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Their Phoenix	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Threesomes/Moresomes Views: 68678 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 6
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; that belongs to J. K. Rowling. I am making no money from this fic.

Chapter List
- 1-Their Phoenix
- 2-Part 2
- 3-Part 3
- 4-Part 4
- 5-Part 5
- 6-Part 6
- 7-Part 7
- 8-Part 8
- 9-Part 9
- 10-Part 10
- 11-Part 11
- 12-Part 12
- 13-Part 13
- 14-Part 14
- 15-Part 15
- 16-Part 16
- 17-Part 17
- 18-Part 18
- 19-Part 19
- 20-Part 20
- 21-Part 21
- 22-Part 22
- 23-Part 23
- 24-Part 24
- 25-Part 25
- 26-Part 26
- 27-Part 27
- 28-Part 28
- 29-Part 29
- 30-Part 30
- 31-Part 31
- 32-Part 32
- 33-Part 33
- 34-Part 34
- 29
- 30
- 31
Thank you again for all the reviews!

�� Harry
smiled thinly as he reached up to take the message from the owl. The owl was
elegant, a cream-colored one with bright golden eyes, but so small and delicate
that he didn�t feel more than a quick throb of pain for Hedwig. Then he was
reading the letter, and nodding and smiling as he did so. It was all so exactly
as he expected.

�� Dear Harry:

�� I know that you might not believe me, but a
most urgent consideration has arisen in connection with Estella Colben. I need
to speak with you as soon as possible. Make sure that you do not see Colben
alone in this time. You may set the date and the place, but let it not be
further off than a week in advance of today.

�� Brynhildr Swanfair

�� Harry
sucked the back of his teeth for a moment and wondered if it could be true.

�� Then he
shrugged. Even if it was, he couldn�t trust Swanfair to tell the truth
regarding the weather yesterday. And he wasn�t about to back out of supporting
Colben when she seemed to be the only honest politician he was ever likely to
meet.

�� Severus? he asked, reaching out and
sweeping his mind delicately over Severus�s. Draco wasn�t likely to wake up
until later, but Severus often used the early morning to brood over new potions
and spells and consider the possibilities for making them real.

�� What are you doing out of bed so early? Severus
thought back at him, petulance etching the words in the bond like acid. You left us cold.

�� I wanted to get some early morning exercise.
Ledbetter said this was the best time of day for it, and he was right. Harry
glanced around the garden in affection. He could hear the murmuring, sleepy
chirps of birds, and even though a storm was coming, from the clouds that piled
around the horizon, it wasn�t here yet. Harry had cleared a space among the
Potions ingredients so that he could cast spells without damaging the plants. You ought to come out here.

�� I prefer not to leave the warmth and comfort
of my young lovers before I have to.

�� Harry
laughed. He knew that Severus was giving him a great gift, though it might not
seem like it, in exposing a side of himself so childish and vulnerable. It meant
that he trusted Harry not to judge him harshly. Well, one�s left you. And Swanfair�s sent me a letter hinting darkly
that she needs to see me about Colben. Very non-specific, of course. It
includes a warning not to tell Colben. Harry crumpled the letter up into a
ball and tossed it into the air, then caught it again on the way back down. He
contemplated setting fire to it, but Severus would probably want to see it.

�� Yes, retain it. Severus sounded a bit
more alert, if unwillingly so. I will
read it later. For the moment, I will rest. Harry felt him retreat from the
bond, so that Harry was hearing only a murmured echo of his emotions, like the
roll of waves on a distant shore.

�� Harry
smiled and began to practice with some of the countercurses that Ledbetter had
been showing them lately, complicated versions of the Shield Charm that were
intended to protect against specific classes of magic rather than all sorts of
spells. Draco had protested that a defense like that seemed useless compared
with the Shield Charm. Ledbetter had given him the sort of patient glance that
braced Harry; it meant the question was about to get an answer that Ledbetter
thought they should have seen for themselves long since.

�� And when
you meet a spell that goes through the Shield Charm like a hot knife through
paper,� Ledbetter asked, �will you still insist on the effectiveness of that
one spell, I wonder?�

�� Draco had
blinked and taken a step back as though he thought Ledbetter intended to use
such a curse on him right then. Harry had snickered. Draco glared at him and
tossed a wordless scolding his way before he nodded to Ledbetter. �Show us,
then.�

�� Harry
practiced now, mouthing the incantations as he twisted his wand through the
motions that Ledbetter had demonstrated. Matching the speed of his hand and his
mouth was the hardest thing. Ledbetter had warned them that finishing one aspect
of the spell before another could cause things to go horribly wrong.

