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Changing of the Guard	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 58627 -:- Recommendations : 4 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Thirty-Six�What
Can Be Worked With Will

�� Draco was
glancing far more frequently at Harry than Harry, or the people who thought
they had Draco�s full attention, would have been pleased to know. Thus he saw
Nusante�s arrival, and snatched several glimpses of the conversation he had
with Harry, though of course he couldn�t hear the words over the music and the distance
that separated them. Harry bowed his head and kept it bowed for a few moments
after one of Nusante�s little speeches. Draco hid his sudden agitation with an
emphatic nod to the pure-blood witch who was talking to him, an acquaintance of
Pansy�s who was discovering, to her amazed delight, that gay and lesbian and
bisexual people were much like normal wizards.

�� But he
fixed the remembrance of Harry�s gesture in his mind. He would have something
to speak to him about later.

�� Then he
took his next glimpse, and saw his father standing in front of Harry.

�� The witch
he was talking to hadn�t finished her spiel yet. Draco didn�t want to offend
her by suddenly departing, however. He took her hand, brushed a light kiss over
the knuckles, and winked, which had the effect of making her blush and shut her
mouth. �Excuse me,� he murmured. �There�s a confrontation approaching that I�ve
relished happening for a long time. My father is meeting my lover.�

��

�� Oh,� the
woman said, her eyes widening. �Of course.� She didn�t
have any more words, so Draco gave her one more smile and then turned towards
the gap in the wards, forcing himself to walk without hurrying.

�� Draco
studied the relative position of Lucius and Harry�s bodies as he came up behind
Harry�s shoulder. Harry was leaning forwards, his hand on his wand, not
bothering to disguise his eagerness to have Lucius try something. Lucius had
drawn his wand now, but he was tapping it idly against his leg. He looked up
and nodded when he caught sight of Draco, as if he wanted to prove that he didn�t
need to focus on Harry to defeat him.

�� I wondered
if you would bother to speak to me again,� he said.

�� Harry didn�t
turn around as Draco came to a stop at his shoulder, but his body went tight.
Draco slid a hand slowly up the back of his neck, meaning to reassure Harry but
not distract him from his focus on his enemy. Harry was the wiser in this
confrontation. If something suddenly changed, Harry could react faster.

�� I wondered
why you would want to, when you disowned me,� said Draco.

�� Lucius�s
face worked, but if there was really emotion beneath the surface of his
coldness, its struggle was brief and doomed from the beginning. The longer he
watched his father, the more Draco doubted that emotion was real. Instead,
Lucius wanted it to seem as if he
were affected by Draco�s words.

�� Hmmm. Draco let his hand fall away from
Harry, into a better position for the both of them�for him if he needed to move
fast, for Harry in case he was worried about defending the gap through the
wards. What does he want?

�� I have
figured out your plan now.� Lucius�s voice was soft and careful, as if he were
picking his way over uncertain ground. Draco held his face motionless. Even his wanting me to think he is cautious
is a deception. I�m certain of it. �You wanted me to disown you so that you
could have greater freedom away from me.� His eyes flickered once to Harry. �You
chose the surest method you could think of. Of course, if you will not
reproduce the Malfoy line, I have no reason to choose you as my heir.�

�� Draco let
his silence speak for him. Lucius�s wand was still tapping against his leg.
Draco watched it, but it didn�t flick up or sideways into any spellcasting pattern he recognized.

�� I am not
the man you thought I was,� Lucius whispered, and his eyes glittered like river
stones. �I am cleverer, more perceptive.�

�� Draco just
barely restrained himself from nodding with approval. He had been sure Lucius
would speak of his love for Draco, which would have made Draco laugh in his
face. But this tactic was intelligent, because it ensured that he could talk a
little longer.

�� I have
carefully studied your past love affairs,� said Lucius. �I know you once slept
with women, and one does not lose the taste for that. You can still marry and
father heirs for the Malfoy line.�

�� Draco
parted his lips in what he was careful to show as a sigh, though not the type
of exaggerated one that would have mortally offended Lucius. �And why should I
wish to?� he asked. �When such a sexual relationship would constitute an
abandonment of my partner?�

�� I refer to
ability,� said Lucius. �Not willingness. I have known men too perverted by the
way they lay with men ever to tolerate a marriage bed. I make only the point
that you are not one of them.�

�� Draco
looked his father in the eye and ignored the way Harry was shifting restlessly
next to him. He would not let himself be bothered by the word �perverted�; he
had heard worse things from Weasley�s mouth, and from
some of the people here tonight. �You disowned me,� he said. �You can�t
convince me to crawl back to you, and you won�t suddenly make me your son and
heir again. You�re too proud.�

�� Lucius
lifted his wand. Draco tensed, but Lucius only drew it gently from his heart to
the base of his throat. Draco thought the gesture odd; still, though, it was no
motion of a spell he knew, and Lucius�s left eye tended to twitch when he was
using a nonverbal incantation. That didn�t happen this time.

