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Inter Vivos	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 42948 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 1
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Chapter List
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Chapter Thirty�Snake

�� But,
Malfoy,� Granger said, her voice so weary that Draco knew she was about to
begin the insults at any moment, �what you�re saying doesn�t make any sense.�

�� Draco
winked at her and paced around the table in the library where the Elder Wand
lay again. It kept turning so that one end was always pointed at him. Draco
smiled at it in pity. Yes, it could do that, but it wouldn�t be very long
before it couldn�t do anything else, ever again.

�� Look at it
this way, Granger,� he said. �The Elder Wand has passed from hand to hand more
than any other of the Deathly Hallows. I know that you�ll have read all the
legends about them by now, so you tell me why that is.�

�� Granger
sighed in the way she did when she knew someone else was acting stupid enough
to suffocate themselves, but didn�t want to say so. �Because it wants a new
owner who can conquer its old one,� she said. �It wants to belong to the most
powerful wizard in the world. And it slips from hand to hand when someone
defeats its old owners. It may even arrange the duels so that it can belong to
a conqueror. But,� she added, with a righteous sniff, �that part of the legend
had less evidence than other parts did.�

�� Draco eyed
the Elder Wand sideways. It had stopped spinning and held still now, but the
sensation of a single evil eye on him, perhaps located in the end of the Wand,
was still there. Draco smiled thinly.

�� Oh, it�s
certainly intelligent and strong enough to arrange something like that,� he
said. �I think you can believe that part of the legend as much as you believe
all the others.�

�� I don�t
believe them,� Granger began, and then seemed to realize how ridiculous that
made her sound with one of the Deathly Hallows lying right in front of her. She
folded her arms and shook her head. �Where were you going with this, Malfoy?
What does the Elder Wand passing from hand to hand have to do with the bond
between you and it?�

�� The bond
between us must always be flexible,� Draco said softly, �with a weak place in
it. If the Wand bonded itself strongly to every owner, how would it manage to
leave that owner when someone new and more alluring came along? We�ve been
going about this the wrong way and looking in the wrong sorts of books because
we assumed that the Wand was like other intelligent magical objects�like the
Sword of Gryffindor, for example. The Sword is bonded to the whole House of
Gryffindor and those who display its qualities, and it isn�t suddenly going to
go off and attach itself to Slytherin House just because. But the Wand has no
permanent allegiance. It could bond itself to you if you defeated me�and it
would.� He looked at Granger and waited patiently for her to figure it out.

�� Granger was
at least not stupid, even if she was rather shortsighted and pigheaded. She
gasped softly, her face brilliant. �So we don�t need to break a deep-rooted
bond,� she whispered, �which was what we were trying to figure out how to do. We
just need to find the weak place in the bond and exploit it.�

�� The Elder
Wand buzzed like a hiveful of angry bees and rose
above the table, hovering there as it confronted Draco.

�� Granger
gasped again and fumbled for her own wand, but Draco knew that would be next to no use. He moved sedately forwards to
confront the Wand instead, raising an eyebrow. The buzzing grew louder.

�� You can�t
stand the thought of someone rejecting you,� Draco said. He spoke softly, but
then, he hardly needed to speak loudly for the Wand to hear him. It would hear
him across oceans, as long as it had that bond attaching its essence and his
soul. �They should always need you to win battles. They should always fall into
their dependence. You should be the first thing they reach for in the mornings,
before their lovers.�

�� The buzzing
soared to a pitch that Draco suspected would bring Professor Snape or his
mother at any moment. He needed to stop it before then. He reached up and
clenched the handle of the Wand, and endured the intense blast of magic that
traveled through the elder wood and into him, making him stagger.

�� The Wand
offered him power, But Draco was no longer tempted by any power that did not
also involve the sight of Harry�s head on the pillow, the green eyes opening
sleepily to regard him, the lips parting in a gentle smile.

�� You can
bond me to you,� he told the Wand. �You cannot make me love you.�

�� The Wand
buzzed again, and Draco�s head filled with constantly changing visions of
conquest. Here he wore a crown and stood next to a giant stone chair, looking
out over a crowd of bowing and kneeling people. Here he looked like the Dark
Lord and stroked a snake larger and more poisonous than Nagini. Here he made
Harry kneel to him, wash his feet, and swear that he would only look at Draco
for the rest of his days.

