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

Chapter List
- 29
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Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter
Thirty�Revolution in the Wind

�� Shacklebolt
knows that you�re not as weak as you pretend, Harry.� Draco�s voice was soft
and relentless, even though part of the sound of the words was muffled as he
raised his teacup to his lips. �Do you know how he might have found out? And
what the consequences will be of his knowing it? And if you�re such great
friends, why wouldn�t he have contacted you about your possible presence at
that meeting?�

�� Harry
stared into the fire Kreacher had lit for them in the study, and said nothing
for long moments. This wasn�t a room he inhabited often; the spirit of the old
Black family was stronger here than anywhere else in the house, with the scars
of spells on the walls and furniture, and a chill even in the hearth that
seemed to come from lingering Dark curses. But Draco had asked to come here.

�� Draco had
told him about his meeting with Kingsley, and what the Minister had revealed during
it. Harry found himself relieved that at least Kingsley was only guessing about
his presence at the meeting. There had been powerful magic, so Harry Potter
must have been there. It was little enough to go on, and nothing that would
convince either the Wizengamot or many people in the Ministry.

�� If only because so many people would find it
unthinkable that their hero was gay, said the merciless voice. How long have you relied on that protection,
that you�re living the life they all thought you would, even if you didn�t get
married and have children? How much longer will you rely on it? Don�t you get
tired of lying to everyone by omission, even when you�re not playing a persona?

�� Harry
pressed his lips together. He had come to terms with his pretense of weakness,
and its likely consequences, long ago. He would not be ashamed of it. And he
was not ashamed of the secret of Metamorphosis either, he told himself, only
determined to protect it. It was difficult to explain, after all.

�� You promised Draco that you would stand by
his side as yourself. The merciless voice chuckled in his head like a
dragon catching a thief in its hoard. You�re
heading towards the point at which you�ll need to explore those consequences,
anyway.

�� Harry
thrust the thought away. Yes, he was, but at the moment, they had more
important things to consider.

�� The last
time I saw Kingsley was three months ago, at a private dinner for several
friends of the Weasley family,� he said quietly. �I thought then that he looked
at me a little strangely, but I didn�t connect it to any suspicions of my
magic.

�� Kingsley
was an Auror. It�s possible that he can recognize the relative strength of
magic, though not individual magical signatures, when he�s in close contact
with someone. It�s one of those things Aurors are supposed to learn but which
not many of them actually do.�

�� I�m sure
Weasley hasn�t,� said Draco, and Harry flinched under the lash of the contempt
in his voice. Then he sighed. And Ron
despises him, and has told me so. I won�t make them reconcile by scolding
Draco.

�� So I can�t
answer the question about how he started suspecting me for certain, but I think
it�s been that way for some time.� Harry leaned back on the couch, stretching
his arms above his head. He felt oddly weary, as though someone had beaten him
with sticks. Perhaps it came from the lack of sleep last night, perhaps from
everything that had happened today. �But I think I can answer the question of
why he�s never confronted me about it. Kingsley was�very gentle with me after
the war. He seemed sure that it had cost me in evil memories and nightmares,
that part of me died with the dead.�

�� Was he
wrong?�

�� Harry shot
Draco a swift glance, but found his face at its most unreadable: lips and nostrils
both shut, eyebrows flat and smooth, eyes shuttered. Harry tried not to feel
resentment as he murmured, �Not completely. But I didn�t suffer as much as he
thought I did. I�encouraged him to think I did because it was nice to be around
someone who didn�t assume I was a resilient hero every day and every minute.�

�� Draco
nodded. Harry wondered uneasily if that was a nod of true understanding, or if
Draco had added another incident when Harry lied to his private catalogue of
such incidents.

�� And why would you care, if you are utterly
blameless and everything you do justifiable? the merciless voice whispered
to him, and laughed the dragon-laugh again.

