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Easy as Falling	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 31246 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this fanfic.

Chapter List
- 31
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Thank you again for all the reviews!
Chapter Thirty-Two—Like a Visiting King
            Draco touched his face, and then dropped his hand. Doing that all the time would only make someone think he had something to hide.
            Besides, Harry, walking in front of him, snapped his fingers casually back over his shoulder, and Draco got to see his face in the patch of air that suddenly turned shiny and reflective, like a mirror bobbing right above Harry’s collarbone. Draco examined himself, and nodded. Really, the glamour just made his eyes and hair a bit less shiny and added some coarseness to his skin and angles to his cheekbones, but that was all to the good. Better to have people assume he was someone they were slightly familiar with than decide Harry had come in with a complete stranger.
            “You’re ready?”
            Draco looked up again. The mirror vanished, and Harry had come to a stop in front of the common entrance to the Ministry, looking over his shoulder with a faint frown. Draco smiled and stepped forwards to squeeze his shoulder.
            “I think you should be asking whether the Ministry is ready for me,” he said.
            Harry laughed and faced forwards again. When he gestured the numbers on the phone inside the box punched themselves. Draco craned his neck to watch it, a little curious. He had thought Harry would Apparate or Floo into the Ministry. They had proven that they couldn’t keep him out when he went to punish Fifernum.
            “I’m a visitor now,” Harry said, either reading Draco’s mind or capturing his gaze and understanding it. “I’m not an Auror. I think I should follow protocol for visitors, don’t you?”
            “You should follow whatever protocol you want to follow.”
            Harry looked over his shoulder and blinked this time before he laughed. “That would be more comfortable for my enemies than for me,” he said. “I need rules.”
            Draco shrugged. “Just telling you the sort of thing you could do, if you wanted.”
            Harry drew his breath to respond, but a cool voice spoke out of the Ministry phonebox. “Mr. Potter. Your company is much appreciated. If you will Apparate directly to the Atrium and take the stairs to the Wizengamot courtroom on the tenth level, you will find your presence eagerly awaited.”
            Draco blinked. Harry blinked back, then shrugged. “They probably want to discuss the OWLs and NEWTS with me,” he said. “And I’m agreeable, since I have so very much to discuss with them.”
            His eyes were harder than Draco had ever seen them as he held out an arm. After a moment, Draco realized Harry wanted to Side-Along him, and hurried in to take his arm.
            Harry turned his head to whisper into Draco’s ear. “I’ll send you out if I get too angry. I don’t want you to have to see that.”
            Draco started to tell him that there was nothing he would rather see, but by then, they were Apparating.
*
            The Wizengamot courtroom looked exactly the way it had during the times when Harry testified for a case, only more crowded. All the Wizengamot members were there, even the ones whom most people could never get to stir. They leaned forwards and stared at him as he entered the room. A few people paid attention to Draco, too, trailing behind him, but not many.
            Good. Harry knew that he might kill at a threat to Draco, the way he wouldn’t at a threat to himself. It would be as well for everyone if no one paid attention.
            The nearest Wizengamot member was a woman with heavy dark features that marked her as related to the Blacks, although Harry had never been sure of the exact degree of relation. He did know her name was Nigella Landen, though, and she was a cold bitch. She gave him a smile now and said, “Mr. Potter. You have come to listen?”
            “I’ve come to listen, and talk,” Harry said, and took a stand in front of the Wizengamot, ignoring the chairs that sat behind him, although he gestured for Draco to take one if he wanted. Like hell was he going to be sitting in front of some of the most arrogant wizards he’d ever known.
            They exchanged glares for a while, and then Landen said, “You know that the Ministry no longer recognizes Hogwarts.”
            “I received the owl this morning,” Harry said. He could see glances flying behind Landen’s head, and none of them had much to do with what she was saying. They wanted to know why he hadn’t come stomping in here with his magic boiling and demanded recognition of his students’ OWLs and NEWTs immediately.
