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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.

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Chapter
Twenty-Nine�Cup

�� He�s a bastard, Harry. Just a
bastard.�

�� Harry
smiled a little and gripped Ron�s shoulder. �I know,� he murmured. �Thanks for
saying that.�

�� I just
wish I could kill him for you,� Ron muttered, spinning his wand violently in
his hand. Draco eyed him askance, but Harry ignored that. Just because Draco
would never show his emotions so openly in front of people who weren�t Harry or
his mother or Professor Snape didn�t mean Ron was being undignified. �Stupid immortal You-Know-Who, sticking pieces of his soul in
things that we have to destroy.�

�� I quite
agree, Mr. Weasley,� said Professor Snape in a strained voice. �But for the
moment, I am still trying to brew this potion so that we can, as you put it,
destroy the things, so if you would
kindly shut up?�

�� Ron scowled
and started to say something else, but Hermione gripped his other shoulder and
shook it, hard. Ron fell silent with a disgruntled sigh. Harry caught his eye
and smiled sympathetically. He himself didn�t know why Snape had called them
all into his potions lab when he still had work to do and obviously hated the
distraction.

�� You know why.

�� Harry
shifted uneasily. All right, so he did. Snape had wanted Harry to witness the
final steps in creating the potion that would find Seamus, as if he thought
that would somehow reassure Harry and make him less prone to do something
stupid, but he�d had the bad fortune to step into the library and announce he
was almost finished when Harry was in the middle of a strategy meeting with
Ron, Hermione, and Draco. All of them had insisted on coming along. Hermione
appeared to have pure intellectual curiosity, Draco didn�t want to leave Harry
alone, and Ron came because the others did.

�� This is a sacrifice that Snape is making for
you, the way he did when he got Voldemort out of your head, Harry told
himself, and tried not to crane his neck so that he could see into the vial
Snape was working with. It had a violent purple glow, the liquid seamed with
streaks and cracks of blue like lightning bolts. It was enough to see that
much. He knew Snape hated it when someone got closer. Be grateful.

�� Abruptly,
Snape laid the vial down on the table he�d been standing over and retreated
several steps, aiming his wand at it. Harry caught his breath at the expression
on his face. He�d seen Snape cautious before,
particularly when he was trying to tell the story of his friendship with
Harry�s mother without giving too much away, but he�d never seen him act afraid
of a potion like this.

�� This is Dark Arts, Snape�s warning from
last night echoed in his mind, and Harry wondered for a moment if they should
even be here. But then he shook his head. Snape might be arrogant and forgetful
of the needs of lesser mortals, but he would never willingly expose Harry and
Draco to danger.

�� The potion
began to bubble and boil against the glass of the vial. Harry could see large
flat clouds appearing, and he jumped when a sharp crack echoed through the
room. Had the glass begun to crack because of the heat involved? Or for some other reason? Could the potion actually attack them? The way Snape was holding his
wand seemed to suggest that.

�� Snape
raised the wand higher and spat several words that were not Latin. Harry didn�t
know what they were, but he shuddered
as he listened. The words dug fishhooks into his brain and slithered down his
spine to his feet like serpents with metallic legs.

�� The vial
swayed back and forth, and Harry thought he heard someone else�s voice, someone
who was angry and speaking in the same language Snape had. The vial did crack
this time, but the potion inside it jogged up and down, like a gas held in
place, rather than spilling out in liquid form all at once.

�� Snape
sounded stern rather than frightened when he spoke this time, and Harry saw a
silver light surround the crack, healing and holding it. Another flat bubble
mashed against the glass, but vanished when Snape swept his wand down with a
cutting motion.

�� The vial
vibrated, spun around, and then quieted. Snape came forwards a step and picked
it up, staring into it. Harry flinched, imagining some creature with sharp
teeth inside the vial leaning out and eating his eye, but Snape seemed
satisfied. He turned to Harry with a thin smile.

�� Your
potion,� he said. �It will lead you to Finnigan if you use it carefully.�

�� Me?� Harry
took the potion from Snape and tried not to feel that he was juggling the vial.
He�d half-suspected that he�d have to be the one to use the potion, since it
was his memory that was needed to brew it, but Snape and Draco were the Potions
experts; Harry had never come to feel comfortable with a cauldron no matter
carefully Snape instructed him.

