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Love, Free as Air	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Threesomes/Moresomes Views: 32703 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and I am not making any money from this story.

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Chapter Three�Sharp as
a Claw

�� Draco came
in from the garden in a fragile good mood. He had talked himself into ignoring
Severus�s foibles as he sat under the shade of the largest fruit trees, and
instead remembered the good times they�d had immediately after settling in the
cottage. Severus had taught Draco to brew complex potions he could never have
managed on his own, and he had taught Draco more about sex than he had ever
hoped to learn, either. He had touched Draco with reverent hands. Draco had
looked up more than once and found Severus�s eyes fixed on him, as if he was
wondering where Draco had appeared from and when he would return to that
strange, hidden land.

�� It had been
like that once. Draco would make it like that again.

�� Or, if he
couldn�t, he would finally separate from Severus. There were places he could go
without returning to the wizarding world�not many, but a few. And he did have
skills that Severus had taught him and that he had deliberately cultivated in
the last six years. He didn�t like to think
about making it on his own, but he could.

�� He stepped
into the drawing room and smiled at Compensation sitting in his cage. �Have you
spent the afternoon well?� he murmured. �I have, much better than I expected.�

�� Oh, he
didn�t tell you, then?� The bird ruffled his feathers and took a step forwards
on the perch as though he wanted to study Draco�s reactions�which was
ridiculous, Draco told himself a moment later. He was a bird. He knew he had a
tendency to humanize Compensation, but this was too much. �Snape discovered
that I really was Harry Potter trapped in a parrot�s body, and he provisionally
believed me. He�s in the lab right now, working on a potion that might end this
spell that traps me.�

�� Draco�s
good mood shattered like a window with a stone thrown through it. He paused
with his hand on the wall inside the door and narrowed his eyes at the cage. �I
don�t know why you�re continuing with this trick, Severus,� he said quietly.
�You know that I�m no longer going to believe it, and that must make it less
fun for you.�

�� The bird
actually shook his head, and Draco had to admit that he didn�t think the
Televox Potion could force an animal to do that. �I am Harry Potter,� he said. �This is my Animagus form. I was
tracking a bunch of kidnappers who thought it was fun and profitable to grab
wizards and change them into animals that they could sell. But a fire broke out
in their house, and I had to flee. One of them hurled a spell at me as I was
escaping, one they developed. You can�t detect it, but it means that I can�t
change back to human. Potions are probably my only hope, since their magic is
too new to be fought with spells.�

�� Draco
closed his eyes. It didn�t sound like the kind of story that Severus would come
up with, but he no longer knew Severus very well.

�� You�re
lying,� he said. �Even if you were Harry Potter, there�s no way that you would
remain like this for as long as you did. You would have told us on the first
day that something was wrong, and that way, you wouldn�t have to endure the
cage.�

�� Compensation
gave him a very human condescending look. �When I had to distrust you from
school? When the last thing I knew about Snape was that he�d been condemned to
the Dementor�s Kiss and then disappeared? I couldn�t be sure how you would
react. Perhaps you wouldn�t hurt me, but the wards around your house argued for
someone paranoid. I stayed silent for a few days because I needed to heal
anyway, and I thought this would be tolerable. It�s not. I want to get out of
here.�

�� Draco sank
onto the couch, staring at the cage. He was starting to believe in spite of
himself. Now that he thought about it, Compensation�s voice did sound like his
memory of Potter�s. And it beggared belief that the bird could have belonged to
Harry Potter and had got in here on a coincidence.

�� Well, unless he wanted to spy on us.

�� But Draco
rejected that conclusion, too. It would have been better, if the bird was a
spy, for Potter not to speak out at all and thus not to associate the bird with
him in their minds.

