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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
- 22
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Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Twenty-Three�Unexpected

�� Draco
slowed when he entered the house. He knew something was different, though for
long moments he could not pinpoint that sense of difference to one specific
object or sound. He stood still, his gaze sweeping the length of the entrance
hall.

�� Then he
located the source of the strangeness. No house-elf had come to greet him,
which always happened when he came
back from more than an hour�s journey, even when he dismissed it again in the
next few moments.

�� It was not
quite as clear a sign as raising the wards against him would have been, but it
was still a signal of his father�s displeasure.

�� Draco
smiled a little. He wished he had worn gloves today, so he could have removed
them slowly and ostentatiously, with an excuse for lingering in the entrance
hall until Lucius came to find him. As it was, he would have to hasten the
confrontation with his father himself.

�� Draco
strolled out of the entrance hall and up to the study Lucius usually occupied
by this hour of the day, opening and discarding several conversational gambits
in his head. No, he didn�t want to give his father a chance to slide around
this. Open defiance appeared to be the only course of action that actually commanded
Lucius�s attention and didn�t allow him to hide behind some polite excuse.
Certainly he had only treated Draco�s objections to his future seriously when
Draco started dating Harry.

�� Brian, he reminded himself, as he opened
the door of his father�s study without knocking. Make sure that you call him Brian in this conversation, or you will
give your father information that you prefer he not have.

�� Lucius looked
up with no expression on his face. He sat in a large, comfortable chair, piled
with Cushioning Charms. It had been the favorite chair of one of Draco�s great-great-uncles,
who had taken a claw in his backside from a hippogriff when young. Lucius had
no excuse for indulging in such excessive luxury, however, Draco thought. A
large book bound in dragonhide rested on his father�s knees.

�� Yes,
Draco.� Lucius did not make it a question. �I am here. And you could have
waited for dinner if you wanted to speak to me. It is no good holding an
argument on an empty stomach.� His tone was lightly chiding, with a chilly hint
of superiority that would have had Draco shivering twenty years ago and
seething with helpless rage a decade back. �Now he saw it too clearly as part of the mask
his father was trying�and failing�to wear, and had to smile.

�� May I sit
down, Father?� he asked. He kept the question perfectly polite, but coupled
with his rudeness so far, there was no way Lucius could take it as anything but
mocking.

�� Lucius�s
eyes narrowed, and his expression appeared to set itself in ice. �But of
course, Draco. Would I refuse the hospitality of any part of my house to my
son?�

��

�� You�ve
refused the house-elves,� said Draco, and sat down in the second most
comfortable chair, taking a moment to look around the room. The shelves were of
light, pale wood, which nicely complemented the sunshine streaming in through
the high windows. Some Malfoy who loved light had designed this room, Draco
thought, long before the family thought their association with Dark magic also
required association with literal darkness.

�� You should
not take my little fits of temper so hard, Draco,� Lucius murmured at once, as
if he had thought Draco�s complaint was actually serious. �I may sometimes send
you a message through indirect means, but when I am displeased with you, I will
make that displeasure known.�

�� How
directly?� Draco cocked his head. �Would an attack by Ministry Aurors be enough
of a message?�

�� Lucius�s
fingers tightened on the book, but he said nothing, and no line of his face
stirred. �You are beyond being beaten like a child, Draco. And why would I
invite Aurors into the Manor? They do cause
trouble, and stir up the clouds of cobwebs that I would prefer stay discreetly
out of sight.�

�� Oh, I don�t
say they would have to intrude into the Manor,� said Draco. �Just into a house
where I happen to be at the time, for a purpose that is understandable if not
exactly innocent.� He leaned forwards, smiling. �We�re discussing this as a
hypothetical situation, of course. Perhaps not as something that happened, but rather something that might happen if, say, your patience ran
short.�

�� Lucius
hesitated, holding Draco�s eyes. Now, Draco thought, he would wonder whether
his son had actually gone to the meeting this afternoon or not. Draco didn�t
intend to hold him in suspense long, but he would tease the information out of
him this way if he could, slyly, indirectly. So much more elegant, in the long
run.

�� I have myself as an audience to perform to,
even if there is no one else.

