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Seasons of War	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 9694 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
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Chapter Seventeen�Up
Against the Barriers

�� Sir?�

�� Ketchum
looked up at Harry and smiled a little, as though he thought Harry was going to
ask him a question he could laugh at. �Yes?� he asked, and gestured with his wand
towards a small clump of grass. It vanished. Harry swallowed and then told
himself it was ridiculous to be nervous. Ketchum wouldn�t make him vanish that
way for bringing up a subject that he had been the first one to mention the
existence of.

�� Harry
thought.

�� Is it true
that there�s a group of Aurors who want to help us?� he asked. �Who are they?�

�� Ketchum
exploded a small stone before he cocked his head in Harry�s direction and
studied him with interest. �Have you decided that you would rather work with us
than against us, then?� he asked. �I know many others outside our small group
who would be interested in that news.�

�� Harry
licked his lips and remembered the things Draco had told him as they lay
sleepily curled around each other in their bed that morning before dawn and
planned. �We�re only interested in that if the people involved want to work with us, rather than order us
around,� he said. �We�ve almost died several times, but those dangers were part
of the ignorance that you tried to keep us in as much as anything else.�

�� Ketchum
smiled again instead of getting offended. �That�s a fair point. I think the
problem is that we haven�t had to deal with trainees like you before, the
products of a war. During the first war with You-Know-Who, trainees were firmly
segregated and not allowed to participate, and they didn�t accept any new
trainees as long as the war was going on. But here, we have some, like you, who
are going from one war to another. We should listen to your experience more
often.� He let the smile drop. �Not that you don�t take some chances you would
better leave alone.�

�� Harry was
so heartened that Ketchum was making sense that he grinned giddily at him and
decided to ignore the slightly dangerous tone in his voice. �I know, sir. Draco�s
spoken to me about that, and I�m going to try and use
my life more wisely in the future. But for now, we�ve learned something that
this group of Aurors should know about. Can we arrange a meeting where you�re
sure that no one would betray us?�

�� I think
so.� Ketchum tossed up and then caught his wand, frowning into the distance.
�I�ll need several hours.�

�� It doesn�t
have to be today,� Harry said, blinking. He was so used to delays from the
Aurors that he had assumed this would be another case of it, with the meeting
not happening for several days or perhaps a week.

�� But it
should,� Ketchum said. �At least, if this information is as important as you
claim it is.�

�� Harry
shrugged a little. �It�s the reason that Nihil hasn�t tried to attack us for
the last few months,� he said. �He�s been distracted by something else. And
it�s certainly a fact that he would try to attack us and kill us over, to
destroy the knowledge, if he knew that we had it.�

�� Your
methods of information-collecting get more and more mysterious every time,�
Ketchum murmured, with a shake of his head. �Very well.
The meeting will be at seven tonight. You�re to come to my tent, as silently
and as separately as you can.�

�� Harry
nodded, and headed off to spread the word to Ron, Hermione, Ventus, and
Herricks. Draco had something else to attend to at the moment.

*

�� And every
word that you speak to me, Trainee Malfoy, is the truth?� Holder liked to put
�trainee� in front of his name every time she spoke it, as if to remind Draco
of the place that she wanted him to occupy.

�� Yes,
madam,� Draco said, bowing and then straightening up and smiling at her. And
what he�d told her was the truth. Ventus and Herricks were working together
more and more smoothly. Harry was paying more attention to his studies. Granger
was researching Nihil and attempting to learn more about him, something that
one could say had been true from the first day she learned about him.

�� Holder
paced back and forth in front of Robards. Robards hadn�t moved or showed emotion since Draco had
started making his report; Draco wasn�t even sure he�d blinked. He sat there
with his eyes fixed on Draco�s face like a lizard�s and now and then seemed to
breathe. Holder was the one he was meant to pay attention to, Draco was sure,
but he couldn�t discount Robards, the brain that
heard all this information and made the decisions as to what Holder would do.

�� It does
not seem like much,� Holder said, and then turned around and leveled her wand
at Draco.