�� So ever
since then, Kingsley has been very reluctant to approach me about anything at
all that�s hurtful,� Harry said. �He didn�t even accuse me when someone
murdered two of the last Death Eaters before they went to trial a year after
the war, although it was someone with powerful magic. He kept the press away
from me as much as he could.� Harry half-closed his eyes, and forced himself to
think only of the time he was talking about and not about all the other
happenings of that horrid year. �He�d prefer to find out about something like
my presence at the meeting secondhand, if he was forced to notice it at all.�

�� He may be
forced to.�

�� Harry
nodded. �In any case, I don�t think he would permit the kinds of Dark curses
those Aurors involved in the raid were trying to use.� He opened his eyes and
returned to another, major point of the conversation with some relief. �So
there are at least two parties involved in this. The existence of the raid
couldn�t be kept from Kingsley, but I�m sure the informant behind it and the
real purpose was.�

�� Even
though he doesn�t like homosexuality?� Draco balanced the cup of tea in the
palm of his hand and gazed steadily at Harry.

�� Even then.
He hates Death Eaters and anyone associated with them, and yet he was polite to
you, wasn�t he?� Harry waited for Draco to nod. �He has abstract standards of
justice. He has to treat criminals well even if he�d like to see them dead as a
private citizen. And he would treat people fomenting revolution well even if he
felt nothing but disgust for their cause. That may be one reason he�s trying so
desperately to find out more about this, in fact, so that worse doesn�t
happen.�

�� Draco
inclined his head. His face was still closed, but his nostrils were quivering
now, and his eyes had a light moving back and forth in them, comforting Harry.
He was interested in the subject they were discussing and actively trying to
create strategies for dealing with it, at least. �And you said that you�d owled
Nusante and others in his group about the next meeting?�

�� Yes,�
Harry said. �Only Nusante knows where the meeting will actually be held, and he
has the wrong Apparition coordinates; I�m having him show up in an isolated
area of Diagon Alley instead, and I�ll meet him there to escort him here.�

�� In what
disguise?�

�� Harry gave
him a smile, wondering if he had imagined the touch of jealousy in Draco�s
voice. �It depends,� he said. �I might as well use the Longbottom one, since
he�s already associated with the cause because he came to your rescue. Or I
could use the Brian one. But that might imply that you�re involved more closely
than you want to be.�

�� I�m going
to be involved no matter what,� Draco said. His voice was calm, but his eyes
glittered. �And I want to show everyone what I can do, now that Lucius is no
longer holding me back.�

�� Harry
cocked his head to the side. He wanted to ask a question, but he didn�t know if
Draco wanted to answer it.

�� Ask it, the merciless voice commanded. Draco is not so weak as to do something that
would compromise him merely to earn your favor.

�� Do say
whatever you�re meditating on, Harry, and stop circling around the fact like a
curious puppy,� Draco said, his voice warm again and his eyes open and filled
with light.

�� Harry
flushed, but complied. When both the merciless voice and Draco agreed on
something, it seemed like a good idea. �Would you have joined yourself to a
revolution like this normally? I mean, if you had got free of Lucius and then
Nusante contacted you and asked for your help because you were publicly
gay...would you have thought it was worth the risk? I know you can sleep with
women, too. Does that make this cause less urgent for you?�

�� Draco
smiled slightly and stared into the fire for long moments. Then he said, �I
find it hard to answer this question, because my plan for winning free of
Lucius has included a stranger from Metamorphosis for months now. And my life
has changed so much in the last few weeks that I find it very hard to imagine it
without you.�

�� Harry
shuddered all over, but it was the good kind of shudder, the one that might
come from someone brushing his cheek with light fingertips.

