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Soldier's Welcome	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 25565 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; that belongs to J. K. Rowling. I am making no money from this fic.

Chapter List
- 13
- 14
- 15
Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Fourteen�An
Afternoon of Arguments

�� Harry
paused outside his rooms and listened a minute. Yes, he could hear Ron and
Hermione arguing in there, or at least agreeing loudly with each other. He
sighed and wished or a moment that he didn�t have to face them both at once.

�� On the
other hand, he thought Hermione was being so hostile to him because she only
knew Ron�s side of the story. If he confronted her alone, then she would go
away and talk to Ron, who would deny everything Harry said. It was probably for
the best if they all spoke at once and Hermione got to compare their stories.

�� Harry
lifted his hand to knock on the door.

�� Someone
caught his arm and pulled it backwards. Harry turned around, already tense and
reaching for his wand with his other hand. He no longer felt safe when people
came up behind him and grabbed him.

�� He tried to
relax when he realized it was Malfoy, but the tension had to go somewhere, and
he dissipated it in a loud huffing sigh. �What do you want?� he asked, folding his arms and keeping his voice low. He
wanted to choose the moment when he confronted Ron and Hermione, instead of
having it forced on him.

�� Malfoy�s the one who taught me so much about
the importance of choice, he thought, as he watched a bright flush break
out on Malfoy�s cheeks. Strange to think
of.

�� You�re
going to talk to your friends?� Malfoy asked.

�� Harry
glanced at the door again. Ron and Hermione�s voices had risen, which was
probably the only reason they hadn�t heard what Malfoy had said. Harry tried to
set him the example by whispering. �I was until you interrupted.�

�� Malfoy
narrowed his eyes. �I came in time, you mean. I should be with you when you
talk to them.�

�� Harry knew his jaw dropped; he didn�t need the
sidelong sneer on Malfoy�s face to tell him that. He coughed and said, �No, you
shouldn�t! They�ll be more hostile in front of you than they would be
otherwise.�

�� They�ll be
more truthful,� Malfoy said, as if that made sense. �And Granger will see how
irrational the Weasel is about me. That�s what you�re hoping to do, aren�t you?
Get Granger on your side and use her to tame the Weasel�s madness.�

�� Harry
scowled. �Don�t call him that.�

�� You�re
failing to address the larger point.� Malfoy�s voice was bored, but his eyes
had a sudden pale fire in them. �We need to be together.�

�� No,� Harry
said. �You have a place in my life. I understand that now. I won�t fight
against it. But that place isn�t everywhere.� He leaned forwards, hoping that
that, combined with the serious look on his face, would intimidate Malfoy.

�� He might as
well have hoped to intimidate a thunderstorm, said Malfoy�s look of contempt.
�It�s by your side in an argument I�m the cause of.�

�� Not just
you,� Harry said. �You helped me realize that. Ron and Ginny hope to have a
place in my life that�s�I don�t know, controlling or something, for some
reason.� Malfoy smirked at him, and Harry flushed. He knew he wasn�t a great
speaker; did Malfoy have to rub it in? �That�s what I need to talk to them about.
It�s the more important topic.�

�� Malfoy
clenched one fist and then looked as if he wished that he hadn�t done it.
Still, his voice was sharp enough to cut. �More important than I am. I see.�

�� Shit.�
Harry wondered briefly if pulling on his own hair would relieve some of his
frustration, and then he thought of the way Malfoy would make fun of him for
messing it up even more and managed to refrain. �I didn�t mean it that way,
Malfoy. I�m trying to have both you and Ron
and Hermione as friends, all right? For them, the petty little things they�re
doing are the more important topic. For you, it�s different.�

�� Malfoy
stared at him like an angry cat that had just been offered a plate of its
favorite food. Then he said, �What are the important topics that you would want
to discuss with me?�

�� Harry
blinked, caught off-guard. Then he shrugged and said, �How to handle our
compatible magic so that it doesn�t drain one of us. What you think the Death
Eaters, if that�s what they were, were doing. How we�re going to keep our
investigations into the Dark magic low-key enough that the instructors don�t
notice.�

�� Malfoy
half-lowered his head and gave him a secret smile. �You intend to take me along
on more of those investigations, then?�

�� Of course.
They attacked you, too. And I think the red and black magic was aimed at you,
not me. How could the caster have known that I would open your door just then?�
Harry shook his head, growing more confident as the quiet pleased look made its
way over more and more of Malfoy�s face. �You have a right to participate. You
have a right to participate in a lot of
what I do,� Harry added, driven to honesty by Malfoy�s expectant silence as
much as anything else. �Just not everything.�

�� Malfoy
glanced at the door behind Harry and hesitated. Then he gave a clipped nod and
said, �If this turns out to be something that I should have been involved in,
then I�ll blame you, Potter.� He turned on his heel.

