Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Leopardspaw	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 21311 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this fanfic.

Chapter List
- 20
- 21
- 22
Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Twenty-One--All Visions Fulfilled

            "I still can't believe you're doing this."

            "I'm doing this for you." Harry winked over his shoulder and then walked around the Transfigured cushion one more time, studying it critically. "What do you think? Does this look enough like your father to fool a casual inspection?"

            "The inspection won't be casual," Draco muttered as he bent over what had to look like his father's corpse to him. Harry didn't blame him for flinching a little as he examined its dull, dead eyes, though at least he had the comfort of knowing they had never been alive.

            Harry nodded. "I know that. But Immortal doesn't know your father well. He just has to believe it's a body that's been put into a coma. Do you think it would pass for that?" He stepped further back, in case his magical signature or body temperature or anything else would disturb Draco as he made his search.

            Draco's fingers were sure and steady as he moved them across the body's throat, then looked into the eyes. Harry nodded again. He had suspected, when he first explained his plan and Draco didn't make much objection, that that meant Draco had experience working with Stunned people and others that his potions had put into a sort of deep coma.

            He and Harry would have to talk about that, of course. There was no reason that Draco, as the close partner of an Auror, should keep doing illegal things that put him at risk when Harry was willing to take the risks for him. And there was also a difference between the sort of experimental potions that people kept to dose themselves and keep their minds safe from nightmares, and the sort they would use on other people.

            But Harry believed Draco when he said that he wanted to make a life for himself away from the illegal end of the Potions business. If only because Harry, by blowing up his contracts with Corinna and Flint, had come close to making it impossible for him to do otherwise.

            Finally, Draco sighed and leaned back on his heels. "I can't think of anything else that someone would check for," he admitted. "How did you get so good at Transfiguration? I remember you being rather pants at it in school."

            "I was all right, just not as good at it as I was at Defense," Harry corrected him. "Or Quidditch. Those are the two things everyone remembers about me. I would have expected you to look beyond the surface, at least." He fluttered his eyelashes at Draco.

            Draco rolled his eyes, but he was smiling somewhere behind the mask. "And that doesn't answer the question."

            "I took a class with a master I paid, when I was in the Auror training program," Harry said. "There's no way that I would have passed some of the required classes and exams otherwise. And once he showed me ways that Transfigurations were similar to some of the magic I was naturally talented at, then I became good."

            "This is better than good," Draco said, trailing his fingers through the Transfigured corpse's blond hair. "I would have said this was him, on a casual glance."

            Harry smiled, and half-bowed his head. Draco's compliments still made him feel like he was being dipped in wine.

            Draco glanced up, seemed to recognize that, and hastily rose to his feet and cleared his throat. "So. You've got your body. What are you going to do next?"

            Harry opened his eyes very wide. "Why, isn't it obvious?" He bent down and cast a few spells that would make organs swell inside the Transfigured body, soft, puffy bags to resemble the lungs and a beating bag for the heart. Then another spell made it appear to breathe. "I'm going to give Immortal the body I promised him."

*



            Draco insisted on coming along under the Invisibility Cloak to watch what Harry was doing, which didn't suit Harry, who had wanted to keep Draco safe. But Draco pointed out Harry had walked into danger when he went into the Ministry alone to see Immortal, and that Azkaban was probably more dangerous than this. Harry had to concede to that, though he was aware he didn't do it graciously.

            So Draco was behind him when Harry once again ducked and dodged through the Ministry, pressed under the Invisibility Cloak with Draco and trying to ignore his distracting scent and warmth. Once again, they reached the holding cell. There Draco proved his worth by watching Harry's back and the corridor for any sign of approaching Aurors while Harry disabled the wards on the cell again.

            I could grow used to acting and fighting with him.

            Hopefully, Harry thought as he pulled the door open, he would have long years of it to do so. Draco backed in behind him, and they shut the door.

            Harry slipped out from under the Cloak and stood in front of Immortal with his fake corpse. Immortal didn't question the way he had apparently appeared from nowhere. Of course, Harry thought, Immortal didn't question much of anything. He did rise to his feet, greedy eyes on the false Lucius, and made a sound in his throat that might have been a polite question from anyone else. His face was glowing.

            "I told you I would bring you the perfect candidate," Harry said, and cast the body down in front of Immortal. He winced as the head bounced, even though this body had started "life" as a sofa cushion and was nothing more than a replica of Lucius. He had to admit that he was probably too sensitive for some aspects of plotting evil and leading a nefarious lifestyle.

            That's all right. Draco can compensate for me.

            Immortal bent down and ran his hands over the body's chest, murmuring and chuckling deep in his chest. Then he looked up at Harry. "His soul hasn't been taken already? Because he looks like the corpse of a Dementor's Kiss."

            Harry shook his head with what he thought was becoming firmness--becoming to himself, at least, and also to the plan. "I put him in a coma. He knows a lot of Dark magic, and he wasn't happy when he found out what his purpose would be. That made it unsafe for me to leave him awake."

