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Bloody But Unbowed	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 36009 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- 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
- 11
- 12
- 13
Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Twelve�Make
Good Use of the Unexpected

�� Master
Harry Potter is dining with the family tonight.�

�� Harry, who
had escaped from the monster loo earlier than usual�the shower seemed to think
he had warranted less scrubbing today�found that the towel he held had dropped
uselessly from his hands. The next moment, he hissed under his breath and
picked it up again. Rogers watched with his arms folded and his head cocked to
one side. Harry wondered for a moment why he hadn�t offered to help, and then
decided that he was probably judging Harry�s worth as a Malfoy based on his
reaction to the news.

�� Who
decided that?� Harry asked when he straightened again. He made sure to keep his
movements slow, his voice calm, and his eyes untroubled as he toweled his hair
dry and cast a few glances into the mirror Rogers had hung on the far wall of
the bedroom, next to the door to the library. He hadn�t asked Harry�s
permission before hanging it. Of course, Harry suspected that the general
prohibition against anyone interfering in the decoration of his rooms didn�t
apply to house-elves. After a few moments of staring, Harry determined that his
wet hair was as tame as it would get, and threw the towel away, shaking his
head irritably. �I hadn�t thought Lucius was well enough to dine outside of
bed.�

�� Master
Lucius has had no attacks for a few days,� said Rogers. �He is very strong.�

�� Yes, he
must be,� Harry said. �I just don�t want him to overstrain himself.�

�� The elves
always are keeping a close watch.� Rogers�s chest inflated, and Harry thought
for a moment that he would float off his toes. �And of course Master Harry
Potter has helped, too. He has a true Healer�s hands.�

�� Harry
paused in startlement. However true the compliment might be�and he didn�t think
it was, very�he hadn�t expected to hear it from Rogers.

�� Rogers was
being doubtful at first, because Rogers is impertinent.� The elf stepped past
Harry and smoothed out a nonexistent wrinkle in the bedsheets. �He was not thinking
that Master Harry Potter could become a true part of the Malfoy family or be
making a contribution. But Master Harry Potter is better even than the last
adoption made two generations ago�and Miss Eliza Malfoy was a diplomat and a
genius.�

�� Harry swallowed.
It was hard, because his throat had gone dry. �That�s very generous of you to
say,� he murmured. �But I�m not a Healer��

�� And Master
Harry Potter would be fitting even better into the family if he were not
constantly deprecating himself,� Rogers told the bed. He spun around and
pointed a finger at Harry, making him feel uncomfortably like a butterfly on a
pin. �He is a Healer and he is being good for Master Draco, who looks happier
than potions make him.�

�� Harry
opened his mouth, then reminded himself how useless it was to argue with a
house-elf. And if Rogers had been Dobby�s father, he probably had given his son
all his stubbornness and insistence on being right.

�� Thank you
for saying so,� he said instead, and moved on. �How formal is this dinner? I
didn�t bring dress robes when I packed for the Manor.�

�� Rogers and
the lesser house-elves shall be modifying appropriate clothes of Master
Draco�s,� said Rogers. �Master Harry Potter is not to be worrying himself.
Master Harry Potter is to be eating a good breakfast instead, and to work on
healing Master Lucius.� He paused significantly. �And he is to be studying.�

�� Well, of
course,� Harry said. �I always study.� He caught another glimpse of himself in
the mirror as he reached for the robes he�d laid on the bed for that morning
and looked away, scowling. Asking Rogers to take away the mirror would smack of
ingratitude; Harry had no doubt it was a human member of the Malfoy family who
had asked for it to be placed in his rooms in the first place, or rather, one
specific human member of the Malfoy family. But he didn�t have to like it.
Looking at himself had never been his favorite pastime.

