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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
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Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Forty�The
Cache

�� How did you
go about preparing to raid a Death Eater cache quietly?

�� To Harry�s
surprise, it turned out not to be that difficult.

�� The
instructors met with him and Draco at times, but they were still stiff, reluctant,
distant�except Ketchum, but he didn�t seem to have much solid information to
share. Harry thought that their habit of shielding trainees from the realities
of the world around them still controlled their actions.

�� Maybe they
could have done more if they knew about the map and the caches around the
country, Harry thought at one point, with a stab of guilt.

�� But his
loyalty to Draco and his friends outweighed his loyalty to the instructors, a thousand
times, and anyway, the instructors hadn�t told them what the Minister had said when they explained the threat of
Nihil, either, or what else was being done. He saw no reason not to keep silent
and go ahead with their planned raid.

�� According
to Draco, who met with them, neither Kepler nor Margate had heard anything that
might indicate Nihil was still in the Ministry. There had been no more attacks,
no more disappearances.

�� Of course,
there was no solid information about what had happened to Catherine Arrowshot
or the vanished trainees, either. Harry would have welcomed an attack for the
sake of more clues.

�� Maybe I should wait until we can put
together the clues we have, though, he admitted, one night after making a
list of what they knew so far and finding it hopelessly confusing.

�� He sat back
and studied the list, his arms behind his head. The clues swarmed and danced in
his mind and refused to come together. What did Nihil want? What was the point of learning how to change their appearances
so well and infect people�s magic and ultimately bring back the dead? (Maybe.
Harry had to qualify that, because Hermione was adamant on the point that it
should have been impossible and Nusquam�s apparent survival was probably
because she�d never died). How were they getting through the defenses of the
Ministry? Why hadn�t Nihil tried again to infect him and Draco since they�d
thrown off the attacks the first time?

Harry knew what he wanted the answer to that last question
to be: that Nihil couldn�t infect people who had resisted the infection once.
It would have made him happy to know Draco could never be in danger from that
corner again. But he didn�t know, and the last few months had proven that it
was ridiculous to assume.

Maybe
I should leave this up to Draco and Hermione, he decided, and turned to the
list of people in the Battle Brewing class that Hermione had compiled for him.
He still hadn�t given up his project to find more friendship for Draco than he
could provide himself.

Especially
since I won�t be the one giving him just friendship, but something else
instead.

�� He didn�t
know how to think about that or handle it any better than he did about the
scattered information about Nihil, and so he shied away from it in his mind and
picked the first name from the list. Agravaine Carbury. It had a nice, solid
ring to it.

*

�� Draco
watched Harry from the corner of his eye as he and Granger prepared for and
discussed the raid. Harry was up to something. He knew that instinctively, with
the same sort of silent alarms that used to ring in his head when he saw Harry
walking down the corridors at Hogwarts, his face a mask of determination.

�� But Harry
didn�t come to him and talk about it, and far be it from Draco to force a
confession out of him before he was ready.

�� He
felt�well, sensitive, at least a bit, since that discussion with Harry about
being the most important person in the world to him. Harry hadn�t referred to
it again. He might as well have forgotten it happened. He seemed to frown at
bits of parchment and spend a lot of time staring at people he�d never spoken
to instead.

�� Can�t he at least think what it means that I
want to be the most important person in the world to him?

�� Draco
wanted Harry as his lover. But he couldn�t accuse Harry of being the only one
who lacked courage and initiative. Fear held him in place, too.

�� Far more
than Harry, he had the sense of how large the change would be if they committed
to each other, what kinds of traditions they would be falling from and
abandoning.

�� His mother
had always spoken of the continuation of their family bloodline as something
assured, beyond question. His father, at least the last time Draco had had
communication with him from inside Azkaban, had expected the same thing. Draco
was sure that Narcissa had accepted his feelings for Harry so easily because
she did not expect them to be permanent. A few years� liaison, and she would
start hinting about the need for a wife and children.