�� Think on
it, Draco,� Lucius said. �You could have back your old life. You could have��

��

�� Harry
whirled around and Apparated from between them with such an economy of motion
that admiration stunned Draco speechless for a moment. He knew what that meant,
of course. There was a large disturbance at some other point in the wards.
Lucius�s presence at this one was probably just a distraction.

�� You won�t
convince me to come back to you,� Draco said. He had not recovered from the
sudden shock of Harry�s disappearance, but he didn�t think Lucius could notice
that in his voice. He also had no intention of moving or going after Harry.
That would leave this gap undefended, and Lucius or his friends could come
through. �I chose the course most calculated to irritate you. I gave up the
lands and the money that I expected to possess, and I�ll have a life without
many of the luxuries I�ve always enjoyed because of that. Do you really think I�ll
come back when I was willing to risk that?�

�� Lucius drew
the wand smoothly up over his throat to his brow. He was still holding it
oddly, but Draco thought now that was only for dramatic effect. His father
could become quite invested in pointless gestures at moments of extreme tension.

�� Luxuries
are not as important to you as your own will,� Lucius said. �Do not think I
have not noticed that, Draco. And so I propose a compromise. Do the one thing I
wish you to; come back to the family and promise to marry. You may do anything
else. You can retain your Potter lover and send your money to whatever
rebellious groups you desire.�

�� I won�t do
it.� Draco made his words as rough as possible, containing all his disgust, as
a deliberate contrast to his father�s cultured voice.

�� Lucius
said, �Alas,� without any expression in his voice, and paused. He had slipped
his wand back into his sleeve, but Draco didn�t allow himself to relax. Lucius
watched him unblinking for a moment more, than added, �Your chosen bride is
Alice Moonstone.�

�� Better her than her sister,� said Draco. �But you should find a
different heir, one who would love her.�

�� You can love her,� said Lucius, and gave him
a wolf�s smile. Then he vanished, with that silent Apparition he could master
when he wanted. He rarely cared to put forth the effort, of course.

�� Draco forced
himself to look thoughtfully at the spot where his father had stood for some
moments, and not to show any open sign of frustration. Then he drew another
ward up that enclosed the gap Harry had been standing in, and would alert him
instantly of anyone approaching, by Portkey or Apparition or broom.

��

�� Only then
did he dare to turn his back and seek Harry with his eyes.

*

�� The attack
was coming at the point where Harry had suspected it would come, a �corner�
where several wards joined and were weaker for that reason, as power passed
from spell to spell. He�d made it noticeable and attractive, a joining point
for five wards instead of the more usual three, and then layered an alarm ward
behind it the way he�d often layered glamour under glamour. Unless the witches
and wizards serving in Counterstrike or among the bigoted Aurors had received
certain very specific training, then they wouldn�t see the alarm even if they
looked carefully.

�� Harry
appeared beside the corner, behind an oak tree ornamented with swaying pink
lanterns, with a small grim smile on his face. He suspected the attackers hadn�t
come far enough yet to unravel the wards, which meant that Counterstrike or the
Aurors hadn�t yet discovered his special surprise.

�� He swept
the potential battlefield with swift eyes. As he had ordered them to do, the
wizards and witches watching the border of the wards had sent off distress
signals of red sparks and then herded away the curious, the fearful, and the
terminally fearless. Harry didn�t want targets in the way, and he didn�t know
any of the watchers, mostly from the core of Nusante�s group, well enough to
feel comfortable with their fighting at his back.

�� He drew his
wand when he discovered a witch in heavy dark robes�nondescript, and not made
of the special cloth that indicated Aurors�had cut through three of the wards
at the corner. It was nearly time to bring up the special spell he�d set, which
was different from the other magic on the party field merely encouraging good
cheer and peaceful conduct. If he had left this
spell out in the open from the beginning, then most of their enemies would have
sensed it and not attacked. And Harry had wanted an attack, to show how their
group responded to violence.

�� It would
not be by bringing more violence.

