After the war, Hermione Granger accepts a Ministry assignment that places her inside Malfoy Manor, forced to work alongside the very man she once despised: Lucius Malfoy.
But as they navigate ancient artifacts, cursed bloodlines, and dangerous political currents, an unexpected magical bond awakens — one that neither of them can ignore. What begins as mutual intellectual wariness transforms into reluctant fascination, simmering attraction, and eventually, a dangerous intimacy neither could have anticipated.
As old powers stir and the Ministry tightens its grip, Hermione must decide how far she is willing to bend the world that once defined her — and who she is willing to become.
Lucius, ever the master strategist, sees in Hermione not a weakness, but the key to rebuilding House Malfoy into something stronger than blood purity ever offered.
In a world that fears what they represent, they choose each other — fully, irrevocably, and publicly. But power always has a price.
A slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers tale of dominance, trust, ancient magic, and the kind of love that reshapes the world.
Neopronouns: mu/oz/ozself, which will follow the same rules as it/its/itself for this example.
Replace it with card
Replace its with cards
Replace itself with cardself
Example paragraph:
"It is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as it gets a fence set up around its yard so the puppy can go outside without it having to walk it. Its uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting it use, since it lost its. It's going to buy toys and train the puppy itself."
Becomes:
"Mu is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as mu gets a fence set up around oz yard so the puppy can go outside without mu having to walk it. Oz uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting mu use, since mu lost oz. Mu's going to buy toys and train the puppy ozself."
Also includes xa/vo/co/(noh)/xavoconoh, which are explained within the story.
___
It was without thought that Ember had seen the bumblebee floating downstream in the creek, unable to get back into the air, and, of course, immediately ripped up a piece of the long grass lining the creek's edge, splashed in, and held the long, hairy leaf so that the bee could grab on, then gently carried it back up the hill to the nearby purple and white asters.
The large bee was soaking wet, its fur disheveled, and had the most strikingly green eyes mu had ever seen on one, with a large white spot on the face between them, bright against the otherwise black surface.
Moving slowly so the bee wouldn't be knocked off the blade of grass, Ember held it up so that the crown of one of the larger asters was in front of the bee, so that it could get nectar if it was hungry.
To oz delight, the bee immediately latched onto the flower with its front legs and stuck its face into the center.
(Archived read-more link)
Sometimes the bees mu rescued were too exhausted to react to flowers, so this probably meant it would be okay. Mu let out a small breath of relief, and experimentally lowered the blade of grass a little, to see if the flower head were strong enough to hold up the relatively large bee's weight without assistance.
But the flower stalk started to dip, so mu kept the grass where it was, willing to give the bee a minute or two to drink with assistance before mu would have to set the grass down and let the bee get back to its own business. Usually, mu would pick a few flower heads off and set them down somewhere with the bee, but this one seemed so energetic, it seemed worth it to wait.
The bee was already starting to twitch its wings, vibrating them against its back without flying away.
Just to be safe, Ember leaned slightly further away from where mu had gotten oz face closer than the bee probably wanted. Mu thought mu could remember reading somewhere that bees would posture with their wings or something if they felt threatened, but maybe mu was thinking of something different. Mu had yet to be stung in all oz years of doing this, but, still, it was better not to scare them when possible. Not that the bee would most likely be able to chase after mu to sting mu right now, but that was beside the point. Mu didn't want to frighten the little animal if mu could help it.
After carefully positioning the leaf to be held further from oz hand and scooting back a bit to give the bee more space, mu carefully lowered ozself into a more comfortable kneeling position. Mu knew it would mean more dirt stains to wash out of oz long red skirt later, but mu was fine with that. Mu wouldn't have worn this skirt today if mu weren't okay with it getting dirty. One didn't bring fancy clothes to the creek if one wanted them to stay fancy.
