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A Vicious Tangle (Complete)	By : Tommy-Lane Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 13087 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any charactors from the books and I am not making any money off of this.

Chapter List
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"I'm going to kill you." Draco wheezed, blinking up at the clouds floating lazily in the blue sky above him.

"I didn't know." Potter huffed out, his glasses lying somewhere on the grass beside them as he rubbed his fingers over his eyes.

"It won't be quick either." Draco continued as he tried to catch his breath.

"Honestly Malfoy, I didn't know." Potter was breathing much too loudly next to him, his arm brushing Draco's as they laid sprawled on the damp grass - ruining his lovely suit no doubt.

"Poison muffins maybe, you always eat without thinking." Draco mused and Potter let out a chuckle.

"That's Ron you're thinking of."

"Fine, lethal beer then."

"I don't like beer." Potter muttered, stretching his legs out with a stifled groan.

"What do you mean you don't like beer, of course you do!" Draco turned his head to give the dark haired man an incredulous look.

"Why would you assume that?" Potter widened his eyes and blinked before giving up and just squinting in his direction.

Merlin Potter had horrid eyesight. "Because as we already established you are a simpleton and simpletons have terribly unrefined tastes."

Potter shrugged. "Don't know what to tell you. Makes me sick."

"Well that's perfect then, I'll get you sick on beer, nick your glasses, and leave you somewhere." Draco grumbled, propping himself up on his elbows before reaching across Potter's body and plucking the atrocious round spectacles off the ground. The frames were thin, surprisingly so, almost like they could fall apart if Draco handled them just a tad too roughly. It struck him as odd for some reason. Even though it really shouldn't have - they were just spectacles. But still, they were Potter's spectacles and it just felt wrong for them to be so fragile.

"So your plan is to get me drunk and then kidnap me?" Potter sounded very much like he was holding back a laugh and Draco couldn't stop himself from shifting his gaze down to Potter in a firm glare. He looked so different without the ugly things marring his face, it made every little nuance stand out shockingly clear, somehow even accentuating the shadow of a beard on his cheeks and chin that he apparently had been too distracted that morning to shave off.

He held up the blind Auror's glasses and swung them lightly in his grasp. "Good isn't it?" He smirked and Potter frowned as his squint became even more pronounced.

"How are you going to get me drunk?" Potter tipped his head, his black mop lolling in the green grass in a rather frighteningly stark contrast.

"Pardon?" Draco cleared his throat, his hand tightening around the glasses.

"Well." Potter slipped an arm under his head as he studied him in his squinty, blind as a bat in broad daylight kind of way. "If I don't like beer how do you plan on getting me drunk on it? You'd have to be awfully sneaky."

Draco opened and shut his mouth, his jaw tightening as Potter smiled a lazy smile that seemed to reflect the attitude of the clouds drifting above them, parting for the warm summer heat to beat down upon his back. "I...yes. Sneaky..." He trailed off and cursed the blasted sun and its stupid heat rays making him all flustered all of a sudden.

He hated feeling like that, it made him trail off without actually saying anything.

"Would you sneak into my house and replace all my water with this fated beer of yours and just hope that I don't notice?"

"Don't be absurd." Draco scoffed.

"You're right, that's not nearly sneaky enough. You'd have to come over, distract me with some awful rant about muggle something or other while holding a beer which after the first hour I'd be so foggy headed and desperate for any sort of distraction that I'd take it and drink it. Of course then you'd have to think of something else just as equally annoying to do to me after I finished the first one..."

Draco scowled. "Stop looking so smug Potter."

"I'm not smug, I'm about to be murdered remember? Can't really be smug when your life is hanging in the balance." Potter was very clearly trying to get the smile off his face but it wasn't working, his lips ending up in a half smile, half frown type of thing that just made him look mental.

