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Wondrous Lands and Oceans	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 10108 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this fanfic.

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Chapter Eighteen--A Changed World

            "What happened?"

            It was a simple question that Hermione asked, but Harry knew from the way she stared around ahead of her that it wouldn't have a simple answer. He pushed gently at Draco's shoulders; with Ron and Hermione, he had halted as he edged around the boulder, and since Harry was the last one to emerge from the cave, he couldn't see what they were all staring at yet.

            Then they stepped into the air, and Harry could see.

            There was a mass of stripped rock in front of them, instead of the mountains he had expected to see. The rock was flat, grey with striations of white, and no other color. No vegetation lurked there, no water, and the sides of the bowl loomed up into the sky.

            Harry turned and met Draco's eyes. Draco nodded. The bond functioned to link them even when they weren't actively trading thoughts. Harry knew what they would see if they flew right now: another one of those mysterious hollows in the mountains, where one of them had apparently been plucked into the air.

            "At least we know that there isn't necessarily a whole mountain vanishing when this happens," Draco said aloud. "This was a valley before we hid last night. Just not as big or wide as this one."

            "You don't find a storm that makes valleys scary?" Ron turned towards Draco, staring at him as he pushed the hair out of his eyes. "What do you find scary, then? Other than losing Harry," he added, glancing back and forth between them and nodding wisely in a way that caused Harry to smile helplessly.

            "You wrong me, Weasley," Draco said, eyeing Ron in a fashion that made Harry a little nervous. "Of course I find the thought of losing Harry frightening." He nodded to Harry and sent along a quick little bolt of rose-colored warmth that made Harry want to touch his shoulders. "But even more, I find the thought of the voice that called to us last night frightening."

            Harry jolted back despite himself. He had never thought Draco would bring it up aloud.

            Silence. Hermione stood there with her hands folded in front of her, shoulders drawing into herself. Harry had been right in his half-suspicions, then; she'd heard the voice calling them. Ron simply stared around, as if trying to evaluate what direction an attack would come from first.

            "I'm right, aren't I?" Draco whispered harshly. "All of us were there. All of us heard it. Calling, demanding that we come. Promising that the storm wouldn't hurt us. Saying, in my case, that I should bring Harry with me, and in Harry's case, that he should come alone. I don't know what it said to you, Weasley, Granger, but something similar, I assume. And the direction was northwest."

            More silence. Then Ron said, "Did you hear that voice, Hermione?"

            Harry turned to face his best friends. If Ron thought Draco was taunting them, or lying, then Harry would defend him.

            Hermione just looked at Ron, though, swallowed, and said, "Yes. It told me to come alone, and promised that I would have all the knowledge I needed, knowledge that would save us and the camp and enable us to continue living on Hurricane. What did it say to you, Ron?"

            "Nothing at all," Ron said harshly. "I heard nothing."

*

            Draco snorted despite himself. Weasley spun on him, but he was right; there wasn't much Draco was frightened of anymore, now that he had the wild magic to defend himself. He flexed his hands, reminding Weasley as much as himself of what he was now armed with, and shook his head. "Are you really going to dare it, Weasley?" he asked. "Come ahead and charge me, then."

            Weasley held himself back, but said, "I didn't hear any voice, and I want to know what it means that you did." His gaze included all of them, even Harry, under some umbrella of betrayal, and trust Harry to step forwards, as he did, with his hands extended and soothing words on his lips. Draco shoulder-blocked him back behind him and met Weasley's eyes unblinking.

            "You can tell us what it told you," he whispered. "The rest of us have, even Granger, who didn't know until now that someone else heard it. Harry and I told each other last night."

            Weasley shut his eyes. His face was red from scalp to neck now, and Draco thought he had never looked less attractive. He would have wondered what Granger saw in him, but that was obvious: a bulwark who would support her and never challenge her superiority. In honesty as in everything else, as they could see from the way Weasley had reacted to the mention of the voice.

            You think he's lying? Harry's voice in his head was as bright and astonished as a spring flower.

            Of course he is, Draco said, not taking his eyes from Weasley. So far, he hadn't actually reached for his wand, but it was probably only a small amount of time if Draco kept forcing him to face his stupidity. There's no reason for the voice to leave him out of the summons when it wanted to trap all of us.