�� Harry, in
gratitude and because he really did want to offer Malfoy reassurance, reached
out and touched his shoulder. Malfoy glanced back at him. Harry wondered if he
knew about or understood the vulnerability in his own eyes.

�� They�re
not going to persuade me to abandon you,� Harry said. �I promise.�

�� You think
that now,� Malfoy muttered.

�� You�re the
one who taught me to be sure of that,� Harry said. �You�re the one who gave me
the strength to choose you.� He produced a smile that he tried to put all his
emotions into. He wasn�t sure he succeeded, because Malfoy stared as if Harry
had punched him or vomited on him.

�� Malfoy
turned in the next moment and walked away as though he couldn�t wait to reach
the end of the corridor. Harry shook his head. He didn�t know if he would ever
understand Malfoy, but at least he had managed to get him to leave.

�� That way,
he could confront Ron and Hermione alone.

�� Harry knew it was the right thing to do. As he
turned and opened the door, he could feel that determination bracing him up
like a commandment.

�� But he
couldn�t help wishing Malfoy could have been with him, all the same.

*

�� Draco went
straight back to his room. He didn�t trust himself to appear calm and collected
in the face of anyone he met right now, and there were still too few people he
trusted to see him when he wasn�t calm
and collected.

�� He flung
the door open and let it crash shut behind him. A chattering chorus of voices
in his head told him what his Malfoy ancestors would think of his dramatic
little display.

�� For once,
Draco told the Malfoy ancestors to go fuck themselves, and the chattering
chorus shut up in surprise. Draco dropped into a chair and shut his eyes,
putting his hands over them in the vain hope that it would calm his racing
heart.

�� Potter�s
smile had done this to him.

�� His bloody smile.

�� It wasn�t
that Draco was incapable of controlling himself around the people he was
attracted to. He had got over that particular bit of nonsense long ago, when
he�d had his first crushes at thirteen and fourteen. But he had anticipated
those crushes. His father had explained that Malfoys were like other people in
a few things, and being at the mercy of the urge to propagate the species was
one of them.

�� Likewise,
he had come into the Auror program prepared for the idea that people would hate
him. He hoped to find mentors, such as Dearborn, and those people who would
recognize his talent and admire and promote him, however grudgingly they did
it. Draco would have liked approval, but he did not need it with the same ardor
that he needed the Malfoy name restored. Dearborn had been enough of a conquest
for a few months.

�� He had not
anticipated the compatible magic, but he had anticipated Potter�s reaction to
it. He had assumed that would drag on for months and resolve itself into little
more than sullen acceptance in the end. It was one reason his intense
conversation with Potter had so shaken him. It did not fit into the
possibilities for his future his mind had created the moment he felt the
compatible magic coiling between them.

�� Instead,
Potter had kept his promise. He had managed to send Draco off just now with
words that he didn�t resent, words that made him feel as if he were part of a
community larger than the Malfoy family for the first time in his life.

�� Draco
leaned back in the chair and stared at the ceiling. His mind stretched and strained,
trying to encompass the idea of what his life might be like now that
Potter�Potter who had compatible magic with him, Potter who had fame and power
enough to get anything he wanted done, Potter who was brave and beautiful�stood
at his side.

�� Draco had
thought through everything, planned everything, anticipated everything.

�� Except
friendship.

*

�� Harry shut
the door behind him in absolute silence. Ron and Hermione had both frozen the
moment they saw him walk in and now blinked at him as though they expected that
to make him go away.

�� Harry
folded his arms and leaned on the door. He would wait for them to make the
first move, since he couldn�t think of a comfortable way to approach the
subject he wanted to talk about.

�� Hermione
was the first to react. She licked her lips and leaned forwards. Her voice
wavered at first, but quickly grew strong as she went on. �Ron told me that you
had an argument over Malfoy, Harry, and that you were going to start being best
friends with him instead of us. I tried to appeal to you in class today, and
you used a spell on me that looked like a rejection. Would you care to explain exactly what you�re doing?�

�� Harry had
to control the impulse to sigh. He hadn�t said that, of course, but he also
knew it would sound like he had to Ron. And Hermione�s perception of what had
happened in Auror Conduct was an odd mixture of reality and the fact that Harry
had been playing a role and had to do what he thought would be appropriate to
the imaginary situation.

