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Nova Cupiditas	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 37321 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and I am not making any money from this story.

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

Chapter Eleven�Running
Out of Time

�� You can�t
do this alone, Harry.�

�� Harry
firmed his lips but didn�t say anything as he continued to stare into the fire.
He wanted to point out that Narcissa was his ally, but he had said that
already, and Hermione had valued that at what she evidently thought it was
worth. He had to admit he hadn�t made as much progress on the curse as he would
like. In that respect, Hermione was right. He needed someone to help him
research, because inevitably, he would be distracted some of the time with
helping Draco.

�� But he
didn�t think she was heading in that direction. And sure enough, when she
leaned forwards and put her hand on his arm, he saw, from the pity in her eyes,
what she was going to suggest before she said it.

�� Harry, St.
Mungo�s��

�� No!� Harry wrenched himself away and
leaped to his feet, pacing around the comfortable drawing room where he tended
to sit when he had finished a project or wanted to read without having immediate
access to the results and notes and objects he had gathered in his lab.
�They�ll treat him like a ravenous animal, and try to learn things from him
rather than learn things that would help him.�

�� He is an
animal now, mate.� Ron stood on the opposite side of the room, as if he was
afraid to come too close, even though Draco was still sleeping under a
protective half-dome near the fireplace. Harry glanced at him. Ron�s face was
pale enough to make his freckles stand out against his skin like the marks of
an explosion. �You can�t handle him. He�s a danger to you and anyone who comes
near you or touches you. You don�t deserve this, Harry. Just because someone
cursed Malfoy, you have to be dragged into it? I say we give him to the only
people who might be able to make his passing less painful, the Healers, and let
you go back to your normal life.�

�� Harry
stared at Ron. Ron frowned back instead of flushing and looking at the floor,
as Harry had thought he would. God, was he listening
to himself?

�� What if I
had said the same thing about the wizarding world?� Harry asked softly. �No one
deserved to be saved from Voldemort,
either, by that logic. What do I care that he was cursing people? I could have
run away, or lived my life in the Muggle world, and only defended myself if he
came after me. But that�s not the way it was, and that�s not the way it is.
Malfoy is still a human being. He still deserves protection and humane
treatment.�

�� I agree
with you there,� Hermione said, giving Ron a stern look that said they would be
talking later. �But Harry, I don�t think you�re able to do it. You�re too close
to the situation. You�re too�I�m sorry, Harry, but you�re too inclined to be
sympathetic to him. He needs someone who can give him harsh treatment when
necessary, so that he�ll stop hurting himself and stop attacking you.�

�� Or other
people who he thinks get in the way,� Ron muttered, rubbing his shoulder. He
probably still felt the lingering effects of the curse Draco had used on him,
Harry thought, and winced. He was sorry for that. He hadn�t dared tell them
about Draco using an Unforgivable on his father, because they would probably
think that that meant Draco was too far gone to save.

�� They already think that, whispered a
laughing, cold voice in the back of his head. You were stupid to ask them for help. All they can think of is taking
Draco away and letting him live his last days in a cell, until he goes mad and
manages to kill himself.

�� Harry
locked his lips together. That was not going to happen, no matter what the
eventual outcome of the curse was. He had promised Draco that he would give him
a clean death if necessary, and he still meant to keep that promise.

�� I can work
with this,� he told Ron. �If you help me, as long as you don�t touch me directly,
then I think I can cope.�

�� Hermione
lowered her head. Ron was more straightforward. �Excuse me if I�m not willing
to watch my best mate kill himself for the sake of someone who was a git to us
in school,� he snapped. �I would support you if it was someone else, Harry. If
Ginny had been cursed, sure. But not this way.�

�� Harry
smiled a little. Ron had left an opening in his arguments, even if he didn�t
know it. �All right. So you think it�s possible
that I might find a cure for this, even though you keep saying there�s no
cure? You would want me to try if it was Ginny or another member of your
family? It�s only Draco that you object to?�

�� Ron glared
at him. Hermione shook her head. �You can�t catch me that way, Harry. I do
think it�s hopeless. You�ve done some remarkable things, but people have been
studying this curse and trying to work around it for years. It�s a death
sentence, that�s all.�

�� The way
that Voldemort was of course going to
take over the wizarding world,� Harry said. �The way we should just have given
up the moment we learned that he had six Horcruxes and how much effort it had
taken to destroy them.�

�� Ron and
Hermione exchanged another series of silent glances. Harry turned away and
stared at Draco, sleeping under his dome.

