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
- 31
- 32
- 33
Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter
Twenty-Nine�Cup

�� So.� Ron
had a heavy presence when he wanted to, Harry thought wryly. His voice had
deepened since the last time Harry saw him, and his hands, folded in his lap
now the way that Mrs. Malfoy liked to fold them, looked big and solid. His eyes
stared straight at Harry�s and wouldn�t let him look aside.

�� What�s
happening between you and Malfoy?�

�� Well. It wasn�t like Harry hadn�t
expected this question. He took a deep breath and shifted his position a
little. He was sitting in one of the library chairs, with Ron not far from him.
He wished for a moment that they were elsewhere, the air here felt so stifling,
but that was silly. Would he have preferred the kitchen, where anyone might walk
in? Or the bedroom where he slept with Draco? His eyes would be going over to
the bed and he would be imagining all sorts of scenes to make Ron blush with
every second.

�� Mate?�

�� I�m dating
him,� Harry said. �And sleeping with him.� No need to keep that concealed, when
Ron would figure it out the moment he saw Draco trail an absent, possessive
hand through Harry�s hair.

�� Ron
blanched and clutched the arms of the chair as if he would fall out of it, and
Harry wondered for a moment if he should have
kept that concealed, for Ron�s sake. But pride pushed out the guilt, and he
lifted his chin. Why should I have to
hide it? Ron and Hermione didn�t hide it when they started dating. Or not well
enough, anyway.

�� I�I
expected that,� Ron said.

�� So that�s
why you looked as though someone just tried to rip your head off your
shoulders,� Harry muttered.

�� Ron ignored
him to take a deep steadying breath and say, �And he�s been�helping you hunt
for the Horcruxes? I thought Snape said something about your killing the tiara
and the Resurrection Stone.�

�� Harry
nodded. �Both of them are ashes now. We used Fiendfyre instead of the basilisk
venom.� He rubbed his hands absently on his robes to get rid of the sweat that
covered them when he remembered Draco�s spirit getting sucked into the Stone.
�And he�s been really great, Ron. Clever, and helping me with my research.�

�� Good,� Ron
said. He hesitated. �Mate, I�m sorry we couldn�t get the venom for you.�

�� Harry
looked up and smiled tiredly at him. �Don�t be. Dumbledore used the venom to
destroy the locket. It makes sense that he would think we were going after it
for the other Horcruxes and place a guard on the Chamber.� He shook his head.
�I just wish we were working together on
this, instead of against each other.�

�� You said
the Stone was destroyed,� Ron said tentatively. �Couldn�t you tell him that and
get him back as an ally that way? Once he knows he has no chance of using it,
maybe he would��

�� I�d try
that if I was sure we could trust him.� Harry rubbed his face. �Not only trust
him to be on our side and agree that it�s a good thing all the Horcruxes are destroyed, but also trust him not to try and
take control of everything, the way he has a habit of doing. This mission isn�t
Hogwarts, but I�m afraid he would try to run it as if it were.� He peered
around his fingers at Ron. �He started keeping a tighter control in the school
in the last few months, didn�t he?�

�� Ron nodded.
�Yeah,� he said. �It wasn�t just the guard on the Chamber of Secrets, it was
imposing curfews and wanting to talk to me and Hermione all the time. I could
see him doing that with people he thought were loyal to You-Know-Who, but what
had we done?� He scowled, and Harry
thought that any chance Dumbledore might have had of winning Ron�s allegiance
the way he�d won the allegiance of his parents was gone.

�� Stupid insight, he thought a moment
later.

�� Supported
me,� said Harry. �Tried too hard to be independent of him. I don�t think
Dumbledore really knows what to use his power for. At times he�d afraid of
using it too much, and then he�ll reach out and wield it like a whip.� He
shrugged. �We can�t trust him. Thanks for confirming that. And�for what you did
in the school. I can�t thank you enough.� He reached out and gripped Ron�s
wrist hard enough to hurt.

�� Ron squeezed
back. There was a serenity and a sternness in his eyes that Harry thought was
unique to him. Harry smiled. Draco was his lover, but Ron was his best friend,
and no one was ever going to replace him.