            "You did rightly," Immortal said, and leaned back on his heels with a little laugh of exultation. Harry could feel Draco's shudder even though they no longer stood next to each other. "Rightly!"

            "Will you conduct the ritual now?" Harry asked. "Or do you need me to fetch something?" He hoped for the first answer. The more times he had to sneak into the cell, the riskier his plan became.

            "I can conduct it now," Immortal said, and rose to his feet with a loving smile down at "Lucius." "They think that they took all the potions and powders and ritual instruments I need from me. It is not so. The true initiate of Slytherin always has his tools with him." And he reached out and stuck his hand into a slit in the air.

            After a long moment of staring, Harry understood. It was a portable wizardspace, linked to Immortal and traveling wherever he traveled. It had to be, though from what Harry understood by hearing the older Aurors discuss it, such a thing was theoretical only and had never actually been proven to exist.

            That a mad wizard had found a way around the magical laws and rules that Aurors had believed, until now, would restrict something like this was not a good sign. But Harry reminded himself to look simply interested. Immortal was paranoid, and he would notice too much strange behavior from someone who was supposed to be a supporter.

            Immortal stepped back, studied the body for a moment, and then struck down with a silver knife that unfolded along its length as it flew. In the end, it stuck through the false Lucius's heart, and pinned it. Harry could still hear the feigned beats flowing from it, though. He shuddered a little.

            "This is the simple part," Immortal said calmly. "It keeps the body in a state of pseudo-life while I get ready to destroy the soul."

            Harry waited a few more moments, while Immortal used other knives to inflict shallow cuts on the limbs and draw blood. He had arranged cups around the limbs to catch the blood when Harry decided this was enough.

            He stepped back and removed the blinding charms on the wards in the room as he bellowed, "What are you doing?"

            Immortal jerked to a stop, blinking at him. Draco had already fallen back towards the door, and he whipped the Cloak from his head now, pointing at Immortal. "What are you doing to my father?" He managed a credible wail.

            "Only--" Immortal seemed disconcerted by the way Draco had appeared out of nowhere in a way he hadn't been when Harry had done it. He looked down at the knife in his hand as though it had come there by itself, too.

            By now, someone was pounding on the door. Harry let Draco fling it dramatically open while he cried, "You're conducting a ritual to deprive someone of his soul? He doesn't deserve that, even if it is Lucius Malfoy!"

            The Aurors piled into the room, and stared for a moment between Harry and Draco and Immortal and the apparent "Lucius" on the floor. Then two of them began to move towards Draco, but the rest of them had better sense and decided that the person actually conducting the soul-destroying ritual was the one they wanted to look at. In a moment, they surged forwards and surrounded Immortal.

            "He has a portable wizardspace," Harry said, in the tone of someone anxious to help.

            Immediately two of the Aurors cast a series of wards around Immortal that were meant to focus on a person's clothes and deprive them of the power of carrying anything dangerous. Immortal cried out like a bird with a broken wing when his knives and something else leaped away from his hand and clattered to the floor. Harry shook his head and kicked them out of reach.

            "You have to be careful with those insane Dark wizards," he told the Aurors in a tone of commiseration. "You never know what they'll do next."

            He received several grim nods in return, but the nearest Auror had crouched over the "corpse" and was doing his best to revive it. Harry saw the moment when he looked at the pierced heart and leaned back on his heels, sighing.

            "This is Lucius Malfoy?" the Auror asked, turning back and forth between Draco and Harry as though he wasn't sure which of them would be the best to ask.

            Draco bowed his head. "He was my father," he whispered, and then staggered as if he was about to faint.

            Harry leaped forwards to catch him. He saw some of the Aurors watching out of the corners of their eyes, and was sure that that dramatic rescue would end up on the front page of the Prophet tomorrow. Probably with a faked photograph. Not that Harry minded, this one time.

            "He's just seen his father murdered," he told the Aurors who gaped. "We tried to get here early, and couldn't. We tried to catch the conspirators who brought Malfoy's father to him--one of whom used my bloody appearance!-- and we couldn't. Could you show a bit of respect?" He managed to put real anger in his voice. There were still too many of them staring at Draco as if he were the real criminal here, and with someone else as the blatant villain, that made Harry remember how it was probably going to be for Draco from now on.

            They scurried, after that, to cover up the "body" and wrap Immortal with spells and bonds so he couldn't do anything else. One of them finally Stunned him so that his babble about Harry being the one to bring him the body would shut up.

            Draco opened one eye as he lay in Harry's arms, where Harry rather liked having him. "Is it over?" he whispered.

            "Well begun." Harry stroked his hair back from his forehead, a gesture he could easily turn into checking for Draco's pallor if anyone asked him. "I'm proud of you."

            Draco gave him a wan smile and closed his eyes. He didn't have to do much acting to show that he was upset by this plan, Harry thought, and regretted asking him to go through with it for a moment.