�� Why?�
Draco asked at last, when his mind had whirled around so long without giving
him a better answer that he was ready to believe. �Why come here?�

�� I didn�t
know it was your house, did I?� the bird snapped, and scratched at his face
with one foot, so fast that the foot blurred in Draco�s sight. �The Aurors were
waiting for my report in a camp not far from the kidnappers� house. I made for
the nearest strong source of magic. I thought it would be the camp. But it
happened to be your house instead.�

�� Draco
suddenly sat up, anxiety making his throat tight. �You can�t tell them where we
are.�

�� I don�t
even really know where you are,� said the bird, and made his pupils widen and
then shrink again rapidly. Draco thought it might be the avian equivalent of
rolling your eyes. �And Snape made me already promise that, if he can get me
back to human, I would swear an Unbreakable Vow not to reveal your location or
harm you in any way.�

�� That
reminded Draco of something else. �How long after I went into the garden did
Severus decide that you were Potter and he was going to work on the potions?�

�� It�s not
like I can tell time that well in this cage,� the bird�Potter�said, �and I
don�t have my wand on me to cast a Tempus
Charm, do I? But I think it was less than an hour by the light.�

�� Which meant
it had been over five hours altogether. Draco had spent at least that length of
time in the garden, soothing himself back into peace with Severus.

�� He hadn�t
known that he would be losing his pet, the only thing to come along and make
his life interesting or different in�far too many months. He and Severus had
been drifting apart for a long time, Draco thought, but it was only recently
that he had admitted that to himself,
and started looking for something that could soothe his boredom.

�� I�ll be
right back, Compensation,� he said, and then stood up and turned to go down the
corridor to Severus�s lab again.

�� Potter,�
said the bird irritably, but Draco didn�t care at this point. He could only
think that Severus hadn�t told him. Not to tell him that he was losing his pet,
and not to ask for Draco�s help with the potions, hard as they would be to brew
when he had to counter completely new magic. He obviously thought he could do
it by himself.

�� He didn�t
really need Draco anymore, did he? He could wank himself, if it came to that,
and he had told Draco once or twice, in a particularly cutting mood, that he
preferred his hand over Draco because the hand didn�t take as much time and
didn�t demand as much.

�� For the
second time that day, Draco broke through the wards around Severus�s lab and
flung the door open.

*

�� Severus
could sense himself drawing nearer to an answer. The first two potions he had
tried had failed, and why not? There were weaknesses in the recipes that he
should have seen before he began to brew. But this new one was on the right
track. Rather than following a recipe, Severus was simply acting on instinct,
adding ingredients to the cauldron as they came to hand and felt right. Here a
handful of mosquito eggs, here a petal from a hibiscus, here a sleek black
feather from the left wing of a murdered raven. The flow of strength and
goodwill through him was moving him towards the answer as smoothly as the
current would move a boat downstream.

�� He was
close. He could feel it�

�� The door
opened.

�� Severus�s
mood broke, and the high, dignified certainty that he was going in the right
direction fled. The cauldron in front of him, which a moment ago had held
explicable lumps dancing in a pattern, dissolved into inexplicable lumps. He
looked at it fixedly, so that he wouldn�t look up and commit murder.

�� Why didn�t
you tell me that the bird was Potter?�

�� Severus
closed his eyes. Of course it would have to be Draco, no one else could break
through his wards, but somehow Severus was not prepared for him, or for his
inevitable, childish demand. The things Draco wanted were important only to
him. When would he understand that?

�� I wanted
to begin my brewing, and you were in the garden,� he said distantly, turning
his head with supreme slowness so that he could give Draco the full benefit of
his glare. �I would have told you when I had the potion ready.�

�� You still
could have told me,� Draco said. He had his arms folded and as many bristles as
a Kneazle dropped in a puddle of water. �That bird�s been the only interesting
thing to happen to me in months. And
now it�ll be taken away, and you didn�t feel compelled to tell me?� His voice was rising.

�� Severus
shook his head. �What would a delay of a few hours matter?� Behind him, the
potion made a loud goop noise.
Severus knew that meant it had become, finally, unusable. He did not put his
hand over his eyes, because that would let Draco have an insight into Severus�s
emotions he frankly did not deserve, but his fingers trembled with the wish to.

�� If you
really knew me, you would know the answer to that.� Draco clenched one fist.
Severus stared at him. He had not thought Draco so crude as to resort to
physical violence. Draco had been cleverer than that even in his last year at
Hogwarts, when he had cast spells strictly at the command of the Carrows or as
needed in class, and had avoided fisticuffs altogether.

