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Forgive Those Who Trespass	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 20650 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- 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
- 5
Thank you again for all the reviews!

I�ve had a few questions about how dark and gory the story
will get. �Pretty damn dark and gory� is the answer. Please don�t read further
if the content so far upsets you.

Chapter Four�The First
Pensieve

�� Harry woke
slowly, to the realization that Malfoy seemed to be having a nightmare. He was
thrashing about in Harry�s hold, his mouth open like a screaming Muggle
painting Harry had once seen and his head tilted back. But, of course, no sound
emerged from his lips, only erratic puffs of air.

�� Malfoy!�
Harry snapped, trying not to shake him. Since so many of his ribs were gone, he
had no idea what would happen if he did.

�� Nothing
happened, however, except that Malfoy�s legs were moving faster and faster, his
hands flailing wildly. His teeth champed down harshly on his tongue, and Harry
recalled something Hermione had once told him about people swallowing their
tongues during seizures. He shuddered. Quite apart from the fact that Malfoy
might be the only person who could guide him through the labyrinth the
Department of Mysteries had become, he didn�t want the git to die and leave him
all alone down here.

�� He leaned
in close to the other man�s head and said, �Malfoy,�
again.

�� The harsh
breathing grew more pronounced, and his elbow slammed into Harry�s ear. Harry
ducked, cursing, and shoved at his shoulder. Still nothing; Harry wondered what kind of rough treatment it would
take to wake Malfoy up, if his efforts so far weren�t doing anything.

�� Then he
stilled. Maybe �rough treatment� was the problem. Given how much Malfoy had
suffered already, Harry�s efforts were probably playing right into his
nightmares and convincing him he was back with the people who had hurt him.

�� Swallowing,
and fervently glad that Ron wasn�t with him at the moment to see and laugh at
what he had to do, Harry leaned nearer to Malfoy and whispered into his ear, �Draco?
Draco, you�re safe now, I promise. Well,� he amended, wondering what he would
say if Malfoy woke up and accused him of lying, �you�re safer. I�ll try to protect you. I�ll try to make sure that nothing
else happens to you, and that you get back to St. Mungo�s so they can restore
your bones and your voice and your fingers, and let you go back to being the
right annoying berk you always were. All right? Wake up, now. I promise, I�m
not going to torture you. I wouldn�t do that. I won�t let anyone else do that.�

�� He wasn�t
foolish enough to think his words did that
much good; he was hardly an inspiring public speaker, as the Ministry had
already found out to its embarrassment. But the soft, soothing tone they were
spoken in helped. Malfoy shuddered all over, and abruptly went limp. Turning
his head towards Harry, he breathed for some moments, and then opened his eyes
and stared at him.

�� Harry bit
his lip. They were uncomfortably close, just the kind of closeness to make his
body react the wrong way and give Malfoy ideas
about Harry trying to molest him, when nothing could be further from the truth.
But he knew that moving away right now would come over as all stiff and distant
to Malfoy, and make him distrust Harry even more. And they needed trust to
survive right now. So Harry held his posture and his stare, though he felt more
and more awkward by the passing second.

�� Malfoy
shifted, and his hands came up to tangle in Harry�s hair. Harry held patiently still
as those nubby fingers explored his scalp and the small hairs that paraded down
the back of his neck. If Malfoy needed tactile contact to reassure himself he
wasn�t back among his tormentors, Harry would let him have it.

�� Abruptly,
those nubby fingers yanked. Harry jumped. Malfoy must have worked them into the
curly underlayer of Harry�s hair.

�� That hurt, Malfoy,� he informed the other
man, moving warily backwards. Malfoy had a faint, self-satisfied smile on his
face, and Harry felt like a fool. Of course he was fine, and Harry�s attempts
to comfort him were to be rejected arrogantly the moment he was awake. Harry
started to roll away.

�� Malfoy
clasped one palm on his shoulder, holding him still. His face had changed, and
he shook his head.

�� Harry
wished for a moment that they hadn�t been too tired to finish assigning
meanings to the glass sphere last night. �What? Don�t leave you? I�m not going
to do that.� His voice came out a bit more gruffly than he had intended, but
his neck still tingled and hurt from the sharp pull.

�� Another
shake of the head, and then Malfoy withdrew his left hand to lay against his
ribs. Harry lifted his eyebrows. �Yes, I know you don�t have many bones left.�

�� A third
headshake, and a light, cautious thump. Harry narrowed his eyes in confusion.
The motion was similar to the ones he�d made during those three weeks he�d lost
his voice and he wanted to remind people that he was in the room. But since he
was looking straight at Malfoy, the git could hardly suspect Harry had
forgotten about him.

