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Chains of Fool's Gold	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 3178 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this fanfic.

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Chapter Fourteen--Some Truths Admitted
            Hale made another step, and another. Harry had to grin. There was no doubt that she meant what she said, and she was going to begin making arrests immediately if no one else stepped up to do it.
            It had never been easy to work with her, and Harry was not sure that he would ever like her. But she was a formidable ally, as long as they weren't trying to be partners. Maybe these would even be arrests they could make together.
            "You have no power over us," the grey-haired woman said, turning to face Hale squarely. Once again, she utterly ignored the restless, murmuring crowd around her. Harry half-shook his head. The audience had been the whole point of broadcasting these memories in the Atrium. Did the people they were confronting not understand that, or were they too used to thinking that trained Aurors were the main threat? "You cannot arrest us. You are only our equals, not our superiors."
            Hale snorted. "Considering how corrupt our superiors are...but you raise a valid point. And that's why I asked it as a question." She turned to the crowd of Ministry employees. "What do you think? Should we start making arrests?"
            The crowd wavered, rustled, made little darts and rushes, but hesitated. Harry understood. They were easily led, but they still wanted something, some other symbol or push. If any of the people involved in creating the twisted had confessed easily, that would be something, but they hadn't.
            Harry sighed. Well, sometimes he knew a symbol's job when someone handed it to him. He dragged his legs up beneath him, ignoring the mare's snort of displeasure. She stood still, and that was enough for him.
            Draco turned around to stare, and so did Carvenhoof, who gave a snort that really did sound like disapproval. "What are you doing?" Draco asked out of the side of his mouth.
            "Standing up so everyone can see me," Harry snapped back, and turned to face the crowd. At least some people were focusing on him now. Even on the floor, the thestrals meant he was taller than just about everyone in the room except Hagrid.
            He flung out his hands, and raised his voice as he bellowed, "What did I save the wizarding world for, if it's just going to get destroyed by these idiots?"
            That got a laugh, and, finally, a rush forwards.
            Hale strode at the head of the crowd like someone surfing on a wave, and managed to get herself and Warren and Jenkins positioned around the little knot of Dark Arts fans before anyone else could get there. Harry suspected it was the only thing that prevented some violence. Hale began Stunning those Unspeakables and Aurors and conjuring ropes for them. Warren and Jenkins joined in, and then so did some Aurors and others in the crowd, as if there had never been a question of doing anything else.
            "But who's going to judge them?" someone called. Harry recognized a dangerous question when he heard one. In a few minutes if not sooner, someone was going to decide that people who could arrest important Unspeakables and Aurors could also be their judges, and maybe their executioners.
            "Uncorrupted members of the Wizengamot," Hale replied, turning around.
            "Can you find one?" a different voice called, harsh and jeering. Laughter rose up, and this time, Harry had to bite his lip to keep from joining in.
            It was a fair point. After the distrust they had sown in the lower ranks of the Ministry about the upper ranks--justified distrust, the kind that should have been raised long ago--Harry didn't know if anyone would believe in the Wizengamot's decisions. And there was the fear that someone might decide that the way to make this whole mess disappear would be to find the Unspeakables and Aurors not guilty and then sweep it under the rug and maybe punish them in private.
            "I will," said Hale. "In emergencies, you know, especially emergencies involving internal Ministry security, anyone who wants to sit in judgment must take Veritaserum. It prevents a conflict of interest." She smiled grimly. "Say, secret political alliances or one of the accused turning out to be a relative of a judge."
            "Is that true?" Draco asked in a loud whisper, leaning over towards Harry.
            Harry raised his eyebrows. "It certainly would make sense," he answered, wondering why Draco couldn't have waited to ask that question. "But if you don't know for sure, I don't, either. Do I look like someone familiar with internal Ministry ethical rules?"
            Draco snorted and relaxed, leaning back on Carvenhoof. "I'm willing to accept it as true for now," he said, and nodded to the crowd. "And it looks like they are, too."
            Harry looked. People had gathered around Hale and Warren and Jenkins and were questioning them, but no one was trying to take the prisoners away, or screaming accusations. Harry let out his breath slowly. This had been one of the parts of the plan he had feared wouldn't work, that they would raise the emotions of the crowd and then be unable to control them, but it seemed presenting alternatives had worked pretty well so far.
            "Harry!"
            Harry turned with a guilty little start as Ron and Hermione flew up to him, with Hagrid close behind. Prince and George were circling the Atrium, collecting their wasps and some other, glittering little toys that they had employed to patrol as necessary. Harry shook his head. He almost hadn't thought about his friends since he and Draco had begun chasing the Unspeakable through the corridors, but of course he was glad to see that they were still well.
