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

�� We were so worried.� Hermione
barely let herself breathe the words before she flung
her arms around Harry and squeezed hard enough to drive all the breath out of him.

�� And Malfoy wouldn�t let us in to
see you.� Ron seemed to think it was very important to add that, nodding and
scowling several times even as he watched Harry with worried eyes. �He said the
sickness was too contagious. Well, if it was, how come they could be around you?�

�� Hermione�s elbow crashed into Ron�s
ribs. �Ron!� she hissed, looking sideways as if she wanted to estimate how
great the chance was that Harry hadn�t heard. Harry raised an eyebrow, and
Hermione blushed. �Don�t say things like that. They�re his bondmates, and of
course they wanted to tend him. If he got sick and died, what do you think
would happen to them?�

�� I still think he could have owled
us and told us what was going on more than twice in six days.� Ron folded his
arms and looked expectantly at Harry.

�� I�m sorry he didn�t,� Harry said,
because it sounded diplomatic to say that. He motioned Hermione and Ron to sit
down. They were in his bedroom, his old one, which Draco had used as his
nursing room during the fever, because Harry still didn�t have much strength.
�But he was so concerned about me he probably forgot.�

�� Ron sighed, then
said, �All right, mate, I�ll forgive him.� A ripple of displeasure ran up the
bond between Harry and Draco, but Harry ignored it. �Now, what did you have?
Malfoy said something about a potion?�

�� From Ron�s tone, he seemed to
suspect it was really Draco�s plot to poison Harry in the night. Harry decided
not to dignify the suspicion with a response. �Yeah. A
political enemy of mine sent me the potion in an envelope. There was nothing
about it to indicate Dark Arts, but the potion poured all over my hands when I
opened it and got me sick.� Harry shifted in place. What he most hated about
that memory�other than his own stupidity�was the thought of what would have
happened if Swanfair had addressed the envelope to Severus or Draco.

�� Who�s this political enemy?�
Hermione�s voice was very quiet, and she was sitting straight up in her chair.
Harry glanced at her. She had her hands folded on her knee. Her legs were
crossed. She looked almost demure�until you stared into her eyes.

�� Harry hesitated. Draco had objected
to telling Harry�s friends his plan, insisting that they would
manage to betray it somehow, especially if Swanfair talked to them alone, and
they probably wouldn�t approve. But the plan had nothing violent about it, and
Harry would hate for his best friends to continue trusting Swanfair and get
injured because of it much more than he would hate ruining a plan for revenge.

�� Brynhildr
Swanfair,� he said. �She wanted to control Colben by forcing her to depend just
on her. So she tried to get me to withdraw from supporting Colben�s bid for
election. When I didn�t, then she tried to put me out of the contest for a
while by making me sick.� He shrugged his shoulders, trying to look casual.
He�d already had enough of people worrying about him for the past week. The
worry was nice, but it also made
Harry feel as though he was back in the fever and covered with far more
blankets than he needed.

�� I see,� Hermione said. �I see.� Then she leaned back in her
chair and started twirling her wand around, which Harry thought was eerily
similar to the way that Draco spun his wand when he was feeling angry. She had
a hard smile on her lips.

�� Hermione?�
Harry asked softly. �What are you thinking?�

�� That she�ll pay for this,� Hermione
said, in a tone that implied What are you, stupid?

�� Draco and Severus already have
something planned.� Harry reached out to grab her wrist. �And it�s nothing
that�ll kill her or hurt her permanently. I promise.�

�� It won�t?� Hermione asked.

�� Harry shook his head.

�� Pity.�
Hermione patted his shoulder and leaned back while he was still gaping at her.
�But I reckon I�ll have to live with it.� She twirled her wand again and paused
as a bright red spark leaped out of it, fluttering just above her robes. �For right now.�

�� Harry stared at her, then at Ron, who was looking on with a proud expression.
�Did you know she was this bloodthirsty?� he demanded.

�� Yes,� Ron said. �You should have
heard her when Shacklebolt originally said that he wouldn�t punish Huxley.� He
glanced at Harry and started laughing. �What?� he asked through his chuckles.
�Did you think we would be self-righteous and lecture you and them about
revenge?�

�� Um,� Harry said, a little dazed,
because that was the most neutral way he�d ever heard Ron refer to his
bondmates. �Yes?�

�� Ron shook his head. �Not when
someone�s hurt you like that, mate,� he said. �I was worried about them killing
her, but that�s because the Ministry would put them in prison and then you
would mope. Not because we care about bloody Swanfair.� His face darkened, and
one hand clenched on his knee. �I�d give a lot for five minutes alone in a room
with her,� he muttered.

