𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐄

Chapter 10

The way that the moonlight streamed through the canopy, dancing around tree trunks and underbrush, and swaying through the air, made Draco seem like an apparition where he stood in the paleness of the clearing. Once again he was alone, but something in Harry urged him to be quiet, to still his frustration.

"I'm glad you came."

"Of course I came," Harry responded. "I will give you everything that it is in my power to give, including my attention, obviously."

Draco grinned. "That is good, because I'll need an immense amount of it right now. There is something that I have been meaning to say, for about a month, actually."

"I'm all ears."

"You won't need so many. I have only two words, but they are very important, which is I why thought you might not believe me." Harry started to protest, but Draco stopped him, pressing his hand against Harry's lips. "No, I don't mean it in that way. But… you once told me that I should not ask you to make love to me if was not ready to marry you.... I – I'm ready. If you will have me, I'm ready."

~

"I've waited so long to hear you say that, Draco. I've wanted you – all of you, but I had to be certain. It would have been so easy to simply leap into a union with you, but if there was even the smallest chance that you didn't want it – or that you did, but I had taken advantage of you at your most vulnerable…."

"But now I'm certain, Harry. I'm more certain of this than I've ever been of anything else in my life. Maybe it sounds stupid to say so, but it's true, and it's how I feel. A life without you in it – without loving you, and being in love with you, without falling for you again and again and never fearing the impact – that's not a life at all."

"I feel the same way. You make everything worthwhile. Let's… Let's bind ourselves together. Whither you go, I shall follow, and vice versa. Let's not wait any longer to do what we've each been yearning to do. Will marry me now, Draco?"

"I hoped you would say that!" Launching himself into Harry's arms, Draco showered Harry's face with kisses. Harry lifted him up, laughing. He felt… unburdened, unfettered. Joy swelled within him until Harry felt like he'd burst and brim with it, flooding the Forest with his jubilation.

"Let's go now," Draco whispered against Harry's ear. "I… have a surprise for you."

"What sort of surprise?"

"When a Veela chooses a life partner, he formally gives his love in a private ceremony among family and friends. Since I'm leaving in three days, I thought we could…."

Kissing his cheek and laughing, Harry set Draco on his own feet. "You were confident," he said.

"Hopeful," Draco corrected. "Not confident. It is one thing to love a Veela, but another to give your heart to him."

"I am willing and eager to do both."

Extending a hand to the perimeter of the clearing, Draco let out a low whistle. Two unicorns, gleaming in the pale light, nearly as much as Harry's ethereal love, trotted up to them and nuzzled Draco's hand.

"They're going to take us to the others."

"Others?"

"Friends – our family…. It's tradition." That word, tradition, carried a lot of weight for Draco, who'd been brought up to honor the old ways, to balk from change. "We must be presented to and accepted by them… as bond mates, life partners."

~

The unicorns took them to a glade in the wood by a babbling brook. Harry had thought they were going to a small cabin he'd seen awhile back, with faint lights on in the windows. He wondered who lived there – and why in the Forbidden Forest of all places! Although unicorns lived there, so, too, did plenty of other creatures nowhere near as kind.