            Hermione flung her arms around him in a hug that she didn't seem willing to let go for long minutes, and Ron followed her. Hagrid beamed behind them and looked around at the hovering thestrals as though he had personally been responsible for everything they accomplished.
            Well, he helped an awful lot, Harry thought as he nodded to him.
            "You're all right," Ron said, leaning forwards and examining both Harry and Draco's faces as though they would afford some clue. Then he nodded. It hadn't really been a question for him, Harry thought, as it had been for Hermione. But then, she'd always been more inclined to worry.
            "We're fine," Harry said, and turned to smile at Draco. Draco reached out and laid a hand over his in response.
            "But what's going to happen now?" Hermione was still hugging Harry, but she had turned and was staring at the middle of the Atrium floor. "Can they really arrest everyone like this, and then find members of the Wizengamot who will agree to try them?"
            "Yes."
            Harry started. He hadn't noticed Jenkins slipping away from Hale and her little group of eager helpers, and coming up to stand next to their thestrals. She showed no fear of the beasts, although Harry was sure that she could see them, instead glancing up and nodding solemnly to Draco, then to Harry.
            "The rule Lauren talked about really exists." Jenkins gave them a thin little smile and flicked a hair out of the corner of her mouth. "It isn't often employed, because most of the time the conflicts of interest will help the Wizengamot members themselves as well as the people being tried. But this time, you made too big a deal about it and made it too public and too effective. They'll have to pay attention."
            "We'll make them, if they try to get away with not doing it." Warren stood at her partner's shoulder like a shadow, her hand on Jenkins's arm. "They might think that they can bully us or intimidate us, but they haven't managed so far."
            "You'll stay in the Ministry and handle all of this?" Draco asked. There was a tone in his voice that Harry had never heard before and didn't recognize. "You won't be tarred with the same brush so much that you won't be able to do anything?"
            "There's no reason why we should be." Warren looked at him with the same curiosity Harry felt. "We managed to keep our heads down even when accusations were flying about all the members of the Socrates Corps. Of course there probably won't be a Socrates Corps for us to go back to, now." She didn't sound sorry about it. "But we can protect ourselves and manage our own reputations."
            "Good," Draco said, and tightened his clasp on Harry's hand. With a start, Harry realized that Draco had never let go of it after he took it. The touch felt so natural to him that he hadn't thought about it one way or another. "I want to never come back to the Ministry. This is--this is as far as I'm willing to go into it."
            Warren and Jenkins exchanged a look. "Interesting," Jenkins murmured, with one of those long, thin smiles. "My wager was that you would want to come back and resume your jobs after struggling so hard for them."
            "I never thought they would," Warren reminded her.
            Harry took a deep breath. So that was what Draco was worried about. He wanted to get away from here, but thought that duty, or practicality, might require them to stay and help with the cleanup.
            Harry could understand his hesitation, though, and not just because they'd already talked about being something other than Aurors. The stupid answers given by the Aurors and the Unspeakables had made his blood boil. He didn't have the patience to stay and work through those answers, and deal with the people who would be inevitably excused for it--because some of them would be, even if the Wizengamot punished most of them. He didn't want for the next public scandal to come along and these people to slid right back into the Ministry hierarchy, because that scandal was already diverting attention from them.
            Meanwhile, Harry was likely to be at the center of that scandal, along with Draco. Their reputations assured it.
            If they could get away, if they could do something else for a living and leave the Ministry to be cared for and cleaned up by other people, then at the moment, it seemed like paradise on Earth.
            "I think we can handle it," Jenkins said, facing them again, in a way that tossed her hair down her back and made her look like she was shrugging off a lot of weight as well. "We have more practice not losing our tempers and working within the limitations of the rules when we need to."
            "I don't mind that sort of work," Warren added, and then smiled. Harry thought it was probably at the look on Harry's face. "I know you do, but in that case, it's good that we can have this kind of division of labor, isn't it?"
            "Yes," Draco said, and tightened his hold on Harry's hand until Harry came near to drawing away in pain. Draco's face was calm, but the way he held Harry told you everything you needed to know about his real feelings. "I don't think I could look into the faces of people who tried to kill me and Harry and rest easy with them, or work alongside them again. And I know it's just politics," he added, as though Warren had spoken her reproof aloud. "I don't care."
            "Harry has infected you, and not the other way around," Jenkins murmured.
            "I'm happy with that," Harry said, and glanced over to see Draco's lips twitching.