�� Don�t,� Harry said sharply. �She�s
an expert in mind control. She nearly got me, but I can resist the Imperius
Curse, and you��

�� Ron rolled his eyes. �I was speaking
in hypotheticals,� he said. �And you�re incredibly
jumpy.� He reached out and grabbed Harry�s hand, holding on tight. �Trust me,�
he whispered. �Trust me like you used to. They�re not the only ones who were
upset when they realized that you were sick.�

�� Harry looked at Ron in wonder. Of
course he should have anticipated that his best friends would be upset. He
would be upset if someone had done to Ron or Hermione what Swanfair had done to
him.

�� But after so long getting
comfortable with his bondmates and striving to trust them more, it seemed that
he had forgotten how people outside the enchanted circle of the bonds would see
him and react to what had happened.

�� Right,� Harry said, and squeezed
Ron�s hand hard. �I�m sorry.� To lighten the mood, he smiled at Hermione and
said, �In a few days, I should be back on my feet, but Severus wants me to do
something �productive� while I�m lying in bed. Any books that
you can recommend?�

�� Hermione looked at him in pity.
�You�ll have to be more specific as to subject, Harry,� she said, and fetched a
roll of parchment from inside her sleeve. �Books on history?
Books on law? Books on curses and
potions? Books on magical creatures?� She shook
out the roll of parchment, and it sprawled down towards her feet, longer than
any of the essays she�d written in Hogwarts. �I have all of those, and other
subjects besides, but they�re not going to help unless you can indicate what
you want.�

�� Tell me,� Harry said to Ron, �that
she doesn�t carry lists of book recommendations around with her everywhere she
goes just in case someone wants them.�

�� Yes, she does,� Ron said, looking
deeply satisfied.

�� Harry sighed and turned to Hermione.
�The shortest books you have.�

�� Hermione promptly reached into her
other sleeve and produced a different roll of parchment. �You�ll still have to
specify by subject,� she said.

*

�� Dear
Madam Swanfair.

�� It had taken Draco half an hour to
write those words and have them come out calm, crisp, and even on the
parchment. He stared at them now and wondered if he should blot them and surround them with drops of ink. Wouldn�t
Swanfair expect anger from someone whose bondmate was still sick?

�� But no, she would suspect him more
if he blotted, Draco decided slowly, because that would mean that he was wildly
angry. She might anticipate revenge. Draco didn�t want her to. He wanted to
sound resigned, calm, cowed by the presence of a greater power. Swanfair had
�proven� that she could reach everywhere and hurt everyone she wanted. They
wanted her to maintain that impression, and even build her pride up to a
greater pitch, until the moment of her fall.

�� I
am glad to see you come to the conclusion that I had already worked out for
myself, Severus�s voice said, clam and sardonic, in the back of his head.

�� Draco didn�t see that that complaint
was worth answering. He had been the
one to come up with the revenge plan, which was unmatched in its simplicity and
legality. He returned to writing the letter.

�� For
various reasons, Harry finds himself compelled to withdraw from any meetings
for the next several weeks. His sickness is growing rapidly and could be
contagious for anyone who comes in contact with him. Even Severus and I have to
take extreme precautions that wound us as we watch him thrashing in bed.

�� Draco had to keep himself from
adding a vicious little twist on the last words. Yes, let Swanfair imagine them
in pain. It would lull her suspicions.

�� We
know that we have not had the best of relations with you in the near past, but
you are still the most powerful pure-blood supporter Colben has, and the only
one available for the touchier proponents of blood purity now that I must spend
my time with Harry. We would like you to call a meeting, and inform us of the
date, so that you may announce Harry�s incapacity to continue working on the
campaign. If I can tear myself away from Harry for an evening, I will be there;
otherwise, Severus will come.

�� More misdirection, more planting of
false ideas, in a way that would make it only Swanfair�s fault if she actually
believed Draco. Let her imagine him besotted and wailing, unable to think
clearly while Harry was ill. And let her imagine Severus coolly distant and
unaffected. She would try to manipulate them in different ways, but those ways
would miss the mixture of anger and logic that both Severus and Draco
contained, and so the manipulations would fail.