�� He smiled.
He would be able to show Ron something new the next time they met. Ron had said
that they were starting to practice spells like this in their Auror trainee
lessons, but they hadn�t got there yet.

�� Suddenly,
Harry paused and blinked, as a new thought overcame him.

�� I�m getting a better sort of instruction
than an Auror trainee would have, and more specific to what I like best,
Defense Against the Dark Arts. But I don�t think I want to be an Auror even if
Colben lets me come back to the training. So what am I going to do with all
this magic I�m learning?

�� Harry
nibbled his lip. His immediate impulse was to say that he would go out and hunt
down the Death Eaters, but he didn�t think there were all that many of them
left to hunt, and Severus and Draco would have a fit if he ventured into danger
like that. In fact, being an Auror probably wouldn�t have worked out, either,
since he would constantly risk his life and stand the chance of killing them
right along with him.

�� What kind
of career would use Defense but be safe? Harry had to admit that he couldn�t
think of any. The wizards in the Ministry who stayed behind their desks didn�t
need to know all the complicated things he was learning, and a desk job would
bore Harry to death anyway.

�� Then he
smiled a bit, as other memories of his schooldays�memories that had nothing to
do with fighting Voldemort�came back to him.

�� I could be a teacher, maybe. Not at
Hogwarts. I don�t think I could stand to go back there so soon after
everything, and it would feel like retiring before I lived my life. But I could
teach people who wanted to learn Defense Against the Dark Arts.

�� If Draco ever manages to combine Potions and
Defense, then I could help.

�� A vague
picture grew up in his mind�vague, but it was one that pleased him more than
the thought of himself as an Auror. He and Draco and Severus would have a
business of sorts, some small business that would allow them to spend lots of
time together and work out of the house. Harry was no fool; he knew they would
have to live behind powerful wards for years, even if Colben won the election.
He would provide the basics of Defense, and Severus would provide the basics of
Potions, and Draco would combine them. All of them would be necessary. All of
them would be busy, and contented.

�� And Draco will be the center of attention,
just as he should be.

�� Harry
blinked. That didn�t sound like his own thought.

�� Golden
laughter showered through his head. It�s
not, Draco said, obviously fully awake now. Not that you do badly when left to your own thoughts. I can like and
admire the visions you come up with. But do remember that you should always pay
attention to me. I�m worth it.

�� Harry
snorted back at him and started to reply, but his hand and mouth had gone on
practicing without his permission, and he finished the gesture before the
incantation. At once black ropes shot out of the air, coiled around and around
each other in search of a proper shield to form, and then knotted themselves
together in the middle�where Harry happened to be standing.

�� Most instructive, Draco murmured as
Harry swore and struggled in the middle of his ropes. I�ll remember that Ledbetter usually has a point when he talks about performing
the spells exactly as he teaches them to us.

*

�� Draco kept
his head lifted and a contemptuous sneer tilting up the sides of his mouth as
they walked into the back room of the small restaurant where they had agreed to
greet Swanfair. Harry had assigned him to play the part of unimpressed
pure-blood, so that Swanfair would soon stop checking his face for reactions
and appeal to Harry and Severus instead.�
That would give Draco more time to observe her without being observed.

�� It wasn�t
hard to look scornful when he saw the state of the restaurant�s much-vaunted
�private� room. The walls were thin screens of silk and other materials that
Draco knew from experience were poor imitations of the decorations some members
of his mother�s generation used in their homes. The painting on the wall
depicted a woman changing into a blue heron, and would have been handsome
except for the way her distorted features made her eyes seem to stare directly
at you. The tables of red wood gleamed from a distance, but had scars and
scratches on them close up. This was a place of petty corruption, and Draco
didn�t have to be pleased by it.

�� Swanfair
waited for them at the largest table in the room, set back against the one wall
that looked solid. She had a grey cloak on with a hood flung back that was
probably meant to make her hair shine more like silver and her face look more
impressive. She started when she saw Severus and Draco, then controlled the
flinch and rose to her feet with an inclination of her head. Her smile, like
the tables, would have convinced someone watching the interaction from a
distance as she murmured to Harry, �I invited you alone.�

�� You must
know that bondmates cannot be so easily separated,� Harry said, with an easy
smile that paid compliments to Swanfair�s sense of what was proper. �And you
said nothing in your letter about wanting to see me alone.�

�� The
salutation�� Then Swanfair visibly decided that she wasn�t here to correct
Harry�s manners, and bit back the other words that would have risen. She shook
her head in irritation and faced Draco with a faint, forced bow. �Welcome, Mr.
Malfoy. Welcome, Mr. Snape.�

�� Draco
thought idly as he nodded back and slid into his seat how odd it was to hear
someone call Severus by that title. When he had been at Hogwarts, he was always
a Professor, and now, Draco didn�t imagine that he could ever call Severus by
anything other than his first name.