            "Yes, especially since it turns out it was their plan for me to restrain Harry and act as a chain on his movements." Draco shifted restlessly on Carvenhoof's back, and finally took his hand from Harry's. Harry silently wrung it. "Anything I can do to fuck up their plans, even accidentally, is something I'm going to do."
            "I approve." Jenkins's eyes glinted at them a bit, and then she sniffed. "It even sounds attractive. The romance of the open road, knowing that all eyes in the wizarding world will be searching for you and you have to go far away..."
            Harry rolled his eyes. Trust Jenkins to interject a realistic but sour note into the proceedings.
            "But we have more than enough to occupy us right here." Warren slung her arm over Jenkins's shoulders, and grinned at both of them.
            "And not everyone in Britain hates you, you know," Hermione said to Harry, so earnestly that he had to turn to hug her again. "You'll always have allies here if you want to come back." Then she pulled a face. "But I'm not sure that I could guarantee that you'll get another job in the Ministry."
            "We don't want one," Draco said firmly, and gave Harry a significant look. He nodded, understanding. They were on the verge of leaving, and the longer they delayed here, the more Draco wanted to go.
            They spent a few more minutes hugging and shaking hands, with George and Prince when they came up. Harry kept a cautious eye on the crowd. So far, they seemed fully-occupied with the drama Hale was creating--she had ordered the Montgomerys to Floo call members of the Wizengamot, getting them out of bed if necessary--but Harry wondered how long it would take them to remember the two Aurors who had, until this morning, been hunted criminals.
            A few people were turning to look in their direction, and finally Hermione seemed to have received all the hugs she wanted. She pulled back with a misty little smile. "Remember to firecall us more often than you have in the past year," she said sternly to Harry.
            Harry smiled at her. "Now that there's no Socrates Corps, I plan to do that a lot more often," he promised her.
            "Unless he's engaged with me," Draco said, and slung an arm over Harry's shoulders. "Come on, Harry." He urged Carvenhoof towards the entrance to the Atrium. Harry remained only long enough to glance at Hagrid. Carvenhoof might agree to separate from the herd for love of Draco, but Harry wasn't at all sure that his mare wanted to go, or that Hagrid wanted them riding around on thestrals that belonged to the herd in the Forbidden Forest.
            Hagrid waved an indulgent hand at them. "They can go with yeh," he said. "They know how to come home if they want. Yeh can't keep a thestral that doesn't want to be kept."
            Harry nodded, seeing the sense of that, and finally faced forwards again. The other thestrals were wheeling about them, attracting attention but also keeping most of their potential audience from noticing a single pair slipping away towards the entrance.
*
            Draco leaned forwards over Carvenhoof's neck and watched the sky opening and broadening ahead of them. He was frowning, wondering why it still felt as though heavy chains were draped over his shoulders and neck, leading back towards the Ministry.
            It doesn't feel like it's really over with, he decided slowly. Maybe it never will until we hear that at least some of the people responsible for sacking us and the creation of the twisted have been arrested.
            He bit his lip, wondering about something else. Maybe it won't feel like it's over until I have something else to devote my life to.
            "Do you know where you want to go?"
            Draco glanced at Harry, and managed to smile. He knew that Harry would only get the more anxious and upset if he saw how depressed Draco was. This was their day of triumph, and even though it had taken bloody forever to get here, at least they were no longer wanted criminals being hunted by the Ministry. They had decisions to make, but none that would be as momentous.
            To think that I once wanted to make momentous decisions. Draco could admit, now, how much of his desire to become an Auror had been the desire to hold the power of life and death over certain criminals. He had even pictured becoming Head Auror someday, or a Wizengamot member. It was rare, but some Aurors did rise from the ranks to become part of the Wizengamot.
            "We have to go back to Cuthbert's Corner and retrieve at least some of our artifacts," he said, and laughed at the horrible face Harry made. "I know, but consider it this way: that's the last time that we'll have to go into that house."
            Harry brightened up. "That's true. And I need to tell Kreacher that he can go back to Grimmauld Place anyway."
            Draco watched him thoughtfully. "Do you intend to take him with us? If we have a permanent home in another country, we might want a house-elf to do for us." He could imagine few fates more hideous than having to learn all the Household Charms that Kreacher could perform with a simple snap of his fingers.
            Harry turned to stare at him. "Detach a house-elf from his house? I mean, Kreacher agreed to go to Cuthbert's Corner as a favor to us, but I really doubt that he would want to leave Britain and go to a completely new place."
