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Bonded Consort	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 33015 -:- Recommendations : 4 -:- Currently Reading : 5
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this story.

Chapter List
- 20
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Chapter Twenty-One—Epiphany
The magic hit Draco like a wave in the face.
There was the taste of salt in his teeth, and the urge to gasp, and the drawing, pulling, cold water swarming around his legs. He knew he was following it out to sea. It seemed only natural to do what that magic wanted him to do, which was to find some way to please Dahlia—
But why would I want to? Dahlia is boring.
Yet, as he looked at her, Draco thought he had never noticed the glowing shadows in her eyes before, or the way her gaze dropped away before him, or how her hair blazed. He didn’t reach out to touch her, but it was a near thing. It was—it was so wonderful that he didn’t touch her because he knew his palm would be seared by the flame if he tried to hold it.
But there was someone else in his arms, and that was a reason not to reach out, too. Draco looked down in some perplexity. He couldn’t remember who else would be here. His mother, perhaps, come to watch as he accepted his betrothal at last?
Brilliant green eyes met his. Draco reeled back, because there was pain and despair in those eyes, and he had only ever seen them in the face of Lily Potter. And she wouldn’t have been despairing to learn that Draco finally loved Dahlia—
But I don’t.
The conviction was stronger this time, and then the person in his arms turned around and gripped Draco’s waist and said, “It doesn’t matter what you try to do to him, Dahlia. I’m going to make him mine again.” Harry leaned up and kissed him hard.
That was his name, of course, Harry, and he had green eyes because he was Lily Potter’s son, but he wasn’t a Potter anymore, and Draco had found him and brought him back to England and was helping him recover from being disowned by his family…
The kiss strengthened, and something on Harry’s wrist flashed and caught Draco’s attention. He pulled back from the kiss, ignoring the way Harry tensed, to lift his wrist and stare.
The Malfoy bonding bracelet was almost aglow with magic.
That’s it. That’s who I was going to bond with. How could I have forgotten?
The cold, salty magic was running out with the tide again, coursing back to Dahlia. Draco shook his head sharply, and pulled Harry against him again. He didn’t think he would have woken up if not for the kiss and the sight of the bonding bracelet, as shameful as that was to admit.
“You’ll have to do better than that, Dahlia,” he said, “if you really want me to love you.”
She raised her downcast eyes and stared at him. Draco thought she was motionless because of her utter despair. “What would I have to do?”
“Be reborn as Harry.” Draco threaded his fingers through Harry’s. “And even then, you would never be anything but an inferior copy.”
Dahlia flinched. Draco shrugged. He had the immense satisfaction of speaking to someone who he hadn’t been able to tell the truth to for years. His mother had prevented him, and family honor had prevented him, and so many different things that now seemed petty, next to the conviction that he should have been able to refuse her long before he knew about Harry.
“You said,” Dahlia breathed, and turned to Dumbledore. “You said that would make him come back to me.”
“It should have, if he was any kind of good person.” Dumbledore’s face was lined when Draco looked at it. “It seems that he has less Light inside him than I thought, even in his core. You tried, Dahlia. You are not to be blamed for his failure.”
Draco couldn’t find the words he wanted to speak. He knew he had already hurt Dahlia probably as badly as he would ever hurt her, but this—
As it turned out, he didn’t have to find the words. Harry did it for him.
Or rather, Harry found the magic.
*
The magic exploded out of Harry without his conscious control.
He’d barely recovered from the horror that was Dahlia trying to take Draco away from him, the way she’d taken his normal life and his parents and his right to be considered a Potter. And then Dumbledore said that, and implied that a good person would have stopped loving Harry because of Dumbledore’s convictions.
Harry didn’t lift his wand. A powerful slap of magic carried out of him, and left him gasping and sagging against Draco, who frowned at him a little and supported him. The slap crashed into Dumbledore and bore him to the ground.
Harry stood up with a shake of his head when Draco murmured something to him about needing support. He didn’t, at least right now. He had all the support he needed in knowing Draco was still his.
And he had another enemy to face down at the moment.
Dumbledore climbed slowly back to his feet, looking dazed. His hand was clasped to his cheek. Harry leaned closer, ignoring the way that Draco’s arms immediately curled around his waist, probably to restrain him from trying to get closer to Dumbledore.
Yes. There was the mark of a red handprint on Dumbledore’s cheek, when he finally moved his fingers. Harry whistled softly. He hadn’t known he could make his accidental magic that targeted. He didn’t know if the print would match his own hand, but he highly suspected it would.
“Impressive,” Draco murmured, for his ears alone. Harry smiled.
“How can you do this?” Dumbledore whispered. “It was one thing when you were ignorant, but how can you stand there and willfully bring Voldemort’s magic back into the world?”
