Chapter 10

I've gotten so many review since my last chapter, and I've gotta give props to the newest love of my life, Allora Chaos, who runs a phenomenal bottom!draco fanfic rec site. If you haven't heard of her site, and you enjoy these kind of fics, you should check it out. There are some fics on there that blow me way out of the water (in a totally enjoyable way, of course :P).

Quick note: there's some simple French in this one. I suggest that you go to AltaVista Babel Fish and translate what you're not sure about. If there are too many complaints, I'll come back and just write everything in italics, but in our age of technology, I'm not seeing it as really being a problem (you are reading this online, right?).

Draco's still in drag! XD

Chapter 10

"Louise!"

Only moments after staggering from the mess of green flames and soot, Draco found himself on the receiving end of a very tight, very breasty, very unexpected hug. It was hard to tell at such close range, but she seemed vaguely familiar. However, he knew almost immediately that the woman was at least part Veela, she just shimmered too much. Also, she was speaking French. Very quickly. Babbling at him like they were old friends. Peering over her shoulder, Draco saw Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and 'Barney', all of whom smiled at him. Ron winked. Realization struck.

"Bonjour…Fleur" Draco had had extensive French lessons when he was younger, but was not entirely sure they would hold out under fire.

"Parlez-vous français?" Fleur whispered into the other blonde's ear.

"Oui…mais pas très bien." Draco replied softly, feeling awkward and unsure. No doubt his accent was atrocious.

"Ne vous inquiétez pas!" the bride smiled at him encouragingly, "Vous parlez mieux que n'importe quelle personne anglaise et votre beauté est presque autant que les miens! Vous êtes mon cousin! Vous êtes Louise!"

"Comment vas-tu, mon cousin?" Draco said, smiling a bit, which earned him another brief squeeze from Fleur.

"Bill! Bill! This eez my cousin, Louise!" the woman cried, stepping away enough for the Burrow to come into view.

Draco's first thought was that the room had been through some sort of natural disaster, but at second glance he could see that the broken glass and pottery on various flowerpots might actually be some sort of art, and the paper stuck all over the walls had drawings on them so was perhaps a child's attempt at the same. Draco was surprised at how much he liked it. His image of the Weasley abode had always been something of a barren shack; he hadn't expected it to be so full of life, confusing but rather enjoyable to look at. And there were Weasleys everywhere! Stepping out of the lot came a handsome, if scarred, young man, red hair pulled back into a nifty little ponytail at the base of his neck.

"Nice to meet you, Louise." Bill grinned at Draco, giving him a wink that matched Ron's so well it was almost eerie.

"Enchante" Draco greeted in his best unisex voice, and held out his hand which was promptly kissed. He was startled, but saw quickly that the groom was teasing him, so decided to play through the part.

"Comme il est beau! Mais quel désastre! " Draco cried, "You should not be seen, mon cousin! It eez too soon before zee wedding! You must be getting ready!"

"C'est vrai!" Fleur agreed, impish grin playing across her face, "Would you like to help?"

Draco looked around uncertainly, thinking hard. Almost everyone seemed absolutely stunned by his grasp of French and perhaps the kiss Bill had bestowed upon his hand. It seemed like it might be a lot of fun to help out with the wedding, but at the same time there was something about wedding that might get in the way of his enjoyment: he hated weddings. His entire life he had dreaded the day that he would have to wait at the altar while his bride in her puffy white dress walked toward him. Being married in the dark, speaking real vows, then being left to fuck was very probably as close to Draco's ideal marriage as he would ever get.

"That's an excellent idea, Fleur!" Hermione piped up before Draco could answer one way or the other, "Ron and I have to talk to…Barney, so we'll see you at the wedding, Draco."

She nudged Ron, and he came to full alert, turning towards the stairs and beckoning for Harry to follow him.

"Yeah, we...er…we've got something to show…tell you."

Draco tried to remind himself that the likelihood of Ron and Hermione wanting a threesome with Harry was very slim, and turned his attention back to Fleur and Bill.

