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The Only True Lords	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 54578 -:- Recommendations : 4 -:- Currently Reading : 11
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this fanfic.

Chapter List
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Chapter Twenty-Six—Competencies
            “Why does no one alert us until it is too late to do anything?”
            Severus wanted to roll his eyes when he heard the weary tone in Auror Stone’s voice. She was not the only one who had put forth intense effort trying to defend them tonight, although Severus had to admit that she had begun her efforts valiantly when she finally arrived. He could still feel the ache in his own fingers that made him bristle when it sounded like someone might be denigrating his sacrifice.
            Another one who had sacrificed much was currently asleep on the couch in the drawing room.
            Severus grimaced and touched the back of his neck. To tell the truth, he did not understand his own fierce impulse to defend Potter. The bond had made him Potter’s Shield, true, but it did so against other people in the bond, the ones who would hurt him most if they turned treacherously on him. From what Severus could tell, there was no reason that it should now be making him defend Potter against people outside the bond, and from what was truly mildly-expressed criticism.
            But he did not have time to fight the bond and what it wanted for right now. He turned back to Auror Stone and pitched his voice as low as he could. “We called you as soon as we understood what was happening.”
            Stone gave him a look that made Severus reconsider reaching for his stolen wand, and not just because it was not a good idea to remind her that he had it. She might look like Umbridge, but it was obvious she was a good deal tougher than that woman had been.
            “True enough,” Stone said, after a staring contest. “Well. The fact of the matter is that taking you to the Ministry holding cells wouldn’t be any safer.”
            Severus thought he heard a disappointed sigh from Draco, but the boy was currently no threat to Potter, and Severus wasn’t going to spend time glaring at him over a sigh. He pushed the conversation forwards on paths that he thought more productive. “Will the Ministry arrest these Freedom Fighters?”
            Stone spread her hands. “We’re still busy cleaning up the aftermath of the war, and partially thanks to your Mr. Potter’s little display in front of the Wizengamot, they’re intent on pushing the Death Eater trials forwards as soon as possible. We’re stretched thin as it is. We’ll look around, but the chance that we’ll find something…”
            Severus grimaced. Yes, he was used to such excuses after years of living with Dumbledore, and the Headmaster’s insistence that he couldn’t spend time investigating crimes against Slytherin students because he had too many duties. The fact that it was true made it sting the more.
            Pansy cleared her throat. The young woman’s self-possession and clear-headedness were impressing Severus more and more, the more time he spent around her. He wondered if she had had those qualities before the war and he had never noticed them, or if the bond was forcing them all to bloom in unlikely ways. “Can you reassure us that we’ll have some defenses? Wards that are linked to you to tell you when an attack is happening? I know that you probably can’t leave guards with us if you’re stretched so thin.”
            She sounded sympathetic. Severus kept the snort from his nose and the sneer from his face with an effort. If this was an effective way to manipulate Stone, then he would allow it. Their biggest defense was in what was close to a magical coma at the moment, and in no shape to aid them.
            Stone stared at Pansy for a moment, and then glanced around the drawing room. All of them had assembled there, even Gregory, who had slept through so much of the attack Severus had gone up and roused him. Zabini huddled in a corner, cradling his arm to him as if it were still burned. Draco sat on one of the couches, his eyes huge and drowning in his face. Pansy stood next to Severus, her arms folded.
            Greg stood by the door that led into the library where Potter slept. Severus wondered if he had taken up the stance of a guard on accident or on purpose. Or perhaps it was another example of the bond moving them into position based on what it needed them to do, and keeping them from thinking too much about it.
            Severus rubbed his forehead. Another thing he did not want to spend too much time thinking about. What was his own mind and what were the thoughts the bond had implanted baffled him too much to spend that many hours thinking about it.
            “The Aurors could link themselves to the wards,” Stone said slowly, looking out the door towards where the five Aurors she had brought with her were investigating. So far, Severus had noticed, they had spent little time outside, even though that would be the place where the attackers’ spells had had the greatest impact. They seemed more interested in casting spells on the portrait frames and the paper, knocking on the walls, and looking around for hidden artifacts or passages. “Someone could be on duty at all times, because we can transfer the link between us. That would allow more than one person to share the burden.”
