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Stepping Stones	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 6989 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
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Chapter Three�The
Third Step

�� Potter?
Are you all right?�

�� There were
a lot of questions like that in the next few days, after the party and after
Harry�s revelation, as he and Draco started working a complex case that would
probably turn out to involve members of the Ministry who had taken bribes to
conceal the existence of potions labs with human subjects.

�� Harry? Are
you all right?�

�� There were
lots of questions like that in the next few days, from Ginny at home, who
seemed to have noticed that something was wrong and spent time frowning at him
with her head on one side. Harry knew that look. She used the same look on the
crosswords in the Daily Prophet, and
more often than not she figured them out.

�� He would have
liked to fall down a deep pit and collapse the tunnel behind him. Or at least
tell them to back off and have them accept that he didn�t want to talk right
now.

�� But that
would be some ideal existence, Harry thought bitterly, some existence where he
had been braver and better and hadn�t married Ginny or lied to her. Instead, he
had to live in the world the way it was, where he had made his own bed and
would lie in it.

�� He wanted
to hit himself in the head with a sleeping spell when he realized the pun he�d
inadvertently made with that thought.

�� But Harry
got through it somehow. He told Ginny about some of the cases he and Draco had
worked, and confessed that he was having trouble sleeping. True, if not for the
reasons that she thought it was.

�� He had
begun lying. Begin as you mean to go on.

�� Ginny
wrapped her arms around him and kissed his cheek and murmured into his ear. At
her insistence, he drank some Dreamless Sleep Potion and spent nights without
either the nightmares he did sometimes have or the wistful visions of what he
could have had with Draco.

�� If Draco wasn�t straight. If I wasn�t
married. If Ginny�s happiness didn�t have to be my first consideration, before
everything else.

�� It was
harder with Draco, because Harry knew how well Ginny knew him, but Draco had
unexpected depths of insight, and sometimes peered at Harry with narrowed,
intense eyes as if he could intimidate Harry into confessing all his secrets.
But he had to have an explanation, and Harry was finally able to give him one.

�� I think
I�m getting distracted from my cases,� he admitted quietly. �There�s a private
thing I suddenly realized, something that makes me out to be a lot less noble
in my own eyes than I had always assumed I was. I had to deal with that, and
with the fact that there�s nothing I can really do to change it.�

�� Draco gave
him a sharp stare, and then tilted his head haughtily and looked away. �See
that the distraction doesn�t end up costing us our lives, Potter,� he ordered.

�� Harry gave
him an apologetic smile and did work harder after that, staying late to file
reports and wrap up the business ends of cases until Ginny started to complain
that he was never spending an evening at home. And then he started coming home
and concentrating on Ginny: buying gifts for her, taking her out to restaurants
where it required his scar to get them a table, defending her in a row against
her brothers.

�� Not that
I�m not grateful, Harry,� she said as they were leaving the Burrow, and she was
leaning against his arm, her head on his shoulder. �But what is this about? You
never did this before. You were a good husband,�
she added quickly. �But this is new.�

�� Harry
looked down at her and put a lock of her hair behind her ear. This would be so
much easier, in some ways, if he was able to think she was stupid, or a
substandard Auror, the way Draco had said she was their first day together. Or
if she had turned out to be cheating or clingy or jealous. It would be a relief
to tell himself that her character flaws were so great it was no wonder he had
fallen in love with someone else.

�� But that
wasn�t true. Yes, she was dependent on him, but Harry had encouraged that
himself, thinking Ginny would be happier if she had someone she could always
lean on. It wasn�t her fault. She had done nothing wrong.

�� I realized
recently that you�re really the most important thing in my life,� he told her
soberly. That�s true. It has to be true,
no matter how much I wish things were different. �I think it�s finally
starting to sink in, what being married really means.�

�� Ginny
usually had wide, bright smiles. He had never seen the one she gave him now,
small and grave, or felt the way her hand trembled on his arm. �I�m glad,� was
all she said. �It�s a big commitment.�

�� Yes, it
is,� Harry said, unable to think of anything smarter.

�� And
everyone deserves someone who puts them first,� Ginny went on. Her hand
clutched down possessively on his arm, saying without words who was in that
position for her.

�� Harry
kissed her ear, and flung out a desperate hope into the spring darkness, hoping
that someone, or something, would hear it and treat it as a prayer to answer.

�� I can do that. I�ve lied to her about so
many things, and I married her under false pretenses, but no matter how much I
wish I was with Draco instead, I can still put her first. One is a thought, the
other is an action.

And
I�ve always been good at actions.

*

�What�s happened? You�ve become
distant lately.�

Harry leaned back against his desk
and tried to look amused rather than folding his arms and glaring. He thought he was the one with the right to
complain, since Draco spent half their cases now grumbling because he wanted to
hurry back to Astoria. But Draco was the one who sounded like a jealous lover.

That
doesn�t do any good, he told himself, both about the thought and the images
that filled his mind with the thought, and tried to respond calmly. �I realized
that I was neglecting Ginny. I�ve tried to give her more of my time and
attention lately. That�s all.�

�� Draco
stared at him, mouth open. Harry frowned. Was the answer really that
unbelievable? Maybe Draco thought he had never cared about Ginny at all, given
that they didn�t talk about her much.

�� That was
one of the things he was trying to make up for, though.

�� Why? She�s
a substandard Auror.� Draco tapped his fingers one by one, slowly, on the desk,
looking at Harry instead of past him the way he would if he was really angry.
Harry tried not to admire the shape of his mouth. He should think about how
well he knew Draco instead, and how that could be an advantage for them when
they worked on difficult cases together.

�� What does
that have to do with anything?� Harry asked. �I�m talking about her as my wife,
not my partner.�

�� Draco
worked his mouth into a sneer, but Harry didn�t think his heart was in it. What�s wrong with him lately? �It�s nice
to see that you�ve given up that fantasy you approached me with on our first
day. It never would have worked out.�

�� No, I
don�t think it would have,� Harry said mildly. He was trying hard not to be
bitter towards either Draco or Ginny. Yes, he was only human, so it would
happen sometimes, but it wasn�t as
though either of them knew they were tormenting him with their reactions.
�Besides, Ginny is happy with her partner now.�

�� Draco turned
and stirred the papers on his desk moodily with one hand. Harry tore his eyes
away from the length of Draco�s fingers and reminded himself that he couldn�t
wank at work anyway, even if he wasn�t married.

