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The Serenity of His Rage	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 16981 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- 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-Nine—Pull Forwards

            “We need to work on splitting the Horcrux between us.”

            “Or severing the soul-bond.”

            Draco gave a long, luxurious stretch. Harry was still sprawled out on the Transfigured couch in Professor Snape’s quarters. Draco did think that was safest. Professor Snape could fend for himself in front of Dumbledore, but the Headmaster would figure out something was wrong if he looked at Harry now.

            “Would you excuse us, Granger, Weasley?” he asked politely, not looking away from Harry. “This is a matter we have to discuss in private.”

            “I think we should be there, too.” Granger’s face was flushed, and she ignored the way Weasley frowned at her. “I mean, I had an idea. We could split the soul-bond between us and Harry, too, and that way, the Horcrux’s influence would be less.”

            Draco turned slowly. Only with such words was Granger worthy of his attention. He could feel Harry’s disapproval of his attitude down the bond, but it was almost obscured by the clear freeze of his shock.

            “No,” Draco said. “I am not becoming bound to you. That will never happen. And Harry isn’t going to be, either.”

            Granger had never heard of the word “stop,” obviously. She plowed on. “You don’t have to be bound to us. It would be bonds that linked me and Ron to each other and to Harry, and you can just stay on the other side of him.” Before Draco could sneer at the ragged metaphorical way she was putting things, she turned to Harry with a melting look. “And in the meantime, we already have bonds between us that are deeper than any magic could make.”

            “That’s not true,” said Draco coldly, “or you would have been chosen by Dumbledore to bond with him already.”

            “We all know that Dumbledore isn’t infallible. That’s why we’re not listening to what he says anymore. But I’ve done the calculations.” Granger pulled out a page that, honestly, looked like her Arithmancy homework. “The chance that our bonds will take is pretty high. It always is for old friends. And we don’t have the Dark Mark on our arms, but both Ron and I have faced Voldemort now. We know—”

            “You were facing his minions, his reflections, not him,” Draco interrupted. “There’s no way that you can simply expect to bond with Harry and have no—both Dumbledore and Professor Snape had to help with the last ritual. How are you intending to do this without them?”

            “I’ve already mentioned the idea to Professor Dumbledore, and he approved it.” Granger shrugged, showing she had no idea what keen rage was beginning to cut through Draco. “He wouldn’t have to know the real motive we have for doing it. He’ll probably think Ron and I are going to act as a rein on Harry and keep him more ‘Gryffindor.’ He’ll gladly help us.”

            “No.”

            Draco thought the word was in his own voice for a moment, except that he would never have sounded so polite to Granger. Then he glanced down and met Harry’s eyes. Harry squeezed his hand and sent calm feelings flowing down the bond before he looked at Granger.

            “I appreciate what you want to do,” Harry whispered. “More than you can know. This soul-bond was an enormous risk, and Draco only agreed because it was Dumbledore’s price for trying to rescue his dad. But I’m not going to take the chance that the Horcrux could affect you, too.”

            Granger tried to argue, but Draco remained silent. He was turning those last words over in his head, wondering how they mattered to the argument he was trying to persuade Harry of.

            “I don’t want to,” Harry said. “I wouldn’t cooperate in any ritual. It’s more than just not wanting to put you at risk. I don’t know what it would do to me to have two more soul-bonds just added like that. Especially when neither of you have any Occlumency training.”

            “I could learn,” said Granger, and she had her hands clasped and a smile so hopeful on her face that it pained Draco, and he had to turn his head away. At least he knew it pained Harry, too, from the arrow-shaped ripples that made their way down the bond, although he thought that had less to do with the reasons it did for Draco and more because Granger was his friend. Harry didn’t want to refuse her anything.

            “We could both learn,” Granger continued, including Weasley with a wave of her arm. Weasley had an expression on his face that Draco would have liked an explanation of, but Granger was bowling on. “You didn’t know, either, when Malfoy started teaching you. With four people in the bond and two people who know—”

            “No.”

            And that word came from Weasley, and was, Draco thought in satisfaction, the explanation of the expression on his face.

            Granger turned around, her own look chiding. “Ron, you promised me you wouldn’t cause any trouble because you didn’t want to be bonded to Malfoy.”

            “It’s not that, is it?” Weasley tilted his head back and narrowed his eyes. “It’s that Harry doesn’t want us to.”

