Okay so I'm thinking fantasy wizards in movies with hats with all the funky stars on them. What if the making of the hats is part of their training? Okay so I sew and do embroidery/ beading and if theres one thing I've learned with it, it's that you have to focus. Now imagine your trying to train a young energetic magic user. Maybe some can meditate but others won't be able to focus on that. So their mentor has them stich seals and sigil into a fabric cause if you don't focus while doing such you stab yourself and hey they need the practice anyways. Then suddenly mentor wizard person relizes hey that actully works really well. This trains them to focus and is productive. Then one of his students adds decoration on a belt he's sewn for a freind hiding the protective sigil he put in it. Suddenly all the other student are too? And somone makes an enchanted night cap to help them be safe because they sleep walk and don't want to get hurt with all stars and stuff like that and they become known for it. Other people are wearing these hats that protect them qnd it becomes a right of passage of many magic users
Hi i saw the prompt list and they are cool and i had a request feel free to deny them darling can you do 39 and 47 for drarry and if it's possible it will be harry who says this sentences to draco thanks sweetheart you can just ignore it❤
So... This got out of hand. I meant to go for a 500 word drabble, since I’d never actually written anything for Drarry before.
Then somehow I ended up with this 2k chapter, research about the UK juvenile delinquency system and me memorising the map of the London Zoo... Oh and I may have possibly written an outline for three or four more chapters... No joke. I’m not sure if I’ll ever end up finishing it, but I do like how this turned out! Stay tuned ;)
If anyone else feels like sending me a prompt, the list is here.
Prompts:
You are safe now. I am here.
At least let me clean it.
.
“Really Potter, staring at the penguins again?”
Harry rolled his eyes. Of course he’d been caught staring at the little dweebs again. And of course it had been the Malfoy prat who’d found him.
Harry had interned at the London Zoo ever since he was old enough to apply for a summer job. He adored spending his time around the animals, adored seeing how they all had their unique personalities and little quirks. He’d spent summer after summer cleaning out cages and feeding all sorts of wondrous creatures. Harry volunteered to take up extra shifts whenever he could and would often spend his time around the animals’ enclosures long after he’d been done for the day.
Animals, Harry found, were easier to be around than people. Much, much easier. As if to prove a point, one of the most difficult specimens to have in his vicinity, had just shown up. Harry sighed and turned around.
“Anything you need, Draco?”
“That’s Malfoy to you, Potter.”
“Sure, Draco, whatever you say,” Harry retorted, trying not to show his amusement at the blond’s scowl. “You done for the day then, yeah? Need me to sign your papers?”
“Yup. Only twenty more days to go. I’ll be done with this shit.”
“Trust me, I’ve been counting the days, same as you, mate.”
“Not your mate, Potter.”
Harry couldn’t agree more. He didn’t respond and just walked off towards the administration tower. Whether the blonde followed him or not really was none of his concern. Harry badged into the admin tower so he could fill out Draco’s forms.
COMMUNITY PUNISHMENT AND REHABILITATION, the document read.
Harry signed his name next to today’s date and checked the necessary boxes. He hesitated when he had to rate Malfoy’s dedication. His hand hovered over the box labelled “adequate” for a moment, but then he ticked “outstanding” instead. Even though the boy was an utter twat, Harry didn’t really feel like putting him in a bad spot. Unlike other kids who had been ordered to perform their community services here by the juvenile court, Draco actually did his job while he was here. He didn’t slack off and was kind to the animals.
Harry remembered when another boy had been executing a community sentence, a few years prior. They had found out he’d been twisting the warthogs’ tails. They’d kicked him out immediately, but to this day poor Mathilda still didn’t trust anyone who entered her enclosure. Harry wondered what happened to the guy. Nothing good, he hoped.
“What’s got you frowning, Potter?”
Harry hadn’t realised he was. “Oh, nothing. All done. Here.” He handed Draco a piece of paper to prove he had actually been there today. Draco took it and quickly put it away, before heading towards the door. He turned around to look over his shoulder, his hand already on the door knob.
“You’ve never asked why I’m here. Everyone else has. Why?”
“It really isn’t any of my business, is it?”
“Yeah. No. I guess not.”
If Harry didn’t know any better, he would have sworn the corners of the blond’s lips turned up a little before he left.
Harry had wondered what had brought Draco here. He didn’t seem like he was looking for trouble. Didn’t make you check if your wallet was still in your pocket whenever he passed you in a corridor either. If Harry didn’t know better, he’d have thought the other boy had walked into the staff room by accident after getting lost during a school trip, really. Sure, he hadn’t actually said anything nice to Harry or any of their co-workers since getting here, but he had been polite to the visitors, which was more than most comm kids, as the staff referred to them.
Harry glossed over tomorrow’s schedule before gathering his things. Oh, sweet. They’d put him in the Northern part of the zoo in the morning. That meant he’d be on duty when it was time to feed the lions. Harry checked the others’ schedules. Looks like they’d paired him up with two interns. Neville and... Draco. Great.