�� You?� he
asked cautiously, deciding they would have to dedicate one facet of the sphere
exclusively to common words.

�� Another
thump.

�� Malfoy?�

�� A pained
look, and a thump.

�� Harry
sighed. It was now obvious what the prat wanted. He�d heard the words that
Harry was speaking whilst he tried to wake him up after all.

�� Well. It
was a small enough sacrifice. And if it would prevent Harry from getting his
hair yanked in the future, he could put up with it.

�� Draco,� he
said.

�� Somehow,
even with the shadows of starvation and sleeplessness in his face, the prat had
retained a brilliant smile. He leaned closer to Harry, and his arms ended up
around the middle of his back again. Harry shifted, cautious about how he held
him.

�� Have you
had enough sleep?� he asked, because if they weren�t going to sleep, they might
as well make conversation.

�� A nod,
brushing Malfoy�s hair against his ear. Harry frowned past his head and
wondered what in the world they were lying there for, then.

�� Hermione�s
voice appeared on cue in his mind. Because
he needs human contact, Harry. Tell me that you could survive being chained up
and tortured in a dungeon for a year and then not be madly glad to see the
first other human being who wasn�t trying to hurt you.

�� Harry
sighed and closed his eyes. If they weren�t going to sleep, then he might as
well feign sleep. He deepened his
breathing and let the arms that he had wrapped around Malfoy relax slightly.

�� Malfoy made
no objections. He just settled closer and began small exploratory motions of
his hands over Harry�s back and shoulders, light touches that wouldn�t have
been enough to wake a real sleeper, though they tickled slightly. Harry rolled
his shut eyes. Malfoy was not only injured, voiceless, and presuming on a level
of friendliness that Harry didn�t think would ever exist between them; he was also needy.

�� As long as it�s not more than this. I really
don�t think that I could handle more than this. And he probably wouldn�t be
able to, either, no matter what he tells himself.

�� He did
relax by degrees, though. Annoying tendencies to yank on hair or not, Malfoy
really seemed to have thrown away the animosity that had been between them for
their six years in Hogwarts. Harry thought he probably could trust him, at least not to act against the one person who at
the moment could best guarantee his survival.

�� Slytherins are self-protective, right?
Surely he won�t betray me�unless someone else comes along who can rescue him.
And that�s not likely down here.

*

�� Harry
sighed in relief and sat back, flexing his fingers from around his wand. He had
cast a long, complicated series of charms that morning, or what might be that
morning, first to designate certain facets of the sphere as certain words, and
then to bond the new knowledge into his mind and Malfoy�s via a modified
language-learning spell, so they weren�t forever fumbling for which facets or
colors should mean what. He thought Hermione would approve of the time he�d put
into steady hard work.

�� Malfoy
leaned towards him now and touched one of the light green facets on the globe that
stood for a series of ordinary words. When the colors of the glass shifted
again, he touched the facet that meant hungry
and stared at Harry.

�� Harry
nodded and pulled enough food from his satchel to make a few acceptable
sandwiches. Privately, he was worried about how long his supplies would last;
he�d packed for one person, after all, not two. But he could manage duplication
charms if he really had to�though Ron always claimed that the food Harry
duplicated tasted like sawdust�and there were more urgent things to worry about
right now.

�� Do you
know what lies beyond that door?� he asked Malfoy, when he�d handed him a
cheese sandwich and settled back to eat his own. He motioned with his head at
the doorway opposite the one they�d come in by, which so far led unhelpfully
into darkness.

�� Malfoy
shook his head. His face was blissful by the light of Harry�s conjured globe,
and he was visibly restricting himself to slow bites and swallows, when he
wanted to ravenously tear into the meal. Harry felt a small stirring of pride
as he watched, and then told himself to stop feeling that. He was neither a
specialist in the care and feeding of pure-blood wizards or a trainee Healer.

�� What about
that room?� He turned his head towards the mass of flesh he and Malfoy had
crawled over, though just the memory of it was enough to make him lose his
appetite. �What would happen if I cast a spell at the flesh? Do you think I
should, if only to try and free whoever those people are from their pain?�

�� Malfoy
rapped his palm on the globe to change the color back to another series of
common words, from which he selected danger
and before, then stared at Harry
expectantly. Harry winced when he
remembered the human chain, and the shadow-wolf that had come bounding out on
guard when he Transfigured it to back to corpse status.

