Draco's Insignia 12

Pairings: Harry/Draco, Ron/Hermione, Sirius/Remus, and others later

Rated: R

Word count: 4,780

Notes: Yes, I'm back, believe it or not. I know it's been years, and I apologize for not doing more on this for so long but it wasn't something I could help at the time. I'm still into BBC's Merlin, but I've been re-reading the Potter books and got myself more in the mood for the fandom again. So here I am, trying to write more on one of my very first HP fics. Hope I don't disappoint!

Important to note: I have editted and added scenes to chapters 1-11, so you may want to go back and read this from the beginning. I'll be sticking to what I had in mind when I first wrote this, so basically books six and seven are ignored. Some of the stuff that happened in book five will be addressed and talked about (and maybe a little of book 6, like spells, etc.), but there will be no deaths of: Sirius, Lupin, Tonks, Dumbledore, Moody, Fred, and Snape.

(I seriously had no idea that Lucius Malfoy was going to make it out alive at the end of the book seven! That was one prediction that I got wrong.)

Warnings: This fic is mostly written for entertainment purposes, but there will be some silliness thrown in as well as seriousness; also there's slight Angst, a bit of Humor, some Crack, Sap, and some Lime in the coconut. It's also EWE, full of slash and possible femslash, a dash of Het, and sprinkled lightly with Canon fodder (aka real crap from the books).

Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me but to J.K. Rowling, the queen of the wizarding world!

Harry loved the trunk Moody gave him for Christmas. He could store all his important, magical items into one compartment, his school books in another, and all the others things he wanted to bring along, like the other books he got for Christmas, his Dark Detectors, and the love notes his parents had written to each other.

When Harry had woken up that morning, he had an owl from Professor Dumbledore. He knew that the moment he had turned seventeen and become of age that the protection that had been on him at the Dursley's was now gone and there were things that Dumbledore had to address and help him with this year.

Throughout most of Harry's sixth year, he'd been prepared by the headmaster on how to finally destroy Voldemort. For reasons unknown at the time, Voldemort hadn't been causing as much damage that everyone thought he would. At the end of Harry's fifth year, he'd been tricked into thinking that Sirius was kidnapped by Voldemort and was being forced to do something for the dark wizard. When Harry realized that his godfather wasn't really at the Department of Mysteries (because, seriously, his scar would have kept burning painfully if Voldemort had been torturing Sirius and being generally angry and full of hate), and with the help from his friends that came with him, he was able to stop the Death Eaters from getting their hands on the prophecy. Unfortunately, while helping Neville up the steps, the prophecy fell out of his pocket and smashed to bits.

A couple Death Eaters had escaped capture, including Draco's father, but those that were rounded up thanks to Dumbledore and the members of the Order were sent to Azkaban.

The Minister of Magic, whom was Fudge at the time, saw Voldemort and finally believed Dumbledore. Also, thanks to many eyewitnesses, Fudge realized that Sirius was innocent and had dropped all charges. Sirius became a free man that night and was currently living with Lupin somewhere in London. Number twelve, Grimmauld Place was still used by the Order, but Sirius no longer lived there. Harry couldn't blame him; if he had the choice he'd leave the house, too. Kreacher, however, had to stay there and had been forbidden from ever leaving the house again, unless told otherwise. Sirius and Remus were living just fine, in the house Sirius bought (with his own gold and compensation from the Ministry), without any house-elves. Hermione had been pleased to hear that.

But in Harry's sixth year, he'd started to realize a few crucial things about himself: one, he wasn't completely straight (and had crushes on a few fellow male classmates); two, he was glad he wasn't dating Cho Chang anymore; and three, being captain of the Quidditch team was more pain than he'd originally thought. In a way, he was glad not to be a prefect too, because he had enough on his plate as it was.

He'd been proud of Ginny, who became one of their new Gryffindor Chasers, and he had a feeling she still rather liked him, but he couldn't muster up much feeling for her. After the victory of winning the Cup, she tried to corner him throughout the after party. When she finally did, and she tried to ask him out, it was all very awkward. He got his point across, though, and although she wasn't overly happy about being refused by Harry, she took it in stride. At least, it seemed to him that she had whenever he saw her. Ron was angry with him for a while after that, but Hermione put him straight. Ginny had even talked to Ron, told him not to worry about it, and that she'd be fine. She was still attracted to Harry, but she'd been seeing other guys since Harry's refusal. At the moment, he wasn't sure if Ginny had a new boyfriend after her breakup with Dean Thomas.