�� You
were irrational during the week Harry was recovering, Severus reminded him,
with a gentle touch, as if he disliked bringing these memories to Draco�s mind.

�� And
you were the Captain of the good ship Reason, of course, Draco snapped
back, and bent to finish the letter.

�� Thank
you for what you have done for us. Notwithstanding our recent disagreement, and
notwithstanding other considerations that make the words bitter to write, we
must all bow to the inevitable and be thankful you were here.

�� Draco
Malfoy.

�� I
wonder if you have not overplayed your hand, Severus muttered doubtfully in
his head. She will see sarcasm in the
last paragraph.

�� Draco snorted and carefully set the
letter aside, then cast a Drying Charm on the ink. He didn�t want a curve of
any letter changed from this moment forward. She�s meant to. She would be suspicious if we pretended that we didn�t
know the fever potion was from her. She�ll see this as the last anguished
writhing of a venomous snake who knows that he can�t actually damage anyone
with his poison anymore.

�� Severus fell into startled thinking,
and Harry answered from the bedroom above where he was still engaged with
Granger and the Weasel. I could never
think as subtly as you do, Draco.

�� Draco half-closed his eyes in
enjoyment. Why, thank you, he said. It�s always pleasant to hear that my
bondmates admire me.

�� Harry responded with a rush of
warmth that encircled him like a whirlpool of sweets. And thank you again for taking care of me all week.

�� They were on good enough terms with
each other now that Draco knew his next, teasing words wouldn�t be
misunderstood. I was simply trying to get
you back in shape for sex. You know that, right?

�� Harry�s laughter and Severus�s
reprimand both hit him at once.

*

�� Harry came downstairs the next
morning, leaning on the railing with an expression of determination that said
he wouldn�t be banished back to bed. Severus, awake with a cup of tea and the
letter that Swanfair had sent in reply to Draco�s, decided not to try, but he
did make Harry sit in a chair at once and fetched tea for him.

�� You don�t have to do that,� Harry
muttered in obvious embarrassment, eyes turned towards the floor even as he
accepted the cup from Severus. �I could have walked that far.�

�� Without spilling
the tea?� Severus asked with an arch of his eyebrow, and Harry grimaced
and wriggled a bit, then sighed and held the cup to his mouth with fingers that
shook.

�� I was sick,� he told the tea in
annoyance. �I wasn�t dying. But everyone acts like I was.�

�� It is rare,� Severus said, picking
up the letter again, �and not something I wished to tell either you or Draco
when you were experiencing such intense agitation. But people have died from
the Impassioned Fever Potion.�

�� Harry�s eyes darted up to him, and
the bond trembled with a current of pure golden uncertainty. Severus remained
still and steady-eyed, exactly as he was, and Harry looked away and gulped.

�� Oh,� he whispered. �I didn�t know
that.�

�� What Swanfair did,� Severus said,
�struck at the heart and core of the bond. It implied that we could not protect
you. It implied that she could control us and we would have to do exactly as
she wanted. It implied that she was the victor in a contest that has barely
begun. Do you see why we took it so seriously?�

�� Harry nodded, fingers sliding over
the sides of his cup. Severus looked at him doubtfully, and he seemed to
notice, because he coughed and sat up. �Yes,� he said loudly. �Yes, I do.� He
reached across the table and squeezed Severus�s hand. �This isn�t like what
happened to me after the Gut Chewing Curse,� he said. �I promise. Then, I still
wasn�t used to you and it was all mixed up with the fact that you would die if
I died. But now that I know you love me��

�� He paused, perhaps unavoidably, and
Severus squeezed the fingers clutching at his. It was all the gesture he was
capable of at the moment, but Harry seemed satisfied with that, at least enough
to give him a sweet smile.

