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Seasons of War	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 9694 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
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Chapter Three�Round of
Daily Life

�� Gregory
turned her head to study Harry and Draco with a glinting eye as they joined her
class. Harry tried to tell himself that he�d faced more fearsome people than
her, but at the moment it was difficult to remember who qualified, except for
Nihil.

�� Ah,�
Gregory said, loudly enough that half her students stopped practicing and
looked their way. The others kept on feverishly working. They�d probably had
enough of their share of distractions, Harry thought, and learned to resist
them. �I wondered when you would begin to acknowledge that you needed my help.�

�� Draco
watched Gregory as if he were a predator equal in weight and deadliness to her.
He probably was, Harry acknowledged to himself. He didn�t think he was.

�� We�re here
to learn,� Draco said. �If you can�t
supply that, then we�ll find another teacher.�

�� Gregory
sneered and stalked quickly towards them, her robes flapping around her ankles.
Harry watched her warily. When she�d acted like that in the past, she had
usually attacked him in the next moment or two.

�� This time, she
didn�t, but simply halted in front of them, watching them with disdain. �I can
teach you,� she snapped, suddenly enough that Harry jerked a little. �If you�re
willing to admit that most of what you�ve learned from that bitch Morningstar
is useless and has to be learned over.� She tilted her head towards her
practicing students, most of who were acting in pairs or fighting a student
Harry assumed was more advanced two-to-one. �All of them had bad habits I had
to get rid of.�

�� We�re
willing to learn, yes,� Draco said. �If you�re willing to teach, which I find
myself increasingly doubting.�

�� Gregory
gave him a thin smile and beckoned at them as she turned back to the practice.
�Come with me. Perhaps we can find you a willing partner, assuming that anyone
else is willing to put her education on hold to attend to you.�

�� Harry shook
his head as they followed. He knew that Draco and Gregory were probably putting
on this show to convince anyone watching that they weren�t allies, but he
thought a bit less hostility could have accomplished the same thing.

�� You know
each other�s strengths and weaknesses,� Gregory was saying as she signaled to
one of the groups fighting two-on-one. They stopped, tossing hair or wiping
sweat out of their eyes. Harry studied them. Two of them were women, thin and
wiry, and the man was large enough that Harry knew what was going to happen
even before Gregory spoke. �Natural enough, as you�re partners. But you have to
study the strengths and weaknesses of others to have any chance at all. Potter.
wrestle Windborne here.�

�� Windborne,
the wizard, stepped forwards and stretched out his arms. Harry doubted he was
as stupid as Dudley, but he remembered what had happened when he was a child
and Dudley asked him to �wrestle.�

�� He had no
intention of feeling his ribs knocked out of alignment because he wasn�t as strong.
So he doubled around�he would have used a spell ordinarily, but Gregory liked
to emphasize the training of their bodies and probably wouldn�t appreciate the
use of a wand�and kicked Windborne hard in the side of the leg, as Morningstar
had taught them to do with larger opponents. Windborne staggered to the side,
not falling but losing his balance badly enough that Harry knew he could have
taken him in a fight.

�� Enough!�
Gregory said. She leaned forwards, hands on her hips and eyes blazing so
brightly that Harry wondered for a minute if she had been looking forwards to
Windborne hurting him. �Potter, what part of wrestle didn�t you understand?�

�� I would
have lost,� Harry said, meeting her stare for stare. �I�m not good at that kind
of fighting. I thought you were here to teach us to use our advantages, not
struggle with tactics that we can�t use.�

�� He heard
Draco put his head in his hands, but he kept his gaze stubbornly on Gregory.
Yes, he had given in and played by her rules when she was an instructor and he
was a lowly trainee, but he wasn�t going to do that now. She would either teach
him something useful or nothing at all.

�� Then
Gregory gave a great shout of laughter that scattered the battling trainees all
out of order. Harry thought they had probably seen plenty of new students
approach her and get tested, but her laughter was a sign of the apocalypse.