�� You.� Snape leaned closer to him. �I will be here,� he
said, in a voice whose intensity Harry knew Ron and Hermione wouldn�t
understand. They�d probably think of it as a threat, or a scolding, an offer to
take the potion away from Harry if he messed up.

�� Harry
understood it as protection, reassurance. He relaxed and let the vial lie in
his palm, reminding himself that it had to
be harmless, that Snape would never have handed it to him otherwise. �What do I
need to do?�

�� You will
use three drops of the potion in a test, first,� said Snape, and aimed his wand
at the back of the lab. A wire cage came soaring out, containing a rat like the
one he�d used to test his vengeance potion back in Harry�s second year. �Give
it to the rat, and we will watch what happens.�

�� You want
to test it on a defenseless animal?� Harry winced. He�d forgotten how shrill Hermione�s
voice could get when she was angry. �That�s��

�� Much less
painful than killing a defenseless Muggleborn,� Draco said harshly, and crowded
close to Harry, his hand hovering, as if he would administer the potion himself
if he could. �The way that the Dark Lord will do again, unless we can find the Horcruxes
and destroy them.�

�� I�m
willing to do it,� Harry murmured, in a weighted tone that he hoped would shut
Hermione up. He was remembering how the rat had reacted to the potion Snape had
designed for Seamus now, all those years ago, and he didn�t want to think about
that. �I�ve learned curses, and I�ve gone against Dumbledore. I can�t let that
all be for nothing.� He walked up to the cage, which had landed on the lab
table. The rat inside turned around near its own tail and looked up at him with
bright eyes.

�� Three
drops only,� said Snape. �More than
that will lead to unpredictable effects.�

�� Harry
wanted to ask what those unpredictable effects were, but he held his tongue
instead, and uncorked the vial. The liquid inside seemed to leap onto his
fingers unnaturally fast, and it certainly clung more than it should have.
Harry held out his finger, glancing at Snape as he did so. He felt stupid. Was
he supposed to simply present the drops to the rat, or conjure them onto a
piece of cheese, or what? And would Snape expect him to have known this
already?

�� But the
drops began to fall off his finger the moment it was near the rat�s mouth, and
the rat actually stood on its hind legs and stretched its whiskers up to
receive them. Harry shivered. He could see why the potion might be considered
Dark Arts, if it was somehow controlling the animal to make it accept the
potion.

�� The rat
widened its jaws to an extent that looked uncomfortable, making Harry shudder.
But the drops had already pulled away from him, and the shudder couldn�t interrupt
their descent. The rat stuck out its tongue to catch them.

�� Then it
fell to all fours and began to shake.

�� Hermione
gave a muffled scream. Harry clutched the vial harder and didn�t turn to look
at her. This is far from the worst thing
you�ll have to do, if you really use the Dark Arts, he reminded himself.

�� The rat
spun around, but not as though it was trying to run away�more as if it were on
a plate that someone else, someone outside it, was spinning. Its nose pointed
towards the far corner of the cage, and it quivered. Then its body began to
pulse with the same vivid, blue-seamed purple light that had shone through the
potion when Snape was brewing it.

�� It
squealed. The sound quickly became so high-pitched that Harry couldn�t hear it,
and the rat quivered all over, its paws tapping an unnatural dance rhythm on
the cage floor. Then it lifted from the floor and shot towards the wire.

�� Harry
gaped. Snape was the one who stuck out his wand and yelled, �Petrificus Totalus!�

�� The rat
came to a stop, hanging in mid-air halfway between its cage and the wall of the
lab. It had passed through the cage wire as though
that barrier didn�t even exist, Harry thought in a daze. He blinked and licked
his lips. The rat was running in place, its paws scrabbling frantically at the
air.

�� What does
the potion do?� he whispered.