            “Oh.” Pansy cast her eyes down and bit her lip, so much the pretty actress that Severus wanted to applaud again. He kept silent, but it was with some effort. “But I had hoped it would be you, Auror Stone. How do we know that we can trust the other ones who might take up the burden?”
            “You’ll be able to trust them, I promise.” Stone’s face was so grim that Severus wanted to wince. “I don’t intend to put anyone but Aurors I’ve personally tested with Veritaserum and loyalty spells on this case.”
            “All right, then.” Pansy looked down at the floor and twirled a piece of hair around a finger. It made her look more vulnerable and young, Severus thought. She also took great care to keep her sleeves pulled back and her bare left forearm in Auror Stone’s sight at all times. “But you were about to say something else earlier, weren’t you? About leaving someone here with us who wasn’t an Auror.”
            Stone clamped her jaw shut, and her nostrils flared. For a moment, Severus thought Pansy had made a mistake. If she was too noticing and intriguing, then there was the chance that Stone would turn against them. She could be annoyed by a clever Slytherin as well as by a stupid one.
            But then Stone shook her head and said, “I’d forget my own wand if it wasn’t in the holster sometimes, I swear. Bernard!”
            Another Auror came hurrying into the room. Severus felt a soft current of approval travel through him. In a different way than Stone, this man looked like an Auror. He had a full dark beard that he kept clipped neatly and tucked out of the way, and his mouth was sternly set above it. His blue eyes scanned the room once, stopping at Severus and Greg and Pansy. He knew the threat each of them represented, Severus thought, and also that Draco and Zabini were no threats at the moment.
            “Yes, Madam Stone?” Bernard faced her again a moment later, his hand resting lightly on his wand.
            “This is Auror Bernard Ellison,” Stone said to them generally, and faced him. “Bring the Malfoys through.”
            “Yes, Madam,” said Ellison, and ducked through the fireplace.
            Draco had sat up very straight, and there was a pulse beating in his throat, so fast that Severus thought he could see the blood that was racing through Draco’s veins. “My—my parents are coming here, Auror Stone?”
            She nodded to him. “Yes. There was another attack shortly after midnight. Maybe the same time these Freedom Fighters arrived,” she added thoughtfully. “It didn’t make it past the Aurors I had guarding the cells, but I had the feeling it wasn’t meant to. Just a testing probe, to see our strength. We were too much for them this time, but I’m nearly sure they’ll come back. I thought it best to leave the Malfoys here for right now. The wards of this house ought to hold them, now.”
            “Well…” Pansy put in, with a look on her face that Severus could not recognize. “The thing is, our Lord has added an extra protection to the wards for us, his vassals. I’m not sure that the wards would recognize anyone else. Maybe the Malfoys might not be safe here.”
            She does not want Draco to rejoin with his parents, Severus realized abruptly. Perhaps she fears that he might be more troublesome that way.
            Severus caught Pansy’s eye, and frowned at her. Pansy blinked and fell still, though she stared at him once before she turned her head so that her fringe hid her face.
            Severus did not expect her to understand. Perhaps it was counter-intuitive. But Draco had started to distrust their Lord in the first place out of fear for his parents, and then had raged that he was not permitted to see them at the Ministry. Finally talking to them again and seeing that they were still alive ought to reassure him, and perhaps make him less of a distraction and drain on Potter’s time and energy.
            On all their time and energy, really, Severus thought, relieved to find that he could still think in a self-interested fashion.
            “I am less interested in that than I should be,” Stone said, shaking her head as though she was trying to shake off the clinging slime of Pansy’s words. “I know that I should get Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy under more secure shelter, but this is the most secure we have right now.” She paused, and considered Pansy for a moment. “You understand? I can trust my Aurors, but not the Wizengamot, and not those who work in other Departments of the Ministry, and wish to see the political threat that Potter represents under control. There is only so much I can do.”
