Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Inter Vivos	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 42948 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, and I am making no money from this writing.

Chapter List
- 30
- 31
- 32
Thank
you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Twenty-Nine�Cup

�� The owl that tore through the window
ruffled every piece of hair on Harry�s head and scratched his hand before it
landed in the middle of the table, hooting frantically. Harry snatched the envelope
away before he considered that maybe it was just a hysterical bird, and a
hysterical bird could have nothing to do with the letter�s contents.

�� But he tore the letter open anyway
as he tossed the owl a piece of bacon from one of the few places on his
breakfast plate not covered with feathers.

�� Ron�s handwriting.

�� Mate,
we�re leaving Hogwarts. Finnigan showed up here last night and tried to kill
us. Either the wards on Gryffindor Tower are too weak to for us to be safe,
even if they�ve been strengthened now, or Finnigan knows a way around them from
having You-Know-Who in his head�that�s what Hermione thinks�or there�s someone
inside helping him. We want to meet you, but we don�t know if we can get into
the house. Reply by means of this owl. He knows it�s urgent.

�� Harry sat straight up, feeling as if
he�d swallowed cinders rather than toast. For a long moment, his mind kept
creating scenarios of Seamus trying to kill Ron and Hermione with Dark magic,
each worse than the last, but in the end he shook his head furiously. If either
of them was really injured, he was sure Ron would have said something about it
in the letter, because that would affect how fast they could get out of
Hogwarts.

�� Harry? What�s wrong?� Draco�s hand
landed on his arm and gave it a comforting stroke.

�� Ron and Hermione were nearly
victims of Seamus Finnigan last night.� Harry gave Draco a brave smile as he
turned pale. �So they�re coming here. I�ll have to send back a letter with the
exact Apparition coordinates and ask Sirius to attune the wards to them.�

�� Draco pursed his lips, then nodded.
Harry could have collapsed in relief. At least he wouldn�t make a fuss about
having Harry�s best friends, or Gryffindors, or non-purebloods, or whatever
other category he might have put them into, here.

�� I�m going to tell my mother,� he
said, standing up. �I don�t think she�d protest, but she deals better with
these things when she�s not taken by surprise.�

�� You�re telling me,� Harry muttered,
thinking of the last conversation he�d had with Narcissa. All he had done was
fall asleep in a chair by Draco�s bedside, holding his hand, but Narcissa,
coming in to watch over her son, had reacted as though that gesture was
something Voldemort could see from space.

�� Draco�s eyes darkened. �She�s not as
bad as she seems, Harry,� he said gently. �She�s only worried about what might
happen to me if the Dark Lord realizes how important I am to you.� His eyelids
fluttered rapidly over those last words, as if he wondered whether he was really all that important to Harry. Or
maybe he was just fishing for compliments. Though Harry knew Draco wouldn�t
deliberately try to confuse him for the sake of confusion, as he might have
when he considered himself more a Slytherin than Harry�s friend, there were
some habits he couldn�t give up.

�� You are massively important to me,� Harry said, and drew him into his
arms for a gentle embrace and a kiss on the tip of the nose. Draco flushed, as
if he didn�t know whether to be pleased or embarrassed. �And your mother can�t
lessen that importance by ranting at me. I�m just frustrated.�

�� Draco smiled at him. �That�s good to
know,� he said, and bent his head until his mouth was right next to Harry�s
ear. �I�ll show you how important you
are to me later tonight.�

�� He was out of the kitchen before
Harry could blink. It took an agitated squawk from the owl to make him realize
that he still had a letter to write and permission to ask of Sirius, and he
tore out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

*

�� Thanks, mate.�

�� Ron�s voice had the sound of
bone-deep exhaustion, and he almost fell into Harry�s arms as he reached out to
shake his hand. Harry hugged him anxiously, his eyes darting to Hermione. She
smiled back at him, but the smile only lasted an instant before it flickered
out and she leaned against a tree and closed her eyes. The heavy October rain
had plastered her hair to her face and made her robes waterlogged. She�d
obviously been too tired to hold up an Impervious Charm.

