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A Brother to Basilisks	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 85172 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 15
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this story.

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Chapter One Hundred and Three—Fate of a Horcrux
“I can’t believe you’re awake.”
Harry knew that, because Draco had told him it at least nineteen times. He put down the bowl of soup that Severus was forcing him to eat—and Dash had done nothing to stop him, the traitor—and smiled at Draco. “Well, I am.”
“No one else could have come back from something like that.”
“Most other people aren’t Parselmouths or bonded to a basilisk, either.” Harry tried to be patient. Draco had also explained, at length, what he’d felt when he saw Harry hanging in Dash’s coils in the dungeons. And he had demanded answers to questions for nearly an hour now, as Harry ate the soup that was all he was allowed to have, even though he was ragingly hungry. Every time Harry thought he must know everything, Draco came up with a new one.
“I don’t want you to do that again.”
“Well, I didn’t exactly choose to have Voldemort pulling on my magic,” Harry snapped, a little irritated. Both Draco and Severus had also said that over and over since he woke up. “If he does it again, then I’ll have to defend myself.”
“But you don’t go looking for trouble on your own. You don’t go running off because of a vision and nearly end up getting killed.”
“I wasn’t killed—”
“Not because of a spell, but magical exhaustion could have killed you. You heard Professor Snape. I’ve never heard him that angry.”
Harry bristled. That was another thing. Besides the soup and the blankets—seriously, he was sweating under here and Severus still insisted he bundle up—he had to rest and he couldn’t perform any spells for five days. Apparently that was standard treatment for magical exhaustion. Harry thought that was silly. He knew he’d exhausted himself before, like when he fought the other basilisk, and no one had told him anything like this.
I know they just want me to live, but this is going too far.
“I do appreciate you being concerned,” he said, and saw the way Draco stiffened. He probably suspected what was coming. Well, let him. “But I am okay. And I want to get out of this bed and eat more than soup and make some plans for the future.”
“We’re discussing everything with you still. The Ministry hasn’t tried Scrimgeour yet. The new pure-bloods who’ve heard about you having Slytherin’s soul have sent a few letters of welcome, but nothing Professor Snape can’t deal with. I’m conducting the Horcrux research. We don’t know where Voldemort went or how badly he was injured. There’s nothing you need to do.”
“There are things I want to do.”
“Tell me why it is so important to do them right now, Harry.”
Harry looked up, startled. He hadn’t heard Severus come back into the room, and for a moment, when he saw how haggard his face looked, his heart chimed with guilt.
But then he saw the way Severus was frowning and had his arms folded across his chest, and he gritted his teeth. “I’m bored. I’m hot from all the blankets. I want to eat. I know I almost died, I get it, but this isn’t the first time, and—”
“And that should not be true.”
“Yeah, but it is true,” Harry said, a little relieved now that he thought he’d figured out what was bothering them. “I know you want to protect me, but almost dying a lot…this is what I do.” He shrugged, glad that Dash wasn’t in the room and couldn’t restrict even that movement. “So we’ll just have to get used to it.”
Severus prowled forwards. “You should not have been treated the way you were the other times you almost died.”
“I know. I don’t want Voldemort trying to kill me, either! But just lying here in bed won’t stop him, and—”
“I mean that someone should have made you rest because you had magical exhaustion.”
Severus wasn’t yelling the words. He was speaking them in a soft voice that made Harry wonder whether his snapping and scolding in class wasn’t the less dangerous kind of anger. Severus loomed in front of him and leaned down until his nose almost touched Harry’s. Harry swallowed.
“If it weren’t for your power and the fact that you’re young and still growing, you could have exhausted yourself enough to burn out your magic,” Severus said. Every word felt as though he was etching it on Harry’s forehead. “It was criminal that you didn’t get blander food and more rest in the hospital wing. Some of that was undoubtedly the Headmaster’s fault, but I don’t know what Poppy was thinking. At some point, I intend to ask her. In the meantime, you will rest.”
Harry blinked hard. No one had ever suggested that he could be hurt by what had happened to him other than—well, the wounds he’d got. And certainly no one had ever said that he could have consequences after Fawkes had healed the wound from the basilisk’s fang, or other things.
“I slept for a few days each time,” he finally said.
“Excuse me if I do not consider unconsciousness the same thing as sleeping.”
Harry winced a little. Yes, the words were going to be branded on his forehead, not etched.