�� This was
the point in arguments with his best friends when he wanted to walk away. He
used to despair of getting through the thick walls around Ron�s mind, and he
knew that he couldn�t oppose Hermione�s relentless rationality.

�� But right
now, he was remembering the way that Ron had set Ginny on him. Ron might allege
a bunch of motives for that. He couldn�t deny that it had happened, though. So
Harry would tell Hermione about it, because she didn�t seem to know.

�� I told Ron
that I didn�t appreciate his interference in my life,� he said. �Why can�t he argue with me about Malfoy, if he
wants to? Why does he have to get you and his sister to do it?�

�� Hermione
snapped her mouth shut and blinked. �What�s Ginny got to do with this?�

�� Nothing,�
Harry said, stalking over to his chair and flinging himself into it. He wanted
to show that he wasn�t afraid of them and about to retreat out the door any
moment, the way he might look if he was standing on the other side of the room.
�In a sane world. But Ron set her on me, and she gave me a big lecture about
how I have to stand up for myself and fight the instructors no matter how
suicidal that would be and no matter how tired I am of fighting. Because I can do anything, according to her.�

�� Hermione twisted
around to look at Ron, her mouth slowly opening like someone drinking in new
knowledge. Ron crossed his arms and concentrated all his energy into a scowl at
Harry. Harry waited for him to defend himself, but he didn�t say anything, so
Harry cleared his throat and went on.

�� I broke up
with Ginny for a reason. I don�t think we�re good for each other anymore.� He
had considered the idea of telling Ron and Hermione about his fits and rejected
it again. He should do it, he knew, and maybe someday he would, but right now
it felt too much like doing what Ginny had ordered him to.

�� And betraying Malfoy.

�� Harry
frowned and shifted his shoulders. Malfoy shouldn�t be the only one who knew
secrets about him, and Harry couldn�t understand his own desire to have it be
that way. But he left those thoughts aside for the moment so he could
concentrate on what he was talking about.

�� To have
her come in here like that and tell me that I was too weak and too strong at
the same time�to have her think that I always want to be a hero�to have her
accuse me of wanting power�� Harry�s voice was rising, and he didn�t care. The conversation
with Malfoy had told him at least one thing. Didn�t he have the right to be angry with Ginny? Shouldn�t
he be able to argue against what she claimed if he wanted to?

�� Don�t talk
about my sister that way.�

�� Harry
surged to his feet, to stand opposite Ron. Ron was taller than Harry was, but
Harry wouldn�t allow Ron to loom over him anymore.

�� That�s what
she said,� Harry said. �And worse. This is only the parts of her speech that I
feel I can repeat without spitting in
rage.� He saw the way Ron cocked his head and laughed bitterly. �What�s the
matter, Ron? Afraid to deal with the consequences of what you did by telling
your little sister about our arguments?�

�� She didn�t
mean to hurt you,� Ron said. �She wanted to help.�

�� But she
had no right,� Harry said. �How would
you feel if I�d asked Seamus or Neville to talk to you because I was sick of
your jealousy about Malfoy?�

�� Ron looked
as though Harry had slapped him. �But they�re just friends,� he said. �They
didn�t date you.�

�� And now
Ginny is just a friend,� Harry said. �I don�t give a fuck about what she used
to be to me.� He saw Hermione holding her hand to her mouth and Ron�s eyes
darkening, but at the moment, he just couldn�t care. �You didn�t have the right to ask her to do that. She gave me
one of the most humiliating lectures and one of the most patronizing scoldings
of my life. The Dursleys weren�t that
bad, because I didn�t care that much what they thought of me after a while. But
I care about Ginny. I cared about her,� he corrected himself, because right now
he wasn�t sure what he felt for her anymore. �You shouldn�t have asked her to
fight the battle for you. That�s the part I�m really angry about, Ron, not that
you told her. You can complain to people, but you don�t tell them that they
should go and have the argument for you.�

�� What was I
supposed to do when no one else could reach you?� Ron stamped his foot. Hermione�s
eyebrows drew together, Harry was glad to see. Ron didn�t seem to notice, and
leaned forwards as if he assumed that he could intimidate Harry that way. �You
weren�t listening to me. I explained my concerns, and you just dismissed them
by saying that you had something special with
Malfoy, something that you wouldn�t give me the right to complain about��

�� That�s
enough, Ron.�

�� Hermione�s voice
had a steely ring of command that surprised Harry. He turned to look at
Hermione along with Ron as she rose to her feet. Her eyes were sad when she glanced
back and forth between them.

