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Burning Day	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 10061 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this story.

Chapter List
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Chapter Fourteen—Public Statements
            “May I ask exactly why you’re getting all sorts of letters about whether you can keep Unspeakables out of your Court?”
            Briseis’s voice was severe, but she put the letters down on his desk and looked at him with a faint smile. Harry smiled back and laid his hand on the first of the letters. “Do they seem genuine to you?”
            “Most of them. Some might be tricks, or just people who have legal problems with the Unspeakables and wouldn’t be useful here. But I think most of them are real.” Briseis studied him thoughtfully. “Hortensia told me that her poison worked. Nothing other than that.”
            “You’re usually subtler than this,” Harry teased her, but flung up his hands in surrender when Briseis moved hers thoughtfully towards her wand. “It’s nothing that I haven’t done before. The Unspeakables showed up with those crystals, and I thwarted them. Or Hortensia did, with her poison, and I kept them busy when they tried to battle to me and distract her. And when they showed up with Draco.”
            Briseis blinked. “How had they managed to kidnap him?”
            At least she knows Draco better than to think he would accompany them willingly. “Artifacts, how else? They worked their way through his wards the same way Gorenson did once, before he died.”
            “I see,” said Briseis, and her eyes grew distant for a moment. “It may be time to do something about the Unspeakables.”
            “I marked them,” said Harry, and had to smile at the way her eyes snapped back to him. “With ropes of water and grass, magic from the earth of Hogwarts. The ropes will punish them if they ever act against me again. And that includes acting against Draco, since they know him as the only Minster who can amuse me and keep me in check.”
            Briseis cocked her head. “That is a bolder move than you’ve made before, yes. I can only hope that it will be enough to keep them in check.”
            Harry waved his hand. “What else should I do? I don’t think that you’re advocating hunting them down and killing them.”
            “No, but they haven’t given up yet,” said Briseis, and shoved the letters towards him. “I don’t know how the word got out, but—”
            “Then you haven’t looked at the paper and the public interview Draco gave for this afternoon,” said Harry, and picked up the letters. “I’ll sort these. I want you to ask the centaurs if they’ve had any more trouble with intrusion into their part of the Forest. The Unspeakables might not have given up yet, but I don’t think they’ll try the crystals again.”
            Briseis bowed her head and said, “At last, maybe they’ll see that you’re not as fearful an enemy as they think you are.”
            “No, we want them to think that I’m a fearful enemy,” Harry reminded her, as he opened the first letter. “Just not a Dark Lord that it’s worthwhile to die defeating.”
            “Then perhaps you’re getting better at walking that fine line,” said Briseis, her face opaque.
Harry nodded at her. “I hope so.”
*
            Draco stood up slowly and came around to the front of the table in the secret room in the Ministry. He made sure to limp and exaggerate his injuries a little more than they actually pained him. There had to be some advantage in getting kidnapped by Unspeakables, even if it was only the sympathy of his allies.
            “I don’t understand this,” said Amos Diggory, his eyes narrowed as he took in the sight of the mostly artistic bruises that Draco had on his arms and legs. “What are the Unspeakables hoping to gain from this? Why do they persist in attacking you?”
            “Perhaps the Unspeakable among us could answer that,” Draco said, and turned towards the single grey-cloaked figure seated at the table. Lucy and Amos and a few other people looked with him.
            There was a long pause before the woman stood and let her hood drop down on her shoulders. She had shining brown hair, and brown eyes that shone almost golden, making Draco suspect for a moment she was a werewolf. But if so, she showed no sign of savagery as she bowed a few times, first to Draco and then to Amos.
            “There are different factions among us,” she said. “Some of them want revenge for the man that most of you knew as Gorenson in his last incarnation. Some of them are concerned that any Dark Lord in Britain will restrict their freedom sooner or later. And some of them think that attacking you is the best way to test the strength of the Minister.” She looked at Draco.
            “You can tell them that I’ve been tested,” said Draco dryly, and rubbed at his shoulder, the one that Harry had caressed last night under the guise of brutalizing him. “Surely they must understand by now that I’m sufficiently impressed, and there’s nothing else that they need to do to me?”
            The woman’s face folded in on itself. “We must make sure that we have a strong Minister.”
            Amos answered before Draco could. “And if we destroy this one? What is left? Who else can take his place, and negotiate an alliance—of sorts—with the Dark Lord?” He glanced at Draco. “You haven’t asked that all the Unspeakables be kicked out of the Ministry and slaughtered. Commendable restraint, under the circumstances.”
            Draco managed a chuckle, though it was hard when he thought of the Unspeakables taking him from his bed last night. Well, then, he wouldn’t think of that. “What good would it do? I know that I would only earn enemies in the Ministry if I did that. I need the Unspeakables here, to run the Department of Mysteries.” He glanced at the woman with her hood down and made his voice as emphatic as possible. “But I don’t need people who think more about their own grudges than the good of the wizarding world. If they keep causing this much trouble, I might have to restrain them.”