�� Master
Harry Potter is concentrating on those things he did not study so well before,�
Rogers said with iron inflexibility. �If Master Harry Potter was not passing
his Potions exams, he concentrates on potions.�

�� Harry
laughed, and then stopped. The laughter had a trace of bitterness. What happened to not arguing with
house-elves? �That�s done with now,� he said. �I�ve accepted my natural
limitations.�

�� Rogers
stared at him so piercingly that Harry had to look at him at last. �Malfoys,�
Rogers said in the same tone he�d used to tell Harry the laws of the family,
�have no natural limitations.�

�� Harry
rolled his eyes. No arguing, no arguing, he
chanted to himself mentally. It would do no good anyway, and Harry tried to
expend his energy on actions that would be of use to someone. �Good for them,� he said. He dragged the robe on over his
head, not particularly caring that it made his hair spring up again like the
quills of an offended peacock, and then stepped towards the library.

�� Rogers
waved a hand, and Harry was sitting on the edge of the bed. A tray of finely
cut ham in a richly-smelling gravy was on his lap the next moment. �Master
Harry Potter is to be eating a good breakfast,� said Rogers. �Studying comes
later.�

�� Harry
picked up the fork that lay on the edge of the tray and started eating, because
the food smelled delicious and he wasn�t going to argue.

�� And, he had
to admit reluctantly, Draco had been right. The better the food he ate, the
better Harry seemed to feel. He still held there was no inherent reason for
that. Sure, some patients needed a strict diet, but they were recovering from
spell damage, or poisoning, or a long bout of illness. Harry was young and
healthy. He ought to be able to subsist on anything, including Chocolate Frogs,
and still wake up on time and do the work well. But instead his body preferred
this refined diet.

�� God, I hope sharing Malfoy blood didn�t
change my tastes as well, Harry thought, and choked as he shuddered. Rogers
was beside him in seconds, eyes anxious and hand poised to clap him on the
back.

�� Master
Harry Potter is well?� he asked.

�� Harry
stared at him, and suddenly understood why he found that behavior so very
alien, almost suffocating. He had never had anyone to care when he choked before. The Dursleys were indifferent as long
as he didn�t actually die on their kitchen floor or vomit on their good plates.
Ron knew he would be all right, and pounded him on the back companionably, not
because he fussed. Hermione would go off to find a book about choking, and
Harry had the comfort of knowing that half the advice she gave him would be
from a section of the book she had found interesting on its own. The people
dearest to him had led lives connected with his own on the grand levels, like
life and death, but not nearly as much on the small ones.

�� Maybe there is a different way to live. Harry
licked his lips thoughtfully. The intense thinking seemed to have eased the
passage of the food down his throat. He nodded to Rogers. �I am,� he said.
�Thanks.�

�� Rogers at
least didn�t have Dobby�s extreme reaction to being thanked. He stepped away
with a small nod. �Master Harry Potter is being more at home now,� he said. �He
will continue being at home.� His voice had the calm certainty that made the
words more of a command or a prophecy than a simple statement.

�� Harry
raised an eyebrow. Rogers smiled, a sight that nearly made Harry drop his
plate. �Master Harry Potter is even learning Master Draco�s gestures,� he said
happily. �Master Harry Potter will be happy here, and will make Master Draco
more happy.� He practically bounced as he took the empty tray away from Harry.

�� Harry
glanced over his shoulder a few times as he retreated into the library. Rogers
whistled cheerfully for a full minute before he Apparated, and Harry knew how
much the house-elf was against wasting time.

�� The
thoughts pursued him into the library, and wouldn�t be left outside.

�� Is that true? Can I be more than the passive
recipient of their charity, more than Lucius�s mediwizard? Can I make other
people happy?

�� Rogers was
probably mistaking Draco�s increased gentleness towards Harry, which he himself
had admitted was partially a tactic to make Harry like him more, for increased
happiness in general. But still Harry had to allow himself to turn over the
possibilities in his mind for five minutes before he could push them and get
down to serious studying of the connections between the spells in the Mirror
Maze.

�� He didn�t
understand when the possibilities had become so delicious.

