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Seasons of War	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 9694 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
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Chapter Thirteen�Draco
Thinks On His Feet

�� Trainee
Malfoy. I am glad you could join us.�

�� Draco
ducked through the flap of the tent and nodded to Robards, while he cast his
eyes around the interior of the tent in a quick circle to see who else was
there. Only Robards, though, sat at the table, and if there was anyone in the
corners under a Disillusionment Charm, Invisibility Cloak, or the like, they
were too skilled for Draco�s swift check to spot them.

�� Portillo Lopez�s
words from a month ago, as they labored on the weapon, came back to him. We must assume that there is a limit to
Nihil�s power, or we might as well lie down and give up now. If he is
omnipotent, after all, there is no way to fight him, no matter how many clever
weapons or policies we come up with.

�� Draco
decided to assume the same thing now, that there were no hidden observers. If
there were all sorts of them, critically judging him, then he wouldn�t be able
to please them anyway.

�� He focused
his attention on Robards and said, �Auror Holder said you had uncovered
evidence that my partner was plotting against you, sir. What kind of evidence
is it?�

�� Robards
gave him a small smile. Draco tried to convince himself that the smile wasn�t
especially mean just because it was him. He wasn�t very successful in that
surmise, especially when Robards shook his head and said, �Never mind about the
evidence. You need only know that it is conclusive. Now. What are your
recommendations?�

�� Draco
clasped his hands behind his back and braced himself. It was a defensive
stance, but it had the advantage of not looking like one. �I can�t give
specific recommendations without knowing what Harry, specifically, has done,�
he said quietly.

�� Robards
exchanged a glance with Holder. Since Holder was standing behind him and Draco
didn�t want to turn to see her face, he didn�t know what her expression looked
like, but he could guess. She was probably telling Robards with her eyes that
he was guilty, just like Harry, and his refusal to turn against Harry at once
was proof of that.

�� Draco bit
his tongue, hard enough that the shiver of pain ran through most of his body.
He needed to stop thinking like that. He needed to stop acting as though there
was no way out of this trap and simply act.

�� It doesn�t
matter, I told you,� Robards said, turning back to Draco. His voice snapped
now, and Draco took that as a good sign. Perhaps they�d expected him to break
down, and didn�t know what to do with him now that he hadn�t. �All you need know is that we�ve reached the
point where Potter has to be exiled or killed.�

�� Exiled or killed. The words nearly made
Draco panic. Was it that bad? He knew
Harry hadn�t done anything that bad consciously, but someone must have seized
one of his actions and made it convincing enough for Robards and Holder�

�� And then
Draco stopped himself with a jerk. These were Robards and Holder. They�d been trying to find a way to prove that
he and Harry were traitors since they�d come to camp. There was no reason to
act as though he would be able to rescue Harry if he was only a little bit
smarter or a little bit faster.

�� The oath
that you had us swear,� he said. �Does it prevent someone from defecting to
Nihil or not? I have to assume it doesn�t, if Harry managed to break it and
become a traitor anyway. How do you know that other people in the camp aren�t
becoming traitors right now, as we speak? Perhaps it would be for the best to
punish them all at once?�

�� Robards�s
features became stone. �He has not broken the oath,� he said, sounding as if
the words had been forced out of him by a large rock. �It�s nothing like that.
But he has committed a crime that we must deal with.�

�� Draco
raised his eyebrows. �If you could give me even the barest outlines, sir, it
would be more information than I possess right now, and that would mean that I
could help you better.�

�� Robards
cleared his throat. �Trainee Malfoy, you are being nearly as stubborn as
Trainee Potter. One might assume that you know of his crime and are determined
to conceal it from us and join him in death or exile.�

�� Draco
narrowed his eyes. He had not completely lost his patience, but it might be as
well to imply that he had. �It sounds as though I�ll end up being condemned to
it anyway, since I don�t know what the right words to speak are. Are you going
to give me any hints, sir, or just
allow me to stumble about like a blindfolded man on a cliff path? Are you going
to laugh when I fall?�

�� Robards
leaned back in his chair and regarded him with the same cool expression that he
had worn so far. Draco didn�t think he was playing by the script that Robards
and Holder had expected him to take, though. Perhaps they really had thought he would break down and,
sobbing, promise them whatever they wanted if they didn�t hurt Harry.