�� Turns the
one who swallows it into a tracking hound to find Finnigan,� said Snape, his
voice deep. Harry glanced up at him in wonder. The fear he�d showed when
brewing the potion was gone. Now he sounded the way he did when someone,
usually Draco, managed to achieve a rare perfect potion in his class. �Of
course, a rat cannot control its reaction to the potion, and will shoot away
like a firework to find the target. A human can reason out the direction the
pull comes from, and go slowly enough to enable his allies to come up with
plans to breach the target�s defenses.� He turned and looked at Harry. �Are you
willing to play that role?�

�� You know I
am,� Harry retorted, but he felt a little glow of happiness in his chest that
Snape had asked him. That, and the small shard of uncertainty he could see in
Snape�s eyes, were the only assurances he needed. Dumbledore wouldn�t have
asked him if he wanted to use the potion; he would have assumed that of course Harry was only too happy to do
something that might help get rid of Voldemort, however indirectly. But Snape
cared about him.

�� That combination of words would never have
occurred to me only a year ago, he thought in something like contentment,
and then looked down at the potion.

�� When do
you want to use it?� he demanded.

�� We must
have some time first, so that we may gather our weapons and prepare for every
likely eventuality.� Snape picked up the cork Harry had put down on the table
and handed it back to him. With reluctance, Harry capped the vial. Snape waved
his wand, and the rat vanished, along with the wire cage. Harry heard an intake
of breath that was probably Hermione opening her mouth to demand where they�d
gone, but she grunted instead. Harry smothered a grin. Ron must have restrained
her this time. �And we should revise
that which we know we will need when we arrive, such as the Fiendfyre
incantation and the Switching Charm modifications.�

�� Harry
nodded in silence. A pulse like a second heartbeat raced through him, and he
suddenly remembered that, when they arrived at their destination�wherever that
was�they would need to confront Seamus.

�� Whom he still didn�t know how to fight. Whom
he still wanted to forgive.

�� Harry
clenched his hands for a moment, then willed himself to relax. For one thing, he might crush the
vial if he clutched it too hard, and that meant Snape would have to brew the
Dark potion all over again.

�� For
another, then the others might guess his feelings, and Harry wasn�t in the mood
for another argument right now.

�� Snape was
already bustling around the lab, picking up certain potions, scowling
thoughtfully at them, and then shaking his head and putting them down again. On
occasion, he tucked one into a robe pocket. Hermione and Ron were in a
soft-voiced but intense discussion that sounded like they were comparing spells
they�d looked up in the Hogwarts library, trying to decide what would be most
useful. Draco had already vanished upstairs; Harry knew he would fetch the
Elder Wand.

�� They�re thinking of the things we need to
fight Seamus and one of the Horcruxes.

�� Well, I�m thinking about that, too.

*

�� Draco
shuddered. He knew that it had been necessary to brew the potion and to have
Harry drink it�how else would they find Finnigan, who had Apparated in and out
of the school, impossibly, and certainly wouldn�t show up conveniently to tell
them where he was?�but he disliked seeing the potion turn Harry into little
more than a carrier pigeon for their intentions.

�� Harry didn�t
turn purple, the way the rat had, but a subtle shine informed his skin, like
the shade that Draco had seen around a black eye. His head also turned to the
west, and he stood there, facing that direction, whilst Granger and the Weasel
made all sorts of anxious last-minute preparations�

�� And whilst Professor Snape argued with Black.

�� You cannot
accompany us,� Snape was saying, his normally polished voice dropping into
harsher tones. He�d been arguing for ten minutes already, and Black showed no
signs of yielding. �You are still injured, and there is no telling what we will
encounter at the site of Finnigan�s home. You could
be dangerous to us in any number of ways.�

�� That�s
exactly why I should go,� Black said, his eyes brilliant and angry, his twisted hand making expansive gestures. The fingers on
that hand did seem to be less cramped
than before, Draco thought, but Black would have been hard put to it to hold a
wand normally. �You don�t know what you�ll find. You could need an Animagus, or
someone to protect Harry who�s a fully-trained wizard.�

�� I am more
than capable of that, Black.� Snape�s voice had descended into a hiss that
would have done credit to a whole nest full of cobras.

�� Oh, I�m
sorry.� Black�s voice turned dangerously sweet. Draco experienced a fleeting
thought that it was in tones of voice that Black and his mother showed their
strongest kinship. �I meant that a fully-trained wizard should go along to
protect Harry who actually cares about
him.�

�� Snape acted
as if he would lift his wand, and Harry turned around.