�� Both of
you are in the wrong,� she said. �You more than Harry, Ron. I didn�t know that
you�d contacted Ginny.� She took a deep breath and ran her hand down the
outside of her hair, as though running it through the middle was too much
effort right now. �That was stupid. Of course Ginny would push Harry away from
us. He doesn�t feel connected to her anymore.�

�� Harry set
his jaw and said nothing. Hermione had questioned him thoroughly when he broke
up with Ginny, determined to know why he hadn�t stayed with her. Harry hadn�t
admitted the truth then, and he wasn�t about to do it now, either.

�� What Harry
has with Malfoy isn�t going away,� Hermione continued. �We have to learn to
accept it, and not scold him about it.�

�� But Hermione,� Ron said, and his voice
whinged.

�� Get out of
here for right now,� Hermione said, turning back to face Harry. �You didn�t
tell me about Ginny. We�ll have to have a private talk later about how you
lied.�

�� For a long
minute, Harry didn�t think Ron would obey. He clenched his jaw, and the veins
in his neck stood out, while his face flushed. The grinding of his teeth was
audible.

�� But in the
end he turned and marched out of the room, tugging open the door so far it hit
the wall, and then slamming it behind him.

�� Harry
blinked and turned back to Hermione.

�� Only to
find that she had collapsed into her chair and put her hands over her face. She
was making soft sounds�not crying, Harry thought, but taking the sort of
breaths that people took when they wanted to keep from crying.

�� Hermione?�
he asked uneasily.

�� I�ve tried
so hard,� she almost wailed into her hands. �The work here is harder than it
was at Hogwarts. I can barely keep up. And sometimes I don�t know what I�m
doing with Ron anymore. We have so many
arguments. And he�s wrong, but I understand what he�s going through because
he thinks he might lose you to Malfoy. I do.�
She dropped her hands and stared up at Harry. �Because I feel the same way.�

�� Harry
wanted to turn and stalk off. Hermione seemed to be doing the same thing Ginny
had: throwing Ron�s problems at him and demanding that he solve them. Why couldn�t
he ever be the overwhelmed one, the
one who got to act like he wanted without caring what other people thought?

�� Two answers
came to him at once, so quickly that he was ashamed. First, he would hate
himself if he did manage to behave like that, no matter how good it might feel
at the time.

�� Second,
there was someone who could help him if he felt overwhelmed. Malfoy.

�� Or Draco.
Harry wasn�t sure how long he could continue to call Malfoy by the chill
distance of his last name.

�� For now,
though, Hermione was watching him with tear-brightened eyes and obviously
wanting an answer. Harry cleared his throat. �I didn�t know that you were
feeling that far behind in your classes,� he said. �I�m sorry. I can try to
show you some of the ways that I�m coping with it.� He bit his lip to keep
himself from laughing, because he knew that Hermione wouldn�t understand. His offering
to help her with study skills was ridiculous.

�� That�s not
what I need,� Hermione said, shaking her head. �I can handle the classwork when
I get used to it. It�s just trying to do that and be calm and understanding for
Ron at the same time that�s the problem.� She looked up at Harry again. �Do you
think you could�spend a few days with Ron? Just give him time with you so that
he doesn�t feel like he�s losing his best friend?�

�� Harry
straightened his spine. He hated to refuse Hermione when she sounded as if she
was pleading, but if he gave in to her demands, then Ron would feel like he�d
won. And Harry no longer intended to let him get away with what he was doing.

�� No,� he
said.

�� Hermione
drove her fingernails into her palms until it looked as though she was going to
claw her skin open. �But Harry��

�� Harry knelt
down and took her hands in his, stroking and soothing them open. Hermione
blinked at him in astonishment and seemed to forget about the tears that Harry
knew she was about to shed.

�� It�s hard,�
Harry said calmly. �I know that. I know that you feel you might lose him. I
went through that, too, in fourth year and during the Horcrux hunt and
sometimes during this last year when he asked too many questions about Ginny.
But, Hermione, you have to remember that you can�t be calm and understanding for Ron all the time. You�re
putting an unnecessary burden on yourself, and on me. We�ll have to refuse to give
in to Ron�s temper tantrums and instead do what we know is right. And I know that
it�s right to be friends with Malfoy and Ron at the same time.�

�� Hermione
was frowning, her lower lip sticking out in the closest thing to a pout that
Harry had ever seen her make. �But how can we do that? Ron won�t accept
anything less than complete devotion to him.�

�� First of
all,� Harry said, �I don�t think that�s true. Because if it was, then neither
of us would ever have become friends with him in the first place. He would have
been impossible to live with. But we have to be careful that we don�t turn him into someone like that by indulging him
all the time.�

�� Hermione
blushed. Then she said, �I would never have said that if I was feeling normal.
But coming into the Auror program is overwhelming, and with Ron being upset all
the time�� She closed her eyes and shook her head.