            The woman studied him some more, and said at last, “If you could, sir.”
            “I wouldn’t like to have to try,” said Draco. “I’m sure the conflict would cause more trouble than it’s worth, for all parties. But that means that self-control on the part of some afflicted parties would be appreciated now. You understand what I mean?”
            For long seconds, he didn’t think she did. Her mouth opened, and he was sure that some spurious political argument would come out. But in the end, she nodded, and said, “I will speak to the faction that sees you mostly as a good way to get at the Dark Lord. It may be that they can see their way to—self-control.”
            “Good,” said Draco, and turned to Amos. “I came to tell you that I think the Dark Lord is near the limit of his patience with attacks.”
            Amos’s eyes narrowed. “Then your usefulness to us is limited.”
            Draco sighed and let his head fall back so he was staring at the ceiling. “At the limit of his patience with attacks,” he told the ceiling. It was more sensible than half the people in the room. “It doesn’t mean that he won’t listen to people who want to live in mutual peace most of the time, and perhaps limited negotiation for things like the resources of the Forbidden Forest or introducing Ministry-mandated subjects at Hogwarts. But the next attackers who come near him, I’m afraid he means to kill.” He straightened up and glanced at the Unspeakable woman, whose mouth, sure enough, was open. “I know that you were about to bring up Gorenson, but when you think about it, it’s strange that there’s only been one casualty in a struggle that the Ministry keeps seeing as open warfare.”
            “Only some parts of the Ministry,” said Amos, but his face was thoughtful. “You think that he’s been tolerant?”
            More tolerant than you could imagine.
            But Draco couldn’t say that even to a group of people who nominally supported him. They simply had no idea who Harry really was. He smiled instead, and said, “I think that he’s close to not distinguishing between different parts of the Ministry. The Unspeakables who kidnapped me had enough support to marshal artifacts that could get through the wards. The Dark Lord awarded those artifacts to me, but that does suggest they aren’t exactly exiles from the hierarchy of their department.”
            “We would like those artifacts back,” said the Unspeakable representative, staring at him.
            Draco glanced at her. “I’m sure you would. And then the Dark Lord would ask me what kind of progress I was making in using them or finding a way to secure the wards, and I would have to tell him that I returned them to his enemies. That would just make him suspicious of me. No. Why should I seek to benefit people who have done nothing but inconvenience me?” he continued, seeing her open her mouth again. “They haven’t even done me the courtesy of asking if I’d like to participate in a ruse against the Dark Lord. They just took me and dragged me into the middle of the battle.”
            Once again, the representative frowned and shook her head, but at least this time she didn’t try to argue that he should help his enemies. She settled back and began to whisper into something that looked like a big golden watch attached to her wrist. Draco decided to ignore her unless she spoke to him directly again.
            He turned back to Amos and the rest. “I gave an interview about the battle I was in last night. Or perhaps I should call it a rout, with the way that the Dark Lord handled them. You can’t fight him. You won’t last if you do.” He straightened his shoulders and blew out a brave little breath. “I’m pleased to take a certain amount of the burden on myself. The only one who can, since he finds me so amusing in a way that he doesn’t find other people.”
            “And you want some concessions for that,” said Lucy.
            Draco knew she was playing a part and was nearly as much on Harry’s side as he was, but he dropped his mask and snarled with the frustration that the charade kept him from displaying most of the time. “Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. I didn’t choose to do this! The Dark Lord finds me so amusing that he’s willing to leave me alive and treat with the Ministry through me. Fine. How many of you want that role?” He turned his head so he could see most of the room. “Do any of you have plans to deal with him that would work? Do any of you have the least notion of how terrible he could be if he really wanted to? He hasn’t been so far, but he could be! He’s shown me!”
            Draco shut his eyes and shivered. Most of it was the act, but he was picturing what Harry would do if he did let loose. Draco thought he had been close to it the other night. It didn’t mean he would anytime soon, but if someone pushed him…
            It would be what the bastards would deserve.
            But at the same time, Draco could picture the problems it would cause for Harry, maybe even within his Court, and to Draco’s own ambitions. Harry had caused enough bad press for himself when he killed Gorenson. That had taken longer to recover from than Draco had thought, even with the shit Gorenson was trying to pull. The fear of Harry’s magic would outweigh Gorenson’s crimes in a lot of people’s minds.
            The same thing would happen if he killed “innocent” Unspeakables who were “merely” trying to figure out ways to fight him.
            “We’re sorry, Draco,” said Amos at last, gently. “We hadn’t considered it from that point of view.”