�� Draco
already had his wand up in front of him. There was no way that she was going to
do to him what she�d done to Harry, and force him to reveal his secrets. If she
cast the spell, he already had a countercurse in
mind.

�� Enough,
Alice,� Robards said, before anything could happen.
Draco was aware of a vague regret, but he also felt relieved. He would prefer
not to test his magic against Holder�s right now. When he attacked her, he
wanted his strength and quickness to come as a surprise. �We don�t need to cast
against him. Perhaps Trainee Malfoy himself would like to explain why his
report is so inadequate.� He leaned forwards now and stared at Draco, the
pressure of the stare like stone against Draco�s composure.

�� Inadequate in what way?� Draco didn�t need to feign his
surprise. If Granger and Weasley were doing other, noticeable things, he didn�t
know about them, which meant they had hidden them fairly well�better than he
would have thought Gryffindors could. �Have you heard something that
contradicts what I told you, sir?�

�� He means
that there are more things happening in the brains of those we assigned you to
than you have told us,� Holder said. Draco was watching, though, and saw a
single irritated blink from Robards, which he thought
meant the Head Auror would have preferred it if she hadn�t taken over the
conversation at that moment. �What of the conflicts and the rumors of
conflicts? What of anyone who has managed to discard their oaths? What of
anyone who has spoken of wanting to leave the Aurors?�

�� I haven�t
heard any of that,� Draco said. �I can only tell you what I heard. And if you
want someone able to spy on all sorts of people in the camp, you chose your spy
poorly. Most of the trainees won�t speak to me. They�re either envious of my
skill or fearful of my name.� That was true, and Holder seemed to know it,
given the golden sparks that flew from the end of her wand a moment later.

�� Potter
must be planning rebellion,� Robards said quietly.
�It is what he does. And yet, you did not report that.�

�� Draco
sighed and met Robards�s eyes with finely crafted (if
he did say so himself) impatience. �Once again, sir, I can only report what I
heard. How is it that my partner and lover managed to keep something from me which your other spies heard about? He isn�t a good liar. I
venture to say that anything else you heard is more rumors, again planted by
people who are jealous of him or me or both of us at once. He isn�t plotting
rebellion. He would have to have other people to plot with, and he would
certainly have asked me.�

�� Then the
fault lies in your honesty,� Holder said, and stole towards him like a cobra.

�� Or your
paranoia,� Draco retorted. He turned to Robards
again. �Do you really think that everyone in the camp is plotting against you,
sir? Why? We know that we have to stay among the Aurors if we�re to survive.
Nihil would kill us if we went out on our own.� Unless we were clever enough to stay away from Nihil himself, which it
seems most of the trainees aren�t.

�� Robards and Holder exchanged a long, level glance. Then Robards said, �Trainee Malfoy, your role in this campaign
is limited. You will not accuse us of
inadequacy. You are to redouble your efforts and report as often as you can, to
Alice herself if you cannot reach me.�

�� Draco
bowed, but his ears were quick, and his cowed demeanor an act. He had heard the
one word Robards had used, the slip that Draco
thought he hadn�t noticed but also hadn�t meant to make, and he burned with
excitement.

�� Campaign.

�� There was
no reason to assume that Robards and Holder thought
they were fighting everyone in the
camp. Their animosity so far had seemed to concentrate on Harry and Draco. But
they might be thinking of the war against Nihil as a campaign, and a grander
one than sitting about in tents while the trainees trained would imply.

�� They must have begun hunting Nihil in
earnest, and perhaps planning with the War Wizards for the time when they�ll
finally destroy him. What else could it be?

�� Then Draco
frowned. He would have to restrain those conclusions that he wanted to leap to.
Yes, it seemed likely that Robards and Holder and the
rest of the Aurors who thought themselves above talking to mere trainees would
plan to attack Nihil themselves, but Draco had no idea whether those plans were
being made, or put into motion, or only discussed. He couldn�t act on something
that didn�t have any basis but one slip.