            Draco shrugged. "My family sometimes had to move. Not for a long time, admittedly, but some of my ancestors weren't in the direct line, and so they had to go to Malfoy Manor when they inherited it. They brought their own house-elves with them, as well as inheriting the ones that belonged to the Manor. I don't know exactly how they integrated them there, or bound them to the house, but that's the kind of thing we can look up, now."
            He looked ahead at the sky, cloudy and soft around them, but--and this was the important thing--limitless. They had time, he thought. They had no demands on their jobs until they chose to make it so. Harry's friends would see to it that they had access to at least Harry's vaults again, and that was enough gold to live on for quite a while.
            He didn't notice that Harry was reaching across the gap between their thestrals until their hands actually brushed. Draco turned back then and made sure that his fingers curled tightly around Harry's. He would never let his lover suspect that sometimes he was distant from him in mind, feeling and fearing his way through the future.
            "What are you thinking so hard about?" Harry whispered. "Because I don't really believe that it was house-elves."
            Draco had to snort. "Don't tell Granger, but I could never think hard about that subject. It doesn't matter what kind of incentive you offered me."
            Harry flashed him a smile, at least when he trusted Carvenhoof to keep flying straight ahead by himself and dared to look over. "I won't tell her. There's all sorts of things that I could explain to Hermione about house-elves, but I never do, because I value my ears."
            "Ears or eardrums?"
            "Both." Then Harry let the teasing smile slip from his face, and leaned forwards that least little bit that told Draco the conversation had now grown serious. "If we aren't Aurors, what are we going to do? Do you think we can stay in Britain at all?"
            Draco hesitated. Then he shrugged. "We might be able to come back someday, but for now, I think we should go abroad. Don't you? It'll be more comfortable for us, and this way, we deprive the Ministry of a lot of sport they could have at our expense."
            "If you're talking about Aurors continuing to chase us--"
            "That would be frustration, not sport," Draco countered, and enjoyed Harry's smile. "No, I meant that they would get to drag our names through the mud, and challenge us to appear in court with the people we accused, and ask so many questions that our peace would be cut up. I don't want to stay for that. But if we slip away gracefully, the way we did from the Atrium, then I think they'll be content to let us go. It's not the most satisfactory of endings, I suppose, but I never thought we would get satisfaction from the Ministry. Hence why we had to think about revenge and not compensation."
            Harry nodded slowly. "I feel like it was some compensation that no one will be creating twisted anymore, or setting us to hunt them."
            Draco nodded back. "And with Warren and Jenkins on the ground, I don't think that they would get much chance to start that again, or to let a lot of the Unspeakables out of prison. Warren and Jenkins are perfectly competent witnesses, and I trust them to stand in for us."
            "You aren't worried that the Ministry will turn on them and make them scapegoats, since they can't have us?"
            Draco snorted. "Among the things I also think they're competent at is defending their own virtue and strength."
            Harry had to smile. "Good. I--I don't want to be worried about them. That sounds selfish." He fell silent, but since he hadn't asked a question, Draco continued to hold his hand and fly in silence. "Is it selfish, do you think?" Harry burst out at last. "To want to be at a distance from all of this, and start a new life?"
            "No," Draco said. "Mind, I would feel more reassured if I knew what kind of new life we were starting, or at least where you wanted to go."
            "Spain."
            Draco blinked at him. "Why?"
            "Because I want heat, and that was the first place I thought of." Harry shifted restlessly on the thestral mare's back. Draco thought absently that he might write to the half-giant to find out her name. "And because I want to be in a place where I don't speak the language and I can't follow the news and I probably won't be able to ingratiate myself well with the general wizarding community. I want to retreat and think about us for a little while. I want to have fun."
            Draco nodded. "It won't be as easy as France would be. I speak French."
            "That's exactly why I'm worried that they might come after us there." Harry met his eyes squarely. "But if you'd rather go to France, then we will."
            Draco shook his head decisively. The more he thought, the more he liked Harry's plan. There were places they could visit in Spain, sites he had wanted to see, wizarding spots whose significance would stand out even to international travelers and where people might speak English, and perhaps even some good Muggle tourist places. It was an impulse move, but turning against the Ministry had been, too, in some ways. They certainly hadn't been left with much time to react or choose.
            Now, they had as much time as they wanted, but they could also be as impulsive as they wanted.
            "Yes," he said. "One more time to Cuthbert's Corner, dismiss Kreacher to Grimmauld Place, and then it's off for Spain."
            Harry's heartfelt sigh was lost in the noise of the thestrals' wings, but that didn't matter. Draco could feel it through his fingers. He squeezed Harry's hand, and smiled.
*
            SP777: Thanks! And sorry. I'll be happy to use it as a name in a different story if you want!
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Chains of Fool's Gold