�� We�ll get
through it together,� Harry said, and squeezed her hands one more time before
he stood up. �We�ll make Ron see reason. Slowly,� he added, and Hermione let
out a reluctant laugh. �But he�s worth it, Hermione�both to make up with and
not to pamper. It�ll take him a long time and it�ll be hard, but he�ll get used
to my friendship with Malfoy in the end.�

�� Good God, I nearly said �Draco� just then. Harry
twitched. Whatever he might privately feel, he didn�t think that Hermione was
ready to hear him speak about �Draco.�

�� Hermione
gave him a faint smile as she walked towards the door. �I would have thought of
that myself,� she said, �if I hadn�t been struggling so much and didn�t want
simple solutions.� She threw her shoulders back. �Well, no more simple solutions.
We could never do that in Hogwarts. Why should we do it here?�

�� Harry gave
her a smile of thanks. �Do you want to talk to Ron first?� he asked.

�� Hermione
nodded briskly, once more the woman he remembered from the Horcrux hunt. �Yes,
I think it�s best. He�ll take it better from me. Like you said, it�ll take a
while to make him see reason.� She hesitated, then added, �What else did Ginny
say to you, Harry?�

�� Harry shook
his head. �Things I�ll find it hard to forgive her for, Hermione. But I don�t
want to talk about it right now.�

�� All right,�
Hermione said. �And�don�t take this the wrong way, Harry, but are you sure that you want to be friends with
Malfoy?�

�� Harry
thought of the way that Malfoy had spoken to him after the conversation with
Ginny�his unflinching, scathing honesty. He thought of the way the compatible
magic coiled and eddied between them. He thought of the way Malfoy hadn�t even
blamed Harry for the dangerous draining of his magic that could have cost him
his life.

�� Contentment
spread through him, different from the contentment that he felt when he was
with Ron and Hermione. But why did that matter? His friendship with Malfoy was
going to be different. He already knew that.

�� Completely
sure,� he murmured.

Something in his smile made
Hermione smile back.

*

polka dot: Neither Ron or Harry has
been fully conscious of Hermione for a while; they forgot her sufferings in
their own. And, of course, Draco never pays attention to her if he can help it.

�� MewMew2:
Thank you!

�� Dragons
Breath: I think Hermione has always been
more mature than Ron. But maybe now they can help him grow up a little.

�� Black
Padfoot: Harry would never agree to give Ron and Hermione up unless they
betrayed him or something of the kind. And they haven�t done that so far, just
been stubborn and childish.

�� hieisdragoness18:
Thank you!

�� Alliandre:
Ron hates the fact that he could lose his best friend, as he sees it. The fact that
it�s Malfoy adds an extra bitterness for him. But yes, he really does prefer
that Harry ignore the compatible magic instead of deserting him. What�s wrong
is that he doesn�t see any other option�the option of balancing between his
friendships the way Harry does.

�� SP777:
Well, that might be the right thing to do, but the challenge rather assumes you�re
under stress, which will affect your judgment, and that you don�t have that
much time.

�� Fests are
fic posting communities on LiveJournal. They give you prompts that someone else
left, or you choose the prompts, and you write fics for them. The fics are
usually posted anonymously first and then revealed at the end of the fest.

�� Harry sees
himself as equally close to Draco and to his other friends, at this point.

�� Dearborn is
not Muggleborn. He�s the brother of an Order of the Phoenix member who
disappeared during the war, and who I�m assuming is pure-blood.

�� Mr Spears:
Thank you!

callistianstar: I see Harry as the
kind of person who really needs other
people�other people to act for, other people to back him up, and other people
to save. He couldn�t make the necessary changes on his own. Now that Draco is
with him, he can.

Hermione, as she explains here, has
been overwhelmed by her own perfectionism. She was angry at Harry for getting
Ron angry as much as anything else, because that meant the burden on her to
keep Ron calm and soothe him was greater.

Tree802: Yes, but not in this
chapter. This chapter was necessary to make Harry reconcile to his friends.

��
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