~Aegis~

“The measure of love is to love without measure”

[coppercatbird]

A coincidence

@drarrymicrofic | prompt: tremble | wc: 250

Part 1 here Part 2 here

Ronald looked exhausted, shaken. His eyes lit on Draco.

“You,” he said, voice raspy. They’d never come to terms, not even when Draco and Harry were partnered. Not even when Harry started dragging Draco to pub nights. Not even when Hermione started exchanging books with Draco.

“You—” 

Draco stared, finally understanding the phrase “with his heart in his throat.” You killed him, he finished. You did this. You ruined everything. You coward, you failure, you Death Eater, you, you, you—

“You saved him,” Ronald said; he sounded stunned. “If you hadn’t—”

And then: something strange. Ronald folding him into a crushing hug, his hand still clamped in Molly’s. He heard a wet, gasping, painful noise—not unlike the noise he’d been making moments before, but the tenor was different. Relief.

“Thank you,” Ronald whispered; desperate like Draco’s “Please.”

“I need—” Draco broke off. He needed to know it was real.

Ronald gestured; Draco stepped inside.

Harry smiled, looking tired. “I got it right. Ironic.”

Draco strode forwards. “Next time you save my life, don’t come so close to getting killed.”

Draco leant in. He ignored the gasp behind him; the mumbled, “Pay up,” from Ginevra. Ignored everything but Harry’s shocked, hopeful face.

When their lips parted, the room was quiet. Draco waited, breath shaky.

Harry smiled.

“This is ironic, having our first kiss in hospital.”

Draco brushed Harry’s hair from his face. Fresh tears spilt over when he crinkled his eyes in an exasperated smile. “That, darling, is a coincidence.”

[aegisreadsanything]

@drarrymicrofic | Prompt: Tremble | WC: 50

Stressed Out

The roaring sound of the engines made Draco tremble. He held Harry’s hand in a vice-like grip, his nails leaving imprints in Harry’s darker skin.

“It will be alright, love,” whispered Harry soothingly.

Draco only glared. “I am sitting in a flying tin can, we are all going to die.”

[no-arc]

tremble (50 words)

“Please, young Master Malfoy,” Dobby pleaded. “Not so loud...” Draco laughed in his face. “Resistance is futile! I will defeat you!” “What are you playing?” Draco’s father stood in the door; he looked suspicious. Dobby whimpered. “Look!” Draco pointed at his makeshift-scar. “I’m the powerful Harry Potter! Tremble in fear!”

prompt from @drarrymicrofic | my Drarry microfic collection on Ao3

[incognitoburritto]

The Apology

for @drarrymicrofic prompt: Tremble. WC: 50 “I’m sorry. For everything. I had plenty of reasons for doing what I did but none of them were good enough to justify my actions.” Draco’s voice began to tremble and break so he closed his eyes and took a breath. 

Potter stood and crossed the room, extended his hand.

[narrativenicole]

@drarrymicrofic | 100 words | prompt: survive

REACQUAINTED

“You know,” Harry speaks softly against Draco’s shoulder, “It was your wand that helped me defeat him. Helped me survive.”

Draco pulls tighter into the hug, tears streaming unbidden down his face, as he grips his newly returned hawthorn wand.

“Oh, and uh….happy birthday,” Harry whispers.

Draco pulls away, perplexed at how Harry knew it was his birthday. How could he? He was always in the hospital wing every year during it. Draco conjures a tissue to wipe his tears. “How did you—”

“Your mum told me,” Harry cuts in, smiling. “From the garden, when she let me in.”

[angeldog5]

animals

@drarrymicrofic | prompt: tremble | rating: M, thoughts of sex in Animagus form

Voldemort plunged the world into eternal winter's night and ended the war. No one knew if he meant to do it—after all, who wanted to be Minister of Nothing?—but everyone agreed that he hadn't intended to die.  Die‚ of course—death—was a loose term.  Draco hadn't thought so. He'd thought, once you die you're dead. But that was before the remnants of the Order found him and sent him searching for horcruxes. Draco had been their very last pick, but no one else had an animagus form that could withstand the frigid dark—just Draco, and Potter.

. Even wolf eyes can't find Potter in the void; occasionally a moonbeam slips over the wall of cloud, but not tonight.  Draco trots on, towards the crooked silhouette of a tree. Judging by scent, there is a hollow beneath its roots. He points his teeth at the hidden moon and howls, stretching the note so long it trembles.  His ears twitch forwards and backwards for Potter's response, trying to remember what Harry's eyes had looked like in the light of day; it's just where his mind goes in idle moments.  Soon, a cry pierces the snowfall. Potter glides into sight. His wings beat once, twice, vanishing the distance between them. He settles on an ice-encrusted branch and caws. Thankfully, the hollow is big enough for them. Draco digs out the packed snow. He wraps his body around Potter's sleek feathers. 

