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The Only True Lords	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 54578 -:- Recommendations : 4 -:- Currently Reading : 11
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Chapter Forty-Six—Power Differentials
            Pansy wanted so badly to open her mouth and go to the front of the room. Or, well, she could speak from her chair. But she wanted to tell Potter to claim Professor Snape as his vassal, no matter what happened, and she wanted to dispute the conclusions that the magical theorist had evidently made, and she wanted to tell Professor Snape to stop being stupid and accept the offered protection. It was the advice that he would have offered any of his Slytherins. She didn’t understand why he was being so difficult.
            But she couldn’t move. She didn’t understand exactly what Professor Snape had done to the bond, or how the magical theory expert could tell. And she didn’t know if the move she thought Potter should try would actually work.
            As she hesitated, Potter turned to face the woman who had spoken. “How do you know that the bond is weak on his side?” he asked.
            The woman glanced at him. Pansy didn’t see the mildest sign of passion on her face. She looked as if she would be perfectly happy to agree with anything Potter said, except for the slight tilt of her head.
            “I can feel it,” she said. “The Wizengamot should have brought me in earlier, but there were some complications with my own family. I was unable to leave my daughter to come here until today.”
            “That doesn’t actually answer my question,” said Potter evenly.
            The woman blinked, then held her hands up. “My name is Anna Kilman,” she said. “I have no reason to believe that the Wizengamot invited me to witness this trial for the wrong reasons. I have only the conviction that any bond can be seen and observed, if someone is looking for the evidence. In your case, it comes from the brightness of your shield mark. When I concentrate on it and cast the proper spells, I can see the faint rays of radiance that link you to your vassals. The rays are bright on the arms of three of them. There are faint shadows that linked you to the young man who spoke yesterday, the one who had been your vassal. And the light is not as strong when coming from this man.”
            Potter stiffened and cast a glance at Professor Snape that Pansy could read well enough. He was blaming Professor Snape for this, at least partially. Maybe Potter had already suspected that Professor Snape had done something to the bond. Maybe it was something he could feel from his side.
            Well, Pansy couldn’t just sit there and let the trial go to hell without saying something, even if it was something that wouldn’t help all that much. She stood up.
            Kilman turned to her. “You are a faithful vassal,” she said. “I see nothing wrong with the light that ties you to your Lord.”
            As though I cared for your opinion. Pansy caught herself before her tongue could betray her, and bowed her head a little. “I know,” she said. “But I have something important to say. Can I come forwards?”
            She managed to turn on those last words, so that she was appealing more to Jenkyns and Ollondors than to this woman. Kilman might be a magical theory expert, but she had nothing to say about whether or not Pansy could participate in this part of the trial. The masters of the Wizengamot were the ones that Pansy had to impress.
            “You may come forwards.” Jenkyns sounded haughty, as if he were actually in control here. Maybe he thought he could be, Pansy decided, hurrying up beside Potter with her heart thrumming like a handful of excited bees. He was the one who had ordered Kilman to come, and it must please him to see Professor Snape’s trial in danger of condemning him to Azkaban.
            And Professor Snape just stood there with this constipated expression on his face. In a way, Pansy could understand Potter’s exasperation with him, now that she thought about it.
            “Thank you,” said Pansy, to Jenkyns and Ollondors and maybe Kilman if she wanted to think that was directed at her, and turned to face more of the Wizengamot who were peering down and looking undecided. “It’s true that Professor Severus Snape has weakened the bond somehow. But that doesn’t mean he’s not a faithful vassal.”
            Potter gave her a long, slow look. Pansy looked him back, dead in the eye, and silently hoped that he remembered that she knew more than he did about Lordship bonds and the complications that made them work or not work.
            Potter looked away from her, a seemingly bored expression on his face, even as the shield mark on her arm sparked. Kilman narrowed her eyes, but didn’t say anything. Pansy took both of those as permission to go on.