�� If I wish you to call me something else,
then you will, Severus�s voice said in his mind, heavy with promise, dark
as squid ink. He took his own seat and nodded to Swanfair, folding his hands in
front of himself on the table. He had agreed, like Draco, to leave the main
burden of the confrontation up to Harry, but his role was different. He would
do his best to probe gently into Swanfair�s mind when she looked at him and
find out why she really wanted to meet. �We are happy to greet you in return,
Mrs. Swanfair, and hope that you will forgive our presence.�

�� That
produced a slight thaw in Swanfair�s smile, and she inclined her head at
Severus. Then she turned and studied Harry as if she wanted to find a weakness
or a flaw in him that wasn�t readily apparent.

�� Look as hard as you like, Draco thought
in some pride, following her gaze to Harry. You
won�t often find one.

�� And the ones she could find, you�re
protecting me against, Harry finished, doing that trick he did so often and
following up a random thought with a compliment. At the same time, he smiled
confidently at Swanfair, and he might have been a statue of a hero for all the
human frailty his face showed. His lips were bright red and inflexible; his
dark hair was wild and too tangled to make someone think they could pat his
head. His eyes were calm and polite and attentive, but they promised nothing.

�� Stop looking at me that way, or I�m going to
get hard.

�� Draco had to
fight to keep from grinning. He thought of replying that that was a reason for
him to stare all the more, but Severus was just starting to turn his head to
look at Draco in disapproval. That wasn�t the plan. Severus was supposed to
keep his attention on Swanfair, and Draco was supposed to look perfectly calm
and composed under this wretched mask. With a little sigh, he refocused his
gaze on Swanfair and let his sneer take over again.

�� This is a
very important meeting,� Swanfair said, spreading her fingers across the table
and giving Harry an earnest look. Draco had to admit that she was good. Two
months ago, he would have been anxious about leaving Harry alone with her. There
was a chance that she could persuade him. Now, it was useless. Harry was most
persuaded by a round of good sex, and he already had his favored partners.

�� Will you stop having thoughts like that? Harry
snapped at him, and then began speaking to Swanfair before Draco could retort
with proper indignation that Harry shouldn�t be listening to his thoughts. �Why is it an important meeting? I�m
afraid that I still don�t understand what Colben is supposed to have done to
make you stop supporting her, or what I�m supposed to have done that makes me
dangerous to her.�

�� You should be thinking about us being dangerous to her, Draco remind
him.

�� But she has a tendency to forget that we�re
three, not one. Only the slight tick of a muscle in Harry�s cheek showed
that Draco�s interruption had irritated him. I want to encourage that tendency. Now leave me alone and let me do
this.

�� Today, we
decide the course of Britain�s immediate political future.� Swanfair lifted her
head when she had said that and poised like a heroine in a tragic play. Draco
eyed her with interest. She was acting her part so well that it was hard to
tell it was a part. �Colben is more unsteady than I had thought her, less suited
to take up the Minister�s office. We may have to change candidates.�

�� What has
she done?� Harry was making a good impression of surprise, with his wide eyes
and lowered, grave voice. �Changing candidates at this point in the race is
rarely a good idea. It would have to be something momentous.�

�� You know,
of course,� said Swanfair, her fingers playing about each other, �that a
politician must have a certain mastery of deception to be good at this game. I
have seen you play with more subtlety than I would have credited you with, and
so that knowledge must be among your accomplishments.� She directed an oblique
look at Harry.

�� Yes, of
course,� Harry said, and his smile was guileless. That almost prepared Draco for what Harry said next. �We have to hope
that the next Minister won�t go as far as Shacklebolt did and lie about what
he�s supposed to be doing, but it might happen.�

�� Draco
clamped his lips together to hold back a snort. Severus gave a thin smile and
picked up the nearest of the glasses of water that the server had already
brought to the table, sipping it carefully.

