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The Rising of the Stones	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 13237 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this story.

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Thank you again for all the reviews!
Chapter Twenty-Seven—Break, Break, Break
“Luna.”
That was the only explanation Draco had for why he’d been shaken out of a sound sleep, but he sat up grumpily and reached for the cloak that was dangling on a hook next to his bed. Harry was already bounding out the door of the room.
Draco didn’t waste time dressing, just Transfigured his sleep robes into battle ones. Then he followed Harry, who, sure enough, had a hand on the stone wall as if he intended to melt into it and leave Draco behind.
“Harry.”
Harry jumped and whipped around, staring at Draco as if he’d never seen him before. Then he flushed. “Right. Come on.” He extended his hand so he could catch Draco’s wrist. Draco let him do it with a flinch. Their travel through the earth before had been possible, but not pleasant, and he suspected this was going to be even less so, since Harry would be going faster.
He tried to ask what had happened, but found earth and pebbles pressing all around his mouth. Draco kept it grimly shut, and flashed through veins of ore, past rocks that gleamed in a dazzling way from the reflection of no visible light, and under heaps of loose dirt where Harry seemed to be poking his head up to look around. Then they would duck back underground again.
At least they arrived without mishap outside an enormous house that made Draco blink. It had a circular shape, or at least a partially circular shape, but part of it also seemed to be an enormous tower, and part of it made of a swelling ocean wave in rock, and part…
“Where are we?”
“Luna’s house. She rebuilt it after the war. Come on!” Harry was taking off at a dead run towards the house, ignoring the way that Draco snorted behind him. He should have known Lovegood would be the one living in a place like this.
In the meantime, since someone had to, Draco cast several spells that were of value in telling them whether they were running into an ambush. His magic whirled around, seeking out wands and signatures and other traces that would tell of enemies. It disregarded the magical signature of anyone Draco had designed as a friend, which in this case was Harry and Lovegood.
There were multiple different wand cores on the premises, and also signatures that arranged themselves into blazing red circles in front of Draco, with the word Enemy clearly marked underneath. Draco huffed out a protest that would go unheard, and darted into battle after Harry.
The gate was open and didn’t appear to carry any traps, at least. Or maybe the attackers had already triggered them; Draco almost tripped over one Body-Bound wizard staring at the sky.
The wizard wore scarlet Auror robes.
Of course he did, Draco thought, and bounded over him as he pelted towards the house. It would be the Ministry attacking Lovegood, after her article. The only thing he didn’t know for certain was how Harry knew.
He came through the door in time to dodge a quick Disarming Charm from another Auror, and see that Harry was flinging his arm out, his eyes stern and righteous, as rings of rock uncurled from the wall of Lovegood’s house and around seven of the nine Aurors in sight.
“Remember to keep them alive!” Draco called. He knew how important assets like undermining morale could be in a battle. “We don’t have any proof that they harmed Lovegood, yet.”
Harry said nothing, but simply wore his look of fierce concentration, his attention locked on the Aurors he was holding. He didn’t seem to notice the two who turned and ran up the stairs behind him, bent over as if they had stomachaches.
Draco did.
He hurdled the Aurors who were grabbing at the stone rings, and cast a spell that shot ahead of the two fleeing men, creating a flexible net of light in front of them. They recoiled and turned towards him, their eyes so deadly that Draco wanted to laugh. They didn’t seem to think that anyone was worth their spells if they weren’t dealing with Harry.
“The failed Auror comes to claim a debt of his comrades?” sneered the one on the right. Draco gave him a brief glance, but didn’t recognize him. He had sandy hair and a thin moustache, and that kind of person had never been worth Draco’s time or attention.
“I think he just wants to stop us attacking Lovegood,” said the one on the left. “Since it’s obvious he’s an ally of Potter’s.” He turned and shot a jet of purple light up the stairs that would seal doors from the outside.
Draco’s net blocked it and turned it back towards them. Even though the spell would have no effect on humans it touched that Draco knew of, the men still cursed and ducked frantically. Draco had to smile as he watched them.
“What the hell, Malfoy. You know about that—”
“Hush!” said the one on the left, with a glance so meaningful that Draco could begin to guess how much was being left out.
“I don’t know much about the spell, if that’s what you mean,” Draco said, taking a step onto the bottom stair, “or why you’re here, other than that you’re allied with de Berenzan.” The way they flushed said they were the kind who didn’t appreciate their own words being turned back on them. Good. “But I do know that I’m going to stop you.”
“Spoken like Potter.”
“Well, Gerald, you know that spending time around the people who are stupid by choice makes you more likely to catch the affliction.”