�� We�re all right,� she said, her voice
almost as dreamy as Luna Lovegood�s. �Neither of us is wounded. Not now.� She
shuddered and opened her eyes. �But holding off the Dark magic, and then
getting it out of the wounds so I could heal them�that was the hardest thing
I�ve ever had to do in my life, Harry.�

�� Wordlessly, Harry held out his other
arm to her, and she grabbed it. He thought for a minute she would cry, but instead
her hands just clenched in his robe until she might have choked him if his
collar had been a little tighter. Harry stroked her hair and was silent.

�� Snape and Draco had insisted on
coming with him, of course, on the slight chance�which they thought more than
slight�that it was one of Voldemort�s traps. But, as Harry had known they
would, they�d found only Ron and Hermione waiting for them in the outskirts of
the Forbidden Forest. At least Snape and Draco had agreed to stand at a
distance for a while so Harry could have some time alone with his best friends.

�� What happened?� he murmured, when
he had decided that neither Ron nor Hermione would collapse in the next
instant.

�� Hermione sighed, but her voice was
almost as sharp as when she was explaining some difficult Charm to him and Ron.
�Everyone was jumpy yesterday, and there was this constant smell of ashes in
the air. I thought Dark magic had been used somewhere around the school, but
every time I cast a spell to confirm it, there was no evidence. Then Finnigan
just appeared in the middle of the boys� bedroom and tried to kill Ron.�

�� Ron stirred. �He aimed this curse at
me, but I remembered your lessons in dueling and avoided it,� he said, his
voice dull but growing stronger. Harry thought he felt Ron�s lips move into a
smile against his shoulder. �Sometimes just knowing how to dodge is a real
advantage. Then Neville and Dean piled into him, and that gave me a chance to
pick up my wand.�

�� And I had wards up to detect Dark
magic,� Hermione put in, �so I ran up the stairs and joined the duel.� She
stopped.

�� Harry hugged her tighter and rested
his chin on her head. He hadn�t seen Hermione in a few months, and was startled
by how much he�d grown; he couldn�t have done that in May. �What happened?�

�� I�ve studied all the curses I can
this summer,� Hermione said softly. �There�s only so much you can read about Horcruxes
and basilisk venom, especially with as few books as the Hogwarts library has on
those subjects. I know how to counter a lot of curses now, and I know about kinds of curses, so even if I haven�t
seen a particular one before, I can figure out what curse it�s most like and
work on a defense from there.

�� This was magic I�d never seen
before, Harry. And Finnigan was moving like a�like a champion, like someone who�s spent lifetimes dueling. I don�t think
Flitwick could have stood up against him.� She fell silent again, and
shuddered.

�� He wounded Hermione.� Ron�s voice
was a low growl. �He did something that made her body turn against her and
wounds start erupting everywhere. Old scars opening, that kind of thing. I got
angry and I�I think it was wild magic, honestly, Harry, because I can�t
remember casting a spell. I made the pieces come out of my wizarding chess set
and attack him. He was trying to blast them apart, but there were too many, so
he Apparated. Otherwise I don�t think we would have survived.�

�� And he was trying to kill me and
Ron,� Hermione whispered. �He pinned Neville and Dean to the wall, but he
didn�t go after them again, and he didn�t try to escape the room. I think he�s
Voldemort�s tool to make sure you suffer as much as possible. Ron and I think
we�d be in more danger at the school, especially because we might get innocent
people killed.� She lifted her head at last, and Harry could see terror in her
eyes. He wondered abruptly how close she must have come to dying. Obviously Ron
had left bad news out of his letter after all, maybe because he felt it could
do no good to babble on about it when Harry would see them in a few hours.
�He�s so dangerous, Harry. I hate that you�ll have to face him as well as the
real Voldemort. He��

�� He will not face the Dark Lord
alone.�

�� Apparently Draco and Snape thought
that telling him about Seamus meant the end of time alone with Harry for Ron
and Hermione, Harry thought wryly, as he felt Draco�s arm curl around his
shoulders. He spent a moment leaning against all three of them, then stepped
back and nodded. Ron had moved away from Draco without its being obvious�Harry hoped�but
the last thing he wanted to start right now was an argument.

�� I know that they both want me to
suffer,� he said. �I do plan on
taking it seriously. What I wish I knew is whether they�re acting separately,
or whether the real Voldemort is commanding the spirit that�s possessing
Seamus.�

�� Finnigan,� Draco said, with a small
frown.

�� Harry couldn�t tell what he was
trying to say, so he ignored him and turned to Snape, who had emerged from the trees.
�What do you think, Professor?� he asked.

