17

17: Birthday and Majority (July 14, 2003 to July 19, 2003)

"It's too bad," Narcissa commented as she sat next to her beloved husband in her elegant sitting room, "that Bella, Siri, and Sahar couldn't come down for a friendly game of polo. I know how much my Dragon wanted to arrange a real practice match for Sebastian. But I suppose it will have to wait."

"No doubt about that," Lucius replied dryly. "There are more important matters at hand, my love. Much more important matters that are coming. You do know what is happening this year, and you know quite well the only reason that I'm allowing Severus to use the resources at my disposal is because I have detection charms on all of them. It is not a bad thing that Sebastian is making so much progress, the attention should be drawn off Draco then. And I must say that Draco's progress is coming across quite nicely."

"Yes," Narcissa agreed resolutely, "the Black family magic that I've been teaching him, he's been absorbing at a fantastic rate. I suspect that he'll be reaching his majority sometime soon. Perhaps, in the next year or so." She smiled at that thought, that her son would reach his majority at such a young age. "It doesn't hurt that with Sebastian's studying with Severus, that it's prodded Draco on even further. How are his lessons with you going?"

"Very well. They've gone very well. You are right that going along with Draco's request to open up the mansion for Severus to teach Sebastian here was a very cunning decision. It seems that Draco doesn't want to be left behind what Severus is teaching his best friend. It is curious, though that Dumbledore is allowing such a matter," Lucius observed aloud with his keen intelligence. "For there is no doubt that he'd know of this. The old man may be off his rocker, but he was always a sly one."

"Not that Malfoy blood magic is hard to master," Narcissa sneered, but her eyes were alit with playful teasing. "Black blood magic on the other hand is quite another thing to master..."

Lucius narrowed his eyes and grabbed his wife by her wrist, pulling her toward him roughly. Dragging her onto his lap, he tilted his face down to capture her lips in a kiss meant to bend her will to his which more often worked in her favor than his. While he might have been the Minister of Magic and the most powerful man in Great Britain other than the Dark Lord of Europe himself, he was very much under the wiles of his wife when it came to

the bedroom. Not that he minded when she could work her tongue like that.

"Oh fuck," came a very familiar voice from the entrance into the room that Lucius recognized as his son's in his desire consumed mind, "I should have knocked."

"Language," Narcissa reprimanded him with a soft smile and gestured for Draco to come in even though Lucius was scowling at him, giving him a look that said get out and stay out, "my Dragon. Remember Malfoys do not curse. So what is it that you want, my Dragon?"

Lucius growled low, but loosened his grip on his wife to allow her to slide onto the seat cushion and off of his lap. "Draco," he called out sternly, "answer your mother and stop fidgeting like that."

"Bast's birthday's tomorrow!" Draco exclaimed. "I totally forgot, except that Her- a friend of mine just owled me to remind me of it since... well, you know... I forgot," he finished lamely, feeling quite unMalfoy-like. Then again he couldn't very well say Hermione's name, not when Lucius had given him quite a lecture about coming again behind a muggleborn even if it was only by a mere point. It wasn't like she'd beaten him by a lot of points, just one measly point!

Raising up an elegant eyebrow, Narcissa stood up from her seat and moved quickly to where her son was standing. "Well, if his birthday is tomorrow we've got a lot of preparation that needs to be planned. And I have a reputation to live up to. Can't have a guest not enjoying himself thoroughly can I?"

"Of course not, Ciss darling," Lucius drawled in a faintly strained voice from not getting his desires fulfilled, but he knew only Narcissa would pick up the slight inflection. "I'm certainly you'll pull off another one of your extravagant affairs that will nearly bankrupt our Gringott's account, but will definitely have being named the Hostess of the Year even if it is only for the boy's birthday."

"Not any boy," Narcissa retorted with a teasing glint in her eyes, "but Draco's best friend. That makes it quite different, besides I'm fond of the boy. And if you don't want me to bankrupt our Gringott's account you will just have to make sure that you add more galleons to it, won't you?"

"What in the world am I going to get Bast for his birthday?" Draco cried out, his eyes widening with panic since he'd been having far too much fun with Sebastian here to even think in advance. And it wasn't like he had Hermione here to consult with, even if he could owl her it wouldn't do her much good. She was probably already had her present being sent to Sebastian, and there was no way an owl could make it to the muggle world and back in time for him to make use of her advice. Drat it all.

"I'm sure you'll think of something," Narcissa responded soothingly as she took her son's hand and led him out of the room, her eyes lingering over her husband's fine form with a distinctive promise in her hazel eyes. "I'm sure I'll think of something."