�� Draco tore
himself away from that last vision with an effort. Yes, it was tempting to think that he could make Harry his, without the
least competition from anyone ever again, including his best friends. The Elder
Wand had been in the business of tempting people for centuries, and it knew
Draco well enough by now to realize what would compel his attention and what
wouldn�t.

�� But he
would not yield to the vision. In the end, what he loved about Harry was the
way he defied everything and
everybody�fate, the Dark Lord, the smothering concern of those who would keep
him away from battles altogether, the conventions that would have kept him and
Draco apart�and to make him kneel would extinguish that spark in him.

�� No,� he
told the Wand, which was screaming shrilly by now. Granger was on the other
side of the room, wand in her hand and eyes wide. Draco took note of her and
then ignored her. This was his contest, and he intended to win it. �I don�t
care how many times you�ve won. You�re not going to win with me. I don�t want power
as much as I want love.�

�� He wondered
for one moment how Granger would take that soppy declaration, and was glad that
his mother was not in the room�

�� And in that
moment, the Wand struck.

�� A wedge
drove into Draco�s soul, tearing downwards through his mind and heart. Draco
flinched and tried to scream, but the feeling was so far beyond pain that it
paralyzed him and he couldn�t make a sound. He stood there, swaying, instead,
and the Wand dug deeper and deeper, seeking something in the dark depths of his
subconscious that it could drag to the surface like a demon and use to rule and
ride him.

�� But Draco
had faced his demons for years. He hadn�t simply walked into a love
relationship with Harry, and he hadn�t simply walked away from his father, and
he hadn�t simply walked into the war.

�� He brought
his own strength up in answer.

�� The Wand
wailed as Draco pushed it back out of his soul, a steady shove that cornered
and cramped its power and shut up in a tiny portion, no more than that, of
Draco�s being. It showed him visions again, but Draco no longer associated
those visions with anything except the Wand�s duplicity. He responded with a
blast of pure, natural force, and the Wand�s will bent
before his. It was still bonded to him. It still served him in lieu of a better
master, and that meant he could threaten it with the loss of even the prestige
of his hand.

�� And as he
pushed, Draco suddenly located it. The weakness in the bond
between them, the break that the Wand would exploit when it wanted to drop away
from him and fly to the hand of his conqueror.

�� Draco
laughed aloud and pushed down on the break. The Wand screamed like a tortured
thing. It writhed and wriggled in his grasp, and Draco could feel it fighting
to change shape and confront him again.

�� But it did
not break free, even though Draco knew it could have. It would rather have a
rebellious owner who hated it than no owner at all. That would probably shatter
it, to be without someone who needed its power.

�� Draco
flowed around the weak place, sensing it in the same incomprehensible way that
he sensed another person�s pain with Legilimency, and made sure he would know
how to find it again. Then he smiled and ripped himself half out of the bond,
leaving the Wand to wail behind him.

�� When he
opened his eyes, the Elder Wand lay limply on the table,
and anyone but Draco would have thought it was an ordinary stick of wood,
without any special properties at all; it had dimmed the sense of its magic.
Draco winked at it, and received a single sullen buzz before he turned to look
at Granger, who was sheltering behind a Shield Charm. Draco was grateful to
note that at least she had some sense.
Weasley or Harry would probably have tried to intervene in the battle.

�� I
understand the bond between us now,� he said quietly. �I understand how I am
going to switch my spirit and Harry�s during the battle with the Dark Lord, so
that the Horcrux in Harry will lose its grip on his soul and become easy to
destroy, without requiring his death.�

*

�� Harry
hesitated. No matter how long he spent pondering a plan to draw Voldemort to
him, he kept thinking that his best bet would be simply to appear in public and
start taunting him. That would bring him along, eager to defend his reputation
and instill fear in anyone who might follow Harry�s example.

�� But there
were all sorts of problems with that plan, not least that it wasn�t guaranteed
to let him get close to Nagini.

�� Harry shut
his eyes and leaned back in the chair with a little groan, rubbing at his
forehead. Though his Occlumency was good enough by now that he never suffered a
vision, his scar burned constantly, a low-grade
irritation that let him know Voldemort was always engaged in planning and
general evil.

�� Problems,
pup?�

�� Harry
opened his eyes and smiled at Sirius. He stood in the door of the library, his
twisted hand tucked out of sight behind him, his head curiously cocked. �Just
trying to think of a way to kill Voldemort�s snake and get near him,� he said
with a sigh.