Now Harry was extremely relieved that he hadn't been going out with Ginny, and that he'd figured out months ahead of time before she asked him out about being more into boys than girls. It saved a lot of future hardship. He was pretty much over the moon about dating Draco. He hoped the feeling was mutual.

He had a feeling he knew what Dumbledore was going to talk to him about when he returned to Hogwarts on September first. He was pretty sure that Dumbledore also knew that Harry would like to speak to him as well, and that it included things other than Horcruxes.

As Harry was organizing his magical trunk, two loud cracks startled him so badly that he dropped his Sneakoscope. He picked it up quickly, out of habit, fearing that it would start to make noise (but it hadn't), and stuffed it back into his trunk beside his Secrecy Sensor, which vibrated softly for a few seconds and then stopped. Harry shut the trunk.

"There he is!" crowed Fred Weasley.

"The man of the hour," said George Weasley, grinning.

Both Weasley twins flanked him on either side and put their arms around his shoulders. Harry looked from one twin to the other, and it gave him a slight uneasy feeling; it was like having a set of devils perched on each shoulder but didn't know which was the more evil of the two.

"What do you want?" Harry asked, suspicious.

"What makes you think we want anything?" Fred said, pressing his face against Harry's.

"Can't we be happy to see our good mate, the handsome and talented Harry Potter?" George said in a false innocent voice.

"For one thing, you'd sounded as if you were looking for me for a reason," Harry explained evenly, still looking from one redhead to the other. "And second, when have you two ever not been up to something mischievous?"

"You really know how to hurt a guy, Harry."

"There's such a thing as overindulgence, mate."

"With you two?" Harry said.

The twins released Harry so that they could face him, leaning one elbow each on top of Harry's trunk. Harry was still down on one knee, the way he had been while putting his stuff away inside each compartment of his magical trunk, and when he tried to stand up, the twins pushed him back down onto his arse, legs kicking out. His one foot hit one of the keyholes on the trunk and his other found itself pressed against Fred's thigh. The twins took hold of one ankle each in order to keep him from moving again.

"Look," said Fred. "Our joke shop has been doing a bang up job; been picking up business ever since last summer—"

"Especially after that whole fiasco at Hogwarts with the Death Eaters and You-Know-Who."

"That's great to hear," Harry said. "But what does that have to do with me?"

"We're getting to that—" George said.

"Ah, so you do want something from me," said Harry.

"Hold on, let us finish," Fred said. "Anyway, the thing is that our Mum isn't too happy with us keeping our shop open."

"She's frightened, you see," George said. "She thinks we're sitting ducks for the Death Eaters."

"People think we're dead brave and all," Fred said. "Well, some do—"

"—others think we're out of our minds. Which sometimes, well, we might be. Either way, we have this idea—"

"—in which you might be able to help us."

"Me, help you two?" Harry said, eyeing them with continued suspicion. "How exactly would I help?"

"For starters," said George, "there's that overprotective blond of yours."

"Draco?" Harry blinked. "What's he got to do with it?"

Fred and George leaned in closer, as if about to tell a big secret. Harry edged closer to hear.

"His Mark," they said together.

"Oh, this thing?" Harry said, removing his sleeve to show them his Draconis Mark. It gleamed softly from the sunshine that was coming through the nearby window, but otherwise didn't do anything. "What about it? And where exactly did you hear about it?"

"How little you know us," George tutted, shaking his head.

"Have you forgotten that we have Extendable Ears?" said Fred.

"Er, right—" Harry said. He'd forgotten to put a charm on the door before showing his Mark to Tonks and Hermione. They must have heard every word.

"It's like the Dark Mark, isn't it?" Fred said.

"Well, sort of," Harry said. "But not in the extreme."

"And young Malfoy put it on you?"

"Yeah," Harry said. "So? What's this about, anyway?"

"Well, Harry my boy, we'd like to have a pair of our own."

There was a pregnant pause. Harry felt his mouth gaping in astonishment, his eyebrows lifting toward his hairline—were they serious?

