Chapter 36
Suddenly everything was moving too fast. Draco hadn’t the time to think through what had happened or what it meant.
Mars was shouting at everyone to hurry. Draco’s legs were shaky as he climbed down off the table and he accepted a steading hand from Aergia, then immediately glanced over at the sailor and saw him watching. Draco averted his eyes and let Mars herd him towards the door. Draco’s hands were also shaky and he barely tucked his own invitation cards away before the sailor unceremoniously took the rest of the stack from him to redistribute. He was no longer looking at Draco at all.
No one dragged their feet on the trip to the chapel. Then everything ground to a halt.
The comet, twin, shooting star, and sailor pointedly blocked out the other trio the moment they reached their new destination, stopping Mars, Aergia, and Draco from getting the slightest hint of the current clue.
“Fuuuck,” Mars groaned, huddled up with her two friends who could only watch the others scheme.
Draco buried his face in his hands. “Oh my god we were suckered.”
Aergia laughed at both of them. “You two need to chill out, this isn’t the end of the world.” Mars actually punched him, with far more force than you’d expect from so small a woman. Aergia winced. “What was that for?”
“Just chill out,” Mars answered in the most mocking tone.
Mars might have been acting childish, but Draco sided with her more than her brother. “I thought we were on the same page, the goal is to win,” Draco reminded him.
Aergia was still rubbing his arm when he flashed Draco a grin and a wink. He tapped the pocket where his invitation was stored. “They’ll have to show us where the stamp is eventually, and we’ll just go after them. There’s a good chance the next location is the observatory, so we’ll catch up with them then.”
“Assuming they find it before the next group gets here and we’re behind a dozen people,” Mars complained sourly.
Aergia sighed and looked to Draco for confirmation that Mars was blowing things out of proportion. Draco tried to smile politely, but his stomach was in knots considering that Mars might be right. It wouldn’t take long for the next group to catch up.
“That’s it, I’m going to investigate,” Mars said before running off to explore the small space. This time Draco did return Aergia’s look, because neither thought her impatience would pay off.
Immediately forgetting about his sister, Aergia used the moment to step closer to Draco. He leaned over so his mouth was close to Draco’s ear. “My invite only lets me bring one person with me,” he murmured, his hand brushing over Draco’s elbow.
Draco swallowed, his throat suddenly dry. His eyes glanced up briefly to meet Aergia’s heated gaze. Without question, Draco thought he was an attractive man, but the flirtation didn’t inspire butterflies in Draco’s stomach. It conjured up the image of Aergia smirking at the king. Draco tried to deflect with a laugh, even if the laugh was overly forced. “Mars would kill you if you left her behind,” Draco said. He was exaggerating only a little.
Aergia smirked and shrugged. He stepped even closer. “We could have some fun while we waited for her to catch up.” Draco forced out another laugh, taking a half step back. Without intending to, he glanced back over at the sailor.
Green eyes blazed from across the room, watching the entire exchange. Draco’s breath stopped short even while his pulse sped up. He tried to turn back to Aergia to distract himself but Aergia was still too close. Draco took another half step back. “I… I’ll think about it,” he lied, then turned away from both men and towards the only unoccupied escape that would save face - another table serving alcohol.
Draco chugged an entire flute of champagne in one go. He slammed it down on the table afterwards and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to process everything happening. The evening had swiftly lost its whimsy and Draco was left dreading failure. He grabbed a second flute glass and chugged again.
“Are you trying to get drunk?” came the smooth voice of the king. It held amusement like after Draco had told off Umbridge or joked about poison. A rare thing the king only used with Draco in public. Draco closed his eyes at the realization that the king hadn’t actually recognized him at all. The confirmation of it had Draco twitching to grab another flute and show just how drunk he’d like to get.
Instead he forced a smile, struggling not to look pained. “I’m wallowing. Make them show me the clue so I can stop drowning my sorrows.” It came out strained instead of self assured.
The king widened his eyes in surprise. He glanced over his shoulder at Aergia, who was hassling his sister and pretending not to pay attention to King Harry and Draco’s discussion. “I thought you were having a good time,” he said.
This time Draco’s laughter was real. He worried it was obvious and everyone could tell the difference. He choked it off before anyone could recognize the sound. Draco cleared his throat. “It’ll be fun when the puzzle comes back round.” He shook off his discomfort and adopted a haughty air. “I suppose it’s quite noble of me to give a different team a turn at the game.”
It was the king’s turn to laugh, deep and full throated. “You’re going to be a sore loser, I can tell,” he teased. Draco huffed before grabbing another glass of alcohol after all. The king looked a bit worried as Draco drank it swiftly. “You sure you don’t want to slow down? That’s the good stuff, it’ll fuck you up.”