�� Swanfair
looked at them both with the same sort of tolerant patience that Draco�s mother
would have given to people who insisted on being drunk at a formal party, and
then turned around again and paid attention to Harry alone. �Shacklebolt�s mind
is diseased,� she said, with a grave shake of her head. �He can no longer tell
the difference between truth and lies, when one would be useful or when the
other would.� She paused impressively. �I am beginning to think that Colben�s
mind is diseased in the opposite direction.�

�� She knows
too much about the difference between truth and lies?� Harry picked up a piece
of cheese from the plate of slices in front of him. Draco sent him a pointed
mental warning, but Harry sighed back to let Draco know that he understood and
simply played with the cheese, giving Swanfair a confused frown all the while.
�I don�t see how that could be a bad thing. Unless we have to worry about the
clear sight itself driving her mad.�

�� Use some
of that subtlety that I know you have,� Swanfair said with a sudden and
shocking change of tone, leaning forwards and glaring at Harry as if he had
tried to irritate her on purpose. �She is mad now, as far as politics are concerned. She reveals too much. She
speaks her true intentions and makes promises that she intends to fulfill. She does not have that reserve that is natural
and necessary for a Ministerial candidate. Of course we have to replace her
with someone else, someone who will understand her responsibilities better.�

�� Harry
leaned back in his seat. His face had gone still and blank, and Draco might
have been fooled into thinking he felt neutrally about this if he didn�t have
access to the bond. The bond was brilliant orange and filled with small, madly
hopping shapes.

�� Does she really think she can persuade me of
this? Harry appealed to both Draco and Severus at once, his voice thick
with anger. Or is she playing at
something else, hiding a second game under this one?

�� Draco
looked hard at Swanfair before he answered. He wouldn�t want to give answers
his life might depend on, but Swanfair�s eyes had the same hard glitter as the
jewels she wore. It also hadn�t escaped his notice that the room was
well-warded. No word they spoke here would emerge to touch the ears of anyone
outside.

�� I think she�s as sincere as she can be, he
said at last. She probably hates
petitioning you like this, because she has to suspect that you like Colben�s
honesty. But you�re her most powerful supporter. There are a lot of people who
will vote for Colben just because you approve of her. If Swanfair takes out
everyone else and not you, it doesn�t make much difference in the end.

�� I agree, Severus added. She has been driven into a corner, or she
would have chosen some other way. She does not know what will compel you to
turn around and agree with her about Colben, so she chooses this tactic.

�� Harry
nodded and turned back to face Swanfair. It occurred to Draco that he hadn�t
once questioned their opinions or refused to listen to them simply because they
were �Slytherin� opinions, depending on something else other than optimism.
Draco grinned. He wondered how he could make sure that Weasley realized Harry�s
deep trust in him.

�� Severus
pinched his arm under the table.

�� I can see
some of the problem that you have with this,� Harry told Swanfair. �But I would
still rather an honest politician than one, like Kingsley, who gets tangled and
ensnared in secrets and lies to the point that he can�t even act.�

�� You fool.�
Swanfair�s fingers would have made impressions on the nice wood table if her
nails were a very little sharper, Draco decided. She leaned forwards as if she
thought that looming over Harry would make him change his mind. Draco snorted
inwardly. Of course that wouldn�t work. Harry had grown somewhat, but he was
still so short that he had to get used to people taller than he was.

�� Harry
pinched him this time, but down the bond, so Draco didn�t have to work as hard
on controlling the flinch.

�� I don�t
see why.� Harry sipped at his own water, his eyes wide and bright and alert.
�Colben has her faults. I have no illusions that she�ll be the perfect Minister
or easy to control. But I don�t want to
control her. I want someone I can work with, instead, someone who has her own
strength for those moments when mine might falter.�

�� Swanfair
closed her eyes and shook her head, pressing her fingertips against her temple
this time, as if she thought that her head would hurt less if she could break
through the skin.

�� I did not
mean Colben to be a simple figurehead,� she said. �But we must have control of
her, and we cannot if you insist on supporting her in her transparency.�

�� Explain to
me why.� Harry�s voice had cooled and settled into the sort of shape that would
have warned Swanfair of danger if she had been more familiar with him. Draco
gave her a sneering half-smile. She was not the best political player after
all�or rather, she was like his mother, and her initial impressions controlled
what she saw and experienced after that, sometimes to a horrifying extent.

�� Surely you
must see why we cannot maintain control of her if you support her in this
fashion.� Swanfair brushed her hair out of her face and gave Harry a hard look.
Draco widened his sneer, only to see Swanfair ignore him. She had decided to
focus on Harry so much that she had blinded herself to changes in the people
she depended on for support. Draco had to restrain himself from pounding his
head on the table at such blindness.

�� I was
asking a different question,� Harry said. �Why must we maintain control of her?
You were careful to present her to me as a partner, and I�ve accepted her in
that spirit. Why can�t we live with what she�s really like, instead of what you
wanted her to be?�

�� Swanfair
turned pale. For long moments, she remained so still that Draco hoped this was
the moment that Severus could slip past her barriers and manage to use
Legilimency on her despite her defenses.

�� Not yet, Severus told him regretfully. I must do it undetected, or it will be worse
than useless.