�� Ah. Of course.� Sirius came a little closer, and now he was
grinning like a devil, in the way that made Harry worry, because it usually
meant that he was planning a prank on Snape. �But when you come up with that
plan, and the way to execute it, then you have to take me with you. Do you know
why?�

�� Harry shook
his head curiously, and Sirius produced his hand from behind his back like
someone doing a conjuring trick. Harry gaped when he realized that the fingers
were straight again, the bones uncramped.

�� Madam
Pomfrey finally managed to heal it all the way. She had to work with the Dark
magic and understand the spells Voldemort had used from the inside first.�
Sirius admired his hand with a bright gaze, then dropped it and stared at Harry
challengingly. �And now, you can�t claim that I�m too inept to help you
anymore.�

�� You were
never inept,� Harry muttered, jumping up and hugging him. �I just want you around
to tease for a lot more time, that�s all.�

�� Sirius
stroked his back gently, then stepped back with a
wistful little sigh. �It�s too bad that none of my pranks will work on
He-Who-Has-No-Nose,� he said. �I�d like to show him what for, if only for
James.� Sirius shook his head, and his eyes darkened. �And I�d like to do
something to Peter, too.�

�� Harry
nodded, but he made a mental note to watch Sirius closely if he showed any
signs of getting too interested in killing Pettigrew. Harry didn�t want someone
at his side whose main goal wasn�t destroying the Horcruxes and killing
Voldemort. He loved Sirius, but when he thought of the risks Sirius had taken
in his third year, going after Pettigrew blindly to the exclusion of all else,
he winced.

�� Then he
paused. Something he�d just thought was plaguing him, but he couldn�t tell
what. Once they got on the battlefield, he could at least worry that Sirius
would care more about protecting him than about killing Pettigrew.

�� And then he
caught his breath. �I�ll have to talk to Snape about that,� he muttered.

�� About what?� Sirius sounded only a little sulky as he took
a book about defensive charms from the shelf and sat down in the chair next to
Harry�s. �Some exploding potion that you can throw at the
Dark Duffer�s minions?�

�� Harry
smiled and shook his head. �No, but that would be useful. I think I�ll mention
it. Later,� he added, because Sirius was pouting now, and it had been too long
since Harry got to spend any extensive time with him. He sat down and reached
for the book he�d spent some time studying in the last few days, on curses that
exploited preexisting physical weaknesses in an enemy�s body, such as heart
conditions.

�� Sirius
beamed. Harry smiled back and turned the book�s pages to reach the point where
he�d stopped before. It really doesn�t
take much to make people happy, if you only notice what they need and take a
little time to appreciate them.

�� Then he
shifted and winced as his shoulder came into contact with the back of the
chair. Draco had bitten him sharply enough earlier to leave an enormous bruise
and cause him a little difficulty moving around. Harry would have healed it
already, but Draco had hinted that the bruise had better be there tonight, or else.

�� And sometimes you need more than a little
time and attention to soothe someone. Particularly when he doesn�t like you
exposing yourself to danger, and you argue, and then
he flings you on the bed and�does something about it.

*

�� Severus
raised his eyebrows and gave the beautiful bird that had just flown into the
lab his full attention. Of course they had warded the Black house tighter than
ever after the Dark Lord had delivered Creevey�s
heart to Harry, but if there were wards that could stop a phoenix, Severus
didn�t know them.

�� What do
you have for me?� he asked.

�� Fawkes
trilled at him and settled on the edge of the lab table, carefully distant from
any equipment or vials. Severus nodded at him and strode over to undo the
message attached to his leg. Fawkes had, on one previous occasion, got into his
private lab at Hogwarts, and the way Severus had railed over the damage had
taught the blasted bird a lesson that he had never managed to teach Dumbledore.

�� The letter
bore the seal of Hogwarts on it, indicating that Dumbledore had acted in his
official capacity as Headmaster in sending it. Severus opened it quietly, and
told himself that his fingers were not shaking;
he was merely reluctant to see what was in the envelope because he was
wondering if Dumbledore had meant it for Harry instead.