�� How�s
Bill?� he asked, suddenly realizing he hadn�t had any news about the other
Weasleys since Ron sent him the letter detailing the attack. �And your mum?�

�� Recovering,�
said Ron, and his voice and smile both held grim pride. �Eager to go out
hunting Death Eaters again. I thought Mum might make Bill stay behind in
safety, but she�s just as angry as he is that they attacked the Burrow. Right
now, they�re having a hard time finding Death Eaters. You-Know-Who won�t
confront the Order of the Phoenix.� He leaned forwards. �I think he�s hoping to
lure you out of hiding and kill you that way.�

�� Harry
nodded. �I�m sure he is. But I�m not going to give him the satisfaction. I know
that I can�t kill him anyway until all the Horcruxes are destroyed, and that�s
not true yet.�

�� Ron
squeezed his wrist a second time. �I think that Malfoy�s been good for you,� he
said abruptly. �You look prouder of yourself, and calmer, and happier. And if
sleeping with him�� he shuddered delicately ��is necessary for you to do that,
well, then I think it�s a good thing you are.�

�� And he
stood up and slipped out of the library, leaving Harry behind to blink at the
wall in astonishment. Then he grinned.

�� I think everything on the
Draco-and-best-friends front might be all right. Maybe not with the Horcruxes,
or with Mrs. Malfoy. But my friends are still my friends, and they�ll probably
understand how important Draco is to me.

*

�� What are
you doing? Can I help you with it? That�s a book on Dark Arts, isn�t it? I
wonder why the Hogwarts library didn�t have it?�

�� Draco had
to bite his lip as he listened to Granger�s chatter. She had picked up one of
the books he�d laid in out in a neat fan pattern on the table, so that he could
consult them as he needed, and now she gasped as she looked at the title. It
would have been so much easier to
research the way he�d thought of to get the Horcrux out of Harry if she�d left
him alone.

�� You can
help me if you shut up and let me explain what I�m doing,� Draco snapped.

�� As he had
thought it would, that made Granger stop speaking and look at him in silent
indignation. Draco didn�t care. As long as she didn�t go storming off to Harry
in tears and complain that Draco was mean,
or interfere with his research, then he didn�t care. The second would mean that
he might not be able to destroy the Horcrux in Harry, and the first would mean
that Harry wouldn�t sleep with him for a while. Neither was acceptable.

�� I�m trying
to find a way to destroy the bit of the Dark Lord�s soul that he left in Harry�s
soul,� Draco said. �It�s another Horcrux, and we have to destroy it so that Harry can kill the Dark Lord. But if we
try to destroy it the same way we�ve taken care of the others, then that might
mean killing Harry. I won�t let that
happen.� He expected some argument from Granger about how of course he would
let it happen because he was evil, but though her eyes widened, they remained
fixed on him, and she said nothing. Draco nodded sharply. Good.

�� I�ve used
Switching Charms on two of the other Horcruxes,� he said. �I think I can use a
modified Switching Charm on Harry to expel the Horcrux from his body. But it�ll
be tricky, and I have to be careful, and I don�t understand very much about the
source of power I want to use.� He looked at the Elder Wand, lying �innocently�
on the table.

�� A wand?�
Granger asked witlessly.

�� The Elder
Wand,� Draco said tightly. �One of the Deathly Hallows, to which my soul is
bound, and which pulled me with it when I switched its essence with the essence
of the Resurrection Stone in destroying that
Horcrux. If I can master the Wand, then I can use it to power the spell to
save Harry. But I have to understand all about the bond to my soul first, and
how to use it instead of letting it use me.�

�� Granger�s
eyes widened again, and then she looked back and forth between Draco and the
Wand as if she would be able to see the bond. Draco rolled his eyes, and tried
to keep a tolerant expression on his face. He knew Granger was good at
research; he knew she could probably help him with this difficult and
complicated bit of switching. But if she had some odd moral scruples about the
Dark Arts, or if she thought that the Elder Wand deserved to be treated with
some sort of �respect� that Draco had no intention of giving it, then he would
put a Memory Charm on her and kick her out of the library. Saving Harry�s life
was too important to have anyone interfering with it.