�� But no, I
don�t think I would have associated myself with this revolution so openly,�
Draco continued. He sat back and tilted the cup of tea�still balanced in the
middle of the palm�until it reached his lips. �Contributed money, yes. Perhaps
provided legal help if there was real danger of someone being sent to Azkaban.
But not attended the meetings or stood by anyone�s side. And it�s more than the
fact that I can sleep with women, too, if I choose to. I don�t see myself as
part of the group Nusante wants to represent. Even though I am, if you define
it in the broadest terms.�

�� Harry
nodded. �So. Do you want me to wear the Brian disguise, or the Longbottom one?�

�� On the one
hand, anything that infuriates my father further whilst building my public
reputation with other factions of society is a good thing,� Draco said. �On the
other, I want you to attend in a different guise altogether.�

�� Harry
slightly narrowed his eyes. �Even though I�ll have to talk swiftly to convince
Nusante why I know where this house is?�

�� Draco�s
eyes slipped shut, and he hummed. �If there�s one thing you�re much better at
than I ever thought you could be, Harry, it�s talking swiftly.�

�� That was
true, Harry admitted reluctantly to himself. And there was a part of him that really
did want to show off his personas to Draco, to see Draco looking at him with
fascination and awe. What else did he have that could keep Draco�s interest and
attention?

�� It would take too much time to list them
all, said the merciless voice.

�� But the
merciless voice was only a persona, after all, if a clever and persistent one.
Harry knew he had personas who would fit the occasion. His desires and Draco�s
coincided enough that it was no problem to nod and say, �I�ll do it. Meanwhile,
I�ll have watchers at the locations where the other owls said the meeting would
be. If Aurors show up at one of them, we�ll have a good idea of where the leak
started.�

�� And of
course you�ll have Nusante Floo those people from this house and invite them
here if they�re home, without enough warning to contact Aurors,� Draco said.

�� Harry
smiled and found himself relaxing. It took him a moment to realize why. It was
a relief, in many ways, to have someone with him who did not require endless
explanations to follow every movement.

�� And what
will you do in the meantime?� he asked Draco.

�� Meet with
my friends,� Draco said, rising to his feet. Harry loved to watch him in
motion. He walked and sat and stood still with practiced grace, but the
practice had lasted all his life, and so the grace had become part of him, in
the way his dancing was, not an artificiality or a superficiality.

�� He tells some of the truth about himself
with his body, the merciless voice said. As you do not.

�� Harry
ignored the objection, because he didn�t think it was an interesting one. If he
did not lie with his body, Metamorphosis would not have lasted as long as it
had. �And try to persuade them to your point of view?� he asked.

�� Yes.�
Draco turned to look at him. �Blaise won�t be difficult. Pansy, a little more
so. And I�ll expand the circle of my influence outwards. There are even some of
my investors who owe me favors and may be interested.�

�� How
influential can they be?� Harry asked. He hadn�t paid much attention to that
part of pure-blood life that dealt strictly with business, which was one reason
he hadn�t heard of Malfoy�s Machineries before he met with Draco. He knew
enough to keep from embarrassing himself in conversation, and that was all he needed.
His battlefields were usually the drawing room and the dance floor.

�� And sometimes the bedroom, said the
merciless voice. Though no more, unless
it�s with Draco.

�� Not
influential in the way you�re probably thinking of, wherein they charge in and
stop the Aurors from arresting anyone,� Draco said, his voice dry as Aunt
Petunia�s toast. �What they can do is
slowly spread around the idea that gay people aren�t all that different from
straight people.�

�� But that
isn�t always true,� said Harry.

�� Draco
rolled his eyes. �I know, but it depends on what people want to believe,
doesn�t it? And I think a great many of Nusante�s group will be more like those
pure-bloods than otherwise�and more like their children than they realize.� His voice softened, and Harry wondered
absently if there was some sort of despair in his eyes that merited that tone.
�I know you�ve had bad experiences with people like my parents, Harry, and all
those you met when you were pretending to be their sons� or daughters� true
loves. But I honestly think some of them will change their minds or relax their
standards if the other option is losing their children. After all, if they have
a threat to hold over our heads�the money and property we stand to inherit�we
also have a threat to offer them. If we don�t have children, their precious
lines don�t continue. And it�s much easier to refuse to have children than to
go through the formal process of disowning.�

�� Harry
smiled in spite of himself. Draco narrowed his eyes. �What?�

�� You did
speak about yourself as if you were part of Nusante�s group, just now,� Harry said.

