Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Soldier's Welcome	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 25565 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; that belongs to J. K. Rowling. I am making no money from this fic.

Chapter List
- 37
- 38
- 39
Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Thirty-Eight�The
Withdrawing

�� And that
seemed to be the truth.

�� Portillo
Lopez had a list of the trainees who had carried Nihil�s infection in their
magic, and the notes on the process she had designed to cure them. Draco
understood a lot more of that than Harry did. He settled for shrugging and
smiling when Portillo Lopez glanced at him for a response, and then Draco
stepped forwards and filled the hole in the conversation so smoothly that Harry
was convinced she didn�t notice.

�� Almost.

�� What about
the trainees who vanished with Nihil in the trap that Auror Ketchum set?� Draco
flipped his hair behind his shoulder and considered the lists of ingredients
and notes again with a frown. Harry nodded. That was a question he could have
asked, and he should have asked it before Draco, he thought, since he
understood so little otherwise. But at least it was asked, and for the first
time Portillo Lopez frowned.

�� I do not know,�
she said. �No one knows. Efforts have been made to locate them, but without success.
Some of them are well-known, at least to their families, and they are young;
they should not be able to hide in such secrecy. But it seems that no one has
found or seen them.�

�� Draco
glanced at Harry, with an expression that said they would be looking into this
on their own later. Harry nodded.

�� Catherine
Arrowshot?� Draco asked. �We trusted her, and then she vanished with the rest
of them, so we�re especially interested in her fate.�

�� Portillo
Lopez gave a small, grim smile. �Yes,� she said. �The mysterious Miss
Arrowshot, in whose rooms incriminating documents were found.�

�� What?�
Harry breathed. He had thought it was strange that Arrowshot would put herself
forwards to both of them if she was really supporting Nihil, because it would
be much more sensible to stay quiet and unnoticed, part of his army instead of
their special friend. He�d hoped she was just kidnapped. But it sounded more
and more like they�d been fools to trust her.

�� More lists
of names, of the kind that we found in Gregory�s possession,� said Portillo
Lopez quietly. She turned the jade bracelet on her wrist and looked at both of
them as if she wanted to make sure that they still bore the glamours that would
hide their own bracelets. �Some unknown to us, but pointing to the larger
wizarding world outside the Ministry. And what looked like a confession from a
friend of hers.�

�� She told
us about that friend,� said Harry, stunned to realize that he was the only one
who remembered that. Draco simply blinked and looked blank. �Manders. She said
that she�d been one of Gregory�s trainees and she was working to clear her from
suspicion.�

�� Of course
she would say such a thing,� Portillo Lopez murmured, voice rich with scorn, �if
she was seeking to divert suspicion from herself.�

�� Was
Manders suspected?� Harry asked.

�� Yes, as
all of Gregory�s trainees were,� Portillo Lopez said impatiently. �There was no
sign that she was treated especially badly, and now that she has left the
program, it is harder for us to be sure of her motivations. She should have
stayed and borne the brunt of the attacks aimed at her if she was innocent.
Others have suffered worse.�

�� Harry
grimaced. That reminded him of what some of his primary school teachers had
said about Dudley and his bullying. Somehow, it always came down to Harry�s
strength instead of Dudley�s stupidity and cowardice.

�� Well,�
Harry said, �why should we trust what we found in Arrowshot�s rooms? She acted
like she was straightforward with us, and it would have been stupid to fix our
attention on her when she could have stayed in the background. It was stupid to
reveal where the meeting with Nihil�s trainees was, too. Maybe someone planted
the documents to implicate her.�

�� The answer
to that one is obvious.� Portillo Lopez was looking at Harry with the expression
he was used to seeing on her face in class. �She brought you to the meeting
thinking you would be killed or recruited.�

�� But if she
was Nihil�s trusted servant,� Draco said, �then she would have known that we�d
been infected already and fought it off. Can someone get the infection twice?�

�� I have not
yet discovered evidence of that one way or the other.� Portillo Lopez looked
ready to crack in half from indignation.

