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Their Phoenix	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Threesomes/Moresomes Views: 68678 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 6
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; that belongs to J. K. Rowling. I am making no money from this fic.

Chapter List
- 1-Their Phoenix
- 2-Part 2
- 3-Part 3
- 4-Part 4
- 5-Part 5
- 6-Part 6
- 7-Part 7
- 8-Part 8
- 9-Part 9
- 10-Part 10
- 11-Part 11
- 12-Part 12
- 13-Part 13
- 14-Part 14
- 15-Part 15
- 16-Part 16
- 17-Part 17
- 18-Part 18
- 19-Part 19
- 20-Part 20
- 21-Part 21
- 22-Part 22
- 23-Part 23
- 24-Part 24
- 25-Part 25
- 26-Part 26
- 27-Part 27
- 28-Part 28
- 29-Part 29
- 30-Part 30
- 31-Part 31
- 32-Part 32
- 33-Part 33
- 34-Part 34
- 14
- 15
- 16
Thank you again for all the reviews!

�� Hi,
Harry.�

�� Hi,
Ginny.� Harry gave her a reserved smile, and then wondered if that was the
right thing to do when she looked away. But she kept speaking to him, and her
voice was almost normal. Harry didn�t think he sounded or looked much better.
He would take what he could get.

�� Do you
think that you�ll manage to reconcile with the Ministry at all?� Ginny was
pulling plates out of the cupboard, keeping her head bowed so that her hair
fell across her face. Harry turned around, seeking something he could do that
would also be helpful and involve a great deal of noise. He settled for
rearranging the chairs around the table. Bill was visiting tonight, with Fleur,
and since Harry was here as well, that added three extra mouths.

�� I don�t
think so.� Harry kept his voice muffled. He didn�t want to sound too angry or
too self-righteous. He had no idea on what Ginny�s feelings about the Minister
were and no particular desire to find out this way. �At least, not right now.
Shacklebolt still refuses to arrest Huxley, and that means that I don�t know if
he even cares about protecting my life, or only cares about it when it doesn�t
cost him too much effort.�

�� Ginny made
a disgusted noise as she started setting the plates in front of the chairs.
�That makes no sense. What does he think will happen if you die? Does he imagine that he�ll just escape criticism
somehow, and manage to spread his hands innocently and have no one think it�s
his fault?�

�� I think I
scare him.� Harry�s words surprised him. He hadn�t thought about it before,
since most of the time Kingsley seemed upset and angry, not scared. But he
nodded now, new insights into this mess crowding his brain. Draco and Severus would be proud of me, he
thought wryly. They�d probably decide
that I�m considering the situation in a Slytherin way. �He doesn�t know how
to control me or what to do with me if I won�t be an Auror�even though he�s the
one who prevented me from being an Auror in the first place. My dying would be
disastrous for him, but so would my leading a political party against him or
forcing him to arrest Huxley, I think. Too many things could go wrong. Maybe
he�s panicked now, pressed against the wall. But softening his stance towards
me would mean that he would lose the respect of other people.�

�� Ginny was
silent. Harry glanced towards her and found that she had shaken her hair out of
her face and was looking at him with raised eyebrows.

�� I don�t
know that that�s all true,� Harry added. He had to work to keep his voice from
being defensive. Ginny was probably surprised, not doubtful. �But it�s what I
think, and it takes account of everything I know about Kingsley and the
situation.�

�� I�m
impressed,� Ginny commented, and set the last plate down in front of Mrs.
Weasley�s chair. �I didn�t know that you could think politically like that.�

�� Neither
did I,� Harry muttered, and gave a tug on the chair he was still holding,
although everything was arranged now and the chair didn�t need it.

�� They�ve
been good for you, haven�t they?�

�� Harry
wondered at first if he�d heard those words only because he was hoping so
desperately for them. But when he dropped the chair and looked closely at
Ginny, he found that she was staring at him, though her face burned.

�� Then she
repeated the words. �Malfoy and Snape. They�ve been good for you.�

�� Harry
nodded, feeling as if he were edging out on a shaking tree branch. What Ginny
said was important. Maybe they could be friends again. �Yes. They�ve taught me
new things, but it�s more than that. They�ve taught me to think I was smarter
than I thought I was, and to take chances.�

�� Ginny
raised her eyebrows and laughed. �You needed
to be taught to take chances?�

�� Harry
grinned at her, and felt some of the pain he�d carried around since they broke
up dissolve slowly. Yes, they could be friends again. �In things other than
Quidditch and battling Voldemort, sure. I would never have trusted myself to
take some of the risks I have in pure-blood politics, but now I�ve dared them,
and they�re not so terrible.�

�� Ginny
rubbed her fingers over the wood of the table, a private smile in the back of
her eyes. �I�m glad to hear that.�

�� I�m glad
you�re glad.�

�� Ginny
glanced at him again, grinned, and then said, �I�ll call in the rest. Mum must
have no idea what time it is, or she�d be in here cooking already.� She sailed
out of the kitchen.

�� Harry
leaned against the wall and looked at his plate and chair among the rest. He�d
been feeling slightly isolated from the Weasleys ever since he and Ginny had
broken up, wondering if he would ever belong here again.

�� Now that he
knew the answer, he felt a bit silly for having ever doubted their ability to
welcome him.

*

�� So long as
it remains Defense,� Severus said,
and handed the book back to Draco.