*

�� Harry
pulled at the collar of his robes. He was certain he looked like an idiot, and
not even the knowledge that the house-elves had chosen this set of dress robes
could content him. After all, the house-elves had also thought it was a good
idea to hang the mirror in his rooms.

�� The robes
were a soft, shadowy gray color that probably looked good on Draco, given his
gray eyes and the pallor of his skin and hair. But Harry had given one
disgusted glance at himself in the mirror and tried to take them off again.
They made him look wasted and pasty and gaunt and altogether too much like a
ghost. And whilst he might have welcomed that idea a week ago, now he didn�t
want Draco to look at him and wrinkle his nose.

�� He also
cared, though to a lesser degree, about what Lucius and Narcissa might think
when seeing him. If they believed the house-elves had some reason to resent
him, would they resent him too? Would they reconsider the idea of accepting him
into the family?

�� Then Harry
forced himself to stand still and draw in a breath so deep it made the robes
balloon around him and fall back with a gentle rustle. He stood in the middle of
the staircase that Narcissa had guided him up on the way to his rooms, in the
section that looked like a forest.

�� You�re a Malfoy, but you don�t have to be
paranoid like the rest of the family, he thought. If the elves made a mistake, Lucius or Narcissa will speak to them
about it quietly. Probably Narcissa, since she seems to be in charge of guests�
comfort. And Draco might wrinkle his nose, but I doubt he�d give up on pursuing
you, when he�s come this far.

�� There. He�d
made good use of the unexpected, which was another of Healer Pontiff�s tenets. He
smiled and resettled his shoulders, then restrained his hand when it would have
risen to dash through his hair. The house-elves had done something to it that
managed to make it behave for once.
He�d only ruin it.

�� The dining
room was the most sober room he�d seen in the Manor so far, and the most like what
he would have expected the first time he stepped through the doors. A symphony
of silver, white, and gray, it seemed to absorb the brilliant light of the
chandelier in the middle of the ceiling and release only a quiet glow. Harry�s
first thought was that he would have liked to study here. His second was that
the soft light made the long oak table in the middle seem even more imposing.
And for some reason, the plates clustered all together at one end of the table.
Narcissa sat at the head, with Lucius on her left hand and Draco on her right.

�� Harry
couldn�t see a place set for him. He lifted his chin. Well, if this was some
sort of test to see what he would do, he intended to face up to it. He marched
towards the table, and didn�t allow a flicker of uncertainty into his
expression.

�� Draco rose
to his feet when he saw Harry. Harry looked for some sign of revulsion or a
raised eyebrow that would ask who he had allowed to dress him, but he looked deeply content. He smiled and drew out the
chair beside his own, watching Harry carefully all the while. His reaction was
an important part of what would happen next, Harry thought. Would he accept the
small kindness, revolt against it, or reject it in some unexpected and ironic
way?

�� The one
choice Draco probably hadn�t expected Harry to make was to accept it in some
unexpected and ironic way.

�� Harry
smiled and reached out to clasp and shake Draco�s free hand. �Thank you,� he
said clearly. �I�m not used to treatment like this, but in trying not to take
it for granted, I think I went too far in the opposite direction.� He bowed his
head, keeping his eyes fixed on Draco�s the entire time, and flicked his tongue
lightly against the back of the hand he held.

�� Draco�s
pupils dilated, and his excitement obviously increased until his hand on the
back of Harry�s chair had a slight tremor. The one in Harry�s clasp remained
steady, however, as if he thought a tremor would make Harry turn away from him
again.

�� You�re
welcome,� he whispered, voice breathy.

�� Harry
smiled at him again and sat down in the chair, which Draco promptly pushed in
with just the right amount of speed. Then he sat down himself, face turned
towards Harry. His hands automatically flicked among the confusing arrangement
of forks and spoons next to his plate, which gave Harry the clue as to which of
them he was supposed to pick up first when his own plate and cutlery appeared.

