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Endurance	By : WinterRaven Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 29171 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to any of Harry Potter universe. I make no profit from this story.

Chapter List
- 1-One
- 2-Two
- 3-Three
- 4-Four
- 5-Five
- 6-Six
- 7-Seven
- 8-Eight
- 9-Nine
- 10-Ten
- 11-Eleven
- 12-Twelve
- 13-Thirteen
- 14-Fourteen
- 15-Fifteen
- 16-Sixteen
- 17-Seventeen
- 18-Eighteen
- 19-Nineteen
- 20-Twenty
- 21-Twenty-One
- 22-Twenty-Two
- 23-Twenty-Three
- 24-Twenty-Four
- 25-Twenty-Five
- 26-Twenty-Six
- 27-Twenty-Seven
- 28-Twenty-Eight
- 29-Twenty-Nine
- 30-Thirty
- 31-Thirty-One
- 32-Thirty-Two
- 33-Thirty-Three
- 34-Thirty-Four
- 35-Thirty-Five
- 36-Thirty-Six
- 37-Thirty-Seven
- 38-Thirty-Eight
- 24
- 25
- 26
Twenty-Five

They showered together. They were rushing, passing the bar of soap back and forth quickly, lathering their bodies in seconds before rinsing the suds off just as fast. The two boys dried themselves, stumbled back into Harry’s bedroom and dressed in haste, completely silent the entire time. They glanced at each other only once and Harry wanted so desperately to be able to utter words of comfort to his frightened lover. Nothing came out.

Their hair still dripping, and skin still damp, they grabbed their wands and exited into Snape’s sitting room, where he and Lucius were both standing, deep in conversation. The two men had cleaned themselves up; Snape no longer had blood on his face and Lucius was back to his gleaming, usually pristine self, except both their expressions were contorted in worry, fear. And it was when Harry realized Snape had had blood on him that full-fledged panic kicked in.

Snape noticed them first and halted his whisper to the blonde man. His black eyes focused on Harry’s face first, then Draco’s; his look was now unreadable, but Harry still felt the remainder of anger within the tall, thin man.

“Let’s go,” was all he said.

They exited in a silence so heavy, Harry thought he would collapse from the weight of it all. Too many questions were pummeling his brain, each rendering his thoughts more incoherent than the last—Where was Elisha? Was she alive? Why did they still have that connection? What did it mean? What happened to Snape and Lucius? Were he and Draco in danger too?

Before he realized what was happening, he was walking into Dumbledore’s office and a surprising shriek met them—Narcissa Malfoy had run from Dumbledore’s side to her son, embracing him so violently they both fell backward onto a wall. Harry stared in confusion as Snape removed himself from the group and went straight to Dumbledore; the old man had a look of deep worry on his face but the worry changed alarmingly fast to fear at whatever Snape was telling him. Lucius Malfoy stood by the doorway with Harry, wringing his hands together…

By then, Harry had enough. The tension was too much. He decided to speak.

“What’s going on?” Harry bellowed amidst all the sound.

The room quieted instantly.

Dumbledore spoke up first as Snape sank down into the Headmaster’s chair, his head in his hands.

“It seems the unexpected has happened,” the old man whispered, glancing around the people in the room. “This evening, Severus and Lucius were called to Voldemort’s side for the first time in many weeks. They went…bringing back terrible news—”

“Which is?” Harry and Draco yelled at the same moment.

Dumbledore closed his eyes.

“Elisha has been summoned to Voldemort’s service. She has been called, with no doubt, to take the mark.”

Harry felt his stomach drop, his insides turn to ice, but he was overcome with the need to vomit at the horrible yell Draco gave.

“No!” the blonde screamed, wrenching himself from his mother’s grip. Narcissa watched helplessly as her son ran from him, rushing to Dumbledore and dropping to his knees. He grabbed the bottom of the old man’s dark purple robes with trembling hands and begged, “Please you can’t let her! She’ll be in danger!”

“I know this, Draco,” Dumbledore whispered, forcing Draco to stand with surprising strength for a man his age. “But she left before anyone could stop her.”

“Why?” was all Harry could ask, his throat so dry it hurt to speak. He felt as if he had been knocked in the chest and could barely breathe. He was leaning against the wall of Dumbledore’s office for support, his heart hammering fast, painfully, his brain reeling. “Why would she agree?”

“She knew that to deny the Dark Lord’s request would mean death,” Snape murmured from Dumbledore’s chair, lifting his head from his hands. His eyes seemed to have lost all spark and his voice was monotone, broken. “If not for her, then for one of us.”

“Death?” Harry said, his voice hollow, his knees trembling.

“What’s going to happen to her?” Draco screamed, his eyes popping. He looked utterly terrified and Harry was seized with the need to embrace him, take him away from all this pain, numb him but he couldn’t move. He felt too stunned, shocked, weak.

