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Ceremonies of Strife	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 16218 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, and I am making no money from this writing.

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Chapter
Thirty-Three�The Taste of Power

�� The blow to
his shoulder almost knocked Draco off his chair. He gasped and clutched at the
place the invisible strike had landed, staring wildly around the room. He had
been studying for an exam next week, so intently that he reckoned he might have
missed seeing Harry come in.

�� But Harry
wasn�t there, and the strike repeated, rocking Draco in his seat.� He swore and stood up, drawing his wand. Had
someone come in under Harry�s Invisibility Cloak to play a prank on him? The
only one he could think of was Weasley, but the idea that Harry would lend his
Cloak to Weasley and not warn Draco�

�� The sharp
pain returned, and this time Draco recognized it for what it was. The
compatible magic was trying to tell him that Harry was in trouble.

�� He swore
again and raced from the room, following the silent, insistent tug. It wasn�t
calling him to Apparate, he thought, which meant Harry and his attacker were
probably here in the building.

�� Again the
pain. Draco gritted his teeth. He was going as fast as he could, and the bloody
magic would just have to take in the limitations of his legs and feet and the
stone corridors, and be satisfied.

�� If he
thought hard enough about such things, he could distract himself from the worry
about Harry that was racing through him like a torrent of knife-edged water.

*

�� The pain
dug invisible claws into the back of his skull and held on. There was a beak,
too, Harry thought dimly, a sharp beak intent on cracking open his head and
scooping out his brains.

�� It hurt so much, and Draco wasn�t nearby, so he
couldn�t use compatible magic to stop Aran. But Harry did his best to hang on,
because he didn�t want to let Aran win, either. He had to survive and stop him, or at least wait long enough for Draco
to get here. Harry could only hope the magic would bring him as it had before,
when he was confronting Nemo�s beasts in the Forbidden Forest.

�� This is
taking longer than it should,� Aran said, as if complaining to another person,
and then repeated the spell.

�� Harry
screamed as the pain redoubled. He couldn�t see anything with the way his eyes
watered, but he aimed his wand in the general direction of Aran and whispered,
�Expelliarmus!� under his breath.

Aran cried out, and Harry knew it
had done something. He got his hand
up, just in case, and felt the wand settle safely into his palm.

�� But the
pain didn�t stop.

�� I didn�t
want to do this,� Aran said. �No one ever asks me the best way to avoid the
most troublesome problems. I advised incapacitating him and taking it that way,
but did anyone ask me? No. Orders,
that�s all it is.� Harry heard him coming nearer, the shuffle of his feet that
he didn�t even attempt to conceal. He probably assumed that Harry couldn�t do
anything to him no matter how loud he was. �Give me back my wand, boy. The pain
should end soon, and then I can do as I should have been allowed to do in the
first place.�

�� Harry
didn�t want to think about what would happen when the pain ended. Instead, he
kicked out, spinning in place on the floor the way Morningstar had taught them,
and hit Aran�s legs.

�� Aran
stumbled, but Harry didn�t hear the heavier sound of him falling. �Little
bastard,� Aran murmured. �I�ve been an Auror for years, longer than you�ve
lived. You shouldn�t have thought to use those tactics on me. Give��

�� And then
Draco was there.

�� Harry could
have been locked in a stone room and still felt the difference. The compatible
magic announced Draco in his head and his bones like a chorus of silver
trumpets. Harry immediately reached towards him, towards the sense of him, and
felt magic flood him as though he stood under a waterfall of it.

�� Harry
scrambled up, the horrible pain in the back of his head suddenly diminished. He
kept tight hold of Aran�s wand, and cast a Sticking Charm so that it would
cling to his palm and hopefully resist most attempts to retrieve it. Then he
turned and placed his back against Draco�s, sneering a little at the shock on
Aran�s face.

�� Not what
you expected from a little bastard, is it?� he asked.

*

�� Draco
tensed. He had been surprised when he rounded the corner and paused, because he
didn�t know if Aran was attacking Harry or trying to help him up from an attack
that might have left him sprawled on the floor. Harry�s words left no doubt,
though. Aran had been the one to cast this spell.

�� Why?�
Draco asked, studying Aran. He didn�t look hurt or stressed, the way Draco
would have thought he would if someone were blackmailing him into doing this.
He simply looked annoyed.