Ember had gotten used to the quiet of the creek, so when a voice suddenly spoke, sounding like it was coming from directly in front of mu, saying, "You are very kind.", Mu jolted so hard in shock mu almost fell over backwards, and the blade of grass, with the bee still halfway on it, went flying through the air, as much of a blade of grass could possibly go flying.
So this meant that it fell to the ground in a medium-speed spiral, fluttering off in a diagonal. The bee, fortunately, managed to stay hanging onto the flower, which dipped under its weight, but didn't snap in half like mu had half feared it would.
When Ember twisted to look in all directions, no one was there. Mu seemed to be just as alone in the park as mu had been before. Then who had spoken?
As if in answer, the voice came again, less startling this time because mu was already half-expecting it.
"Oh, I'm sorry to scare you, I didn't mean it." The voice was coming from in front of mu again, but this time mu realized that, truly, the only thing in that direction... was the bee.
It was still clinging to the aster, facing up towards mu, those green eyes sparkling in the sunlight.
"Hello" the voice said again, as mu stared down at the bumblebee in slowly dawning realization. And this time mu could see the bees mouth moving in time with the words, even though mu was pretty certain that carpenter bees did not have the right kinds of mouth parts to pronounce those syllables at all. "My name is Thentin, what is yours?"
Oh.
Oh crap.
Oh wow.
Oh crap.
"Uh—um," Mu stammered, almost too shocked to speak, "My name is Ember."
Mu had dreamed of this moment for years, but never thought it would really happen. Not like this, and most certainly not when mu was only ten years old.
Neither of oz parents had found their aethers yet, and most of oz teachers hadn't found their aethers yet. Most young celebrities hadn't found their aethers yet, and even the president hadn't found his aether yet, and he was really old, like, 50 something!
And yet the bumblebee — Thentin — said, in perfect English, "Hello, Ember." and it was beyond all doubt that it was Ember's aether.
Only aethers looked like normal animals but could talk, no matter what kind of animal form they were in. Even though this one was tiny, the size of a bee, its voice was clear as day, though a little bit of a monotone, almost robotic. But maybe that was because this was the first time it had ever spoken?
Either way, the fact was undeniable. This was Ember's aether. This big, fluffy, bedragled carpenter bee with sparkly green eyes, still staring up at mu from the bent over aster. Thentin. Its name was Thentin. It — no, wait —
Ember reached out to straighten the flower so Thentin wouldn't have to hold on so tightly. "Um, hello, Thentin." Mu said, trying to sound normal and friendly instead of shocked beyond belief, "Do you know what pronouns you want to use? What should I think of you as?" Without thinking, mu said, "Mine are mu/oz/ozself. You use them the same way you use it/its/itself."
Then, as oz brain caught back up to the reality of the situation, and the ways this could end horribly, mu hastened to add, "But, um, I keep them secret, so, please don't tell anyone else, alright? Please call me he/him if we're around other people."
Oz heart was racing in oz chest now, as elation warred with worry and confusion and too many other things mu didn't even know what to call. Would mu have to explain the whole concept of pronouns to Thentin? Would they understand the concept of keeping them a secret?
Thentin was silent for a few moments, long enough for oz anxiety to spike further.
Then the bumblebee aether spoke. "I don't know what my pronouns are yet, but I'll keep yours secret for you. You can just call me...whatever works best, for now, if you have to keep your own secret."
What would 'work best' for now would be she/her pronouns, since most people assumed that an aether was always 'the opposite' gender of the person they'd bonded to. It wasn't unheard of for aethers to be 'the same', but that was rare enough, and controversial enough, that Ember didn't think it would be worth the risk. Especially not if Thentin hadn't even decided what pronouns...she actually wanted to use yet.
"Most people will assume you use she/her pronouns, so I'll call you that until you decide otherwise, if that's okay?" Ember wasn't sure if mu was asking a question or making a statement.
But Thentin didn't seem to mind. "That is okay with me." She said, and then came the magic words that Ember had known were coming. "Do you accept me as your aether?"