�� It was an
effort for him, Draco could see; he desperately wanted to keep facing west, the
way the potion was trying to make him do. But he managed it, and his eyes
glowed like geodes as he glared at both Snape and Black.

�� Stop
annoying each other,� he said. �Snape does
care about me, Sirius, even though he doesn�t want to admit it in front of
other people. He�s said it privately, and that�s good enough for me. And Sirius
is injured, but that doesn�t make him less competent, Snape. He has to stay
here because he�s the only one who can command the wards on the house, not
because he can�t go along.�

�� A very nice way around the problem, Draco
admitted to himself. He knew as well as Snape did that Black would only slow
them up, but admitting that was the
way to get Black to demand to go along, so Harry assigned Black a special place
in their plans instead.

�� I�m sick
of staying here,� Black said, but the fire had gone out of his voice. �When can
I leave?�

�� When we
don�t need the house anymore,� Harry said, and snapped back around to face the
west. His face had an expression of indescribable yearning on it�and something
else. Draco narrowed his eyes as he studied him. That was the look Harry wore
when he was planning something stupid, but Draco didn�t understand what he
would be planning. For one thing, he hadn�t seen where Finnigan laired yet, so he
couldn�t be planning to take advantage of the place. And for another, he knew
how much their lives depended on each other.

�� If anything, it�s Weasel who would do
something stupid to show off his heroic attributes and get us all killed. Not
Harry.

�� I am
coming, as well.�

�� Draco
blinked as his mother swept into the kitchen, her head held high. Of everyone
in the room, she only looked at him and Professor Snape, nodding a little when
she caught Draco�s eye. Of course he had expected her to come, but she had
spent so much time hidden in her room of late that he had thought perhaps she
couldn�t stand Harry�s company for the duration of the journey.

�� Only if
you promise to obey me,� Harry said, his voice echoing
and eerie, �no matter what challenges we find at Seamus�s home.�

�� Draco
exchanged a concerned glance with Snape. He knew that the potion was Dark Arts
for more than one reason. It affected the minds of those who took it in odd
ways, sometimes causing them to reach through the veil of time as a Seer would.
Perhaps Harry had seen that his mother would have a special reason to disobey
him should she come along.

�� I will
promise to obey unless my life or my son�s is in danger,� Narcissa said, her
hands folded behind her back for a moment. Draco sighed, because the oath was
wide-ranging�of course their lives would be in danger when they were walking
towards a man possessed by the Dark Lord and a Horcrux�but Harry simply nodded.

�� Then we
may leave,� he said, and stepped forwards, vibrating as if he would pass
through the wall like the rat if he could.

�� Draco let
his hand briefly brush the buzzing Elder Wand in his pocket and then reached
out to put his other hand on Harry�s shoulder. Harry started and looked back at
him. His face writhed and contorted, and then assumed the more human expression
of a smile.

�� Thanks,�
he whispered.

�� Draco drew
him near without speaking. Everyone was prepared to Apparate along the line
that Harry was pursuing, and he was better at Apparating then Harry was, so
he�d take him Side-Along. He could hear Granger bossily ordering her boyfriend
to her side. Snape and his mother would travel separately, of course.

�� In the
moment before he cleared his mind in order to focus on the Apparition
coordinates Harry had given them earlier, when he first swallowed the potion,
Draco made a silent vow of his own. He would protect Harry no matter what came,
no matter how much danger it put his life in, no matter how much Harry might
want to be left alone to confront Finnigan. All the laws of his being, and all the
laws of love, said that he could do no less.

*

�� It took
three Apparition jumps, but they finally landed behind a tangled, wild thicket
of briars, next to a house that made Severus shudder. It was crawling with Dark
magic, to the point where it swiftly overwhelmed his senses and he could feel
nothing except a dull, malevolent buzz. For once, he was grateful for a loss of
sensitivity, and he drew his wand to cast stronger concealment spells on every
member of their group.