�� Now that I know you love me,� Harry
said, �and now that the danger�s been explained to me, I won�t dismiss the cost
you paid again.� He hesitated, then added, �Dumbledore
didn�t tell me about the prophecy because he wanted to protect me, you know. He
wanted to give me a childhood. He didn�t know that the Dursleys had already
stolen it.� For a moment, his face creased with bitterness, reminding Severus
that they needed to speak about that. Harry rushed on, having perhaps heard
that thought. �I always wished he had trusted me with the truth. As long as
someone does, and I know they care about me, then I can take them seriously.�

�� I will endeavor to remember this,�
Severus said. He knew there would be times when his impulse to protect
overruled his good sense, but now that he knew how much the truth mattered to
Harry, at least he could make an effort. �Draco�s revenge plan has been set in
motion. Swanfair has sent one letter that seems to accept his overtures, but
still she dances about and acts coy. He will need to lure her closer before she
will agree to anything solid.�

�� Harry grunted. He was staring into
his teacup again, and though his fingers regularly tightened on Severus�s,
Severus thought that his mind was elsewhere. He sipped at his own tea and
waited patiently for the explosion or the revelation.

�� Finally, Harry looked up and said,
�I want to thank you for what you did for me.�

�� Severus blinked. �You have.� He
wondered if some remnant of the fever�s memory loss lingered, or if Harry had
lost track of time again.

�� Harry shook his head. �I remember
speaking the words,� he said. �But I want to do something more than that. What
gift would you like? What can I do for you?� He leaned towards Severus, his
face terribly open and earnest.

�� Severus had to shut his eyes to
quell the powerful impulses that rose up in him. Merlin, Harry should know
better than to make that offer to someone who had been a Slytherin.

�� I
heard that, Harry snapped in his head. And don�t you understand? I trust you. I know that you won�t ask me to do
anything I can�t do. Let me know what you want. Those things you�re so afraid
to tell me�what did I just get through saying about the truth? Let me know.

�� Severus slowly opened his eyes,
though for the moment he maintained a guard on the part of his mind that would
have liked nothing more than to respond fully to Harry�s request. He examined
Harry�s face, the lines of it and the tightness at the corners of his eyes, as
though he had no bond to tell him the emotions. He wanted to match the
expression and the emotions, and make sure that he would not make a mistake in
speaking the truth.

�� Please.

�� Severus nodded slightly.

�� Until these bonds took effect,� he
told Harry, speaking slowly, because he wanted the truth and nothing else, �I
did not know many ways of connecting with others. Honest words were out of the
question for me as a spy, and as the Head of Slytherin. I spoke only with Albus
about most of what I saw and felt. I had shared memories with such people as
Lucius, but they were not memories that I had created willingly.�

�� Harry�s hand tightened on his again,
but he remained still and bright-eyed, letting Severus speak.

�� The only way of connection I could
reliably use,� Severus said, making sure that Harry heard the hesitation and
the longing in his voice, �was sex. And I had absorbed certain attitudes
towards it, growing up as I did in my parents� narrow home and then in
prejudiced Slytherin House.� Severus had long admitted the prejudice of those
who had lured him to the Death Eaters, so that did not hurt to confess. He
would have defended the values and the tactics he had learned there still,
except that he knew what they had been used for. �Certain�things�while
pleasurable, did not count as full sex. A remnant of those attitudes persists
within me still. What you have done with and for Draco and I is
beautiful. But��

�� You want more,� Harry said, his voice so soft that Severus would not have been
certain of the words without hearing the echo in his mind.

�� Severus nodded.

�� Harry studied him. The longer the
moment stretched, the more Severus�s shoulders tensed. He feared he had done
the wrong thing in asking, even though it was what Harry had encouraged, or
begged, him to do. Did one administer a dose of Dreamless Sleep to someone who
had newly awoken from a coma? No, and it was possible that Harry�s recent
sickness still clouded his judgment.

�� Harry�s forehead wrinkled in
annoyance. �Don�t do that, please,� he said shortly. �I hate when someone
distrusts me without reason.�

�� Severus nodded, and waited.

�� Harry swallowed, and then said, �You
know, I wasn�t afraid of the pain. That�s not why I waited so long, or why I
refused to have�that kind of sex with Cadell.� Severus held back his surge of
triumph, sensing that Harry would not appreciate it. �I thought of what it
would be like if someone was�inside me, and what Ginny�s face looked like
when�well.� He coughed and stared at the table with his face burning. �Then I
saw Draco�s face when I was inside him. It�s so open. I�ve survived most of my life by hiding things. Some things, the things most important to me. I adapted to
you knowing my emotions only because I had to, and even then it wasn�t so bad
because I could shut the bonds if I wanted to. Then we could hear each other�s
thoughts and dreams, but it wasn�t every thought or every night.� He stared up
at Severus from beneath his fringe. �Do you understand? We�re intimate, but
it�s an intimacy I can control.�

�� This does not surprise me,� Severus
said. �You fear to lose that control if someone were to penetrate you.� Harry
flinched and gave him a look that grumbled and flashed with the undertone of How can you just refer to it casually like
that? �You would not be able to control your expression or what you said.�

�� Yeah,� Harry said, with a relieved
smile. �That�s it. So I held back, and held back. Then I saw the way that you
looked at me when I first woke up from the fever.� He squeezed Severus�s arm
with his free hand, as if he wanted to make sure the muscle connected to the
fingers he was holding. �And I wasn�t afraid anymore.�

�� Severus swallowed what felt like
liquid eagerness in his throat. He had not been this hungry when he and Draco
first became lovers, but Draco had a courage and boldness in bed that Harry
entirely lacked. His charm was the charm of someone giving himself up without
hesitation, with a demand for reciprocation, in fact, the charm and the
astonishing grace of someone who knew exactly what he wanted. Harry had to be
courted by circumstance before he would admit that he might want to sleep with
Severus more than he wanted to maintain control.

�� He had surrendered of his own free
will in the end. That made it doubly precious to Severus. He had a prize that
was worth the more for being so unattainable, but he had not lost his own
dignity in chasing after it.

�� Harry�s cheeks were red again.
Severus knew that he was not used to such thoughts directed at him. He had long
since been used to another sort of importance in the eyes of the wizarding
world, and his childhood and adolescence had not been filled with the
expectation of admiring glances.

�� This
is what we give you in return, Severus told him. We give you ourselves, the knowledge of our wants and desires, and you
respond with the gift of you.

�� Harry nodded. His eyes were large,
but he stood up in the next moment and leaned across the table to kiss Severus
with more tongue and more patience than he normally used. He also took
shameless advantage of the bond to talk to Severus as he was kissing him.

�� When
Swanfair is settled�which should not be very long if we follow Draco�s
plan�then I will give you everything you want.

�� Severus let his fingers curl tightly
into the hair on the back of Harry�s head, as tightly as he hoped to hold him
to his promise.

*

�� You
can understand why I would be suspicious of your thanks.

�� Draco laughed silently for himself.
That single line was all Swanfair had chosen to send in response to his
elaborate and fantastically sincere letter.

�� He sat for a few moments staring
into the fire and considering what he should send in return. The bonds hummed
with quiet activity. Severus was in the library, comparing two potions books
and trying to judge which of two ancient recipes was likely to be the more
reliable. Harry was in the lab washing vials. Severus had decreed that he had
to learn how to master the elementary tasks before he tried anything more
strenuous with potions, and Harry had grudgingly agreed.

�� When he stopped regarding the
ingredients as if they were poisonous snakes, Draco thought, he might even do
worthwhile work.

�� He closed his eyes when he decided
on his strategy to reply to Swanfair and conjured up images of his father, the
way he had been used to thinking of him before the war: calm, cold, clear-eyed,
rational. That was not the Lucius Draco had seen in
the war with the Dark Lord�sometimes he thought that Lucius had never existed,
and was only the embodiment of a child�s fantasy�but it was the Lucius he
needed now.

�� When he had the image clearly in his
mind and ice water flowing through his veins, he chose a piece of parchment and
began to write.

�� Madam
Swanfair:

�� Perhaps
you heard more sarcasm than was intended in my first letter. (He would
leave her to wonder whether he meant that she had heard more than was there or
more than he had meant her to hear). Nevertheless,
certain facts are true and have to be faced. Harry is sick. He will probably
not be able to participate in the election, and certainly won�t be able to
participate in the events leading up to the election. Therefore, we need
someone whom the pure-bloods will trust, if we don�t want to lose the election
altogether. I cannot be that person without the visible symbol of my power
beside me. You are still the best choice.

�� I
do not like you. I do not trust you. I do not wish to be your friend. But
political realities go beyond the individual feelings of the present moment.

�� We
may be allies of a distant kind, allies who have hurt each other, but who still
serve the single great struggle. We want Shacklebolt out of office because he
has hurt us. (And let her think that was the only reason, and therefore
that Draco was consumed by grief and could be fooled like someone who was
unstable). To attain that goal, we are
willing to put up with sacrifices. Perhaps Harry would not want us to put up
with them if he was coherent. But he is not, and those who are must act.

