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Changing of the Guard	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 58627 -:- Recommendations : 4 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 21
- 22
- 23
Thanks again for all the reviews!

Chapter Twenty-Two�In
Midst of Battle

�� Draco cried
out as something cut him from the back, slicing a long, jagged line between his
shoulder blades. He dropped to the floor, and, though it hurt, rolled over and
under his chair so that any other spells which flew through the door would have
less of a chance of hitting him. He had never been a master strategist, but he did remember where the doors of the room
were, and thought it likely that any attack was coming from there.

�� He wished
he could reach for his wand and heal himself, but people were screaming around
him, and one of the voices was Harry�s. Draco had no way of knowing if Harry
had suffered the same thing he had or something more serious. Did the attackers
have an extensive knowledge of curses, or had they depended on one alone to
destroy the room and their opponents?

�� No use speculating yet, Draco told
himself, and forced his eyes open. There had been an enormous dazzle of white
light that had blinded him, but it was gone now, and he must see what had
happened.

�� The room
was full of shouting, screaming, panicked people, not including a few who lay
still and face-down. Each of them seemed to have a bloody gash in the middle of
their back. Some were also clutching singed robes. Draco nodded. A combination
of a Cutting Curse and a Lightning Curse, then, the latter probably useful only
for the blinding effects and to scare Nusante�s group a little.

�� He turned
to look at Harry, and found him already on one knee, his wand in his hand, his
eyes cool and traveling the length of the room and then back again. Draco shook
his head. At the moment, he wouldn�t ask where in the world Harry had learned
to move like an Auror, but he would demand an explanation later.

�� For that and so much else.

�� Who?� he
asked, pitching his voice low. If anyone in the room was likely to know, it was
Harry, but the others might find it odd that Draco was speaking to his
boyfriend as if he were an expert on the situation.

�� Aurors,� said
Harry. �My charm told me that someone wearing Auror robes is out there, and
probably several people.�

�� Draco
stared. He knew some Aurors were just as hateful towards homosexuality as
anyone else in the wizarding world, but that they would take an enormous,
coordinated action like this against normal people, when they had to know what
would happen if they were found out�

�� So perhaps they don�t plan to be found out.

�� Before
Draco could deal in his mind with the full consequences of that notion, another
curse hurtled through the doors. This was a red liquid that flew over the heads
of the ducking and screaming crowd and lodged like a blob of mucus on the
opposite wall. Then it began to steam, and the air filled with fumes. Draco
held his breath instinctively and turned in the direction of pounding feet.

�� Harry
seized his arm. �Follow my lead!� he yelled into Draco�s ear. �I know that
curse, and I know how to get rid of it, but it�s a complicated incantation.
I�ll need you to defend my back whilst I speak the spell.�

�� Draco
nodded, then snorted when Harry added, �And don�t breathe that stuff in if you
can avoid it!�

�� That, I
think I could figure out without any help from you,� Draco snapped, but Harry
had already turned to face the far wall, windmilling his wand through a wide
pattern as he began to chant. Draco leaned against Harry, back-to-back, and
waited until the first seven attackers were fully in the room before he struck.

�� Mindful of
the fact that the curses used so far hadn�t actually been Dark Arts, Draco
chose a devastating but still legal spell that exploded the floor in front of
the Aurors, causing them to go flying backwards or, more than once, take
splinters of flying stone and wood in their faces. One of them cried out, and
Draco felt a stab of vicious satisfaction.

�� But his
advantage didn�t last for long. The attackers got used to the idea that someone
was striking back easily enough, and then a storm of curses were flying at
Draco, who had to spend more of his time constructing Shield Charms than taking
the offensive.

�� And no one
else in Nusante�s group seemed to be fighting back at all. The Aurors, mostly
men and women in nondescript dark clothing, were steadily closing in on Draco,
and he knew his shields would weaken without some reinforcement.

