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The Rising of the Stones	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 13237 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 3
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Chapter Ten—The Markless

            “There’s no reason for them to do that,” Draco said, the first rational thought that came into his mind.

            Potter sat so still for a second that Draco thought he wasn’t going to argue. Or maybe he was going to laugh and say that he’d made it all up.

            Draco hoped he wouldn’t do that. His skin was prickling, and he swallowed, because it made sense of what had been senseless: the way Potter had run away from wizarding society, and the way he talked about the Minister, and the absurd order sealing Potter’s birth records when they might have been one of the best clues to find him.

            If he ran away after he read them. If this whole thing doesn’t have some deeper mystery behind it. I seem to get an unexpected answer every time I think I finally have the clue of what’s going on here.

            Potter turned then and held out his hand towards the nearest window. Draco jumped as he heard a rumbling in the earth beneath the house. He wanted to leap up and remind Potter that Draco hadn’t threatened his friends, so he shouldn’t be calling an earthquake to destroy Draco’s home.

            But Potter didn’t do anything like that. Instead, he said mildly, “You might want to open your window.”

            Draco did with a flick of his wand, in the second before a small book came flying through where the glass would have been and landed in Potter’s hand. He looked through it as if he had some doubt of it being the one he wanted, and then he nodded and held it out to Draco. His finger tapped in the middle of the page. “Start reading there.”

            Draco held back the impulse to say that he knew perfectly well where to start reading with something as important as this. He bent his head instead. Potter’s chosen place was in the middle of a sentence.

            …probably always have been those without soul-marks among us. In the days before the Ministry and the advent of proper record-keeping, they would have been able to pass unnoticed, if the parents and the midwife said nothing about the lack of their mark. Perhaps they themselves did not know what they were, and thought their marks simply so small as to be unnoticeable.

            But now that the recent research has traced the rise of Dark Lords and the soulless, all is made clear.

            Draco sat back hard enough that the book rocked in his hands. He shook his head a second later. “But we know the Dark Lord had a soul. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to attach a piece of it to you.”

            “I know.” Potter had a fine haunted smile when he wanted to. “But keep reading.”

            Draco did, although he kept one eye on Potter. He was looking around the room now as if considering ways out of it, and Draco was not going to let him disappear again.

            The soulless become Dark Lords because they feel no connection to anyone among those who have souls. Everyone knows that soul-marks are a gift, even if one never finds the person who carries the other half. Having someone out there who would understand you perfectly means that you are never alone in this world.

            But Dark Lords are alone. They disdain connection. They kill those who would befriend them, those foolish enough to trust them, those who think to become their wives and be safe around them that way.

            Dark Lords cannot have soul-marks. The soulless can feel no sense of connection. Even the ones who would not grow up to become Dark Lords, from lack of power or opportunity, commit many small crimes in their day-to-day lives.

            We can never eliminate all crime. But we can eliminate crime caused by the soulless.

            Here follows a list of Dark Lords. Examination of their bodies after death proved that they have no soul-mark, and that means that they have no connection to anyone else and their souls are gone.

            Draco skimmed the list, frowning. He had expected the book to be just internal Ministry propaganda—it had to be, from the way it sounded and the way it talked about the existence of people without soul-marks so openly—but it was true that he didn’t know what soul-marks most of the Dark Lords it had mentioned had carried. They’d certainly never met or married their soulmates, or been friends with them, from what Draco knew. And it was hard to imagine the eighteenth-century Dark Lady Adeline Yaxley having any kind of connection to anybody, just like the book had talked about.

            The last name, though, he paused on, so he could shoot a glance at Potter. “I never heard that Grindelwald didn’t have a soul-mark.”

            Potter began to chuckle, his head down. That muffled the sound a little, but Draco could still tell it was rusty and hysterical. He subtly shifted to get his wand in a good position. He would Stun Potter if he had to.

            “That’s something I know about,” Potter whispered, looking up. “I had a source of information—the only person left who would know, and he wouldn’t have talked to anyone else. Aberforth Dumbledore,” he added, when Draco simply stared at him. “He told me the truth. His brother and Grindelwald were soulmates.”

            Draco just stared. That was even more ridiculous than the notion of some people being born soulless and the Ministry slaughtering anyone they could get their hands on.

            “That’s impossible,” Draco finally said. “You’re telling me—Dumbledore never associated with—he dueled his soulmate?”

            Potter shrugged. “They had a quarrel. They did used to believe in the same things. Dumbledore wanted to take over the world for the greater good and all that. But they fell out. And Dumbledore—Albus, I mean…well, Aberforth told me how ashamed he felt about being soulmated to someone who had caused that much harm. After he captured Grindelwald, he cast a spell that masked Grindelwald’s soul-mark, so no one could ever find out what it had been and use it against Dumbledore. The spell was still there through every interview anyone ever had with him when he was tried, so the Ministry could decide that he was one of the soulless.”

