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Practicing Liars	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 63257 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and I am not making any money from this story.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
- 11
Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Ten�Angry Answers

�� Harry knew
that Snape would be angry when he got back to his feet, and so he took no
chances. He�d already built up the shields around him into a spinning wall that
wouldn�t be easily crossed. So he could concentrate now on casting spells that
would keep Snape too off-balance to really hurt him.

�� Maybe it
wouldn�t work with other Death Eaters, but Harry knew Snape. He knew what angered him, what made him nod at people�if
you were Slytherin�and what made him smile because he was anticipating
detention.

�� And he knew
what irritated him.

�� Harry cast
the same spell that Hermione had used in their first year and gave Snape a
hotfoot. Snape was still hopping up and down from it in his first, startled
reaction when Harry launched a modified curse from the back of his Defense
book. The book�s author had been scornful of it. It was a weak spell, he said,
and why would you want to use that when you were trying to incapacitate your
enemy?

�� The author
hadn�t thought carefully about other ways of incapacitating someone, Harry
thought. Or else he�d never known Snape.

�� The spell
was supposed to take the skin off someone�s scalp. Harry put a little less
power behind it than it was supposed to have, and it shaved off some of Snape�s
hair instead. He might not be sure of what had happened, since he couldn�t see
himself in a mirror, but he certainly felt
it, and saw the strands of hair drifting to the floor.

�� In the
utter silence that followed. Snape�s face darkened. Harry knew a lot of people
who would have run for cover then, or thrown themselves on the floor and begged
for a merciful death.

�� Harry, safe
behind his shields, cocked his head and gave Snape a bright grin of the kind
that he could imagine his father using when James had just humiliated Snape at
some school prank.

�� Snape
attacked.

�� The first
thing Harry knew about it was a blast of power that made several of his shields
wither and crumple up like parchment placed into flames. He gasped and hurried
to replace them, but the same devastating force swept through the other way,
and then shields were gone from the other side, and the center, and right above
him. He knew that he couldn�t stay there, that he would have to move.

�� The only
question was which direction.

�� Snape was
stalking towards him with his wand aimed, and Harry had to make a choice that
might not be the right one. He let his muscles relax for one crucial moment,
his eyes study Snape, and his mind tumble into that instinctive state that he
used when he was trying to anticipate whether or not he would be sent to bed
without food.

�� Then Snape�s
hand snapped right, and Harry dodged left in the same instant. He�d guessed
correctly, he reassured himself as he rolled and came to his feet with his back
against the wall. He had.

�� But he was
still in the same room with Snape, who looked more furious than ever that Harry
had run away from him. He spun towards him with his teeth bared and his hand
tight where he clutched the wand.

�� And a large
patch of hair missing from the center of his head, as though he had suddenly
decided to become a Muggle monk.

�� Harry felt
his lips quiver. Snape seemed to understand, because for a moment, a truly dreadful smile answered Harry.

�� Then he
attacked again, pushing the non-verbal magic ahead of him like a gale.

�� Harry knew
he couldn�t stand against it. His only defense was that he was smaller and
faster than Snape�well, he was pretty sure he was faster�and he could move
around while Snape was still trying to aim for him. Also, it probably helped
that Snape wouldn�t kill him.

�� Well.

�� Harry thought Snape wouldn�t kill him.

�� For a
moment, he stood still, braced against the magic as if he was going to resist
it, and then he sprang straight up, using a Lightening Charm on himself to get
a bit of a boost. He managed to jump over most of Snape�s spells and land on
the floor to the side and behind him. Snape started to turn again.

�� Harry
whispered a charm that Transfigured Snape�s neat boots into ratty trainers like
the ones he was wearing.

�� Snape
stumbled and fell over his dangling laces. Harry didn�t stay to laugh, because
that would be stupid. He jumped to the side again and shot an Incarcerous at Snape. The ropes curled
towards Snape, but he was rolling
now, and they only managed to curl around one arm. Snape shrugged off the ones
that had been meant to bind his legs, his eyes hot with fury.

�� Harry
crowed in his head. His plan to distract Snape with anger was working! He
started to aim at Snape�s nose. He would grow it so big that the man couldn�t
see around it, and then he would probably be even more angry�

�� What would
your father say,� Snape whispered, �if he knew that you no longer look like
him?�

�� Harry froze
and lifted a frantic hand to touch his face. Was his charm gone? He hadn�t felt
it if Snape had taken it off, and he had to feel it. Right?