            “Really?” Granger whipped back to Harry. “But not really, right, Harry? I mean, more people in the bond can only keep you safe and lessen the influence of the Horcrux, right?”

            “We don’t know for certain,” said Harry. He still sounded tired, but he pushed himself up and then off the couch. Draco watched him sharply. Harry didn’t collapse or waver, though. He looked Granger in the eye, and kept doing it until she looked away. Then he asked gently, “Why do you think I agreed to this soul-bond, Hermione?”

            “Because you wanted to help Malfoy,” she said, though with an uncertainty to the words that revealed how little she really knew. She glanced at Draco once, then away. “And maybe yourself. Because you trusted Dumbledore.”

            “That last part was really the most important,” Harry told her. “At the time, I didn’t really trust Snape. I thought he might sabotage the bonding ritual, if he could.” He turned and smiled at Draco, maybe because he’d felt the inarticulate protest that was forming on Draco’s end of the bond. “It was a long time before I realized that he cares too much about Draco for that.”

            “Of course,” Draco murmured, holding Harry’s gaze and not letting him look away even when he thought Harry might look to. “He was my Head of House, and he’d been trying to help me all year.”

            “Not that you understood that at the time, either.”

            Draco opened his mouth to reply, everything in him yearning towards the untroubled warmth shining in Harry’s eyes, but Weasley interrupted. “So those conditions don’t apply, now?”

            Harry shook his head. “Definitely not the Dumbledore part anymore. No, Hermione,” he added, when Granger rushed to speak. “He’s a Legilimens, and he could read the truth out of your heads while you still didn’t know Occlumency. And he might add something to the ritual that none of us would recognize or know about.”

            “Harry. You can’t think that badly of him. Not Dumbledore.”

            “Well, maybe not that badly,” Harry admitted after hesitating for a moment.

            That’s all right, Draco thought, and frankly didn’t care how much of his distrust came down the bond. I’ll think badly enough of him for the both of us.

            “But I don’t really see any reason to do this except to soothe some people’s fears,” said Harry, demonstrating his version of diplomacy by not saying which people. “I won’t put more people than Draco at risk.”

            “We’re at risk fighting alongside you,” said Weasley, his jaw jutting. Draco frowned at him, wondering exactly which side he thought he was on, but then understood as he saw the way Weasley looked at Granger. He didn’t want to be bonded to Draco and Harry, no, and he was trying to come up with arguments that would help Harry defeat Granger’s before she could get them entrenched.

            “Not the same kind of risk,” said Harry, and he sounded so calm and appraising that Draco glanced at him in surprise. Harry winked at him and faced Weasley and Granger again. Looking at them when the bond glowed with Harry’s soft, simple affection for them, Draco felt as if he was seeing them as they really were, as Harry saw them, for the first time.

            Granger had anxious eyes and too much tendency to trust in authority figures, but she tried to use that for Harry’s good; she was doing her best to protect him. Weasley was a solid presence, someone who had always been there. Given what he knew about Harry’s family and his life in Hogwarts, where even Hufflepuffs turned against him on a regular basis, Draco could see how valuable those things must be.

            I’m going to get sentimental and agree with Granger in a minute, if I don’t watch out.

            But Draco reminded himself that at least Weasley was on his side—a comfort now where it had been a nuisance before—and inclined his head. “Harry’s right. This is a spiritual and mental risk.”

            Granger sniffed. “And you don’t think some of the curses and Dark Arts they would use don’t cause that kind of thing?”

            Draco stepped towards her before he could stop himself. “You have no idea—”

            Harry’s hand gripped his arm hard enough to stop him. Of course Granger had no idea. She hadn’t seen his mother die, she hadn’t seen anything that would explain to her what real life was like in the Death Eaters.

            “Let me handle this one,” Harry murmured.

            Draco nodded shortly and stepped back. Then he tried to calm the jagged emotions that he knew were flowing down the bond. Harry would do better reasoning with his friends if he wasn’t distracted by Draco’s feelings.

            But Harry only smiled at him as if he understood, and turned away. Draco leaned against his back and closed his eyes.

            Father could doubt the wisdom of the soul-bond all he wanted, even Professor Snape and Harry could, but the fact remained that Draco didn’t know what he would do right now if he didn’t have Harry.