"Well, where is zee dress?"

--

Harry sat on Ron's bed, resting his arms on his thighs and staring at the ground, trying to soak up all that had just been told him. Ron and Hermione wanted to stay with him, officially, at Grimmlaud Place. They had made their alibi, and were ready to go gallivanting across England looking for something without even knowing what it looked like, or even that it existed. Even Hermione was willing to forgo her last year of school for this.

"You can't do this." He said finally.

"We already have, mate." Ron said, gesturing towards the faint sounds of the ghoul above their heads.

"My parents are in Australia," Hermione reminded him sadly, "I can't get them back yet. I have no place to go, but with you."

Harry (still Barney after a quick swig of polyjuice potion) looked up at his two friends who were looking back expectantly, Hermione with unshed tears in her eyes.

"But I…" Harry swallowed hard, wondering if it was the polyjuice potion, or something else that was making it so difficult to do so, "I don't want to loose you guys."

"We don't want to lose you either, Harry." Hermione said quietly, sitting down to one side while Ron took the other.

"Haven't we already been over this?" Ron asked, "We're with you to the end."

"Well I don't want it to end!"

"Neither do we, Harry, that's why we want to help." Hermione explained gently.

"We're not going to let you do this by yourself. Besides," Ron's voice lightened, covering seriousness with a joke like he was wont to do, "you'll always have Malfoy."

Hermione and Harry both looked up at him in surprise and annoyance. Harry was about to say 'I don't want to lose any of you' but Hermione was looking at him again.

"That's something else I wanted to talk to you about."

"Why?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"I want to know. I want to know it all." Harry opened his mouth but she cut him off again, "but I want to have my say first."

"As always." Ron added, earning a glare.

"Firstly, I'm upset that you didn't tell me."

"I'm sorry. You see, we -"

"Let me finish. I assume you have your reasons, but I just thought I'd let you know how I feel.

"Second, I'd…well, I understand that you must be sleeping with him. That the two of you are having sex?"

Harry nodded. Hermione reached up to run a hand through her hair, but then seemed to remember she'd done it up and it wasn't to be touched. Her hands sort of fell into her lap and she twisted the straps of her purse instead.

"That's what I was worried about. Harry, I…I don't know what scares me more, that you might love him, or that you might not."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"You've always been a great guy, Harry." Hermione sighed, "I never thought you would be the kind of person to sleep with someone without having feelings for them. That you might actually be using Malfoy, as horrible as he's been to me, to all of us, it just…scares me a little."

"I don't know what to tell you, Hermione." Harry and Ron were both staring with a mix of astonishment and nervousness.

"'Mione," Ron quickly jumped in, trying to make sense of it, "Are you saying that you'd actually prefer Harry were in love with Malfoy?"

"I'm saying I don't know which is worse! If Harry is in love with Malfoy, then Malfoy could easily manipulate him, which would be dangerous." She sighed again, "but if not, I've misjudged Harry's character."

"The only thing you've misjudged is that he's a guy, Hermione." Ron cracked, "He needs…release. And he's sure as hell not getting it with my sister." He added pointedly.

Harry smiled at his best friend, and then turned back to Hermione.

"I didn't want to do it, not in the beginning." Harry explained, "but it was the only way to get the chains off. And there were other things too, things that…as bad as I feel about taking advantage of Draco now, I know he's better off with me."

Hermione sighed.

"But he won't always be with you, Harry. I mean, you don't really expect to bring him with us, do you?"

"I don't know." Harry's shoulders sank a little, and he stared back at the floor, "All I know is that I've sworn to protect him, and for what he's giving me that's the least I can do. He really needs me, Hermione, surely you see that. He needs me!"

Ron mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like 'saving people thing.' Hermione sighed.