�� Snape turned his wand lightly
between his fingers for a moment, studying Ron and Hermione narrowly. He didn�t
think they were lying, Harry knew, or he would have said something about it by
now. But he could think they were exaggerating in their terror. �I believe the
Dark Lord does not know that we have been destroying his Horcruxes,� he
whispered. �Otherwise, we would have seen more anger from him than we have. But
I wonder how much empathy there is between the piece of his soul in Finnigan�s
body and the piece still existing in his own. I would say they at least wish to
accomplish the same goals.� He turned his head to point one finger at Harry. �That
would explain why the spirit drove Finnigan to burn your possessions with that
dangerous Dark spell, years before the Dark Lord had resumed his proper form.�

�� Does that mean that Voldemort might
feel it when we try to free Seamus?� Harry frowned, thinking it out. �He didn�t
feel it, or at least I don�t think he did, when we destroyed the other
Horcruxes.� He was sure that
Voldemort would have come howling back into his head through the curse scar
link and done his absolute best to destroy Harry if he was sure that he�d lost
the Stone and the tiara.

�� Snape and Draco exchanged a pair of
unreadable looks, and then glanced at Ron and Hermione. To Harry�s utter
astonishment, Ron brushed hair out of his eyes and nodded, and Hermione turned
away. How in the world could they understand
what Snape and Draco were thinking about when Harry didn�t?

�� What?� he demanded. �Am I missing
something obvious?�

�� Yes, you are,� Draco began, with an
aggressive tone in his voice that made Harry bristle at once. Snape held up a
hand, and Draco�s voice fell silent. He reluctantly tilted his head to the side
and stepped out of the way.

�� Snape knelt down in front of Harry.
His eyes were intense, and they were intense with something like compassion. Harry stiffened his spine,
sure he would hate whatever came next.

�� I do not believe there is any
possibility of freeing Finnigan,� Snape said quietly. �None of us do. He will
be destroyed when we destroy the Horcrux he holds. And it does not reassure us
that you continue to refer to him by his first name and speak of freeing him as
a matter of course, as if he were not an enemy. As well free Bellatrix.�

�� There�s a difference,� said Harry,
and was surprised to hear that his voice had gone high and tight. He took a
deep breath and linked his hands together behind his back. Everyone else seemed
to be calm about this, so he would have to be, or there was the chance that
they wouldn�t take him seriously. �Bellatrix chose to serve Voldemort. Seamus
is a victim of Voldemort�s spirit possessing him, just like I was. Are you
seriously going to argue that you and Draco shouldn�t have tried to save me in
fifth year? Are you going to say that it was me and not Voldemort who hurt Sirius?�

*

�� The
boy has learned to argue like a Slytherin, Severus thought with grudging
respect. Of course, he retains the Gryffindor
custom of doing it at the most bloody inconvenient time.

�� That�s different,� Draco said,
taking the first brunt of the attack. Severus was grateful. Of all of them,
Harry was the most likely to listen to Draco�Severus wondered if Harry himself knew
that�and Harry�s anger would have less effect on an acknowledged lover than it
would on his friends, just reunited with him and still young, or on Severus himself,
with the bond of trust between him and Harry not long repaired. �You were
possessed for about half an hour. Finnigan�s been possessed for years. I don�t think he�s ever getting
out of it. I don�t think there�s anything of him left in there.� He whirled and
faced Granger and Weasley before Harry could protest. �What did he look like?�

�� His eyes were red.� Weasley was
speaking in a calm, hard voice now. Severus raised his eyebrows. That one might make a soldier after all. �And
something was wrong with the pupils. I think they were slit like a snake�s, but
I didn�t get a good look at that.�

�� For understandable reasons,�
Granger flared, stepping up beside her boyfriend and glaring at Severus as if
she thought that he would blame Weasley for his lack of observational powers.

�� That doesn�t mean anything,� Harry
snapped. �Red eyes don�t make you evil, or I�m evil already.� He gestured to
eyes bloodshot with a lack of sleep.

