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Black Phoenix	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 21568 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 5
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this fanfic.

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Chapter Twelve--A Public Battle
            "Ministerial Candidate Malfoy! What do you think about Dark Lord Potter's alliance with the werewolves?"
            Draco smiled and held up a hand. Rosenthal was there immediately, placing a parchment gravely into it. Draco opened the parchment and scanned the words he'd written there the day before, nodding as they filtered into his consciousness.
            He glanced up and smiled a little more when he saw the curious eyes on him. "This is such a complex issue that I needed to write something down first, and then remind myself of it," he said, and laid the parchment down on the podium in front of him. "I wish him luck. There's no doubt that he's been protecting other magical creatures in his court, and if werewolves want to claim that title, then it would be silly to exclude them."
            "But?" asked Rita Skeeter, a delighted snap in her voice as she held her quill over her own parchment.
            Draco gave her a bland look. "Dear ma'am, what do you mean by asking it like that?"
            "You can't give him unqualified approval, or you would have said that." Skeeter's quill scribbled away busily, but she didn't watch it, eyes fastened on Draco instead. "You're waiting for some kind of change in the wind. What change would that be? Do you think Minister Tillipop is likely also to give shelter and comfort to the werewolves?"
            Draco laughed, because he could, and other people laughed with him. After a moment, even Skeeter smiled, as if seeing the absurdity of her question for what it was.
            "I don't think my esteemed rival is likely to start supporting werewolves, no." Draco smoothed down his sleeve, aware of the fascinated eyes watching his every move. He glanced up a second later, and made his smile as apologetic as he could. "But there are complex issues surrounding everything about this. Are werewolves human, as their defenders have always insisted, or magical creatures? This Most Ancient and Noble Order of Werewolves has sought Lord Potter's protection as magical creatures, but do they speak for every single werewolf in Britain? I think not. We should try to respect the individual wishes of each werewolf while acknowledging the right of the public to stay safe."
            Heads nodded around him, while Draco inwardly sneered. It was babble that meant exactly nothing, like so much of the political-speak around him. He wondered that the fools didn't see that. Didn't they know that anyone could say anything like this and not be pinned down? It was the serious promises people like Harry made that were most vulnerable to nit-picking.
            And he wasn't going to think about Harry right now, except in the political context, because he would only become upset if he did. And that wasn't fair to either his true supporters or Rosenthal, both of whom had worked hard to make sure that this day would be a success.
            He leaned forwards with his hands on the edges of the podium. "Do you know how many werewolf attacks there were in Britain last year?" he asked, and watched the heads of the reporters swishing back and forth obediently. He has asked Rosenthal to look it up, or he wouldn't have known either.
            "Five," Draco said. "Of those five, two were fatalities, judged as murder later. Two resulted in the people attacked turning into werewolves themselves. And one resulted in a death, but the werewolf, on Wolfsbane, was judged to have acted in self-defense, because she slept in a house and warded circle and her attacker had broken through all of those protections in an attempt to take her 'pelt.'" He paused. "Five is not a huge number."
            "Yes," said Skeeter, unexpectedly. "There were more attacks from rogue Dementors, and even from centaurs on humans who wandered into their part of the forests. But no one reports Dementors or centaurs to the Ministry, or demands they all register, or fears them the same way they fear werewolves."
            Draco eyed her sideways. She smiled sweetly back at him. Well, if she wanted to behave that way, playing both sides at once in hopes of the best story, Draco could hardly smack her down for it when he was doing much the same thing. He would just hope that she wouldn't manage to turn on him at the best moment for her and the worst for him.
            "True," Draco said. "And more attacks by vampires, at that." He faced the crowd again. "I want werewolves to speak for themselves. I want people who fear them to speak up. And that has little or nothing to do with Lord Potter allowing a few werewolves to come into his court and assume a place there."
            "What about all the werewolves who do feel represented by the Most Ancient and Noble Order?" someone asked.
            Draco let his eyebrow twitch a little. "What about them? I assume they feel represented by Lord Potter and proud of the sanctuary he offered them, as well."
            He let his voice drift to a little stuttering halt on that implication, and then nodded and climbed down from the podium. More people threw questions at him, but Draco could just shake his head and smile and pretend not to hear as he made his way to the Apparition point.
            "You realize that it still sounds as though you favor granting citizenship to werewolves," Rosenthal murmured, trotting beside him and apparently checking a schedule instead of speaking. "And favor what Potter is doing."
            "I can't help it if sometimes my policies align with common sense," Draco said placidly. "And the policies of others."
            Rosenthal's mouth moved in a reluctant smile, but she shot him a sideways glance. "And what will you do if some werewolves do come to you seeking representation, and a guarantee that the Ministry won't persecute them?"
            "I'll tell them that I have no power as yet to help them," Draco pointed out serenely. "That would take someone who's currently in political office, and I'm currently not."