�� Draco
glared at Severus and decided that his purposes would be best served by not
exploding into a petulant rage. Severus had picked up the book he�d bought in
Diagon Alley the day that Pepperfield attacked him and begun to study it when
Draco went to get tea. Severus had a reservation in his eyes as he handed it
back. He obviously disapproved of the subject matter, or perhaps simply of any
book that referred to Dark Arts.

�� I�m not
going to be stupid enough to use Dark spells now,� Draco said, when he thought he could control his temper.
�Yes, I�ll only study Defense and Potions. Those are the subjects I want to
combine anyway, not Dark Arts and Potions. That�s been done before.� He
shivered as memories returned to him. Most of the time, he could push them
away, when he was wrapped safe in Severus�s warm embrace or the quivering flow
of Harry�s emotions through the bond. �Including by the Dark Lord. I saw that,
remember.�

�� Finally,
Severus�s face softened, and he nodded. �Yes. I think I may trust your impulse
to creativity and originality where I may not trust your common sense.� And he
rose from the couch and strode back to the potions lab.

�� Draco held
his breath until the urge to shout after Severus had passed. He knew that
Severus was simply trying to do his best to keep Draco safe, and that he was
accustomed to being around teenagers who couldn�t make sane decisions. Most of
them had been in the House of Gryffindor, however, and none of them had been
having sex with him.

�� I wish he respected me more. I wish he
thought that of course I�m not going to do things that endanger me or the
others, just because he always believed the best of me.

�� Then Draco sighed
and sat down on the couch, flipping the pages in his book idly. For the moment,
he had lost all impulse to read.

�� I haven�t earned that respect or simple
belief by my behavior yet, though. I have to show him that I can be even more
mature than I think I am. I have to respond to his challenges with good humor,
and keep my temper, and not fight with Harry all the time, and not always rely
on Severus to comfort me.

�� What would show him that I intend to do
that?

�� After
several minutes of scouring his thoughts and coming up with nothing, Draco
decided to think of the one thing he would most loathe doing, even if Severus
or Harry asked him to do it. Then it was simple.

�� I need to apologize to the people my actions
hurt during the war. Lovegood and Ollivander to start with. And maybe even
Granger, because she was in the Manor when she got tortured.

�� Immediate
protests rose up in his mind. Why would he want to do that? He�d made up for
his mistakes and crimes by saving Harry�s life when the Snatchers brought him,
Granger, and Weasley to the Manor. Did that mean that he should apologize to
all the people the Dark Lord had ordered him to torture, as well?

�� The last
question he considered for a time before he decided, No. He made me do that. And most of those people are dead or in Azkaban
now anyway.

�� And I don�t think Granger would even welcome
an apology. Besides, if I start apologizing to people that got hurt because I
stood by and let it happen, then I�d never stop.

�� But no one made me go out of my way to be
cruel to Lovegood and Ollivander. I did it because I thought that the other
Death Eaters would respect me more if I did. I thought I might gain a moment�s
respite from the pain and fear that the Dark Lord inflicted on me if I could
show that I knew how to inflict pain and fear on my own.

�� Not my brightest idea. He never noticed.

�� Draco was
shaking now, chills sweeping over his body, as he remembered how he had stood
next to the cell and whispered to Lovegood that they were going to rip her body
apart and use it for potions ingredients, because she was too crazy to be good
for anything else. He had justified it to himself, then and later, because she
never paid attention to him. Instead, she talked to her fellow prisoners, whoever
they were at the moment, or lay looking at the ceiling and the lines of the
walls. That infuriated him and made his next comments worse, but in its own
way, it was a justification, because she wasn�t affected by those comments,
either.

�� Now, of
course, Draco knew very well that simply because someone didn�t wear their pain
openly didn�t mean they weren�t affected.

�� I knew that before. I just didn�t want to
acknowledge it.

�� Draco
wrapped his arms around his body and sat still for a moment. He�d whispered
those things to Lovegood, and withheld food from both her and Ollivander. Once,
he�d cast a spell on Ollivander that broke his hand. He was taken away for
torture soon after and, when he was brought back to the cell, his torturer had
healed his broken hand along with his other injuries. As with everything else
during the war, the acts that Draco had counted on to impress other people were
swallowed up by those others and dispensed with.

�� Draco took
a deep breath and then continued to sit still. He had thought he was ready to
stand up, move forwards, and deal with this, to face his mistakes, but he
wasn�t. Now that he thought about it, he was appalled to realize that he hadn�t realized it was wrong.

�� Or I didn�t let myself think that, or I told
myself that it wasn�t wrong because so many other bad things had happened to me
and I was just getting a bit of revenge.

�� He leaned
back on the couch and reached out for his cup of cold tea, taking a sip so that
he could orient himself.

�� I was trying to get revenge on the wrong
people. Of course, if I had confronted the Dark Lord or Fenrir Greyback or
anyone else who was actually hurting me, then they would have destroyed me, but
that doesn�t make what I did right. Just understandable.

�� For a
moment, he wondered if he should owl or firecall Ollivander or Lovegood. Then
he burst into a fit of shivering and concluded, weakly, that he would have to
owl them, because he would freeze if he tried to confront them face-to-face. It
was an open question whether either of them would condescend to read his
letters, but at least it would save him some embarrassment and looking as
though he had merely firecalled to play a prank on them.

