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For Their Unconquerable Souls	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 29229 -:- 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.

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

This is the last chapter of For Their Unconquerable Souls. I hope you�ve all enjoyed coming
along on this ride as much as I have.

Chapter
Thirty-Two�Loving and Fierce

�� I was the
one who thought that he should come to Malfoy Manor.�

�� Narcissa
watched with well-hidden amusement whilst her husband fashioned a new reality
in his head, a reality in which he was the one to determine that Harry belonged
with their family and even the one to realize what the cost of Harry�s healing
him might be. He was sitting up in his bed now, studying his face in a mirror
to make sure the scars had faded but with his mind galloping so fast that
Narcissa knew he could not be considering that solely. Already, he had broken
off twice and stared into the distance in absorbed silence.

�� He was
making up the story that would allow him to live with the loss of vengeance on
his enemies. Narcissa was far from wanting to discourage that; she thought that
Lucius was considerably easier to love when he thought he was winning.

�� But it was amusing to watch him go through the
process.

�� Lucius
caught her eye just then and demanded, �Don�t you remember that? It was my idea
first. You were the one who distrusted Harry and wanted to find some other
method of dealing with him.�

�� Yes, I distrusted him, but more because I
thought he would not fit into the family. Once I saw that he would, I accepted
him.

�� But
Narcissa didn�t intend to disrupt the small incipient reality when it was in
the process of forming. She stood up, kissed him on the forehead, and murmured,
�Yes, I remember that. And now I am going to call Rogers and give him detailed
instructions about your dinner. What would you like to eat?�

�� Veal,�
Lucius said at once. �And a stew of quail. And fresh-baked bread with honey dripping over it. And��

�� Wait until Draco is sick, Narcissa
thought, as she turned and found Rogers already waiting behind her, his ears
twitching as he listened raptly to the menu. Then Harry will find out how strongly certain traits are inherited.

*

�� Mr.
Malfoy. Hello.� The woman Draco had been told was named Healer Pontiff nodded
to him as she sat down on a chair in the ground floor room that the Malfoys
kept for visitors they did not want to see the rest of the house. The walls and
the furnishings were intentionally bland, to fool anyone who might think to
estimate their wealth from a few glances and carry reports of the Malfoy
fortune back to their enemies. But Healer Pontiff didn�t seem concerned about
that.

�� Draco
didn�t know what to think about Pontiff. The woman had gray hair and faraway
eyes. She didn�t look like someone who would have been a conspirator with the
people in the hospital administration who had hurt Lucius, and Draco had read
the letter that she sent Harry saying she was not and volunteering to be tested
under Veritaserum.

�� But Draco
had seen already that Harry�s strong love could blind him to the faults of the
people he loved. He had chosen the Weasel, as one example.

�� Hello,� he
forced himself to say. Politeness costs
me nothing, even if I must kill her later.�

�� Healer
Pontiff didn�t seem to notice or care about Draco�s expression. She smiled and
held out her hand to Harry. He went to her, though he looked carefully at her
palm first. Draco could almost see him rolling his eyes as he did so.

Draco stiffened, but said nothing,
because he had agreed to let Harry handle the confrontation as far as that was
possible. He was not being overly
cautious. There was a possibility that the Healer could have smeared her palm
with a rare nerve poison, and it was no bad training to have Harry learn to
recognize the potions that could hurt him

�� Thank you
for coming,� Harry murmured. He took her hand, all the while smiling into her
eyes with an easy camaraderie that made Draco bite his lip to stave off the
jealousy. At the very least, he was certain Harry did not want Pontiff.

I
think. He had female lovers at one
time, too, didn�t he.

�� Anything to free myself from suspicion in the eyes of my favorite
student.� Healer Pontiff sat down in a chair exactly as if she�d been
invited for some normal purpose. �Have you finished putting the Veritaserum in
the tea? I like a dash of sugar, no more than that.�

�� Draco gave
her a steady annoyed stare as he tipped three drops of Veritaserum into the cup
of tea standing ready, following it with sugar he had to summon Rogers to
fetch. He didn�t appreciate her attitude.