�� But he
might be able to use the knowledge. As he bowed to Robards
and Holder and left the tent after a few more threats, he wondered whether the
Aurors they were hopefully meeting soon would know anything about this.

*

��

�� I�m still
having the dreams.�

�� Harry
winced and leaned back in his chair to study Hermione�s face. She was pale, and
her hand shook when she put a cup of tea down on the table in the center of the
tent she shared with Ron. When she leaned back in turn, Harry could see that
she was swallowing continually. He didn�t think that came merely from drinking
the tea.

�� I�m
sorry,� Harry said. �The Occlumency doesn�t work, then?�

�� Hermione
shook her head. �I think it holds some of
them at bay�the less insistent ones. I�m not dreaming about being held in
darkness anymore. But I still dream about him splitting up my body and using
the bones to build something, and now there�s a new one, where I�m in a series
of marble halls while he�s hunting me. It�s a huge building, and I run through
it certain that I have to find someone who
would be able to help me, but there are just walls and corridors and arched
doorways with no doors in them. And echoes,� she added with what Harry thought
was special bitterness. �Echoes that reply to my voice, but whenever I follow
them, they�re only my words.�

�� Harry
hugged her, because he didn�t know what else to do. Hermione lowered her head
and closed her eyes. Harry stood there like that for a little while with his
arms around her and then murmured, �What do you think of Draco�s proposal that
you do research so that we don�t have to take as many risks when we�re fighting
Nihil? Research balls of nothingness? And what about researching bone magic?
That might at least give you a chance to feel like you�re controlling the
dreams. And if you�re conscious enough that they�re dreams, maybe you would be
able to use that knowledge against him.�

�� I�ll try
it,� Hermione said, and then sighed into his neck. �I think I would have done
it before, but the books I looked in had nothing about the nightmares. Maybe I
should treat the dreams as if they were real, for now. I have no idea what
Nihil could be building, but then again, we have no idea about most of the
things he does.�

�� And any
little bit of information about him can help, for that reason.� Harry pulled
back and smiled at her. �Is there anything I
can do?�

�� Hermione
hesitated for a moment, her hand skimming across the table and seeming as if it
were reaching for a parchment or book that wasn�t there. �How did you put up
with the visions that you got from Voldemort?� she asked at last, not looking
at him. �You knew the visions were coming from him, and you knew what they
were. You had to see people die or
get tortured. At least that�s a bit of protection for me, because I don�t think
Nihil is targeting me specifically, and there�s no death or torture.�

�� Except of
you,� Harry pointed out quietly. �I think that would be worse, because I didn�t
see myself dying in those dreams.�

�� Hermione
gave him a faint smile. �I think both you and I would rather see ourselves die
than other people.�

�� Harry
paused, then had to nod, even though that meant he was
shite at comforting her. That was the thing Draco didn�t understand but Harry
thought most Gryffindors did. If something happened to you, you could fight it
or make decisions about it. If it happened to someone else, then you couldn�t.
You could only stand by helplessly, particularly if it happened far away or in
a vision. You wanted to take action, but there was no one to tell you what the
right action would be.

�� So you did something, just to relieve the tension.
Harry had dashed off to help Sirius because it was better than doing nothing.

�� I�ll try
to look for more information on bones and the machines or weapons you can build
with them,� Hermione said softly. �There are books the Aurors rescued from the
Ministry that we don�t have access to. But I know ways that I could get
access.� She chewed her lip for a moment, forehead wrinkling. �And the balls of nothingness. I don�t know how I would
research them, but�� And this time her hand really was searching for parchment
or books, Harry thought. He pushed the nearest scrap of paper towards her while
her other hand seized a quill and she bent her head down and started to write.

�� Harry
watched her and wished he could take the dreams away. It really was better to have something happening
to you rather than to another person. He didn�t have a clue what he could do
about Hermione�s dreams, but he would willingly have suffered them.

�� In the end,
he stole away with a pat on her shoulder. He�d thought she was too deep in the
writing to notice, but she did reach up and squeeze his hand briefly. Harry
decided that was the best he could do for right now.