�� Well, maybe
not when he was so busy casting and the magic that touched him might have felt
like one of the spells he was using or just the general ambient power in the
room increasing as more and more spells got added to it.

�� Something
coiled around him and flung him into the wall. Harry grunted as he found
himself pinned several feet above the floor, small silky ropes sliding around
his wrists and ankles to keep them in place. Another rope wrapped his neck and
jerked his head back until his eyes watered with pain. Snape stepped towards
him, a tiny, genuine smile lifting his lips.

�� Oh, fuck, I am so dead, Harry thought in
a panic, especially when he tried to thrash and found no give in the ropes at
all.

*

�� Severus had
been more disturbed by what had
happened in the last five minutes than he could remember being for a long time.

�� To have his
shoes Transfigured, to fall, to have his hair cut and show himself undignified�

�� He had long
been proud to think that he could control his reactions to Potter. He might
snap and snarl, yes, but that snapping and snarling came about because of his
own choice. He did not show the true emotions bubbling far beneath the surface.

�� But Potter
had pulled Severus further in the direction of expressing those emotions than
he had been since the brat had come to school. Not even the moment when he had
found Potter peering into his Pensieve last year could compare, because that
had been Potter witnessing his humiliation.

�� This was
him causing it.

�� Severus paused
briefly to fix his shoes and hair, then let his displeasure show as he came
towards the boy with slow stalking steps, and was gratified when Potter sucked
in a breath and shivered. But his hand was wriggling in the grip of the ropes
as if he would lift his wand towards his face, not towards Severus.

�� The sight infuriated
Severus anew. How dare the boy be thinking
about concealing a slight change to his face at the moment more than he was thinking
about the punishment he would inevitably suffer?

�� Listen to me,� he said.

�� Potter�s
eyes snapped back to him, and the boy seemed to stop breathing for an instant.
Then he shrank in on himself and bowed his head. Severus paused. He had seen
the same posture before, but he could not immediately remember where. He did
not think it was from Potter.

�� In the next
moment, he discarded the notion as unimportant. What was important was making
Potter suffer as he had suffered.

�� How dare you do such a thing,� he said, and
knew from the way Potter flinched that the quiet, flat words had made more of
an impact on the boy than if he had shouted. �Striving to shame me the way your
father did, because you hate me the way he did��

�� I was
trying to make you angry.� Potter spoke so fast that Severus would never have
understood him if not for his years of deciphering student mumbles. �I was
trying to make it so that you couldn�t concentrate on the spells that you were
planning to throw at me. That was the best tactic I could think of to win the
duel.�

�� Severus
narrowed his eyes. That almost made Potter�s behavior sound reasonable, and of
course that was not so. Petty hatred and jealousy and revenge had much more to
do with the boy�s actions than reason. �Who told you to use such tactics?� he
asked harshly. �Someone must have told you.�

�� Potter
flinched and hunched his shoulders. Severus did not understand. The body
language was sullen and not sullen at the same time. He was not sure how he
could read the second emotion from Potter�how could he be sure, when he did not
even know what that second emotion was?�but
he was certain it was there. �I�m sorry, sir,� Potter said quickly. �I just
thought�that you�re so dignified so much of the time that I thought losing your
dignity would get you angry.�

�� Severus
wanted to ignore the words and continue with his anger. Indeed, the words should
have made the anger even worse. Potter had as good as admitted the intent to
humiliate Severus. He wanted to imitate his father in every way possible, it
seemed.

�� But one
change in Potter, on the frontier of talent, had predisposed him to admit that
other changes might be able to exist. He had to consider that the boy had done
as he had exactly for the reason he said he had.

�� That was a
good tactic. It was one that Severus had used himself against Death Eaters,
when someone in the Dark Lord�s ranks had taken exception to his favoritism and
tried to kill Severus. Severus would have used it more often with his students,
except that few of them�Potter excepted�could be angered into fighting back. He
had intimidated them too thoroughly.

�� He hated
being made to rethink old perceptions. He changed tactics, because no matter
how mock-reasonable Potter�s actions in the duel might have seemed, there were
others outside that which must fall under the childish category. �Why did you
seek to cover your face with a glamour? It has not changed that much.�

*

�� Harry felt
as though his heart had turned over in his chest and then dropped to the soles
of his feet.