Draco didn’t allow himself to react violently. Because they had said something like that about Harry was no reason to react, really. He had better reasons.
Like the way they cast Blasting Curses and Cutting Curses at him, and the way Draco had to spin to the side and into a duel in response.
But he would remember their words.
Draco twisted once, leaped up another stair, and carried the battle to the one called Gerald before he could say anything else. He stumbled back, his eyes wide, and Draco scoffed a little as he kicked the man in the stomach, caught him behind the shoulders with one arm, and whirled, tossing him down the stairs. Then he cast a Stunner that laid him out, while ducking so that the identical spell from the other Auror flew over his head.
Honestly. Formal duelists. Learning the etiquette that would impress people and earn you points and money in front of judges was all well and good, but if no one had ever taught them to fight dirty, Draco was sorry for them.
Not sorry enough not to cast a spell that made a rattling noise like a snake’s hiss from behind the other Auror, though. He spun around, panicked and already fumbling with his wand, and Draco hit him with a Stunner from behind.
Pathetic. Draco looked at them both and shook his head. He was displeased with the standard of training in the Auror Department, even if these were people loyal to de Berenzan and therefore less intelligent by default.
He bound them with a few casual flicks of his wand and looked back once. Harry had all the other Aurors in the strangling hold of the stone by now, and he was doing all right. He would probably just send Draco to look after Lovegood if he went back to help, anyway.
So Draco took his spell away and mounted the stairs to the bedroom that Lovegood had, it turned out, barricaded herself in. Draco blinked when he saw the door. It was glowing at all four corners with light. He’d never seen a spell like it before, not even on the magical artifacts that he’d sometimes read about. And who would make a magical artifact into a door?
Only when he came closer did he realize that the glows actually came from enchanted, embedded stones. At least one was a ruby.
Draco shut his dangling jaw and smiled a little. He knew better than to knock on the door. He clapped several times to get Lovegood’s attention, and then said, “Are you all right, Luna?” He could call her that for the sake of the friendship she had shown Harry, if nothing else.
“Draco?” At least she had no hesitation about first names. “You’re here? But what about the Nargles?”
“I didn’t run into any,” Draco said, rolling his eyes a little. Playing along was the price of doing business with Lovegood. “It’s okay. The Aurors are either Stunned or held captive by now. You can come out.”
There was a long hesitation, and then the door opened. The minute it did, or even slightly before, the jewels died. Draco stared in fascination. He would have to get Harry to teach him how he did that. Enchanting a pebble to read the loyalty of someone was remarkable enough. Creating a whole new kind of defensive spell touched on magic that Draco understood, or thought he had.
Lovegood’s face had a small scratch on it when she peered out into the corridor, but she was clutching a faceted ruby that spat and growled with whips of fire, as well as her wand. Draco had to nod his approval. Always use all the weapons you have at your disposal. There’s no point in holding back until the situation becomes desperate. It’s your job to prevent the situation from reaching that point.
Draco didn’t approve of all the advice they had received in Auror training, but that was by far the best.
“Is Harry all right?” Lovegood was looking around with a sharp, focused expression that made Draco wonder if he was seeing the real Lovegood for the first time, instead of the burgeoning mystic infatuated with the unreal.
“Yes. He would have shouted if he wasn’t.” If only because he knows what I would do to him if I find out he didn’t.
“He said he broke his arm.”
“It’s been stabilized. It should hold until we can get him to a Healer.”
“There’s a Healer who’s going to attend his speech. I’ll contact her and have her come early. Harry’s going to come early.” Lovegood started to walk down the corridor, and Draco followed her, trying to ignore the odd way it bent. “The Dreaming Spheres told me that would be best.”
Draco restrained his eyeroll. Well, the holiday from blather had been nice while it lasted.
“You don’t like me very much, do you?”
Draco cursed himself as he watched Lovegood pause with one hand on the banister. That one was a lesson from his father, one he never should have forgotten. Never assume that anyone is unobservant unless they have proven themselves so across years. And then, remember that doubt may keep you alive.
“I think that you’re strange,” Draco said, deciding he might as well be blunt. “But I appreciate what you did for us by publishing that article in the Quibbler. That means a lot more to me than the strange things you say.”
Lovegood squinted at him as if trying to decide whether that was good enough. Then she suddenly gave a happy smile. “You’re in love with Harry.”
It was probably too late to keep that one under covers. Draco met her gaze and nodded.
“And you’re making him happy.”
“Well. I try.”
“Then you’re the other one the Dreaming Spheres told me about. The one who would keep him happy. His soulmate.”