�� Knowledge
of you to that depth and extent is not one of my priorities,� Severus said, and
watched Draco�s eyes grow wide and liquid with pain. He rolled his own eyes,
and didn�t care if Draco saw him doing it. Why in the world would he expect
anything different of Severus? Draco hadn�t made his attachment to the bird
clear, and he could have adopted another pet if he wanted one. It was not as
though Severus had kept the knowledge from him for a few hours to hurt him. He
simply had not thought about it.

�� Yeah, I
can see that,� Draco said. His voice cracked, but he cleared his throat and
continued. �I don�t think I�m interested in knowing you that well anymore,
either.�

�� He paused,
as if to give Severus a chance to change his mind. Severus looked at him
stolidly, patiently, and waited for Draco to realize that a lessened knowledge of
each other was fine with him. They had come together in this place, but that
did not mean they must always be bound as closely as they were when they
arrived. It would have been easier if Draco had grown up to meet Severus,
instead of staying a child.

�� Draco�s
eyes hardened to little grey pebbles that reminded Severus of the way that
Lucius could look when thwarted in something he wanted by the Dark Lord.

�� I didn�t
think so,� Draco said, and then turned and stormed out of the lab, slamming the
door behind him.

�� Severus
waited until the distracting vibrations from the door had trembled throughout
the room and ceased before he turned back to his potion. He could not recover
exactly what he had been doing, but he could try. And there were new ideas in
the back of his mind. What had prompted him to choose the mosquito eggs? If he
could think of that, bring the incalculable impulses of the subconscious mind
under the control of his conscious one, then he thought that he might
reconstruct the potion.

�� It would
not be the same as the one he would have brewed in those first moments of
instinctive, ecstatic delight, of course. But that was the price he paid for
his kindness to a boy who had still not
realized how different his life in an isolated cottage with only one lover for
company must be from the continual, changing parade and wealth he had
envisioned.

*

�� Harry was
watching for the moment when Malfoy came out of Snape�s lab. He had expected
him to be angry, and he hoped that Malfoy would have a few more choice insults
to describe Snape�s behavior. Since Harry couldn�t speak them himself without
possibly causing the man to stop brewing his potion, he would just have to rely
on Malfoy for a little while.

�� But Malfoy
came out of the lab silently, and stood in the middle of the drawing room, his
face burning with a cold flame. Harry cocked his head so that he could get one
eye firmly on the man. His cheeks were bright pink, but his eyes glittered in a
way that said he didn�t care about his own embarrassment. He was sorting
through anger instead.

�� Harry had
seen Hermione look like that when people in the Ministry called her a Mudblood.
He had seen Ron look like that when someone had almost killed Percy. In neither
case had the outcome been good for the person who caused the anger.

�� Are you
all right?� Harry found himself asking, without even considering beforehand
whether he would ask it.

�� Malfoy
didn�t answer. Instead, he shut his eyes once and then opened them, staring
straight ahead in a determined fashion. Then he turned and started back down
the corridor once more. Craning his neck, Harry could just make out that he was
disappearing into the room Harry thought was a bedroom, rather than Snape�s
lab.

�� It was
frustrating as fuck at the moment to be caged and not able to see much outside
the room. Harry climbed to the top and hung upside-down, hoping that would help
him with the angle, but it didn�t, much. All he could make out was that
Malfoy�s bedroom door was open and there was a series of regular thumps, as
though he was shifting furniture around.

�� Or packing.

�� Harry
cocked his neck and flapped his wings hard enough to detach small feathers and
send them swirling around the room. Let Snape find them in the morning and
stare at him in outrage.

�� He didn�t
know why he should feel so happy that Malfoy was getting out of this situation,
especially since Snape would be worse company and probably forget to feed him,
but he was.

�� Do you
need help?� he called down the corridor. �I know a few good shrinking spells
the Aurors use that aren�t standard knowledge among people outside the
Ministry.�

�� The packing
sounds died into silence. Harry turned himself around on the bars and pressed
his eye between the nearest two. He could make it out when Malfoy�s head popped
into the corridor, from the flicker of the lamps on that pale hair if nothing
else.