�� I
say to you: Only announce in public what has happened. We have used rumor too
much as a tool against Shacklebolt not to know what would happen if it was
turned against us. Our side will straggle and become disunited if some begin to
believe that I am in charge and some that you are.

�� And
tell us when you mean to make that announcement, that
we might look forwards to that day for the term of our anxieties.

�� Draco paused to admire that last
line, then wrote his name and went to find an owl. The hum of contentment from
his bondmates was now joined by a similar sound from him.

*

�� Isn�t it lovely?�

�� Harry smiled over the photographs of
the house that Hermione was showing him, the house she and Ron had bought in the
wizarding village where they meant to live. He wished that he could have gone
with them, but there was too much chance of someone spotting him if he left the
house and spoiling the scheme for revenge against Swanfair. So Harry spent a
lot of his days in the library and the lab, and now he was sitting up in his
old bed, examining Hermione�s pictures.

�� Despite everything else, he was most
inclined to laugh at this last bit. It was an ordinary thing in the mess of
extraordinariness that was his life.

�� There�s the garden,� Hermione said,
leaning over Harry�s shoulder so that she could point to the green plants in
the photograph, though Harry could see them perfectly well. The garden was in
the middle of the house, he saw, with a roof open to the air and the plants
climbing the walls. He wondered if the owner of the house would really let
Hermione and Ron keep all of them when they moved in. �In spring, there will be
even more flowers growing than there are now.� She pushed on to the next
picture and laughed a little as she looked at the plain room with worn carpet
that it showed. �The drawing room needs to be redone,� she admitted. �But it
was the garden that attracted us. And the space!� She looked at Harry with
a soft smile. �I think that�s what Ron wants most of all. He�s used to growing
up in a small house where he has to share everything with everyone. Here, he
won�t have anything to share with anyone but me.�

�� Harry grinned up at her. Ron was in
Auror training at the moment, so it seemed safe to joke about him. �I assume
there are some things you won�t be
sharing.�

�� If he touches the library and tries
to sell any of the books,� Hermione began, sounding entirely serious.

�� Harry felt a pressure against the
wards suddenly, and raised a hand to stop Hermione from speaking. Severus had
been trying to train him and Draco to think more about the defenses, and to
feel themselves linked to them in the way that Severus
had been for so long. Harry thought that Severus could hardly ask for more than
for him to notice immediately when someone arrived.

�� He didn�t think the person was
hostile, or the wards would have activated already. But he was pacing wildly up
and down outside the house instead of asking for permission to come in, and
that meant�

�� Harry! It�s me!�

�� It
means that maybe he�s too agitated to ask for entrance like a civilized person,
snapped Draco, whose notion of �civilized� fit with �archaic language� more
and more often.

�� Harry rolled his eyes and reached
out, carefully, to drop some of the wards. He was still learning to manage the
spells as well as Severus did, and for a moment they faltered. Severus flowed
into the gap without so much as a hesitation, and Harry gave him a wordless thanks in a gentle kiss to the side of the face.
Severus paused before he returned to his reading, and
in the end let it lapse without saying anything.

�� Ron ran through the house as though
lives depended on him reaching Harry and Hermione quickly. Harry could feel the
vibrations of his footsteps on the stairs and the way he brushed past the
wards; he could hear Draco�s sniff in his head and the disdainful words about
Weasleys and grace that Harry didn�t bother to listen to. They would only
exasperate him, and he was more curious about what had happened to Ron.

�� Ron burst through the door of
Harry�s bedroom and shut it carefully behind him. Harry thought that was an odd
gesture after the way he�d hurried to get here, but understood when Ron cast a
locking charm. He wanted to prevent anyone from entering after him.

�� If you want to tell me something
that you also want me to keep from my bondmates, I�m afraid that I�ll have to
refuse,� Harry told him, and didn�t try to keep the edge out of his voice.

�� Ron turned around, shaking his head.
�Fine,� he said, though the flash in his eyes told Harry that he was
disappointed. �They should know something about it anyway. It matters to all of
us.� He took a deep breath and clenched his fists as if he wanted to hit
something. Harry leaned forwards. Hermione had already gathered up the
photographs into a neat pile and watched Ron expectantly.

�� Shacklebolt�s resigning,� Ron said.