“How do you know?” Draco snapped, knowing full well the king hadn’t drunk any and wanting to put him on the spot for having details on the event. His entire body was suddenly hot, either from booze or a burst of anger. He wasn’t sure who the anger was for. Maybe Aergia, although Draco didn’t think it fair to be angry at a little flirting. Maybe the king, only Draco didn’t think it fair to be angry at him for not seeing through an intentionally elaborate disguise. Maybe the other players, only Draco thought they were clever for seizing the opportunity and didn’t blame them for leaving his team out. Who was left? Draco’s cheeks flamed as he considered he might be angry at himself for putting himself in a position he clearly wasn’t prepared to handle. Draco reached out for another glass.
The king gently touched his hand, nudging it away from the motion. “Talk to me, what’s going on?” he asked gently. Draco’s eyes were caught on the king’s hand on top of his own. He warred with the knowledge that, even though he knew better, the king’s touch felt so much nicer than Aergia’s.
Maybe it was that he’d been drinking all night and added on too much here in the end, but Draco’s was authentically worried he’d drop his guard and say something honest. Instead, he went on the attack. “This is a stupid game,” he grumbled.
“Are you really this upset about the game?” the king asked.
Draco glowered at him. “I don’t care if you, or Aergia, or anyone doesn’t think it’s worth taking seriously.” He gestured at the folks still huddled together and Mars scouring the room for clues. “The rest of us care and we’re having fun with it.” Draco’s words were starting to slur.
“I actually love that you’re taking this seriously. I’m just worried that something else might be wrong.” Draco absolutely hated that the king looked concerned. He had never, ever been concerned for Draco Malfoy and it felt horrible to experience it for the first time while being seen as a stranger.
Draco clenched his fist, still under the king’s gentle touch. “I’m fine. Shouldn’t you be helping your friends with the puzzle? What are you even doing here talking to me.”
Goddamnit, the king looked hurt. He pulled his hand back from Draco’s and looked sheepishly down at his feet. “I thought you recognized me,” he said, self consciously.
Draco heaved the largest sigh he was capable of. He closed his eyes and tried to breathe. He wanted to shout, “Of course I recognized you!” but if he started shouting he might not stop. Draco had no right to be so upset that he had succeeded in so thoroughly deceiving the man in front of him.
He needed to say something, though. Not for the king, but for his own desperate desire to get some part of the truth off his chest.
“When I was little, my parents would tell me stories of equinox balls,” Draco started, his words surprising himself. The king had stilled and watched Draco like what he said mattered. Draco licked his lips nervously, then continued. “They made each ball sound like magic, and I always imagined that whatever was happening, if I was invited to an equinox ball I could enter a magical world and everything else… everything bad… it would all be left behind.” Draco stumbled through the words, not wanting to dwell on how his fantasies of escape started long before they lost the war. He turned back to the king, his eyes imploring. “I don’t want to recognize anything when I’m here. I don’t want you to recognize me. I want us all to show up and pretend to be something different and give a chance on any random person, not caring if we would hate them in real life, and to leave afterwards only with good memories and the mutual agreement that all of this was a dream that we don’t ever have to worry about again.”
The king was staring at Draco with wide, longing eyes. “Yeah, that sounds perfect.”
Draco could feel his heartbeat in his throat. “Then why do you care if I recognize you?” he whispered.
The king gulped. His expression was strained for a long moment, then he stepped away from Draco and was walking back towards his friends. Draco let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. He felt weak in the knees.
To Draco’s utter surprise, the king next spoke loud and booming to the entire room. “This is taking too long. Give the invite to the navigator. I want to see if he can crack it.” His friends let out a round of protest but he silenced them with a stare. The king himself took the invitation from the group and walked it over to Draco. King Harry’s eyes bored into Draco’s as he held the card out. Draco stood frozen on the spot and couldn’t take it. “C’mon, navigator. You yelled at me when you thought I wasn’t taking this seriously,” the king taunted. Then he relaxed and let his eyes sparkle. “Imagine how fun it will be when you show us how quickly you can solve it.”
That sparked something in Draco. His grin was all teeth, but all hesitation was gone as he grabbed the invitation card. He stood tall, resting one hand on a hip he’d cocked out to the side, and the other holding the invitation out in front of him as he made a show of his examination. His vision was blurry again, but with effort he could read it. In truth, he could only make out so much on the page. But he caught keywords.
Pair. Hands. Vows.
“It’s a wedding,” Draco slurred.
A litany of protests and complaints sounded from the king’s friends, but Draco didn’t care. He cared only about how smugly the king was smiling at him.