�� Even if it does mean a lack of sex.

�� I think I
understand,� Granger said at last, slowly, but with excitement gathering in the
back of her voice like a forest fire beginning to burn. �I don�t know anything
about magical bonds between souls and not much about the Deathly Hallows, but��

�� That makes it better, Draco silently
completed the sentence.� If the very idea
of new knowledge made Granger�s eyes burn like that, he knew he couldn�t ask
for a better research partner.

�� You�ll
have to look into the Dark Arts,� he said, just to make sure.

�� Granger
waved her hand. �Knowing something
isn�t evil,� she said. �I don�t have any plans to cast Dark spells.�

�� Draco bit
back an amused chuckle�how horrified Dumbledore would be if he could hear her
talk like that, his perfect pet Gryffindor whom he�d probably hoped would tame
any �Dark� tendencies in Harry�and shoved two of the books at her. �Get
started, then. We�re looking for ways to make the bond more flexible, so I can
use it to my advantage instead of doing what the Wand wants.�

�� Not break
the bond, then.� Granger�s fingers hovered over the books as though she were
frightened to touch them, whilst she gazed thoughtfully at him.

�� If I meant
that, I would have said that,� Draco snapped, and then took a deep breath and
did his best to soothe his ruffled feelings as Granger began to look a bit
ruffled herself. �But yes, I don�t want to break the bond. Not yet. I want some
means of controlling it,� he said, and smiled at the Elder Wand. �That will
frustrate it.�

��

The Wand buzzed at him in warning.
Draco rolled his eyes. Since the incident with his soul being pulled into the
Stone, he hadn�t used the bloody thing to cast a single spell. It had ceased to
impress him with its vibrations and its silent call for him to pick it up. He
had more important things to think about than sheer magical power.

Such
as how to get the Horcrux out of Harry, and how to prevent Harry from
destroying himself if he tries to rescue Finnigan.

*

�� Severus
stepped down the front stairs of Grimmauld Place, and then paused. Usually he
was the first person up, excepting the dirty house-elf, who never seemed to
sleep properly and wandered about the house muttering. But now a light blazed
in the kitchen, and he could hear a series of low, tearing sounds, as though
someone where shredding paper.

�� Or sobbing.

�� He looked
carefully around the doorframe, his hand on his wand, but his body held silent.
If he had disturbed the Granger girl weeping over an insult from her boyfriend,
then of course there was no need to involve himself.

�� But he saw
Harry sitting with something cradled in his hands and tears trickling down his
face, silent other than the hollow sobs working their way up from his chest
every now and then, and he realized that he must interfere. The last thing he
knew, Harry had been happily going upstairs to the bedroom he shared with
Draco.

He slid his wand back into his
pocket and approached.

Harry didn�t appear to notice him,
no matter that his shoes scraped and his robes rustled on the kitchen floor,
which allowed Severus to come quite near and glimpse what Harry held in his
hands. It was a deep red and had a black edging. And it might have appeared
shapeless, but not to someone who had, in his time, used human organs for
potions he brewed among the Death Eaters.

Severus closed his eyes for a
moment. So it begins. I did wonder how
long the Dark Lord would leave him in peace without doing something like this.

�� But he
effortlessly transformed the pain into anger, because Harry was the one who
needed to feel pain right now without the obligation to comfort someone else,
and placed his hand on Harry�s shoulder.

�� He can
send you their hearts,� he whispered, �but he cannot torment them any longer.
And in time, you will wreak such a vengeance on him as to make him sorry that he
ever contemplated hurting them.�

�� Harry
leaned towards him, too weary and sorrowful to be surprised by the touch,
Severus thought. He lifted his head, and his eyes were scored with red around
the rims, his lips trembling. �But he sent me the heart of someone who wasn�t
even involved in the war,� he whispered.

