Draco Malfoy glanced up as he heard the sound of the bustling street outside his shop, indicating someone had just walked in. He was met with the sight of a young man, maybe a little younger than him walking around the shop. The unknown man was ordinary in every way possible from his nondescript brown robes to his brown hair and eyes.
“Welcome to Inked, how can I be of service?” the blonde haired man replied politely, stowing away the designs he had been sketching.
“Oh hello,” came the reply of the other man, voice sounding amused to match the smirk on his face. “I was interested in getting a piece done on my back”.
“Alright,” Draco replied, confusion evident over the man’s amusement, “Did you have anything in mind? I haven't any appointments this afternoon so we could do it now if you would like” Draco eyed the man, trying to place where he had seen him before. He had a forgettable face but something about his voice was familiar.
“Oh good, I was hoping to get a phoenix,” the man’s smirk grew into a full grin as he took in the shop owner’s raised eyebrow.
“A phoenix,” Draco replied flatly, attempting to see if this man was making a joke of some sort.
“Yep,” the man’s chirped reply came from a smirking face. There was something off about the voice and the face to Draco. Something didn’t feel like it matched up. He wouldn’t call the man out on it - gods knew he had spent some time hiding who he was.
“You want to mark yourself with a bird that resurrects itself? You want to taunt death like that?”
“Eh, I’ve already got Snuffles, and it’s not like death is all that great,” came the man’s flippant reply. When Draco only raised one blond eyebrow, the other man rolled his eyes before yanking up his sleeve. The unknown man glanced down in confusion for a second before letting out a soft laugh.
“Ah, I almost forgot,” he said more to himself than Draco. Draco watched as the other man pulled out his wand and ran it down his arm. Tattoos appeared on his arm and his skin slightly changed. As the man stepped closer to the desk Draco sat behind, he noticed the largest one on the inside of his forearm, a black dog. It looked like a grim. He also noticed how small the man actually was. Should Draco stand, he knew he would be at least a head taller.
“Why get a tattoo only to put a glamor over them?” Draco asked snidely. This man was silly to tattoo a grim on himself in the first place but then to just put a glamor over it. It seemed utterly ridiculous and Draco was beginning to take back his earlier acceptance of wanting to hide.
“Just didn’t wanna attract attention, but that’s beside the point. So will ya tattoo the phoenix or do I need to go find another shop?” the man asked in amusement.
“Why should I mark you when it’s clear you obviously don’t understand the consequences of your actions,” Draco rhetorically asked, not expecting an answer.
“I do know the consequences of my actions, but marking myself will have no consequence,” the man said with an edge of steel and a narrowing in his eyes. Draco could almost feel the magic in the air and was taken aback by the sheer power the man seemed to exude in that moment. It had been many years since he felt magic this powerful and wielded this casually. He thought about the consequences of denying this man for a brief moment, but the man seemed amicable to leave if he was denied. Draco narrowed his eyes back down to the man as he continued.
“And well I figured with a mark like your first one, you’d be more willing to do the phoenix than any other shop I’ve gone to,” the man cheekily replied, leaning forward on the desk with a grin. Seeing the unimpressed look on Draco’s face, the smaller man pushed off from the counter with an eye roll before continuing, “Look am I gonna have to go to some back water place where they do a shite job or will you do it?”
“I suppose I will,” the man replied with a huff which caused the dark haired man to grin.
“If you would like to follow me back I can sketch something up,” the taller man said as he turned and headed to a room behind the front desk.
“I’m Draco by the way,” he replied absently as he sat on a rolling stool. The unknown man sat across from him on the tattoo chair.
“My friends call me Ree,” the smaller man replied as he shook Draco’s hand. Draco absently noted that the man’s hand was significantly smaller than his. He shouldn’t find it as attractive as he did considering how little Draco knew about this man besides that he was powerful and unwilling to show his own face unglamored.
The next half hour was relatively silent as Draco sketched out a phoenix for the smaller man. It went by uninterrupted and the other man seemed content to simply sit and watch the blonde man work. Once finished and once Ree had approved of the image, Draco had the man turn around and take off his shirt so that he could apply the image.
“I can’t work around a glamor,” Draco stated wryly as he looked at the unmarked skin of the man’s back which didn’t exactly match the skin tone of the man’s unglamored arm.
“Oh right sorry,” came the soft reply before the man’s skin changed entirely. The skin became a more caramel color and tattoos swirled across his upper back, shoulders, and arms. Draco noticed a flying snitch that zoomed from shoulder to shoulder. He saw some different types of magical creatures as well. So focused on the man’s tattoos was he, that Draco completely missed the smaller man’s use of wandless magic. And for a full body glamor at that.