Dumbledore sighed.

“I cannot be sure,” he admitted. “But I do not think she will be in any danger tonight. She has fulfilled Voldemort’s request.”

The room held a thick silence and Harry felt sudden irritation and confusion boiling in him.

“Why aren’t we doing anything to try to help her?” he questioned.

“There is nothing we can do. We don’t know where she is—” Dumbledore started.

“But don’t you?” Harry asked, cutting off the old man. He was looking in Snape’s direction and then over to a stunned Lucius Malfoy.

“The Dark Lord may have summoned her anywhere. There is no way of telling,” Lucius whispered.

“But there has to—”

“There isn’t anything we can do, Harry, which is why we’ve come to Dumbledore,” Snape said, his voice biting and cold. Harry flinched at the sound.

“I have to be honest,” Dumbledore said to the room, “I did not expect this to happen to her—”

“No one did,” Snape growled.

Dumbledore sighed.

“I’m afraid we can do nothing for the present moment,” the old man said his voice downtrodden.

Snape opened his mouth to protest but snapped it shut just as quickly, his face in his hands again. Lucius went forward from his place near Harry and scooped Snape into his arms.

“There’s only one thing we can do,” Dumbledore whispered.

They had to wait.

*

How many minutes passed by? Hours? Why was it that the seconds seemed to take an eternity to pass, that every single pair of eyes in the office was fixated at the giant circular clock over Dumbledore’s door? Why was it that Harry felt ridden with a helplessness so vast it threatened to destroy his body and soul? Why was it that Draco held him tightly to his chest, that it was Draco who found the strength to comfort him in this time and not Harry?

Harry wrapped his arms around his blonde lover, his face buried in his neck and he tried, over and over, to distract himself as the clock ticked, as it grew later and later.

It was nearing midnight…

No one had moved. Narcissa was dozing near Harry and Draco; Dumbledore was sitting in a spare chair near his desk, Lucius and Snape were huddled in a corner, muttering to each other under their breath.

And suddenly, a knock.

No one spoke but each person was consumed with sudden fear and paranoia, wide awake and alert. They each drew their wands quickly, directing it at the door. It creaked open and in emerged Elisha. She was silent, unscathed but exhausted and barely had time to register the people in the room before Snape jumped up from his seat.

His wand hand was trembling and Elisha eyed him wearily. Harry was shocked to hear what came from Snape’s mouth.

“State your name!” he screamed, his voice hoarse from lack of use over the past few hours, his black eyes popping.

“You know who I am—”

“No! Answer me!” Snape barked, advancing forward so quickly that he was a blur.

Harry watched in terror as Snape aimed the wand at Elisha’s chest, over her heart. No one in the room said a word, made a sound. Each wand was pointed in her direction despite the wish of everyone to lower it, to trust this was her and not an imposter sent by Voldemort…

“My name is Elisha Isabel Lillian Snape,” was her hollow reply.

But this did not seem to satisfy Snape, who was now so close to her that his wand was digging into her robes, into her skin. She did not move but looked up into her father’s frightened face with a mixture of pity and fatigue.

“What color is the countertop to the left of the medicine cabinet in my bathroom?”

“Dark green. It almost looks black.”

Snape still did not lower his wand and Dumbledore finally interjected: “Severus! She has proven herself—”

“Silence!” Snape yelped, the shriek like that of a wounded animal. His whole body trembling; he was a crazed man, ripped in two with sharp fear and disbelief and panic. Harry was shaking along with him; he and Draco were casting terrified looks in Snape’s direction, back and forth to Lucius’ horrified face, to Dumbledore, who was now walking slowly toward Snape and Elisha’s figures, his wand pointed at Snape’s back, just in case…

“W-what was your birthday gift when you were eleven?” Snape murmured, his voice quivering. Harry was startled to hear the muffled sound of Snape crying as he spoke.

“Dad,” Elisha whispered, reaching out slowly, her fingers wrapping around her father’s hand. She looked at him imploringly. “Dad. You gave me my mother’s wand.”

And Snape wailed—but it was only a brief sob, a quick glimpse of his pain. He fell over against his daughter, a moment of weakness perhaps, but that emotion was short lived. He steeled himself almost immediately and stood upright again before grabbing her left arm inexplicably and pulling the sleeve back on her robe with such roughness that her whole body shook with the force—

There was no Dark Mark there.

The entire room was silent and Elisha stared up at her father with no expression on her pale, tired face.

“If you’d be so kind as to let me go,” she said, marking each word with emphasis, “I can explain everything.”

But he didn’t.

“I thought you were dead,” Snape whispered, sounding unsure of himself.

There was a soft sigh. “I’m here. I’m not dead. Please…let go of me.”

