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Omegas were a lot of things. Or rather a lot of things they were supposed to be.
And none of them defined Harry.
He didn’t particularly like being an Omega but that was because of the way people looked at him. They expected a lot out of him, not due to his surname and not because of Voldemort—oh they still expected that out of him too—but because of his damn designation.
Designation shouldn’t matter, human came first, no?
Then why was it that no matter where he went everything was marketed toward designation? Omega furniture sections and makeup shelves. Omega clothes, shoes and even brooms. It was a true capitalist horror. What happened to just generalized items that people could buy? Why did it have to be labeled for Omegas for him to be allowed to purchase it?
God forbid he choose to wear Alpha trousers. He got kicked out of three stores before he had learned his lesson. Now he just owl ordered things and hoped it fit.
No matter where he went he was constantly reminded that he was an Omega, as if he could ever fucking forget it. The only times he was able to forget was in the privacy of his own bed and strangely enough whenever he interacted with Malfoy.
Malfoy.
An Alpha.
It didn’t matter what designation Malfoy had; it didn’t change how weird he was.
Malfoy held the door open for everyone, other Alphas included. He let Omegas go first in class and rarely spoke unless called upon. He didn’t strut, never once used his status to get anything and was always so damn polite. If he had opinions on Omegas, it was never once uttered and kept his thoughts to himself.
Harry had never met an Alpha like that. At least, never one so composed, not prone to reacting on instincts.
Ron said it was because the Malfoys were a level of rich that suggested they had eccentricities that the rest of them didn’t understand, and maybe he could get behind that, but he had met Lucius and that man was a raging Alpha prick that his son didn’t emulate and was the furthest thing from.
Even when they fought Malfoy was strange.
The insults that went back and forth never once entered designation status. Malfoy never so much as raised his voice at him, never told him what to do, never suggested how he should act or what to say. He was never brushed aside or made to feel inferior. It was as if Malfoy didn’t even acknowledge designation, didn’t care about it.
It was almost pleasant fighting with Malfoy. It reminded him that he was more than what society said he was. He was more than the Chosen one. He was more than an Omega.
To Malfoy he was just Potter. An annoying classmate that poked all of his buttons whenever he felt like it. Because he could.
Harry liked that. Maybe too much.
So when McGonagall handed him the Emergency Alpha Contact form to fill out after his first reported heat—which was a damn joke to begin with—he didn’t hesitate to fill it out. He didn’t need an Alpha, and he certainly didn’t need an emergency one.
But…
If there was ever going to be someone to help him through a heat. He knew who he’d choose, and it wasn’t a contest.
There was only one answer.
“Are you trying to kill us all with whatever concoction you are making?”
The drawling tone was a pleasant distraction to the small headache brewing behind his eyes. Harry ignored the growl from Ron, as if his posturing ever mattered when it came to Malfoy anyway.
Malfoy never played the Alpha games.
A glance, that’s all Malfoy spared Ron before dismissing him, eyes moving toward Harry.
“Just you,” Harry said, lips curling when Malfoy sneered, but it was half at best with the way his eyes sparkled. Malfoy enjoyed baiting Harry, and he couldn’t deny that he enjoyed it too.
Life would be boring if he couldn’t annoy Malfoy.
“Is that all?” Malfoy said, rolling his eyes. “Unfortunately the fumes coming from your cauldron are going to suffocate everyone, not just me.”
“A miscalculation, I assure you,” Harry said, trying not to smile at the way Malfoy huffed. “I must have missed a step.”
“Or three.”
Harry flipped him off, but he was probably right. He hadn’t been paying much attention to their potion, content with letting Ron do all of the work. He was in a rotten mood and made the executive decision to do as little as possible because he was one inconvenience away from murdering someone.
“You’d do well by trying to fix it,” Malfoy warned, eying Snape briefly. “I’d hate to die before all of my dreams come true.”
Harry snorted. “And just what dreams do you have?”
“Seeing you fail, obviously.”
“Unfortunately for you, you’ll have to wait a long time for that.”
“Good thing I have patience.”
He wanted to retort, wanted to deny it, but Malfoy wasn’t wrong. He did have patience, something most Alphas didn’t have.
“Want to test that?”
Intrigued, Malfoy leaned forward, eyes on Harry’s face as he whispered, “What did you have in mind?”
What were they doing? The fumes from his potion had to be getting to him. He shook his head in an attempt to clear it as he leaned away.
“I don’t know.”
Malfoy tilted his head, one brow arching as he said, “When you figure it out, let me know.”
With that, he was gone, back to his own table and Harry let out a shaky breath. It was a good thing that Malfoy wore blockers, because he wasn’t sure what he’d do if Malfoy smelled good.
Maybe jump off a cliff.
“What was that about?” Ron snarled, one hand hitting the table harshly as Harry rested his cheek on a fist and tried to ignore him.
“Harry.”
Harry rolled his eyes at the demanding tone. It held just enough of an Alpha command that he knew Ron expected an answer, only he didn’t do a damn thing he didn’t want to and continued to ignore him.
“Malfoy isn’t someone you should talk to.”
“Because he’s an Alpha?” Harry asked, playing dumb. “I talk to you, don’t I?”
“Yeah, but—”
“But nothing,” Harry said, tone hard as he turned to Ron. “I will do as I please. If I want to fight with Malfoy I will.”
“Is that what that was?” Ron crossed his arms.
Harry shrugged, knowing that no matter what he said there would be a problem. Both Ron and Hermione got weird when it came to the people that Harry interacted with. They liked to say it was their instincts, but he didn’t need them to be his body guards. He could take care of himself.
“Malfoy is a terrible Alpha.”
“I didn’t know you were into Alphas,” Harry said, smirking when Ron went red and began to cough.
“I’m not.”
“Then you wouldn’t know that he’s a terrible Alpha, would you?”
“He’s weird.”
Harry glanced toward Malfoy, who was listening to Snape critique his work without batting an eye, even nodding along and taking notes. Most Alphas grew upset at being corrected, especially by an Omega—teacher or not.
Yeah, Malfoy was weird.
Only Harry liked that about him.
“Lavender has her heat next week. Overheard her talking about it to some of the Omegas in the hall.”
Ron’s tone was strange, but Harry was distracted by all of the career pamphlets that McGonagall gave him to truly care. They were supposed to be thinking of the future, but that was hard to do when all Harry could think about was whether Voldemort was going to attack him this year or not.
“And I care, why?”
The pamphlets taunted him. McGonagall had given him a large supply of them after he uprooted her table when he was initially presented with only ones suited for Omegas who wanted a family life.
She was another weird Alpha, like Malfoy. She never took his outbursts personally like most Alphas would. She didn’t take away nearly as many points as she should for his sharp tongue and rude attitude. Harry had a hunch that she was rather fond of him.
Ron shrugged, ears going red. “Don’t Omegas like to spend time around other Omegas before their heat?”
Baffled, Harry looked up from his definitive no pile that he had sorted the majority of the pamphlets to, “For what purpose?”
If possible, his face grew redder and if Harry’s mood wasn’t already darkening, he’d have found that funny.
“You know…”
“No, I don’t know, and I think you should just come out and bloody say it.”
“You don’t have to be so hostile,” Hermione tsked, not bothering to look up from her book. “What Ronald is trying and failing to say is that other Omegas benefit from the added hormones released in the preheat stage.”
“That’s a load of rubbish.”
Utter bollocks. Harry huffed as he threw any pamphlets related to the Ministry in the no pile. He had just picked up one for Healers when Hermione sniffed, lifting up her nose.
“It’s written into several medical books and there are dozens of papers about it.”
“Written by Alphas,” Harry snarled, not needing her silence to know that he was right. “Find me an Omega source and just maybe I’ll buy it.”
Hermione peered over her book, forehead creased. “Omegas in the medical field would be unsafe. Healers work hours that would harm—”
Harry tuned her out as anger filled him, all he could hear was a heartbeat in his ears. He was so sick of Alphas and their damn opinions that no one ever asked for. A job was a job. What did it matter if it was an Omega or an Alpha filling the role as long as the job got done? He narrowed his eyes on the pamphlet in his hand.
Healer.
He had never considered that before. He used to want to be an Auror but the more time he spent around the ones in the Order, the more he realized that he would kill all of them within a year. The whole department was filled with Alphas who strutted around like they were a gift from God.
Healer.
It would be a lot of work. Harry liked being lazy from time to time and enjoyed his free time. It was trouble, a lot of trouble. It wasn’t going to be easy, and it would be met with resistance the entire way through… but why not?
He narrowed his eyes as he leaned forward, “If an Alpha can do it, then I can do it better.”
He ignored the way they shared a look, but the more he considered it, the more he realized that he wanted to do it. Partially out of spite, because fuck that, but he could do it.
“So is spending time with Lavender a no?”
Harry snorted, head shaking as he stormed away, shoving all his pamphlets in his bag except for one.
Healer.
“Beautiful night, isn’t it?”
Harry startled, nearly throwing the invisibility cloak off of him as he turned to see Malfoy staring near him, but not quite at him.
“I can smell you, you know.”
“Didn’t think I’d run into anyone else,” Harry grumbled, pulling off the cloak to watch Malfoy step up to the edge of the Astronomy tower, head tilted back to gaze at the stars.
