Chapter 22
Harry woke up feeling warm, content, and more clear headed than he had in weeks. He didn’t feel hungover, sick, or tired. The only thing was that his wrists were aching fiercely. Still, it was a large improvement.
He blinked his eyes open and found that he was in Blaise’s bed, on his chest. Sun was peeking through the windows and Harry could hear the birds chirping outside. Blaise still seemed to be in a deep sleep, so Harry kept still so as not to wake him. He basked in the comfort that he was feeling for the first time in a long time.
Eventually Blaise shifted slightly, and Harry glanced up to see him waking up slowly. After they had gotten to Blaise’s apartment, the pair had basically crashed. It had been early evening, but the days events, and the previous week’s emotions had been so taxing that neither of them had any trouble falling asleep.
“Good morning,” Blaise said softly when he saw Harry staring at him. Harry had been admiring his dark eyebrows and tan skin. His face was thin, but not severe, making him look extremely elegant. His jaw was prominent, making him look strong.
“Good morning,” Harry replied. Blaise smiled. “What?”
“I’m just happy to have you here,” Blaise explained. Harry felt a slight blush rise to his cheeks, “How are you feeling?”
“So much better,” Harry replied honestly.
“Hungry?” Blaise asked. Harry nodded. “I don’t think you ate anything yesterday.”
Harry shrugged. Blaise was right. Between the nausea and the exhaustion, food had been his last priority.
The pair slowly made their way out of bed, stealing light kisses from each other as they went.
Out in the kitchen, Harry asked, “Where’s Theo?”
The apartment was silent and he wondered where Blaise’s roommate was this morning.
“He’s probably down in the shop,” Blaise guessed, “We’ll have the place to ourselves this morning, what do you want to eat?”
The pair decided on waffles, and Harry helped Blaise make the batter. As he was reaching for the plates, Blaise said, “We need to do something about that.”
Harry looked down to his wrists, where Blaise was gesturing. He grimaced. He didn’t think he had ever seen his wrists in such bad shape. The skin just under the bracelet was black, which then faded into a deep purple and blue, and spread up his arms in angry red stripes. It was also climbing up into his hands. Suddenly, seeing the damage, made him more aware of the pain that he was repressing.
“Uh, yeah,” he said, “I’m going to need a lot of room I think.”
“I was thinking we could go to the Zabini estate. We don’t have the biggest manor, but we have a lot of land. There shouldn’t be anyone there right now,” Blaise suggested, “We should go after breakfast.”
“Okay,” Harry said simply. Now that he was aware of it, his wrists were incredibly painful and he was eager to get the bracelets off.
They ate quickly. Harry couldn’t eat a lot, he figured his stomach wasn’t used to so much food. He never ate as much as he should when he was using.
The two got changed and headed downstairs to the shop below the flat. There they saw Theo sitting behind the front desk.
“Hello Harry,” Theo said, “Nice to see you again.”
“Hi,” Harry said shyly, he wasn’t sure how much Blaise had told him about the whole situation but he figured he had to know something.
“Harry and I are going to go on a small trip, but we should be back for lunch,” Blaise told Theo, who nodded. Blaise took Harry’s hand in his.
“There’s an apparition point just down here, I’ll side along you from there, if we go quick, I don’t think anyone will recognize you,” Blaise said as he pushed open the front door to the shop. Harry followed him.
He took a deep breath before Blaise apparated. The familiar twisting feeling was so much worse when Harry side-alonged. He felt dizzy when they landed, and Blaise had to catch him to prevent him from losing his balance.
“Sorry, I’m so bad at being side-alonged,” Harry said, “I should’ve warned you.”
“It’s okay,” Blaise laughed slightly. Harry looked around once he was steady. They were in the middle of a beautiful field. There were rolling hills, and Harry couldn’t see a single building in any direction. The grass was long, and the sun was shining onto it. It looked like it came out of a photo book.
“Wow,” Harry breathed, “This is beautiful.”
“It is, I used to come riding horses out here. There’s a rumor that dragons used to use this field as well,” Blaise said, “I’ve never seen one though.”
Harry nodded and looked around some more before he sighed. Blaise watched him patiently, “I suppose we should get this over with.”
“How do you want to do it?” Blaise asked. Harry thought.
“I should probably sit down, and you need to cast a shield spell around yourself,” he said, “I might… destroy the grass, but I can fix it I promise, but I don’t know if I could fix you.”
