Chapter 26
Blaise woke up warm and comfortable, his arms wrapped around Harry. He was pressed up to Harry’s bare back, and a certain part of him was extremely aware of that. They hadn’t slept in any clothes last night. He groaned quietly as Harry pushed back against him purposefully. He heard a quiet giggle.
“Good morning you minx,” Blaise whispered in his ear, and then bit down gently, reveling in the feeling he got when Harry shivered.
“Good morning,” Harry said cheekily, grinding back again. Blaise took his hand and slid it down Harry’s chest.
“How did you sleep?” Blaise asked.
“I slept well, what about y-you?” Harry stuttered as Blaise slid down to almost touch his length but then skipped it to trace his inner thigh.
“Oh, I always sleep well with you,” Blaise said calmly. He loved teasing Harry, especially since he had started it. He traced his hand higher and higher until he was lightly brushing Harry’s cock. “Any plans today?”
“Not too much, ah, I-I think,” Harry gasped, “You?”
“Just work,” Blaise said, and Harry moaned as he decided to firmly grasp him, “Does something have you worked up my dear?”
“You’re t-teasing me,” Harry said and then tried to buck up into his hand. Blaise let go.
“I am not, I’m not even touching you,” he said, purposely being difficult. Harry was so cute when he was sexually frustrated.
“Not fair,” Harry groaned, so Blaise placed his hand back down and began tugging a rhythm. He continued until Harry was a mess of high pitch moans. Right before he came, Blaise stopped. Harry whined loudly.
“Patience love,” Blaise soothed, “So needy.”
He traced his fingers down to Harry’s hole, and cast the wandless lubrication spell. He also decided to do the stretching spell. Normally he liked to stretch Harry himself but he had teased him for so long already that his own cock was aching.
Harry gasped at the sensation.
“Please Blaise, please fuck me,” he moaned.
“What a dirty mouth you have,” Blaise said teasingly, “Do you want it?”
“Yes please, please,” Harry begged, trying to thrust backwards on it blindly. Blaise chuckled and lined himself up, sliding in swiftly. “So good, yesss.”
Blaise began pumping a gentle rhythm, holding Harry’s hip with one hand and wrapping the other one around his chest. He mouthed at Harry’s neck and shoulders. All Harry could do was throw his head back and take it.
It wasn’t long before Harry was begging and pleading again and Blaise was jerking him off in time with his quick thrusts. Harry arched back and his body went taught, mouth open in a silent scream as he came. Blaise bit down softly as Harry clenched around him. He followed soon after.
He stayed inside Harry as they came down. Harry twitched and shook slightly the way that he always did, and Blaise made sure that they were tucked under the blanket. He did a silent cleaning spell and pulled out as gently as he could.
“You’re beautiful love,” he said, rolling Harry over to kiss his forehead, his cheek, and then his mouth. Harry grinned sleepily and sedately up at him.
“I’m going to make breakfast,” Blaise decided.
“I’ll join you in a bit,” Harry nodded, “I don’t think I can walk yet.” Blaise laughed.
Blaise made his way to the kitchen to start breakfast, a smile still on his face. He greeted Pansy, who gave him a knowing look, and then he went over and made himself some tea. He grabbed a pan and some eggs and began making Harry and himself an omelet.
"Good morning then?" she teased. Blaise chucked a dish towel at her, which she easily avoided with a laugh.
"Can I make you anything?" he offered.
"No, I had toast already," she said.
"Is Theo up yet?" he asked.
"Yeah, he's in the shower right now," Pansy said, a faint blush crossing her cheeks as well.
"So I take it you had a good morning as well," Blaise jibed playfully.
"Mm, perhaps," she said.
"So what are you up to today?" Blaise asked her as he flipped the omelet.
"Well, I'm going to start moving some of his boxes out and into the house," Pansy said, "We want to have him moved out by the end of this week so we can focus on the wedding. He needs to train Dennis before then as well."
"That's a good idea, it's in what, two weeks now?" Blaise asked. Pansy nodded. "Excited?"
An owl flew through the window with the Daily Prophet and Pansy got up to get it as she said, "Yes, I'm very excited, but I'm also excited to have the whole thing done and over. It's so much work and a lot of stress. I'm hoping that- oh."
Pansy abruptly cut off as she read the front page of the Prophet.
"What is it?" Blaise asked.
"There's been another attack, in Ottery St Catchpole," Pansy said, "There's four dead, and six injured."
Blaise scooped the omelets onto a plate, "That's the biggest one so far."
"One of the dead, she was only seven," Pansy said gravely as she continued reading, "And her brother is missing. He's four."