�� Dear Severus,

�� There have been multiple attacks on the
school now, and I recognize high-ranking Death Eaters in each charge. Worse, the
children of pure-blood families inside Hogwarts have begun attacks on halfblood and Muggleborn children. Harry�s friend Dean
Thomas was badly wounded the other day.

�� Voldemort has been in communication with me
several times, if sending up the Dark Mark over the body of another victim and
calling in his demands can be called communication. He says each time that he
will stop if we release Harry Potter to him. He seems to believe that we are
hiding him within the school. I do not know what has given him this idea. I
swear that it was not a plan the Order promoted.

�� I have so far refused to comply with the
demands, and neither would I under any circumstances.

�� Severus
breathed a little more easily. It seemed that there was still some of his
mentor left in the frightened old man Dumbledore had become.

�� But some students do believe the tale, and
are searching the school for Harry. Worse, some of the school�s governors and
parents believe it, and are contacting me with frightened, shrill owls saying
that Harry must be turned over for the safety of all their children. I wish to
maintain the pretense for a time so that I may give aid to Harry and prevent
Voldemort from searching out his real location, but I must choose soon between
helping Harry in this way and telling the truth so that Hogwarts will not tear
itself apart at the seams.

�� Tell Harry it would be best if he defeated
Voldemort soon.

�� Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts.

�� Severus
snorted gently as he lowered the letter. He understood now why Dumbledore had
not contacted Harry directly, as might have seemed logical. The boy would view
it�and so would Severus, and so would Draco�at an attempt to use Harry�s guilt
complex to manipulate him. This way, Dumbledore let them know of the danger whilst
leaving it up to Severus to decide what to say to Harry.

�� It was a
cannier move than he had made in some time, and Severus hoped that by
destroying the Resurrection Stone, some of the obsession it had exerted on
Dumbledore might be lessened.

�� And that
left him only the dilemma of deciding how to break the news. Harry would never
forgive him if he hid this information, of course, but neither did Severus want
him to take the news of the attacks on the school to heart and carry it around
as one more unwarranted burden, clouding his mind with raw emotion.

�� As he
hesitated, someone knocked on the lab door. �Professor Snape?� Harry�s voice
called a moment later. �Can I come in?�

�� Fate is determined to make me face the
decision early, it seems. Severus set the letter aside and stared at
Fawkes, who gave a single yank at his tail and then settled in for a long preening
session. Severus rolled his eyes. �Enter,� he said.

�� Harry
stumbled to a stop at the sight of the phoenix, his eyes wide. �What�s Fawkes
doing here?�

�� He brought
a letter from Professor Dumbledore,� Severus said. �Containing
news of attacks on the school. Dumbledore is trying to hold the Death
Eaters back, and to keep the pure-bloods from inflicting damage on halfbloods
and Muggleborns. He does not know if he can.� He hesitated, but Harry�s face
was open and yearning, and Severus had to finish his
speech. �For some reason, the Dark Lord thinks you are hiding in the school.�
He held the letter slightly behind his back as he finished. He saw no need to
let Harry read it, unless he insisted.

�� Harry
nodded, his eyes brilliant with determination. �Then it�s just as well I�ve
come up with a plan to lure Voldemort that I think will work,� he said. �I need
to know how binding life-debts are.�

�� Severus
blinked at the odd question. �It varies,� he said. �The one I owed your father
was extremely binding, as he saved my life when he need not have and as the
result of a conscious decision, not a split-second changing of his mind. But
the accidental saving of a life is less binding, though the surviving wizard
may still owe his magic to the other one.� He broke off with a frown when he
saw that Harry had a faint half-smile on his face, and did not seem to be
listening fully. �What is so amusing?�

�� You sound
like you�re lecturing about Potions no matter what the subject is,� Harry said,
and then moved on before Severus could react to that potentially insolent
comment. If it was insolent.
He could not decide. �What about the life-debt that Pettigrew incurred when you
saved his life?�

�� Severus
blinked again, thrown, and then tried to rearrange his face in a sterner
expression. It was not well that Harry should know how frequently he kept
surprising him. Severus was supposed to be his guiding figure, the mentor to
him that Dumbledore had once been to Severus. �I never saved Pettigrew�s life.�

�� Yes, you
did,� Harry said quietly. �When Sirius pursued him in the school. You forced Sirius
to change back to human form in the Gryffindor boys� bedroom, remember? Sirius
told me later. He was all indignant about it. The spell forced Pettigrew to
change, too, because you hadn�t known he was a rat Animagus. But then you
captured Sirius and prevented him from chasing Pettigrew when he changed into a
rat again and ran off. He owes you his life, because I know Sirius would have killed him if he caught him.�

�� Severus
leaned slowly against the lab table, causing Fawkes to wag a claw at him and
shrill warningly; he had come close to upsetting several vials. Severus glared.
�Stupid bird,� he said, but without spite. Fawkes began preening again,
smugness in every movement.

