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Kinder, Kindler, Kindlier	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Threesomes/Moresomes Views: 24796 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and I am not making any money from this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Kinder, Kindler, Kindlier
- 2-Chapter 2
- 3-Part 3
- 4-Part 4
- 5-Part 5
- 6-Part 6
- 7-Part 7
- 8-Part 8
- 9-Part 9
- 10-Part 10
- 11-Part 10
- 12-Part 12
- 2
- 3
- 4
�� Severus
stood staring at the letter for some time. He would have liked to pretend that
the handwriting was too messy for him to interpret, but he didn�t have that
recourse, thanks to previous messages from Potter arranging the day when he
would be by Severus�s shop to renew the wards.

�� Draco?� he
called at last. �Come here and tell me what you make of this.�

�� Draco
bounced out of the area of the shop still draped with cloth and busy with the
sound of hammers. Yes, there were many people who wouldn�t even listen to a
proposal to expand the building from the dread Severus Snape, but there were
plenty of others who were willing to work for Malfoy Galleons. Now Draco gave
him an eager look. �Yes, Severus? An order from one of the suppliers?� He
picked up the letter before Severus could give him a caution about its
contents.

�� He read in
silence, though Severus thought he could see a shifting and prickling on the
back of his head where his hair was surely standing up. Then he gripped the
edges of the letter as if he would tear it in half.

�� Do not,�
Severus said sharply. �We haven�t made a decision yet.�

�� What decision
is there to make?� Draco waved the
letter back and forth as though he were fanning the carbuncles in the window
display. �Harry bloody Potter, offering to go into partnership with us? This
has to be a joke.�

�� It is
not,� Severus said. �He no longer makes those kinds of jokes.� He frowned at
the letter again. One phrase caught his eye: can understand if you don�t want to, but I hope you will.

�� The words
practically bled sincerity. Severus shuddered slightly at the thought of that
imaginary blood flooding his shop.

�� On the one
hand, he hardly wanted to be in daily contact with Potter if he was going to do
that sort of thing. On the other, if he refused, Potter would probably come and
beg him to change his mind in person, and his earnest expression would be
worse.

�� But even
if we accepted him, how could we accommodate him?� Draco fumed. �We�d have to
carry mostly defensive potions and ingredients for them, because people would
expect it, to fit in with the wards. And if we didn�t, then it wouldn�t really
be a partnership, just two businesses
occupying the same building.�

�� Severus
closed his eyes. In reality, that idea appealed to him, though he could see why
it wouldn�t to Draco.

�� Potter�s
fame as a ward-maker would be enough to induce a new, better class of customers
to enter the shop. And when they were there, what might they not be induced to
buy? Severus knew that a large part of customer mentality was convenience.
Perhaps someone who wanted carbuncles would put off buying them because of cost
or lack of time to enter Diagon Alley, but when he was coming to bargain for
new wards, he would see them, for a good price, from the corner of his eye, and
think about it, and buy them. Or he would buy one of the many potions that
could be made from them, and which Draco would have on display in his portion
of the shop.

�� If they
worked as separate businesses, they would have a certain degree of independence
from one another, but could benefit one another at the same time. The
possibilities hypnotized Severus.

�� We will
have to work out a profit-sharing agreement, you and I, Draco,� he murmured.
�And we will decide in advance what
portion of the rent Potter will pay. With his prices and his popularity, he
will be able to afford anything we charge.�

�� Silence. It
was the kind of silence that Draco would use to give him a stare. Severus knew
that, and did not truly resent it.

�� You�re not
serious,� Draco breathed, but seemed
to realize that Severus was indeed so. His voice rose a little. �You can�t be!
How can you be? We wouldn�t survive a day without trying to hex each other!�

�� Severus did
open his eyes then, in order to glare. �I would hope that you have passed
beyond that stage, Draco.�

�� Draco
folded his arms and looked stiff, then resigned, then ridiculous, and then back
to stiff-faced again. Severus suspected that Draco was changing his own
thoughts almost too fast to keep up with, at once wanting to confront Severus�s
accusation and to make sure that there was no way Potter would be invited into
the shop. Severus waited, finger on the letter and eyes on Draco�s face.

�� I wouldn�t
hex him,� Draco said at last, in a voice as unconvincing as a child�s first
glamour. �But he might hex me.�

�� You have
told me that he did not hex you during the conversation you had at your Manor,�
Severus said, �the conversation that ultimately made you decide to come to me.�

�� Yes, but
maybe he�s changed his mind since then,� Draco said desperately.