�� You know this is different,� Draco
said, folding his arms and leaning in so close that Severus experienced an
uncomfortable prickle of foreboding. If they
begin to snog in front of me, I will conjure a bucket of cold water over them.
I do not care how effective the method is for solving their arguments, this is neither
the time nor the place. �You know that Finnigan is lost and we have to kill
him. You�re just making excuses.�

�� I don�t know anything.� Harry�s eyes had darkened the way they seldom did except
when he was truly angry. He clenched his fists and leaned in until his nose
almost touched Draco�s. Severus relaxed. At least they would probably punch
each other instead of snog, now. �I haven�t seen Seamus. You or Snape haven�t tried
Legilimency on him. I know what that was
like. It was horrible. We have to
try to free him.�

�� Your empathy makes your estimation of
the situation unreliable,� said Severus, after he had watched Draco splutter
for a few moments and guessed that the boy could not make the point that needed
to be made. �You are the more likely to excuse Finnigan�s actions and leave his
death until too late. That is another reason we will not let you face him
alone.�

�� Harry spun around to stare at him,
spitting like a cat threatened with the loss of a mouse. �You won�t kill him.�

�� Severus met his gaze levelly, and
said nothing. Unlike the torture of Bellatrix, this was not something about
which he could make a promise. Considering that Finnigan appeared to know
spells that Severus himself did not recognize or had thought were legend, he
was probably more dangerous than Bellatrix ever had been.

�� You can�t,� said Harry, and there
was a sharp note creeping into his voice, something that was not anger. �He�s
alone. He�s friendless. He�s a victim. You can�t kill someone just�just because
of what happened to them.�

�� But you can kill someone because of
what they have done,� said Severus, �because of what they have become. If I had
not turned my back on the Dark Lord, if I had not repented of my crimes, do you
think Dumbledore would have been wrong to kill me? Or your parents? Or any of
the Order of the Phoenix, if they could catch me?�

�� Harry started to answer, and then
paused. Instead, he began to pace in a circle around the clearing where he�d
agreed to meet his friends. Now and then he stopped and kicked the dust,
throwing up a cloud of it. Severus folded his hands across his waist and
watched him without speaking. This was a decision that Harry had to make
himself.

�� Or
it will be made without him. Severus had seen the way Weasley was looking
at Granger, which Harry probably hadn�t noticed yet. If Weasley caught Finnigan
again and had the power, he would kill him without hesitation.

�� Draco stepped forwards at last, and interrupted
Harry�s circle, gripping his shoulders. Harry glared back. Severus thought that
Lucius probably would have quailed before that gaze, but Draco held still, his
face carved in deep lines.

�� Listen to me,� Draco said, his
voice low and passionate, stinging. The rest of them might not have been there.
�I want to know why you�ve always been
so reluctant to punish the people who hurt you. You held off on getting
vengeance on Finnigan when it would have been your right. You didn�t want us to
punish the Dursleys for abusing you; you said you�d rather forget them. You
didn�t even want to hurt Dumbledore worse than you did for keeping information
from us. And I think that old impression�s still holding on. You�re still
acting as if the only thing Finnigan ever did was burn a few of your
possessions.� He gave Harry a small shake. �Can�t you see that, even if that was the only thing he�d ever done,
we�d be justified in going after him?�

�� Going after him,� Harry breathed
back. He looked distressed, but he shut his eyes in the next moment, cutting Severus
off from both some observation of his emotions and any stray thoughts he might
read with Legilimency. �Not killing him.�

�� A sharp quiver at the corners of
Draco�s mouth told Severus that he disagreed with that, but he pushed doggedly
on. �And now Finnigan has tried to murder your two best friends, and hurt one
of them pretty badly. I want to know why you�re still defending him, and thinking we can get him out of this trap.
I want to know that you�ll actually act to kill him, instead of hesitating, if
that�s what you have to do.�

�� Harry�s fingers drove into his
palms, but he didn�t reply.

*

�� Harry?� Draco made his voice as
gentle as he could, but, inevitably, it still came out as stern. He needed an answer.

�� They couldn�t go after the Horcrux
like this�and they would have to go after Finnigan to retrieve the final
Horcrux other than Nagini herself or the one in Harry�s mind and soul. Draco
had to know that Harry would stand behind him without flinching if they were
required to kill Finnigan, which they probably would be. Draco had seen the
damage, both mental and physical, that a short contact with the Dark Lord�s
mind had wrought on Harry. And Harry had a determination and will that Draco
still found fascinating and hard to struggle with. Finnigan didn�t have that,
and the possession had had years to strengthen.