�� Harry
rolled his eyes as she went on. �And you forget that, although she was one of
Nihil�s servants, that means little. He seems to trust no one close to him. He
used the false Death Eaters as nothing more than receptacles for grief magic.
There is no reason that he should have told her about two of his more
embarrassing failures.�

�� One thing
bothers me,� Harry said, pushing ahead in spite of the disapproving way
Portillo Lopez looked at him.

�� Only one?�
Draco muttered.

�� Harry
pressed a hand into the small of his back out of Portillo Lopez�s sight, hoping
that would shut him up. �Why do we trust the evidence that Nihil leaves behind at
all? He�s a liar. How do we know that
all the people who supposedly were corrupted were? Why have only twenty
trainees at that meeting instead of his whole army? Was there anyone at the meeting
who didn�t have their names on the lists? I just wonder if all these clues are
too convenient, and we�re being led along a blind path.�

�� What else
do you suggest we trust?� Portillo Lopez lifted a hand when Harry tried to
protest. �No, Trainee Potter. Your suspicions are well-founded, but we have nothing�� she laughed bitterly, probably
at the pun ��if we do not trust at least some of these. We must proceed cautiously.
We must also ask what the point is of leaving so much evidence if none of it is
true. It is easier to think that he is careless sometimes than that he is
omniscient enough to anticipate all our reactions. If that is so, then we have
already lost.�

�� I don�t
think he�s omniscient,� Harry said. He hoped he�d said that right. No one was
quite as skilled as Portillo Lopez was at giving him glances that made him feel
stupid, not even Dearborn. �I just think that he wants to sow distrust between
us. If we go around suspecting everyone and
not attempting to recruit or persuade or convert anyone whose name is on one of
those lists, then we�re leaving people vulnerable and making people bitter and
making them run away like you said Manders ran away from the program. It�s the
same thing that happened with some of the Death Eaters. People decided they
were evil before they did a thing, sometimes just because they were in
Slytherin, and that made them decide they might as well do things like use Dark
Arts and torture people.�

�� He spoke
without thought, remembering the images that Snape had shown him of his
memories. He still thought his mother had been right to reject Snape�he didn�t
seem to see anything wrong with killing people
like her�but his father and Sirius were a different matter.

�� Well said,
Harry,� Draco murmured, his eyes narrowed in thought. �Yes. I wonder if, after
all, Nihil is as powerful as he would like us to think.�

�� That is a
matter for the instructors to consider,� Portillo Lopez tried to interrupt.

�� Draco held
up his wrist, though Harry had to choke back a smile. He didn�t think the
shimmer of the glamour around his arm was as impressive as the sight of a jade
bracelet would have been. Sometimes, Draco seemed to forget that the bracelet
wasn�t visible.

�� But Draco�s
voice was implacable, and made up for any disappointment in the glamour.

�� Harry and
I are part of this Fellowship, too,� he said. �I think you should consider us when you make decisions.�

�� Portillo
Lopez puffed herself up until Harry thought she would snap at them, and he
rather dreaded what effect that would have on Draco. He didn�t really want
front seats on another row when he�d ended the one he was having with Ron not
that long ago.

�� Instead,
though, she examined them for a few moments and then nodded. �I am not used to
thinking of students as equals,� she said. �But I must admit that it would be
for the best in this case. What Nihil sees to want in you, I still do not know.
After all, the first attack happened before anyone knew about your compatible magic.�
She lifted one shoulder in a shrug. �Yet the fact remains that you are involved
and likely to stay so. Remind me if I forget again to treat you as fully equal
partners.�

�� She turned
away, and Harry closed his mouth on his gape. Draco seemed to do the same on a
crow of triumph, and they smiled at each other while Portillo Lopez�s back was
turned.

�� Perhaps she isn�t so bad after all, Harry
thought hopefully.

�� Of course,
then she made them brew Blood-Replenishing Potion for two hours, which went a
long way towards changing his mind.

*

�� Why did
you hurt Harry?�

�� It wasn�t
the question that Draco had intended to let burst out of him. He had thought he
would go into his next meeting with Dearborn calm and collected, letting his
resentment burn inside him and act as an invisible influence on his actions
only, another caution against trusting his �mentor� completely.

�� But the
moment he stepped into the private room they used for his training and saw
Dearborn turn to meet him with that faint smile, as if nothing had changed, the
anger flooded through him and demanded an answer.