�� Severus
lifted his head. He should have heard it before. There was a note in Draco�s
voice that had once been familiar to him, when he was a teacher speaking with
students who were in constant competition�as they saw it�with other students
for good marks, the favor of Professors, notice in Quidditch tryouts, parental
love. �Draco, are you jealous of
him?�

�� Draco
hunched his shoulders and looked away.

�� Severus
spoke in a quiet, forceful voice. He might have walked away from this argument
ordinarily, disgusted by the pettiness of the emotions involved, but it was
flattering to know that Draco considered his
regard something important enough to get upset about. �Draco, you will
always come first in my estimation.�

�� I will?�
Draco looked at him with desperate hopefulness that let Severus know he had
guessed correctly.

�� Of
course.� Severus stepped forwards, wondering as he did so what the best gesture
would be. They were not close enough for an embrace�and Draco might take that
wrong in more ways than one�and Severus thought a handshake would make him seem
too distant. He settled for patting Draco on the back. From the rapt way
Draco�s eyes followed him, he doubted that Draco would take the gesture amiss.
�Your Potions skill is greater. You are more like me. We are both Slytherins,
that is inevitable. And you were the one who came up with the idea of going
into business with me first. Potter is only copying you.�

�� A few diplomatic lies cannot hurt.

�� Draco�s
face at once shone like the moon. �That�s right,�
he said triumphantly. �He would never have thought of this if not for me.�

�� I believe
you are correct.� Severus Summoned the letter and stood studying, puzzling over
the words. They were simple, but that same bleeding sincerity was even stronger
on a second reading. Yes, Potter really did write as if he wanted to be part of
some grand experience that Draco and Severus would deprive him of.

�� Why? I cannot believe that he feels such
affection for Draco after years apart and then a few meetings.

�� The other
possibility was even more unbelievable, but it seemed nonetheless to be the
true one. Severus had thought Potter ungrateful for his kindness the other day.
That blank face, though, those wide eyes�what if they were only meant to
conceal a soul as shrinking, in its own way, of encountering disapproval as
Severus�s own?

�� He wants to be with me.

�� Severus
knew then that he was going to accept Potter�s offer, no matter what bribe he
had to offer Draco to make him agree. For Draco to want his approval was
flattering, but at least that had a basis: their years together as teacher and
student.

�� For Potter
to want it, when he had resisted the efforts Severus made to protect him and
chastise him in school?

�� Intoxicating.

*

�� Draco
watched Potter from the corner of his eye as he expanded the shop�s walls with
waves of his wand. It seemed that among the wards he knew were ones that would
actually raise bricks and stone and make them hover in the air, waiting for the
mortar or other materials to finish and join them. Potter had preferred that to
trying to find builders who wouldn�t blurt out the truth about the
Boy-Who-Lived and his new location before they were ready.

�� Draco could
understand that. Intellectually.

�� His heart,
he was starting to think, would always be eleven years old, and it sulked and
suspected that Potter was showing off for Severus.

�� Three
blocks hung in the air already. Potter frowned with concentration, and a line
of red light sprang from the hanging stones to the ground and then back up
again and then down again, grounding itself at Potter�s feet, forming an arch.
Another stone racketed along to the center of that arch liked a bead on a chain
and hung there, quivering. Potter smiled, a slight sheen of sweat on his
forehead.

�� He wants you to watch, Draco reminded
himself, and turned away. So the best
thing you can do is disappoint him.

�� He went to
the center of the shop, where Severus was considering one of the offers they
had received from the few people who�inevitably�knew Potter was here.
Apparently the friend of a friend of the Weasleys made sturdy crates and cages
of the kind used to transport magical beasts who could be legally sold or
traded, and had offered them to Severus for a modest consideration and
prominent display of his name. The crates and cages would stand up to the sort
of damage that people liked to inflict on shops where two former Death Eaters
worked. Severus, though, had said that he was not sure if they would make the
best display for his merchandise.

�� Are you
sick of him yet?� Draco asked, jerking his head in the direction of Potter.

�� Severus
seemed to wake slowly, as though he had fallen into a trance and wouldn�t have
been able to rouse himself from it without Draco�s help. He glanced once at
Draco, then back at the papers he was considering, then put one finger on a
diagram as though to hold his place and gave Draco his attention again. �What
do you mean?�

�� Look at
him,� Draco said, pivoting back on one heel in time to see Potter hang two more
stones along the same arch of light as that first stone. Draco knew from
experience how hard it was to make objects stay that still, and multiple
objects all at once�seven, in fact, since Potter still had stones hanging in
the air along his other wards. A ripple of envy passed through Draco, and
ripples of many other things that he didn�t want to name because he knew Potter
was trying to invoke them. �Doing the
most complicated magic he can because he wants people to gape.�

�� Silence.
Draco looked back, half-expecting Severus to be lost in his diagrams once more,
and prepared to resent it. No one really seemed to concentrate on Draco, on what he wanted and the fact
that this had been his idea. Even his
mother couldn�t see how different and wonderful it was from anything he might
have been expected to do; she had smiled at him and told him that she liked him
being outside the Manor because it would give him more of a chance to meet
suitable marriage candidates.