From her serene expression, he had
no idea if she absorbed the insult. And Harry was hiding a grin, badly, as he
sat down in a chair across from Pontiff. Of course she would have no reason to
think she was in danger if her �favorite student� was carrying on like some
sort of clown.

�� Pontiff
sipped the tea and gave a satisfied sigh. �Some amazing changes in the
hierarchy of the hospital,� she remarked to Harry. �Burne-Jones and Neverlong have been arrested. And Foxe.
Really, I wouldn�t have thought it of him. He seemed content to condone the
minor forms of corruption whilst driving out the major ones.�

�� He lost a
relative to Lucius, as he thought,� Harry said quietly. �The conspiracy
involved a wide range of people, both former Death Eaters, or their relatives,
and those who thought it permissible to strike back because they believed the
Wizengamot was wrong.�

�� Harry,� Draco hissed, coming up behind
him. He couldn�t believe Harry would simply speak all those details in front of
Healer Pontiff and possibly contaminate what she knew like that. Was Draco the
only one who took any reasonable
precautions at all?

�� I intend
to ask her to make a Healer�s Oath to me,� Harry said, �so that she can�t speak
to anyone about what we say in this room without our permission. It�s used all
the time when a patient has only one Healer and wants to keep the condition
secret.�

�� Pontiff
nodded. �Very good,� she said. She drank a little more tea, with a long sip
that made Draco suspect she guzzled sugar in private.�

�� The
Veritaserum should have had time enough to take effect.� The Healer set her cup
on the table beside the chair, with what Draco had to admit was at least a
proper respect for the cup�s delicacy, and smiled again. �Ask me what you
will.�

�� At last. �Were you involved in the conspiracy against
Harry?� Draco demanded.

�� No.�

�� Draco frowned,
then smiled. Sometimes
the proper use of Veritaserum simply relies on the way one asks the questions. �Were
you involved in the conspiracy against my father?�

�� No.�

�� Draco
clenched his jaw. For the moment, he had nothing more to say, and he hated to
know that his suspicions might have been wrong. Harry coughed and spoke instead, however, so at least it looked like a planned
trade-off of questions and not a loss of speech on Draco�s part. �Why did you
never mention the headache curse that Emptyweed put on me?�

�� He put a
headache curse on you?� Healer Pontiff blinked.

�� Honestly, woman, you�re a Healer, and he
spent a lot of time around you, and he trusted you. How could you not tell? Draco�s
suspicions acquired a living heartbeat once more.

�� Harry
nodded. �You never noticed?� There was a slight cast of wonder and pity to his
face. Draco could only hope he was rethinking his decision to take Pontiff as a
role model.

��

�� No.�
Pontiff sounded disturbed. �I knew you had headaches, but I had no reason to
look closely at you for anything but immediate wounds.� She gave Harry an
earnest look that seemed meant as some sort of apology. Draco sighed in
disgust, knowing that Harry would, of course, take it that way and let her off
the hook for anything she had done. �I was often thinking of my next patient
already when I treated you, since I knew you had the knowledge of Healing magic
to help yourself even if I missed something. I was more worried about your
keeping your wounds secret out of misguided stoicism for so long that you would
collapse. Therefore, I wished to treat the obvious ones. Your headaches were
not life-threatening.�

�� No,� Draco
said between gritted teeth, �only livelihood-threatening.� And that�s all you care about, isn�t it? That Harry be
a Healer the way you are. You didn�t care about him as a person; you only saw
him as a source of talent and publicity, the way everyone else in that damned
place did.