"You're getting off topic." Draco grumbled, flopping back down onto the grass simply so he wouldn't have to stare down at Potter's face any longer while he gave Draco pointers on how to get him stumbling drunk which sounded shockingly like the time he himself had gotten drunk and stumbled through Potter's floo simply to yell at him about something at 1:00 in the morning. "The point is that you almost got us killed-"

Potter snorted. "That's a bit dramatic, they were children Malfoy."

"Raving lunatic muggle children!" Draco corrected. "And why were there even children at your super-secret crime scene that I had to sign a gag restraint before even being allowed to know about?"

"Er, yeah...that is rather worrisome."

"I should say so." Draco scoffed, holding Potter's glasses up until the sun reflected in their orbs, making him squint in their direction. "And do all muggle children throw rocks like that? Because if so then I really believe that people need to know about these ruffians. Its' a matter of public safety."

"No, not all muggle children are ruffians." Potter tried to snatch his glasses back, his hand sailing right past them as Draco snickered, unaccountably unwilling to relinquish the things just yet. "Just those ones but hey, we out ran them."

"Should have let me hex them." Draco pouted as he moved the glasses out of Potter's reach once more, finding it far too entertaining watching the other man trying to swipe them from him in his blind state.

"Then I would have had to arrest you." Potter sat up with his hands in the damp grass and his eyes trying unsuccessfully to tract the movement of his glasses. "Which would have forced mounds of paper work on me and I hate paper work."

"You suck all the fun out of life Potter."

"And hexing children is what you think of as fun. That's just sick."

Draco shrugged, grinning as Potter missed again, the thin frames slipping over his eyes as he pushed them into place. He blinked as everything morphed into one gigantic fuzzy blob. "Merlin Potter, moles have better eyesight than you."

Potter's face loomed closer as he strained his neck, blinking owlishly. "Are you wearing my glasses?"

"No." Draco smacked the hand nearing the general area of his face away. "I would never demean myself with such an awful accessory." He rolled onto his knees and cast a quick drying charm on himself as he did so, a pressure building behind his eye as he tried and failed to bring a single thing into focus. It was highly unnerving, feeling the ground under his feet but not being able to make it firmly out, the feel of the wind on his face and the smell of fragrant flowers in his nose but unable to tell where it was coming from.

He could guess that the mass of green was grass, that the mass of blue was sky, that the mass of blackish was Potter...

"Like drowning," he murmured to himself, a thought lighting brightly around all the fuzziness, it was so simple he was annoyed that he hadn't thought of it before. There was moment after they Apparated, after he regained his footing and jerked away from Potter before the children came jumping out at them. They had been standing in a house burned to the ground, nothing but singed rubble all around them, soot and black ash and broken dreams of the muggles who had lived there. But further down, a few short feet was a slope running down to a river - a river with bubbling white rapids and smooth as glass pockets...

"Potter where were the disks found?"

"Over there." Potter answered with a confused air as he pointed in the opposite direction they had come from. "Oh wait, or is it...that way?" He spun around and squinted again like that would make it all suddenly perfectly clear. "Bloody hell give me my glasses back."

"No you idiot, I mean where exactly?" He reached out and snatched the gray mass that was probably Potter's shirt as the man spun again and started off in a random direction, turning him back around so they were facing each other.

"They were in the victims mouths." The blackish blob that was Potter swayed. "Stuck to their cheeks. Let go, you're pinching me."

"Their mouths?" He repeated, tightening his grip. "And you didn't think that was an important detail to mention?"

"Erm, no? You never cared before..."

"And where was the body found?" Draco pressed forward. "Was it in the river?"

Potter stopped trying to pry Draco's hand from his shirt, his body suddenly coiling with tension so tight the blonde could feel it radiating off of him. "How did you know that?"

"And the others?" Draco pressed. "Were they found in water as well?"

"...Yes, Malfoy-"

"Blast." Draco muttered to himself and with a quick jerk ripped the glasses from his face and jammed them back into place on Potter's head, the green of his eyes expanding as his pupils contracted, his hand reaching up to adjust them to the right fit. Draco watched him, his mind spinning, flowing like a river, jumping and cresting and descending.