�� No�not sleeping
under his dome. As Harry watched, he stirred, his eyes flickering madly under
their lids�� and grumbles of
discontent coming from his lips. Harry cursed silently. No other spell had
lasted as long as it was supposed to with Draco while he was under the
influence of Nova Cupiditas,
including the Cold Water Curse, so he reckoned he shouldn�t be surprised that
the sleep charm had begun to fade before its normal time as well.

�� Decide
whether you�re going to help me or not,� he snapped, making his way across the
room so that he could crouch beside the dome. �But you should know I�m not
going to give up on Draco, no matter what. I�ll fight you if you try to take
him away to St. Mungo�s. Stun me and do it, and I�ll never trust you again. So
you�ll have to decide what�s worth more to you, prejudice against the Malfoys
or the loss of my friendship.�

�� Ron and
Hermione still wore anguished looks when Harry created a hole through the dome
just big enough to admit his arm and reached in so that he could lay his hand
on Draco�s shoulder. He thought he should be safer this time, with the Cold
Water Curse still in operation on him. But no amount of danger would keep him
from being at Draco�s side when he woke up.

*

�� Draco
turned his head to the side. He felt cold. Why was that? He was lying down, and
he ought to have been in a bed with blankets over him.

�� And with a
warm body beside him.

�� Wait. There
was a single spot of heat, on his shoulder. Draco reached up and entwined his
fingers with the fingers he found there, tracing his way up the arm until his
hand bumped into a solid barrier just where the shoulder would be.

�� He opened
his eyes.

�� The air
seemed sharper and clearer than it had in�years, although he knew that wasn�t
right. Draco blinked and would have sat up, but there was a silver dome not far
above his hand, and he knew from experience that bumping his head on one of
them wasn�t pleasant. He got to his knees and turned his head instead, never
relinquishing his hold on the hand. It seemed that he couldn�t, though he
didn�t know why.

�� Potter was
staring at him with a desperately pale face and depressed expression.

�� Draco
shuddered and closed his eyes. He was back to himself, for the moment, and he
remembered what had happened when they returned from the Manor like something
he had done in a dream. It was exquisitely obvious now why he was under a dome,
with Potter only touching him safely from the far side of a wall. But he still
wasn�t inclined to let go of Potter�s hand.

�� There�s no
way to beat this,� he whispered.

�� Yes, there
is.� Potter�s reassurance was instant, and Draco had the temptation to pick
Potter�s hand up and rub it against his cheek, which told him the curse was
still there, burning, under the surface. �We�re going to. But I�m sorry, Draco,
I�m so sorry what you�ll have to go through on our way to doing it.�

�� I hate
that I humiliated myself like that,� Draco whispered. More details were coming
back to him now, like details noticed from the corner of his eye. He winced
when he remembered the stupid declarations he had made to Harry, sounding like
a lovesick fool. Of course Harry didn�t love him in return.

�� But he also
remembered the melting look in Harry�s eyes and how he had hesitated instead of
throwing up a barrier right away. He hadn�t wanted
to close Draco away from him. He had wanted
to yield.

�� Draco
licked his lips. He thought he should despair over that, because how could he
hold strong if Potter gave in? But smugness and pleasure wound through him
instead like a gleaming snake. Yes, the curse was still there.

�� I need
help, though,� Harry continued in a steady voice. �If you�go mad again, then
I�ll need someone who can work on the research while I handle you and make sure
that you don�t hurt yourself. Will you allow my friends to help?�

�� It came as
a nasty jolt to Draco to realize that Granger and Weasley were in the room,
staring at him, in more ways than one. Once, he would have known they were
there without a doubt, even if he happened to be distracted by Harry. He leaned
against the barrier and around Harry so that he could see their faces.