�� Pontiff
shook her head at him. �It is understandable that you would wish to blame me,�
she said, with a gentleness that set Draco�s teeth on edge, �but I had nothing
to do with this.�

�� And I know
that now.� Harry squeezed her hand with his. Pontiff turned to him, leaving
Draco in something like peace. �Tell me, how do you think these changes will
affect St. Mungo�s?�

�� For the better, in the long run. We will have new
administrators, and whilst they might also be corrupt, they will notice what
happened to the last who dared to be too open in their evil and temper their
actions.� Pontiff sounded as if she knew what she was talking about, and Draco
saw Harry slump against the back of his chair, as if he had been carrying a
burden that someone had finally unstrapped from his shoulders. I can�t believe that he�s still concerned
about the people there�but of course he is. He wouldn�t be Harry otherwise. �In
the short term, the publicity from the trials and from reporters trying to find
out why Harry Potter left the hospital so abruptly will cause some trouble.�

�� Harry
grimaced. �Would it help if I gave an interview saying I left the hospital to
treat a patient, not because I was disgusted with what happened there?�

�� The Healer
squeezed his hand. �Will you ever come back?� she asked.

�� If he
does, it�ll be a long time in the future.� Draco stepped up beside Harry and
draped his arm over his shoulder again. He thought both Harry and Pontiff could
use a small reminder of where Harry belonged. �I�m tutoring him in Potions, and
he�ll become a full Healer. And then he can have a private practice if he wants
it, or work part-time for private patients and
part-time for St. Mungo�s. But he�ll still belong here.�

�� Pontiff
went on staring at Harry. Draco thought he would gnaw either his tongue or his
lips off in a moment.

�� Yes, I
think so,� Harry said. �Eventually.�

�� And the
Malfoys� gifts have not been too heavy for you?�

�� I�ve
learned to carry them.�

�� Why would
you say such a thing in the first place?� Draco knew he was hissing, but he
couldn�t help it. It wasn�t every day that he met someone who had tried to
poison Harry against his family before they had even thought of offering Harry
sanctuary. Harry reached up and clasped his wrist, the backs of his knuckles
pressed against Draco�s pulse. Draco didn�t look at him,
because he didn�t want Harry to think that gestures like that could melt
him�even if they came dangerously close.

�� Because I
have treated Malfoys, and seen them try to recruit Healers before, when they
had reason to trust someone,� said Healer Pontiff. �Other families with much
the same heritage and laws do the same thing. In almost every case, bringing
the Healer into the family did not work. The Malfoys, or the other pure-bloods,
expected miracles and perfect conformation to their way of life. The Healers,
even when they were part of the same culture, had chosen other paths for
reasons that often conflicted directly with that way of life. They either broke
from their new families quickly or sank and lost their principles and their
ambition, being content to live in luxury.� She stared at Harry again. �I did
not want either to happen to one of the most talented mediwizards I have
known.�

�� It�s a
good thing your family doesn�t always manage to follow its own rules,� Harry
said gravely to Draco.

�� Draco
cuffed him on the back of the head, because that was practically required, but
he had just lost his own burden. She
understands us better than I expected. She warned Harry against us using the
truth. And he still chose to trust us above the words of a woman he considered
his mentor.

�� I have
some hope, since you have managed to fit in,� Healer Pontiff continued, �that
you will cease to neglect your own health so severely, Harry. I imagine the
Malfoys would not care to have their pet Healer die.�

�� How dare she. �He�s
far more than a pet Healer,� Draco said stiffly.

�� Harry
cleared his throat. �Draco�s already pulled me up short when he thought I was
going too far,� he said. �And he has a better memory than I do for such things.
I thought for sure I�d told you about being hit with the Breath-Stealing Charm
when you treated my wounds after the attack in hospital. That you hadn�t given
me a potion for my lungs was one reason I suspected your involvement with the
conspiracy.�

�� Pontiff
looked at Harry in a way that Draco would have liked to learn to imitate,
because it made Harry wince. He still
does not pay enough attention to my admonitions.