*

�� I take it
that most of our members aren�t a surprise to you.�

�� Draco
nodded and kept a bored expression on his face, though, in reality, two of the
faces who were part of the group had surprised
him. He had expected Ketchum, since he was the one who had spoken to Harry
about this supposed group of Aurors in the first place, and Weston and Lowell,
since they had worked closely with him and Harry and might be able to see their
superiority to ordinary trainees. And Portillo Lopez and Gregory would not have
been surprises if he had known they were in conversation with Ketchum rather
than acting on their own.

�� But he
would have said Hestia Jones was too nervous to defy Robards
and Holder like this. Still, there she sat, among the others in the circle of
light wooden chairs, biting her lip and looking as if she would rather be
anywhere else most of the time. Then a look of defiance would come over her
face and she would lean forwards with her hands braced on her knees as though
daring anyone to chase her out.

�� Beside her
there was a young Auror who Draco thought vaguely was a Seer of some kind,
simply from his distant, abstracted gaze and the crystal that hung on a chain
around his neck. He had a shock of dark hair, pale grey eyes that reminded
Draco of his father�s, and long, pale hands that played continually around each
other like gamboling spiders. He caught Draco watching him and smiled.

�� Draco
didn�t smile back. He thought one of Nihil�s living dead would give a smile
like that.

�� This is
Auror Leonard Raverat,� said Ketchum, and he had a
note of pride in his voice that Draco understood only when he continued. �He�s
a traditionalist, but he has agreed to be our spy inside the Ministry. And he
has moments of genuine prophecy.�

�� Raverat made a dismissive motion with his hand. �The
moments of prophecy are few and far between, Samwise.
You know that I study Divination mostly to clear my mind and because I find the
meditations congenial, not because I can use it.�

�� Draco�s
opinion of him improved mildly. If Raverat wasn�t
going to behave like Trelawney, Draco thought they could work with him.

�� I know,
but every advantage we have on our side is a good one.� Ketchum turned to face
the comitatus, which sat on a group of chairs facing the Aurors, with one of
those abrupt movements Draco thought Muggleborns all used. Granger did it, too.
�All right. Where do we begin? What have you
discovered?�

�� Draco had
assumed that he would speak for the comitatus, but Harry leaned forwards and
caught his eye. Draco understood. As the one who had discovered the ball of
nothingness and the source of it, Harry thought he should be the one to speak.

�� Draco
couldn�t really dispute that, but he hoped Harry would keep in mind that the
Aurors had yet to make any transaction of equal value. He nodded, and Harry
beamed and started talking.

�� We used
incantations that would allow us to read the memory of objects, and went to
places where we suspected Nihil might have been.�

�� How did
you learn that?� Raverat asked the question in a
gentle voice, but Draco could see the eager flame come alight in his eyes. He
was the one in the group who would probably ask the most probing questions, and
Draco didn�t think that he was looking forward to working with him. He kept a
warning expression on his face, ready in case Harry looked sideways for
guidance.

�� But Harry
seemed to know all by himself that he shouldn�t tell Raverat
everything. He simply smiled and went on. �We found that he had left behind a
small black ball of something that hovered in the air and which it was hard to
focus on. A ball of pure nothingness. In at least one
place, he achieved part of what he wants, which is to reduce the world to
nothingness.�

�� Why?�
Jones was frowning and chewing fiercely on a piece of her hair. �Why should he
want that? If he did that, then he wouldn�t be able to conquer the world and
subject us to slavery.�

�� Look at
his name,� Draco said softly. �He didn�t call himself after the Latin word for
power, or slavery, or victory. Instead, he chose nothing. And his
distinguishing characteristic is that he can die and yet return, and the people
he possesses become little more than buds or sacks full of him, losing
themselves. He can�t die. He can�t
escape. But he named himself after the thing that lies beyond all death and all
escape. We think that he wants to die to escape the memories that made him what
he is, and the only way he sees to do that is to get rid of every
body and every piece of matter, so he can�t reincarnate.�

�� That is a
very interesting idea,� Raverat said in a way that
indicated his attention had been caught. �One wonders if he could have chosen
another solution and what would happen if someone suggested one to him.�

�� I�m not in
the business of offering solutions like that to him.� Gregory�s voice was
fierce, her eyes brighter than Raverat�s. �Why should
I offer that to someone who tried to make the rest of you see me as a traitor,
and tried to kill me, and did kill
many of the people who were fighting with me?�

�� Raverat held up a hand. �Forgive me, Astraea.� Draco
stared; he hadn�t thought anyone would dare to call Gregory by her first name.
�I was interested in the philosophical side of the question, and I neglected to
think about the practical one.�

�� Draco was
glad to see skeptical expressions appear on Lowell and Weston�s faces. They
didn�t think that Raverat should have wandered away
into philosophy. Well, neither did Draco, and he hoped
that the man wouldn�t do it regularly.

�� This ball
of nothingness,� Ketchum said, dragging the conversation back to the subject by
the scruff of its neck. �What was it like?�

�� Harry
described it, and then described how he had learned about it. Everyone looked disapproving at that,
even Gregory, who muttered something under her breath about how �Potter could
have died, and then no one would ever know what he risked his life to find
out.� Draco was glad to discover that he had a few allies here, at least. Maybe
their combined disapproval would be enough to keep Harry from doing anything
else stupid.

�� Then he
thought of the complications Harry had confessed were behind his impulse to
risk his life, and sighed. Maybe not.

�� So we have
to destroy Nemo,� Gregory said when Harry had finished talking. She was sitting
so bolt upright that Draco wondered why her shoulders didn�t hurt. �The way we lured in and destroyed Nusquam. That should be
fun.�

�� None of the
Aurors, Draco noticed, reacted with shock to the announcement that they had
killed Nusquam. Gregory must have told them about that.

�� A fine
ambition,� Lowell said. �And exactly how do you think that we should achieve
that? After losing one of his servants, Nihil is going to be more cautious than
he was, and it sounds as if he would keep Nemo by him, to raise these beasts,
not send him out on killing expeditions the way Nusquam was sent.�

�� I also
would not give much for our odds in facing him,� Weston added. �He seems to be
the weakest of the three, but that makes him all the more likely to rely on the
tools around him, like these beasts, instead of allowing himself
to be caught.�

�� I�ve
thought of something.�

�� That was
Granger�s voice, of course. Draco glanced at her and sighed. He hoped that she
wouldn�t make the comitatus look ridiculous in front of the Aurors; that was
all he asked for.

�� Granger
held up a book that was so worn and tattered along the edges Draco didn�t know
why it hadn�t collapsed yet. It appeared to be bound in dragonskin,
but still. Any force that could abrade dragonskin
that way could abrade paper. �I didn�t�I found a description of the ritual that
I think Nemo is using to raise the beasts,� she said. �It�s mentioned and
described in a footnote about human necromancy. It takes a lot of time and
preparation. He probably can�t go very fast, and he would be attracted to any
rumor that there was a faster way.�

��

�And you want us to spread such a
rumor,� Draco said, simply to be the one who incarnated the theory in words for
the others.

Granger nodded so hard that her
hair bounced. �Yes. Say that there�s a book. Hint that we�re on the verge of
figuring it out for ourselves, perhaps. That would make him all the more
determined to find it.�

The Aurors burst into argument.
Draco was silent, though, gazing thoughtfully at Granger, who flushed and held
her chin up higher, as if daring him to disapprove of her.

�� At the
moment, Draco didn�t think he could. Perhaps not ever again.

*

�� Thrnbrooke: Thanks for reviewing!

�� Shadow
Lily: Harry will try. The major problem is that a resolve to try doesn�t mean
that he can do it all the time.

�� polka dot: This is their attempt to do so.

�� SP777:
Funny that you should say that�

�� Nihil is
going to try his best, anyway, to make them unalive.

�� angelmuziq: The war will be over by the end of this story.
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Seasons of War