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Seasons of War	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 9694 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
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Chapter
Thirty-Three�Nothing Out of Nothing

�� Harry
didn�t know how he could fight Nihil. The blows that fell on him came from all
directions, and felt like stabs and cuts and slices that went directly to his
soul, and he reeled from them, and he was sure that he would fall over beneath
them any moment and never be able to stand back up.

�� But he
commanded his snakes to attack anyway. The silver snakes that had held him to
the sides of the void struck out at Nihil, hissing, and the cobra on his head
opened its mouth and launched a devastating fall of poison.

�� Nihil
didn�t seem to dodge them, but he also didn�t seem affected by them. The fangs
and the poison simply fell into darkness and didn�t come back. The silver
snakes attached to Harry struggled for a moment and then vanished. The cobra
was still there, dancing alertly back and forth, but that didn�t matter if its one weapon wouldn�t hurt Nihil.

�� And
meanwhile the void beneath him shuddered hungrily, and the flames came down
from overhead, so that Harry had to tell the cobra to attend to them again.

�� He flailed
beneath the blows that continued to rain down with the fire, feeling as though
they were tearing away tiny parts of his soul that fell to the ground and
spiraled into the void. Merlin knew what Nihil would do with them once he had
them. Probably eat them or toss them away, the way his beast had with Draco�s
eye.

�� The thought
of Draco strengthened Harry. He couldn�t give in, feeling sorry for himself, and
allow Nihil to do whatever he wanted, because Draco was asleep and helpless,
and depending on Harry to protect him.

�� Harry rose
up against the pain, the way he had against the pain of realizing what
Dumbledore was really like, and the pain of Dumbledore�s death and Sirius�s,
and the pain of his parents� deaths, and what the Dursleys had done to him. He
envisioned that pain pouring out of him, forming a snake whose task was to
defend him and Draco. Not just from the flames, not just from the extra pain that
Nihil was inflicting on him, but from anything
that Nihil might bring into being and heap on his head. Could he make a
defense like that? Well, Portillo Lopez had said that his magic wasn�t quite
necromancy, but was still on the same spectrum as Nihil�s, and vital to
fighting him. Harry was at least going to try and see if he could.

�� The void
beneath him seemed to bulge and ripple. Harry couldn�t tell if he was seeing
something that was really there, or seeing it with the eyes of his mind, or something
else, but the stretching went on, he was certain of that, and then it swirled
and coalesced into the head of a huge black snake with jaws wide-spread.

�� Harry
flinched and ducked as it soared up at him, but then he realized it was aiming
at Nihil, and that it must have answered his desperate prayer for protection,
and felt more than a little foolish.

�� A hard
pressure squeezed him from the side. Harry blinked and turned his head. He had
almost forgotten about Portillo Lopez. �What are you doing?� she yelled at him,
voice so close to his ear that he could hear it above the roar of the flames
and his own screams, which by now were almost involuntary as Nihil scraped and
tore at him.

�� I summoned
something to defend me!� Harry yelled back, and then tried to duck out of the
way.

�� He couldn�t
do that, he realized a moment later. He was standing on the snake�s head, and
he thought Portillo Lopez and Raverat were as well, though he couldn�t see them
in the flame-torn darkness. He just had to do the best he could with standing
still and trying to keep his feet clinging to the snake�s slick head, and hope
that Nihil would be as vulnerable to the snake�s teeth, or poison, or whatever
it used, as Harry hoped he would be.

�� The snake
snapped its jaws together with a horrible ringing sound. Harry shuddered a little, hearing it. Then it turned its head and
fastened those jaws together around Nihil, shaking him hard enough to break
more than a few limbs.

�� But of
course Nihil was nothingness, and should slip right out of the teeth, Harry
thought. And he had no limbs to break.

�� Then he
heard a sound that heartened him: Nihil had frozen in the snake�s grip instead
of simply melting away and screamed, as though he did have limbs to break. Harry smiled and leaned forwards, hand
resting on the edge of the snake�s neck as he urged it to greater and harder
biting.

�� Nihil
tossed back and forth, and the rain of fire from above stopped. Harry could
hear the steady chanting of Portillo Lopez and Raverat now. Whether they were
chanting in Latin or another language, or the interruptions in the normal world
of sight and sound were just too great, Harry couldn�t make out what they were
saying.

�� The snake
moved forwards, pulling an immense neck out of nowhere that Harry could
see�wherever illusions and magical concepts were before they existed, he
reckoned. Nihil moved with it, a flat black smear that seemed stretched out
across an unreflecting mirror, clawing and flailing at the snake, screaming in
a voice that seemed to rearrange the past to create its sound. Harry leaned
forwards, focusing his will on destroying Nihil, commanding the snake to eat as
much of the tar as he could.