            Rosenthal choked a little, but kept up her sedate pace. "And if they ask again when you are in office, and might have the power to help them? If they offer support in exchange for your keeping those promises to them when you're elected?"
            "I would ask them what sort of support they could offer."
            "You can't get away with that kind of non-answer forever." Rosenthal was frowning into the distance now, as though someone other than Draco was causing her a problem and she would have to come up with a solution for it.
            "That's all they want of me right now." Draco stopped and turned towards her, making sure that he spoke quietly enough that no one else could hear, but also strongly enough to catch and hold her attention. "That's all they may ever want of me. Listen. I have no illusions about how many of them like me. But what matters is that I can convince them that they would be better off with me in office."
            Rosenthal only frowned at him, as though he was speaking some language she didn't understand, instead of the language she had been urging him to speak all along. "You think you can still convince them of that when they see that you aren't keeping promises?'
            "When I become Minister, I'll have a different sort of restriction on me than I do now," Draco said, and shrugged. "Time and money and power, and all that. I can't keep promises to everyone. I can do this one this month, but I have to think about what the other voters who elected me want."
            Rosenthal nodded slowly. "That was what I was urging you to do," she said. "Less commitment. Why are you taking this stance now?"
            Draco bit his lip to avoid saying something about Harry. She wouldn't trust anything that stemmed from either trying to battle Harry or make Harry notice him, and he knew that. But it was true, that was the problem.
            "I've come to see that I can't run my campaign the way I was," he murmured instead. "Standing up for Dark Lord Potter all the time. He has the power to face what's coming, and I don't. I can't simply incinerate people who oppose me. He can do that if he wants, so let him do it."
            "He would do that?" Rosenthal's eyes had widened, her face going pale.
            Draco shot her a mocking glance before he could stop himself. "Of course not," he snapped, when he realized that she was still looking at him with a kind of dread fascination. "You think he lives for that sort of shit? He wouldn't. He would use his magic to paralyze them instead, and smile at them, and warn them not to attack Hogwarts, and then let them go."
            "But you're proposing something different." Rosenthal regarded him thoughtfully.
            Draco nodded. He was coming to realize how much Rosenthal had looked on him as a guide to Harry's behavior, and he wanted to slide out of that position as soon as he could. If he wasn't important enough to Harry for Harry to have told him about the werewolves right away, he was the last sort of guide she should trust. "I am. I'm proposing that I campaign exactly like the Minister I'm going to be, compromising and pulling dirty tricks all the time."
            "I can do that," said Rosenthal. "It means that I'll have to redraft some of the speeches I have ready and the owls I sent out, though."
            Draco smiled at her. "I have faith in you. What else did I hire you for?"
            "To advise you." Rosenthal bent towards him, the braid her hair was in this morning swinging, and there was no gentleness in her smile now. "And what I say now is: don't act against him because you're irritated that he didn't ask your advice, or didn't tell you about something. That would be stupid, and against the best interests of your own position. Is that the reason you're doing this?"
            Draco exhaled slowly, reminded himself that no one but himself and Harry really understood the complexity of their relationship and therefore he couldn't be angry at Rosenthal for misunderstanding, and finally shook his head. "I need to do something. He didn't inform me about taking in the werewolves before he did. I have to handle the resulting situation somehow."
            "I agree." Rosenthal's voice was calm, precise, infuriating. "I merely wondered whether this was the right way to do it."
            "For now, it is," Draco said, and gave her a distant smile. "You always told me that I shouldn't let the personal ties I have to him tangle me up too much and interrupt the campaign. I'm separating those now. Personal to one side, political to the other. I'll favor the positions I need to, and do the things I need to, to get myself elected."
            Rosenthal closed her eyes and swayed on her feet. Draco reached towards her, alarmed. He knew that Rosenthal had sworn her own specific oath to Harry. Had something he'd done triggered a restriction of it that Draco didn't remember?
            But she opened her eyes before he could touch her, took a step back, and made it into a neat bow. "I'm just relieved that you've finally come to your senses," she whispered.

            Draco opened his mouth to speak, then closed it. He decided to take Rosenthal seriously, and at face value, and reminded himself that no Ministerial candidate who had abandoned the campaign to focus on a relationship with his spouse or even his family had ever been elected.
            That didn't stop it from hurting. It did confirm that he couldn't simply retreat without destroying Rosenthal's trust in him, and he needed her trust.
            "Glad that you think so," he said. "Now, I want you to determine exactly how much Wolfsbane costs, and how much I could get away with offering to reduce that cost."
*
            Harry stared at the letter that the owl had brought back unopened, and sighed and leaned sideways in his chair. The owl watched him from a perch in the corner of the room, blinking mild yellow eyes.
            Harry shook his head. "I don't need you for anything else," he said, and a round tunnel opened in the stones, one that would guide the bird directly back to the Owlery.