�� Oh shite! He did it on purpose! He noticed!
I thought that maybe it just got ripped off by one of the other spells, but he
did it on purpose and�

�� Then Harry
forced himself to stop panicking with a jerk. There was a big difference between
noticing and knowing, he thought. If
Snape knew, he would have said something already. Instead, the suspicion of Harry
being his son would be far away from his wildest dreams.

�� And what
had Harry practiced his lies for, if not a moment like this? He was going to
slip out of it.

�� Besides,
though Snape didn�t know it and Harry wasn�t sure how he�d done it, he�d
already escaped Snape finding out once. Snape had had to use Legilimency on him
last year when they were trying to have the first round of Occlumency lessons.
Harry had concentrated as hard as he could on hiding the memories of the
Dursleys� abuse and the moment when he learned that Snape slept with his mum
and not thinking about them. And Snape had never found those memories. Harry
knew that because he�d never seen them, and Snape could hardly have resisted
the urge to taunt Harry about sleeping in a cupboard or going without food if
he�d known.

�� All he had
to do now was remember that no one knew the secret other than him and not panic.

�� And use
what he knew about Snape against him, just the way he had in the duel.

�� He scowled
at Snape and looked down at the floor. He wished his feet were free so he could
scuff one, but the way he flexed his hands and looked sullen would have to do. �I
saw my face was changing,� he muttered. �I saw it was changing to look like Malfoy�s. I didn�t want to look like
that.� He let his voice be wistful for just a minute. He wouldn�t be able to do
this without practice, but he had practiced,
so he ought to be able to do it. �Everyone always says that I look just like my
dad.� And he�ll always be my dad, you
bastard, even if you find out somehow. �I want to keep that. I don�t have
much else of him.�

�� He lowered
his head and sniffled pathetically.

�� There. That had to do it, didn�t it?
Snape thought he was spoiled. He would immediately decide that Harry had plenty
that would remind him of his parents, and then he would start thinking about
Harry�s dad and how much he hated him, and he had to decide that Harry was just being stubborn and spoiled again.

�� Harry wasn�t
sure what he would do if Snape didn�t decide that.

*

�� Severus
remained silent for some moments. The longer he looked at the brat�s face, the
more he wondered.

�� Yes, the
changes to cheekbones and nose, line of eyes and bend of forehead, were minor.
But Severus had to admit that, added together, they became something that could
change Potter�s face remarkably in the eyes of those who had always known him.

�� He would
never look like Draco Malfoy, of course. He would never have that grace and
elegance of line that Narcissa had given her son. But Severus could see how the
boy staring into a mirror in dismay and biting his lip might well think so.

�� So far as
that went, his tale was true. Or sounded true, which Severus knew from numerous
encounters with the Dark Lord were often the same thing.

�� But again
an extra, nagging echo was playing in his mind. Just as he had seen another
emotion in Potter beyond his sullenness earlier, just as he had seen something
familiar in his posture when he realized that he was bound in the ropes and
couldn�t escape, there was a whisper in Severus�s brain now telling him not to
accept this story so quickly.

�� Yet, why
should he not? The boy had offered a childish, predictable, irrational, but
entirely Potter-like reason. And hiding his face with a glamour was only
stupid, not a crime, as hiding his talent was. There was no reason for Severus
to care about it. He was tired of caring about Potter as much as he had been
forced to this year.

�� Severus
might have told the boy that his resemblance to Lily was increased this way,
and that he should not give up so quickly on looking like his mother, if he
only knew what kind of woman she was.

�� But there
were reasons that he did not permit thoughts of Lily Potter to occupy his mind when her son was in the room, so he
switched tactics. �Being so concerned about what your face looks like may make
you weak in battle,� he told Potter. �What happens if a Death Eater breaks the
glamour? Will you stop to repair it?�

�� The boy�s
head dropped forwards. Severus hoped he was considering his options for a reply
well, and seeing how truly stupid he had been.

*

�� He bought it! He bought it!

�� Harry
looked down to hide the relief and joy in his eyes, and decided to mutter.
Snape liked it when he muttered. Well, not liked it, exactly, but expected it
from him. And just like the humiliating spells during the duel, it would
distract him from what Harry didn�t want him to find out. �I wouldn�t care
about a Death Eater breaking the charm if I was fighting for my life. I wouldn�t
care about most people doing it. But just having it happen in a fight and not
knowing it�� He swallowed. �What if I walked out that door looking like Malfoy,
sir?�

�� Snape
laughed cruelly and moved back. �I assure you that you will never look like
Draco Malfoy,� he said, with a tone in his voice that implied the contrast was
to Harry�s disadvantage.

