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The Same Species As Shakespeare	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 16108 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- 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.

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Chapter Thirty�Speak It From Your Souls

�� Harry leaned something about love
and forgiveness as he watched Draco stumble over his answers to Rita Skeeter�s
questions.

�� Skeeter started with a poisoned
smile and the most direct question Harry had ever heard from her the moment she
understood what they were there for. �Are you saying that your previous story
about Mr. Potter was all a lie, then? That you didn�t really seduce him and he
wasn�t broken when you left?�

�� Draco�s face flushed, and Harry saw
the unhappy little boy he had known in Hogwarts all over again. Then Draco
swallowed. What that swallow took care of�anger, grief, bitterness, pride�Harry
didn�t know, but it let Draco say in a steady voice, �Yes. Whilst we slept
together, it wasn�t a seduction.� He tossed Harry a brief glance from beneath
lowered eyelids, to which Harry didn�t respond. He knew Draco was asking him
for permission to elaborate on exactly how much of a mutual seduction had led
up to their first time together, but he didn�t care to have Skeeter know that.
Draco turned back to the reporter with a new grimness etched in the lines along
his face. �And he wasn�t broken.�

�� Skeeter hummed under her breath and
scribbled something down on the parchment in front of her, then whisked another
piece over it before they could see what she�d written. Her smile was
professional when she looked up again, at least as much as a shark�s could be
called professional. �Then you were?�

�� Harry had to admire the way Draco drew
himself up at that and fixed her with a glare so deadly that Skeeter blinked
and lifted her quill as if it were a wand. �No, I was not,� he said.

�� Well�� Skeeter cocked her head as
if considering whether or not to believe Draco, and then hastily nodded and
scribbled something down when Draco growled. �Yes, yes, of course,� she said,
and recovered herself with a small pat to her hair and a sharp little breath.
�Will you retract the statements you made about Mr. Potter? I believe �fragile
little flower� was among them.�

�� Draco nodded once, tightly, and his
left hand flexed in the air next to him. Whether that was meant as a grasp for
help or not, Harry�s resolve to let Draco go through this completely on his own
couldn�t survive it.

�� He cleared his throat, stepped up
beside Draco, and caught his hand. He didn�t swing their hands ostentatiously
in Skeeter�s face, instead smoothing his fingers over Draco�s knuckles down at
his side, but he saw Skeeter�s eyes greedily fasten on them anyway. �I�m not
fragile,� he said, �or not any more than we all are in moments of defeat. For
example, I remember a time when I could have called you fragile, Ms. Skeeter�or
at least not as strong as glass.�

�� Skeeter�s spine stiffened with
outrage once at the reference to when Hermione had trapped her beetle form in a
jar, and then folded down again. Her smile was decidedly more brittle this time
when she said, �You�ve learned some wit in the last few years, Mr. Potter.
Would you like to give your side of the story?�

�� She
always did like me best as prey. It was one reason Harry had known his
stepping in would help spare Draco. He managed a slight smile for Skeeter in
return. �Yes, I would,� he said. �Both of the original story and what
followed.�

�� He heard Draco gasp beside him and
then catch his breath. Harry didn�t look at him�he wouldn�t give Skeeter the
satisfaction, and in any case he wanted to keep her attention firmly on
himself�but he knew Draco�s face would have turned to stone in the next moment.

�� That was still a change. In the
past, Draco would have been so focused on manipulating Harry that he wouldn�t
have forgotten himself enough to gasp. Harry could put up with Draco�s need for
self-control in part because Draco was a little less guarded now. He had let
Harry into his heart enough to make a mark there.

�� That�s
what you�ll never understand, bitch, ask questions as you will, Harry
thought contentedly in Skeeter�s direction. Maybe she had noticed the triumph
in his eyes, because she paused before she asked her next one.