“Noted, but I trust you,” Blaise told him. Harry sat down and Blaise knelt next to him. He cast his shield charm and Harry took a deep breath. He placed his hand gently on the clasp to his right wrist, and flinched. Even the slightest pressure had shot a way of red hot pain up his arm.
Before he could second guess himself, he opened the clasp. It was a rush of agony. It only lasted a few seconds before the world went white.
“Harry.”
“Harry, wake up,” he heard Blaise’s voice. He felt hands on his shoulders. He opened his eyes to see Blaise hovering above him. “There you are. Are you alright?”
“That was… intense,” Harry muttered. He pushed himself up, and his jaw dropped open at the sight around him. The grass was… absolutely destroyed. It was charred and smoking. It stretched out as far as he could see. Even the sky seemed grayer. There were small fires happening all around them. Harry felt incredibly guilty.
“I am so sorry,” Harry said.
“It’s okay, you didn’t do it on purpose, I’m just glad you're okay,” Blaise said, “We can worry about fixing it when you have the other one off.”
Harry looked down at his wrists. He didn’t know if he could bring himself to unlock the other one. It hurt so badly. And, he wasn’t sure that the field could handle another blast of magic.
Blaise must have sensed his hesitation, “You can do it Harry, you have to. It will feel better once it’s off.” He gave him a small kiss on the forehead.
Harry knew Blaise was right. “Okay, do another shield.”
Once he knew Blaise was safe he reached for his other wrist and closed his eyes. When he released it, this time he let out a hoarse yell. Or maybe something closer to a scream. He lasted longer this time before he passed out, but eventually, he lost consciousness.
“...Harry….love…”
“... you’re scaring me now Harry, come on…”
“Baby, time to wake up, come see what you did,” Blaise’s voice cuts through Harry’s mind. Harry didn’t really want to see what he had done, and he didn’t really want to wake up either.
“I know you can hear me love, open those pretty green eyes for me,” Blaise coaxed. Harry really couldn’t resist Blaise, so he struggled to do as he was told. It took him a second to focus on Blaise’s face.
He found his eyes drifting off to the side and he blinked hard to try to concentrate. His head was fuzzy, but it was clearing. It felt like the magic that had been so built up and angry had exploded, and the remnants were slowly draining out of his brain. He hadn't even realized how much the built-up magic had been contributing to his inability to process or think clearly.
"Alright? Talk to me Harry," Blaise said, taking Harry's face in his hand gently. Harry realized Blaise had continued speaking to him and that he had not been responding.
"I'm okay," Harry said, and cleared his throat, "I feel a lot better actually."
Blaise relaxed visibly, "Good, that's good."
Harry moved to sit up and had a slight head rush. It was different than his recent spells of dizziness. This one almost felt like his head was so much lighter than normal that he had forgotten what it felt like. It felt good after the initial rush.
Then he took in his surroundings. The field that had been completely decimated... was now full of life. Harry's jaw dropped open. The sky was once again a brilliant blue. The fields were covered in flowers of all colors. They were vibrant and unique, and they spread as far as Harry could see. There wasn't a patch of ground that wasn't covered.
"I did that?" he asked breathlessly.
"Yes, it's beautiful," Blaise said behind him. Harry turned to look at him. "Your eyes... they're so bright again, I had forgotten how green they really are."
"I... I didn't even realize how much my magic needed to get out," Harry said.
"I think your wrists did though," Blaise murmured, reaching down and gently taking Harry's wrists into his hands. Harry's wrists were still in bad shape. Though they were no longer blackened, they were still a deep purple rimmed with a large amount of red. At least the red wasn't shooting up into his forearms or hands any longer, "I should heal them."
Harry shook his head, "No don't."
"Why not?" Blaise asked. Harry didn't really know why not. He felt like he shouldn't. Like his magic was telling him that he shouldn't heal them. That he needed to wear the consequences of his actions.
"I should let them heal naturally. So that I don't forget. And so that I don't try to put the bracelets back on anytime soon. I think it might help me feel less tempted," Harry told him.
"Okay... I'm putting numbing cream on them when we get home though," Blaise compromised.
"I will not fight you on that," Harry admitted. They weren't aching like they used to, but they did hurt. Kind of like when his foot was asleep, and the blood rushed back into it. He turned back to look at the open field. He could almost feel his magic, still thick in the air, looking for something to do.
