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A Brother to Basilisks	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 85172 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 15
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this story.

Chapter List
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Thank you again for all the reviews!
Chapter Nineteen—Set the Fire
            Harry stayed behind after Defense Against the Dark Arts one day near the beginning of Easter Term, and got a tired smile from Professor Lupin as he paused in putting his latest creatures away. “Yes, Harry? I must say that you don’t need to worry about your mark on this exam. Your practical work has been outstanding.”
            Harry beamed. He had to admit, it was nice to have a teacher who praised him a lot. McGonagall would tell him when he did well, and Flitwick sometimes, but it seemed he just wasn’t good enough in those classes to get a lot of praise. And the others, he was pretty mediocre in.
            You are not. You underrate your talents.
            Harry ignored Dash’s interjection. That was nice of Dash to say, but he didn’t judge the talents of humans the way Harry knew his professors did. For Dash, it was mainly important that Harry was good at feeding and petting him.
            What else is there?
            Harry rolled his eyes at the baffled tone of Dash’s voice, and almost missed that Lupin was peering closely at him. “Oh, sorry,” he said. “Just a conversation with Dash. But I wanted to tell you something.”
            “Yes?” said Lupin. He sounded surprised. Well, Harry supposed most kids who stayed after class wanted to ask questions, not answer them.
            Not that Lupin and Sirius had asked him the question right out, but Harry was still confident he could give them the answer they were looking for. “I want you to know that whatever you’re sick with, I can wait for you to tell me,” he said. “I know that you might think I would be afraid of catching it, or upset because you’re sick. But I’m not. I can handle that kind of thing. I know what it’s like to keep secrets.”
            Lupin was so pale by the time Harry had finished, Harry didn’t really need the information that came from Dash lifting his head, letting his tongue flicker out, and announcing, He smells like terror. But he appreciated it anyway.
            “What’s the matter, Professor Lupin?” Harry asked. He wondered now if he was wrong, and it wasn’t a disease, but something else. But he couldn’t think of anything else that would really fit what he knew: Hermione’s silence and edginess around the topic, and Lupin acting nervous like this.
            “Who—” Lupin sounded like he couldn’t get enough air. “It—who told you I was sick, Harry?”
            Harry squirmed. He didn’t want to get Hermione in trouble. But she hadn’t really told him, anyway. Harry had just figured it out from watching her.
            “I need to know who told you.” Lupin was leaning against his desk as though someone had taken away all his strength. He gave Harry a look that Harry had sometimes seen in the mirror in the bathroom, when he’d been let out of the cupboard after a long time there.
            Harry took a deep breath. This was really important to Lupin, so Harry would have to tell the truth. “No one, really. I just noticed that you looked pale a lot, and I noticed it happened more than once. I mean, if you weren’t sick, it wouldn’t happen more than once, right?” He looked at Lupin uncertainly, but Lupin only stared back, looking just as unfriendly as Snape for a minute. Harry looked down at his feet. “I didn’t mean—I wasn’t going to tell anyone else. I just wanted to tell you that you could wait to tell me.”
            His heart was bounding uncertainly in his chest. He had meant this to be a great moment, so he could show Lupin that he was an adult, and Sirius and Lupin didn’t need to worry about Harry. And somehow things had gone wrong.
            There was a long moment before Lupin cleared his throat and straightened up from leaning against his desk. “I appreciate it, Harry.”
            No, he doesn’t, Harry thought gloomily, sneaking a glance at Lupin and then turning away again. Harry was good at telling when someone was lying to him. And Lupin was lying now. He sounded strangled.
            “But I’m not sick.” Lupin said it firmly, like he believed it. Maybe he did. Harry finally looked up again, because he thought Lupin wouldn’t go on until he did, and Lupin gave him a small, encouraging smile. “But you’re right, it’s a secret. It’s a dangerous one. I’ll ask that you wait until I tell you. Or Sirius does.”