            Pansy opened her mouth to respond, but Draco interrupted her. “My mum and dad are really coming? Here?”
            Stone turned around. Severus grimaced. She had on her face an expression that spoke of no good about to happen for Draco’s childish manner and method of interrupting.
            But Stone seemed to pause and swallow the words, and only nodded. “Yes, Mr. Malfoy. They should be here in a few minutes.”
            The next second, as if the universe enjoyed proving Stone wrong, the Floo flared. Narcissa came out first, holding up the hem of her robes as if she was a queen entering a properly-swept hall. Severus concealed a smile. The woman had probably worn the same robes since she entered the holding cell, but she looked regal nonetheless.
            Lucius followed her. His right arm bore a bandage. Severus studied it for a second, and then nodded. He was no Healer, but he had become expert in the examination of many small wounds when he was among the Death Eaters, usually because the Dark Lord wanted him to experiment with healing potions and see how many of them it would take to close a minor cut or a gushing one.
            This one had been properly bandaged, and would do. It was as Severus had thought. The blood-ghost had ensured that it could take some of Lucius’s blood to let Potter track Draco and the rest of them, but it had not killed him. It would not kill him. It still waited for Draco, and probably always would, until it was destroyed.
            “Father. Mother.”
            Draco’s voice was strained. Severus could see his hands trembling. He knew that Draco longed to rush to his parents and embrace them, and equally that the code the Malfoys lived by would never condone such a display of emotion.
            But Narcissa knelt down on the carpet, smiling at him, and extended her arms. Draco made a muffled noise under his breath and rushed to her after all, throwing his arms around her neck. Lucius drew back as if he feared the feelings would contaminate him, and then sighed and placed one hand on Draco’s shoulder.
            “Control yourself,” Severus thought he heard Lucius whisper. “We are in public.”
            Narcissa murmured something back he couldn’t hear. But it seemed to be permission for Draco to be as emotional as he liked, because he lowered his head to his mother’s shoulder and burst into noisy sobs.
            Severus cleared his throat and turned to Stone. She nodded once, reading Severus’s intention and silent question before he was aware of it himself, and called the Aurors.
            “Secure for tonight,” Ellison said, coming in through the Floo and to a halt before Stone. “I don’t think the attackers will come back so soon, anyway.”
            “That was what we thought about the ones at the Ministry, and we were wrong,” Stone snapped at him. Ellison had the grace to flush. Stone turned to Severus. “In the absence of Mr. Potter being conscious at the moment, I am leaving this situation in your capable hands, Professor Snape,” she said.
            Severus nodded a little. She was perfectly unhappy with doing so, but she knew that he was the one with the most authority at the moment, and the only one the other Slytherins might obey. “You may count on me, madam.”
            “Good,” Stone said. “In the next day, I hope to be able to bring you a timetable of the trials, and whose is scheduled first.” She paused to peer into the room where Potter lay, and Gregory rose on his tiptoes as if he would rush her if she tried to enter. Severus held back a groan. That was the last thing they needed, one of their own attacking an Auror, and perhaps the only Auror in the bunch who had been friendly to them, to boot.
            But Stone was smart enough not to push her advantage. She only nodded to Gregory, and to whatever small glimpse of Potter she could catch through the open door into the darkened room, and turned back around. “You’ll want to keep a close eye on him,” she said. “More people than just the Wizengamot want him dead now.”
            “What else happened?” Severus asked wearily.
            Stone gave him a bland smile. “Somehow, he got access to Rita Skeeter. She’s published an interesting article defending Potter as the youngest in a long line of traditional Lords, and asking why the Ministry wants to burden someone who has already fought for all our lives with the necessity of defending himself again.”
            Severus stared at her, but didn’t question her. There was no doubt that it was true, and that this was another boulder launched in to trouble the waters. Is there no end to the trouble Potter can make, even locked away in an isolated house with his vassals?