�� Harry felt his mouth fall open, if
only because of the sudden distance between his lower jaw and his tongue.
Hermione took a step forwards as though someone had dangled an expensive book
in front of her. Her words danced and sparked with an urgency that Harry
shared. �You�re certain about this? You didn�t just hear a rumor somewhere and
you�re repeating it without thinking about the source?�

�� Ron gave her an offended look. �Of
course not,� he said. �He made a general announcement to the Aurors and the
trainees five minutes ago. I reckon he thought he owed us an explanation first,
since he�d been an Auror, and there were Aurors tarnished by what he did and
what Dominus did.�

�� And he didn�t show any signs of
Imperius?� Hermione said. Harry could tell she was thinking aloud. �Or Polyjuice. Imperius wouldn�t be cast in the Ministry, it would be too dangerous to use Unforgivables
there��

�� He looked perfectly normal,� Ron
said fiercely. �I know what I saw, Hermione, and what I heard. He�s resigning
because he feels that he�s done too much that�s bad for the reputation of the
Ministry. He�s resigning because that�s what he feels is best for the Ministry
right now.� He spread his hands and stared hard at her. �What else would you
like me to do? Recite his speech from memory? You know that I can�t do that the
way you could.�

�� Of course not,� Hermione said, and
her voice had softened. She stepped around the bed to embrace Ron. Harry looked
away. He might have lost his shyness about intimacy around Draco and Severus,
but they were the only ones. He still didn�t feel comfortable watching his best
friends act like lovers.

�� It�s just incredible,� Hermione
went on after a moment, and Harry knew it was safe to turn back, because she
wouldn�t have been able to talk with her mouth pressed to Ron�s. Yes, she was
looking thoughtful now, twirling a curl of hair around her finger and standing
a safe distance from Ron. �I wonder what he thinks it will accomplish. Maybe he
really is sick of everything. Or maybe he thinks people will pity him and beg
him to come back.�

�� Or maybe he�s trying to take time
away from the weeks we were counting on to prepare Colben,� Harry had to say.

�� Hermione shook her head. �That can�t
be it. When a general election has been proposed and accepted by the
Wizengamot, the time can�t vary. It�ll still happen at the same time no matter
what happens to the current Minister.� She fell
silent, nibbling her lips, her brow furrowed. Harry watched her and waited
patiently. She was still the one he counted on to come up with the most and the
best answers, as convenient as the way he could rely on Draco and Severus was.

�� We
caught your thoughts, Draco hissed in his head, as if to punish him for not
stating them directly. The Minister resigning?

�� Yes,
and he made a special announcement of it to the Aurors and the Auror trainees, said
Harry, hoping to head off any attempt to accuse Ron of exaggeration or not
hearing well enough.

�� Shacklebolt
may have regretted what he has become, Severus said thoughtfully. He wished to obey the rules of the Order of
the Phoenix when he was in power; I know he said as much in a first interview
after the war. And then he found himself under the power of a despicable woman
and unable to reconcile his principles with his fears. Perhaps he thought this
was the best way to retain some dignity and some sense of the person he used to
be.

�� What
he became might have been regrettable, but that doesn�t mean we should forgive
him, said Draco, with a reptilian vengeful sound in his voice.

�� I
think the reason why only matters if it turns out to affect Colben�s campaign, Harry
said. And for the moment, the best thing
we can do is handle that confrontation with Swanfair and then look towards what
comes after.

�� He received nearly identical
impressions from Draco and Severus of what they wanted to happen after Swanfair
was handled. Harry blushed, and smiled, and then faced Ron and Hermione again.
Once more, the conversation had happened so fast that Hermione was still in her
first moments of consideration about what Shacklebolt�s action might mean.

�� Maybe he still hopes to salvage the
reputation of the Ministry, if not the Minister,� she said. �Or maybe he hopes
that you�ll be more inclined to help his successor, whoever that is.� She
nodded to Harry.

