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The Wages of Going On	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Threesomes/Moresomes Views: 43959 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 7
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this story.

Chapter List
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Thank you again for all the reviews!
Chapter Thirteen--A Dark Place
            Harry opened his eyes, only to find out that made no difference. He still lay in the darkness, even when he fluttered his eyelids and turned his head from side to side.
            There was a grating sound beside him which at least reassured him that his captors weren't using the Sensory Deprivation Charm, and Harry counted three inside his head and then tried to lash out in that direction. He caught what he believed was the edge of a kneecap before the man hissed and retreated.
            The next second, he was convulsing under a Cruciatus that must have been nonverbal.
            You've put up with worse pain, Harry thought, and closed his eyes. The bond trying to tear your ribs out of you, that was worse. You've done horribly, but you can bear this. You're not going to give them the satisfaction of screaming out. Or Snape and Malfoy the satisfaction of calling for help. All you can do is--
            The curse ended suddenly, and another voice said, "What have I told you, John, about doing things like that? We'll get no value for him if he's damaged goods, and you were going to hold him under long enough to make him go insane."
            Someone snarled and muttered back, but low enough that Harry couldn't make out the words. He remained determinedly peering into the darkness, and blinked sharply as a sudden light came into being on the end of a wand. The person holding the wand bent over and looked him in the face, dispassionately.
            Harry didn't recognize her. She had a face like stone and hair like ice, at least in the color. She considered him with cool grey eyes that reminded Harry too much of Malfoy's. He would have bitten her on the nose if he'd had the strength.
            "He seems to be all right," the woman said, and stood up, turning around to shake her head at the unseen man who had cast the Unforgivable. "Not that you can get much credit for that, John."
            "Who are you?" Harry asked. He was impressed with himself that he had enough control over his tongue not to immediately start slurring the words.
            "He speaks." The woman gave him a smile with quiet amusement in it, all the more infuriating because she didn't seem to apprehend any danger from Harry. "You might as well call me Ice. Everyone who doesn't already know my real name does." She reached out and seemed to feel down Harry's legs, which were alight with cramps, now, as well as the lingering remains of the Cruciatus. Harry concentrated on those details and decided he was bound to the floor with chains, which were themselves attached to large brackets in the floor. "You'll do," she said. "No broken bones, although the way they hauled you in here, there should have been." She cast a cool look over her shoulder, presumably at the people who had hauled him in here, or the unfortunate John. Someone else whinged without words.
            "Why did you bring me here?" Harry asked.
            "Oh, come, Auror Potter," Ice said, and turned back to him. "You should already know the answer to that."
            "I got too close to the secret of who betrayed me to the Lestranges," Harry said, and watched her smile. It was a smile of the kind McGonagall used to give him for getting an answer right in class. It really, really made him wish that he could punch her in the solar plexus, even as it also filled him with a savage cold.
            "Yes, exactly," she said. "Although honestly, the way that they didn't keep their side of the bargain..." Ice clucked her tongue and stood up. "I suppose that we have no choice but to wait. The ritual won't be ready for at least three hours."
            "What ritual?" Harry hated the way his voice skittered up, but he mastered it in the next second, biting his tongue. A small trickle of blood ran down the inside of his mouth as Ice answered.
            "The ritual the Lestranges were supposed to complete on you, and didn't," she said, and moved away. "Never trust a crazy Death Eater. That's a lesson for my future self."
            "What are you talking about?" Harry called after her, but she didn't turn around to speak to him, and given the sound of his voice and what he would have done in the same circumstances, Harry couldn't say that he blamed her.
            He closed his eyes and fell into himself, concentrating on those bodily sensations that he had ignored before when he was mostly worried about the people right near him. He could feel the stiffness of his muscles, the cold, which told him that he had lain on this stone floor for a long time. He could feel the ache in the back of his head, which he had probably got when he fell onto the Ministry's floor from the Stunner. He could taste a fuzziness in his mouth that at least reassured him they hadn't poured any potions down his throat; this was the normal dry feeling that he got when he went without drinking water all night.
            His eyes popped open when more lights began to move in front of them. Ice was walking around at the end of the large room, her wand lit, talking to a hulking man Harry thought might be John and other people he couldn't see. He listened, but didn't make out many words beyond "square" and "right this time."
            What am I going to do?
            Hermione and Ron hadn't known where he was gone, Harry accepted, with a heartbeat like a drum in his chest and ears. They wouldn't know to start looking for Johnson, and they probably wouldn't know about Nott, either. If he had a chance to get a Patronus off...