He guessed everyone hadn't forgotten his birthday when Severus had handed him a brown wrapped parcel. Typical of Severus not to adorn the present with any unnecessary frills. Still, how had the Potions Master known? It wasn't like he'd gone around announcing his birthday to everyone. He was pretty certain that only Dumbledore and Hermione knew about his birthday, only because they'd both asked him. And he'd gotten both of their presents this morning delivered by a fiercely proud Artemis.

Well, he thought with vague amusement, she did have a reason to be so pleased with herself since she'd delivered packages that were quite a burden despite the various shrinking charms. Quite like Hermione to get him a book, only this time it was surprisingly a muggle book she thought he might find very informative, Confessions are Good for the Soul. This Hermione definitely knew him as well as his Hermione now.

She was far too good at getting him to spill his guts to her, especially about how he'd gotten Draco off pursing him madly. Of course, he'd had no choice but to tell her that the only reason Draco had stopped his mad pursuit was because he had a crush on someone else. While he hadn't exactly told her who it was, he'd told her enough for her to know that he hadn't exactly confessed to the object of his affections his feelings yet. Thankfully, Hermione just gave him an advice book instead of furiously plotting like Draco.

But still how had Severus known about his birthday? "How did you find out?" he questioned curiously, his forest green eyes meeting the Potions Master's eyes that reflected his own image back at him. "How did you know today was my birthday?"

"Student records," Severus responded curtly. "How else?" he shot back with dry sarcasm. "No matter what students think, I am no mind reader."

Harry grinned. "Maybe not," he remarked, reaching over to the package to unwrap it. "You know you didn't have to get me anything."

"You didn't have to get me anything for Christmas either," Severus retorted sharply. "Consider it a late Christmas gift if you like, if that will make you feel better. Now open the damnable thing before I lose my patience."

"All right," Harry agreed with a bemused smile, which only widened when he saw what the package contained. It was definitely like Severus to get him something that pertained to potions, but something like this was unquestionably more than a simple gift in exchange for a gift. This was too extravagant and expensive. "This is too much, Severus," Harry protested earnestly. "I can't believe you bought me a gold cauldron. It must have cost you a fortune!"

"A small fortune," Severus corrected as he waved his hand over the cauldron to re-enlarge it to its original size, "but worth it. You need a proper cauldron, anyhow. Can't very well have my assistant using a substandard pewter cauldron aimed for the dunderheads that must take Potions since it's a requirement."

"This means a lot. Thanks," Harry murmured, swaying a bit on his feet as he suddenly felt overcome by a dizzy spell. This was happening more and more often, perhaps he should go speak to Poppy about it. But the problem with that was that he didn't want to worry the matronly mediwitch who was already quite anxious about his upcoming practice MEDs. He was immensely relieved when Severus plucked the cauldron out of his hands and reached over to steady him. "Just dizzy for a moment," he explained a bit unsteadily as he tried to regain his balance and bearing. "I think I'd better sit down."

"You'd better," Severus agreed, his eyes trailing over Sebastian's body in a critical appraisal. "How often have you been having these dizzy spells?"

Harry blinked furiously to refocus his attention on Severus. "Since the beginning of summer. Is something wrong with me?"

"No, what's happening to you is quite normal and expected," Severus drawled. "But I'm sure it feels abnormal since most wizards don't go through this until their early 20s. What you're going through is called majority, which really isn't discussed to young wizards or witches until their post-Hogwarts years. Rarely do students hit majority when they're still in school."

"Oh," Harry responded, again feeling like an enigma. Things always did seem to happen to him. "What exactly is majority? I mean, the pertinent details. I'm experiencing it now, right?"

Severus shook his head firmly. "No, just the preliminaries I'm afraid. Majority can be very painful and the younger you are to hit the threshold the more painful it is- simply put, your body has to undergo more changes since you're more powerful. If you hadn't guessed from what I've told you, it's your magical maturation. You've already gone through puberty for your body, now it's your magic's turn."

"How long does it take?" Harry queried.

"My majority lasted a week, and I was 20," Severus answered thoughtfully. "But I know most wizards take only a few days; however, the more powerful you are, the longer it'll take. Unfortunately, you will be incapacitated during the time your magic completely matures. It must be an entirely natural process so no pain relieving potions can be given. You simply will be restraint."

"When will it happen?"

"Soon," Severus remarked, "I'm sure since preliminary warning signs occur like continual dizzy spells and feel weak magic-wise happen about a month prior and it's already been a month since summer began." His dark eyes surveyed Sebastian like a hawk. "Do you feel any better?"

"Not quite so dizzy."

Severus smiled ever so slightly. "Want to try out the new cauldron then?"

Harry shared his smile. "Of course."