�� You said
you had been cursed,� she said. �You gave me no details beyond the obvious and
a few nods when I asked you questions. But you were weary to the bone by then,
and needed sleep more than you needed an interrogation.�

�� Harry
sighed and almost hung his head. It was the first time Draco had ever envied a
St. Mungo�s Healer her power. �I�ll try not to do that in the future.�

�� I hope
not,� said Healer Pontiff. �A Breath-Stealing Curse is nothing to let lie, Harry.�

�� That�s
what I told him,� said Draco, and let his arm bear down hard again on Harry�s
shoulders. �He�ll listen to me, at least.�

�� Harry
relaxed and half-beamed up at him. Draco felt his envy sliding away. Pontiff
would never taste the pleasures of Harry�s body�or of his allegiances, now that
that was bound to the Malfoys�and Draco had his own means of influencing Harry.

�� Good.�
Pontiff stood and smiled at them. �Bless you both,� she said. �You have found
something as brilliant as blood, Harry, something as brilliant as love. I would
hate to see you squander it. Either of you.� She
looked at Draco. Draco lifted his chin and evenly, coolly, returned the gaze. Come closer to me and say that again.

�� Thank
you,� Harry said, and then began to take the Healer�s Oath, with a diplomatic
tact Draco would not have suspected him of. It meant Draco did not have to say
anything, and it kept Healer Pontiff from looking at him the entire time before
she left.

*

�

�� It�s fine,� Harry growled, and swatted a hand through his
hair. As usual, that nearly ruined the effort that the house-elves had put into
tending it. But Narcissa was careful to let no sigh pass her lips. Harry was
under enough stress at the moment.

�� Fine is
not the same as perfect,� Narcissa said, �and Malfoys are always perfect when
they appear in public.� She took a step away from him, cocking her head and
pursing her lips. Yes, there was something that could be done, and she had only
to ignore Harry�s wince. Besides, he had his wand up his sleeve and out of
sight and easy reach; Narcissa had insisted that he keep it there so that his
audience would not find him overtly threatening, despite the fact that his
words today would upset some powerful people.

�� Carefully
and nonverbally reciting the incantation that her mother had used on
Andromeda�s hair when it grew in untamed directions, Narcissa watched as the
magic gathered over Harry�s head, tingling across her skin like the stroke of a
hand and actually causing small flashes of lightning as it did so. Harry winced
again, but the spell was done with too quickly for him to feel actual pain, and
then she was satisfied. She nodded.� �Yes.
Now go out.�

�� Harry gave
her a single betrayed look, and then ducked past the green curtain that hung in
front of the door of Grimmauld Place. Outside, the crowd gathered in the
wizardspace that extended the front lawn went mad. Narcissa ignored them and
peered past the curtain to focus on Harry. If the publicity dismayed him too
greatly, then he probably would not manage to perform the speech
satisfactorily.

�� But Harry
did well. He spoke the words that Narcissa and Lucius had both coached him in
(Narcissa could have come up with the speech on her own, easily, but Lucius
obviously gained back some of his sense of control by helping to compose the
words, and so Narcissa had allowed it). Harry revealed the essential facts that
the reporters could put in the newspapers, but none of the deeper secrets
behind those facts�the names, but not the motivations. It was all that Narcissa
thought the society that had betrayed and abused their hero when convenient,
and honored him when it was equally convenient, deserved of someone like Harry.

�� Harry even spoke
the part about his becoming part of the family�which Lucius had insisted on�without
much more than a grimace of resigned distaste. He did add that he wouldn�t change his name from Potter to Malfoy, and
that he would probably go back to St. Mungo�s at some point. Narcissa could
understand his necessity to do so. And really, Lucius should not be angry. He
had given up dreams of convincing Harry to change his name after the tirade
Harry began on merely hearing of the
matter.

�� Overall,
Narcissa was pleased.

�� And then,
as Harry stepped down from the podium muttering imprecations to himself, she saw a familiar figure move out of the crowd and
rush over to embrace Harry. It was the Auror, Adoranar, who had tried his best
to flirt with Harry rather than give Lucius information on the case.

�� Narcissa
raised her eyebrow and leaned back against the wall. This should be interesting, she thought, her eyes instinctively
seeking her son.

*

�� Harry!�

�� Adoranar hugged Harry. He touched him as if he
had a right to be there. And of
course the cameras chose that moment to click, before Harry could push Adoranar�s arms away.