"Earth to Harry," said George, waving a hand in front of Harry's face. "Come in, Harry!"

"Time to take your broom out of orbit and land," Fred chuckled.

Harry shook his head in order to clear it, hardly believing what he'd just heard. "I don't—are you two really—why in the world would—I mean, it's—"

"I think he crash landed his mental broom into the Whomping Willow," said Fred.

"Indeed," said George. "Sad really. That tree's quite valuable, I hear."

Harry finally got out of his stupor. "Wait, so, why'd you want to have a Draconis Mark? Aren't you afraid of what it'll do?"

"Why should we be?" George said.

"Yeah," said Fred. "You have it."

"Yes, but—"

"Just ask that Slytherin boyfriend of yours if he could give us one," said George. "We'll fill you in on the details of our plans after."

Harry opened his mouth, about to agree, but then realized that he might regret it if he didn't take the time to think things over first. He shook his head, to the twins' dismay, and said, "No, sorry. If you really want one, you'll have to come with me and explain yourselves better to the both of us. I really don't want to promise you guys anything until I know that Draco's in agreement too."

The twins exchanged a look of worry. However, still frowning, they agreed. They had a lot of respect for Harry, and they knew from experience that they wouldn't be able to force Harry into doing something he didn't want to do. They grungingly followed Harry out of the room that he shared with Ron and went to locate Draco.

"So, there was this guy who came in to St. Mungo's," Hermione was saying to Draco when Harry and the twins entered the sitting room. "He was one of those working for the Ministry when it had been still in denial. Anyway, he'd been fighting a dark wizard—we're still not sure if it had been a Death Eater or someone that's supportive of Voldemort—and suddenly he'd been hit by a spell that splinched one of his hands off. He knew it wasn't sliced off because it was just a stump and there was no blood flying out of it."

Draco wrinkled his nose in disgust. "So, er, you helped put him right, did you?"

"Indeed I did," said Hermione proudly. "The Minister had been alerted thanks to the portrait of Dilys Derwent. She went to Dumbledore and then Dumbledore told the Minister, and I was there at the time when he was telling him."

"And how did you put him right, Hermione?" asked Fred, sitting beside her on the couch. Harry sat himself on the other side by Draco, and Draco instantly put an arm around him.

Hermione jumped slightly, hadn't known they had company because of how engrossed she'd been in telling Draco her story. She leered at the twin with some suspicion of his close proximity, but answered his question anyway because that was just the sort of witch she was.

"Well, it had to do with a few spells," she said. "First we had to locate just where his hand ended up—"

"And where was it?" asked George, grinning.

"In Scrimgeour's toilet," Hermione said, frowning mainly because she knew the reactions it would receive, and sure enough, the twins, Harry, and Draco howled with laughter.

"The toilet bowl was clean, I'm sure," said Fred between giggles.

"Oh yes," said George. "He's very clean, our Minister of Magic."

Hermione finished her tale on how, once they found the person's severed hand, used another spell to fuse it back on. He was then checked over for other injuries, just in case something else had accidentally got splinched and he hadn't realized at the time. The guys all cringed; one particular body part of theirs coming to their minds. Hermione didn't seem to realize that she had induced a group of wizards to cross their legs and hunch over in imagined pain.

"That's all very interesting and all, Hermione," Fred said, "but we need to borrow Malfoy for a moment, so if you're finished with him—"

"Borrow me for what?" Draco asked, looking worried, and was in his right to be.

"You'll see," said George.

Harry nodded at Draco, trying to reassure him that everything was fine, and stood up when the twins had. Harry was sure that Draco would follow, but he stayed put, eyeballing them with worry still etched into his features.

"No need to look like that," Fred said.

"You won't be losing a hand in a toliet—"

"—or any other body part for that matter."

"Yeah, Harry'd kill us if we hexed that part off."

"We just want to talk."

Draco looked from one twin to the other, seemingly to shrink on himself from every word they spoke. When he still wouldn't move from the couch, the twins each took one of Draco's arms and pulled him up. Draco complained and yelled the whole way as the twins hauled him from the sitting room toward the stairs. Because Draco was flailing so much (and swearing and complaining and whinging to Harry) they couldn't walk up the stairs with him, so they opted to Disapparate to the bedroom that Harry, Ron, and Draco shared.