�� How did you feel after Mr. Malfoy
left you?� She suddenly made a moue and blinked innocently at him. �Forgive me,
Mr. Potter, I�m presuming. Did Mr.
Malfoy leave you the first time?�

�� He did,� Harry said, �and it was
essentially as he described it.� He saw no need to make Draco eat all his
words. Some of them were true. �But his motives for that were otherwise than
what he told you. Rather than trying to break me, he was trying to see how much
I could stand. He never intended to abandon me permanently.�

�� Really?�
Skeeter was darting her gaze between him and Draco, so hungry for carrion that
she reminded Harry of a vulture. He curled his lip, mentally contrasting her
with the only other journalist he knew well, Luna Lovegood. People can enter this profession for more
than one reason, just as they can become Aurors for more than one reason, but
Merlin, what a difference. �He told a very convincing series of lies,
then.�

�� He did,� Harry said calmly. �But
you must have seen that for yourself, Ms. Skeeter, that sometimes people create
unaccountable, elaborate deceptions in order to protect their emotional
truths.�

�� His sarcasm sailed over her head; in
fact, Skeeter mistook his words for sympathy and preened a moment. �And what
about your lies?� she asked.

�� In this case,� Harry pointed out
peacefully, �I merely said nothing to the papers. I don�t know that that counts
as a lie.�

�� But you vanished,� Skeeter pursued,
�and the Auror Department was quick to say that you�d gone somewhere they
couldn�t trace you. An owl I sent to you with a request for an interview came
back baffled. Where were you, and why did you have to go there if the
circumstances of your parting with Mr. Malfoy weren�t what he described?�

�� I went to a private place to
recover my strength,� Harry said evenly. �And no, you aren�t owed a description of that,� he added, as Skeeter�s eyes
shone rapaciously and she opened her mouth to comment. �What matters is that I
recovered it and thought about matters, and I decided to forgive Draco.� He
turned fully towards Draco for the first time, and surprised a complex
expression on his face, which of course vanished the moment Draco noticed him
noticing it. �And he�ll have to be the one to tell you some more about his lies
and my forgiveness.� Harry wanted to spare Draco some of the burden, but he had
no intention of becoming the sole defender of Draco�s actions whilst Draco
stood by dumb and watching.

*

�� Draco wondered absently if love was
meant to be both torment and sweetness at once. He had long felt both when he
looked at Harry, but the torment had come from fears of Harry�s defeating him
and the sweetness from moments when he won instead. He didn�t think that was a
description of it now.

�� I
don�t know what to say. Doesn�t he see that?

�� But Harry did, because he�d moved in
at a moment when Draco was grimly struggling and spared him. Even the way he
turned towards him now, with an expectant look and a slight gesture to send
Skeeter�s eyes to him, was a compliment of sorts, Draco thought. He trusted
that Draco would have recovered his own strength in that short amount of time.

�� Draco still didn�t find it all that
comforting.

�� He took a deep breath and said some
of the hardest words of his life. �I was wrong. I went to the papers like that
out of insecurity, because I didn�t know if Harry l�cared for me and I couldn�t
wait to find out. I was angry and ashamed of my own vulnerability. That was one
reason I lied about his.�

�� Vulnerability?�

�� Voldemort�s snake had had more taste
and tact than Skeeter did, Draco thought. �I am sure you know my reputation,�
he said tightly. �Not many lovers, and the ones I entertained never stayed for
long.� He winced when he saw the smugness lighting Skeeter�s face, but he knew
he would have to say worse things�more bruising to his pride�before he was
done. �I found myself caring too much, and�� There were some things it was
impossible he should say, especially before he had explained them to Harry, so
he changed his next words to, �And this one was different. I knew from the
beginning. What Harry and I have is too intense
to be properly described. My revenge for feeling vulnerable was the same
way. I want you to print an apology and a retraction, and then I want you to
say that Harry and I are lovers now, and I�m content to have it so.�

�� He probably should have been more
passionate on that last declaration, he thought absently. There was the chance
that Skeeter wouldn�t believe him. But all the air seemed to have left his
lungs, and it was a struggle not to simply bow his head between his knees and
weep his way out of breath.

�� He glanced to the side, wondering
how Harry had taken it. Probably he would encounter a frown for not being
heroic in his honesty--

�� And instead, he found Harry�s eyes
shining like leaves with the sun behind them.

�� Draco�s breath caught and he smiled
back, even as he reflected, He admires
the oddest things.

*

�� Harry doubted that Ron or Hermione
would have found Draco�s explanation adequate. He was rather dreading the
moment he faced them and defended his decision to date Draco, in fact. But for
Draco to have explained so much without giving enough specifics that either of
them need feel embarrassed about it�

�� For him to have said that he felt vulnerable after he had sex with Harry,
an admission Harry had thought he would rather have died than make�

�� And for him to say these words to
Rita Skeeter, knowing she would doubtless twist them until they broke and then
print them in the Prophet for
everyone to see�

�� Well, Harry was more than content.