�� The first
course was a thick yellow soup with small bits of herbs floating in it that
Harry hadn�t tasted before, but which were sweet or lemony depending on how
much soup he took in with them. Seeing how intently Lucius paid attention to
his plate, and the surreptitious but noticeable eye Narcissa kept on her
husband, Harry suspected the reason for the lack of conversation at the table
during this course. Lucius didn�t yet trust his strength, and he would do
almost anything rather than have his hand or voice shake and betray his weakness.

�� He should have stayed in bed, Harry
thought, but he found the lapse from perfect observance of the Malfoy laws
rather reassuring than otherwise. It would have been intimidating to try and
fit into a perfect family, when Harry knew himself to be so flawed it was a
wonder he hadn�t shattered into small pieces along the cracks long before this.

�� Next was a
salad with strips of chicken wound like braids among the vegetables, and then
pieces of bread that seemed to be more butter than anything else. Harry scowled
as a string of gooey butter fell on the right sleeve of his robe and tried to
mop it off without catching anyone�s attention.

�� Draco caught
his hand and turned it over to expose the butter. �May I?� he whispered.

�� Harry
flushed. Draco grinned suddenly, wickedly, with a careless ease that Harry
found shocking when they were sitting at table with his parents. But Lucius and
Narcissa still attended to each other and their meal. Maybe they wouldn�t
interrupt the privacy of a courting couple any more than it would occur to
Harry and Draco to interrupt theirs by speaking, Harry thought.

�� Oh,� Draco
said, voice softer than before, �I can�t do what I�d really like to, not in
company. But that doesn�t matter.� He drew his wand and trailed it softly up
the sleeve of Harry�s robe, as if he wanted to learn the shape of the bones and
the veins through the cloth. Behind the tip of the wand, the butter vanished as
neatly as if Draco really had licked it up. And Harry needed to stop thinking
about that or he was going to burn a hole in his own clothes with his blush.

�� There,�
Draco said, and managed to tilt his head and brush the cloth with his cheek
before he let Harry go. �All better.�

�� You
approve of the robes, then?� Harry murmured before he could stop himself. He
had almost forgotten his nervousness when he saw the way his proximity affected
Draco, but now Draco was paying attention to his clothes again instead of his
face and his general presence.

�� Draco�s
eyes flickered. �You have no idea how you look, either,� he said. �I�ll help
cure that, don�t worry.�

�� He looked
briefly to the side. Harry followed his gaze and saw Narcissa holding out her
fork for Lucius to take a delicate sliver of fish from. Harry coughed and
hastily looked back at his plate.

�� Draco bent
down until their eyes and faces were close together, and flicked out his
tongue, just brushing Harry�s lips. From the angle at which Lucius and Narcissa
sat, Harry knew, it would have looked as if he were merely licking his own.

�� I�m learning
how you taste,� Draco whispered. �I hope you don�t mind my going slowly. I
prefer to appreciate the favors individually.�

�� Harry
swallowed, and his blush grew fiercer. He concentrated exclusively on his food
for a few minutes after that. He needed to get his mind in order for when the
conversation began. Lucius hadn�t yet given him the information about the
visitors to Azkaban or about what he remembered form the Death Eater refuges, which
he had promised to produce quickly. That had to mean he would do it at this
meal.

�� Fish and
meat and another soup passed. Harry was amazed at his ability to eat most of
it. Usually he grabbed a quick meal, swallowed it in a few snaps, and felt full
enough to attend to his duties again. But something about the richness of the
food here tempted him to take portions to taste, whilst not consuming enough to
fill his stomach. By the time they reached glazed lumps of fruit that filled
his mouth with crumbling sugar, he felt lazily content, and had to keep himself
from stretching like a cat as he picked up a candied chunk of apple.

