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As Winter Calls	By : blazingskies Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Lucius Views: 5805 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- 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
- 3
- 4
Chapter
Four

Realising
a form out of stone

Set hands moving...

"Lucius," The light voice of his wife halted the Lord Malfoy's progress down the hallway as he turned to see what
she wanted.

"Narcissa," he greeted her, "How are you today, my
dear?"

"I'm
well," She replied perfunctorily, but there for a worried frown creasing
her brows, "Lucius, I need to speak to you about
our guest,"

"Oh?"
He asked, one pale eyebrow winging upwards. It had been two days since he and Snape had rescued the boy from his relatives, and he had
yet to regain consciousness. "How is your patient?"

"Recovering,
and gaining strength," She answered, "But�far too slowly for someone
with as much raw power as he has. It's as though something were damping his
magic somehow,"

This time,
it was his turn for a frown to furrow his brow. Magical healing, for the most
part, relied on drawing up and enhancing someone's magical aura to speed
recovery. Hence, someone with a lot of power would recover more swiftly than
someone with very little. Anyone who had ever seen Harry Potter in a temper
knew he had a very powerful aura, so this development was troubling.

"But
what could do that? Magic damping spells last only a matter of hours, according
to Severus he's been with those muggles for months,
long enough for even a containment potion to have worn off by now,"

"I
know, Lucius. That's what's bothering me. The only
other way I know to damp someone's natural magic that way is through a
compulsion or geas."

Lucius' lips thinned into a pale line as
that thought registered. He snapped his fingers, and a House elf dutifully
appeared.

"Kerrie,"
He addressed the elf, "Summon Master Snape and
Ms. Darien to the sitting room. Tell them it is of import concerning our guest."

"Yes
sir, Master Lucius," The old elf bowed before
vanishing with a pop.

Taking Narcissa's arm gently, he led her to the main sitting room
to wait for Severus and Jaice. Taking a seat in his
favourite leather wingback chair, he let the tasteful, comfortable surroundings
relax him.

"Lucius, husband? Is everything all right?" Narcissa asked him.

He exhaled
slowly, "I don�t know yet, Narcissa, but I'm
starting to think that we haven't been proactive enough. Or situation is
precarious enough as it is, balanced on a knife edge between both sides of a
war, it wouldn't take much to make us fall. We need to choose a direction, even
if we don't choose a side,"

Understanding
crossed his wife's face, "And you believe Harry Potter is the key? You
think he'll be capable of freeing us, and Draco, don't you?"

"The
boy needed help, it's highly likely he would have died without our
intervention, and I was not prepared to let that happen. However�" A sly
smile touched Lucius' lips, "However, I won't
deny that it did occur to me that he could be a great deal of help to us. Call
it enlightened self-interest, if you like."

Narcissa shook her head, but there was a
fondness in her smile, "You always did like to play more than one game at
once, Lucius,"

"To
the consternation of any number of Ravenclaws over
the years," Snape's voice cut in. The Potions
Master glided into the room, followed by the smaller and far less intimidating
from of Jaice Darien.

"Quite,"
Lucius confirmed with a smirk.

"So,
what's this about Mr. Potter? Has he managed to cause trouble even while
unconscious?" Snape said, setting down on a
plush sofa and attempting to hide his concern beneath the acid of his tone.

Lucius gave his old friend and appraising
look, not fooled by Snape's unconcerned pose for a
moment, "You are too intelligent a wizard to have missed the obvious,
Severus. Harry is not recovering as swiftly as he should be,"

An
indefinable emotion flickered in Snape's obsidian
eyes for a second before he replied with a simple, "Yes."

Lucius rose from his chair, pacing the
room thoughtfully, "The first step to solving the problem is defining it.
So then, what is the underlying problem?"

"As I
already told Lucius," Narcissa
began, "The only reason I know that this would be happening is because his
magical aura has been dampened somehow,"

Severus
frowned, "I tested him for any poisons or impairing potions, they turned
up negative. Until we came for him, he'd had no contact with the magical world
outside of owl post for two months, so we can also rule out damping spells,"

"Then
that just leaves us with magical compulsions, draining magic or a geas," Jaice's soft voice
broke in, "From what I've heard, we can rule out imperius
or the Master's Voice spell,"

"Yes,"
Snape agreed, "Potter is quite capable of
throwing those off,"

"I've
seen no sign of the kind of damage left by a draining spell," Narcissa said thoughtfully, "And a geas
needs to be anchored to a amulet to work for so long
without close contact from the caster."

"So,
what does that leave us with?" Lucius mused.

There was a
moment of silence before Severus stood and made his way to the drinks cabinet,
pouring himself a measure of firewhisky and downing
it.

"There's
one other possibility," Severus said, his voice hoarse, as though what he
was saying were a great struggle. The muscles in Snape's
jaw were tight, as though he were holding back his emotions.

"Go
on, Severus," Narcissa encouraged. Snape took a breath.

"Consider
this; You are a child, raised by people who despise
you. You try desperately to please them, to no avail. You try to do exactly as
they say, to be precisely what they want you to be, to
avoid the beatings and perhaps, if you prove yourself worth enough, to gain
their approval, even their affections.

Consider
that these people also hate and fear magic. Every single display of your
magical heritage, even the mention of it, is punished severely. Under those
circumstances, wouldn't you try desperately to repress that magic? Come to
resent or even hate that part of yourself that makes them hate and fear
you?"

There was a
horrified silence in the plush sitting room as each person there attempted to
digest that information. It fit, oh, it fit in so many
ways.

All reports
had said that Harry Potter had an insanely powerful magical aura, but his
progress at school had been erratic, his learning patchy. He had trouble
mastering some of the most basic principles of magic, and yet could almost
effortlessly cast the Patronus charm - a skill rarely
attained by most full-grown wizards.

"Severus,"
Lucius said in an unsteady voice, "Are you
saying that the magic dampening is self-inflicted?"

"I'm
afraid so." Severus confirmed, and despite the careful control in Snape's voice, Lucius could tell
that his old friend felt as sick as he did.

TBC
- 3
- 4
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As Winter Calls