cut my typing time down severely, oh, and also things like sleep, eating, work...
I really could have sat here on an IV drip for days on end, doing nothing but write this fic. I'm sure we've all had the experience of *reading* a fic being addictive, but writing one can be, too. During the six weeks or so I was working on the novel, I slept only 6-7 hours a night and I didn't feel tired. (Then I finished chapter 19, the last 'plotty' chapter, at 3am one night, and the next day was wrecked for the entire day... my body finally said "enough" and shut down on me. I finished chapter 20 the next day and then slept for ten hours straight.)
WHY 1926?
I settled on setting the story in 1926 for a number of reasons. First, I wanted it to be before the recent rise of Dark Wizards like Grindelwald and Voldemort, Second, I also wanted to be sure it was after Dumbledore had left Hogwarts as a student (around 1863) but before he began teaching at Hogwarts. Third, I wanted the background to be 20th century enough that nothing is that different to Harry within the castle walls. Fourth, I wanted to go far enough back in time that it was feasible for there to be a Malfoy ancestor we have never heard of, and the timing works out for a "Draco" who is the great-grandfather of "our" Draco to have been in his seventh year at Hogwarts then. (Rowling has not said what Abraxas Malfoy's father's name was, but the various family trees we have definitely show a penchant for re-using first names, so it seemed quite feasible to me.) And finally, what clinched 1926 for me, is that according to the Black Family Tree that J. K. Rowling drew, Phineas Nigellus Black dies in 1926.
STICKING TO THE CANON VS. ORIGINAL CHARACTERS
Yes, I like sticking to the canon as much as possible. That's part of the fun. I didn't have to make up Regulus Black either, he's also on the Black family tree. I had to fudge his birth date a little, but Rowling herself admitted that some of the dates on the tree are a bit dodgy, so I feel I stuck as close as I could.
Once I had the year, I started writing. The first original character I came up with was Galatea Gullwing. I wanted a potions teacher who was about as un-Snape-like as I could get, and what I ended up with actually was a character very similar to what my first impression of Minerva McGonagall was. ( I don't know why, but when I first read book one, I thought McGonagall was much younger, and I had to revise my image of her as the series has gone on.) Her counterpoint, of course, is Gaius LeStrange.
I chose the name Galatea Gullwing to follow JKR's habit of giving people alliterative names (Filius Flitwick, Severus Snape, Poppy Pomfrey, Minerva McGonagall). And I chose "Gaius" for LeStrange as a nod to another smart but often hapless character who is constantly caught betwixt and between: Gaius Baltar on the new Battlestar Galactica.
BUGS IN THE CANON
In the course of the story, though, I couldn't help but air some of my pet peeves with the canon, like the whole issue that if we have magical medicine, why does anyone still wear glasses? JKR has never answered the question as far as I can tell, so I provided my own answer here: the eyes are inherently difficult to work with magic. Also, what is the deal with wandless magic? Why do wizards need wands, anyway--are they mostly a crutch or a shortcut to channeling one's magical energy? Why don't wands seem necessary for Apparition, one of the most difficult of all spells? Also, after the fight with Malfoy in the train in HBP, Harry is in a full-body bind, but tries to summon his wand to his hand. He fails. It's never explained whether it's just impossible to do or if it is just something Harry hasn't learned, or if being bound by another spell keeps it from working. My supposition is that it IS possible to do, just Harry couldn't do it in those circumstances. (They really only start to learn non-verbal spells in the 6th year.)
Somewhere around chapter 3, I began to twig to the fact that I wasn't being consistent with the canon in a couple of other picayune ways, the most obvious of which was that I was not capitalizing the way they do in the books. But there is a part of me that says the capitalization is out of control in the books. Why is Muggle always capitalized, but wizard not? Why is Quidditch capitalized, as is Quaffle, Snitch, etc... when for example cricket (and bat and ball) are not? Why does Invisibility Cloak always appear in caps--is it a brand name?
So I started teaching some of these capitalizations to my spellchecker. Unfortunately as the document got longer, Microsoft Word eventually decided there were so many spelling questions, it would no longer check as I went along. And here's something interesting. Dumbledore was *already* in the Word dictionary. But when I tried to get it to accept Voldemort, it crashed. He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Spellchecked.