�� I didn�t know it would be this hard.

�� But what
they had endured from him was harder still, so Draco stood up and went in
search of parchment and ink.

*

�� Severus had
endured torture, abuse, years of distrust and hatred, the loss of the woman he
loved, the death of his best friend and mentor at his own hand, and Longbottom
melting his cauldrons. Nothing was left to scar or surprise or shock him.

�� Which meant
the way his head kept turning towards Draco when the boy cursed under his
breath and threw yet another scribbled-over sheet into the rubbish made no
sense.

�� Draco had
started writing yesterday and hadn�t stopped yet. Severus could feel him
wrestling with the words he needed to speak, a silent tension that swayed back
and forth like a kitten struggling with a sea serpent. It was not the same as
the tension in the bond between Severus and Harry that indicated Harry was also
concerned about Draco, but it need not be.

�� A sad thing it would be, Severus
thought, as he sat back and watched Draco toss another half-completed parchment
away, if I were to start comparing my
other experiences of the world to the bond and declaring them impoverished.

�� Harry had
begun to send images of concern that swooped back and forth like seagulls
diving after fish when Draco missed half their shared breakfast to scribble on
his letters. Then he�d gone to the doorway of the kitchen and looked out at
Draco sprawled on the couch with a sharp roseate emotion that Severus knew was
wistful concern. Several times he�d walked past Draco to pick up a book or
change his seat and given him a direct look that Severus knew was an invitation
to talk.

�� Draco had
blocked it out completely. For all Severus knew, he was not even feeling
Harry�s emotions through the bond at the moment. He was solely and entirely
concentrated on finishing this piece of writing.

�� Then he
crumpled another piece of parchment, and his exclamation of defeat and
frustration would have been audible in a much larger space. Severus had to
check himself from getting up from the chair. He thought this a problem Draco
had to face alone, or he would have come and asked for help.

�� Harry
didn�t seem to believe the same thing. He had less experience of Draco�s pride
than Severus, of course. He stood up, slammed the book shut�even that didn�t
cause Draco to emerge from his trance�and stalked over to the couch, slapping
his hands down on the arm. Draco looked up at that, but only to hiss over his
paper like a cornered ferret and turn straight back to it.

�� You�re
hurting,� Harry said. �You told me not to try and hide my pain, but you�re
doing it now. Why? Tell me what it is. I want to help.�

�� Severus
winced and opened his mouth to interfere. That directness might have been the
best way for Harry to approach a Gryffindor friend who was hiding a secret, but
Draco had kept it concealed for reasons that must seem excellent to him. Trying
to force him to confess was not at all the right thing to do.

�� But Draco
spoke before Severus could, surging to his knees so fast that he almost slammed
his head into Harry�s chin. Harry whipped his body out of the way, but he couldn�t
escape Draco�s words, which hurried over each other like the waters of a
flooded river. �This isn�t the same. You were hurting yourself. I�m not doing
that. I�m simply writing some letters to make up for mistakes, and no, I don�t
want to tell you why, and yes, you should leave me alone while I do this.� He
finished with a look on his face that would have made Severus step away even if
Draco was still a child, and then turned back to the new piece of parchment in
front of him, sucking fiercely at the end of his quill.

�� Harry said
flatly, �You are hurting yourself. If
writing those letters is so hard, why not just leave them until later?�

�� Draco
stared at him. �Because I might not be able to do them later,� he said, in a tone that suggested insults were not
far behind.

�� Who are
they to?� Harry started craning his neck around so that he could see the words
Draco was putting on paper.

�� Severus
stood up and stepped forwards, in time to catch Harry as he reeled backwards.
Draco had deliberately hit him in this time, in the mouth. Harry started to
bounce back to his feet and splutter, but Severus pulled him out of the room.

�� Glancing
over his shoulder, he knew that he had made the right decision, no matter how
much both Harry and he might want Draco to explain. Draco had already forgotten
the fight and gone back to scribbling. His brows had contracted in relief this
time, his mouth slightly parted, as though he had found the words he wanted at
last.

�� That idiot��

�� Severus
stood Harry up in the second sitting room on the ground floor, and angled his
body so that Harry could not go charging back to Draco. He poured scorn into
his voice, because he knew that was the only way Harry would listen to him
right now. �He is not suffering physical pain the way you were, and he will
heal without our interference. That is the difference between his situation and
yours.�

�� Harry
stared at him, mouth open in a snarl. His chest heaved and the bond sparked
with red lightning. �I need to know
what he�s doing! How can I protect him if I don�t know what�s happening to
him?�

�� It may
take some time for you to grasp this,� Severus drawled, �with your brain
oriented as it is, but perhaps your role in this matter is not that of protector.�

�� Harry
glared at him and tried to step around him. Severus cast a Tripping Jinx so
that he sprawled on the floor. Of course, this time he got up with the red
lightning in the bond directed towards Severus, but that was all right. Severus
could deal with it, unlike Draco at the moment.

�� What else
can I do?� Harry asked, his voice
descending as if he wanted to make it audible to mice living in the floor. �He�s
hurting, I know that, and he won�t
tell me a thing about it! I have to��

�� No, you do
not,� Severus said. �He is not in danger of dying, and he has requested to deal
with this himself. He also does not have your history of refusing help for
dangerous problems multiple times in a row.� He disliked the way Harry�s eyes
widened and the bond screwed itself into a tight, painful tube, but he had to
make sure Harry saw the difference between his situation and Draco�s. He
paused, then pitched his voice more gently. �I know you are intelligent enough
to understand what separates you, Harry. Use that brain of yours now.�

��

�What, the one oriented towards
mindless protection?� Harry folded his arms.

