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Parsimony	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 14122 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this fanfic.

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Chapter Twenty-Four--Banging the Drum

            "I just wanted to warn you, Potter."

            Harry straightened up from his notes and rolled his eyes. "Well, this is new," he said quietly, because Klein was on the other side of the room talking to a Ravenclaw about her failed Shield Charm right then, but would turn around at any moment. "Parkinson threatened me in the Potions supply cupboard, so you have to choose a different setting." He glanced over his shoulder and raised his eyebrows at Zabini. "That doesn't mean I'm going to stop protecting Draco, you know."

            "You choose your friends strangely." Zabini braced his hands on the table in front of him and gave Harry the kind of smile that someone else might consider friendly if they saw it. But there was no one else there to see it; Klein had partnered Draco with the Ravenclaw this morning, and Ron and Hermione were too involved in intense but covert discussion of a Memory Charm that Hermione thought might rescue her parents. "You deserve the chance to change your mind. That's all."

            "Well, that courteous of you." Harry let his wand spin through his fingers. "Then you deserve the same kind of warning, I reckon. If you try to hurt Draco again, you're going to suffer for the rest of your life."

            Zabini sneered at him. "You'd be expelled if you used that kind of curse on me or anyone else, and you know it."

            "Really?" Harry let one eyebrow rise. "You think so, after Parkinson attacked me and so much of the rest of the wizarding world distrusts you lot anyway? And who said that the curse I used would leave physical marks?"

            Zabini's eyes widened and he fell back a step, before he seemed to remember that he was there to do the threatening, not suffer from it. He struck a pose that Harry would have found more impressive if he wasn't such a twit. "It's coming to the end. It has to. We may not agree on what Draco did, but we know he did something."

            Harry let his sneer fade and folded his arms. He hated what Zabini was doing right now, and of course he had no intention of backing off and leaving Draco to the tender mercies of his House, but Zabini might have information they needed on the Slytherins' mental states. Especially since he was the one Draco had tortured in the first place. "Fine. If you have no idea what he did, how do you know that you're punishing him appropriately?"

            Zabini stared at him, searching his face as if he wanted clues to Harry's sudden change of attitude. Harry raised his eyebrows and said nothing. Zabini would tell him or not; Harry thought he had done the best he could in the limited amount of time they had.

            Zabini cast a glance over his shoulder towards Klein, who was now berating Draco for using stronger spells to crack the Ravenclaw's Shield Charm than he should have used. Draco stood there and took it without a flinch or a change of expression. Harry had to make sure to control his face before Zabini turned back towards him.

            "Fine," Zabini hissed. "Because I don't think even you could stand by him if you knew the truth of what he'd done, you might as well know that we're going to use Veritaserum on him. That'll force him to admit what spell he used to make us all think of different versions of that night. You're welcome to come along and listen if you want."

            Harry gave him a false smile, while his heartbeat quickened. Parts of the Memory Charm were breaking, and others were strengthening, it seemed, including their antipathy to Draco. And if the Slytherins heard the truth and that slammed into the false memories, the books they had studied indicated that it could be a dangerous situation for everyone involved.

            Physically and mentally.

            "Thanks for telling me, then," Harry said, and inclined his head. "Fine. When were you planning to do this?"

            Zabini braced his hands on the table in front of him again. They were shaking. At some level, Harry thought, he knew or suspected what he would find out if he fed Draco Veritaserum.

            "It's not that simple," Zabini said suddenly. "You think I would tell you? That I would give you a date and time, when you would just go to McGonagall and tell her all about it?"

            "You told me this much," Harry said, and leaned back in his chair as Klein started to turn around. "Why would you do that, if you didn't want my help at some level? Or for me to intervene? You want to remove me because you think of me as Draco's strongest protection." He wished he could speak the words and not think they were the truth, but it was true that not many other people seemed to have an interest in helping Draco right now. "How can you remove me if you don't trust me, to some extent?"

            Zabini stared at him, the muscles in his face working. Then he shook his head and stalked away. Harry took a slow, deep breath and tried to relax his own muscles, the ones in his back mostly, as he watched Draco watching him.

            Draco raised one eyebrow in response, and Harry gave a slight nod. Draco shut his eyes and his lips moved for a moment.

            Harry hadn't yet had a chance to tell him about Snape's speculations or offer to help on the matter of Lucius. He hoped he would later today, when they got some privacy. There was no chance that he would say that in public where someone could overhear it, but he desperately wanted to cheer Draco up.

*

            "Well, that's something, anyway."