REFERENCES
Next, I realized I needed some spells and incantations not in the canon. I've been using two main references besides the books themselves whenever I need to look up a spell, potion, animal, place name, or family tree, the Harry Potter Lexicon (http://www.hp-lexicon.org/) and the Wikipedia entries on Harry Potter. I use the lexicon more, but Google searches often led me to the Wikipedia entries, too.
One of the interesting tidbits I stumbled on was the following, about Phineas Nigellus Black's name:
From the Lexicon: "'Phineas' is an English variant of 'Phinehas,' a name from the Bible. 'Phinehas' probably means "Nubian," though some believe it means "serpent's mouth" in Hebrew."
From Wikipedia: " J.K. Rowling's choice for his first name is also a meaningful one. In the Bible Phinehas, grandson of Aaron, is a high priest who kills two persons who have sex because they belong to different ethnic and religious groups. His example has been used to justify attacks on interracial couples over the centuries. This corresponds to the Black family motto."
I was already nearing the end of the writing when I came across this and it confirmed my suspicion that the headmaster was indeed capable of murder.
Now, you might not believe this, but when I started writing, I plotted out the events pretty well, but what I didn't know was at the very end whether we were going to end up with a tragic scenario (where Draco dies, for example) or a happy one, where everyone gets what they deserve. I knew Harry would be going back to his own time--my fetish for sticking with the canon meant he has to be there for Book 7, but beyond that I really wasn't sure. Realizing that Black could and would AK Draco in the back if given provocation was a big one for me. But in the end, this story was not about death and is not a tragedy. The greater payoff for the emotional investment in the story for me (and the readers, I bet) came in getting them together, not in killing Draco off. (I killed the other Draco, instead.)
INVENTED SPELLS
Anyway, earlier in the References section I was talking about inventing incantations. I don't know crap about Latin, never had it in school, nothing like that. So I totally have fudged these. JKR seems pretty creative about the way she bends the Latin roots to her own purposes, so I hope mine are not too too far off. I often used an online English-to-Latin dictionary to find word roots and the like, from University of Notre Dame: http://cawley.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/lookdown.pl
Hence a few of the ones I invented:
Saggito Flammare: from the words meaning "shoot" and "flames"
Demeto: "to mow, reap, cut down or cut off"
Obliviate exculpo memoria commutato: The modified version of the memory charm "Obliviate" which LeStrange uses specifically says that not only are the memories being erased, but changed and replaced. Exculpo means "to scratch out, erase," memoria is memory, and commutato is change or mutate.
Pyramidus inturbidus -- literally "cone of quiet."
I have never specified the incantation for the cleaning charm(s) used post-coitus, but I have a feeling it is probably something gentler than "Scourgify."
THE SLYTHERINS
For the most part, the other original characters I invented make up Harry's Slytherin cohort. I didn't just want to populate the entire cast with ancestors of people Harry knows, so there are a few, like Hector Crabbe, but most of them I invented. Barnabas Carrow might or might not be an ancestor of some Death Eaters we know. Whittington, Frost, Fogg, Phillips, I invented them all as far as I know, and no, they aren't based on people I know. I tried to portray a somewhat-cliquish, morally neutral bunch of mostly upper class kids.
SLYTHERIN GAMES
I would have liked to have had more time to explore the Slytherin common room games, but the plot was crying out to move forward, so there are only three. "Truth or Dare" should be pretty familiar to most English-speakers. I poked around trying to do some research as to how long people have called it that and whether it was played in Muggle Britain in the 1920s... hard to tell, but probably it was. I looked into the rules and there are various variations, but I think I went with the one that seems most like the one I played as a teenager. "Bell, book, and candle" has the identical rules to the "rock, paper, scissors" I played in junior high school, including the penalty swat on the arm. (Probably one of my earliest exercises in consensual masochism, now that I think about it. Man, I loved that game...) The phrase "bell, book, and candle" is usually recognized by people from an old movie by that name about a family of witches. The phrase is a fairly old British one which people think refers to witchcraft as if witches and wizards would need those three items for spellcasting, but what is ironic is that the actual derivation of the phrase comes from the Catholic Church. The ceremony to excommunicate a witch uses a bell, book, and candle, as per http://www.phrases.org.uk: "In the excommunication ceremony officials close the book, quench the candle and toll a bell, as for someone who had died." The galleon rolling game is my magical version of "quarters" or maybe "flip cup" but without the drinking. Spanking is much more fun.