“How very Gryffindor of you,” Malfoy sneered. “It’s no wonder you and your idiot Alphas are always getting caught.”
“They aren’t my Alphas,” Harry said in a rush, head shaking rapidly when Malfoy glanced at him. “I might claim them as friends on a good day, but they are certainly not my Alphas.”
He’d have murdered them years ago if that had been the case.
“And on a bad day?”
“I have no idea who they are on bad days.”
Sometimes, when their damn opinions were too loud, he could understand why most people believed that Omegas and Alphas shouldn’t be friends. It was hard facing so much scrutiny from the world and then hearing the same talking points from them as well was crushing.
He didn’t even blame them, not really. It wasn’t as if they were doing anything other than what was expected of them. Harry felt like he was the only one in the entire world that wanted something different. It was like waking up and realizing that everyone was in a damn cult but him.
There weren’t many people who thought like he did or were progressive enough like him. Not even other Omegas. The only one remotely like him was Snape and that was a fucking punch to the gut.
“They are rather… protective… of you.”
Harry snorted. That was an understatement. “The word you are looking for is possessive.”
That was the crux of it, wasn’t it? As much as they saw him for who he was, they could never separate his designation away. It was as if it was a package deal. Harry the Omega. Not just Harry.
Never just Harry.
To them he was their Omega friend who had to be protected at all costs, who couldn’t be left alone for too long, who had to be watched at all times, who needed protection shields cast around them at all times because the world was just too scary for such an Omega.
It was horse shit.
“I’m so much more than an Omega,” Harry mumbled to himself, hand slapping the stone wall.
“Of course you are.”
He sucked in a sharp breath, grey meeting green as the breath left him in a whoosh at the honesty reflected there.
“I could wipe them out easily,” Harry admitted, biting his lip. “They think they are strong, so tough, but they aren’t.”
Malfoy laughed, the sound elegant in a way that he wished he could emulate. That was the laugh that a proper Omega should have.
“I would pay to see you do it.”
Harry looked up at Malfoy through his lashes. “You think I could do it?”
“Oh, I know you could.”
Easy honesty.
That was why Harry liked Malfoy. Oh, the prick could be an arse at the best of times, but at least he was an honest one.
“One of these days I’m going to go feral,” Harry said with a sigh as he ran his fingers through his already messy hair. Just another detractor for him. Omegas are to be presentable, not a hair out of place.
“I think it would be earned,” Malfoy said, not looking at him as he went back to staring at the sky. “You, Potter, are an enigma. One that I can’t quite figure out.”
“Well, that makes two of us,” Harry grumbled, pouting at the wall as he put all of his weight against it. “But you aren’t so easy to understand either.”
“Oh?” Malfoy tilted his head, but didn’t look at him, and that was frustrating. Harry liked when he had his attention, craved it at times. Especially if it was fiery anger reflected in angrier eyes.
“You’re so different,” Harry whispered, frowning when Malfoy’s eyes closed and his fists clenched.
“In what manner?”
Harry bit his lip, not sure how to answer that. He didn’t particularly care whether he offended Malfoy or not, but the words were hard to articulate.
“You’re not like other Alphas.”
Malfoy’s face shuttered and it had Harry wanting to reach out, but he didn’t, and he knew he’d regret it for a long time to come.
“I mean that in the best way possible,” Harry blurted, blinking in surprise right along with Malfoy who regarded him cautiously. So maybe he did care if he offended him.
“I think we are more similar than we’d like to admit.”
There was a lot that he could say to that, and he wanted to, mouth already parted to speak, but Malfoy turned away from him.
“Good night, Potter.”
He held up his hand, unsure of his own desires. Did he want to go after Malfoy and demand answers? Or let it go?
Harry kicked at the wall. He wished that designations made more sense than they did. Wished that they weren’t even a thing. The world would be better off if there were no Alphas or Omegas.
What was the point?
Malfoy’s words repeated in his mind over and over. Part of him wanted to deny it. Wanted to deny that they could ever have any similarities. Malfoy was a bloody Alpha, he got it good, got a leg up in the world. While Harry had to struggle for every damn inch.
But Malfoy was different. He wasn’t like other Alphas. And in the same sense, Harry wasn’t like other Omegas. They were both different. Far more different than those around them.
What did it matter?
What did it change?
What was the point?
“You don’t look so good.”
Harry said nothing, only placed his cheek on a palm as he tried to focus on what Snape was saying, but he just didn’t care enough. He was having a rough day, had snapped at three Alphas and it wasn’t even lunch. All he wanted to do was go back to sleep.
“You don’t smell good either.”
“Wow, thanks Ron. Is there another insult you want to throw at me too?” Harry grumbled, eyes closing as the sweet cloying scent of whatever potion they were going to make filtered through the room.
“Well, you’ve been a bit… grouchy too.”
Anger simmered underneath his skin, and he tried to remember all of the calming methods that Omegas were supposed to use.
“You would be too if you were stuck in this damn place while Voldemort is out there doing God knows what while killing people and everyone looks at you like you’re the reason he’s still at large.”
Dumbledore had taken a hiatus, left McGonagall in charge while he hunted down Horcruxes with members of the Order, but no, Harry wasn’t allowed to join. He had a future to consider. No one wanted to say the real reason he wasn’t allowed to go too, but the answer was obvious.
Dumbledore only took Alphas with him.
“Yes,” Ron agreed hesitantly as if he was choosing his words carefully and it only made him angrier. He wasn’t a delicate flower that needed to be coddled. “But I didn’t do that to you, mate and neither did Hermione. You’ve been taking it out on us.”
Harry breathed through his nose loudly as he fought his instincts begging him to attack. He knew that they didn’t get it, that they couldn’t get it. They were both Alphas, both used to making their own decisions from the moment they were born. Whereas every decision was taken from him. The whole system was taking its toll on him and he was getting angrier and angrier by the day.
‘Omegas are to be protected.’
‘You can’t do that, that’s for Alphas.’
‘You shouldn’t speak like that; how can you attract a mate?’
‘Alphas are meant for greatness, you know.’
‘You have so much power for an Omega.’
‘An Omega shouldn’t have to save the world, let someone else do it.’
Alphas this, Alphas that. Omegas should do this; Omegas shouldn’t do that.
He was bloody sick of it. The next Alpha to tell him what to do could choke on their fucking knot.
“I’m allowed to be angry, Ron. I’m allowed to express my displeasure. I’m not taking it out on you, I’m venting, but if you don’t quit preaching to me then I really will take it out on you, and you won’t like it.”
“See!” Ron threw up his hands, pushing his scent through the air and it had Harry’s nose wrinkling. Merlin, Ron needed to shower more—his scent was headache inducing. “You get so testy lately. It’s not good for your complexion. Your smell is getting worse. Hermione said that Omegas—”
“Fuck my complexion,” Harry snarled, knocking over his seat as he stood up, drawing the attention of the rest of the class, he pointedly did not look to Malfoy, didn’t want to see his reaction. “Your scent isn’t sunshine and roses either, Ron. You smell like curdled milk at the bottom of a moldy sock! And if you want to keep your prick intact do not finish that sentence. Omegas will do whatever the fuck they want to!”
He was angry, so angry. Not really at Ron, but society. Harry had hoped that the Wizarding world had viewed Omegas differently from Muggles, and they did—sort of. It was more lenient, but not enough. He was still judged, still looked at differently.
Harry was tired of being looked at differently. When was he going to start feeling normal?
“What is going on here?”
The harsh tone was a relief. Harry’s shoulders slumped as Snape’s scent overpowered Ron’s. There was something soothing about being in the presence of another powerful Omega.
“Nothing, sir,” Ron said, grimacing when Snape arched a brow.
“Mister Potter?”
Harry bit his lip, peering up at Snape, trying to gage how much of a bad mood he was in. Maybe that was the true calling of an Omega; bitter anger.
“Sorry sir. I just don’t like being told what to do or how to act.”
There was a slight twitch of Snape’s lips. “The feeling is mutual.”
Harry didn’t particularly care for Snape, but there was a silent understanding between them. He knew he was too mouthy for an Omega and wasn’t as prim and proper as Snape when it came to etiquette, but he knew that without a doubt Snape would have his back when it came to any pushy Alpha who thought they knew what was best for him—especially regarding Dumbledore.
Who would have thought Snape would consistently stand up to Dumbledore for him?
In return, Harry made sure to hex those that spoke negatively about Snape being an Omega. Boot still had a scar on his neck, and he only got a slight scolding from McGonagall about it. She didn’t outright praise him, but she did pat him on the shoulder and offered him a slight smile when he was kicked out of her office.
“Ten points from Gryffindor,” Snape said, smirking when Ron groaned and Harry shrugged. School points only mattered the first couple years of school before the novelty of it wore off. “You would do well to learn some respect Mister Weasley.”
“Yes, sir.”
Harry righted his stool and ignored the whispers that surrounded them. He didn’t have any fucks to give to care about what the gossip rumor would be once they left. So he had a row with Ron, they always fought, and the school knew that.
“See, Alphas shouldn’t be friends with Omegas. It upsets the balance.”
Harry clenched his hands, knuckles going white as he turned his head to glare at Smith who paled, letting out a meep before he went back to his potion.