�Pretending that you do not
understand the reasons I may have used an insult is unworthy of you,� Severus
said calmly. �But if you must be
certain, then there is a way. Open the bonds fully and feel what Draco is
feeling. That is a choice available to you and not to me,� he made sure to add.
Appealing to Harry�s sense of fairness might be one way to make him pay attention.

Harry froze. Then he tried to shrug
and make the movement natural, but his shoulders were too stiff. Indeed, he was
clenching his jaw as if he held ice in his mouth and could not move it off the
most sensitive part of his tongue. �I don�t have to do that. I know he�s
hurting. I can just watch him and know that.�

�Very well,� Severus said. �And can
you not also watch him and tell whether that pain is of the kind he desires
help with?�

�� That�s
different.� Harry whirled around from Severus to pace over to the far side of
the sitting room. His spine looked like one straight ridged cord down the
center of his back, and at the moment, the bond felt much the same way.
�Emotions are obvious. What to do about
those emotions isn�t. You know better than I do because you�ve been with him
for a longer time.�

�� Again, you
underestimate your intelligence,� Severus said, �and also Draco�s willingness
to explain to you under other circumstances, when the pain is past. You can
learn to know him as well as I do. It is resistance to the logical means of
doing so that makes you turn away from him now.�

�� I don�t
want to open the bonds fully,� Harry said in a small voice. Now the bond was
little more than a pinprick in Severus�s mind, though one that trembled with
softly oozing blood. �I�m not ready for that.�

�� Then rely
on my knowledge of Draco,� Severus said. He felt a touch of pity for Harry�s
fear, but they had already spent more than enough time talking about that, and
it seemed the opinions on neither side had changed. This conversation was about
Draco. �He will tell us when he is ready, and I do not think that will be much
longer. He is capable of great bursts of small speed, like a cheetah, but not
much endurance. Either he will soon finish his letters or he will give up the
project, and then I think he will feel mostly free to tell us.�

�� Harry
turned around and blinked at him. �That must be why his sixth year at Hogwarts
was such a torment to him,� he said softly.

�� Severus
raised an eyebrow. Understanding Harry�s emotions, like the sunrise-colored
revelation shimmering into his mind now, was not always a means of
understanding the thoughts that had prompted them. �I do not see what
connection that has to my words.�

�� He had to
work on a single project all year,� Harry said. �He had to try for months, and none of his quick solutions worked.
No wonder he was frantic, if he doesn�t have the mental endurance to bear up
under strain for a long time.�

�� That was
not a connection it would have occurred to Severus to make, but it was one he
wished to encourage�and one that he was more than slightly surprised had come
from someone whose best friend Draco had nearly killed during that time. �Yes,�
he said. �He had no choice then, of course, as he believed the Dark Lord would
kill his family otherwise. But now he is free of that burden. Thanks to you.�
He made sure to give Harry a brief appreciative glance.

�� Harry
smiled back at him, but it was distracted. �No wonder,� he said softly. �No wonder. I didn�t understand. Oh.� He wandered across the room and sat down on one of
the couches Severus had placed against the far wall, hands linked behind his
head as he stared at the ceiling.

�� Severus did
not intend to disturb him. He Summoned his book from the other room and settled
down on the chair opposite the couch. He would have asked Harry if he required
reading matter as well, but Harry seemed content to think, while the bond
stretched and contracted like a beating heart.

�� The arguments between us will always happen,
but they are settled more quickly and easily now. And Harry�s stubbornness is
no longer so much of a barrier.

�� Severus
dropped his eyes to his book in some contentment.

*

�� Draco sat
back and folded his arms. He felt as though he had eaten an enormous dinner and
was trying to digest it all. The food was contentment, and relief that things
were finished, and the easing of a guilt that he hadn�t even realized he was
carrying.

�� The letters
to Lovegood and Ollivander were finally finished.

�� Draco
didn�t think they were the most gorgeous or eloquent letters ever written, but
they didn�t need to be. What they needed to
do was apologize and explain that there was nothing that could ever excuse his
behavior.

�� That was
what had tripped him up for so long. He had wanted to write something that
would stun Lovegood and Ollivander, not just convey his guilt. He had wanted to
reach their hearts and show them that he had also suffered during the war, and
taken the suffering out on them. He had wanted to ask for their forgiveness
without asking for it, to so impress them that they would have to understand.

�� He wanted
to make excuses.

�� Once he
gave up trying to do that and concentrated on simply writing apologies, then things
went much better.

�� Draco let
out a soft, contented breath, and squirmed a bit against the back of the couch.
The letters were gone, both sent flying with the tough owl that Severus had
purchased. The owl was also smart enough to find its way to two recipients; at
least, it hadn�t shown any hesitation when Draco handed the letters over and it
swished out the window.

�� And now he
could tell Severus and Harry what he had done.

