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A Brother to Basilisks	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 85173 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 15
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this story.

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Thank you again for all the reviews!
Chapter Thirty-Nine—Confrontations Like Sparkling Scales
            Dash coiled in a large pile in the sunlight next to the lake, and pretended that he didn’t feel the racing hum of Harry’s thoughts.
            Tell me again why pretending to be Slytherin was such a great idea, Harry thought in a daze, sorting through the pile of letters he’d received in the past week. Over to one side was a pile of boxes holding allegiance rings. There were more empty ones, which according to Draco meant that the families were considering allying with Harry but wanted to wait and see what would happen first.
            Dash finally raised his head and showed his fangs off in a yawn. It’s bringing more people into the nest to protect you.
            Harry paused and looked at him. Nest? What are you on about?
            It’s the best term I could think of. You don’t have a house where you’re safe or that you own. A nest is the only way to think of it. Dash wriggled closer to him and leaned his head against Harry’s ankle, yawning again as if to emphasize that this was his bed now and Harry had better not move. So they’ll be your nest.
            Harry only shook his head. “It’s getting hard to keep up with it,” he whispered. That was the main reason he had avoided Snape so far, even though Snape seemed to be on the verge of assigning Harry detention just so he could ask him what was going on. It was too overwhelming.
            And he was wary about Snape being disappointed with him. Snape probably would be, because Harry had been pretending to be Slytherin.
            You can tell him that it was my idea, and my fault. Dash leaned his head over Harry’s shoulder now, wrapping him in a half-coiled hug. I don’t think he trusts me as much as you do, anyway.
            No one trusts you as much as I do. Harry scratched behind Dash’s plume and was rewarded by the snake’s head trailing down his arm, Dash gone nearly limp with pleasure. Even when they should.
            A function of being unable to communicate with me, perhaps. Dash’s yellow eyes smoldered behind his eyelids for a second, and then he uncoiled from Harry and moved towards the lake. But even I don’t understand what you meant by telling the Selwyns that you’ll meet them in Black’s house.
            Harry smiled a little and turned back to the pile of letters in front of him. You don’t?
            Dash hesitated once, his tongue flicking out as though to catch an elusive scent. Harry supposed the scents of emotions might be elusive. You mean it to be…a test? Dash sounded as if he wasn’t sure he believed him, even though Harry was letting Dash pick up his thoughts now.
            Exactly, said Harry, and ran a knuckle down Dash’s head, which made him turn over on his back like a dog. Harry laughed. He knew Dash had only picked that up from imitating Sirius, and it wasn’t something he would have done on his own. I want to see if Sirius can actually treat the Selwyns politely, and if it’s my home, too, and I can hold meetings there.
            Dash rolled back over and flicked his tongue out so that it touched Harry’s elbow. What happens if he fails those tests?
            Harry stopped sorting letters for a minute, because he couldn’t make himself continue. Then he took a deep breath and went on. Well, that proves some things about Sirius are true that you’ve been trying to…convince me to believe.
            Dash said nothing for a moment, his tongue still resting comfortingly against Harry’s elbow. Then he said abruptly, There’s at least one confrontation you can’t put off any longer.
            Harry looked up. Snape was heading towards him across the grounds, his strides so sharp that they looked like he was hurting his feet. Harry winced and sat back, reaching for Dash. Dash wrapped himself around Harry’s shoulders and spine, but he was chuckling in the back of Harry’s mind.
            I don’t think it’s that funny. Harry ducked his head so that his chin was resting on Dash’s scales, and wondered bitterly why Dash thought it was hilarious.
            I just think it’s that predictable. You avoid him, and he comes and finds you. This time, Dash’s tongue brushed against Harry’s ear. And you were wondering if he would have any time for you during the school year.
            Harry felt a complicated mixture of warmth and squirming embarrassment in his stomach, which didn’t make it much easier to face Snape when he halted in front of Harry and asked coolly, “And what have you been doing with the allegiance rings these families have been sending you?”
*
            “Waiting to see if Sirius is really the guardian I thought he was, sir.”
            Severus paused. He had thought for a long while that Harry, while he could manipulate, wasn’t conscious of it most of the time. He would employ defensive strategies out of fear of pain, or to get someone to leave him alone, or because he thought it would content an adult who might be on the verge of anger.