            Because that would be what you expected, Harry answered them silently. And I prefer not to do anything that you would expect. He didn’t fold his arms, but it was hard not to. He glared at the Wizengamot instead, and people winced and drew back. Then he returned his attention to Landen.
            “You must realize that this is an untenable situation,” Landen said, leaning back in her chair and linking her hands together over her stomach. She seemed to be enjoying his presence here rather than wetting her pants, Harry thought. Well, there were times that being a cold bitch would work out for her, no doubt. “Wizarding children in Britain deserve the best magical education, not to be shuffled aside by their own Ministry.”
            “I agree,” Harry said. “Which is the reason that I disagreed with the Ministry’s idea to close the school in the first place.”
            Landen sniffed. “It would have been for a few years, no more, while we came up with the best way to educate our children.”
            “What would have happened to the Muggleborns?” Harry asked softly. “And the children with no home other than Hogwarts? Have you thought about that?”
            “Muggleborns are not the Ministry’s concern unless they perform magic at home or officially become part of our world after leaving Hogwarts,” Landen said. “And we know that you did not take over the school because you were worried about the students, Mr. Potter. We know that it was through misplaced nostalgia and considering Hogwarts your home.”
            “And what would happen if they performed magic at home during the years when the school was shut down?” Harry asked, and then shook his head. He was allowing himself to be swept up in stupid arguments, the way the Ministry wanted him to be. They were expert at dealing with their version of reality, the one where they were right and all their objections were reasonable. “Never mind. I think it’ll be interesting to see how the students do at Hogwarts now, but in the meantime, I came to tell you that your plan won’t work.”
            “Why not?” Landen gave every evidence of interest, swaying forwards until she almost knocked her chair over. “Why would you think that we need to give recognition to the OWLs and NEWTs if we don’t want to?”
            Harry shook his head and smiled. “Because I know some of the people on the Wizarding Examinations Authority Board.” It was true, because he had sometimes investigated cases connected to them, and trained for one of his Auror classes in a manor that belonged to one of them. “I find it hard to believe that everyone will refuse to come and tell me how the exams are administered. Meanwhile, I know there are experts in other magical countries that handle their exams differently. If everything else fails, I could send my Hogwarts students to those countries to have their competency established. Unless you’re going to tell me that you never accept any credentials equivalent to NEWTs and OWLs if someone moves here from France and wants to become an Auror.”
            Landen stiffened for a moment. Then she said, “Mr. Potter. You cannot continue to go outside the rules.”
            “I don’t know why not,” Harry said. “Given that I now know that people I’d never injured were collecting evidence of my abuse while I was a child, and did nothing about it. They collected it because they thought I might become a threat someday.” He smiled at Landen. “You could say that I’m just fulfilling their predictions and using their tactics, by moving outside the rules.”
            Landen’s smile had drained from her face. She watched Harry carefully for a moment, as if she thought it possible that he would tell her this was all a joke and laugh. Then she stood up and said, “Perhaps you would give me some names of the people you accuse of doing this to you.”
            “Minister Fudge,” Harry said. Landen relaxed. Harry knew why. Fudge was no longer part of the Ministry, and it would be convenient for everyone if the blame could be cast on someone past and gone. “And Hammon Rosier.”
            There was a slight scuffle off to the side, although Harry didn’t take his eyes off Landen and so didn’t know if it was caused by someone trying to get away or not. Then the scuffle resolved itself into a tall, handsome, black-haired man stepping forwards and bowing to Harry.
            “I am Hammon Rosier,” he said. “Perhaps you could tell me what grudge you have against me?”
            Harry measured him quickly with his eyes. Rosier was calm as he faced Harry, his arms not folded but clasped behind his back, and his smile was slight but easy. He reminded Harry of Fifernum. She had looked at him with the same coldness, at least until he had got hold of her and punished her. It wasn’t personal with either one of them, knowing he had been abused or gathering the evidence. Rosier might not have approved of releasing the photographs, but only because he would keep them back and use them later, as it became more appropriate.
            Harry knew all of that, which meant there was no reason for his heart to start pounding and his breath to come short, or for him to feel that he hated the man on sight.