“You also marked yourself with a bloody thestral?” Draco couldn’t help asking, surprise evident in his voice as he saw the dark creature curled at the base of his neck. Draco then noticed how dark the man’s hair became. It was inky black and rather shaggy. It seemed to curl slightly at the tips. He wondered what the smaller man’s face looked like. Draco assumed his murky brown eyes were part of the glamor.
“Oh yep, I forget about her sometimes. Most people can’t see her, you know. It was rather intricate magic that went into that one,” Ree replied as he sheepishly brushed the back of his neck with his hand. Draco could hear the pride in his voice but it was muted by something much more solemn, although Draco didn’t linger as he noticed that tattoo that the thestral seemed to be guarding.
“You have the deathly hollows on you as well?” Draco asked in confusion. He knew the children’s story well from his childhood.
“Well there’s a story behind that one, but maybe you should start on the phoenix,” the smaller man replied, amusement back in his voice. Draco nodded and didn’t say anything else as he transferred the image of the golden red phoenix onto an open space on the man’s back. It was towards the middle of his back, around where his ribs ended and to the right side. When finished with the magic applied, the phoenix would probably wrap around his torso.
“You’re from here I take it?” Draco finally broke the silence that had settled between the two as he worked on the outline of the phoenix.
“Yep, just like you,” Draco raised an eyebrow at the reply but ignored it. Dismissing the knowledge as along with Draco’s first tattoo was pretty common information.
“Did you attend school abroad?” the blonde wizard asked sometime later.
“Nah, I went to Hogwarts. Didn’t finish there though. I reckon a lot of people didn’t but I’m not too sure. Didn’t really stick around. I went to the States to finish,” the man replied flippantly.
“Hm, yes. I didn’t finish but I sat my NEWTS. A lot of good that did me,” Draco’s dryly stated as he wiped away a bit of blood from the man’s back.
“I don’t remember you from Hogwarts,” Draco continued as he thought back to his Hogwarts days. He didn’t know any Rees in any of the years although he hadn’t really known anyone outside of his year and house.
“Ah well, you just might. I remember you. Your hair looks much better by the way,” Ree replied cheekily.
Draco smiled as he worked on the tattoo, “Yes well I was a right git back then,” was the only reply the smaller man got.
“A war can change a lot,” Ree agreed quietly. Draco only hummed, contemplating who this man was. As Draco began on the final shading, he thought about who this man must have been before to not even have Draco remember him.
“Were you there? At the Battle of Hogwarts,” Draco quietly asked.
“Yes,” was the only reply that was given, although Draco could hear the pain behind that voice. Draco silently thought that Ree was indeed right. War can change a great deal of things and take away a great deal of people.
Draco worked without another word until he was finished. The tattoo wasn’t large enough to require more than one sitting. He began to softly chant the incarnation that would allow the tattoo to move.
“I’m finished, if you’d like to see it,” Draco said softly, not wanting to break the silence again.
“I’ll tell you why now, if you wish,” Ree softly replied, not turning or moving in any way. Draco could only see his back but he noticed it tense slightly before relaxing. Draco made no sound, surprised by the serious tone of voice. The man took his silence as agreement.
“I first started getting inked after the war, I travelled everywhere. I wanted reminders of what had happened. Of the people I had lost,” the man’s voice trailed off here and Draco knew in a way only people who had gone through war, “No one in any of the numerous countries I’ve gone would tattoo a phoenix on me. They all thought the same thing you did. It was a taunt to death. I was essentially asking death to take me. Many also wouldn’t do it because they didn’t want to condemn themselves. Every place I went, I told them I would explain why after they gave it to me. None of them believed I had a valid reason.” Ree paused and at last turned around to face Draco. Grey eyes met emerald. Draco sucked in a breath as he knew only one man with eyes that vibrant. One man who hadn’t been seen in almost three years by anyone in the British Wizarding World.
“I can taunt death all I want. I’ve known that since the day after the battle. When I walked into the forest that night, I did die. I died a sacrificial death, that’s how I defeated Voldemort. Why none of his curses worked against anyone. I died but I came back. At first I thought little of it, I knew what I had to do. I knew I couldn’t fight back, walking to death. I didn’t actually think I would come back, but I did. Even after I lived that night, I didn’t understand the magnitude of what I had done not until the next day at least. The next day I noticed the deathly hallows symbol marked at the back of my neck. In coming back to life, I became the master of death. Death can no longer touch me until I am ready. I am death’s master,” Harry Potter finished quietly, not breaking eye contact from his former rival.
“So I have no fear about taunting Death. I can mock and taunt Death all I want, it cannot touch me or those I deem mine,” the Boy Who Lived Twice concluded.