            “That’s all I wanted,” Harry muttered. “To tell you that I’d wait. I’m not a gossipy little kid, you know.” He was sick of all the gossip that always swirled around him and had last year, when everyone thought he was evil. Or at least a lot of people thought he was evil. He had to admit his friends hadn’t turned on him.
            You are not a child at all, said Dash. He was holding still, scenting the air with his tongue, and Harry had the feeling he was concentrating as hard as he could, to understand the human concepts swirling around him. That is part of the problem. He turned his head and roughly nudged Harry’s cheek, and Harry gave a smile he didn’t feel and put his hand on Dash’s head.
            “Of course you can wait,” said Lupin. “Of course you won’t gossip. Thank you, Harry.” He put his hand on Harry’s shoulder. But it was trembling and cold, and it didn’t feel like it had when Lupin was congratulating Harry on how well he’d done in their Patronus lessons.
            Harry nodded back and slipped out of the Defense classroom, upset and not understanding why. And he couldn’t even talk about it with Dash, because Ron and Hermione were waiting for him.
            “Were you in trouble?” Ron asked, dropping into place beside Harry as they headed towards dinner.
            “Harry was the one who went to see Professor Lupin, Ron,” Hermione snapped at once. “Why would he be in trouble? He was probably asking for extra tutoring, since what he’s already had has been successful. Right, Harry?” She glanced at Harry.
            Harry didn’t want to lie to them either, but he couldn’t tell Lupin’s secret, and this made a convenient cover. He managed a small smile and nodded. “Yeah, he reckons that he can teach me other Defense spells that might help.”
            “I didn’t know Harry would willingly go talk to a teacher,” said Ron in wonder.
            “There are lots of people who could benefit from that,” said Hermione, with a significant glance at Ron.
            That started the both of them bickering again, and in one way Harry was grateful for it. He could ask Dash, the only one whose judgment he really trusted right now, Do you think I should have pushed it?
            I do not think he would have told you the truth, if you had. Dash still seemed concentrated and thoughtful, even though the conversation he had to keep track of had passed. He’d also settled into his favorite spot around Harry, dangling with a good deal of a coil resting on Harry’s chest and the other big one on the back of his neck, while his head reared up to Harry’s chin height. He seemed so frightened of the truth. I wonder why?
            Harry blinked. Do you think maybe he’s afraid of getting sick and doesn’t want to talk about it? There had been a teacher like that at the primary school once, who got thin and tired but snapped at all the people who mentioned it. Soon after that, she went away, and Harry had heard a rumor that she had cancer.
            The second part is certainly true.
            And with that, Harry had to be content, since even Dash didn’t want to talk about it anymore. There was just Ron and Hermione, and Hermione telling them they should eat a healthy dinner, and Ron joking about all the things that Harry could learn for them, like maybe stealing Lupin’s exams early if he could, and silence in Harry’s head, down the bond.
*
            “The letter you wrote me was rather…cryptic, Severus.”
Severus hated the dramatic pauses that Lucius tended to insert into his sentences, and showed his displeasure with a curled lip that Lucius was welcome to take any way he wanted as he poured the tea. Lucius didn’t seem to take it at all, though. He sat in the chair Severus usually took, gazing around the room as if he wanted to see what had changed since he was last here.
            “It had to be,” Severus said, and gave Lucius his cup before walking over to sit down on the other side of the room. “I did not think you would have come here if I had told the truth.”
            Lucius paused again, but this time, it was with an arrested stare that Severus could perhaps have done with less of. “You need to explain that, my friend,” Lucius said then, and leaned back as if arranging himself comfortably.
            Severus, who was well-aware that the repositioning in fact put his hand close to several weapons, snorted. “I know how much you don’t care about anyone outside the pure-blood circles.”
            “I care about them a great deal,” said Lucius, and examined one of his hands for a moment as if making sure his fingernails were clean from scrapings of mud. “Them and their regrettable…interventions in our lives.”