            “We have certain letters for each of you,” Stone continued. Severus thought he saw Zabini perk up out of the corner of his eye, but he had no time to figure out why. “We haven’t gone through the letters yet to make sure that they don’t contain weapons or wands or secret codes. But we’ll send them on as soon as we have.”
            Severus half-shook his head, but not in condemnation. “I wonder that you can do as much as you have with so few Aurors, Madam Stone.”
            Stone gave him a wry look. “And I wonder the same thing about your Lord, Severus Snape. Well. Keep an eye on him for me.”
            Severus nodded soberly back. At least someone recognized who the adult was here, whether or not she wanted to protect him as intently as Potter did. Stone called her Aurors back and marched through the Floo in the next minute, and the drawing room seemed suddenly much less crowded.
            Even with the presence of two new people.
            Severus sighed and turned to deal with the next crisis. Until Potter woke, he was essentially in his Lord’s place.
            That was, he thought he was, until he saw Pansy advancing busily towards the Malfoys. Severus stayed still, one hand resting lightly on his wand. There was still the chance that Lucius and Narcissa would do something stupid that only Severus or Potter could deal with, but until then, Severus was willing to let Pansy find her own place in the bond.
            If nothing else, she might spare me enough to let me get some sleep.
*
            Pansy saw and knew a lot of things. She saw the lines of weariness in Professor Snape’s face, and knew what they meant. She saw the way Greg stood by the door that led into Potter’s temporary bedroom, and balled his fists up when Mr. Malfoy happened to look his way. She knew what that meant.
            And she knew by the tearful shine at the corner of Draco’s eyes and the way he still hadn’t let go of his mum that he was fully occupied with his parents at the moment. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t still be a pain in the arse, but it meant he would be less of one, at least until one of them did something or told him what to do.
            Pansy nodded to Mr. Malfoy, who had glanced up from contemplating his son and wife to pay attention to her. “Good morning, Mr. Malfoy. I suppose that our Lord’s story about the blood-ghost and the price you paid to find Draco was true, then?” It would do them good to be reminded of that first thing. Maybe then Draco would stop this ridiculous defiance against Harry, if he realized that his parents were still whole and healthy and his father had chosen to make the sacrifice on his own.
            Draco glanced at her, and buried his face against his mother’s shoulder. Mr. Malfoy smiled a little. “The story was true. Did someone say otherwise?”
            “Oh, not in so many words,” Pansy said, and took a little step back as if she was afraid of Mr. Malfoy. In fact, it almost startled her when she realized she wasn’t. She should have been. The Malfoys held more political power than her family, and her mother had warned her that Mr. Malfoy could be a terrible enemy if someone annoyed him enough.
            But this was a situation that was different from all the others Pansy had ever been in, and she thought that had something to do with it. She and Draco were both bound to a Lord who was very present, although asleep right now, and Mr. Malfoy wouldn’t be able to forget that he owed that Lord a debt for saving his son.
            “Understand,” Pansy continued, in a quick whisper, as if she didn’t want the others to hear, “that we simply had no information on what had happened, since we couldn’t get into the holding cells ourselves. We thought you might have died. That was the price Lord Potter told us that he was willing to pay to get to us.”
            Mr. Malfoy frowned once. Draco had tensed in his mother’s arms, and she was trying to soothe him. Pansy widened her eyes innocently. Draco’s parents wouldn’t betray him in public, but Pansy thought he deserved whatever scolding he got in private. He had acted irresponsibly Gryffindor, and silly.
            “That would have been a proper price,” Mr. Malfoy said. “He is a Lord. His first loyalty must be to his vassals.”
            Pansy nodded vaguely. “That’s true, but we considered it a rather extreme one. We didn’t know why he couldn’t manipulate the bond to find us instead.”
            “He is new to the bond,” Mr. Malfoy said dismissively. “That is to be expected.” He turned back to Draco. “In the meantime, I trust that your Lord won’t object if we take rooms upstairs? This house looks to be big enough for all of us.”