�� Disabling
the traps they set along the way rouses guardians?� he asked.

�� Malfoy
nodded, and then returned to his sandwich. It might have been caviar or skylarks�
tongues or whatever he had really eaten in the Manor before he was kidnapped,
considering the way he closed his eyes as he chewed. Harry shook his head in
bewilderment. He would once have thought that nothing could ever make a change
in Draco Malfoy�s personality, for better or worse, but here he was, witnessing
it.

�� Did the
entire Department change when they released this spell?� he asked. �Or don�t
you know?�

�� Two shrugs.
Harry cursed under his breath. Malfoy�s usefulness as a guide was going to be
severely limited, then.

�� Do you
know what other traps they might have set up along the way? Do you think you�ll
be able to warn me in time?�

�� Shrug.
Shrug.

�� Well, damn. Harry set down his sandwich,
then frowned when he saw Malfoy glancing at it. �Get your own. I�ll finish it
in a minute.� Malfoy rolled his eyes, as much to say that Harry was a fool for
not eating it all at once. �And pay attention, this is important. How much do
you remember of what they did to you?�

�� Malfoy
shook his head.

�� Harry
exhaled hard. He really should have expected that. If Malfoy remembered with
any clarity, he would probably have been in much worse shape, psychologically,
than he was. And even if the Unspeakables� designs, whatever they were,
included keeping this one prisoner alive, they wouldn�t want to leave important
memories in his head.

�� Then we�ll
have to do the best we can without that guidance,� Harry muttered, and sat back
with a slight frown, closing his eyes.

�� He took a
few moments to consult with himself and realized that nothing had changed, not
really. He didn�t have much of a chance of rescuing Ron and Hermione, but when
had he ever had much of a chance? He
would make the best effort he could and use the help that he found along the
way, exactly as he had destroyed the Horcruxes and battled the basilisk and
survived the graveyard and�

�� And done everything worth mentioning in my
life, he admitted to himself wryly, and opened his eyes again, only to see
Malfoy glaring at him. He blinked. �What?� He had been sure that Malfoy would be
too busy eating to care about his meditation.

�� Malfoy
rapped the sphere, and it flared dazzling white, which represented common
phrases. Malfoy selected the facets that meant, according to the spell that
suddenly shone in Harry�s mind, I can�t
talk and Look at me.

�� Harry raised
an eyebrow. He had felt left out when Harry closed his eyes and couldn�t see
him anymore to tell what he was communicating? That seemed strange. But, of
course, he had to keep remembering that to Malfoy he wasn�t an enemy anymore.
That was difficult enough without making it more
difficult for himself. He�d try to keep his eyes open in the future, for both
their sakes.

�� I
apologize, Draco,� he said, catching himself and substituting the name that
Malfoy had shown himself to prefer just in time.

�� Malfoy
beamed at him with so much happiness that Harry had to remind himself that
there was a whole facet on the sphere for sarcastic phrases, but he couldn�t
help smiling tentatively back.

*

�� The room
beyond the eastern doorway turned out to be small, round, made of stone, and
littered with more of the slowly rising blue flames that Harry remembered from
the corridor where he�d first landed. He avoided them cautiously, and lent his
arm to help Malfoy as needed. But Malfoy stepped past him with a silent snort
and a shake of his head. Food and sleep had done wonders in bringing back his
confidence and giving him an expression other than stupefied terror, Harry had
to admit.

�� Not that
there was any chance Malfoy was bent, and not that Harry had any business noticing
how attractive another man was. He directed his gaze to the glass sphere
floating between them on a permanent Levitation Charm instead, ready to catch
it if something surged up from the floor and tried to shatter it.

�� Remarkably,
they reached the other side of the room with no such accident. And Harry
halted, because there had been nothing but darkness beyond the far doorway at
first, but now there was a dazzling white light.

�� He glanced sideways
at Malfoy, but received only another shrug.

�� Harry
stepped in first, of course, body angled so as to offer as much protection to
Malfoy as possible. The globe of light still bobbed behind him, and so did the
sphere; Harry wasn�t ready to trust to the seeming safety and dismiss the one
or set down the other just yet.

�� The room
was empty, except for a single pillar in the center. Harry frowned and studied
it. As far as he could tell from this distance, it appeared to be made of marble,
or maybe ivory. On top of the pillar sat a stone bowl that he recognized right
away. A Pensieve. And from the glitter near the lip, it was full. Harry licked
dried lips and glanced sideways at Malfoy, who only shivered. If he was
remembering something specific and dangerous, however, he didn�t seem to think
it worth his while to reach for the sphere and tell Harry about it.