��

�� Julius,
what the fuck are you doing?�

�� Draco was
able to muster a faint smile as he began to push his way through the crowd
towards the pair, ignoring the looks that got him (most of the people who gave
him those looks sidled away in the next moment, as they saw his face). At least
Harry had acquired the wherewithal to defend himself.

�� He could
not reliably see the conversation that followed, thanks to his head bobbing and
ducking behind other heads, but he could hear it.

�I wanted to congratulate you on
solving the Malfoy case,� Adoranar said, as if he thought Harry were an Auror,
too. �And I wanted to give you some information you probably won�t learn unless
you follow the course of every trial, because the Wizengamot would consider it
minor. I know you wouldn�t, though.�

�� Tell me,
then.�

�� Draco
cheered silently. Harry sounded like him, and that was wonderful. It was like
giving Draco a place in the conversation even though he couldn�t physically be
present.

�� Yet, he added to himself, and shoved an
elbow out of his face whilst listening for Adoranar�s
response.

�� Well,� the Auror said, �I found out that
those people approached Xavier after he made that disgraceful scene in
hospital. They thought they could use someone with a grudge against you and who
knew you well, because he might be able to get past your wards. They weren�t
able to convince him to use more than a Beetle�s Bite Curse, but still. It might have got nastier if you
hadn�t moved to Malfoy Manor when you did, since they had an expert in wards
speaking to Xavier. Aren�t you glad he was caught with the rest of them?�

�� Harry was right, then. And now that the
Aurors have him, I reckon I really will have to give up vengeance against him. Draco
sighed a martyred sigh, and stepped around a large woman who was staring
straight ahead as avidly as though Harry and Adoranar were about to kiss for
her entertainment.

�� And was he also the one who removed the
stabilization fields on Lucius?� Harry asked

�� Silence.

�� Too much silence. Too thick, too deep, too
rich�

�� Draco moved
faster.

�� You incredible bastard,� Harry said, and his
voice was rising in a way that made Draco wonder if he should pity Adoranar. But no, not with the conclusion that Harry announced in the next
moment. �It was you, wasn�t it? What in the world did you think you were
doing?�

�� I
thought�well, I wanted to give you a chance to show off your Healer�s skills, and
that seemed the best way to do it.� Adoranar cleared his throat. �And if he�d
died, then you could have paid more attention to me. I didn�t like you choosing
him over me, Harry, when I was just trying to tap you on the shoulder.�

�� Harry was
silent.

�� Surely Harry cannot deny me this vengeance, Draco
thought, and began to barrel ahead, not caring whom he offended. He would not dare deny me.

�� I knew you
would come back to me if you left the hospital,� Adoranar explained. �And you
always said you would leave if one of your patients died. Besides, didn�t
Malfoy deserve it? He might have been the victim of that curse, but he did some
horribly evil things.�

�� The strikes
at Harry and at his father both left Draco breathless, and the need for
vengeance was a physical pain within him now, nearly as bad as the lust he�d
felt when Harry still wouldn�t let Draco stay in the bed.

�� I�m not
sure what�s worse,� Harry said slowly, his voice muffled. �Your faith I would
come back to you if I gave up Healing, or your attempt to kill�no, wait, that
was definitely worse.�

�� Draco came
around a crowd of panting, grinning spectators and was able to see clearly, at
last. Adoranar hadn�t spotted him, although he was the one facing towards
Draco. For a moment, sweetness surged through Draco.

�� But you
must miss me.� Adoranar reached out as if to pet Harry�s elbow, but Harry
jerked his arm back. Adoranar stared at him, and it was all too clear to Draco
that the idiot had not the slightest idea that he had offended Harry, or why.
�Don�t you? I was the best lover you ever had, and your objection to me
couldn�t have been serious. You would have told me to sod off it was.�

�� A perfect moment for an
entrance.

