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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
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Chapter Seventeen�Partners
in Interrogation

�� Harry was
grateful that Draco gave him a quick nod when he saw him and launched straight
into a discussion of how they would need to conduct this investigation, rather
than asking how his talk with Ron had gone. �Dearborn never made it clear, when
you talked to him, whether they still had the false Death Eaters in custody or
not?� Draco asked. He had met Harry at his rooms, and had his head ducked as he
dropped his books and gathered a belt hung with potions flasks. Harry eyed it,
hoped there was nothing illegal in it, and decided not to say anything as long
as Draco didn�t force him to notice
the illegality.

�� No. He
told me it was privileged information and they couldn�t share it, especially
because they fear that I have a tracking spell on me.�

�� Draco
whipped around with a sneer. �A cage of mice could run itself better than this
barracks,� he muttered.

�� Harry gave
him a temperate smile in return; he agreed but didn�t want to let the
conversation be deflected. �So how do we begin, then? I don�t think that
corridor where we encountered them can tell us anything more, and if they�re in
custody, we�re unlikely to be able to talk to them.�

�� Oh, aren�t
we.�

�� Harry felt
the hairs on his neck and shoulders standing to attention at Draco�s dark
drawl. He licked his lips and said, �Do I want to know what you mean by that?�

�� Draco
lifted his head, his eyes narrowing. He looked like a proud cat that someone
had called a kitten. �We know that we deserve to know what�s going on,� he
said, �because they attacked us.�

�� Right,�
Harry said, eyeing the belt of potions that Draco had picked up with more
uneasiness than he had before.

�� And we
know that we�ll have no chance of that as long as the false Death Eaters stay
in Ministry custody.� Draco muttered a Disillusionment Charm with a slight
twist to the incantation that Harry hadn�t heard before, and the potions belt
dimmed.

�� The
instructors might tell us sooner or later�� Harry began, but broke off when he
saw the slow, sardonic look that Draco was surveying him with.

�� When you
acted on your own in Hogwarts,� Draco said quietly, �it was because you had to.
Because the professors wouldn�t help you, or you tried to tell them the truth
and they didn�t believe you, or because you knew that you deserved to be
included in whatever was happening and they thought you didn�t.�

�� Harry
swallowed, thinking of Sirius. There had been another nightmare last night
where Bellatrix explained in a patient voice that Harry could have saved Sirius
if he had just learned Occlumency. �The best results didn�t always come from
including me,� he said.

�� Draco shook
his head. His eyes glittered with piercing intensity. �But they depended on you
to save the world,� he said. �Treating you like any other student was a mistake
on their part, because they also wanted to give you responsibility beyond
anything any other student carried. This time, the Death Eaters�or whoever they
really are�have attacked us, and the instructors know that they have. They�re gaining nothing by holding the
information away from us. Except their own pride and peace of mind.�

�� Harry
wanted to argue that the two situations weren�t exactly the same, but every
argument he could think of died before the force of Draco�s stare and his own
desire. Besides, they were older now, and the instructors should be able to
trust them more, not less, than they
would have trusted Hogwarts students.

�� And how
long should it take them to decide whether he had a tracking spell on him
anyway or not? Harry felt his resentment growing. Dearborn was making the whole
process unnecessarily complicated.

�� I can see
from your scowl that you agree with me,� Draco murmured, his voice gentle, his
eyes anything but. �I know, in fact, that the Death Eaters are still being held,
and where. I overheard Portillo Lopez and Ketchum talking about it. I�m going
there and I�m going to find out the
truth, whether or not they want me to. Are you with me?�

�� Harry felt
his nostrils flare. He didn�t want to let Draco go into danger alone, and the
sheer thought of being left behind while the most adventurous thing that he�d
been involved in since Hogwarts happened without him was irritating.

�� I�m with
you,� he said.

�� Draco
reached out a lightning-fast hand, fast enough to make Harry tense. But all
Draco did was let it lie on his arm as he gazed deeply and earnestly into
Harry�s eyes. Harry blinked back at him and stood still. This seemed important
to Draco, though why, he didn�t know. He didn�t think Draco was using Legilimency to read his mind, since he felt
no sharp-edged shoving at his thoughts.

�� Good,�
Draco said at last, in a voice hardly above a whisper, and his hand made a tiny
caressing motion on Harry�s arm as he took it away.

�� Harry
shivered, and didn�t know the �why� of that, either.