�� I still would
not call on Ministry Aurors,� Lucius said at last, his voice distant as
starlight. �What need have I? I have words, Galleons, connections, knowledge of
magic. All of those would be much better ways to chastise my enemies.�

�� Ah,� Draco
said, �but we aren�t talking about enemies.� It will have to be the direct method, then. His father was trying
to shift the grounds of the conversation far too early in the game. �We�re
talking about someone you�re close to, but who has willfully and repeatedly
defied your attempts to bring him under control. Someone you can�t stand to see
rebel, because that would mean you had been wrong about him being a small soul,
obedient, content to follow you and to trust in your prescriptions for his
future. Could you see yourself using the Aurors against someone like that?�

�� Lucius rose
to his feet. He laid the book precisely down on the glass table in front of
him, which somewhat disappointed Draco. He had been looking forwards to seeing
that book fall with a crash.

�� You have
made many references to our family conflict in arenas where I would prefer that
you not make them,� Lucius said. �You have made our name one that people
snigger at when heard. You claim to care for your mother and I and our
reputations, yet still you take these actions. You will answer me, now. In what way have I mistaken you? In
what way have I given you less than a life to be proud of, a life to honor and
imitate?�

�� I wonder if he�s talking about the example
life he�s lived for me, or the life he�s actually tried to give me, Draco
thought idly. Well, he�s about to learn
that there�s a difference between them.

�� For one
thing, Father,� he said, leaning back in his chair and smiling up at Lucius, �I
don�t know if you�ve noticed this, but I�m fucking a man.�

�� Lucius�s
lip twitched at the vulgarity. Draco didn�t care. He was pressing his father
closer and closer to ultimately losing his temper and ordering him out of the
Manor. If that happened, then disowning would soon follow, because Lucius was
one to carry a dramatic gesture fully through instead of retracting and
apologizing; he feared that would make him look weak. Draco waited, holding his
father�s eyes.

�� Who one
sleeps with and who one marries are often not the same,� Lucius said at last,
with his voice softer and more conciliating than Draco would have liked. Why isn�t he screaming with rage? �So
long as you are discreet, Draco, there is no reason��

�� I have no
wish to be discreet,� Draco said. Save
with my real purposes, of course. �I have grown tired of lying and
deception, and with the lack of real attention you have given me.� Careful, he chided himself a moment
later, or you�ll sound like a spoiled
child. You do not want Lucius thinking of you that way no matter how true it
might have been when you were younger. �I have tried to hint before that I
did not wish to marry, that continuing the Malfoy line is not of the utmost
importance to me,� he said, �and you have simply assumed it is and carried on.
There are many names for that ignorance of reality, Father. None of them are
complimentary.�

�� You are
pure-blooded,� said Lucius. �You are the only Malfoy heir.�

�� The only
one in the direct line.� Draco smiled at him again. �There are Cousin Maxwell
and his children, after all.�

�� You will
not disgrace our family by accepting one of them as your heir.� Lucius spoke as
if it were a fact, or a prophecy, not a simple pronouncement, Draco thought.
That was the most infuriating aspect of his father�s behavior. He was too used
to commanding something and having it be done. Well, Draco was not a house-elf.
�You will marry where and how we tell you to. There are many young women who
will accept you and turn their eyes away if you wish to continue this
ridiculous love affair.�

�� I like
fucking Brian,� Draco said. �I may very well be in love with him.� I will know that answer for certain in a
week�s time, I should think. �I won�t give that up for some insipid little
bride and some colorless marriage such as you�ve allowed yourself to be content
with.�

�� Lucius gave
a dry laugh, though the narrowing of his eyes showed he was furious. Probably
more over the insult to Narcissa than the insult to himself, Draco had to
admit. In his own way, his father cared for his mother.

�� There are
many things in the world to content oneself with beyond lovers,� said Lucius. �And
many things beyond marriage, come to that. Marriage is merely a necessary component
of those other pleasures. As you grow older, Draco, you will come to see beyond
the lusts of the flesh. You will learn the joy that comes from seeing plans
unfold��

�� Oh, that I know.

�� and the
joy that comes from seeing the quiet dance of society go on around you, ordered
and neat, precise as the small clockwork of a watch, and beautiful as the
uncontrolled chaos that you have connected yourself with never can be.�

�� Why, your
poeticizing might convince me, were I still in the stage where pretty words
concealed a brutal truth,� Draco said. He rose to his feet. He was tired of
sitting still and allowing Lucius to loom over him, and it was probably giving
his father too much confidence that he could win this argument. �I do not want
what you are offering me, Father. Save the truth that you have finally spoken
about my connections with the rebellion, of course. Thank you for that. So now
I know that you would use Aurors to chastise a family member, if you thought
that family member to be out of line.�

�� Lucius
became still, every line of his body coiling like a snake about to strike. �If
you had maintained your proper social standing,� he murmured, �you would not
have stood a chance of being caught up in that�unpleasantness.�

�� I dare say
it was more unpleasant for the Aurors than for me.�

�� Lucius�s
right hand twitched, opening as if he wished for his snake-headed cane. Draco
laughed inwardly, not allowing a ripple of the amusement to show on his face.
Lucius had picked up on the causal connection that the words suggested between
Draco and the failure of the Aurors� raid, and was interested.