�� I don�t
see why treating your wife better means that you have to treat me poorly.� Draco sounded sullen and
sulky, a small child.

�� Harry
smiled, because he couldn�t help it, but hid the smile before Draco glanced
over at him. He didn�t think Draco would find it amusing. �You�re right,� he
said. �I�m sorry. What are the ways I�ve treated you badly?�

�� Distant on
cases,� Draco said. �Acting as though you can�t wait to get out of here in the
evenings and go back to your wife. Remember
that we�re Aurors and here for another reason than just to make a living,
Potter.�

�� It�s no
worse than the grumbling you do about wanting to go on dates with Astoria,�
Harry snapped. He glared, realized what he was doing, and looked down at the
file in front of him. He couldn�t apologize yet, especially when Draco was
being so hypocritical.

�� Silence, to
the point that Harry hoped Draco would let it fade away like most of their
arguments tended to these days. But instead, he murmured in a subdued voice,
�Have I been that bad?�

�� Yes,�
Harry said. Just continue. You have to,
now that he knows you resent her. �I don�t mind sometimes, but God, does it
have to be every evening? And if my going home to Ginny bothers you, then just
consider that at least I was married before we were assigned to each other,
while you dating Astoria is a new thing. I think I�m justified in worrying
about how it might change our partnership.�

�� More
silence. Harry finally turned around again. Draco had sat down behind his desk
and was staring at the piles of unfiled reports and scribbled memos as though
they held the reason for his behavior.

�� He had
something of the cool mask on his face when he looked up again, though more
fragile than usual. �I think it would be a good idea if we didn�t pry into each
other�s personal lives again,� he said. �Agreed?�

�� Harry
nodded sharply. There was a twist and a snap in his chest, as though someone
had broken an elastic band there, but it didn�t matter. Nothing mattered except
balancing his marriage with Ginny and his partnership with Draco, and not
losing either one�he couldn�t bear to hurt Ginny, and he couldn�t bear to give
up Draco�because he was stupid.

�� Draco went
home early that day. Well, he could, because they had finished a case last
night and hadn�t been assigned a new one. Harry sat there, looking at Draco�s
desk, and imagining him with his arm around Astoria�s waist, laughing into her
hair as they waited to be seated in some exclusive restaurant.

�� Then he
thought about Ginny wounded, possibly dying, on her job. She was an Auror, too,
and she wasn�t always home when Harry arrived. Thinking and dreaming about
Draco kept him from remembering that sometimes.

�� The image
of Draco happily married to Astoria was still worse than the image of Ginny�s
death, which made Harry sick.

�� In the end,
he rose and waved his wand to dim the fire burning in their office hearth.
There was no reason to stay here. If he was going to wait by himself for
someone important in his life to come back, he could at least do so at home.

�� Ginny
arrived an hour after he did, flushed with excitement over a new case and
chattering about it. Harry felt the elastic band snap in his chest again when
he looked at her. No one needed to tell him why.

*

�� As time
passed, it got easier to bear, if no easier to watch.

�� Draco did
date Astoria, but he talked less about it, and complained less about Harry
talking about Ginny. In return, Harry tried to make sure that he didn�t do that
too often, and that he stayed late to finish up reports when it was his turn
and Draco had done it the night or the week before.

�� And time
did its work, blunting the first revelation of his feelings. Harry began,
cautiously, to relax. He could look Draco in the face without consciously
admiring the shape of his jaw or his smile. He could laugh with him over jokes
and not long to hear that laugh in other contexts. He could begin to accept
that Draco would marry someone else.

�� That last
part still hurt like fire, mind you. But it was better than it hurting like
boiling oil, which it used to.

�� Harry
thought he understood everything now, and that he�d been foolish and a liar,
but was properly punished for it. And then came the morning when Draco rushed
into the office with his mouth set in a tight snarl, his hands clenched, his
shoulders hunched as if to ward off a blow.

�� Harry knew
how to deal with moods like this by now, even though he didn�t always know what
had caused them. He murmured soothingly and charmed the cup of tea waiting for
Draco warmer. Draco always liked it scalding, as if he needed the pain in his
mouth to distract himself from whatever had angered him.

�� This
morning, Draco tasted the tea and slammed the cup immediately back down,
cracking the side. Tea rushed out across his desk. Harry said something
wordless and snatched the reports lying there out of the way of the liquid.
They�d have to do at least another week�s worth of work if the tea smudged
them.

�� Nice to
see that you�re more concerned about the reports than about me.�

�� Harry
shivered as Draco�s low, charged voice struck his ears. It sounded like the
audible equivalent of lightning, and he could imagine other circumstances under
which Draco would speak like that, so clearly that he nearly didn�t mind if
Draco was angry with him now.

�� Good
morning to you, too,� he said, and laid the reports on his own desk, on top of
another teetering pile that would protect them if Draco decided to try the same
stunt again. �Did Your Majesty discover a tear in his silken sheets today?�

�� Draco�s
hands seized and spun him around. Harry went with the motion, knowing he could
break free at any time he wanted. Draco was taller than he was, sure, but Harry
was stronger. He ended up against the wall, and Draco leaned in and breathed
hot fumes into his face. Harry wouldn�t be surprised to find out they stank of
brimstone. Draco pressed his belly against Harry�s and glared into his eyes
from less than an inch away.

�� No, Harry
didn�t object to this position at all.

�� Neither did
his body, and Harry had to do something to distract Draco�s attention from that
before something unfortunate happened. So he interrupted the poisonous little
speech Draco sounded like he was about to make, if his indrawn breath was any
indication, and snapped, �I didn�t make the tea too hot on purpose. That�s how
you always like it when you�re angry. Now, are you going to forgive me and
discuss what got you huffing, or are we going to shove each other around like
schoolboys?�

�� Draco
paused, and then exhaled hard and let Harry go. Harry stood back up and
straightened his robes around the shoulders, but kept a wary eye on Draco. He
hadn�t expected that tactic to work; he had only wanted Draco to concentrate on
his words and not anything hard he might feel against his stomach.

�� Draco
turned his back and stalked to his desk, rattling his way so fiercely through
the parchments there that Harry became afraid he would go to work in another
office for the day. He didn�t want that. Work was his one chance to see Draco.

