Author: Mosh
Fandom: Harry Potter

Title: A Little Protective
Pairing: Remus/Draco
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Remus waits anxiously to hear the result of Draco's trial.
Disclaimer: These boys belong to J.K Rowling. No money being made, no copyright or trademark infringement intended.
A/N: Written as a gift for the lovely Cranberryink, this was my first time writing R/D. All my thanks to Mooncharm and Wymsie for beta reading. About 3700 words.

Note: You may not archive, re-post, or alter any of my stories without my permission. Please contact me first. Thanks!

Remus had been following Draco around the house for the last half hour, trying to remember all the good advice he'd picked up over the years for when it came to dealing with the Minister of Magic. Draco fumbled with his tie for a few minutes then cursed under his breath, so Remus turned him around and did it up for him, then undid it and re-tied it again.

"Remember - don't just single out one of the board members, look at each of them in turn. And don't cross your arms or fiddle with your robes, or else they'll think you're nervous because you have something to hide. And-"

"Remus! Enough. You're making me feel worse." Draco smoothed his light-blond hair back and tucked it neatly behind his ears. Remus untucked it and brushed it with his fingers, letting it fall softly around Draco's face.

"Don't strain it back like that - you'll look too severe."

"Remus."

"Sorry." He followed Draco through to the bathroom, standing behind him and looking intently at him in the mirror as he brushed his teeth. "Don't forget to mention the fact that you figured out who your father's secret keeper was. Tell them that you were the only other person Martin Crabbe trusted, so it only could have been you who talked the information out of him. Oh, and don't lose your temper if they keep asking you the same questions. They just want to be sure." Remus took a long, deep breath.

Draco dropped his toothbrush back into the cup by the sink, then turned around, sliding his arms around Remus's waist. Even Remus's clothes looked worried, all bunched from where he stood awkwardly with barely contained nervousness.

"Relax," Draco drawled with a little grin. "If worse comes to worse, you can send me grapes and flowers in Azkaban."

Remus stared at him, not at all amused.

Draco lowered his eyes. "I didn't mean that," he said quietly. "I don't know how else to deal with the possibility-"

"Yes you do," Remus chided. "Just go in there and be honest with them. They're professionals, Draco."

"Mm." Draco pressed his face into Remus's neck with a sigh, his grip tightening ever so slightly. Remus kissed the top of Draco's head, then checked his watch. It read a quarter-to-twelve. He took a deep breath and felt Draco's body stiffen against him. "Is it time?"

"Yeah," Remus said.

"All right." Straightening up, Draco cleared his throat and nodded once resolutely. He couldn't fool Remus though. "Wish me luck."

He made his way out of the bathroom and headed toward the stairs.

Remus walked with him. "Floo straight back afterwards. I'll be right here."

"I will."

When they reached the ground floor, Draco stopped beside the large fireplace in the foyer. He plucked a thin, silver can of Floo powder off the hearth.

"They might offer you Veritaserum," Remus quickly added. "I suggest you willingly take it - it'll move things along much more quickly and leave them with little doubt." He stared at Draco, intensely worried even though he knew Draco had nothing to hide. Bearing the Malfoy name alone was a big setback, especially after Lucius had pulled the wool over Fudge's eyes for so many years. The Minister would undoubtedly already have a narrow-minded vendetta against Draco, regardless of his 'currently undocumented' efforts to stop his father from destroying Hogwarts during the war.

Draco stared back, suddenly looking so small and young for his twenty-one years. "Okay then," he said, feigning nonchalance.

"Right." Remus kissed his forehead, then his cheek, then his nose, then his mouth, lingering there for a long time and tasting the mint of the toothpaste on his tongue. He eventually managed to break away and step back a pace. "Go. Good luck." He tried to sound like it wasn't such a big deal. God, how he fucking hated Fudge.

"Bye," Draco said, stepping quickly into the fireplace with a face paler than cream and a handful of Floo powder. "The Ministry of Magic: Department of Magical Law Enforcement."

And with a violent flourish of green flames, he was gone.

* * * * * * * * * *

Remus wandered the house. And then re-wandered it for good measure. Then he went down to the cellar to wander that too. Then the attic. He checked his watch periodically, but started to wonder if the hands were broken; it seemed to be moving so slowly.

At lunchtime he found an old deck of playing cards in a drawer in the study, and managed to coax one of the less timid house-elves into a game of Muggle Snap. He grew bored after winning for the ninth round. Though the little house-elf didn't seem too bothered by his loss. He seemed more interested in praising Remus for his aptitude at Snap whenever he called it.