"I think he needs you more than you realize, Harry"

--

Whoops and hollers could be heard throughout the crowd gathered around as the bride, hand covered in mashed up cake, pushed bites of the moist pastry into her newly husband's mouth. Harry was one of the loudest, clapping and whooping as the two sexily fed each other. Draco might have thought it a little crass, if it wasn't for the look in their eyes. Fleur and Bill, surrounded by their friends and family, gazing at each other, pronouncing their love, it wasn't like any wedding Draco had ever been to. Pureblood weddings were usually arranged, and very…sombre.

Oh, that's right, Fleur was part Veela and though the Weasley's were pure-blooded, there were several people here who probably had muggle blood, not just Granger.

Music began, and Draco watched his 'cousin' share her first dance with her husband. Slowly other couples began to trickle onto the floor, among them Molly and Arthur Weasley, and Fleur's parents. Ron's parents, it seemed to Draco, suited each other, matched up, rather like his own parents did. Similar looks, similar ideals. The Delacours, however, could not be more different. Mr. Delacour was dark, short, and portly, where Mrs. Delacour was blonde, tall, and willowy. They didn't look very much alike, and yet they were clearly just as in love as the Weasleys were, and probably more in love than the Malfoys would ever be. Come to think of it, he and Harry didn't look that much alike either, except perhaps that they were both on the slender side. Draco shook his head a little, trying to clear his mind.

Comparing you and Potter to married couples again, Draco? For shame.

"May I have this dance?"

Draco jumped and turned around to see Barney Weasley beaming down at him, holding out his hand and bowing slightly.

"Can you dance?" Draco asked suspiciously, keeping his French accent carefully in place.

"Er…I can try…" Harry began weakly, before a sparkle of cleverness lit up his eyes, "I mean, you're so beautiful, you've inspired me to dance."

Draco tried to suppress a giggle, and failed miserably, so he simply covered his broad smile with one hand and took Harry's with the other. Harry brightened further when their fingers touched, and eagerly led the blonde onto the dance floor.

All at once a sort of horrifying disappointment washed over Draco. His stomach seemed weighed down with a pasty melancholy, and he felt woefully awkward, something he did not feel often. He tried to smile, but it soured long before it reached his eyes. He moved a tad closer to his dance partner and carefully concealed a sigh.

Harry could not dance.

The way he tilted his body this way and that had not connection to the tempo of the music at all. He kept looking down at the space in-between them, evidently terrified of stepping on Draco's feet. He just seemed...disconnected from the event entirely. And dammit if it wasn't the most frustrating situation Draco had been in for a while. Without realizing it, he had somehow grown fond of the normalcy of the two of them together in public. Even though they were both in disguise, it felt nice to be with him, almost a like a real couple, with no reason for anyone to glance at them twice. But now he wished that everyone there saw what was really going on; Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy dancing together. Or better yet, just two teenage boys dancing together. It could be fun that way, familiar and casual. Draco could cuff the-boy-who-lived over the head and demand to lead instead. But no, here he was, a girl as far as the rest of the world was concerned, with no other choice but to follow his bonded's very boring lead.

Harry winced down at Draco, fully aware of his inadequacy. But when he looked into Draco's eyes, he didn't find the annoyance and disgust he'd expected, instead he found mild disappointment and love. He beamed at his love, beautiful long hair and shining blue eyes.

"I think you should keep you hair long, like this." Draco was caught off guard by Harry comment, and jumped a little when strong fingers ran through his locks.

"Would you look at that!" he over heard one old biddy tell another, "Looks like there'll be another Weasley/Delacour wedding soon!"

The two both blushed furiously, and made there way off the dance floor. Just then, Draco felt a hand that was not Harry's around his wrist, and turned to find Hermione Granger looking at him sternly.

"Draco, we need to talk."

Draco looked back to where Harry was now sitting at a table, laughing and talking with Ron. He turned back to the muggleborn resignedly.

"Fine, Granger, but let's make this quick."

Tah Dah! Sorry it took me so long to update. It's not as long as I'd hoped, but I wanted to get it up before the rebellion began! :P

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