            “Lord Potter hasn’t seen fit to cut him out of the bond, the way he did with Blaise Zabini,” said Pansy. She would have to walk a delicate line here. On the one hand, Potter portraying Blaise as leaving of his own free will was important, because it meant that he wasn’t an evil enslaver like Kislik had wanted to say he was. On the other hand, Pansy had to make being in the bond seem like a privilege. “He hasn’t complained about him. He knew something was wrong, different, about Professor Snape’s part in the bond before this, but he didn’t complain.”
            Potter jerked a little. Pansy kept from nodding in satisfaction, but only just. I was right about him noticing something was wrong in the bond on Professor Snape’s end, then.
            “What was wrong?” Kilman sat up straight. “You must study for years and years, and practice the spells, to get as good as I have. What do you mean, he sensed something wrong about the bond?” She sounded indignant, but not in the way Jenkyns did, Pansy thought, and began breathing again. She had been right to take this risk. Kilman just sounded like someone whose professional pride was wounded.
            “I am the Lord of this bond,” said Potter, and his voice was cool and just a shade haughty, the way it should be. “A bond that you just finished pronouncing a true one. Why wouldn’t I notice something wrong about a vassal in my bond? A change in their emotions?”
            Kilman paused, then inclined her head. “Forgive me, Lord Potter. A Lord would notice something like that. I simply assumed it would be an experienced Lord, rather than someone who knew little about these bonds before he found himself involved in one.”
            Potter considered that with a frozen face. Pansy silently urged him not to give Kilman any encouragement, or let her off the hook that easily. Why should he? Kilman had implied that he not only didn’t know a thing about his vassals, he couldn’t control his vassals, and that was not true.
            Finally Potter nodded, and said, “I don’t know exactly what he did. So questioning that is understandable. But I knew that he had, in part, retreated from the bond.”
            “And you didn’t know that he wasn’t fully under your legal protection if he wasn’t willingly subject to you?” It was Jenkyns who asked that, and he leaned forwards as if he might fall out of his chair.
            “Why should he not be under my legal protection?” Potter turned to face him. “None of you have said anything about the bond needing to be mutual in order to be legally viable.” He glanced back and forth from Jenkyns to Kilman.
            “The relationship of Lord and vassal is assumed to flow both ways.” Jenkyns would sound better if he wasn’t struggling with so much glee in his voice, Pansy thought, and wrinkled her nose. She really didn’t like him. “Of course it is. Otherwise, what you have is a Lord who can hurt his vassals with impunity, or a vassal who can do anything he wants, and violate the rules that the Lord laid down.”
            “I didn’t lay down any rules.”
            Pansy winced. Ollondors raised a hand as if she would wave to Potter, then tucked it back down and shook her head. Jenkyns sighed, apparently sublimely content and about to float away on a cloud of bliss.
            “Then your vassals are little but wild Death Eaters, waiting to break out on anyone innocent who irritates them,” Jenkyns said. “The only reason that they haven’t already spent time in Azkaban is that we trusted you to restrain them. But if you can’t—”
            “I never said that I can’t, or that I was unwilling to!” Potter was snapping now. “You heard about the way I punished Blaise Zabini for rebelling against me. I’m familiar with the concept of setting limits!” He was crossing his arms in front of him now, and Pansy felt a ripple travel down the bond, to her shield mark, which ached a little in response. She rubbed it and hoped that Potter would find a way to make what he was saying matter soon.
            “Forgive me, but I’m afraid that you may be,” Jenkyns murmured, looking at him out of doe’s eyes. “You gave so much of yourself to the wizarding world, of course we are afraid that you might not set enough limits. Do you know what you should and should not allow your vassals to get away with?”
            “Yes. I do.”
            Pansy held her breath and moved out of the way. This was the Lord Potter she had come into the courtroom hoping to hear, the same one who had made plans for their trials and punished Blaise when he had to. This was the Lord who was an actual Lord she could follow, as opposed to a random person granted the Lordship by a combination of luck and circumstances.
            Jenkyns either didn’t notice the dangerous change in Potter’s voice or mistook its cause. He narrowed his eyes and said, “Then prove it.”
            There was a moment of ringing silence in the court, and Pansy wondered what was going to happen next, if there was any way that Potter could prove it to someone who wasn’t in the bond. They—she and Draco and Professor Snape and Greg—could feel Potter’s commitment through their bond marks. But what could Potter do to people outside that, except make promises that he probably wouldn’t be able to keep and they wouldn’t believe anyway?
