The Half-Blood Princess

The Resurrection Stone

"How on Earth did Harley smell the daffodils?" Harry asked when he and Draco were back at home in the manor.

"She's a potioneer," Draco replied. "She's trained to notice everything. I'm surprised she didn't see the unicorn horn dust on my robe. Glad that bloody lighting in her office is so dark." Draco stripped off his outer robes and went back into the room they'd cleared for the potion they'd been brewing.

Harry watched as his...boyfriend? Lover? What did he call his also nearly middle-aged bedmate? Boyfriend sounded so childish, whereas lover sounded like they shared nothing but sex, and that was not the case. He and Draco had become so close since December, they were more like soul mates as opposed to lovers.

And Draco's pet project, the one to rid Hogwarts of the one Dark object he had deliberately allowed to escape, made Harry love him even more.

"Is it nearly done?" Harry asked.

Draco nodded. "Six months to brew will end soon. Then we just need to add the final two ingredients. By the by, we know where the one is, and you claimed to know about the other."

Harry nodded. "I do. And I told Albus just where to find it. I only hope he avoids the trouble I used to get into there."

Draco laughed, ruffling Harry's messy locks. "He's a Potter: expect an owl from Hogwarts soon, love."

****

I kissed Oliver Wood.

That was the only thought Harley had all evening once the ball had ended.

I kissed Oliver Wood in front of half the Wizarding World! What must George have thought? And McGonagall--I was snogging her former student! Bloody fucking fuck.

She was glad that this night was her night to patrol the halls: she wouldn't have been getting much sleep anyway. She hated herself. How dare she have disgraced her love for Fred that way? It mattered not that he had been gone two decades: some wounds never heal, you just learn to live with them. And kissing Oliver had been throwing firewhiskey into that old wound.

Suddenly, she was accosted by Nearly Headless Nick, who looked panicked. His partially severed head was hanging haphazardly on a thread of skin and sinew.

"Students in the forest! Students in the forest!" He pointed out the window. Harley rushed over and peered out. Sure enough, there were three distinct wands lit with lumos going deeper into the forest.

"Damn it. Thank you, Nick." She took off for the front doors, knowing for certain that one of the students out had to have the surname 'Potter'. She paused at the forest's entrance, having never set foot inside there since she and Severus had fought off those dementors with Alicia in seventh year.

Taking a breath, she lit her wand and stepped inside the forest, going in further than she had before, wondering just how fast the kids could have gone to be so far ahead of her. Finally, she saw the lights and called for them to halt.

However, halt they did not. With a scream, the kids began running backwards, towards where Harley stood in a little clearing.

"Aunt Harley!" Albus called. "Help!"

The help was echoed twice, once by Scorpius and once by Rose as all three kids entered the clearing like they were being chased. And Harley realised that they were. Their faces were drawn, white, terrified, and she saw why as her own body began to go cold and shivery.

Were the woods a breeding ground for dementors? Their population had diminished greatly since the war ended, and rarely were any seen outside of Azkaban now.