            Draco cleared his throat. Pansy eyed him. Yes, he was going to be in trouble, and it seemed he was starting to realize it.
            “Yes, there are rooms that you can have, Father, Mother,” he said, and finally pulled away from Mrs. Malfoy to turn in the direction of the staircase that led up to the first floor. “Please follow me.”
            He took the chance to toss Pansy a murderous glare on the way out. Pansy gave him a smile back, and stepped away in time to catch Professor Snape’s reassuring nod.
            Only when she looked around did she realize that Blaise had slipped out of the room in the Malfoys’ wake.
*
            “I hope this room will suit you, Father, Mother…”
            “It will be fine, Draco.”
            Draco turned around, wincing. He still felt an echo of the wild joy that had leaped in him when he saw his parents alive and unharmed, but his mouth was dry with dread, too. It was an effort to lock his legs and stand there in front of his parents instead of running.
            “I know that strong magic was used here recently,” his father said, shutting the bedroom door behind him. His mother took a seat halfway between them, watching them both with a cool expression. “I know that you survived because I gave Potter my blood. What else did you do, Draco, to make Parkinson and Severus look at you the way they did?”
            Draco took a deep breath. Here it came. The thought that his parents were at least alive to make it come wasn’t very soothing, at the moment.
            “I didn’t believe that you were alive,” he admitted softly. “And then Potter was willing to sacrifice you. He didn’t, but he was willing!”
            His voice had been rising, he realized only when his father gave him a stern look. Draco ducked his head and mumbled an apology. His lips ached where he had bitten them. He licked them, rubbing the blood away.
            “I was willing, too,” his father said.
            Draco flinched back.
            “I would have made my sacrifice to ensure the continuation of the family line,” his father continued, inexorable. “Potter would have made the sacrifice of your good will to ensure the safety of his vassals. But while my sacrifice would have been a permanent one, had I died, Potter’s should not have been.”
            “What else did you do, Draco?” his mother asked quietly. “Besides doubt him?”
            I might as well go straight to the worst now. They would probably suspect when they saw Potter, anyway.
            “I punched him,” he admitted, in a voice barely above a whisper. “On the jaw.”
            There was a long silence. He looked up to see his mother looking at his father, and his father looking at him.
            Draco flinched and withered away from that look.
            “I see that you still have lessons to learn, regarding the challenging of power,” his father said gently. “I will begin to recite them for you now.”
            His mother rose to stand behind his father, and Draco rearranged himself in front of them, his hands clasped behind his back, his head bowed. It was the posture he had been required to adopt whenever Lucius had given him lessons before he went to Hogwarts.
            “The survival of the family is the first and foremost duty of any Malfoy…”
            Draco hid his next flinch. That was the first lesson he had ever learned. That his father felt the need to repeat it showed how far he thought Draco had fallen.
            But on the other hand…
            Draco felt a little silver of happiness pierce him. At least he’s still alive to say it, and I don’t care who hears me say that.
*
            Blaise staggered out of the drawing room and up to his own, his legs barely moving, his jaw blazing where the scorch mark from the fire of the bond remained.
            Potter had saved all their lives, with such blazing power that Blaise had never seen its like, and reckoned he would never see its like again.
            And now the Malfoys were here, and they agreed with Potter, and they would take Blaise’s only possible ally away from him. Blaise himself might fall to Potter’s seductions once he heard Draco agreeing with him.
            There was only one solution left.
            Alone, Blaise pulled out ink and parchment, and began to compose a letter to his mother.
*
polka dot: Not quickly enough to prevent Harry from exhausting himself, though.
rabiarose: Thank you!
delia cerrano: Not a lot they can do afterwards, except maybe investigate the Freedom Fighters.
A: Thanks! I’m writing this story without an outline, so some of the things that show up are a surprise to me, too.
SP777: Snape would sulk a bit at that implication about Pansy.
But yes, Harry is being forced to think about himself and his own character more often than ever now. I think it would be weird if he didn’t start coming to some correct conclusions.
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The Only True Lords