�� Snarling,
Draco prepared himself to stand it as long as he could. �

*

�� Harry
quelled the temptation to turn around and see what Draco was doing only with
difficulty. He could hear grunts and curses and harsh breaths working out of
the body pressed against his. That didn�t matter, he told himself again and again.
Focus on the curse on the wall. Clear the air. Those were the tasks he�d
assigned to himself, and those were the tasks he had to accomplish.

�� It didn�t
help that the countercurse for this particular spell involved work on two
separate levels: one to dissipate it and one to contain the fumes and keep them
from wiping the memories of the people in the room clear, as they were designed
to do. Harry had to chant steadily, conquering the temptation to take deep
breaths in recompense, whilst performing the complicated wand motions that
caged the fumes just beyond his face.

�� He narrowed
his focus down, calling on the parts of the cool Harry Potter persona that had
the strength to refuse Draco and even run a deception on him, ignoring the way
people in the corner of his eye writhed and struggled and cried. The fumes bent
away from him, wavered, and then flowed in a long plumed line towards the
Aurors. Harry called them back with a sharp wand movement; he didn�t want to be
accused of poisoning his enemies later, however tempting the notion might be.

�� One more
push and pulse of magic, his will flowing through the incantation along with
his words, and the blob of the curse vanished from the far wall. The fumes
dissipated with it, sucked into a hole that opened in the air. Harry hissed in
triumph and reached around, steering Draco with him so that they stayed
back-to-back.

�� He had the
time to see that Draco�s face was gray with pain, he was limping, and there was
a long streak of blood down his side, joining the blood from the wound the
Cutting Curse had made on his back.

�� And then
Harry�s anger and the need for defense combined, and dropped him into the
middle of a personality he had only ever experienced in battle.

�� He hurled
the first curses that came to mind, choosing ones that hovered just on this
side of illegal but not Dark, forcing the Aurors back�and he recognized some of
their faces; had the Ministry gone completely
mad?�and then going to work to knock them down and keep them down. Incantations
left his tongue and his lips stinging with how fast they flew. Constructing
Shield Charms with a good portion of his power left him free to fight on the
offensive most of the time, because he was strong enough for it to take twenty
or more spells before his shields would begin to crack and bent. He was moving
miles mentally whilst physically keeping almost still, his back against Draco�s,
though he dodged and weaved as necessary.

�� He became
pure war, and all thoughts of other strategies, other personas, other ways of
being, were stripped away and left far behind him.

*

�� Draco was
sure, now, that Harry had to have received Auror training.

�� There was
no other source for that combination of grace and skill with which Harry moved
behind him, tossing off spells that flung the attackers from their feet, spells
that bound them to the floor, spells that dazzled and confused and made
illusions burn in front of their eyes so that they struck at the invisible and
the imaginary. Yes, with his power he could have learned spells like that on
his own, outside the confines of the Auror program, but where had he learned to
combine them? How had he known which
ones worked well together? How did he know which spells the Ministry classified
as Dark Arts and which they didn�t?

�� On the
other hand, watching could only go so far. Draco had taken the chance to heal
the wounds on his back and side, and do what he could to ease the pain in his
battered leg; healing muscle aches and soreness was not a specialty of his. He
wanted to show that he had some part in this battle, too. It would give him
good publicity, in a way, demonstrating that he was serious about the people
and the ideals he had committed to. And it would be a nasty surprise for Lucius,
who Draco thought must have had something to do with this raid.

�� He waited
for a pause, as the remaining attackers backed away from Harry and conversed
together about the way they could get around him, and then tugged on Harry�s
arm. Harry whirled around, glaring.

�� What?� he snapped.

�� Draco
choked on swallowed air. Harry looked magnificent, his hair tousled and blown-back
as by a strong wind, his eyes brilliant even behind their disguise. Draco felt
himself grow half-hard. It was a struggle to ignore that response.

�� Let me,�
he whispered. �I think I know something that will knock them out.�

�� I�m doing
all right.� Harry dragged a hand through his hair and countered a spell that an
overconfident witch flung at his back without even turning around. She quickly
retreated to the huddle of her allies.