�� They were the ones he wanted to forgive
him. Severus had done worse things, but he had also tried to help Draco and
offer him advice as he struggled through his difficult years, and Draco had
disregarded most of that advice, unable to see outside his own situation. Harry
was Lovegood�s friend, and he had freed both her and Ollivander from the
dungeons of Malfoy Manor. Draco thought that they probably hadn�t told him
everything, but he still couldn�t be fond of Draco for keeping them prisoner.

�� Even though I think he�s also fond of me at
the same time, Draco thought, for the first time in hours paying attention
to the bond that quivered with green globes of emotion like ripe grapes. I hope that we have years to understand each
other, but I don�t know that we do. At any rate, this should make things
easier.

�� He rose to
his feet, stretching some of the stiffness away, and then cautiously pushed
open the door of the other sitting room. Harry at once stood up, his eyes wide
and focused on Draco. He gave Draco a tentative smile, which Draco returned.
Then he stepped into the room and shut the door behind him.

�� Do you
wish to tell us what you were doing?� Severus kept his voice neutral, but Draco
had learned to search out the spark of hope in his dark eyes.

�� I was
writing letters to people I had hurt,� Draco said. �When they were the Dark
Lord�s prisoners in Malfoy Manor, I mean.� Harry sat still, but the bond flexed
and grew jagged yellow sides suddenly. Draco turned to more fully look at
Severus. He didn�t want to cope with Harry�s disappointment until Harry learned
exactly what he had done to mitigate that disappointment. �I taunted them and
broke Ollivander�s hand with a curse. I know they hardly have any reason to
think fondly of me, but I sent them apologies. I hope�I hope they accept them.�
He lifted his head. Severus was staring at him in something like awe, and Draco
absorbed that to counter the way the bond was still yellow and motionless. �But
even if they don�t, at least I know that I did the right thing.�

�� Indeed you
did.�

Severus didn�t need to say more
than that. The shining in his eyes, the careful way he held his hands and head,
said it all for him. Draco smiled at him and then turned to face Harry, not
sure what he would encounter there.

Harry breathed out deeply and
stepped forwards. Draco found himself tensing. He and Harry had so rarely been
this close without exploding into a fight.

But this time, after studying his
face for a moment, Harry smiled and nodded. �Yes, you did,� he said, echoing
Severus, and clasped Draco�s shoulder before he stepped away again.

It was a faint, fleeting touch.
Draco had seen him hold onto Weasley for longer, and he had seen Harry hug Granger.
He was tempted to complain that he deserved at least as much as they did.

But then he saw the sidelong glance
Harry was sneaking him, the shy smile, and the irregular, silvery bursts of
pride flowing through the bond, and he began to believe that those things might
very well lie in their future.

*

��Welcome, Swanfair.� Harry made sure his voice
sounded sufficiently pompous. Though he had handled Swanfair well so far,
Severus had cautioned him, at some point she would expect a return of coldness
and distance, or she would cease to respect them. �What do you have to lay
before us today?�

Swanfair hesitated a moment before
sitting down. She then gave him a faint smile, as if to say she should have
expected this. Harry didn�t smile too warmly back.

It had been a week since the
gathering on the Hogsmeade field, and as far as Harry could tell, things had
settled into a stalemate. Negative articles accusing him of refusing the
Minister�s reasonable offer of reconciliation poured off the press as often as
positive ones praising him for sticking to his principles. A few people had
written to tell Harry that they supported him, and many more had told him that
they wanted to see something more solid before they joined a new political
party, including goals achieved. Harry had had one fraught conversation with
Mrs. Zabini which left him still uncertain what to think about her.

Swanfair was a different problem.

Oh, she had been polite in her
letters; she was polite now that she was inside their wards. But there was a
lurking current of something else beneath her polite manner that Harry wished
he knew how to interpret. She was watching him for�something. He had no idea if
that was simple weakness or not. If it was, however, he thought she would have
attacked before now. Severus and Draco had both told him that he�d made
mistakes in front of her, appeared too compassionate or too concerned about
something that she would see as minor, like whether reluctant Muggleborns could
be persuaded to join them.

Harry had argued that he didn�t
care, because he couldn�t stop being concerned about those things, and he
wasn�t a good enough liar or clever enough to hide the concern from Swanfair no
matter what happened. She had spies, both Draco and Severus had told him. Word
of his emotions would get back to her no matter what. Why should he try to
prevent the impossible?

Severus had rolled his eyes at him.
Draco had snorted and folded his arms. Harry was much less cut by those
reactions that he would have been a few weeks ago, and had let them go.

�� At the
moment, he was facing Swanfair with Draco and Severus in the next room. He
wondered if he should have listened to them when they weren�t there, as usual.

�� But
Swanfair had asked for a private meeting, and Harry knew it would have made him look weak if he said no. So he fixed a
smile on his face and said, �Have you come to bring me news of the Minister?�

�� Better
news than that.� Swanfair did a careful sweep of the room with her eyes, as if
she were checking on the status of the wards against eavesdropping and spies.
Harry waited patiently for her to finish. Then she nodded to herself and fixed
her gaze on him again. �Some of the more reluctant pure-bloods are coming
around at last. They did not see why it should be their fight, but Shacklebolt
is working to change the laws so that they invoke harsher punishments for Dark
Arts. The Ministry will change the classification of many spells so that they
are Dark Arts when they were not before. And anyone who used such spells in the
past, before the intervention of the new laws, can be arrested for the crime.�

�� That�s
ridiculous,� Harry said, startled into speaking before he meant to. �That�s
violating basic principles of law,
not just changing a few pieces of legislation.�

�� Swanfair
smiled. �We should perhaps be grateful to him. He has driven several families
to our arms who would not otherwise have come.� She drew a piece of parchment
from her pocket. �I have a list of their names here. Shall I read them to you?�

�� Yes,�
Harry said. He cast a glance around, hoping it was subtle enough. It seemed as
though the walls of the library were closing in on him, and flickering colors
like candle flames danced along them.