�� Severus
began to massage Harry�s shoulders, keeping up the calming motion even when
Harry stiffened and shrugged as if he would like to throw off his hands. Harry
needed such touches at the moment, whether or not he recognized it. �Whose was
it?� he asked. �I assume he has told you.�

�� Harry
nodded at the table. Severus followed his gaze and noted a thick box stained
red-brown and a crumpled piece of parchment for the first time. So intent had
he been on Harry that he hadn�t thought to look for the container that had
brought the heart and the note that must have come with it. �Dennis Creevey�s,�
he whispered. �Colin�s little brother. Colin was the boy who used to follow me
around with his camera.� He shut his eyes, looking ill for the first time. �He
was Muggleborn, so I reckon he deserved to die.�

�� But then
his voice broke, for all his attempts to put cynicism into it, and he bowed his
head into his arms and was silent.

�� Severus
enchanted the note to hover in the air, because he did not trust even the Dark
Lord�s simplest communication to be without traps. It said only what Harry had
told him, though, giving the name of the victim and bragging about how he would
send many more. Then Severus cast a spell on Harry that should let him know if
Harry had acquired a curse from touching the note and the box. Nothing
appeared.

�� Severus Levitated
the heart out of the boy�s hands. Harry looked up, blinking. His face was pale
and green at the same time, as if he had vomited when he first unwrapped the
heart, though Severus had seen no sign of that. His hands were stained with
blood.

�� You have
sat here long enough,� Severus told him, keeping his voice level and low. No
need, yet, to wake up the others in the house. Narcissa would not understand
the boy�s mourning someone who had not been within the inner circle of his
friends, and the time was not right for Granger�s, or Weasley�s, or even
Draco�s comfort. �Yes, he will try to destroy your resolve by slaughtering
those you care about and sending their organs to you. He did it often in the
first war.�

�� Harry
swallowed and nodded. The green shade to his face deepened, but so did the
shine of outrage in his eyes. Severus saw that and approved.

�� But you
must not let that resolve be destroyed.� Severus squeezed Harry�s shoulder
again, staring into his eyes. �You must think of defense instead, and the best
way to destroy the Horcruxes as soon as possible.�

�� Harry
licked his lips. �I thought of that,� he said hoarsely. Severus was not sure
whether weeping or anger had more affected his voice. �But I don�t know where
Seamus is, and I think the Horcrux he has would be with him. I have to break
that one first before we go after Nagini and�and the one in me.� He made a
gesture at his forehead with one clenched fist, lowering it hastily, as if
touching his scar would soil him.

�� Severus
held back his impulse to correct Harry�s use of Finnigan�s first name. Now was
not the time for that, either. �Yes,
we have to find him,� he said. �And there are ways. But they are Dark Arts.�

�� Harry gave
him a small, grim smile. �I�ve learned curses already,� he said. He looked
again at the heart, which Severus was tucking back into its bloody box. �I can
do this.� His eyes hardened, suddenly, and Severus thought that the Dark Lord
would have hesitated if he could have seen Harry�s gaze in that instant. �And I
can make Voldemort sorry that he ever decided to come back from the dead.�

�� Severus
opened his mouth, and closed it again. He had assumed, when he was listening to
Harry speak with glorious folly about his decision to rescue Finnigan, that he
would welcome some evidence of bloody-mindedness on Harry�s part. And now he
realized that it distressed him, and that he would much rather have heard Harry
protest the use of Dark Arts and repeat some rambling Gryffindor lesson on how
they were evil.

�� But he has said that the Dark Lord is the
only evil person he knows, Severus reminded himself as he stared into
Harry�s calm, glassy eyes. His decision
to fight him is neither new nor inappropriate.

�� Very well,�
he said. �The potion uses�and destroys�one of your memories of Finnigan. You
will need to choose one that you don�t mind sacrificing, and which is not one
you should keep so that you know how to fight him.�

�� Harry
closed his eyes and nodded. A moment later, he looked up at Severus again. �I
have one,� he said. �It�s from first year, just him in the flying lessons. It
doesn�t have anything to do with how he fights or what he did when he burned my
possessions.�

�� Child, I am sorry you should have had to
learn how to make such distinctions. But at the same time, Severus could
not truly lament it. If Harry had been an ordinary boy, he would have grown up
with his parents, and Severus would never have had a chance to feel compassion
for him.

