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How Noble In Reason	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 11097 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and I am not making any money from this story.

Chapter List
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Title: How Noble
In Reason

Disclaimer: J. K.
Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing this story for fun
and not profit.

Pairings: Harry/Draco,
background Ron/Hermione

Warnings: Flangst,
a bit of sex, profanity. Ignores the epilogue.

Rating: mild R

Summary: The Head
Auror thinks that there�s Voldemort-like magic in the cellars of Malfoy Manor.
Harry agrees to investigate. The Head Auror thinks Harry should formally Court
Draco Malfoy to get close enough. Harry doesn�t
agree with this, but he doesn�t have a lot of choice.

Author�s Notes: This
will be a short story, eight or nine chapters. In some chapters the angst is
stronger than others, but it�s a light story for the most part. The title is a
line from Hamlet.

How Noble In Reason

Chapter One�Benjamin
Binks Is an Idiot

�� What is
this about, sir?� Harry hoped that his tone was brisk enough. You had to use a
certain amount of briskness with Head Auror Binks; otherwise, he might think
you actually cared.

�� Benjamin
Binks glanced up at Harry. He had one hand hovering protectively over a file on
his desk, and the first thing he did was look out the door behind Harry�s
shoulder. �No one saw you come in here?� he asked, lowering his voice into a
mysterious hiss. �You told no one why you were coming?�

�� No, and
no, sir,� Harry said, and settled into the chair in front of Binks�s desk,
though he stayed seated on the edge so that Binks wouldn�t think he wanted a
long, comfortable chat. �It�s easy for me to get away with that, since I don�t
have a partner.�

�� Binks
wasn�t distracted enough to miss the edge in his tone. He gave Harry a stern
glare�well, as stern as he could be when he was still trying to watch the
corridor, too. A one-eyed glare wasn�t very frightening. �You know that the
reassignment of Auror Weasley was inevitable.�

�� Harry
started to argue that he hadn�t known that at all, that he and Ron had always
planned to be partners and had functioned well together for three years, and
then cut himself off with a sigh. Never
get involved in a row with the Head Auror, he repeated to himself. �Well,
anyway, no one saw me.�

�� Good.�
Binks waved his wand, and his door shut as if on a string, Silencing Charms
springing into place. He was proud of that spell, though Harry couldn�t see
why. The Head Auror�s secretary would see anyone who tried to listen in on his
conversations through the door anyway, and a permanent ward on her desk
disrupted concealing magic like Disillusionment Charms. �Read this.�

�� The file
was thin, as was usual with new cases, so Harry didn�t take long to read it.
Only one phrase was important, anyway. He glanced up and blinked. �You�re
certain of this, sir?�

�� As certain
as one can be.� Binks looked at him cunningly and tapped the side of his head.
A seemingly permanent bulge poked through his light brown hair where he tapped.
Office legend said that he�d been knocked on the head years ago and maintained
the wound because he considered it the embodiment of his genius. �Of course,
we�ll need you to provide the official confirmation,
as it were, heh?�

�� Harry
smiled politely and returned to his reading, this time the second, in-depth
scan that would tell him if he�d missed anything important.

�� It didn�t
seem so. The report was so simple in the first place as to be hard to mistake.
An Auror doing a regular investigation of Malfoy Manor had noted powerful Dark
magic coming from the direction of the cellars. She had been trained in the
Ministry�s relatively new way of recording such spells, and had used the
notation to good effect, then come back to the Ministry and compared her
notations to the ones already on file.

�� The only
ones they matched were the notations done by those with some memory of
Voldemort.

�� Harry
started to raise his hand to touch the lightning bolt scar still present, in
faded form, on his forehead, and then remembered that Binks would expect him to
do that and one of his life purposes was frustrating Binks whenever possible.
He dropped his hand back to his lap and looked at Binks. �The notations are
imprecise, sir. You know that.�

�� He didn�t
need to say that use of the notations alone had led to a widow who�d bought a
mildly illegal lust potion being arrested as a former Death Eater. The
notations depended on individual perception of the power, resonance, and lingering
form of Dark magic. The Auror who�d arrested the widow had apparently thought
lust potions and Dark Marks resembled each other.

�� The widow
was still suing the Ministry, the last Harry had heard.