�� Nihil cried
out, within and without Harry�s head, and faded into a tattering banner,
blowing, toppling, turning, gone.

�� Harry
gasped and opened his eyes. He stood within the world of void and flame for one
moment more, and then they were gone, too, and he was back on the ordinary
earth, under stars, with Raverat and Portillo Lopez slowing and then ending
their chant beside him.

�� What did
you do?� Portillo Lopez asked him at once. She had her head cocked on one side
like a curious bird, and she looked as though she would peck apart his skull,
if necessary, to get the secrets out.

�� Only what
I thought would help me survive,� Harry said. He looked around and heard the
stretching and groans and confused sounds as the camp came awake again. He
could have sagged with relief, except that that might make him look weak in
front of the Aurors. He had half-feared that, even with Nihil driven away, Draco and the rest of them might sleep forever. �I
used the snake illusions against him the same way you told me they could be
used.� He arched his eyebrows at Portillo Lopez. �Was that wrong? Did you want
me to only think about the magic, and never use it?�

�� She sighed.
�No.� Then she turned to Raverat and said something in that same language they
had been using for the chant. Listening, Harry didn�t think it was Latin after
all. Raverat gave her a sad smile, bowed his head as though he was saluting to
something, and then turned and ran away into the darkness.

�� Well?�
Harry demanded. �You look upset that I used it. Why?�

�� Because
our efforts weren�t working,� Portillo Lopez said, turning back towards him.
�The chants that I�ve never known to fail, that always work against
necromancers, only failed against him. You were the only one who saved us. And
I don�t know why, and I hate being in
a position where I�m so dependent on someone whose
magic and whose ways I don�t understand.�

�� Harry
smiled in spite of himself. �It�s good for you to find out how it feels,� he
said. �That�s how I�ve felt most of the time that I�ve talked to you, because
you wouldn�t explain everything and I could never understand the things that
you did explain.�

�� But surely
you knew that you could trust me?� Portillo Lopez looked at him with narrowed
eyes now.

�� Not
always,� Harry said. �Not when I had to think that everyone could be a servant
of Nihil, and not when I thought that the mark on your back might mean that you
were sworn to him, and not when you seemed to oppose me and Draco most of the
time.�

�� I was only
trying to make sure that you didn�t get yourselves killed,� Portillo Lopez said
in a soft, injured tone, turning away.

�� Harry shook
his head in wonder. Who would have known that he could actually hurt Portillo Lopez by refusing to trust
her as much as she wanted to be trusted?

�� Harry?�

�� Harry
turned around. Draco stood in the tent�s entrance, scanning the darkness with
his magical eye as if that would reveal something to him that his ordinary eye
wouldn�t. For all Harry knew about its properties, that might be true. He
stepped back to Draco and embraced him, kissing him hard enough to make him
sway in place. He felt Draco�s arm, his hand holding his wand, rise and curve
around his back, holding him in place.

�� Something
did happen, didn�t it?� Draco said into his ear. �What?�

�� Nihil
attacked through your sleep, and kept you and most of the rest of the camp
asleep,� Harry began, hoping that Draco wouldn�t think he had taken an
unacceptable risk by going out to fight. At least he could call on Portillo
Lopez and Raverat to point out that he hadn�t gone by himself,
that they had helped.

�� Except
that, when he looked around, Portillo Lopez had gone. Harry rolled his eyes and
settled down to the explanation that he knew would probably only partially
satisfy Draco.

*

�� Draco
leaned back in his chair and concentrated deeply for a moment, both eyes
closed. When he opened them, he focused all his attention to his magical eye,
the same way he had been learning to do with the ordinary one before he
received a replacement for the missing one. He focused so hard that the sight
to one side blurred, and all he could see before him was the bed where Harry slept, given permission to miss today�s classes once Holder
and Robards had received a full account of what had happened.

�� The wild
magic he had seen before in Harry was there again today, but less wild than
before, subdued to a shimmering cloak of colors along Harry�s back and
shoulders. Draco nodded slowly. His theory that the magic responded to an
individual�s personality, and their energy, was looking more and more like it
was right.

�� It proved
that he could understand some of the information that the magical eye conveyed
to him. What he didn�t understand was
why he had stayed asleep last night. He had made a sacrifice for Nihil; his
mind and body bore Nihil�s touch. He reached up and scratched the scars that
stretched across his face.

�� Why hadn�t
he awakened in the same way that Harry had? Was it because his magic wasn�t
touched, the way Harry�s certainly was? But that wasn�t enough for Draco. He
didn�t like Harry risking his life on his own, and he hated the thought that
Nihil could keep him helpless while he launched an attack. That meant Draco had
to solve the puzzle for the sake of his pride as well as because of the fact
that Nihil would probably attack again the moment he could.