�� They glared
at him with loathing. No, at his and Harry�s joined hands with loathing. Draco
snarled in spite of himself. The jealousy was darker and thicker than he
remembered it, warmer, spreading through his chest and his limbs and banishing
the cold feeling he had awakened with. His fingers closed down hard enough to
leave dents in Harry�s skin as he cradled Harry�s hand against his chest. He
wished the stupid barrier was gone so that he could stand between Harry and his
friends as a living wall.

�� How long
were you alone with them?� he demanded.

�� I was
never alone with them,� Harry said steadily. He didn�t object to the way Draco
held his hand, and that was good. That was important. Draco stroked the skin
between Harry�s fingers with his thumb in response. �We were all gathered in
this room with you asleep in the corner the whole time.�

�� God,
Harry, don�t make justifications to
him!� Weasley sounded disgusted. He�d probably wanted to fuck Harry for years,
Draco thought scornfully. Wasn�t he just disappointed to high heaven that it
was a Malfoy who finally won Harry? �I told you, you don�t have to do this. No
one could expect you to.�

�� I expect
me to.� Harry�s tone and face were flat, his eyes shimmering with stubbornness.
�And I promised Draco I would. That�s two people right there.�

�� Draco
swallowed. There was another, strange feeling spreading in his chest. It didn�t
have the tarry heat of the jealousy or the salty warmth of the humiliation that
had ripped through him when he thought about telling Harry Potter that he loved
him, but it made him feel as if he were standing in sunlight nonetheless. He
wondered what in the world this was. Some new manifestation of the curse?

�� We worry
about your safety, Harry,� Granger said. She spoke in a gentle, bookish tone,
the way she always did, but Draco wasn�t fooled. Granger wouldn�t have been
worried if it was someone else under the dome. If the Mudblood fanatics had
cursed her precious husband, she would be begging and pleading for Harry to
find the cure. �How can we leave you alone with him? But that�s what you�re
making it sound as if we�ll have to do, if we leave the house to do research or
gather clues.�

�� Yes,
that�s potentially what has to happen.� Draco could feel Harry�s hard, anxious
pulse in the wrist he held. He wanted to bow his head and lick it, but he
managed to subdue the impulse for the moment, since he wanted to listen to what
Harry was saying even more. �But I don�t think it�ll really be necessary, Hermione. At least, not for long. If you go
out and do research, Ron can stay here with me and Draco, and vice versa. If I
have to leave��

�� I�ll go
with you,� Draco interrupted.

�� Weasley
snorted rudely at him. �Are you mental, Malfoy? You�re just as likely to start
molesting Harry in the middle of Diagon Alley as you are to do something
actually useful.�

�� Draco
welcomed the flood of irritation that broke over him, because it was a normal
emotion, without reference to Harry, which made it rather rare and to be
welcomed. �I have few choices left, Weasley,� he said. �If I am with Harry, he
can help soothe me, and it�ll mean that at least I�m involved in looking for the cure.�

�� Whether the
curse had told him to say those words or not�and Draco was honestly puzzled as
to what was the curse anymore and what was him�they had been the right ones.
Harry�s face grew open and yielding, and he nodded. Draco looked back at him,
drinking in the sight of Harry with his eyes wide open, mentally cursing that
Harry couldn�t have yielded like that when he held him.

�� But then
again, he would be the victim of rape or a rapist if it had happened. No matter
how much his body ached to hold more than Harry�s hand, Draco thought it best
that things had worked out the way they had.

�� I can trust him.

�� Maybe that
explained the warm feeling buzzing through him. Draco lost himself in the soft,
steady caresses of Harry�s palm and the webs of skin between his fingers,
ignoring the way Harry fought with his friends. As long as he could touch Harry
like this and as long as Harry fought for him, everything was going to be all
right.

*

�� Harry
sighed and resisted the temptation to go back to bed. It was late in the
evening, and Hermione had started off for the library at Hogwarts, where she
had a standing invitation to do research, armed with the information Harry and
Draco had explained to her about the way the curse had changed. Harry had seen
reluctant interest in her eyes when they explained that, but he also knew she
didn�t think this was a hopeful sign. If the curse changed at all, she would
decide, it was only so that Draco could get Harry into bed more easily.