            He felt Draco shift behind him, silently reminding Harry that he was here. Harry felt his anger run out of him like lava from a volcano, and was actually able to smile, startling himself and probably Rosier, too, if the way he stared was any indication. But just knowing that he had one person with him who knew the truth and wouldn’t be fooled by Rosier’s words or on his side calmed Harry.
            He smiled up at Rosier. “You sent people to my relatives’ house to speak with them and collect their perspective of me,” he said. “I can only think of one reason to do that. You wanted some kind of record that showed I was a disobedient child, a horrible one, a freak. One the Ministry didn’t have to have anything to do with or support. Is that right?”
            Rosier remained still, looking down at him. Harry swallowed the shout he wanted to give, and just stood there in return, until Rosier nodded. “You cannot blame me for collecting evidence,” he said. “Not when you have turned out to be a political enemy.”
            “I am, now that I’m an adult,” Harry said. He could hear members of the Wizengamot murmuring, but he didn’t look away to see whose side they were taking. For the moment, this was between him and Rosier. “But the child me wasn’t. What kind of enemy did you think a ten-year-old who was starving because he didn’t get food every day could be?”
            Rosier inclined his head again, his expression grave and reserved. “If you had grown up in the wizarding world, you would have understood more of your remarkable power and the way that adults could have used you. As it was, you were placed with a Muggle family by Albus Dumbledore, and manipulated by him. I am sorry to consider that, Mr. Potter. I think we might have understood each other better if you had been raised as you should have been and made your own way. As it is, you are still succumbing to Dumbledore’s manipulations, seeing the world the way he did, thinking that you can defy lawful authority and be a good ruler that way.”
            Harry blinked. He could see why this particular Rosier had become a successful politician. He knew how to speak the truth in a way that mattered to the people he was trying to manipulate. Make it sound like Dumbledore was the source of all the problems, and he could slither out of responsibility.
            But while Harry agreed that it was partially Dumbledore’s fault, Dumbledore hadn’t had proof of his abuse, and employed a lot of other people to collect it, too, and then done nothing. Dumbledore had preferred to ignore his suspicions. That was painful, but not evil.
            “You keep saying what you would have done had things been different,” Harry said quietly. “But I’m interested in what you actually did. What excuses do you have for that?”
            “Political expediency.” Rosier considered him with so much calmness that Harry’s spine prickled. That expression suggested he knew something of what Harry planned already, and wasn’t afraid of it.
            On the other hand, that pose could be another of Rosier’s weapons that he employed to keep people from attacking him. Harry pushed through his own feelings and said, “Then you should realize that I took the school from the same motive, and I’m threatening to reach outside Britain for the same motive.”
            Rosier smiled at that. “No,” he said. “You never do the politically expedient thing, Mr. Potter, or you would have remained part of the Ministry and done what you could to convince us to change our minds about Hogwarts.” He reached out, and a flunky hurried up behind him and put a file folder in his hand. All the while, he never took his eyes from Harry. “Shall I tell you what else you’ve done? The crimes that you should have buried, if you always intended to become a political power, and did not? Which is another sign that you did not always intend to become a political power, of course.”
            Harry straightened his back as much as he could. It didn’t surprise him that the Ministry had a file on him. What mattered was what was in it.
            “Reveal my crimes,” he said, “the way you’ve revealed that I was an abused child and an enemy to the Ministry from day one.”
            Rosier sighed as he flipped through the contents of the file. “It was not my decision to reveal that information. If I had my way, it would still be contained in letters, no more, waiting for the day when you became a still greater threat.” He found something and nodded, looking up at Harry with a faint smile on his lips.
            “It is true that you broke into Gringotts,” he said. “And used the Imperius Curse as a means of doing so. Isn’t it?”
            Draco shifted a little behind Harry. Harry kept his eyes on Rosier. His magic would tell him if some threat was coming up from behind. “I was looking for an artifact of importance to the Dark Lord,” he said. “And it was war.”
