No Longer

Malfoy's Day in Court

A/N: It what (some of) you've all been waiting for!

Harry Potter/Era Damon White**

He traveled back to just before lunch, feeling tired, but happily so. It's like when he spent hours on a project, and then it was done and even better than expected, and Harry was happy to have put all the effort in because it meant the work was done well and he could take a breather.

In the study, he'd worked with Salazar for hours on a new mental protection technique, that basically layered his mind with a barrier, then useless information, then a barrier, then useless information, growing steadily stronger with the barriers. For the useless information, he'd stuffed the in-between places with other people's memories, mostly those belonging to people now dead or memories that didn't have the ability to hurt anyone. Things like birthday parties and long hours of school.

It would take days for a normal wizard to get through the barriers and skim over the information, maybe even weeks, so Harry figured it ought to give him some breathing room with Metus. As per their usual, Harry ate lunch with his friends, talking animatedly with them as he shoveled bite after bite into his mouth.

'Dumbledore' was running a bit late, so he was able to be relaxed, and when Dumbledore finally did arrive, Harry had already inhaled four plates of food, trying to restore the energy lost from so many hours not eating, and instead studying. He was able to fend off the attacks one after another, but then about every second or third push, a barrier would break.

He lasted around twenty minutes before he was down seven protective barriers, and left the hall. The last three were more difficult to get through, but he wasn't about to risk himself. Metus, upon realizing he was leaving, began to pummel his protections even harder, and Harry was speedwalking from the great hall.

A few minutes into his walk towards his dorm, he heard a voice call out, "Harry!" and immediately recognized the voice as Sev's. Harry stopped and turned around, smiling at the sight of his beautiful black-haired mate coming towards him.

"Hullo Sev!" Harry piped up.

"Harry, just before lunch I got a fire call from Lucius-"

"Is he okay? What happened? Is Tom okay? Why'd he call you during the middle of-"

"Harry," Severus interrupted, "Lucius and Tom are fine. He said that Blackshard, his attorney arranged the hearing for his and Narcissa's divorce. It is this afternoon, and since you don't have any classes, I can take you with me. That's assuming you want to come, of course."

Harry gave him an are-you-insane look and asked, "Are you insane? Obviously I'm coming!"

"Well then. Now that that's settled, we're going to floo from the next fireplace immediately. Ah, this room should have one," Sev said, pushing open a door on their right and going directly over to the stately fireplace.

He got a small pouch from an internal pocket of his robes and told Harry to go first, "Now, I assume you know how to use floo powder, and you're going to Malfoy Manor. Lucius and Tom will be waiting in the main receiving room."

"Yes sir," Harry said, giving his mate a little salute.

He lit a fire with magic, not bothering to use his wand, threw a pinch of the black powder into the flames, which then turned green, spoke his destination, enunciating clearly, and stepped in. Harry emerged into the main receiving room as Era, and smiled at Lucius.

"How're you feeling, love?"

"A bit anxious," Lucius said, a slight line between his brows, and smoothed his hands down his thighs, "I've been hoping for this day since I married her, and I can barely believe it's actually here."