�� He would
have told you to sod off if he wasn�t too polite for his own good and in too
much pain at the time,� Draco said. He wrapped his arms around Harry�s waist
and tugged him back until Harry rested against his chest. Harry went with the
maneuver willingly, which gratified Draco to an extent he couldn�t articulate.
�And now, he�s my lover, claimed and mine, and you�ve just admitted to trying
to kill my father. I think Minister Shacklebolt will be extremely interested to
know one of his Aurors endangered the life of a man the Wizengamot pardoned
simply because of jealousy.� His hand was on his wand already.

�� Adoranar
lifted his wand.

�� Draco spoke
a complicated charm, hissing the words with violent pleasure. Boils opened on
every inch of Adoranar, including his tongue and the insides of his ears. There
would be some on his groin, too, Draco knew. �

�� Adoranar
howled like a wounded jackal and staggered away a few steps, then managed to
right himself and Apparate. A number of reporters followed him. Draco lowered
his wand and laughed. He had finally taken some of the vengeance that Harry had
denied him. Nothing had ever felt so good.

Well,
except being inside Harry for the first time, and earning his love and trust, Draco
amended conscientiously as Harry whirled towards him, eyes flashing.

�� Must you do that?� he demanded, frowning
at Draco as if the frown alone could push him away.

�� He was
lifting his wand,� Draco said. �It was self-defense.� He judged the angle and
number of the gazes on them for a moment, and then lowered his head to lick
Harry�s ear. �And you�re mine.�

�� That, at
least, is well-established,� Harry said dryly. �But what you did��

*

�� Was the
smallest thing it is possible to do and still retain
the honor due you as a Malfoy.�

�� Lucius had
had quite enough of his newest son acting always in accordance with the ideals
that he had learned at Dumbledore�s knee and not adopting any of the ones that
his new family had tried to teach him. He would interrupt in public if he must,
so that those who listened in would realize the debts that Harry owed in various directions.

�� He looked
around, collected the eyes of several reporters he knew well, and then turned
back to Harry. ��And you are a Malfoy
now. Permanently.� He gave Harry a soothing smile that
did not appear to impress either of his sons.

�� You had me
make that announcement because you wanted everyone to see the Boy-Who-Lived as
part of your family,� Harry said. He sounded as if he would hang his head in
resignation at any moment, which was not the reaction Lucius would have
expected to figuring out the truth behind a Malfoy
plan.

�� Lucius
inclined his head.

�� You�re enjoying the notoriety we�ll get out of
this.�

�� Why must he sound so disbelieving? Harry�s
doubt pained Lucius, really it did.

�� As I told
you once,� Lucius said, and smiled precisely as a camera flashed at him,
�motives can be double without hurting anyone involved. I can value you for
yourself, as part of the family, and still be smug that we will earn public
favor and glory from your allying yourself with us.�

�� I wish I
could just give you the fame,� Harry
muttered, leaning back into Draco. His mouth twitched for a moment. Lucius
suspected he was fighting off satisfaction from Draco�s boil spell. He made a
private vow that he would try to help Harry relax and admit the truth, even
when that truth made him look bad in Gryffindor eyes. It would only stress
their son if he was forever being forced to apologize for his natural
inclinations.

�� That would
be best,� Lucius agreed. �It would rid you of an unwanted burden and give a
precious possession into the custody of one who would value it as it deserves.
Alas, we do not live in an ideal world.�

�� But, my son, he thought, as he watched
Harry roll his eyes a moment later with ill-concealed disgust, I will teach you to recognize why giving
your fame away would be disastrous yet.

�� Lucius
turned to answer the further questions of reporters then, mostly ones who were
anxious to know whether Adoranar�s claims or Harry�s
accusations held the greater amount of truth. He was content with the way
things had fallen out. His enemies had tried to kill him, but he was still
alive, and now publically under the protection of the Boy-Who-Lived. His son
had claimed his partner, and rivals for Harry�s affections would now be fewer.
Harry had realized the truth behind a Malfoy plot and not immediately marched
away declaring that he was quit of them, which was progress.

�� And his
wife looked at him with approval from behind the green curtain stretched across
the front of Harry�s house, which Lucius knew meant he would be�call it well tended to�tonight.

