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Soldier's Welcome	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 25565 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; that belongs to J. K. Rowling. I am making no money from this fic.

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Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Twenty-One�Problems
Aplenty

�� Harry shut
his eyes and sat still, waiting for the Calming Draught to work. He was almost
glad that the exams were happening now, even though it gave him a hundred other
things to worry about. Hermione didn�t suspect the real reason at all when he
asked for Calming Draughts or for charms that would force him to slow down and
breathe for a few minutes.

�� He had to do
that because there was no way that he could go to anyone for help on this,
which meant he had to devise a plan on his own. And if he fucked up the plan,
then he would fuck up Hagrid�s life.

�� The words
of the letter flamed in his mind. Luckily, with the Calming Draught in his
system, there was no way that Harry could panic. He had to think about the
words instead and all their implications.

�� Harry,

�� Chester�s escaped! And now there are evil
wizards sniffin around after him, and McGonagall is askin questions, and I�ve
heard about new laws for anyone breakin the magical breeding ban. Yer have to
help me find him and get him out of the country. Yer the only one I trust.

�� Hagrid.

�� It had only
taken a few idle questions to Hermione�who was so delighted to see him
interested in anything that she would chatter about certain subjects by the
hour�to confirm that Hagrid was right. Apparently some of Voldemort�s plans had
included breeding Dark magical creatures to fill out the ranks of his army. No
matter that those plans had never got off the ground; they�d still panicked the
Ministry, which tightened the Experimental Breeding Ban to the point that
simply being found with books about
crossbreeding magical creatures was likely to get you arrested. Hermione had
filled Harry�s ears with indignation about it, but Harry had barely heard her,
paying more attention to the furious thundering of his heart.

�� He had to
save Hagrid. For his friend to be sent to Azkaban again would probably break him. And now Harry had to wonder if
Nemo, the mysteriously-named �nobody� who had given Chester to Hagrid, was
connected to Nihil. He didn�t want anyone who could use grief magic anywhere
near his half-giant friend. Hagrid wasn�t a fully-trained wizard like Ron or
Hermione or Draco. He would fuck up.

�� At the same
time, Harry knew that he couldn�t just rely on someone else to solve the
problem for him, the way he�d been doing so much of the time. Hermione would
insist on appealing to authority because she still had that deep-seated faith
in authority Always Being Right. Harry couldn�t do that when it might get
Hagrid in legal trouble.

Ron would be eager to help, but
Harry simply didn�t trust him enough right now to ask him to go along.

�� And Draco�

�� Harry
chuckled bitterly and shook his head. Why should Draco care? He�d made it clear
that Hagrid was nothing more than a half-breed and a big, clumsy oaf to him.
Harry hadn�t thought about it in much detail, but that was something that would
always be a problem and a limitation for his friendship with Draco in a way
that it wouldn�t for his friendships with Ron and Hermione. Draco didn�t care about people in the way that Harry
thought was normal. They had to do something for him first.

�� So Harry
had to do this alone.

�� Luckily, by
swiping some of Hermione�s own Pepperup Potion supply that she used when she
wanted to stay up at night studying, Harry had managed to gain enough time to
study for his exams and look up
things that might help Hagrid. He thought he knew some spells that would help
him find Chester and get him safely into custody. Then they could see about the
evil wizards.

�� Harry
started gathering up the things he needed to take with him. He�d already
written back to Hagrid, so his friend would know to expect him tonight.

�� He really
wished he could tell someone about
this. It no longer felt right to be slipping off on his own. All of Hestia�s
lecturing about Auror teamwork had drummed its way into his head, he reckoned.

�� But there
was no choice, just like he�d had no choice about facing Voldemort alone, so
Harry made the best of things.

*

�� I don�t understand,
sir.� Draco frowned at the shimmering shield that hung in the air. It was
slightly bigger than the one created by Protego
and darker around the edges, but otherwise, Draco couldn�t see any
difference. �What does this spell do that the Shield Charm can�t?�

�� Dearborn
smiled and walked to the opposite end of his office. A spell that Draco had
already admitted the usefulness of had shoved his desk, his tables, and his
bookshelves back and up the walls, so they had plenty of space to practice in. �Stand
behind the shield and I�ll show you. Resist the temptation to strengthen it,
however much you might feel that temptation.�

�� Draco
narrowed his eyes. He didn�t think that he trusted Dearborn not to hurt him.