Five dead muggles. Five unidentifiable disks attached to the inside of their cheeks.

"Malfoy?" Potter asked, his gaze narrowing. "Wha-"

Draco didn't stay around to hear the rest of his question, with a quick glance over his shoulder at the empty field all around them, he spun on the spot and Dissapparated. He appeared with his feet already moving forward in the Apparation room on the Ministries ground floor, nearly running over an elderly witch who cursed something rather crude and fierce his way as he moved briskly away and squeezed himself into the first available lift. He pointedly ignored the stares he received as he stumbled from its cage on level two, pushing his hand through his hair and loosening the tie around his neck.

The latest body was found in the river. Not in the house that had been burnt to cinders the same night, not in the grass just beyond. But in the river, except that wasn't how the boy had died. Draco knew that, he remembered that much from Potter's indignant rant when he had first summoned Draco to his office to show him the newest disk. They didn't know how the boy had died even after hours of the Healers going over him. The cause of death eluded them all.

The door creaked like it always did as he pushed through and into the hall leading to his office.

"Oi Malfoy, back already?"

He jerked to a halt at Weasley's voice, his head turning to catch sight of the redheaded Auror sitting at Damaris's desk with his feet resting upon it - Damaris's gaudy mug in her hands and a paper one in his own. The entire picture was off and confusing but refused to budge from Draco's eyes even when he blinked and blinked again - they were still sitting there, Damaris reeking of cabbage and Weasley leaning back in his chair looking for all the world like the two were lifelong mates.

"Weasley?" He asked, looking behind himself for some reason, like the dim empty hall would offer him all the answers. "What are you doing?"

"Having coffee." Damaris answered, lifting the mug to her lips and taking a tiny sip from it.

"Where's Harry?" Weasley glanced over Draco's shoulder and smiled in his odd Weasley-ish way.

"He's -" Oh...damn. He'd left him in the field in his hurry to get back to test the theory taking shape in his mind. Potter was going to be livid.

"Forget him somewhere again?" Weasley snickered, exchanging a look with Damaris that made Draco frown.

"I'm sure he didn't forget him, did you dear?" She smiled sweetly between the two of them and Draco cringed, his eyes shifting down and to the left for a split second. "Well, I'm sure it was for a good reason." She continued.

Weasley look one last drink from his cup before crumpling it up and tossing it at the rubbish bin. "Well," he said with a drawn out cadence as he stood and shot Damaris a fond smile. "Best be going and Malfoy." He crossed the room and sidestepped him with a little shake of the head. "Good luck."

"What for?" Draco asked, watching Weasley's retreating back for the second time that day.

"Take a wild guess." And with that he was gone, scarlet and black robes swishing dramatically with the door squeaking horribly loud as it banged shut behind him.

"Lovely man." Damaris muttered, pushing her glasses back into place and pulling a sheaf of parchment towards herself. "Simply lovely..." Then she was humming a little ditty known to her and her alone, a tune of clear dismissal that Draco knew quite well.

With a tightened fist and even tighter jaw he turned and started back down the hall, slipping under his doorway and snapping the door shut with the heel of his foot. He didn't care what Weasley said, he didn't need luck, he could deal with Potter and his mood swings, he could deal with the wrath of having left the man...again. Though he really should probably stop doing that. Not that it was on purpose. Well except for once but Potter had deserved being stranded in the middle of the desert that time.

And he had worked his way free and gotten back eventually.

With a flick and swish of his wand the wall opposite him shuddered as the shelves came grinding back into the light, black boxes gleaming with the silver numbers labeling each one printed in precise script. His wand pointed straight at the number 47 and a moment later it was settling onto the desk before him, the locks clicking open. He didn't lift the lid though, instead he summoned a shallow silver bowl from the opposite shelf, a cool trickle of water filling up the basin the moment it touched the wooden desk.

"Malfoy!"