Draco was too drunk to be the one who put the actual clue to the test. Others did that work. There were marks on the floor where the altar would be, and the twin and comet discovered that when two people worked together part of the floor could be moved, revealing the stamp underneath. It was a job too complex for one - it required teamwork. Like a marriage. Everyone took turns stamping their cards on the device, focusing more on speed than care. Draco went last, stumbling to pull out his cards. He fumbled and both fell to the ground.
“How do you have two?” someone asked. It was the twin. He sounded angry.
Without answering, Draco crouched down to pick them up, but lost his balance and stumbled.
“Fucking drunk,” the twin muttered, then let go of the contraption to stand up and walk away. It didn’t bother Draco, since George was only angry he was cheating.
Draco picked up his cards, but the stamp was gone and he didn’t actually know how to bring it back.
The next thing he knew, Aergia was by his side. “Let me help you,” he said, then he fiddled with the floor to reveal the stamp again.
Draco tried very hard to focus, but he couldn’t figure out the contraption.
Someone else knelt next to him. “Let me do it,” King Harry offered, taking the cards out of Draco’s hands. He paused to look at them. “Why do you have two?” The tone was cold, and painfully familiar. That’s what the king sounded when he talked down to Draco.
“Um,” Draco said, at a loss for words.
“Just stamp the cards already,” Aergia spoke up for him.
The king gave Aergia such a withering look. “Did you know he had two?”
“I don’t care if he had all six,” Aergia snarled at him. “I am so over this, just stamp the cards so we can move on.”
Watching the two of them glare at each other made Draco tired and he hung his head between his legs so he didn’t have to watch them. “Just stamp one of them, we can throw the other away,” Draco suggested. The king scoffed but Aergia eagerly agreed that was a fair approach.
“Fine, which one is actually yours?” the king demanded, holding both cards out.
Draco didn’t even look up. After an entire evening of working so hard to be clever he had been found out as a cheat and screwed it all up. Now the king hated him in both realities. Maybe the king would finally get a good look at him and put the pieces together. Draco squeezed himself tightly for a moment, then without even looking pointed vaguely at the king to randomly select one of the cards.
The king made a small pained noise. Out of nowhere he asked, “You’re married?” That confused Draco enough to look up. The king was holding out the gallery card.
“What on earth are you talking about?” Draco asked.
The king looked physically pained. “Is it recent?” he asked.
“No, seriously, what are you talking about?” Draco repeated.
“You can tell me if it’s recent,” the king said, looking uncomfortable by the idea.
Draco snapped, “I’m not fucking married, why would you even ask.”
The king held the card out again. “Only married people all got sent gallery,” he said.
Draco gaped. He looked from the king, to Aergia, to everyone in the room who weren’t even pretending not to watch.
“How would you possibly know that?” Draco demanded, loudly.
All eyes turned to King Harry. He realized suddenly the size of the audience. “Errrrrr,” he said, trying to think of an excuse before breaking down and admitting, “I’m on the equinox committee.”
“Mate, I’m on the equinox committee, and I didn’t know shit about these invitations,” said the twin, in a minor act of revenge for having been left out of the loop.
“No one is supposed to be saying if they’re on the equinox committee!” Draco nearly shouted. “It’s supposed to be a clandestine organization no one even knows is real. What is so hard about just keeping a secret?”
“Simmer down, there,” said Aergia. “This is a silly game, none of it really matters.”
The entire room was in an uproar over that comment, with any number of choice words for the man, most prominently Mars flailing about and shouting, “Stop trying to make everyone else as miserable as you are!” That was when the astrolabe and her crew walked into the room.
It was amazing timing, in a sense, because Mars was making enough of a distraction that no one noticed Draco shift over so that he was sitting on top of where someone could access the stamp. A moment later the king shifted as well, scooting closer to Draco and blocking the other side of the mechanism. They sat incredibly stiff, the discomfort between them palpable. Still, both committed fully to the game.
“Hey now, what’s all this shouting about?” one of the newcomers asked jovially. A couple people jeered in response, but otherwise their lips stayed sealed.
Draco wondered what they should do. He found himself glancing at the king in the hope he’d have some idea. Draco startled when he turned and the king was already staring back at him. They sat there, looking at each other.
Then Aergia cleared his throat. Draco looked up to see Aergia’s narrowed eyes hard on the pair of men sitting side by side on the floor. He turned to the room and held up his invitation high above everyone, showing off the side with the newly minted fifth stamp of a moon. “They were fighting over who I’ll be taking to the observatory,” he announced. The newcomers gasped, and even Draco’s group murmured. Aergia turned to Draco. “What do you say, navigator, want to come with me?”