*

�� Potter�s
face was a study. Draco thought he should have made friends with him long
before this, if only for the pleasure of shocking him.

�� That�s
Veritaserum,� Potter said suspiciously as he watched Draco remove a few careful
drops from one of the larger flasks on his belt.

�� Yes, it
is,� Draco said peacefully as he scattered the drops on a piece of cake he�d
stolen from the dining hall that morning, and waited for the next inevitable
question.

�� Who are
you going to use it on?�

�� Draco
turned his head by slow degrees and gave Potter a toothy smile.

�� Using
Veritaserum without permission from the Ministry is illegal,� Potter whispered, his face a brilliant red. Draco
pictured Granger reading Potter and the Weasel a lecture about illegality and
almost laughed. She would do it with that exact same expression, he knew she
would. �Do you want to be kicked out of the Auror training program in your
first term?�

�� Lots of
things are illegal,� Draco said. He corked the flask of Veritaserum again and
shook the cake a bit to make sure that it had completely absorbed the potion.
It didn�t squish in his hand, so it had. He dipped a finger in the thick
chocolate that covered the top of the cake. �Legilimency, for example.
Occlumency. Using Unforgivable Curses. I�ve done all three, and I�m still here
and an Auror trainee.� He extended the finger covered with chocolate to Potter.
�Want some?�

�� Potter
glared at him. Draco would have laughed, he was so priggish, but he couldn�t
help but think of what would happen if Potter wasn�t so priggish. The way his tongue would dart out, curling
around Draco�s finger, the way his mouth would open and how his throat would
feel as he swallowed around the chocolate�

�� Draco
caught his breath and concentrated on Vanishing the chocolate from his finger
without removing his skin along the way. Potter, meanwhile, proving that he had
no idea what Draco had been thinking about and thus lacked basic observational
skills as well as Legilimency, demanded, �How do you think you�ll keep from
being caught? Snape could use Legilimency at Hogwarts, where he was under
Dumbledore�s protection, but this will be in the Ministry itself.�

�� Chocolate
absorbs and hides Veritaserum,� Draco said patiently. �When they look for
traces of it in the prisoner�s system, they won�t find anything. All he�ll know
is that he felt like chatting to us today.�

�� Potter�s
eyes narrowed. �If that�s such a simple trick, then surely they�ll figure out
that you must have used it.�

�� Draco shook
his head. �First, Veritaserum is usually given directly or in a liquid, not
hidden in food, and the Ministry is hidebound. If they suspect�which I plan on
giving them no reason to do�then they�ll question the prisoner we feed the cake
to about that, not about food. Second,
I plan on using a small Confundus Charm to ensure the prisoner doesn�t remember
the cake. And finally, the effect of chocolate on Veritaserum might be simple,
but it�s not widely-known. It�s
something Professor Snape taught me, a reaction that he discovered himself
through the kind of experimentation that the Ministry never lets its Potions
masters do.�

�� Potter
bowed his head for a moment. Draco reckoned he was thinking about Professor
Snape and silently paying tribute to him in his mind or something. The fact
that Draco sometimes felt tempted to do the same was not the point. He waited,
one eyebrow rising higher and higher, until Potter looked up and nodded
sharply, once.

�� So where
are the prisoners held?� he asked.

�� Draco
smiled, conjured a box that would wrap the cake and preserve it from getting
crushed, Disillusioned the box, and jerked his head down the corridor. �Follow
me.�

�� And Potter
did. Draco wished he had an audience so that he could preen. The Great Harry
Potter following a Malfoy was no common sight.

�� But an
audience would defeat the purpose of secrecy, so Draco kept his eyes fastened
straight ahead and his forming grin to himself.

*

�� The room
holding the Death Eaters turned out to be in a corridor of holding cells not
far from the main body of the Magical Law Enforcement Department. Harry
frowned, perplexed, as he noted that there weren�t many wards or guards around.
Why would they treat Death Eaters so casually?

�� Maybe they�re fakes, the way Draco
suggested.

�� But then,
it seemed as though the Ministry could have quickly finished interrogating them
and decided to try or release them. And that
meant the instructors could have told Harry and Draco the truth about them
much sooner.

�� Harry
scowled as he followed Draco along. Draco had taught him how to look as if they
had business here�heads up, shoulders pulled back, expressions somewhere
between boredom and resentment on their faces�and had reassured Harry that
instructors and third-year trainees used first-years as errand-runners all the
time. Harry had no problem playing the resentment part, at least.