            The pause again, Severus thought, but called upon his own strength and dismissed the annoyance from his mind. He had done worse than bearing with Lucius’s quirks over the years, such as bearing torture in front of the Dark Lord. If he could do that, he could do this.
            “This is an intervention in theirs,” Severus said, and watched as Lucius’s eyebrows twitched with interest he couldn’t control. “In some of them, at any rate. But if the consequences spread as far as I think they will, it will be an intervention in many.”
            “Perhaps you could tell me what you found now,” Lucius said. “Rather than continuing with cryptic hints there is no need of to pique my interest.”
            Severus nodded. It was time. “Give me one moment.”
            Lucius only watched with growing interest and hunger as Severus raised the defenses around his rooms until they were locked behind shimmering wards. Severus had woven these spells into the stone of his rooms long ago, when he had still been paranoid that either Albus or one of the other professors at the school would come into his rooms looking for his secrets. This time, that might happen, so it was good to remind himself of the correct sequence of nonverbal spells and the images he had to focus on in his head to let the passwords, trapped in his memory, rise back into consciousness.
            When he was done at last with a set of barriers that would make his chambers cease to exist where the rest of the school was concerned for the next few hours, he turned around to find that Lucius had a new expression on his face. He touched his fingertips together and inclined his head to Severus.
            “More than impressive, old friend,” said Lucius softly. “You could make a good living as a security consultant, you know. If you wished to.”
            His eyes and voice were guarded, his tone low and his gaze fixed on Severus. Severus gave him a sour smile in response. Now he wonders where I might have acquired some of my skills.
            Of course, there was some gain in having Lucius Malfoy be a little concerned about him. Severus took his chair again and said, “I know I told you once in what respects Dumbledore had ignored my…former life.” His pause equaled any of Lucius’s, he thought.
            A shadow moved across Lucius’s face, and he nodded. Severus knew he didn’t like talking about this, but for other reasons than mere discomfort; it reminded both of them of their younger Death Eater days, and Lucius didn’t like reminding Severus of his Muggle father. He considered it an embarrassing acquaintance best forgotten.
            Severus didn’t like bringing it up, either, but since Lucius already knew about it, the revelation was not the unforgivable weakness it otherwise would have been. He inclined his head and murmured, “I am not the only one whose former life he has ignored.”
            Lucius caught his breath and sat up for a moment, staring. Then he leaned back in the chair and said, “You would not make such an accusation about Draco.”
            Severus carefully hid his amusement that Lucius would even venture in that direction, but shook his head. “No, of course not. Not when I know the way he was raised,” he had to add, and watched as Lucius’s eyes narrowed, his suspicious brain searching the words for any hint of a trap. “These are Muggleborn children, for the most part, although a few half-bloods raised in the Muggle world count as well. And one pure-blood child. Members of all Houses.” Severus tapped his fingers in turn and waited for Lucius to respond to that.
            Lucius stared off into the distance for a moment, his expression rapt in that infuriating way Severus had so often seen. Sometimes it meant Lucius was considering deeply, but it was just as likely to mean he was contemplating the possibilities of a dazzling future littered with dead enemies. In this case, either consequence would benefit Severus, and he kept quiet about it.
            Lucius then turned back to him and said, “You called on me with this because I am on the Hogwarts Board of Governors.”
            Severus nodded slowly. Lucius had been reinstated to a position on the board shortly after the new year, although he had certain conditions on his power and was no longer the chairman. The sheer money Lucius had at his disposal was enough to overcome even grudges caused by threats, it seemed.
            “You know I can’t do this alone.”
            Severus raised his eyebrows. “Of course not. But if you go to the ones who can, and present to them your concern about how many unfortunate family affairs have gone ignored by the Headmaster…”
            Lucius smiled, but there was an odd light in his eyes. “Why do this now, Severus? Your own unfortunate beginnings cannot be avenged, and there are children involved in this who are not Slytherins, or you would have chosen a different route.”
            That much was true. As Head of Slytherin House, Severus would have had many different options. He was somewhat surprised at himself for not doing that.