�� Could it
work?� Harry insisted, taking a step closer, and then hesitated. �I reckon it
would depend how much Pettigrew knows about life-debts.�

�� He came from
a family who did not have the time or money to spend on advanced training,�
Severus said absently, calling up memories from years ago. He had never thought
he would be glad to remember so much of the Marauders� life histories. �I think
it unlikely that they would have mentioned all the subtleties of the theory to
him. Not even Lucius would have explained it to Draco. It is not a subject
widely-known, partially because it is intricate and partially because most
wizards don�t foresee having a need for that branch of magic.�

�� Harry
nodded. �So we could convince Pettigrew?�

�� Perhaps,�
Severus said. �I would not want us to rely on this as our only plan,
particularly in light of how venomous Nagini is.�

�� Harry
smiled. �Draco isn�t ready with the Switching Charms that he thinks he�ll need,
either, and Hermione wants to modify the Fiendfyre incantation�God knows why, I can�t follow her on the theory. I thought we�d wait a
short time, so you can work on antivenin as well as contact Pettigrew.�

�� And yes,
Severus knew how to do that. It seemed that his skill as a spy and liar were
finally going to come into good use for the first time since they had stolen
the tiara Horcrux from Hogwarts. He smiled back at Harry, who departed from the
lab whistling. Severus would have promised something much more difficult for a
sight of that smile.

�� It was only
when he began to make notes on what he knew of Nagini�s venom that he realized
Fawkes had disappeared.

*

�� Harry
hesitated. The moment he had left Snape�s lab, he�d heard a shuffle and rustle
down the corridor, as if someone was there. But then he saw the edge of a
gown-like robe, and he wondered if he shouldn�t keep walking instead of
stopping.

�� He should
have, but he couldn�t. He turned and looked into the small alcove the rustling
had come from.

�� Narcissa
Malfoy stood there and watched him with no expression on her face at all. That
face was whiter than usual, though Harry didn�t think her pale robes helped
matters. She had her hands folded around something small, with a frame on it.
Harry couldn�t see the face, but he thought it was probably a portrait of
Lucius.

�� She�s mourning, too. And maybe she mourns
more because Draco flung himself into research instead of spending time
grieving.

�� And maybe
he should leave her there, yes. She�d never been friendly to him, and she would
probably hate him for acknowledging that he saw her suffering.

�� But, on the
other hand, she was suffering. And it
really didn�t matter what kind of person she was. It mattered
what kind of person Harry was.

�� So he
walked up, gave her a short bow�he knew trying to touch her would be out of the
question�and said in the most calm and mannered voice he possessed, �I�m sorry
for your loss.�

�� Narcissa
stared at him. Harry turned around again and walked down the corridor.

�� A moment
later, there was a brush of warmth against his neck from shining tail feathers,
and Fawkes cooed in his ear. Harry caught his breath as the phoenix briefly
settled on his shoulder and sang a few notes. The music sent a surge of health
and strength through him. He smiled before he knew what he was doing.

�� Then Fawkes
nestled his beak below Harry�s ear, shook one leg so that something fell into
his palm, and took flight again, swooping in a flash of light up the corridor.

�� Harry
looked down at the thing in his hand, blinking. It was a clear glass vial, and
though he wasn�t sure, he was relatively sure that the slimy green liquid
within it would turn out to be basilisk venom.

�� All you need, he thought in wonder, is a little time and attention to figure out
what most people will need, and prevent suffering.

��

*

�� qwerty: Thank you! I wanted to show that Draco does have
things of his own to contribute to the war effort; he�s not there just to have
sex with Harry and calm him down.

�� Thrnbrooke: It could potentially work, but it�s extremely
risky.

�� SP777:
Well, Draco was actually looking in the wrong direction, as he explains in this
chapter, so it was difficult to elaborate until I revealed the full plan. ;)
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Inter Vivos