�� The witch
had probably recognized him, because she sped up the Severing Snake that was
chewing through the wards. A moment later, the strands of the guard spells
parted with a crack like tent ropes releasing a stake, and then the witch and
several other dark-robed companions piled in.

�� Harry made
the threefold pass that triggered his special spell, hissing the incantation
under his breath. The chance was small that any of the attackers would know
this spell, yes, but still, he would prefer that it not be turned against him
at some later date. �Veritas absoluta!�

�� A wind
tossed the hoods covering the attackers� faces back, and a flash of lightning
in the next moment burned their clothes away without touching their flesh.
Several of them stumbled to a stop, and Harry heard loud, confused cries. Some were
clutching at their crotches or their breasts, as if that would really prevent
anyone from looking. Harry heard a few Apparitions, but most were scrambling
for dropped wands.

�� Marks on
their bodies began to glow brilliantly�tattoos, scars, freckles, moles,
anything unusual that might identify them. Harry laughed as he noticed a small
phoenix tattoo just above the buttocks of the witch who had sawed through the
wards. She�d obviously tried to cover it up with layered glamour spells, but it
was stirring now, as though the light of the spell were life to it. It spread
its wings and beat them, and then flames cut across the witch�s skin. Though
they obviously hadn�t hurt her, she whirled away from
Harry, her face brilliant with embarrassment.

�� Harry
whistled.

�� A figure
stirred under the oak tree, where he�d been standing with a carefully applied
Disillusionment Charm covering him. Therris lifted
his camera and began to take pictures of the wizards and witches who had thought
they could get away with raiding the celebration of a group of people who had
never done them harm. Click, click,
flash, flash, and the scrambling of the victims grew more and more desperate.
A few more of them had found their wands and Apparated away, but still not
many. There were also five or six who seemed to think that screaming at Therris would make him stop.

�� Harry
laughed again, and then felt a tug at his awareness. Another strike was going
on at the second weakest place in the wards, concealed behind a large bush
where the intruders must have felt confident no one would see them come in. He
nodded to Therris�though he thought the reporter was
having far too much fun to notice him�and Apparated. He had relaxed the wards
for himself as well as Draco, a few minutes after the trickle of visitors had
slowed. No sense in tearing his own protections to pieces or moving so slowly that he might arrive only after someone had
been injured.

�� And no one
was going to be injured tonight. He had meant it when he told Garrett and Draco
that he wouldn�t let anyone in the party retaliate with violence, or be hurt.
That meant the Counterstrike members or Aurors had to be protected as well,
from Nusante or friends of his who might have had enough of silent suffering.

�� The bush
rustled as Harry landed next to it, but the small group of wizards filing
through the hole in the wards only had time to look up before they found
themselves each confronted by an illusion of Caroline Garrett. Like the spell
that had started the Weird Sisters music for the dancing, this was a time-delayed
piece of magic, and it also utilized a very simple principle of Legilimency. It
located whatever sexual memory the victim found most embarrassing, and then the
illusion of Garrett began to explain gravely what sexual disease or perversion
the memory was symptomatic of.

�� Obviously,
sir, you�ve been repressing fantasies of bestiality all your life��

�� How
interesting, madam! I never would have thought that someone as highly important
as you are could have advanced so far in the Ministry without someone
suspecting her tendency towards pedophilia��

�� Did you
know that those who dream often of sex with their mothers may actually have
inherited a tendency towards incest?�

�� Harry let
the illusions speak for only a moment before he swept his wand around in a circle
and called, �Accio
leaves!�

�� The leaves
on the bush blew off, revealing several parchments with branches stuck through them.
Over each parchment traveled a busy Quick-Quotes Quill, transcribing the words the
illusions spoke.

�� Harry
winked at the nearest horrified face, then raised a block that would prevent
them from coming any further into the camp even if they managed to break away
from the charmed rapport before the illusions�Garrett, when she agreed to let
her image be used, had suggested adding a bit of hypnotism to the magic�and Apparated
again. A third attack was coming in a fairly daring point, near the gap in the
wards he had been guarding, and he had no specific trap set up to receive it.

�� But that
didn�t matter. He had his magic, surging and seething around his shoulders as
if it were excited to be used for something beyond Transfigurations and
glamours, and he had his presence. That would work.

�� The moment
he landed near a ragged entrance cut in the wards, the spell that alerted him
to the presence of fabric in Auror robes twinged hard
across his chest. Harry breathed as if he were about to dive underwater. The
other attackers could have included Aurors, but if so, they had been probably unofficially
associated with Counterstrike. These would be men and women who had the Minister�s
permission backing them up.