            But he didn't have his wand, and he hadn't had the chance before they had taken it away.
            Snape and Malfoy? They might be able to communicate with me from a distance, if that information about the bond is right.
            Harry laughed aloud, and sensed how the shuffling movement at the far end of the room paused. Well, it was possible that he could play being mental and see where that got him.
            Yeah, right. Even if I wanted to use that power, even if I was comfortable relying on them, we would all have to be together and concentrating for the bond to work right. Instead I have one person who wants the power but can't do it himself, and one person who doesn't want any more to do with me than I want to do with him.
            Harry swallowed, sucked in breath through his nostrils, and nodded.
            Besides, they raped me. I can do this without their help. I appeased the bond without their help--all except the last time.
            His mind working grimly, Harry settled down to think about what he needed to do to escape.
*
            Severus touched his wand to his throat and cast the Sonorus Charm. He had already looked for Draco in the library, the gardens, and his bedroom, and he refused to look for him all over a house as large as the Manor.
            "Draco!" he shouted, so loudly that he heard the clang of something--probably one of those intolerable Malfoy busts--falling over in the distance, and the squeaking of dismayed house-elves as they clustered around it.
            A door somewhere on the first floor opened, and Draco came to the balcony of the stairs to lean over and glare at him. "You know, Severus, when I invited you to stay here, I didn't actually mean for you to destroy my house," he began.
            Severus ignored that. Nothing much was relevant right now except the weight in his head, which felt as if the steel mountain that represented Potter had fallen over. "You know that Potter is in danger?"
            Draco went white and touched his head. "Is that what that was?" he muttered. "I thought I had a headache from dealing with you."
            Severus ignored that statement, because he was more interested in stopping the pain and figuring out what was wrong with Potter so that it would stop, and only jerked his head towards the door. "Perhaps we should go to him. Hesitating when there was this level of pain will only lead to more severe trouble later on." He held out his arm, and after a moment, Draco came down the stairs, frowning, and took it.
            "He still hasn't written back to me," Draco mumbled. "He might look on what we're doing as an intrusion."
            "And if he has fallen and hit his head on the table, then I will apologize," Severus said, with a sneer in his voice that he didn't bother to conceal. "But for the moment, we are going to him, because this headache makes it impossible for me to brew." He shut his eyes and groped out for the bond. It shimmered in the back of his mind like a slug's trail.
            "It's always about you and what you can do with your potions, isn't it?" Draco asked, with a sneer of his own.
            "If you think that Potter is being less selfish about his work as an Auror, then I would like you to provide me with proof," Severus said.
            Draco opened his mouth, but then the bond took over, and their feet left the ground. A second later, Severus sensed that they had come into a darker place, and there was the shocked silence that meant there had been human noise a short time before.
            He cast a Fog Charm around them and pulled Draco with him, ducking down, in the moments before the first curses flew.
            Of course Potter would have got himself taken prisoner between now and the last time we spoke, Severus thought, shaking his head as he dragged Draco towards the right until they hit a wall. The Fog Charm was resistant to the Finite, which meant they had a few seconds, until someone remembered the exact countercharm to get rid of it. When does he do anything else than get himself into unfortunate scrapes?
            Draco was pulling against his hold. Severus let him go, because he had to concentrate on defending himself and getting out of here before he would concentrate on keeping Draco safe, and cast a simple Locator Charm. It pointed straight along the diagonal, and Severus began to crouch-run in that direction, using some of the simpler Dark Arts he knew to keep himself safe from the flying spells.
            The fog was gone abruptly, and a woman with pale hair stepped into Severus's path. She had a fine, odd bone structure that made Severus feel as if he had seen her somewhere before, and a leveled wand.
            "I'm afraid that I can't let you rescue Potter," she said. "Not until we understand what went wrong last time."
            Severus replied with a Stunner that she blocked, easily, holding up her arm and catching it on a little reflective wrist-band. Then she cast the Cutting Curse in response, neatly aimed at Severus's neck. Severus deflected it, but raised his eyebrows. This was a more skilled opponent than he had expected to duel with.
            "I told you that I can't let you take him," said the woman calmly, and cut her wand towards the stone beneath his feet.