He often forgot how large he had grown his magic to be while he was with Nick. It was something that he chose not to think about much because it reminded him of a lot of times that he would have rather forgotten. He didn't know how to describe it, but it was almost like his magic was sentient. It didn't have emotions in the normal sense, but it did have feelings. When it was trapped, it was angry. When he exercised it, it was happy.
Right now, it felt... hurt and concerned for Harry. It was confused as to why Harry hadn't been using it, and why it had been locked away for three weeks straight. Harry could also tell that this was a deeper hurt as well because of the years that he had avoided using his magic whenever he could. Harry wanted to reassure it that he wasn't going to lock it away anymore and that he was going to try to get better.
He reached out a hand slowly and concentrated. His magic rushed from where it was lingering over the field into his hand. Harry focused, and suddenly, a large number of butterflies and birds spewed from his hand to fly over his field of flowers. He heard Blaise gasp behind him, but he focused on sending as much love and happiness that he could through his magic and out into the air.
Once he felt his magic start to stretch, he slowly winded down. Once he was done, he took a breath, and took a slightly unsteady step back. He felt exhilarated. His magic was euphoric at its sudden use.
"Harry, wow," Blaise said, stepping up next to him, also marveling at the sight.
"I forgot how good that feels," Harry told him.
“You’re incredible,” Blaise said, and Harry looked at him. He reached up to pull Blaise down into a heated kiss. Blaise reached and wrapped his arms around Harry’s waist and Harry buried his hands in Blaises’ hair.
He wanted to feel more of Blaise so he reached down and started tugging his shirt off. Blaise immediately complied, and then repeated the actions on Harry’s shirt. Harry ran his hands over Blaise’s chest as they made out, loving the feel of his defined muscles.
“Harry, fuck,” Blaise moaned breaking off. Harry was slightly confused because he wasn’t doing anything, “Your magic baby, feels so good.”
Harry looked at his hands and saw his fingertips were glowing ever so slightly as he traced them over Blaise’s skin. He experimentally traced a long line up Blaise’s neck, and the taller man shivered before reclaiming Harry’s mouth. Harry enjoyed his newfound ability to tease Blaise until Blaise hoisted him up so that his legs were wrapped around his waist, and then slowly lowered the couple to the soft ground. Blaise sucked hard on Harry’s neck and Harry thrust his hips up involuntarily.
Harry pushed at Blaise’s pants, and then decided just to banish them. And then his own. Blaise chuckled under his breath.
“Eager are we?” he teased, and Harry just responded by ghosting his fingers over Blaise’s length and focused on sending even more sparks of magic through them. Blaise jolted and moaned, “Harry, merlin.”
Harry giggled until Blaise took his own hand and wrapped it firmly around him. He gasped and arched up.
“Blaise, I need you please,” Harry said, suddenly desperate.
“Okay love,” Blaise said. He cast all of the lubricating and cleaning charms before starting to stretch him. It didn’t take long for Harry to be begging for Blaise.
Blaise lined himself up, but then Harry had an idea, “Wait.”
Blaise froze, and Harry pushed him down onto his back and then crawled on top of him. Blaise groaned when he realized what Harry was doing, “You’re trying to kill me today.”
Harry concentrated on lining himself up with Blaise, as Blaise reached down to steady his hips. He sank down slowly, overwhelmed with the feeling that was still very new to him. Once he was seated, he took deep breaths and laid his head on Blaise’s collarbone.
After a few moments, when he felt more adjusted, he lifted himself up experimentally. He moaned at the feeling.
“That’s it baby,” Blaise encouraged. Harry started to find a rhythm of rocking and rising and falling, “Oh shit Harry, so good for me.”
Harry moaned at the praise. Blaise started thrusting up to meet him, and the slight change in angle rubbed directly on Harry’s spot. Harry keened and threw his head back, as it was stimulated. The couple started moving faster and faster, working together to reach their peak. Soon, Harry was so overwhelmed by sensations that he struggled to keep going.
“Need help baby?” Blaise asked breathlessly, still slamming up into him. Harry nodded dazedly. Blaise swung them around smoothly and cradled Harry beneath him onto the soft grass. From there, he started at a fast pace that made Harry’s head spin. He grasped at the grass beneath him, Blaise’s shoulder, his hair, anything to help try to ground himself.
“Blaise,” Harry moaned, “I’m close! Please.”
Blaise reached down to help finish Harry off. At the added stimulation, Harry moaned loudly.