            Unless he doesn't have wild magic yet.

            That made Draco pause. He had assumed that, if the magic had reached out to Granger, it would have done the same thing to Weasley.

            But it had reached for him and Harry before anyone else in the camp--or perhaps Harry before he ever came to Hurricane, to hear him and Granger tell it--and Teddy in a way that was undetectable. Then had come a long gap before the connection had formed with the youngest Weasley. Why not a delayed reaction in the way that Granger and her husband felt it?

            Draco frowned and eased back. "You really didn't feel anything or hear anything," he said to Weasley, willing to make it a question again if Weasley's eyes darted or he did anything else that showed he was lying.

            "I really didn't feel anything except fear that the storm was going to get us." Weasley turned in a slow circle, staring at all of them. "Maybe I should have been afraid that one of you would get the mad idea to wander out into it."

            "I had the mad idea," Draco admitted. "You have no idea how compelling that voice was. But Harry restrained me, and I did the same thing for him when the voice woke him up later."

            Weasley shook his head. The redness had faded, leaving him white to the lips this time, but Draco didn't find the color as appealing as he would have assumed he would.

            "Have you listened to yourself?" Weasley whispered. He took in Granger with his next glance, and then Harry, still hovering behind Draco and sending out small tingles of white and gold that talked about how much he would have loved to interfere. Draco ignored that. This was between him and Weasley, and Harry could feel that and must agree, or he would have pushed his way past Draco now. "Yourselves? You talk as though this wild magic is more important than, oh, our survival on this planet. You act as though I must be lying if I don't feel it. And you want to do things that would probably make the rest of us die. I still don't like you, Malfoy, but you're necessary to the rest of us. And you would consider walking away?"

            "It wasn't like that, Weasley," Draco snapped, with more soft intensity in his voice than even he would have thought himself capable of. He would have basked in the self-esteem, but Harry's hand pushed impatiently in the middle of his back, and kept him going. "It was like this. The magic gives us ways to defend ourselves, and ways to survive here, just like fire or water does. But it can also be dangerous when it's uncontrolled. And I defy you to think of something more uncontrolled than the storm. Except perhaps your emotions right now," he added, meeting Weasley's eyes and unleashing a deliberately cruel smile.

            Weasley took a step towards him, and then stopped with a clap of his hands, turning away. He was shaking his head, or just shaking in general; with someone like Weasley, Draco thought, it was often hard to tell. "You don't know what you're saying," he said over his shoulder. "I think the ones who don't have wild magic should be the ones in charge of the camp, of the defense. You clearly can't be trusted."

            Granger and Harry made soft sounds of pain, but to Draco's mind, Harry's went deeper and had more experience behind it, because since when did Weasley act jealous of his wife? Draco reacted without thinking, taking a step forwards and lifting his hand as Weasley turned around. Weasley was already opening his mouth, but stopped when soft dimples, and then small trickles of blood, appeared in the hollow of his throat from Draco's invisible claws.

            "Draco, don't--"

            "Malfoy--"

            Granger and Harry were hurrying after him, but Draco met Weasley's eyes and spoke just a few words, ones that he thought Weasley would remember, if only because of the associated pain. "This isn't the way for you to act. Harry has already suffered enough distrust in his life, and in the world we came from, because of his magic. Don't you do it. You do it, and I'll hurt you."

            Weasley stared at him, his chest heaving. He didn't seem to notice the way that nudged his throat against Draco's weapons and thus made him bleed more. Or perhaps he did, and that was part of the attraction. Honestly, at this point, Draco was half-sure that Weasley wanted to be hurt, to prove what a martyr he was and how wrong Draco was.

            Harry's hand was on his elbow. Draco still ignored him. Harry might not agree now, but this was between him and Weasley, even now.

            And then Weasley nodded, wincing but not otherwise acknowledging the shallow slices the action opened up, and said, "I'm sorry."

            Draco stepped back, snapping his hand to his side. He had little choice, with the way Harry's winds were moving in and the way Granger had surged past to put herself between him and Weasley, but he would have done it anyway. There was no other alternative to staring at Weasley in shock.