�� But why
should he let that change things? He had informed Kingsley, along with everyone
else in wizarding Britain who possessed the ears to listen, of what he planned
to do, and he wouldn�t hurt the Aurors. Nor were the spells he had planned to
use on them illegal, and Harry himself would watch to see that they didn�t
cause unintentional harm.

�� He stepped
forwards and blocked the Aurors� path into the grounds, smiling a little. �I own
this land,� he said, tilting his head to make sure that the light of the
bonfire fell across his face and revealed his scar. �Do you have a reason for
trespassing? I�m assuming you�re trespassers, understand, and not legitimate visitors,
because otherwise you would have used the front entrance.�

�� He expected
many things, including the anger and disdain and worry that swept through the
Aurors staring at him. He didn�t expect the convulsive movement from the middle
of the line, or Ron�s voice calling, �Harry! Mate!�

�� Harry held
still. He kept his arms folded as Ron hurried towards him, stopping maybe five
feet away and scanning his face with a desperate eagerness that wrung Harry�s
heart. It would have been easier if Ron had showed up hating him and calling
him names. But Harry had long since become resigned to the fact that his life
would never deserve the adjective easy,
whatever else he might choose to call it.

�� Thank
Merlin we found you!� Ron�s eyes were shining. He fumbled for his wand, not
seeming to notice the way the motion made Harry take a step to the side. �I
know that you wouldn�t have agreed to this of your own free will. Malfoy must
have enchanted you. And Hermione gave me a charm against the most powerful
mind-controlling enchantments.�

�� Harry found
his tongue. �Ron,� he said, as gently as he could. His heart wavered and vibrated
as if it were a glass balanced on the edge of a table and stroked by a breeze. �You�re
making a mistake. Listen to me.�

�� I know
that you wouldn�t betray us like this,� Ron was babbling on. He had his wand
free now and was waving it straight up and down in broad passes Harry wasn�t
familiar with. �You would have told us
if you were seriously considering being open about your homosexuality, let
alone dating Malfoy. I know you would.� He smiled at Harry.

�� Ron, I
love Draco,� Harry said strongly. �I was waiting for an owl from you before I
came to you, but I��

�� It�s all
right, it�s almost done,� Ron said soothingly. �Apsolvo mentem!�

�� Harry
winced. It felt as though someone had tossed a stinging puff of sand into his
eyes. He staggered, coughing, and winced again as his head began to ache. He
put a hand up and massaged his temples. He didn�t think there was any change,
but at the same time, that had been powerful magic. Ron was by no means a weak
wizard; it was his temper and his emotions that got in his way.

�� And that�s about to happen again, Harry
thought. For a moment, just a moment, he was shaking like a newborn fawn. Here
was one of those moments he had begun Metamorphosis in the first place to
avoid. He didn�t want to choose
between his friends and living a life that was exciting and fun for him. He
didn�t know if he could bear it. He knew that something in him would shatter
irrevocably at the look of betrayal on Ron�s face.

�� He plunged
himself into Brian�s courage and opened his eyes.

�� Ron was
smiling at him hopefully. �Say it now,� he urged. �Say now that you love
Malfoy, or that you�ll really prevent us from arresting anyone who�s engaging
in public displays of homosexuality here.�

�� Distantly,
Harry knew he was twisting apart, wrung with pain as exquisite as a snakebite. He managed to smile, though, because it was
Brian and not Harry who was moving behind his eyes now. �No,� he said quietly,
his voice deepened into Brian�s. �I still love Draco. And I still won�t let you
hurt anyone here. Including yourselves.�

�� Ron�s face
crumpled. Harry saw tears in his eyes in the moment before he unleashed the spell
he�d decided to use on them.

�� It was the
same enchantment that Dumbledore had used on Ron and Hermione in Harry�s fourth
year when he�d put them to sleep under the lake. They�d wake when someone who
worked for the Ministry touched them, and not before. For now, they fell to the
ground, snoring. Ron�s face washed clean of anguish and sorrow as he tumbled,
and moments later Harry could have imagined that he was seeing his friend
asleep on his own pillow at home, with nothing more than dreams of an argument
with Hermione to trouble him.

�� Harry
turned around and began vomiting uncontrollably. He leaned forwards enough that
it didn�t drop onto his robes or his shoes or his legs. The persona named
Gerald whom he�d used for bodyguard work, as fierce and wary as a wild cat,
flickered into existence in his head and kept watch even as some distant part
of him expelled every bit of food he�d taken in that day. When he was down to
dry heaves, Gerald pulled him back to his feet and forced his stomach to stop spasming with a muttered spell. Whilst he was busy being
weak, someone else could have sneaked past his defenses and into the party.