�� Harry
nodded and cast his spells to detect traps and magical creatures. Nothing
responded to them. At last he edged forwards, his wand lifted and several of
the most dangerous spells that he knew poised on the edge of his tongue.

�� Nothing continued
to happen. The Pensieve came closer and closer, and no shadow-wolf unfolded
from the paving stones on the floor to leap at them; no wall of human flesh
formed to fall on them; no Acromantula descended from the ceiling to snare them
in its web. Harry remained on edge, though, and so he yelped and jumped when
Malfoy suddenly seized his arm in a death grip.

�� Warn a bloke next time, won�t you?� he
snapped, turning around.

�� One look at
Malfoy�s face silenced him. Malfoy was staring at the Pensieve, and he had
turned so pale that Harry reached out and put his arms around him, fearing he
would faint in the next moment. He stroked the other man�s hair, which
embarrassed him now that he was thinking about it but which Malfoy seemed as if
he needed. Harry murmured into his ear, the same soothing nonsense words he�d
spoken when they lay in the same blankets together, making sure to call him
Draco, and Malfoy gradually relaxed.

�� He still
didn�t step away from Harry of his own free will, though. He waited until Harry
stepped back and slipped his hand around one of the fingerless ones, shuddering
absently as those rounded lumps brushed along his thumb and index finger. �Now,�
Harry said softly. �Do you think that Pensieve holds some of your memories?�

�� Malfoy
nodded, his eyes fixed and staring. Harry licked his lips, not sure what to
make of the lack of response, and continued. �Is there anything you can
remember about this? About this room?
The Pensieve itself? The pillar?�

�� Malfoy
shook his head three times, and then nodded on the fourth question. Harry
leaned forwards, keenly interested. He�d just as soon not approach the pillar
if it was a trap. �Yes? What is it?�

�� With a languid,
slowness probably caused by fear and revulsion, Malfoy ran a hand up and down
his torso. Harry followed the motion with his eyes three times before his
knowledge caught up with it and he flinched, hissing between his teeth.

�� The pillar�s
made of your rib bones,� he said flatly.

�� Another
terse nod.

�� Harry
licked his lips and looked back at the pillar. Yes, the white material it was
constructed of could have been bone, polished and shining. He concentrated
hard, but couldn�t make out any graceful curves of rib in the thing. Of course,
if the Unspeakables had altered what they stole with magic, that would be
impossible.

�� He could
make out something, though.

�� Harry
leaned nearer. There were two letters, faint as shadows, carved in the pillar
towards the base. With some squinting, which nearly caused him to fall down
since he didn�t want to let go of Malfoy�s hand and also didn�t want to take a
step nearer the pillar, he managed to make out that they were Cr.

�� No racking
of his brains for any handy tips picked up during Auror training provided
suggestions as to what that might mean. Harry shook his head, frustrated. �I�ve
got to go into the Pensieve,� he told Malfoy.

�� Malfoy was
clinging to him like a burr a moment later, his hold so tight and choking that
Harry didn�t have to be told what he feared. He took a deep breath and played
with Malfoy�s hair some more, then deliberately found the soft, empty flesh
under his abbreviated ribcage again.

�� I have to,�
he said. �If there�s the slightest hint about what happened to change the
Department into this, or about what they did to you, or about what happened to
Ron and Hermione�I have to. I promise
that I�ll return the memories to you when I�m done. You should have them.� He
paused. �Do you want to go into the Pensieve with me?�

�� Malfoy
turned his head away, and even though Harry could barely make out his
expression from this angle, he read soul-deep shame in the angle of his neck. Impulsively,
he cupped a hand around Malfoy�s chin and tilted his head gently back.

�� Don�t feel
bad,� he whispered. �That you�re still sane
and not running away screaming at the prospect of getting these memories back says
a lot. You have nothing to feel sorry for.� He tapped Malfoy�s cheek sharply
with two fingers when Malfoy just blinked at him. �Do you hear me?�

�� Finally,
Malfoy bowed his head and nodded. A few tears slipped down his cheeks. Harry
smoothed them away and hesitated a moment, then held out his wand towards
Malfoy.

�� Here,� he
said. �If something happens whilst I�m in the Pensieve, or if I don�t come
back, then you should be able to defend yourself.�

�� Malfoy
shook his head and gave him a disgusted look. Then he spread his hands wide and
waved them up and down.