“The Headmaster did not take proper care of you,” Severus continued, folding his arms so that he almost looked like a statue of a monk Harry had seen once on the telly. “I do not know why Poppy did not. Perhaps she thought unconsciousness was resting, too.” His voice was like Antarctica. “But from now on, you will heal from the magical exhaustion that you regularly suffer. And you will stay in bed. And you will eat the less solid food to prevent you from vomiting it up in a few hours. And you will read quietly and you can help in the Horcrux hunt that way.”
Harry slid slowly back in the bed, his eyes fixed on Severus. He’d just told Harry all the things he wouldn’t be doing, but at the same time, it sounded like he would get to do a little.
“I don’t have to have all the hot blankets all the time.”
Severus studied him, frowning, as if he thought Harry would leap out of bed and go fight a dragon again if he relaxed so much as one of his prohibitions. Then he nodded. “They are to protect against the shivering that frequently comes with magical exhaustion. If you will swear to me that you do not need them—”
“I’ll swear an Unbreakable Vow if you want. They’re driving me mental.”
“Do not even joke about swearing such a Vow,” said Severus, but his lips had relaxed and his chin had dropped in the way that let Harry know it was going to be all right. “Very well, Harry. I will give you some scones this afternoon. With tea and soup, mind. And no butter until you prove you can handle the bread.”
Harry nodded. “Was I really at risk of vomiting those other times?” he asked, wondering why no one had ever told him.
“Perhaps not,” Severus said, although Draco nodded vigorously behind him. “You were young enough that your stomach may have absorbed the food that an older person’s magical core would reject. And you were not used to regular meals.” His eyes darkened the way they always did when something reminded him of the Dursleys. “But it is more likely to happen now, since you are older and in your second summer without their tender care.”
Harry stared at Severus for a minute. He remembered Ron telling him all about his mum scolding him once for participating in one of Fred and George’s pranks. It was a small one, and no one had got hurt, but Ron’s eyebrows had been singed.
“She went on and on about what could have happened,” Ron had said, and rolled his eyes. “I reckon it’s just something parents like to do.”
Severus was doing this because he really did care about Harry, and he didn’t want him getting hurt. Harry might disagree with the way he was going about it, but at least he would get rid of some of the itchy, warm blankets and get to eat some solid food.
“All right,” he said. “Fine. As long as you take some of the blankets off my bed right now. All right?”
Severus recoiled and actually stared at him in shock, making Harry wonder if he’d done something wrong after all. But then Severus smiled and said, softly, “Thank you,” even as he flicked his wand and some of the blankets unrolled from Harry.
Huh, Harry thought, and bit his lip so he wouldn’t gape. Gaping would probably just lead to another discussion about the Dursleys, which he knew neither of them wanted right then. I didn’t know it was as simple as asking.
He would ask in the future.
“Are you sure that he should be eating a big lunch all at once, sir?” Draco hovered behind Severus and stared in concern as all the blankets got piled in a corner. “Perhaps a nap before then?”
“I’ll take one if you join me,” Harry snapped at Draco. He knew that he’d woken up late last night and Draco had been crouching over one of those heavy books about Horcruxes, squinting in the low light of the fire.
Draco smirked at him. “All right.”
“What?”
“A nap sounds like a good idea, especially if you’ll sleep, too.”
Harry blinked some more. At least he understood what was behind Severus’s behavior now, and he could admit that Draco probably wanted him to rest and recover, too. But he didn’t understand the sharp challenge in Draco’s eyes, or how he was almost leaning forwards on his toes, as if he couldn’t wait for a returning challenge.
“You—want to sleep?”
Draco shrugged. “Everyone needs to sleep. And Professor Snape did say that it’s a big enough bed that we can both use it.” His grin was poleaxing.
Harry felt his face turn so red that he was sure he would set fire to the blankets still on the bed. He cleared his throat, but that didn’t make Draco go away or even Severus move from the doorway. That Draco felt able to have this conversation in front of Severus was—remarkable. “If you’re sure that you won’t kick me…”
Draco’s face was immediately soft. “I won’t. You won’t feel me through the pillows and sheets that are still on the bed, anyway.” He swept the book he’d been carrying up in his arms and leaped onto the bed beside Harry. “Better?” he asked softly into his ear.
Harry swallowed, and felt for a moment as though his heart was going to beat its way out of his throat. “Much,” he managed to croak.
“Good,” Draco said, and nestled down into the blankets, nodding almost regally to Severus. “You can go now, sir. I’ll make sure that he gets some sleep before you bring in that exciting lunch.”