�� If it�s Colben, yes,� Harry said.
�Not if it�s someone like Swanfair.�

�� Hermione shuddered. �I would hope
that he wouldn�t want that, either.�

�� Kingsley�s changed so much that I
find it hard to understand him.� Harry ran a hand through his hair. �Anyway,
Hermione, weren�t you showing me pictures of your house?�

�� Hermione stared at him
incredulously. �Harry, this is the most important political news of our time,
and you want to��

�� I want to stop worrying about
Kingsley and Swanfair and just enjoy myself with my friends for a single
afternoon,� Harry said firmly. �Yes, it�s important that this happened, but we
can�t deal with it right now, and God knows if we�ll ever find out why he
resigned. We�ll just drive ourselves mad chasing alternate explanations, and I
think that�s what he wants. Well, it�s not what I want.� He patted the bed beside him. �I want you to show me
pictures of your house.�

�� Hermione sat down, her eyes big, and
picked up the stack of photographs. �Well, this is the drawing room,� she said
weakly. �And we don�t know where we�ll put all the furniture yet.�

�� What about the books?� Harry asked,
because he thought that was an excellent way to distract Hermione.

�� Sure enough, her face lit up, and
she bent over the picture, tracing the glossy surface with a finger. �You can�t
see it from here,� she said, �but we�re putting shelves in the drawing room.
Just along one wall, of course. Well, maybe two. And the room next to the
garden�there�s nothing there right now�should be a good library. Secondary
library, that is. Because of course the main library is going to be upstairs,
next to my study��

�� Harry caught Ron�s eye and smiled.
Ron shook his head and grinned back, then joined in, telling Harry where the
training room, modeled on the training room that Ledbetter used for Harry and
Draco, would be.

�� He was paying so much attention to
his friends that Harry wasn�t entirely sure he caught it, but he thought there was a gleam of approval
from both Draco and Severus through his bonds, fleeting across his mind like
sunlight on a stream.

*

�� At last.

�� Draco flattened the latest letter
Swanfair had sent him on the sitting room table and looked at it with quiet
triumph. It had taken numerous owls of courting her, careful lines hinting his
desires without ever stating them openly, giggly and
plumed words that Draco would never have thought could flow from his quill, but
at last Swanfair had fallen for his plan and agreed to host a gathering of
pure-bloods.

�� She was even doing it in the same
hall where Draco had stood when he wanted to convince the pure-bloods that he
was the new representative of the Colben alliance. Irony flooded Draco�s mouth,
and he licked his lips to get rid of the thick, rich taste.

�� Dearest
Malfoy,

�� Your
proposals make sense. If you wish to surrender to me, you should do it gracefully.
I will meet you on the evening of the sixteenth in the hall near Hogsmeade. As
a token of your intentions, I shall require you to walk onto the stage and bow
to me.

�� Come
at seven. I find myself craving a suitable number, and seven appears to me a
sufficiently magical one.

�� Brynhildr Swanfair.

�� Draco closed his eyes and stood
there in the perfume of his thoughts for a moment. She had tried to offend him
by writing curtly, without the flowering of words that many pure-bloods would
have thought appropriate to such a moment.

�� Draco was not offended. He had
expected that from her. He had expected everything, and he was standing there
and enjoying himself in the consciousness of his triumph.

�� You
deserve it, Harry said in his mind, words as fervent as sunlight through a
magnifying lens. You handled her
wonderfully.

�� Draco tilted his head back in
response. It was the only way he could cope with the feeling of utter pleasure
running down the nape of his neck.

�� That feeling increased a moment
later when Severus poured his approval into the bond. You have done what neither of us could have done. I am glad to be
partnered with someone who has such skills.

�� That was true, Draco realized. No
matter how much of an expert he was in Potions, no matter how long he studied
and thus came into possession of knowledge that Draco would never have, Severus
still could not have done this.

�� Harry sent along a murmur of
agreement, as well as an acidic reminder that perhaps neither of them had had
the chance to acquire such skills,
and an addition that he wouldn�t want them.

�� Draco didn�t care. He closed his
eyes and soaked the pleasure in.

*

�� Oscillum:
Thank you! Harry and Severus should get the chance to be incredible in the last
chapter.

�� Dragon: Yes, he�s recovering.

�� Mia: Thank you so much. I started
this because I wanted a long, intriguing threesome fic; most of the ones I see
jump into sex too early or are unfinished, and therefore I don�t want to start
them. I�m humbled to know that it�s become something like that for someone other
than me.

�� Starstruck86: Well, Swanfair�s plan was effective�just not the way she
pictured it.

�� Adamaris Syler Autumn: Thank you! And maybe it�s a bit of a
cliffhanger, since Draco�s plan isn�t going to take place in this chapter.
Draco continues to prove himself master of the pure-blood political spectrum
here, I think.

�� Jacinta: Thank you!

sable_silverrain: Thank you!
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Their Phoenix