�� But he kept
quiet, because he didn�t understand what was going on, and he would probably
make things worse instead of better if he interfered.

�� Draco
gathered his piles into shape and straightened the edges of the papers until
they were perfectly aligned, then turned around again so fast half the piles
immediately became disordered again. �I broke up with Astoria last night,� he
said.

�� Harry
blinked. �I�m sorry,� he said blankly. He was, or he must have sounded enough
like it to fool Draco�s ability to tell when he was lying, because Draco gave
him one sharp look and then nodded acceptance. �What happened?�

�� She wanted
me to set a date for our wedding.� Draco ran his fingers through his hair in a
gesture that made Harry gape, because he�d never seen Draco do something so
unsophisticated. Draco looked around and laughed at him. �Was there a
particular reason that you wanted to show me your tonsils this morning?�

�� Reasons to show you them aren�t few and far
between in my imagination, Harry would have replied once, but he feared it
would sound suggestive now, and he just wasn�t good enough at lying to hold a
determined Draco at bay. He shook his head. �Sorry. Go on.�

�� I don�t
know why,� Draco said. �That�s what I�d been working towards. She�s the kind of
wife I�d like to have. Beautiful, pure-blood, generous with her affection. I
didn�t want a marriage like my parents have,� he added, as if Harry had asked.
�Devoid of physical affection, because they�re just as hard with each other as
they are with the world. They love each other, I know that, but they act as if
there�s an invisible audience judging them on every show of it. I wanted someone poised, but also someone artless.�

�� Probably
impossible to find both in one person,� Harry said wryly, and told his stupid
hopes to die one last death. �Poised� was the last word that anyone would use
to describe him.

�� Perhaps,�
Draco said, with a shrug. �But when she asked me about the date, I suddenly
realized that I�d pictured our wedding happening years in the future, when I
was promoted and Astoria was older. She�s two years younger than I am, and
apparently she wants to leave her parents� home. But I don�t think that�s a
good enough reason to get married.� He spun on one heel and stared at Harry
again. �You probably think it is.�

�� You mean I
probably expect you to think it is,� Harry corrected mildly, but with a warning
look. �I don�t. Now that I know you, I don�t.�

�� Draco
lowered his head and nodded slowly. �But my parents will think I should have
taken what I could get,� he said, �that I don�t have many chances with our new
reputation. They don�t even think I should have become an Auror, that it was
tempting fate in some way.� He looked up, his eyes solid in a way Harry hadn�t
often seen them become before. �I refuse to give up. I have a different dream,
but I�m still going to achieve it.�

�� You have
my support,� Harry said, �for what that matters. If Astoria couldn�t give you
what you wanted, if you want to marry for love, then you should.�

�� Draco
curled his lip. �Trust you to phrase my dream in a way that takes all the glow
out of it,� he muttered, but he slammed his shoulder into Harry�s as he made
his way out of the office to fetch another cup of tea.

�� Harry
created many fantasies about that brush of shoulders, and even more about the
moment when Draco had held him against the wall, in the days and weeks and months
that followed. Draco�s relationship with Astoria might have ended, but that
didn�t mean Harry�s marriage had.

�� Or even
would. Harry had vowed to be with Ginny for life, and he would have to.

*

�� I feel
like he�s not listening to me anymore, like there�s something else taking
precedence.�

�� Harry
paused with his hand on his cloak. He had come into the house and shut the door
behind him but hadn�t called for Ginny yet, enjoying a moment of privacy before
he had to see her. Thus he heard her voice clearly from the small room that she
used as a study. She was leaning French, or maybe Spanish by now. She seemed to
become interested in things rapidly and dropped them as rapidly.

�� What else
could be taking precedence except his job?� Hermione�s voice asked sensibly.
�Have you talked to him?� Harry heard a small clinking noise that made him
blink. Was Hermione baking? That sure
sounded like a wooden spoon knocking against a bowl.

�� It�s so
impossible to talk to him about this,� Ginny sighed. Harry, standing there with
his hand still on his cloak and his head soft with guilt for listening in,
could picture her sagging back on her heels and pushing her hair out of her
face. �What am I supposed to say? That I think he�s talking to me less than he
did a month ago? That he stares off into space with this dark, brooding look on
his face? All I do is feel like that.
I don�t know.�

�� Harry
sighed. It seemed that his best try at putting Ginny first hadn�t worked, or
else he had started to slip up without realizing it. Had he been thinking about
Draco too much?

�� It would
still do you good to talk to him,� said Hermione, in the tone that Harry
recognized from her �do your homework now� speeches at Hogwarts. �Explain that
you feel like he�s distant even if he really isn�t. That will at least force
him to pay attention and think about what he can do to change things.�

�� No, it
won�t,� Ginny said. �And anyway, that�s my biggest fear, that he�ll try, and it
won�t change anything.�

�� Harry
winced and stepped back, hanging his cloak up and opening, then shutting, the
door as if he�d just arrived. By the time he turned around again, Ginny was
coming rapidly out of her study, her face a little flushed but otherwise
normal. On other nights, Harry thought, he would probably have attributed that
to crouching a little too close to the fire.

�� Maybe she�d
done this several times, talked to Hermione or other people about him, and he
hadn�t noticed. Was there anything he could do without admitting that he�d
overheard?

�� Although maybe I should say I did. At least
that would give us something real to fight about.

�� How was
your day?� he murmured into her hair as he pushed back the cloak she still had
on, tangling his fingers around her ears. Ginny ducked her head and kept it
there as he hung her cloak next to his own. Harry saw her twisting her hands
over and over together out of the corner of his eye.

�� Fine,�
Ginny said. �The case we worked today was boring. A thief, taking two bottles
of wine, and oh, they thought he used Dark magic to do it, but it turned out he
didn�t.� She rolled her eyes and looked up with a bright smile at Harry. �What
about yours?�

�� Normal,�
Harry said, which was the truth. He had worked with Draco, fantasized about
Draco, eaten lunch with Draco, worried because Draco�s eyes were dark and
haunted and he had the weak step and pale face of someone who wasn�t getting
enough sleep, and then got into a row with Draco when he tried to ask what was
wrong. It seems asking what�s wrong with
the people in my life is what�s wrong. He focused all his attention on
Ginny, and asked, �What would you like to do for dinner this evening?�

�� Ginny
blinked. �I thought we�d decided that we were going to Diagon Alley. There was
a new restaurant that you wanted to try, wasn�t there?�

�� Harry
smiled. �Yeah, but I thought I�d ask you.
Are you up to that? You do look tired.� That was the kind of thing he could at
least say to Ginny without causing offense, even if the other questions were
useless.