�� Very
good,� Gregory said. �Yes, Potter, you�ll need to use movement and speed to
counter the strength of some of your opponents. I won�t ask you to wrestle
again. But you and Malfoy will be
fighting separately.�

�� Harry
nodded. He hadn�t expected anything else.

�� Malfoy,
come this way,� Gregory said. �I want you to meet Jackson. Potter, Windborne,
continue fighting.�

�� Harry
winced and turned back to Windborne. He hadn�t meant to make a bad example of
the bloke, but he could see that his face was grim, and he would probably do
his best to hurt Harry now, to get his pride back.

�� Well, I�ve survived worse.

*

�� Draco could
feel his face burning as he tried to sit comfortably on the muddy ground in the
circle that surrounded Weston and Lowell. Kelly Jackson, his opponent in
Gregory�s class, had deliberately kicked him in the arse. He had a huge bruise
there�he�d had Harry check�and it made him want to squirm.

�� Pride was
stronger than pain, though, as it had always been for the Malfoys. He sat
still, arms folded, and watched Lowell step towards him.

�� The man was
Weston�s partner, and also had compatible magic with her. They had taught Harry
and Draco privately in the barracks how to begin handling their magic and to do
such tricks as channeling it through each other�s wands. Draco had thought the
same thing would happen in this class, though of course most of the other
students didn�t have compatible magic.

�� Not so.
Instead, Weston and Lowell were forcing partnerships together and teaching them
to trust each other in a flurry of activity. Draco didn�t know what the class
had to offer him and Harry, already tried and trusted partners for a year and a
half, except that they had to give the illusion of obedience to the Head
Auror�s wishes by attending it.

�� Now, he
watched through half-lidded eyes as Weston walked around Granger and Weasley,
telling them that just being in love with each other wouldn�t make them good
partners. Granger was nearly in tears, while Weasley folded his arms and
scowled at the ground.

�� Malfoy.�

�� Reluctantly,
Draco glanced at Lowell. He couldn�t just ignore one of the instructors,
either, but it would have been easier if he could, he thought wistfully.
�Auror?�

�� I want you
and your partner to demonstrate the trust test to us.� Lowell had an upright
stance lately, as though acting like a soldier would somehow hold off the
danger of Nihil. �You�ve been together long enough that it shouldn�t be a
problem.�

�� Draco
reluctantly climbed to his feet, glancing over at Harry, who luckily had heard
Lowell and was standing up, too. �We haven�t done this particular test before,
sir,� he said.

�� That
shouldn�t matter,� said Lowell. �Not if you�re as accomplished as you must be.�
He turned and nodded to Weston, who was already turning to him. �Leave them. We
have a demonstration to arrange.�

�� I see.� Weston
watched them with harder eyes than Draco had ever seen her use. Of course, she
had been through Nihil�s attack on the trainee barracks and the desperate
evacuation the way the rest of the Aurors had, an attack Draco and Harry had
missed since they were off confronting the shadow of his father at the time.
�Well?�

�� Which test
do we demonstrate?� Harry asked. Draco relaxed. He wouldn�t have been
comfortable revealing his ignorance of what Lowell and Weston wanted them to
do.

�� The same
one we�ve been showing all morning,� Lowell snapped, his impatience obviously
wearing through. Draco tried to remind himself that the man had reason to be
impatient and that he and Harry could still learn much from a pair of Aurors
who had used compatible magic for years, but it was difficult. I�ve done more for the war effort than you
have. �The one where you cast offensive spells at your partner and he
stands there without a shield, trusting you not to hit him.�

�� Is that
going to work?� Draco demanded. �We do have compatible magic.�

�� Weston
stopped walking as though he�d hit her. She traded a long glance with Lowell,
and then began to laugh In fact, she laughed so hard that she had to lean
against the wooden stump they�d been using in the middle of the ring for
students to fall off into each other�s arms. Her shoulders shook and her hair
straggled across her face as she bowed it, hiccoughs merging into giggles.