�� I know you
are,� Draco said, �but we still don�t know who these people are or where they
came from, and there might be reinforcements arriving at any time. Besides,
they have some measure of you now. When they strike again, it�s going to be
specifically to counter the tactics you�ve been using against them, and they
might succeed if they coordinate their magic.�

�� Harry drew
his breath in as if to respond, then paused and cocked his head. Emotions raced
across his face, so many of them that Draco had to fight the urge to take an
involuntary step back. There were many people struggling in front of him, it
seemed, not just one. And then Harry bowed his head, and the door slammed on
the glimpses of hidden depth that Draco had seen.

�� Very well,�
Harry said, and moved out of the way. Draco stepped up beside him and raised
his wand.

�� The Aurors,
or whoever they really were, immediately started raising Shield Charms. Draco
sneered at them. Such plebeian tactics stood no chance of working against what
he planned to use now.

�� Slipping
one hand into a pocket of his robe, he closed it around a smooth glass vial. He
carried this potion for emergencies only; he didn�t exactly want the Ministry
to get wind of his brewing skills or the ingredients that had gone into the
potion. But no one on the opposite side would stop or slow down, and no one had
shown hesitation at the sight of his hair and face, so the Malfoy name wouldn�t
carry the day this time. This qualified as
a damn emergency.

�� Besides, if
he did this right, none of the enemy would be in a position to report much
about the potion.

�� Draco pulled
the cork from the vial and flung it in a high, twisting course, over the Shield
Charms and down inside them. The vial spun end over end, and the liquid inside
sprayed like heavy rain across the faces and robes of the Aurors. Someone laughed,
as if relieved there was no more to the attack, though many wands remained
cautiously trained on Draco.

�� Draco
closed his eyes and braced himself for the onslaught.

�� It started
with a shimmer in front of his eyes, as if from one of Harry�s illusion spells.
Then his field of vision flooded with information: faces, voices, memories,
pains, pleasures, maps. The potion had spilled into the eyes of at least some
of the attackers and was bringing the contents of their plundered minds into
Draco�s head.

�� The potion
was one that Severus Snape had invented, but never had the chance to use. It
would have been too risky to steal Death Eaters� secrets, and he had no one
worth using it on where Dumbledore and his followers were concerned. But he had
field-tested it on Muggles, and passed the recipe on to Draco during those
nightmarish few days when they had run from Hogwarts together. Draco was
confident it would work.

�� The images
sorted themselves out, the repetitions fading, the overlaps condensing into
clear pictures. At once Draco knew that these were indeed Aurors from the
Ministry, chosen carefully for their special dislike of homosexuality. They
were going after a �terrorist� group that they�d been informed had started the
riot in the Theater-in-the-Round yesterday. They were to round up all the
people they found in this house and bring them to the Ministry for questioning,
keeping the capture quiet enough that it would never reach the newspapers.

�� None of the
people whose minds he read, to Draco�s frustration, knew anything about the source of the information on the meeting.

�� He opened
his eyes and watched the secondary effect of the potion with some satisfaction.
Their minds suddenly and violently emptied by the action of the potion�the memories
would be replaced and regrown in time, but not for a few hours�the Aurors
simply collapsed. Those who had managed to block the potion from pulling
anything from their minds were exhausted by the struggle, and joined their
comrades in unconsciousness. The floor was suddenly littered with three dozen
fallen Aurors, and the air laced with traces of dissipating Shield Charms.

�� Draco
smiled and turned to face Harry.

�� The
expression of devastated admiration on Harry�s features, false though they
were, was everything he could have hoped for, and it grew deeper as Draco
explained, calmly, just who these wizards and witches were, and what they had
come here to do.

*

�� Harry was
good with magic. He had always enjoyed spectacular effects.� Some of his favorite memories centered on the
demonstration of Patronus Charms, deadly curses that would kill the caster if
they were used wrong, and the skillful layered glamours he had seen applied by
some of the teachers he�d studied with.