            The moment balanced on a knife’s edge, and Pansy didn’t know which way it would fall.
*
            Harry’s mind was blazing. He hadn’t known things would come to this. He hated that things had come to this. He and his vassals had already been through enough. He had thought defeating Voldemort would impress the Wizengamot.
            Not enough, or only some of them.
            So he turned to Changes, the only person in the courtroom with a wand who he trusted, and asked, “Could you cast a spell that would show the Lordship bond to everyone if I asked you to?”
            Kilman raised a hand and then let it fall. Harry ignored her. Sure, she could sense the bond, but she also distrusted him, or didn’t believe him, or something. He saw no reason to accept her interference now.
            “How do you know this spell?” Changes spoke in as cool a voice as though this latest charge hadn’t hurt her at all. Only Harry, he thought, or someone as close as he was, could see the tight lines around her eyes. “Is it dangerous?”
            “I learned it through doing research on the Lordship bond,” Harry said. He forced out the words. He was so angry that his voice shook. He hoped they wouldn’t think it was fear, because it wasn’t fucking fear, and he would go to war in any number of ways to prove that it wasn’t.
            “Ha!” Jenkyns stabbed a finger, his nose, his entire body, at Harry. “That proves he didn’t have much knowledge on the Lordship bond before! So why should we accept his word that he knows what’s he doing as a Lord, and that he’ll set limits on his vassals?”
            “The bond was accidental,” Harry said. His voice trembled some more. He wanted to say “you idiot,” but that would help nothing, and probably harm a lot.
            If only someone could see inside my head, he thought, as he turned away from Jenkyns and towards his vassals and Changes, then they would know all about the real sacrifices that I’m making for this bond.
            “So I didn’t know much about being a Lord when I began,” Harry went on, talking to Changes this time, “but I read as many books as I could, and looked up what I needed to know. That’s what you do when you don’t know something. Research.” He was a little regretful that Hermione wasn’t in the room to hear him saying that, because she would burst with pride. “I found this spell. It would make the bond visible to other people. I didn’t think I needed it. I knew the bond was there, and everyone else who was in the house with me knew the bond was there. But I find that I need it after all. Will you cast it?”
            Changes looked into his eyes. Harry waited, and had to wait. He knew that he could trust Changes to do what she thought was best for the trial, but on the other hand, her conception of what was best and his might be different.
            At last, though, Changes nodded and raised her wand. “What is the incantation?”
            “We are going to allow her to cast it?” Jenkyns sounded incredulous.
            Harry decided to ignore him. He had other things to think of right now. He kept his eyes on Changes instead, and heard someone else speak up to deal with Jenkyns. Right now, Harry didn’t care if a ceiling tile did it. He just wanted the overbearing idiot silenced.
            All his trust, all his focus, was for Changes and her wand.
            “The incantation is Ligo coram,” Harry said, and saw Changes smile slightly, maybe because she knew the translation of the Latin, before she swished her wand and began to speak the words in a clear, strong voice.
            Harry felt the magic settle on him from the very beginning of the incantation. Either Changes was that strong a wizard, or it was just one of those spells that did that. His vision became clouded, as though he was seeing through a snowstorm of lace. Harry jammed his clenched fists into his sides, and waited for the sparks to clear.
            They did, soon. And Harry heard enough gasps in the courtroom to make him smile even before he turned around. That meant the spell had worked.
            Light, strong connections of silver light, the color of the sparks that had filled Harry’s vision while the bond was working, bound him and his vassals. Even Snape, who stood there looking as if he wished that Harry would get fatally sick right this minute. The bonds sprang from their shield marks and wreathed them, shining.
            Harry saw Draco reach out hesitantly towards the connection, and smiled tolerantly. No one except the Lord could manipulate the bond, even though everyone could admire it like this.
            Greg stood there with his eyes slightly closed, apparently basking in the glow. Pansy considered hers with intelligent eyes, the sort of scrutiny that Harry thought Snape should be giving it, actually.