�� Aran
sighed. �It concerns matters that you don�t need to know about and things that
you wouldn�t understand even if I explained them to you,� he said, words bright
and sharp as the light off new-minted coins. �And there�s no reason that this
needs to involve destroying both of you. Move out of the way, Trainee Malfoy.
My spell had almost succeeded, and if Mr. Potter will let me have my wand back,
then I can promise him a swift termination to it and a swifter demise.�

�� Draco drew
in a disappointed breath, but it was fierce with delight as well. Here was
someone who could be defeated, unlike Nihil and Nemo and Nusquam. Here was
someone they stood a chance of bringing to justice.

�� And more
than that, here was someone who, from his language, was prone to underestimate
them.

�� Harry is
my partner,� he said. �Did you think I would back away and leave him on your
say-so?�

�� Aran�s head
came up, and he stared at Draco as if he didn�t believe what he was hearing.
Then he said, cautiously, �I am prepared to induct you into the knowledge I was
holding back from you, Trainee Malfoy. I am prepared to offer you far more
powerful spells than anyone else will learn in your year.�

�� Draco
sneered at him. He underestimates me in another
way as well. He does not seem to believe that I have any loyalty or compassion.

�� That�s not
a bribe I would be interested in taking even if it was enough to persuade me to ignore murder,� he said. �Harry. Are
you ready?�

�� More than
ready,� Harry said, and his voice was as strong as Draco�s. Perhaps he was
thinking the same thing as Draco was, and Draco knew he had to be glad to have
a reason to strike back at his tormentor.

�� Good,�
Draco said. �Reducto!�

�� The
Blasting Curse caught Aran in the chest, just as he had started to reach out
for Draco with a contemptuous expression. He rammed into the wall and coughed,
one hand rising to touch his chest. Draco hoped viciously that he had broken
something.

�� Incarcerous!� barked Harry, as the flow
of compatible magic passed over to him in a surge as strong as a wind changing
direction, and Draco soaked up the flood coming back the other way when the
conjured ropes had bound Aran�s limbs.

�� Is that
it?� Harry added a moment later, while Aran sat there staring at them as if he
couldn�t believe what had happened. �Should we take him and turn him back in to
the instructors?�

�� Oh, of
course not,� Draco said. He could hear the smirk in his voice, and Harry leaned
more heavily against him, hearing it as well. �He�s the Spell Lexicon
instructor. He�s dangerous. We have
to make absolutely sure that he�s helpless while we decide what to do with
him�which might not be telling the instructors, after all.�

�� You�re
right,� Harry said. �Of course you�re right. I can�t believe I didn�t think of
that.� Aran turned his incredulous look on Harry, and only then began to
struggle against the ropes. Draco glanced down in time to see Harry carefully
place Aran�s wand behind his back, and then nod at Draco. �Do you want to do
the honors?�

�� How did
you know?� Draco murmured, before he cast the Stunner that would knock Aran
out. Harry followed it with a spell to gag him. The magic raced back to Draco,
and he tightened the ropes on Aran�s hands and feet, modifying them so that
even if some of the knots were loose, he wouldn�t be able to move his fingers
or toes enough to take advantage of them. Back to Harry, and he paused in
consideration, then changed the ropes again so that Aran would choke himself if
he tried to move too much.

�� They grinned
at each other over his body, but as his excitement drained away, Draco�s
concern came back full-force. He moved forwards and laid a tender hand on the
back of Harry�s head, which he had seen Harry grabbing when he came around the
corner. �How badly did he hurt you? What kind of spell did he cast?�

�� I�m not
sure,� Harry said, obligingly lowering his head so that Draco could examine
him. Draco couldn�t see any cuts from the outside, which made sense when Harry
added, �It felt like a spell that attacked my mind.�

�� Draco
hissed, and hoped that his hands didn�t shake too obviously as he turned Harry
around and cast a spell that would hold his hair out of the way. �You could
have brain damage,� he said, laying his wand right next to the skin. He knew
spells that could give one a rough picture of a brain from the outside, but
they would only work with direct access to the skin. �Perhaps he was meant to
destroy your mind without killing you.�

�� I don�t
know,� Harry said. �From the sound of it, he wasn�t happy that he�d been sent
on this mission, and he seemed to think that he had a better plan.�

�� Of course
he would think that,� Draco muttered, and began to chant the diagnostic spell
he remembered from one of the books in his father�s library. Lucius would not
enjoy the idea that the Malfoys� hard-won knowledge was being used to heal a
half-blood Gryffindor, which was one of the reasons Draco reveled in using it
this way. But it was also the best option he knew; they could hardly take Harry
to Portillo Lopez, and there were no other Healers Draco would trust, for fear
of Nihil�s corruption.