�� Why would
you care?� Malfoy asked. He paused, as if those weren�t the words he wanted,
and then revised it to, �Why would you help me?�

�� Because if
I can�t do anything about being in a cage myself, then at least I can make sure
that someone else gets to open his,� Harry said. The words felt right, shaped
and smooth in his mouth, in a way that most of the words he spoke as a parrot
hadn�t. And they were the reason that he was so happy Malfoy was getting out,
he thought. Of course. He had a constitutional dislike of cages. After the
sessions with the kidnappers where they kept him in a cage most of the time and
only brought him out occasionally, that was even stronger.

�� Malfoy came
back down the corridor into the drawing room and stood staring at him. Harry
shifted so that he was clinging to the side of the cage, and stared back.

�� You�re
really him,� Malfoy said softly.

�� Harry
bobbed his head in an exaggerated nod. It wasn�t a comfortable motion for a
parrot, but then, comfort was low on his list of priorities at the moment.
Seeing Malfoy escape Snape was highest.

�� God,�
Malfoy said, and shut his eyes again. At least he no longer looked embarrassed.
He ran a hand through his hair. �I�ve thought about leaving Severus for a long
time,� he said. �But we were bound together by shared history and by
practicality. Where was I going to go? I left everyone behind when I fled. My
parents are both in Azkaban. Or dead,� he added quietly. �I haven�t received a
letter from them in years.�

�� They�re
both still alive, as far as I know,� Harry said. �But they instituted a policy
years ago that inmates of Azkaban can�t send or receive letters, because
relatives of inmates were sending spells attached to parchment that helped
several people escape. Face-to-face visits only are the policy now.�

�� Malfoy�s
shoulders sagged. �That would make sense,� he said, almost to himself. Then he
looked up with an iron face. �And now I�ve decided. It�s better to go
somewhere, anywhere, else, even if I
don�t know exactly how I�ll be received there.�

�� Harry
bobbed his head again. He had felt something similar when he quit the Auror
program.

�� I could
take you with me, I reckon,� Malfoy said, giving him a critical look. �As long
as you would make the same promise not to betray us, and as long as you think
that someone outside of Severus�s lab might be able to change you back. I
wouldn�t blame you if you wanted to stay here until he was finished brewing the
potion.�

�� I have no
reason to want to owe him anything,� Harry said.

�� Malfoy
smiled and reached over to unlock the cage.

�� A voice
spoke from the corridor, cool and smooth enough that Harry wouldn�t have been
surprised to see it coat the walls with ice. �You were thinking of leaving me,
Draco? And you did not consider what would happen to me in your absence?�

�� Malfoy�s
fingers hesitated on the lock. Harry grabbed one of them in his beak, intending
to hasten it on, but he must have pinched too hard, because Malfoy snatched his
hand back and looked offended. Harry tried to look as apologetic as he could
while muttering, �Sorry.� He didn�t think his face was the best for looking
sorry, though. He could more often look falsely innocent when he had just played
a joke.

�� I didn�t
think you would care,� Malfoy said, staring at the wall without turning around.
The not turning around was a hopeful sign, Harry thought, but his voice had
begun to shake, and that wasn�t.
�You�ve made it clear for the past few days that you care far more about your
brewing than about me. Why shouldn�t I leave and find someone who will give me
the attention and respect I deserve?�

�� Snape moved
into sight. Though he must have been able to feel the pressure of Harry�s
watching eyes, he never glanced at him; all his attention was for Malfoy.

�� I have
spoken in haste and in temper,� he said. Smooth,
so smooth, smooth as snake oil, Harry thought in anger, twisting his head
around and snapping his beak. He wanted to make Malfoy look at him, but Malfoy
had closed his eyes. �I have been neglectful of you lately, and not in a
position to glance up from my cauldron and realize what you needed.�

�� It�s been
more than �lately,�� Malfoy said, his voice muffled. Harry glanced at him and saw
that he had one hand in front of his mouth and seemed to be biting down on the
skin of his knuckles. �You haven�t paid proper attention to me in months. Can
you name the date that we last slept together? You haven�t missed it.�

�� Snape
stepped up behind Malfoy and rested his hands on his shoulders. Malfoy started,
then let his head fall back in spite of himself, Harry thought. He could see
the familiar tiny shudders working through Malfoy, the kind of shudders someone
gave when a long-time lover touched them. It didn�t really matter if that lover
had been a bad or a good one; be together for months or years, and you grew
familiar to each other anyway.