“Come for me baby, you’re so beautiful, such a good boy,” Blaise said right in his ear. Harry yelled out as he released and his world went hazy. He felt Blaise pulse inside of him a few moments later. Harry shuddered as an aftershock passed through him.
Blaise gave one more gentle thrust before he pulled out and laid next to Harry, breathing hard. Harry crawled over and nestled himself in his side contentedly. The pair laid there for a long time before they decided to go back.
"Perfect timing," Theo said as they walked back through the door for lunch, "Lunch is ready, and Harry, there's two owls here for you who will not leave until you give them a response back."
Harry looked apprehensively at the owls on the table.
"Let's eat first and then you can deal with those." Blaise suggested taking his and Harry's plates from Theo. It was sandwiches today with chips.
The trio sat down to eat.
"How was your morning?" Theo asked, and then very suggestively, "Have fun?"
Harry felt himself blush hard. He didn't know why he was flustered so easily lately.
"It was good," Blaise answered, tone clear for Theo not to push it, "How was your morning?"
"Fine, we had a big order of Dreamless sleep that I took care of this morning," Theo said, "Oh and... this young kid, Dennis Creevey, a few years below us came in. He wants to apply for a job here."
"We're not really hiring though?" Blaise said.
"I know, but he's extremely qualified, O's on his NEWTs and Blaise, with me moving out, and my honeymoon, it might be good to train someone up. Plus, we'll have a bunch of extra revenue coming in with all of the deals we just made," Theo said.
Harry watched Blaise nod thoughtfully, "Okay, let's bring him in for an interview."
Once they were done, Harry helped clean up and then sat down next to the owls. One he had recognized as Darla's owl, so he opened the other one first.
Harry,
I'm not sure where you are or if you've seen the article that was just put out. However, I've finished all of my other interviews, so I would like to do one more in person interview with you. If we could schedule and interview as soon as possible, that would be wonderful. I'd like to also talk with you about the direction of this story.
Luna
"Luna wants to meet for another interview," Harry said.
"Are you still going to do that story?" Blaise asked. Harry sighed.
"Well, she's been very kind, I think I might meet with her one more time. Maybe just to tell her that she doesn't have to worry about Darla anymore," Harry said, "To be honest, I don't really care what she writes, it can't be any worse than what's out now."
"Okay, I think it's a good idea to meet with her one more time to see if you can try to tell more of your side of the story," Blaise said, "But it's up to you."
Harry nodded and wrote back a quick reply, telling her that they could meet the following day whenever was most convenient for her. Once the owl flew off, he sighed and turned to Darla's owl.
Harry,
I do not know what has come over you. Your behavior is unacceptable. I came to check on you this morning and you weren't even there! We have commitments to attend to. You need to focus on your career. Break up with Blaise immediately and go back to your apartment. That boy will destroy your career. If you do not, I will sue you for violation of your contract. I will release interviews detailing your drug abuse and your flaky behavior. You do not want to be on my bad side. Come home Harry. Let's fix this.
Darla.
Harry scoffed and rolled his eyes, "She's mad that's for sure. Normally she's much more... articulate."
He slid the letter over to Blaise as he got conjured another piece of parchment to write his reply.
"Are you worried about her threats?" Blaise asked after he read it.
"Like I said, I really don't care what's put out. She's just mad. Most of what she could talk about would implicate her anyway so she can't even say much," Harry said. He penned out a reply.
Darla,
You are fired. I fired you yesterday, which means that the contract is now broken. You cannot sue me for violation of something that does not exist. My lawyers work separately from you, and I will be contacting them today to ensure that they know that you are no longer representing me. As far as everyone else, they all work for you, not me, so you can keep them on if you want to. As the contract stated, you will be caught off from my finances starting yesterday. I will be changing the wards on my flat to keep you out permanently. If you have questions, refer to my lawyers. Do not contact me again.
Harry Potter
Harry also penned a quick note to the lawyers to let them know what had changed. He sent both letters off quickly with a sigh of relief.
"Feel better now?" Blaise asked from where he had been waiting patiently. Harry yawned.
"So much. Thank you, you've helped me so much," Harry said. Blaise smiled slightly.
"I'm glad," he said, he stood and leaned over to give Harry a kiss on the forehead, "I need to go downstairs and work on some potions, you look tired, do you want to take a nap?"
Harry nodded, "That sounds wonderful."
He headed off to Blaise's bedroom and snuggled into the sheets that smelled like him. It didn't take him long at all to fall asleep.