            Draco snorted bitterly and opened his eyes. “Well, consider it, before he does something else that you won’t like because you provoked him.”
            That got a few exchanged glances and frowns, before one of the women Draco knew less well—though he knew her name was something like Glass, and that she worked in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement—eased forwards. “Is there going to be any accommodation at all? Or is it just going to be him mistreating you and bullying you, and through you, us?”
            Draco wanted to scream, but he managed to massage his face with one hand and speak quietly, instead. “This isn’t bullying. This is reacting. Restrain the people in the Ministry who continue to go out there and attack him, and there won’t be any more reactions like this.”
            “Even though he finds you amusing?”
            Draco dropped his hand. “Like this, I said. He might grant more favorable trade terms to the Ministry, or just play with me and let me go. But he won’t be using his magic on Ministry employees. I honestly don’t think he cares about most people outside the boundaries of Hogwarts. It’s when we insist on crossing those boundaries that we become his problem.”
            “Very well,” said Amos. “While we cannot stop all the Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries from behaving like idiots, we can certainly do our best to ensure that they will receive a warning. Can’t we?”
            The Unspeakable woman who had talked earlier hunched her shoulders, and didn’t look up. Amos shook his head in what looked like disgust and turned away, saying, “Now, we should consider exactly how we’re going to get around the council and convince those who are on it and not allied with us to step down.”
            Draco relaxed a little. He didn’t know if he had brought home to them how deep the danger was, but there was a greater chance that they would listen, now.
*
            “Harry.”
            Draco’s voice was low, and seemed to echo from everywhere at once. Harry rose from his bed and reached out a hand. Most of the time, Draco came to him in his office, but Briseis had finally persuaded Harry to go to his bedroom and sleep, and Draco had equal access through the Floo to this room.
            “Did you go to the office first?” Harry murmured, still half-asleep and thinking only of the inconvenience that would have attended Draco searching for him through several places.
            “It doesn’t matter,” said Draco, and flung his shirt over his head. Harry blinked to get the sleep out of his eyes and realized that Draco had been undressing as he walked across the room. “I’m here now.”
            He was, pale as moonlight but much warmer, and Harry slid him into the bed and began sucking on his neck. Draco arched a little and hissed. “You—like doing that,” he muttered. “I—never had someone—who found my neck particularly tasty before.”
            “You’re never going to have the chance to find out if anyone else likes it, either,” Harry muttered, busy with what he was doing, and resenting taking his hands and mouth off Draco even for the length of time it took him to say those words.
            But Draco tensed, and his skin seemed to go chill. Harry lifted his head, resigned to an explanation if he had to make one. “What’s wrong?”
            “I wanted you to promise permanency,” Draco whispered, eyes fastened on Harry’s instead of looking away. “And this sure sounds like it.”
            “The way I felt when I saw those Unspeakables holding you,” Harry began, and then stopped. He didn’t think that he needed to explain himself further, not when he saw the delight shining in Draco’s eyes.
            “Maybe that clarified some things for you that you didn’t understand before?” Draco asked, reaching up to toy with the locks of Harry’s hair that grew above his ears.
            “Yeah,” said Harry, and tugged him down until Draco was resting directly beneath him. He listened to his heart, deliberately using magic to sharpen his hearing until he could be sure of how strongly and steadily it beat. “I can’t—Draco, I can’t go through that again.”
            “Can’t go through what again?”
            Despite the fact that he knew he was awake, Harry still felt like he was in a dream as he spoke. “Can’t go through seeing you at the hands of your enemies. Helpless. I know they couldn’t have killed you before I could interfere. Not after they brought you to Hogwarts. But before that—they could have. And someone’s going to figure that out someday. Please use those artifacts I gave you. Make your home as safe as possible.”
            “Maybe a few more shows of power, then?” Draco whispered, coaxingly, at once. “Illusions, not real ones. But be as impressive as you can. Show everyone that you don’t tolerate interference with the man who lives to amuse you.”
            Harry tightened the pressure of his arms, stubbornly, insistently. “If only I could show them how much I really value you.”
            “For now, this is enough,” said Draco, voice low and thrilling. “But think about the illusions. And now—” He wriggled around beneath Harry into what was probably a more comfortable position. “Show me how much you value me.”
            It didn’t take much to call up lube, to prepare Draco, and to enter him. And it was only bliss to rock there, not taking his eyes from Draco’s face, and agree to the illusions when Draco asked again.
            I want him safe. I want him loved.
            I will have him that way.
*
CareLessLover: Some of the Unspeakables are terrified, but others haven’t faced Harry in battle yet.
SP777: A battle would be disastrous for Harry’s public image in this story. Maybe another story.
BAFan: Well, Harry is starting to get bloodthirsty, too.
Jester: Hee, I like the way you think.
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Burning Day