Normally they only paired the interns up with regular staff members, but Harry had been here for so long that most of the regulars asked him what to do anyways. Harry loved how much faith the Zoo’s director had showed him over the past couple of years. Minerva never really showed anyone much warmth, but Harry knew she appreciated his work. Just this once, however, he wished she didn’t trust him to do a good job, because it meant he’d have to spend a day listening to the blond prat’s insults. Just great.
The next morning, Harry’s suspicions were confirmed before he’d even entered the changing rooms. He Malfoy’s sneers from down the corridor. Judging by the stuttering response he got, Harry assumed they had been directed at Neville.
Harry quite liked Neville. The boy was a bit younger than he was, and it was his first ever summer job. He wasn’t very good at it, though, but Harry blamed it on a streak of bad luck that somehow followed the kid around. Whenever he was hauling around bags of animal feed, one was bound to tear or he’d trip over his feet. A few days ago, when the kid went out for hay for the zebra’s once, a giant spider had climbed out, causing him to drop the bale, leaving straws everywhere.
It was almost endearing, really, if it hadn’t been for the fact that Neville was a total clutz, so whenever he tried to tidy up the mess he’d unknowingly created, he usually ended up making a bigger one that required Harry or whoever was on duty to help him fix it. Whenever he got nervous, Neville’s clumsiness seemed to amplify. A day with Neville and Draco, Harry thought to himself, would definitely prove interesting to say the least.
“... managed to teach you how to dress yourself, for crying out loud,” Harry heard when he entered the room, to find Neville attempting to do up the buttons of his overalls. His hands were trembling so severely, he couldn’t quite manage.
“Good, you’re ready, Draco. We need someone to go fetch the meat from the kitchens. I’ve been told it’s done,” Harry said, in an attempt to get Draco out of here so Neville could calm down a little, at least.
Draco eyed Harry up and down and left with a knowing smirk on his face. “Whatever you say, Potter. I’ll leave you and your boyfriend to it.”
Harry rolled his eyes at the pathetic insult and turned towards Neville as soon as Draco had left the room. “Don’t mind him. He’s a twat.”
“Oh, yeah I know. It’s just that he... I don’t really...”
“Whatever he said, don’t pay it any mind. He gets off on tormenting people.”
“I didn’t mean anything by it either,” Neville mumbled.
“What’s that?”
“I... I just asked if he needed some ice or something to put on his bruise. It looked like it hurt.”
Harry shot him a questioning look.
“On his side. He looked like... like he’d gotten beaten up or something.”
They didn’t say much after that. Neville calmed down enough to get dressed and by the time they got outside, Draco had returned with a wheelbarrow full of meat for the big cats. He did seem to favour his left side, Harry noticed.
Without asking the blonde’s permission, Harry took the wheelbarrow from him. They took the staff’s passageways and followed the arrows that read “Land of the Lions”. None of them said a word. Neville fumbled with the sleeves of his overall on the way there.
Neville didn’t trip on the way to the enclosure. He didn’t push over any garbage bins, didn’t lose a shoe or walk straight into a bush instead of taking a turn. Harry should have known, honestly. He should have known that just meant Neville’s bad luck was saving itself for something big later on.
And it did.
Harry, Draco and Neville stood on the platform overlooking the Land of the Lions, where they fed the lions their breakfast. Harry did, rather. The others weren’t allowed this close to the platform’s edge.
Harry was about halfway through the wheelbarrow’s contents when he noticed one of the hams Draco had brought was still wrapped in plastic. “Neville, hand me a pair of scissors, will you,” Harry mumbled under his breath, so the spectators couldn’t hear.
Harry shouldn’t have asked him.
In hindsight, Harry probably should have asked Draco. Or he should have gotten up and grabbed the scissors himself. Or he should have just tossed the ham in, plastic and all.
But that’s not what happened.
Harry had asked Neville to hand them to him. And Neville did, only to trip over his feet on his way back. He tumbled over, his limbs going in every direction... until his leg hit Draco in the back of his knee. The boy lost his balance.
And fell.
Harry didn’t realise the scream he heard was his own, when he saw Draco fly over the edge of the platform. The loud crash was followed by the screams of the spectators.
“Draco, the ladder!” Harry shouted, already dashing towards it himself.
He leaned over the edge only to find Draco was having trouble hoisting himself up. His left side had been hurt, Harry remembered, when he saw how the boy tried to pull himself up on the ladder using only his right arm. He had a gash in his forehead, Harry noticed. Blood was running over his cheek onto his overalls.
The lions had been startled by their unexpected visitor, but Harry could tell by the way the lionesses started to circle around to where Draco was, that it wouldn’t take long before they’d get over the surprise.
“Fuck it. I’m an idiot,” Harry muttered to himself, when he swung his leg over the edge and started to climb down the ladder.