�� The spell
took effect, a soft white glow that surrounded Harry�s head and sank into it.
While they waited for it to come back out again, Draco ran his fingers gently
up and down Harry�s tense shoulders. Harry sighed and leaned his head on
Draco�s neck. Draco took the chance to kiss him, sucking at his lips until
Harry parted them to let his tongue in.

�� The white
glow returned, and Draco was so close to Harry that he blinked and had to step
back before he could �read� it properly. When he could, he sighed in relief.
The brightness hovering in front of him was exactly as clear as it had been
when he first cast the spell. Brain damage would have shown up on it as sickly
green and black blotches, and if that had happened, he would have�he wasn�t
sure what he would do.

�� Of course,
that left the question of what Aran had meant to do. Draco turned to study him
coolly. He hadn�t woken from the Stunner. But it would be best if they moved
him soon, so that no one could come along and take the decision about what to
do away from them.

�� You�re
fine physically,� he said, Disillusioning Aran�s body so that they stood a
chance of getting back to their rooms with him hidden. �Do you happen to
remember the incantation he used when he cast the spell?�

��

�� It wasn�t
a very long one,� Harry said thoughtfully, and Draco could almost hear him
struggling. Of course, his memory wasn�t as good as Draco�s, but Draco held
back the tendency to snap because of that and waited patiently. �I�m pretty
sure that it had the word donum in
it. I don�t really remember the others.�

�� Draco�s
stomach contracted. �Of course,� he breathed, turning around to stare at Harry.
�Donum means gift. I wouldn�t be
surprised if he came to try and remove that dark shimmer that you told me
about, the one in the back of your mind.�

�� Harry
reared back and stared at him, touching the back of his head the way Draco had,
as if he could feel external damage even though Draco had clearly told him
there wasn�t any. �But that means�� He frowned. �How could he know about it?�

�� Nihil
probably senses the presence of it,� Draco said quietly. �Or perhaps Portillo
Lopez, though why she would agree to leave you alone and then send someone after
you is beyond me.� He felt his shoulders tensing. He would have been just as
glad if something could be done about Portillo Lopez. But he knew from the
single flat look Harry gave him that he wasn�t going to discuss it, and turned
away with a sigh.

�� She could
have been overruled by someone in her Order, I reckon,� Harry said, and then
nodded at Aran. �Well, let�s move him back to our room and alert the others. We
need to decide on how to interrogate him. And what we�re going to do about
him,� he added. �Until we know for sure that it wasn�t Portillo Lopez, I�m
reluctant to trust the Fellowship with him.�

�� I�m
reluctant to trust the Fellowship at all,� Draco said, and cast Mobilicorpus. Aran rose into the air
with a jerk. �After all, Aran is a fellow Auror. If infection can be that close
to them and they couldn�t sense it, they�re either dull in their senses��

�� Or we have
a traitor,� Harry finished with a sigh. He rubbed his forehead and murmured,
�Fuck.�

��

�� Wish we
could,� Draco said.

�� That finally
won him a smile from Harry, at least, if nothing more substantial.

*

�� Harry
leaned against the wall and scowled at Aran, folding his arms. Things would
have been so much easier if he hadn�t shown up.

�� Draco and
Hermione were arguing over what they should tell the rest of the instructors,
in particular the rest of the Fellowship. Hermione wanted them to reveal Aran�s
presence and his complicity with someone�if not with Nihil�at once. �They
deserve to know that someone this evil is here and attacked a trainee,� was how
her argument ran, and she hadn�t changed it very much except in wording since
she made it two hours ago.