            This, though…the way Harry was ducking his head and looking up at him through his eyelashes, the way that he had one hand resting on but not stroking the basilisk’s scales, and that his first words were about Black…
            Severus cast a few unobtrusive charms that would keep people from looking casually in their direction, and then bent down towards Harry and said, “Tell me what you mean.”
            Harry swallowed, and Severus thought the words that came out next were true, although that might not keep them from being manipulative. “I didn’t know Jackson Selwyn would give me a family allegiance ring. I didn’t even know what it was at first. Draco had to explain it to me. But then I thought I could get some allies by pretending I was the reincarnation of Slytherin, which is what they all want to think anyway.”
            Severus did not slap a hand over his eyes. This matter had already gone beyond that. He crouched down in front of Harry instead and whispered, “Why did you think you could pull off a lie?”
            Harry gulped and spent a moment touching the basilisk on the back as though the snake was feeding him ideas. Perhaps he was. Severus, with his demanding gaze on the boy’s face, didn’t particularly care what Harry thought he was doing, only what he would do.
            “Because they want to believe it,” Harry finally said. “And Dash wants help in protecting me. If some families swear allegiance to me, then he might get it.” He sat up. “And I meant what I said. I told them they could meet me at Sirius’s house because I wanted to see how he’d react to it. If he supports me, then that means that it’s my house, too.”
            “He might not support you because he might see how mad you are acting.” Severus spoke with an informality that he knew caught the boy off-guard, from the way Harry stopped moving altogether. “Has your basilisk realized his ruse might place you in more danger than you currently are?”
            Harry shook his head a little as though he assumed he would be able to come up with an answer, but in the end, he could say nothing more than, “I’m already in an awful lot of danger, sir. At least this way, I have more of a support.”
            Severus closed his eyes. “What happens when they find out the truth?”
            “Should they?” Severus glared at Harry again, who seemed to have found his inner Slytherin and only looked back. “The books Draco gave me said there isn’t a prophecy that says Salazar Slytherin will look a certain way. Or act a certain way. There’s just the Parseltongue, and him being bonded to a powerful snake, that distinguish him. It actually sounds like it could apply to Voldemort, too.”
            Severus flinched hard enough at the name that his hands tore up grass and the basilisk flicked his tongue at him. Severus stabbed the snake with a glance. He had been used to think he was sensible. Now he did not.
            “No,” Severus conceded. “It is not lacking certain memories or failing to perform certain actions that would expose you as a fake. You are simply too inexperienced a liar to fend off the inevitable suspicions.”
            “Dash can help me. And I have to go through with this, sir. I already told the Selwyns that I would meet them at Sirius’s house.”
            Sirius’s house, not home. Severus could see the sort of gaping emotional wound that might have driven the boy to try this sort of test at all.
            It did not please him, however. “Then meet with the Selwyns and tell them that you were trying to gain political allies and resign their allegiance ring back to them,” Severus told him. “They will not spread the story for fear of embarrassment. You are not to do anything like this ever again.”
            Harry squinted hard at him. Severus half-expected the basilisk to unfold with a hiss and come for him, if it had really been his idea, but he was silent, although his cocked head showed his eyes focused wholly on Severus.
            “Why?” Harry finally asked. “If I can get some protection this way, then why?”
            Severus took a deep breath.
            Because you aren’t good at politics. Because you aren’t good at lying. Because there are too many people who will try to use you for their own purposes and you haven’t the slightest idea what they are or what they’ll want. Because you didn’t spend the last three years in Slytherin House and don’t know the kind of people you’ll make enemies of for doing something that would seem innocent to you. Because the basilisk isn’t a good adviser. Because you didn’t grow up in our world and don’t know what the Selwyns see as manners.
            So many answers, he couldn’t get through them all. He ended by saying, “Because a lie that was successful for a while would ultimately endanger you more than apologizing and portraying this as a joke or whim that got out of hand.”
            Harry opened his mouth to respond, but the basilisk hissed something in Parseltongue. A courtesy, Severus realized, as he tensed his muscles against an unfortunate response. He could simply have spoken silently into Harry’s head, and Severus wouldn’t have known they were having a conversation.
