Message Received

                                    

                                          
The rest of the evening was spent waiting on the arrival of Albus Dumbledore.  Harry had sent an urgent owl, requesting his presence at Malfoy Manor, and if he could, to please bring Professor Snape with him.  The more answers he could get from the more sources, the better prepared he would be.  Dinner was a forgotten affair.  They had stayed in the garden, speechless at first, but when the reality hit them, they all had questions and theories as to why the snake was there and how had it known Harry would be there too.
Draco was looking at Harry through different eyes.  When Harry had spoken parseltongue, he had felt a surge of lust for him.  It should be sinful to speak that way.  It should be banned. It should be against the fucking law!  He was feeling flushed at the reminder, and tried to think about something else.  Except the something else that kept coming back into his mind, was Harry.  He was a beautiful man, with his eyes as green as emeralds, and Draco thought he could get lost in them for all eternity.  And the anger.  Why did the anger reach out to him.  He should have been scared, but all he felt was a need.  A need to belong, a need to be a part of it.  What he wouldn't give to feel those strong arms around him again.  It was at that moment when he remembered, that Harry had called him beautiful for the second time when they were in his room.  Oh Merlin.
Lucius was dumbfounded.  He knew that Harry could speak the language of snakes.  Draco had told him this in his second year.  But to actually hear it!  It was wild.  And Harry had shown no fear.  No wavering in his voice, no tremble in his posture.  He was not afraid.  Almost as if the snake was his subject.  That was preposterous.  Harry was an 18 year old teenager for Merlin's sake!   Yes, an 18 year old teenager who is about to go to court and defend me and help me gain my freedom.  He started thinking about the message.  He had heard the words "Old One" and Alpha.  He remembered reading from an ancient book about Alphas, but he would have to touch up on that subject. The "Old One" he knew without a doubt, was Albus Dumbledore.
Narcissa was in awe.  She looked at the young man standing before her, and knew that his life had taken a turn because of other people.  The decisions they made.  The secrets they kept.  The whispers she heard whenever she went out.  She knew that Harry was angry, and for good reason, but she also knew that he wasn't someone to back away if it was expected of him.  She had read all about Alphas.  When she was younger.  She recalled a paragraph in the ancient tome that she used to ask her mother about.  "YOU SHALL NOT DECLINE, LEST OUR WORLD PERISH".  
Harry was pissed.  Pissed as hell and he believed he had every right to be.  How in the blue fuck do you let a snake or a nature wizard dictate your life?  This was not how he wanted to spend his last school year.  He wanted peace, Voldemort had been killed, all his followers had been caught and tried, he had been invited back to Hogwarts, and he was on the verge of making a name for himself as a lawyer.  Now it felt like everything was slipping away because a snake said so!  He wasn't going to let this happen.  
But Harry was a humble man.  He knew he had to listen to reason before his final decision was made, and that was ok.  Ever since he stepped into the wizarding world, he had been a marked man.  From the lightning scar on his forehead, to the detention scars from that bitch Umbridge, he knew, that if it was a matter of life and death, he would do it.  That's just the type of man he was.  He didn't have to be happy about it or agree with it, but hey, when did they ever take his feelings into account.
His thoughts were interrupted by the house elf, announcing the arrival of Dumbledore and Snape.   He had missed Dumbledore.  His mentor was the only constant in his life, and he loved him like a father.  As for Snape, they had their differences, and although they had called a truce after the war, they weren't exactly friends.  And he doubted that they ever would be.