�� He drew Draco�s hand to his lips and
held it there a moment, letting his eyes say many things Skeeter would not be
able to interpret. Draco flushed richly. Harry smiled and turned back to
Skeeter, who, sure enough, was staring between them in confusion and
frustration. None of that kept her from orienting on him the moment he spoke
again. She was too much of a
celebrity-worshipper, not to realize when she was being manipulated by her own
fascination with someone famous.

�� I feel the same,� he said simply.
�Draco and I may not succeed as lovers, the same way that there was once doubt
I would destroy Voldemort.� He got two things at once by pronouncing the name:
the joy of seeing Skeeter flinch, and the assurance that she would probably
print his words exactly as he spoke them, because they were the kind of grand,
dramatic flourish she loved and thought he should always make. �But we are
going to try.� He leaned towards Skeeter, never varying his polite smile or his
tone as he did so. �And if you print imputations about us instead of listening
to our words on the matter, then I am
going to cut your fingers off and use them as toothpicks.�

�� Skeeter froze, her eyes wide, her
mouth slightly parted. Even her terror held
a kind of fascination, Harry thought, disgusted. She would let him get away
with things she would have snapped at Draco for, because fame made the
difference.

�� Somehow.

*

�� Draco had thought that the interview
was the hardest part, that after he talked to Skeeter he would begin to feel an
easing of the tight pressure around his lungs and the frozen air that had
gathered in his throat.

�� He had been wrong, because the
moment they stepped outside the Prophet�s
quarters, Harry�s friends accosted them.

�� Harry!� Weasley had managed to do
nothing about his freckles and his violently red hair in the interval since
Draco had last seen him. Not that he would have managed, probably, but it was
the spirit of trying that counted. He gave Draco a pointed look of distrust,
then focused on Harry. �The only thing Malfoy could tell me was that you left that house in this Malfoy�s company.� He shook his head, lips pursed. �Why would
you do that?�

�� I�d like to know that, too, Harry.�
Granger had her arms folded, and there was a delicate chill to her voice that
reminded Draco of the way his mother had sometimes sounded, when word came to
her that Draco hadn�t been as graceful or gracious or conscientious as she thought
proper for him. Her eyes never left Harry�s face.

�� Harry gave a single shiver beside
Draco. Draco doubted he would have felt it if he hadn�t been standing so close.
He grimaced in resignation, knowing what that
meant. Harry was afraid of his friends� opinions. He had said that he
wanted his affair with Draco to be in front of all the world, but surely he wouldn�t
mean in front of two people he loved who would violently disapprove.

�� Reluctantly, Draco started to step
away from his lover�s side.

�� His hand was caught and held, and
Harry spoke with a calm resonance that made Draco stare at him. �Ron, Hermione,
I appreciate all you�ve done for me. I love you very much. There�s no one I
trust as much as I trust you.�

�� Draco caught his breath in a jealous
hitch. He could ask many other things of Harry, including a second chance, but
he reckoned trust was a precious
commodity right now.

�� And I�ve said that first, so that
you would remember it and listen to me now,� Harry said in a lower voice. �My
decision to date Draco is none of your bloody business, either to interfere
with or to discourage me from. If you want to offer courtesy to Draco and
congratulations to me, of course I will be happy to accept it. Until you can, I
won�t listen to another word on the subject. Understood?�

�� And of course it was not, and of
course Granger and Weasley immediately began to protest, but none of that
changed the way that Draco felt about Harry just then.

�� He�s
protecting me. He�s insisting they grant me the treatment any other lover would
receive.

�� He�s
not going to hold a grudge.

�� Harry looked at him once, smiled,
and then faced the deluge of complaints from his friends. Draco barely stopped
himself from leaning against Harry�s side; he would have, if they weren�t in public
and he didn�t have his (tattered, tarnished) reputation to think of.

�� He
really does love me.