�� Harry.�

�� He looked
up at Lucius. He had once thought that Lucius�s voice sounded much like
Draco�s, but whether it was getting to know Draco better in the past few days
or the newfound resemblance he�d noticed between mother and son, he could tell
the cool tones of the elder Malfoy at once now. �Sir,� he said, automatically.
Lucius gave him an annoyed glance, perhaps the most emotional expression Harry
had ever seen from him, and Harry smiled. �Lucius,� he amended. �You have the
information you owled about?�

�� Yes.�
Lucius�s mouth grew tight as he clapped. A house-elf appeared beside Harry�s
chair, bowed, and handed a series of letters to him ceremoniously. �And I must
admit, what I learned disturbed me.�

�� Harry
quickly discovered that the signatures on the letters meant nothing to him;
he�d never been familiar with Azkaban�s guards in the way he would have become
if he�d taken up Auror training. He ignored them and concentrated on the
content instead.

�� Six visits
to Rodolphus Lestrange in the past year, always from the same woman, a small
one cloaked in a dirty gray cloak. The guards had assumed she was an aunt of
the Lestrange family, a few members
of whom hadn�t been Death Eaters. The next letter noted eleven visits by the
same woman, spaced a month apart, but lasting several hours each. The next
letter stated categorically that the woman had been visiting for more than a
year, and that she�d bribed several of the guards to make sure she saw
Lestrange regularly and to give him better food and clothing than normal. She
wanted him alive to make use of his knowledge, Harry thought, and shivered
convulsively. He didn�t like to think of even a Death Eater being used that
way, though after listening to a long list of Rodolphus�s crimes during the post-war
trials, he couldn�t deny Lestrange belonged in prison.

�� No one who
had written Lucius had any idea who the woman really was, or if her claim of
being related to the Lestranges was true. But they all agreed that the few
conversations they�d overheard her having with the prisoner were technical,
containing Healing terms as well as terms that they assumed referred to Dark
magic. She might have been persuading him out of using it, though, so the
guards hadn�t seen it as their place to interfere.

�� Harry swept
a hand through his hair, annoyed. �I see the Ministry�s tradition of corruption
marches on unchecked,� he muttered.

�� Then all
the better that we�ll bring justice where they�ve failed to,� said Draco.

�� Harry
glanced at him. He was leaning back in his chair now, his hands folded behind
his head and his eyes cold. Harry was half-amused and half-dismayed to find
that he liked the sight of this calculating Draco quite as much as the one who watched
him with warm eyes and crowded him with attentions.

�� What
specifically do you find disturbing?� Harry asked, glancing at Lucius. �Do you
have any idea who the woman might have been?�

�� No,� said
Lucius. �And that is the first worrisome thing.� He leaned heavily back in his
own chair, his brow bearing a faint sheen of sweat. Narcissa scrutinized him
with a narrow expression that relieved Harry. Surely she would insist her
husband go back to bed if he was really taxing his strength beyond bearing.
�The second is that I never once thought about someone visiting Lestrange in
prison, or about his having knowledge dangerous to me. Someone has outthought
me. I do not like that.�

�� Harry
shivered at the precision and the emphasis in those last words. He wondered for
a moment if his conflict with the Malfoys would come over their sense of
justice. Certainly, if they tried to hurt the person who had cursed Lucius or
helped to curse Lucius instead of giving her a free trial, Harry would have to
intervene.

�� Do you have
the information about the Death Eater refuges?� he asked.

�� Another elf
appeared with another stack of parchment on Lucius�s nod. Harry suppressed the
immediate irritated thought that it was wasteful to have two different elves
doing the same task. Hermione must have rubbed off on him more than he
realized. Of course, perhaps the best tactic was to insinuate himself further
into the family and then start trying
to change those habits of theirs he didn�t like.

�� Harry ran
quickly down the lists. Occasionally the name of a weapon appeared, but beside
almost every one Lucius had made a notation of �destroyed during the last
flight� or �not dangerous.� Harry memorized the names of the few that didn�t
bear those notes. The rest was fairly standard equipment, wands or the Dark
magic books that Harry had already looked through. He also reminded himself to
look up wands, though he had never heard that another wizard�s wand could offer
a magical advantage when casting a curse that one�s own couldn�t. Perhaps he
should owl Ollivander. The old wandmaker had remained fairly friendly to Harry
after Harry had rescued him from the Malfoy dungeons during the war. Of course,
it would be better not to tell him why he was making the request.