Some fucking tough Alpha he was.
Ron opened his mouth, but Harry held up a hand.
“I am in a terrible mood and if you speak I can’t be held liable for my actions. I am just itching for a physical fight. You should let it be directed at Malfoy and not you.”
He could tell that Ron was considering his options. Despite what people thought, Ron was smart, very smart. So why he was prone to making stupid decisions was beyond him. When Ron’s mouth parted again, Harry cracked his knuckles in warning.
“Are you sure you’re not about to go into heat? It would explain a lot of your—”
With a snarl that could chill any Alpha to their bones, Harry launched himself forward. It took three different people to pull him off of Ron and he made sure to bite all three of them too.
“He’s gone mental!”
“I knew something was wrong with him. Probably all of the pressure.”
“And to think that the Dark Lord has been hunting down that?”
“Omegas are known for being emotional, you know that.”
They were lucky he was restrained by two Alphas that struggled to drag him out of the room, or they’d be next.
The only good thing that came of the whole disaster was that the remainder of the Potions lesson had been canceled.
Some fucking silver lining.
Harry’s head was foggy from whatever potion Madam Pomfrey gave him, and he wanted to bite her for it—tried to anyway. He didn’t give his consent, and they didn’t ask. If he had been an Alpha, they would’ve had him sign a waiver saying that the potions could be administered. But not Harry, no, because Omegas couldn’t make their own fucking decisions.
“Enough pouting, it will do you some good.”
Says fucking who?
The three people he bit had luckily been placed in a different section of the hospital wing, because he was angry enough for a round two.
“Are you feeling any better, Mister Potter?”
“Fuck no.”
A pause. “Such language is beneath you.”
“Because I’m an Omega or because I’m the Chosen One?” Harry tried to snarl but his head was so cloudy that all he could do was turn his head. Someone had removed his glasses, but he could still make out her pinched expression and her obvious disdain for him.
“Your medical scan shows that your previous heats have all been in the summer.”
Alarm had him attempting to get up. Why would she have looked that up? Why was there even a spell for that? Why did the Wizarding world have to be so damn invasive?
“Once a year isn’t the healthiest, but not unheard of. However, considering the testimonies of your fellow classmates, you’re temperament would suggest that you would do well to have another one.”
The alarm bled to horror, and he shook his head back and forth. Who the fuck did they think they were? They couldn’t tell him when he was to have a heat. That wasn’t up to them! That was—
“With Dumbledore being unavailable at the moment, it is my prerogative as a healer that your health would improve drastically and therefore, I deem it to be medically necessary.”
“You can’t!” Harry said, breath coming in quickly. He always had his heats in the summer because his relatives left him alone. They weren’t of any comfort, but they wanted nothing to do with him. It was safe, he knew it was.
But Hogwarts?
Harry hadn’t been safe the day he stepped foot in the school, and he didn’t dare think that his heat would be any different.
“You will find that I can, and that I will.”
Harry clenched his eyes tightly, willing himself not to cry. It wasn’t right, it wasn’t fair. How could they induce a heat against his will? They didn’t force ruts on Alphas, didn’t make them give up the rights of their body.
It made him sick.
“I will not have an audience,” Harry said, trying to control his magic that wanted to snap, wanted to slam her to the floor and attack. His anger was getting out of control, but he had learned long ago that it was part of him. The connection to Voldemort made it worse, he didn’t need someone else’s anger inside of him too, he did that all on his own without the added rage.
“An Alpha can—”
“No,” Harry said, teeth clenched as a wave of dizziness hit him and he had to lay back down. Whatever potions were in him were making him sleepy. “I won’t do it.”
“The paperwork you signed listed one, but should you change your mind you’ll have to formally reject their assistance when the time comes.”
Only part of what she said reached his ears as his mind grew drowsy and his eyes slipped closed.
Paperwork. Reject. Assistance.
What paperwork?
When Harry awoke next it was to see that he was in a private room. He had rolled over to one side during the night and guessing by the scratchy sheet under him he was still in the hospital wing.
His head hurt and he knew it was a side effect of all of the potions that had been given to him. He tried to recall everything that had happened. Flashes of the previous day came back to him, and he grimaced a bit when he realized that the papers were going to have a field day. He could see the headline now:
‘Potter Attacks Alphas but not the Dark Lord? Whose Side is he Really on?’
He closed his eyes and flopped on his back, wishing he was still asleep. He wasn’t in heat yet, but he knew he would be soon. Could feel it brewing.
Lovely.
A strange scent had his nose twitching. It wasn’t one he recognized but fuck did it smell good.
Too good.
Like really good.
He wanted to bottle it up and pour it over his blankets and pillows. It would make the perfect addition to his nest. Not that he ever did much for a nest outside of a few spare Snitches and the treacle tart cologne the twins gave him as a gag gift.
That smell was better than any treacle tart.
“Nice of you to join the land of the living, Potter.”
Oh no.
No.
No.
That voice. The drawl. The cadence. The tone.
Fuck.
Harry opened one eye as he slightly tilted his head hoping that he was getting delirious and that it was his heat causing illusions and that it wasn’t really—
A slight whimper.
It wasn’t a figment of his imagination.
“Malfoy.”
He had hoped to sound elusive and suave, but it was hoarse and a bit startled instead.
Lovely.
“Just kill me now.”
A slight chuckle as Malfoy leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “And do the Dark Lord the favor? I don’t think so.”
Harry blinked a few times, letting that sink in. He had known that with Lucius in Azkaban, Malfoy’s mother had defected publicly, but he hadn’t really had time to consider that it would change anything with Malfoy too. Had they both just gone along with Lucius because they had to?
“Why are you here?”
Malfoy arched two brows instead of one, which was usually reserved for when a particularly stupid comment was made. Harry would know, it was often reflected at him.
“I assume it’s because you put me down as your Emergency Alpha Contact.”
The entire world shifted and wait, no that was his head spinning as he tried not to panic and vomit.
“You did list me, no?” Malfoy asked, head tilted and eyes dark with something that he didn’t want to figure out.
Yeah, okay, so maybe he had listed Malfoy as an Emergency Alpha Contact. But it had been a joke, honestly. Why did Hogwarts require Omegas put down an Emergency Alpha Contact anyways? Harry hadn’t thought he’d ever need it. He definitely didn’t think they’d actually contact Malfoy of all people.
“I didn’t think I’d ever need it.”
An arched brow. “Still. Why me?”
Harry grimaced, fingers picking at the scratchy sheets. “I certainly wasn’t going to pick Ron or Hermione.”
He loved his friends, really, he did. But they were not compatible at all. Their scents were barely tolerable to him, and they were just so damn opinionated when it came to Omegas that even if he had been interested he’d have been limp through the whole ordeal—heat or no heat.
“Still a rather large leap to me, don’t you think?”
“Would you believe me if I said it was a joke?”
Malfoy regarded him with narrowed eyes, searching his face. “Possibly, but even you know that there are some heats that are unexpected regardless of the foresight to plan for one. Some part you knew that were was a remote chance that it would happen. So why pick me?”
“Does it matter?” Harry snarled, nails ripping into the blasted sheets. “It’s not like I wanted to actually go through with it, okay? I just want to suffer in silence.”
He expected anger at being rejected, or even maybe a smidgen of hurt pride, but Malfoy held his hands up in surrender.
“That’s your right. You get to make all the commands here, not me. I just want to know why it was me that you chose at all.”
“I don’t know,” Harry reluctantly grumbled, not meeting Malfoy’s eyes, not wanting to see how pretty they were. It wasn’t fair. Alphas already had a leg up in life, why did they get to be stupidly attractive too?
“I don’t know,” Harry said again, frowning at the way Malfoy seemed so unbothered by it. If their roles had been reverse he was pretty sure he’d have freaked the fuck out. “Maybe it’s because you always hide your scent.”
Or rather, he used to.
The scent was clearly wafting off of Malfoy and despite everything, he just wanted to lean forward and get a big whiff of it, maybe even hold it in and never exhale.
Merlin, his heat was getting to him.
Just one arched brow this time, so it wasn’t too much of a stupid thing to say.
“I’m not the only one here who hides their scent.”
Harry waved that away. “Most of them are Omegas. You’re one of the few Alphas doing it.”
Ron said that it was a pure-blood thing. That some of them were pretentious and hid their scents for societal reasons. Harry didn’t think that was true. What was the societal benefit of hiding your scent when your designation was marked at birth? Everyone already knew what you were, there wasn’t a point to hiding your scent. It didn’t make any sense.
“One of a few isn’t the only one.”
“They aren’t you.”
Malfoy’s eyes widened and had it been under different circumstances he would have marveled at the accomplishment that it was to surprise Malfoy, but he could only look away and pray that his cheeks weren’t as red as they felt.
“I need more than that.”
“Tell me why you showed up at all and I might answer you.”
A huff. “I had to, Potter. Alphas selected as an emergency contact are supposed to be an honor. It means that you are who an Omega is seeking at their most vulnerable.”
Had to.
Harry grimaced, not liking the choice of wording. He wasn’t sure why he cared. It had been a joke to write him down, really, it had. Only… the small part of him that thought it might be needed ached.