*

            “Draco and I know a lot about each other,” Harry told Ron and Hermione. He could see the caution in Ron’s eyes and grinned. “Don’t worry, Ron, I don’t intend to tell you all the details.”

            “Thank you,” said Ron, so sincerely that Harry laughed, and for a second it was like being back in the Gryffindor common room after some chess game he’d lost.

            “But we could deal with that, Harry,” Hermione said, drawing his attention back to her. “We already know a lot about each other! You trusted us to take your side against Dumbledore, and we did. I’m not saying that we should bond with you because he approves of it. I think it’s a good idea.”

            Harry had to smile. Yes, there was Hermione’s trump card. It was a good idea, if one didn’t know how the soul-bond worked and saw only that he and Draco had got closer to each other.

            “Well, look at it like this, Hermione,” Harry said. “Would you want to know when Draco and I are having sex?”

            “You said,” Ron murmured mournfully, shaking his head.

            Hermione had turned pink with surprise. She let out a wobbly little breath, but there was nothing wobbly in her gaze as she looked at Harry and said, “I could get used to that. And the Occlumency barriers would block the emotions, anyway.”

            “Not until you learned them,” Harry said. “And Draco only managed to make me learn it because he was pulled into the dreams I was having because of Voldemort. Do you want to experience the same nightmares?”

            “No, I don’t,” Ron said. “You know I’ll stand by your side against him, mate, but I don’t want to be in the middle of your messed-up dreams.”

            Hermione gave a little gasp, but Draco, who Harry had thought might be offended, was shaking with silent laughter behind him. Harry nodded to him. “It was hard even having Draco there,” he said, giving Ron and Hermione something he hoped they could understand, and which wouldn’t offend Draco too badly. “It was hard to learn and share. I don’t want to do it again.”

            “Even if we could help you, Harry?” Hermione looked at Draco, hesitated, then went on quickly. “Even if we could help keep Malfoy safe because the Horcrux would have more people to focus on?”

            “I don’t want you exposed to the Horcrux, either. Bringing more people in defeats the purpose. Draco is involved because he won’t agree to let me sever the soul-bond—”

            “Thank you for understanding,” Draco interrupted.

            “I still wish you would,” Harry told him plainly. “I don’t want you in danger. I just think trying to keep you out of it by severing the soul-bond would be worse.”

            “As long as you know that.”

            Draco’s eyes were so intense that Harry ended up looking away again. At least the emotions coming through the bond didn’t feel as strong as that gaze. “I do know that,” he whispered. “Anyway. Hermione, Ron. Thank you for wanting to bond with me. But I’m not going to do it.”

            Hermione promptly settled in for a long argument she obviously hoped would persuade him. Harry settled into the long, tedious process of politely resisting without offending her and also without giving in.

            At least the sharp emotions coming down through the bond calmed a little, finally, and Draco settled back against his side.

            This is the right thing to do. It has to be.

*

            “You are still concerned about Harry and Mr. Malfoy?”

            Severus inclined his head. He was pacing on top of the Astronomy Tower with Albus, who had Flooed him early that morning and asked him to come up. Whatever Albus couldn’t discuss in front of the portraits must be something important, perhaps Dark. Severus knew some of the older Headmasters didn’t approve of all Albus’s actions.

            Severus had gone mostly because he thought it would probably concern Harry or the other Horcruxes.

            “I would not be worried if this bond was not as intense,” said Severus, choosing his words carefully. “I think Draco may do something stupid if he is not watched.” Albus looked pleased, and Severus suspected it was both at his putting-down of a Slytherin student and that he didn’t sound concerned about Harry at all. “On the other hand, severing the bond now would only make Draco more inclined to do something stupid.”

            Albus sighed and looked out from the Tower, towards the distance where the Forbidden Forest shaded into misty green. “There is that. But I am going to tell you something now, Severus, that must not reach Mr. Malfoy’s ears.”

            Severus widened his eyes. “Am I going to be compelled to share it with Potter? Because, in that case, I can’t guarantee it will remain a secret.”

            “I will tell Harry and swear him to secrecy myself.”

            I outright tell you how intense their bond is, and you don’t listen? Severus turned and leaned an elbow on the parapets around the top of the Astronomy Tower, bowing his head a little. No, Albus didn’t listen, of course not. He had his own prejudices, in some ways as bad as the ones against Potter Severus had once carried, and he let them guide his actions.