�� You must
realize,� Holder said from behind him, in a sudden voice that Draco was sure
she meant to make him jump, �that your partner has been withholding information
from us, and manipulating us in an attempt to make us respond to his desires.
Do you plan to join him in the same actions?�

�� Draco
twisted his head back to look at her now. She had an expression on her face so
cold and stern that Draco had no idea if she really believed what she was
saying or not. �No,� he said. �Then again, I had thought we were forgiven when
we told you that we had hidden
information in the past. Was the forgiveness a sham? Are we going to be
punished now for crimes that you said we would receive no punishment for as
long as we told you the truth?�

�� Holder
lifted her wand and touched it lightly to the back of Draco�s neck. Draco stood
still and felt his sweat collect on the smooth wood. �Mr. Malfoy,� Holder
whispered, �you will work with us or against us, but working with us means
doing as you�re told. Do you understand?�

�� Draco
inclined his head in a parody of respect, but in reality, he was light-headed
from relief. He at last thought he understood what they were doing. He and
Harry, with their compatible magic and their knowledge of Nihil and Harry�s strange
half-necromancy, were too valuable to destroy, but also too valuable to leave
running around free. Robards and Holder were trying to make sure that neither
Draco nor Harry would turn against them and leave them scrambling, or act as
independent agents, because that would also mean they�d lost control.

�� That was
fine. Draco knew how to handle that. He wouldn�t have known how to handle
someone fanatical enough to really kill him and Harry for their imagined sins,
because he would have no idea what code they were operating by.

�� If you�ll
tell us what to do instead of dropping all these hints,� he said, �then of
course we�ll be happy to work with you, Auror.�

��

Holder paused, and her wand
vanished from the back of his neck. When she walked around in front of him,
Draco saw her narrowed, calculating eyes. He gazed back in a parody of
innocence, his eyes so wide that Holder finally shook her head and turned away,
one hand spread as though she was discarding something she had thought
valuable.

�You must run all your plans past
us,� she said abruptly. �You must tell us what you intend to do, what you learn
about Nihil, and what you learn about his new abilities or about dissent among
the trainees.�

We�re
to be your spies, Draco translated that, but oddly enough, he didn�t mind.
After all, he would hardly share everything
they�d learned, and Robards and Holder wouldn�t know that it was partial
information, if Draco lied the right way.

Draco did think that he would have
to be the one to handle this part of it. Harry wasn�t a good enough liar,
Granger and Herricks would stammer and blush and make it obvious they were
breaking the rules, Weasley would probably give up, and Ventus simply didn�t
see the need to lie when, as she saw it, they were right and going to win
anyway.

�� What if
something we have to tell you impacts another Auror?� he asked, as though that
was his only possible concern.

�� Robards and
Holder exchanged glances. Draco couldn�t read a tenth of the information that
flowed along that conduit, and had a brief glimpse of the partnership that must
have endured between Holder and Robards for years, and of the reasons why they
trusted each other so much.

�� It didn�t
stop him from wishing that they were both dead, of course.

�� Bring the
information to us first, in that case,� said Robards, with a grand nod that
Draco thought was meant to impress him. �And we will decide how to discipline
the Auror appropriately. You are not to go against your superiors, Trainee
Malfoy, however much you might be tempted to do so. We brought you here to cure
you of that habit.�

�� They�ve admitted, then, that they never had
any evidence that Harry had conspired against them. Draco wished he could
risk a sneer. Robards and Holder might be strong, but they didn�t seem to
understand much but brute force. There was no attempt to keep their plans from
the comprehension of someone who would hate being a victim.

�� Very
well,� said Draco. �What means shall we set up so that Harry and I can contact
you with the information we discover?��

�� Holder gave
him a humorless smile. �What makes you think that you will be allowed to tell
Trainee Potter what you are doing?�

�� What makes
you think that he�ll react to me with anything but hostility if I lie to him
and he finds out?� Draco countered. �Then he would break away from me, and you
would lose the benefit of his eyes as well as mine. He would warn his friends
against me, and any plans they made would be kept secret from me from then on.
It�s much better if I bring him in and get him to agree.�

�� Not that
Harry would, of course. But Draco thought that particular concept was beyond
the grasp of this pair.

�� Very
well,� Robards said, sounding as if he were speaking through rocks. �We grant
you permission to share what you are doing with him. But no one else, mind. There will be consequences if we discover that
you have.�

�� Draco
inclined his head.

�� After that,
there were only a few more formalities to be got through before they gave up
and let him out of the tent. Draco strode away from the tent with his head held
high. There was nothing unusual in that, nothing that would attract the
attention of anyone around him. He could ignore the speculative glances that
came his way anyway, because he knew they were linked to him emerging from Robards�s
tent. They might wonder what he had been doing there, but there was no way they
could prove any of it.

�� As he went,
he considered whether there had been any evidence that Harry was �plotting� in
the first place, or whether that had been a pure lie designed to make him
cooperate. He thought it was a lie. If the evidence had been real, they would
not only have had a stronger threat to hold over Draco, but he thought that they
wouldn�t have been able to resist at least alluding to it. He would then probably
guess what they held and, if it was really damaging, obey them all the more
readily. There was no reason for them to say nothing unless the evidence didn�t exist.

