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For Their Unconquerable Souls	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 29229 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 17
- 18
- 19
Thank
you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Eighteen�Harry On Display

�� And you think this necessary?�
Lucius�s voice was deep with skepticism. The last time he had sounded like
that, Draco thought as he leaned against the wall and rolled tension out of his
neck, was when Draco had insisted that he needed the newest Firebolt model for
a Potions mastery demonstration (there were some potions that could only be
brewed at high speed flying upside down and backwards).

�� I do.� Draco kept his voice cool
and patient. Lucius responded best to purely intellectual appeals. �One person
asking will not have the force of two people doing so. And considering that
your acquaintances know more about your past with Harry than they do about mine
with him�well.� He shrugged and smiled. �They are more likely to pay attention
if you write to them.�

�� I am not at my best at the moment.�
Lucius made a slight gesture towards his chest, leaving Draco to admire the
understatement. �They may disregard my pleas altogether.�

�� I�m not asking for pleas,� Draco
said, surprised. �Questions only. Bargains.�

�� We do not have so much money that��

�� Bargains to be fulfilled with
potions,� Draco interrupted smoothly.

�� Lucius paused, then chuckled. �Ah,
yes,� he said. �At times it is reassuring to remember that I have a Potions master
for a son.�

�� When
you remember it, Draco wanted to say, but he saw no reason to be
impertinent. He was asking his father to do a favor for him: writing to the
other members of Hogwarts� Board of Governors and asking them to do what they
could to give him access to Harry�s student records. Draco himself had written
to friends from Slytherin House and a few of the more politically connected
Potions mastery students he worked with. Both those routes might produce
information on Harry�s Muggle family in time, but neither was as direct.

�� Besides, with Potions mastery
students able to brew their own potions, Draco thought their aid was likely to
be more expensive.

�� Very well,� said Lucius. �I will
write.� He paused. �Not that I see a need. Harry Potter seems to me to be a
normal young man, when one adjusts one�s mental parameters to remember that he
was raised outside the pure-blood families.�

�� It�s more than a lack of knowledge
of our customs,� Draco said quietly. �It�s a resistance to them. He doesn�t think that he deserves the food and
the comforts we want to give him. And I saw his house, Father. He was living in
the middle of a ruin, with minimal improvements. I�m sure he would say it was
because he spent so much time in hospital, but a wizard who neglects his home��

�� Lucius grimaced and nodded. Draco
looked around again at the big, beautiful bedroom his father had long since
claimed for his own. A wizard�s home was the thing that kept him alive, kept
his family alive. A warded manor
house or even a room, strongly protected enough, could resist enemies, contain
supplies of food, and allow the captive wizard or wizards time to research
their way out of their predicament. A wizard who neglected his home was
neglecting his own bodily and mental health.

�� I will ask,� said Lucius. �It�s ludicrous that he should die of
neglect before he has a real chance to become part of our family.�

�� Draco smiled.

�� Someone knocked on the door, but the
rhythm and the confidence of it told Draco it was his mother. Lucius asked her
to come in anyway; most of the time, his parents maintained courtesies between
themselves, despite their constant contests.

�� Someone in St. Mungo�s wanted to
harm Harry,� Narcissa said, as she closed the door behind her. �He had a
headache curse on him, one that could have flared unpredictably at any time and
no doubt debilitated him from getting proper work done.�

�� Draco felt his jaw clench. Lucius
made a soft, thoughtful noise, probably to cover his own surprise. Draco felt
no need to do so; his parents already knew the way he felt about Harry. �Why
didn�t you notice that at once?� he demanded.

�� Narcissa gave him a long, slow look
that said she fully understood her own negligence and saw no need for him to
comment upon it. �Because I had other things to think about,� she said, �and
because your father�s wounds had unnecessarily distracted me. It will not
happen again.� She looked at Lucius and began to speak before Draco could
request more reassurances. �Given how much hostility towards Harry appears to
exist in St. Mungo�s, perhaps it would be wise to tell him about your conflicts
with the hospital administrators.�

�� The headache curse was of long
duration?� Lucius asked, lifting himself against his pillows.