"Are you sure he'll like her?" Draco asked anxiously.

Narcissa smiled reassuringly at her beloved son. "I'm sure Sebastian will love the filly. Why wouldn't he? The filly you chose for his polo pony is magnificent and." her voice trailed off when she saw the desperate look in her Dragon's face. She turned around and saw the reason why. Sebastian was standing right there with a grin on his face. There went the surprise. Darn house elves were suppose to keep the boy busy when Severus left! Those impossible beasts never did anything right. "Sebastian?"

Harry grinned at both of them. "I'd love whatever you gave me, but my own polo pony? That's really too much for me to accept."

She waved her hand in the air carelessly. "It's nothing. You need one anyway whenever we can get a match organized that is. We can't very well let you use one of the inferior riding ponies, now can we? Besides, you wouldn't want to disappoint my Dragon now would you by not accepting when he spent so many hours picking the filly out now would you?" She smiled pleasantly at him when he shook his head that he would not disappoint Draco. "Why don't you go try the filly out?"

Draco grinned since he saw that Sebastian was so obviously struck dumb by the extravagant gift, and instead of letting Sebastian wrestle with making a decision, grabbed his friend's hand and dragged him to the stables where the filly was getting acquainted with her new surroundings. "Come on, Bast. Let's go try your filly out. Don't be such a bugger." He got a warning look from his mother that said 'language!' "Don't be such a prat, Bast, come on." Another glare from Narcissa. "Come on so my mum will stop shooting looks at me."

"All right, all right," Harry muttered, giving up to Draco's persistence that was more than a match for his own given the right set of circumstances. "No need to drag me, I'm coming."

While Harry had certainly gotten the gist of riding during the Easter holidays, he'd made a much marked improvement since riding daily with Draco in sessions that lasted hours at a time. As he made progress, he also learned that Draco stepped up his game. He'd had the inkling at the beginning that Draco was better than he'd shown himself to be and his suspicion turned out to be true. Draco was much better than he'd shown Harry so far, which only goggled Harry's mind with how good Draco's mother must be. How good the rest of them must be. Mind boggling.

"You've been lying to me!" Harry cried out as he nudged his pony forward with a light tap to her flanks. The exquisite Thoroughbred responded to the slightest of his signals with a grace that spoke of her carefully maintained lineage. "Why didn't you ride like this before?" he questioned as his mount finally caught up to Draco's roan stallion. "It's certainly not like you to hide your talented ability, Dray."

Draco shrugged and surveyed the beautiful image that his best friend made atop the dark bay filly that complimented his own dark good looks. "It's more fun if I'm not beating your ass to the ground, anyway. Besides, didn't want to discourage you especially when you have a natural gift for riding. I didn't doubt it since you're a natural on a broom. It's really not much different, riding a broom for horseback riding except there's no flying and it's a bit bumpier. But as good as you're getting, I'm still much better."

Harry rolled his eyes at Draco's blatant arrogance, but he found he was getting far too use to it to let it bother him anymore. It was as much of a part of Draco as Ron's self-righteousness was a part of him. Both were undeniable faults that were definitely things that he could handle. It didn't hurt that they were both great and loyal friends, too bad he couldn't have both as his best friend. At least he had Hermione to lean on in both dimensions.

Whatever would he do without Hermione? That reminded him that he ought to put the advice book she'd given to him in use sometime, but the question was when? He really didn't see Severus willing to take him serious when he was still a student and not an equal. And he certainly didn't see Severus willing to risk his position at Hogwarts for him, even if they did get along very well for a teacher and student relationship, but it was still that sort of relationship no mater what Severus let him get away with away from the prying public eyes.

Just one more year, he reminded himself, and then he wouldn't be a student anymore. The problem was he didn't know how long he'd be here, but from the way it looked Dumbledore wasn't going to let him try jumping over for a while. It was almost like the Headmaster wanted to keep him here, but then why was he so helpful? He shook his head as a wave of dizziness hit him, it wasn't good to be having such questioning thoughts about Dumbledore. Who else could he trust if he didn't trust the Headmaster?

"You're daydreaming again," Draco complained loudly, reaching over to grab the reins of Sebastian's filly before she cantered off course. His silvery eyes narrowed into slits when he saw Sebastian blinked several times and shake his head. "You all right, Bast?"

Harry nodded and starting pulling on the reins, slowing his filly from a gallop to a slow jog that Draco's own mount mimicked. "I'm okay," Harry responded, smiling reassuringly at Draco. "Just a bit dizzy for a moment." His fingers curled up around the dark brown mane of his bay filly so he had a firmer grip on something more stationary since he still felt rather light-headed. "You really chose a great filly for me, Dray. Thanks."

