Life is Full of Surprises

This certainly wasn't what he'd expected when he came back to Hogwarts to finish up what should have been his seventh year. He wasn't sure what he had expected; he just knew it wasn't this.

He looked around the table at the laughing eighth years, as they were being called. They were not to be integrated into their Houses; Headmistress McGonagall had deemed that to be unwise. Instead they were to be a school unto themselves. All eighth years, regardless of which House they belonged to, would be eating together, taking classes together, and even, to Draco's horror, rooming together. At least there would be only two students per room. The board of governors, in their infinite wisdom, had decided that they should at least have some semblance of privacy; after all, they were all adults now.

He sat through the Welcoming Feast feeling completely invisible. No one spoke to him, no one even dared to look at him. No one, that is, except for the now even-more-infamous Saviour of the World, who couldn't seem to keep his eyes off of him.

After a rousing speech filled with propaganda and well-wishes, the Headmistress released them to the new area of the castle that would serve as their home for the next year. Draco lagged behind the group, hoping that when he got there perhaps they would have run out of beds and Draco would be sent off to sleep elsewhere.

"Not trying to get lost, are you, Draco?"

He couldn't help but be startled by actually being addressed. "No, I..." he began, but then looked up and realised who had spoken. "No, Potter, I was just trying to avoid being hexed by your boisterous horde of Gryffindor heroes."

Amazingly, Harry laughed. "No one's going to hex you. I can promise you that."

Draco rolled his eyes. "Of course you can, because you're all-knowing and all that, right?" he said sarcastically.

"No. Because I warned them that if they did, they would have to answer to me." Harry grinned as he added, "And in case you haven't noticed, most of them are terrified of me."

The slight twitch to Draco's lip was the only indication that he'd almost smiled. It was true; the entire castle was skating around Potter as if he were some sort of dangerous creature. The only people who seemed unaffected were Granger and Weasley, and they were too busy trying to suck each other's tongues out to pay him any attention. "So I've noticed," he finally said as blandly as he could.

"You're not, though, are you?"

Draco stopped walking and looked at Harry with a blank expression. "No, Potter, I'm not. Should I be?"

The rest of the group was now far ahead of them. Draco watched them as they all turned a corner and disappeared from sight. For a moment he wondered if he had picked a very stupid time to act brave, because here, alone in a dark hallway with Harry Potter, perhaps he should be afraid.

Harry took a step toward Draco, who instinctively took a step back, realising too late that he had only been a step away from the wall. He pressed himself back as flat as he could against the stone and closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable hex or punch or whatever it was Potter was about to throw at him.

Harry took another step closer until they were almost touching, until Draco could feel Harry's breath against his cheek.

"No, Draco," Harry whispered into his ear. "You shouldn't be."

Draco was frozen. Suspended in what felt like a cloud of confusion. Then he felt it. The hot breath followed by the wetness of a tongue swiping along his ear. Harry was pressing his body against Draco's, strong hands resting gently on his hips. Draco squeezed his eyes tighter and tried to slow his breathing, but he couldn't. He was panting and Merlin, how he wished it was from fear. He clenched his fists to keep from grabbing Harry's arse and pulling him closer.

"Potter." He was happy to hear that his voice was only quivering slightly. "What are you doing?"

The warm tongue moved downward from his ear to his neck and was joined by soft lips and sharp teeth. The hands moved down from his hips to roam over his thighs, and Draco tried with all his might to keep them from trembling.

"I'm doing what I should have done two years ago when I saw you crying in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. What I should have done a thousand times over the last two years. You don't mind, do you?"

Harry's tongue was flittering over his pulse point and Draco was finding it difficult to think of why he would mind, why he should mind. He opened his mouth to say that he did, but before the words came out it was covered by Harry's and that warm tongue was gliding along his own and any objections disappeared in a puff of breath. Harry kissed him like he was a treasure, a treasure that Harry now owned and could do whatever he wanted with.

What started as a slow seduction became forceful and needy and part of Draco wanted to push Harry away and curse him to hell, but the rest of him, the biggest part of him, wanted to eat him alive. That realisation, well, that and the realisation that his cock was harder than it had possibly ever been, was enough to make him unclench his hands and shove them unceremoniously through the messy black mane that he had despised for the last seven years. He didn't expect it to be soft and definitely didn't expect Harry to moan when he threaded his fingers through it. Harry's mouth and hands suddenly seemed to be everywhere and their cocks were rubbing together in some sort of glorious dance and Holy Mother of Earth this felt better than anything had a right to. Before Draco could even begin to sort it out he was coming, grunting and growling like some feral beast. Harry continued to rut until Draco felt him tense and heard his name rolling off of Harry's tongue like a prayer.

They collapsed onto each other, Harry resting his forehead on Draco's shoulder and wrapping his arms around him, pulling him impossibly closer. Draco started to let his hands fall away but Harry reached up and stopped him, holding them in place as if he needed them to be there. For some reason the thought of Harry needing this - needing him - made Draco smile, but when Harry looked up Draco looked away, feeling suddenly embarrassed.