�� Harry was
already looking around the briars. �It�s a small house,� he said, his voice
still flat with the effect of the potion. �Two windows on
this side. Built of wood. Strengthened
with wards. I can feel them.� His voice sank oddly on the last words,
and Severus stifled the urge to ask if he was well. Surely he was not so great a fool as to think that it was unwarded? �I think there�s a door on the south side.�

�� And
Finnigan is there,� Draco breathed. Severus could hear a slight squeaking
noise, thanks to the spells that he�d cast to sharpen his senses, and knew it
was Draco rubbing his fingers along his wand, making ready to cast any number
of unpleasant spells.

�� He is.�
Harry�s voice was even flatter than before. Severus tried to lean sideways, so
that he could see the boy�s face and understand a bit of what he was feeling,
but he stood beyond Draco and Granger. Draco�s close proximity and Granger�s
head of bushy hair ensured he couldn�t get a glimpse.

�� Of course
we should stay together,� said Granger in a bossy voice that set Severus�s
teeth on edge immediately.

�� It would
seem the wisest course,� he intervened smoothly, before the girl could trigger
the argument he saw building in Draco�s eyes. �But we do not yet know what the
defenses or the interior of the building are like. Harry could Apparate through
the wards, given the potion�s strength, but the rest of us could not, and that
would be�rather dangerous.�

�� The Granger
girl nodded at him, and Severus was glad to see the somberness in her eyes. At
least that indicated that she was also concerned about Harry going in alone.

�� Hullo,�
said Weasley suddenly. �Who�s that?�

�� Severus had
to lean around the tangle of briars to see again, but from the single, sharp
intake of breath behind him, from Narcissa, he thought he knew.

�� A single
figure stood in front of the house, his wand out as he gazed into the sky.
Severus wondered for a moment if he had sent off an owl and intended to cast a
spell to hurry it on its way. And then the man looked down and towards the briars�though
through them, a sign that their concealment spells were holding�and his face
removed all doubt.

�� Father,� Draco hissed.

�� What�s he
doing here?� Weasley demanded. His voice had started off as a bellow, but had
sunk to a whisper by the time he finished the sentence, thanks to Granger
pinching his arm. Lucius looked around anyway, a slight shadow of suspicion
curling along his mouth.

�� He lost
one Horcrux, as well as the blood sacrifice he intended to empower it,
something that the Dark Lord must have discovered by now,� Narcissa said, her
voice also flat. �He has probably been sent to secure this one, perhaps to
negotiate with the spirit possessing the Finnigan boy.�

�� Severus
nodded to her. That sounded to him much the most reasonable explanation of
Lucius�s presence, and he could understand the odd warning that Harry had given
to Narcissa as well, now. She might be tempted to try and take vengeance on her
husband, or perhaps even reveal herself to him, if she were less wise. Harry
would want her to stay back so that he could handle Lucius as he saw fit.

�� I hope you
can get some good information out of him,� said Harry. �It would be valuable to
find out how much he knows about Voldemort�s affairs, and whether Voldemort is
really planning to make an ally out of this piece of his soul, or just conquer
it and take the Horcrux back.�

�� Severus
turned slowly in Harry�s direction. His ears were sensitive in their own right
to nuances, as Merlin knew they had to be after a decade and a half in a Potions
classroom, listening for the first signs of disaster from incompetent brewers.
�You?� he asked. �But surely you will be joining us, Harry.�

�� Harry gave
him a small, sad smile. �No,� he said. �Keep safe, and get information out of
Lucius if you can�but not by endangering yourselves.� For a moment, his gaze
focused on Narcissa, no doubt trying to impress obedience on her particularly.

�� Severus
aimed his wand for Impedimenta. Draco
made a grab for Harry. Granger started to raise her wand, her mouth and eyes
wide.

�� They were
all too slow. In a moment, Harry had Apparated directly through the wards into
the house, alone, and Lucius was moving, long and sleek as a greyhound, towards
the noise of his leaving.

*

�� qwerty: Yes, that was the intent. ;)

�� MewMew2:
Thanks. In this story, I think I�ve been distant from Voldemort for a while,
focusing on Harry�s relationships with Snape and Draco instead, so it was time
to remind the readers how insane he could be.

�� Thrnbrooke: Thanks for reviewing.

�� Sneakyfox: Oh, yes. Voldemort�s definitely having fun and
achieving his goals at the same time.
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Inter Vivos