�� Yes,� Narcissa admitted. �At least
three months, quite possibly longer. I do not believe Harry would be able to
pinpoint a beginning to the headaches, based on his manner when I asked him. He
had no idea they were caused by a curse; he spoke as if they had always been a
part of his life.�

�� Draco growled under his breath. Of course Harry would think that. He had
never cared enough about himself to go and seek out magical cures to his
problems. Perhaps his relatives had done that to him, or simple years of
growing up as a Muggle. Draco would never know.

�� Of
course, I can still punish the Muggle relatives for it if we can�t catch who
did this, he thought hopefully.

�� I�ve placed my memory of removing
the curse in a Pensieve,� said Narcissa. �I should be able to identify the
magical signature soon, and if it was someone I met in hospital, I will know.�

�� Draco looked at his mother
admiringly. He had never been able to manipulate a Pensieve memory that way, so
that it would show traces of magic as well as sensory input. On the other hand,
she couldn�t create a life-saving potion out of seaweed and orange peels, so
perhaps it balanced out.

�� And if it was someone you did not
meet?� Lucius asked, who had apparently sprung ahead to some conclusion Draco
hadn�t reached. He was frowning slightly.

�� Then I will need to disguise myself
and return to St. Mungo�s,� Narcissa said, as if she were telling the
house-elves what to prepare for dinner that night.

�� You cannot,� Lucius said with some
authority.

�� Draco leaned forwards, just enough
so that Lucius could see the corner of his upturned lip and his meticulously
narrowed eyes. �Father,� he said, in the tone that he usually used for
addressing people far younger than himself.

�� Lucius looked at him with a blank,
composed face.

�� Father,� Draco repeated. �You would
let a crime committed on a member of our family go unpunished? You know the law would not be on our side, and would
take too long in any case. For months�for years�Harry has suffered. Would you
have his new family be like his thoughtless friends and refuse to notice that?�

�� I would have us be sure of how long
he has suffered, first, and match the vengeance to that length,� said Lucius,
and turned to Narcissa. �Investigating the Pensieve memory of the curse would
tell you that?�

�� It would.� Narcissa inclined her
head, not deigning to notice the way Draco looked at her.

�� Well, then,� Lucius said. �I insist
the investigation be conducted first, before another member of our family
ventures back into danger. One family member must not be sacrificed to save
another.�

�� And to that, Draco had to accede.
The same logic that had saved Harry�s and Lucius�s lives when they used the
family blood magic must prevail now. Draco sighed. He would have to content
himself with private fantasies of vengeance until his mother finished her
research.

�� Someone knocked on the door.

�� Draco lifted his head, blinking. It
had to be Harry, of course, because the house-elves would simply spring into
the room and no one else was in the house�

�� Or it was one of the enemies, with
the wards fallen.

�� Draco stepped smoothly closer to the
bed, his mother mimicking him on the other side. Lucius drew his wand openly;
Draco and Narcissa slipped theirs into their hands, out of their sleeves.
Harry, if it was only him, was more likely to understand Lucius�s paranoia than
theirs.

�� Lucius spoke the spell that would
cause the door to open on its own in a breath that was little more than a sigh.
Draco tensed, aware that he might be fighting for his life in moments, dreamily
aware that it was hard to think so. And yet, that dreaminess would explode into
swift action if it needed to. He knew himself.

�� The door opened, and Harry stood
framed in it. He stood blinking at them for a moment, as if he were as
surprised as they were by his presence here. Then Harry lifted his chin and
practically swaggered into the room.

�� A nod to Lucius, a bow to Narcissa,
and a smile to Draco�tepid as birdbath water�followed. Draco was sure he had
practiced the motions, and wondered at the change even as he delighted in it.
Harry must have decided to try to appear more confident in front of them, but
why? Had he decided that he needed to?

�� Lucius,� he said, as though the
name were saltwater on his lips. His eyes flicked for one moment to Draco�s,
then to Narcissa�s face. She was smiling, Draco saw, with that sideways glance
that, combined with long knowledge, told him what his mother was doing more
accurately than the most open stare. �I want you to try and remember if any of
the Death Eaters you worked with had Healing talent.�

�� Draco blinked. Yes, perhaps the enemies Father has in hospital administration are
linked to the ones who attacked him, and perhaps it would be better for Harry
if he knew about Father�s quarrels with the board of St. Mungo�s. Of course,
that is his information to reveal, and not mine.

