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Changing of the Guard	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 58627 -:- Recommendations : 4 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Three�Brian

�� Draco cast
a Tempus Charm, and then stopped and
stared at the numbers floating in midair. He sighed. It was literally the same minute as it had been when he cast the
last charm.

�� He banished
the numbers with a flick of his wand and collapsed into his chair, casting a
spell that would create the sensation of warm, massaging fingers down the back
of his neck. He sighed in bliss as they worked, and kept himself focused only
on that feeling for what he knew had to be several minutes.

�� Will Brian be willing to do this for me, I
wonder?

�� And just
like that, his thoughts were back with the man he was meeting tonight for the
first time.

�� Draco
opened his eyes and glanced around the room. It was a small, furnished flat
he�d taken in North London to be closer to the city headquarters for his
business. He was not enough of a fool to invite Brian to the Manor for their
first meeting, and this was only the fourth of June, the night before his
birthday celebration. Draco had been able to slip away from his parents easily
enough; they were trying to surprise him, and didn�t want him around at the
moment anyway.

�� Brian was
supposed to be here at the dot of eight. And it was only seven-thirty, and
already Draco felt like he was going to crawl out of his skin.

�� And wouldn�t that be a nice sight to greet him with as he walks through the door?

�� Draco
grinned wryly and rubbed the back of his neck himself as the spells faded. He
really had to calm down. He knew already that he was anxious to make a good
impression on Brian. The man had certainly made a good impression on him, and had done it with no more than a
photograph and words on a page.

�� But he
wouldn�t make it snapping and dancing like a horse with a fly bothering it.
Besides, why should he worry? He was Draco Malfoy.

�� Though not for much longer if the plan goes
the way I want it to.

�� Draco
leaned back and looked thoughtfully up at the ceiling. Perhaps he should think
about that. What other than his money and his name would work to impress a man
like Brian?

�� You mean, other than your dashing good looks
and your ability to move like a god on a broom and on the ground and your
ability to lie and your self-confidence?

�� Draco
laughed at himself, silently. Yes, that sounded like a good start.

�� Despite his
determination to exist free from his father�s shadow, he still wasn�t all that
used to standing on his own. He hadn�t believed, until the moment when the Manager
left the Hog�s Head promising that Brian would meet him for the first time in
three days, that his plan was really going to succeed. At least, not this plan. He could have used Blaise.

�� But he had
Brian.

�� Because no
one was there to see him, Draco wriggled like a child in his chair from
excitement.

*

�� Harry
glanced at the photograph of Brian lying on the table, and frowned
thoughtfully. The shade of blue in those eyes was one he�d achieved almost by
accident, not through the usual color-changing spells; those had been early
days, when he was still experimenting in the desperate hope of finding a mask
that would make him comfortable enough to wear it for always. Of course he
hadn�t found one. Of course he had found it was better (and more profitable) to
slide from mask to mask like a butterfly constantly emerging from the
chrysalis, and he had done so ever since. He just hoped he could recreate that
blue.

�� But if he
had thought it impossible, he would not have accepted this job.

�� Finally, he
used the same incantation to alter his green eyes to blue that he usually did,
but thought emphatically of the twilight color of Brian�s eyes as he did so.

�� And it
worked, of course, the blue chasing out the green in a great wave, like the
wave of color that flooded the sky when the sun was setting. Harry laid down
his wand and smiled at himself in the mirror for a moment, then spun to face
the sets of robes behind him.

�� He stood in
the great closet at the back of the Metamorphosis shop, the one in which all
the tools of his trade led their own quiet, independent lives until he called
them together and assembled them into something new. Robes, wigs, shoe
supports, wands of different woods, �characteristic� glasses and watches and
monocles and brands of cigarettes, face makeup, portable glamours attached to a
certain strand of hair that could be placed among his own, books to look
studious, manuscripts of different lives and tips from voice acting
lessons�Harry could feel his own gaze softening and turning fond as he looked
around. When he had decided to open Metamorphosis, he had decided to commit. Maybe he could never quite find
the identity he wanted for himself, but he could create thousands of attractive
or interesting or wondrous ones, and to do that, he needed the best equipment
possible.

�� When he�d
found the set of dark, practical robes he wanted, he faced the mirror again,
took another look at Brian�s photograph, and felt a slight shiver of both
danger and delight as he realized that he need not alter anything else, at
least as far as looks went. He had already changed his face so that it bent at
the required narrow angles and his lightning bolt scar was thinned to a narrow
line. The man looking back at him from the mirror was Brian.

�� In
appearance.

