Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

The Heart of the Matter	By : Jad Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 7323 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 18
- 19
- 20
Chapter Nineteen

Next week there can't be any crisis. My schedule is already full.

- Henry A. Kissinger

: : :

'At least he's all right, Severus,' Lupin pointed out, sitting on the end of Draco's bed. He'd been there since Snape had locked everyone aside from the two of them and the three boys out of the room, Theodore cowering and snarling behind Potter, which had probably been the only thing that kept Snape from throttling him. Draco had stayed uncomfortably perched on the windowsill watching in terrified fascination as Snape interrogated Potter—from a distance—demanding to know what he had fed Theodore, and frequently reminding him what an enormous blockhead he was in the process.

Near an hour into it, when even Snape had wearied from berating Potter and had taken to studying the ingredients list and began making notes, corrections, and trying desperately to concoct an antidote, Theodore had started whimpering. The change was terrible—Potter standing over him looking sick but helpless, they all had to watch as the wolf crumpled to the floor and began keening, twisting and writhing along the floorboards as if in immense pain. The transformation only took a matter of moments, but to Draco it felt like ages, and he eventually had to turn away from the cracking and popping of bones and the squelch of flesh as the werewolf form began to rearrange itself into that of a boy.

When the noise had quieted and Draco looked up, it was just in time to see Theodore, wrapped in a thin quilt, lurch over the edge of the bed and vomit quietly into the corner. Potter stood over him, a hand on the back of his neck, grimacing. Theodore sat back and near collapsed on the bed in a heap, draping himself against Potter's shoulder when the Gryffindor joined him. Even now, he was still panting heavily, eyes glowing golden in the darkness, canines still too unnaturally long.

After a moment, he muttered sourly, 'I told you so.'

'Bite me,' Potter muttered back.

Weakly, but smirking, 'Don't tempt me.'

'Silence,' Snape snapped, muttering irritably, but Draco detected an air of relief to his voice, similar to that Draco remembered from upon waking to Snape standing over him in the infirmary after the bathroom incident that past May. 'Do you have any idea how serious this idiotic experiment of yours could have been?'

'We were just trying to—' Potter started.

'Kill him?'

'I didn't mean—'

'Do you ever, Potter?' Snape sneered.

'Look, he's all right, isn't he?' Potter demanded sharply.

Snape wheeled on him, eyes ablaze. 'And you expect me to disregard your foolishness just because this time it happened not to be lethal?'

Potter stopped with his mouth open, a look of shock on his face; Snape had obviously hit a nerve. Lupin took the pause as an opportunity to intervene. 'He's right, Harry. It could have ended up a lot worse. He could've very easily hurt you, or Ginny.'

Snape looked as if he'd like to spit. 'I daresay I cannot see how that would have been unfortunate.'

'However,' Lupin said sternly, 'it seems that at least they got some of the desired effect out of the potion.'

'Actually,' Theodore interjected hoarsely, 'we got exactly the effect intended, Professor.'

Snape, Lupin and Draco all turned and looked at him. His temple balanced precariously on Potter's shoulder, Theodore was still pale and slick with sweat, but his eyes had dimmed.

'What the devil do you mean?' Snape hissed.

Potter pushed his glasses up further on his nose. 'We, uh, we were trying to make it more controllable. The transformation, I mean, and I figured—'

'Yet completely overlooking the fact that whenever you "figure" something, Potter, that it ends up disastrous?'

'Severus, let him finish,' Lupin said firmly.

Snape pursed his lips, glowering down at Potter, who took a deep breath. 'We were trying to find some way to raise the consciousness of the person during the full moon, but everything we thought of had already been tried. All the books said the wolf's consciousness was too powerful—that no matter how potent a potion the werewolf tried taking beforehand, they would be overwhelmed by it.'

He paused, in which Lupin cleared his breath. 'And, Harry?'

Potter hesitated. Thedore picked up his head and answered for him. 'So we tried a different approach. If we couldn't control the consciousness after the transformation, we tried controlling the transformation itself.'

Snape moved quickly back to the table, snatching the list of ingredients. He scanned it quickly, his eyes widening slightly, as if he suddenly understood. 'Interesting, Nott. Suicidal, but singuarly ingenius. Usually it was only Malfoy that showed any sort of creativity in my classes.'