Green, Draco remembers as he falls to dreaming. In the sun, Potter's eyes had been a bright, special green.

.

Harry shifts back on the tail end of a nightmare: his wings had been on fire and Snape was using them as candles to read by.  He pants, trembles, too cold, disoriented. Draco whines against his ribs. Still dreaming, he bares his long, white teeth. Lately, Harry can't get away from the thought of being consumed by him. His hollow bones would break obediently. Not like he's much of a meal…but, every morsel helps in the cold. 

"Potter," Draco's voice is half-shifted, snarling dread, hope, and hunger. "What's wrong?" 

Draco's hands on his skin. Draco's breath on his neck. "Potter. Harry." 

"Cold," Harry says. 

A tongue chasing the blood in his neck. Teeth hugging sharp vertebrae. Draco licks a warming charm over his skin, which immediately starts fading.

"Hard for you," Harry mumbles, pressing his nose into Draco's armpit. "Need you so bad." 

"Alright, alright." 

Frozen dirt meets Harry's chest and he trills. Birds have one hole for everything. It's a different feeling, being mounted in the one hole for everything, even though Harry's a human right now. He's never been very good at humanity: he'd only really gotten that single, infant year of it. After prying him open, Draco drools heat inside Harry. He uses tongue and teeth, gnawing and sucking. It burns when Draco enters him. It hurts when he pushes Harry's cheek into the freezing ground. Draco used to play the piano. Does he remember this about himself? Every night, Harry listened to him play through the floor with an extendable ear until he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. Spread over the ground, Harry's wings tremble. He rakes ice and earth beneath talons. Draco thuds into him like he's howling into the void: Where are you? Where are you? Where are you? Draco makes him fire inside. Harry meets the force of his hips to say I'm here, I'm here, right here

Love is just the heat you need to keep living, Harry thinks.

That's really all it is.

.

[coppercatbird]

Kept Whole

@drarrymicrofic | prompt: tremble | wc: 250

Part 1 is here

Draco stood, staring, as hands grasped him, as the hook of a portkey took hold, as a healer scanned him, as Robards appeared and demanded an explanation. He sat when pushed into a chair, hollowed out inside, as Hermione arrived, then Molly Weasley, then George, Arthur, Bill. Ginevra, still in her quidditch leathers.

Whispers, murmurs, hugs shared. A tentative enquiry from Hermione. Still, Draco sat, silent.

Molly Weasley approached, drawing her wand. Draco just stared, numb. Whatever judgement she deemed fit wouldn’t be enough.

She cast a cleaning charm on his hands, then his clothes. He blinked. She conjured water onto a handkerchief and sat, cradling his face in her hand, dabbing his skin.

The fabric came away red—Draco crumpled.

She caught him.

Molly held him as he fell apart, making a wordless, undignified wail of grief into her neck. She stroked his hair and shushed him, murmuring soothing sounds as though he had never been who he was. As though he didn’t deserve this. As though his pain and hers were equally worthy.

It was ironic.

Once opened, he couldn’t get that door closed again. The words fought their way out, past the choked gasps, the cut-off cries.

“Please,” he managed. “Please, I can’t—please.”

Her arms tightened round him as he shook. Later, he would wonder if that was the only thing that had kept him whole.

The door opened; Ronald stepped out, green robes askew and stained red. Draco’s hand reached out; Molly held on tight.

[aegisreadsanything]

@drarrymicrofic | Prompt: Tremble | WC: 50

Look What You Made Me Do

Despite the pain snaking down his back, Draco could only smirk when he felt the floor start to tremble.

“What’s so funny, you piece of scum Death Eater?” Snarled his captor, approaching.

Draco gave him a wide smile, totally worth the punch he got in response.

“My husband is here.”

[ira-dunfort]

Drarry Microfic: Tremble

Harry clenched his fists, doing his absolute best to keep it bloody together.

But the emotions kept coming, wave after wave: fear, joy, anger, and gratitude, all of it crashing through him until his magic shivered under his skin. He loved the little boy napping in Draco’s arms so much it terrified him. And oh, how he loved Draco, too.

“Darling,” Draco whispered, not looking up as he stroked one careful finger over their baby son’s chubby cheek, “the china is trembling.”

“Sorry.” Harry winced, dragging in a slow breath as the teacups rattled softly on the table. He forced his hands to unclench. “I’m trying.”