Draco drew in a breath, closing his eyes for a moment before moving to the cupboard in the corner, ignoring the loud thump of feet he could hear marching down the hall towards him. The door flew open as Draco reached into the depths of the cupboard, his fingers gliding over the various jars and phials inside it.

"When I get my hands on-ow!" Potter cried, the wood of the doorway cracking from the collision with his thick head.

"Please refrain from shouting." Draco drawled as he glanced over his shoulder and smirked at the sight Potter made - his hand rubbing furiously over his forehead with his nose scrunched up as he glared at the gradually sinking doorframe. Every single time Potter made the trip to his office he smacked his head and Draco never ceased to find it humorous, despite the fact that he firmly believed that the man really should have figured out by now that all he needed to do was gauge the length before him and simply duck.

"You're joking right?" Potter swung his gaze to Draco as he bent his knees and stepped inside.

"Quite serious I assure you." Draco plucked a squat glass jar from the top shelf and softly shut the door.

Potter looked at the items littering his otherwise pristine desk and rubbed once more at his head, his facial muscles going tight in the way they only ever did when he was near the point of physically lashing out at him. Not that he had ever actually struck Draco but the Dark Artifacts Specialist had seen the look more times than he could count - the darkening irises, the hard lines, and a twitch in his neck...

"You left me. Again! I told you that -"

"Yes, yes." Draco uncorked the bottle and sprinkled a fine layer of the deep orange powder over the waters glimmering surface. "That you'd have me, what was it?" He paused and furrowed his brow in thought, the powder bubbling below a rise of steam before dissolving completely away. "Oh yes, strung up and whipped till an inch of my life, correct? Though I don't think that's entirely legal so you may want to reconsider your choice of retribution for being left in a sunny, flower specked field that took you probably not even a minute to leave after I did." The steam cleared, leaving nothing but clear water once more and Draco conjured an hour glass, flipping it over atop the wood and watching with satisfaction as the sand began to flow.

Potter's hands formed a fist at his side as he stepped closer. "That's not the point and you know it. You can't keep doing that!"

"Leash the lion Potter, you're fine, I'm fine, get over it." Draco sunk down into his chair, the buildup of energy from the possible breakthrough making him tap his foot against the hard cold floor.

"You! You're...I don't know why I put up with you." He glowered but didn't move from his spot, his green eyes ablaze.

"Then go elsewhere, as I've stated previously there are two others just as qualified to deal with you." Draco bit back, finding a thrill lace up his spine as Potter stomped nearer, sending his desk rattling from the force of it.

"You mean Luckwood? She's...alright but Henry is just creepy." Potter flipped his hand in a gesture that Draco knew he had picked up from spending too much time working with him, his own pale fingers reaching out to steady the hourglass from Potter's outbreak of energy.

"Who's Henry?" He asked with a wrinkled brow.

"You know Henry, Henry Cobble?" Potter looked taken-aback, the hard lines softening a fraction on the left side of his face.

Draco frowned at it. "You call Cobble by his first name?"

Potter shifted and ran a hand through his hair till he was gripping the nape of his neck. "Yeah well, he asked me too."

"And you could understand him? I didn't think that was possible." Draco said more to himself than anything before snapping out of his train of thought and swiveling in his chair to face Potter fully as the man rapped his knuckles against the desk - a chuckle escaping from the corner of one side of Potter's mouth for a split second before he clamped his lips shut with a firm glare.

"No. You are not going to distract me. You can't keep doing this Malfoy, you can't keep leaving me no matter how sunny the damn field is. It's against code."

"Code?" Draco lifted an eyebrow, scoffing at Potter's weak argument. "It just pisses you off."

"Damn right it pisses me off! Last month in the warehouse, remember that? We were moving those potions and then you were just gone, making it upend on me. And trust me, the pink eyebrows were the least of my concern that week! And I don't want to hear about the brilliant flash of genius you had that you simply had to rush back to your office to work through."