So he’s only going to talk about that, not about Draco’s rejection of Dahlia anymore. Then again, maybe Dumbledore was smart enough to recognize when someone was absolutely not going to listen to him. Harry smiled a little and said, “You still haven’t convinced me that it’s Voldemort’s magic escaping my control and causing me to do things that I wouldn’t do otherwise. How would you even test for that?” He turned to Draco and gave him a quizzical smile. “Do you know? What kind of tests exist to prove that I’m being used as a Dark Lord’s tool instead of using the magic that I won by right of conquest?”
“None exist,” Draco said promptly, and lightly touched his knuckles to Harry’s side, under his shirt. “Dumbledore only saw a normal process of one Dark wizard conquering another and chose to think it was something different, for reasons best known to himself.”
“I did not choose.” Dumbledore’s voice was frozen, his eyes twisting back and forth rapidly between Draco and Harry. He seemed to have decided that Dahlia didn’t matter now that she couldn’t fulfil his desires, and in fact Harry heard her crying retreat towards the house. “I know it is true.”
“Why?”
“The process of conquest that young Mr. Malfoy speaks of does not exist.”
Harry blinked, not so much disbelieving as caught off-guard. He glanced at Draco, who rolled his eyes and said, “It doesn’t work like that for Light wizards, so of course a man who’s been Light all his life would doubt it.”
“What does it look like for Light wizards?”
“They supposedly take the magic from each other as a gift. Honestly, I don’t think there’s much difference between that and conquest, especially when the ‘gift’ is unwilling, although I’ll grant that our auras feel different.” Draco’s gaze went back to Dumbledore. “Is there a test that would tell us whether an old man is lying, other than Veritaserum?”
“I don’t know about that. You’re the one who knows about spells and magical theory and all that.” Harry gave Dumbledore another glance. “You know, since someone decided it was a good idea to deprive me of the magical education that I should have had.”
“There was no other choice.” Dumbledore’s voice sounded ragged, but also dogged. “There was no other,” he repeated, in the face of Draco staring at him with skepticism. “Absolutely none. And there is no choice now that Harry has returned to England but to send him back into exile again.”
“Why?”
“Voldemort’s magic is active and has a will of its own. Harry might think he’s controlling it, but it’s controlling him.”
“Again.” Draco’s voice was soft, but Harry knew him, and he could feel the anger in the arm that curled around his waist. “What proof exists of this?”
“Because the process of conquest that you spoke of does not exist. Voldemort’s magic has replaced Harry’s magic. There’s no way that he could have transformed from a Light wizard into a Dark wizard otherwise.”
Draco sighed. “As I understand it, one of the reasons my parents joined your side is because Harry was born so powerful—enough to be Voldemort’s equal. They could feel that even when he was a baby.”
“Yes.”
Dumbledore was eyeing Draco as if he expected the calm words to turn on him any second. Harry grinned. That’s a smart expectation.
“Well,” Draco said, earnestly, as if he was talking to Eric and not Dumbledore, “then you have to understand. That’s the way it works for Dark wizards. The Dark wizard who conquers has to be the equal or greater than the one he faces. And in cases where it’s very close, then the conquered magic replaces the magic that the wizard was born with.” He nodded to Harry. “Hence why he’s a Parselmouth when he wasn’t born as one.”
“I could have been born one,” Harry grumbled, to be in the conversation. “Not like we could tell now.”
Draco kissed the top of his head. “You’re quite special enough without that, you know. I don’t mourn the baby you were the way your parents and Dumbledore do.”
Harry arched his neck back against Draco’s shoulder, not trying to get another kiss, just silently absorbing what he had said. It didn’t matter if something else happened and Sirius disowned him, too; it didn’t matter if the Malfoys would always slightly prefer Dahlia or be baffled by Draco’s choice; it didn’t matter if the people who had been his parents made up some lie that meant they could live with what Dahlia had done but not with him.
There was one person who would always be there.
*
Draco rejoiced in the warmth and strength of Harry’s weight in his arms, and in the meantime, watched Dumbledore carefully. He was blinking as if he didn’t understand what had just happened in front of him.
And Light wizards claim that they’re the only ones who really know what love is like.
“It’s what happens when a Dark wizard conquers another Dark wizard,” Draco continued casually, as if the conversation they’d been having had never been discontinued. “As I said, if they’re of equal power. There’s been no record of a transformation from Light to Dark that I know of—”
“Then you admit the problems with this theory?”
“But I don’t think there’s ever been a record of a powerful Dark wizard attacking another Light wizard of exactly equal power, either,” Draco continued, rolling his eyes a little at Dumbledore’s determination to interrupt. “Especially not when his enemy is an infant and has a notoriously unstable magical core that hasn’t settled all the way yet. But I think the explanation much more likely to be connected to a proven way that powerful wizards interact than to your—ideas.”
Harry stifled a laugh at the last word. Draco didn’t preen only because they were in front of Dumbledore. It was somewhat comforting to know that a simple word choice could make Harry laugh like that.