            It hadn't taken the owls long to overcome their fear of flying through the tunnels, once they had learned that, that way, they didn't have to venture out into the rain and the wind and whatever else was happening outside. It hooted happily this time and rose, wings fanning out around it, as it soared away.
            Harry let his magic close the tunnel when he was sure the owl was safe and buried his head in his hands. Then he grimaced and lifted it again. He had too much to do. Just because Draco was refusing both his firecalls and his letters was no reason to despair. He knew that Ron and Hermione's marriage had survived stresses deeper than this, including their last fight over staying in Hogwarts with him.
            He would get through this somehow, he reminded himself. And if things got too bad, he could go to the Manor and walk through the wards the way he had done before, when he wanted to see Draco right away and wasn't concerned about how it would look to him.
            The problem is, this time I am concerned about how it would look to him.
            He had just turned resolutely towards the large stack of correspondence awaiting him when Persephone knocked at the window. Harry rolled his eyes, waved his hand to open it, and kept sifting through the letters. Lately, it seemed all the pleas he was getting to reside in his court had something ridiculous about them. Why did they think it was a good idea to tell him that they hated him and supported the Ministry, but wanted to live with him anyway because he wouldn't make them pay taxes?
            Persephone landed on the back of his chair and cocked her head around his to eye the letters. Harry watched her carefully as he slit open the first letter and considered it. At least this one didn't make the naked claim that the writer only wanted to come to his court because it would be cheaper, but it did include an anxious question about how many magical creatures lived with Harry, and whether she would have to see centaurs. "I have a young daughter, you know," she wrote.
            Harry sighed and massaged his forehead. He knew how he would have to respond--cautiously, diplomatically, but refusing--and he already didn't look forward to writing his answer.
            Persephone picked the letter up in a curious beak and nibbled it for a second. Then she dropped it in front of him. Harry blinked at her. That wasn't like her. Usually she would tear the thing to pieces, set it on fire, or ignore it altogether.
            Persephone hopped down onto the table and walked back and forth a second, tail fanned out, shaking her head at the full stretch of her neck. Harry still didn't know what the fuck she was doing, but watching her was more entertaining than answering the letters, so he kept doing it.
            Persephone picked up the corner of the unopened letter he'd sent to Draco in her beak this time, watching him. Harry smiled a little. "You can burn that one up if you want," he said. "I already sent it, and he didn't want it."
            There was a little moment of silence, when Harry thought Persephone would avail herself of his invitation. Then she abruptly turned and launched herself back out the window with a small wriggle of her wings and rump, and left Harry blinking.
            Only when he looked back at his desk did he realize that she'd taken the unopened letter with her.
            Harry swore for a moment, and ran to the window, looking for her. He was able to see a disappearing dark shape, high over the Forbidden Forest, flying south, in what he knew was the general direction of Malfoy Manor.
            He's going to think that I sent Persephone because he wouldn't talk to me. He's going to think that I intruded where I wasn't wanted.
            Harry sighed and sat down again a second later, shaking his head. No, it was likely that Draco wouldn't think that. He knew that Persephone was barely under Harry's control, if at all. And she would do what would displease him if she could, something that Harry didn't want her to do. Harry had already given up on manipulating her by reverse psychology, which was something Hermione had suggested to him. Persephone was always able to figure out what he really wanted, and would do the opposite, instead of what he was pretending to want her to do.
            She knew him too well.
            Her behavior was still unusual, though, given that she hadn't really tried to offer him violence, and Harry figured it out after a moment of thinking. She found what he was doing, reading his letters and trying to be a responsible Lord, boring. So she did something that would make him less boring, even if it was only because he and Draco would be yelling at each other and he would get more upset than he had been at the moment. It was the same reason Persephone had approved of Hermione at first. She made Harry upset, therefore she was welcome, as far as Persephone was concerned. She only disapproved when Harry and Hermione started to get along again.
            And if the letter she delivered broke the silence between them and made them talk to each other again...
            Harry found that he could regret his own behavior, and the way that Draco had refused his letters and his firecalls, but not this.
*
            Kain: I think it's fine to approve of their not having a perfect relationship. I'm just a bit amused because I've been told more often that I write Harry as too clingy and dependent on Draco. I suppose it varies depending on the story?
            A lot of people--like Neville and the other Weasleys--haven't come to Harry's side yet because they're put off by the Dark Lord title and the way that Harry's fighting the Ministry. So far, the Ministry has mostly acted against Harry himself, rather than, say, passing laws that would affect more people.
            SP777: That's because Harry picked the name. And Harry isn't the coolest person around, especially when he's put on the spot. ;)
            Harry is starting to think some public distance may be best, because it could start to get difficult or dangerous for Draco to mix up their private or public relationships.
            I didn't get your e-mail. What was it about?
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