�� On the
other hand, what was a bit of pain compared to learning a spell that Dearborn
had praised to the skies? Draco stepped behind the shield.

�� Dearborn
waved his wand and whispered a word. Draco strained his ears, but didn�t manage
to catch the word, and then his attention was rather taken by the grey smoke
gushing out of the end of Dearborn�s wand.

�� The smoke
eddied and thickened, and reared up and up and up�and up. Draco had to tilt his
head back to properly view the dragon that the smoke solidified into. It seemed
to be made of metal, its scales tiny overlapping steel plates.

�� The dragon
lowered its head and opened its mouth. Draco tightened his muscles to keep from
running. He knew that the dragon had to be at least partially illusion, which
would limit the damage it could do. No one could simply conjure a real dragon from
his wand, or most of the wizarding wars Draco was aware of would have been
considerably bloodier.

�� He thought
so, anyway.

�� A noise
like the creaking and roaring of a bellows made its way out of the dragon�s
mouth, accompanied by a blast of foul, reeking air. Draco pinched his nose shut
and caught a glimpse of something bright and burning white in the back of the
dragon�s throat. The next moment, a lance of fire was traveling straight at
him.

�� Over the top of the shield.

�� Draco
dropped to one knee so that he could get under it.

�� Then the
shimmering shield extended itself, or grew outwards, or perhaps simply made a
part of itself visible that had been invisible before. Whatever the right name
for the procedure was, it caused an arc of shady silver light to form above the
upper rim of the shield, and the next moment the dragon�s lance of fire was
bouncing back at it. The dragon writhed in silence as the flame hit it and
melted two of its scales off before Dearborn flicked his wand and the illusion
dissolved.

�� You see?�
Dearborn murmured. �The Fortress Shield will stand up to anything, including
the charge of a dragon, and modify itself based on happenings in the immediate
battle. A trick worth learning, do you not think?�

�� Draco
nodded. He knew the incantation for the Fortress Shield, having heard Dearborn
use it, but at the moment, he was more interested in something else. �What
about the spell that brings the dragon into existence, sir?�

�� That?�
Dearborn laughed modestly and shook his head. �An illusion, as you must have
surmised. The fire would have scalded but not seriously burnt you.�

�� It could
still be useful to distract someone,� Draco said, and made his eyes worshipful
when Dearborn�s glance turned searching. Draco spent a lot of time flattering
Dearborn, trying to make him think that Draco was more in awe of him than he
really stood. �And you must have invented it yourself, sir.�

�� Well.�
Dearborn shrugged so that the cloth around his shoulders rippled. �I did.�

�� Then might
I know it?� Draco ducked his head and made sure that his eyes were wide when he
looked up again. He couldn�t play the appealing innocent too strongly, or
Dearborn would begin to suspect, but he thought he could use a little of it.
Add in the respect that he didn�t have to feign�someone who could invent a
spell like this and figure out how best to use it was worthy of admiration�and he
would surely persuade Dearborn.

�� Dearborn
stood still for some time, gazing thoughtfully at Draco. Then he smiled. �I
have never taken a mentee before this because I did not trust them to use the
secret as it should be used,� he murmured. �But I am interested to see what you
will do, as I was when I helped pair you with Potter. Yes, I will teach you the
incantation.�

�� Draco
nodded his thanks, and then jumped and turned his head. It felt as though
someone had pricked him with a pin. There was no one there, of course, and he
didn�t think Dearborn was the kind of person who would hide another trainee
under a Disillusionment Charm and have him frighten people who were getting
above themselves, which was said to be one of Ketchum�s tricks.

�� What is
it?�

�� Dearborn�s
voice had that high-pitched strain that it got when he thought someone was
making fun of him. Draco turned back to him, shaking his head in apology. �I
felt as though someone were stinging me,� he said. �I apologize, sir.�

�� The
sensation came again as he spoke. Draco shifted in annoyance. The pain faded
quickly, but now he was anticipating it, and that made the minor sting far
worse.

