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The Stag and The Snake	By : JBankai89 Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 9713 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns Harry Potter, I gain nothing from this but a way to pass the time.

Chapter List
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Chapter 9 – The Snakes Start To Sing

The dark forest shot past Harry in a blur of shapes. Tree trunks, clusters of brush, boulders—it all looked the same to Harry in his haste. Eyes wide, chest heaving, he ran faster than he ever had in his life, desperate to stop Snape before it was too late. In the near-pitch black, Harry watched in silent wonder as the forest awoke around him and came to his aid.

Around him all manner of creature had emerged from the depths of the wood: Deer, badgers, squirrels, bears, foxes, weasels, hippogriffs, thestrals, even the large, hulking forms of several acromantula. Harry had lost count of them all. They stood on either side of him as he ran, as though he was running down some sort of aisle, making sure he didn't lose his way.

His lungs burned, but Harry refused to stop. It was no small distance to the Malfoy Manor, of that he was certain. He needed to stop Snape before it was too late.

~*~
Harry seemed more confident that Draco remembered him. He reached out a hand, and Harry took it without question. In silence he led Harry towards the magically enlarged patio, as the musicians struck up a low, heartfelt ballad. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Sirius and Remus clutching at one another, struggling with their obvious desire to race forward and embrace their adoptive son. On the other hand, his own parents were staring with wide eyes, their mouths hanging open, Malfoy pride and dignity forgotten. Draco couldn't help but smirk a little at that.
Draco felt his heart swell, their hands clasping, and moved deftly across the floor. The other couples had stepped back, and they danced alone while the other revellers stared in silent awe at the young man the entire wizarding world believed to be dead.

Draco stared at the young man smiling back at him, and he felt as though his breath had been chased away. If he was this speechless, how was he supposed to make a proclamation? Harry was smiling knowingly a him as they danced, moving much more elegantly than Draco would have expected. His eyes roved over Harry's face, drinking in the small half-smile, the glimmering jewel-bright eyes behind his glasses, and the golden skin under a mop of untidy hair. This moment, the feeling of dancing with Harry again like this was more than he could ever have hoped for. He burned it into his memory, hoping that he would never forget it.

When the last quivering notes of the string instruments faded into silence, he and Harry slowed to a stop, and applause filled the silence. Draco turned back to the assembled crowd, smiling faintly while Harry smirked next to him. He eyed Harry quizzically, but the young man offered no explanations. Shifting until he was standing right next to Harry, an arm coiled around his waist, he addressed the crowd. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, charming his voice louder in order to call attention to himself and his partner. “I have an announcement to make.”

~*~
Harry twisted and turned through the deep forest, gasping for breath as he moved. It was much farther to the Manor than he had anticipated, and after his reluctance to pace himself was finally catching up with him. He staggered as exhaustion began to set in more firmly. His own face, wearing Snape's foul expression once more floated into the forefront of his mind, and with renewed burning intensity, he forced himself onward.
One last push of his muscles, he broke through the wood and found himself on the easternmost side of the Manor. Harry faltered for a moment, panting, but the creatures that had helped him refused to let him stop now. He grunted in surprise when he felt something sharp butt his hindquarters, and he turned to see one of the young bucks urging him forward. He had no idea how to thank the creature, but it seemed to understand, waiting until Harry started moving again before turning back into the shelter of the trees.

Harry approached the iron bars of the gate that encircled the entire property, and he nudged at the side of them with his antlers. He could feel the magic that imbibed the metal, but it refused him entry. He struggled to keep his panic at bay, knowing that he needed to remain calm if he was to figure this out. He cantered forward, following the gate until he reached the front of the house. The gate doors were closed, and Harry experimentally reared and pushed against them, but they refused to give under his hooves. How could a clearly magical object not realize that he wasn't any normal deer? The thought that the curse made outside magic incapable of differing him from a natural deer was deeply unsettling, and not for the first time, he cursed Snape for doing this to him.