�� Now Harry
was down in the lab, with Draco in the repaired and warded circle once more,
and Ron behind him. Ron grumbled and fidgeted the entire time, mumbling to
himself about how unfair it was that Harry was doing this when he wouldn�t have
put forth the same kind of effort for anyone else who was cursed.

�� That part,
Harry could ignore. He knew that he would have tried to help anyone else who
was cursed, too. As he had told Draco, the integrity of being human was
important to him.

�� But Ron�s
mere presence made Draco unhappy, and that made it harder for Harry to
concentrate on the revealing charms he would have to cast. He thought the curse
had changed, too, and that meant it should look different from the original
picture he�d seen. But it was one thing to do that, and another thing to decide
on the spells he should use and pronounce them when Ron was there.

�� Draco
glared through the wards at Ron. Ron glared back. Harry shook his head. He knew
that Ron was worried for him and the worry was manifesting as anger, the way it
so often did with the Weasleys, but he only hoped Ron would be smart enough to
follow the instructions Harry had given him. Despite any temptation, Ron had to stay on the other side of the lab
and not cross it to touch Harry.

�� It wasn�t
something he was inclined to do naturally, but Harry could picture him doing it
out of sheer stubbornness.

�� All
right?� he asked no one in particular. �If certain people will calm down and
stop behaving like children, I can
get started.�

�� You heard
him, Weasley.� Draco sounded almost normal when he spoke to Ron. Harry
concentrated on that. That was the
Draco he was trying to restore: the one who issued insults from a center of
self-confidence, the one to whom Weasleys were only enemies to be despised.

�� The Draco
who hated him.

�� The thought
still hurt. But it wasn�t as if Harry was unused to pain, after all.

�� How do you
know he wasn�t talking to you, Malfoy?� Ron snarled back. Harry shut his eyes
and wished he could shut his ears, but he didn�t want to miss danger signals
like Draco starting to beg. He did begin to incant the first revealing charm,
though, holding the embers of a spent fire lit by a Dark wizard in his left
hand. The curse seemed to have more affinities to heat than to cold.

�� I�m
cursed,� Draco said, in a light, mocking tone. �That means I�m not in control
of my actions. Haven�t you been listening?�

�� Harry
reached the end of the spell and whirled to face the warded circle fully. The
moment he could see Harry�s eyes on him, Draco lost all interest in taunting
Ron. He reached out a yearning hand instead, and then halted when it crashed
against the wards. But his body and his mind were both focused on one goal, and
his heart was in his eyes. It was possible that he did love Harry when he was under the curse.

�� It isn�t a love he would have chosen, Harry
reminded himself as he waited for some results from the spell. That�s the part I have to remember. Draco
under the curse can say and do anything he likes, but it isn�t real.

�� And right
now, he really had to pay more attention to the results of the spell and less
to his own stupid feelings, didn�t he? Harry leaned forwards and watched the
way the spell slithered through the wards and hit Draco�s head and shoulders.
He had focused it there since that was where he had seen the jagged pieces and
the ugly, tendril-entwining crown that had manifested before.

�� This time,
the jagged pieces and the crown appeared again, but there was a third piece
coiled on top of them. Harry narrowed his eyes. Did that represent the change
in the curse? Or was it only that he had used a different spell, a better one,
this time, and had its continuous existence revealed to him?

�� Harry?�

�� Ron was
asking a question, but Harry had to draw the third piece of the spell before it
vanished. �Just a minute,� he said, and scrambled madly for the parchment. The
third thing looked like a dozing snake. Its �head� rested in the tendrils that
wrapped Draco�s face, while its body writhed and coiled and redoubled back
along the top of the pieces on Draco�s shoulders. Harry wanted to make sure
that he scribbled down every coil. It could be important.

�� Why?

�� Harry
licked his lips, silently cheering. He knew that kind of certainty in himself,
the gleaming and rippling thought that refused to rise to the surface of his
mind as yet. Somewhere, in the depths of his mind where he couldn�t reach it
right now, he had an idea. He would get there. He would find it in the end. And
right now, he knew it was important that he draw all the coils. He moved to the
side so that he could see the coil draped over Draco�s ear; from this angle, he
couldn�t tell if it was single or twisted around itself like a cord.