�Rodolphus
Lestrange did,� said Lucius, and cleared his throat. �But I think you will find
that he is firmly in Azkaban, and unlikely to be in a position to curse me. My
visits to Azkaban have been of long duration, but few in number.�

Harry
grinned. Draco found himself pleased about that. If Harry liked his father�s
sense of humor, he might also come to like Draco�s, which Draco had been told
was similar. �

�I
didn�t plan to accuse Lestrange,� Harry said. �But I wanted to know if someone
could have known both several spells that a Healer would and also the Sectumsempra
curse, the spell that almost cut your heart out of your chest the other day. A
Death Eater seems the likeliest candidate. At least, I know a Death Eater
invented that curse.�

He did indeed, Draco thought,
and fought the urge to trace the scars on his chest, invisible under the line
of his shirt.

�Who?�
Narcissa demanded.

�Severus
Snape,� Harry answered.

His
mother flinched. Draco concealed a sigh. Though Narcissa had saved several
lives by going to Severus and demanding his protection for Draco, and Draco
himself could not conceive of what would have happened had she not asked for the
Unbreakable Vow, she still carried a burden of guilt over it. Or, at least, a
burden of self-loathing; she should have been more clever, more foreseeing,
Draco knew she believed. Never mind that she had been fighting the horrors of
close contact with Voldemort, having her husband in prison, and knowing that he
would ask an impossible task of her son at the time.

�You
intrigue me, Harry,� Lucius murmured. �Please do tell me what made you think of
my old associates.�

�The
Sectumsempra curse was the first clue,� said Harry. �And then I realized
that various parts of the Mirror Maze do require knowledge of Healing magic�but
most of the spells that compose it are reversible.� He nodded to Narcissa. �I
actually owe my realization to a comment Narcissa made about the headache curse
she found on me.�

�Headache
curse?� Draco made sure to fling sharpness into his voice. Harry had to know
that Draco would always react sharply to news that he had been in physical
harm�s way.

Harry
turned and stared at him for long moments. Draco looked back, and, after a
moment�s hesitation, let the hurt he felt at knowing Harry had been in danger
for months, for years, show in his face. Harry blinked and half-lowered his
head, mouth pursed as if he�d have to think about this.

Do, Harry, Draco urged him
silently. Think about what kind of person
would want you to be safe, would worry when you hurt yourself, and would want
you to accept gifts. Is it such a stretch that I might love and value you? Can
you judge me by my actions instead of your preconceptions?

�Someone
had cast a headache curse on Harry,� said Narcissa, her voice soft and sweet to
keep up the deception that Harry had betrayed himself instead of the curse
being previous knowledge. �I should have banished it the moment he stepped
through the Floo. I can only attribute the fact that I did not to the
excitement over his arrival.�

Harry
gave a small shiver of his shoulders, as if he disliked the way Narcissa took
the blame for not noticing the curse on herself, and then turned back to
Lucius. �So your enemies don�t have to have a Healer to cast that particular
Mirror Maze. They only need someone who can cast the curses, the harmful magic,
that�s beneficial if reversed. Looking up the reversals would be easy enough
for anyone with a modicum of talent at research and access to some books about
the Dark Arts.� He waved his wand, and the image of the sideways Mirror Maze he
had used just before the attack of the Dark magic on Lucius appeared again.
�For example, the spell that maps your body and exposes vulnerabilities? That�s
the one Healers use. It�s considered a benign spell because it only creates the
map to tell them where a disease or curse could spread next. But it exists in
the opposite form as the Hunter�s Curse, Aucupo. That greatly increases
the chance of something going wrong at the weak points of the body. Dark
wizards like to use that one to soften up their enemies before attacking from
ambush.�

Bitterness
scored his voice like acid working on iron. Draco shifted his weight invisibly
from one leg to the other. What could
teach him to think better of Dark wizards?