�� I have
heard of things like this,� said Dearborn, his eyes shrewd. �It feels as though
a single pin is being pushed into the skin just under your right shoulder?�

�� Yes, sir.�
Draco hoped that it really was Dearborn�s reading that had told him what Draco
was feeling, and that the way he moved hadn�t revealed the secret. That would
be humiliating.

�� The person
who shares compatible magic with you is in trouble.�

�� Draco
blinked, deliberately keeping his movements slow as he reached up to rub at the
itching place on his arm. His heart had kicked into a gallop when he heard
Dearborn�s casual words, but it would have been the height of folly to show that. Draco had not survived the
war by carrying his emotions around in public for anyone to see. �Are you sure,
sir? I know compatible magic is capable of accomplishing much, but surely not
that.�

�� It always
has an element of defense,� Dearborn said, falling into the natural tones of a
lecturer. The needle poked Draco. He clenched his right back teeth and kept his
face unruffled. He would have to hope that Dearborn�s lesson did not take long.
�It is rarely so neatly split as yours is, with you having an affinity to the
Dark Arts and Potter a talent for Defense magic, but that element is present or
it cannot be classified as compatible magic. And therefore it will tell you
when your partner is in trouble, so that you may defend him.�

�� I
understand, sir.� Draco glanced towards the door with an expression of
distaste. �I reckon that I should go and see what�s happened to him this time.� Make Dearborn think that I care more about missing the end of his
lesson than I do about Potter.

�� Yes, I
suppose you should.� Dearborn leaned back on the wall and gave his head an
amused shake. �This time, try to arrange something that does not involve
breaking into interrogation rooms.�

�� Draco gave
a bow and noted the subtle reminder that his misdeed had not been forgotten
before he walked out of the room. Once in the corridor, he began to run.

�� The warning
gave him no clue where Potter was, that was the problem. But not for nothing
had he watched the Death Eaters use sophisticated tracking spells during the
year of the war. He only had to get outside the Ministry to use them.

*

�� Harry put
his back to a tree and shut his eyes to listen. Then he opened them again with
a soft curse. Listening didn�t do much good when the terrified pounding of his
heart overrode anything else.

�� If he
concentrated, he thought he could still hear Hagrid crying, �Chester!� at a distance and ringing the
bell that he claimed he had trained the little beast to respond to. But Harry
was more concerned with something else.

�� Like the
tread of soft paws and the snuffling of large, wet nostrils.

�� Harry had
arrived at Hogwarts two hours ago, reassured Hagrid, and promised to help him
search the Forbidden Forest for Chester. He hadn�t thought it would be that
difficult. His reading had told him that dragons and hippogriffs had been
crossed before, and they tended to like things that smelled strong and scorched�a
result of coming from two beasts that stank, the book suggested. Harry had
brought garlic and the glands from a polecat�s tail, which Hermione had in her
room for a Battle Brewing assignment, with him, and then he�d cast Incendio on them. He�d been sure the
smell would bring Chester running.

�� Except it
hadn�t. Except it had attracted something else.

�� Harry
shifted his weight and glanced around thoughtfully by the light of his subdued Lumos, trying to imagine what Pushkin
would tell him to observe about this scene, and the way that Ketchum would
recommend that he use it to evade his enemies in the Battlefield Tactics class.
He stood between two thick roots the height of his waist, in a tiny cove carpeted
with fallen leaves and pine needles. He couldn�t move quietly, but if the
things hunting him tracked by scent, the way Harry thought he did, that wouldn�t
matter. He was more interested in the possibilities of how he would make this a
defensible position.

�� At least
they could only attack him from the front.

�� Unless they can climb.

�� Harry shuddered
and began to Transfigure some of the leaves and pine needles into additional
wood. The roots rose higher and higher around him, and finally Harry was
content they couldn�t come at him from the sides. He thought about adding a
roof in case they scrambled over the tree, but ended up shaking his head. No,
that would restrict his movement, and Ketchum would have a fit if he did that.

�� The thought
brought a brief smile to Harry�s face before he heard the deep sniff he�d been
waiting for. He worked his way slowly to the tiny gap he�d left in the eastern wooden
wall and pressed his eye to it.

�� One of the
creatures who had attacked him shortly after he lit the garlic on fire stood
five feet from the root, its head tilting back and forth. Harry had only seen
before that it had a body like an enormous wolf and a pair of twisted horns on
its head and fangs that stuck out of the sides of its mouth; that was quite
enough. Now he made out the human shape of the face and shuddered.