�� I do hope
that you didn�t sneer at them,� was what Lucius said, mildly. �Despite your
opinion of words, they can be deadly when wielded by a master.�

�� It will be
interesting to hear what they say when the Minister asks them questions, don�t
you agree?� Draco cocked his head. �I wonder whether they will remark on my
face, my words, my clothes, or on my presence at all.�

�� Lucius came
forwards a step. There was still a table between them and Draco had his hand
closer to his wand, so he didn�t back up. He was only mildly surprised to find
that his heart was beating fast enough to stir a haze of blood through his
head. This was the moment he had been hoping would happen from the time he
wrote Metamorphosis. Perhaps the goal had become somewhat subsumed under his
physical passion for Brian and then finding out Brian was Harry, but it was
still real for him.

�� Father. I will make you crawl.

�� You have
never been political enough for my tastes,� Lucius said distantly. �Still, I
would mourn to see my only heir destroyed in swirling waters that are too deep
for him.�

�� Draco kept
from smirking with an effort. You don�t
know the half of it. I doubt that you would have survived the intellectual parade
of changes necessary to keep up with my life in the last few days. �These
are waters where I have chosen to swim,� he said. �I carefully measured their
depth before I entered them.�

�� Shall I be
frank, Draco?� Lucius twisted his head to the side, so that he was watching
Draco with one eye, like a raven. If he meant the pose to be frightening, it
failed.

�� I don�t
know,� Draco said. �Can you be?�

�� Lucius drew
in a slow breath, which was the first sign of his mask truly cracking that
Draco had seen so far, the first gesture he�d made that he didn�t make on a
regular basis. �There will shortly be things happening in the wider world that
it would be safer if you were ignorant of,� he said. �If not in reality, then
on the surface. And once you see those actions that certain�friends�of mine
will take, you will be glad that I informed you of them in time.�

�� Draco felt
a very slight smile lift his lips. He hadn�t known he would do that before he
did it, but now the words were falling as naturally from his mouth as the smile
had. �Even if I wanted to change my mind now, Father, I very much doubt that I
could.�

�� You do not
have one of those sadly inflexible minds, set in granite or marble.� Lucius
folded his hands over each other. He was wearing gloves, and Draco expected him
to start pulling them off in a minute, if only to calm down the shaking or
fist-clenching his fingers might otherwise get up to. �You can change your mind
when you realize what a string of bad choices you have made.�

�� If I see
them as bad choices, yes.� Draco widened his smile. �But I have a lover who is
most Gryffindor-like in his courage and his outrage over perceived social
injustice. You saw his face when he threatened you in the dining room?�

�� Lucius�s
nostrils flared in a way that said he did not understand why Draco was bringing
that disgraceful episode up, now or ever.

�� And that
was only anger over me,� Draco whispered. �Imagine what he will be like when he
turns his sights on an entire society that has made it impossible for us to
live as we desire. Make no mistake, Father. He knows what will happen to me if
we continue to be public about our love. And what will happen to him, but it is
me he cares about.� Not such a lie. �He blames, not
individuals, but social systems, as Gryffindors often do. And he has no anxiety
about setting out to reform them. He will not back away from this fight, and I
will not back away from him.� He paused just the right amount of time, he knew,
to set Lucius seething, and then gave an elegant little shrug. �Even if the waters
are a torrent, we intend to swim them. Together.�

�� He added a
very slight whine to his tone, making it the voice of a bedazzled teenager in
love.

�� And Lucius broke.

�� His lips wrinkled
back from his teeth, and he leaned across the table that separated them with a
brutal snarl. Draco laid his hand on his wand, just in case he had misjudged
his father�which had happened several times since this all began�and Lucius
went for curses, but words dragged themselves out of Lucius�s mouth instead.

�� You are to
be gone from my house within the hour,� he said. �I will have no heir who does
not understand that his obligations to his family and the continuance of his
line take precedence over a small fling.�

�� It is not
a fling�� Draco began, adopting the proper indignant expression.

�� You have
one hour to leave,� Lucius repeated. Already he was calming, stepping away from
Draco and tracing one finger over the center of his gloved palm. If there was
any doubt in him that he had just done the right thing, Draco knew, he still
would not yield to the doubt. He never questioned his own decisions or his own
perceptions. He went forwards and tried to live in his own version of reality. �Then
the wards will forcibly Apparate you beyond the Manor�s walls, and any
belongings that you have here must be lost to you.�

�� Draco bowed
a little, but he wanted to make sure this was the moment of ultimate separation
from his family. �And when may I hope for an invitation back?� he asked.

