Most Lovely

Chapter Two - The Start Of The Summer

Harry groaned and turned over in bed. Ugh. Too sleepy. The tapping needed to go away. Now. He shut his eyes.

Almost immediately they opened again. Tapping? Window! There was an owl at the window. He crawled out from under the covers and let the owl in. It was a handsome thing, its dark feathers strangely tinged with red, and it was carrying a small package in one claw. It dropped the package on the bed, aimed what seemed to be a nod at him, and flew away again.

He frowned. The package was wrapped in plain red paper and neatly tied with string, and there was a note on top, in thin, spidery handwriting.

'This is a gift for the spirit of fire. Do with it what you will.'

It was a small phoenix, made of intricately worked gold filigree. Its eyes were tiny rubies. Threaded through a loop on the crest was a thin golden chain. He held the pendant up to his eyes by its chain, inspecting it closely. A flash of light made it seem to wink at him. It was a remarkably pretty thing.

The clasp on the chain was very small and fiddly, but when he touched it, it simply fell open, the chain pooling in his palm.

When the golden phoenix itself touched his hand, the rubies flared brightly, and a flash of heat ran through him. He stared at it.

"...what in hell is going on with me?"

The pendant did not respond. Neither did Hedwig, who was fast asleep in her cage. In fact, the whole room was infuriatingly unhelpful.

"Fat lot of help you all are."

Slowly he reached up and fastened the chain around his neck, the clasp coming together just as easily as it had opened. It was long enough that he could hide the phoenix pendant under his shirt, and he did so. When the pendant brushed his chest over his heart, the rubies flared again.

"All right, this is getting bloody weird."

***

Elsewhere, in a slightly rickety two-story mansion not far from from Malfoy Manor, a young woman was preparing to go out to visit relatives.

"Most lovely?"

"Yes, Grace?" Jessica leaned into the front hall from the study, a book of obscure medical magic in one hand.

Grace smiled at her, though the smile was a bit strained, and her eyes were slightly wild. "I'm going out. I'll be back in an hour or so."

"Where are you going?"

"I want to visit Uncle Lucius."

Jessica's eyes widened. She set her book down on one of the small tables in the hall and went over to Grace, frowning. "You can't be serious. You're not going there, are you?"

"Of course I am. I want to see him. I want to see if he's all right." The blonde girl's manner around Jessica seemed much more relaxed than it was around most others. She drew the darker one into an embrace. "I'll be back soon. I promise."

Jessica frowned deeper. "You're sure you'll be all right?"

"I'm sure." Grace kissed the other girl's forehead and then snatched her broomstick from its stand next to the door. A sharp movement with her wand created a Disillusionment Charm, both for herself and the broom. "I'll see you in an hour."

***

"Hello. I'm here to see Lucius Malfoy."

The Auror looked down at the girl in front of him. She was wearing a traveling cloak with the hood up, and had pulled a cloth tight over her nose and mouth, apparently to protect herself during the broom ride over to the island. "I'm sorry, Miss. Lucius Malfoy is a restricted prisoner. I can't let anyone in to see him without the express permission of the Auror's College and the Minister of Magic."

"Please?" Her voice trembled. He blinked.

"No, Miss."

She was getting agitated. Her eyes were wide under her hood. "I want to see Uncle Lucius. Please. I want to see if he's all right."

"Miss..." He sighed, turning to call for mediwizards in case she got out of control. Her shoulders were shaking violently, and he wasn't sure whether she was about to scream or burst into tears.

It was the former. She let out a shriek, tearing the cloth away from her face. One arm whipped up and came into contact with his chest. She muttered something, and for a moment her hand glowed red.

He froze in the middle of calling for reinforcements, eyes widening and then shutting.

Grace took a moment to draw the cloth over her face again, and then stepped over the unconscious guard into Azkaban. She slid past the other Aurors, and they did not seem to see the hooded girl as she went through a door into the maximum security block.

"How remarkable. How did you get past the guards?"

She smiled widely. "Hello, Uncle Lucius. It's time to come home."

***

Uncle Vernon and Dudley were away at Grunnings, ostensibly to teach Dudley about the place where, Vernon had decided, he'd someday work. Aunt Petunia was having a rest. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately. The first check-in from a member of the Order of the Phoenix had come yesterday. It had been Tonks, who was relatively easy around Muggles, but it had also meant that Dudley had run off to hide in his room, and Aunt Petunia had spent most of the afternoon racing furiously around the garden, pruning things for no apparent reason.

Because nobody was about to stop him, Harry had decided to take an excessively long shower. It was hot, and he was tired, and the shower was always a good place to do some thinking.