Harry decided not to chance Apparating, since he hadn't got his license just yet, and ran up the stairs. When he entered, he saw that Draco had wrenched himself away from the twins and toppled backward onto the bed, a hand plunged into his robes in search of his wand. Harry went to him immediately before he could do something regretful.

"It's fine, Draco," Harry said. He leaned in and whispered into his ear, "They just want to ask about the Draconis Mark."

"Oh," Draco said, sighing in relief. He turned to glare at the twins. "Why didn't you just say so in the first place instead of dragging me off like a sack of potatoes?"

"Didn't want to say anything about it in front of Miss Head Girl Granger," said Fred.

Harry's head whipped around and stared, and so had Draco's.

"Hermione's Head Girl?" Harry gasped. "She never told me that!"

"I'm sure she would have, if she remembered," George said. "But that's not important right now…"

"Wait, how did she find out she's Head Girl?" Draco demanded. "We haven't got our official booklists yet!"

"I dunno," Fred said. "Honestly, can we not talk about Miss Big Head and get back to us?"

Harry nodded, determined to talk to Hermione later. "Yeah, okay. Go ahead and ask him," he motioned at Draco. "And remember, it's his decision; I can't make up his mind for you."

Draco turned to the twins, more curious than angry now. "What did you want to ask me?"

The twins wore identical pouts, eyes wide and pleading. "Malfoy—" Fred started. They went on their knees and shuffled toward him.

"Dear, kind, Malfoy—" said George. Draco backed off a bit as they moved closer, confused and a little frightened at the sudden begging Weasleys.

"—May we be branded—"

"—with your 'E'-vil love bite too?"

"With my what?" Draco said, boggled.

The twins whined like puppies, and it was so funny that Harry had to laugh.

"They want you to put the Draconis Mark on them," Harry had to elaborate, because the twins wouldn't say anything more, just whimpered.

Draco's face went through a series of expressions. At first he was confused: 'a Weasley, wanting to be marked by a Malfoy?' Then he was a bit disgusted: 'Ew, a Weasley with my Mark branded on their skin!' But then he was thoughtful: 'Hmm, a Weasley with my own Mark on them, connected to me (and by proxy, Harry), as well as being on my side for once.'

Draco had to admit that it was a little surprising that it hadn't been Ron that asked first, but now that he thought about it, it made more sense; of course the twins would be the first to consider it. Draco had had plans to ask a few of his friends if they'd want him to brand them too, but it'd been only a thought. For a while, he wanted only Harry to have his Mark, to jealously covet the connection he had with only Harry, but it might actually be a good idea to have others. There might come a time when it would come in handy, and it was a resourceful and ambitious move, to be sure.

Harry continued to watch and wait for Draco's answer. Draco continued to weigh his options, considering. Finally, when the twins whined again like two wounded dogs, Draco sighed and said, "You know what… maybe I will. If your loyalty to Harry is strong enough, I'm sure it'll work. I'd made the Draconis Mark specifically for Potter and I, and I hadn't really worked out the way that it will react if it was placed on someone else. I had planned to use one of my friends from Slytherin as a test subject, but I suppose I could do you two instead."

Suddenly, the twins pounced. Happy that Draco agreed to put the Mark on them, they leaped onto Draco and started kissing and licking his face. Draco had squeaked and flailed when they landed on top of him, and then shouted "GAHHHHH!" when the licking begun.

"Thank you, Malfoy, thank you!" Fred cried.

"We'll be forever grateful, my kind, sweet master!" George wailed in an overstatement, licking and nibbling Draco's neck and ear. "Ahh, what a tasty master you are, too."

"Delectable," said Fred, also licking Draco's neck. "Simply mouth-watering!"

"Get off me!" Draco shouted, and although he was annoyed and a little grossed out, Harry could sense amusement in his voice as well. Harry, meanwhile, had been holding his stomach, doubled up with laughter at the sight. He knew the twins were only teasing and that he shouldn't get jealous, and he wasn't (not much, anyway), but it was still funny. He was pretty sure that Draco had never been touched like that by a Weasley before.

Draco was finally able to get away from the slobbering gingers, rolling off the bed in the process, and grabbed the nearest cloth he could find (which happened to be Harry's extra school robe) to wipe his face dry.