            But if he did not know the answer right away, any more than he had known immediately what he had wanted to say to Potter in their last disastrous conversation, he had some idea of what had to happen, the balance between the truth and what Lucius needed to hear.
            He spent a moment searching his mind, and then nodded when he was sure he had his words in answer. “I cannot have revenge, you said.” Severus leveled a glance at Lucius. “Because my father is dead, I assume you mean.”
            Lucius shifted again, his only sign of discomfort at forcing that idea into the open. “Yes.”
            “But I went to Albus, and he ignored me,” said Severus. “He ignored me when others attempted to make me do something by force, as well, while giving priority to someone whose situation was no worse than my own.” He snarled a little. “And there is someone else he is ignoring, someone I recently discovered had a great deal in common with me.”
            Lucius raised his eyebrows. “And do I get to know the name of this prodigy?”
            Severus met his eyes. “If you give me your word that you will not attempt immediate revenge against him instead of pursuing our own more important goals.”
            Lucius settled back. “Potter,” he said. His voice had gone distant again, like his gaze. It was impossible for Severus to tell what he was feeling.
            “Yes,” said Severus. “Was it that obvious?”
            “Only if you know about my recent history with the brat.” Lucius sighed and shook his head. “Will Potter even agree to testify about this, or support it in any way? I know he hates me. I know he doesn’t like you, either.”
            “I intend to approach him about it soon,” said Severus. Now that he had a definite plan, he thought the next conversation would go better. “And he is becoming friends with Draco, you know. I think perhaps he can cooperate.”
            Lucius shot him a disbelieving look. “He is a Gryffindor.”
            “Who was ignored by Dumbledore,” Severus told him coolly. “And who was nearly Sorted Slytherin.” He enjoyed the effect of that tidbit on Lucius’s jaw for a moment, and then added, “Besides, while he does not relish the thought of someone prying into his past, he is Gryffindor enough to want to save others. I will give him the chance.”
            “Will he want his name exposed, though?” Lucius turned his head to the side as though he was inviting Severus to look at his fascinating throat. “I’m told he avoids rather than courts the press.”
            “It will take approaching him in just the right way,” Severus acknowledged. “I can do that more easily than you can, but not easily. It may take a few months for me to present it as a matter of justice, or bravery. But he did allow the Quibbler interview so the facts about his basilisk could spread. He is willing to do what is necessary to alleviate what he sees as ignorance about those he cares for.”
            “But this time, it does not directly threaten his basilisk.” Lucius frowned and drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair. “I admit, I could use those months to talk to some of the more reluctant members of the Board and get them on my side. But will Potter be ready to talk even then?”
            “I believe we may have more of an ally than we do right now, by then,” said Severus, and added, at the sideways glance Lucius tossed him, “The basilisk.”
            Lucius blinked. “It is intelligent, then? And it communicates with Potter down a true bond?”
            “Surely Draco would have told you that by now,” said Severus, puzzled. Draco spent all his free time with Potter, at least when he didn’t have homework or plans with his Slytherin friends, and he still chattered in an obsessed way about the basilisk and Parseltongue.
            “I know what Draco wants to believe,” said Lucius, and shook his head. “Would you believe that somehow I have managed to rear a son who is a romantic, Severus? It must be his mother’s influence. He wants to believe in true friendship bonds been wizards and animals, and so he does.”
            Severus reached for his cup of tea, although he didn’t want it. It would make a useful shield for his smile. The day that Lucius managed to make him believe he was less than proud of Draco, Narcissa’s influence over the boy and all, was the day that Severus killed himself, because he would no longer survive in this world with his ability to detect lies so impaired.
            “It is a true bond,” said Severus. “I have seen the basilisk obey commands not to strike, and it underwent, for Potter’s sake, having its venom diluted and the mirrors that Dumbledore enchanted to reflect its gaze continually rotating around it. And Potter laughs at comments it makes in his head.”