            “But the goblins have always been neutral.” Rosier looked sternly at him. “They have told me themselves that you could have had what you wanted if you had bargained with them.”
            It didn’t matter what the truth was, Harry thought. Rosier might even believe what he was saying. What mattered was how he could make it look, and the goblins were still angry enough about Harry, Ron, and Hermione being in Gringotts that they would help Rosier to spin it the way he wanted.
            Harry had probably wasted his time by coming here. He might as well speak the truth and have it out now.
            He stood up straighter, and let the magic that had been flowing and draping around his shoulders come into him, into his limbs and the way he gestured. Rosier fell back despite himself, and then narrowed his eyes and firmed his own shoulders, as though to show anyone watching that he had nothing to fear.
            “You cannot kill me without repercussions, Mr. Potter,” he said softly.
            “I can tell you that your blackmailing’s going to stop,” Harry said. “I know the truth about you now, and I know that you don’t care that much about Hogwarts, only making me less of a political force.” He watched as Rosier’s face paled, and nodded. Rosier must not have thought that Rosenthal would say anything about him.
            “Draconis,” Harry said.
            His magic foamed and formed into a transparent draconic shape, which flew up into the rafters and crouched there, snarling at Rosier. Harry looked remotely at him. “I’ll still leave you free to act against me,” he said. “Although you may not want to, in the future. But if you try to blackmail the person who revealed you to me again, or do anything at all to them, including mentioning their name to someone else, that dragon is going to come down and scratch you. One talon-mark for every word you spoke or wrote.” He smiled at Rosier. “I thought you might like some blackmail of your own.”
            He turned and stormed out of the Ministry, despite the shouts from the Wizengamot for him to stop. He ought to have known, he thought. Of course the Ministry wouldn’t respond to logical arguments or admit that they had been wrong to close Hogwarts down. Of course Rosier wouldn’t apologize for the abuse or react to anything other than threats. They were skilled politicians, and Harry wasn’t. He could have intimidated them from the beginning, and the results would have been the same.
            At least he had protected Rosenthal, the person who had come to him for protection. That was something to be proud of.
            “Harry.”
            The glamour didn’t resemble Draco’s voice, luckily. That was the only consolation Harry had as he spoke the word, and then leaped on top of Harry, bearing him down to the ground.
            So the sparkling net of magic that went off in the air a moment later coalesced around Draco’s head, and not Harry’s. When Harry knocked Draco off him and rolled back over, he could see that.
            And he recognized the color of the net, bright green, and the way Draco moaned and shut his eyes and clapped his hands to his head.
            The net was a legal version of the Imperius Curse, meant to control someone’s actions and dig under their impulses, mastering them and giving them a new set of goals without alerting them the way that the floating feeling of the curse itself could.
            Harry glanced up to see Rosier stepping down the corridor, his wand extended.
            Whether or not he was responsible for the net, Harry didn’t know, and didn’t care, as he brought his magic up.
            No wonder they wanted me to come here. It wasn’t so much a chance to convince me as it was a trap.
            And Harry could play this game. Oh, yes he could.
*
            BAFan: Draco is getting really irritated with them at this point.
            moodysavage: You would be correct about that!
            kain: This is one of the reasons for what happens in the future of the story, the one-shot “Charming When He Needs to Be” that I posted some months back. Harry and Draco are not going to have a public alliance, and Harry’s power is going to be more widely understood but more limited. One of the things he did not anticipate was that Rosier is both tougher and slipperier than Harry thought he was. Harry didn’t get as much accomplished as he needed to.
            And yes, Harry is going to make at least one serious mistake, with serious repercussions.
            Don’t worry, I didn’t take the review as a knock. However, it makes Harry furious that there are people who knew that he was abused as a child and did nothing about it. If it wasn’t that, if they were spreading rumors and insulting him about something else, I don’t think he would have been nearly as furious.
            I think you can argue that he shouldn’t take it so personally, because his enemies don’t, but Harry is not good at not taking things personally.
            SP777: It’s going to be after the mini-arc of the next few chapters.
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Easy as Falling