*

�� Draco
walked softly across the lawn, though with the rain all about him and the long
grass underfoot�oh, yes, and the inhabitants� lack of magic�it was unlikely that
they would hear him anyway. When he reached the door, he touched his wand to it
and cast a few careful spells. The most important of those would shield his
magical signature and keep the Ministry from realizing that he was using his
power openly in front of Muggles.

�� Then he
opened the door, which swung unlocked to his touch, and gazed into the hellhole
where Harry had spent most of his childhood.

�� It was a
Muggle home in bad taste. Draco looked at the lurid colors of the furniture, the
countless photographs of a slowly maturing blond boy on the walls, and the
patterns of flowers on the wallpaper, and wrinkled his nose in distaste.

�� This seemed
a bland prison. But Draco knew how necessary it was for him, as a child, to
have a space to exercise his magic and converse with the living or half-living
things of the wizarding world�the portraits, the house-elves, the enchanted
mirrors. He could imagine a wizarding child, especially one who did not know
about his magic and believed himself a freak, slowly going mad here.

�� He cast a
spell that created a ball of silver light hovering above his head, in the
moments before it split apart and sent forks of itself darting away to the
corners of the room. One fork climbed the stairs; one darted into the kitchen.
Draco leaned against the wall, resigned to this taking a moment. The spell
would reveal the remnants of Harry�s magical signature, and thus where he had
spent the most time during his childhood.

�� He was not
really going to do anything permanent to the Dursleys, Draco silently reassured
the specter of Harry that hovered in the back of his mind and glared at him whenever
Draco thought about revenge. He didn�t even want to see them, because he was
afraid they would look too ordinary; he preferred the monsters of his mind.
Instead, he wanted to understand Harry�s childhood here better. If they�

�� And then he
stopped, and leaned forwards, because a large part of the silver glow was
coming from right in front of him. He couldn�t understand that. Harry had spent
his childhood under the stairs?

�� His hand
brushed the door of a cupboard. He had to stop and take a deep breath when he
realized that, and for long moments, he didn�t have the strength to force
himself to turn the knob.

�� It opened
into a tangle of brooms, buckets, cleaning supplies, and rags. But Draco could
not be fooled, not even by the darkness obscuring the cupboard at the moment. He
watched the silver glow gathering like a drift of moondust
around the floor and the low, slanted roof, and he understood. He could even
make out the edges of where a mattress had been, if he squinted enough.

�� Harry had
lived here. The glow was brilliant in the way that it only was when highlighting
a place where someone had lain still, slept, dreamed, meditated, and allowed
himself to wander in daydreams. This was the kind of silver glow that
surrounded Draco�s bedroom in the Manor and the balcony where he had liked to
sit, overlooking the gardens, when he was a child.

�� Harry had
lived here.

�� And Draco
discovered, then, that he could feel both the immense anger that usually drove
him into vengeance and an utter impotence to do much about it.

�� He grasped
his wand and tried to think of a curse that would repay the monsters�they were
monsters, no matter what they looked like�for the pain they had caused Harry
for years. For at least ten years, anyway, Draco thought, disregarding the fact
that he didn�t have any proof of that. They probably wouldn�t have kept him
here after he started going to Hogwarts and carried a wand on him, but before
that�the light was more than thick enough for it to have been ten years.

�� But there
was no curse that would answer.

�� This was a
depth of pain, of scarring, that Draco had no answer for.

�� And Harry
had somehow carried that mass of scar tissue within his soul and not bowed
under it. In fact, he had grown up gracefully, and if he was irascible and
disinclined to give second chances to Slytherins, the wonder was that he had
managed to give a second chance to people like Lucius and Draco at all.

�� Maybe he doesn�t feel their
treatment that way, Draco thought.

�� But Draco
had no choice but to feel it that way.

�� He could
envision what was lost. He had been treated so differently. He always had
Malfoy Manor to ramble around in. He could go outside and look up at the sky if
the ceiling was ever too confining, and of course he had plenty of indoor
rooms, with their changing ceilings and walls like the ones in the Great Hall
at Hogwarts, too. He had been raised with magic and beauty and the expectation
of nothing but good treatment.