*

�� But mate, he betrayed you.�

�� And I forgave him,� Harry said. He
raised an eyebrow when Ron continued to stare at him. �Surely it�s the forgiveness
of the person affected by the betrayal who matters most, and not that person�s
best friend?�

�� Ron huffed unhappily and crossed his
arms. �I just don�t want to see you hurt,� he muttered. �And he did hurt you.�

�� And it�s up to me to say when his
atonement�s enough and I�m going to accept it,� Harry said. He intended to keep
the fragility of his relationship with Draco right now, and the fact that he
had demanded some proof of love and strength from him, from Ron and Hermione.
He wanted them to be together in the sight of the world, yes. But there was a
line between requiring Draco to prove that he was not ashamed of Harry and
embarrassing him to death. �And you hurt him by refusing to assign Aurors to
the Manor, Ron.�

�� He wouldn�t accept them��

�� You could have insisted,� Harry
said, moving slightly to the left to stomp on Draco�s foot; he had heard Draco
draw an indignant breath, no doubt ready to protest. �You�ve insisted with
other people before, because you cared more about their lives than about their
protests.�

�� The Aurors probably couldn�t have
stopped that imposter anyway��

�� I�m an Auror. I did.�

�� Ron tugged his arms tighter across
his chest, as if he were cold, and regarded Harry with a forlorn expression.
Harry looked back, composed and determined. It was a look he knew Ron would
recognize; Harry had given it to him before when he had done dangerous things
that only someone with his fame or his magical power could do, and Ron had had
to stay behind. It said he respected Ron, he loved Ron, but he wasn�t going to
let Ron�s opinions rule his life.

�� I�m sorry,� Harry said.

�� Then�� Ron�s face lit up like a
firework.

�� No,� Harry said firmly. �I�m sorry
for causing you distress, not for loving Draco.�

�� Ron muttered and kicked at the
ground in a way that would have been more convincing if there was slush or snow
there to kick. Harry had no doubts that he would come around in the end,
however. Ron�s temper burned bright and hot, but he held few grudges that
lasted long. And, yes, his family�s grudge against the Malfoys had been one of
those, but Ron had shown that he had more maturity and more thoughtfulness in
the past few days than Harry had ever given him credit for.

�� Yes,
he�ll come around.

�� Harry then turned to face his greatest
challenge. Hermione�s mouth was clamped shut, and white lines surrounded her
nostrils.

�� You can�t fool me, Harry,� she
said, and her voice was soft in a way she no doubt intended for him to
interpret as deadly. �I was in your head when you were orbiting him like a
comet. I know what you thought about
him.�

�� Thought,
good choice of word,� Harry said, and let his voice become light and
sarcastic. Ron blinked at him, probably surprised Harry had chosen to sound
like that. But it was the only way of dealing with Hermione, Harry thought. He
loved her dearly, but her biggest problem was that she didn�t admit her equals existed. Harry had to show her he
was as clever and careful as she was about his own life. �As in, the past
tense. Yes, you know what I thought about Draco. You don�t know how my mind has
changed now.�

�� Hermione shot a glance at Draco that
was so hostile Harry stepped in front of him. Draco promptly braced a hand in
the small of his back and shoved. Harry grunted as he staggered aside, and Draco
stepped up to stand shoulder to shoulder with him. He narrowed his eyes, and
Harry understood.

�� Protect
me, but don�t coddle me.

�� You know what he did to you,�
Hermione said, low and precise.

�� Rather better than you, I imagine,
since I lived through it,� Harry remarked, and rubbed the back of his neck,
where tension had cramped his muscles.

�� How can you forgive him, knowing
that?� Hermione was usually afraid to let her temper out of control, but it
shone in her eyes now. �What he did to you was insane. Unforgivable.
Malicious��

�� How could you forgive Ron for some
of the insults you flung at each other during your arguments?� Harry inquired.

�� Ron and I didn�t mean them.� Hermione tossed her head.
Her eyes held a different flash now: fear and loneliness. Harry hid his
compassion. Another two things to know about Hermione: she hated change, and it
was best not to show that her arguments affected you in any way or she�d try to
overwhelm you.