�� Harry would
undoubtedly laugh, but the fact of survival, of endurance, was so fundamental
to the Malfoy mindset that it had taken Draco years to learn how to articulate
the concept, and more years to see that not everyone shared the same driving
desire.

�� He didn�t
see Weasley or his family accepting Harry�s choice any time soon. Harry might
be willing to stand up to his two best friends for Draco, but could he
withstand the scrutiny of an entire family?

�� And that
was nothing to what would happen when the news spread. Draco knew that Harry
would have got plenty of mad post from adoring fans, but the Ministry�s wards
put restrictions on owls that didn�t carry letters from people already
personally known to the letter writer, at least for trainees. One of those fans
might decide that Harry would be better off without Draco.

�� There would
be the press in general. The taunting articles. The silent sneers and disdain
of those circles who would tolerate Harry as Draco�s consort for the sake of
power and prestige, but would laugh in their sleeves when the alliance grew
longer and longer.

�� With such
thoughts circling in his head, finding no outlet and no end, Draco discovered,
in Granger, a surprisingly good distraction.

*

�� You�re
Agravaine Carbury,� Harry said, wishing he sounded more sure than he did. But
the tall wizard with the dark hair and thin pale face was the one Hermione had
pointed out to him, and he didn�t think there could be two trainees in the
program who liked to wear bright green brooches on their cloaks. The brooch was
an enormous, ugly thing made of jade, but Carbury apparently never took it off.

�� And no
need to ask who you are.�

�� Carbury�s
eyes were narrowed in suspicion. Harry grumbled under his breath. Sometimes he
would have been grateful for the chance to approach someone normally, without
any questions being asked or his pure intentions being doubted.

�� But that
wasn�t the way the world worked, so Harry gave him a brave smile and said, �I
hear that you�re good in Battle Brewing.�

�� Yes.�
Carbury relaxed a bit and cocked his head to the side in a way that reminded
Harry of a large, predatory bird. �Do you need something brewed?�

�� What do
you think of Draco Malfoy?� Harry asked, ignoring the question. He wished he�d
thought of it, because it would have been the perfect reason and way to
approach Carbury, but it was too late to think of something now.

�� Carbury
raised his eyebrows. �Yes, well, you would
ask about him, since you�re inseparable,� he said. �But you ought to know
that, even though I�ve been earning higher marks than he has, it�s not because
I�m the favorite. If he was calmer or had more innate talent, then he wouldn�t
need to overcompensate with flashiness the way he does.�

�� Harry
frowned. He didn�t think he liked Carbury. But what was important was that Draco liked him. He wasn�t going to be
Harry�s friend, after all.

�� Would you
have any objections to being his friend?� he asked.

�� Carbury
paused, staring at him, then laughed. The laughter was rich and rolling and
went on forever. Harry had to stand there in the middle of the corridor as
people gave them curious glances and feel like an idiot.

�� Finally, Carbury
stopped laughing and shook his head. �He wouldn�t want me for a friend if I was
the last brewer on earth,� he said. �I told you, I�ve showed him up too many
times.�

�� At least he could sound smug about it, Harry
thought in annoyance. Carbury spoke as if it was a mere statement of fact. �But
what about you befriending him?� he asked. �People treat him worse
than they should.�

�� Maybe
because he was a bloody Death Eater,�
Carbury said, one eyebrow rising to join the other. �He can�t complain about
bad treatment because of the consequences of his own choices.�

�� Harry
nodded. It was definite now. He didn�t like Carbury. And he couldn�t think of
someone who would do worse as a friend for Draco.

�� But he
couldn�t just turn his back and walk away. It was important that Carbury
realize how Harry disapproved of him.

�� I�m sure
you�ve never done anything in your life that you were ashamed of or angry
about,� he said. �Nothing you regretted when it was over, nothing you did
because you were coerced to do it. Your will must be the most free in the
world.� He wasn�t entirely happy with the way that last sentence sounded, but
it was what he meant.

�� Carbury
stared at him as if examining an insect whose wings he had to take off before
he put it into a potion. Then he shook his head.

