quelque chose

Inflection

Betrayal

Hullaballoo

Equanimity

Penchant

Luminescence

Nomad

Petrichor

Card 3 for Microfic May, my final card (!!), is done! Better slightly late than never 🙃

for the @microficmay prompt petrichor

The first rain in weeks patters outside the open window. Harry sprawls, sleep-warm, heavy. He’s dreaming of Draco in the garden: a wordless I love you.

Toffee, their owl, rattles at the sill with the Prophet.

Harry stirs. “You leaving?”

“No, darling.” Draco gathers Harry in. “I’m only waking up.”

for the @microficmay prompt nomad

Love is a challenge to Harry, like everything else.

He does his level best to break it before it can get broken or stolen or killed. 

But Draco has seen Harry’s dreams. The ribbon was never incongruent. It was an addition. Someone unyielding, but soft.

for the @microficmay prompt luminescence

At Hermione’s insistence, they pre-empt the Prophet in July.

POTTER TURNS TWENTY-FIVE IN WILTSHIRE

In the photo, Harry and Draco hold a staged conversation with the Manor as a backdrop. A peacock interrupts, tail fanned, squawking. Harry laughs, his smile sudden and bright. Draco’s surprise and delight are entirely genuine.

for the @microficmay prompt penchant

Harry is not in bed. He’s asleep in the cupboard with a blanket and pillow smelling faintly of toast. Ron’s magic.

Draco waits at Harry’s feet.

Harry stretches his legs into Draco’s lap, then wakes, pink-cheeked.

“You haven’t put me off,” Draco says.

“Did I come close?”

“Not even slightly.”

Nothing Hidden

Written for the @dracotops-harry fest Rating: Explicit Length: 27k

“Oh,” Malfoy says, conversational. “You’re going to come.”

“Am not,” Harry snaps, automatic.

Then he does, spurting all over the slippery tiles.

for the @microficmay prompt equanimity

Ron finds Draco in the garden, tending sweet peas.

“Harry’s having a nap. You okay?”

“You weren’t angry at the Wizengamot.”

“I was angry at everyone. And I wished he trusted us to want him around, after.”

“I haven’t gone anywhere.”

“No,” Ron sighs. “Staying is sort of your thing.”

for the @microficmay prompt hullaballoo

When Ron folds himself inside the cupboard with Harry, Draco expects a rescue, not a row. It’s a tremendous brawl. The kicking and shoving and shouting last for some time. 

“If you ever try that again,” Ron bellows at last, “I’ll kill you!”

“Pinky promise?” Harry demands. 

for the @microficmay prompt betrayal

Draco comes to, disoriented. A swallow trills madly on the sill, paging Draco over and over.

Harry hexed him, then absconded. All that’s left is Harry’s magic.

Draco owls Ron. Harry’s gone.

No return owl. Ron barges in and peels a Disillusionment from a kitchen cupboard. Harry’s curled inside, hiding.

Gravitate

Weave

Upbraid

Writhe

Saunter

Natter

Emanate

Obfuscate

Card 1 filled out for @microficmay!

for the @microficmay prompt inflection

They’ve gone several rounds by the time Harry, exhausted, lets himself be pinned on Draco’s half-exposed mattress. He’s got the ribbon in one hand, damp and starting to fray.

“You think I won’t keep you here.” Draco’s out of breath. “But I will.”

Harry closes his eyes. “You didn’t before.”

for the @microficmay prompt obfuscate

Sunset finds them stripped of clothes, ribbons, glasses and tussling on wet tiles. Draco wears fresh bite marks over old scars. Harry wears memories like armor. The closer Draco tries to look, the harder it is to see, so Draco relies on touch instead and gives Harry what he wants.