            “Dash says that if I’m really going to be in a political crossfire, then I should learn how to play the politics I want to play.” Harry’s eyes were wide, and for a few seconds he was obviously simply repeating the basilisk’s words, but then his voice firmed. “I chose to act a certain way when I told you about—the Dursleys. We played it a certain way.” He swallowed. “Why can’t I play this the same way?”
            “You have too few allies,” Severus told him flatly. “I will not support this, and I doubt the Malfoys will. And you haven’t told Black about this test, have you?”
            Harry looked at his feet. His voice was small. “I couldn’t tell him, not if it was going to be a test.”
            That was undoubtedly true, but it didn’t make Severus less worried about how Black would react. “Tell him,” he said, standing. “If he refuses to have the Selwyns in your home, arrange to meet them at the gates.” He thought having Harry off Hogwarts grounds was not a wise idea.
            “Okay,” said Harry in an even smaller voice.
            Severus looked down at him and sighed. Harry must feel beaten in something he had thought he would manage, by the way his head was bowed. Severus hadn’t seen such discouragement since their early days of practice at wandless magic. Harry seemed more willing to accept defeats in Occlumency, since Severus had told him it would be difficult.
            “I am doing this for your own safety,” said Severus. He had been about to say “your own good,” but Harry would have excellent reasons for being cautious around someone who said something like that. “I don’t think it would be a good idea for you to meet with the Selwyns more than once.” He eyed the pile of boxes off to the side. “Or all those other people who sent you allegiance rings.”
            Harry nodded. “Okay.”
            Severus studied him for a moment, wondering if that simple word hid disobedience, the way it would have with Draco. But Harry saw him looking, and he smiled a bit before sighing and leaning his hand on the basilisk’s back.
            “I have to admit that I never knew how I was going to lie my way through it,” he whispered. “I’m not good enough at lying. And now that Dash knows what you think, he agrees with you.”
            From the basilisk’s calm, shadowed glance, Severus was not sure that was true, but he was also sure that the basilisk would at least consider the possibility before involving Harry in another such game. He nodded. “Then go and tell Black that you need to use his house. Conduct your test. That you might at least do.”
            Harry studied him for a second, then smiled a little. “You’re only saying that much because you hate Sirius, right, sir?”
            Severus shook his head. His feelings for Black had been considerably complicated by the addition of Harry. The frustration that the mutt continued to place dead men before the child he was supposed to protect…
            And yet, it would not have mattered to Severus once. It hadn’t mattered enough for years, despite his vow to Lily, for him to report Potter to McGonagall or give up the pleasure of disciplining him so that someone else might take the boy in hand and properly train him in the ways of keeping himself alive. Perhaps his grudge at Black as much as desire to help Harry had guided his permission to Harry.
            “That’s all right,” said Harry, and he abruptly stood up and put one hand on Severus’s arm, to Severus’s utter astonishment. “I’m starting to understand that. I think it’s just the way Slytherins work.” He smiled a little. “If something can benefit you and other people at the same time, it doesn’t really matter why you do it.”
            He moved off, while Severus stared after him. As had happened many times before, the basilisk was the one who watched him over Harry’s shoulder, turning only when Harry seemed to request his help to manage the floating packets of letters and boxes.
            At least he will not pretend to be Salazar Slytherin, Severus told himself as he returned to the school. And his secret is the less dangerous for not having been enacted before I caught him. He should be safer now.
            The notion of danger remained glittering in his mind anyway, but he told himself to put it aside, and move on. Harry had promised. That would be enough.
*
            “So that’s the reason I invited the Selwyns here, you see.” Harry paused and looked up to see how Sirius was taking it.
            Sirius was sitting there so shocked and silent that Harry thought he was going to crumple over in a minute. Dash said, He’s playing. He wants to ignore the traits you have that align you with Slytherin, and that’s all there is to it. Leave him alone to endure his confrontation with reality.
            He looks sick, though, Harry snapped back, and stepped towards Sirius. “If it shocks you that badly, then I’ll just meet with them at Hogwarts,” he said. “I’m sorry, but I thought you should know.” He glanced at the clock on the wall. He had got permission from McGonagall to go home long enough to talk to Sirius, since it was Saturday, but she had told him to be back by lunch.