*

�� Draco
leaned on the warded barrier, sniffing. He knew that he couldn�t actually smell Harry from behind the
wards, but it seemed as if he could, and the air shifted around him when he
sniffed. That was helpful. It kept him from trying to push through the wards
the way he had once before and interrupt Harry at his work.

�� Harry was
beautiful when he was working. Draco didn�t think he knew that�and he knew
Weasley didn�t, because he kept whining and whinging and wanting Harry�s
attention, acting as though the research was a dream that Harry needed to wake
up from, instead of the center of his life.

�� I want to be the center of his life.

�� Draco
swallowed. Well, he was right now, because he was involved in Harry�s research.
And Harry had said that he would stay with Draco, stand beside him, and
struggle as hard for the removal of the curse as Draco could do himself. Draco
used that remembrance to calm his jealousy so that he could go on studying
Harry.

�� His eyes
were narrowed, and they flickered continuously from the parchment in his hand
to the air just above Draco�s head and shoulders, to the spell signature that
Draco assumed he could see. That didn�t hide their beautiful green color. His
hair was messy, but Draco knew now it always looked that way and wasn�t a sign
that he�d just shagged someone, which also helped to calm the jealousy. His
hands were steady, his jaw set in determination, and his body moved like a
dancer�s, aimed at the end that would help Draco most.

�� Draco
reached out automatically, and his hand bumped against the wards again. He
pulled it back and listened to the Weasel�s whining with half an ear. It seemed
the Weasel was talking about Harry staying at their house tonight, leaving
Draco chained up behind a dome of some sort. Draco knew that Harry would never
listen to that, so he didn�t have to worry about it.

�� He looked
at Harry again. Harry had finished his drawing and was leaning back on his
heels, shaking his head. His skin was stained with sweat, and he wiped it away,
his open, honest expression expanding into a smile as he looked at Draco.

�� We�ll
solve it,� he said. �I did see a change in the curse now. I wonder if it�s new,
or if my spell didn�t show it before? Whatever it is, more information about
the curse can only be good.�

�� Draco
opened his mouth to agree, but Weasley intervened. �Mate. Are you sure that you
won�t consider coming to my house for the night?�

�� Harry shook
his head again. �I�m grateful that you and Hermione have volunteered to help
me, Ron. But I can�t leave Draco alone.� He looked back at Draco, and the smile
was gone, but the intensity that remained in his eyes was perfectly acceptable.
It almost made up for the wards and domes that had been continuously between
them since Draco awoke. �I never will.�

�� Draco had
to shut his eyes. The warm, trembling feeling invaded his limbs like the touch
of sunlight.

�� He didn�t
know how to name it. He didn�t know where it came from, the curse or his own
soul. He didn�t know how to tell the difference between those two things now.

�� But he did
know what he would have liked, at the moment, if Harry had lowered the barriers
and if he could have controlled himself and if Weasley wasn�t in the room.

�� To take
Harry in his arms and kiss him, simply and easily. To touch his face and learn
the shape of the bones there. To take him to bed so that they might discuss the
curse together with the easiness of intimates.

�� He couldn�t
name the source. If he tried, he would be confused, ashamed, and disgusted,
though not enough disgusted. He only knew the feelings.

*

�� luvlustblood:
Draco would have done a lot worse without Harry there, definitely.

�� W�lkchen:
Draco is a bit back to normal in this chapter, but it won�t last. And the
self-mutilation is a sign of the curse�s latter stages.

�� The people
who cast the curse couldn�t be sure that Draco would actually ever get this
close to Harry, though. They must have thought it at least as likely that Harry
would refuse to help and kill Draco when he tried to rape him.

�� Thanks for
reviewing.

�� mrequecky:
Thanks!

�� Caldonya:
Thanks! Not the least of Draco�s torments is not being able to trust what he�s
feeling.

�� fudge:
Thanks!

�� (The
archive moderator has started asking that people post review responses on the
forums, so I�ll either do that or put them elsewhere for the next chapter, and
I�ll leave the link in this chapter).
- 10
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Nova Cupiditas