He released at once and stepped back from her as if seeing her clearly for the first time. He fumbled over his footsteps as if unsure where he was or what he was doing and Harry felt broken seeing the man like this, so consumed with terror, so lost and alone. Lucius got to him first, grabbed the man in his arms and hushed him; with a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach, Harry saw Snape was no longer crying—but his eyes were wide and strangely emotionless, as if Snape had forced his mind to go somewhere else, to another place, to avoid the devastating reality of this situation…

Dumbledore moved forward to her, as if to say something but she held up her hand.

“Let me speak. No interruptions for now,” she said, her voice weary. “Put your wands down. I’ve proven my identity well enough.”

Everyone in the room obliged and she sighed. She was not angry, but tired, bursting with information and news.

“I’m sure you all know what’s happened by now.” Her eyes traveled and locked on Harry. She knew that he felt their connection, her emotions, even for only a brief period and he suddenly cursed himself for not asking Dumbledore about that hours ago when he had the chance, when Dumbledore would have to give him an answer…

But Elisha made no mention of it either. She continued with her story, each person in the room listening with rapt, unwavering attention.

“I knew Voldemort wanted to see me," Elisha said. Harry noted with a jolt that Elisha said Voldemort's name, perhaps one of the few people alive who felt strong enough to say it. "I’ve had a feeling for a long time that something like this would happen, especially after we rescued Draco. It was only a matter of time before people started talking—”

“I’m sorry,” Draco gasped by Harry’s side; his grey eyes were swimming in tears.

“No, this isn’t your fault,” Elisha said quietly. “Voldemort would have found out about what I can do one way or another. I couldn’t be cooped up in my house forever.” She looked over at her father. Snape’s face was ridden with guilt. “That wasn’t your fault either,” she told him in a kind voice. “You did what was necessary for my protection.”

She sighed and before anybody else could interject, she said, “But now we are here. And this is the situation: Voldemort wants me to join the Death Eaters but…he gave me a choice.”

“A choice?” Lucius Malfoy repeated in a hollow voice.

Everyone in the room was thunderstruck. Narcissa looked as though she couldn’t believe her ears. And Harry raked his brain—were Death Eaters always given choices? Weren’t they indebted to a lifetime of service and that was that?

“Yes,” Elisha whispered. “I think…” She braced herself. “I think he’s worried about what I can do. He wants to give me the illusion that I am choosing to be in his service. He didn’t kill me because he knows I can be a valuable asset. If I don’t comply to his wishes, he’ll dispose of me somehow. Otherwise, if I don't join, I’m a threat.”

“He’s afraid of you,” Dumbledore said; it wasn’t a question, it was a statement.

“And you, Professor,” Elisha said, nodding her head toward him. “Perhaps he thinks us superior duelers?” She tried to laugh but the sound was caught in her throat and wilted away. She looked solemn, as did Dumbledore.

“I believe Voldemort views many people as threats to his status and power,” Dumbledore responded in a soft voice. “He usually tries to convert them to his cause—”

“And when they don’t join, he kills them,” she finished.

“Precisely.”

The room was silent.

“You’re not joining,” Snape snarled from the corner of the office.

Elisha rolled her eyes.

“I think I’ve proven that I’m capable of making my own decisions,” she snapped back; her irritation was pouring from her. She and her father were glaring at each other.

“I maintain that you shouldn’t have gone tonight!” Snape yelled, nearly pushing Lucius off him. “You should have—”

“Waited to have a pointless conversation with you?” Elisha quipped. “Waited for you to lock me up somewhere again? Face it, dad, you couldn’t protect me forever! I needed to make my own decisions for once!”

Snape’s mouth opened and closed uselessly; he had fallen dumb. He looked as though he had been smacked in the face. Harry stared back and forth between father and daughter, amazed at how Elisha stood up for herself, even during this maddening time.

“And the fact is, I’m here talking with all of you,” Elisha continued. “I’m not dead somewhere. I’m not under the Imperius Curse, I’m not jinxed. I’m in my right mind and I’m alive. I did what I had to do to ensure my safety and everyone else’s. How foolish would it have been if I hadn’t gone tonight? Voldemort would know something suspicious is happening! You cannot compromise your position as a double agent!”

Snape stared at the floor now and did not answer. Lucius held him tightly to his body, his blue eyes a blizzard of worry. He and Elisha made eye contact.

“And you’re spies now,” she remarked, somehow knowing from looking at Lucius. She glanced over at Narcissa. “When did this happen?”

“Tonight,” Narcissa said calmly.

“What?” Draco yelped, moving so quickly he almost knocked Harry from him.

“We’ve also made our decisions,” Narcissa whispered. “The safety of our family is more important than the Dark Lord’s agenda. We’ve been promised protection.”

Draco opened his mouth to say something else but Elisha cut him off, “Good. You’re going to need it. Especially you, Draco.”

The room was quiet again.

“Explain,” Dumbledore said.