�� Greengrass,�
Swanfair read solemnly. �Nott. Thompson. Willowbranch. Greathide.�

�� The
flickering colors crept closer. Harry found himself staring fixedly at
Swanfair�s right hand, and the ring she wore there, which contained a large,
shining stone across which the shades moved. Red, green, blue, purple. Draco
would have known what kind of stone that was, Harry thought hazily. He didn�t.

�� Greenfeather.
Nothidden. Thomsbreath. Willowwater. Greatturn.�

�� Those names
were like the names she had read before, Harry thought. Or had he lost his
place in the list and thought she was repeating some of the names when she
really wasn�t? He didn�t know as much about pure-blood families as Draco did,
and maybe Swanfair was making some up who weren�t really loyal to the cause. He
put a hand to his forehead and frowned. His thoughts hissed and danced to the
side. The air was full of quivering flame.

�� Greenwater.
Notbranch. Thomshide. Willowfeather. Greatgrass.�

�� The ring on
Swanfair�s hand flashed as she turned the parchment over. The swarm and
swimming of blue ripples across its surface stabbed into Harry�s brain. His
mind felt liquid. The colors were swimming over it, and he didn�t want to show
that to Swanfair, because then she would think he was weak, and stop reading,
and inquire in a sarcastic little voice if she should begin it over again.
Severus and Draco had told him to beware when she used sarcasm.

�� Greenhide.
Notgreat. Thomsturn. Willowfeather. Greatbreath.�

�� Severus and
Draco�Harry felt as if he were sailing away from them across a great ocean. The
waves that lapped in between them were memory, and regret. Harry�s hand moved
absently towards the phoenix marks visible on his arms. He didn�t have to bear them, did he? He didn�t
have to carry them? He could give his primary loyalty to someone else if he
pleased.

�� But that
thought sank to the bottom of his stirring, rippling mind like a stone thrown
into a pond, and it brought a shaft of white sunlight with it. Harry felt his
eyes open almost painfully wide, his thoughts shaking off the colored cloth
that Swanfair had been trying to cast over them.

�� She was trying to get me to betray Draco and
Severus, and transfer my loyalty to her. Harry bared his teeth, watching
Swanfair cock her hand so that the stone flashed at him. Severus warned me that she would try to use some variations of the
Imperius Curse, but that was more powerful than I expected. I almost fell for
that one.

�� Greenbreath.
Not��

�� Harry
reached out and clamped his fingers on Swanfair�s wrist. She looked up at him,
a quick darting motion of her head that made her resemble the bird that was
part of her last name. She paused when she saw that Harry was looking directly
at her. After a moment, a smile quivered up her mouth.

�� You
figured it out,� she said. �You actually threw off a spell that I�ve managed to
wrap around many minds far stronger and wiser than yours, at least in terms of
experience and how long they�ve existed. Amazing.� She was looking intently
into Harry�s eyes, as if she thought she would see the secret of how he�d done
it there.

�� Harry growled.
He could hear shuffling and banging in the next room as Severus and Draco
reacted to his anger, surging to their feet and coming towards him. He threw a
fierce mental bolt of welcome towards them even as he gripped Swanfair�s wrist
more and more tightly. �Why did you do that?�

�� The door of
the library opened, and Draco and Severus burst in. Severus held his wand as if
he meant to use it in battle; Draco was practically bouncing on the balls of
his feet with eagerness to do something. Harry gave them a hard smile and
turned back to face Swanfair, modifying his emotions as they flowed through the
bond to relief and calm and pleasure. He wanted them at his side, but he could
handle Swanfair, whatever answer she made.

�� She sat
still and watched him, not even making an effort to rise to her feet to defend
herself. Her smile was small and pleased. �I wanted to see how strong you
were,� she answered. �I didn�t know what to think of you, even after the way
that you handled Shacklebolt. You were angry, but not as angry as I had
expected. That made me think that you secretly longed for a reconciliation with
him.� She shrugged a little. �Someone who displayed such a desire might well attempt the reconciliation.�

�� I�m not
going to,� Harry said coolly. �I have some hostility towards people who try to
control me.�

�� Swanfair
picked up on the implication at once, but the smile she gave him was only a
touch wider and more mischievous, still not frightened in the way that Harry
thought it should be. �As I said, I couldn�t be sure of that. It might only be
that you felt forced to act against a friend because of the action he had taken
against your bondmates. If I tried to control you without threatening your bondmates, I wanted to make sure that
you would fight it.� She shrugged a little. �Harry Potter�s selflessness is
famous, but a politician needs some care for his own goals, as well, and needs
not to yield himself to every temptation that comes along. I am confident, now,
that you will not, and that is enough to satisfy me. I will not try to control
you again.�

�� Draco tensed
as if he would charge. Harry reached out to put a hand on his shoulder, never
turning away from Swanfair. �But if you had succeeded?�

�� Well, then
I would have lived with my disappointment and used you as a figurehead,�
Swanfair said. She did not say obviously,
but Harry could hear it lurking behind her words.