            “You never said that you wanted to meet with Slytherins at all,” Sirius whispered. He tried to smile. “If I thought you were setting up some kind of prank on them, Harry, of course I would help you.”
            Harry swallowed. “So it would be all right if I was planning something that might hurt or frighten them? But not something that might make allies or friends?”
            Sirius stood up and began pacing around the room. Harry hated when he did that. It always made him feel dizzy and small. He knew that was probably partially because Uncle Vernon had done it when he was talking about how much money Harry had cost them and how worthless he was.
            But he only knew that because Dash had told him so, and he didn’t really want to think about it. Sirius wasn’t Uncle Vernon.
            You should tell him that it makes you feel unsafe, Dash hissed gently into his ear. Tell him to stop it. Tell him that it makes you feel uncomfortable, and you want to make this your home instead of just his.
            It sounded so good when Dash said it, Harry thought miserably. But he couldn’t say it like that. It would just hurt Sirius, and he would twist Harry’s words around.
            I could take control of your voice and talk to him about it.
            Harry considered it, but in the end, he had to shake his head. He had done this in the first place because he wanted to see how Sirius would respond to him, not Dash, and if Sirius wouldn’t let him hold any meetings in this house because of “Slytherins,” then Harry had already failed. He found himself holding his breath as Sirius turned around again.
            He is the one who’s failed if all he can think of is “Slytherins” whenever other adults are mentioned. Adults old enough to have a twelve-year-old child at school, no less. This was your test to give and his to fail, remember?
            Harry couldn’t remember being more frightened in his life as he stood there, waiting for Sirius to say something. And Sirius was staring at him with lost and haunted eyes. Harry knew that no matter what, he would end up feeling that something was his fault.
            “Harry,” Sirius finally whispered. “You know that what I want is your comfort and happiness.”
            That means no, Harry thought, dully.
            “And I really think you need to keep away from Slytherins if you’re going to be comfortable and happy.” Sirius folded his arms and smiled. Harry thought it was supposed to be a happy or amused smile. It was a horrible one, though. “That means that you don’t need to bring adult Slytherins here or entertain them, either. If someone was going to do that, it would be me. But I don’t need to talk to them. I don’t need to speak to them.”
            Something itched fiercely along Harry’s eyes, something that felt like tears, except he wouldn’t let it be. He was just going to nod and turn away and leave the house, but he felt Dash uncoiling from around him.
            He knew that, this time, words wouldn’t be enough. Dash was going to bite Sirius unless Harry did something else, something that wouldn’t send to Sirius to sleep like the poison but might hurt him as much.
            “You’re talking to one Slytherin all the time, though,” Harry said. His throat felt rusty. He just wanted to be on his broom, high above the school, far away from everyone. He looked Sirius in the eye. “You’re talking to Draco’s mum all the time, aren’t you? Why can you talk to her but I can’t talk to people who might ally with me?”
            Sirius froze. His throat seemed to stop moving, which meant he wasn’t about to speak. Harry stood there and waited.
            There was nothing, though, except the growing belief that Sirius wasn’t going to answer. Which meant Harry had something else to do. He had to leave and send an owl to the Selwyns. He had to think. He had to think a lot about whether he even wanted to come back to Hogsmeade for the holidays.
            Well, of course he did. Sirius had legal guardianship of him, and if it wasn’t him, it would be the Dursleys. Sirius might confuse the hell out of Harry sometimes, but that was a lot better than locking him in the cupboard.
            “Harry! Wait!”
            Harry turned around, ignoring the hiss that Dash gave for him to walk out the door. It seemed Sirius had something important to say, from the way he knelt down in front of Harry and hugged him around the waist.
            “You can do this here, if it’s really important to you,” Sirius said, in a rushed voice. “And I’m talking to Draco’s mum about something important I can’t reveal to you—yet. I promise that you’ll be the first to know, the instant I can tell you. The instant.” He paused and stared pleadingly at Harry.
            Don’t trust him. He was the one who didn’t have an answer when you asked him a plain question.
            Harry wanted to nod in response to Dash’s words, and he wanted to laugh, and he wanted to throw up. He ended up just whispering, “Okay.”