            Potter closed his eyes. “I don’t think Dumbledore would have done it if he knew the kind of trouble it would cause. But then, I have no idea if he knew about the soulless. He was one of the people who reassured me that the scar must have covered my true soul-mark, but someday it would fade and I’d find my destiny.”

            Draco pushed his hands slowly through his hair and said the only thing he could think of, the only thing that made sense. “But the Dark Lord had a soul. And presumably a soul-mark.”

            “I don’t know what it was,” Potter whispered. “He didn’t have birth records at the Ministry, you know. He was born in a Muggle orphanage, and his mother only lived long enough to name him before she died. He didn’t have Ministry records. None of the Muggleborns do.” He paused, and Draco had the strangest feeling that he was gathering himself for a leap into the dark. Draco subtly tightened the protective spells around both himself and his house.

            I can’t let him get away, not when he’s scattered all these burning pieces inside my head.

            “I was in contact with the Dark Lord’s mind, and he never thought about the soul-mark.” Potter blinked and seemed to leave the dangerous mood he’d been in behind. “I think he’d discarded the thought of going to whoever it was. He thought it made him weak.”

            Draco’s mouth tightened as he thought of the woman magic had supposedly destined him for. He could understand the Dark Lord’s sentiment.

            “Anyway.” Potter shook his head and turned the book over. “This was written by an adviser to Minister Bagnold. From what I could find, she was one of the people who questioned the necessity of killing the soulless, and the author wrote it to convince her the killing had to continue.”

            “Everyone has a soul,” Draco said. “Even if they don’t have a soul-mark.”

            Potter turned a weary gaze on him. “Muggles don’t have soul-marks,” he said. “And they have souls. I think a soul-mark means two things: the soul, and the capacity to use wand magic.”

            “But Squibs have them, too.”

            Potter shook his head a little. “Squibs still have the capacity to use magic, Malfoy. What they don’t have is the ability. But they’re born with the capacity, and if someone came up with a means of giving them magic, they could use it. Muggles wouldn’t be able to no matter how much magic you gave them.” He hesitated. “And they both have souls. I have neither.”

            “You’re very sure of all this,” Draco said. He felt as though someone had slammed him in the brow with a bronze plate, and his head was still ringing.

            “I am,” said Potter, with a little shrug. “Why shouldn’t I be? I got to do all the research I wanted because people didn’t dare to question me. And of course no one thought I was one of the soulless.”

            “Stop calling yourself that,” Draco said. At least he had identified part of what bothered him, and that calmed the ringing in his head a little. “You’re not soulless. You’re not a body that a Dementor’s fed on. I’m not sure that I even believe your proof that you don’t have a soul.”

            Potter looked at him steadily. “I can take you through the earth-tunnels to Azkaban, if you like. Islands are no problem when you can travel beneath the water. And there, we can confront Dementors, and you’ll see the way they all glide past me, and focus on you.”

            “All right, I don’t distrust you enough to risk that,” Draco said reluctantly, and wrung a wan grin out of Potter. Somehow, I shall have to win a brighter one than that, Draco thought. “But I need more proof.”

            “I can take you to meet the people who trade with the rain unicorns. They have some methods for detecting people who have souls and ones who don’t. That would convince you, I suppose.”

            Draco sat silently instead of answering right away. The fact was, this was so unbelievable that he didn’t know if it would.

            Potter seemed to be offering practical demonstrations, and good conclusions, and some original research that might prove to be true in the end. But Draco wanted more of a theoretical underpinning, like how Potter could be walking around breathing and blinking if he didn’t have a soul.

            “You worked out the theory that would let you use earth magic and harness the age of the rocks,” said Draco at last. “I want to know what you think the theory of soul-marks is. And the soulless. Why were you born without one? Your survival proves that the soulless can have normal lives—”

            Potter snorted. Draco waved a hand at him.

            “Normal lives of a sort,” he said. “I mean, you can live as long as any other wizard, and you don’t lack the ability to care about people, which is what that book was trying to present as a justification for killing the soulless. So. What’s the theory?”

            Potter leaned slowly back in his chair and toyed with his empty teacup. He was frowning. Draco watched him through slit eyes, not sure if he hoped more for Potter to be right or wrong. On the one hand, Draco didn’t like the thought of the Ministry doing this all the time and under his nose; on the other hand, he had admired Potter’s theoretical ability so far, and it would be a shame if he didn’t really know what to make of all this.

            “Keep in mind that half my research was fairy tales,” Potter finally said.

            “I will.”

            Potter moved his head back and forth like a snake getting into position for a strike, and finally nodded. “I think that some people just aren’t—lucky enough for that kind of connection. The same way that people choose not to go to their soulmates.” He glanced at Draco. “You never went to yours, did you?”

            “I know who she is.” Draco let coolness shade into his voice. As far as he was concerned, they weren’t here to talk about him. He wasn’t the one with the theoretically fascinating and unlikely existence. “I chose not to let her drag me down.”