�So I did.� Draco gave a little
nod. �I do hope that we won�t be keeping count of all the little battles lost
and won between us, Harry. That could get tiresome quickly.�

�� So it
could,� said Harry, and then stepped towards Draco and said something that was
his own, though perhaps if he had waited a moment more, the merciless voice
would have suggested it. �But I hope we won�t ever lose that edge of tension,
either. I like fighting with you,
Draco, when it�s a game we can keep playing, and there�s no possibility of an
ultimate win or loss.�

�� Draco
stared at him for a long moment. He kept staring as Harry lifted his hands, put
them around Draco�s neck and cheeks, and kissed him. Harry made the kiss
lighter and gentler than the exploratory one they had shared last night,
because he didn�t think he was quite ready to invite the intervention of the
magical bond yet. They had to get to know each other outside the bedroom at
some point.

�� Draco drew
back at last, and he was smiling, an absent gesture, with only the left side of
his mouth lifted. �Thank you,� he said. �Now, I really do have to visit Pansy.
Blaise is already there, I�m certain, and with the stories he�s probably told
her, I�m sure she�s formed half-a-dozen twisted theories of her own.�

�� I�d hate
to see what she would do with twisted theories,� Harry said gravely.

�� Draco
shuddered. �I spent most of my fourth year suffering from one of them,� he
said, and raised a hand when Harry opened his mouth to ask the question.
�Later, Harry. I enjoy talking to you too much.�

�� Harry was
smiling like an idiot when Draco Flooed away, but he thought he might be
allowed.

*

�� Master
Draco Lucius Malfoy,� said Pansy�s house-elf when she opened the door, and bowed
stiffly to Draco. �Ritty is happy to see Master Draco Lucius Malfoy.�

�� Draco kept
from rolling his eyes with an effort. This was Pansy�s �subtle� way of letting
him know she was annoyed with him. �If you�ll escort me to your mistress, I�d
appreciate it, Ritty,� he said, and gave his cloak into the elf�s hands. The
elf whisked it away neatly, then turned her back and strode up the stairs that
began just inside the door. She managed to convey clear disapproval with the
set of her back muscles.

�� Draco looked
around as he climbed. The house Pansy owned had once belonged to a Muggle
family, and then to a wizarding family who seemed to have had the idea that
they�d hold on to their money long enough to actually live here. They hadn�t,
and Pansy had bought the house for a paltry sum of Galleons. But it was a
beautiful place, the walls an odd smirched color sandwiched between gray and
white, the actual hue shifting depending on whether the enchanted windows
showed a rainstorm at the moment or not. Pansy was dramatic.

�� The
staircase spiraled in three tight turns like a unicorn�s horn before it finally
came out on the upper floor that Pansy had colonized; she had always believed
in leaving the ground floor to the house-elves and �other people who can�t help
it.� The corridors were all carpeted with enchanted rose-petals that barely
covered the marble, but were luckily also enchanted to warm the feet. The walls
themselves held many small alcoves, each containing one of Pansy�s treasures�a
statue made in imitation of Memnon that sang with each dawn, a feather from the
wing of a phoenix, an umbrella stand made from a mooncalf�s foot�and few doors.

�� The
corridor opened out at the end into a massive room that Draco knew was the
reason Pansy had actually chosen the house; she had always envied the enormous
room that occupied the back of Malfoy Manor. This one was done in shades of
blue, carefully chosen so that they blended subtly into each other, but Draco�s
eye never got tired of looking at any particular one. The window looming over
them, so large that only courtesy and the lack of a balcony kept Draco from
calling it a door, was crafted of glass sheer enough to make it seem as if one
were looking through pure air. But pure air had never been that clear, or
sparkled now and then with a rainbow chaser to the viewer�s vision, either.

