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Learning Life Over	By : Meander Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 69729 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 10
- 11
- 12
Thanks for the reviews! Once again, a few questions are
answered at the end of the chapter.

Chapter 11- The Forfeit

�� Draco felt
the Body-Bind settling around him, but, thanks to seeing Harry use the spell on
Theresa, he had a moment�s warning. He was able to call out, just before the
curse sealed his mouth shut, �Trippy!�

�� She
appeared next to him, and looked at him expectantly. Draco gave her a pitiful
look, and at once she gasped and wriggled her fingers to dissolve the binding.
�Master Harry was being bad?� she whispered, as if reluctant to even hint at
such a disastrous occurrence.

�� He was,�
Draco said shortly, and then stood, working out where Harry could be headed
from the map of the Manor in his head. He had a short route to the outer wards
from that side of the house, unfortunately. Damn. And if Harry was
desperate enough, he might be able to work through the wards before Draco could
arrive. Raw strength was normally not something Draco would back against
finesse, but then, most brands of it weren�t Harry�s kind. Damn again.

�� In the end,
although he badly wanted to be the one to capture Harry himself, there was only
one practical option.

�� Catch
Harry, Trippy,� he directed. �Hold him, but don�t hurt him, and then send Hoppy
to tell me where he is while you remain with him.� He wasn�t going to take the
chance that Harry would manage to break free of house-elf magic, too. And
besides, he needed to enter the room next door and make sure to free Theresa
from the Body-Bind, and it would probably look more dignified to stroll up
later, after Harry was properly captured.

�� Trippy�s
chest seemed to swell, the way it always did when she was given authority to
order one of the other house-elves around. �Right away, Master Malfoy, sir!�
she squeaked, and vanished.

�� Draco shook
his head and headed for the far side of the enchanted window.

�� Harry.
Stupid, stubborn, infuriating Harry.

�� He had been
sure that Theresa was about to force Harry to acknowledge that the way he�d
been living all these years was inappropriate, and that he would have to
change. Instead, Harry had snapped and run in a way Draco had not seriously
imagined would happen. He was a Gryffindor, wasn�t he? And he�d been so
controlled for years.

�� Draco was
starting to think that Harry had only been able to maintain that fa�ade because
no one ever challenged him on the matter, though. The moment someone did start
caring, did start challenging him, it collapsed, because Harry�s emotions
weren�t so controlled after all, and his denial wasn�t far from the surface.

�� He released
the Body-Bind the moment he stepped through the door, and watched as the Healer
shook her head and smoothed down her hair. �I�m sorry for that,� he said
quietly. �Harry�s a more difficult patient than I anticipated.�

�� I should
have seen something like that coming,� Theresa said, and straightened, and
fixed him with such an evil eye that Draco blinked. �But there�s something else
that you can apologize for. Lying to me. I need to know the full facts
of Harry�s case to treat him properly, and he won�t give them to me. He�s Harry
Potter, isn�t he? And all his friends died at once?�

�� Draco
winced, but nodded. If it would help Harry, I have to tell her the truth. Besides,
the spell he had on the room would insure that Theresa still couldn�t tell the
story elsewhere. �Yes. The Weasleys, who�d practically adopted him like a son,
were wiped out by Voldemort, and so was his best friend, Hermione Granger, and
Remus Lupin, who�d been a friend of his father�s.�

�� Theresa
closed her eyes and sighed. �And he�s been living like that since?�

�� Yes. He�s
never visited his friends� graves, either, and he�s made no new friends, and he
deprives himself of the simple pleasures of life, apparently as a way to ignore
everything but work.�

�� Theresa muttered
something under her breath. In the end, she said, �If he consents to speak more
with me, I do insist that he be without a wand, and I may suggest a Calming
Draught, too.� She shook her head. �I thought it would take more effort than
that to crack him. How did he survive?�

�� That�s
what I would like to know,� Draco said grimly. �And I have to admit that I
don�t know if he�ll talk to you after this, Theresa.�

�� She nodded.
�I will remain here, just in case- �

�� Hoppy
appeared in the room with an abrupt bang. �Master Harry is being captured by
Trippy, Master Malfoy,� he said gravely.

�� Draco
nodded and followed Hoppy out of the room. Harry and I are going to have a
little talk.