�� Draco was
shaking his head and adopting a superior expression that Harry knew must be
putting Hermione�s back up, explaining that they couldn�t trust most of the instructors, now, if Aran
was among them. How had his infection by Nihil gone unnoticed? How had he
managed to come on Harry alone, and would the instructors believe Aran or Harry
if they asked questions? It would be one man�s word against another�s�and even
if Draco contributed his word that he had arrived and found Aran attacking
Harry, some of the Aurors wouldn�t believe Draco because he was so close to
Harry.

�� You�re
acting as though there�s nothing we can do,� Hermione said at one point, in a
voice that rose to a hiss.

�� Harry
looked over his shoulder and caught Ron�s eye. Ron gave him a helpless look.
Ventus, her wand tapping against her knee as it had done since Harry called her
to this meeting, didn�t look away from Aran. He was still unconscious, but
Ventus had said that he could wake up at any time, which was certainly true,
and that she would keep guard on him while the rest of them did �less important
things.�

�� Not at
all,� Draco said, his voice so smooth and arrogant that Harry had to roll his
eyes, as much as he loved him. When he turned around to look at him, Draco was
leaning against the wall, his arms folded, his legs crossed at the ankle and
his face set in the most perfect sneer Harry had ever seen him wear. �What I�m
saying is that it would have been easier if we had taken Aran to the Fellowship
immediately.�

�� Hermione
stood up straighter, pushing her hair back from her face the way she had when
they�d recovered from the battle. Her eyes were narrow, and then she
practically spat her words out like an angry cat. �You�you brought him here and
took away that option on purpose!�

�� Why, yes,�
Draco said, practically fluttering his eyelashes at her. �I wondered how long
it would take you to notice that.�

�� You can�t
just�you can�t just question him without evidence,� Hermione said, all but
stamping her foot.

�� But
questioning him gets the evidence,�
Draco said, and uncrossed his legs so that he could lean closer to her, his
sneer gone. �Listen, Granger. I�m tired of our enemies attacking us and then
escaping, or attacking us and then being taken away by the Aurors, who question
them or examine what they brought with them, but somehow never manage to gain
any information. I don�t know whether that�s down to our enemies managing to be
cleverer than our hidebound instructors, or traitors in the Ministry itself, or
something else. But I do know that we
have the chance to ask why Aran, of all people, who�s always seemed more
interested in his spells than anything else, turned to Nihil. I�m going to take
it.�

�� Harry
stepped forwards, right beside Ron. Draco might finally have gone too far, and
they had to be prepared to intervene. Ventus glanced up without interest and
then turned her gaze back to Aran.

�� Hermione, though,
bit her lip a few times and stared at her hands as if she were thinking hard
thoughts. Then she looked up with a sigh. �I�m afraid you�re right,� she said.

�� Draco
stared at her, then cupped his hand around his ear. �Could you repeat that a
little louder, please?� he asked. �I don�t think I quite heard it.�

�� Hermione
slapped at his arm, slightly harder than Harry knew she would have tried to hit
him or Ron. Draco moved adroitly back and listened with raised eyebrows while
Hermione explained. �Something always goes wrong. I�m sick of it, of our not
being able to affect our fates. I want to do that for once. Question him. I
know you have Veritaserum. Use that, if you need to. We have to have answers,
and we�ve only got one that really matters so far�who Nihil used to be. Maybe
Aran will have more.�

�� Draco shut
his mouth and swept her an elaborate bow. �Thank you for your permission, High
Priestess of Gryffindor Righteousness,� he said.

�� This time,
Harry did step forwards, catch his eye, and frown. Draco seemed to know that it
wasn�t necessary, and was already holding up a hand by the time Hermione
finished her first outraged expression. �Sorry,� he said, which was probably
the only word that would have kept Hermione silent right then. �You�re right. What�s
important is the questioning of our enemies, and not the baiting of one
another.�

�� Ah,�
Ventus said, in the same calm, eerie voice she had used when she was talking
about her battle skills under Veritaserum. �I see that you are finally learning
what a comitatus is.�

�� Draco
sighed, as if to dismiss Ventus and all her peculiarities, and turned. �I�ll
fetch the Veritaserum,� he said. �Wake up Aran.�

�� Harry was
happy to do so with a few well-placed slaps, and felt even happier when the man
stared at him and then around his and Draco�s rooms with wide eyes.