Harry gently cupped his cheek and guided his face back to look into the green eyes that he'd seen narrowed so many times in anger. He'd never seen them sparkle with such delight and it dawned on him that things had changed. That this confident man in front of him, holding him, wrapped around him, wasn't the same boy he'd fought with since he was eleven. He stared at Harry, blinking several times before allowing the smile to turn into a small laugh. "Who are you, anyway?"

Harry kissed him again and then grinned slyly. "I'm the one your mother warned you about, Malfoy."

Pulling out his wand, Harry cleaned them both with a whisper before taking Draco's hand and gently pulling him away from the wall. As they began walking in the direction the other students had gone, Draco wasn't sure what to do or say, or even if he should say anything at all. Harry was still holding his hand and as they approached the door to their new common room Harry gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"Is this okay?" he asked, and Draco wasn't exactly sure what he meant. Was what okay? Was it okay that Harry was holding his hand? Was it okay that they had just got off together in a dark, empty hallway? Was it okay that they were... what? What did this make them? Friends? Lovers? Draco was almost afraid to know the answer but he couldn't find it in himself to pull his hand away.

When they entered the room together the students stared questioningly, and when Harry wrapped an arm around his waist and leaned in to say something into Draco's ear a loud gasp echoed around the room. Draco could hear the amusement in Harry's voice when he whispered, "Oh, yeah, I almost forgot, I'm also your new room-mate."

Draco looked around at all the astounded faces, then back to the grinning man standing next to him. No, this was definitely not what he'd expected. But then again, what would life be without a few surprises?

Amor fatumque una

Draco sat staring at the pile of books on the table, trying desperately to distract himself from the thoughts that had been so prevalent recently, but try as he might, Harry's words kept echoing in his mind. "So, in a few weeks, we leave here forever. I'm off to become an Auror and you'll go back to the Manor to become well, whatever it is you want to become."

The words, spoken so casually, had felt like broken glass scraping against his heart. He hadn't given it much thought up until that point. Yes, he'd planned to take over much of his father's business dealings, and he knew Harry was looking forward to starting Auror training, they had been talking about it for months, but somehow he hadn't seen the problem. Somehow he'd missed the fact that it meant he would be moving to the Manor and Harry would be moving... somewhere else.

Now he found he was dreading the end of term when he should be excited to finally be rid of his 'eighth year' classmates – the hoard of Muggle-borns and war heroes that he'd spent the last nine months trying to avoid and ignore. Granger had turned out to be all right and much to his horror, he and Longbottom had actually become... well, they talked now and again. Most of his time, though, had been spent with Harry – alone in their room, laughing, talking, studying, and having the best sex he could have ever imagined. He had done the unthinkable; he'd fallen in love. But in the last few weeks Harry had spent more and more time away from their room, doing Merlin only knew what, and Draco had the sinking feeling that he was about to lose him forever.

"Draco?" Hermione called out as she opened the door without waiting for her knock to be answered. "Is everything okay?"

He was tempted to give a snide remark, but if anyone knew what was going on with Harry, it would be her. "No, Granger, I don't think everything is," he answered honestly.

"I know it's none of my business, but Harry's been snapping everyone's head off for the last few weeks and I wish you two would just talk about whatever it is that's bothering you."

Draco had noticed that Harry had been irritable, but he'd thought it was only to him. "We... it's nothing."

"If it were nothing you wouldn't be hiding in here reading books that you already know by heart and Harry wouldn't be spending all of his time in the Room of Requirement sulking."

"The Room of Requirement?" he asked, surprised that Harry would go there, of all places.

"Yeah, I suspect he's there now. He went storming out of here earlier, mumbling something about finding answers."

Once in front of the Room Of Requirement, Draco paced, not really thinking about what he wanted, just thinking he needed to talk to Harry and find out if whatever was between them was over. When the door opened, Harry was sitting by the fire staring blindly into it.

"Hey," Draco said quietly. "I've been looking for you."

Harry didn't turn to face him; he just continued to gaze into the fire. "I've been thinking," he said finally.

Draco walked to the sofa and sat gingerly next to the solemn-looking man. "Yeah? What have you been thinking about?" When Harry finally turned there was a look of determination in his eyes that Draco hadn't seen since that first day of term when Harry had all but molested him in the hallway.

"About us. About the end of term. About where we'll be in ten years."

Suddenly Draco's throat felt unbelievably dry. As if in answer to an unasked question, a cool glass of iced water appeared on the table next to him and he drank it down without a second glance. "I've been thinking about that too," he said softly.

They sat quietly until the silence was so painful that Draco had to interrupt it. "Harry, if you want to end things between us, just get it over with."

Harry looked up in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"You've been avoiding me. If you're trying to break up, the best approach would be honesty."

"I'm not... God, Draco, I've been trying to figure out a way for us to not break up. I can't even think about what will happen when you go back to the Manor. When you were gone over the Christmas holidays it almost killed me."

Relief flooded through Draco in a torrent. He wrapped Harry in his arms as if he could hold him there forever. "You could delay training for a year and come stay at the Manor with me," Draco asked hopefully.

"I can't," Harry said regretfully. "My application has already been approved; they're holding a place for me. Besides, your parents would never let me stay with you."

