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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.

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Chapter
Forty-Three�The War Wizards

�� They�re
magnificent.�

�� Harry
glanced curiously at Draco. He didn�t think he�d heard that particular tone of
voice from him before. Draco sounded as if he meant the words he was speaking, and that was remarkable when he
was talking about something that didn�t belong to his family.

�� Draco
caught his look and frowned at him. �What?�

�� Nothing,�
Harry said hastily, and faced the spectacle in front of them again. Yes, he had
to admit they were magnificent, though it wasn�t the first word that he would
have chosen.

�� The War
Wizards wore robes of dark scarlet, which Harry had thought were so they
wouldn�t show blood and Draco had told him resembled a dark rose�though he�d
admitted there was no real reason they
should resemble a dark rose when Harry asked him. Their collars had a silver
edging attached, and a symbol at the throat. Harry thought the symbol was a
wand crossed with a sword, which he had seen on several pamphlets the Ministry
had handed out about the War Wizards.

Currently, they were training in
the middle of a large hollow that Harry thought was a crater and Draco said
couldn�t be, somewhere out in the country where Muggles wouldn�t come. The
Auror trainees had been released from classes for the day and Apparated to the
spot to watch them. Harry thought the instructors, and Shacklebolt himself,
were hoping that any spies among the trainees would warn Nihil about what he
was up against, and perhaps make him think twice.

If
anything can, Harry thought, shifting his position on the thick grass. So
far, all the War Wizards had done was march about in drills and lift their
wands to cast an illusion of a rising golden dragon, which it seemed was their
signal for help. Harry thought their discipline was impressive, but he didn�t
see how it would help them win battles.

Then the tiny, green-robed figure
in front of the War Wizards, one of their trainers or commanders, stepped back
and made a shrill noise, a whistle louder than any whistle should be.

�� The War
Wizards broke apart into dizzying patterns of red robes. Harry�s eyes crossed
as he tried to track everything at once, so at first he didn�t realize what
they were doing.

�� Then he
saw.

�� Some of the
War Wizards unleashed terrible boiling storms of light at each other, or small,
concentrated beams of red and green light which Harry knew from studying with
Dearborn could be more powerful curses than the flashier ones, or conjured
weapons and animals out of nothing to attack their comrades who stood opposite
them. A storm of spears streaked the sky. True, living dragons as big as the
Hungarian Horntail Harry had faced in the Triwizard Tournament appeared and
lunged forwards, their jaws parted, their fire real. The earth cracked open. The
smell of smoke rose to Harry�s nostrils. The valley became dazzling with magic,
and his skin tingled and his jaw ached in that way which meant Dark Arts were
nearby.

�� The War
Wizards who stood opposite the attackers answered.

�� Shields
appeared in every form and variety that Harry had learned, and some he hadn�t:
shields of smoke, of silver, of wood and stone and ivory and ebony, of teeth
and what looked like the thighbones of giants. Swarms of enormous bees swooped
down on the dragons and bore them from the sky with their sheer weight. The
beams of red and green light were eaten by glowing golden dogs that started up
from the ground in front of the defenders, snapped their jaws twice, and then
dug back into the soil when they were done. The earth softened and firmed,
burned and disintegrated and reformed, so fast that Harry had to piece together
what had happened afterwards.

�� Draco�s
hand closed on his arm. Harry looked at him, at his pale face and staring eyes,
and nodded. He�d felt it, too. The magic rising out of the valley was more
powerful than their mingled compatible magic, many times over. It was the first
force they had encountered since they started working together that was, unless
you counted the various tricks that Nihil had played.

�� I have to
learn how to do that,� Draco said, his voice reverent.