            Severus leaped out of the way of the whirlpool that he knew would consume him if he stayed still, and cut so hard at her that she had to take time out to check herself for wounds; the curse Severus had used was sharp enough to cause injuries that the target didn't feel at first. In the meantime, Severus raced left, then right, and someone else's hex missed him and clashed against the wall in a bright red mutter.
            A net tried to tangle his feet, but Severus leaped over that, and then saw a flash of different pale hair from ahead. Draco was crouched down--beside Potter, Severus thought, as the bond sang inside him with a single, plucked note.
            Draco turned to stare at him, eyes so wide that Severus grimaced. Draco was counting on Severus to come up with a way to get out of this. But Severus did not know how. He tried to convey that by a sharp gesture to Draco, but Draco only kept staring, one hand locked on Potter's elbow.
            The chains around Potter were too thick for any spell that Severus could cast when he was still wildly dodging curses from the woman in front of him. If he had the time and the focus--
            Draco leaned down and said something to Potter. Severus had no chance of hearing what it was, but he listened anyway, and almost tripped up when another tangling net came at him. He shook his head and turned his back. Draco and Potter would have to figure out how to use the bond to their advantage between them. He had a fight to conduct.
*
            "Do you think the bond could break through your chains?" Draco heard his voice, small and young, and flinched. He hadn't meant to sound that way, really. He only wanted to hear some solution, some way to get Potter out of here.
            Potter looked up at him with those flat green eyes and shrugged a little. "I've never used it that way, and there was nothing about it in that book passage you sent me," he said, and lapsed into silence, watching the fight.
            He's an Auror, he probably wants to join them, Draco thought, and then could have slapped himself for not thinking of this particular solution before. Among other things, it was the only solution that might show Potter Draco was committed to helping him. He held up his wand. "Accio Potter's wand!"
            It didn't come flying, but there was a rattling from the left. Draco spun around. A steel cabinet fastened to the wall was practically leaping at the hinges, as something tried to get out from inside it.
            Draco started in that direction.
            And one of the Aurors, or whoever they were, swirled up in front of him, mouth stern and eyes focused on him as if they took him seriously as an opponent. Draco frowned. He was used to people underestimating him because he was a Malfoy and had a reputation as a coward, and that was one of the few real advantages he had.
            "I'm sorry, but I can't let you do that," said the Auror.
            Draco had a brilliant inspiration. He nodded and let his hand fall to his side, holding his wand as he sighed, sadly.
            "I was afraid of that," he said. "Afraid that we couldn't just walk in here and get Potter free like that, but that was the plan we wanted to use, and we trusted too much to Potter's luck to win the day."
            He peered back at the wizard and saw his mouth gaping. And in that moment, Draco bound him with Incarcerous and raced past him to the steel cabinet.
            He didn't have a lot of time or interest in using finesse, so he was ready and willing to use the Blasting Curse that broke apart the metal into a flying heap of splinters and shards. He reached into the mess of metal and tossed Potter's wand out. Still trying to obey the Summoning Charm, it tugged against his hold, then calmed.
            Draco dodged back to Potter. So far, no one else seemed to have noticed what he was doing. They were all focused on Severus, who had set up another Fog Charm and was okay--Draco told himself sternly that he was, because of his two bondmates, he could only spare the time and energy to worry about one.
            And right now, that was Potter.
            "Here," Draco said, jabbing the wand into Potter's hand. He paused, noting the joy that lit Potter's face. He really did look better that way, different from the beaten-down, staring man Draco had raped.
            He hadn't had the time to flinch from his own memories yet before Potter slid his wand beneath the nearest chain and released a brilliant burst of spell-light. Draco didn't know the curse, but he watched in interest as the steel parted before it, severed neatly down the middle of a link. If he had known that charm, he could have used it on the cabinet and not had to stick his hand down in the middle of a mass of shards.
            Later, he would ask Potter about it and hopefully get him to teach it to both him and Severus.
            Potter bolted to his feet and snapped his head around the room, taking in more than Draco thought either of them, or in fact anyone without Auror training, could, at the moment. Now people were starting to turn around, seeing their most dangerous opponent free. Draco saw several people still crouching on the stone and apparently cutting something into it, working frantically, but the vast majority of the Aurors had lined up in front of them and were marching towards Potter.
            "Malfoy?" Potter's voice was the calmest Draco had ever heard it. Draco tensed a little, anyway.
            "Yeah?" Draco asked, cautiously, when Potter only went on watching the other Aurors with a faint smile.
            "Stay behind me," Potter said. "I'm not always able to distinguish, when I get in the middle of battle like this."