Draco’s gaze lifted to him, soft but far too knowing. “What are you thinking about?”

“Nothing to worry about.”

“Ah,” Draco said, with the faintest curve of a smile. “Then you can tell me.”

Harry huffed a miserable laugh. Draco looked down again as Scorpius made a small, gurgly sound in his sleep, then settled deeper against him, warm and trusting and impossibly tiny.

“It’s just…” Harry started, then stopped when the china gave another delicate tremble. He swallowed hard and steadied himself. “If anyone ever dares write a prophecy about him, I don’t know what I’ll do to them.”

Draco’s expression sharpened.

Harry shook his head, helplessly. “He’s just—look at him. All he worries about is being held and warm and fed. No baby who can’t even walk yet should ever have to carry the burden of a prophecy.”

For a moment, Draco said nothing. Then he shifted slightly and nodded towards the free space on the small sofa. “Come sit with us.”

Harry tucked himself into the space beside him and let his head drop against his husband’s shoulder. The china finally went still.

“We’ll keep him safe, you and I,” Draco whispered, his lips brushing Harry’s hair in a kiss.

Scorpius, oblivious, smacked his lips once and slept on.

— written for the @drarrymicrofic prompt "tremble"

[rainjulyx]

Wc: 330 for @drarrymicrofic prompt : tremble.

.

Grey eyelashes resting on burning cheeks. Noisy breath as his chest rose and fell. Flesh-pink lips on folded arms. Wet splotch on his sleeve. White hair all over the half-written report.

Harry took his mobile and snapped a picture.

Malfoy drools in his sleep, he wrote to Ron. Stop sending cursed images, Ron sent back, missing the joke.

It was funny. Harry laughed every time he looked. Malfoy, crumpled and messy as he slept. Malfoy, looking stupid. Malfoy and his disgusting drool.

The picture brought Harry endless glee.

Malfoy would die if he saw it.

But it had been a week since Harry had it. He was still waiting for the perfect opportunity to show it to Malfoy. In the meantime, Harry kept it safe in the mobile, in his pocket. But he didn't care much about it.

Harry only looked at it when he woke up in the morning and before he went to sleep. He looked at it whenever something troubled him. To lift his mood, of course.

“Just print and frame it on your desk, if you like it that much.” Malfoy didn't even look up from his paperwork.

“I don't know what you're talking about.”

“Or,” Malfoy stood. Their desks faced each other in this cramped office. When Malfoy leaned in, he was hovering over Harry. “—you can just sleep in my bed. Look at the real thing, it's always better.”

“That's not—”

“Really? You don't want that?” Malfoy's face was smug and punchable.

“Well,” Harry leaned back, creating a gap between them. He licked his lips, stared at the mobile on his desk. “I didn't say that, exactly.”

“And?"

Harry took a deep breath, finally looking up, right at Malfoy, who wavered. It gave Harry a little bit of confidence. Those damn grey eyelashes are trembling—the way it did when he slept. Those cheeks were still burning. Those lips—

Harry put them in his mouth.

[daddiesdrarryy]

Harry: So is your secret fantasy also Malfoy dressing up as a sexy Healer too or am I just gay?

Ron: Always the second one, Harry, always the second one

[aegisreadsanything]

@drarrymicrofic | Prompt: Tremble | WC: 50 | Rated M for mild explicitness

Perfect

He would never get enough of this.

Of the way the body under his would tremble.

Of the way those green eyes would glaze over.

Of the way those pink lips would beg for kisses.

He would never get enough of this.

Having Harry would always feel this way.

Perfect.

[coppercatbird]

You hate irony

@drarrymicrofic | prompt: tremble | wc: 250

“I always get it wrong,” Harry mumbled, sounding confused. Worried. “I think I’ve got it wrong.”

Draco’s heart was hammering in his throat as his fingers tried to remember the movements, as he hummed the healing charm as best he could. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You did everything perfect. You’re always so bloody perfect, so shut up and stay alive.”

“I don’t know. Is it right this time?” He was fading. Draco bit his lip as he paused the charm. The blood flowed. He cursed.

“Stay with me. Stay with me, help’s on the way,” Draco whispered. He started humming again. 

Harry’s shaking fingers met his. He was almost as pale as Draco.

“It’s ironic, right? You always tell me it’s a coincidence. But … this is ironic. I think.”

Draco gasped out a strange sound, something between gag, laugh, and sob. “Yes, this is ironic.”

“Because I’m going to die saving you from the curse I almost killed you with.”

“Almost die. Almost, you hear me? You won’t—”

“‘Snot a coincidence,” Harry mumbled. “It’s ironic.”