The hormones fueling his preheat were making him doubt himself. A joke. It had been a damn joke.
Right?
“And,” Malfoy continued softly, “If it was true, that you wanted me, well, I had to find out.”
He couldn’t help it. He looked up to see Malfoy looking at him intently. He had no idea what emotions were there or what he might be thinking and that was a little nerve-wracking. Malfoy wasn’t wrong, Harry was at his most vulnerable.
“And the scent?”
Malfoy grimaced, looking down at his hands and at least that Harry could read, that was a simple deduction of avoidance. If only Malfoy could always be that simple.
“Every Malfoy heir since the beginning of our line has always hidden their scent, even after marriage.”
“Why?”
Maybe it made sense when he realized that all of the Malfoy marriages had most likely been contracts. It wouldn’t matter if there was compatibility among them if the contract demanded the marriage anyway. There was probably a lot of stipulations regarding children too.
“My father calls it the Malfoy curse,” Malfoy said, lips curling as he sneered at his hands. “Did you know that if you bribe the healers during delivery with enough money that they’ll write down any designation?”
Harry gasped, before covering his mouth as he winced. The sneer faded slightly as Malfoy glanced at him briefly, lips mellowing into something resembling a smile, not a full one, but it was something and that was another marvel. He hadn’t realized he had the capability to make Malfoy not-smile.
“My father is an Omega—”
Harry let out a slight wheeze that had Malfoy’s lips twitching. What. What.
What?
Lucius Malfoy was an Omega? Mister tall, rude and prim was an Omega? The voice that could and has chilled Alphas into a standstill was from an Omega? A sneer so powerful it made first years cry was from an Omega?
Lucius fucking Malfoy was an Omega?
Harry was almost proud. His theory that the true calling of Omegas being bitter anger was coming truer by the minute.
“My grandfather was an Omega. My great-grandfather was an Omega. My great-great-grandfather was an Omega, and so on. I am the first and only Alpha of my lineage.”
A shaky exhale as Harry tried to wrap his mind around both the shock of it all and then the trust in telling him—of all people—about it.
“The Malfoy family has always hidden their scent. It was the secret that couldn’t get out, the one thing that had to always remain hidden.”
“And yet, I can smell you.”
The exhale Malfoy let out was far shakier than his had been, and it came with hands that shook just as badly.
“I shouldn’t have done it, I shouldn’t have taken off the blockers, but I just wanted—” Malfoy clenched his hands and his eyes. “I just wanted to start off evenly. If you had truly wanted this, then I didn’t want you to be the only one giving up something. Omegas are supposed to enjoy their partners scent, take comfort in it and let it surround their nest. I just thought that maybe you—”
There was a pinkness to Malfoy’s cheeks when he quit talking and Harry was reluctantly endeared by it. Here Malfoy was citing Omega blurbs as if all Omegas liked the same things. But it showed that he had done some level of research outside of, ‘I’m an Alpha hear me roar. Are you wet yet?’ And he appreciated it.
“What if I didn’t like your scent?”
Two arched brows. Oof.
“Keep in mind that I can smell you, Potter. You like my scent.”
Harry wanted to refute it, maybe even lie and say that Malfoy smelled as bad as Ron, but he didn’t think he could pull it off.
“Maybe just a little.” A snort. “A smidgen.” Another snort. “Like a minuscule amount.”
“Give it up already.”
No.
Harry didn't like being told what to do, and he was going to do the opposite at any given moment. He opened his mouth, but when Malfoy arched a brow, he chose to say nothing. Entirely his choice. Had nothing to do with Malfoy. At all.
“Are you going to tell me the truth now?”
“I don’t wanna,” Harry grumbled, crossing his arms and hoping that his face didn’t appear to be pouting. He was very much above such—
“Don’t pout at me.”
Harry groaned as he pushed further into the bed, wishing that it would swallow him whole. “I picked you because you’re different. There, are you happy?”
“What does that mean? You said that before but never fully explained.”
“God, you’re just full of questions today, aren’t you?” Harry snarled and it was all anger and all fangs. Usually, that would work on Ron or Hermione. They would either get angry at being challenged and row with him, or they would back off until he cooled down.
But not with Malfoy, never with him. He just—
A half quirk of a smile.
Who even did that? Who responded to anger, insults and biting tones with amusement and sort of smiles? It was like he found Harry funny. Despite all of their arguments and fights, he never felt like he was being laughed at, but there was an underlying sense of humor that Harry just didn’t understand.
“How am I different?”
“You don’t treat me like an Omega,” Harry finally admitted. That was the crux of it. It didn’t matter how many times they got into petty squabbles and silly tiffs, Malfoy never once treated him like an Omega, only every talked to him as the person he was, not his designation.
“At every angle of my life someone is always harping at me for my designation. What to say, how to say it. How to act, who to be. Can’t slouch but also can’t be too tall or I won’t be noticed. Can’t be angry, never angry—only shy, sweet and demure. Omegas are prim and proper. They are kind and giving. Alphas are to save lives and Omegas are to be there when they get back. Well I’m bloody fucking sick of it.
“I didn’t choose to be Voldemort’s victim. I didn’t choose to be an Omega either. I didn’t choose a damn thing but all of my choices that I should have are taken from at every opportunity and I’m about ready to murder some people!”
There it was. That quirk of a smile again.
“I don’t understand you,” Harry whispered, forehead creasing. “You never react how I expect you to.”
“That’s because you don’t know me,” Malfoy said. There was no malice, it wasn’t a dig, it was just honesty.
By God, someone was being honest with him—for once—and he didn’t even have to beg for it.
This was why he chose Malfoy.
This was why he had decided that if there should ever come a time when he had to have an Emergency Alpha Contact, that it would be someone who he knew would be honest with him. Because despite how rude Malfoy came across, he rarely ever lied. He was brutally honest with his words and his biting tongue.
“I spent the better part of my life thinking I was an Omega,” Malfoy said, lips stretching into an actual grin when Harry let out another strangled wheeze. “My entire family line has been Omegas, and their written designations were Alphas. I thought that was me too. I thought that I was going to have to hide who I am. My family kept journals as a sort of Omega rite of passage. Lesson plans in Omega ways because they couldn’t take the Omega classes with their peers, they couldn’t go to their Omega appointments, so they kept written accounts of Omega anatomy—”
Harry’s heart ached a little at that. He couldn’t imagine having to hide yourself in such a capacity that no one could ever know. No one. Restricted to reading journals and hoping to find guidance. What if an ailment wasn’t listed? What if their heat experience wasn’t the same as someone else’s?
“—hoping it would be enough. I consumed them, all of the journals. I learned everything that I could because I knew that it would be the only way I would be understood outside of finding Omega friends to watch and learn from. I fully believed that I was an Omega.”
“What changed your mind?”
“My first rut. I was thirteen and had a panic attack,” Malfoy said with a humorless laugh. “I studied everything I could on how to be a proper Omega. I knew what to expect for the first heat, knew how to act and how to clean up after myself. Only, it wasn’t slick on my arse, it was a knot on my dick. I didn’t know what to do! Being an Alpha never crossed my mind, it was never something I learned or even bothered looking into.”
Harry let out a low whistle, grateful that he was already laying down. It made so much sense. There had been so many times during their arguments that Malfoy just responded weirdly. Not in a way that one would expect an Alpha to, not exactly the way an Omega would either.
Malfoy was just weird.
“What did you end up doing?”
A snort before Malfoy shook his head. “I wrote to my father, and it was the biggest mistake of my life.”
Harry sat up, hating that he was concerned, hating that his hand automatically reached for Malfoy’s to comfort him. Before he could snatch it away, Malfoy placed his other hand on top of it.
“I think he was jealous,” Malfoy admitted, eyes on the edge of Harry’s bed, unseeing. “I think he wanted to be an Alpha so bad but wasn’t. Whereas I had already accepted being an Omega and was content with it. In a way, I felt cheated.”
When Malfoy looked up there was a wary edge to them, as if he thought that Harry might make fun of him. When he remained quiet, only then did Malfoy continue.
“Reading those journals made me feel connected to my ancestors, it made me feel like I belonged to a long line of Omegas that had the will to do whatever was needed of them for the Malfoy name. I thought that I was doing my part, that me being an Omega was not only expected but foretold. I wanted to be an Omega, and then it was pulled out from underneath me and I didn’t know who to be.”
“And now?” Harry couldn’t help but ask, wanted to know more about Malfoy, was itching for every possible detail he could get. “Do you know who to be now?”
A deprecating shrug as Malfoy frowned, not meeting his eyes.
“I couldn’t tell you the first thing about being an Alpha,” Malfoy admitted. “Ironic, isn’t it? The first Alpha in a long line of Omegas and I don’t know how to be one. My father plays the part better than I ever could.”
“I think it’s a good thing,” Harry said, smiling at the wide-eyed expression from Malfoy. “Whenever we fought, you never insulted my designation or made fun of my instincts. You never used my status as a reason to assert dominance, and you never tried to tell me what to do. Alphas never do that. Alphas always think they know what’s best and think that just because they are an Alpha that their word is the law.”
“I know,” Malfoy said, lips pursed. “I see it all the time. It doesn’t matter what house you’re in, or even what blood status you have. Omegas are always being ordered around and told how they aren’t doing enough.”