�� A slow
smile made its way across Ginny�s lips. �I�m tired,� she said. �How about we
stay home and you cook toast and eggs for me?� Toast and eggs was one thing
Harry was good at after making breakfast for the Dursleys.

�� Harry
nodded eagerly, and so they did, with Ginny sitting at the table and imitating
the accused thief�s voice for him. Harry found himself laughing more easily
than he ever did with Draco since his revelation, because he would wonder if he
really thought the joke was funny or was just basking in the sound of Draco�s
laughter.

�� They ate
together, and Ginny told him more about her day, and Harry mentioned some of
his, and then she fell asleep in front of the fire, her mouth wide and spilling
a bit of drool on the carpet. Harry watched her and wished their lives could be
like this more often.

�� Maybe they could be, if I made just a bit of
effort.

*

�� Potter.
About time you showed up.�

�� Harry took
the file that Draco tossed to him with a little nod, deciding that he would
just ignore Draco�s bad mood. �What is this case?� he asked, because the file
was thicker than the ones they usually tackled. He started to read, wincing
when he saw that the top page carried a photograph of a corpse, a young man
with his head sitting beside the body, the mouth stuffed full of what looked
like fur. Blood spread around the shoulders and back in a large puddle. Whoever
killed him had stabbed him, too, hard enough to barely leave any normal-looking
cloth and skin beneath the red.

�� That is a
picture of Horatio Stegton,� said Draco, folding his hands behind his head.
Harry was an expert at watching him from the corner of his eye by now, and he
could think about what those long fingers would do to him if they ever touched
him. Could, but he wasn�t going to,
because he was loyal to his wife. �His family and friends claim that they don�t
know what happened to him. His body was found outside the junction of Diagon
Alley and Knockturn Alley this morning.�

�� In a place
where the magical signature of the killer would blend with a thousand others,�
Harry muttered, reading that on the page next to the photo.

�� Draco
nodded. �Precisely. We have no witnesses, if you don�t count the first people
who found the body. We have no leads, other than the substance in his mouth,
which isn�t exactly common, and a few rumors about people who supposedly hated
him with a passion. He was responsible for breaking up several relationships,
it seems.�

�� What was
the thing in his mouth?� Harry asked, but he saw the answer just then in an
isolated line by itself, and read it aloud in the same instant as Draco spoke.

�� Hippogriff
feathers.�

�� They
stopped and grinned at each other. Harry could feel a spark catching in his
chest and dancing in Draco�s eyes at the same moment. It felt like old
times�that is, a few months ago, before he had realized he loved Draco.

�� Draco
surged to his feet and laid his hands on his desk. �Hippogriff feathers suggest
several things. The Forbidden Forest. Experimental breeders. That Magical Zoo
they started a few months ago on the outskirts of London. Potions brewers.�

�� Harry
frowned, running over the bare information that he remembered from his Potions
courses in his head. �I thought hippogriff feathers weren�t used for much.
They�break apart easily in water or something? Something that makes them
unsuitable for more than a few specialist applications, anyway.�

�� Exactly,�
Draco said. �But among their most common uses is as a base for love potions.�

�� Harry
whistled softly. �And that could be a good symbolic substance to put in the
mouth of a man someone must suspect had used a love potion. There are people
who can�t accept that a relationship ends for natural and normal reasons.�

�� Draco
froze, why Harry didn�t know, and gave him a glare so steady that Harry felt as
if it would be burned on the back of his skull through his eyes. But then Draco
shrugged a little and said, very softly, as if addressing someone else, �That�s
right. I think we need to look at his rivals and at people who might have felt
scorned when he dropped them for someone else.�

�� Harry
nodded, trying to look as meek and harmless as he could. He didn�t want to
encounter another of those burning glares. �All right. But which should we do
first? Go check on the hippogriff feathers or on his rivals?�

�� Draco put
his head on the side. �Neither of those errands is actually dangerous, is it?
And we would get more done if we split up and acted separately��

�� No!� Harry
actually cringed at how sharp his voice was, at least the equivalent of Draco�s
glare, but he made no attempt to moderate it. �No,� he said more quietly.
�Regulations say that we stay together, and I know that you want to obey the
rules.�

�� Draco
looked at him with a flat, neutral expression. �Right.�

�� Besides,�
Harry added, �as if I would let you dash into danger by yourself. You can get into
trouble just walking down a corridor in the Ministry.�

�� Draco gave
him a softened look this time, along with a sweet smile, and nodded. �That�s
right,� he said.

�� He was
close behind Harry when they went out the door for some reason, hovering as if
he thought there was already danger from this particular investigation. Harry
shook his head in confusion. Draco was shifting from mood to mood, and he
wasn�t sure what would happen next.

�� The one
thing he was sure of�how intriguing
Draco�s warmth was, so close to him�was something he didn�t want, or need, to
think about.

*

�� I wish I
could help yeh, Harry,� Hagrid said, sounding regretful. He handed over another
rock cake, and Harry carefully dipped it in his tea to soften it before he
tried to take a bite. Fang, old and grey around the jaws now, thumped his tail
hopefully on the floor and stared at the rock cake in case Harry was too stupid
to take the hint. �But the baby hippogriffs are right in the middle of the
Forest now, yeh see, and I haven�t heard of any problems with the adults. So I
don�t think it�s here.�

�� Harry
nodded, and glanced sideways to see how Draco was getting on. Draco was sitting
with his legs hunched up until they almost touched his chest, glaring at every
surface in the cottage where the dust, cobwebs, or sheer clutter of stone and
wooden objects might creep up on him. He noticed Harry looking and fixed him
with another burning stare.

�� Harry bit
his lip and looked back at Hagrid. �Have you heard anything about hippogriffs
elsewhere? If you could give us any help
at all, that would really help�I mean, it would give us a clue.� He could feel
Draco�s withering look for being so repetitive. He always received those, and
over the last few months, he had done what he could to reduce them and sound
more articulate.