            Draco opened his mouth to object, to remind Potter that Severus was somewhere in that multitude of people in front of them, and then closed it again. Potter probably wouldn't care all that much about Severus at the moment.
            Several of the Aurors aimed their wands at once. Some of them near the back began to speak long spells, probably because they thought Potter wouldn't focus on them at first and they would have a chance to complete their incantations while their fellows at the front protected them.
            Potter, his face transcendent, laughed, and made a gesture with his wand that Draco had never seen before.
            An enormous stone-and-silver pendulum formed near the top of the ceiling, tilted to the side, at the top of its arc, and cut down towards the Aurors. There was a shearing blade at its end. Some of the Aurors ducked in time, some didn't. Most went flying from their feet. Draco heard screams, saw blood flying, too, and saw the pendulum reach the other side of the room and drop back down for a second sweep. This time, the blood was thicker.
            Potter nodded at Draco over his shoulder and slashed his wand sideways. The pendulum vanished, and Potter strode forwards. "It's safe to follow me now," he added over his shoulder, when Draco's feet remained rooted to the floor.
            Draco swallowed thickly, and followed. His mind was working furiously over the spell, wondering if it was Dark Arts, dismissing that in a second--a spell to conjure a pendulum wasn't the sort of thing the Ministry would have regulated under Dark Arts--and then deciding that he was very curious where Potter had learned that. He didn't think it could be regular Auror training, or one of the other Aurors would have known the countercurse.
            That meant, no matter how much he might want to pretend otherwise, Harry Potter was not just a normal Auror, a regular Auror, the way he was trying so hard to present himself.
            And what exactly are you going to do with that knowledge?
            Draco didn't know. But he put it away for later right now, and followed Potter down into the part of the room that still held the Aurors chipping away at the stone. They hadn't stopped even though some of them were now splattered with blood. That suggested ritual dedication to Draco, and that suggested the excellence of any plan that contained an attempt to stop them.
*
            If I had known the Ministry gave their Aurors this level of training, I might have respected them more.
            Severus's thoughts flickered and darted, whirling around his head like exhausted birds, nearly forced to the ground. The cold wind that drove them was the Auror in front of him, who kept calmly batting away his spells and counterattacking with ones of her own. She was wounded, a shallow trail of blood down her arm, but then, so was Severus, and more deeply. It was only the quick Impervious Charm he had cast above his eyes that had kept the cut on his forehead from blinding him, the way it bled.
            The woman had to be an Auror. She moved like one, and although she didn't wear the robes, rather common brown ones that would be anonymous in most contexts, she stood as if she was used to wearing scarlet ones. Severus knew that because he had seen the posture and the grace in Potter, lately.
            That thought stirred anger up, and that thought gave him the first clear plan he'd had since the start of the duel. Letting his anger fuel him, Severus feigned a stumble and went down on one knee.
            The Auror did not dare close, they were too evenly matched, but she shot a binding charm at him. She had to. Even if she thought he was faking, knew he was faking, there was too much chance that she could turn the trick back on him and take him because he hadn't calculated the costs of his stumble yet.
            And Severus rolled to the side, not obscuring his wand arm, and cast back, with the charm of his own devising that had once been turned on him. She was jerked into the air, hanging upside-down by one ankle with her robes dangling around her head. Severus Stunned her while he still had the aim.
            Then he turned about, wondering if he had Draco or Potter or both to thank for no sudden rush of Aurors upon his rear.
            The carnage behind him, Aurors clutching severed arms and bleeding chests, made him raise his eyebrows. It looked as if Potter had learned to cast Sectumsempra in many directions at once, and on many victims at once.
            Another spell I invented, that he stole from me.
            That particular anger forced him to his feet, and made him stalk forwards. There was still a cluster of Aurors in the back of the room, and he supposed that was where he would find both Draco and Potter.
            He was quietly looking forward to that. He would enjoy the chance to verbally flay Potter for getting himself captured in the first place, and Draco for not coming and joining in the duel, unless he had done something useful in the meantime.
            The chances of that are not high.
*
Pittwitch: Depends on what you mean by that.
BAFan: Yes. Quite a bit.
Jen: Thanks for reviewing.
ChelseaPlume: Hermione does know that about the bond and is thinking of what Harry could accomplish, but she knows that this isn’t the right time to bring that up.
Maybe a bit less miniscule this time?
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The Wages of Going On