�� But he had
never seen anything as inexpressibly wonderful
as the way in which Draco Malfoy folded his arms and bowed his head�

�� And his
enemies collapsed in front of him, whilst Draco stood as patient and immovable
as some Muggle Zen student.

�� Draco was a
skillful businessman and a skilled player of the games that occupied the upper
pure-blood classes. But Harry had not realized before that he might also know
the right thing to do in a tight corner; that
seemed to be the way in which this Draco had changed the most from the one
Harry had known at school. He was clever, and thought on the fly as well as in
long-range plans. Harry admired improvisation, and it was the one quality he
had assured himself Draco did not have.

�� Now, here,
Harry could see that he did.

�� He fought
to keep his mind on the words, to realize that these were Aurors who had come with
official sanction from the Ministry and the danger that might pose. Of course,
he had to ask Draco what the potion had done. Draco explained.

�� And when
Harry realized Draco had stood motionless through an assault of reverse Legilimency,
his admiration only increased. That had been something he�d never been able to do
in his own lessons with Snape.

�� Harry?�

�� Draco was
eyeing him strangely, he realized, one hand reaching out as if he thought he
would have to grip Harry�s shoulder and brace him against losing his balance.
His face also seemed closer than before, though Harry was sure he had not stepped
nearer since he began telling the story.

�� I must have moved closer to him.

�� And the
truth of what this admiration could mean burst in front of his eyes like a
firework.

�� He stepped
hastily back, avoiding Draco�s hand, and shut his eyes as if in intense
concentration. In truth, he simply wanted a few minutes to organize his
thoughts in the packed layers they should have already assumed.

�� This
admiration for Draco did not belong to the persona he had chosen for today, the
one who could survive a battle and create the illusion of another lover. It
belonged to the Harry who had briefly joined Draco in bed yesterday, the one
who was open and which Draco would probably call the �real� Harry.

�� It was the
first time Harry could remember that he�d lost conscious control of a persona
when he hadn�t been under great stress.

�� No, he thought then, recalling the
moment when his Brian disguise had shattered, at least in the eyes of Narcissa
and Draco. There was no imperative for
you to do that, no exhaustion or extreme grief. There was nothing to make you
do that but indignation on Draco�s behalf. Draco has been the common factor in
every risk you�ve taken in the past week, every slip, every near-disaster,
every cracking in the mask or breaking of the disguise. He can make you do this
when no other person has ever been able to.

�� Panic
caught Harry�s lungs in an iron hand. He shivered, and then shivered again.
What he really wanted was to bolt out
of the house and leave everything�the rebellion, Nusante, the conflict with the
Aurors, Draco�s efforts to get disowned, the sexual entanglement that had
sprung up between the two of them�behind. He would return to Metamorphosis and
take up a new case. It was the only solution challenging and intriguing enough
to make him think about it instead of
thinking about Draco. The way he cared about Draco was twisting and glittering
in him like a disease or a time-delayed Imperius, controlling his actions and
influencing his thoughts even when he believed he was free of it.

�� Harry.�
Draco�s voice had a snap to it, as if he had called Harry�s name more than once
and heard no response. Harry opened his eyes and hoped fervently that that wasn�t
true. It would indicate a lack of responsiveness to the real world, a vanishing
into the internal turmoil he ought to have been able to still, even worse than
what he�d already suffered so far. �What are we going to do about the Aurors?�

�� Oh, that�s
easy enough,� Harry said. �You said your potion wouldn�t leave them with any
memory of the attack.�

�� Draco
snarled a little. �No, it won�t, but you mistake my point. Someone in the Ministry will still know about the raid and remember
that they�ve been sent on it. We can�t hide that this happened.�

�� Yes, we
can,� Harry said, surprised that Draco had taken up revolutionary politics
without studying the tactics of revolutions. Elizabeth Gouldier had certainly
talked about them in detail. Hadn�t Draco been listening? �We�ll go
underground, that�s all. Not be as public as before. We�re going to win support
still, but we�ll be doing it through rumor and art and parties targeted at that
younger set we�ll be pulling most from anyway. People of your generation.�

�� Draco�s
brow wrinkled. �And your generation, too, Harry,� he said quietly. �You�re two
months younger than I am, after all.�

�� Harry took
a deep breath to damp a spark of irrational anger. Draco kept trying to insist
that Harry was in this with him, that they were, somehow, together. If that
meant emphasizing the most trivial bonds they shared, Draco obviously wasn�t
above doing it.

�� I�m not a
pure-blood,� he said, smiling at Draco. �You saw how badly my attempts to play
one collapsed.� Make your weakness your
strength. Convince Draco that you�re not a natural actor, and that you�re not
acting now. �Anyway, we�ll make sure that the next meeting is much better
protected. I have some ways that we can locate the traitor who might have told
the Ministry about this.� He nodded to Draco. �Until I owl you. I need to go
help Nusante organize the removal from this house and make sure no one breathed
the fumes.�

�� He turned
away, and Draco�s hand closed on his elbow like a steel wire. Harry wasn�t sure
what he despised more: the panic tightening his chest up again when he knew
perfectly well he was magically and physically strong enough to break free from
Draco�s hold, or the longing to stand there in the hold, not resist, move
closer.

�� I�m breaking. Pieces and pieces of my selves
mixing. Why can�t they all be obedient enough to stay in their proper places?

�� We still
need to talk about two things,� Draco said tightly. �First of all, if no one
can remember this attack, how is being at this meeting going to help me get
disowned?�

�� Harry
raised an eyebrow in disbelief. �Do you think your father is going to be
satisfied with the result of this raid, especially when he and Counterstrike probably
instigated it? You can hint easily enough that you were here, and even that you
had something to do with stopping it. Does he know about that potion you used?�
Draco shook his head. �Well, drop what hints you can without revealing its
existence. When a strange, powerful event centered on a Malfoy happens, I�m
sure he�ll be happy to swallow the notion that you were responsible. Or I can
show up in my Brian disguise if you want and talk cryptically about the raid.�

�� Draco
simply nodded, which could have been an answer to several parts of Harry�s statement
or just one of them, and then said, �The second thing is why you were late.� He
turned Harry to one side and touched the bruise on the side of his neck. �Does
it have something to do with this?�

�� Harry froze
when he felt Draco�s fingers brush his neck. The immediate response was one of vulnerability,
but he didn�t want to pull away to physically protect himself. Instead, he just
barely kept from leaning towards Draco and begging for a deeper touch, for�

�� What the fuck is wrong with you? shrieked the voice of his cold
Harry Potter persona. You�ve known Draco
as he is for a few days. That�s not enough time to form an emotional connection
of this depth and magnitude, and I don�t care how great the sex is. You�re
reacting irrationally, and you�ll give up your whole life for him if you don�t
watch out�at which point he�ll despise you.

�� That
thought gave Harry the strength to yank away, easily breaking Draco�s hold on
his wrist. He snarled at him, said, �How much do you really know about me? Think really hard, Draco,� and then
strode towards Nusante.

�� He could
feel Draco�s eyes on his back, but he was sure they held no understanding. He
was already engaged in rebuilding his personas, putting everything back
together the way it had been. Facts and memories flew around his head like a whirlwind.
When he emerged from them, it was as a whole person once more.

�� Wonderful how easy this is to do, when I�m away
from Draco.

�� As he
smiled at Nusante and took up the helpful part of Brian Montgomery, Harry silently
admitted that it would be best for his own sake, as well as for Draco�s and
Narcissa�s, if the connection between them was severed.

*

�� Draco
stared after Harry. The way he had behaved in the last few moments had been
extremely�strange. It was true that he might be motivated by the desire to leave
the manor house before Ministry reinforcements arrived, but he had been abrupt
and too forceful, when he could have made his point with coldness and tact and
had Draco believe him completely. And Harry was too knowing of both pure-blood
behavior in general and Draco�s behavior in particular to make a mistake like
that.