At one o'clock Remus was itching to wander again, so he went outside to the garden, only to return to the house half an hour later because the grounds were too icy. He made himself a strong cup of coffee, scorched his tongue on it when he took a gulp a little too soon, then paced the length of the kitchen, trying to concentrate on the steady, and somehow comforting rattle of plates being put away by the house-elves. They cast him withering looks as they manoeuvred around him, obviously affected by his mood; Remus was very popular among them. He was the only one who usually looked them in the eye when laying orders, unlike Draco, who couldn't seem to kick the habit of acting like they weren't even there, throwing his demands aimlessly out into space.

Remus looked at his watch again. One-forty-five. Fuck it all, where was he? It shouldn't be taking this long.

And with that thought, he continued to pace.

He was close to tearing his own heart out and ending it all by the time two-thirty came around. Finally, exhausted with anxiety and shaking from the one or twenty cups of coffee he'd had, Remus opened the dining room doors wide, then fell heavily into the armchair closest to them. He began to pick at a loose thread at the cuff of his robes, watching the empty fireplace in the manor's foyer until his eyes ached.

* * * * * * * * * *

Draco stepped out of the Floo just after three o'clock that afternoon. Remus momentarily couldn't move, or breathe. He studied Draco's face carefully, trying to discern his emotions, but Draco was giving nothing away. He walked silently through to the dining room, stopping in front of Remus and staring down at him blankly.

Remus grew beyond agitated and eventually stood up, taking Draco firmly by the shoulders. "Well?"

Draco looked up at him. Then, slowly, the corners of his mouth twitched.

"Oh fucking hell," Remus muttered. "Thank God." He pulled Draco against him.

"You're looking at a very free man." Draco's following semi-hysterical laugh whispered down Remus's shirt collar, and Remus realised that he wasn't the only one who was shaking.

"God," Remus said again, stroking the back of Draco's neck. "Why did it take so long? I mean, three and a half hours?"

"Oh, I was only in there for two and a half."

Remus pulled back and surveyed Draco. "Then what on earth have you been doing all this time?"

Draco looked down at himself, then back up at Remus with a smile. "Well - what do you think?"

"What do I think about what?" Remus said, frowning at him.

"The new robes? Now I've been cleared the Malfoy accounts have been made available to me. I stopped off at Diagon Alley on the way back, I-"

"You what?" Remus stared at him. "You mean you left me here wondering - worrying - all this time so you could go and get yourself new robes?"

Draco's smile slipped from his face like a lead weight. He bit one side of his lower lip. "Um."

Remus couldn't believe it. The little sod- he- fucking hell! He took hold of one of Draco's wrists and dragged him, stumbling, across the room, through the foyer and towards the main staircase.

"Wha- Remus? What are you- um, Remus? I'm sorry-"

"Shut up."

"Um-"

Remus got Draco halfway up the second flight before he gave up and turned. Pushing Draco up against the high marble banister, Remus tore at the front of his 'new' robes, pressing himself against Draco with a little grunt of arousal.

"I can't believe you sometimes. Most of the time. But I guess that's what makes you - you." He heard something rip as he bent to crush his mouth against Draco's, still pulling violently on the boy's robes to damn well get them off him! Draco, who managed to play 'caught-by-surprise' for all of two seconds, shrugged his shoulders out of the material, kissing back like his life depended on it. He was hottest thing Remus had ever had the pleasure of rubbing up against, though Remus was loath to say that to him. The boy positively revelled in such attention. So instead Remus told him with his body, with his mouth and with his cock, as often and in as many different ways possible.

"Christ almighty, Draco," Remus panted, finally throwing Draco's robes over the edge of the banister. They fluttered down through the stairwell and landed silently on the foyer floor. "What were they - some form of chastity robes?"

"Haha-"

Remus kissed him again, biting his lips sore, thrusting his tongue in to slide against Draco's. They started to sidle sideways up the stairs, still kissing and undressing, until they got to the top. Now down to just underwear, Draco gave up on trying to make it to the bedroom. He pulled Remus down on the soft carpeted landing, groaning as Remus fell against him, their erections rubbing together hard. Perfectly.

"Is this what all that good advice was about earlier?" Draco muttered against Remus's ear, pushing his hips up against him.

Remus rumbled a growl, sliding his hand down between them to stroke Draco's rigid cock through his boxers. "No, you fool." Draco arched beneath him, breathing out a quiet moan. "But this is quite the bonus to looking after you."

He sat up and pulled Draco's underwear down, staring at his gorgeous, familiar erection with unquenchable want.

"Want you," Draco said, curling one hand around his own cock and making a show of stroking himself until his hard length was damp with sweat and flushed dark with arousal.

"Stop that," Remus rasped, sliding out of his boxers. He pulled Draco's hand away and replaced it with his own.

"Ohh... let me come," Draco panted. "I need- need-"

"Oh I will," Remus said, leaning down to lick across the head of Draco's prick, circling it with his tongue. He smoothed one hand up and down the boy's damp shaft, then pulled back and added: "And then again while I drive you down into the floor."