�I
have heard of the Hunter�s Curse,� Lucius said. There were slight lines around
his eyes to give him the impression of hard concentration�habit, Draco knew.
His father rarely showed his full intelligence in front of anyone. �I did not
realize its connection to the body-mapping spell. But, as you said, it would
not be difficult to discover that.�

�Have
you used it?� Harry asked.

Lucius
looked at him without flinching. �Yes.�

Harry�s
mouth set in a small, hard line, like someone condemned to chew on oysters for
three days, but he continued speaking without inflection. �Did other Death
Eaters?�

Lucius
gave him a smile that had a tinge of approval to it, and moved the sheet out of
the way, so that the dark skull and snake on his arm showed. Draco blinked. It
was a tactic he would not have thought of, confronting Harry with the symbol of
what he hated so that he could choose to accept it or snarl and leave. �Yes.�

Harry
nodded, though his eyes flicked across the Dark Mark as rapidly as a dreamer�s
closed ones. �Then what we want to look for are connections to the Death Eaters
and uses of their research, rather than the involvement of Death Eaters
themselves. No insult intended to present company,� and he raised an eyebrow at
Lucius, �but I think if any of them were actually involved, they would have
revealed their presence by now. Patience was never their strong suit.�

�They
would have the more reason to destroy me, because it is mine,� said Lucius.
�Very well, Harry. I assume you�d like to know where some of the refuges were?�

And
he spoke that line without a tremor, giving up knowledge that he had denied to
Draco when Draco asked him. Draco kept his eyes on the bed to avoid tossing him
a sour glance. He does not favor Harry
over you, he reminded himself. He�s
doing what he needs to win Harry�s trust and loyalty. God knows that you don�t
need sibling rivalry to complicate the issues between you right now.

�Yes,�
said Harry. �Along with a list of what you think might have been stored
there�books, wands, weapons�and the people who frequented them, so we can learn
who had a chance to pick up on the knowledge. I�ll also need to know how to
secure records of visitors to Azkaban. It�s possible someone spoke to Lestrange
and gained the knowledge he or she needed to cast the curse that way.�

�Almost
certain.� Lucius was looking at Harry with a new respect and interest. Draco
understood the feeling. He had not realized that Harry could plan so well about
things that did not concern his patients� health. Or could he plan this because he felt it concerned Lucius, and
his Healer�s mind would turn backwards and forwards seeking a way to eliminate
the danger? Draco shook his head slightly. Every time he thought he understood
Harry, had grasped his essential nature at last, Harry would do something else
that disrupted that impression.

�Very
well,� Lucius continued. �I didn�t leave Azkaban without making a few friends.
If they remember the obligations of friendship�and very few forget such things
when it comes to a Malfoy�then I should have the records of visitors to all
former Death Eaters� cells within a day. In the meantime, I will make lists of the
information on the refuges.�

�You�re
well enough to do so?� Harry asked. There was a tenderness in his eyes that
made a hook catch at Draco�s insides. God damn it, he didn�t want to be jealous
of his father either.

Lucius
smiled at him, the way he had smiled at Draco when he was eleven years old and
excited about going to Hogwarts. ��Thank
you for your concern,� he said. �You are behaving just as a son should to a
father.� Harry stared at him, nostrils flaring slightly, but didn�t break out
in protest. Draco reckoned that should be accounted progress. �But I can
sacrifice a small bit of strength in the short term for a more secure footing
in the long term.�

�� Harry studied him as if
searching for the truth of that, whilst Lucius Summoned a house-elf and an owl
and prepared to write his letters. Draco only hoped that his father would
remember his promise to write to his friends on Hogwarts� Board of Governors as
well as the ones in Azkaban.

Then Harry turned and slipped out of the room with
a nod to Narcissa. Perhaps he would have nodded to Draco and left him behind,
too, but Draco followed him too closely to permit that to happen.

He
had to correct Harry�s course only a few times; Harry did seem to have learned
the path through the maze of corridors and rooms to Lucius�s chambers well.
Harry, though, bristled and tensed all over, his head twitching like a captive
horse�s, and he turned around at the door of his own rooms to snap, �What?�

�May I come in?�
Draco asked quietly.