            Harry leaned back on the chair that the Room of Requirement had conjured for him and watched Draco's back in concern. The news that they might learn whether his father was in Azkaban or not hadn't cheered Draco up as much as Harry had thought it would. Maybe the news about Zabini and how close the Slytherins were to doing something final about their memory loss outweighed it.

            Draco paced back and forth, his head bowed and his hands clasped behind his back. The Room of Requirement this time looked like a huge, open dungeon, down to windows filled with water that sometimes showed one of the Squid's flailing arms. Harry looked out of them and tried to control his impulse to get up and offer help. He had done all he could for right now.

            "I wish I didn't have to depend on you."

            Harry snapped his head up. Draco had turned around to face him and braced his feet, as though he was going to attack. Harry kept his hands at his sides and open, because reaching for his wand would probably bring the confrontation on.

            Not that he knew why they were having a confrontation. But if they needed to so Draco could explode some of the tension brewing in his chest, then Harry would do it.

            It was kind of frightening, thinking about it, how little he wouldn't do for Draco.

            "I wish that someone else had rescued me, so I wouldn't owe you so many life-debts," Draco began, and then shook his head violently enough that Harry heard something pop in his neck. "No, that's not true. I wish I had rescued myself. I was the one who had the idea that let us get into the Forest unseen. I should have kept awake and aware after I realized the spell wasn't working to reveal my father's face."

            Harry just watched him. Nodding or disagreeing right now would probably make things worse.

            "You don't understand, do you?" Draco demanded, and took a step closer. "You don't care, because you have the ability to do so much, and you've saved so many people, that the life-debts I owe you probably don't even occur to you. You saved me from the Fiendfyre, and when they abandoned me by the tree, and in the Forest of Dean. But you don't care. You don't think about it."

            "I care," Harry said, and stood up, forgetting a little about sitting down and just letting Draco yell if that was what he needed. Well, he would hold back if he had to, but he didn't think that the kinds of words Draco was hurling at him could go unanswered. "I don't mention it all the time, because I thought you didn't want me to. And I was right, if you don't like the way I was saving you--"

            "I want you to think more about it!" Draco snapped, taking a step towards him. He had more color in his cheeks than he'd had for days. Harry cheered silently, and then despised himself equally silently for cheering. And for noticing in the first place. "I want you to show that--I don't know, that it's not all a normal day's work for you, rescuing someone in the morning and helping resurrect a Potions professor you used to hate at night!"

            Harry sighed. "But it is, for me."

            "Then don't act that way!"

            "I should act as if it's abnormal?" Harry stared at him, and shook his head. "I want to give you what you need to survive and find out whether your father did manage to escape, but--"

            "No!" Draco's arms drifted around his head in circles, as if he was trying to swat flies the size of birds. "That's it! You care so much about what I want! Why? Until last year we were enemies! Why are you trying so hard to help me when no one's forcing you and when I tortured someone?"

            "I've told you that already," Harry said quietly. "Because I don't think you deserve to suffer for what happened to you, or even for what you did."

            Draco bowed his head and dug his fingers into his hair, ripping so hard Harry was afraid he would tear it out. But Harry bit his lip and kept quiet. Maybe it would keep him from punching or cursing Harry, which Harry was otherwise afraid would happen in a few seconds.

            "Can't you be a little less than a saint, for once?" Draco pleaded, and it really did sound like pleading, so much so that Harry blinked and shifted his weight. "Can't you--when you're rescuing me all the time, I can't rescue myself. When you're asking Snape for favors for me, that means I can't. If you find the key to removing the Memory Charm from my friends, then that means I can't."

            Harry scowled. "I think the second one of those you mentioned is completely understandable," he snapped, "since Snape wouldn't talk to you. He even wanted to not do anything for me if it was going to be something for you, did I tell you that? And as for the other things, the minute you stop freezing in shock or giving up on anything but hiding the situation because you're so embarrassed--"

            Draco looked up and smiled at him. That made Harry lose his breath, and he tried not to, he tried to look stern. He thought he'd need to, for whatever row was upcoming.

            "Thank you," Draco said quietly. "That was what I wanted to see, some kind of anger, not just this endless patience and gentleness and understanding."

            Harry rolled his eyes, but he smiled in spite of himself. "All right. So does that content you? Some things, I have to do because you can't do them. And other things, you had chances at but didn't."

            Draco's smile melted like ice cream around Dudley. "If you think that you could avoid freezing when you thought that your spell would reveal a criminal wasn't really your father and it didn't," he began.

            "I don't mind that," Harry said. "Truly. But you say you want to save yourself. All right. Then the next time we do something like that, prove you can. Otherwise, I have to keep saving your arse unless I want you to die. And I really, really don't."