�� Hurt him?�
Dearborn shook his head as he raised a smoky grey shield of a type that Draco
didn�t know. �A tripping jinx is hardly that. I did not know that he would fall
so badly and bruise his arm. We shall have to train him how to fall,� he added
with a small frown. �It may not wait until next year.�

�� You
threatened him,� Draco said. He had begun as he had to go on, so he kept his
voice low and threatening and didn�t move from his place by the door even when
Dearborn gestured at him in welcome. Nor did he return the smile. �I want to
know why.�

�� Dearborn
sighed and leaned against the wall. More flicks of his wand raised glittering
icicles that Draco studied with reluctant interest. The icicles began to spin
around each other, blending together into spiky, icy figures.

�� I am
worried,� Dearborn said quietly, �by Nihil. We all are, of course, but my worry
is rather more personal than corruption in the Ministry, or even what the loss
of our trainees must do to the reputation of the Auror program in the eyes of
the public. Nihil is practicing magic so Dark, and succeeding so well, that he
could throw the Wizengamot into panic. They might declare even more magic Dark
than already is. It�s happened in the past.� He glanced over at Draco with
haunted eyes, and Draco remembered how careful he�d been during their first
term to give them the history of why certain spells were declared illegal, and
how often that depended on simple whim or misguided fear.

�� I have
spent my life,� Dearborn continued, his voice passionate, rising, �trying to
make sure that the Dark Arts were not always considered forbidden, that someone
could practice them and still be considered a good person. But all my work will
be lost if Nihil succeeds.�

�� Draco gave
a slow nod. Yes, he could understand that. He knew Dearborn�s passion partially
came from the class he taught. He�d complained before that he wanted to teach
certain spells as offensive and defensive magic, which they were, but the
Ministry had stupid laws preventing him from doing so.

�� That doesn�t
give you the right to take out your temper on Harry,� he pointed out.

�� Dearborn
snapped his head around. �If he knows something that I would need to defeat
Nihil and doesn�t tell it to me,� he snapped, �then it does.�

�� Draco fell
quiet and said no more about it, attending closely to Dearborn�s lessons about
conjuring ice warriors and time-swallowing shields, but he decided that he
would remember this. Why did Dearborn think that the responsibility of defeating
Nihil fell on his shoulders alone?

�� Another
question to join the endless procession of questions that it seemed he and
Harry were always asking.

*

�� I don�t
like Malfoy.�

�� Harry
sighed and picked at his sandwich. The crusts were dry and the bread was soggy, both at once. The only thing that the
sandwich was good for was making him smile as he thought about how horrified
the house-elves at Hogwarts would be if they saw it. �I know you don�t, Ron.
That doesn�t matter, as long as you can work with him.�

�� You�re
always disappearing on your own.� Ron leaned across the table. �They took you
out of my rooms, for fuck�s sake. How are we supposed to work with him if we
never see you?�

�� Harry
looked up, and saw from the way Ron�s brows pulled together and his eyes
flashed that this confrontation had been a long time in coming. This was the
serious one, the big one, and not a whinging session.

�� He pushed
his sandwich back and stood up. �Do you want to go to your rooms?� he asked. �I
have nothing to do right now, and I think we should talk about this in private.�

�� Ron darted
his eyes around and seemed to realize just how many curious people were staring
at them. He flushed and nodded. �Yeah, all right,� he muttered, as he picked up
his tray to take back over to the other side of the dining hall.

�� They walked
back to Ron�s room in silence�at least from them. The people around them
muttered and whispered and collected in small groups and broke apart from each
other to hurry down the corridors when they saw Harry and Ron approaching.
Harry saw more staring eyes than he actually had when Nihil was attacking.

�� Harry
snorted. Of course that would happen. Portillo Lopez seemed to be right�Nihil�s
influence had pulled back from the Ministry, and there hadn�t been any attacks
now for nearly a fortnight. So people had decided that meant he was hatching a
new and more sinister plan, and some of them in particular had decided that
Harry and Draco had something to do with that sinister plan, since they had
been the targets of the first few.