�� Before Draco
could answer, Swanfair rose to her feet. Her voice was smooth, and cold, and
might have had the power to make Draco tremble a year and a half ago, before he
had acquired his bondmates and some sense of his own power.

�� So be it.
It seems that our political goals part ways here.� She paused, and Draco
thought she had intended to walk away from the table in dignified silence. But
the words burst out of her despite herself. �You promised me power. Where did
you think it would come from, since
you wouldn�t allow me to control you?�

�� I thought
it would come from having a position in the Ministry.� Harry was giving her a
level look that Draco decided he must have practiced in the mirror when neither
Draco nor Severus was looking. It was so good that even Narcissa might have
applauded. �From being a close adviser to Colben. From taking one of the
foreign positions she seems so interested in rewarding her pure-blood
supporters with. From many different things.�

�� Power over
the powerful is the only safe choice in any time and place,� Swanfair said, her
eyes bright. Draco could have reached out and cut himself on her words. �You
are out of the question, for reasons I understand. Colben is not, but she is
not what I thought her, either. Stronger in her honesty, and in her
personality. And she does not understand gratitude in the way that almost any
pure-blood child would.�

�� Harry
laughed, ignoring the way that Swanfair�s hands clenched when he did. �I can�t
imagine that most pure-blood children would rejoice if you were given power
over them, either.�

�� Achieving
the power of a Minister should be enough for anyone,� Swanfair answered back,
swift as a viper striking. �No one should ask for more than that. That she has
the arrogance to think she should be Minister in her own way, when she would
not have risen this far without us��

�� Harry�s
response to that blew up like a firework in Draco�s mind, but remarkably, when
he spoke, his voice was calm. �Well, it hasn�t been enough for her. And I would
rather trust someone who can act on her own than a figurehead.�

�� Swanfair
gave a calm, chilling smile, her first gesture that had impressed Draco in the
entirety of the conversation. �Oh, but you will be trusting a figurehead,� she
breathed. �Because she will be my figurehead, if not yours.�

�� She turned
and left the restaurant.

�� Harry
waited for a few minutes until he was sure that Swanfair wasn�t coming back,
then called the server over and ordered salads and bread and fresh fruit.
Meanwhile, the bond between him and Draco filled with stinging coolness like
seafoam. Well? What do you think we have
to worry about next when it comes to Swanfair?

�� The most likely choice is that she will try
to compel Colben to do her bidding, Severus answered. He was frowning at
the table. Draco knew he was disappointed that he�d never had the chance to try
Legilimency on Swanfair, and sent him a wave of reassurance. Severus smiled
back, but the trouble still burned in the back of his eyes like a stubborn
ember. Mere persuasion is unlikely to
work. But we have no notion whether Colben is resistant to the Imperius Curse
or to the tricks with gems that we know Swanfair can perform.

�� Then we must warn her. Harry gave the
server who brought them their food a charming smile. �Could you bring me ink
and parchment and a quill?� he asked. �And do you have an owl I could use?�

�� The server
stammered, her dark eyes going wide, fastened to Harry�s forehead as if a scar
was still there. In the end, she nodded and scampered away. Harry rolled his
eyes and bit hard into his salad as Draco and Severus chuckled at him.

�� I hope the
warning is in time,� he muttered aloud.

�� If it is
not,� Severus said, plucking a twist of bread from the loaf in the center of
the table, �then we will free Colben. That is all.�

�� Draco
closed his eyes. For long moments, he couldn�t name a source for the flood of
sweetness breaking over him.

�� Then he
realized what it was. Once, Severus would have spoken those words grimly,
absorbed in the weight of the task before him, only one more unwanted thing to
do in a lifetime of them. Now he spoke lightly, and was thinking about
something else in the next moment, though Draco could not grasp the substance
of his thoughts.

�� Harry put
it into words for him. �You feel that you can enjoy your life more now,� he
said, and Draco opened his eyes to see that he was regarding Severus with a
bright smile and softened features.

�� Severus
paused and glanced sharply at them both; he seemed to feel that they might be
mocking him. Then he relaxed and put one hand on Draco�s neck, while brushing
his opposite shoulder against Harry. �Yes,� he said. �Now that I have people
about me who will make the experience worth living.� He popped the bread into
his mouth and chewed it defiantly, half-closing his eyes as if that increased
the intensity of the taste.

�� Harry met
Draco�s eyes, and Draco caught the edge of his thought, turned sideways and
made dim to keep it from Severus. He
deserves everything that he has and more.

�� I wouldn�t disagree with you, Draco
responded, also carefully, wondering what Harry was getting at.