�� I know
you�re his friend,� he said, �so I�ll tell you this for free. Sometimes, we
don�t get a choice about the consequences of our actions, even if we did do
those things under constraint. Maybe Malfoy is an innocent victim. But other
Death Eaters weren�t, and they hurt a lot of people. He has to understand where
his reputation came from.� Again, that tilt of the head, and this time Harry
had the impression that Carbury was about to stab his eyes out. �And I don�t
think he would appreciate you fighting for his honor. He seems perfectly
capable of doing that himself.�

�� He walked
away, and Harry shut his mouth and hurried to get back to their rooms, away
from all the staring eyes.

*

�� We need to
take account of the traps we might find there.�

�� Draco
nodded, impressed in spite of his own reluctance. Granger thought through
things more quickly and clearly and logically than either Harry or the Weasel. She
saw the things that Harry would have missed, and she gave answers while Weasel
would have been stammering his way through the questions.

�� Of course,
whenever Draco thought she was too
intelligent, he reminded himself that she had chosen the Weasel to sleep with.
That put him back on a comfortable footing of superiority.

�� And there
was the issue of blood purity, but Draco was ignoring that for the moment,
because of how much trouble it would cause if he brought it to her attention,
no matter how gently.

�� Let her pretend she�s as good as a
pure-blood for a while. In this matter, she can do anything a pure-blood might
do.

�� We can
count on beasts, and people with infected magic, since he�s used them so far,�
Granger murmured, quill scratching on parchment. Then she paused and frowned.
�Or can we? Wouldn�t he have removed
the knowledge and artifacts he might have found there? What would be the point
of leaving people to guard an empty cache?�

�� To trap
those who don�t know that it�s empty,� Draco said impatiently.

�� But where
would they get the knowledge of the cache�s existence?� Granger touched her lips
with her fingers contemplatively, which made Draco have to look away, because
his mother sometimes made the same gesture. Granger
and my mother are not equal. �The Death Eaters are all arrested now. I�m
sure Nihil knows that. Who else would he have thought would come after him?�

�� What
you�re saying is logical, but it�s not the way Nihil thinks, for all we know.�
Draco reached out and took the list of notes away from her, ignoring her
offended look. She would be a lot more offended if she knew about all the
thoughts passing through his head. �Maybe the cache is empty. Maybe it�s full.
Maybe it�s partially empty and Nihil has guards there because he hasn�t had
time to remove everything. Or room to store everything,� he added, scribbling
furiously as he thought about it. �How do we know that he has unlimited space
to store everything that he might like to keep? The abandoned Death Eater
spaces would work as well as anywhere else. And maybe that�s why no one has
been able to find the infected trainees, because he�s hiding them in one of the
caches.�

�� We can�t
know that,� Granger said.

�� We can�t
know anything.� Draco glared at her.
�And that�s why Nihil has succeeded against us so often, because he�s had the
advantage of knowing our motions when we don�t know his. Fuck, we don�t even
know how he knows about the caches. I don�t think he was a Death Eater, or he
wouldn�t find it so easy to mock the Dark Lord�s symbols, but who else would you expect to be aware of the
caches?�

�� Granger opened
her mouth, and then froze with it half open. She looked stupid, Draco thought
in savage satisfaction. Witless.

�� Why didn�t
I think of that before?� she whispered. �Of course there�s another group of
people other than Death Eaters that would know about the caches, and Nihil
being part of that group would explain why he wanted to mock Voldemort.�

�� Draco was
glad that she was too caught up in her own apparently immense revelation to notice his wince. �I beg your pardon?� he
asked.

�� The Death
Eaters would know where the caches were,� Granger said, raising eyes that were
wide with something that looked like pity to his face. �And so would their
victims.�

�� Draco
paused. Of course. That made a good
deal of sense. If someone had managed to survive the tender attentions of
people like his aunt, they would want revenge. And though they might not know
where a certain cache was if they�d been forcibly Apparated to it, they could
have found out if they were determined enough.