�� Draco
smiled grimly. Strange, to think that he had once escaped the environment he�d lived
in before and during the war by coming into the Aurors. He had imagined that
everyone would be open, honest, and working towards the same goals. He had
worried about how he would fit into that kind of environment, rather than the
one that actually existed.

�� And maybe
Robards and Holder were like that with the other trainees and Aurors. But since
they distrusted Harry and Draco so much, it didn�t matter. Draco had to live
with the attitude they gave him, not the hypothetical attitude they might have
used if he wasn�t a former Death Eater and Harry Potter�s partner.

*

�� I�m
growing worried about you, Trainee Potter.�

�� Harry
glanced up. He was breathing so hard�Ketchum had been chasing him around the
hills and using stones and small shrubs that Harry wouldn�t have thought could
be obstacles as obstacles�that he
couldn�t get his voice back to reply for a long moment. Ketchum seemed to
understand and sat down beside him on the grass, staring into the camp. Then he
twisted his head around and considered the sentries on the further hills.

�� Why, sir?�
Harry asked finally. �I just think that I don�t listen very well and do better
when I have a practical lesson in front of me. I did well now, didn�t I?� He
sounded defensive and hated it. That was the way he had sounded when the
Dursleys were yelling at him for not doing his chores perfectly.

�� Hmmm?�
Ketchum turned around. �Oh. I didn�t mean that. You�ll catch up in my class
with a bit of practice, and I haven�t heard awful things about you from the other
instructors. But you�re continually in conflict with the Head Auror and his
She-Wolf.�

�� She-Wolf?�
Harry repeated. He hadn�t heard anyone use the name so far, though he knew who
it meant as once.

�� Ketchum
grinned and nodded. �I wondered if you knew why they were going after you.
Anger that you withheld information in the past? Which wasn�t the smartest
thing to do, by the way,� he added in cooler tones. �Or did you do something
since you came into the camp to anger them specifically?�

�� Harry
buried his head in his arms as he thought a moment. He didn�t think he should
admit anything private to Ketchum. He could still be a spy for Holder and
Robards. And Draco might say that they couldn�t trust Ketchum at all.

�� But this
sounded an awful lot, to Harry, like someone making an offer of alliance, if
they would take it. And it would be nice to have one older Auror who would stick up for them, since most of them
didn�t want to listen to trainees.

�� Harry took
a deep breath and looked up. �Mostly I think it�s withholding information,� he
admitted. �But it�s also our power.�

�� Hmmm?�
Ketchum asked again. He bent nearer, his dark face creased with concentration.
Harry looked at him for a minute more in silence, then shrugged. He�d already
crossed the line by mentioning this at all. If it was wrong, then he and Draco
would find a way to make it right later.

�� Well,�
Harry said, �we have compatible magic. Draco has his name and the power of that
walking around with him, as well as what he did during the war. There�s what I did during the war. There�s the way
that we�ve fought Nihil multiple times and survived where no one else did. And
we�ve been partners for more than a year now. So, together, we scare them. I
think that�s why they�ve been trying to control us or turn us against each
other since we arrived here. They have to control the power we represent.�

�� Ketchum
remained quiet this time for some moments, rubbing his chin. Harry winced. Had
he said the wrong thing after all?

�� Hermione
had asked him once why he didn�t try making inspirational speeches, because
people would listen to the hero who had destroyed Voldemort. This was exactly
why. Harry never knew if he was going to say the right thing before he said it,
and then he worried about whether it was wrong after he spoke.

�� I think
you�re right,� Ketchum said.

�� Harry knew
his jaw was sagging and that Draco would probably scold him for looking stupid,
but that was how he felt at the moment. An Auror was agreeing with him instead of violently disagreeing and suggesting
that he was a dumb little trainee and needed to learn more before he said
anything?

�� But�why?�
he asked at last, weakly enough that Ketchum gave him a sideways, exasperated
look.

�� Aurors
aren�t incapable of recognizing common sense when it�s hitting them in the
face,� Ketchum said dryly. �Yes, I think that Robards and Holder fear you. Yes,
I think that they feel that, if they can�t control you, someone else will,
because they don�t trust you to do it yourself. The thought of trusting you
doesn�t occur to them.� He leaned nearer, his voice so low that Harry thought
someone standing right behind them wouldn�t be able to hear it�which was the
point, he reckoned. �Well, I can tell you there are some Aurors who are getting
tired of Robards and Holder spending more time trying to crush you than
fighting Nihil.�

�� Harry
stared at him. Ketchum gave him a solemn wink, a nod, and then stood up and
walked towards the edge of the hill.