            "I should have thought," Weasley said, ignoring, as well, the small, murmured charms that Granger was casting on him to heal his throat. "If any of us can develop wild magic at any time, then it's no good saying only people without it should make the decisions." He took a long, careful breath. "It's--well, it's stupid. I wish things were different, and I hope to hell that I never get taken by the magic, but I never thought Hermione would, either." He turned to Granger and put out his hands, gently gripping hers and stopping her from waving her wand. "What is it like for you? What's your gift going to be?"

            Harry's hand on his elbow became more insistent. Draco fell back under the tug, and only shook his head when Harry stared demandingly into his eyes. Is Weasley this weird all the time?

            When he has someone threatening him and telling him that they'll kill him if he takes a step wrong, maybe, Harry snapped back.

            Draco rolled his eyes, but continued listening to the conversation across from them, because he was curious about Granger's gift as well. What she had said so far, about the temptation the voice had held out to her, made sense, but didn't tell Draco what she could do.

            Granger swallowed a little, gulped, smiled, and then turned to Draco and inclined her head. "You said that the call was coming from the northwest when you heard it?" she asked.

            Draco nodded, and held his peace about the "when you heard it" wording. If Granger had heard the same one, then it had to come from the same place, and if she was hearing different voices, then--well, they would deal with it when that happened. Perhaps they had multiple enemies, one to summon them by whatever magical gift they developed.

            "It was." Granger turned and pointed unhesitatingly away across the mountains, in the direction of the silver oval they had seen flash yesterday afternoon. "That's where we'll find what was calling us." She swallowed again. "I don't know that we want to go and find it. I think it's pretty powerful. But there it is."

            Draco stared at her, and saw Weasley grinning from the corner of his eye, and felt Harry pulsing green and blue pride down the bond. Then Harry said, "You've become a living map."

            Granger turned around with her nose gone pink. "Not about everything," she said. "I couldn't tell you where the next mountain range is after this one, or the sea from here. But I can tell where the enemy is, and where those silver ovals are, and I could feel--I can feel someone back in camp." She blinked. "It's Ginny, I think. It has to be. But a few other little embers as well." She shot Weasley an apologetic look. "There are other people growing their wild magic back in camp already. So even if you abandoned me, you wouldn't really have anyone to lead."

            Weasley gathered her up, kissing her cheeks and making apologies in the most disgusting manner, but Draco was more intrigued by what Granger had said. "You're a map to the wild magic," he said flatly.

            Granger looked at him over her husband's shoulder and nodded. "I think so," she said. "I can even feel where the next storm will come from, I think." She pointed to the southwest. "The air feels--bluer there. Stranger than normal. I think the winds are brewing. We'll have to be careful that it doesn't catch us in the back."

            Draco didn't say what he wanted to say, which was that the storm that had caught them last night had probably been sent by their enemy, and that therefore Granger's gift was worth less than it might have been. He just nodded instead, and said, "That is going to be useful."

            For a moment, Granger's gaze and his crossed like swords, and Draco felt the closest sense of connection, of knowing what someone else was thinking, that he ever had with someone other than Harry. He shook his head uneasily and stepped back. He didn't want that connection, and he would deny it if Granger tried to exploit it.

            But Granger simply smiled, said, "Thank you," and turned back to Weasley to soothe him.

            That left Draco to Harry, but thankfully, because of the bond, the inevitable bristlings and misunderstandings took much less time than they would have to rehearse them aloud.

            You could have done it without hurting him.

            I didn't want him to hurt you.

            Ron? He never--

            He would have. He was talking about it. And you know that I don't mean physically. I mean mentally. I wasn't going to have that.

            Careful, you sound like Molly.

            Draco reared his head back in disgust, caught the small smile wrinkling the edges of Harry's lips, and shook his head. "You're ridiculous, Harry Potter, and I don't know why I put up with you," he whispered harshly.

            Harry snorted and ducked his head, wrapping his arms around Draco's neck for a minute. "I understand why it happened," he muttered. "But I'm capable of taking care of myself in situations like that, you know."