"Parents?" Blaise asked, and joined Pansy to read for himself. It looked like the parents had been tortured, one survived and one did not.
"What happened?"
Blaise looked up and saw Harry standing in the doorway, taking in their serious faces.
"There's been another Death Eater attack," Pansy said. Harry's face went carefully neutral and completely closed off in a way that Blaise hated to see. He came around the table to read.
"This is near the Burrow, Ron's house," Harry said in almost a monotone. He read further, "Arthur Weasley is one of the injured. I'm guessing he came to help defend the town."
"I hope he'll be alright," Pansy said. Harry nodded and kept reading. When he was done, he sat and mechanically ate the omelets that Blaise had made for him.
Pansy sat down again, "They left the dark mark up. That's the first time that they've done that."
"They're gaining momentum," Harry said, once again, voice deadly calm. Blaise knew he felt pressure to do something about the attacks. He didn't know if Harry had been spooked by Arthur getting hurt or by the size of the attack. It was so hard to read him like this.
Theo joined them after a few minutes.
"Why so quiet?" he asked. Pansy only slid the article over to him. He looked at it thoughtfully.
"I wonder who is behind these," He said, "I don't even know who's not locked up who could be doing this."
"It's got to be someone's kid," Pansy said, "We have to think of some of the Death Eater kids who would subscribe to this... ideology."
"Well, the big three Death Eaters, Malfoy, Nott, Rowle," Blaise said, and noticed Harry flinching microscopically at 'Rowle', "It's obviously not you Theo, Rowle didn't have kids, and Draco definitely isn't behind this."
"So it's someone else, did the Lestrange's ever have kids?" Pansy asked.
"No, not that I know of," Blaise shook his head. He racked through lists of options in his head.
"Rosier? What about him?" Pansy asked.
"Honestly, could it be supporters of Greyback?" Theo asked.
"Actually, it could be Greyback himself, he was never caught," Pansy said, "There's got to be more though, he was never the most loyal Death Eater. I'm willing to bet that if he's involved at all it's only very loosely, maybe he gives them advice or suggestions. He's getting too old to be doing the fighting."
Harry abruptly stood and headed over to the living room. Blaise hurriedly stood and followed, not liking the look on his face. He knew Rowle and Greyback had participated in Harry's torture, and was worried that Harry was triggered. Harry had been triggered more often lately. Harry had explained what his therapist had said, that he was finally healing, so therefore finding out how much more it was going to affect him. Blaise didn't mind helping Harry deal with this at all, because he knew that he was healing and that's all that mattered. He knew Harry was trying his best.
Blaise's concern doubled when he noticed Harry heading straight to the fireplace.
"Harry, where are you going?" Blaise asked, trying to keep calm.
"I need to go out," Harry said in a tight voice.
"Yes, okay, could you tell me where? When might you be back?" Blaise asked, "Just so I know you're safe."
"I don't know where, or when, I'll be safe." Harry said and then threw a handful of powder into the fireplace. He called out the address of his apartment and disappeared. Blaise's heart dropped. He debated for a second following him.
"Don't follow him," Pansy said from behind him. Blaise turned. "That was a pretty clear sign that he needs to be on his own right now. He needs space to think."
"What if he goes and gets high?" Blaise asked anxiously.
"Well that's his choice," Pansy said, "If he does, then he'll have to deal with the consequences, but he might not anyway. You need to trust him."
"I do trust him, a lot, but this is a lot for him to handle," Blaise said, "He might need support."
"Then he can ask for it," Pansy said, "He's not an addict in the traditional sense. He would need to decide which high he wants, where to get it, and more. That's many choices for him to make, and many steps that he could stop at and try to get help."
"I know," Blaise said, sitting on the couch, "I just worry a lot for him."
"That's okay, but maybe he just needed to take a walk too, he's probably fine, he just needs his space to process everything," Pansy said.
"I hope so," Blaise said, "I'm going to open the shop, can you come get me if he comes back?"
"Of course," Pansy said.
Harry stalked through his old apartment, feeling magic vibrating through his hands. He took a seat on the edge of his bed when he got there. Being there probably wasn't the best idea from him, but he needed space to think. First of all, he needed to calm down after hearing Greyback, Rowle, and Lestrange mentioned in the earlier conversation. They weren't there right now. He was fine. He pushed down his fear to deal with later.
Secondly, he wanted to get high. He knew he couldn't though. He had too much to figure out. So he shoved that out of his mind to deal with later as well.