�� I don�t care. I don�t care. What matters is
that he believes me.

�� When Snape
had first stepped towards him, Harry had braced himself, because he was
thinking of all the things that Uncle Vernon could have done to him when he was
tied up like this and unable to even roll up in a ball and protect his head.
But Snape hadn�t done that, and he accepted the lie. Now he knew about the
thing that was most damning, Harry�s face, and anything else that happened or
showed up would be less important and less likely to convince him.

�� Harry was
still dazed to know that he was free and the moment when Snape could have recognized
him was past.

�� The ropes
snapped away from his wrists and ankles suddenly, and Harry fell to the floor.
He rubbed his wrists and gave Snape a resentful glance that was not even a lie.
Snape curled his lip at him, but his eyes were dark.

�� You will
not do such a thing again,� he said. �You will treat me seriously as an enemy,
one who might kill you, because that is what we practice here to defeat. You
would not use those spells against a Death Eater, and therefore you will
concentrate on serious curses and defenses.�

�� Harry
wanted to argue that he could use
spells like that against a Death Eater, especially Voldemort, because they
would all get angry about being humiliated, but he glared and nodded instead.
Snape turned away with a flare of his cloak.

�� We will
begin again. And then I will test your Occlumency.�

�� It�s all right, Harry reassured himself
as he moved into position across from Snape. I�ll just do�whatever I did last time�that hides those memories. And
why should he look into them, anyway? He has no reason to be interested in my
glamour anymore.

�� Harry did
stop to cast the charm that hid his face again before he started dueling Snape.
Snape was the most dangerous one, and Harry didn�t have to worry about him
anymore, but there were still other people he didn�t want seeing him like that.

�� Besides,
his real face was the one that looked
like his dad�s, the dad who had died for him when Voldemort came to the house
when Harry was a baby, and Harry wanted to keep it.

*

�� Severus
pulled back, his head shaking in disgust. How could he have imagined that
Potter�s mind would be different simply because he turned out to have hidden
talents? It was the same mindless chatter and chaos of the year before, so many
memories that it was hard to focus on one. The only added difference was the
memory that dominated it, the memory of Black falling through the Veil in the
Department of Mysteries. That one cast its shadow on all the others and made Severus
fall so deep in guilt and self-pity that he longed for a shower.

�� Potter
sagged to his knees in the center of the office. His face was waxen. Oddly,
Severus, staring at the skillful charm that replaced the appearance Potter no
longer possessed, found himself wondering what expression the features beneath
the charm wore.

�� Then he
shook his head. The face was still Potter�s. The mind was still Potter�s. He had no reason to wonder more than that.
The hint of Lily he almost thought he had seen in her son earlier was a reminisced
nonsense.

�� Get out,�
he said. �You are to study Occlumency until you can master it. You will start
by attempting to clear your mind.�

�� I told
you,� Potter said behind him, angry and defeated and very far from the smug
idiot he�d been earlier in the evening. That was the only productive result of
this session, Severus thought, since during their training duel earlier Potter
had fought him stubbornly, refusing to give in and admit Severus�s superior
strength. �I can�t do that.�

�� You will
learn,� Severus said. �Or you will suffer. Imagine the headache that no doubt
you feel now and increase it. Or imagine what will happen if someone else dies because
of your lack of self-control.�

�� He thought
he heard Potter catch his breath. But the boy said nothing. When Severus glanced
over his shoulder again, he was gone, and the office door shut.

�� Severus had
planned to go to the shower in his private rooms, or perhaps to the Hufflepuff
first-year essays awaiting him on his desk like sacrifices. Instead, he found
himself Levitating a cauldron from one of the shelves to the floor and then
conjuring water to fill it. A charm transformed the water until it was as clear
and smooth as a window, and Severus stepped up and looked within it.

�� By another
charm, the face of Lily Potter, as he remembered it, floated on the surface.

�� Severus
tried to force himself to study it dispassionately, to quiet the ringing of the
troublesome echo in his mind by seeing the resemblance of Lily to her son. Yes,
the nose was something like Potter�s new face. The turn of the skin at the
corners of the eyes might be identical. The eyes themselves, of course, had always
been the same. And�

�� And he
could do it no longer. Severus�s hand spasmed as he banished the memory. That
left only his own reflection floating in the water. He stared at it while the
echo in his head rang and nagged and made no sense.