*

�� Harry
snarled and strained his muscles against the invisible cords that Trippy had
used to bind him again. He�d been so close. He could see a door in front
of him with a window set in the upper half that framed blue sky. He�d been a
pace from it when the house-elf appeared, announced, �Master Harry is very
bad!� and left him to hang in midair like this.

�� She�d also
taken his wand, damn it.

�� Harry
closed his eyes and forced his muscles to relax. He hadn�t been able to break
free of spells more than a few times, but he�d sometimes been able to Summon
his wand, as long as he knew where it was. It was caught now in three of
Trippy�s overlong fingers, and her gaze was vigilant on him, not it.

�� Come
here! Accio wand!

�� Trippy
squeaked suddenly, and then said, �Master Harry is so bad that he will have a
nap for four hours!� When Harry looked again, she had such a firm grip on his
wand that he knew he couldn�t get it away from her with a simple Summoning
Charm. He growled his frustration.

�� Harry.�

�� If his
muscles hadn�t already been tensed to the limit, Harry would have snapped taut
at Malfoy�s voice. As it was, he merely switched his glare in that direction,
and watched as his �host� walked calmly across the patterned floor to him.

�� He came
close enough to reach up and put a hand on Harry�s cheek. Harry just watched
him, panting a little, eyes half-lidded. Come closer, you bastard. Then
maybe I can break your nose with my forehead.

�� That
didn�t go the way I was planning, Harry,� said Malfoy calmly.

�� Go fuck
yourself, Malfoy.� Harry jerked his face away then. He couldn�t stand the thumb
that rubbed over his skin as if it owned him. Besides, he�d already broken the
terms of their bargain. That meant he could be as insulting as he liked, and
call Draco by his last name as often as he wanted.

�� Malfoy�s
eyes narrowed a little, but he maintained his temper. �You were rude,� he said.
�Even if you were irritated with me, there was no need to act as you did in
front of Theresa.�

�� I don�t
care what you think.� Harry flexed his muscles against the bonds again, hoping
Trippy would have become distracted with her master�s presence and that would
introduce a weakness into the spell. It didn�t work. �This bargain is off,
anyway. I already broke it. What you want from me is insane, and you�re
holding me here against my will.�

�� You need
help, Harry.� Malfoy took another step closer, though not, unfortunately, close
for a head-butt. �Theresa thinks so, and so do I. You can�t be allowed to go on
living as you have.�

�� What do
you care?� Once again, Harry found himself slammed against the invisible wall
that was Malfoy�s stupid caring. �I wasn�t hurting anyone. I was helping
people, in fact. I- �

�� You were
hurting yourself.� Malfoy�s face was implacable. �That matters to me,
Harry, and it matters to Theresa, too. I wish it mattered more to you than it
did. If you can�t be bothered to take care of yourself, though, I�ll take care
of you. And if we can�t bargain as adults, then I�ll treat you like a child.
You�ll spend your time here under so many muscle relaxation spells that you
need help to use the loo, and sleeping when I tell you to, and talking with
Theresa under Veritaserum. I don�t want that, Harry. I really don�t. But
I would rather do that and have you hate me, and keep it up for however many
years it takes until you understand, than let you go out that door.�

�� Harry
closed his eyes in defeat. And wonderful, now he felt the pressure of something
like tears, because his damn emotions were still too close to the
surface. �I don�t- Malfoy, don�t- �

�� Don�t
what, Harry?�

�� Just give
up,� Harry whispered. �Just leave me to live, and die, if you think I�m doing
that, in my own way.�

�� He was
terrified, because he knew that if Draco intended to pursue this course, sooner
or later he would change. It was inevitable. He�d broken down after a few questions;
how could he resist month after month, year after year, of this kind of
treatment? He would talk, or mourn, or whatever they really wanted from him,
and that would make him not Harry. He didn�t want to change. He�d
been doing fine on his own. He could do things that no one
else could.

�� That�s not an option, in any of the
courses I�m considering right now.� Draco�s voice was soft, incredibly. He
moved closer, and a moment later Harry felt his hand on his cheek again,
tilting his head back. �My God,� Draco whispered. �This honestly terrifies you,
doesn�t it?�

�� Hoping against hope that the
evidence of his fear would persuade Draco to let him go, Harry nodded.