Now very near to actual panic, he ran full tilt the rest of the way around the Manor's gates, stopping at the horrid gargoyle that had once been a secret entryway. He tried to force his mouth to form a word that would sound something like a human password. Nothing worked. He butted at it, kicked it, but it refused to grant him entry. He ran again, his body beginning to shake slightly under the strain. He forced himself to move, and gasped a little as the resplendent, sprawling grounds of the back gardens came into view, and with it the Beltane celebration.

He could see the guests, mostly people he did not recognize, but he could pick out several Hogwarts alumni in his quick glance over the crowd. With an ache he could see his adoptive parents, and he spotted Lucius and Narcissa, staring open-mouthed at the dance floor. Harry heard a familiar voice speak, magically magnified, making him freeze in shock at fear.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Draco said, addressing the crowd. Harry could see him clearly, in beautifully tailored green robes, arm wrapped around Snape-Harry. Snape saw him, a nasty smile playing across his face, and he turned himself and Draco slightly, forcing him out of the blond's field of vision. “I have an announcement to make,” Draco continued, completely ignorant to the silent exchange.

No, no, no, Draco please, Harry thought in a panic, as he ran back and forth in front of the gates, struggling to find a way in. Even the forest that ringed the back of the property would not allow him to pass, invisible barriers bouncing him back whenever he got too close. Draco's voice filled the air, and Harry felt sick with anguish and fear.

“I come before you all this evening, to make a Proclamation. A Proclamation of my love and devotion to Harry Potter,” Polite applause followed the statement. Harry stumbled, staring wide-eyed with panic and hurt as he kicked at the bars, but it was about as effective as spitting on a forest fire. Even the loud rattling of the iron did not distract the guests. Draco it's not me, you have to know it's not me!

“Harry,” Draco continued, turning away from the crowd and clasping both of Snape-Harry's hands in his own. He knelt before him, his eyes wide and intent, while Snape stared down at him with a muted smile. “I love you. I make this vow before those assembled, as proof of my devotion. I will fight for you, I will protect you. You are my sun and stars, my moon and sky. You are my everything,” Draco, no! Harry reared and kicked at the gate with his hooves as hard as he could, and he was forced bodily away from the iron, as though he'd been thrown. He forced himself up on trembling legs. Draco stood and cupped Snape's face gently in his hands, and brought him in for a tender kiss.

Harry could not get up. The kiss brought with it a physical ache as well as an emotional one. He felt sick, and to his very bones he felt as though he'd been beaten bloody. He could not look back at the celebration, every motion was agony. He forced himself back up and staggered back towards the forest he had left not ten minutes before. He could not explain why, exactly, but something compelled him: He needed to get back to the barn.

~*~
Draco broke the kiss reluctantly, his eyes fluttering open to gaze at Harry. He wasn't sure what would happen, or if it had even worked, but of all the reactions he had expected, he could not have foreseen what Harry did next.
He laughed.

It was not a genial laugh, but cold and cruel. A laugh that sounded wrong coming from Harry. Draco felt a tremor run through him. Something wasn't right. Draco's wide-eyed gaze flitted to Remus and Sirius, but they looked as confused and fearful as he felt. “Oh Draco,” Harry said with a purr and an uncharacteristic smirk, “you really should have paid more attention during your Potions lessons.”

“What are you talking about? What's wrong?” What did Potions have to do with anything? He let go of him and stepped back. Harry did not answer his questions, and simply continued to smirk as though he had been the cause of a particularly cruel joke.

“Can't you tell the difference between truth...and illusions?” Harry's face split into a wide, nasty grin. His hair had begun to lengthen, smoothing into straight black strands. His skin lost its tan and took on a sallow tint. He grew taller, and his nose curved forward in a distinctive hook. He pulled the round glasses from his face, while what Draco was seeing began to sink in through his numb shock. “The curse will break as you hoped, Mr Malfoy. You have killed Harry Potter.” With another nasty laugh he disapparated, leaving Draco white as a sheet.