Draco heard a crack and felt a swarm of healers surround them. He pulled Harry’s face close.

“You want irony?” Draco asked, feeling hands pulling him away. “Irony would be you saving my life the day I was planning to tell you how I felt, and then dying before I got the chance.”

“You hate irony,” Harry slurred as the sleeping charm hit.

“And I love you,” Draco whispered, finally letting the tears fall.

Shall I do another 250 for resolution to heal my own heart?

[nsasquith]

@drarrymicrofic | prompt: tremble | wc: 50 |

Inhale. Exhale.

Draco paces, fingers worrying the velvet box in his pocket.

Ten past five.

The Floo roars green.

Harry steps out, ash in his hair, smile blooming.

Draco drops to trembling knee.

Before he can speak, Harry laughs, breathless and bright.

“Yes,” he says. “Obviously.”

[coppercatbird]

Trembling

@drarrymicrofic | prompt: tremble | wc: 50

Draco wasn’t sure how this had happened.

Eleven: the handshake, rejected.

Fourteen: the realisation.

Sixteen: the bathroom.

Seventeen: the manor. The battle. The trial.

Nineteen, somehow: Harry Potter in his arms, sobbing, limbs quivering, lost.

But not alone. Never again.

“Hush, darling, I’ve got you. I’ll take care of you.”

[darlingirly]

Terrible Timing

@drarrymicrofic | wc: 330 | prompt: tremble

For three days, the Auror Office had been tearing London apart for Harry’s missing partner, and he had not slept a wink. 

Now, Harry was at Malfoy’s side, blasting through the restraints. Malfoy slumped forward, and Harry caught him before he hit the floor.

“Malfoy,” Harry said, gathering his trembling body carefully into his arms. “Malfoy, look at me.”

Malfoy’s eyes opened, unfocused and dulled.

“Potter,” he rasped.

“I’m here. Help’s coming.”

Malfoy blinked at him. “You look dreadful.”

Harry let out something that was almost a laugh. “You’ve been tortured for three days and you’re insulting my appearance?”

“Priorities,” Malfoy whispered, closing his eyes.

“Stay awake.”

“I’m trying. Don’t sound so bossy.”

Harry pressed his fingers to Malfoy’s throat. His pulse was there, fast and weak.

“Sorry,” Harry said. “I’ll ask nicely next time.”

“Liar.”

Harry’s hand shook where it held him. “Yeah.”

Malfoy stared up at him, breathing shallowly. His whole body kept jerking in little aftershocks.

“I thought about you,” Malfoy said.

Harry swallowed. “What?”

“I—.” Malfoy’s fingers twitched against Harry’s sleeve. “I imagined you, when the pain got too much.”

Malfoy’s eyes fluttered, and Harry tightened his arm around him.

“No. Stay with me.”

“Trying,” Malfoy said again, irritated even now. “Merlin, Potter.”

“Good. Be annoyed. That’s good.”

Malfoy gave the smallest broken huff. 

“The thought of you kept me alive,” he continued. “Without you, what do I live for?” 

“Malfoy.”

“I know. Terrible timing. Always had terrible timing.”

Harry stared at him. “Are you under Veritaserum?”

“Yes, but that means you have to believe me.”

Harry brushed his fingers through Malfoy’s hair, matted and bloodied. “I do.”

“I want you,” Malfoy said bluntly. “There. Bloody humiliating.”

“You don’t have to—”

“I do have to. That’s rather the point of truth serum, Potter.” 

Harry’s vision blurred.

“Just believe me,” Malfoy whispered. “Please.”

The door burst open. Voices filled the room as Aurors and Healers flooded in. 

Harry held onto Malfoy until they made him let go.

[aegisreadsanything]

@drarrymicrofic | Prompt: Tremble | WC: 141

Dive

It had been months—months!—since the last time he’d seen Potter. Draco couldn’t sit still. He shifted on his chair and checked his watch.

He looked around. The restaurant was nice, more than nice, elegant and the food was rumored to be excellent.

Suddenly, there he was and Draco stood up, his eyes fixed on broad shoulders and messy hair and the most beautiful eyes he’s seen in his life. Draco took a step forward, he could feel his hands tremble as Potter stood right in front of him.

“Hello, Malfoy.”

Merlin save him, his mind didn’t do him justice. His voice was deeper than Draco remembered, the eyes greener and more alive.

Draco swallowed. “Potter,” he replied. “Should we get this started?”

Potter smiled and took one of Draco’s hands, kissing his knuckles. “Yes, please, I think it’s long overdue.”