Draco's hips jerked. He stared at Remus with wide, glassy grey eyes, thrusting up into his hand and spurting over Remus's fingers and his own stomach with a violent shudder. Remus smiled and licked his fingers dry. Then he licked Draco's belly. Then his softening cock.

Draco mumbled and wriggled, his body sensitized and ticklish under the light but insistent assault of Remus's tongue.

He's lovely like this, Remus thought, staring the movement of Draco's chest as he breathed and the way his tongue flicked out to wet his lips. His hair was sprawled carelessly on the floor around his head, the sheen of sweat making it look slightly darker than usual. Slowly opening his eyes, Draco ran one hand through the mess on his silver-flicked stomach. He had quite a lot of scars. They both did, and both for very different reasons, although they were used to it now, choosing not to outwardly acknowledge the other's. Remus quite liked the lines that skidded across Draco's left hip and up around his navel, and the shorter, deeper lines that ran across the back of his right calf, and up along the rise of his left shoulder. They were now but remnants of violent hexes thrown during the war, but Remus could tell that they still pained Draco to look at them. They reminded Remus of faintly drawn rivers on a map, curling across Draco's body and running haphazardly into each other; not at all ugly.

He was far more aware of and paranoid about his own wounds, which were deeper and much darker, always destined to be renewed monthly. Yet Draco had never reacted badly to them, not even the first time they were naked together. Remus figured Draco had been expecting them, after months of growing familiar with each other after Draco's house arrest, building something that had started as an offer of friendly company on Remus's part, and grown into physical companionship gradually over time.

Sighing, Draco fidgeted with impatience. "Are you going to stay down there all afternoon or what?"

One of these days, Remus vowed, he'd spend hours tasting Draco's body, driving the boy insane with his tongue. But Draco was so damn impatient.

"Remus?"

Remus sat up. He pulled his discarded trousers toward him and took out his wand. Draco watched with slightly dazed eyes as Remus summoned protection from the bedroom, then he sat up to help Remus put it on. Remus batted his hands away.

"Patience," he said, rolling the condom down his cock. He didn't want to admit it, but Draco's touch wouldn't be helpful at this point - he was so hard his prick jumped at the very thought of Draco's hands. "Lie back down."

Draco rested one leg over Remus's shoulder, his other foot braced against the floor, and moaned delightedly throughout the preparation, his cock swelling once again when Remus carefully slid three fingers into his arse and started to rub across his prostate. Remus watched the boy's eyelids droop half-closed, mouth going slack from the relentless currents of sensation. He looked really good relaxed like that, his features softer, his expression one of trust and want and pleasure.

Another brush of Remus's fingers and Draco raised his hips desperately. "That's enough - Remus - ohh - now."

Thank God, Remus thought, withdrawing. He rubbed the back of Draco's thigh with one hand and braced the other against the floor at Draco's side, leaning forward until he was almost close enough to kiss him. Draco gave a soft moan as if to prompt him, so Remus nudged his cock against the boy's arse, pushing-pushing-pushing in a little way.

It was like nothing Remus had ever felt before - even now - fucking someone so young and wanting. He was sure he'd never get used to the feel of Draco's body against him, urging him on. Draco's kisses, perfect, hesitant but needy in their frequency. The two of them had been more alike sexually than Remus had ever imagined, and it had all fallen together, one night, with ravenous tongues and sweaty, pinching palms, awkward positions against the sofa in the living room, coming helplessly before clothes were fully shed, panting, stroking and waiting until they were hard and ready again - just to be sure that this was the right path and was what they both wanted. Yes.

Yes, it strangely had been a definite yes. And a yes, and a yes, and an arching, moaning yes.

And from different sides of the track they were there now; Remus, grinding his hips until he was buried to the hilt in Draco's tight, hot, constricting arse, and Draco, with his neck pulled taut as he strained his head back with a groan, thrusting his hips up to meet Remus's cock and drive it deeper.

On the landing.

In Draco's family home.

It was thrilling.

"Hold on to me," Remus gasped, pulling out a little way so he could slide back in. The first thrust was always the best, until the second, which was better, and the third, which was far beyond perfect. There were no words Remus could think of to describe anything after that.

He started to fuck Draco slowly, drawing out every sweaty, dawning second like it was their last. Draco trembled helplessly, and Remus was sure that the string of moans that had escaped Draco's lips meant something important, but they'd been too hushed to decipher exactly what. He didn't need to hear it - Draco was his and had been for a long time. Not Lucius's or Narcissa's anymore, no. Not Snape's, nor Dumbledore's, nor any other entity in between. Remus smiled when Draco groaned, mirroring the sound with one of his own, slightly softer, like a fading echo that continued to roll quietly around the stairwell.