            Draco wrapped his arms around Harry in return, and didn't say what he was thinking, because Harry would feel it: that Harry could defend himself, but was reluctant to do so. He would allow himself to suffer agonies before making someone else feel the pin of so much as a pinprick.

            How much you have to learn about me.

*

            Harry was glad that they had solved that minor crisis, at least, if not entirely pleased about the way they had solved it. But Ron and Draco were pleasant enough to each other over breakfast, and Ron's small wounds had healed entirely under the pressure of Hermione's wand, as Harry had assumed they would. Hermione knew exactly what she was doing when she healed injuries like that; not only had she paid close attention to Angelina, she had had practice in inflicting some wounds like that on Ron herself.

            But then came the moment when they had to make the decision about where to go next, and Draco turned to Hermione and stared at her.

            Hermione flushed red and cleared her throat. "We came north to find out what was stirring up the birds and threatening the mummidade," she said, turning to Harry as though he was still the leader. "We still need to do that."

            Harry nodded. "And can you sense the presence of wild magic that would do that?"

            Hermione stretched out her arm slowly. It was trembling, but it still formed a straight line when she extended it, and Harry wasn't surprised about where it ended up pointing.

            "To the northwest," she whispered. "The same direction as the thing that called us."

            "Do we want to go there?" Ron was slapping his wand against his knee as he spoke, glancing back and forth between the three of them with the tolerant expression Harry had seen him use when Harry and Hermione were having a leadership discussion that didn't interest him. Because he hasn't a trace of leadership potential in his body, Draco whispered and hissed inside Harry's head, but other than a quick jolt of irritation, Harry didn't react. "Could we swing around to the side and sneak up on it somehow?"

            "Swinging around might be a good idea," Hermione said. "But I don't know if we can sneak up on it. I don't know how aware it is of us, or why it waited until the storm began to try and call us out in it, if it has the power to destroy us at any time it likes."

            Harry smiled. Hermione sounded so frustrated already with the limits of her gift, even though she had barely begun to explore it. That was the Hermione he knew. He nodded, drawing her attention. "Then we'll assume the best, which is that it can't destroy us yet, or at least it's unsure," he said. "We'll swing around to the north and east, and go with a vanguard of wind. And your knowledge, Hermione." He clapped her on the back. "Ready to act as the map?"

            She scowled at him, the way Harry had known she would, muttered, "I'm not a book," and then looked around as if she could spot the chair of wind that way. Harry smiled as he conjured it for her, and another one for Ron, and nudged them gently up behind his friends until they sat down, more or less of their own free will.

            He caught Draco's stare, and raised his eyebrows. What? No need to speak in even that much of a word through the bond, but sometimes he felt like it, especially if he had just been speaking aloud to someone else.

            Your relationship with your friends is so strange.

            Harry sent back an overwhelming wave of emotion, compounded of the memories of dueling the troll, hunting the Horcruxes, and going together with Ron and Hermione after the various threats and menaces to the school in their second and third and fifth years, and Draco blinked and jerked his head back. Harry nodded to him. He wouldn't say anything about Draco's friendships, because he hadn't really investigated those memories yet and had no idea how deep they had been. But he wasn't going to allow Draco to remain ignorant of what he felt for Ron and Hermione.

            We can argue and make up again, he said, when Draco sulked at him. Like you and I. Think of it like that.

            I don't want to think about the Weasel having sex in any way whatsoever.

            Harry laughed aloud, shook his head when Ron and Hermione glanced at him, and then lifted them straight up in the air, the wind singing in his blood and his head. He called Draco up with another little gesture, and laughed again at the way Draco took care to stretch out, lounging on the wind, as different as he could possibly be from the stiff, upright way Ron and Hermione were sitting in their chairs.

            "You are so strange, too," Draco muttered.

            Harry turned and swirled with joy to the northeast, accompanied by his friends and his lover.

*

            unneeded: They might have answered it without each other. Or Hermione might have without the boulder in the way. Those calls are still powerful.

            Silverkitten: That's something they have to wonder, now.

            SP777: Depends! I don't think everyone will be shocked no matter what I do.
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Wondrous Lands and Oceans