DTT Update - Chapter 11/16
Dare To Think by femmequixotic (Tales from the Special Branch series)
Fic summary: After recent events in New York, Seven-Four-Alpha are set to return back to London. They’ve captured their primary target, but by no means settled their case. They’ve still got rogue Dementors at Azkaban, prying investigators from Luxembourg, and a far larger Death Eater threat to manage, not to mention pressure from their own higher ups. Draco is reeling from his loss, and Harry is trying to be the best boyfriend he can, which may mean not being Draco’s guv any longer. Harry’s uncertain what his team’ll find as they press deeper in the investigation, but he knows they will all be tested, perhaps more than they can bear. But they haven’t a choice, have they? It’s the bloody Death Eaters, after all, and the political integrity of Wizarding Britain and their magical allies hangs in the balance.
Rating: Very. Very. VERY NC-17. You’ve been warned.
Pairings: Drarry, Blaise Zabini/Jake Durant
Happy 2018, my dear friends! Here is Chapter Eleven of Dare To Think, for your enjoyment! Huge thanks to @sassy-cissa for helping to whip it into shape! <3
I want to stop for a moment and say happy birthday to my lovely wife @noeeon. She’s celebrating today, and part of that celebration has been helping me edit and pound this chapter into shape, the way she does with each one. Noe is amazing, you guys. She’s brilliant and funny, and without her this universe would not exist. She’s lived with it (and with my frantic flailing about finishing chapters) for almost a year now, and she’s made it such a better piece, kept me from literally losing the plot, and is pretty much single-handedly responsible for Jake and Blaise getting together because she saw early on the chemistry they had together on the page and pretty much forced me into letting them shag. (So you Jaise fans owe her a big one, LOL.)
I love you, Noe. I think I have from the first moment you walked into my life, sat down on my sofa and said “Now, what?” I love you for not giving up on me, even when my introverted self wanted you to get off my sofa, I love you for being my friend first, years before we realized we might be crazy about each other. Our minds were just a little slower to catch up to our hearts, I think.
You are the Harry to my Draco, and I love you for putting up with my odd quirks and strange habits, for understanding that sometimes when I’m in the throes of writing the dishes might not get done immediately, for supporting me and loving me and holding me up when my self-doubts start to set in. I would not be the same without you; you’ve taught me so much, shown me the person I could be, that I want to be. In some ways, this story is my love letter to you because you’ve been there through the good and the bad, and you have never given up on me, never given up on us, and I can honestly say that I met the love of my life through Drarry, which is mad and wonderful and the most incredible thing to have ever happened to me. When I look at you, I realize how easily a Slytherin can fall in love with a Gryffindor lion. Because I have, and do, and always will love you.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you directly without problems or pride:
I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love,
except in this form in which I am not nor are you,
so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,
so close that your eyes close with my dreams.
--Sonnet XVII, Pablo Neruda
This one’s for you, my love. Always.
Summary for this chapter: In which tables are turned, warrants are served, and the threads begin to come together, not without great effort on the part of Seven-Four Alpha.
You can read Chapter Eleven (~25.7K) here on AO3 or start from the beginning here.
Previous stories in the Tales from the Special Branch series:
Can’t Get You Out of My Head (15K)
Lost In Your Arms (258K)
These Secrets In Me (358K)