“Neville, call Dean. Now!” Harry shouted. “Tell him to open the sleeping den and keep his hand on the button so he can close it when we get in.”
Neville looked baffled.
“NOW!” Harry shouted. He didn’t look back to see if Neville did as he told. There really wasn’t any time.
Harry hurried down the ladder, straight into the enclosure. His heart pounded between his ears. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.
When he reached the bottom, he saw Draco was even paler than usual, his grey eyes filled with panic. They didn’t have time for this. “Draco, listen to me. You need to calm down. You’re safe now,” Harry said. “I’m here. But we can’t stay here for much longer. When I tell you to run, you run! Got that?”
Harry assumed the whimper that escaped Draco’s throat meant yes. He grabbed the other boy’s hand and tried to look through the bushes, tried to figure out where the pride’s alpha, Neytiri was. When he saw her, Harry shouted at the top of his lungs, grabbed the nearest rock he could find and threw it at Neytiri as hard as he could. “Run!” he yelled and he dragged Draco behind him. He ran towards where he knew the entrance of the sleeping dens was, praying Neville had reached Adam. Praying that they’d get there before... It was open!
“Faster!”
Harry heard a snarl behind him. Neytiri must have gotten over her surprise. Shit.
Shit!
They were almost at the den. So close.
He heard the thuds of lioness’ paws on the ground behind them. Closer. She was closer.
When they made it to the den, so did Neytiri. Harry pulled on Draco’s arm and dove into it, right as the barrier started to close again. They both crashed into the wall in the back of the den.
Neytiri snarled and clawed at the barrier.
Harry manhandled Draco towards the small door in the back of the alcove and almost lost it when he saw it swing open.
“Neville, thank god,” Harry breathed. “Help me get him to first aid.”
“...’m fine, Potter,” the blonde mumbled.
“You’re not. You nosedived into a pride of lions, you idiot.”
“...No doctors.”
“Whatever.”
“Harry, please.” Draco squeezed Harry’s hand. Harry hadn’t realised he’d still been holding it. He looked down into the pleading grey eyes and hesitated.
“You’re bleeding, you hurt your head. At least... at least let me clean it?”
Happy pride month to all! Drew myself and my flags (and got my own eye color right, for once-), and this will probably become my main pfp now because. looking great there.
the version w/o the writing of happy pride (and also the list of flags and lil things I threw in bc extra details) bellow if anyone seeing this thinks its interesting enough to listen to me ramble-
Eyy
well, for flags, I believe the jacket being an ace mess is obvious, but the shirt beneath it is not only the aro flag, but also a play on the fact my other pfp had a green shirt with the same texture added here (which is really just me finding a picture of tv static and making it a low-opacity overlay-)
wings and wing-ears are obvious, because it’s still me and being me includes jackets, glasses (and, somehow, these are the actual glasses I have, randomly being uneven bc I read fics while laying on my side on a couch included--) and a lot of wings. the crown-halo is actually another thing I burrowed from Dandelion’s design, because I drew it and immediately went “oh, that’s so cool” and then proceeded to add it to my own lil sketches I do bc I’m too lazy to ink, occassionally.
anyways, back to pride stuff, nonbinary flag patch on the arm of the jacket and a pin next to it with my pronouns! (well, actually they/them and lun/lunar, but even I forget the second set sometimes, nevermind the fact a lot of people don’t know how to use that set, so, they/them is the one I use more commonly-)
also, rainbow scarf included based on the fact I actually do own a rainbow scarf (and suspenders and stockings, but those I usually only use on actual pride stuff, while the scarf I go with anywhere-)
also, the choker has a glass heart on it- I really struggled with it, because I do glass well only if it’s 3D and this is just. a panel of glass.
the eyes are something I had to actually go to my mom to ask about, because she’s known me longest and therefore must know what my eye color is (it’s sorta a fun story, but my eyes change color based on like, a billion variables, including lighting, weather and mood, mainly, so I usually default to my favorite shade for them, which is the neon green I get when there’s a good weather to take a walk and I’m feeling energized). her response was to send me a picture of a close-up of a cat’s eyes, which were the same shade mine are currently, and also somewhat like the color in the drawing (except more neon, I didn’t manage to put the neon in without disrupting the color pallet too much and I’d rather have something pretty than accurate, considering the fact I don’t have wings for ears, actually.
last thing to add is that, for once, I managed to remember my hair is actually no longer completely blond! I started coloring the tips purple a few years back, and though it fades pretty fast, it turns this pretty green/aqua color, so, I added the transition from purple to green to blond at the tips of my hair, which I made shorter than it is irl, because having incredibly long hair is impractical but having super short hair felt weird when I did so having it at shoulder length could be interesting (even if I love drawing it either mermaid-length or barely bellow my ears-)
I'm! Going! To the zoo! Tomorrow! ^^ I love the zoo, and I just got new sunnies (That ACTUALLY look good on me! Which doesn't happen often. I either look like my dad or my aunt cath in sunnies), so I'm so excited.