The little golden phoenix glittered on his chest, made brighter by the droplets of water that hung on it and slid in between the wires. It had been around his neck since yesterday.

All right. The water was on full, he had twelve minutes before it would run out, and there were a lot of things to think about.

First order of business: Draco Malfoy. Snogging. He wasn't gay. He knew that, because despite how many times he'd kissed Malfoy, the person he was most attracted to was still Cho, despite the embarrassing Valentine's Day debacle. Malfoy was gay, but he was still with Blaise, despite how many times he'd kissed Harry.

Harry frowned at the shower head and filed the subject away in the 'Still Too Damn Confusing' section.

Second order of business: Fire. Things were starting to heat up when he got upset. And not even metaphorically, either. He'd nearly melted one of Aunt Petunia's favorite glass dishes the other day while thinking about Sirius. And he'd accidentally left a crackly brown hand print on the wall last night. Except that that time it hadn't been anger or sadness. Come to think of it, he'd been dreaming about Malfoy.

Right. The dreams. They had something to do with it. And probably that phoenix pendant too. A gift for the spirit of fire, the note had said.

A water droplet hit dead center between his eyes, and seemed to shake loose a memory. The Infirmary, the morning after an extremely...heated conversation between himself and Malfoy. Dumbledore. He'd been talking to Madam Pomfrey, and he'd said something about...elements? Elementals!

Startled, he turned off the shower and stared at the wall. He'd been practicing his Occlumency, so the Voldemort dreams had stopped coming, but the others, the ones with Malfoy...they didn't let up. That terrible, terrifying power that came with the fighting, and the kisses that frostbit and burned.

Come to think of it, there were others in the dreams too. They were girls. The gryphon and the nymph were their symbols, he knew that. Susan Bones and Saba Fawcett. But they didn't show up much in the dreams, and mostly they just watched and giggled while he and Malfoy fought. And at school, they were together all the time. They'd accidentally set loose the spider that had frightened Eloise Midgen.

Slowly he got out of the shower and sat down on the bathmat, staring moodily at the sink. "Everything has to happen now, doesn't it."

***

In a much larger and more attractively decorated room, a similarly discontented young man was seated on a cushioned stool, trying to remember the proper fingerings for "Greensleeves." He'd spent most of the morning lying to Aurors about his father's Dark Arts activities, and, having had lunch, his mother had ordered him to go upstairs and practice harp. Normally he would have ignored this in favor of practicing Quidditch, but Narcissa was in an extremely fragile state at the moment, and Draco had decided that it was better to humor her. Besides, harp was rather relaxing.

"Draco, love? If I'm not noticed and given a kiss within the next ten minutes, I'm going to label you as having officially gone mad. You've been staring at that one harp string for a quarter of an hour, and from the way your expression's been changing, it's talking to you."

Startled, Draco looked around, and saw Blaise's head floating in the fireplace, frowning petulantly. "Blaise! I didn't see you there."

"Obviously not. Kisses, please?"

"Gladly."

The desired kisses were administered, and Draco sat down on a cushion on the hearth. "It's good to see you, Blaise."

"You too, darling. You know, looking at that harp makes me think that we should try a career in music. You could do harp and mandolin, and I'd play flute." Blaise grinned. "Charmer could sing."

"And what would we call ourselves? The Singing Sodomites? The Euphonious Poofs?"

"Actually, the Euphonious Poofs sounds quite good. Do you want to come over here? We've had a repair wizard in to fix the biggest tub, and the acoustics are wonderful in there. We could...practice."

"Can't. I promised Mother that I'd practice harp for at least two hours."

"That's never stopped you before."

"She wasn't on the verge of falling apart before."

"Oh." Blaise's voice lost some of its normal cheeriness. "Right."

"Yeah."

Suddenly Blaise cocked his head to the side, frowning. "Hold on. Dad's calling. Be back in a few, love."

"Good-bye, Blaise."

***

Jessica frowned, looking up from her book to the radio. They'd stopped in the middle of Celandine's newest hit song, and the distinctive sound of Iris Whittaker fighting off a panic attack as she read the news was now coming out of the speakers.

"Breaking news! Breaking news! Former and presumably reactivated Death Eater Lucius Malfoy has just broken out of Azkaban Prison! Reports say that he has actually blasted his way out, accompanied by an unknown person. Five Aurors have been injured, including one who is currently on magical life support. All injured were rushed to Saint Mungo's Hospital. If you have any information about this, please contact the Ministry of Magic immediately!" She seemed to have calmed down now, at least a little bit, because her voice over the radio was no longer shrill and fast. "Wizarding Wireless Network's newest member, Lee Jordan, reports from Azkaban Island."

Jessica leaned forward and clicked off the radio, staring at it in shock.