�� Harry
looked into the hollow again and wondered what kind of �that� he was talking
about. There were so many to choose from, and it looked as though the War
Wizards were turning around and exchanging places so that they could launch
another, new wave of spells. Of course, Harry thought. You couldn�t have half
your army only knowing how to do one thing. �I don�t think they offer training
outside their ranks,� he said aloud. �That was what Portillo Lopez said,
anyway.�

�� I want to
find a way to get in,� Draco insisted. �Think of what we could do with it.�

�� Harry
smiled, touched that Draco had included him automatically even though he hadn�t
expressed any interest in learning about War Wizardry. �I wish you good luck
with that,� he said. �But I think you�d have to give up learning how to become
an Auror.�

�� Draco
hesitated just a moment. Then he flicked his hand in the stubborn, dismissive
motion Harry knew he used whenever he didn�t want to consider that something
might be beyond his reach. �Lies,� he said coolly. �Why would I? It would be
much easier, and better, to combine the two types of training.�

�� Define
�easy,�� Harry muttered. �Besides, I don�t think that you could. They would
insist that you choose one or the other.�

�� Draco
rolled over to face him more fully. �And you think that doing things the old
way will defeat Nihil?� he demanded. �You really think that simply flinging
defensive spells and hoping for the best will work?�

�� Harry met
his gaze evenly. He was getting better at not taking offense when Draco said
something like this, because, most of the time, he wasn�t the one Draco was
angry at. �I don�t,� he replied. �But the Aurors and War Wizards probably think
exactly that, or we would be fighting at their side.�

�� Draco
rolled onto his stomach again and stared down into the hollow with a scowl on
his face. Harry reached out and laid a hand on his back, hoping that he could
convey silent sympathy.

�� At one
point, Draco tensed as if he would shrug Harry�s touch off, but then he sighed
and cuddled closer to him. Harry made sure that he kept his smile private.

*

�� What do I
have to do to get training from the War Wizards?�

�� He must
have startled Portillo Lopez, although Draco had thought he�d made enough noise
as he was coming into the office to warn her. Her hand slashed a black line of
ink across the page she was writing, and she stared at it in deep offense for
two minutes before turning around to face him. Draco swallowed but forged
ahead. �I watched them training. They were magnificent. Why don�t we learn
that? Can I?�

�� I expected
better of you, Mr. Malfoy.� Portillo Lopez lowered her quill to the table and
tapped her fingers together. �To speak such questions in such a tone, as if you
were a two-year-old asking what certain words meant.�

�� Draco
flushed, but told himself the Battle Healer was manipulating him in exactly the
way his mother had when he was a child, by commenting on a loss of dignity and
expecting him to flinch before her.

�� The problem
was, it was working.

�� Draco
looked at the wall in a way that he hoped would mingle shame and a way to
regain his composure, and asked in a neutral tone, �I�ll limit it to one
question, then, the one I asked before. What do I have to do to get War Wizard
training?�

�� Leave the
Auror program,� Portillo Lopez said, arching her eyebrows. �I must admit, after
our attempts to keep you in the program, I find it ironic that you would depart
of your own free will.�

�� Draco
glared at her. �I won�t leave Harry behind.�

�� Your
loyalty is admirable,� said Portillo Lopez, so smoothly that Draco wasn�t sure
if she was being sarcastic or not. �However, the restrictions on combining
Auror and War Wizard training are long-lasting, firm, and just. You will not
persuade the Ministry to relax them simply because of your whim.�

�� It�s not a
whim,� Draco said. He knew it. Nothing in his Auror training had provoked such
a settled awe and hunger in him as the display he had seen yesterday, not even
his private training sessions with Dearborn. �I want to combine the two. Yes, I
entered the Ministry as an Auror and I�ll stay here as one. But why can�t I
learn some of the spells and techniques, even if I never use them the way the
War Wizards do?�

�� Because of
what would happen if you did try to
use them within the confines of Auror work,� Portillo Lopez said. �Are you that
stupid, not to see what would happen if you attempted a combination?�

�� Suppose
you tell me.� Draco leaned against a table and did his best to look cool and
nonchalant. His effort shook a bit when the table wobbled and he had to stand
upright again and check on the welfare of some potions vials on the shelves.