�� He had
relied on echoes like that when he was a spy. They had saved his life on
several occasions, once by making him check a third time on a ward he had
established around his potions lab and thus revealing the presence of a Death
Eater who had been intent on sabotaging his work and reducing his position and
power in the Dark Lord�s eyes. He did not ignore such stirrings, although he
might have to wait some time to learn what they meant.

�� This time,
he did not know why he had one about Potter. The boy�s concealing his face with
a glamour was nothing. What did it
matter to the war, which was the only context in which Potter could be of
interest to him?

�� And then
there was the second stirring echo, apparently connected to the thing Potter
had said when he was drowning in desperation at his own incompetence.

�� I told you. I can�t do that.

��

�� This second
echo made no more sense than the first.

�� Severus
gave his own face one last moody look before he banished the water and sent the
cauldron floating back to its place.

*

�

�� Draco hesitated and leaned
around the corner. He really shouldn�t be lingering here. He�d been to see
about the stupid cabinet earlier, and then he was supposed to have come straight
back to the Slytherin common room. But he�d stayed in the corridors instead,
striding busily past when someone came near, and otherwise watching Professor
Snape�s office door with too much attention. He knew Potter had a detention
tonight, and he wanted to see if it was possible to talk to him when he came
out of it.

�� But he
would be in trouble with Professor Snape if he found out. And Potter might
figure it out and be quiet just to be stubborn.

�� Besides, it
seemed it would be a long detention,
and Draco had homework he really should finish. So he�d started to turn away at
last.

�� But now he�d
heard a slight sound. A whimper, no more than that, but�

�� He looked.

�� Potter knelt
on the floor under one of the torches, his arms around his head. The arms were
covered with strange red welts.

�� By the way
his shoulders shook, he was weeping.

�� Draco
tasted a sweet flavor of triumph. Here was
the secret he had been seeking, the one that would make Potter as weak and
vulnerable as he�d been himself and mean that he could ensure Potter would
never reveal Draco�s secret.

�� That
triumph gave him the security to walk up, shake Potter, and say roughly, �What�s
wrong?�

�� Potter
dropped his arms from around his head. Draco recoiled. His eyes were glassy,
and sweat covered his forehead, and his face�something was wrong with his face. It was bright red and there were pustules on
his forehead and cheeks.

�� The
Dementors,� Potter moaned, and collapsed.

*

�� paigeey07:
Harry was honest with Draco about not wanting Draco to go through the same
humiliation he did.

�� Lana: I
agree that Snape is making the problem worse at this point (though Harry does
want to continue to look like James, in part). He�s not going to appreciate it
when he finds out how desperate Harry was not to be his son.

�� k lave
demo: Thanks! I tend to agree that Harry�s not stupid, though I believe he�s
not that book-smart. But then, how much of what he learns in Hogwarts is really
relevant to killing Voldemort? Defense might be; it�s much harder to see that
with things like Herbology, Astronomy, or Divination.

�� Mia: Thank
you! I admit I had some fun in this chapter with Snape�s face in the water
trick. Because he�s not going to achieve any epiphany all at once.

�� Milla: I
really can�t say yet. The pacing of this story is not what I expected when I
first started writing it, and so while I know that there will be half the fic
to go when Snape finds out, I really can�t say for sure when that will be.

�� I�m glad
you like the plots. The stories that are my favorites usually have strong
plots.

�� MewMew2:
Thanks! I usually post once every three days.

�� justareader:
Thanks! I hope I can accurately convey Snape�s bewilderment when he does find
out.

�� Dragon:
Yes, that will be some scene. I think I�ll have a blast writing it.

�� Sneakyfox:
Harry does look a lot like Lily. Remember, though, that he�s only seen
photographs of his mother, rather than her face in the flesh.

�� SP777: Yes,
it�s true that Harry is being rather childish. But imagine that someone came up
to you and told you that one of your parents was someone you�d always hated.
For Harry, a few training duels of somewhat-decent treatment and the testimony
of one letter is not enough to make up for five years of bad treatment.

�� Yeah, that
was a typo!

�� Glad you
like the duels. One of the main problems I have with writing them is coming up
with enough spells to fill them out and keep them different from each other.

�� Stargirl77:
Close, but no cigar.

�� elphaba:
Thank you!

�� ariathel:
Snape might have confronted Harry with more vigor, but at this point, he�s
still trying to persuade himself that he doesn�t really care.
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Practicing Liars