�� So. Harry fell silent for a moment, while
the bond opened out and then contracted and turned yellow the way it did when
Harry was feeling a tangle of complex emotions. I think we should give him something else to help make his life worth
living. Focus on him in bed the way that you focused on me and we focused on
you.

�� Draco gave
him a slow smile, and made his thoughts even more of a whisper in his head. He
would enjoy that, not only for the pleasure that he knew it would give them
all, but for the fact that Severus would struggle to hide his delight and
surprise. When do you want to do it?
Soon, or not?

�� Harry
closed his eyes, and Draco felt a flash of fear that told him what Harry was
contemplating for his gift to Severus. Then he answered, Let�s settle this situation with Colben first, and decide whether we�ll
need to fight Swanfair. That ought to be soon enough.

�� Draco
nodded. He could wait, especially because he didn�t think their days in between
then and now would be exactly devoid<?i>
of pleasure. Besides, this would add a keen anticipation to what would
happen when they foiled Swanfair.

�� You are
also enjoying your lives, I hope.�

�� Draco
blinked and glanced up. Severus was watching them with flared nostrils and
slightly lowered eyelids, while the bond between them was murky with
uncertainty. He knew they had been talking privately, but not what they�d said,
Draco thought. His prickliness was still there, if hidden beneath the surface
most of the time now. Perhaps he�d decided they�d been exchanging complaints.

�� Very much
so,� Harry said, taking the lead in the way that baffled Draco to do just then.
He stretched up and kissed Severus with single-minded intensity. Severus
returned the kiss, his hands rising to hold Harry in place. Draco leaned
against Severus�s back and kissed the nape of his neck.

�� A muffled
squeak interrupted them. Draco glanced up. The server had come back with a coil
of parchment and an inkwell in one hand, and an owl riding her wrist. The bird
looked as ruffled as she did.

�� Harry
laughed and reached out a hand to take the things she�d brought, not seeming to
notice his own flushed face or the way that Severus�s arm curled possessively around
his neck. �Thank you,� he said.

�� The server
bowed and nodded and started to run away, remembered the owl, turned back, put
the owl on the back of Severus�s seat, and hurried off.

�� It�s not that funny,� Harry said as Draco snorted
and Severus bowed his head with the smile twitching wildly at the corners of
his lips, but he was biting his lip on chuckles.

*

�� Severus
knew Harry and Draco were planning something, something in which he was not
included.

�� However, as
he also suspected that he knew what it was, he did not concern himself about it
so much as what they should do about Swanfair and Colben.

�� Their
letter to Colben had produced no response. Perhaps she was already under
Swanfair�s control, and had ripped up the letter on her command, Severus
thought. Or perhaps Swanfair had simply intercepted it.

�� Still, it
had been only two days. He would try to avoid troubling himself with fruitless
speculations until he had some proof as to one of them.

�� He had made
sure that Harry warned Granger and the Weasleys about the break with Swanfair.
There was no telling who else she might lash out at if she was as disappointed
as Severus thought she was.

�� He stepped
back from the cauldron in front of him and surveyed the smoke rising from it
critically. Then he nodded. The green smoke had a bluish tinge to it, the way
it should, since this was an experimental potion. He reached for the next
ingredient, the vial of hen�s toenails, never taking his eyes from the smoke.
If it bent towards him and managed to fill his lungs, then he was in serious
trouble.

�� Do you need one of us there? Draco
demanded abruptly in his head. He had picked up Severus�s thoughts from a
greater distance than he ever had before, since he and Harry were currently at
the Burrow exploring how the Weasleys reacted to one of Harry�s bondmates. It sounds like it.

�� Do you require my participation when you are
conducting your own experiments? Severus narrowed his eyes in satisfaction
when Draco made an annoyed grumbling sound.

�� Just be careful.

�� Draco
retreated from the sudden close communion. Severus took a moment to check on
the bond, and as far as he could feel their emotions from this distance, both
Harry and Draco seemed well. He scattered the hen�s toenails into the potion
and watched as the green smoke changed again, this time to a vivid red.

�� Good. If Severus was right, this would
be a potion that combined the properties of Veritaserum, a Calming Draught, and
a Dreamless Sleep Potion. The victim would go to sleep after ingesting the
potion and babbling true answers to whatever questions were asked, and wake
remembering nothing more than a sudden tiredness.

�� Severus
could think of certain political opponents of theirs who required this potion.

�� Someone
appeared at the edge of their wards and disrupted his concentration. Severus
clenched his fingers on the table against the immediate temptation to turn his
head away. That would be stupid with the potion in such a volatile state.