�� Because I wish someone had rescued
me,� Harry said at last, softly, reluctantly.

�� Draco frowned. Yes, he�d wanted an
answer, but it still needed to be one that made sense, or they couldn�t use it.
�What?�

�� I lived ten years in a cupboard,�
Harry said, his voice low but growing stronger, �with people who despised me. They
told me all the time that I was evil, and that I was a freak, and that my
parents wouldn�t have died if they hadn�t deserved it.� He lifted his head, and
Draco felt physically forced to take a step back from the fire in his eyes. �But
I told myself that I wasn�t evil, again and again, and someday someone would
agree with me. And that happened. So how
can I think that someone else is evil, without giving them a chance? Voldemort is
the only really evil person I�ve ever met. I think Seamus is sitting in his
cupboard in his mind, waiting to be rescued. I have to try.�

�� Draco reached out and wrapped his
hands around both of Harry�s. He felt very still, as though someone had slapped
him, and full of love and grief.

�� How
can I make him understand that this is different? How can I make him see that
it�s about saving our lives, more than it is about abandoning Finnigan? In some
ways, this would have been easier if he�d seen more people die.

�� Maybe he is,� he said quietly. �But
what if you can�t get him out, Harry? You could be kind to him, but the Dark
Lord is the one controlling his body, and the Dark Lord is, as you said, evil.
He won�t listen to reason.�

�� Professor Snape could go in and
rescue him the way he did me,� Harry said, blinking slowly, as if Draco were
stupid.

�� The only reason I managed to do
that,� Professor Snape said, his voice harsh, Draco thought, to disguise his
own grief, �is that I knew your mind well, and I�cared for you, and I was able
to get you to trust me in return. I do not think that Mr. Finnigan, after
spending so much time in the company of a mad monster, will even know the
difference any more between a true helping hand and the projections that
monster uses to torment him.�

�� Harry took a deep breath and shut
his eyes. �Then I�ll have to try.�

�� You don�t know how to use
Legilimency well enough,� Draco snapped back at once. He didn�t have to think.
For one thing, it didn�t matter how well-trained Harry was; Draco wouldn�t have
trusted himself with a project like
rescuing someone�s mind from a possession. It was a miracle that Snape had
managed it. And for another, Draco would Body-Bind Harry and take his wand away
and risk losing his love forever before he�d let Harry risk himself for bloody
Seamus Finnigan like that.

�� I�ll have to try something else,
then.� Harry opened his eyes, his face smooth and so stubborn that Draco knew
he could break himself on it and change nothing. �You have your answer about
why I don�t punish people who hurt me, Draco. We have Ron and Hermione, and I
know that we�ll have to hunt Seamus down to get the fifth Horcrux. But for
right now, there�s nothing else I�m conceding.�

�� He pushed past Draco, walked over to
Weasley and Granger, and began to speak gently to them. Granger put her head on
his shoulder and wept. Weasley opened his mouth as if he would argue with Harry
about Finnigan, and then shut it again.

�� Draco turned and met Professor Snape�s
eyes.

�� He knew what was in them, because it
was the same thing in his mind.

�� Harry would do what was right, what
was admirable, what was brave and heroic.

�� They would do what was necessary.

*

�� DTDY: Draco will try his hardest.

�� qwerty: Thanks! I rather enjoy the
chance to write a Draco who�s smart about things other than just manipulation.
Of course, right now he�s got a problem with Harry that his intelligence can�t
help him with.

�� Ayla Rouge: Don�t worry, Harry won�t
die in this particular story. There�s another solution instead.

�� I can understand why Narcissa is
pissing you off, but I will defend her by saying that part of the problem is
that she�s always been able to do
something if she was in danger or Draco was, and that�s pretty obviously not
the case right now.

�� MewMew2: Thank you!

�� Clau: Thanks! I�m afraid Draco�s
plan will be a little confusing, but I�ll try to explain it as clearly as I
can.

�� SP777: Thanks! I�m glad you think it
looks effortless, because that�s definitely not
the case on the inside.

�� I don�t like the way crossovers work
in general, so I probably won�t write them. And I would wait a long time be
published, because I�m not satisfied with my own work.

�� Thrnbrooke: Afraid I can�t tell you
that yet.
- 30
- 31
- 32
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Inter Vivos