A Royal Arrangement (Drarry) ✓

Chapter 9

"What is all this-" Pansy gestured to the mess of maps and books poured over the coffee table.

"Research." Harry said, not looking up from his papers. "Don't just stand there, make yourself useful. Hermione, the list." A thick file gets chucked into her hands, and they almost give way from the unexpected weight.

"Requests for various reading materials." Hermione explained. "For us to better understand the situation here." Pansy opened her mouth, but now orde came out. Of course, Gryffindor military was effective, but she didn't expect any of them to go full hardcore mode, much less so early in the morning. "And preferably, we get them by next week. Thank you!" Hermione added with a smile. Pansy was unable to hide the look of shock on her face.

"And how, exactly, do you intend to finish all these?" Blaise asked finally, breaking the silence.

"Well, there are at least 6 pairs of eyes after all. Assuming we keep working from 7 to 9 daily, and that we could probably analyse 10 documents with 5 pages every hour, that makes 140 documents per day per person, minus 40 for procrastination, food and bathroom breaks, that makes a 100 a day per person. So 600 per day for all of us. In other words, we can finish all that in 3 days, and then discuss and see what we've found."

"Good thinking, Dean. Now if you could just stop groping Seamus under the table, I believe we'll be able to finish all these materials even before the new wave comes in, so we can have some free time." Harry said flatly, making Dean reluctantly detach his hand from his boyfriend's ass.

***

A loud bang shook the walls just after dinner. Murmurs of fear erupted immediately, and another bang just confirmed their suspicions. "Run!" Someone shouted. Every Slytherin scrambled on their feet and did so, leaving the clueless Gryffindors to be dragged along by the alarmed Slytherins.

"What is happening?" Harry asked. Another bang came and some cutlery slipped off the table, the chandelier swinging wildly, threatening to drop. From the corner of his eye, he saw Lucius carrying his sobbing wife. He couldn't find his own parents. "Why is your mum acting like that?"

"We have to go." Draco said, frantically tugging on his arm.

"Where?"

"Bedroom. Any bedroom." Their shoulders collided as the ground shook again from the impact. Harry interlocked their fingers. Hand in hand, they ran, Harry in the lead this time.

They don't make it to their own bedroom, instead cramming into Blaise's which was downstairs, along with all their friends. Draco blows out the candles and draws all the curtains, making the room pitch black. Nothing else was heard aside from their breathing.

"Don't light any fires." Pansy warned as she saw tiny sparks coming from Hermione's matches. "In an unlikely case of them bursting into the palace-"

"It's rather likely." Draco mumbled.

"-we don't want to attract any attention." She whispered quickly. "Including the volume, even though these doors are noise cancelling. And Draco, it's unlikely. The dark forces are probably just threatening us because you told your husband to send his whole army here."

"How about we just attack them back now?" Harry asked. The explosions had muted to a dull throb, so he guessed it had something to do with the walls, and the floors seemed to shake less.

"Are you crazy?" A voice exclaimed, so shrill it seemed to pierce Harry's ears. He sighed, recognising the voice to be the Tori girl- Astoria's or whatever her name was. How did she even get in here, anyway? "They'll blast your head into pieces even before you can whip out your weapons for anything!"

"So we just wait until they leave?" Harry sighed when he was greeted by silence.

"One second." Blaise shuffled around for a few minutes, then a cool glass bottle tapped against Harry's arm. "Only one I could find." The taste was mild with a strong bitter aftertaste, but it was better than nothing.

He nudged Neville with the bottle, who grimaced at the aftertaste. Seamus muttered 'hard pass' after a small sip, while Ron seemed to ravish half the bottle, claiming he's had worse. Hermione just wanted a drink to quench her thirst, and couldn't care less about how it tasted. She pushes the bottle to Daphne, who just happened to be on the right. She paused slightly, still trying to digest the fact that saliva consciousness between genders were not a thing in Gryffindor, even though she eventually took a swig.

The wine makes a round in silence, then it reaches Draco. He weakly passes the bottle, knocking against Harry's body in the process. Before he could shift away, Harry's arm wrapped around him. Their hips touched. Just like that, Draco let's his guard down slightly, stretching out his legs instead of hugging them to his chest.

Harry could sense his fear. It threatened to swallow Draco whole. His body seemed to tremble everytime an explosion happened. Harry's fingers skim across his stomach, then reached for his waist, pulling him into his lap. Draco turns his body sideways to properly hug him. They were still in a slightly awkward position, but it was better than having to twist his whole body.

"They won't come in." Harry soothed while rubbing his back. "It's just empty threats, remember?"

"They came in, the last time it was that serious." Draco whispered into his shoulder. "I was 6. They took me, my mother and my grandfather. 4 of my grandmothers were murdered. They hurt my mother."

"My mother never recovered from it fully." Harry's protective grip tightened around him. "They made my father give up one of our islands. Then they made him choose which one of us he wanted dead. My grandfather's body never made it back."

"I'll kill them." He promised. "All of them." Draco nodded, comforted by the thought. Harry stroked his back gently, resting his cheek on Draco's hair, until the cannons outside seized fire. Perking up after a few minutes of stony silence, Draco slid off his lap. As expected, an alarm played across the whole of the Slytherin kingdom.

Pansy sighed in relief, lighting a few candles while Hermione opened the door. Harry was the first one to bolt out, gathering all the papers with were shrewn around the room. Massaging his temples, he flipped open the books and started to restudy the strategies.

"Why are you even starting work now- where are you going?" Astoria gasped, grabbing Draco's arm before he could leave. "My Princes, Your Highnesses, dear royals. It's 2am, for the love of Salazar." She gestured you the clock while yawning.

"At least 300 are injured. I just know." Draco said.

"Your 5 villages that aren't underwater are probably razed to the ground right now." Harry added. Draco nodded, praying they at least had enough time to escape. "Attacks stop, work continues." Draco nodded again, and then slipped out while Astoria wasn't paying attention.