�� But when he
listened, there was nothing but the music and the chattering from the dance
floor. Slowly, he relaxed. The party hadn�t been disrupted; some of the
attendees would leave certain that no one had even tried to invade. He had
preserved the peace and the lives of those involved. No one could ask for more.

�� Then he
turned and saw one who could striding towards him.
Draco�s hair was brilliantly colored in the light of the lanterns he passed
beneath, now straw, now gold.

�� Gerald
tensed. There was no way he could allow Draco to realize who had come here. He
would probably insist on casting some spell on Ron that would make things worse
between them, or on making Harry talk about it. And Gerald had already made
some important tactical decisions. For one thing, Harry had betrayed his friends and would have to atone for it somehow. That
made a confrontation with them as soon as possible inevitable. If he wanted to
preserve their friendship, he would need to explain. Confronting them in Draco�s
company was impossible, since it would only result in shouting and a wider
rift. Therefore, Harry would have to do it alone, and lying to Draco by
omission was a necessity.

�� For
another, Draco would not be pleased that Harry had had to call on personas to
survive the aftermath of Ron�s accusations. He was so joyful that he was
getting the real Harry, as he would call it, back. Should Gerald allow the
happiness of the person most important to Harry to be disrupted, when he had
gone to such lengths to preserve the happiness of relative strangers?

�� No, he
thought not.

�� There had
been one disastrous year with failure after failure. There would be no more.

�� Gerald
closed his eyes and folded himself into the back of Harry�s mind as Draco came
closer and closer. It would have to be Harry who met him; Draco would accept no
less. But Harry would have the silent strength of hundreds of others backing
him up.

�� And as soon
as ever he could, he would get away and make arrangements to contact his
friends.

*

�� Draco thought Harry was rather
pale and quiet when he came up to him at first, but almost immediately he
understood it must have been a trick of the light. Harry smiled at him and
reached out to embrace him, bowing his head and sighing deeply. Draco stroked
his back.

�� Everything�s
all right?� he whispered.

�� Everything,�
Harry said, and then looked up at him, his eyebrows rising. �Unless
you left the gap in the wards unguarded.�

�� Garret is
watching it,� said Draco. �And I put up blocks of my own, secured with both
certain spells I know and a potion, which no one is going to get past without a
Potions mastery. You deserve to have some food.�

�� And to dance?� Harry asked. �I�d like that.�

�� Draco
relaxed. The action against the attackers must really have gone well. Harry
wouldn�t put his own pleasure ahead of duty. �Of course,� he said, and hooked a
hand under Harry�s elbow, and led him towards the dance floor.

*

�� Lunatic
with a hero complex: Draco is very glad to see the new Harry as well.

�� Nusante is
not very likeable, too, but he�ll be needed in the future.

�� 70_Sol_Laen:
Thank you!

�� Christabell: Thank you! I do try to include weakness in the
characters (all the characters), and I really think Nusante welcoming Harry
with open arms would have made things too easy.

�� Broomrider949:
Thanks for reviewing!

�� Hi-chan: Thanks! He has traveled as far as accepting that he
likes being Harry Potter and that that persona is worth preserving.

�� Mangacat: Oh, I wouldn�t say that it doesn�t mean hiding
anymore.

�� Eve:
Thanks! I think Nusante�s understandable in that he was really doing all the
work for a long time, and suddenly someone�s stepped in and is getting all the
credit.

�� Essentially,
Harry agrees with Nusante, just as he agrees a lot with Ron. And that weakens
his ability to stand up for himself. He could do it much more easily if he thought
they were wrong.

�� Yume111:
Hermione and Ron will appear fully next chapter, and you�ll learn the reason
for their silence.

�� I�m not
sure Harry will accept that they have a part in his silence as well as he does.
He�s much too guilt-oriented. As you can see from the end of this chapter, he�s
improved a lot in that respect, but his first thought is still to shield Draco
from a truth that he might have a different opinion on (and to prevent Draco
from trying to stop him from confronting his friends alone).

�� I doubt
that Harry would have chosen those robes without encouragement, though.

�� qwerty: The info question is not answered for a few more
chapters, but in this case, Lucius could just have read the papers; Harry
announced everything.

�� SP777: I�m
not sure I�d want to write a story like that. In general, I don�t like doing
stories with love triangles.

�� avihenda: Thanks for reviewing!
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Changing of the Guard