�� There had
apparently been seven Death Eater emergency strongholds, two of them closer to
Hogwarts than Harry liked to think about. Lucius had described the general
location of each as well as the name that the Death Eaters used for it. So far,
Harry hadn�t seen anything that made him think he would have to visit them�

�� And then he
sat up, his heart banging so hard he couldn�t hear anything else for long
moments. His eyes were fixed on an innocuous name second from the bottom on the
last list Lucius had assembled. It was barely scribbled in, as though Lucius
had hesitated to add it and then done so with a shrug.

�� Dreambane.

�� And that
was all. No note next to it, no explanation of how much had been at the refuge.
Lucius must be unfamiliar with its effect, or perhaps he had only seen it used
beneficially. Harry was surprised Draco hadn�t realized the danger it could
pose, though, since he was a Potions master.

�� What is
it, Harry?�

�� Lucius
sounded as if he had been repeating the words for a few minutes. Harry looked
up and realized that Draco�s hand was on his back and he was leaning near, as
though he thought Harry would require support to keep from fainting. Harry swallowed
and let himself lean against Draco�s shoulder for a moment. Surely it was all
right to show weakness when the others did, as long as he didn�t do it for
long.

�� Draco�s
hand rose and combed through his hair, then tugged him in so that Harry�s
forehead rested against his. �Tell us,� he murmured. �No burden is so terrible
that the effect does not lessen when it is shared.�

�� Harry
wanted to tell him about the oppressive effect of being expected to kill
Voldemort and knowing that, because of the prophecy, you were the only one who
could do it, but now wasn�t the moment. He looked at Lucius and said, �How much
dreambane was at this refuge?�

�� Which
one?� Lucius frowned for a moment, no doubt trying to recall which list Harry
had seen the name on. His eyes drilled at the parchment Harry held as if he
could read it from that distance.

�� Venom�s
Reach,� said Harry.

�� The Dark
Lord came up with that name,� Lucius murmured, and Harry experienced a fleeting
amusement that he could care enough about appearances to want Harry to know he hadn�t been responsible for that
horrid thing. �And there were several bales of it. Perhaps also vats. They
reached the ceiling in one case. Why?�

�� Harry
closed his eyes.

�� Harry.�
Draco�s voice was sharp. �I know dreambane. It�s used as one of the ingredients
in a powerful version of the Dreamless Sleep potion, one that banishes thoughts
that might become dreams. How could it have hurt my father? He�s been
dreaming.�

�� It has
another, little-known use,� Harry whispered. �When combined with a Cutting
Curse, it strengthens the wounds and makes the body remember them. I don�t know
how else to explain it. Even if the wounds seem to be cured, they burst forth
again sooner or later. And they become the worse for the delay. It can also
strengthen other spells, though I�m not sure of all of them, because they�re
Dark magic and there was a limit to what St. Mungo�s wanted me to study.� He
opened his eyes and stared at Lucius. �I�m afraid some of them might be spells
that are part of the Mirror Maze, and so the dreambane would render it more
subtle. When we think it�s gone, or even if we actually remove it, the wounds
will come forth again and kill you.�

�� Lucius�s
face grew pale. He gave a tight nod, however, accepting the news. �And what can
be done about this dreambane? How can we be sure it has been introduced into my
body? I am sure Smythe gave me no potion.�

�� It could
have happened before the curse was cast,� Harry said, �if he had an accomplice.
Or�� He paused, a part of the reading he had done years ago coming back to him.
�Did he spit on you?�

�� Yes, he
did,� Lucius said quietly.