Thirdly, he felt an overwhelming pressure to help deal with the Death Eaters. Today, someone who he had cared about at one time had been hurt. It was near Ron's childhood home. Children had been hurt and killed. Harry's ability to not care was rapidly diminishing. It's not that he didn't care before, but it hadn't affected him personally. Now, he felt fear for his friends.
He also knew there would be a high chance that he was going to get contacted soon to help. If there wasn't an owl on the way from the Ministry, he would be surprised.
Harry sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He felt like he had so much to process and work through and he didn't have time. His magic was begging to get out and help, and he didn't even know what to do. He didn't even know what he could do anymore.
Harry sat up as the light bulb went off in his head. He needed to figure out what his magic could do. He felt immediately better with a sense of direction and purpose.
Where could he go? Blaise's field. Harry apparated directly from where he sat into the field that Blaise had taken him to. His wards allowed only him to apparate in and out.
He stood, taking in the large field that still had a good number of flowers from his previous time there. Some of them were gone, there were more patches of thick green grass. Harry closed his eyes and really focused on connecting to his magic and visualizing his magical core.
He felt it and found it. It was large, almost larger than he remembered it being from the last time he had done this exercise with Nick. He focused on sending out a large shield around him. It formed somewhat of a dome. It went high into the sky and just out to the tops of the hills around him.
Once he felt certain that he wouldn't do damage further than he could see, he readied himself to use all of the curses, hexes, spells, charms, and other magic that he could remember.
He conjured a large tree to use as a target. He started with slashing curses and hexes. It didn't take long until the tree was reduced to saw dust. He conjured another and practiced his blasting. Then he conjured several large boulders of various shapes and sizes and practiced levitating them and moving them around the field. His magic felt strong and healthy. It felt like it was a bit less controlled and concise than it had been when he had been training with Nick. It was like a muscle that was still strong, but like it hadn't been used in a long time. His magic remembered, but it was trying to figure out how to work with him again.
Soon, he was conjuring flames, wind, and even water. He was uprooting the flowers in the ground, making large cracks in the dirt and then smashing it back together. He practiced his shields and evading techniques using the exercises that he remembered doing countless times with Nick.
He jumped, dived, rolled, and flipped over his own spells as he charmed one of his shields to have them bounce back at him. He was finally stopped by a tripping jinx that hit his ankle. He immediately stopped and fell to the ground, panting. He laid there and looked at the sky, trying to catch his breath.
He could tell that though his magic was strong, his control was not where it used to be. It wouldn't take him long to work on that with meditation sessions in the morning and the night. His body was also not nearly in good enough shape to allow him to reach his true potential. Harry made a mental note to work on that regardless of if he decided to help with the Death Eaters.
He slowly sat up and crossed his legs. He focused on healing the ground around him and getting rid of the evidence of his exercises. Once the meadow had been restored to its original glory, Harry took down his shield, and prepared to sink into his meditative state. Nick had taught him the importance of cooling down your magic.
He went into his magic and sent it as much praise and thanks as he could for doing what he had wanted. It responded affectionately. It tickled his cheeks and his arms. It surrounded him like a warm hug. He sent it strength and respect, and asked it to send him the same in return in the future. He lost himself in a trance of sinking down further and further into the connection with his magic. He hadn't done this since Nick had died. When he was full of grief, it became difficult to have the positivity and gratefulness needed to form this connection.
When he finally felt like he and his magic had both gotten what they needed he slowly retreated and came back into the real world. He blinked open his eyes, and looked around, surprised that the sun was already setting. It was morning when he came here. He supposed he probably had spent several hours exercising and then another several hours inside of his magic.
He stood and stretched. He realized he was absolutely starving. He also realized that he was calmer and more secure than he had been in years.
He apparated back to his apartment. He took a quick shower before hurrying back to Blaise's apartment. Now that he had a clearer head, he was worried that he had scared Blaise by disappearing the way that he had. He flooed back.
Blaise was sitting on the living room couch with a book in one hand. He set the book down when he saw Harry step through the fireplace.
"How are you?" he asked carefully. Harry moved to sit down next to him on the couch.
"I'm really good actually," Harry answered calmly. He could see Blaise searching his eyes to see if he had taken anything. He appreciated the concern, but he didn't need it. "I went to the meadow."
Blaise looked surprised, "Did you? You were gone for a long time."
"I know, I'm sorry about that, I lost track of how long I had been there," Harry said, "I went to see what my magic could do. It's been so long that I didn't even know what I was capable of."
"And how was that?" Blaise asked.
"Well, my magic has actually grown a bit in strength, but my control is rusty. I need to start working on it regardless of what I decide to use it for," Harry said, "And then I meditated for a long time."