�� Still,
there were too many problems with this for him to think they would get away
with it. He muttered out of the corner of his mouth, �Someone is going to
remember seeing us here, and then what
will we do?�

�� Come up
with a plausible lie,� Draco said, slowing and checking the doors of the cells.
Harry glanced at them, but even when he scanned them closely, he could make out
no marks that separated them from one another. Draco grunted in satisfaction
and halted in front of one, though. �Of which I already have several.�

�� Harry
folded his arms. �Tell me one.�

�� Draco
grinned over his shoulder. �Why ruin the surprise?� Then he faced the door and
knocked firmly.

�� The door
opened almost at once. The trainee behind it divided her gaze between Harry and
Draco, frowning. Her eyes widened when she saw Harry, but her hand also
tightened on her wand. She had grey eyes a shade or two less bright than Draco�s
and pale brown hair that hadn�t known the touch of a comb in several years,
Harry thought. �Yeah?� she demanded.

�� Harry
stifled a grin. Hestia would be horrified by the trainee�s lack of proper
greetings to fellow trainees according to the Auror Code of Conduct.

�� Draco
sighed and ran a hand through his hair. The expression he wore was one that
Harry remembered seeing on his face several times in History of Magic. �Let me
guess,� he said. �They didn�t tell you anything about the message Auror Dearborn
wanted sent.�

�� The trainee
couldn�t keep her eyes off Harry for very long, but she did look at Draco then.
�What message?�

�� Well, if
they�d told you, then you would know, wouldn�t you?� Draco held up a piece of
parchment Harry was ninety percent certain was blank. �He wanted to request you
for a training exercise. Unless your name isn�t Ursula Kendrick,� he added,
suddenly sounding less certain, and starting to lower the parchment back to his
side.

�� No, no, it
is,� Kendrick said, and took a step forwards into Draco�s personal space,
reaching anxiously for the parchment. Harry bristled and stopped himself from
moving up to Draco�s side with an effort. Draco let the parchment go without
effort, though, and Kendrick stepped back again and read it with greedy eyes.
Harry frowned at the back of Draco�s head in confusion.

�� At last,� Kendrick whispered. She looked up,
cocking her head. �You�re here to take over my guard duties?�

�� Draco
folded his arms and glanced to the side with a sulky pout. Someone who knew him
would have thought it was too dramatic, but Harry doubted Kendrick knew him. �Unfortunately,�
he muttered.

�� Have fun,
first-years,� Kendrick said, with the same kind of mild sneer that Percy had
sometimes used during Harry�s first year at Hogwarts, and she sprinted down the
corridor of identical doors. Draco watched her go with a much more vicious
expression, then turned and waved Harry into the room.

�� Harry
stepped in, looking around. The room was large and featureless, with plain
stone walls and torch sconces shielded with wards. The only furniture was a
chair between the two doors, and in front of it sprawled a book he thought
Kendrick must have been reading. Harry picked it up and then snickered in spite
of himself. How to Impress and Influence
Your Superiors.

�� God knows
she needs that,� Draco said with a certain relish as he shut the outer door
behind him. �She�s been trying to get someone to mentor her personally since
she entered the program, and she�s failed.� He raised an eyebrow at Harry. �You
can see why a message that seems to offer a coveted connection with Dearborn
would be�eagerly accepted.�

�� Until she
gets there and finds out Dearborn never sent such a message,� Harry had to
point out.

�� He did,
actually.� Draco wore an expression of thick smugness. �Last week. I daresay
that trying to figure out why the original messenger didn�t deliver it will
occupy some of his time, and hers.�

�� Harry
laughed in spite of himself, but said, �And won�t Dearborn think something is
off because you were the one to deliver it?�

�� Not when I
can spin him the long story of how the message got traded between various
people who dislike Kendrick and wanted to deprive her of the chance for a
mentor,� Draco said. He was already walking towards the door on the other side
of the room, considering the wards that crawled over it. �Which is perfectly
true. The use I decided to make of it is what will intrigue him, and that�s
where another of those plausible lies comes in.�

�� Harry shook
his head. �I don�t think I ever came up with a plot that complicated in
Hogwarts. Polyjuice Potion to try to find out if you were the Heir of Slytherin
was as complex as it got.�

�� Draco
paused and glanced over his shoulder. �I did
think Vincent and Greg were acting strange that day,� he said slowly.