�� But Severus
was watching Potter with a silent, intent gaze that made Draco�s throat burn.
Then he looked back at Draco, said, �Those are the spells he must cast, if we
mean to save money,� and was absorbed in the diagrams once more.

�� You don�t
care,� Draco whispered. He knew his words were probably too sharp, from the
slowness with which Severus turned his head this time, but he had gone too far
to stop now. �You don�t care what I feel about him.�

�� I was
under the impression that it did not matter,� Severus said, his voice crackling
like dry leather, �because this is a business
proposition, not one based on friendship.�

�� Draco stood
straight and still for a minute. He knew he had lost, but he didn�t know the
name or nature of the game, and he wished he did. It might have made the loss a
little easier to bear. Finally he said, �It is,� in a voice he hoped would be
as dry as Severus�s.

�� If it was,
Severus didn�t notice or appreciate the effort, any more than usual. He simply
sneered, said, �Act like it, then,� and turned back to the diagrams.

�� Draco
fought to keep from blinking as he walked back to his own work: brewing the
simple potions that their clients would expect them to have on stock the first
day they opened the shop again. If Potter was looking at him, it might have
seemed as though he was holding back tears.

�� And he
wasn�t. He really wasn�t.

�� It was
just�

�� This was
supposed to have been his grand moment, his daring and dazzling escape from the
trap of self-pity that Severus had accused him of falling into and which Draco
knew might have consumed him if he didn�t do something.

�� Instead,
everyone was ignoring him exactly as though they didn�t know about his inner
changes.

*

�� Harry had
been watching from the corner of his eye for the last few days, and he had the
impression that there was something wrong with Malf�Draco. (He was trying to
learn to call his partners by their first names, even though the thought of
calling Snape anything but, at most, �sir� was fearful to contemplate).

�� Malfoy went
around sullenly, when that didn�t make sense, because this had been his idea
and Harry would have expected him to glory in that. He didn�t make half the
potions that he should have been making, or did it incorrectly, which earned
him chilling glares from Snape. He sat with his head in his hands and made
little whimpering noises.

�� All right, Harry admitted to himself as
he walked towards the shop through the grey light of early morning, so that was only the once, not all the time.

�� But what
did he need? Or want? Harry was puzzled about that one. He�d tried to engage
Malf�Draco in conversation a few times, and each time Draco snapped like a
child denied a sweet and turned away. He left early when he could, and got
there after Harry did, so that Harry was always involved in his building work
for several hours before he noticed him.� He
spent time talking to Snape in low, intense conversation, but backed off and
looked superior and sulky at once if Harry came close enough to hear.

�� Harry had
even tried praising his potions, and that had received a withering glare and
Malfoy�s lofty announcement that he didn�t value Harry�s judgment on Potions,
because everyone knew how little he
knew about them.

�� What strategy is there that I haven�t tried?
Harry asked himself as he opened the door to the part of the shop that was
visible to the public (both the new addition and the part Harry was building
were shrouded in protective glamours and subtle Repelling Wards). I could praise something else, but I don�t
know what he wants noticed. I could ask him outright�

�� And then
Harry stopped with one foot in the air, and laughed to himself. That�s so simple that I should have seen it
a lot sooner.

�� What are
you laughing at, Potter?�

�� Harry
looked up quickly. Malf�Draco stood in the middle of the room, his arms folded
and his cauldron already bubbling behind him. Harry glanced around, but saw
that Snape wasn�t anywhere in the shop.

�� Good. This was the first time Harry had
been alone with Draco since that conversation at Malfoy Manor. If he failed, at
least it wouldn�t be in front of someone whose opinion he cared for deeply.

�� Or whose mockery can hurt me, Harry
amended, because that made more sense, and then smiled sympathetically at
Draco.

�� I was
laughing because I thought of something that made me look stupid,� he said,
�and I really should have had that thought a long time ago.�

�� Admitting
your own stupidity, finally?� Draco raised an eyebrow, and Harry decided to
think that it made him look charming and sarcastic instead of sneering and
ugly. I have to get along with him, he
reminded himself firmly. And he might
have better reasons for this attitude of his than I know, yet. �I agree
that it�s overdue.�

�� Harry shook
his head. �I was blaming you for your resistance to me,� he murmured. �The way
that I�ve tried to be pleasant to you and you�ve ignored me, but at the same
time you seem to have a need for attention.�

�� Malf�Draco
actually backed away from him a step. �Who told you that?� he demanded. �I know
I didn�t say�� Then he fell silent and turned pale. Harry didn�t know what
thought he was having right now, but it didn�t seem to be a pleasant one.