�� Harry
nodded. �That�s probably how he intended to do it. Dreambane can ride within
human body fluids and be absorbed by the skin.�

�� And what
are we to do?� Narcissa asked. She had her hands folded neatly in front of her,
as if it would be against the Malfoy code to express any agitation.

�� Harry drew
a deep, deep breath. There was the part where he confessed he had no idea.
�There�s a potion that can purge dreambane from the body,� he said. �But I
don�t know how to brew it, and I don�t think I would trust myself if I did. My
potions skills have never been the best��

�� Draco�s arm
tightened around his shoulders. �And here I am, nearly a Potions master,� he
said, �and devoted to helping the family. Isn�t that convenient?�

�� The reality
he hadn�t even considered sank slowly into Harry�s head. I have someone here to help me. I won�t lose Lucius because of my own
inadequate skills. I�m not alone.

�� Harry had
to close his eyes again. He didn�t have to
lean back against Draco, but he did it because he wanted to.

�� Draco�s kiss
to the base of the skin beneath his ear, where he had kissed Harry once before,
was as fierce as a promise.

*

�� Jilliane:
Thank you! I think Harry will be considering Draco even more as a lover after
this chapter.

�� qwerty: Thanks!
And I believe Harry has to act more Slytherin just to keep his self-respect
alive.

�� Lina03:
Harry will have to run to keep up with the Malfoys! And for once he does have a
partner who can help him.

�� D.Q.:
Thanks for the compliment. However, I really have no idea if Parseltongue will
be included in this story or not.

�� Christabell:
Hee. For the humor or the references to Dark Marks?

�� Thrnbrooke:
Thank you!

�� FallenAngel1129:
I doubt Harry would agree, since that line left him so flabberghasted.

�� feltonslover:
Thank you! I hope you enjoyed the semi-kisses exchanged in this chapter as
well.

�� hieisdragoness18:
Harry would think of that as simple self-defense.

�� Sharkoon:
Thank you very much for your long review! I hope I can respond in as in-depth a
manner as you deserve.

�� The
pre-sexual banter is my favorite part of fics, so when I started writing
romantic fanfic and trying to improve my writing, that was the part I
concentrated most on. Sex scenes sometimes come across as mechanical, even my
own (I certainly have the most trouble varying them and coming up with original
language for them), but each conversation is between that writer�s
characterizations of Harry and Draco and needs to be unique.

�� I�ve read a
lot of stories where I liked the basic plot but couldn�t stand the angst, or
else the writer was very good at writing angst and simply piled too much on.
For example, Draco got turned into a werewolf, then got raped, then got tortured,
then found out he was having his rapist�s body, all without time to react or
absorb one event before he was smothered by the next one. More mature
characters can have muted reactions to a smaller amount of angst and still seem
realistic and give the story the right pacing.

�� Well, for
that matter, why didn�t Draco or Lucius recognize Harry�s headache curse? Or Harry
himself? It�s a fairly low-key spell, not all that noticeable except by someone
specifically looking for it. So it may have gone ignored for a long time.

�� I�m very
glad you like the story, and hope you�ll continue reading!

�� YanaYugi:
If Harry runs into another old partner in Draco�s company, Draco might be possessive
of him.

�� Mangacat:
Thanks! Though in this story I think Harry was very balanced and calm in St.
Mungo�s, but he was surrounded by people he knew would probably take up the
slack if they had to. He just wanted to do everything himself.

�� Ann: Thank
you! Since I do intend this to be a shorter story, I�m not stretching character
development as much as I might.

�� Slytherdor:
Well, Harry�s settled on the side of �kissing� for now.

�� Sara:
Thanks for reviewing!

�� js: So do
I. I often write the kinds of stories I like to read, and Draco-seduces-Harry
is one of my favorite plotlines.

�� avihenda:
Well, Draco is not referring much to the curse on Harry for precisely that
reason; he thinks Harry would get in the way. Which he probably would.

�� rachxoxo:
Thank you very much!
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Bloody But Unbowed