�� A conscious mistake, at least.

�� Just as he
was too good with Transfiguration to leave a bruise like that on his neck.

�� Draco�s
eyes narrowed. Deliberate. It was
deliberate. It has to be.

�� I don�t know what the fuck he thinks he�s
doing, but no matter how far or fast he runs, I�m not going to forget him or
let him go.

�� Draco was
smiling a little as he Summoned the vial the potion had filled, just to make
sure he wouldn�t leave any traces behind for the Ministry Potions experts. He�s slipping. He doesn�t really want to
leave me, I think, even as he seems to be aiming at that end.

�� At this rate, I won�t have to beg or drag
his secret from him. He�ll end up confessing it to me of his own free will.

�� Not that a little�encouragement�will hurt.

*

�� SoftObsidian74:
Thank you! I do want to sort of stir debate about whether Metamorphosis is a
good or a bad thing for Harry. How far is too far? Can we ever really know?

�� As far as
Draco�s insight goes, you might be pleased with the ending of this chapter. ;)

�� Narcissa is
uncertain what to do at the moment.

�� Thrnbrooke,
snappy pants, BloodChocolate, avihenda, Hi-chan, Werewolf Mistress,
broomrider949: Thanks for reviewing!

�� Arie:
Depends on how you define fucked up.

�� DuckieSongbird:
I�m writing a pinch hit fanfic right now, so updates on �A More Worldly Man�
will be a little slow.

�� Lunatic
with a hero complex: Well, the balance of power as far as Harry�s characters and
Draco�s knowledge changes again in this chapter, though Draco still has no idea
that Harry has so many other personas.

�� Caldonya:
Yes, the revelation about what happened to give Harry these ideas is
(eventually) coming up.

�� N/A: Thank
you very much for the praise! As for Harry�s acting, yes, it does make him
genuinely happy. How much of his psychology is �sick� or convoluted? Hard to
tell. I hope I�ve provided evidence that will support both sides. You make a
very convincing argument for the goodness of Metamorphosis.

�� As for the
Pensieve, Harry despises his core personality so much that there�s really no
danger of him trying to become �a better Harry Potter.� Besides, the attraction
of Metamorphosis for him at the moment is the ability to flit from persona to
persona. He would not try to become one whole person unless someone discovered
his secret.

�� Mangacat: I
think Draco would probably at least like to have the option to decide about the many Harrys.

�� Calrissan18:
And you give the persuasive argument for why Harry fracturing his personalities
like this is a bad thing! Honestly, I�m not sure what the majority opinion is.
I find it hard to decide myself, since when I�m writing from Harry�s viewpoint
I tend to see the world as Harry does.

�� Qwerty:
Conscious MPD is a good description of it, I think.

�� Anon: Harry
is confident he can end the game with Draco in a few days and go back to Metamorphosis.
He doesn�t want to admit how much things are changing.

�� Andria
Meredith: You ask good questions! In fact, Draco�s problem is arrogance: he
just assumed he knew everything about Harry, and the Harry he thinks he knows
is not a good enough actor to feign infidelity.
Of course, the state of knowledge here can change in an eyeblink.

�� Yume111: I
didn�t even notice I was ending connections like that. Thanks for pointing it
out.

�� I wondered
about portraying the sexual connection like this, but I do think their bodies
are essentially on to something they aren�t.

�� And Harry
and Draco are meant to be a balance as far as maturity goes, yes.

�� Harry
probably wouldn�t consciously admit liking it that he could fool Draco, but he�s
very grateful he can, so that he can escape more easily.

�� Harry told
Narcissa of his plan so that she will know he�s still working to break up with
Draco and not tell other people. He�s more worried about her spreading his
secret to people beyond Draco.

�� And as for
Draco�s knowledge�well.
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Changing of the Guard