            Potter blinked once. Then he said, “Then you know that soulmates aren’t the romantic necessity everyone thinks they are.”

            “Anyone who came up in a House other than Gryffindor or studied history knows that, Potter.”

            “But you were still stunned when you found out that Dumbledore had battled his soulmate.” Potter gave him a painful smile. “I think you have some romantic notions surviving in your soul after all.”

            Draco clenched his teeth to keep from saying that at least he had a soul. He wasn’t going to fall into Potter’s nonsense without more proof. “I was shocked because I didn’t know who Dumbledore’s soulmate was,” he said smoothly. “Now. Are you sure that you aren’t delusional, Potter? Longing so much for your soulmate—”

            “Who doesn’t exist.”

            “Who might have been a horrible person, for all you know. Who might have weighed you down. Who might have died young and left you fruitlessly searching and unhappy about whoever you did choose to be with or marry.”

            Potter blinked. Then he said, “I—have close friends. I know what that’s like, and Ron and Hermione are the best friends I could ask for. But I wanted to know what a pure romantic love was like, one that we could be sure was real because we were meant to be.”

            Draco sighed patiently. This was the exact motive that he thought was behind Potter reading about soul-marks in the first place, if not running away. “Listen, Potter. We don’t yet know you’re soulless. We don’t yet know why some people have soul-marks and some don’t. The thing we need to do is bring out the truth and destroy Minister de Berenzan’s chances for re-election based on what he did to you.”

            “Of course for you it’s politics.” Potter only shook his head as if he had thought better of Draco. Draco wanted to ask indignantly what better he should be, but Potter went on. “How long do you think I’d live after I revealed that I didn’t have a soul-mark?”

            “What?” Draco hadn’t thought of that. “You think someone would make an attempt on your life?”

            “It’s not just the Minister who knows about killing the soulless, although the idea’s confined to the top levels of the Ministry.” Potter held his eyes. “How long would it take for someone to set out to kill me, because I should have been culled when I was a baby and managed to escape? Or to start spreading the rumor that the ‘erratic’ and ‘dangerous’ things I’m doing lately are because I don’t have a soul and soulmate to restrain me?”

            “If they’ve hidden the news about the soulless for so long, they wouldn’t want to just release it—”

            “They wouldn’t have to tell people about the other children born without soul-marks. They would just have to imply certain things about me. That I’m twisted from having a bit of Voldemort’s soul inside me for so long, maybe. Or that my own soul died when I destroyed his, because we were too tightly entwined. There are still lots of people out there who can swing to being afraid of me because the papers and the Ministry tell them to be.” Potter sighed and let his head dangle back on the chair. “Even more so now that I’ve been running from the Aurors for a while.”

            “That’s why it was a stupid thing to do, Potter. You should have told the truth and challenged the Ministry that way.”

            Potter only closed his eyes. “It’s been good to tell someone else the truth,” he whispered. “I couldn’t tell Hermione because I’m afraid that she would go up against the Ministry and get hurt, and I couldn’t tell Ron because he’s—still not over the idea that I’m not Ginny’s soulmate. They would want to help, I know they would. But they couldn’t accept me just leaving.” He stood up and nodded to Draco. “The way you will.”

            Draco stood up. “The hell I will.”

            Potter’s face looked smooth and hot and alien, the skull of some desert creature. “You only have something to lose if you keep chasing me,” he said gently. “You’ll attract the Minister’s attention eventually, won’t you? He’ll wonder why you can’t catch me and if you’re holding back on purpose, and then he might start suspecting what else you know. Just—accept it. At least this way he won’t be able to destroy you.”

            “The hell I will. I didn’t work so long on building up my reputation as a good Auror to sacrifice it over you.”

            Potter shook his head, not so much as if he disagreed as wearily. “What else can you do, Malfoy?”

            Draco reached out and caught Potter’s arm. Potter tensed, but didn’t try to move away, watching Draco so calmly that it stung Draco’s skin. Potter ought to be defiant, the way he had been when Draco first began pursuing him. He didn’t get to just give up.

            “I’m going to make sure you have the chance to tell the truth,” Draco told him quietly. “And whether or not we ever find out what it means for you not to have a soul-mark, there is one thing we can achieve.” He grinned. “We can bring de Berenzan down. And that would be good for both of us.”

            Potter’s eyebrows tilted up, and up, and up. “I can’t come back to the wizarding world no matter what—”

            “I’ll make it so you can,” Draco cut in. Really, this irritated him. Potter was going to slump back and give in? No.

            “Well. All right. We can try. I don’t have a lot that’s more urgent to do right now.”

            “Thank you for your gracious permission,” Draco muttered as he turned away, but already his mind was skittering ahead, focusing on other plans.

            And one of those plans was getting Potter invested. He didn’t get to sit around sighing and dreaming his life away. It wasn’t right on Draco’s personal scale, which was a lot more important than any moral one.

*

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The Rising of the Stones