�� Yes, well,
that�s why.� Harry stepped up to Draco�s side, trying to ignore the edge in his
gaze. Perhaps he hadn�t been wise to mention any Hogwarts memories at all; for
all he knew, they were getting along well at the moment because neither of them
had reminded each other of that time. �And you have a clever plan, by the way.
Simply unnecessarily complex.� He paused then, frowning, as he realized that
the wards on the door all came down to a single glowing line. �I don�t
understand,� he muttered. �Why would they put Death Eaters behind a Grimson�s
Ward?�

�� A what?�
Draco�s voice pitched high.

�� Harry paused.
Then he cast a look sideways at Draco. �Well, well, well,� he muttered. �Have
we found something that you don�t know?�

�� Tell me
what a Grimson�s Ward is.� Draco stared at Harry as if he could convince him to
ignore Draco�s ignorance by the sheer force of his stare.

�� Harry
wondered if he should tease him some more, but he doubted they had time before
someone came to check on Kendrick. He still couldn�t believe the Aurors were as
careless as this setup made them appear. Perhaps it was a test for any trainees
intrepid enough to seek out the Death Eaters and wonder how they had got into
the barracks. �It�s a very simple kind of ward,� he said. �It�s listed in the
back of the Offensive and Defensive Magic textbook. It confines your enemies,
but it does nothing else. It doesn�t warn you if they get loose. It doesn�t
hold up to repeated blows.� He grinned and drew his wand. �It doesn�t give a
warning if it�s tampered with.�

�� Draco
frowned, and went on frowning while Harry touched the top of the door, then the
bottom, with his wand and whispered the incantation that seemed to come effortlessly
to his lips. He was still best at the things that most related to Defense
Against the Dark Arts, he thought as he watched the ward disappear.

�� Do you
have your poisoned cake?� he asked, letting one hand rest on the doorknob.

�� You and
your dramatics, Potter.� Draco adopted a bored expression at once, as if he
hated the thought of being caught off-guard again. �It�s hardly poisoned.�

�� They might
think so, if they have enough loyalty not to want to betray their purpose here,�
Harry muttered, and opened the door.

*

�� What Potter
had described of Grimson�s Ward made Draco all the more convinced that the
Death Eaters were fakes and that they had some other purpose in the trainee
barracks besides a true attack.

�� Well, the
first thing Potter�s description convinced Draco of was that he needed to spend
more time studying his textbooks.

�� But when he
and Potter eased into the �prison� room and discovered that the Death Eaters were
confined in simple cages of wards, without sleeping potions or complicated
alarm spells or bonds on them, then Draco�s suspicions came roaring back to
life.

�� Too much
conflicting information was present here. The Ministry apparently considered
these people no threats�as they shouldn�t, since the Dark Lord�s dangerous
followers had died in the war or been arrested already�but still held them.
They weren�t threats, if their skill
in combat was any indication, but they had somehow possessed enough magic to
pierce the heavy defenses on the trainee barracks.

�� Draco
paused and scowled at them in general. They stared back at him and Potter, a
few blinking. They were mostly young men and women; the oldest Draco saw couldn�t
have been more than thirty. He noted the dark eyes, arched brows, and sharp
chins that were characteristic of various pure-blood lines. He recognized no
one immediately, however.

�� Well,
well,� one of them, a man with a large mouth and sardonic brown eyes who looked
like a DeChancie, muttered, �what�s this? A Malfoy and a Potter, come to
interrogate us?�

�� We�re your
new guardians,� Potter said, his voice thick with anger and sullenness. Draco
approved of his quick wits. He himself was caught off-guard; he had expected
all the prisoners to be isolated from each other, as would have been usual
procedure, so that they could feed the cake to one of them without
interference. But Potter gave a good performance, folding his arms and ducking
his head so that he could scowl at them from beneath his fringe like a
barbarian. �Much good we�ll do the Auror Corps here.�

�� As though
they had planned this, Draco found himself picking up on Potter�s cues and
translating them into a new response. �Now, Potter,� he said, with a light
scolding tone, laying a hand on Potter�s shoulder and shaking it slightly. �You
know the trainees� motto. We can serve
wherever we are.�

�� DeChancie
sneered before Potter could respond. �What are you going to do, Malfoy?� he asked. �Threaten them with the corpse
of your family�s reputation?�

�� Potter
moved in front of Draco as if by accident, and blew a sigh through pursed lips.
�We�re supposed to learn interrogation
techniques,� he said, stressing the words and pouting so hard that Draco
had to work hard to refrain from laughing. �And I might as well pick you, since
you�re showing an inclination to talk at the moment.� He undid the wards around
DeChancie and prodded him out of the room with his wand, glancing at Draco in disgust
in the meantime. �Do you have that stupid list of questions with you?�

�� Draco
nodded and followed Potter and DeChancie back out of the prisoners� room into
the area where Kendrick had waited. That had gone as smoothly as if they�d
plotted beside each other for years.