�� I had
forgotten that,� Lowell said, with a pale face that showed his irritation.
Draco hoped that he would relax soon, or they might need to take him to
Portillo Lopez. �Or, at least, not forgot,
but it was not in my mind.� He wheeled back to Harry and Draco. �Then we need
you to fight in concert.�

�� Very
well,� Draco said. That sounded more like what he wanted to do, and in fact, he
was surprised that the Aurors hadn�t had the trainees practice dueling more
often since coming to the camp. �Who should we fight?�

�� Us,�
Weston said, rising to her feet as if she and Lowell had consulted about this
earlier. There was no trace of humor in her face anymore.

�� Draco tried
to catch Harry�s eye to ascertain how he felt about this, but Harry looked
eager. Draco frowned. He wasn�t sure they could best Lowell and Weston, and he
didn�t fancy being embarrassed.

�� Still, they
took up positions in front of each other, while the ring of trainees moved
further back to be out of the way. Lowell spoke as they bowed. �A bow is
traditional, but that does not mean you should remove your eyes from your
opponents. Many, if they perform it at all, take the bow as a chance to attack
early.�

�� Weston�s
arm lashed out, and the first spell flew towards Draco, a straight but
many-forking line of purple light that he didn�t recognize.

�� Harry
raised a Protego Shield, and the
compatible magic rolled towards Draco in a wave of increased strength. He
grinned fiercely at Harry and wrapped both of them in a thick skin of spikes,
projecting outwards at different angles to catch and spear the spells that
Lowell and Weston hurled.

�� It was a
good thing he had. Lowell and Weston were both quicker than Draco had counted
on. Of course, they had years more experience working together, but Draco still
didn�t like the sense of being outmatched.

�� They barely
seemed to have a pause as the compatible magic flowed back and forth between
them, giving the other increased strength from the backwash each time one of
them cast a spell. Draco worked furiously at the offensive magic, trying smoke
spells and fire spells and lightning spells first, while Harry raised the
shields and dissipated the nets, bolts, explosions, and Transfigurations that
Lowell and Weston tried.

�� Draco
became lost in the battle, the compatible magic traveling back and forth,
regular as a tide and as overwhelming. He saw Lowell stagger from a carefully
placed fire spell that struck his wand hand and smiled with pride, but then
fell over himself when Weston�s latest net tightened around his leg and curled
inwards to stab at his thigh.

�� Harry gave
an incoherent shout and lurched forwards. Draco snapped his head around to tell
him to stay where he was, but it was too late. Lowell had already snared him
with a net that snatched him into the air and dangled him there.

�� The
trainees gasped and applauded. Draco gritted his teeth against the pain and
reminded himself, again, of Lowell and Weston�s experience. They hadn�t set out
to deliberately humiliate Harry and Draco. Nor was it humiliating to have lost
to them.

�� Now, if I can only convince myself of that.

�� This is
the way that a partnership should work,� Weston said, turning to the other
trainees and flicking her hair out of her eyes. Draco was bitterly pleased to
see that he had at least made her sweat a bit. �One partner handling what the
other cannot, both of you knowing each other�s strengths and weaknesses and
striving to compensate for them and use them to your advantage against your
opponents.�

�� One
problem with Potter and Malfoy,� Lowell said casually, as if he wanted Draco to
hate him forever, �is that they have different skills, in defensive and
offensive magic, and stay only with
them. They need to spend more time studying the kind of spells they are not
experts in. And that applies to all of you.� His gaze went briefly to Granger
and Weasley. �No matter what your specialty, there will be times in battle when
none of it can help you. Make sure that you know how to cast other kinds of
spells as well, even if you never attain the level of comfort and expertise in
them that you do with the more familiar ones.�

�� Draco
wondered sourly what Granger�s �specialty� was, or what they thought it was.
Arguing people to death, perhaps.

�� Weston
flicked her wand, and the net stabbing Draco�s leg fell away. He rose to his
feet and gave a curt nod of thanks, then glanced over to make sure that Lowell
had freed Harry. Harry was breathless and red-faced, but unharmed.