            Lucius’s breath caught then. Severus supposed having the word of an adult observer made a difference to him. “Then—do you think Slytherin—and the body was almost Sorted into our House—”
            “That is not the case,” said Severus coldly. Speaking of romantic folly, he thought that the notion only Salazar Slytherin had ever had a true bond with a basilisk was nonsense. Slytherin would not have left those eggs in the chamber where Potter had discovered them if he was the only one who could ever come back and bond with one of them.
            Unless Potter is his reincarnation.
            But Severus would pay no such mind to silly rumors. And he would not encourage them in Lucius, either, who in any case looked only remotely disappointed before he nodded.
            “Does Potter want revenge on Dumbledore as well?” Lucius added, and then sighed and shook his head before Severus could say anything. “It would be almost too sweet if that was the case.”
            “I am not sure,” Severus said slowly. He did think that Potter distrusted the Headmaster more, but on the other side, Albus had been the one who had arranged for Black’s trial to go through so quickly. It was possible that Potter gave Albus some credit for being the one to ensure he was removed from his abusive family and had a permanent home to go to.
            If anything can be permanent with Black in charge of it. Severus had his doubts about the capability of Black to provide any kind of emotional guidance for a child, and more than doubts about the fact that Lupin passed his every wretched transformation now in Black’s home. Black had said that he had the room where that happened locked tight so Harry couldn’t get into it, but Severus wondered if he had paid attention to the fact of his godson getting into the Chamber of Secrets on his own.
            “I think I need to sound him out on that,” Severus added, so that Lucius would not suspect him of daydreaming, or demand more truths than Severus wanted to give at the moment. “I will try.”
            Lucius looked at him searchingly, and then nodded. “That’s all I can ask for.” He stood, and added, “I’m sure you understand that Potter won’t be pleased to work with us once he knows he’s working with me.”
            Severus raised his eyebrows only. A few minutes ago, that would not have concerned Lucius; he would have seen Harry as a child and a pawn, important but able to be worked around and moved across the board, nothing more. Severus wondered if it was the revelation of Harry’s true bond with the basilisk that had made Lucius change his tune, or something else.
            “I understand,” said Severus. “It remains to be seen whether I can persuade him to this at all, or whether we must try another tactic.”
            “Like using one of the other children?”
            Severus nodded. He was sure that one of the others would risk exposure in order to escape a horrible situation. But none of them would bring as much attention and start the needed investigation as readily as Harry.
            And perhaps, now that Harry himself was safe from returning to the Muggles, he would feel a bit calmer about it, more ready to speak the things that he had kept to himself for years. Severus still thought that courting the basilisk’s favor would be the key. The snake had a power to talk to Harry and understand him as no one else did.
            “Very well,” said Lucius. “Consider alternative plans.” He paused with his hand on the latch of the door. “And Severus? Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention.”
            He departed, and Severus leaned back in his chair and sighed. He had the considerably more delicate task, he thought, no matter how Lucius had to dance around the other members of the Board of Governors.
            Especially when he had started calling Potter Harry, if only in his head.
            I refuse to refer to the basilisk by his ridiculous name, however, Severus thought sternly, and stood up to put the teacups away.
*
Blood_Moonflower: Thanks! Dash will continue to change a lot, simply by existing.
Meechypoo: Dash is thinking about it. And unlike Lupin, if he figures it out, he will tell Harry.
staar: No, Hermione is not spying on Harry. Why did you think so? As in canon, she figured out what was going on with Lupin first, but didn’t think it was her place to speak up.
moodysavage: Thanks! Snape will continue to be a major influence for a while.
ChaosLady: Well, at least he’s aware of it?
SP777: A little over five feet long.
eros: Eventually, yes.
xxFree_Lovexx: Harry was the catalyst. And Severus is still infuriated about Dumbledore doing things for Sirius that he wouldn’t do for anyone else, just because Sirius was “brave” and ran away from his abusive situation. This is partially about revenge for himself as much as anything else.
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A Brother to Basilisks