�� But then,
Brian was dangerously close to the real Harry Potter in personality, too�or at
least to Harry Potter as he had become over the last ten years, in those
flitting moments when he was trying on masks and had not yet gone to exist
behind one.

�� He frowned
thoughtfully at himself in the mirror. �Are you sure you want this job?� he
asked aloud. �You like being Brian too much, and you�re not even on stage yet.
That could be a problem.�

�� But of
course he was taking the job, because he had already taken the job, and Metamorphosis never failed in its
commitments. Harry laid his doubts aside as casually and easily as he had laid
aside his loneliness for years, because they were Harry Potter�s doubts, and he
was not Harry Potter right now. He picked up Brian�s wand, ash with a core of
Antipodean Opaleye scale�they made wands differently in New Zealand�and smiled
into the mirror.

�� Ready?� he
asked in Brian�s voice, slightly deeper and huskier than his own normal one.
�We have a pure-blood to go stun.�

*

�� At the dot
of eight, a knock came on the door of the flat. Draco jumped up, and then swore
viciously under his breath. He was not nervous.
No, damn it, he was not.

�� And just
like that, the nervousness drained away. For some reason, Draco usually did
shake right before a major event�such as closing a business deal�and right
after, but never during. His body reacted to the imminent danger as it should, with steel.

�� Coolly, he
checked the hang of his robe sleeves and conjured a small mirror to check the
expression on his face, all the while waiting for Brian to knock again. He
didn�t, and Draco�s reflection in the mirror gave a slow smile.

�� He liked
that.

�� He strolled
casually across the room to the door, and opened it equally casually. He caught
Brian aiming his wand at the door, halfway through the spell that would have
created a peephole in it.

�� Brian
straightened up at once, but didn�t bother trying to look guilty. He was
smiling. �You must be Draco Malfoy,� he said. �I�ve heard of the hair.�

�� Draco felt
an immediate thrill tingle straight through to his gut, where it tightened.
Brian was the walking, breathing emblem of his photograph, and more. No picture
could have captured how he looked Draco directly in the eye, smiling slightly,
making the action not seem rude, as it would have from most people, but the
natural thing to do, because it was the way one interesting person would look
at another. And they were both fantastically interesting, weren�t they?

�� Draco put
his hand out without knowing consciously that he was going to do so. Brian
clasped it and shook it heartily, looking around the room in interest as Draco
escorted him inside. He only stopped and stared at the artwork on the opposite
wall, though, a combination of marble sculpture and bodies executed in ivory
paint, all of which rotated slowly back and forth to reveal couples embracing
each other. Since the couples included men with men and women with women, it
was fantastically scandalous, of course, and one of the many reasons that Draco
had never invited his parents to this flat.

�� Draco
tensed, wondering if Brian would reveal his own discomfort with the idea of two
men having sex after all. But Brian only whistled slowly and glanced back at
him over his shoulder. �You have an original Peccadillo,� he said happily.
�That must have cost a hell of a lot.�

�� The tingle
in Draco�s gut became a warm throb. He was startled to realize that he was
regarding the man not only with excitement, which of course he�d felt since he
saw the photograph, but with affection. No
one Draco knew save one or two of his friends would have recognized the
artwork�s origin, and then only because they�d heard Draco talking it up for
months before he bought it.

�� Of course,
Brian had studied the pure-blood
culture of wizarding Britain, and spent a small fortune doing so.

�� And he�s a bloody brilliant liar, remember?
Time to slow this down a bit, I think, so I don�t fall headlong into a trap.

�� Would you care
for something to drink?� he asked, keeping his tone as cool as the slowly
turning marble bodies of the picture across the way. �Or should we act as the
businessmen we are and forego such simple pleasures?�

*

�� Draco was
controlled, but Harry could read him. That was probably only because he was
stunned and worried by his own response to Brian, so he was reacting more
slowly to cover his emotions than he otherwise would have.

�� Which meant
Harry had about half a second�s lead-time, realistically.

�� And he knew
exactly how Brian would respond to an offer like the one Draco had just made,
because Brian could banter with the best of them. He looked straight into
Draco�s eyes and said earnestly, �Oh, I hope there�ll be nothing simple about the pleasures we enjoy.�

�� Draco�s
eyebrows crept up. He didn�t blush. Harry hadn�t expected him to; still, he had
to admire such fine masking.