�� Severus
made a short, swift motion with his wand. Harry held back his sigh. He would
have to ask Severus later if he had cursed her, but he wasn�t going to
embarrass his bondmate by doing it in front of Swanfair.

�� Oddly
enough, Harry thought he understood the way Swanfair had acted. Draco and
Hermione had warned him from the beginning that she was as dangerous as a
chained dog, and Harry had never trusted her. It was nearly a relief that she
had made her move at last and that his strength had beaten her back.

�� Looking at
Swanfair�s wide eyes and guileless smile, Harry could only hope that she would
not try again. But he thought the more likely answer was that she would not try
again soon, or with the same strategy.

�� As if
reading his thoughts, Swanfair spread her hands and gave him a small bow of her
head. �Give me power, and I will serve you faithfully. I tried to grasp power
in what I thought was the best way. I see now that it must not have been.�

�� And how
did you determine that?� Draco demanded. Harry wondered if he really expected
to get a moral response out of her.

�� Swanfair
gave him a raised eyebrow above a puzzled smile. �Because it failed.�

�� Harry had
to clench his jaw because he didn�t know if he was about to curse her or laugh.
Yes, in her own way, she was their ally. He would be able to trust her as long
as she thought that he was giving her power, and the moment she didn�t think
that, she would betray him without any qualms of conscience.

�� Really, he thought, observing the
expressions on Draco and Severus�s faces with covert amusement, they should have more sympathy for her.
She�s only sorry for what she did if she gets caught�which is a lot like
Slytherins act.

�� For the
moment,� he said, �we�ll remain allies.� He ignored the way that Draco suddenly
shifted beneath his hand and Severus stepped forwards. �Because I think that
you owe me something for being stupid enough to waste my time with a trick that
failed.�

�� Swanfair
sat up straighter and examined him with more careful attention. �Do go on,� she
said. �This is interesting.�

�� Harry
barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes. �I want you to find a way to spy on
Kingsley,� he said. �Right now, we only know what he�s planning after he does
it, and I�m tired of continually taking the reactive position. We need to have
some insight into what he�s planning before he does it. I don�t care how you do
it, as long as it doesn�t kill anyone, physically injure them, or forever bend
their minds to your control.�

�� Swanfair
gave him a small smile. �With people who are corruptible�which is the vast
majority�I have found that it is best to use money rather than spells. It is
less easily detected, and the people involved have more motivation to
participate in keeping their secrets.� She stood. �What else do you demand from
me?�

�� How much
of the news that you supposedly came to bring me is true?� Harry again gently
had to push Draco back. He understood the impulse to protect him, he was
grateful for it, but just as he�d had to learn that he couldn�t protect Draco
all the time, they had to learn the same thing about him.

�� The
Minister is looking into changing the legislation concerning Dark Arts,�
Swanfair said calmly. �I don�t think that he�ll change the laws to the point of
making retroactive uses of those spells a crime. But it was rather a brilliant
lie, don�t you think? And the rumor may do as well as my money or spells in
recruiting allies.�

�� Harry took
a deep breath. He wondered vaguely if the person he had been nine months ago,
when the bond began, would recognize the person he had become. He was condoning
lying and perhaps even the Imperius Curse, or spells like it.

�� For the moment, yes. I have to.

�� He didn�t
have any indication at the moment that Kingsley would stop pursuing the goals
that endangered Harry and his bondmates; he still hadn�t arrested Huxley
despite all the popular pressure to do so. Harry couldn�t make peace without
some guarantee the peace would be kept. He couldn�t risk exposing the people
who mattered most to him, who depended the most on him, to an unyielding
vendetta because he wanted to be morally pure.

�� When Kingsley offers me peace and means it,
then I�ll consider engaging with him in a different way.

�� Harry forced
his own uneasiness away. He still had Hermione and the Weasleys, who stood
outside the politics he found himself in the middle of lately, to advise him if
he fell too far. Depending on other people had never come easily to him, but it
was what he would have to do.

�� Go ahead
and spread the rumor,� he said. �For all we know, it�s something that Kingsley may consider doing if he has a morbid
fear of pure-bloods and Death Eaters, the way he seems to.�

�� Swanfair bowed
her head, murmured a compliment about him being wiser than she had thought
which Harry didn�t bother listening to, and then turned around and walked
sedately in the direction of the door. Severus cast the spells that unwrapped
the protection spells from around her and let her through the wards from a
distance this time. Harry could understand his desire to stay here.