�� Imagine all that gone from your life.

�� There was
no way Draco could give Harry back the childhood he had lost by tormenting his
childhood tormentors.

�� But he
could try to heal Harry. He could show him that he was loved. He could combat
the consequences of the trauma he had suffered that Harry didn�t even know he
was carrying, such as his tendency to think himself less important than he
really was or invest too much of his strength in Healing.

�� Yes. You can do that if the Ministry doesn�t
catch you in the middle of a Muggle house, using magic on Muggle property.

�� Draco took
a deep breath and then turned around and walked to the door. At a flick of his
wand, the silver lights glowing through the house flew back to him, coalesced
into the sphere again, and then dissipated. The rest of the magic was already
set to vanish when Draco Apparated.

�� You have to keep yourself safe for Harry�s
sake, if not your own.

�� Draco stood
a moment on the lawn in the rain, looking back. He tried again to think of a
curse.

�� And still
there was nothing evil enough to reply to this evil.

�� And this
was evil past and done, visible mostly in its marks on Harry�s soul.

�� The last
thing Draco thought before he bowed his head and Apparated back to the Manor
was how unlike himself this was, or at least unlike the man he had been before
Harry arrived, that he would consider another�s welfare important enough to
override his desires. He would, of course, do anything for his parents, but he
wouldn�t be happy about it if it took over from something he wanted to do.

�� Here, he
did not resent it.

*

�� Draco
stepped into Harry�s bedroom and stood by his pillow for a long time, gazing
down at him.

�� Harry
rested on the bed without complaints now, though Draco suspected changing
something to make the room more comfortable would result in some. His mouth was
slightly parted, his nostrils fluttering with the force of his breath, his hair
tumbled around his forehead, and his eyes so tightly shut that he seemed to be
trying to keep dreams out. Draco could see the scar in the Lumos light from his wand only by squinting.

�� The way he
had squinted to look around the cupboard.

�� Draco sat
down next to Harry and reached out a helpless hand, smoothing it over his
forehead. Harry turned towards him, murmuring, but didn�t wake up.

�� Why do you
affect me so much?� Draco whispered. Harry smacked his lips in his sleep, which
was not an answer, no matter how adorable Draco found it. �Why
did you change me without my even noticing, when I was working so hard to
change you to fit with the Malfoy ideals?�

�� Harry didn�t
answer. Draco wondered idly if he would even understand the question, if he was
awake enough to hear Draco ask it.

�� Maybe the point isn�t that he understands
the change. Maybe the point is that I do.

�� And Draco
decided that he could live with that, if he needed to. Maybe Harry wouldn�t
ever react just the way Draco wanted him to, but why should Draco desire that?
His dreams of a compliant Harry were daydreams only. His visions were of a future where Harry argued with him and challenged
him all the time, the way he had when they made love.

�� Draco lay
down next to Harry and hooked his arms around his waist. He thought, with a
faint smile, of what Harry would say when he woke in the morning and found
Draco dressed already.

�� Lying there
in the bed, motionless though they were, Draco thought he could feel the motion
of the planet beneath them, turning them towards the sunrise and the years that
lay beyond that.

�� Years they
would spend together.

�� And in emotions more precious than vengeance.

�� Draco
closed his eyes slowly, listening to Harry�s equally slow breathing. In a few
moments, his own had joined it.

�� End.

*

�� hieisdragoness18: Thank you!

�� linagabriev: Draco was selectively listening, yes,
but in the end, he had to be the one who convinced himself not to take
vengeance, rather than having Harry convince him. It would never have lasted,
otherwise.

�� Glad you
liked the love-making scene. In this case, it really is about as long as the
comparable scene in BBU; the difference is that it�s separated out instead of
part of one long last chapter (which this one has).

�� DTDY: Thank
you!

��

�� Thrnbrooke:
Thanks for reviewing.
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For Their Unconquerable Souls