"You should name her something," Draco remarked. "Of course, nothing will be quite as good as what I've named my own mount."

"Serpent's Eye," Harry drawled back teasingly even though his head was still spinning, "is quite a mouthful for a horse, especially when there's no suitable nickname for the poor beast." He closed his eyes since Draco was still clutching both of their reins, giving him an excuse to think of a name as well as try to calm the wave of nausea that threatened to overwhelm him. "I could stay with the Greek theme I've got going with Artemis and name her after Poseidon's wife since he was the god of horses, Amphitrite."

"And you say my stallion's name is a mouthful," Draco joked back, keeping his hold on Sebastian's reins when everything started happening at once. One minute Sebastian was sitting perfectly upright, back ramrod straight with a balanced seat and the next minute he was swaying to the side and despite Draco desperately reaching to grab him, it was too late. He missed and Sebastian tumbled off his newly named filly to the hard ground beneath. Luckily, they were only jogging and the filly managed to sidestep her fallen rider. "Bast!" Draco called out as he leapt off Serpent's Eye with an acrobatic agility. "Are you all right? Bast!"

Harry wanted to tell Draco that there was nothing to worry about, that he'd just gotten really nauseated for a moment and that had caused him to pitch over. But when he was about to form the words with his vocal cords, a blinding pain swept across his body and made him cry out in agony. The excruciating pain was so sharp and so severe that all he could do was let his body convulse in an attempt to escape the torture his body was undergoing.

No matter which way his body twisted and turned, he couldn't escape it. The only thing that somewhat relieved his mind was this was in no way compared to the Cruciatus or the hellish ride he'd gotten when he'd gone alternate dimension hopping, but he associated pain with that so he'd been prepared. Prepared for this he certainly was not. That was what made it worse psychologically even if it wasn't worse physically.

"Hang on, Bast," Draco called out as he pinned Sebastian down to the ground to stop him from accidentally hurting himself as he struggled against the pain. Vaguely he was aware that Draco had cast a Sonorous charm on himself and had cried out to the main house for help. He wasn't aware of much else other than being held down by Draco. "It's going to be all right, my mum's coming."

"What's wrong?" Narcissa cried out to them, anxiety coloring her voice. Before Draco got a chance to answer that he didn't know which was why he'd called for her in the first place, Narcissa had cast a levitation spell on Sebastian and was hurrying him to the main house. "Good Merlin!" she exclaimed, her face even paler than usual. "Draco, you need to find your father. Quickly!"

Draco didn't hesitate, heading off like he was propelled by more than just his physical being to his father's private study which was charmed against such spells like voice amplifiers. Meanwhile, Narcissa guided Sebastian's writhing body to the mansion as fast as she could. She had just placed Sebastian down on a couch she transfigured to a bed when Lucius and Draco both arrived at the scene.

"Ciss, what's wrong? Draco was quite." Lucius' voice trailed off when he saw Sebastian's form shaking with seizures. "He's not. is he? Ciss?"

"I think he is," Narcissa murmured softly. "What else can it be?"

"What the fuck is going on?" Draco almost screamed, not liking the looks his parents were exchanging over Sebastian's prone body. "Somebody tell me!"

"He's quite young though," Lucius commented thoughtfully. "Usually it happens quite a bit later. What is he? 18?"

"17," Narcissa answered, ignoring her frantic son in the background. "His birthday was today. He's younger than Dragon."

"Not much older than the Dark Lord when he hit his," Lucius reflected aloud. "Younger than when I hit my own."

Narcissa nodded and was about to make another statement when Draco burst into the middle of the conversation, "Tell me what is wrong with Bast! What is all this crap about he being quite young and not much older than the Dark Lord?!"

The two older Malfoys exchanged shared glances between them and Narcissa indicated that Lucius should inform their son of what they were talking about. "Sebastian's going through his majority," he told him. "While you don't know much about majority, you do know the bare outline of it, do you not?"

"I do," Draco answered, even though he didn't have to.

"Then you should know," Lucius continued, "that most wizards don't go through majority until their early 20s. The earlier the maturation, the more powerful the wizard and the last wizard to mature this early was the Dark Lord. It seems, Draco, you do know how to choose your friends very well. I'm impressed."

Draco shrugged at that off hand compliment. While it was nice to know he had his father's approval, he was more concerned about Sebastian's well being than his father's acceptance of his best friend. "Will he be all right?"

"Yes," Lucius answered brusquely, "he'll be fine, it's painful but it's nothing that will kill him. But it'll likely be a few days before he's aware of anything other than the pain. All we can do now is sit and wait it out."