�� Given what
I know?� Lucius�s hands clenched involuntarily. �Never.�

�� It is done, then.

�� Draco bowed
again and walked from the room. If Lucius thought he did not look upset enough
by the disowning, then he would decide it was just a front, and that Draco was
really devastated and sobbing inside. He would not readily glimpse or guess his
son�s complicated joy even if it was presented to him in interpretative dance.

�� Free, now, to make my own way in the world,
to make my own name�in the end to win the name back when Lucius comes groveling
at my feet.

�� It was not
the way he had originally planned to lose his father�s respect, Draco had to
admit. He couldn�t have foreseen himself becoming involved in a rebellion of
this scope at the time, not when he had thought his major concern would be with
his own problems and suffering. And he really had planned to eventually reveal
to his parents that he could sleep with women too, and thus that he could get
married and continue the family line. He did not dare to reveal that yet, or
they would have disregarded his objections and pressed marriage on him. They had
to think he was completely gay.

�� But now�

�� Who can tell how this will end?

�� The thought
invigorated Draco, so that he whistled as he went to his rooms and started
packing up his belongings. For now, he would stay in the flat where he had
first met Harry disguised as Brian. It wouldn�t do as a permanent residence,
but it would hold him whilst he looked about for a better flat or a house close
to the center of wizarding London.

�� A few
house-elves came mournfully into the room to snuffle or wring their hands or
wish him farewell. None of them offered to help with the packing. Lucius must
have forbidden them to do so. Draco shook his head a little as he cast a spell
that folded a series of thick, shining gray shirts and distributed them neatly
into his traveling trunk. No matter which
person I am, the starry-eyed social reformer or the real, true plotter, is Lucius
such a fool as to think that not having help would dissuade me?

�� A noise in
the doorway made him think it was another house-elf come to visit him. He blinked
when he turned about and found his mother standing there, her hands tightly
knotted together, staring at him.

�� So the day
has come,� she said, in a low voice that Draco didn�t think sounded at all like
her.

�� Draco
stepped across the room to kiss her cheek. �It has,� he agreed easily. �And
whilst I can understand Father�s reasons for disowning me, I hope that he doesn�t
take his bad temper out on you.�

�� Narcissa
swallowed and went on looking at him for long moments, so long that it made
Draco uneasy. Her next words proved he had been right to be uneasy. �This was what you wanted, Draco, wasn�t
it?� You�ve decided on independence from
your father, and you chose to seize it by giving up our name.�

�� Draco knew
he made a bad show of covering his shock. His mother spoke through any protests
he might have given, gazing meditatively at the floor. �So long as the Malfoy
name cloaks you, you would be seen first as Lucius�s son, and only second as yourself,
if at all. So you chose to make your way in the world, away from us.� She
lifted her head and stared at Draco. �Did you know that you would force me to
choose between my husband and my son?�

�� Draco�s
back straightened. That, at least, was an accusation he had been prepared to
face. �No one is forcing you to
choose anything,� he said. �Agree with Lucius in public if you must, but think
whatever you want in private. My plans from now on don�t depend on your support
or your anguish.�

�� Nevertheless,
my anguish will be the result.�

�� And you
cannot blame me for that,� said Draco, �not when Father and I have grown so far
apart. Do you believe that I would have done this unless I was forced to it? I have tried other ways to
persuade Father. He will not listen to reason, so the most blatant unreason is
needed to shake his preoccupations with pure-blood politics.�

�� Narcissa looked
at him with her lips so tightly shut that Draco wondered if he had managed to
alienate her after all. Then she nodded and drew out a letter from a pocket in
her robes. �I have made my decision,� she said. �I think you should have this. I
discovered Brian Montgomery was Harry Potter some days ago through my
familiarity with his magic, and gave him two weeks to leave you, since
shortening the time to a week. This is what he has written to me in reply.�

�� Draco read
the letter. His heart was pounding as much with shock over his mother�s news as
it was with anger at Harry by the time he finished. He folded the letter very
carefully and looked at her. �Why do you think he sent this to you?� he
demanded. His lips felt numb. �He must have known there was a chance you would
show it to me.�

�� Narcissa
shook her head. �I think he believed I cared more for you than for your happiness.�
Her eyes briefly flashed. �And he may have feared that I would tell the secret
to others�as I could have�if he was not in communication with me.� She sighed,
then, and the fire seemed to leave her, though Draco could still see the steel.
�But it appears that he is essential to your future happiness. And that is what I want. At one time, it was
only your safety. But through the years, I have watched you, and come to believe
that you need your freedom and your own power to find any future at all. The
man who writes a letter like that, who was able to lie to me so convincingly
that I half-believed him, and who inspires such passion in you seems to be a necessary
ingredient of that future.�

�� Mother,�
Draco whispered. He was dizzy.