�� Two stuffed
chairs stood alone in the middle of the room, arranged as two points of a
triangle; when Draco approached, Pansy waved her wand and conjured the third
one, next to Blaise�s chair and opposite hers. Her face was set and white.
Draco checked a sigh. He should have visited her before this if he didn�t want
a confrontation. Pansy would try to drag every nuance of the truth from him.

�� Blaise rose
to his feet and watched Draco come with an appreciative smile he did nothing to
disguise. Draco grinned back. Blaise had changed from the rather nondescript
clothes he�d worn in the Ministry earlier; he wore blue robes to match the room
now, but studded with enough gold bangles and green patches to make him look
like a peacock. Blaise, of course, didn�t care about that. He just liked the
clothes, so he wore them, and most of the time he managed to make them look
stylish.

�� There had
been a time when Draco was absolutely convinced their relationship would be one
for the record books, a romance to last the ages and defy his parents over. It
hadn�t worked out that way, but he held that emotion tightly for all of a week,
and he still valued Blaise for making him feel like that.

�� I see our
silent communication is still as good as ever,� said Blaise, and pretended to
kiss Draco�s cheek.

Draco dropped into the chair Pansy
had conjured for him, deftly avoiding Blaise�s gesture, and raised his
eyebrows. �Where else would you go? Your mother might accept you, but then
she�d try to steal your hair for Polyjuice and drug you so you�d agree to marry
some young witch. And Pansy�s parents would stare at you hotly enough to brand
your skin, even if they wouldn�t actually throw you out.� Blaise had done
something indiscreet at Pansy�s house the summer after the war ended. Draco had
never learned any more details than that it involved three white mice and a
number of sticky red lozenges.

Blaise shrugged, looking
unrepentant. �It�s not my fault that
you�re only thinking in terms of accepted pure-blood households,� he murmured.
�From what Pansy has told me in the past half-hour, I do think you�re about to
get over that.� And he sat back, hands folded over his stomach, and looked
pleased with himself.

�About that.� Pansy folded her
hands in her lap. Her eyes were hot and steady, and she was wearing mauve
robes. Draco mentally increased the amount of time he�d have to spend pacifying
her. The mauve robes only came out when she was deeply threatened and felt like
announcing the imminent end of their friendship�thus, about four times a year.
�Have you considered what you�re doing, Draco?�

�Of course he has, Pansy,� Blaise
said, and tossed back the small glass of wine he held. �He�s throwing all that
manky money and that crumbling old manse over for true love. Can�t you see the
beauty of that?�

�� You don�t
know this Brian Montgomery.� Pansy�s voice was very soft. �I�ve done some
research, Draco. He�s not real. He exists on a few scattered pieces of paper,
and that�s all. At best, he�s some foreigner come to ravish you for his own
amusement. At worst, he�s part of a revenge plot.�

�� Draco
checked his sigh. �I can promise you he�s real, Pansy,� he said.

�� Yes,�
Blaise agreed at once. �Draco�s felt his cock up his arse. How much more real
does someone have to be to satisfy you?� He frowned severely at Pansy.

�� Pansy waved
her wand without looking away from Draco. She would have cast a Silencing Charm
on Blaise, Draco knew. It was standard for conversations like this. On the
other hand, she didn�t usually cast one so early.

�� She�s worried for me, he realized in
astonishment, finally translating the tight lines around her mouth and eyes
correctly. Not just angry I didn�t tell
her about Harry earlier.

�� Listen to
me,� he said. �I can tell you he�s real, Pansy. But he�s masked.�

�� So it is a revenge plot,� Pansy said. Blaise
was waving his wand at his own mouth with resignation; it always took him ten
tries or so to get the nonverbal countercharm to work.