�� Concentrate
on that memory,� he ordered, and when Harry nodded again, he laid his wand
alongside Harry�s temple. At the same moment as he whispered the Legilimency
spell, he used another spell, nonverbally, that created a mental �hawk� which
stooped on the memory and hauled it out of Harry�s head.

�� Harry gave
a sharp cry, but then lapsed back into quick panting. Severus closed his eyes
and tried to pretend he was thinking mostly about the silvery strand of memory,
which lay coiled across the palm of his hand like an eel. Must I never touch his mind except to hurt him?

�� No
recriminations came from Harry, though. He just opened his eyes and said, �Do
you need my help brewing the potion?�

�� No,�
Severus said, and let his hand brush, gently as a thought, over Harry�s hair.
�You should go back to bed. And in the morning, tell Black about the wards that
permitted the owl�s passage. He may need to strengthen them, if the Dark Lord
can send birds that find you here.�

�� The owl
was glowing when it came in,� Harry said, and yawned massively. He scrubbed his
hands together, as if he could get the blood off them that way. Severus cast a
silent Scourgify, and Harry jumped as
the spell tingled across his palms, but smiled at Severus. �Then it vanished into
a collection of sparks when it dropped the box. I think it was probably made of
magic, and that was why the wards couldn�t stop it.�

�� Severus
breathed a little more easily. He recognized that spell, and whilst it would
indeed permit delivery of a message to any recipient, no matter how
well-warded, it would not permit the one who had cast the spell to follow the
conjured bird. And it was not a spell that could have left contamination on the
box or the note, either.

�� Professor?�

�� Severus
looked down. Harry was staring up at him with haunted eyes.

�� It�s not
my fault, is it?� he asked.

�� Severus,
moving slowly so that he wouldn�t startle Harry, put his hand on the boy�s�the
young man�s�shoulder again, and shook his head, never looking away from his
eyes or blinking. �It is the fault of the Dark Lord�s madness, and nothing
more,� he whispered.

�� Harry
leaned his head against Severus�s palm for just a moment, and then turned and
ran away up the stairs.

�� Severus,
who had originally risen because he hadn�t been able to sleep and for no other
reason, found himself with a potion to brew and a long day ahead.

*

�� Draco opened
his eyes and blinked. Sticky strands of sleep made his eyelids cling together,
and so for several moments prevented him from getting a glimpse of Harry�s face
as Harry nestled against him.

�� Then he did
see him, and sat up fast, reaching out to cradle Harry�s cheek in his palm.
�What happened?� he whispered. He
didn�t think it was any ordinary nightmare that had made Harry cry like that,
and anyway Harry�s thrashing would have woken him up if it was a vision from
the Dark Lord.

�� Something
I�ll tell you about in the morning,� Harry whispered back, and crowded into
Draco, knees hitting knees and elbows striking elbows. He fastened his lips to
the side of Draco�s neck and sucked hard. Draco tipped forwards, his mouth
opening as he gasped. He tried to respond, but Harry slipped a hand under his
shirt before he could and sharply pinched one nipple. Draco ground helplessly
into Harry�s leg in response.

�� Make me
forget,� Harry said to him, his voice low but burning. �Please, Draco.� He
rolled onto his back and pulled Draco on top of him, but his mouth had already
gone back to Draco�s neck and his fingers to his nipple.

�� And Draco,
following the pull of his love and his lust and his understanding of Harry
gained over the years, did his best to obey.

*

�� DTDY: I
think Ron and Hermione would agree with you.

�� SP777: Glad
you like Ron. I�m generally less confident writing him than I am writing Harry
or Draco, or even Snape.

�� If Draco
and Snape try to go behind Harry�s back, they probably won�t like the result.

�� qwerty: Thanks!
While Harry might seem weak for feeling compassion for Seamus, I was trying to
show why I don�t think he is.

�� MewMew2:
Thanks! I like to use body language as an indication of what the characters are
thinking.

�� Sneakyfox;
Thank you!

�� Thrnbrooke:
Here you are!
- 31
- 32
- 33
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