�Where am I?� Aran whispered, after
Harry had pulled the gag from his mouth, and his arms flexed in the ropes, then
stopped. He must have realized at once that he would find no give in them,
because he stopped and scowled instead. �And why have you brought me here?�

�Those questions are the ones you
will answer for us,� Draco said, appearing again with the Veritaserum. He held
it out and paused. Harry stifled a chuckle. He was only beginning to realize,
with a thoroughness he could never have imagined seeing in school, how deep
Draco�s sense of drama ran. �Do you recognize this?�

Unexpectedly, Aran laughed. Draco
paused, and his fingers clenched around the vial as his eyes narrowed. Harry
stood up and moved to his side. There was a tension to Draco�s frown he had
never seen before, and the sense of him he had gained through compatible magic
training raced up and down like a fire.

�� You can
put me under that,� Aran said. �But the very nature of what I am will defeat
any questions you ask me.� He shrugged, his hands flexing hard in the bonds.
Harry drew his wand and cast a subtle strengthening spell on the ropes, just in
case. �The rest of me planned well for this. You ought to have known that, when
another part of him was able to lie under Veritaserum and say that he was not
part of Nihil.�

�� Draco stood
still, that dangerous tension radiating through him. �Explain,� he whispered.

�� Aran gave
him a pitying look. �I did like you,� he said. �I never agreed with the orders
the rest of me gave. So I�ll tell you. Veritaserum was made to work on humans.�

�� Draco put
the Veritaserum down, gently, on what turned out to be nothing. Harry lunged
forwards and caught the vial before it could shatter. Draco didn�t seem to
notice. His eyes were shining, and he took a step forwards, bending over Aran
with a smile that made Harry edge away.

�� Hermione�s
face was white and pinched. She and Ron exchanged glances, and Ron wrapped his
arm around her shoulder. Ventus rose to her feet, but didn�t move, instead
looking back and forth between Draco and Aran.

�� I want to
know what you know,� Draco whispered. Harry had the impression that they had
all been frozen, waiting for his words, and could only move and breathe again
now that they had heard them. �I want to know what some of your words mean, and
why they matter. I want to know what your relationship to Nihil is.�

�� You could
ask me questions for a hundred years and never understand the answers,� Aran
breathed, sounding as if he had some of the same fascination with Draco�s words
that the rest of them did.

�� Draco�s
wand was abruptly in his hand. He pointed it straight at Aran and chanted words
so fast that Harry thought he wouldn�t have had a chance of understanding them
even if he spoke fluent Latin.

�� Aran�s head
tilted back, and suddenly his cheeks flushed red. His eyes bulged out of his
face. He tried to speak, or at least his jaw and tongue moved, but no sound
emerged. Harry didn�t know what was happening.

�� What are
you doing?� he whispered to Draco, taking his arm. �We don�t want him to die!�

�� I don�t
think he can die,� Draco said, not
looking around or moving, his eyes never wavering from Aran�s face. �And
anyway, this spell can�t kill him. It�ll only make him a little more amenable.�

�� Harry
waited, not sure what else he should do, and then Aran slumped back, his chest
heaving, his breath whistling in and out of his lungs. Draco smiled again and
bent closer.

�� I will do
that again and again,� he said, �and worse, unless you agree to tell me the
truth.�

*

�� The power
spiraled dizzily through Draco�s chest, up to his head, and then exploded into
fine grains of sugar in his mouth. His tongue was heavy. His eyes were heavy,
and wanted to droop shut. He could have flown to the moon or seized Harry and
taken him in front of everybody.

�� At that
moment, he knew he was stepping into his own.

*

�� polka dot: Yes,
and usually for reasons that he can�t change.

�� thrnbrooke:
Harry�s speculation, or rather Draco�s, in this chapter is correct.

�� SP777: I am
making the Latin as accurate as possible, though inevitably there will be
mistakes. I�m studying Latin and have been for a while.

�� Yes, there
will be a third part to this trilogy. I�m envisioning this part as being about
50 chapters.

�� angelmuziq:
Thank you! I don�t know if you will approve of the particular way that Draco
has decided to kick this Auror�s butt, though.

�� Dragons
Breath: They pretty much know, now, or will soon.

�� rafiq: There
are some, but their numbers are fairly low, for reasons that you will find out
about later.

�� And yes,
Aran�s spell was meant to take away Harry�s new little talent.

�� KadyRae:
Yes, here you are.
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Ceremonies of Strife