Harry nodded, anger manifesting again. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair. How could a world look at an entire group of people and see them as inferior? And based off what? Because they were the majority?
It was utter bollocks.
“Even when I thought I was an Omega, I admired you,” Malfoy admitted, eyes sparkling a bit when Harry gasped. “You are everything that Omegas aren’t supposed to be.”
His stomach churned a bit at that, and he felt his eyes sting.
“Hey,” Malfoy whispered, scooting his chair closer, the scrape of the legs loud in the now silent room. “I meant that in a good way.”
Harry shook his head. “I’m not a good Omega.”
“Don’t say that.”
“I’m not,” Harry said, the stinging in his eyes too much for him. “I’m too loud, too mean, too angry. I want to attack Alphas for looking at me wrong. I want to fight those that judge me. I want to break the fingers of those that try to tell me what to do. I hate the society we live in. I don’t want to be sweet; I don’t know the word docile and being kind is the furthest thing in my mind. I’m a bad Omega.”
“So what.”
Harry looked up and that was when Malfoy gently wiped his eyes, and it had his breath catching.
“So what,” Malfoy repeated, eyes softer than they had any right to be. “So what if you don’t fit their definition of an Omega? Be your own Omega. I used to envy the freedom you had when expressing yourself. I thought I was an Omega who had to hide it, and it turned out that I was just a fraud. I’m probably the worst example of an Alpha, but I’m learning as I go—”
“No, no, no,” Harry shook his head rapidly. “Don’t learn a single thing. You’re fine as you are!”
“I am?” Malfoy said, lips quirking upward. “I don’t have any Alpha journals to read or learn from.”
“You don’t need them, trust me,” Harry said quickly. “They’ll just ruin a perfectly good subject.”
“Subject?” One arched brow, he had to tread carefully.
“I just mean,” Harry pausing to bite his lip. “You’re the kind of Alpha I wish was everywhere.”
Malfoy flushed and Harry blamed his preheat for allowing him the courage to press the back of his hand to it, and feeling the warmth spread to his skin.
“Why?” Malfoy whispered, eyes closing when Harry began to gently move his hand across a pale cheek. “I don’t know how to act.”
“Neither do I,” Harry admitted, eyes crinkling when it all began to click. That was another reason why he had chosen Malfoy. “We make an interesting pair, don’t we?”
Malfoy’s eyes snapped open, staring right at him with an intensity that made him shiver.
“I thought you didn’t want this.”
Harry licked his lips, feeling desired and wanted when Malfoy’s eyes zeroed in on it.
“I changed my mind.”
And he was ninety-two percent sure of it. Harry took a shaky breath as he thought it over. He had several heats, could do them alone like usual, but he didn’t want to. Not when Malfoy was right here, not when he was worried that if they left this room parting ways that they would never have this understanding again.
“I need you to mean it,” Malfoy said, one hand coming up to cover Harry’s palm that was still on his cheek. “There are repercussions to sleeping with me.”
Harry was used to repercussions; his whole life had been a series of them. What could one more hurt?
“Like what?”
“Well, for starters it’ll void any marital contract my parents created for me as a child.”
“Good. Unless… you don’t want that?” Harry said, wincing when he realized that he hadn’t stopped to consider all of the pure-blood shite when he realized that his libido was fully on board with Malfoy’s prick.
“You give me freedom on a silver platter and think I will turn it away?” Malfoy whispered, head turning to press a kiss to his palm and it had Harry’s inside melting.
Freedom. There was freedom in having a choice. Madam Pomfrey had taken his away when forcing him to have a heat, but it was Harry’s choice on who he spent it with, whether with someone or not.
He might have given Malfoy the freedom from the future, but Harry was going to choose his own freedom too.
Freedom looked like a baby Alpha who didn’t know how to strut, and it was the sexiest thing in the entire world.
“I might ruin you,” Harry warned, unable to hold it in. “Every undisciplined Omega story that starts off with bad posture, a bad mouth and an even worse attitude features me.”
Malfoy leaned forward as he smirked. “I think letting an Omega ruin me is exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
Fuck.
“Are you even real?”
A low chuckle that did things to his insides had Harry squirming to hear it again and again. He wanted Malfoy.
But first…
“I like to wear Alpha trousers,” Harry blurted, flushing when he realized how wild it came out.
“Okay?” Malfoy blinked a few times, and it had his face heating up more.
“I speak out of turn, and I will rarely ever listen to orders,” Harry continued with a deep breath. He knew it didn’t sound important, but he had to know what Malfoy thought, needed to know otherwise there was no point going forward. “I make fun of Alphas, and I’ll probably make fun of you too.”
“You already do.”
“I have a lot of ideas, ones that no one wants to hear, but I’m going to make them happen one day.”
“That, I have no doubt.”
Harry knew he was still red in the face, only now it was Malfoy’s fault. It wasn’t fair. How could a perfect Alpha exist? Alphas were supposed to suck, all of them.
“I want to be a Healer.”
Malfoy’s forehead creased briefly, and part of him braced for the scathing—
“You’ll need a potions tutor.”
A pause.
Harry snorted, hating that Malfoy was right. He would need a tutor in potions.
“Do you know where I might find one?” Harry teased, lips curling when Malfoy sat up straighter. “Preferably from a hot Slytherin Alpha, blond and far too smart for his own good.”
Malfoy leaned forward. “I just might know one.”
They were close, far closer than he ever thought they would be, and it had his head spinning. Or maybe that was his preheat.
“I want you.”
Malfoy’s eyes widened before crinkling in the now familiar way that had Harry’s heart skipping a beat.
“I want you too, Potter. Have for quite some time.”
“Oh? Do continue, my ego needs it.”
An eye roll as Malfoy warded the door to the room and put up several privacy spells. It had him nervous, but not enough to want to stop.
“I like that you’re different,” Malfoy said over his shoulder as he continued to put up spells. “I think it’s funny when you attack Alphas.”
“Even if it’s you?”
“Especially if it’s me.”
God, Malfoy was so weird. So why was he grinning? Why did he like that? Why did Harry like Malfoy?
Maybe he was weird too.
“What about when I get mouthy?”
A slight shudder. “Definitely like that.”
How peculiar. It was like everything society told Malfoy to like; he did the opposite. Harry was no picture-perfect Omega and yet Malfoy liked him anyway.
“You really want this?” Harry asked, hoping it didn’t sound as insecure as he was beginning to feel. Nothing ever seemed to go right for him, and he was having a hard time believing that he’d get this. That the perfect Alpha for him was actually interested.
Everyone else got the happy endings.
Not him.
Malfoy turned around, brows a bit pinched before he leaned over Harry’s bed until they were inches apart.
“Harry.”
He shuddered at the use of his name and the addicting scent rolling off Malfoy. Fuck. It was Malfoy’s turn to shudder when the distinct smell of slick hit the air, and he felt himself get a bit wet.
“That’s so embarrassing,” Harry whined, trying to turn his head away in a pathetic attempt at hiding, but Malfoy pressed their foreheads together, stopping him.
“I want you, Harry. When I was told that you put me down as your Emergency Alpha Contact, I couldn’t believe it. Me. You wanted me? I knew there had to be some catch. Whether it was just so you could reject me or—”
“I’m cruel, but not that cruel.”
His stomach churned at the thought of someone being selected just to be rejected or ridiculed. Merlin, did that happen? Were there people out there who would do that?
“I know, but the mind can be our worst enemy,” Malfoy said, and it held a bit too much of understanding and it had Harry flushing. “I have wanted you in many capacities. I wanted you when I thought I was an Omega. I wanted you during my first rut when I was out of my mind with hormones and could only picture you on my knot. I wanted you when you got detention for attacking Smith and then not even a day later you attacked Boot, Merlin that was hot. I wanted you when you study outside and your hand looks like it needs to be held—”
“Gah! You’re so embarrassing, stop,” Harry said, wishing he could cover Malfoy’s mouth.
“I want you, Harry.”
“I’ve gathered that by now.”
Malfoy rubbed their noses together and the intimacy had his breath catching and his eyes stinging. He never thought he’d get that. Never thought he’d find an Alpha he could tolerate let alone one that he’d let them touch him.
“I want you too.”
Eyes searched his intently before a slightly awed and breathy whisper of, “You mean that.”
Words evaded him as he nodded once, twice and let out a little laugh when kisses were pressed to his face in a rapid succession. Malfoy was such a soft Alpha.
And fuck if that wasn’t hot.
“This is a dream,” Malfoy whispered, lips pressed to Harry’s skin as he trailed kisses down his neck. “Or a fantasy come true.”
“What kind of fantasies do you have?”
“They all star you.”
Flushing, Harry smacked Malfoy’s back lightly, shivering when he could feel the warm breath of a chuckle brush against his skin.
“It doesn’t compare,” Malfoy whispered, tongue coming out to play at the same moment Harry felt his clothes vanish. The cold air was nothing to the warm skin against his own. “You are a vision that no fantasy could ever dream of replicating.”
“You’re such a smooth talker.”
Harry didn’t know what to do with that. Malfoy being suave was not something he could have predicted, and he found himself rather tongue-tied.
“For you.”