�� Portillo
Lopez�s lips twitched, but her eyes remained serious. �The demonstration that
you saw yesterday occurred because we are on the brink of a war,� she said.
�Imagine what would happen if you used such spells to attack fleeing criminals,
to intimidate suspects that you wished to interrogate, or to investigate a
disturbance, all the most regular parts of Auror work.�

�� Draco
frowned. He could see the point she was trying to make: that they were too
flashy, too dramatic, and, in a way, too much overkill. �But why can�t we learn
the defensive spells and not the offensive?� he asked.

�� Portillo
Lopez changed her tactics and gave him a withering stare. �Because none of the
Ministry hierarchy are stupid enough to believe that you can separate one
discipline from the other,� she snapped. �Why do you think we have a class
called Offensive and Defensive Magic?�

�� Draco
tapped his fingers against his arm. He still wanted to learn both Auror work
and War Wizard arts. He wasn�t interested in fighting any more battles, but to
know that he had that power at his command, even if all he ever did was show
the very edges of it in dealing with ordinary criminals�

�� It is a
dream others have had,� Portillo Lopez continued in a milder tone. �But that
does not mean they can be allowed to practice it.�

�� Could I
leave Auror training for as long as it takes me to become a War Wizard, and
then come back?� Draco asked.

�� And leave
Trainee Potter?� Portillo Lopez leaned forwards and scrutinized him with lively
interest. �I must say, you are less loyal than I thought you were. Pushkin may
be pleased to hear it, because his observations have not entirely convinced him
that your partnership will work out for long-term success.�

�� Draco
scowled. He kept running up against that barrier. If he wasn�t interested in
fighting another war, he could only imagine that Harry would be even less
interested.

�� But the
image of the spells he had seen in battle yesterday rose before his eyes again,
and he licked his lips. There had to be a way to share in that�the power and
the glory�and he was honest enough, with himself at least, to admit that it was
the power of the spells that attracted him more than anything else.

�� I should
be able to,� he whispered.

�� Perhaps
you should,� Portillo Lopez agreed.

�� Draco
looked up quickly.

�� But you
cannot,� Portillo Lopez finished, and turned back to her writing.

�� Draco let
himself out of the office, eyes narrowed in thought. So the instructors would
not be enough help, but he would find another way.

�� He had to.
His soul had been marked by what he�d seen yesterday.

*

�� Nihil
really did seem to have vanished from the Ministry.

�� No matter
how anyone searched, no matter what they studied, they uncovered no clues that
could prove he was still lurking about. Harry had asked about the documents
they�d found in Auror Gregory�s rooms, and Portillo Lopez had admitted that
most of them were false, involving the names of people who had never existed or
trainees who were able to say under Veritaserum that no one had approached
them. Ketchum had taught them all the incantation that would call up the life
dragon, but he admitted that he didn�t know �� many
more spells that would be useful. Hermione had promptly run off to the library
to look some of them up.

�� Harry had
thought that perhaps the other people Draco had recruited for the spy network
would prove useful, but Margate continued to protest that he�d seen nothing.
Pollian Kepler, whose sister Harry had talked to, seemed to think she�d paid
her debt by bringing them the Veritaserum they�d used on Ron and Hermione. She
never looked at them in any special way in Ketchum�s classes, and otherwise
Harry didn�t think they ever saw her.

�� He tried to
resist becoming absorbed in the normal routine of classes. After all, sooner or
later Nihil would come back, and Harry didn�t want to be caught sitting when he
did.

�� But the
days passed, and nothing happened. April whirled away towards May, and the only
significant change was that Draco got more and more obsessed with becoming a
War Wizard and started spending more time looking up the regulations that
separated them and the Aurors.

�� Well, and
Harry had to admit, to himself at least, that he was probably in love with
Draco.