~*~
Harry stumbled, his breath coming out in shallow gasps. His vision was clear, but refused to make the forest stand still, it swimming before him as though he was gazing at the dark trunks and brush from under several feet of water. How was he supposed to find his way back like this? Every time Harry tried to run, a wave of nausea stopped him short, and he slowed to a staggered trot.
He suddenly felt a hot quadruped body press against him, and he turned, the head of a large buck swimming before him. Harry wasn't clear on what exactly was happening, but just as suddenly, he felt his hooves leave the leaf litter and he was draped over the back of the creature. It took off at a run, boxed in by other deer, the dark forest flying past Harry in a nauseating blur.

Harry closed his eyes, the wind from the speed at which the creature moved lifted his fine fur slightly. He bounced and jerked on the buck's back, but the other creatures that hung close to him made sure he did not slide off. Harry felt afraid, and through the muddle of physical reactions he was experiencing, he knew that he was dying.

Brushes with death were not uncharted territory for Harry, this time he knew it was different. Dumbledore wouldn't swoop in at the last minute to save him, Fawkes wasn't there to cry into a wound, there was no portkey to transport him away from the danger. He wanted to be afraid, but it hurt too much for any emotion to properly register in his mind. He let out a pained keen, and as the noise permeated the still forest night, he could feel the creature pick up its pace.

Harry couldn't breathe, it felt as though someone had wrapped ropes around his lungs. The constriction of his lungs was making him feel more and more nauseous, and panic at his inability to take in oxygen was making him dizzy. He kept his eyes firmly shut, but he could still feel the wind whipping his big, bulky body as the buck below him streaked through the wood. Sooner than Harry had anticipated, the creature slowed to a walk. Harry opened his eyes, his vision still swimming, and trying to focus on anything brought with it a fresh wave of nausea. The animal crouched, and Harry slid gently off his back in a heap. Two does pressed to his sides and helped him onto unsteady feet. They nudged him gently forward.

Harry stumbled, but the creatures were there again, making sure he didn't fall. He looked back at them, as though to ask why but having no idea how. He turned back towards the barn, silo, and surrounding forest that had become his home so recently, and stumbled forward. His movements were slow and jerky, but after a certain point the deer hung back, watching him in silence. The entire wood seemed to be holding its breath for Harry—he couldn't hear any rustle of wind through the trees, or the call of an owl...nothing. It was a complete silence Harry had never experienced before, and it spurred him forward.

His footsteps were awkward, as he struggled to stay standing. Through his haze, he did not even notice the way his body glimmered, the magic swirling around him like a gentle embrace, his stag form giving way to his natural human body, too far gone to even realize that he was upright and moving on two legs, not four. He felt the brush of magic of the sanctuary touch his flesh. His knees buckled and he fell heavily to the ground.

Harry's breath came out in soft gasps, wheezing as he struggled to fill his lungs. God, it hurt. He had expected his death to be accompanied by flashes of his life passing through his mind, but instead he felt a crushing weight of a sorrow that nearly consumed him. The anguish was the only emotion that he could properly register through the pain. Harry's head spun and he closed his eyes, sweat trickling from his hair and stinging his eyes.

Distantly, Harry could hear the crack of someone Apparating. The sound of their arrival broke the total silence like a gunshot. He could even not move enough to flinch at the sudden noise. Heavy footfalls approached him, and he felt tears mix with the sweat when the cold hands of his captor brushed the damp hair off his face.

Harry wanted to wrench himself away, push Snape off, anything. He didn't have the energy to even open his eyes, or even shoot a scathing remark at the man. A soft, pained moan whispered past his slightly parted lips. “It didn't have to come to this Harry,” Snape murmured somewhere above him, while he stroked Harry's hair with horrifying tenderness. “If you had only said yes to me, I would have let you live. But your Gryffindor pride is what inevitably killed you, not me or your...” Snape chuckled, “...lover.”

Snape's cruel laughter escorted Harry into unconsciousness.
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The Stag and The Snake