Flushing, he turned his head away to hide his face, and Malfoy took advantage of that and began to suck marks into his neck. When a tongue gently poked at his scent glands he gasped, back arching before he groaned.
“Oh hell.”
He had known it was a sensitive spot but—
Lips gently pressed against the gland before sucking lightly and Harry’s vision blacked out and he limply collapsed to the bed.
“Are you alright?”
Each word was pressed against the gland, and it had Harry shuddering repeatedly.
“Malfoy.”
“Mm, I don’t think so.”
The lips moved away and so did the warm skin. Harry frowned, turning his head to see Malfoy holding himself pointedly near him but not touching.
“Call me by my name.”
Harry blinked a few times.
“I can’t do this and be Malfoy to you,” he whispered, eyes downcast. “I can’t.”
As if there was ever a worry.
“Draco.”
When Draco gasped, eyes snapping to him, wide and surprised, Harry grinned softly and repeated his name over and over again.
“Draco.”
Draco shuddered, hands reaching out to hold onto Harry as if needing the support to remain upright.
“Draco.”
Eyes closed, Draco moved over him, body shaking as they made contact again and for the first time in his life, Harry slowly released calming pheromones in an attempt to soothe an Alpha.
“Whoa,” Draco exhaled, eyes snapping open before closing again as he tilted his head back to sniff the air with deep exaggerated inhales. “Fuck, you smell good.”
“What do I smell like?” He couldn’t help but ask. Ron and Hermione didn’t care for his scent, and neither did the Dursleys, but no one ever said what he smelled like.
Draco’s cheeks went a bit pink as he said, “You smell like the outside. The grass on a windy day, Quidditch on a stormy night.”
Scents were strange. It was possible to smell like many things to different people. It all came down to compatibility. If you weren’t compatible, then the scent someone gave off would never be attractive to them. Scents were the inspiration behind Amortentia and that was why it was such a popular potion. It forced attraction where there wasn’t any to begin with.
“You smell like dessert,” Harry said, flushing again when Draco looked at him, brows arched. “A warm treacle tart, a fresh pie.”
Draco leaned down to run his tongue along Harry’s chest. “Does my little Omega have a sweet tooth?”
There wasn’t anything possessive in his tone, but it still had him shuddering a bit, slick once again leaking out.
“I wasn’t allowed to have sweets with the Dursleys.”
He was barely allowed to have food, but Draco didn’t need to know that. When angry eyes met his, he had a feeling that the Dursleys were going to find themselves on the wrong end of a wand anyway.
“Among other things, I presume?”
“Maybe.”
That was all that Draco was going to get out of him. He didn’t want to spend a single second thinking of the Dursleys unless forced to. He damn sure didn’t want to think of them during his heat.
“You know,” Draco began slowly, fingers trailing up Harry’s sides just as slowly. “I never did like Muggles.”
Harry snorted, lips quirking as he said, “Oh?”
“Say the word, and I can come up with several fitting punishments.”
There it was again.
Choice.
Draco was letting him make the decisions. Any other Alpha would have felt as if it was encroaching their territory to let the Dursleys’ past treatment of him go unchecked. They wouldn’t have taken his word, would have made the choice for him.
Harry was quickly succumbing to Draco and the kind of Alpha he was. He was so turned on.
“Come up with a five-page essay detailing the many options and I might just let you.”
A beautiful laugh filled the room before Draco looked down at him, one had cupping Harry’s cheek.
“Anything you want.”
Harry believed him too.
“Anything?”
There was a softness to Draco’s face, but his eyes were intense in their honesty, and it was refreshing to see, to hear, and to experience.
“If it’s within my means, I would give you anything, Harry. Anything.”
Fuck. Draco was not good for his health. Not good at all.
“For now, I just want one thing.”
An arched brow.
Harry leaned up the best he could with Draco still on top of him as he said, “Fuck me.”
A groan, a flash of white before a pink lip was ensnared and grey eyes grew dark, and half lidded.
“Touch me,” Harry continued, wanting to see how much he could push Draco. “Kiss me.”
Lips captured his in a hot, messy kiss and if his mouth wasn’t already preoccupied he would have gasped. Hands began to roam, and it took all of his concentration as unfamiliar sensations began to overwhelm him.
As their lips moved over and over, hands found their way to his chest, and he really did gasp—head jerking back—when fingers grazed over his nipples. A soft moan escaped when those elegant fingers pinched his nipples. He had read that Omegas could be sensitive there, but the desire never struck during his other heats. Maybe it felt better with someone else.
“Mmm,” Draco moaned against his skin as lips left a hot trail down his throat until they came in contact with his right nipple. “Your desire heightens mine.”
He didn’t doubt that. Draco’s scent had intensified, leaving a trace against Harry’s skin and part of him hoped it would never come clean.
“Is this what you wanted?” Draco asked, one brow arched as he teasingly blew a breath against the pebbled nipple. “You got my touch and my kiss.”
Harry narrowed his eyes, willing his magic to—
“Ow,” Draco hissed, glaring at him as he rubbed his arse. “Was that necessary?”
“Don’t tease me, Malfoy.”
“Don’t call me that.”
Harry lifted his nose. “Then you best get to touching me.”
There was the expected scoff, the expected eye roll and he should have expected the quirk of a smile, but it still took his breath away at how unusual Draco was as an Alpha. No other Alpha would have accepted an Omega to tell them what to do.
Draco shuddered, eyes closing as he sniffed once. “Why do you do that? You get wetter whenever I—”
“You’re hot,” Harry blurted, not even feeling embarrassed anymore. “You’re such a soft Alpha and it turns me on.”
“I’m not soft.”
Harry didn’t think that Draco would take it kindly if he was to laugh in his face while they were naked, so he restrained himself—barley.
“You are, you really are. A baby Alpha, a—”
A gasp tore out of him when Draco bit near his scent gland on his wrist. It was a warning, and fuck if that didn’t make him wet too.
“You’re an unusual Omega yourself.”
Fuck if he didn’t know it.
“Ah hell,” Harry said, voice coming out choked as Draco gently swirled his tongue around the scent gland.
He could feel the smirk pressed to his skin and that was hot too. Why was he turned on by everything Draco did? It couldn’t be his heat talking.
“What kind of touch do you want?” Draco asked as he kissed up his arm. “Do you want my fingers? My mouth?”
Harry’s head swam with all of the different images his words ignited. How was he to decide when it all sounded good? He let out a distressed whine, one that he knew was attributed to his heat, but he couldn’t help it, couldn’t fight the instincts clawing at him.
“Shh,” Draco cooed. “You can have it all. Eat your fill, be greedy.”
Greedy.
He had never been greedy before. Harry nodded rapidly, hair getting in his face in the process as he said, “Yes,” over and over.
Fingers went back to his nipples and his mouth parted to let out small moans, but they quickly turned louder when a hot, wet tongue licked a stripe up his rock-hard cock.
“Draco!”
The smirk again, only it was pressed into his dick. If he his head had been just a little clearer he might have told Draco where he could shove it, but all he could think about were those pink, pretty lips and how much prettier they’d look around his cock. Said as much too.
The smirk widened as Draco said, “And who am I to deny such a beautiful Omega?”
Gah. Harry flushed, hating that Draco could still fluster him. Damn soft Alphas and their suave tongues.
“Just you wait until it’s your rut, you’re going to regret ever teasing me.”
He meant it too. Draco would rue the day he ever—
A shaky breath had him blinking a few times into wide eyes. “You want to share my rut with me?”
Harry licked his lips. He had thought that they had established something. What was the point of the broken marriage contracts if Draco only wanted—
“Hey,” Draco whispered, hands coming up to rub into Harry’s sides. “I want that, don’t misunderstand. I want the next five ruts with you. I just hadn’t realized you wanted that too.”
“Only the next five?”
“Well, I did tell you to be greedy didn’t I?” There was a smile in his voice but a smirk on his lips and the dichotomy to Draco had always fascinated him, drew him in.
“What if I want to be gluttonous?”
Draco opened his arms. “By all means. Take what you want. You can have all of my ruts.”
That was dangerous. Very dangerous. Because what if Harry didn’t want to give it back? What if he wanted to take and take and take?
“If I must.”
A snort before Draco rolled his eyes. “You think you’re funny.”
Before he could say that of course he was, his train of thought evaporated when Draco pressed a kiss to the head of his dick. Grey eyes were sparkling with mirth, and that was the only reason that he didn’t let out a sound. Didn’t want Draco to win. Even in sex they were going to argue.
An arched brow, slightly narrowed eyes and that was when he realized that Draco had caught on to what he was doing. When a tongue came out to play, Harry had to dig his nails into his palms to keep quiet.
Draco’s eyes narrowed further, and it was kind of hot to know that he could affect him like that. Harry wanted to push all of his buttons and then find even more to mess with but that went out the window when his cock slid into Draco’s mouth.
Harry had imagined it before, pictured getting head from Draco several times while in heat, but the fantasy of that wicked mouth around his dick was not even close to the reality of it. No fantasy could have ever prepared him for how warm and wet Draco’s mouth would feel. It sent shivers down his spine and pleasure tensing his body. He wanted to rip into the sheets and tear into the bedding just to give him something to do, needing an outlet—any outlet.
When a grip to his wrist guided him to blond silky locks, he didn't need to be told twice—instantly holding tight and pulling.