�� It was a
hard thing to say. What did he really know
about being in love? He�d had a crush on Cho, and of course that hadn�t worked
out. He�d thought he was in love with Ginny, and then it had all fallen apart.
Harry wasn�t really afraid of how Draco would react when he told him; he was
afraid that he wouldn�t be able to
hold up his end of the bargain. Or maybe the publicity that would come with
dating the Boy-Who-Lived would be too much for Draco.

�� You can�t know that until you tell him and
it happens.

�� Harry
sighed and blew his fringe out of his eyes. They were in the middle of their
room at the moment. Draco dozed on the bed�he�d been up most of the night
trying valiantly to find a loophole that would let him at least get the basic
War Wizard training�and Harry was supposed to be looking at the latest painting
Pushkin had assigned them, coming up with two hundred facts about it.

�� Harry bit
his lip and focused his gaze on Draco again. He would have to be careful that
his list for Pushkin didn�t include any facts about Draco, he thought. That
could easily happen, since Draco was the centerpiece of his mind these days.

�� The danger
Draco had been in after the fist of white fire attacked him had clarified and
sharpened Harry�s feelings at last. He knew what he wanted. He was sure about
what he wanted.

�� But if it
failed�

�� It�ll hurt so much more than it ever did
with Ginny. And how could we go on being partners if we didn�t work out as
lovers? I don�t want any other partner but him. I don�t see why he would want
to stay around if we just had row after row, though, or if it turned out that I
couldn�t protect him.

�� Harry
rubbed his hand across his mouth. He was getting disgusted with himself. The
best way to make things happen the way he wanted to would be to speak out and
see what Draco said.

�� He just had
to pick the perfect moment to do it.

�� Now wasn�t it, since he would have to
wake Draco up and then Draco would be cranky. Harry convinced himself of that
without much effort and bowed his head, fixing his eyes on the page in front of
him.

*

�� Harry
obviously had something he wanted to say to him.

�� Draco could
tell it not only from the way that Harry kept opening his mouth and almost
starting to speak, then shutting it again, but the coy glances he kept giving
at Draco before he looked away. Harry wasn�t hard to read once you got used to
him. His eyes and his mouth told the truth, and so did the way he played with
his fringe, and rustled his papers more than usual, and took care to sit next
to Draco in every class but then didn�t speak to him.

�� Draco
wondered if it would be about the disastrous attempt to get Carbury to agree to
be friends with him. He knew about that, thanks to an owl from Carbury. Draco
had rolled his eyes at the time and dismissed the incident. Harry had done no
lasting harm. Besides, at that point Draco had thought he was close to getting
an interview with a War Wizard.

�� It had
turned out that he wasn�t. Now Draco had to admit that he might never gain his
desire, at least not by the official routes that he�d been using so far. He
would have to retreat and think it over until a plan came to him.

Now he could think of other things
than Nihil and training, he was beginning to notice Harry again.

While Draco waited for Harry to
make up his mind and speak, he took pleasure in noticing the envious gazes that
came his way�never from Granger and Weasley anymore, but from others. There
were plenty of Auror trainees who would have been glad to be Harry�s friend, or
more, his partner or lover. Harry never noticed.

Draco smirked back and made sure to
touch Harry�s shoulder or neck or arm. That heated the glances with hatred, but
Draco didn�t care. It was their own fault for lifting their eyes to a treasure
too high for them to possess.

�� And the
weeks went on, and there was no sign of Nihil, and Harry grew a little
stronger, a little firmer, every day. He was moving closer and closer to a
declaration of some kind.

�� Based on
his behavior, Draco thought he knew what it would be. And, when he thought of
that and what would come once it was said and how things would change and how
he would have to face up to what had so far been only fantasies or nightmares
dancing through his head�

�� For once in
his life, he didn�t mind waiting.

*

�� Harry chose
the first day of May to speak the words to Draco. It seemed appropriate,
somehow.