�What
can�t you say to me here in the corridor that you can say in my room?�

Oh, yes, Harry.
If you can learn to value possessions of your own, there may yet be hope for
you. Draco
bestowed a softened look upon him, and Harry stared at him as if that had put
him out of countenance. Then he seemed to realize why he had received that
softened look. He scowled and folded his arms across his chest.

Greatly
daring, Draco put a gentle hand on his shoulder. �Nothing,� he said. �But I
have a fairly lengthy speech to make. It�s easier to do that sitting down in your library.� He wondered if Harry
would notice his return emphasis.

Harry
hissed under his breath like a kitten with scalded feet, and then moved his
hand in a sweeping, elaborate gesture into the room. �If you will,� he said.

Draco
laughed. He hadn�t exactly meant to laugh�of course Harry would be sure Draco
was only making fun of him�but he saw no reason to hide the joy of the sound
once it had started. Or his desire, for that matter, so he gave Harry a quick
look and then let his arse sway a bit as he went into the room. He was sure a
smile had darted across Harry�s face, swift and unwilling.

It
made him feel as though he had found a source of permanent leprechaun gold.

Harry
followed Draco into the library and sat down behind a desk piled high with
books. By now he was frowning again, but he raised an eyebrow like a pure-blood
wizard cornered in his private rooms by an overly obsequious half-blood.

Draco
sat with a nod and looked around the library for a moment, giving Harry the
time to feel the strength and ease of the library wrapping around him, to
settle into it and feel it as his domain. Then he sighed deeply and stared into
Harry�s eyes.

�Don�t
let me force you to tell me anything,� Harry said.

Draco
looked down with a faint smile, in part to mask his surprise at Harry�s sarcasm.
�Being honest is harder than I thought it would be,� he said. �And yet you did
it all the time in school.� Though it went against every instinct he had, Draco
remembered Narcissa�s advice and spoke a little faster, which betrayed, will-he
nill-he, the discomfort in his tone. �I was attracted to you at first only
because you were there, and fit, and it�s been a while since I shagged. The
pressures of work, of studying.� He gave a shrug to dismiss the idea, and then
it grew heavy and he had to stop. �You know what it�s like.�

He
had hoped Harry would say something, but he didn�t, only shifted in his chair
as if bored. Draco ground his teeth inaudibly and carried on. There would be
some sacrifices, he could practically hear his mother murmuring to him, before
Harry would be his.

�But
I saw�I saw that you were what you always presented yourself as.� Draco tried
to wave a hand, but it dropped limply to his side. He looked away, wincing
internally and wondering if weakness would plague all his gestures now that he
had admitted it into some of them.. �The hero. The noble and self-sacrificing
man who would do anything for anyone, even a man he hated.�

�I
wasn�t that way when I was a teenager,� Harry began, his voice weary with the
ring of old annoyance. �You were righter about me than I like to think, when we
were both teenagers. I only started learning dedication and real heroism when I
became a mediwizard.�

�But
you know it now,� Draco whispered, and turned back, fighting against the inches
of his pride that encouraged him to continue to stare elsewhere. If he looked
at Harry now, Harry was likely to see too much reality in his eyes, and Draco
was accustomed to people using reality to forge weapons. �And that�s what I decided
I wanted for myself. I wanted to bind you more closely to the family, in case
you got tired of taking care of Father whilst he was still sick.�

Harry
stared at him. �It�s not flattering to hear that I was right.�

Draco
flinched against the sharp edge of his voice. It doesn�t sound very flattering, does it?

�You
were right then,� said Draco. He clenched his fists beneath the table�lightly
so as to betray no tension in his muscles�and let the words come. �But your
speech the night you were taken off the case, before you left for hospital,
convinced me. You wanted someone you could like. That made sense to me. And so
I tried to become the kind of person you would like. Softer. More open with my
emotions. That was easier when you were family and I didn�t have to assume I
was teaching one of our enemies curses that could be used against me later.�

Harry
ran a hand through his hair, his face soft and lost. Draco had hardly dared to
hope the mood would last when Harry narrowed his eyes and said, �And you thought
ordering a house-elf around after me would make me like you more?�

This
time, the truth was easier. �You need help, and that must balance indulging
you,� he said. �No one can pour their strength, their courage, their being,
down a well forever without encouragement. You need replenishing. You look the
way I did when I was studying for the first exam that would advance me in my
mastery. I made myself sick and nearly failed because I was so certain I could
pass it if I only stayed up and studied for a few more hours.� There is a kinship between us, Harry, a
determination to succeed, an ambition that would have served you well had you
followed me into Slytherin. Can you see it? Can you grant that it exists?