�� Hagrid
fidgeted in his seat, stared into his tea, and otherwise gave the poor
performance he always did when he needed to lie and couldn�t. �No,� he said,
completely unconvincingly. �I wouldn�t know that, not at all!�

�� Draco
started to say something. Harry made a little twisting motion with his wrist to
warn him to shut up and smiled wistfully at Hagrid. �You�re sure? It could be
really important.�

�� Beads of
sweat started out on Hagrid�s forehead. He looked at his tea, at Fang, and then
at the walls, as if they would advise him. Even Draco was smart enough to sit
quietly this time, and Harry went on trying to soften the rock cake enough that
it wouldn�t break his teeth.

�� All
right,� Hagrid said hoarsely. He stood up and peered suspiciously out the
windows before he shut them. Then he leaned close. Harry nodded encouragingly
and glanced at Draco from the corner of his eye to make sure he would stay out
of it. Once again, Draco was watching the threatened assault of the dust and
appeared to notice nothing. Harry�s heart swelled with pride. Draco was doing
pretty well for being in a house with someone he feared and disliked.

�� There�s
this new breeding program going on,� Hagrid whispered. �In a warded compound in
the Shetland Isles. But I didn�t tell yeh.�

�� Of course
not,� Harry said. �And you couldn�t tell us how to get there, either, could
you? I�m sure it�s knowledge not in your head.�

�� That was
too complex for poor Hagrid, who wrinkled his forehead and then stared at Harry
as if he were speaking riddles. Harry sighed and gave in. �You could tell us
the way there if you wanted,� he said. �And in return, we wouldn�t tell anyone
else that you said it. Or anything at all,� he added, looking at Draco. Draco
grimaced, but nodded.

�� Oh,� said
Hagrid, and gave them the Apparition coordinates.

*

�� They
arrived on a mound of rock in the middle of a swift wind and swifter rain.
Harry promptly drew his cloak around his face and cast spells that ought to
warm them and shelter them from the weather. He shook his head wryly at Draco,
who was fumbling for his hood with a look of shock. He didn�t know if Draco
hadn�t ever heard about the Shetland Isles or just expected every place they
were to conform to his will, which was that it be calm and sunny.

�� I find even that lovable. Merlin, I do have
it bad.

�� Come on!�
he shouted, leaning in so that his words would make it to Draco. �We can�t be
far from the edge of the sanctuary, and once we�re inside the wards, it should
be calmer. They couldn�t rear hippogriffs in this weather.�

�� Draco�s
reply, something about how people who were mad enough to come here in the first
place were mad enough to do anything, vanished in the wind. Harry took his arm
and led him forwards, stepping carefully from one lump of stone to the other.
He knew the Shetlands were islands, but it seemed as though this one consisted
of a large number of very small and separate rocks.

�� They
crossed what had to be the border of the sanctuary, because suddenly the wind
was gone and the cloak around Harry�s face became uncomfortably warm. He
dropped it and stared around in wonder. Draco, beside him, gaped until Harry
made a little shutting motion towards his jaw. It was fine for him to be undignified, but he knew Draco
would hate it if he looked that way.

�� The wizards
who bred hippogriffs here had not only warmed the air and cast spells to hold
the storms at bay, they had changed the ground. This looked far too reminiscent
of the Forbidden Forest and the field where Hagrid�s hut stood to be a
coincidence. Harry headed towards the cluster of small buildings nearby,
wondering if they would find someone he knew there.

�� Then he
realized Draco was still standing in one place and staring, and turned around
to see what had frozen him.

�� The most
enormous�herd? flock? Harry thought about it for a minute and decided to call
them a group�of hippogriffs was feeding on a mixed pile of what looked like
meat and grass not far away. Their flanks gleamed roan, chestnut, grey, and
sometimes black. Their wings trembled over their backs, tipped with white and
sometimes with blood. One of them pinned a haunch of animal flesh to the ground
with a talon as Harry watched and ripped gobbets free from it, pausing to shake
its head each time, so that bits of its meal flew away to coat the grass.

�� Harry
thought he knew what the problem might be. He touched Draco�s arm. �Are you
going to be all right?� he asked softly.

�� Draco
stared at him, and then asked, �What in the world do you mean? Why would this
be any harder for me than you?� His voice adopted the sneer that he used when
he thought someone was insulting him but he couldn�t see how.

�� Because a
hippogriff attacked you once,� Harry said, frowning. How could Draco have
forgotten that when the incident was clear in Harry�s own mind, clearer than
ever since he and Draco had become partners? �I just wondered if bad memories
were coming back to you now that you saw them.�

�� Draco
ducked his head so that he and Harry were more eye to eye. �No,� he whispered,
but his voice had changed and the sneer had vanished. �No. But it�s good that
you remember it,� he added, still looking at Harry.

�� Harry
nodded, feeling the same intensity that had crackled between them that day in
the office when Draco held him against the wall, and not understanding why it
would be here. They weren�t alone, and there was no way that they could touch
each other in some indecent way without it being remarked.

�� Not that that�s the most important thing, Harry
thought scoldingly to himself. The most
important is, or should be, that you don�t want to cheat on Ginny. He tore
his gaze away from Draco and saw a tall witch with long dark hair approaching
them from the nearest hut. A pair of boarhounds walked at her side. They were
so similar to Fang that Harry was immediately sure they were his puppies.

�� Greetings,
ma�am,� Harry said, the safest mode of address until he figured out who she
was. �We�re here because we learned that��

�� Draco?� the woman interrupted him,
staring at Draco.

�� Millicent?� Draco said, in the same
tone, and then he and the woman were standing closer together and embracing.
The boarhounds moved their tails in slow, confused patterns, then sat down and
stared at Harry, because they seemed convinced that he was the main threat
here.

�� Confused,
Harry looked at the woman and finally noticed the resemblance in her nose and
jaw to the Millicent Bulstrode he had known at Hogwarts. She had grown, and she
was no longer as brutish or as stupid-looking. Harry had never known that she
was that interested in Care of Magical Creatures, though. She had dropped it in
sixth year like everyone else.

�� And, Harry
thought, Draco was embracing her for far too long. He felt the familiar
bile-like taste of jealousy invading his throat again, and coughed, while
staring obviously at the hippogriffs. The black one feeding on the deer haunch,
or whatever it was, looked up at them and then returned to its kill, horse tail
lashing once.