�� I will
stay here with Lucius,� said Narcissa, looking very strong and very tired. �If
I can, I will halt his more doomed plans�and I suspect that the majority of
them will be doomed, if he plans to attack you and Harry Potter combined. Go
find your future, my son, and may you be happy and strong.�

�� Draco
embraced her, more fiercely than he had in years. He could feel her arms close
around him, too, trembling, and he wondered how much second-guessing of herself
she must have done before she finally arrived at her decision.

�� May there
be peace in this house someday,� she whispered into his ear. �Between family
members, and from such hard choices.�

�� I shall
endeavor to see that there may be,� Draco said, and kissed her hand, and
Summoned the rest of his belongings, and went, his soul burning like phoenix
fire with his joy and his anger.

*

�� SP777: I
think that Draco does have to play his hand carefully�especially because there
are numerous factors he�s not even aware of yet.

�� I�m
planning (at some point in the distant future, woes) a story universe where Harry
and Draco learn to fight side by side against Dementors.

�� SoftObsidian74:
Thanks! Harry learned bodyguard skills in other areas; he didn�t go in for
Auror training, as then he would have unwanted publicity.

�� Lucius�s
plans are not necessarily the same as the Ministry�s.

�� Kalaway:
Thank you! I�ll try to add more description of the scenes. I used to waaaay
over-describe them, so I�ve cut back on that, probably too much.

�� Blood
Chocolate: This chapter gives Draco a whole new set of issues to think about,
so he�ll either demand more progress from Harry or draw back from his own
feelings a bit; the chances of his losing himself are small.

�� MightyGryffindor:
I am sorry if you�re getting bored, and I do think this story is one in which I
need to be wary of repetitive patterns, so I agree with that part of your
criticism and will try to avoid them in the future. However, this story is
planned to be at least 50 chapters long, so there�s really no reason Harry and
Draco �should� have gotten together by now, any more than they �should� have
figured out Lucius�s plans and gotten rid of Counterstrike. This story is
moving at a different kind of pace. It wouldn�t be realistic, after I�ve shown
Harry to have such deep issues, to have him simply skip over them and jump into
Draco�s arms.

�� Broomrider949,
Caldonya, Graballz, thrnbrooke, avihenda: Thank you for reviewing!

�� qwerty: Harry
is, more or less, happy. He�s just happy as other people and not as himself.

�� Calrissan18:
Very glad you liked that moment of Harry deferring to Draco. He probably doesn�t
know himself what it means that he trusted Draco to defeat his enemies rather
than reaching for his instinctive defense, another personality (or insisting on
beating the Aurors all by himself.).

�� Is the �real,
whole� Harry a necessary goal? Draco and Harry will both have to ask themselves
that question.

�� Harry never
even considered letting those memory-eating fumes affect Draco, funnily enough.
For one thing, the fumes were probably only �set� to destroy the memories of
the meeting, or the Ministry would have a bunch of amnesiacs on their hands.

�� Mangacat:
Harry�s reluctance to leave Draco is probably helping to sabotage his plans.

�� N/A: But
Harry won�t want to become a whole personality, because he doesn�t like being
bound to any one personality, and considers the Potter one weak. That�s why he
wouldn�t use himself as the basis. And the others are shadowy enough that he
knows he couldn�t live in them full-time. If he uses the Pensieve, it will be
to become a completely different person, one who would flee even the knowledge that
he�d created Metamorphosis, because he would be fleeing someone who knew that.

�� Lunatic
with a hero complex: Good observation. Yes, confronting Draco just then probably
did not help.

�� Dani: The
full extent of Harry�s secret will be revealed later.

�� Yume111:
Thank you!

�� Yes, this
society is quite cold. There�s Lucius�s frozen wariness of homosexuality, Ron�s
casual disdain (yes, he accepts Harry, but he mentally separates Harry from �those
shirt-lifters�), and the suspicion with which many wizards regard it.

�� Draco is
playing it open because he wants the challenge of overcoming it, and it was the
one sure-fire way he could think of to make his parents disown him.
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Changing of the Guard