�� Weston
passed close to Draco as she went to pair up a few other trainees. �What you
did was impressive,� she whispered to him. �You need not fear that we have lost
respect for you because you have lost one duel.�

�� Draco
gritted his teeth and didn�t respond. Of course, most of the magic he knew was
Dark Arts, and so unsuitable in a duel with Aurors who would probably stick to
their legalistic definitions over winning the war.

�� Harry must
have noticed something wrong, because he slapped Draco on the back as they came
back together. �You don�t need to worry,� he murmured. �Weston and Lowell have
been fighting together a lot longer than we have, and using compatible magic
for a lot longer than we have, too.�

�� Draco shook
his head. He didn�t know how to explain without sounding vain and impossible,
but he wanted to say that that wasn�t the point.
Nothing could make him feel better about losing except winning.

�� Well, this just means that there are things
I can�t share even with Harry, I reckon.

*

�� And when
you are in a rocky landscape, with multiple boulders that the enemy can hide
behind, you must��

�� Harry
sighed, and hoped a moment later it wasn�t audible. Ketchum didn�t have the
obstacle courses that he did back in the Ministry to instruct them in
Battlefield Tactics, so he mostly lectured instead, and then expected them to
retain everything he said.

�� The
trainees sat in a circle around him, some of them, like Hermione, writing
frantically. Draco had parchment and had cast a spell that would make his quill
take all the notes, while he sat nearby with his arms folded, gaze fixed on
Ketchum as if waiting for him to make a mistake. Harry would have asked Draco
for the spell, but he didn�t have parchment with him anyway, so it wouldn�t
have mattered. At least he was certain that Draco would let him study his notes
later.

�� Well, mostly certain.

�� He wished
Ketchum would arrange demonstrations of some kind, even if he couldn�t use the
full obstacle course. Harry learned better that way.

�� Trainee
Potter, what would you do if your enemy was in a rocky landscape like the one I
just described and heaving boulders at you?�

�� Harry
jolted back to the present. Ketchum was standing over him, staring into his
face with his hands on his hips. He looked worn and tired, Harry thought,
staring up at him, his dark skin almost grey.

�� I would
set up a shield to bounce the boulders back at him,� he said, deciding to offer
the best answer he could rather than admit that he hadn�t been listening.

�� Ketchum
sighed. �I know of no one who can manage a Shield Charm that strong, Trainee
Potter. Are you certain of your answer?�

�� I can
manage one,� Harry said. �And what else could I do? Hiding behind other
boulders would only encourage him to throw those
at me, and it would be easy for one to roll over and crush me.�

�� Ketchum
paused, head cocked. �Why not throw up a screen of dust and small stones in
front of him, so that he would lose sight of you for a moment and you could
reverse his tactic and hurl boulders at him?�

�� Wouldn�t
that only apply if the dirt wasn�t hard-packed?� Harry countered. �A lot of
places I�ve seen with boulders have been like that.� He was lying outrageously,
since he had only once seen a lot of boulders, when the Dursleys had to drag
him along on holiday, but it was true of that place, anyway.

�� Ketchum
gave him a thin smile. �I will take into consideration your own abilities and
powers when asking you questions in the future, Trainee Potter, as well as the
fact that your attention tends to wander during discussions like this.�

�� Harry felt
his face flush as Ketchum returned to his central place in the circle, and
caught Draco�s sarcastic gaze. �Next time, let me study your notes,� he
whispered fiercely.

�� How was I
supposed to show them to you in the middle of class?� Draco countered, and
Harry had to admit that he couldn�t see an answer to that.

*

�� Have you
thought more on what I said?�

�� Draco sat
quietly in his chair and kept his gaze lowered. Presenting a picture of
humility, no matter how false, seemed the best way to handle Holder. He didn�t
see a reason to do anything in response to this question, for example, but nod.

�� Good.�
Holder prowled a few steps towards him and then stopped. With his head bowed,
Draco could see only her feet and the lower part of her robes. �And what have
you decided?�

�� Much as he
detested Holder, Draco thought, looking up, the one part of her bearing he did
wish he could imitate was her voice. It had a surface like polished granite,
giving nothing away and presenting only variations to the individual eye�or
ear�that didn�t add up to a purchase.