�� And what factors govern his readiness? Draco
leaned his head back and groaned aloud. So much they didn�t understand, and
they had so little time to employ what they did. Nihil might release those
balls of nothingness soon and consume the world, or the balance between life
and death might shift further.

�� I found
it.�

�� Draco
looked instinctively at the figure on the bed, but no, it wasn�t Harry who had
spoken. He turned and looked at the tent flap and saw Ventus standing there,
holding a flat wooden box in her hands.

�� I found
it,� she repeated as she came towards him, and Draco saw magic leaping and
swirling around the box. He had to grip the back of his chair to keep from
being overwhelmed by it, in fact. It was wild magic like the kind that he had
seen around Harry, but all one color�gold�rather than the medley of shifting
shades that Harry displayed. And towards the outer edges, it swirled and blazed
in neat rings like the ones that Draco had seen on Portillo Lopez�s wrists. And
in the very center, above what also looked to be the center of the box, was an
expanding yellow glow, the opposite of the hole in the center of Nemo�s aura.

�� What is
that?� he whispered.

�� Something
I found,� Ventus, who seemed to like saying the obvious today, responded. She
put the box down on the ground in front of him and looked at it complacently.
�I should have thought of it before. When Harry said that we needed something
that could defeat Nihil, I realized that I knew what would.�

�� Draco shook
his head. �That�s impossible. We�ve been looking for solutions. And you�re
loyal to me. You would have said something before now, if you really knew the
answer.�

�� Ventus gave
him a look of mild impatience. �Weren�t you listening to me? I knew it, but I wasn�t thinking about it. I had to think about
it again, and consider it, before I knew that I could find it. And then I had
to find it.� She looked back at the box with a slightly smug expression. �There
it was. Anyone could have found it, if they�d looked for it and knew the
correct spells to discover it in the first place.�

�� Draco stood
up. The magic around the box hadn�t faded the way he had thought it might when
his eye grew used to it. It wasn�t just an effect that resulted from the place
where Ventus had stolen it, then. The thing in the box itself was inherently
magical.

�� I want you
to tell me what you did,� he said, in a calm, careful
voice that he hoped he could prevent from breaking into a shout, �and I want
you to go and put it back in the Ministry the minute you�re done, if it�s an
artifact that you stole from them.� For many reasons, it would be better if
Holder could be flattered and coaxed into believing that she�d found the box
herself.

�� I didn�t steal it,� Ventus said. �Unless you can steal the leaves from a tree, or the light from the
sun.�

�� This
doesn�t get us any closer to the answer,� Draco reminded her. �What is that?�

�� Which part
do you want first?� Ventus looked at him with curiosity that would have been
insolence in anyone else, even Harry. �What I did to find it, or what it is?
Because you�ve asked for both, and with that tone that says I should do both of
them first, which is impossible, you see. Except if you use a Stasis Spell to
slow your enemy down,� she added, brightening, �and then��

�� Tell me
what you did,� Draco said, and he didn�t grind his teeth, but he did stare at
the purple magic that corkscrewed lazily around Ventus and wonder if there was
a way of freezing it in place, and her chatter with it.

�� Ventus
bobbed her head, apparently happy enough to do that. �I started thinking that
some War Wizard spells were based on the concepts of other worlds interwoven
with ours�things like the world of dreams, the world of death, and so on. I
thought that the world of life was one of them. The world of reality.� She gave Draco a
significant look of the kind that would have made her a terrible conspirator.

�� Draco
hardly cared, though. His mind had been thrown by her words, and he had to step
carefully away from her and then reach out for a chair before he collapsed.

�� Yes,�
Ventus said, and smiled at him. �The reality that we need for enfolding Nihil�s
balls of nothingness, according to that vision you saw in the mirror. And that
Harry saw, too,� she added, casting a glance at his sleeping figure on the bed,
as if she wondered why he wasn�t awake. �So I used one of my father�s spells to
enter the world of reality. It took a while to find a piece that would break
off, but I did. And I brought it back in this box, because the spellbooks said
I should. It needs a limited container to hold it at first, or else it�ll
simply leak out into the world around it and make that world more real.�

�� What was
that place like?� Draco asked. He didn�t know that this was important information,
which partially made him scold himself for asking it, but he was fascinated
enough that he couldn�t stop.

�� Ventus�s face grew distant for a moment. �Like walking
through a golden forest suspended in a golden sea,� she said. �Creatures went
past me, but I don�t think they were solid in the way that creatures in our
world are. They were imaginings, you know? Thoughts about what kind of
creatures could have existed, rather than actual ones. That world is about
possibility and potential. It�s more real than ours, but it�s not more fixed.
It moves around instead. Fluid. Without
a destiny yet. Unborn,� she
concluded, sounding as though she�d produced that word with triumph from the
very bottom of her mind.