"But I am genius. Now if you'd please vacate my office, I have work to do." Draco replied, Potter's gaze following his down to his desk where the last grain of sand was slipping through the glass tunnel.

"Oh like hell, you're going to show me what was so important you couldn't wait a damn second." Potter yanked him out of his chair with a firm hand on his forearm before slipping around him and falling backwards into the soft seat, looking smug and oh so pleased with himself - his grass streaked arms crossed over his chest and his thick black eyebrow cocked in a sign of impatient anticipation. "Wow me with your genius." He said with a smirk.

Draco's stomach knotted, his gray eyes aglow in what Pansy termed his I'm going to sick my bodyguards on you look. Of course he didn't have bodyguards anymore, he was a grown man with a respectable job that unfortunately forced him to work with the likes of thick headed morons like Potter and Weasley on a nearly daily basis. Though his old friend would point out that that in essence made Potter his bodyguard and that always served to put him in a mood - actually anything Pansy said involving Potter tended to put him in a mood but that was neither here nor there at the moment.

The point was Potter was sitting in his chair with his feet planted firmly on the ground and an insulting little smile on his lips and Draco felt compelled for some reason to rub at the spot on his arm that he had grabbed. It was probably going to be bruised in the morning, honestly what was Potter thinking, yanking him around so roughly. Or at all really, because he was pretty sure yanking co-workers was strictly on the 'no' list of proper office conduct.

Though Potter didn't seem to abide by silly things such as rules ever, least of all office protocol. He was constantly grabbing Draco and tugging him along and snipping biting retorts his way. Like they were in school...or not because back then Potter would have punched him instead of just taking his chair.

"Keep your mouth shut and just sit there if you must." Draco tugged the knot of his tie down until he could pull it off over his head, the silky black material hitting Potter square in the chest as he took his time rolling up his sleeves in careful folds to his elbows.

"Is this part of the genius process then? Looking the part?" Potter snickered, picking up the blondes tie from his lap and winding it through his fingers.

Draco ignored him until his sleeves were situated exactly where he desired them and then continued to pretend that Potter wasn't ruining his tie with his rough touch as he flicked his wand and watched as the disc floated out of its box, hovering in the air - still and menacing in its innocent beauty. With an intake of air he carefully positioned it directly over the silver basin, easing it down into the watery depths in such a slow deliberate movement that the smooth surface barely moved.

"Is that-"

Draco shot him a glare, Potter's lips snapping firmly shut just as the disc settled gently against the bottom with soft clink. He felt his breath rise in his chest and stick there as he lifted his wand, passing it evenly and slowly over the basin three times. He let it out as he laid his wand down on the desk, the water shimmering like something was heating it from the bottom. The office was deafeningly quiet as they both stared into the bowl, waiting for what seemed like hours but could have only been minutes until Draco felt the crushing stirrings in his soul with the realization that this had just been another dead end when something happened.

It was small at first. Barely noticeable tendrils of black curling from under the submerged disk, reaching upwards like tentacles searching for something. There were eight thin wavering arms, black as night, curling back in on itself just before it could breach the water's surface. Then the basin began vibrating and Draco vaguely registered Potter's sharp intake of breath and his solid presence suddenly right beside him.

He lifted his wand and began casting, gray eyes intent on the tentacles and the ripples in the water, a strange impression taking up residence in Draco's mind that he couldn't shift. It seemed like the basin and water and even his hand above it were...screaming. Nothing audible in the room but their breathing but still it felt like a screaming shriek was piercing his very soul and Draco saw his hand start to shake, noticed the black was edging into his vision, took note of the tentacle that was somehow breaking above the water's surface despite the protective casing he had cast over it.

Reaching towards him, bending his back forward and pulling his head down without even touching him, then there was something tugging him backwards away from the scream that was beckoning him, a curse that sounded rather familiar, and a bright light and ear piercing crack that sent everything around him black in a rushing speed of sound.
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A Vicious Tangle (Complete)