�� Draco and
Bulstrode separated, with a final smile from her and a touch from him that
Harry could have done without. Draco turned to Harry and touched Bulstrode�s
arm as he presented her, for all the world as if they were at a formal party.
�Harry, permit me to introduce Millicent Bulstrode. She was in Slytherin��

�� I remember
her,� Harry said.

�� And you
bear me a grudge of some sort, it seems.� Bulstrode pushed her hair back behind
her shoulders and reached out to touch the collars of the boarhounds, never
taking her eyes from him. �But I can remember doing nothing to you that would
substantiate such a grudge.�

�� Harry
noticed the way Draco was staring at him, and got his temper under control.
They were here to investigate a case. They were not here to scowl at each other
or think about things they could never have.

�� Or go on dates, he thought, but that was
unfair for the way Draco was touching Bulstrode. From the way he hugged her,
their last meeting had been a friendly one, and Harry had seen how hard it was
for Draco to make friends among the Aurors. Though it felt as if he were
forcing a piece of iron to bend, he managed to smile.

�� Sorry,� he
said. �I was on edge, assuming the owners of the herd would be hostile.� He
glanced at Draco, and found his eyes bright and curious. Harry looked back at
Bulstrode, and cursed the sensitivity that made every brush of Draco�s gaze tangible
to him. �Hippogriff feathers are involved in a murder case. Would you mind
showing us a list of all your customers for the last month?�

�� Bulstrode
gave him an amused glance. �Yes, in fact, I would, Potter. You�ll notice that
I�ve taken some precautions here. You couldn�t have got through the wards at
all if you didn�t have accurate Apparition coordinates and a Slytherin with
you.�

�� Former
Slytherin,� Harry said, and knew his voice was all wrong, quick and harsh. He
looked down and said sharply, �Draco, you�re her friend. Will you explain the
situation to her and see if you have more success?�

�� Draco did
so, while Harry kicked stones and kicked grass and kicked pebbles and wished
that he could kick Bulstrode. But whenever he so much as glanced in her
direction, the boarhounds, who had decided that he was definitely a threat,
showed their fangs. Harry found he was better off fixing his gaze on his boots.

�� Somehow,
Draco wheedled a small list of five names out of Bulstrode and carried it
towards Harry, waving it in triumph. �These are the likely people who bought
hippogriff feathers,� he said. �She remembers that they were all connected to
the man who was murdered, and she�s sure that one of them must at least know
what happened to the feathers, even if they didn�t commit the murder.�

�� Harry
nodded, trying to cheer himself up. They had the names, and he�d only had to
put up with Draco flaunting himself�

�� Unfair, he thought again, and the
realization that he might be making Draco unhappy finally checked his behavior.

�� Sorry,� he
muttered. �I know I acted like an arse back there.�

�� I never
said I minded,� Draco said.

�� Harry had
time for a single startled glance before Draco seized his arm and Apparated him
to a new destination.

*

�� By the end
of the day, Harry had been through so many small and smoking houses, illegal
gambling rooms, equally illegal Potions labs, and shops in Knockturn Alley that
he could eagerly have gone home to Ginny, despite the loss of time with Draco
that that would mean.

�� Part of it
was feeling so absurdly stupid. Draco
would ask questions that practically reeked of intelligence and follow the
long, complicated answers that the brewers or shopkeepers or �talkers��the term
had some meaning in relation to Potions, but Harry didn�t know what�gave with
thoughtful nods. Then he would ask another question, often getting a smile of
approval when he did so, or at least a look of surprise.

�� Usually,
they traded roles more than once during the day. Instead, Harry just got to
stand there, scowling, and trying not to let his scar show so much. Of course,
people who were willing to talk to Aurors anyway probably weren�t that much
more intimidated by him, and he got more than one stare that said they knew who
he was.

�� Scowling at them like I did at Bulstrode, Harry
thought, kicking at the cobblestones as they made their way out of Knockturn
Alley. I�m useless.

�� Don�t look
so gloomy, Potter.� Draco laughed at him, practically dancing at his side.
�We�ve eliminated two of the suspects that Millicent gave us, and we�re making
all sorts of useful contacts.�

�� We are?�
Harry asked without much hope. �And what do you mean, we�ve eliminated two of
the suspects?� he added, with more energy. Draco hadn�t told him about that when it happened.

�� Yes,�
Draco said. �It has to do with the way the hippogriff feathers were crushed in
the victim�s mouth. Two of our suspects don�t prepare them like that. Out of
those who do, there are two who might have a motive, and one who I think is
unlikely but might have passed the feathers on to the killer.� He was smiling
now and returned Harry�s incredulous glance with a look so smug that Harry
wanted to punch it off his face.

�� I don�t understand
that,� Harry said, scratching the back of his skull and hoping that boredom
wasn�t the sort of thing that would kill him by a slow process of itching.

�� That was
manifestly obvious,� Draco murmured.

�� How do we
know that the hippogriff feathers weren�t just crushed by the pressure of the
victim�s mouth?� Harry pursued doggedly. �They could have been. They were
packed in there pretty tightly, the report said.�

�� Yes.�
Draco stopped to peer ahead, as if he were checking into Diagon Alley for danger.
�But that wouldn�t have damaged their veins, or darkened them, in the
particular way the report said they had been darkened. They were used as
Potions ingredients first.� He turned his head to the side and smirked at
Harry. �Of course, it took someone trained in Potions, and good at them, to
spot that.�

�� I was
trained in Potions, too,� Harry muttered. He knew he sounded like a little boy
and didn�t care. This was one more example of Draco being smarter than he was,
more learned, and Harry felt as though he couldn�t compete or catch up.

�� That�s why
I added that second qualifier.� Draco looked at him again and burst out
laughing, a rich sound that made Harry smile unwillingly in spite of himself.
�Come on, Harry, drop that sulky look! I�m sure that a case will come along
where you can help me as much as I�ve helped you today.�

�� Harry had
to admit that was true, and he sighed a bit less sulkily as he stepped up
beside Draco. It helped that Draco had called him by his first name, something
he still didn�t do very often. �I sometimes wonder why you want to stay
partnered with me. I�m not as consistently good as you are.�

�� Draco
stared at him with eyes that appeared to darken as Harry watched. �Do you
really not know?� he whispered.