DRACO'S CHARACTER
So, I wanted a Draco Malfoy who was believably Draco-like, who answered the following question: what might Draco have been like without Voldemort in his life, i.e. without a Death Eater for a father and the shadow of evil in his house? Draco in the canon, books 1-5, really doesn't have much of a character. He is one-dimensional, mostly a foil for Harry and a plot device, but in book 6 JKR began to give us a bit more. We see more of him interacting with other Slytherins (in the train compartment), proving his prowess as an actually pretty powerful wizard, standing up to Snape, and on the tower maybe even coming to realize that he doesn't have to become what his father has pushed him to be. Knowing that the 1997 Draco Malfoy had previously unseen depths of character made this Draco much easier to envision.
DRACO'S MASOCHISM
The one part of Draco's character that I inserted purely on my own was this--I don't think there's much canon evidence that Draco is a masochist. I wrestled with this quite a bit. The easier route would have been just to make Draco a run of the mill victim, and not a masochist. He is gay at a time when the Wizarding World does not accept it, which gives him a somewhat skewed view of what love is or can be, but deep down his masochism is NOT based in self-hate or self-destructive impulse. He feels suffocated by his safe, pampered life and he feels the most alive when he's in pain. As a teenager he has discovered the erotic potential for pain play as well as the relief that comes in the bedroom when he goes from being the one in charge all the time (prince of the Slytherins) to being bound and helpless. It's his need for it that makes him vulnerable to Reg Black in the first place, and unfortunately that is what opens the door for the non-consensual rape and abuse which follows at the hands of the Polyjuiced Phineas Black. (Trust me, even the deepest-entrenched sexual masochists do not want to be raped.) It would have been so much easier for Harry to help Draco heal after the rape if Draco didn't have a masochistic streak to deal with, too, but well, nothing is ever that simple in Harry's life, is it?
MOST DIFFICULT THING TO WRITE
The thing I had repeated trouble with was tracking Harry's glasses. Is he wearing them? Is he not wearing them? If he takes them off during sex, where does he put them? Did I remember to have him take them off? Or put them back on? Please Harry, when you get out of Hogwarts and defeat Voldemort, please consider LASIK surgery. That or magically charm them to disappear when you get amorous and reappear when you are finished.
THOUGHTS ON A SEQUEL?
Well, now of course, as it turns out, this novel ends in such a way that if I had the time and inclination, I could now write a nice H/D sequel--and who knows, maybe get Snape involved, too, because of course now we have the perfect tool for infiltrating the Dark Lord's inner circle, a dead ringer for Draco Malfoy... but right now my arm needs a rest. Anyone else want to give it a try? (Please?) That's a story I'd really like to read, and trust me, I don't mind giving the boys to someone else to play with for a while...!
FINALLY...
While writing this, I occasionally looked at fan art and things to give my mind more things to play with. Some nice Harry/Draco ones:
Gorgeous, this one, and one I especially like because they look like they are 17-18 years old and not 13:
http://community.livejournal.com/rahly_furverted/7291.html
This one has Harry in green boxers! I saw this long after writing the bit about Harry's boxers but it is a nice coincidence:
http://community.livejournal.com/rahly_furverted/5518.html
Eneada has a lovely one with them fully clothed, but in bed:
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d34/darkestmagic/Art%20Photo%20Manips/apm14eneada.jpg
And one not so clothed:
http://webzoom.freewebs.com/darkestmagic/Fanart/apm20eneada.jpg
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/1285742/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/2574269/ (though Harry's tie is the wrong color for "Tempus" in this one)
http://www.deviantart.com/view/15590066/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/19029277/
http://shin-e.livejournal.com/5001.html#cutid1
And I'm not the only one who likes a long-haired Draco:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/8876755/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/12595606/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/6523409/
http://www.squidge.org/%7Epraxisters/choices.html
Purely metaphorical:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/14689209/
And one angsty video fic but I really liked the song and the way the images were cut together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNWhKGLnab4
THANK YOU ALL FOR READING! I HAD A GREAT TIME WRITING THIS FIC AND I'M GLAD I SHARED IT WITH YOU!
Read my other HP fics at my livejournal:
ravenna_c_tan or keep an eye on The Archive at the End of the Universe (http://www.the-archive.net) where I am archiving my fics as well, under the author name "Ravenna C Tan".