�� Werewolf? No, I know they don�t have horns, and it�s not a full
moon tonight.

�� The head
turned. Now Harry was staring at a second face that apparently occupied the back
of the first one. His heart twisted and so much adrenaline flooded his body
that he nearly leaped out of his safe little hiding place.

�� Quirrell, and Voldemort, and the Stone�

�� But he
forced his memories back into their proper places with a quick, vicious
application of one of the calming techniques Portillo Lopez had taught them and
made himself watch the face rationally. This one was human, too, but mutilated,
the cheeks visible only as torn strips of flesh, the forehead smashed in, and the
nose turned upside-down. Large patches of grey that looked like burns clung to
the lips and eyelids.

�� The
upside-down nose sniffed, and then a perfectly pleasant, bell-like voice said, �This
way, boys!�

�� Something long
and supple shot past the face at the same moment as the head twisted to bring
the �normal� face around again, and Harry recoiled. It took him a moment to
understand that it was the thing�s tail, rattling in a way that suggested it
was a scorpion�s.

�� And by the
time he had understood that, the things were upon him.

�� Two of them
at once came over the root walls, one on either side, scrambling and leaping up
them, their claws hooking and cutting into the wood. The one Harry had been
watching rustled and pounded the earth. Harry knew it was trying to circle
around the front and ambush him there, so he would be caught between three at
once.

�� I�m going to die.

�� Somehow,
Harry managed to retain the wits to figure out what to do, maybe because that
thought was hardly a new one. He lifted his wand and swept it around at
shoulder height, chanting so fast that his own words blurred in his ears. �Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy!�

�� The two
beasts climbing over the walls dropped when the red light hit them. Harry spun
around in time to see that the third one had ducked, letting Harry�s own
protections defend it from the spell. Now it stood back up and prowled slowly
forwards. It had pivoted its head around completely so that the mutilated face
was looking at him.

�� Harry
planted his feet and lifted his chin. He would have Apparated out of there if
Hogwarts�s anti-Apparition spells didn�t extend all across the grounds. He
missed Draco and wished he was there. He wasn�t ashamed to admit those things.

�� The face
licked its drooping lips with a pointed blue tongue and spat a sharp gout of
liquid at him. Harry reacted with a Shield Charm before it got fully out of the
creature�s mouth. When he heard the way it splattered and hissed as it hit his
shield, he was glad. It was either poison or acid, and he knew that he didn�t
want it to touch him.

�� You have
resisted me so far,� said the bell-like voice. �I would expect nothing less of
you. But you are young, and the many things your instructors have taught you
cannot counter all my tactics at once.�

�� That was
the only warning Harry had before the beast sprang at him, its shoulders
bending with an obscene fluidity around the edges of the wooden walls, its claws
and its teeth and its whipping tail and its poison all coming towards him at
once. Harry fell back, saw his shield shiver and dissolve, dodged the poison, tried
to raise another Protego and felt the
reaching claws tear his wand from his hand, and prepared himself to die.

�� But before
the tail could reach him, a sharp, peculiar cracking sound reached his ears.
The beast simply stopped, and the
tail dangled over its back like a drooping branch. Then its eyes rolled back
under the patterned eyelids and it collapsed.

�� Harry
stared down at the limp form of the beast. A giant sword was stuck through its
back. As he watched, the sword turned into silver mist and flew away, rather
like his Shield Charm. He knew it must be magic, but it wasn�t a spell that he
had seen before, and no matter how many times he blinked, he couldn�t seem to
get used to it.

�� At least he
had enough intelligence to stoop down and pick up his wand where it had rolled
against one of the wooden walls. He breathed and blinked and stood there trying
to clear his brain and figure out who had done this.

�� Draco?� he
called tentatively into the darkness, and then wondered why he had thought
automatically of Draco when someone protected him, rather than Ron or Hermione.

�� More cracks
answered him, and then screams so loud and piercing that Harry shuddered. He
couldn�t hear Hagrid�s voice among them, but that hardly mattered.

�� People were
being hurt, maybe including the
person who had saved him, and he was an Auror trainee and learning to save
people. He leaped out of his hiding place and ran as fast as he could towards
the sounds.