            Draco cocked his head to the side, frowned, and then almost visibly backed away from whatever subject he'd been about to mention. "It would help if I had any idea of what we're facing," he said.

            "Right," Harry said. "But Snape should get that potion to us, so we will soon. And you know that Zabini wants to use Veritaserum on you. Use that knowledge to your advantage."

            "How can I?" Draco stared at him.

            Harry folded his arms and gave him a pointed stare back.

            For a moment, Draco blinked. Then he laughed, and the sound loosened and eased something in Harry's chest that even seeing Snape fully resurrected hadn't. He made a small, private vow never to admit that to Ron. He didn't want to listen to the gagging noises or have to revive Ron from a fit of laughter.

            "Right. If I want to solve my own problems, I need to figure that out." Draco sat down in the comfortable chair the Room had conjured for him and took a deep breath. "Plan. Plot. Think like a Slytherin."

            "If you like," Harry said mildly, while privately running down the list of failed Slytherin plans he knew about and deciding not to say anything. He sat down himself and waited. If Draco wanted him to answer questions or discuss plans, then he could, but he was determined not to say anything until then.

            Draco put one hand beneath his chin and gazed into the fire that the Room also provided, his brow wrinkled with his seriousness. Harry took the chance to study his profile, and found his breath taken away again. It was such a little, stupid thing, but he liked the way Draco's hair looked. The way it was loose and shapeless at the moment, the way it randomly touched some places on his jawline and his cheek and his ear, and the way that Draco moved a few strands out of the way with an impatient hand when he leaned forwards to stir the fire and they obscured his vision.

            I don't think this comes from rescuing him, at least. Or else I would feel the same way about Snape and the wolfwere.

            Harry successfully muffled his snort at the thought of Snape's horror, and waited. Draco went on staring, and Harry thought productive things were happening behind his eyes; he didn't want to interrupt.

            "All right," Draco said at last, and his voice was quiet and distant. "I don't think they'll risk stealing from Slughorn again, not when you've already made him think that happened once." He gave Harry the edge of an equally distant smile, and Harry returned it with more interest than it warranted. Draco didn't seem to notice, though; the fire was drawing his eyes. "That means they need to get it from somewhere, and that means we could track owl orders and perhaps stop it that way."

            "Unless they have it already, or they get it through the Floo instead," Harry said. "Or someone flies it in on a broom, or meets them in the Forbidden Forest, or--"

            Draco gave a harsh laugh that reminded Harry of the wolfwere for a moment. "You do fail at being comforting sometimes, Potter."

            Harry rolled his eyes. "Only trying to prove that your brilliant plan isn't really all that brilliant."

            "I was quite aware of that, thank you. And someone would probably notice the spells that I could put up to track and stop the owls here, the way they wouldn't with a private spell at the Manor." Draco waved a hand. "Fine. We have to do something else, then. Is there any likely site you can think of for an attack?"

            "We probably want to set something up and lure them in, or else they'll just choose one, and there's no way that we can anticipate everything they might come up with," Harry said, checking with Draco with little sideways glances as he spoke. Draco seemed inclined to listen right now, though, and only watched him. Harry fixed his eyes on the fire. He thought he could see the attraction it might have for Draco at the moment. "What about somewhere near the dungeons? Do you know--"

            "Their own knowledge would more than make up for it," Draco interrupted. "I think that somewhere outside would be better. We would have more room to maneuver and more room to escape if something went wrong."

            Harry nodded. "Any suggestions?"

            Draco opened his mouth, met Harry's eyes, and looked away for a moment, his head tilted. "I think," he said quietly, "that though it would give me great pleasure to do it near the Whomping Willow, it's not a good idea. There's not enough cover there, not when one can either freeze the tree or dodge it, and nowhere to escape unless we bring brooms, which we'd have to hide or carry around with us. Where do you think is a good place?"

            "Near Hagrid's cottage," Harry said, after a moment of thinking about it. "There's plenty of places to hide near there, and we can use glamours to disguise any noise we make as animal noises from Hagrid's pets. And Hagrid isn't there half the time, now, with the way he visits Beauxbatons. That means we aren't likely to bring him out and get him involved in the fight, and we can use the house for shelter."

            Draco raised his eyebrows. "What reason could we give them for my going there?" he asked.

            Again, Harry had the impression that that wasn't what he had originally meant to say, but he let it go. "Because you want to do something to hurt someone who you still feel is lower on the scale than you are," he said. "And Hagrid has always been someone you despised for who he is, and he isn't your friend."