�� Harry�s
hand tightened on his wand. He couldn�t do anything about the stupid things
people thought. That had been a truth he struggled to accept in the last year
since the end of Voldemort. As long as people kept those stupid things to
thoughts in their heads and the occasional malicious whisper, then he wouldn�t
try to interfere.

�� If someone
tried to hex him or Draco, he wasn�t going to stand for it.

�� This is what Draco�s done for me, he
thought, as he held the door of the room open for Ron. I would have felt guilty about thinking that, before. I would have made
up all sorts of reasons and excuses in my head why someone might just be
frightened and cast a hex before they thought about it.

�� Now I think that I have a right to be
respected, as much as anyone else, and I don�t have to save people from
themselves, because I think Draco has a right to be respected, and I don�t want
him hurt by watching me get hurt.

�� Harry
smiled as he flopped back in a chair and waited for Ron to sit down, too. That
was�wonderful. He knew some people thought caring about other people made you
weak, because you could be hurt. It was like having a heart outside your body.

�� But having
a heart outside your body made you twice as strong, too. Harry wondered why the
people who said it made you weak never saw that.

�� I don�t
like him,� Ron said when he�d sat down, jerking Harry rudely back from his
thoughts about Draco to thoughts that were not about Draco. �I don�t trust him,
and I don�t think that you should, either.�

�� Harry
blinked, and then shrugged. �I told you,� he said. �If you don�t like or trust
him, then that doesn�t matter, as long as��

�� But I can�t
work with him unless I like or trust him!� Ron�s voice was getting louder, and
Harry was doubly glad that they�d left the dining hall. �And Hermione thinks
the same way. And that doesn�t answer the question of why you like or trust
him.�

�� Why do you
like me?� Harry asked. �Why do you love Hermione?�

�� Well�because
I do,� Ron said, sounding baffled. �We�ve fought together and we joke together
and you�re my best mate. And Hermione�� His face was red with something other
than anger now, and he stared at his lap while he muttered something that Harry
didn�t think he�d been meant to hear.

�� It�s hard
for you to explain,� Harry said. �Well, it�s hard for me to explain about
Draco. We have compatible magic and we get along a lot and we�ve told each
other secrets and we�ve faced danger together. It�s not the same kind of
friendship you and I have�� he choked a little as he thought about the kiss in
the corridor, and the way they�d danced around each other since then ��but it
has a few of the same things about it.�

�� We
neglected you,� Ron said earnestly. �We should have thought more about you, and
we drove you to Malfoy.�

�� We, Harry thought in envy. He thinks of himself and Hermione as we so
easily. He didn�t know if he could ever do that, because there was nothing
easy about his relationship with Draco.

�� Sometimes
he thought there would be. And then he remembered that he�d thought his
relationship with Ginny was easy at one point, too.

�� Harry shook
his head. There was no way that he could decide what he felt about Draco as far
as sex went on his own, and he was not about
to confess that to Ron.

�� Maybe that
had something to do with it,� he said, because he thought that he wouldn�t have
needed Draco�s friendship as much if Ron was acting less like a prick. �But
there�s still the compatible magic. And I think the instructors would have made
us partners no matter what. They think we�re too good at fighting together.�

�� You haven�t
been so good at it lately in Defensive and Offensive.�

�� Ron looked
so hopeful that Harry had to smile. �Yes, but no one has been,� he said. �If
anything, Draco and I are just so good together that we think about protecting
each other first and everyone else second. So I don�t think the instructors are
going to decide that we shouldn�t be partners anymore.�

�� Ron sighed.
�I don�t like trusting him just because you do,� he said. �I�ve never asked you
to do anything like that.�

�� Harry shook
his head. �No, you haven�t.� Of course, he wanted to say, the situation had
never come up because of how close they�d been all through school, and because Harry
hadn�t really got close to or stayed with Cho the way he had with Draco, and because
Ron and Hermione had approved of Ginny so much. And Ron hadn�t tried to make
someone else part of their tight little friendship, either.

�� But since
he had started dating Hermione, there was no one close left for Harry to bring
into things unless he wanted to try dating another Weasley.

�� The thought
made him shudder.