            But Draco had made his choice, and Harry was proud of him. It would have to be enough, for now.

*

            "The story that you tried to spin for me looks more than a little unlikely, Harry."

            Kingsley leaned across his desk. Harry leaned back and lowered his eyes to the floor. There was a bit of silence. Draco and "Lucius" had been taken away the moment an Auror who could cast the proper spells had verified that Lucius was indeed dead. He had no one here to support him. He was alone.

            But I have someone to fight for.

            Harry bowed his head and took a huge breath. Then he said, "You're not going to like what I have to say, sir, but I have to tell you."

            He looked up to see that Kingsley's eyes had gone wary. He leaned back in his chair this time and kept his voice exquisitely neutral as he said, "An interesting beginning to an interview. Why don't you explain what you mean by that?"

            "You were the one who requested the interview, sir," Harry reminded him softly, and then drew out the letter he and Draco had found in Lucius's cell from his robe. "Do you want to read this? Do you recognize the handwriting?"

            Kingsley didn't read more than a line before he flung the letter to the desk. "Do you imagine that you can blackmail me with a pathetic forgery?" he demanded. "Do you imagine that anyone would believe you? My hand's public. It's easily imitated. That doesn't mean I wrote this letter!"

            Harry didn't take his eyes from his boss's face. "When I performed a spell that reveals the identity of the writer, your name was what appeared on the bottom of the page. I can show you the spell now, if you like."

            Kingsley stared at him, then at the letter again. "Someone must have imitated it," he whispered. "Someone must have interfered with the spell. There are spells that can do such things. There are clever Dark wizards. Look at Immortal, who we all thought was a madman, and his portable wizardspace."

            But his voice was sinking, and Harry nodded a little. Memory Charms almost always left an echo behind, though it might only be a dream or a sense of déjà vu. He didn't think Narcissa Malfoy was so skilled at them as to have avoided leaving that trace. "Yes, sir. You remember, don't you? That someone enchanted you and forced you to write this?"

            Kingsley closed his eyes. "Someone did. That means that I was responsible, in part, for bringing Lucius Malfoy to his death."

            "They could have used anyone," Harry said firmly. "They could have used me, except maybe they thought I was too recognizable and someone would remember every time I came to Azkaban." Not to mention his resistance to the Imperius Curse, but he thought he would keep mention of that out of his story. No need to encourage Kingsley to think about the details of how Narcissa had done this. "And they did use my appearance to get into the Ministry and give that body to Immortal. Don't blame yourself, sir. The real villains are the ones who did this, who supported Immortal and made sure he could kill Malfoy. Pursue them instead."

            Kingsley nodded and opened his eyes. "You're right, Harry. We need to concentrate on that. We can do nothing now for the Malfoys except apologize." He sighed and touched his eyes with the back of his hand. "Do you know, I thought Malfoy's son was behind his disappearance at first? He seemed to idolize his father when he was young, and I thought he might want him free."

            Harry smiled gently. "I can say that his greatest desire is to be free of the shadow of his past." Well, and maybe to have me at his side, but that's not the sort of thing you tell your boss.

            Kingsley nodded again. "Well. Does this mean that you're coming back to work with the Aurors full-time?" He glanced at Harry's stained hands.

            "I still need to find a way to get this curse off me," Harry said, not thinking that it mattered if Kingsley heard him call it a curse, now. "Malfoy has said--in gratitude for the way I tried to help him his father--that he might know a Potions master who could do it. But I'll come back after that."

            "Good." Kingsley stood up and extended his hand across the desk. "Because we need you on the team, Harry. Truth-telling ability or not."

            Harry smiled serenely at him and shook Kingsley's hand. "Happy to be back, sir."

            And he was. With a job inside the Ministry, he could make sure more easily that they didn't interfere in the Malfoys' lives, and that they believed Lucius was dead, and also that Narcissa Malfoy didn't get it into her head to do something else stupid and dangerous that might get Draco in trouble.

            All's well that ends well.

*

            moodysavage: I think Harry has enough perspective not to do that. But he was awfully bored before Draco came around. At least now he has a focus for the boredom, and might be a touch less dangerous because of that.

            delia cerrano: Harry won't go along with illegal things or things that violate his moral principles, as Draco may learn if he pushes certain things. That should hopefully hold them back from swallowing each other up.

            SP777: That's pretty much the advice Draco is giving himself.

            unneeded: Lucius is sitting back right about now and asking what the heck this is, and whether he should be glad about having someone as powerful adding himself to the Malfoy family, or not.

            Diana: Here you are.

            polka dot: Not really. The only person he gets in trouble here was getting in trouble already, and that wasn't a real body.

            Seiren: Thanks! I think this chapter is a good illustration of what you asked.

            And I hope that you had some happy holidays as well.

            nightlo: It would depend on if he thought she would interfere or not. She did keep secrets from him.
- 20
- 21
- 22
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

Leopardspaw