�I
don�t have an exam to pass.�

Draco
felt free to narrow his own eyes now. Harry was ignoring their basic similarity
in order to cling to semantics. �From what I�ve seen of you, you treat every
case you take on as an exam you�ll be killed for failing.�

Harry
folded his arms and glared at him. �Do you have anything pleasant to say? First
you assure me my suspicions of you were correct and then you claim I�m in so
much need I have to be coddled and taken care of like a child.�

�Only
because you were acting like a child,� Draco said. �You obviously haven�t been
in the past few days. You let my mother take away your headache curse. You�ve
talked to Rogers about how to behave as a Malfoy. You found out the information
you�ll need to cure Father without insane amounts of time spent studying.� He
smiled. �And you�ve got the correct amounts of food and sleep. You feel better,
don�t you?�

�It�s
not about what I feel,� Harry said. His voice was the remote, lofty thing that
made Draco want to shake him. �It�s about what I can accomplish.�

Draco
seized Harry�s wrists before he thought about what he was doing. Harry promptly
tugged to get free. Draco stared into his eyes instead, his pulse and the words
beating in his temples. Yes, the Muggles
did something to him. They had to have done it. Even an ordinary hero would
think he was entitled to feelings. He would get angry at his enemies and
rejoice in their downfall. All the other Gryffindors I know do. Something is
wrong.

And the twit
refuses to listen to himself and hear the wrongness in his own words.

�You�re
more than a hero,� Draco said, pitching his voice so Harry would listen. ��You�re more than a mediwizard. I�m attracted
to those qualities, of course I am, but if you were a self-sufficient monolith,
I wouldn�t be. I want to be useful to you, too. I want to give you what you
need. A day ago that was better physical health. Now I think it�s a sense of
greater self-worth.� He released Harry�s right wrist, but only to fold two
fingers under his chin and tilt his head to the side. Harry�s eyes squirmed and
darted in an effort to avoid his.

�You�re
still family even when you don�t end the day with some daring achievement,�
Draco said. �I still like you even when you�re at your most exasperating. I can
live with your affection for Weasleys and Grangers.� He couldn�t help but
smile. Compared to all the other exasperations that Harry had put him through
in the past week, those affections were hardly noteworthy. �I�m sure we�ll
argue, as we�ve already done, but I�m prepared to put up with that. And I can�t
wait to bring out more of those parts of you I�ve only seen in passing: your
sense of humor, your cleverness, your quickness at improvisation when something
goes wrong. Though I hope to train you out of sacrificing your life at the
first chance,� he couldn�t help adding. That
quality is attractive only in the abstract.

Harry
shook his head.

�What
now?� Draco asked. He was glad he had managed to hold back the snappish tone
that had immediately welled up in his throat.

Harry
looked to the side. �This is mad,� he whispered. �People�s lives don�t change
like that, this suddenly. You couldn�t have formed an attachment to me this
deep over a few days, and if you did, it was only because of gratitude, because
I saved your father�s life. It won�t last.�

He�s not
pure-blood, he�s not pure-blood, he�s not pure-blood, Draco reminded
himself quickly, when indignation and rage made him want to throw Harry�s hands
aside and stalk out of the room. He
doesn�t know what he�s saying.