�� He stumbled
as he came up a little hill he hadn�t seen in the darkness and caught a tree
for balance. Then he froze again, because the battle taking place below him was
frightening and awe-inspiring and not one that he could see himself joining
right away.

�� A single
figure in a heavy cloak whirled around and around in the center of a clearing
made out of the Forest by slashing and burning spells. Around it, or him,
circled at least seven wizards in the black cloaks and white masks the fake Death
Eaters had worn. Harry saw two or three lying on the ground, in shriveled,
crumpled heaps like the skin of the one the grief magic had come out of in the interrogation
room.

�� It should
have been an easy contest, seven against one, but the wizards encircling the
central figure couldn�t get through. Harry saw one of them lunge and wave a
wand, but the one in the middle swayed backwards like a reed and then launched
a kick that made the wizard scream and stumble away, his arm dangling useless
from the elbow.

�� The effort
made the central figure�s hood fall back. Harry gasped. He recognized that
face, and he probably should have recognized it before he saw it due to the
level of skill. Obviously, there was a reason that Auror Gregory had been made
Combat instructor.

�� Harry
licked his lips and wondered who he should help, Gregory or the people fighting
her.

�� But he
glanced at the crumpled skins on the ground and made his decision. He knew the people fighting Gregory were
Nihil�s servants. He didn�t know that for sure about Auror Gregory. And there
was the fact that a sword spell was probably Combat magic and she had probably
saved his life.

�� He was just
getting ready to spring down the hill and try to insert himself in the fighting
somehow when an arm curled around his waist. Harry tried to struggle, kick, and
bite, furious with himself for being taken off-guard yet again.

�� Then he
felt the tingling hum of compatible magic and heard Draco�s voice whispering in
his ear, �I�m here. It�s me.�

�� Harry
relaxed with a harsh huff of breath and hissed back, �Don�t do that next time.�

�� Draco�s arm
around his waist tightened, and he hauled Harry close to his side again as if
in defiance of that advice. �It was a way to get your attention,� he said. �Now,
Auror Gregory appears to be on the opposite side from Nihil after all. Am I
right?�

�� Harry
nodded. �I think so. How do you think we should help her?�

�� Draco
opened his mouth to reply. Sometime later, Harry found himself curious about
what the words would have been.

�� Gregory
lifted her hands and brought them down in a savage slash, her voice wild as she
screamed a single word. �Segmentum!�

�� The body of
every wizard facing her divided into two neat pieces, as though someone had
swept the sword that had killed the beast straight through them at the waist.
Harry felt his head swim and heard Draco gasp beside him. He didn�t need any
more confirmation that Gregory�s spell was Dark Arts.

�� The bodies
fell without any blood that Harry could see, just a wash of dark, oily magic. He
gagged anyway.

�� Gregory turned
around and raised her head to stare at them. When she saw Harry, she gave him a
grim, bitter smile and a tight nod. Harry thought she was pleased to see him
alive, despite everything.

�� Then she
caught sight of Draco.

�� In an
instant, her wand was aimed at him, and she had begun to chant a spell. Harry
didn�t wait to hear her finish it.

�� He leaped
down the hill, hurling himself through the air straight at her, and between
Draco and her wand.

*

�� MewMew2:
Thank you!

�� hieisdragoness18:
Harry did think he had good reason for doing things this way.

�� SP777: Yes,
I did, thanks!

�� Harry is
currently betting that even if someone takes his magic from him, it�s not going
to happen the same way again and Draco won�t have to kiss him to return it.

�� Hope you
liked the revelation of Harry�s secret in this chapter!

�� And no, I
don�t live in TX.

�� Mr Spears:
Thank you!

�� callistianstar:
Thank you! I did feel bad for Draco. However, I think that he is underestimating
the importance Harry places on his feelings. He thought he forced Draco into
kissing him and Draco was upset about that. Draco needs to make absolutely clear
that he�s not.

�� qwerty:
Thanks! As Harry explained in this chapter, he thought Draco wouldn�t care
about Hagrid�and he wouldn�t have told Draco about his issues with Ginny if
Draco hadn�t overheard that conversation.

�� Ron is a
little surprised at the assertive Harry.

��
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