�� Yes, I
know that,� Binks said, putting his inflection in the wrong places. Harry
wondered if this was going to be one of the Head Auror�s notorious bad days,
where he tied the nearest Auror to a chair and interrogated them relentlessly
in an attempt to get them to reveal the secret all-powerful Coalition of Seven
Dark Lords they must be reporting to.
He started to ease his hand towards his wand, but Binks was babbling on instead
of trying to cast spells on him. �But think about it, Potter. Voldemort was
living in Malfoy Manor that last year. Isn�t it possible that he left some artifact behind? Perhaps even something
that can resurrect him?�

�� Harry blew
out his breath in annoyance. Binks was like a stupider Mad-Eye Moody, but
sometimes he was right by accident. Though Harry had never heard him say the
word �Horcrux,� he�d latched onto the idea that Voldemort might have trusted
his immortality to artifacts years ago and refused to let it go.

�� Sometimes, paranoia and stubbornness can
combine to look a lot like intelligence, Harry thought, and answered, �Yes,
sir. It is. And of course it has to be investigated.� He was the only one for
the job, too, he knew that. He was the only one who would be able to say for
certain what Voldemort�s magic felt like. It was a sensation he still felt in
his dreams.

�� Good.�
Binks poked a finger at him. �What do you know about the current situation of
the Malfoys?�

�� Er.� Harry
checked the file again, though he already knew that didn�t say anything in
particular. But it was a good idea to appear less competent than you were, more
dependent on the Head Auror�s information, so that he wouldn�t suspect you were
going around and doing things behind his back. �Not much, sir. I think that
Lucius Malfoy was arrested and tried, but the Wizengamot didn�t have enough
evidence to convict?�

�� In fact, he
was certain that part was correct. Harry had stood by in case he was needed to
give testimony for Narcissa or her son, but their cases had never come to
trial. Hearing how they had saved the Savior�s life was enough for the
Wizengamot to quietly drop charges.

�� That�s
correct,� said Binks, with a nod that went on too long. �Ridiculous, of course,
since Lucius Malfoy had the Dark Mark and Voldemort was living in his house,
but there you are. Another failure of our corrupt system.�

�� Like you, Harry thought. Binks had only
got the Head Auror position because of nepotism in the Ministry; he was the
great-grandson of the current head of the Wizengamot.

�� And no one
has seen Lucius and his wife since they went on a quiet �holiday� to Italy and
never returned.� Binks let out a sigh that rattled the office door. �The
Italian Aurors refuse to extradite. Of course he�s paying them.�

�� Harry
nodded politely, and then said, �But Draco Malfoy is still living in the Manor,
sir? Has anyone approached him?�

�� He refuses
to cooperate with the Aurors on principle,� Binks said, without even a
mysterious nod. So it might be true for all Harry knew, rather than a
projection or fantasy of the Head Auror�s mind. �He lives in the Manor by
himself and holds ridiculous parties every day.�

�� Well, we
could sneak into the parties,� Harry said.

�� Not when
you�re the only one who can identify Voldemort�s magic,� Binks retorted,
quickly and, for him, cleverly. �And I don�t want my Aurors doing anything
illegal that will give the Malfoys another
loophole to wriggle through. No, you have to enter openly, legally, and
with Malfoy�s complete compliance.�

�� Harry
braced himself when he saw the gleam in Binks�s eye. Here it comes, some new insane plan.

�� But nothing
could have prepared him for Binks saying, calmly and with every appearance of
happiness, �I want you to start formally Courting Malfoy.�

�� What?� Harry spluttered. Some of the
spit from the splutter went far enough to soak the case files on the other side
of Binks�s desk.

�� A formal
Courting involves sending gifts and tokens of admiration to the other person,
starting a process that will culminate in marriage,� Binks began to explain,
apparently thinking Harry�s exclamation was one of ignorance instead of
disbelief.

�� Harry held
up his hand. �I know what a Courting is, sir.� Ron had eventually ended up
marrying Hermione that way, after years of dancing around her after the war.
They�d known they were in love, thanks to the Battle of Hogwarts, but they had
taken as long about the �best� way to get married as they had about declaring
their love in the first place, especially since Hermione found most of the
pure-blood customs barbaric. �But I can�t�that just involves lying to Malfoy,
too.�

�� But not illegally!� Binks said in triumph.