�� Instead, he
moved without haste through the next three steps, which required the addition
of rose petals, flakes of gold, and three widdershins stirs. Then he cast a
Stasis Charm on the entire lab�one could not be too careful with
experiments�and walked out of the lab, sealing the door behind him with another
charm. Many of those same enemies the potion was intended for would also find
it useful. Severus did not wish to put it in their hands because of misplaced
overconfidence.

�� Severus? This time it was Harry who had
picked up on his distress from miles away. Do
you need us to come home?

�� I do not even know who the visitor is yet, Severus
snapped, sure that his anxiety would be sensed and forgiven. He cast the spell
that would allow him to see over the garden, and then blinked. It is Colben.

�� We should be there, Draco insisted, the
bond from his side alive with sunbursts.

�� No. It is also important that you maintain
good relations with the Weasleys, Severus answered. I handled Colben by myself once before. I will do so again. He
refused to listen to his bondmates� buzzing as he reached out and opened the
wards to Colben. He truly did not fear her. If she were under Swanfair�s
control, then he should be able to sense that at once and defeat her the more
easily, because he would use spells that he would hesitate to use if she were
in her right mind.

�� Colben
walked into the garden the moment the wards fell. Severus watched her
carefully, but could see no shuffling in her gait or vagueness in her gaze,
such as often afflicted people who were under the Imperius Curse or some
variant of that spell cast through jewels.

�� Then again, he reminded himself, as he
lifted the final defenses and spun a net of wards around her at the same time
so she could get through the door, I have
not always recognized such indications. To my cost. He winced as a faint
throb of pain went through an old scar on his right hip.

�� You never told us about that, Harry said
at once. What�s the story? Do you need
help? Are you sure you don�t need help? he amended the last question as
Severus growled in irritation.

�� Yes, I am. Pay attention to your
conversation with the Weasleys. Would you like them to think that you do not
like their company and are always thinking of the bondmate you left behind? Severus
stretched his lips into a smile to welcome Colben. No, there was no glaze in
her eyes; in fact, her gaze was almost offensively direct and sharp.

�� You were welcome to come with us.

�� And then no one would have been at home to
greet Colben when she came calling. Yes, Harry, that is a magnificent solution.

�� Harry
lapsed into sulky silence, and at last, Severus was able to give his full
attention to Colben. �Yes?� he asked.

�� Swanfair
has broken with you,� Colben said. �Her first action was to come to me and tell
me that you had turned against me.�

�� Severus
made sure that his fingers were lightly clenched around the end of his wand,
ready to draw it and use it if necessary. �That is not the case,� he said. �But
if you believe it, of course you must act on the belief.�

�� Colben stared
at him with darkened eyes for a long moment before replying. Severus wondered
idly if she had expected a confession of guilt. Yes, Colben was honest, but she
must know that her deficiency did not take up every mind around her.

�� I do not
believe it,� Colben said.

�� Severus
inclined his head. �Will it please you to come in and talk about it? Harry and
Draco are not here at the moment, but that need not trouble you. They are with
me in spirit, and I may speak for all of us.�

�� A chair
would be pleasant,� Colben said, following him. �I was on my feet most of the
night, debating about who to believe and what I should do. I cannot afford to
lose Harry�s support, and he has been more honest with me. But I also cannot
afford to lose Swanfair, who is my line to the pure-bloods.�

�� What�s the use of coming to us without
Swanfair, then? Draco muttered in a dissatisfied way in the back of
Severus�s mind.

�� But Draco
was not here in the flesh, and could not see Colben�s face. When she spoke the
last words, she had looked up and into Severus�s eyes. He knew what she wanted.
She would prefer to leave Swanfair behind and go ahead with their support, as
long as there was a way that she could keep the pure-bloods with her.

�� You do
know,� Severus said neutrally, �that the Malfoy name is powerful.�

�� Once
powerful,� Colben said, taking the chair he motioned her to. She arranged her
robes around her as if they were skirts, a nervous gesture that Severus had not
seen her make before. �Are they the same now, with the head of their line in
prison and his wife receiving very few visitors?�

�� And their
son bonded to Harry Potter,� Severus said.