�� I don�t know about that,� Harry
said. �More than once he came to me and swore he was done with you. And then he
went back to you and you got on. Whether you forgave or forgot those insults,
you lived with them. I�ll live with what Draco did to me.�

�� You can�t accept it in the same
way!� For a moment, Harry thought Hermione would fold her arms and stomp her
foot on the floor the way she used to whenever Harry or Ron disobeyed some rule
in Hogwarts. �It�s not just an argument!�

�� No, it�s not,� Harry said. �And the
row that split you and Ron up not long before your marriage wasn�t, either.�

�� We settled that.� Hermione seemed
to sigh the words out. Her arms had dropped to her sides and stiffened, and her
eyes had taken on yet another sheen, this time of frustration. �It took hard
work and time, but we settled it.�

�� Then why can�t you accept that
it�ll take hard work and time with Draco, and I accept that?� Harry raised an
eyebrow. Hermione blinked, which made him wonder how much more pointed and
disdainful his gesture had become since he�d been around Draco.

�� Because�because Ron is
fundamentally a good person,� Hermione said, with the air of someone breaking
through a final deadlock, �and Malfoy isn�t.�

�� And at that point, Draco�s reserve,
which had been truly heroic so far, gave way.

*

�� I may not fit your definition of a
good person, Granger,� Draco said, and the words weren�t hard to speak when he
knew how much they would annoy her, �but I know what it is to love.�

�� Granger only stuck her lip out and
put her head back as if she didn�t believe him. Draco wondered idly how in the
world Harry put up with her. That expression made her look as if someone had
slapped her in the face with a sack of wet feces.

�� I love my father,� Draco said. �I
loved my mother, when she was alive. I love Severus, in his own way. And I love
Harry in my own way. Those are all
different from your great and pure and faultless love, of course.� He had seen
the way Harry looked when he was discussing the Granger-Weasley pair�s
arguments; someday he would have to get Harry to tell him the story of why they had fallen in love. �But
they�re mine, and they�re real, and I won�t stand by and hear you disparage
them.�

�� You hurt Harry.� Her voice was probably intended to make him quiver.
Draco snorted. His mother had done worse when she was half out of her wits with
fear.

�� That I did. And he chose to try to
get over it and give me a second chance. That�s his choice, not yours.�

�� Harry�� Granger spun towards him.

�� No,� Harry said. He laid a hand on
Draco�s arm and then leaned down as if he wanted to put his weight on it for
some reason. �I know you love me and don�t want me hurt. But I was, and there�s
nothing anyone can do to change that. What they can try to do is make sure the
rest of my life is as good and sweet as possible.� He smiled sidelong at Draco.
�Draco will do that by loving me and letting me love him and doing his best to
conquer his natural instincts.�

�� Draco felt a soft throb for a moment
in his chest, rather like the beginning of arousal in his groin. It is somewhat a comfort to have a lover who
knows me so well.

�� And you�ll do it by becoming
reconciled to Draco, or to deafening silence on the subject.� Harry sounded
smug, as if he knew Granger would consent to anything rather than silence.
�Now, excuse us, if you would. I need to get to the Auror Department and let
them know I�m still alive. I understand there�s been a bit of doubt on the
subject.�

�� One thing about Harry, Draco thought
as he hastened after his lover down the steps: objectionable friends or not,
fanaticism for martyrdom or not, he knew how to make an exit in grand style.

*

�� Cravedom: Thank you! And yes, I
understood what you wrote. I�m sorry to hear about your problems with your
sight, but glad that you liked the story enough to endure the reading of the
British robot. ;)

�� I never planned for Lucius to have
this big a part in the story originally. He was going to be a side-story to
Harry and Draco�s story of obsession. Instead, there are moments I find him
more sympathetic than either of them.

�� And the imposter�s story will be
tied up in the next few chapters.

�� Linagabriev: Narcissa�s entry was definitely
meant to come across as cold. The reason she died is deliberately petty (or, at
least, not as profound as it could be). She was so sure she was in control, and
she wasn�t. She couldn�t manipulate Bellatrix, whom she was sure it would be
simple to control.

�� In this chapter, I think Draco is
moving away from seeing it as a quid pro quo bargain. He is seeing Harry do
things without thought of immediate return, and doing them himself (though he
doesn�t notice this). And Harry is losing his suspicion as he realizes that
Draco will grumble and resist but ultimately go along with him.

�� And I�m so glad your perceptions
have changed; this is certainly one story that did that to me.

�� womo: Draco didn�t want to waste the
time to give something he hated a more dignified name. ;)

�� And thank you! The story is coming
to an end soon, so both the relationship and the imposter will tie up their
loose ends.
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The Same Species As Shakespeare