�� Yes, I know you don�t have any fingers, it�s
kind of hard to miss,� Harry snapped at him, wondering if this bizarre mix of
irritation and sympathy would fill him for the rest of his life when he thought
of Malfoy. He couldn�t wait until they were back on the surface, he really
couldn�t, so that Malfoy would be sane and whole and Harry could start to hate
him properly again. �But I still thought you could use the wand for�� He
stopped, not wanting to say reassurance. The
last thing he needed was Malfoy�s stupid pride intervening in a matter of
safety.

�� Malfoy
shook his head again, and folded the wand back to Harry�s chest, using the
flats of his wrists. Harry understood the gesture better now. Malfoy would
prefer that he have the wand with him in case something happened in the
Pensieve.

�� All right.
If you�re sure.�

�� Malfoy all
but shoved him forwards now. Harry gave him a small smile and turned towards
the Pensieve.

�� Nothing attacked
him when he walked towards the pillar. Nothing attacked him when he cast a
Sticking Charm on his feet, so that he could bend over the Pensieve without
being afraid that he�d slip or having to touch the sides of the bowl. He stared
at the silvery liquid for a moment, bracing himself to see horrors even worse
than those he�d faced so far, and then plunged his head beneath the surface.

�� There came
the same dizzying sensation that had engaged him when he watched Snape�s
memories, and the memories Dumbledore had collected of Voldemort�s past. Then
he was standing in a room with several gray-clad figures, all of them with
hoods drawn about their heads except two. Harry glanced around quickly. The
room itself was broad and covered with dark blue tiles that absorbed the light
of the torches in the wall sconces. Even just in a memory, it thrummed with
enough magical energy to raise his hair and his danger sense, both.

�� He turned
back to the figures at the front of the room. One was a large, bearded man with
brown eyes and an intent stare whom Harry didn�t recognize, though he somewhat
resembled the Death Eater Walden Macnair. The other was Malfoy.

�� And he had
no manacles, no glazed expression in his eyes reminiscent of someone under Imperius,
and no restraining spells that Harry could see. He just stood and looked back
at the bearded man with determination on his face.

�� Do you understand
what you have to do?� the stranger asked.

�� I do.�

�� Harry
almost jumped, Malfoy�s firm, steady voice sounded so strange to him.

�� Good,� the
stranger said. �There is no need to bind you by an Unbreakable Vow or any
others, as long as you solemnly swear of your own free will to be loyal to the
Department of Mysteries. And, in return, we will aid in you in achieving what
you came for.� He glanced at Draco�s left arm. �The research we are doing in
the art of body modification can rid you of the Dark Lord�s Mark, I�m certain,
as it grows more advanced.�

�� Malfoy
inclined his head and gave that smirk that Harry had known so well. �And I can
help advance that research, at the moment, more than any other person you�ve
recruited,� he murmured. �Isn�t that right?�

�� Harry closed
his eyes. He felt as if he were falling again down the long shaft that had
borne him to the room of squirming flesh, but this time, he had no assurance of
a soft surface to catch him, or even of companionship.

�� Malfoy had participated
in creating these horrors he and
Harry had faced.

�� What a fool
Harry had been.

*

�� Lilith:
Well, this chapter provides a partial answer to the question �why Draco?� Not a
very nice answer, I will admit.

�� Mariahs_fantasy:
Harry learns more about Draco�s orientation before the torture as he peruses
his memories.

�� SoftObsidian74:
Thank you very much! I can promise that not every chapter has quite the level
of gore in Chapter 3, but many chapters do.

�� Dreiad:
Thank you! Part of Draco�s reaching is pure desperation, but, as is visible in
this chapter, he�s becoming very attached to Harry for being Harry.

�� Myra: Can�t
answer those questions about the bodies, sorry. Suffice it to say they�ll be
answered when the time comes.

�� I really
don�t know how long this story will be. I thought I did, and then it grew.
*kicks it*

�� Mangacat:
Thank you! Even in extreme situations, I think Draco and Harry should still be
Draco and Harry.

�� Ramandu:
Draco�s orientation will be revealed through the memories.

�� WeasleyWench:
Thanks! Harry is mostly ashamed because he thinks that he should be able to
stick to his resolution of not finding other men attractive and not coming near
them.

�� Amy,
Tempass, Thrnbrooke, lissagal99, Natwestgirl: Thanks for reviewing!
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Forgive Those Who Trespass