Severus nodded a little and swept out of the room, holding the door open as Dash crawled in. Then he firmly shut it, and Draco laid his head on Harry’s shoulder with a sigh.
“I really thought I was going to lose you,” he whispered.
In a way, it was only what he had been saying for hours now, since Harry properly woke up, but now Harry could understand what he meant. He reached up to stroke Draco’s hair. Draco closed his eyes tightly and held still as if he’d already gone to sleep, but Harry knew that wasn’t so. He could feel the difference in his breathing.
Why didn’t you say something yourself? Harry added to Dash, who had draped only part of his body over the bed. The rest was under it.
Dash yawned at him. They were doing a perfectly good job of making sure that you stayed put and healed. Why would I want to put myself to the trouble? Then he let his third eyelids fall over the vivid glow of his yellow eyes, and their bond calmed as he went to sleep, too.
Harry rolled his eyes, but decided he might as well join the crowd.
*
Draco woke up long before he should have, he thought, if the weariness clogging his head was any indication. Then again, he’d been up a lot lately, watching over Harry.
He turned and looked at his boyfriend. Harry was asleep face-down in the pillow, on top of Draco’s arm, which Draco didn’t want to move yet anyway. He was breathing as though someone had stuffed a carrot in his nose. What little Draco could see of his face was still pale.
Draco shook his head. Sure, Harry might be hot and he might want to eat food other than soup—Draco couldn’t blame him for that—but if he could see his own face, then he might understand how close he had come to dying.
Well, we can bring a mirror in here, Draco thought, and turned down to the end of the bed, where Dash was draped over the blankets and their legs. The basilisk raised his head and flicked out his tongue when he saw Draco looking, as if he knew Draco had something to say to him.
Draco swallowed, and then murmured, “What I’ve learned about Horcruxes isn’t positive. The soul shard corrupts the nature of the object it’s placed into. Some Dark wizards liked to do it with Light artifacts or things intended for use in healing, so then they would poison anyone who tried to handle them. I don’t even—I can’t imagine what hosting a shard of Voldemort’s soul is doing to Harry.”
Dash was silent, listening.
“I also can’t find anything about actually removing them, except for destroying the object. The book assumes that either you want to destroy Horcruxes or you want to create them and leave them the way they are. I don’t think you can even transfer the soul-shard between one object and another.” Draco touched his face and sighed. “So how in the world can we get it out of him?”
Dash turned his head to the side. At first Draco thought Professor Snape had come in, but then he realized Dash was looking back along his own shiny scales.
“You think you can do something?” Draco had largely given up envy of Harry for being a Parselmouth, but at the moment, it would have been really useful.
Dash flicked his head down in that way that meant he was sure.
“But why? I mean, you haven’t been able to do something before now, and you didn’t even know he was a Horcrux before Black said something about it, right? So even if you have all of Slytherin’s knowledge, that doesn’t mean he knew how to get a Horcrux out of a living being.”
“I think he means he is working on it, Draco.”
Draco started and turned around. He hadn’t heard Professor Snape come in at all, even though he would have said he was alert to the possibility. Dash only bobbed his head in an exaggerated fashion at the professor and then lowered it again. As far as Draco could tell, he fell asleep immediately.
Then Harry yawned and sat up. Professor Snape gave Draco only a flick of an accusing glare, but it made Draco flush and caught Harry’s attention anyway.
“Don’t scowl at Draco like that,” said Harry sleepily, doubling his fists to wipe at his eyes like a child. “I was waking up anyway. Dash pulled on the bond and told me that I’d slept long enough.” He raised an eyebrow at his guardian in a way that made Draco want to laugh, because it was so perfectly his professor’s gesture. He had to struggle to keep his face straight. “And what about that solid lunch you promised?”
Professor Snape didn’t say a word, but waved his wand. The tray that floated into the room must have been out of sight behind him. Draco felt his mouth water. He didn’t know about Harry, but the tomato-basil soup on the tray smelled wonderful to him. He reached out and grabbed it, carefully steering it towards them.
“Solid food,” said Harry.
Another tray followed with scones and some small red berries that Draco didn’t remember ever seeing for lunch in the Great Hall. He grabbed one and popped it into his mouth, then gasped and shivered from how tart it was.
“I think that is enough to begin with,” said Professor Snape, and sat down on the chair where Draco had read the book.