Draco knew Harry was right, but the thought of them being separated, now that he knew Harry didn't want it either, made him feel sick. His stomach rumbled and a plate of biscuits and a tea tray appeared on the small table in front of them. He snatched a biscuit and nibbled it, hoping it would quell the nauseated feeling in his stomach.

Harry curled closer into Draco's arms, nuzzling against his neck. "You could become an Auror too. That way you could move into the training complex with me and Ron."

Draco snorted. "I don't want to be an Auror, Harry. You know that. I have a family business to manage. Even if I did, it's too late to apply now."

The silence stretched unbearably again. Harry knew Draco was right, but he'd been racking his brain for weeks and couldn't come up with another way to keep them together.

Draco ran his hand through Harry's hair and noticed it was even more tangled and messy than usual. "We could get a flat in London. My parents wouldn't be happy about it, but—"

"I can't, Draco. Aurors have to stay at the training complex for the first year. The only exceptions made are for married couples."

Both men started as a bright light flashed and two entwined golden rings appeared next to the tea tray. Harry looked up at Draco, mouth gaping.

Raising a curious eyebrow, Draco picked the rings up, studying them intensely. "Amor fatumque una ," he read with great fascination.

"What does it mean?"

"Love and fate are one." He looked at Harry wide-eyed before continuing, "These are... legend has it that only two people destined to be together can separate the rings and once they're placed on the couples fingers, not even death can tear them apart."

Harry thought that after everything he'd seen and done, nothing would surprise him. Obviously he was wrong. He took the rings from Draco's hand and looked them over. They were solid gold and he could tell they were forged by magic, not human hands. He slipped his pinkie finger into one of the rings and let the other dangle, watching how the light glistened off of it. "So how do you separate them?"

Draco shrugged. "I have no idea." He slipped his index finger into the other ring and a tingle went through his entire body. From the look on Harry's face, the same had happened to him. They stared at the rings as they began to glow so brightly the two men had to close their eyes. When they opened them again they each had a ring still on the tips of their fingers, but they were no longer connected.

They stared, first at the rings, then at each other. Harry grinned. This wasn't the answer he was expecting, but bloody hell, it was one he was willing to accept. He pounced on Draco before the man had a chance to figure out why it'd be a bad idea and kissed him so fiercely he knew Draco wouldn't be able to think straight. "Marry me, Draco. Move in with me and we'll never have to fall asleep alone for as long as we live."

Draco knew his brain should be reciting the long list of why this was a completely insane idea, but it wasn't. It was so silent that all he could hear was the beating of his own heart, pounding out the words "yes, yes, yes" with every pulse. He smiled and the word flowed from his tongue easier than anything ever had. "Yes."

They both looked down at their hands where the rings had suddenly become warm and were glowing again. In a flash of bright light the rings were on their left ring fingers, melded into their skin as if they were shimmering tattoos.

Harry stared at his hand in amazement, then up into Draco's eyes. "Does this mean what I think it means?"

Draco smirked. "Yes, Harry Malfoy, it does."

Harry grinned and pinned Draco to the sofa, a feeling of elation like none he'd ever felt burning in his stomach. "I'd say it's more like Draco Potter, don't you think? After all, I popped the question."

"Only because you beat me to it. No patience, no romance, no finesse," Draco said shaking his head.

"Okay, what about Draco Malfoy-Potter?" Harry asked as he lowered himself on top of his new husband sprinkling a line of kisses from his jaw line to his ear.

Draco let Harry's kisses chase away any argument that he could think of. It no longer mattered what his name was. Harry was his now, mind, body and soul. "Harry?" Draco said quietly stilling the other mans hands as they were undoing the clasps of his robe. "You do understand what it means if we have sex with these rings on, don't you?'

Harry grinned and kissed Draco again softly. "Yes, Draco. I know exactly what it means. That no one will ever be able to take you away from me."

"It's more than that. It's not just a marriage, Harry. It's a magical bond that ties our souls together for all of eternity. Not just in this life, but even after death. There's no way to change your mind."

Draco said it so softly, so cautiously, that Harry sat up and stared at him. "Why do you think I'd ever want to change my mind?"

Draco shrugged and looked away. "We're still young. You might—"

Harry placed a finger over Draco's lips and gently guided his face back so he could look into his pure grey eyes. "I won't. Magical bond or not, Draco, I'll never want anyone but you."

Draco smiled. "Then what are you waiting for?" he asked, reaching up to pull Harry back down by his tie. "We have some consummating to do."

Two hours later when they walked into the Great Hall for dinner, they were met with complete silence and amazed stares. Harry's eyes travelled around the room and up to the head table where the Minister of Magic was standing stiffly between Headmistress McGonagall and two angry looking Malfoys.

"Oh, shit," whispered Draco, squeezing Harry's hand so tightly it made him wince. "Sorry," he whispered again, "but I think you're about to officially meet your new in-laws."

"The legend says not even death can separate us, right? Does that mean they can't kill me without killing you too?"

Draco laughed. "I don't know, but I think we might be about to find out."

Small Surprises