�� He wished
he had some kind of gift to give along with the words, but everything he could
think of was stupid. Ginny would have liked flowers, but Draco was a boy.
Sweets and cards of some sort were out for the same reasons. Maybe Draco would
have liked potions equipment, but he had everything Harry had thought of, and
Harry had some vague idea that that wasn�t romantic enough. Draco already had Politesse, and Harry knew he couldn�t
afford other expensive gifts like that. He never could have afforded Politesse
if he hadn�t been given away for free.

�� I think I know everything about Draco, but I
can�t think of anything he�d like for a gift, Harry decided in frustration.
So much for knowing him.

�� On and on
his buzzing thoughts went, until he decided this was another delaying tactic to
put off the moment of the words. He should just say them, and if Draco wanted a
gift after that, maybe he could mention one and Harry could get it.

�� Their last
class of the day was Observation, and for once, miracle of miracles, Pushkin didn�t
keep Harry back to recite more useless facts about a stone or a leaf. They both
got out at the same time, and Draco was talking, as usual, about ways that he
could find an in with the War Wizards.

�� Maybe they
take extraordinarily talented people,� he said, striding down the corridor with
a restless motion Harry had realized recently that he loved, like almost
everything else about Draco. �We�re talented, aren�t we? The compatible magic,
the way we fight, the way we survived against Nihil, the way we�ve managed not
to go mad despite all the things we�ve been through��

�� His
expression was brilliant and keen, cutting like a hawk�s. Harry could have
stared, mesmerized. Instead, he put out one hand and touched Draco�s shoulder,
halting him.

�� Draco
turned around, mouth open to deliver some sarcastic remark, and then paused. He
seemed to have sensed the words behind Harry�s lips, his shaking hand. His
mouth shaped other words entirely. �What is it?� he whispered.

�� I love
you.�

�� The
universe didn�t crumble into flames after all when Harry said that. Draco didn�t
fling himself away and sneer about how Harry hadn�t been able to say that and
mean it to Ginny. Instead, his eyes fluttered, and he stood very still. Harry
would have thought he was unaffected, except for the way his pulse beat madly
in his throat.

�� I really
love you,� Harry said, his voice growing stronger. �I want to have sex with
you. I want to stay with you. I want to be your friend. I want to be your
partner. I want to be with you in as many ways as you can imagine, and some
that we can invent together.�

�� Then Draco
was drawing him closer, mouth clamping down on his, face hard with passion, and
Harry didn�t have time to think about it any longer.

�� The wall
was against his back, smooth and cool. Draco�s fingers slid along his skin,
warm and urgent and stabbing into places along his ribs and under his shoulders
that Harry didn�t even know he had. Their breath mingled between them in wild
pants, and Harry found himself looping his arms around Draco�s neck without
knowing how they�d got there.

�� They
kissed, and moved closer together, and kissed again. Harry was beginning to
feel faintly smug. Maybe my words were
enough of a gift for him.

�� A flash of
soundless light tore through the air. Harry pulled back from Draco, blinking. His
first thought was that his excitement had made him lose control of his magic
and it was lashing out around him.

�� Then he
heard the alarms singing, and the students screaming, and he fell back close to
Draco for another purpose, drawing his wand.

�� And then a
voice, Portillo Lopez�s voice carried on some spell Harry didn�t know, spoke
from every corner of the Ministry.

�� Nihil has
come. To arms, Aurors.�

*

�� MewMew2:
Thanks! At least right now, Harry isn�t thinking about necromancy because he
has other things to think about.

�� Thrnbrooke:
Thanks for reviewing.

�� hieisdragoness18:
Harry�s not always the brightest, is he?

�� Dragons Breath:
Ron would grumble and say that he only cares about Draco because Harry cares
about him. ;)

�� Nihil might
be closer than they think, based on the end of this chapter.

�� SP777: I
hope not! I didn�t mean to sound scolding.

�� Well, here�s
your moment�only followed by darkness and action. Er, sorry?
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