�� No one told
me,� Harry said, speaking gently and soothingly because Draco seemed so upset.
�But I figured out that I�m pants at guessing, and there�s a simple method to
find out the truth. It was the simple method I didn�t try that made me think I
was stupid.�

�� Draco took
a few wheezing breaths, which sounded as though he was trying to make them
smaller and simpler and couldn�t. �Well?� he demanded at last.

�� What is it
you want to be noticed about you?� Harry asked. �Do you want to be admired, or
envied from a distance? Or something else? I feel like I would understand a lot
more about you if I could just know.�

�� Draco
swelled up like a cat trying to scare away a dog. �What makes you think I�d
tell you?� he demanded.

�� Harry
thought about that, all the while trying to listen for Snape out of the corner
of his ear so that he could stop the conversation if the man entered the shop.
He didn�t think it was something either one of them would want Snape to
overhear. �Because you�re dying to tell someone,�
he said at last. �I�ve noticed that you even get agitated when I�m working on
things that have nothing to do with you. You stand up straighter when Snape or
I look at you.�

�� I get to call him Severus.� Draco was so
smug that Harry felt a strong temptation to turn his back and pretend this moment
of weakness had never happened.

�� But he bit
his lip and argued with himself, I don�t
think it�s weakness. I think it�s what has to happen if we�re ever to live in
peace. And I�m the one who forced myself into this business when they were fine
on their own, so I should be the one who makes some kind of gesture of
reconciliation.

�� Yes,
fine,� Harry said. �But what you want is attention. I don�t think my
attention�s ideal, but it�ll do.� He leaned forwards and tried to look as
interested and attentive as he possibly could. �Well?�

�� Draco
glanced over Harry�s shoulder in turn, and then back at him. He swiped his
palms together. Harry had the distinct impression that he was trying to get rid
of sweat, though Harry couldn�t see any when he looked at his hands.

�� Fine,�
Draco said, speaking quickly. �It was my
idea to go into business with Severus, my
idea to do something that would change the pathetic life I was living. And then
you came in behind me and acted as if it was all your idea.�

�� Harry
frowned. �I didn�t��

�� But you
never noticed,� Draco said, his voice
spitting with bitterness. �You never notice anything I do. And then you came in
here with your fancy wards, and you wrote a letter that made Severus agree, and
you looked as if you didn�t mind the
rent that we asked you to pay, and you did all these things that meant I was just a second-comer, and I hate it.� He wrapped his arms tighter,
as if he would fold in all the rare, precious, fragile things that someone else
might damage and destroy with the force of their regard.

�� Harry
paused until he was sure no more words would follow that. Then he said quietly,
�Thank you, Draco.�

�� Draco
stared at him. �What?�

�� Thank
you,� Harry repeated. �You were right. It was your news that you were going
into business with Snape that made me realize I wanted that, too. I�d made this
vow to change my life, to stop acting as if nothing interested me anymore, but
I hadn�t done it.� You still haven�t done
it, as far as dating someone goes, he added in his head, but that was his
personal life, not his business life, and he didn�t need to trouble Draco with
it. �So I would probably still be setting up wards and promising myself that I
was going to change my life any day now if not for you.�

�� Draco
stared at him for so long Harry began to wonder whether his eyes would dry out;
he hadn�t blinked once. Then he said, �You�re just saying that because I told
you I wanted to hear it.�

�� Harry
raised his eyebrows. �Then you�ll have to answer this question,� he said
mildly. �Since when have I cared enough about you or your opinion to oblige you
by doing what you wanted?�

�� Draco
squinted at him. Harry had no idea what his answer might have been, because the
stairs creaked with Snape�s tread then, and Harry turned and walked over to his
part of the shop to continue his work.

�� He�d done
the best he could, and now it was up to Draco to make the next move.

*

�� k lave
demo: Thanks! I like this story, though it�s much less heavy than some of my
others.

�� Voracious
Reader: Thank you! It will remain intimate; despite the attacks against Severus
and Draco, the major point of the story is how they react and act towards each
other.

�� yaoiObsessed:
Thank you!

�� tribebohemian:
Thank you! Harry doesn�t yet understand that himself yet, but it will be
explained later in the story.
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Kinder, Kindler, Kindlier