�� Draco
looked back at the wooden box. Without the glow�which of course no one would be
able to see without his magical eye�it was an ordinary enough container. He
only hoped that it would be a long time before Nihil learned of what Ventus had
done. They could use all the days they had to make the reality into a weapon.

�� Can I see
it?� he asked.

�� It�s
dangerous for the box to be open too long, until some time has passed and the
piece of reality has started thinking that this is all there is to the world,�
Ventus said, but she reached down and pushed back the lid.

�� All Draco
could see was a glow of gold, with a thicker spot in the middle where, he
thought, the yellow blossom that complemented the hole in the center of Nemo
came from. When he squinted, or covered his ordinary eye, the thicker spot
became an even thicker swirl of what looked like brownish-yellow syrup,
attended by fluffy clouds like scrambled eggs.

�� Not the
best visual for life and reality, Draco had to admit, but perhaps the best one
for the ideas that Ventus had told him its world embodied: potential, life,
imagination. That syrup and those bits of eggs could form
into, or hatch, anything.

�� Wow,� he
said softly, and then blinked and realized that Ventus had shut the box again.
What he was looking at resembled afterimages more than anything else. He shut
his eyes for a moment and waited for his brain and sight to readjust.

�� Draco? Ventus? What is it?�

�� Harry was
sitting up. Ventus launched proudly into her explanation once again, while
Draco stood there and thought.

�� They had to
use this discovery. There was no question about that. But it didn�t seem as if
the bits of reality or life�Draco didn�t know what the more accurate term for
them would be�would be as easily manipulated as the bit of the void that they
had made into a weapon. And they didn�t need weapons, did they? They needed
containers. Boxes.

�� There were
books in the Manor that might help, he thought. Or perhaps even in the Black
library that Harry had at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. He knew that he had
read one ancestor�s diary once, just a few pages, that
covered such ideas; the ancestor had been a thaumosculptor,
working raw magic into delicate and pretty shapes for the delectation of
wealthy collectors. He must have been asked to do a box at least once, Draco
thought, or an idea that they could adapt for a box.

�� He smiled,
and became aware that Harry was looking at him with an approving glance. Draco
smiled back and began to pace the tent, mind whirling and spinning, awash with
new information.

*

�� It was
worth something, to see Draco look full of himself
again. Harry hadn�t realized how much he missed it.

�� Draco had
seemed downcast after Harry had explained what he�d done to combat Nihil, and
hadn�t changed his mind or his expression even when Harry mentioned that no one
else in the campsite had been awake. Harry had feared the same thing would
happen when he understood that Ventus had found this piece of reality and not
Draco. But it appeared that, since he hadn�t had a suspicion that such a thing
was possible, no more than Harry had, Draco would make up for any
disappointment by putting it to use with his mind.

�� Draco
wouldn�t always be the kindest or the most considerate lover. But Harry
preferred him as he was to how he could be.

�� He looked
down at the spinning piece of reality as Draco apparently had already done and
made polite, admiring noises. Ventus continued to look pleased with herself, and explained the spell and where she had found it
when Harry asked. To Harry�s thinking, it sounded like a dangerous spell, the
kind of thing Draco would have been upset by if he�d gone off and done it by
himself, but Ventus talked as if this was an ordinary, everyday chore for her.

�� And then an
idea came crashing home to Harry. He blinked and tried to chase it away. If he
suggested it, it would be intruding on Draco�s territory, in some ways. Draco
obviously wanted to be the one who thought of the next part of the solution,
and Harry didn�t want bad feelings between them.

�� Then again,
Draco wanted to defeat Nihil. And there was no reason to think that Harry�s
single, unsophisticated idea would work. He might as well go ahead and voice
it, so that other people could change it and complicate it.

�� What do
you think would happen if we tore off bits of the reality�can you do that?� he
broke off to ask Ventus.

�� I don�t
know,� Ventus said, her eyes brightening. �I could find out.�

�� Harry
smiled at her, noting in the back of his mind that he no longer doubted her
when she made a declaration like that. �Do. I was thinking of concealing some
reality in my snake illusions, and using them as the containers to hold Nihil�s
balls of nothingness.�

�� Silence
from Draco�s direction. Harry hesitated before he turned and looked towards
him.

�� But Draco
was watching him with quiet, ungrudging approval. Harry smiled back in relief. When it�s necessary, he can put the good of
the people around him above pride.

�� Then a
thought occurred to him that made him want to roll his eyes. And it probably helps that I�m his
boyfriend, so some of the glory reflects on him.

�� He still
wouldn�t change Draco for anyone else, though.

�

*

�� Review
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Seasons of War