�� I�ve
decided that I should work with you calmly and honestly, and not try to think
about who these tactics might ultimately be practiced on,� Draco thought, and
then held his breath, cautiously. It was a complete lie, of course, but then
again, he thought this meeting would be a test of his ability to lie to her and
get away with it.

�� Holder
moved her head slowly, so that her hair fell equally slowly down her neck and
curled onto her shoulders. Draco sat still in response. She used such movements
to disconcert people, he was coming to understand, and make them fidget and
blurt out incautious responses simply to fill the silence.

�� Perhaps
you are right,� Holder said, �at least as far as it concerns personal loyalties.
But your loyalty to the Aurors must be more than merely personal. What would
happen if you found someone practicing the techniques you had perfected on an
innocent?�

�� I�d have
to make sure they were innocent first, madam,� Draco said. �A thing that�s not
certain anymore with the infections that Nihil can fill the soul with.�

�� Holder held
up her hand. �Everyone here swore the oath that will destroy them if they go
into service to Nihil, and which they would have been unable to swear if they were
already in his service. Limit your imagination to members of this camp, and see
what answer you would give.�

�� The answer is that I hate you, Draco
thought. And he did, more passionately than he had expected to even after what
she did to Harry. Part of the problem was that she kept suggesting further
pains she could inflict on Harry, and then watched him as if the mention of
those pains was only a test.

�� Draco
didn�t know whether they were. He didn�t think so, since she hadn�t hesitated
once to use a painful spell. She would again, if she thought Harry�s dedication
to the Aurors was less than perfect. And she could find something to base that
accusation on, given her marvelously twisted imagination.

�� I would
have to see what the technique was, and why the torturer was using it in the
first place,� Draco said, �and make my decision accordingly.�

�� If you had
to make a decision quickly?� Holder pressed closer. �If you didn�t have time to
ask questions or take other actions that would determine your course without
doubt, but must simply act?�

�� Draco felt
another pulse of hatred. No matter what he said, Holder would find some way to
construe it as wrong. If he said that he would act without thought to stop the
torture, she would probably decide that that meant he would act to free Harry
no matter what. If he said that he would hold back, she would accuse him of
insufficient loyalty to the Aurors.

�� He could
almost have adopted the tactic he knew Harry would use in a situation like
this: outright defiance, telling Holder that he knew she was only waiting to
trap him and he refused to walk into the trap. But Draco knew the absolute
worst thing he could do at the moment would be letting Holder see that he
understood and abhorred her tactics. She had to think that he had only a
certain threshold of intelligence, or she would no longer believe his lies.

�� So he
lowered his eyes, and murmured, �I would assume the torturer was incorrect,
because the oath would surely have destroyed the person who broke it and tried
to go into service to Nihil. If he was still alive, that would mean the victim
must be innocent.�

�� You might
be incorrect,� Holder said at once. �Someone might have found a way to break
the oath.�

�� The oath that you just said was
unassailable? But Draco nodded and pretended that he was listening, that he
agreed with her, that he was wrong and he would accept that and never mention
it again.

�� He didn�t
think she would ever trust him, and in some ways this pretense was useless. But
the more he came to understand her, the better he might be able to protect
Harry if she decided to move against him.

�� And at the very least, it keeps Robards and
Holder herself contented and off our backs, so that we can accomplish our real
work.

*

�� SP777: Not
really for readers, but for the people in the story who doubt. After all, the
readers know things about him that the characters don�t.

�� Harry�s
main problem is that he still doubts himself, and he�s also been told by
figures in authority that he functions best when acting on impulse, so he doesn�t
have a lot of reason to change so far.

�� Draco�s
argument, meanwhile, is that use of torture doesn�t really depend on strength
of character. He doesn�t believe as much in the notion of inevitable corruption
of soul as Hermione does.

�� polka dot: Sorry.

�� Dragons
Breath: The others don�t have permanent partners yet. Lowell and Weston are
trying to find people who will work well together.
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Seasons of War