�� And
DeChancie had swallowed every word, if the way he took Draco�s offered piece of
cake was any indication. �Oh?� he said, holding the cake in front of him and
smirking at it. �This would be the part where you assure me there isn�t any
Veritaserum buried in that cake, no, really?� He glanced sideways at Potter. �Not
that Potty the Perfect would ever consider breaking the Ministry�s rules like
that.�

�� Draco
whispered the Confundus Charm under his breath just as DeChancie�s teeth closed
in the cake. He blinked and looked terribly bewildered a moment later, staring
around even as he chewed and swallowed.

�� What�s
your name?� Potter asked briskly.

�� Geoffrey
DeChancie.� He rubbed his throat and stared at his hand, which seemed to come
as a revelation to him. Draco thought he would have started numbering his
fingers, but Draco interrupted.

�� Why did
you dress up as Death Eaters to attack the trainees� barracks?� he asked,
making sure to keep a tone of scorn in his voice. If he was right, the Charm
combined with the Veritaserum should make DeChancie interpret that as a slight
to his honor that he had to defend himself against.

�� Sure
enough, he jerked his head up and squinted at Draco. Oh, yes, the terrifying squint, Draco thought, and worked very hard
to contain his laughter. �We weren�t Death
Eaters,� DeChancie said. �We would never have followed that Great Blunderer
with his unpronounceable name. We were adopting a convenient disguise for
striking terror into the hearts of those about us, so that in the end we can
make the name of our master known.�

�� And what
name is that?� Potter demanded, before Draco could ask it.

�� DeChancie
gave them a vacant smirk. �Nihil.�

�� Potter
exchanged a silently triumphant look with Draco. Then Draco asked, �What does
Nihil want? To raise the pure-bloods to a position of power again and destroy
the Mu�Muggleborns, the way that the Dark Lord did?�

�� DeChancie
sighed and rolled his eyes as though confronted by a pair of children. �I told
you, he�s nothing like that. He doesn�t share the same goals. He wants to
complete the work the war began, the work of tearing us apart, and beyond that�beyond
that�� DeChancie�s voice dropped, and
Draco thought that he was trying desperately to sound impressive ��his great
and real project begins.�

�� That is?�
Potter breathed.

�� DeChancie
opened his mouth.

�� And went on
opening it. As Draco watched, his skin split open down the sides of his head,
along the line of his mouth, like a collapsing bag, and his body sagged and
slithered to the ground.

�� Out of its
disguise reared the red and black magic, an expanding, poisonous, blooming
flower, which turned and draped all its tendrils over Potter as Draco watched,
drawing him into its gaping maw.

�� Draco
stared, paralyzed, for a moment.

�� Then Potter
screamed, an inhuman sound of terror and pain.

�� And Draco decided
that he should probably save his partner.

*

�� Mr Spears:
Hermione will be involved a bit more, but she and Ron aren�t the focus of the
next few chapters.

�� polka dot:
Well, you have your answer.

�� Dragons
Breath: By �soft,� do you mean �cooperative?� No, it�s not in Ron�s nature to
do that!

�� Draco is
trying to avoid being changed, because he wants to control his own destiny.

�� MewMew2:
Thank you!

�� SP777: Who�s
to say that I haven�t mentioned the mystery man indirectly?

�� I think it�s
in-character for Harry to think little of himself and for Draco (as he is at
this stage) to think little of the qualities that Harry possesses. But yes,
this is a story where Harry will grow up.

�� By Part 2,
do you mean Part 2 of the story? I haven�t started the sequel to this story
yet, if that�s what you mean.

�� puresilver:
Thank you!

�� callistianstar:
Draco does read Dearborn pretty well. If Dearborn wanted revenge on Draco, he
wouldn�t try to bring him into a mentor relationship, where Draco can get that
kind of bead on him; he would probably just strike from a distance, or use his
power as an instructor in unfair ways. Dearborn is showing bits of himself off
to Draco too, after all.

�� And yes,
Ron is still being a bit childish, but he will improve.

�� MiraMira:
Oh, don�t worry, Dearborn is a major character, so he should be around for a
while.
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