A moan around his cock had him gasping, body twitching slightly as his dick throbbed and his mind blanked. He tensed when fingers ghosted near his balls, but it was the gentle prod near his arse hole that had him pulling roughly at Draco’s hair again, bracing himself for another moan around his cock and when it came, his vision went dark because Draco swallowed.
"Wet, so wet," Draco hissed, breath hitting the tip of his cock. "My fingers are soaked."
He wasn't embarrassed; there wasn't anything he could do about the amount of slick he produced. If anything it showed—
"You want me."
Fuck yeah, he did. Harry was a little surprised by how much he wanted Draco, but he did. He really did.
"More," Harry demanded, not liking that the touching had stopped. "You said I could have whatever I wanted."
Draco’s eyes sparkled as he whispered, "You can have it all."
He didn't want to think of why that had his heart beating faster than it should; he didn't want to think of the emotions swirling inside him. He didn't want to think at all.
"More," he demanded instead, and when those elegant fingers finally entered him, he let out a string of swear words that were not befitting of his designation.
As if he gave a fuck about that.
"You smell so good.
The praise was nice, made him want to offer his neck and let Draco do more than mouth at his gland, wanted to be scented as well. Wanted to—
"I wonder if you taste as good."
The fingers left him, and before he could snarl and demand they go back, his eyes widened when Draco licked his fingers.
"Mmm," Draco moaned, eyes slipping closed as he sucked them further into his mouth. "More. I want more."
Before he could do more than blink, there was a strong grip to his sides before he was lifted slightly, thighs on either side of Draco's head, and then there was a tongue on the inside of his cheeks.
"Holy—"
He keened, back arching when Draco began to mouth at his hole, sucking lightly before he began to eat him out.
"Draco."
The vibration of a moan had his head lolling to the side as he gave himself up to the pleasure. He knew that there was no way he'd be able to last until there was a dick inside of him, but that was okay. No need to rush; he had his entire heat to get his fill.
And he'd make sure he did.
Draco wasn't walking out of there until he was completely spent and then some.
"I'm going to come," Harry warned, wondering if he was supposed to or if it would have been better as a surprise. Did Alphas want to know? Did anyone want to know? He was such a virgin that it wasn't funny.
There was no answer as Draco didn't stop; if anything, the tempo of his mouth picked up, and so did the vibrations. It took a moment for him to realize that the vibrations weren't moans; they were purrs.
Draco was purring.
Harry hadn't realized that Alphas could do that. It was supposed to be an Omega thing to show contentment and pleasure. Did Alphas just pretend they couldn’t do it too? Did they shove aside anything remotely Omega just to act more like what society viewed an Alpha to be?
If it worked the same for Alphas then did that meant that Draco was taking pleasure in pleasing him?
"Fuck," Harry swore when fingers joined that sinful tongue. All it took was a good angle, a curl of his fingers, and he was gone. Come hit his stomach at the same time slick gushed, and he knew it covered Draco's face and that he might have been a bit embarrassed about, but he couldn't think of anything outside of the tingling pleasure that wracked his body.
"Fuck," Harry panted, body feeling weighted as the afterglow of an orgasm made his head swim. He felt drunk on pleasure and high on Draco's scent that was slowly filling the room with a headiness that was enticing.
He wanted to drown in it.
"You smell so good," Harry slurred, eyes barely staying open as he stared at Draco who was staring intently back, breathing through his nose, chest heaving.
"I need to be inside you."
His legs slid open on their own before his mind caught up, and when it did, he slid them further.
"You've always tested my patience," Draco began, breath ragged and shaky. "But this is pushing the limit."
"Fuck your limit."
Draco’s eyes narrowed, and he couldn't help but smirk in response. Goading him had always been too easy.
“Do you want me to suck your cock?” Harry asked innocently, batting his eyelashes as he nudged the very hard dick with his foot. “Do you want me to—”
Hands roughly grabbed hold of his ankles and then yanked him further down the bed, causing Harry to yelp as he tried to hold onto anything. His legs were thrown over Draco’s shoulders, but a soft kiss to his leg had his heart skipping a beat.
“Maybe I can fuck you into silence.”
Harry arched a brow, hoping he pulled it off as elegantly as Draco always did. “You can always try.”
He should have expected an Alpha bravado, the chest puffing and the scoff of an Alpha being challenged. Only Draco continued to surprise him. He got a soft smile instead. The smile of someone who liked what they saw, liked what they heard. He got the smile of someone who—
“You are so gone on me.”
Draco rolled his eyes, pinching his side. “Can I fuck you now or are we going to talk about feelings?”
“Why not both?”
“Fucking first?”
“What do I get out of it?”
Draco blinked once. “Well, it is your heat. What do you want to do?”
Again. Harry’s heart skipped a beat. He knew that Draco was hard, achingly so, and yet he also knew that if he had said that he didn’t want to fuck that they wouldn’t. Heat or no heat. Pheromones or no pheromones. Harry’s eyes stung a bit at the realization of how safe Draco made him feel.
Stupid soft Alphas.
“Fuck me,” Harry said, smiling a bit watery at the concern on Draco’s face. “Fuck me before I bite you.”
“You can always bite me…” Draco trailed off, voice clearly uncertain but still willing to satisfy whatever cravings or instincts Harry might have.
“Mating bite.”
“Oh,” Draco breathed, eyes widening.
“Fuck me,” Harry said again, unwilling to let it get awkward and he damn sure didn’t want to see Draco go limp just because his mouth didn’t know when to shut up.
Eyes searched his and then traveled over his face. Whatever Draco saw it was enough, because he nodded once before kissing his leg, nose rubbing gently into his skin.
This time there were no fingers.
Harry moaned when the head of Draco’s dick entered him, and the moans kept coming as inch after inch filled him.
“Full,” Harry panted, eyes clenched tightly. “I’m so full.”
Fuck. He had never felt so full before. Not when he fucked himself with his fingers, dildos or even magic. It was no wonder people had sex.
“Merlin,” Draco breathed, voice shaky, but his eyes were wide and reverent as he stared at every inch of Harry. “You feel so good.”
Harry wondered what it felt like, wondered what it would be like if they had reverse roles. If it was him inside of Draco. He bit his lip in an attempt to distract his mind. Maybe another time, maybe he could talk Draco into it during another heat.
Draco began to move and that was when all thought left him. It was breathy pants of, “More, please.” It was slick sounds of them joining over and over. It was the feel of Draco’s cock entering him repeatedly. It was the intense pleasure that kept mounting, never leaving him. It was the way Draco would lock eyes with him and whisper his name. It was the soft grunts and the deep moans that they shared back and forth that was a language all on its own. It was the way that the sound of skin slapping echoed around them and the way the bed creaked beneath them. It was the way Draco entwined their fingers and the intimacy of it all made his fangs ache with the desire to mate. It was the way they had sex over and over again until his body would always have remnants of Draco—keepsakes that he’d cherish forever.
It was everything he ever could have hoped for when it came to his first time.
The clarity in between rounds of sex as he was knotted repeatedly became some of his favorite times. That was when he truly got to know Draco. It was when they traded secrets that no one else ever heard. It was when they laughed through kisses and Harry discovered that Draco had dimples. Dimples that he was rapidly growing obsessed with. It was when their scents mingled and combined, growing more compatible by the minute and he knew that he’d always smell a bit of Draco no matter where he went—whether imagined or not. It was when they whispered their desires of the future and hinted at all the ways that even that would be compatible with each other. It was the way that Harry felt desired, seen and wanted.
“I want you.”
“Again?” Draco winced slightly, but nodded anyway, rolling Harry on top of him. “If you can do the majority of the work in the beginning, I can—”
They had been at it for so long that Harry didn’t even know what time it was let alone what day. Sex and Draco had been the forefront of his desires, but his head was clear, and the heat had long ago simmered into something he could easily ignore.
“No,” Harry whispered, face heating as he couldn’t meet Draco’s eyes, looking at his chin instead. “I want you to be my Alpha.”
Draco sucked in a sharp breath and his scent spiked as shaky fingers gripped Harry’s chin.
“An Omega wants me,” Draco said, voice filled with wonder. “Not just any Omega, but the Omega.”
Scowling, Harry tried to jerk his head away, but the grip tightened, forcing him to peer into slightly glassy eyes that took his breath away.
“The bad Omega maybe,” Harry said a bit self-deprecating. “The mouthy Omega, the rude Omega. The mean Omega, the—”
“I like that Omega,” Draco said, eyes crinkling as his nose scrunched and there were those damn dimples again. “The perfect Omega to my Alpha.”
“Soft Alpha,” Harry corrected, sticking his tongue out when Draco glared at him. “The Omega to your soft Alpha.”
“Perfect Omega,” Draco corrected, and Harry rolled his eyes.
“Clearly we aren’t going to agree.”
“We might, in the future.”
“Yeah,” Harry snorted. “Maybe in fifty years.”
The dimples deepened and he’d like to have said it didn’t have his breath hitching. “You’re on, Potter.”
The idea of them spending the next fifty years together had his Omega wanting to—
The rumble of a purr had both of their eyes widening and Harry didn’t even have time to be embarrassed that he had done that, because there was an answering purr that had him grinning.