�� So why
should you ask me to do something like that now?� Ron asked, leaning forwards with
his chin on one fist and staring at Harry.

�� Because we�re
not in school anymore,� Harry said. �And Draco is important to me.�

�� Ron gave a
little shudder of his own. �You say his name like you�re in love with him.�

�� Harry bit
his lip, hard, so that his mouth wouldn�t fall open. It sounded as though Ron
knew more about his feelings than he did himself.

�� No, he doesn�t, he decided a minute
later. I might speak Draco�s name that
way, but I don�t know what I feel, and I don�t know what I can give him. My
voice might lie.

�� Maybe I
could be,� Harry did say, because he was curious what Ron�s response would be.

�� Ron reared
back, coiling in the corner of his chair as though he wanted it to rise up and
carry him away from some imminent danger. �Don�t do that again,� he whispered,
sounding as if he were pleading. �Harry, don�t give me a jolt like that. I swear I felt my heart stop.�

�� Harry
rolled his eyes. �You�re the one who gave yourself the idea in the first place,�
he said. �I�m not asking you to approve of everything I feel for him, Ron. Just
to tolerate him a little and learn to put up with him.�

�� Ron sighed,
which made Harry tense, but the sigh continued so long that he realized it wasn�t
angry. Instead, this was Ron�s resigned sigh, the one he used to give before
they walked into Potions and he realized there was no way to put off the class
for five minutes more. �He�s here to stay, isn�t he?� Ron asked.

�� At least
for a long time,� Harry said calmly.

�� Ron sighed
again, and nodded. Harry knew that he would at least try to put up with Draco,
for his sake.

�� He reached
out, covered his friend�s hand with his own, and smiled.

*

�� Someone knocked
on their door just when Harry was yawning and letting his head slump into his
arms. Draco glanced up curiously. He could hear Timmons and Redworth arguing
quietly with whoever it was, probably because it was after nine at night and
the trainees were �officially� supposed to go to bed not much later.

�� Finally,
the door opened and Timmons thrust her head in. Draco might have thought her a
beautiful woman before he found Harry, but right now she simply looked
harassed.

�� There�s
two women here, one in some kind of floating chair,� she said. �They said you
told them to come. What�s this about?� She looked as if she couldn�t decide
whether she wanted the visitors to be intruding, so she could see them off, or
to be telling the truth, so that she could scold Draco.

�� Draco knew
instantly who it must be: Pollian Kepler and her crippled sister Joanna. The
one who had wanted to meet with Harry because she thought he was the center of
the war and it would all be worth it, somehow, if she could meet him.

�� The one he
hadn�t told Harry about.

�� He stood up
immediately and said, �They must come in, of course. They�re here to meet
Harry.� He turned around and stared at Harry, who was looking up with a
startled, sleepy expression.

�� Who?� he
asked.

�� Draco
explained in a low voice as Timmons gave a great, put-upon sigh and pulled her
head back to call to the Kepler sisters. �Kepler said that she would get us
some Veritaserum if you met with her sister. But it was going to take her at
least a fortnight to bring her here, and I forgot to tell you about it, and��

�� Draco. It�s
fine.�

�� Draco shut
his mouth. Harry pressed his hand and began to rise to his feet, a weary but
resigned look in his eyes.

�� I�ve done
harder things, and for less important reasons,� he told Draco as he walked past
him to the door.

�� No matter what he thinks, Draco decided,
in the stunned moment before he followed, he
is a hero.

*

�� hieisdragoness18:
Thank you!

�� SP777: I
can understand, but at least he does offer an explanation here.

�� Portillo
Lopez is a bit disgusted at Draco and Harry snogging when there�s Nihil to
worry about, but that�s why she treats them like children later: she knows they�re
young.

�� Yes, I live
in the US.

�� MewMew2:
Thanks! A lot of people would like to know where Nihil has gone.

�� Harry and
Draco are slowly working towards sharing more moments like that; all the
questions they have unanswered are one reason they�re not more frequent.

�� Dragons
Breath: Thank you! Dearborn would have been stupid to use a jinx on Harry if he�d
really wanted to hurt him, though, as he explains here.
- 37
- 38
- 39
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Soldier's Welcome