�� Harry put
his hands over his face. �Sir,� he said, �you can�t really expect me to do
this.�

�� You�re
bent,� said Binks. �He�s a bloke. I don�t see the problem.�

�� Harry
looked up, opened his mouth, thought about the effort it would take to explain
to his Head Auror that being bent didn�t mean he wanted to shag every man under
the sun, and then shut his mouth again.

�� Will the
Auror Department compensate me for the gifts that I�ll need to buy?� he asked.
He was going to end up doing it anyway, so he might as well make a good go at
it. He might try to capture Malfoy�s attention with gifts that he could
actually use and value even after the deception was revealed.

�� Yes,�
Binks said. �Of course. How could you ask such a thing and not think the answer
would be positive?�

�� Harry made
one more attempt to break free. �Are you sure
that I need to do it this way, sir? I�ve been receiving extra classes in
Concealment and Disguise. I could try sneaking into the Manor and locating the
source of this magic, at least enough to tell us whether it�s really something
we need to be worried about��

�� Tell me,�
Binks said, with a mean little smile, �has anything you�ve learned in
Concealment and Disguise taught you how to cover that scar?�

�� Harry
sighed. �No, sir.� The scar resisted glamours, ordinary makeup, spells that
were meant to change the shape of his face or make it uncertain in the memories
of people who looked at him, and even Notice-Me-Not Charms. It took full-out
concealing magic like Invisibility Cloaks or Disillusionment Charms to hide it,
and Harry doubted that Malfoy Manor would have wards weak enough to let him get
away with that.

�� Binks
nodded. �Then you�ll Court him, and you�ll get into the Manor and investigate,
and you�ll arrest him.�

��

�� Not if
there�s not actually anything there, or if he doesn�t have anything to do with
it,� Harry countered.

�� Binks
stared at him. �But of course he will.�

�� Harry shook
his head, stood up, and left the office. The Head Auror never minded a little
rudeness as long as he could interpret it as being in accord with his commands,
which this was. Harry knew it was better to go and indulge his temper elsewhere
than sit there arguing any longer.

�� He didn�t
want to do this. He knew how much the Courting tradition meant to pure-bloods,
because he�d seen how tenderly and seriously Ron picked out Hermione�s gifts.
Even if it meant nothing to Harry, even if he could do this in the pursuit of
his job and not feel bad about it when Malfoy found out the truth, Malfoy could
be devastated when he found out.

�� But there
was no choice. Harry had to
investigate anything that might offer the slightest chance of Voldemort coming
back, and stop it.

�� Then Harry
stopped in the middle of the corridor and stared at the far wall. He would have
banged his head against it, but he didn�t feel quite that angry with himself.
Being around the Head Auror had the tendency to affect one�s brain.

�� Of course. What an idiot I am.

�� There was
no way that Malfoy would accept the gifts. He knew what a Courting process was
supposed to look like, and he would know Harry�s was false. So he would return
the first gift with a rigid letter of refusal, and Harry could show the
evidence to Binks and demand that the Head Auror let him try something else.

�� Harry shook
his head, smiled in relief, and then went to his office. He would need to think
of a perfect first gift: something that Binks would acknowledge as having put
in good effort, but which Malfoy would see through. By the time he settled into
his chair, Harry had decided that the right one would be something too
extravagant. Why would Malfoy trust his boyhood rival spending a lot of
Galleons on him?

�� It was
something. It would make Binks�s stupid plan fail, and Harry could investigate
with normal methods and prove that
the Auror who�d recorded the resonance of Dark magic from Malfoy Manor had
probably been wrong in the first place.

�� There was
no way that Voldemort could come back. Harry knew that he had destroyed all the Horcruxes. So Malfoy harbored
Dark artifacts, but he might not even know about them. His father had probably
left him heirlooms that Malfoy had locked away in dark corners and never looked
at again, because he had taste.

�� It did
cause Harry to pause and wonder why he was so insistent about Malfoy being
innocent, if only in his own mind. Six years ago, even three years ago, right
after he got out of Auror training and was seeing Dark wizards everywhere, he
would have been eager to believe Malfoy was trying to resurrect Voldemort.

�� Then he
shrugged. Because I do think he�s
innocent, and he never was strong or evil enough to want to bring Voldemort
back. Because he suffered from the bastard as much as I did, and Binks�s theory
makes no sense.