“There is no sign that what you say is true. Besides, if equal wizards can conquer each other’s magic, why does one wizard win the duel instead of them simply canceling each other out?”
Draco’s eyebrows crept up. “You’ve decided that something doesn’t happen without ever doing research on it, haven’t you? The wizard that wins the duel is the one that conquers, of course. Exact equals can still have one who wins. And in Harry’s case, since it wasn’t a traditional duel but a confrontation guided by prophecy, I don’t think he was exactly equal, either.” He smiled down at Harry. “I think he was probably more powerful, and Voldemort was insane and falling apart anyway. That was enough to give Harry an edge.”
“That is not true.”
“You have no proof.”
Dumbledore only shook his head. Draco bit his tongue, hard. He would throw a curse if he didn’t, and he honestly didn’t want to curse Dumbledore. He wanted to make him acknowledge that he was wrong, and then hopefully curl up and—
“What would convince you?”
Draco stared at Harry. “You want to bargain with him?”
Harry didn’t remove his gaze from Dumbledore, but he gave Draco’s hand a quick little squeeze, which meant he was thinking of some plan and didn’t want Draco interrupting. “What would convince you that I’m not Voldemort reborn?”
“I never said that you were Voldemort reborn, Harry.” Dumbledore gave that soft smile that used to drive Draco mental at Hogwarts, the one he only showed Gryffindors. “I said you were his unwilling pawn.”
“What would convince you that I’m not his unwilling pawn?”
“If you let me remove your magic.”
“No,” Harry said, so simply and clearly that Draco thought he couldn’t have phrased it better himself. “What would convince you that I’m in control of this magic and not him?”
Dumbledore sighed long and hard enough to ruffle Draco’s hair. “There is a test the Unspeakables could conduct. They didn’t do it when you were younger because it’s illegal to perform it on any wizard not of age—”
“I’m surprised you let that stop you.”
The words got him an eye-twitch from Dumbledore and another hand-squeeze from Harry, but Dumbledore went on. “Now that you’re nineteen, they could do it. It involves showing your magical core from the inside out. It’s usually used to figure out if someone has a disease there. But it reveals any impurities.”
“I want some reassurance that you wouldn’t simply claim Dark magic as an ‘impurity.’”
“The Unspeakables who perform this test are strictly neutral—”
“The same Unspeakables who agreed with you that I was a danger as a baby? No. I don’t trust them.”
“Mr. Pot—Harry.” Dumbledore gave him another of those little smiles. “There is no one else qualified to do this kind of test. You can look, but only the Unspeakables in the whole of Britain have ever managed to set up and execute something like this.”
“I want them to swear an oath.”
Draco kissed the nape of Harry’s neck, delighted. Harry had been listening and reading some of the books in their safehouse, of course, but Draco hadn’t known he’d gone that far into the theory of oaths, or the realization of some of the more powerful things they could do.
“To do what?” Dumbledore’s voice was wary.
“To conduct the test and inform me of the results first. To make sure that they’re reporting all the results and not the ones they think you might want to hear. And for them to make sure they don’t tell you until I give them permission.”
“Harry, I hardly think—”
“I do. This is a private affair that you’ve already ruined my life over for no good reason. That means you’re going to bloody step back now until I get the results.”
Draco licked his lips. He wanted to say something to Dumbledore about whether he doubted Draco’s choice now, but on the other hand, he also didn’t want to show the reaction Harry had given him. It was pretty bloody private.
Like Harry’s life. Draco slipped a hand lower on Harry’s waist. We fit so well together.
“I could look around and see if there are Unspeakables who would swear the oath…”
“Do that. You should hope that there are, since that’s the only way you have any chance of recovering some of your reputation.”
Dumbledore turned without a word and walked away to where he could Apparate. Draco gently turned Harry around and stared down at him.
“And you’re willing to go through with this? Even though, as you said, it was Dumbledore and the Unspeakables who condemned you to exile?”
Harry snorted softly and reached up to stroke his cheek. “I want Dumbledore to see that he’s wrong. And I think you’re right and the test is just going to show an unusual conquest situation. Not something full of ‘impurities,’ whatever that means.” He hesitated. “You’re willing to go through with this?”
“I’ll support you in whatever you choose to do.”
Harry practically melted against him. Draco gently gathered Harry close and they moved to where they could Apparate.
Flowering in the back of Draco’s mind was his intention to ask if Black was serious about adopting Harry. That would give him the backing of a powerful pure-blood name for practical reasons as well as being another slap in the face to Dumbledore and the Potters.
But first…
He rather thought he and Harry had earned a rest.
*
phoenix-rob: Dumbledore doesn't have something hanging over Dahlia. He simply knows that she loves Draco enough to try this.
Thank you!
Asuka_Bloodberry: Draco was always going to resist, but it would definitely have taken him longer to wake up if Harry hadn't kissed him.
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Bonded Consort