�� Draco had
seen the expressions of the people who watched the Wizengamot acquit him and
who hadn�t wanted that acquittal to happen. That kind of determination could
fuel a task much more difficult than the finding of caches that must have left some sign, no matter how hidden they
were.

�� That would
explain why he mocks the Death Eaters,� he admitted. �But why would he want to
use the knowledge at all, in that case?� A possible answer to the question
occurred to him as he spoke, but he wanted to know what Granger would say. �And
it still doesn�t tell us anything about Nihil�s purpose.�

�� Granger
might not have heard him. She was staring at the wall, one hand over her mouth.
Her fingers flexed open and shut. Draco wished they weren�t in that precise place, as they muffled the words
she spoke.

�� Imagine someone
being tortured,� she said. �Imagine how he hated it, how helpless he was. And
then he survived, but he saw most of the Death Eaters subjected to trials, not
the insane vengeance plans he�d probably dreamed up. And Voldemort was dead, of
course, so that meant he couldn�t reach him
at all.� Draco wished she would stop saying that name. �He walked back into
society, and there were some of the people he blamed for his pain acquitted, not
paying as he thought they deserved to. Well, he had the knowledge to combat
them. Twisted by rage and pain�� She shook her head. �I doubt he hesitated
before he decided to use that knowledge. To him, it would be a fitting
punishment for the Death Eaters who were still alive and free, to be killed by
their own weapons.�

�� Draco
licked his lips. He didn�t like to admit that her vision might be the truth,
especially because she spoke with a hollow sound in her voice that made him
remember she�d been a victim of torture, too, in his home.

�� That
doesn�t tell who he is,� he said. �Other than enormously skilled. And
dangerous.�

�� Granger
nodded. �I know,� she said. �But it narrows down the list. The Death Eaters
took a lot of victims, but not everyone in Britain. And I�d imagine the number
of people who suffered horrifically but managed to escape is small.�

�� What is
his purpose, then?� Draco flattened
his hands on the table and leaned forwards. �I can understand why he attacked
me, but why Harry? Why everyone else, all the trainees who were infected? Not
all of them took part in the war.�

�� Maybe he
thinks they should have,� Granger said. �Maybe he thinks they should have
suffered because he did, and it wasn�t fair�it was mere chance�that they didn�t
and escaped. And Harry�� She sighed and shook her head. �He spoke for some
Death Eaters. Take a mind twisted enough, and that would be enough to taint
Harry in his eyes.�

�� And then
he could find allies among people who did
suffer with him, and who believed in what he was doing,� Draco finished.
�Whatever that is.� He paused, then added, �I have to admit that my biggest
obstacle to believing this is that most of his attacks don�t seem to be focused
on the Death Eaters in particular.�

�� Granger
speared him with a glance. �So,� she said, �the biggest problem is that?�

�� Draco
glared at her. �I just said so.�

�� And not
the �purity� of the person presenting the argument?� she asked sweetly.

�� Draco
looked down at the parchment with a scowl.

*

�� Let�s go.�

�� Harry
started. He had thought Draco would be the one to speak and start them on the
adventure now that they were out of the Ministry and, as far as the instructors
and their bodyguards were concerned, at the Burrow or Malfoy Manor. But it was
Ron who stepped forwards with a brilliant smile, almost sniffing the air, as though he could smell the track Nihil had
left.

�� Come on,�
he whispered, and reached out to clasp Hermione�s hand, his face so bright that
Harry smiled back. He was reminded now of why he liked to go adventuring with
Ron.

�� He took
Draco�s wrist and pulled him along. Draco drew the map from his pocket with his
free hand, moving stiffly. Harry glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. Is he embarrassed? Well, too bad. Hermione
and Ron are doing it, too, so he doesn�t need to feel like we�re behaving
indiscreetly, or rudely, or whatever he thinks.

�� This way,�
Draco said, stabbing the spot they�d chosen again. �Remember, it has a little stream
next to it, and it�ll be a magically constructed cave under an overhanging
boulder.�

�� Hermione
nodded and closed her eyes at the same time as Ron. The next moment, they were
both gone with an echoing crack. Harry prepared to follow them. They were far
enough from the Ministry that he didn�t think the anti-Apparition wards should
trouble them.