�� Because I hate being forced to waste time on
this.

*

�� I can�t
believe he actually made you do it, mate.� Ron sat on the corner of Harry�s
desk, watching him wrap the first gift.

�� I know.�
Harry rolled his eyes at his friend. �But I hope this will be the only exchange
we need to make. After all, Malfoy won�t actually accept this gift. Why should he? And the note I�m sending along
with it is enough to make a dog sick.�

�� Ron
grinned. �Let�s see.�

�� Harry held
out the letter, and then went back to carefully tying Cushioning Charms on the
gift�a clock ornamented with gold and opals, its face diamond, with silver
hands ticking across it. The traditional Courting gifts had to be delivered by owl, which meant Harry was taking no chances
with the clock falling and shattering before his personal owl, Vulcan, could
actually get it to Malfoy.

�� Ron hadn�t
made any gagging noises yet. Harry looked up. �What, did I make it so sickly
that you can�t make it to the end?� he asked, only half-joking. He�d tried to
think of the stickiest words possible. Binks had to read it and be convinced,
but there was no way Malfoy would be.

�� Ron looked
at him with a pale, thoughtful face instead, and said nothing. Harry sighed. �I
know. I hate violating the Courting traditions, too. I know how much they mean
to you. But Binks is determined not to let me investigate in any other way
until I�ve tried this, and that means I have to bring the ridiculous thing to
an end as soon as possible.�

�� I don�t
know, mate,� Ron said slowly. �This is actually a realistic-sounding letter.
Not bad, at least,� he added hastily when Harry opened his mouth. �But you�re
just not any good at deception.�

�� Yes, but
I�m good at exaggeration,� Harry muttered. It was the reason that Binks had
used to split up their partnership, claiming that Harry had exaggerated the
dangers in one too many cases to justify pulling Ron out when he had only minor
wounds instead of pursuing the suspect all the time.

�� Ron smiled
as he had to at the joke, but his eyes were earnest. �Here, read it again, and
try to think about it as a stranger�s letter,� he said, holding it out to
Harry. �What would you say?�

�� Harry
sighed impatiently, picked up the letter, and began to read through. He knew
what it said, of course. That was the point.

�� Dear Malfoy:

�� I hope that you�ll forgive me intruding
after so many years. I feel that things have changed enough that we can
approach each other as strangers, or at least acquaintances. At the same time,
the way I think of you is based on what I knew of you, and especially what I knew
of you during the final year of the war.

�� When I think of the way that you saved my
life when I came to Malfoy Manor and you had to know it was me, I feel a deeper
connection to you than a life-debt can explain. And then you came after me in
the Room of Hidden Things. Yes, it was stupid, because you had to know that I
never would have come with you to You-Know-Who, but it was brave. And let�s
just say that the way I carried you out of the Room of Requirement has featured
in my dreams more than once.

�� Because of the healing and changing work
that I hope time has done for you as well as me, I�m sending a clock for my
first gift, and asking for your permission to formally Court you.

�� Harry Potter, Auror.

�� Oh, come on,� Harry said. �It�s ridiculous.
�After so many years?� �A deeper connection to you?� I don�t talk like that.�

�� Ron raised
an eyebrow. Harry was convinced that Hermione had taught him to do it. �Is he
going to know that?�

�� And look!�
Harry thumped his finger on the second paragraph, and then realized it might be
better to turn the letter around so that Ron could see. �Calling Voldemort
You-Know-Who? He knows I don�t do
that.�

�� Or he�ll
read it as an attempt to be sensitive��
Ron pursed his lips together and fluttered his eyelashes ��to any issue that he
might have with Voldemort�s name.�

�� Harry hit
Ron on the arm and shook his head. �He has to be smarter than that.�

�� Why?� Ron
asked in interest, swinging his legs like a little kid. Harry was about to tell
him he looked like one, but Ron went on. �I know that you�re into trying to see
the best of everyone and assume that everyone changed after the war and all
that�personally, I think you�ve spent too much time reading those books
Hermione reads�but this is Malfoy we�re
talking about. He never saw any reason
to change.�

�� It�s not
just the books,� Harry said weakly, and Ron snorted. �Look, it really isn�t,
all right? Those cases�I know Dark magic corrupts the mind and we still have to
bring them in, but how can you look at how pathetic
they become as a result of that magic and not pity them, at least a
little?�

�� Ron put his
head on one side. �Please tell me that you pity the ones who dwindle into
paranoid people hiding in cellars and not the ones who use Dark magic to rape
and murder.�

�� Harry
grimaced and shook his head. He still worked cases that made long showers
necessary after they were done. �But I can at least see the difference between
motivations now, and Dark magic isn�t the only way that someone can go wrong.
Remember the Sizemore case?�

�� Ron rolled
his eyes. �You�ll never stop pounding it into my head that you were right about
that one, were you?�

�� Harry gave
him a grim little smile. The Aurors had been called in on the Sizemore case
because the murderer had done deeds so violent that the Department of Magical
Law Enforcement had assumed he must be
using Dark magic. But no, it was merely someone who hadn�t ever learned that
other people were real, and so thought they might as well die and suffer for
his entertainment. Harry had met a surprising number of people like him in the
last few years. Sometimes the magic they practiced had made them worse, but not
always.

�� Ron had
been on the side of the Dark magic. Harry had suspected from the beginning that
no such thing was involved, and he had been right.

�� Anyway,�
Ron said, dragging the conversation back to the major point with an effort that
Harry appreciated for its sheer magnitude, �you don�t know that Malfoy has
changed. He might not care about this Courting. He might accept the letter and
the gift for the sheer pleasure of laughing at you.�

�� And he
might not,� Harry said.

�� Just don�t
say that I didn�t tell you if he turns out to be worse than ever,� Ron said,
standing up. �I don�t mind giving ordinary people the benefit of the doubt, but
this is Malfoy.�

�� Harry
saluted him solemnly. �I�ll remember. Are you going home to Hermione?�

�� Ron nodded,
then hesitated. �You�re welcome to come along if you want. Leave all this
Malfoy nonsense until tomorrow, and maybe by then you�ll have thought up a way
to make Binks drop it.�

�� Harry waved
a hand. �No, that�s all right. You and Hermione enjoy your snogging.� He knew
Ron and Hermione didn�t mean to make
him feel like an outsider right now, when they�d still only been married for
two months, but he felt that way anyway. He mostly met them now in public
situations where Hermione would keep the snogging to a minimum.

�� Ron
flushed, but said, �You ought to find someone of your own, Harry. Only not this
way.� He nodded to the clock and the letter and left, whistling before he even
got out of Harry�s office.

�� Harry sat
back in his chair and eyed the clock and the letter, then looked at his own
watch. He reckoned that Binks hadn�t left the office yet, and he could still
talk to him and try to convince him not to use this stupid plan.

�� But Binks
had changed his mind only once in the history of the Department, and then only
in the face of an order passed down from the Minister himself. Harry mentally
shrugged, told himself that his wording was
so sentimental enough to give Malfoy sugar shock, and gathered up the gift
and the letter to take to Vulcan.

*

�� It was only
two hours later that Vulcan came and found him at home, carrying a single
envelope in his beak and wearing an expression of extreme smugness that meant
he wanted extra treats. Harry gave them to him and checked twice to make sure
that the envelope wasn�t a Howler and didn�t bear curses before he opened it.

�� The
handwriting inside was unmistakably Malfoy�s, and the tone seemed to be his,
too.

�� Potter:

�� Your letter and your goals are different
enough to be amusing. Consider yourself invited to Malfoy Manor at eight
tomorrow evening. I would add that you should wear dress robes, but since I
sincerely doubt that you own or could afford any that would match my tastes, I
will forgive your inevitable violation of common decency.

�� I give you permission to Court me.

�� Draco Malfoy.

�� Harry shook
his head and sat there for a minute thinking about what Malfoy�s motivations
behind the acceptance of the Courting process might be, because he couldn�t
possibly believe in it. Amusement
value, as he said in his letter? Desire to keep an eye on Harry, who he must
know would be assigned to investigate the case if he was actually harboring
Voldemort in his house? Defiance of the Ministry? Determination to find out
what Harry�s transparently stupid Courting attempt actually hid?

�� Any way it
worked out, Harry decided, he looked forward to seeing Malfoy, with a
surprising amount of pure curiosity.
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How Noble In Reason