�� Not unless
you want to count it as my revenge plot on Lucius,� said Draco. �He�s a real
person. I know who that real person is. I�ve made him promise to step forwards
eventually and let other people know he�s dating me.�

�� Pansy had
relaxed a bit. Draco could tell she�d expected neither the answer nor the
absolute level of conviction in his voice. �Eventually,� she repeated.

�� Draco
nodded. �I know I can trust him,� he said. �And not just because I�m well on my
way to falling in love. His real identity is someone I knew before I met him
masked like this. He has the reputation of keeping his word.�

�� But Draco,�
Pansy whispered, �is this really worth getting disowned? Changing everything we�ve
always believed in?�

�� And Draco
heard the pleading behind her question, and knew he would have to pour more of
himself into promoting the rebellion than he�d thought.

�� Harry�s right, he thought wryly. I am part of Nusante�s group, whether I want
to be or not. I just hope he realizes the same thing.

�� You haven�t
believed in what your parents do for a long time, Pansy,� he said quietly. �Neither
have I. I�m just the first of us to decide to do something about it. And if we
fight hard enough, then I believe we�ll create a world where I can walk with
Brian freely, and where you have a better chance of bringing your Muggle into
polite society.�

�� Pansy
closed her eyes, as she always did at any mention of her lover she didn�t bring
up herself. Blaise had sat up and was staring at Draco. Draco returned his gaze
calmly. His heart was beating fast, but he was centered in himself, serene at
the bottom.

�� We are going to do this.

�� Finally,
Pansy opened her eyes and murmured, �Tell me how.�

*

�� SoftObsidian74:
Thanks! I was aiming to make Draco�s conversation sexy, though I don�t know how
well I succeeded. Draco is deeply physically attracted to Harry, but the
attraction runs deeper than that; it does affect Draco physically, however.

�� The real
Draco-Blaise relationship is the one in this chapter: friendly, playful, with
Blaise pretending to offer gestures of love to Draco and Draco swatting him
away with equal playfulness. That doesn�t mean that Blaise might not try to get
�Brian� jealous at some point.

�� qwerty: Thanks!
Eventually, Harry will tell Draco what happened, but as Draco said, it has to
be of his own free will or it doesn�t mean as much.

�� Lunatic
with a hero complex: The sleepwalking comparison is an interesting one. For what
it�s worth, Draco is handling Harry cautiously, even though he doesn�t realize
the full extent of the danger yet (because Harry has not told it to him). And
he�s determined enough to endure through one bout of violence.

�� Mangacat:
From now on, the plot should grow more emotionally simple, in that there will
be more revelations than secrets.

�� Dani: Draco
is at least frightened. Whether he should be terrified is, of course, a matter
for conjecture.

Yume111: Harry tells himself he�s
accepted Ron�s denigration of homosexuality, but in reality, he�s just pushed
it aside and hasn�t dealt with it, much like everything from his nineteenth
year.

�� Draco has a
habit of mixing lies and truth, so he keeps to that with Shacklebolt. He also
doesn�t know the Minister well, so he doesn�t know how good Shacklebolt is at
detecting outright lies.

I think the real Harry does believe
that Zabini should have been in England and enduring the pains of being gay all
along if he wants to help now.

�� And yes, a
lot of Draco�s jealousy comes from unease. He also wants all of Harry, and he
doesn�t want to share aspects that Harry would spread around to other people.

�� As for
Harry�s level of self-absorption, I think you have something there, though in
this case he�s more obsessed with those aspects of himself doled out to
personas. He has never had a true partner of any kind for at least ten years,
so it�ll take him some time to understand this or take Draco into account.

�� Alexiad:
Thank you! And you�ve been added to the update list.

�� FallenAngel1129,
broomrider949, thrnbrooke, momoko: Thanks for reviewing!
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