A moment later, she heard the creak of the door in the front hall, followed by hushed voices and the sound of someone stumbling.

"Lean on me. I'll take you to the study."

Lucius Malfoy entered the study, leaning heavily on Grace's shoulder. Grace herself was using an ebony cane with silver snake's head that Jessica recognized from the last time she'd met the Malfoy patriarch. The blonde girl had a wild grin on her face, and as soon as she'd gotten Lucius into a chair, she hurried over to Jessica. "Most lovely, most exquisite, look who's dropped by."

"Grace, darling, have you gone mad?"

"No, of course not."

Before Jessica could start on a tirade, there was a loud bang, and a frowning house-elf in an immaculately clean tea towel appeared. She marched over to Grace and glared up at the young woman. "Where has Mistress been? Tippy thought Mistress had gotten in trouble!"

Grace looked faintly guilty. "Hullo, Tippy. Could you get Uncle Lucius a chocolate bar and some very strong coffee?"

Tippy's eyes widened. She looked around, saw Lucius Malfoy, and gulped, looking embarrassed. "Right away, Mistress."

The thin girl turned back to Jessica, who was still staring at her. Jessica stammered for a moment before getting her words out. "Y-you really have gone mad. Do you know what I just heard over the radio? They're looking for information from anyone who knows about this idiot jailbreak you've pulled! You've gone to Azkaban and broken out a convicted Death Eater - by the way, hello, Mister Malfoy - and you nearly killed five Aurors in the process!"

"Yes."

"What?"

"Yes. I did. It's no problem."

"WHAT?"

"Nobody saw us flying here."

The dark-haired girl took a deep breath and looked at Grace. Grace seemed supremely unconcerned by any of this. "Haven't you realized that it's wrong?"

"There's no such thing as right or wrong. There is only what we love, and what we do not love."

Tippy appeared again, carrying a heavy tray of coffee and chocolate. She poured Lucius a cup of coffee, and then, assessing the situation, poured one for Jessica as well before making herself absent.

Lucius downed his coffee, and finally spoke. "You are Jessica Oberon. Am I correct?"

"Oh. Yes, I am."

"Well, then. Being as well-acquainted with Grace as you are, would you say that she is a determined young woman?"

"Yes."

"And would you say that she is loyal?"

"Yes...why?"

"I should think that it's obvious. Also, what's done is done. I'm not at all partial to going back to Azkaban."

"Uncle Lucius, I think you're frightening Jessica. Please stop."

Lucius smiled indulgently. "I apologize, Grace. May I use your fireplace to return to my home?"

"Not a good idea, Uncle. It's teeming with Aurors. Draco sent an owl the other day and said."

"Hm. Then is your father home?"

"Yes, he's puttering about upstairs somewhere."

"Then I will go visit with him. Thank you, Grace." He stood, took a chocolate bar from the tray, and left the study at a stately walk.

Grace grabbed a chair and pulled it over next to Jessica's, looking at her girlfriend with intensely serious brown eyes. She gripped the other girl's hand tightly. "Most beautiful, I know you don't like this. It's easy to see."

"Well, of course I don't! You're wanted by the law!"

"The law is immaterial. He's Lucius Malfoy. He's Uncle Lucius. I owe it to him. I owe nearly everything to him. He is the patron of our family."

Jessica frowned. Grace had told her many things, but never this. "What do you mean?"

"This house." Grace gestured around herself. "It's his. We live on Malfoy land. Gold pours into our account at Gringott's because he purchases inventions from my father. It is the Malfoys who make sure that we eat, when Father is too absentminded to get food and Tippy cannot. It is the Malfoys who paid for my mother's funeral, and it is the Malfoys who took care of me when Father went away for a year. Malfoys are generous. They have been generous to us. He has been generous to us, and I love him for it."

"...how much do you love him?" Jessica's voice was small.

"More than life itself."

"Then...how much do you love me?"

Grace smiled, and it was a smaller, less unsettling smile than most. "I love you a thousand times as much as I love Uncle Lucius, because you are my love, my life, my prettiest habit, my greatest and most wonderful thing. You are my beauty. You are my happy memory. When I think of you, nothing can stand in my way."

"Really?"

"If I was taken away this instant, and could bring with me only one person, I would bring you, because you are more precious to me than anything." Grace's thin face was lit with a strange sort of glow, and Jessica, looking down, realized that it wasn't just metaphorical, and that the blonde girl's hands were glowing as well. "I love you. I will never feel otherwise."

"I love you too, Grace." Jessica was smiling now. "But...I have one other question."

"Yes?"

"Were you offered a job at the Ministry?"

"Yes. I declined. I prefer to work on my own. The possibilities for advancement are much greater."