Even though Ember had known Thentin was going to ask, it still felt like the entire world slowed to a standstill as mu heard the words, and oz thoughts began whirling faster than time itself.
This was always the climax of movies, and books, and comics. Once someone found their aether, they had the option to either accept, or reject it. Always those fated words, in different voices, from different mouths, in different times and places, but always the same. Do you accept me as your aether?
If someone rejected it, that aether would leave, and, sometimes, if the person was lucky, their aether would reappear later, in a different form, in some other place.
But just like the first apparition, there was no telling what circumstances would let them meet again. It could be anything from as simple as going hiking at the right time and place, to fishing a bee out of a creek, to getting lost at sea.
There was no controlling or predicting what form your aether would take, and no guarentee that you would ever see them again if you rejected them the first time. There were legends of people who sent an already bonded aether, or a person, to follow one that had been rejected, leading to various fantastical results, usually in the form of magical journeys.
It had been tried in the real world too, proving that you could re-accept an aether as long as you came bearing gifts of apology, but only if they were still in the same form you'd rejected before. Once they died in their current body, they would be reborn again as a different animal, anywhere on the planet, with no way to track them down again.
Aethers, once bonded, couldn't be injured or killed, so mu wouldn't have to worry about Thentin being crushed by accident in a form so small. Only after Ember died, and was beyond any hope of resuscitation, would Thentin vanish back into the ether she had manifested from in the first place.
The only real question mu needed to ask ozself was — was mu okay with having an aether in the form of a bumblebee?
And the answer was easy. Of course mu was.
This was possibly a once in a lifetime opportunity. There was no way mu was going to give it up just because Thentin hadn't appeared as a bigger or more dramatic form. Mu had once dreampt of an aether that would take the form of a saber toothed tiger, or a polar bear. But now that Thentin was here, mu wouldn't give Thentin up for anything.
Ember said the words mu had been dreaming of saying since mu could remember. "I accept you as my aether."
And mu didn't need to be told to gently reach oz hand out towards Thentin as Thentin began to crawl toward mu.
Ember's outstretched fingers met the light touch of Thentin's front feet, and a spark of life itself jumped between them.
For a few dizzying moments, Ember felt the whole world spin and rearrange itself.
Mu could see ozself, looking back at ozself, through Thentin's eyes, seeing colors mu didn't have words for. And Ember knew that Thentin was seeing the same thing but in reverse — seeing her own bee form through Ember's eyes.
Their thoughts swirled together, curiosity and excitement and wonder and every other emotion under the sun. Memories were shared between them with ease, fast forwarding through their lives up until this moment in a whirlwind of impressions and images.
Thentin had lived more lives than mu had. This carpenter bee body was two years old, but before this, she had been a robber fly, a shovelhead shark, a little brown mudbug, a domestic cat. But the memories of those lives faded the longer and longer it had been since Thentin had lived them, so all that was left were hazy feelings.
But this carpenter bee body was only two years old, and these memories were sharp and fresh. They both saw and felt Thentin's vague dreams from within the tiny carpenter bee egg, then the time as a larva in the wood-bored tunnel, with nothing to worry about except eating the delicious store of pollen her mother had packed in. The slow, sleepy process of pupating, then finally emerging from the tunnels in the spring as an adult, and flying for the first time. Going out in search of flowers in that first spring, and overwintering in that same old pine for the last two years.
Then it was Ember's earliest memory, of running out into the snow before anyone could stop mu in only oz pajama onsies, without any of the proper warm or waterproof clothes, because the prospect of jumping into the snow had just been too exciting, and little baby mu hadn't yet grasped the concept that cold snow = cold Ember.
Then they watched oz last day of kindergarten, when all of the students were given teddy bears of their favorite color. Then the first day of middle school, and oz pride in being the only one who knew the way around because of all the times mu had visited to watch oz older sister compete on the debate team.