"Ugh, I never thought I'd see the day when I would get slobbered on by two Weasleys!" Draco griped.

"Would you like to go for a record and have four Weasleys?" Fred said.

"We could probably persuade Ginny to do it," said George, grinning. "And maybe Charlie."

"Or Ron," said Fred. "Maybe Ron would—"

"I highly doubt that," Harry said, unable to keep the grin off his own face. "I think Ron would rather slobber all over me than Draco."

"Ah well," said George. "There's always Charlie."

"He knows how to handle dragons after all," Fred said, giving Draco a wink.

Draco wrinkled his nose at the thought of another, older Weasley licking him all over.

"Only I'm allowed to handle this dragon," Harry said, his jealousy coming to the forefront finally. He pulled Draco close to his body and kissed Draco on the lips. Pink appeared along the bridge of Draco's nose and across his cheeks.

The twins had identical glints in their eyes. "So, Harry—"

"—does that mean—"

"—that you'd actually be our master?"

"I think we'd be fine with that." Fred winked.

"Oh yes," George wiggled his eyebrows, "very, very fine."

Harry blushed lightly. "Well, um—I dunno. . ."

"Not to say that I wouldn't want Draco to be our master," George corrected quickly.

"Oh, not at all," Fred agreed.

"But seeing how you're the one with the leash—"

Harry blushed again.

Draco, fed up with all this flirting and twin-speak, took out his wand and said, "Do you two want the Mark or not?"

"Oh yes, please," the twins chorused.

"Do me first," Fred said.

"No, me!" said George. They bounded forward like puppies again, eager. Draco backed away rapidly and nearly fell over. Harry fought off his laugh as they lowered themselves at Draco's feet and made whinging noises again.

"Back off," Draco asked. "Let me think. I know that I can't do it the same way I had done with Harry. This is quite different. I could try, if you like, to see if I can have your Marks connect with Harry's instead of mine—but as I've said, I've never done it before, it might not work."

"Why can't Harry do the spell on us?"

"I don't know how," Harry answered for Draco, although he wasn't sure just what Draco was going to say. "I haven't had any practice in doing it, like Draco had, so I might really screw it up."

Draco paced the room in thought, the twins staying on their knees on the carpet, watching. Then, after a couple minutes, Draco looked up at Harry with a thoughtful expression.

"I have an idea," he said, "but I don't know if it'll work."

Harry stepped closer to Draco. "What is it? Do you need my help?"

"Quite possibly," said Draco. "Since we have two willing subjects, I suggest we try out my idea first on one of them, and if it works then we'll do the other.

"Only question is," Draco ogled the twins. "Who will be brave enough to do it first?"

Fred and George exchanged a knowing, twin look that Harry was sure only they understood, and then, to Harry surprise, Fred walked closer to them on his knees.

"I'll do it."

George pretended to wipe a tear from the corner of his eye. "Your sacrifice will not be in vain, my dear brother."

Draco nodded, corner of his lip curling slightly. "All right, but if it goes wrong I don't want you informing anyone about it."

"I'll just say that we've been experimenting one of our products again," Fred said.

"Right," said Draco, looking a bit impressed. "Well, I'll say this much for you two: you're certainly cunning."

"Coming from a Slytherin, I'll take that as a compliment," Fred said.

Draco then turned to Harry. "Okay, Harry, I want you to do the incantation with me. Hold onto my wand with me, and also say the spell right along with me."

"Right. Er—what was the incantation again?"

"Draconis insigne."

"Okay, now I remember." Harry moved to stand behind Draco and curled his hand around Draco's hand that was holding his wand. Draco looked over his shoulder and smirked. Harry smirked back.

Draco looked back at Fred, and said, "Okay, Weasley, I want you to present your left arm, bare and face up. Then, you must want to have this Mark; do you understand? You can't chicken out in the middle, or something might go wrong."

"I won't chicken out," Fred said, actually serious. He rolled up the sleeve of his robe and shirt underneath, and then presented his bare forearm to Draco. "Fire away!"

As Harry held onto Draco's hand that held his wand, he could feel a small spark of something recognizable. He wasn't sure what it was for a second, thinking maybe it was just because he was touching Draco's skin; but then when he saw his own Draconis Mark glowing softly he realized that they were becoming insync of each other.