�� Let me
understand a few things,� Draco said softly, taking a step towards him. Harry
recognized it as his attempt to take charge of the situation. In most personas,
Harry would have backed down and let him do so, in order to make him feel more
comfortable. But ultimately, such an action would backfire with the Brian
persona. Draco needed someone fiery enough to stand up to his parents. He must
be convinced that Brian could do so. �Exactly how eager are you to go to bed
with me? And do you understand the finer points of your assignment?�

�� Harry rose
to his full height, which in both his own body and Brian�s was almost exactly
the same as Draco�s. Maybe a hair of difference separated them, and Harry
couldn�t even have told which way it ran. His entire attention was focused on
the man across from him, focused and throbbing like his blood.

�� I
understand everything about my
assignment,� he said, and let a tone of faint contempt through, because Brian
didn�t take well to attempts to bully him. �And of course I�m eager to go to
bed with you. You�re an attractive man. I don�t quite see, though, how you took
a bit of flirting as a strip-tease.�

�� Draco�s
nostrils flared. He was not grinding his teeth together, Harry knew, but only
because of his exquisite control. He licked his lips, already thinking of ways
he could test that control.

�� Then he
reminded himself that he was supposed to be thinking Brian�s thoughts. Well,
those probably were Brian�s thoughts, so Harry believed he was still all right.

�� Draco began
speaking again, and Harry snapped his attention back to him; it would be fatal,
with a client, a partner, an opponent like this, to miss anything he said. �We will do other things on this assignment
than sleep together. Do you understand?�

�� No need to
treat me like I�m stupid, Draco.� Brian dropped the teasing banter and faced
Draco full-on, since he apparently needed to be reminded of what Metamorphosis
had provided him. �I understand that the primary goal here is to help you win
free of your parents. If sex comes along with that, it�s a nice bonus, but not
something central. I�ll do my job, and I�ll have fun doing it. I won�t let you
make me feel guilty for having fun. And I don�t like it when someone attempts
to condescend to me. Got it?� Harry allowed just a tiny bit of a New Zealander
accent to leak through on those last words, and he made his whole face firm and
challenging. Draco had to understand that Brian would insist on an equal
footing throughout this whole case, or their partnership was likely to collapse
in ruins before it faced its first test.

*

�� Draco could
hear the blood buzzing in his ears. The only thing clearer than that sound was
the voice of the man across from him.

�� The
infuriating, stubborn, wonderful man
across from him.

�� Draco had
never felt a push and pull like this. No one had ever figured out so quickly
exactly what he was doing when he tried to intimidate them and thrown it back
in his face. Those who could figure
it out were too concerned with pleasing him, mostly to hold onto the money he�d
invested in their businesses, to object.

�� But this
man could and did object.

�� No doubt the Galleons I�ve already handed
over to the Manager have something to do with that, Draco thought, but the
flash of Brian�s eyes burned his cynicism to death. Yes, this man would have
fit into Gryffindor. He was unamused by Draco�s attempt to take over their
interaction, and unafraid of challenging him.

�� Draco
cleared his throat and inclined his head. �It appears that we�ve got off on the
wrong foot,� he said. �I do apologize. I suppose I needed to see what you would
do if I pushed.�

�� Brian
grinned at him, emotions apparently shifting like a whirlwind with Draco�s
simple apology. �Push back.�

�� Draco was
glad he wasn�t near a piece of furniture at the moment. The words and the grin
in combination had given him the most delicious images, and he would have been
tempted to grip the back of a chair or a couch�a weakness he couldn�t afford in
front of someone like Brian.

�� I�d like
to discuss what will happen when we arrive at the Manor tomorrow,� he said, and
motioned Brian towards the chair he�d been sitting in before the other man
knocked. Brian nodded and sat down, looking grateful even for that favor. It
was the least servile gratitude Draco had ever seen, and he wondered how the
man managed it. �You know we�ll need different strategies to handle my mother
and my father�what are you doing?�

�� Because
Brian was sniffing the chair, a rapturous expression on his face. He looked up,
his lips parted in a silent laugh. �I�m
sorry,� he said. �I got distracted. This is where you were sitting before I
arrived, right?�

�� Draco
slowly nodded, wondering how in the world he could have known that; the chair
didn�t keep an impression. Perhaps he had managed to create a peephole in the
door after all. That was something Draco would have to check before he left the
flat.

�� It smells
like you.� Brian shrugged. �Which is to say, good.�

�� Draco
barely held back from licking his lips. The
man is an actor, he reminded himself.

�� But the
chair really didn�t keep an
impression, and it wasn�t unknown for wizards to have such keen senses.
Particularly if they�d cast charms to enhance them, which Draco would not have
put past Brian. He raised an eyebrow. �With such a good nose,� he said, �I�m
surprised you didn�t do better at Potions.�

�� Brian ducked
his head and muttered something.