They shared memories, and thoughts, and feelings. Every one they had, and even ones they didn't even know they remembered. They shared every moment of embarassment, wonder, joy, and fear.
When the experience was over, Thentin looked up at Ember, and though the bee face couldn't smile, in a purely mental fashion she smiled nonetheless, sending a wave of happiness across the telepathic bond they now shared. The happiness came imbued with the suggary taste of honeysuckle nectar, so Ember could feel it distinct from oz own, which mu pushed back across the bond to share with Thentin.
For a moment they just examined the sensation of the other's happiness and compared it to their own. Ember's tasted like Boston cream pie, the first dessert mu had any real memories of, and always on special occasions. They spent a few more minutes sitting there in the grass, excitedly trading emotions back and forth to see what memories they came entwined with.
For Ember, fear came with the sensation of sitting in the living room in the dark, watching a scary movie that mu was definitely too young to be watching. For Thentin, it was hearing the feeling of flying for her life with a robber fly hot on her tail, knowing that if it caught her, her life as a carpenter bee would end.
Curiosity, they found with a spark of surprise and happiness, was now reflective of their current positions; Ember kneeling in the grass, hearing the trickle of the creak, the wind through the trees, looking down at Thentin as she perched in oz warm hand, looked back up at mu in colors unknown to human eyes, the taste of the aster's nectar still so fresh and strong on her tongue that Ember could taste it as though mu had eaten it ozself.
They spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the creek together, with Ember holding Thentin until she'd rested and dried enough to fly on her own again.
They went through every pronoun set Ember could remember, and made up a few new ones, testing each one out to see if Thentin liked any of them for her secret pronouns.
Finally, they found a set that xa liked, one Ember had made up by just picking different sounds that were fun to say.
The set was xa/vo/co/(no)/xavocono, with the X in xa pronounced like a Z, and used the way you would use they/them/their/(theirs)/themself pronouns.
They practiced sentences together as they played around the creek, making up stories on the spot.
Once there was a kitten born with wings, and xa (they) had color changing fur and feathers that let vo (them) turn almost invisible, except for co (their) eyes, which were always bright red, and sparkly, like rubies. Xa went on adventures with the opossum who lived under the porch of co family's house and opened the windows to let xa out, and xa was always trying to keep away from the animal control van, trying not to let the city find out which house was no.
As they got to this part of their imagined story, it was Thentin who realized that having one of the pronouns just be N O, like the word no, might be confusing if it was written down. So they decided to add an H to the end, making it noh instead, but keeping the pronunciation the same.
So, their original winged cat character, whose name they still hadn't decided on, had to try to keep animal control from figuring out which house was noh.
So, xa/vo/co/(noh)/xavoconoh.
Thentin interjeted that the character's name should be Shimmer, for the way co feathers and fur could shimmer from color to color, and Ember agreed, after thinking about it for a few moments and imagining the sight of a winged cat, shimmering in and out of existance, except for the bright red eyes, which only disappeared when they were closed.
"And maybe xa can make co fur shimmer like a rainbow too?" Ember suggested, and Thentin readily agreed.
It took them a while to figure out a sentence that would let them test the last word in the pronoun set, equivalent to themself. Finally they settled on the idea that Shimmer was afraid of the abandoned buildings that the opossum, whose name and pronouns neither Ember nor Thentin could think of anything for, liked to explore, so xa never went in any of them by xavoconoh; the opossum always had to be there to encourage vo, or xa would never even dream of going in.
The sun was starting on its downward angle by the time Ember and Thentin decided it would be a good time to head back home. Ember was hungry, and was starting to need to use the bathroom.
Mu had no idea how mu was going to tell oz parents about Thentin, besides maybe charging through the front door and yelling, "I found my aether!" at the top of oz lungs. They were going to be so surprised, and probably jealous. They'd want to ask questions, and maybe throw a party? Ember hoped there would be a party, with presents. And Boston cream pie. Maybe mu would get to be on the news and be on TV!