'It was Potter's idea, actually,' Theodore said, not looking at Snape. 'He's used the Polyjuice potion before, so—'

'Oh, has he?' Snape said, whirling slowly, causing Potter to cringe.

'Er,' said Theodore, glancing at Potter, then clearing his throat. 'Well, point is, it worked.'

'I don't understand,' Draco said, perplexed. 'This isn't—but he's not transforming into someone else. He's transforming into—a darker part of himself. Polyjuice potion doesn't work that way.'

'It would, given the correct trigger,' Snape said slowly, rising. He gave Potter an odd look, something torn between surprise and disdain, then quickly back to Theodore. 'Where on earth did you get it?' he demanded.

'Not on earth, surely,' Theodore said, smirking.

'Well it's not exactly easy to find in the wizarding world,' Potter admitted. 'But Muggles, they've—well, Hermione's parents took a trip to the States a few years ago and brought back souvenirs.'

'One of which happened to be "lunar dust",' Theodore finished smugly. 'Apparently, Muggles'll have brought loads back on their little "space shutes".'

'Shuttles,' Potter corrected automatically.

Theodore rolled his eyes. 'Whatever. Anyway, combined with lunar blossoms,' he made a weak motion with one hand, 'voilà.'

'Lunar blossoms?' Draco blurted, standing. He was staring incredulously at Potter. 'That's all it took?'

'They have to be older ones,' Potter said, and shrugged. 'So they've had at least one full moon already. But, yeah, that's all.'

'I still don't see how that'll help us remain conscious during a real transformation,' Lupin pointed out.

'Well, we can't test that theory until the next full moon, of course,' Theodore told him, 'but the idea is to take it just before a real transformation. I mean, you can't transform if you've already have, right?'

'That's insane,' Draco said, still disbelieving.

'So's Potter,' Theodore reasoned. 'Seems that sometimes insanity works out okay.'

'Potter,' Snape snapped, breaking the silence. 'Outside.'

Potter immediately began to protest. 'Why?'

'Because I told you so,' Snape said snidely. 'Don't worry, I'll be right out to attend to your needs.'

Potter looked even less enthusiastic to leave now that he realised Snape would be accompanying him, but slowly stood up and exited the room, turning back once at the door to look at Theodore. Once he was out of the room, Snape turned to Lupin. 'Clean him up. And Mr Malfoy, attend to this mess. Mr Potter and I need to have a word.'

Theodore exchanged looks with Draco, who shrugged, just as perplexed as he was. Snape slammed the door on his way out, making Theodore wince as Lupin went to lend him a hand up. 'Come on,' Lupin said encouragingly. 'I can't believe you willingly subjected yourself to that more than what was already necessary.'

'I need to do something,' Theodore hissed, groaning as he lurched to his feet. 'My mum and sis are still out there.'

Lupin said nothing, pressing his lips tightly together. Draco swallowed and quickly turned his attention to the shredded mess of the room; he knew he and Lupin were thinking the same thing, the one thing Theodore would absolutely refuse to believe until he had exhausted every other possibility.

'Let's get you dressed first, at least,' Lupin offered.

Theodore grunted. 'Yeah. Right.'

: : :

Draco was expecting a barrage of questions from his schoolmates upon returning to the kitchen the following morning, but the delivery of that year's school books had momentarily distracted everyone from the incident upstairs. None of them were permitted to travel to Diagon Alley so everything had been ordered and delivered by owl, and all of the Weasleys seemed to have departed some time earlier.

'Here you go, Malfoy,' Zacharias said, unloading a stack of books into Draco's arms that made him stagger.

'Bloody hell,' he muttered, wincing and dropping the load on the table. 'Think they required enough this year?'

'What I want to know is how you're paying for all those,' Dean said from across the table. 'Not to mention school this year. Hasn't your daddy disowned you yet?'

Draco opened his mouth to retort, then stopped. Dean, after all, had a point. The family fortune still belonged to his father, and wanted fugitive or not, the goblins at Gringrotts won't turn money over to anyone under any circumstances without express instructions from the current vault owner.

'Not really any of your business, though, is it?' Zacharias responded curtly.

Draco felt oddly gratified by this. He smirked at Smith, who returned it. 'Point, Thomas. So if you'd kindly mind your own.'

Dean rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to sorting his books. Draco glanced at them briefly, sighing. As relieved as he was that he would be finishing school, it seemed utterly pointless since there was a war starting anyway. What good would his NEWTS do him if the Dark Lord had his way?