“Part of the reason Voldemort let me go is because he…he gave me a task.” Elisha sighed and rubbed her eyes with her thin hands. She suddenly looked years older, sicker. “He is aware that Draco and I are lifelong friends. He’s also aware, it seems, that you’re gay, Draco.”

Draco’s face paled so much he looked as deathly as a skull. Harry gasped when Draco slumped against him and held his lover hard.

“Voldemort has no idea that you’re with Harry,” Elisha continued, looking at the two with a piercing gaze. “But he knows about your sexuality, Draco. He isn’t happy. He wants me to…” She cleared her throat and grimaced. “To ‘set you right’.”

“What?” Draco and Harry groaned. Harry felt his entire body turn to ice; he was surprised that he could still maintain a grip around Draco’s trembling form.

“He wants me to have sex with Draco in the hopes that I’ll wash the—how did he put it?—‘homosexual impurities’ from him. Obviously, you and I aren’t going to do that—”

“But…but he’ll know if we don’t, won’t he?” Draco whispered, his voice shaking so badly his words were barely comprehensible.

And for the first time that night, someone smiled. Elisha gave Draco a wan smirk and then pointed to her forehead.

“He doesn’t know the difference between reality and fabrications,” she said smugly.

“Wh—?” Draco started but Snape and Dumbledore whispered, “Occlumency.”

“Yes,” Elisha said. “As long as it happens in my head, Voldemort will never know it didn’t happen in real life.”

“You can do that?” Draco whispered.

She nodded.

“But what if…what if he figures out you’re lying—?” Draco started.

“He won’t.” But Elisha wasn’t the only one who said that; Snape and Dumbledore did too. Their voices were filled with confidence for the first time that evening. “What you need to do, however,” Elisha whispered, her eyes only for Draco, “is pretend that…that you’ve been changed.” She sighed again. “You cannot, under any circumstances, be seen with Harry. You cannot be seen as a couple or as friends or even in the same room.”

Harry felt horrified even though he knew this was for both their sakes, their safety, he still was disgusted—they would have to lie, pretend they weren’t together? Elisha seemed to know what he was thinking.

“I’m…I’m really sorry,” she whispered, looking downtrodden. “But it’s not only for Draco’s protection, it’s for yours too, Harry.”

“I know,” Harry whispered, looking away from her; a fresh wave of tears found solace in his eyes and he blinked them away furiously. He needed to calm himself and be grateful that Elisha was alive and well enough to give them all this advanced warning.

“Did Voldemort say anything about Harry?” Dumbledore asked.

“Not directly, no,” she admitted. “Perhaps he would tell me of any plans concerning Harry if I were an official Death Eater. But he…he does have plans, I think. He’s building elaborate ones and my joining his cause is part of that puzzle.” She took a deep breath and then looked at her father. She said, “After this conversation, I’d like to talk to you alone, dad.”

“Why alone?” Dumbledore asked sharply.

Elisha gave the old man a hard look.

“I’m still allowed to keep certain matters private, am I not?” she questioned. Dumbledore opened his mouth but she cut him off. “I’m not talking to anyone about this except for my father. Period.”

Dumbledore closed his mouth and acquiesced defeat and Harry, despite the terrible feeling in his stomach, could not help but admire her ability to stand up for herself. Snape assented to speaking to her later that night and then she resumed, “We all need to play our parts properly. If we do, we can survive. Narcissa and Lucius, you both still need to pretend you’re part of Voldemort’s cause; you need to do everything he asks. Draco you need to pretend you have changed, that you are a straight man, loyal to Voldemort’s regime. I will play the double role with my father—”

“And me?” Harry whispered.

Elisha’s black eyes roamed his face. She was silent for a long moment.

“I think we need to get you out of Hogwarts.”

The uproar was instant but Elisha quieted everyone with her hands.

“I don’t think Harry is safe here anymore. We need to put him—and his friends—and you too, Draco—somewhere that they cannot be detected.”

“Why do you say this?” Dumbledore asked quickly before anyone else could.

“A war is coming and it is dawning soon,” she whispered, looking down at the floor as she said it. “I’m sure of it. There’s no other reason why Voldemort would suddenly want me on his side… He knows what I can do. He seeks to use me at last. I think he seeks to rid himself of Harry once and for all. He’s lining all his pawns up for the game.”

The room was silent for a long time; her words confirming their worst fears.

“So what now? What can we do to stop him?” Harry asked suddenly, trying to keep his voice even.

Elisha did not hesitate in her answer. She looked back up at him, her eyes on fire, electricity bursting to escape from them.

“We fight like hell.”

TBC

Author's Note: Hollibell, Unneeded, Kuragari, Angela Dlane - Thank you all for your reviews and kind words! I appreciate the chapter critiques too; I'm trying some different writing techniques with each chapter so feedback is always great. And many thanks to everyone else who read. More soon!
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Endurance