Then, together, they pointed Draco's wand tip on Fred's forearm and intoned, "Draconis insigne!"

Fred gasped sharply, mouth open in shock first and then grit his teeth in some pain. Fred never wavered; he knelt there, resolute. Small beads of sweat formed on his face, and Harry felt that he was sweating too. The whole thing lasted about a minute, but it felt like ten. When it was finished, Draco jerked his wand up, Harry following Draco's movements, and the spell ended.

George moved closer to his twin so he could look at it with him. The Dragon Mark was definitely there, and it shimmered like a holofoil sticker like Harry's and Draco's, but there was a slight difference in it: the Mark wasn't just plain red with a gold trim, like Harry's, nor was it green with a silver trim, like Draco's. Fred's Mark was a deep crimson, and the edges around the curled up dragon was poison green. Fred had both the main colors of Gryffindor and Slytherin.

"How enchanting," said George. "It's definitely you."

"You think?" said Fred, grinning inanely as he held the Mark up to his face. "It doesn't make me look too washed out?"

"No, indeed, brother," said George. "It's perfect. And you're ready for the Christmas hols!"

"Perhaps I should sit on top of the Hogwarts Christmas tree during the holiday break," joked Fred. "The ickle tykes might enjoy that."

"You'd outshine all the fairy lights there."

Harry laughed softly at their antics and Draco rolled his eyes.

"Okay, let's see if it was a succeess," he said.

"How do I do that?" Fred asked, standing up.

Draco thought for only a moment before an idea struck and he pointed at the closet. "Go inside there."

"What, again?" Fred snickered. "I thought I just got out of the closet, now it seems I'm being forced back in." He turned toward his twin and said in a gloomy tone, "Do not think any less of me, bro."

"Never," George smiled. It looked as if he weren't kidding when he said it.

Once the door to the closet was shut, with Fred firmly inside, they heard Fred say, "Okay, what does coming in here prove—holy flying Hippogriffs!"

"What is it?" George said, pressing his ear to the closet door. "What's happening?"

"I can see!" Fred shouted, sounding triumphant. "It's a miracle!"

"The Draconis Mark allows you to see in the dark better," Harry explained to the bemused but smiling George.

"Oh, wicked," George said. "All right, it's my turn!"

Fred came out of the closet (being melodramatic about it too, and asking George not to hate him for being a fence sitter, but George said that he was just jealous that Fred could date whoever the hell he wanted now), and watched as George was given the Mark in the same way.

When it was done, they noticed that George's Mark was a bit different as well; his Mark was glowing red too, but the outline of it wasn't green like Fred's but yellow.

It was then that Harry realized what it meant. He went over to George and asked, "Did the Sorting Hat ever try to put you into another House?"

George sat and thought on it for a moment. "Hmm, well, actually it did. I'd forgotten all about that."

"What, no way," said Fred. "What did the old bonnet tell you?"

"I was nearly placed in Hufflepuff, but of course I told the hat that it was out of its little cap mind if it thought I was going there. So of course the Hat placed me in Gryffindor."

"Hmm, the Hat did mention Slytherin to me," said Fred. "But I quickly halted the Hat's words before it could finish pondering it. So then it put me in Gryffindor."

The twins then looked at Harry and then down to his Mark, which was still glowing softly. Harry looked down at his own Mark and noticed it was glowing a soft red, but the outline tinged with green. Harry flushed.

"Er, yeah… I was almost put in Slytherin."

Draco was a bit shocked by this news, but pleased as well. He put an arm around Harry and gave him a wet kiss. "I knew there was a reason why I liked you so much, Potter."

TBC

End Notes: There seems to be some confusion about what happened to Lucius. Re-reading what I wrote I see now that those that are confused have been mis-reading it. I explained in here that in Harry's FIFTH year, Lucius Malfoy had ESCAPED capture. The other Death Eaters did not. But it wasn't until a bit later when Lucius was then killed. I don't see anywhere in my fic where it says that Lucius is now in Azkaban. In this fic, both of Draco's parents are dead. That is one of the main reasons why Draco was placed into Harry's care in the first place. Other reasons..? You'll see.