Potter came trudging down not long after, his hair swept into a zig-zagish catastrophe and dark circles under puffy green eyes. Zacharias made a quiet comment about a brush and a haircut that Potter studiously ignored.

'Are these ours?' he said, yawning heavily. Draco blinked as he realised Potter was talking to him, pointing at two stacks of books on the table.

'These are mine,' Draco said, pulling his books protectively towards him, leaving just the one unclaimed stack on the table.

'But then where are Theodore's?'

Draco shrugged. 'Do I look like his secretary? Ask him.'

Potter frowned, but scooped up the books anyway and trudged back upstairs. Zacharias raised his eyebrows at Draco. 'He looked like ruddy hell. Moreso than usual, I mean.'

'Anybody would after Snape tore them a new one,' Draco answered, summoning a mug of coffee off the counter with his wand. He wasn't entirely sure what Snape had said to Potter, but whatever it was had shaken him thoroughly; when he'd come back into the room the previous night he'd looked like he'd seen a ghost—or, in that particular case, a very angry Snape—and had neglected to say anything for the rest of the night, even going so far as to ignore Theodore's inquires.

'I'm sure he deserved it,' Zacharias said, and Draco silently agreed with him. As interesting as the effects of the potion Potter and Theodore had created was, it was also highly dangerous, especially when considering it in the hands of a desperate, emotional, wolfish boy of seventeen with a grudge and a mission to find his family.

Draco glanced over at Dean, who was talking to Susan over at the sink and helping stack dishes—Terry and the others had already gone back upstairs, leaving the kitchen mostly deserted. He leaned back in his chair and said quietly, so Dean couldn't overhear, 'I don't actually know where the money came from, you know. I didn't even place an order.'

'Dumbledore probably sorted you,' Zacharias suggested.

'No, he can't. One of the binding rules of being Headmaster: while he can play favourites all he pleases, he can't spoil them. Not with galleons, anyway.'

'Snape?'

Draco shook his head. 'He would if he could, I'm sure, but the Dark Lord destroyed what little of his fortune he had left.' Zacharias opened his mouth to suggest another, then seemed to think better of it. Draco gave him a look. 'What?'

'Well, I dunno,' he said, shrugging and looking away. 'I mean, had I thought about it before, I could have lent you the gold. But I didn't. And if it's not Snape or Dumbledore, that only really leaves one person—'

'You have no idea how important it is to your future that you do not finish that sentence,' Draco said scathingly. 'Don't be ridiculous.'

Zacharias obliged him, shrugging as if he really didn't care. 'If you say so, Malfoy.'

: : :

Draco avoided going to the room he shared with Potter and Nott as long as he possibly could, even putting up with Thomas and other assorted Muggleborns in the same room just to pester Smith, whom it seemed was a more of a civilised person than Draco had originally credited him with. But just before midnight, with Dean whinging about having to be up early in time to be at King's Cross in the morning, Draco regretfully took to the stairs and ascended to his room.

He opened the door to find the room dark aside from the light of the moon and stairs cast through the open window. Potter was standing beside the framing, staring out. Draco closed the door behind him and studied the shadows of the bed Potter and Theodore shared.

It was empty.

Theodore was probably just in the bathroom, or something. Maybe stealing something to eat, as he and Potter had been locked up here all day. Or at least, that's what Draco would have assumed, if not for the coldness that suddenly gripped his stomach.

Potter hadn't looked up from the window. 'Potter,' he said, by way of greeting and walking up to him. 'Where's Nott?' Potter kept his eyes to the window. He wasn't wearing his glasses, and their was a dark shadow of a bruise blooming along the side of his neck that Draco hadn't seen until he was just beside him. 'Oi, Potter.'

Potter closed his eyes and inhaled slowly. When he opened them and turned his head to look at Draco, Draco took a full step back in surprise.

After all, he'd never seen Harry Potter cry.

Not crying like Draco had cried when he lost his mother, or when Potter had found him in the bathroom, but a frustrated, helpless flow of tears. Potter still hadn't said anything, nor did he need to, because Draco knew: Theodore was gone.

: : :

Notes:

'It's so important to your future that you do not finish that sentence.' - Jurassic Park: The Lost World
- 18
- 19
- 20
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

The Heart of the Matter