            At least that was a word Sirius couldn’t take and twist around. Instead, he beamed, and started talking about how he would make sure the house was in good order and the food was cooked and he would sit off to one side and not say a word to the Selwyns.
            Harry took a steadying breath. It was still better than it could be. He would remember that.
            It’s far from as good as you deserve.
            But you think I deserve everything, Harry said, and let a caress trail through Dash’s mind since he couldn’t move his arms with Sirius still hugging him. You should remember that not everyone agrees with you.
            And you should remember that a basilisk is always right.
            For the moment, Harry didn’t have any response to that. He was too glad Sirius had agreed to notice much of anything else.
*
            Severus started to his feet as Harry stepped into the old classroom where he had told Harry, when he’d hesitantly asked, that of course they were still going to practice Occlumency and wandless magic. Harry’s face was stricken, and he stopped near the door and stared at Severus as if he had forgotten who he was.
            “What is the matter?” Severus flicked his wand as he spoke, searching for a Confundus Charm and several other common means of making Harry look like that. No magic answered his search, however. Severus ended up moving one of the conjured chairs for Harry to collapse into.
            “Where is the basilisk?” Severus added, when he turned around and realized that he wasn’t with Harry or slithering into the room right behind him. Perhaps he was fighting whoever had made Harry look this way. Severus strode towards the door, intending to find him and bring him right away. If he poisoned someone or gazed on them, the restrictions Dumbledore would impose on Harry—
            But the basilisk slithered in then, and his high-pitched hissing sounded the most like laughter of any sound that Severus had heard him make. He looked at Harry and flicked his tongue out in a series of short snaps. Harry let his face collapse into his hands.
            “Explain what is going on.”
            Severus had enough soft force to his voice to make even seventh-year Slytherin pure-bloods pay attention. Harry responded in much the same way, lifting his head. “It didn’t work,” he said, in a flat voice.
            “What did not?” Severus glared at the basilisk as he twined himself around the legs of Harry’s chair, wishing, not for the first time, that he spoke Parseltongue himself.
            “I told the Selwyns that I wasn’t Salazar Slytherin reincarnated.” Harry took a deep breath. “That I’d made a mistake and been too enthusiastic about accepting their allegiance ring. I was sorry, but I couldn’t protect them, and I’d have to return it to them.”
            “And?” Severus could think of no reason why that wouldn’t work. The Selwyns were haughty, but not unreasonable. They would understand the logic of a fourteen-year-old boy and his desire to look more important, the most coherent explanation for why Harry had accepted the ring in the first place.
            “They didn’t believe me,” Harry whispered, looking down at the basilisk. “They said that because I had a basilisk with me, I must be Slytherin. No one else could control such a dangerous snake. And they’d heard I found him in the Chamber of Secrets. Who else could enter it?” He looked hopelessly at Severus.
            Severus stood there, admitting that he didn’t know what to do, while the room was silent except for the basilisk’s soft hisses. Severus understood them now, without knowing Parseltongue. They were snickers.
            “So what am I supposed to do?” Harry leaned back.
            “You move forwards from here,” said Severus. “You keep their allegiance ring and don’t accuse them of lying. You politely fend off the others who’ve only sent you empty boxes as tests, and you tell the ones who sent you rings that you can only provide them limited protection. And you train harder than ever, so that no one can accuse you of lying, either.”
            Severus watched the fire return to Harry’s eyes. He saw the basilisk peer at him around the chair, darting his tongue out in what was probably approval.
            Severus glared back, since this was really the ruddy snake’s fault, but it was hard for a basilisk to look repentant, and Dash didn’t try.
            I might as well grant him the ridiculous name, since he has proven to be ridiculous.
*
ChaosLady: Thanks!
starr: No. He only wants to stop Harry from making a lot of reports of abuse because he fears the person who abused him feeling threatened.
Silanae: Thanks very much!
I feel sorry for Blaise, too, but this honestly isn’t going to help him.
eros: Dash would evaluate it a lot on the basis of how nice Draco had been to Harry, honestly.
And yes, Blaise is kind of an arse and an innocent at the same time.
Silver: Yes, to discourage people from following Harry if he can.
SP777: He’s just a convenient plot obstacle for right now! He’ll be more sympathetic later.
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A Brother to Basilisks