"Did that help?" Blaise asked.
"Yes, I feel... more settled than I have," Harry said, "I'm sorry if I worried you. I really didn't mean to be gone so long."
"I was worried, but I trusted you. Although, if you hadn't come back in the next hour, I was going to try to find you," Blaise admitted. Harry felt a pang of guilt for how much he could see that Blaise had been worrying. He was still tense. Harry wanted to help.
"Well I'm okay," Harry said, "Come here."
Harry pulled Blaise to him, laying backwards. Blaise laid his head on his chest and wrapped his arms around him with a big sigh, revealing to Harry how much stress Blaise had endured throughout the day. Harry touched his hands to Blaise's back and focused on sending love, and relaxation, warmth and comfort, through his fingers and down into Blaise. He tried to make sure that it would be gradual, and not overwhelming. Blaise almost immediately relaxed above him.
"Wow," Blaise murmured.
"Thank you for caring about me," Harry said quietly, "How was your day otherwise?"
Blaise told him about some of the customers that he'd dealt with that day, and about an order he'd had to restart because of an explosion that he and Theo had accidentally created. Harry stroked his hair as he spoke, loving listening to him and his deep voice.
"Theo also moved out half of his stuff today, so they're over at the new house getting it situated," Blaise said. Silence fell for a moment, before it was broken up by Harry's stomach rumbling loudly. Blaise laughed and sat up.
"Have you eaten since you left?" Blaise said.
"No, I thought it was still morning until I saw the sun setting," Harry admitted sheepishly. Blaise shook his head fondly and went over to the kitchen to make him something. Harry followed.
There was an owl sitting on the table. Harry went over to it as Blaise prepared him a simple grilled cheese sandwich and soup.
Harry unfolded the letter.
"Ah, well, it's a good thing I found out what I could do, the Ministry's officially asked for a meeting," Harry said. He read the letter.
Dear Harry Potter,
You may be aware of the recent attacks on this Wizarding Nation by a group of people who are masquerading as the deceased Dark Lord Voldemort's followers. Now, most of the known followers of the dark Wizard are in prison, so the Ministry is working around the clock to find them before they can gain too much momentum and continue to hurt our citizens.
We are aware of your previous contribution in stopping the Dark Lord many years ago. We are also aware of your immense power in talent in defensive magic. We were hoping for a meeting with you where we could discuss another potential contribution on your behalf to the effort of stopping these attacks.
This contribution could be purely strategic advice, brainstorming, or tactical discussion. If you are willing, this contribution could also be something along the lines of magical power or temporary auror status. All details would be negotiated of course. We view you with the most utmost respect, and any help you wish to give to the effort would be greatly appreciated by us, and the people of this country. You would be greatly rewarded as well, in whichever way you wish.
Please send us an owl back with your thoughts on the matter, and perhaps a few dates and times that work for you. We hope to gather you, myself, Albus Dumbledore, and several wizards from the Wizengamot, as well as several wizards from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. We are happy to schedule around your convenience .
Sincerely,
The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge.
"Well, they're going to have to disinvite Dumbledore, I won't attend any meeting that he's a part of," Harry said as he sat down to eat the sandwich that Blaise had prepared. He slid the letter over to Blaise so that he could read it.
"Are you going to agree then?" Blaise asked. Harry appreciated the way Blaise always helped him work through his thoughts without telling him how to think. He could tell though, that Blaise was hesitant to encourage him to take part in such dangerous work. Harry didn't really want to do dangerous work either, but he did want to help.
"I think so, it's Saturday, I'll owl them back on Monday and request a meeting for Tuesday. We're meeting with Ron and Hermione on Monday as well," Harry said. Blaise nodded.
"And how much help do you think you're going to offer?" Blaise asked.
"I'm not going to offer anything, they can ask for exactly what they want," Harry said.
"And what will your price be?" Blaise asked.
"Honestly, I don't need to be paid, but I am going to make sure I get something, just so I don't set the precedent of working for them for free whenever they want," Harry said. Blaise nodded.
Harry finished eating. Now that he was full, he felt really good. His magic still felt alive, and was buzzing slightly under his skin. He turned his eyes on Blaise, who suddenly looked more delicious than ever. He raked his eyes up and down his dark frame.
"What's that look for?" Blaise asked. Blaise's eyes darkened as he understood, "Again?"
"My magic feels really good," Harry said, surprised that he was almost purring, "It makes me want to make you feel really good too."
"Well I won't say no to that," Blaise said and stood. There wasn't much talking after that.