They went home together, Ember walking, Thentin flying next to and above oz.
Unfortunately, they didn't pass anyone on the way back, so there were no strangers they could show off to, despite Ember's fantasies of getting a crowd of admirers to follow them home, cheering and carrying mu on their shoulders.
But both cars were parked in the driveway when they got there, which meant everyone was home, unless their sister had gone over to a friend's.
It was sad that they wouldn't be able to share Thentin's neopronouns with everyone, and would have to just pretend xa was a girl, just like it was sad that Ember still had to hide oz pronouns from everyone. But they were together now, and would always be there to support one another from now on, until their next lives began. They would know each other's real identity, and for now, that would be good enough.
Someday they would be able to tell everyone who they really were, but until then, they had eachother, and the rest of Ember's friends, which mu couldn't wait to introduce Thentin to.
“I think,” Zuko says slowly, “we may have angered the spirits.”
Sokka scoffs.
“Spirits are bullshit,” he says.
“Okay,” Zuko says, “so what do you call this?”
He waves his hand generally at them both, the state of them. Zuko is still on his back, half-incapacitated; Sokka is sitting up, but hardly better off.
“There’s a rational explanation,” Sokka says.
Zuko arches his eyebrow.
“Uh huh,” he says.
“There is,” Sokka insists. “Stop that. Don’t smirk at me.”
“So what is it,” Zuko says, smirking.
Sokka thinks for a moment, wildly.
“Static… electricity,” he says.
Zuko bursts out laughing.
“Okay, okay, I get it,” Sokka says, ears burning. “It’s a working theory.”
The blue moon on June 30th 2007 had been the day that everything changed for her, and for the four men living peacefully in a cabin in the woods until that very day. That was nearly a year ago, and though it had been a tough ride, she could confidently say three things.
They were her future.
They completed her like no-one else in her life.
And yes, she was one twisted witch beneath the surface, but that thought only made her smile wider. Because she liked this side of herself, and knew her men enjoyed it too.
For @drarrymicrofic's prompt, Satisfied. CW for magical bonds & dubious consent.
I drive until it hurts, until my ribs threaten to crack and my fingers tremble, unsteady over the steering wheel. When the pain is almost unbearable, I remember that Harry feels it, too. Every angry and pulsing nerve and each aching heartbeat.
I drive a little further, and then I turn around.
The pain makes the first graze of my fingertips across his skin that much sweeter. It satisfies the bond’s thirst with the most tumultuous high, and the relief that spills from Harry’s lips almost makes me believe he wants this. He swallows my gasps like he needs them to breathe, and his fingers singe lovely, burning trails over my skin. A blissful shiver tickles my spine when he falters and whispers my name.
The bond purrs, and for a moment, we laze in Harry's bed like we chose this. Like he chose me.
“Wish it would stop acting up like that... Fucking hurts,” Harry mutters.
“Mm,” I hum as the illusion dissipates. “Needs must, I suppose.”
Harry and Hermione return to Hogwarts their sixth year with a secret, two in fact. Secret one: they've been a couple since fourth year, and after the events of the battle of the DoM, they gave in to their desire to counter the death with something life affirming. In giving their virginities to each other, their emotions pulled on their magic and a deep bond was formed, resulting in their magical marriage. Secret two: when they bonded, it overpowered/bypassed Hermione's contraception potion. How do the couple deal with being married, pregnant, and two supposed friends trying to potion them?
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
The Best Friend Squad is finally going to head out on their first space exploration. Now that Etheria is peaceful and things are getting back to normal. Adora has a hard goodbye to get through before they take off however. A partner and friend, who has always come through for her in the tough times, is being left behind.
For right now, a one shot. I'm actually working on making it into a real multi-chapter story.
Dedicated to the partnership of Adora and Swiftwind because I have read very few fics where he is taken seriously as a magical animal companion to either Adora or She-Ra. So, this is me trying to fix that.