�� When the
wards reported Swanfair well away from the house and on her way to her
Apparition point, Draco turned to face Harry. �We could feel you becoming
calmer than normal,� he said. �We just thought that meant you were handling the
situation well. But she was enchanting you, wasn�t she?�

�� Harry
nodded. �With a repeated list of mostly nonsense names and a ring on her hand
that had a jewel with different colors. I don�t know what kind it was.�

�� An opal.�
Severus�s voice had deepened with what sounded like disgust or concern.
�Enchantments that affect the mind can be worked through them more easily than
with other stones, as they change constantly, echoing the mind�s changing
thoughts.� He stepped closer to Harry, his wand still out. �I do not like that
Swanfair tried to enthrall you this early in our association.�

�� She waited
until almost six weeks after I first met her,� Harry said dryly. �I think
that�s fairly good, for her. Did you curse her?�

�� I tried,�
Severus said, �but the spell reflected from the protection wards I had wrapped
her in when she entered the house to keep her from trying to harm us. In
retrospect, I am glad.� He looked at Harry steadily. �You realize that you
could have been seriously hurt and were justified in dealing with her more
harshly?�

�� Yes, I
realize that,� Harry said. He made his voice calm, though he knew the bond
would betray some agitation. �But I couldn�t deal with her any more harshly if
I wanted her to stay our ally. And I was in danger, but I protected myself. You
don�t need to rush to my rescue all the time. You don�t always need to change
me. I�m doing a pretty good job of changing myself, lately.� He saw Draco open
his mouth to interrupt, but he rushed on, because he thought he wouldn�t have
the courage or the chance to speak these words again if he waited. �I�m
accepting that you�re the most important people in my life, and I�m accepting
that I can trust you and I don�t need to worry about you consuming me or trying
to control me. I�m not ready to open the bonds in both directions, but that�s a
pretty important realization, isn�t it?�

�� A moment
later, he wondered if he had done something wrong after all, because flames of
soft gold and red, like stained glass windows set on fire, were ringing the
phoenix marks on his arms.

*

�� Severus was
the one who felt the shift deep in his mind, the tumbling, clicking, and
falling like an opened lock. Draco, his eyes wide in wonder as he watched
Harry, and Harry, staring at his arms, were not trained enough in knowledge of
their own thoughts or in Occlumency or Legilimency to notice.

�� But Severus
felt the flame spread through him, and then it echoed up his bond into Harry,
and down through Harry into Draco. Harry was the apex of the triangle, the
master of the bonds, Severus thought, in a detached manner that somewhat
separated him from what was happening so that he could think about it
coherently. It made sense that the change would need to pass through him before
it was complete.

�� The warmth
circled back again. This time, Severus thought it was best compared to a large
animal stretching as it woke from a nap.

�� What�what
was that?� Draco whispered, his eyes still wide. His hand hovered above his own
phoenix as if he were not sure whether to stroke it or strike it.

�� The
falling of a barrier,� Severus said. �There are certain changes I have been
reading about which happen in accidental magic bonds but had not happened in
our case. I wondered why.� He looked at Harry and saw him swallow nervously,
but he didn�t look away, which Severus took as a sign that he was willing to
listen. �I believe there was still a barrier in place. Harry feared us at a
deep level, or feared what we felt for him. Now, he does not, and the bond will
move forwards in the direction of optimization.�

�� And what
changes are we talking about now?� Harry asked. Fear throbbed up through the
bond, dulled by the warmth. Severus wondered if that was a dulling of his own perceptions
or a dulling of the fear itself, because Harry after all could still feel the
change in the bond and knew it for no evil thing.

�� We will
begin to be able to sense each other�s specific thoughts, if we wish,� Severus
said. �If one of us is in danger, then we will know the direction of the
danger, and not have to rely on the phoenix marks to Apparate to each other�s
sides. I would not be surprised if we begin to share dreams, as well.� He
turned and looked at Draco. This was the hardest part of what he had to say,
and he did not know if Draco would welcome it. �And the bond will melt from a
triangle into a circle, reaching out to create a link between Draco and myself�though
you will still remain the most powerful partner in that circle, Harry.�

�� Draco
closed his eyes. Severus swallowed and found himself instinctively trying to
reach out to him through the bond the way he would have with Harry, to sense
his feelings. But their bond was not in existence yet, so he must remain still.

�� That�s the
only thing that was missing,� Draco said at last, opening his eyes and giving
Severus a shy smile. �I want that to happen. I hope it will.�

��

�Yes,� Harry said. �You deserve to
have it happen.�

Severus looked at Harry
thoughtfully. Draco might not notice, caught up as he was in the thought of the
changes to come, but Severus could sense the jealousy flowering from Harry like
a thorny lily. Did he fear that Draco and Severus would become too close with a
bond between them, given that they were also lovers? Did he fear the lessening
of their interest in him?

Severus did not know; as with many
others of Harry�s emotions, the feeling was clear, the origin was not. And
because Harry turned away in the next moment and Draco began to talk and
speculate happily, Severus felt compelled to pay attention to Draco and leave
Harry to the privacy he preferred.

Inwardly, in a carefully hidden
part of his mind, he was amused.

�� If you think that we will lose interest in
you because of this, Harry, you have obviously not thought long enough on the
implications of consciously shared thoughts and blended dreams.

�

*

�� PanickedSerenity:
Thanks very much!

�� Mia: One of
the things Harry will need to struggle with in future chapters is how his moral
code is changing. Taking revenge on Kingsley is the first step in a journey
that he might not want to take.

�� Thanks for
reviewing.

�� DTDY: Thank
you!

�� VoraciousReader:
Not offended at all! I was just trying to explain the situation as I see it.
And Severus is better at seeing long-term consequences than either Harry or
Draco are, in part just because he�s older.

�� Alliandre:
I know what you mean. We�ll see if fun doesn�t come up more often now that the
bond is changing and Harry has survived the first of several serious tests from
his allies and the Minister. As for how Harry would affect the bond when drunk,
let�s leave that for a surprise.

�� It varies,
but usually I write between 6500 and 8000 words a day.
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Their Phoenix