�You
haven�t been a Malfoy all your life,� Draco said. �You still don�t understand
what we see in blood. Ask Rogers to tell you about that. He�s a good source of
information, because he�s served several generations of the family and
understands us well.� He paused and wondered if the mention of one of Harry�s
old friends would be sufficient to catch his attention. Lucius had ranted more
than once about how a twelve-year-old had tricked him out of a house-elf. �Not
like that son of his, that Dobby.�

Harry
whipped back as if someone had offered him a case of dragonpox to cure. �Dobby
was Rogers�s son?�

�Yes,�
Draco said, and frowned at him. Concealing his delight was hard. �Don�t tell me
you never wondered where little house-elves came from.�

�I
put the question aside as not worth reconsidering,� Harry snapped. �You can�t��

�The
first time my life changed suddenly was when you rejected my friendship,� said
Draco. He shivered for a moment, feeling cold and damp. He had never meant to
dig this deep and bring up these reflections, but he thought Harry was worth
it. He thought. �Then my father went
to Azkaban. And suddenly I was forced to save my family because the Dark Lord
would kill them if I didn�t. After a long year of terror, I discovered I
couldn�t kill and had to flee Hogwarts. Then there was another long year of
terror, punctuated by constant little revelations, like the fact that my aunt
was mad or the fact that I didn�t want you to die. And then I decided to
be a Potions master overnight, and that turned out to be the best decision I
could have made. And then Father got sick, and you saved his life.�

He
paused for effect. �My life has been all sudden choices for the last few years,
Harry. Most of them related to you in some way. If I hadn�t developed the
ability to adapt to those choices, and accept that the feelings born of them
were lasting and real, I never would have survived.�

Harry
worried his lip. The sight of his teeth on flesh�which Draco had imagined in
the last few days, though never as they now were�made Draco harden in seconds.

�Stop
that,� he whispered, because he had to say something. He leaned in and pushed
his thumb against Harry�s teeth, urging them backwards and off his lip. �If you
want it bitten, let me do it.�

And
then he brushed his mouth, deliberately open, against Harry�s lips. Harry swallowed
and sat still, of course not opening his mouth.

That
didn�t matter. If there was one thing Draco was confident he knew how to do, it
was kiss. He kept his own mouth open, and his eyes, and used his tongue in
soft, delicate lashings against Harry�s lips and the corners of his gums. Harry
sat frozen until Draco had pulled away and strolled towards the door, stroll
carefully casual so that he could conceal his erection.

He
paused with his hand on the library doorframe and murmured, �I�m going to have
you if you�ll have me. I�m going to do my best to help you and show you why you
should like me. I�ve made that as clear as I know how.� His smile deepened; he
could not help it, with Harry�s taste inside his mouth for the first time. �Any
other questions?�

�� He remembered, later, that he
really shouldn�t leave openings like that, because if it were possible to
embarrass them both, then Harry would do it.

�Do
you have a Dark Mark?� he blurted.

�� A spasm of pain. Harry was
trying to see him as an evil Death Eater, heartless enough to ignore, even
after�even after�

But
just as his mother often did with his father, as he sometimes managed to do
with her, Draco seized the moment and changed it about so that he was the one
in control. He reached teasingly towards the sleeve of his robe. Harry sniffed
air like a llama and leaned forwards.

Draco
dropped his hand and winked. �I think,� he said, �that this is something you
should find out for yourself, when you have occasion to look more closely at my
skin.� And he bowed and left the room without looking back.

�� His body was abuzz, and his
mind was aflame, presenting him with vision after vision of their bodies
striving together in bed, tongues tangling fiercely and their breath mingling
between them like dragons�.

How sweet to
have him in bed. How much sweeter still to lure him and tempt him until he
cannot help himself, and comes of his own free will.

*

�� Linagabriev: Narcissa was upset that
Harry was in so much pain he had to use the chair for support. She does expect
him to show his emotions�and, in fact, she�s trying to encourage Lucius and
Draco to be more open around him�but she doesn�t like to see him suffering.

�� No, Narcissa won�t suffer headaches.
The curse was absorbed into her memories, not her body.

�� Sarah: I think Narcissa enjoys being
a mother, if only because she seems to like encouraging other people to show
their full strength.

�� hieisdragoness18: I think Harry is
better able to accept care from a female figure than a male one. He�s had too
many of the latter in his life who were scornful of him.

�� DTDY: Thank you! I do love writing
Narcissa.

�� Sara: Thanks for reviewing! Sorry
for the long break in updates; domestic problems and illness intervened.

�� Thrnbrooke: Here it is!
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For Their Unconquerable Souls