�� Wait!�
Harry said, scrambling after him. �If that�s true, why haven�t I heard about it
before now? Why haven�t we heard
about it?� He could see how hints might pass unnoticed in front of him, but
Draco or Hermione should have picked up on them. �And why haven�t you done
something before?�

�� Ketchum
glanced back at him with a smile. �Because Aurors are stubborn and contentious,
and not all of us trust you either,� he said simply. �It�s taking a while to
wear down the ones who are tired of Robards and Holder but also want to just
ignore you and fight Nihil by ourselves. But it�s working.�

�� Then he
walked on as if deaf, and nothing Harry could say or shout would distract him.

*

�� That
bitch.�

�� Draco
smiled. He had told Harry about what Holder did when she was trying to make
Draco turn against him, and Harry had immediately got angry. It was nice to
have someone who agreed with his estimate of the situation.��

�� Do you
think she�s rational?� Harry was pacing back and forth in the center of their
tent, his hand scraping through his hair. �I mean, does she see things that she
could identify as treasonous and decide that they are? Or do you think that she
just makes things up out of thin air, with no justification? I think she�s hard
to fight either way, but the first way might be harder.�

�� She�s
rational,� Draco murmured, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes. His
mind still whirled with the possibilities of coming up with a plan that would
defeat Holder, but a large part of him was also occupied with analyzing the
meeting, now that Harry was there to talk about it with and while it was still
fresh in his memory. �She wouldn�t have understood what I was talking about so
fast and been able to come up with the plan to make us spy for her if she
wasn�t. She was willing to abandon her suspicions about us when she saw that
she could do so with an advantage.�

�� Well, when
she thought she could do so with an
advantage.� Harry came to a halt in front of his chair. �Should we tell the
rest of the comitatus?�

�� Draco
opened one lazy eye. �Tell me that that would be a good idea, when we have
several people who would be inclined to confront Holder just on principle.�

�� Harry
grimaced. �No, I suppose it wouldn�t.� He turned away and prowled in a restless
circle, again touching his hair. �But I don�t know how we can keep frequent
visits to Holder and Robards from them.�

�� We visit
the command tent during times when we know that the rest are working on being
better partners,� Draco said. �Lowell and Weston have already said that we
don�t need to attend those practices.�

�� Harry
stopped walking at once and smiled at him. �You think of everything.�

�� Draco
smiled modestly back. �I try.�

�� Harry
snorted and pushed against his shoulder as he walked back, past Draco�s chair.
�What do you think about Ketchum�s claim that some of the Aurors are willing to
turn against Robards and Holder? Do you think that they would be valuable
allies? Could they even be persuaded to work with us? Maybe Ketchum would be
willing to treat us like adults, but that says nothing about the rest of them.�

�� There was
the Fellowship,� Draco pointed out, to see what Harry would say to that.

�� Harry
snorted again. �What did the Fellowship accomplish? A few meetings and a lot of
chatter, and a few protections against Nihil that turned out not to matter
because Dearborn was part of the group the entire time.� He flung himself down
in the chair across from Draco and put his hands in his robe pockets. �I don�t
think we can use the Fellowship as a model. We would have to work together as
part of a fighting group, something like a bigger comitatus, rather than a
Gobstones club.�

�� Draco
smiled. That was another speech Harry never would have made a year ago. It was
nice to see that Draco was having an effect on him. �Holder and Robards would
be frightened at the thought of us working with Aurors that way.�

�� Which is
why we should do it.� Harry grinned at him.

�� Draco did
roll his eyes this time. �When we�re pretending to be their allies? We�ll have
to hide it better, that�s all. And if they would work with us, I still don�t
think that they would work under our leadership. Let them fight commanded by
Ketchum or whoever the actual leader is, and the rest of the comitatus can
fight under me.�

�� Yes, they
can,� Harry said. �We can.� He stood up and sauntered over to Draco�s chair, a
casual smile on his face that fooled Draco not at all.

�� Draco
arched his neck back and accepted the heated kiss, as he accepted the way Harry
sank to his knees a moment later and began to unfasten his trousers. They might
not have done as much towards coming up with a plan to invade the cache near
London today as he had originally wanted, but they had done enough that he felt
justified in accepting his reward.

*

�� SP777: As
far as Nihil goes, probably not, or she wouldn�t have been able to swear the
oath.

�� polka dot: I
do in fact picture her with white hair.

�� Dragons
Breath: Holder meant to trap them both, but thought Draco would prove more
vulnerable to manipulation than the bull-headed Harry.

�� Herricks
considers Ventus his friend, whether or not there�s anything romantic in that.
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Seasons of War