Draco was now fully hard again. His wonderful cock jutted up between their bellies, almost purple from the strain of an impending second orgasm. Remus shrugged Draco's leg lower around his shoulder, bending further forward so his body rubbed Draco's swollen shaft on every thrust, just so.

"Ohh, God..." Draco curled his fingers around Remus's arms and let his body sway up with Remus's in-strokes, and sink back, rolling like a wave on his out-strokes. Timeless movements. The slowest, deepest fuck they'd ever had.

Draco cursed softly, the floorboards of the old house creaking quietly under him as Remus sank in again and harder and again and harder still. Remus relished the desperate twitching of the boy's fingers around his biceps, the sweat-slick tightness of Draco's calves: one curled around his waist, urging him on, and the other balanced on one of his shoulders, pressing down and pulling him in deeper.

Deeper.

"Christ - Ahh - please touch -"

Letting out a breathless laugh, Remus jerked his hips, running his hand down Draco's trembling stomach.

"Oh please-"

And through the sprinkle of dark-blond hair at Draco's groin - the fine curls that prickled Remus's face so often - scratching gently there for a moment before wrapping his fingers around Draco's swollen, damp cockhead and swiping his thumb across the slit three times.

Something like "Nnuyngh!" burst from Draco's throat and he spurted hard, coming convulsively over them both while Remus held on to his jerking prick.

The last little twitch and Draco's final hoarse "Ohh" was Remus's undoing. Wide, dazed black pupils stared at Remus as he started to groan, hips slapping desperately against the boy's thighs once more. Remus wasn't sure where he ended and Draco began. He wasn't sure of anything as the sudden, blessed rush of his orgasm stretched and tensed his body, pulling his nerves and bones tight. He thrust helplessly again, still twitching and straining deep inside Draco's fluttering arse, and it just seemed to go on and on, shivering down his spine, spiralling into his groin, cock desperately pushing for more. Remus realised, as his throat started to hurt, that the loud, low ringing noise he could hear was the sound of his own ragged wail.

Finally, like a puppet whose strings had suddenly been cut, his body gave and he lay down against Draco, unable to stop groaning.

"Holy fuck," Draco said breathlessly, once Remus had fallen silent. "Are you uh... are you all right?"

"Mm."

"I've never come so hard." Draco ran one hand down Remus's back. Remus shivered, still not quite ready to be touched. "But you... um. You screamed like- I thought you were in pain."

Remus kissed his neck. "I'm fine."

"Okay." Draco didn't sound sure.

"But if we don't get up and move to the bed right now, I think my limbs are going to seize up and we'll have to stay here for the rest of the afternoon."

He felt Draco puff out a laugh. "Remind me to keep you waiting more often."

"Don't you dare," Remus muttered. He pushed himself up, slipping smoothly out of Draco's body as he rose. "Come on." He held out his hand.

Draco took it and was pulled onto his unsteady feet for a kiss. Then, with a smile, Remus marched him the short distance to their bedroom.

* * * * * * * * * *

Sometime later that evening, Draco braced his arms against the headboard, staring down at Remus as he sank down onto his cock so slowly that Remus eventually jerked up to meet him, holding Draco's sharp hipbones in his palms.

Nothing was said. But then, it didn't really need to be.

* * * * * * * * * *

Waking to the sound of the clock ticking peacefully on the mantle and a crescent moon dotting the sky outside, Remus found Draco sprawled half across his body and half across most of the rest of the bed. Draco was already awake, running his fingers over Remus's chest.

"Time is it?"

Draco raised his head briefly, then let it fall back down onto Remus's shoulder. "Eleven."

"This is going to mess with my internal clock, you know."

"So when are you going to move in properly?" Draco said, completely ignoring him as if the question had been on his tongue for a long time.

They'd been down this road a couple of times before. Remus yawned, then said: "I'm not. We will live together some day, but not here." He turned over, pressing himself against Draco's body, kissing his nose quickly. "If we moved into a place of our own-"

"What if I bought a place in London, then?"

"That defeats the point. Let's just wait until my new job comes through, then we can talk about moving in together."

Silence. Then: "I don't see what the big deal is - you stay here most of the time anyway."

"That's different. I'm a guest."

"You're not a sodding guest, Remus."

"I am a guest."

"No, you're not."

Remus rolled Draco over, pinning him down against the mattress with a grin. "One day. When we can get a place of our own."

"What about the Manor?"

"Who gives a toss about the Manor?"

Draco didn't look too happy about it, but he knew he wouldn't sway Remus's decision, so thankfully he kept quiet and kissed Remus instead.

One of the few people who had ever really given a shit about the boy, Remus opened his mouth and breathed Draco in.

~Fin~