            Draco opened his mouth, then shut it. "That's--rather brutal," he said at last, faintly.

            "Sorry," Harry said. And he was, when he thought about it. Draco had changed at least a little, and for all Harry knew, he'd changed his feelings on Hagrid, too. "But it is a reason that the other Slytherins will accept, I think. Since at the moment they believe you're the worst person on the planet."

            Draco ran a hand over his hair and stared at his palm when he was done, as if he'd wiped off grease. "You don't mind using that as a reason?" he asked softly.

            Harry shook his head. "It'll give me something to go to Zabini and the others about, and pretend that I'm indignant about. I can say that you never really changed at all and I just thought you did. They know how protective I am of my friends. I think they'll buy that story a lot more easily than some of the other ones I could make up."

            Draco stared at him again, and this time, the stare burned. Harry shifted and sat up straight under it, though, because this time, as far as he knew, he hadn't done anything wrong. Unless Draco was going to say that Zabini and the others would question him more than that, and Harry was stupid for thinking they wouldn't.

            Then Draco said, "Why aren't you in Slytherin? With a mind that can plot like that."

            "Because I wanted to be with Ron more instead, and I knew that the wizard who killed my parents had been in that House, and I didn't want to be in the same place as you," Harry said, giving all the honest answer. Then he remembered, and added, "And Slytherins aren't the only ones who can make convincing plans, you know."

            Draco seemed to have trouble with his tongue. "It's a bit colder than I would have expected from you," he said at last.

            Harry nodded. "I know," he said. "I don't know if I would have done something like that last year. But it's not last year, and it took this summer to make me see that." He scratched at the back of his head as he thought. He still didn't really know how to explain the summer to Draco, but he could keep repeating that it had changed him, and hope that would be enough. Besides, unless they became better friends than they were now, Draco was unlikely to care about his summer in that much detail.

            Or something more than friends.

            Harry imagined his unhelpful thoughts locked in Dudley's second bedroom, and added, "I know that I can do things now that--I don't always have to--I don't always have to worry so much, you know? I can help who I want to help. That's the only reason I'm helping you instead of feeling like I have to be your enemy. And I don't have to worry that there's something wrong with me because I came up with a plan that uses your dislike of Hagrid. I know that I'm a better person in other ways."

            Draco's face shut down. There was an odd sensation of a locked door behind his eyes as he turned his head away. "Right," he said. "I understand."

            What in the world? Harry wondered, but before he could open his mouth and ask, Draco had gone on, outlining a plan that Harry thought would work. He had to correct Draco a few times about the surroundings of Hagrid's hut and the layout inside. It made sense that Draco wouldn't know that, since he'd really never been inside.

            They worked together well enough on that, but Draco stood up with his face still averted, and Harry didn't want to let him go in the same cold mood he'd arrived in. He reached out and caught his arm. Draco half-turned his head, his neck stiff and even the back of his head screaming his reluctance to stay.

            "Can you tell me what I did wrong?" Harry asked. He made himself speak gently and not snap. "Sometimes I say something, and I know it hurts you, but I don't know why."

            Draco stared at him, then took a step forwards that brought them so close Harry's eyes crossed and his heart fluttered.

            "Because you're being a bloody saint again," Draco snapped. "Stop acting like that. Admit that you're an arsehole sometimes. Act like one. Fight with me!"

            "Fighting with you and helping you are sort of mutually exclusive," Harry snapped back. "And what kind of saint slaughters people? That's what I did, twice. And I just admitted that I could be an arsehole! This plan is like that. What in the world do you want me to do?" He let Draco's wrist go.

            "Act like you want to sometimes, not just the way I need you to!" Draco leaned in, and his hair scraped down Harry's ears in turn. "That's what I want. Want, not need."

            And he spun away and marched out of the room as though someone had turned a key in his back.

            Harry sat down slowly on the chair, and stared at the fire again.

*

            ChaosLady: Thank you! I hope you enjoy this one, too.

            LeaniaSTL: The wolfwere plotline will definitely conclude. And I think Draco is irritated that Harry is so mature, really.

            Unneeded: It got through, don’t worry!

            Harry is going to try and find those things out.

            SP777: Really, Harry would have started dropping hints to Draco, but he’s still worried that it might put an unnecessary burden on Draco.

            siriuslynluv: Thanks! I do intend to update this story until I finish it, though it may only be once a week or so.

            Zip: Oh, no problem at all. I don’t think it was rude, just your opinion about the stories.

            A new chapter of World in Pieces is coming up soon.
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Parsimony