�� Tell me,�
Harry said. He knew he shouldn�t as he said it, and like the moment when Draco
had him pressed up against the wall, he recklessly wanted this to continue
anyway.

�� Draco bit
his lip. �Well, because��

�� A bolt of
scarlet light cut the night from a roof near the end of Diagon Alley, and Harry
was moving before it hit, rolling over, arms around Draco, and drawing his
Auror robe over them both so that it could provide a measure of protection.

�� Someone
laughed, above them, and Harry heard the murmur of another spell. But he
couldn�t deal with that right away, because he was a bit busy dealing with the
fact that the edge of the cloak had caught fire and Draco was making grunts of
pain beneath him.

�� Anger made
the world clear. Harry tossed his robe off and cast a charm that would strangle
the flames by taking away their air even as he drew Draco close against him
with one arm. �How badly are you hurt?� he asked, hating the time the request
took, but knowing that he would heal Draco first if he was in life-threatening
danger.

�� Draco spoke
in a voice shortened by agony. �My collarbone�s broken, I think��

�� Another
bolt of scarlet light. Harry had thought the first one was a Stunner, but of
course it couldn�t be, not if it caught things on fire and curled like a whip
when it first came down, instead of advancing as a straight line. Harry raised
a Flexible Shield above them, not large but in the right position to catch the
light and devour it.

�� Then he
lowered his wand to touch Draco�s neck and gave him the most powerful �healing�
charm he could in the circumstances: the Whisper of Peace. Draco gasped as the
magic flooded him with bliss to counter the effects of the pain, and he leaned
back heavily on Harry, eyelashes fluttering.

�� Harry
looked up at the roof where the spells had come from. No sign of their
assailant, and his night vision had never been that good, even without the
glasses spoiling things.

�� He had to
crouch there, head already buzzing with fatigue and worry, and try to work out
calmly what the attacker would do next. He�d laughed, which suggested that he
didn�t care about them figuring out where he was. Overconfident? Or just that
powerful?

�� Harry set
aside the question as something to figure out later, because he didn�t have
enough information for right now, and then thought about the magic he�d used.
Quick, strong, unusual. That meant Harry should use the same sorts of spells to
counter him.

�� Barely
moving his lips, just in case they had a powerful criminal who could see in the
dark and lip-read in addition to all his other talents, Harry set shields up
around him and Draco. They would stay motionless and invisible until the moment
when a hostile spell came near them, and then they had the ability to spread
themselves across the air and absorb a blow if necessary. Then Harry enchanted
the cobblestones beneath them, and the wall across from them, and the air above
their heads.

�� That didn�t
take very long, but by the time he finished the last spell, he did wonder if perhaps
that attack had been a simple opportunity strike. Maybe the wizard had run away
after he was done striking at them.

�� Then the
air next to Harry lit up with a sharp blast of what looked like white water,
and he doubted it. Two of his shields reached out, touched, overlapped, and
then sent the water leaping back in a rush and roar of light. The stones
beneath it turned to slag. Harry swallowed.

�� I can
sense what you feel for him, you know,� said a casual voice above them, and
then another laugh followed.

�� Harry
looked up. There was a figure in a cloak that made him look half-grey watching
them from the nearest building. Harry held his breath. Come just a little closer to the edge of the roof, you bastard.

�� For the
moment, at least, their attacker showed no compulsion to do so. He
grinned�there was the flash of his own fading spell off disconcertingly bright
teeth�and nodded. �I know that you love him,� he said. �That�s why I�m here.�

�� Harry
shivered, glad that he had given Draco the spell he had so that Draco wouldn�t
overhear or remember this conversation. Of course, that was a pathetic thing to
think, and he rallied to respond, �Are you his old lover, then?�

�� Another
laugh, and a second rush of white water. This time, two of the shields curving
beneath and above them absorbed the backlash. Harry noticed nervously that the
shields were already displaying cracks.

�� Don�t be
ridiculous,� the voice said. �I�m here because I can sense it, and once I kill you or him, then the buzzing will go
away.�

�� A madman. It would be. Harry would have
liked to send a Patronus, and he probably should have done it in the first
place, but he couldn�t do it now without lowering their shields. And their
retreat was blocked by anti-Apparition wards that Harry had helped set up
himself a year ago, when he was still a trainee, to keep criminals emerging
from Knockturn Alley from easy escape. It was a frustrating place to be caught.

�� And near the place where they found
Stegton�s body.

�� Harry
stared up into the darkness again. He didn�t know if this was a coincidence or
really their murderer tipping his hand, but Auror training had taught him to disbelieve
in that kind of coincidence.

�� I came for
him, I come for you, I sense it,� the voice chanted from above, removing the
last of Harry�s doubt, and another spell struck the shields, though this time
hard enough that Harry couldn�t even see what it looked like; the crash against
the shields made his head ring and his sight blur.

�� Harry bowed
his head, shielding Draco with his body, and heard hisses over his hair, with
flashes of heat passing near his face, but nothing actually landing and
stinging. He wanted to capture this man, not kill him, if it was their killer,
but protecting Draco was still the most important thing he needed to do.

�� How could
he do both when he would need to break free of his defenses to launch an
effective offensive strike?

�� Then Harry
smiled. His training had taught him that, too. When a situation seemed
impossible to handle in a normal way, what did you do?

�� You go in an unexpected direction.

�� He dropped
flat, arranging Draco so that he lay draped over Harry�s chest, and waved his
wand. The stones underneath them creaked and groaned, disrupting the
protections Harry had put on them, but that was only one layer. The shields
were still holding out, and the voice was cackling and calling now from the
edge of the building on which its owner crouched, meaning Harry could trigger
the next trap.

�� He
whispered the incantation that would do it at the same time as he wrapped his
arms even more firmly around Draco and pressed his face into Harry�s chest.

�� There was a
shriek as coils of wire shot out from among the bricks and curled around the
criminal�s feet. That wouldn�t hold him for long, Harry thought, especially
since he knew unusual magic, but they would slow him down a bit.

�� Meanwhile,
the cobblestones rose around them in a wave of churning mud and then sucked
them under the street.

�� Harry had
only cast this spell in training sessions, never with his life and his
partner�s hanging on it. That didn�t matter. Once again, danger to Draco
clarified and settled his thoughts, and he snapped the next part of it
nonverbally, clenching his fingers around his wand as earth tried to flow into
his mouth.