�� Pardon?�

�� Brian
sighed dramatically. �The real reason
I didn�t do better at Potions was this adorable boy in my class,� he said. �I
had a crush on him years before I knew what a crush was, or that having one on a
boy meant I was probably gay. He hated my guts, of course, and regularly
thrashed me at Quidditch, which I joined just to impress him; I�m not very good
at flying. I shouldn�t have mooned after him that way.� Every line of his face
reflected both regret and a nostalgia that kept the regret from being real as
he peered up at Draco. �I promise I�m
past that stage now.�

�� Draco
relaxed a little. A weakness. Brian did have
a weakness, then, but one that shouldn�t affect the way they handled his
parents. �Let me get you something to drink.�

�� Oh, you
don�t have to get it yourself�� Brian started to stand.

�� Draco
reached out and put his hand on the other man�s for the second time. Now he
could pause to enjoy the contact, the warmth and a sharper kind of lightning
cutting into him through the fingers.

�� His magic.

�� Holy God,
Brian�s was the strongest magic Draco had ever felt. He had evidently placed it
under shields, probably not wanting to overwhelm Draco in the first moments of
their meeting, but a touch left him no place to hide. Draco shuddered and
shivered, caught between fear and desire. Such power provoked ideas of fighting
or surrendering to it, with no in-between. Of course, Draco would make sure
there was a middle ground where he could comfortably exist. He did not
surrender.

�� And then
Brian covered Draco�s hand with both of his, and bent to kiss his wrist.

�� The
lightning coursing up Draco�s arm changed its flavor. Now it was sweet, gentle,
protective�and fragile in places, as though Brian were showing Draco where he
didn�t have many skills and someone could punch through his defenses. Of
course, someone would only show their defenses like that if they were utterly
confident they could win the contest anyway.

�� But at the
moment, Draco hardly cared. He withdrew his hand slowly and gave Brian his
first genuine smile since the other man had walked through the door.

�� No,
please,� he said. �Let me.�

*

�� Harry was
just as happy to let Draco fetch him a drink from the neat, sparkling kitchen
that lay off to one side of this room. He needed a moment to lean back in the
chair and recover his breath.

�� Merlin, he
was taking risks like an idiot. Once
he got completely into a character, he spoke and acted like that character to
cover any unanticipated gaps in the biography that might arise. So, though he
hadn�t thought Draco would really ask why a good nose would correlate with poor
Potions ability, he had let the �Brian� part of himself answer without thought.

�� And of course
the story was one that could have belonged to Harry Potter�in part, anyway.
Harry honestly hadn�t noticed the younger Draco the way that Brian claimed to
have noticed his crush. But he had
been rivals and competed at Quidditch with him, and that was closer to the true
story than he would usually put in a persona�s mouth.

�� And then he
had let Draco feel the full strength of his magic, not only through the touch
but through the kiss�and that was something he never did. Most of his clients didn�t care about magical strength,
so Harry simply shielded it, or they wanted someone they could overwhelm. When
Harry acted as a bodyguard, then his clients wanted someone who could protect
them, but that required only moderate force. Knowledge and experience were more
important to the frightened than sheer strength; they were always the ones who
questioned him most extensively about his characters� backgrounds.

�� But Draco
had wanted someone powerful, and Harry had reached out the way Brian would
have: full-hearted, impulsive, showing him what was there, who exactly he had
to conflict with and get aroused by.

�� It was
in-character. But it was so close to his real identity as to make Harry
worried. He was not Harry Potter in a
mask to Draco. He was Brian. And he must remain Brian no matter what, no matter
the temptation to be otherwise.

�� Here you
are.�

�� Draco
brought out a glass of a delicate wine, and Harry took it, sniffed it, and
sipped it gratefully. Draco�s eyes challenged him to identify the year,
flickering back and forth between Harry�s face and the wine like that, so Brian
said, �South le Fay, 1967.�

�� Draco
laughed and dropped into a chair opposite from Harry. �You are good. Tell me, will you be as good when we confront my parents
tomorrow?�

�� Between one
sentence and the next, he could slide from humor to seriousness. Harry admired
that. He folded Brian�s face into an earnest smile. �I hope so. But why don�t
you tell me more about them? I only know what the Manager told me. Will they go
as far as hexes and tears the first night?�

�� Draco shook
his head and sipped his wine. �My father will ask me what I�m doing with a man,
but he�ll do it privately. He won�t want to ruin the party no matter how much
of a public spectacle I make of myself.� He shot Brian a warning glance. �Stay
out of it.�

�� Harry
nodded and sipped his wine.