“I’m not,” said Draco, more vehemently than he would have liked. But he knew Harry would have reacted like this, and he wanted to make sure Lovegood wouldn’t confuse anyone tomorrow when Harry would stand up and announce that he was markless. “I have a soul-mark that belongs to someone else.”
“It obviously doesn’t belong to someone else, or you would be with—her?” Lovegood paused and listened as though someone was whispering into her ear, then nodded. “Her. It belongs to Harry.”
“But he doesn’t have one.”
Lovegood gave him a look as though he was very slow. “It belongs to him because you’re his. And his would belong to you if it existed. Because he’s yours. That’s the way it works, for people who belong to each other and make each other happy.”
Draco shook his head. “What about you and your husband? I know you have matching marks.”
Lovegood’s husband Scamander was apparently in another country right now, but Lovegood looked down the corridor as if she saw him coming towards her. “It was amazing when we found out. A true coincidence. But I suppose it happens sometimes. People who make each other happy can have matching marks. I know Hermione and Ron are like that, too. And I hope Ginny and her person will be, too, if only because she wants it so much. She’s like Harry used to be. She’s remained single this long because she hopes to find the one who matches her in skin as well as soul.”
Draco couldn’t find it in himself to feel sorry for Ginny Weasley, so he changed the subject. “You think soul-marks are—what? Useless? Chancy?”
“Sometimes relevant, sometimes not.”
"I wish you could have told Harry that," Draco grumbled as they came around the corner and found Harry surveying his handiwork as if he wanted to make sure all the Aurors were still breathing. "He needed to hear it a long time ago."
"Now he has someone else who tells him," said Lovegood, and patted his arm. "So I don't have to."
Draco opened his mouth, but Lovegood was already slipping over to Harry. "The stone you gave me worked perfectly," she said, stroking the ruby that she held. She smiled at him. "The whirling of the Humdingers had already warned me, but it was nice of you to do it, too."
Draco silently rejoiced in the way Harry looked past Lovegood to find him, and relaxed at the sight of him unwounded, before he turned back to answer her question. Draco leaned on the wall and watched Harry thoughtfully.
He wasn't panting, the way he had been when they surged into the house. He kept his attention on Lovegood, but also partially on the captured Aurors, and he seemed as much amused as fond with the way he smiled at her. He did touch the cut on her face, and Lovegood shook her head impatiently. Apparently she didn't care that it couldn't be healed with earth magic, or maybe she intended to heal it later.
It made something in Draco slowly uncoil to watch Harry interacting with his friends. Granger and Weasley no longer got on his nerves. Lovegood did, but not as much as she might have if Harry had been happy and well-adjusted and in possession of his soulmate.
Then again, I wouldn't be here if that was true.
“Draco? Are you all right?”
And Harry had decided to ask him as well as looking at him. Draco couldn’t deny that that felt good. He inclined his head and moved towards Harry, studying him closely. No, no wounds. Not that Draco would have thought much of his earth magic anymore if any of the captive Aurors had managed to wound him.
“Nothing on me. Do we know why they sent so many Aurors?”
“They know they need that many to silence the power of the press. It doesn’t mean that they’ll succeed.”
Draco blinked and looked again at Lovegood. She seemed to have come back to the world of sanity for one of her brief visits. Her eyes were brilliant with outrage, and she was turning the ruby Harry had given her over and over in her hands.
“That just means that we’ll have to show them they can’t.” She looked at Harry. “I know Doge wanted to wait, but what about having him there to cover your speech? He could write a quick article now and that more detailed one that he wants to use later.”
Harry grinned. “I can’t promise that he’ll want to write anything, but I know he’ll want to be there. Why don’t you talk to him, Luna? You would know what newspaper terms to use better than I would.”
Lovegood bobbed her head. Her gaze was distant, but still clear, and Draco realized with a start that he felt sorry for Minister de Berenzan for a whole new reason. Apparently, Lovegood’s wrath wasn’t something you would want to get in front of.
“I’ll do that.” She smiled at Harry. “And I’m glad the Humdingers you put in the stone to warn you brought you together with Draco. I was just telling him that.”
Harry gave Draco a slow smile that made Draco flush, even though he was sure Lovegood didn’t catch the more subtle meaning, since she immediately started talking about whether she should owl her husband and get him to come back to Britain. But Harry kept one eye on Draco as he spoke with her, and Draco had to relax.
They had something. Something more important and lasting, finally, than the soulmate nonsense Harry had spent so much time craving.
And Draco knew that because Harry wasn’t talking about soulmates now, or looking wistfully at Lovegood when she talked about her soulmated husband.
I may never have to twist his ear again.
*
SP777: I mostly picture them the way I picture them from the books, but older and taller. No celebrities as I don't watch TV or movies.
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The Rising of the Stones