            “Go ahead, Albus.”

            Albus stood looking away from him, a wind moving his silver hair and the sleeves of his robe a little, exposing his blackened hand. Severus studied it critically again. Albus had let Severus give him more of the healing potion last night, but he hadn’t seemed very interested in the outcome. Severus supposed he had accepted his inevitable death.

            That does not mean others must.

            The strength of the protectiveness in Severus’s thoughts surprised him, and he was still blinking his way through it when Albus spoke.

            “I have wondered whether it would be possible to pull the Horcrux out of Harry in some other way. Not by means of a soul-bond ritual, even the one Miss Granger wanted to enact, which might spread the connection between Harry and Tom thin. But a ritual conducted with other Horcruxes.”

            Severus straightened and didn’t have to pretend his interest or his anxiety. “You are not talking about Nagini?”

            Albus shook his head at once and turned his head gently to twinkle at Severus. “You acknowledge me as a genius, Severus, but I haven’t yet figured out a way to get that snake away from Tom.”

            Severus nodded and said nothing. Albus had mentioned another Horcrux before this. Severus waited to see what it would be.

            “I believe Tom turned a cup that once belonged to Helga Hufflepuff into a Horcrux,” Albus went on obligingly. “I have been sure of that for some time. The problem has been making sure of where it was—and where it was not.” He spent a moment combing his fingers through his beard. “I have looked in the other places that once hid Horcruxes, although admittedly I didn’t think of the Room of Requirement.”

            Severus only nodded and maintained his usual lack of an expression. Albus wasn’t looking at him, anyway.

            “And I think now, based on a few finding spells I performed with another artifact of Helga’s,” said Albus, with a windy sigh, “that I must conclude it is surrounded by protective spells of so high a nature, and so many goblins, that it is in—”

            “Gringotts,” Severus whispered. He should have thought of that himself. The Dark Lord had plenty of followers who would have vaults and the loyalty to protect any artifact he asked them to, without knowing what it was or whether it was dangerous.

            “Exactly.” Albus turned around again, and Severus lowered his eyes a bit. “But it is hard to determine what vault it is in, even so. I can bring up various magical signatures through the connection between the cup and the artifact I have, but I recognize none of them.”

            “You think Draco might,” Severus said flatly. He knew without asking that that was the main reason Albus had brought him up here, and also that it was dangerous.

            “Yes,” said Albus. “And if he does, then we can focus our efforts on getting that one Horcrux out of whatever Death Eater vault it’s in, and then we don’t need to risk Harry’s life or young Mr. Malfoy’s.”

            Albus was probably right. The problem was, once Severus had turned to distrusting him, then he had no guarantee that was so. He turned his head and looked blindly across the sleeping castle, the still pitch, the misty Forest. He felt Albus come up behind him and didn’t react when the man touched his shoulder.

            “I know that this is unexpected,” Albus said soothingly. “I didn’t suspect such a ritual existed myself until I ran across a reference to it in one of the books I was reading for a different purpose. But I promise that I can save both Harry and Mr. Malfoy with this.”

            “What would the ritual require?”

            “For Mr. Malfoy to walk through fire.”

            Severus turned around, glad that he had suddenly discovered a road back to morality. “And you think that safe enough for me to recommend the ritual to them? Are you out of your mind?” More than usual, he added silently.

            Albus smiled as if he had heard the extra words and didn’t mind them at all. His eyes were locked once again on Severus’s face, and he also didn’t seem to mind when Severus turned aside again. “I think it would be safer than having him try to battle Voldemort face-to-face or sever the soul-bond. And those are the things that will happen if we leave them to happen. Don’t you think so, Severus?” he added softly.

            It probably would be, Severus acknowledged to himself. But only because Draco had lost all sense of proper boundaries with Potter, and wanted to be with him and help him face all his demons endlessly.

            “Tell me more about the ritual.”

            Albus beamed and proceeded to do so, while Severus made as calm a face as he could and nodded continually.

            I will need to investigate this ritual and carry the knowledge back to Harry and Draco and Harry’s friends, at least. That is not the same as cooperating with Albus or agreeing that he knows best.

            I hope.

*
            SP777: I hope the solution will be innovative! Right now, though, I’m not planning on doing Harry’s death in a manner anything like canon.
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The Serenity of His Rage