�� Then he�ll
try to bribe you,� Draco said calmly. �He�ll think that I hired you for some
low amount of money, and if he can double it, you�ll just go away.�

�� Which
won�t work,� Harry muttered.

�� Draco flung
him a challenging glance. �Even if he offers you more than what you�re picking
up working for Metamorphosis on this case? He�s capable of it.�

�� Money
doesn�t matter to me much.� Brian met his eyes again. �You�ve felt my magic. I
could be rich if I wanted to. I don�t want that.�

�� Lack of
forethought?� Draco�s face wore the startled, half-pitying expression that many
rich people used around those who didn�t particularly value Galleons.

�� Lack of ambition.�
Brian smiled. �I won�t succumb. Is it threats yet?�

�� It will
be. I have no doubt that you can handle yourself, particularly if you let him
feel just a bit of your magic. Don�t display all your surprises the first time,
of course.� Draco settled back, eyes half-closed.

�� Of course
not,� Harry snapped, and let Brian sound just a bit offended.

�� Draco
smiled lazily, and shut his eyes fully. �Then comes my mother. She�ll have
confronted me alone by that time. Almost surely she�ll ask for a dance with
you, hoping to show you up in front of her guests. Then it�ll be time for
sparkling wit and conversation. I hope you�re up on the latest pure-blood
scandals.�

�� Always.�
And that happened to be true for Harry as well as Brian. He read the newspapers
both to give credence to a variety of his personas and because it often gave
him advance warning of what cases might come to him next.

�� That will
be all they try for tomorrow night. It will become more serious later.� Draco
opened his eyes, and Harry was pinned by the intent gaze, sharp and gray as a
needle. �And of course, you�ll accompany me in dancing, in talking, in doing
whatever�s needed to convince them you and I are happy lovers.�

�� Harry
smiled. �That won�t be a problem at all.� And he let his gaze turn appraising,
delighted when Draco returned it.

*

�� Draco
leaned against the door of the flat when he�d shut it behind Brian�after the
conversation about what they�d do at Malfoy Manor tomorrow night, they�d
exchanged only a few inconsequential pleasantries�and shook his head.

�� His heart
was pounding. His body was alive, alert, aware, in a way he�d never noticed
before. Thoughts scattered through his head like shooting stars.

�� Brian was
not the most handsome man he�d met, nor the most fit, nor the most talented at
witty banter. He was the most powerful, but that meant little�beyond increasing
Draco�s personal enjoyment�when he wouldn�t use that power to win money and
fame for himself.

�� But he was
the most interesting man Draco had
ever met.

�� And Draco
was now wildly grateful for the charms he�d cast a few hours before Brian
arrived, to keep himself from showing visible signs of arousal. He strode
towards the loo now, removing them as he went, and sighing as his blood resumed
its natural flow.

�� Things were
going so well, he thought they called
for a celebratory wank.

�� Mind full
of blue eyes and messy hair and a stubbornness that wouldn�t back down, he
started the shower with a tap of his wand.

*

�� ProfessorSibly,
pendragon6644, Ritinha, Dezra, KLS, swornneveragain11, Sunny, Banner: Thanks
for reviewing!

�� Luvdonite:
Harry is very much a building on his original self; the greatest difference is
his confidence (and maybe his ability to lie).

�� Tac:
Thanks! I�ll go back and correct that study to sturdy. And I hope you enjoyed
this chapter.

�� Lunatic
with a hero complex: Thanks for clearing that up. Harry here really enjoys
being the different people because he doesn�t feel he really knows who he is, but he definitely knows who they are.

�� Thrnbrooke:
It�s been ten years (or even longer) since Draco has seen Harry. He isn�t that
obsessed with him in this story as he is in many others.

�� Mangacat:
Heh, Draco thinks he is with an OMC,
even though he�s not.

�� Engwaaearien:
Wait until you see them meet �face-to-face�!

�� Takumi
Fujiwara: Done!

�� Hi-chan:
Some of why Harry decided to start it is explained in this chapter.

�� Yume111: In
this case, I�m saying Draco really did have reason to dislike Harry for how
Harry acted around him. Brian won�t have that past.

�� Harry is
having fun and the game means
something to him philosophically.

�� Night the
Storyteller: Harry�s reasons are hinted at here, but not fully revealed yet.

�� Faery:
Harry is very good at glamours and Transfigurations. He became so through
practice. It�s not inherent.
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Changing of the Guard