�� Draco�s
cold fingers on his arm stopped him. Harry opened his eyes and looked at him in
concern. If anyone had thought of a reason why they shouldn�t go, it would be
Draco.

�� And Harry
would have been half-glad for a reason like that. He didn�t know if he wanted
Draco to risk his life going into battle, or fighting traps, beside him. Still,
Draco would insist on coming along if Harry tried to leave him behind, and it
was better for him to be with Harry than somewhere else.

�� Draco
leaned forwards and pressed his lips against Harry�s. The kiss was desperate,
his tongue working at Harry�s lips until Harry opened his mouth, and then
plunging inside and sweeping violently over his teeth. Then he stepped back
again, nodded, and Apparated them both.

�� They landed
with a bump on the bank of a small stream, and Harry shook his head in dazed
wonder. What was that all about?

�� He looked
around, because he knew he would blush if he tried to look at Draco right now.
They stood on a sloping bank, scattered with old snow, a few trees behind them.
Harry suspected that there would have been Muggles here, including Muggle
buildings, but the soft hum of Repelling Charms echoed in his ears and told him
they�d probably been pushed out a long time ago.

�� There it
is.� Draco pointed ahead of them, and then pulled his hand back as if he
thought that something would bite his finger�or as if he was shocked at himself
for pointing, such a vulgar act.

�� Harry
looked along the length of Draco�s finger and saw the dark opening across the
stream, in the mouth of another bank that sloped up considerably more than the
one they stood on. Dusty clumps of icicles, mostly melted, clung around the
mouth. Harry could see stones on the ground, oddly-shaped stones. After he
looked at them for a minute, he thought they were the remains of doors.

�� Hermione
nodded when he said that, her eyes grim. Harry remembered what she thought
about Nihil and wondered if he had destroyed them when he had come back to
claim the knowledge in the cache. That suggested that maybe he did things in
uncontrollable rage sometimes; Pushkin was teaching them now to draw
psychological and logical conclusions from the human activity they observed.

�� Ron was the
first one to step forwards again, lighting his wand with a whisper of, �Lumos.� He wore a grin like a boy�s.
Harry leaped the little stream and joined him, peering into the darkness. He
knew it was just the angle they stood at, but it seemed the light really didn�t
pierce very far into the darkness.

�� Ready?�
Ron asked, turning and glancing at Harry. Harry blinked as the comradeship
between them, strained by their rows and the way he�d spent more time with
Draco lately, suddenly sprang back to life.

�� Ready,�
Harry said, and they strode in at the same time.

�� The tunnel
twisted several times, then plunged straight back. A few steps after that, it
widened, and Harry stepped into the central room feeling as if he was ready for
anything, including an immediate attack by infected trainees.

�� Anything,
maybe, but skeletons strung on enormous wires across the ceiling and the walls,
all of them draped with dried skin and hanging bits of gnawed flesh. Wide dark
marks on the floor suggested that there had been dried blood spilled there at
one point and never cleaned up.

Carved into the skull of every single
skeleton, between the eyes, was the Dark Mark. On the single clear wall was the
enormous word, in letters of magically preserved fresh blood at least five feet
high, NIHIL.

�I think,� Hermione said weakly
into the silence that gathered around them, �it�s safe to say he was very angry.�

*

MewMew2: Yes, I think that�s true,
but Harry may not be the best person to find them.

hieisdragoness18: And they will
probably get worse!

SP777: Thank you! I think Harry is
heading in that direction. But he probably won�t get there until certain
fundamental questions have been resolved, such as what his relationship with
Draco is like and how good an Auror he can be.

But Draco wants to have it both ways.

Bumping someone�s shoulder? No, but
I thought it was a good way for Harry to try and connect with Draco.

Thrnbrooke: They don�t, but at
least they might be achieving understanding with Ron and Hermione.

Sarah: Thanks! I hope Draco will
become less �iffy� as he becomes more confident.
- 39
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