“You know some things are going to have to change,” Harry said as he took one of the berries himself, and then reached for the scones. Professor Snape looked back and forth between Harry’s face and the bowl of soup, but he might as well have looked at a wall.
“I know. You must stop running into danger, and you must accept that I know best, as your guardian, when it comes to how to handle magical exhaustion.”
Harry’s hands stopped. Then he looked up, and Draco caught his breath. This was a glimpse of a Harry he hadn’t seen very often, so strong and determined that it was impossible not to fall further in love with him.
“More than that,” Harry said. “You have to accept that we’re going to get this Horcrux out of me somehow.”
Professor Snape could still do the kind of intimidating scowl that Draco saw most often when Longbottom was messing a potion up. He buried his shiver in the soup. “I never intended to let you die.”
Harry carried on as if he hadn’t heard. “And that means that I need to look at the options and decide which one I want to pursue.”
“Dash said he had something,” Draco volunteered, looking at the scones instead of Harry’s face. “Something to do with Slytherin’s knowledge. Is that what you mean?”
“He might know how to do it,” Harry said. “I’m the one who has to make the choice how far I’m willing to go with it.”
Draco felt stupid, but he said, “I mean, wouldn’t you be willing to do anything to get that thing out of you?”
“Severus might not be.”
Draco blinked at the professor in astonishment, but his confusion cleared up when Professor Snape said clearly, “Any attempt or method that endangers your life will not be considered, any more than I would have considered any Dark rituals had Black actually located one.”
“That’s—”
No one paid attention to Draco’s contribution. Harry leaned forwards a little and said, “It’s die with the Horcrux in me or try a method to get it out of me that will probably be dangerous. I would rather die trying to get it out than have it just exist there.”
“There is another option,” said Professor Snape, in a way that made Draco shrink back against the pillow. “You can live.”
“Of course. That’s what I’m going to do while we work out how to destroy the Horcrux in me and after we get it out.”
“You misunderstand me.” Professor Snape lowered his voice into a disagreeable purr. “You can live and not go through something that will destroy you.”
“Dash won’t do anything he thought would kill me.”
“Considering some of the things he has done already, I question that assumption.”
Draco wondered if he was the only one who saw a clear eyelid quiver over Dash’s “sleeping” eyes.
“I don’t,” said Harry, and his voice was calmer than Draco would have expected. Then he paused and listened, and nodded a second later. “Dash is agreeing with me. He thinks it would be stupid to have me go through something that would definitely kill me. But he’s willing to do something he might cause me pain, the way he held me back from joining the attack on the Weasleys. Do you really distrust him?”
Draco reached down and nudged Dash a little with his foot, because he thought it was silly for him to lie there playing “asleep” when he was obviously awake and communicating with Harry. Dash raised his head and yawned in the professor’s face. Then he turned his head and hissed ostentatiously in Harry’s direction.
“Dash says that he still needs to go into a meditative trance to pull up a couple of the memories, but he does remember a lot,” Harry translated, sounding smug. “He knows a spell that might at least contain the Horcrux.”
“Contain? What does that mean?” Professor Snape was still poised as though he would need to move and snatch Harry out of the range of a furiously bubbling potion at any moment.
“Form a sort of shell around it.” Harry was listening with his head cocked to the side, and Draco bit his lip so that he wouldn’t tell Harry how cute he looked like that. “As if it was inside an egg. That’s Dash’s reasoning, not mine,” he added, maybe because he could see Professor Snape’s eyebrow popping up.
“You cannot do such a thing. The Horcrux is entwined with your soul. Perhaps what you describe would be possible if it was merely a part of your mind, although even then, I question whether—”
“He can do such a thing,” Harry said softly, and tipped his head at Dash again. Draco gave in to an impulse and reached up to touch his cheek. Harry blinked at him in shock, then smiled and curled his arm around Draco, tugging him close against his side.
“You would have to have something to experiment on. He would never do it without practicing first.”
“But we do have something we can practice on,” Harry said, and blinked a little.
“What other living Horcrux?” Professor Snape was leaning so far over the bed that Draco actually thought he was going to try to stab their eyes out with his nose. “There is a severe shortage of them, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. If you’re going to tell me that you’ll try to kidnap Nagini—”
“Of course not. We’re going to practice on one of the unfertilized basilisk eggs that are still in the Chamber. What?” Harry added, to their stares. “Dash says there are some, and you have to admit, he would know.”
*
LadyinBlack: Thank you so much!
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A Brother to Basilisks