�� Colben
paused, her eyebrows rising slowly until they touched the edge of her fringe.
Then she gave a small smile. �You interest me,� she said. �Go on.�

�� The
pure-bloods have not approached us before they thought that Harry�s distaste
for those of their numbers who were Death Eaters would overcome any influence Draco
could have over him,� Severus said. He knew that was the truth, even though he
had never given it much thought before. There was no reason for the people who
had long known Draco�s family not to try and court them otherwise. �And, of
course, they had Swanfair. But if we make the news of the breach between you
and Swanfair public��

�� If there
is a breach between me and Swanfair.�

�� Severus
laughed softly. �You are not stupid. You know that Harry is more congenial to
you, more like you, than Swanfair
could ever be.�

�� That is
not always enough to guarantee political compatibility.� Colben gave a slight
shrug. �Swanfair was honest enough with me at the beginning, too, about what
she wanted from me and what she was capable of giving in return. There is no
saying that Mr. Potter will not turn out the same way, just as we cannot say if
the pure-bloods would rally to a Malfoy as their name stands at this stage of
the world�s affairs.�

�� Without
Swanfair,� Severus said, �the pure-bloods would have no choice but to turn to
us, because otherwise you might cast them off as you cast her off. And they would be well-pleased enough to deal with a
pure-blood and with someone who was a notorious Death Eater and therefore, they
will think, must have believed in blood purity. They will be even more pleased
to have a direct line to Harry Potter. There is nothing that we cannot give
them that Swanfair could. We only have to make it known that we have so many
things on offer.�

�� Colben
smiled, a smile that seemed to come from a long way off, like a gleam of light
underwater. �Yes,� she said. �That might make it work. Of course, if Swanfair
attempts something in return, the way she did with a ruby this morning, then
she could lure the pure-bloods back to her side.�

�� We must
make the offer so tempting that that will not happen.�

�� Severus
felt a rush of pleasure as he spoke. It was twofold. Conversing with someone
intelligent like this, making deals that everyone understood, was one of its
sources, but the rest came from the soft beams of light that he could feel
falling on him from his bondmates.

�� Very
well,� Colben said. �We will include political access to the Chosen One
and�perhaps some potions that you could brew? That will do for an initial
offer, combined with what I intend to offer them if they stay loyal to me
instead of Swanfair.� She rose to her feet.

�� Severus
stood, astonished that she had gone along with this so quickly. Of course,
Harry�s politics would be more to her taste, but taste seemed to rule over her
instead of practicality. He hoped that meant they could still trust her.

�� I will
agree to brew the potions,� he said. �But can you handle making the offer and
hearing the words of those who might prefer to remain with Swanfair?�

�� For a
moment, Colben�s eyes turned hard and cold. Then she was smiling gently again.

�� Ah,� she
said. �I understand. You are like the others who think that I am fragile
because I am open and honest.� She shook her head slightly. �I am as hard as
steel could wish to be, Mr. Snape. Watch me after this and see if you do not
agree.�

�� And she whirled
out the door, which left Severus to blink after her.

�� She�s right, you know, Harry said in his
head, in intense amusement. You do have a
bad habit of assuming that someone is fragile because of being open.

�� You handled it well, Draco said at the
same time.

�� Severus
snorted at both of them and turned back to his lab. At least his potions
wouldn�t pull any baffling surprises on him.

�� At least,
he thought so until he opened the lab door and discovered the deep deposit of
emerald-green tar covering everything because the Stasis Charm had reacted with
the sealing charm on the door.

*

�� jennifer:
Thank you!

�� Alliandre:
Thank you!

�� I don�t
know if the competitive edge will ever disappear entirely. Their history has
shaped them as well as their present, and though they�re comfortable with each
other, it�s not always the melting-without-boundaries kind of comfort.

�� Dragon:
Glad you liked it.

�� starstuck86:
Thank you! Harry and Draco have that on their agenda.

�� Mia: I don�t
think I can ever know exactly what it feels like for a gay man, but then, I�m
trying to make it sympathetic and understandable to an audience of (mostly)
female readers. I�m glad it felt realistic for you.

�� Snivelly:
Thank you! Draco is probably all the more embarrassed because he was keeping
their relationship from Narcissa at first (at least in the sexual aspect).

�� SDrarrysLover:
Thank you! I don�t know about reading fic as I have very little time for that
anymore.

�� k lave
demo: Thank you! There will be a few problems. Harry is afraid of hurting his
bondmates, but also of too deep an intimacy�though as he progresses into the
bond, he can tolerate and enjoy things he never thought possible before.

�� Tiffani:
Thank you.

�� EarlyDawn:
Thank you! I do hope you eventually got some sleep, but it�s one of the best
compliments to know that people stay up for my stories.

�� romanticfae:
Thank you!

�� yaoiObsessed:
Thanks!

�� Blood on
the Water: Thank you! I know nothing like this would ever happen in canon, but
I enjoy setting up a situation, no matter how weird, and trying to work out
what would happen from there rigorously, rather than �cheating.

�� Terri:
Thank you! There are times I don�t feel in the mood for writing sex scenes, and
they�re likely to come out mechanical or un-passionate. I think the trick is to
wait until you�re in the right mood (which can happen if you know a sex scene
is coming up).

�� Lydia
Monroe: Let�s say that it�s not out of the question.
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