Disclaimer: Deep in the jungle, there is a magical monkey that farts every time someone is born, by the time that monkey stops farting, I will still not own Harry Potter.

Warning: Some hard language, and Slash (yaoi, shonen-ai), Femme-Slash (yuri, shoujo-ai) don't like, don't read. Also, this is mildly AU.

A/N: YAY! NO MORE WRITER'S BLOCK!

Chapter Sixteen: The Carpe Diem Curse

"...That's why history seems to have been repeating itself! All of the patriarchal Potters and Malfoys have been cursed to fall in love until the circumstances are right for their love to survive!" explained Harry urgently to Lucius, Draco, James, Al, and Scorpius, "It was so obvious, yet none of us ever saw it! Don't you think it a little too much of a coincidence? For all of the male Potters and Malfoys to fall for one another just reeks of an ancient familial curse!"

"But...who cast the curse and...why?" asked Lucius.

"I don't know, Grandfather...but I think I might know someone who does know the answer," said Scorpius.

All the assembled Potters and Malfoys turned to stare at him.

"Who?"

-JPLM-HPDM-APSM-GPAM-

"There's this family journal...a very old one that's in the attic...it was written by a lady called Cassiopeia DeLunaria...it ranges from when she was fifteen to when she was on her deathbed. When she turned seventeen, she married one of our early ancestors, Delphinus Malfoy, and had two children with him...the older one was a girl called Aquaria...the younger, a boy named Aurelius. When Aurelius was in Hogwarts, he met Xavier Potter, with whom he fell madly in love with despite Delphinus' hatred for the Potters, whom he considered blood traitors. When Delphinus found out, he was livid! And according to Cassiopeia, he beat and tortured their son until their daughter, Aquaria, in a rage, broke the wards her father had set up and attacked him, furious that her disgusting sire had been torturing her beloved baby brother. That fateful day, Aquaria rejected and denounced the name, Malfoy, and ran off, leaving everything behind, but not before obliviating her father...I couldn't read the rest, because the pages were worn and some were missing, but at the very end of the journal, after Delphinus had died and when Cassiopeia was on her deathbed, Cassiopeia summoned Aquaria, her estranged daughter who was now married to a wizard named Reed Parkinson, to her side. She told her daughter this: "Watch over them. Be their guardian, their light and their protector. With each generation, you must have a girl their age with the name of a flower to guide them."

"And?" said Draco when Scorpius trailed off.

Scorpius shrugged.

"That's it, that was the end of the journal..." he said simply.

"There has to be more...if only we could talk to Cassiopeia!" groaned James.

"Wait..." said Harry, "Why can't we? I mean, this is an old house...so there HAS to have been at least ONE portrait of Cassiopeia Malfoy! Or at least one of Aquaria!"

"No," said Lucius, "Not of Aquaria...she rejected the Malfoy name...there may be a portrait of her in the Parkinson manor, but not here, Delphinus would have burned all of her portraits...but I think I know where there might be a portrait of Cassiopeia..."

-JPLM-HPDM-APSM-GPAM-

The Malfoy Hall of Ancestors was a magnificent hallway in which all the portraits of the Malfoy ancestors hung. Every Malfoy, down to the very first and the very latest Malfoy was in that hallway. The Lady Malfoys' portraits hung on the right side of the hall while the Lord Malfoys' portraits hung on the left side. Scorpius' picture was not yet in the Hall, since it was reserved for married Malfoys. The Hall of Malfoy Children was the next hall over and the Hall of married Malfoy Daughters was the one after that.

"We're going to have to be looking to the part of the Hall that is about eight to fifteen generations before Scorpius, who is the latest Malfoy," said Lucius distractedly as they walked down the hall.

"There's Father and Mother," said Scorpius, gesturing to the two portraits. One depicting Draco and the other depicting Astoria.

"There's me and Narcissa," said Lucius, pointing to another pair of regal portraits.

"There's Abraxas Malfoy and Belinda Zabini."

"There's Xavier Malfoy II and Rosemary Goyle."

"There's Hyperion Malfoy and Andrea Crabbe."

"There's Lucifer Malfoy and Liliana Bulstrode."

"There's Cassius Malfoy and Acacia Parkinson."

"There's Alexander Malfoy and Marguerite Black."

"There's Ash Malfoy and Sasha Nott."

"There's Brutus Malfoy and Angelique Delacour."

"There's Xavier Malfoy I and Melisse DeViene."

"There's Aurelius Malfoy and Jasmin de Virginie."

"And there...there is Delphinus Malfoy and Cassiopeia DeLunaria," said Scorpius, pointing to a regal woman with platinum blonde hair and ice blue eyes. She looked like a porcelain doll with her large eyes and peaches and cream complexion. She was stunning.

"Who goes there?" snarled Delphinus moodily. When he caught sight of the Potters, he hissed in rage, "How DARE you befoul the home of my family with your wretched presence! BE GONE!"

"Now, now, love," said Cassiopeia practically, eying the assembled Potters and Malfoys with curiosity, "I'm sure they have a perfect explanation as to why they are here."

"Yes," said Al softly, "We would like to know who cast the Carpe Diem Curse on the Houses Malfoy and Potter."

Cassiopeia's eyes widened and she turned white.

"What?" she gasped.

"WHAT?" roared Delphinus, "Who would DARE cast that wretched bonding spell on the house of Malfoy?"

Cassiopeia's pale blue eyes filled with tears as Delphinus continued to rant.

"I DID!" she finally cried.

Delphinus turned to stare at her.

"What?" he said flatly.

Cassiopeia's tears overflowed.

"They were in love!" she sobbed, "Just like you and me, Delphinus! And like us, they were forbidden from seeing each other because of their family's enmities! Aurelius loved Xavier Potter with all his heart and soul! Just like I loved you! Like I still do! And when Aurelius finally came clean, all you did was condemn! So caught up in your own selfish hate, you tortured and beat your own son and alienated your daughter! I couldn't confront you then...I was too weak, but I can now! You were WRONG, Delphinus! You were WRONG! And even now, centuries later, you still show no regret! No regret whatsoever about how you ruined your son's life! How you robbed me of my relationship with my daughter! How you robbed him of his love! I had to do SOMETHING to ease my son's pain! So I cast the spell that would ensure that every Malfoy and Potter from here on out would fall in love until the time was ripe for the families to merge! And now, look! That day has come! And my only regret is that it took so long! I'm sorry, my Love, but I had to do it for my son...I had to."

"A mother's love is a beautiful and eternal love that knows no bounds," whispered Harry softly.

Cassiopeia turned to him and nodded, tears still falling down her pretty face.

"Yes...it is," she said, regal in her anguish.

She turned back to Delphinus, gaze hardening.

"If you can't accept this, Delphinus...then you are no longer the man I fell in love with..." she said in a hushed voice.

Delphinus looked away, before steeling his resolve and nodding.

"I was wrong, Cassie...and I'm sorry," he whispered.

Cassiopeia's eyes filled with tears once again and she left her frame to launch herself at her husband.

And as the portrait Cassiopeia kissed her husband, the living Malfoys turned away from the kissing couple and offered their pale hands to their Potter.

And as the Potters took their Malfoy's hand, everything in the world once again felt right.

Fin

A/N: -Tear- It's the end!
Anyone up for a smutty ASP-SM epilogue?

REVIEW!

-Reggie