�� Draco
whimpered against his chest. Harry intended to perform the spells fast enough
so that they wouldn�t have to spend long underground and Draco could breathe.
He thought he was doing it quickly enough�

�� And then he
was, because he felt the spell picking them up and whirling them along and
sideways. And up.

�� The Moving
Earth Spell depended on the fact that most things on the earth were connected to the earth. Trees ran their
roots down into it. Water lay within it. Roads lay on it.

�� And so did
the foundations of buildings.

�� Harry and
Draco exploded out of the roof that their attacker stood on, right behind him.
Harry aimed his wand as Draco groaned in discomfort, grateful to hear him take
a breath of clean air, and the attacker gasped and whirled about.

�� He was a
young man, with a long black beard and wild, wide eyes, and a stink like
someone who hadn�t bathed in weeks, and that was all Harry had time to notice
before his Stunner knocked the man down.

�� He lay
where he was for a minute, clearing away the dirt from Draco�s mouth and nose
with sweeps of his hand while he studied the man to make sure that he wouldn�t
suddenly revive again. Draco moaned. Harry pulled back to study his face, and
found that his Whisper of Peace must have dissipated, because Draco was staring
at him with dawning confusion and pain.

�� What
happened?� he whispered.

�� Sorry,�
Harry said, because he suddenly realized that he was lying close to Draco and
enjoying it far too much. He yanked himself back and rose on his fingertips,
stretching his legs out, ignoring Draco�s bright, almost ravenous stare. �I
used the Moving Earth Spell to bring us up through the house and behind him.
And it looks like this might just be the one who killed Stegton.�

�� Draco
smiled, then winced and touched his collarbone. �Only you, Potter,� he said.
�I�ll need you to explain that to me again when we�re both coherent.� He
sniffed and looked down at his robe sleeve, where dirt was ingrained along the
cuff. �And clean.�

�� Only you,
Draco,� Harry retorted, and called his Patronus.

*

�� From what
we can tell, this man�called Garth Newnham, by the way�is a victim of one of
Stegton�s love potions.�

�� Draco
nodded as if he understood what Wellington was talking about. Harry didn�t, and
because he knew that people expected him to be less intelligent than Draco in
the first place, he felt free to ask. �If he loved Stegton, whether by potion
or not, why would he want to kill him?�

�� Wellington
shook her head. �As I suspect you probably know, Auror Potter, having been a
target of them yourself��

�� Harry got a
wry look from Draco, which he ignored. It wasn�t as though he was unintelligent
enough to eat the sweets or consume the �tea� that certain parties still
insisted on sending him through the post. Give
me that much credit, at least.

�� Love
potions cannot truly initiate love. They create lust instead. However, the
problem with this particular potion is that it was badly-made, or else Stegton
lost interest before adding a crucial last ingredient.� Wellington waved her
arm. �We can�t learn much from Newnham himself. The potion has deranged him.
But our brewers will test him and see what they can learn about the potion from
his blood.�

�� I�ll
wager,� Draco drawled, his eyes half-shut, �that you�ll learn the missing
ingredient was hippogriff feathers.�

�� Wellington
nodded to Draco, while Harry tried not to stare at him in admiration. �You are
more than likely correct, Auror Malfoy. It seems that Newnham retains a bit of
rationality. After he killed Stegton, he remained in the area, and he was
carrying hippogriff feathers in his pockets. According to him, he was waiting
for people he could �sense.��

�� What does
that mean?� Harry asked, feeling his pulse increase. Newnham had said several
things during the fight that could mean the worst for Harry, and he didn�t dare
look at Draco.

�� Apparently,
he can sense people in love,� Wellington said. �The botched potion gave him
that ability, and since Stegton seems to have fallen in love frequently, it
probably has something to do with how Newnham tracked him down. When he sensed
true love, he struck.� She gave Harry a gentle smile. �He probably felt your
love for your wife, Auror Potter.�

�� Yeah, of
course,� Harry muttered. He was the only one who knew that couldn�t be true, because he didn�t want Ginny in that burning,
passionate way.

�� When he
looked at Draco, Draco looked totally normal. He asked a few more questions
about potions information that Wellington answered, and then they could leave
the office.

�� They walked
slowly down the corridor, and then Draco put out his arm. Harry looked up
warily.

�� Draco
stared at him from less than an inch away, and his body vibrated with life. He
looked as if he were close to reaching out and pulling Harry to him by the
sleeves.

�� I wasn�t
so unconscious or in so much pain that I didn�t hear what Newnham said,� he
whispered, touching his Healed collarbone.

�� Harry
hadn�t expected his own panic to be so quiet. It was like being trampled by horses
while he couldn�t scream, couldn�t run, couldn�t do a bloody thing about it.

�� He said
that you loved him,� Draco said. �Who
is him?�

�� Harry
wavered on the brink of destroying either his marriage�if he told the truth�or
his partnership�if he lied about this, said the quivering vulnerability on
Draco�s face, then Draco would never trust him again.

�� Or maybe he
would destroy his partnership if he told the truth, too. Why would Draco want
to work with someone he couldn�t completely trust, someone who had kept this
secret this long?

�� Well, at least Ginny will get what she wants
and the Aurors will break our partnership up, Harry thought with as much
humor as he still possessed while he drew in a deep breath and took the only
course he could.

�� You,� he
said. �It�s you.�

�� Draco�s
eyes widened and blazed with something Harry couldn�t name. Then he shut his
face down and whirled around, striding in the opposite direction, away from
Harry, away from the corridor that led to their office. By the time he reached
the nearest corner, he was running, back tight with rejection.

�� Harry shut
his eyes. The destruction of one�s heart could be quiet, too.

*

�� That was
the third step.

*

�� Kayla
Kodai: Thank you!

�� polka dot: I
think that I feel a lot more sympathetic for her because Harry deliberately
lied to her. She can only be blamed for trusting him, if that�s a crime.

�� Minue:
Thanks! I appreciate the compliment.

�� LexieMalfoy:
Thanks!

�� lpnightmare:
I fear that this may not be what you wanted.

�� MewMew2:
Thank you!

�� angelmuziq:
Thanks! I hope this chapter satisfies, too.

�� thrnbrooke:
Yes, but the reaction seems to be pretty much as bad as he feared.
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Stepping Stones