*

�� Draco stroked the side of Harry�s
cheek, first with his thumb and then the back of his hand. He couldn�t seem to
stop touching him. He didn�t want to. Those protective instincts that had first
surged up when he made Harry come with his voice alone were raging through him
again like a river in flood.

�� Harry,� he whispered. �Harry. If you need to be more in control than this, there�s still a way to do
that.�

�� Harry opened his eyes and looked at
him. There was a faint shine to their marvelous green that hadn�t been there
before. Draco felt his heart melt a little more. He couldn�t soften so much he
would do things that were bad for Harry just because Harry wanted them, but
what he had become obsessed with was that fire, the stubborn will that had
carried Harry through grief that would have killed most other people long
since. He couldn�t actually force him to become a helpless, dependent pet, for
the same reasons he couldn�t rape him. It was wrong.

�� We can resume our bargain,� Draco
said. �The same terms as before. You leave at the end of a month, and you don�t
use spells on me or anyone else here, without permission. In return, you call
me by my first name and you face the lessons I ask you to face. That includes
sessions with Theresa.�

�� Hope returned to Harry�s face,
slowly and painfully. He swallowed back some initial responses, then said,
�But?�

�� Draco tilted his head. �But?�

�� There�s going to be a condition
somewhere,� Harry said. �I can see that in your face.�

�� Draco smiled, charmed by the fact
that Harry had learned to read him enough in the last few days to know what
some of his facial expressions looked like. Harry, of course, would say that he
needed to know his captor so he could escape his prison. But Draco knew such
close attention was one of the preludes to falling in love, too. The very fact
that Harry responded so strongly to him, instead of sitting in an emotionally
isolated shell, was an indication of how badly he�d needed someone to talk and
relate to.

�� You owe me a forfeit,� said Draco.
�I choose what it is. It happens when I say so. And you do it without
objecting. If I want you to take Veritaserum before one session with Theresa,
for example, you�ll do that. If I want you to give me a massage, you will. Do
you understand, Harry?�

�� Harry weighed it, his expression
wary. But, in the end, he wanted the control this would continue to give him
more than he cared about what the forfeit might be, Draco knew. He nodded, and
then grimaced as his chin apparently slammed into one of the invisible bonds
that Trippy had woven about him. �Can you get me out of this?�

�� A moment,� Draco whispered, and
took a step forward to kiss Harry again. He had to stand on his toes, as Harry
was hovering slightly above him, but he wanted this badly enough not to care.

*

�� Harry shut his eyes as Draco kissed
him. He didn�t think he wanted to look into his eyes that close, not right now.

�� Just as before, the slide and slip
of Draco�s tongue in his mouth made him feel better than could have been
reasonably expected if he was really straight, and Harry found himself
responding before he�d made a conscious decision about what to do. Draco was
nibbling at his lips this time, cupping his chin with one hand, running the
other up into his hair.

�� Harry took a deep breath and decided
to do what he could to show Draco his gratitude. He still didn�t want to talk
to the Healer, but Draco hadn�t had to make the bargain over with him again,
either. This was so much better than what could have happened. This left him a
chance to resist.

�� He relaxed into the kiss, even
leaned into it. He was still going to win their contest, he told himself
firmly. That didn�t matter. He could give Draco this small reward, though.

�� Draco groaned loudly, and rewarded
him in turn by digging his fingers into his scalp. Harry�s body twitched with
interest.

�� It felt good. He could admit that,
couldn�t he, and not be concerned about what it meant for his sexuality? He
could admit that.

�� Draco pulled back, at last, and
looked torn between saying something and continuing the kiss right there.
Finally, he shook his head and said, �Trippy, let him down.�

�� But is Master Harry still a bad
boy?� the house-elf asked with an anxious expression, even as she obeyed.

�� Draco considered Harry. Harry
flushed a bit, aware of how he must look, with his hair mussed and his lips
slightly swollen. But he lifted his head and returned the gaze as best he
could. He did intend to do better this time around.

�� Draco smiled, though, so whatever he
saw must have been pleasing.

�� He�s better now,� he murmured to
Trippy, not looking away from Harry.

**********

acr: Harry walked away from the Dursleys after his
seventeenth birthday. He never tried to contact them, and he doesn�t consider
them family.

Madlodger: Harry�s a bit overwhelmed by the attention, but I
don�t think I would categorize him as �in love� with Draco yet.
- 10
- 11
- 12
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Learning Life Over