Yeah, they were compatible alright.
They both weren’t what society expected them to be. Neither one of them behaved by their designation and they let their stranger instincts come out to play too often.
But Harry had never been normal, and he wasn’t about to start now.
He was going to be a weird Omega, and he’d do it right next to his even weirder soft Alpha any day.
-Fin (for now)
Extra
“I don’t believe it.”
“Pretty hard not to when you can still smell Malfoy on him.”
“Obviously, but it’s Harry and Malfoy!”
Harry pushed at his food, wondering why he had to put up with a bunch of Omegas hounding him just because he shared his heat with Draco. He was pretty sure one or two of them had shared a heat with an Alpha before.
“Is there a point to all of this?” Harry drawled, hoping to do his best impression of Draco in an attempt to make them go away. He didn’t mind Lavender and her friends on most days, but he was in no mood to appease them.
“Are you two going to mate?” Lavender asked, ignoring him entirely. “It’s not very proper of Malfoy not to.”
“Proper?”
Lavender shared a look with Bones and Macmillan before she cleared her throat.
“In his social standing as an Alpha and a pure-blood, to have publicly let it be known that you two shared a heat would mean that you are his intended mate.”
Harry flushed a bit at that. He had known that already. Draco had warned him of what the world expected of them. They weren’t ready to mate, not yet, but he wanted to. His fangs still ached with the desire to mate Draco, and he knew that it wouldn’t go away until they did it.
“Obviously no marital contract would hold valid,” Macmillan said, lips pursed. “No other Omega would want him.”
“Fuck any other Omega who tries,” Harry growled, eyes flashing at the thought of someone coming in and trying to take his baby Alpha.
Bones let out a meep at the pheromones he was releasing, and he knew that a proper Omega would tone it down, would pretend that things like possessiveness weren’t something Omegas could embody.
Fuck being a proper Omega.
“So crude,” Macmillan wrinkled his nose, and Harry kind of wanted to fight. He usually reserved his anger for annoying Alphas, but if they kept pestering him he just might switch to them instead.
“Thank you, I try.”
Lavender shook her head when Macmillan opened his mouth, and it was the first smart thing she had done since sitting across from him.
“What does Ron and Hermione think?”
“What do they have to do with Draco knotting me?” Harry asked, wording it like that just to hear Bones let out another meep and to see Macmillan wrinkle his nose again. He wondered if he kept pushing their limits if they’d just get up and leave.
“They are your Alphas—”
“The fuck they are,” Harry growled, wondering why everyone always thought that. Just because they were his friends and happened to be Alphas did not mean they had any kind of claim or ownership of him.
They weren’t happy with his choice in partner, and after the first time Harry tackled Ron to the ground after saying something negative about Draco, well they kept their mouths shut and their opinions to themselves. Which was a breath of fresh air. If he had known that all it would take for them to quit preaching at him would be to share his heat with Draco, he’d have done it ages ago.
Part of him didn’t want to delve deeper into the why they quit telling him what to do, because he knew it would come back to some stupid thing about Alphas and how it wasn’t their place anymore now that he had an official one. As if he needed someone to tell him what to do. As if he needed an Alpha.
He didn’t need Draco. Didn’t need an Alpha.
He wanted one.
That was the difference.
“Oh,” Lavender said, fingers tapping on the table a bit awkwardly. “I always thought—”
“Well you thought wrong.”
There was a pause before she licked her lips. “Does that mean you wouldn’t care if I put Ron down as my Emergency Alpha Contact?”
Harry blinked twice.
“I’ll pay you to do that. Take him, get him out of my hair. When’s your next heat? Tell me it’s soon.”
Lavender blushed and it was only when Macmillan glared at him that he realized it wasn’t proper to ask about heats like that.
“I just had mine a month ago,” Lavender said a bit sadly. “But I’ll make sure to write him down for my next one.”
He sure hoped so. Maybe if Ron got himself an Omega he’d lighten up a bit.
“Do you still want to be a Healer?” Bones asked, and Harry stared at her far longer than necessary as he tried to recall how she could possibly have known—
“I heard McGonagall tell Snape about it when I stopped by her class to ask after my last assignment.”
He didn’t know what to think of McGonagall gossiping about him to Snape of all people.
“What did she say?”
Bones frowned, head tilted. “I only heard her ask his opinion on if you’d have the necessary potion skills for it.”
Harry grimaced. He didn’t want to know what scathing remark Snape said. His ego couldn’t take it, not without Draco around to boost him up.
“And Snape? What did he say?” Macmillan asked, and Harry wanted to hate him.
Bones smiled at the table. “He said, ‘Potter has a knack for doing the impossible.’ Said that if you wanted to be a Healer then you would accomplish it.”
Oh.
Harry’s eyes felt a bit wet as he swallowed heavily. Snape was a complicated bag of worms that he didn’t want to get into on a good day. But to know that he said that touched him more than he ever thought it would. It made him want to try harder, made him want to do better in potions and to take it seriously.
If Snape thought he had what it took to become a Healer, then Harry could do it.
“How would that work?” Macmillan asked, a finger on his chin. “How would you be a healer and a parent?”
Harry arched both his brows and prayed that he showed off just how stupid of a question that was like Draco would have.
“Meaning what?”
Macmillan frowned at him and so did Lavender and Bones. “Surely you’d stay at home with your children.”
“Why can’t I stay home with them?”
They all startled at Draco’s voice as Draco slid next to Harry, pressing a kiss to his cheek and the scent of his Alpha brought a comfort he hadn’t realized he was desperately missing.
“W-what?” Bones asked, eyes wide. “You’d stay home with the children?”
Draco arched a brow, and Harry sighed at how well it was. Who was he kidding? He was never going to pull off the insulting eyebrow language like Draco could.
It wasn’t fair. Alphas were good at everything.
“They would be my children, yes?” Draco drawled, voice dry in a way that used to piss him off but now just turned him on. “I would care for them just as well as Harry could.”
Maybe even better. Harry grimaced, unsure of the idea of children just yet. As a lonely child watching the world through the grate in his cupboard, he used to dream of a family. One with an Alpha mate and a bunch of children. But that was a dream, one that he didn’t necessarily want right now.
Maybe later. Much later. Decades later.
“I imagine that wouldn’t be until after Harry finishes his residency though,” Draco mused, entwining their fingers before pressing a kiss to the back of his hand. “Maybe a few years afterward, give him enough time to settle into his career.”
Heart pounding, Harry was pretty sure he fell for Draco in that moment.
“You’d let him do that?” Lavender asked, voice awed in a way that had both of them frowning.
“What do you mean let?” Draco asked, tone dark and it had the three of them flinching, but it had Harry swooning slightly. He was quickly becoming besotted, and he wasn’t sure if that was embarrassing or not.
“Harry does whatever he wants to.”
And that was never going to change. No Alpha was going to tell him what to do or how to act.
Macmillan sharply inhaled, it wasn’t quite a gasp, but it was close.
“If that means we wait until Healer Potter is settled into wherever he chooses to practice then so be it.”
Healer Potter certainly had a nice ring to it.
“Potter?” Bones asked, brows so high they nearly reached her hair line. “Not Healer Malfoy?”
Draco blinked, looking at Harry with a confused furrow of his brow and that was definitely the moment he was besotted. His baby Alpha didn’t even realize how soft he was.
Harry was falling in love.
“I’m not the one who is going to spend over a decade learning how to be a Healer.”
“But won’t you be mated and married by then?”
“Obviously.”
Harry’s breath caught with how easy it came out and he could tell that Draco meant it. That them being mated was going to happen. He rested his head on Draco’s shoulder and closed his eyes, letting visions of the future fill his mind.
“You don’t want him to take your last name?”
Draco shrugged, the action moving Harry’s head slightly. “Does the last name matter when we’ll already be mates? Hell, I could take on his and become a Potter. Draco Potter doesn’t sound that great but—”
All of them gasped, Harry included as his head shot up and he stared at Draco wide eyed. An Alpha willingly taking the surname of their Omega? Part of him wondered if it was because of Draco’s heritage. The pretend Alphas had been Omegas the whole time, the surname being passed from Omega to Omega without the public ever realizing. So to Draco, it wouldn’t really be strange, but still.
“I think Draco Potter sounds amazing,” Harry whispered, eyes on Draco’s face and when the dimples came out to play that was when he kissed each indent before kissing Draco with everything he had.
“There you have it, Potter it is,” Draco said a bit breathlessly when he turned back to the Omegas who had been watching them with an awed expression. “What my Omega wants, my Omega gets.”
Harry sighed besottedly and so in love his heart hurt.
He stood up, quickly pulling Draco up with him. There was still plenty of time before curfew and he had an Alpha to love and a knot to appreciate. Harry paused before they got too far away and said,
“Don’t settle for what the world tells you an Alpha is. There are soft Alphas out there, but more importantly, you’re enough as you are and you don’t need an Alpha.”
The three of them nodded, a bit dazed, and he wasn’t entirely sure they’d listen to him, but he had hope. Harry wanted more for Omegas than the status quo, and he hoped they would too. He hoped they would want more for themselves, would fight for themselves and not need a damn Alpha. And if they decided they still wanted one, well…
Everyone deserved a soft Alpha.