�� Harry had
last felt it with Ginny. None of his relationships since then had lasted long
enough.

�� I have
missed it,� Snape said. �It�s true that my brewing has dominated my life. But
if it were the only source of stimulation I required, I would have been able to
take it up without difficulty after you interrupted me today. I could not. The
first time, I came out here and talked to Potter. The second time, just now, I
thought about what you had said, and I came to some sense of the justice of
your words.�

�� He�s
lying,� Harry said.

�� Snape
lifted his head and gave Harry a look that could have burned him. Harry gave a
few short flaps with his wings and stared boldly back. He doubted, now, that
Snape would take the risk of killing him. That would probably drive Malfoy away
for good, and for his own incomprehensible reasons, he wanted Malfoy to stay
around.

�� Turn and
look at his eyes,� Harry insisted. �They�re cold even as he speaks all these
warm and soothing words to you.�

�� They�re
always cold,� Malfoy muttered, but he did turn and look up, his gaze
questioning.

�� Snape
regarded him with a deep, dark stare. Harry could see how it would have drawn
in someone young and impressionable. Malfoy had only been eighteen when he
helped Snape escape, after all.

�� Malfoy
shuddered and took a long breath. �I don�t believe you,� he whispered. �Not
really. Not unless you�ll take me upstairs right now and make love to me.�

�� Harry saw a
spasm cross Snape�s face at the mention of �making love,� but he nodded and
dipped his head to lick at the curve of Malfoy�s ear. �As you wish,� he said.

�� Malfoy�s
fingers tightened on Snape�s arms. Harry couldn�t see his face well from this
angle, but he knew why. Malfoy would be intoxicated by the mere fact that Snape
had given in, which couldn�t happen often. Harry had had his share of lovers
like that, too. He and Susan Bones had fought so often that it seemed like a
heaven of peace and harmony when she would let him pick the restaurant.

�� He�s lying,� Harry said. �He�s trying to make
you stay. Can�t you see that?�

�� Malfoy
started to answer, but Snape took his mouth in a kiss, and his fingers worked
from Malfoy�s shoulders into his hair and onto his neck. Malfoy shuddered and
clasped Snape in his arms. Snape began to draw him carefully towards the
corridor again, his murmurs muffled by the kiss but clearly audible. Malfoy
whimpered.

�� Idiot!�
Harry screamed after him, and then added in a few more normal parrot screams
for good measure.

�� But they
were gone, and except for one look of triumph that Snape gave him just before
they disappeared, Harry didn�t think they were noticing him anymore.

�� He sat in
his cage and fumed for ten solid minutes. Disappointment as sharp as a claw
stabbed him several times. Malfoy had been so close to fleeing his cage. Why had he given in again? He had to
know that Snape changing his mind again that quickly meant no good.

�� Harry
twisted his head to the side, thinking he should engage in some preening to
soothe his ruffled feathers and his ruffled feelings, and caught sight of the
lock.

�� He hadn�t
thought Malfoy had touched it, but then again, he had been more engaged in paying
attention to Snape. Malfoy had flipped
back the steel cover, though, and slid one of the complex flutings aside.

�� Harry
promptly began to swing himself down the bars. He knew already what he would
do. First, he would slide the lock open as delicately as he could; if he pushed
too hard, he would make the cover tremble and fall over the lock again, which
would prevent him from reaching it.

�� Second, he
would fly down the corridor to Snape�s lab and see if he couldn�t get in there.
Snape had wards up, but he might have removed them when Malfoy had stormed in
on him, or he might have left the door of the lab open, or he might have wards
against animals in general but not against Animagi. Harry had got into more
than one private home or lab because someone had overlooked that precaution.

�� And once he
was in the lab�

�� His form
was limited as far as casting spells went, but nearly unlimited when it came to destroying delicate equipment.

�� Harry
ground his beak in contentment, and went to work.

*

�� Mia:
Thanks! I promise that Snape will get a little better as time goes on.

�� inu-hottie:
Thanks!

�� Draco has
been convincing himself he has no other place to go. But his courage is getting
into a battle with his love for Severus at the moment. He may yet decide
otherwise.

�� Mehla
Seraphim: That is just what Harry is going to give him.

�� momoko:
Thank you!
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Love, Free as Air