            There’s no excuse whatsoever for Snape’s stupidity, he decided, shaking his head. He’s more intelligent than that, and he knows that he’s more intelligent than that. So he has no excuse.
            Snape maybe sensed Harry glaring at him, and turned his head. Harry looked back so steadily that Snape glanced away again.
            Harry instinctively tried to feel his emotions through the bond, and snorted as he was blocked. Well, of course he was, by whatever Snape had done that caused the problem in the first place.
            I hope that he gets over this idiocy later on. Maybe I ought to just let him go the minute this trial is done, assuming that he goes free.
            Since there was still a question of that, Harry turned back to Jenkyns. “Well?” he asked. “Does my bond with Professor Severus Snape look any different from the others?”
            Jenkyns had apparently eaten a whole box of rotten meat, to judge from the expression on his face. It was one of the sweeter moments of Harry’s life. He tried to keep his head up and his face neutral, but it was a challenge not to just break out snickering.
            “You must have cheated,” Jenkyns whispered. “Somehow.”
            “This isn’t an exam you can cheat on,” Harry said. “It’s not a game. This is my bloody life, and the lives of my vassals, and I think I’ve been patient enough. Somehow this turned into a trial about me again, even though it really should have been about my vassal, Severus Snape. Why is that? Are you so eager to see me caged instead of walking around free?”
            Jenkyns shook his head, but he didn’t have an answer this time. Harry turned back to Kilman. “Well? What do you think? Is my bond with him really weaker than the others?”
            Kilman looked into his eyes. Harry stared back. He didn’t know what she would say, but he had put on the best demonstration he could that he still cared about Snape and Snape was under his protection. He didn’t know what else he could do.
            If this didn’t work…
            Harry gritted his teeth. If it didn’t work, he would try something else, whatever it took. And he didn’t even think that was the bond talking. That was just grey determination at this point, determination made of steel, the relentless stubbornness that would let him continue despite all the stupidity around him. Snape had done his best to destroy his own freedom. So had other people.
            Harry was going to make him free whether he wanted to be or not.
            “I may have been mistaken,” Kilman said slowly.
            Harry’s eyes snapped back to her. Kilman rose to her feet as though she needed to see the bonds from another angle, and then sank back into her seat, nodding.
            “I did sense that one of the bonds was weaker than the others,” she said. “It’s a matter of long training, and I pride myself on not often making mistakes.” She looked at Harry again.
            Harry waited.
            “But not often is not never.” Kilman turned her hands up. “I didn’t know this spell existed. I would have used it if I had. In the meantime, I do think that my method of demonstrating the connective power of bonds will remain trustworthy most often. Particularly with Lords or Ladies who have many vassals under their sway.” She nodded once. “But in the meantime, I was wrong. Professor Severus Snape is bound to Harry Potter as strongly as any other vassal.”
            Harry blinked. Kilman looked at him, and there was a warning in her gaze.
            She knows, Harry thought at once. Never heard of that spell before, right. She would have had to, if she works in this particular field of magical theory. She knows that it only shows the connection the Lord feels to the vassal, and not the connection from the vassal’s side.
            As long as Harry felt that Snape was still his vassal, then the spell would show that it was so. Harry hadn’t been thinking much about that; he was just infuriated with the arguments that he didn’t care enough about his vassals to keep them out of legal trouble.
            But Kilman had been convinced by something else, maybe the ferocity with which he stood up for Snape and the others, and she was letting it go.
            Good. Harry hoped she wouldn’t show up later saying he owed her a debt or something, but at the moment, he would take that over Snape going to prison or being Kissed. He glanced back at the Wizengamot. “Does the testimony of yet another magical theory expert convince you that I do know my vassals?” he asked, unable to keep the dry tone out of his voice.
            Jenkyns refused to look at him. Well, he might, as far as Harry was concerned. He didn’t care much what Jenkyns did do, as long as he stopped trying to make trouble for Harry and his vassals.
            But Ollondors, of all people, looked troubled. Harry stared at her. “Yes?” he demanded. He didn’t really know what she could have to say now, when she was the one who had been instrumental in making sure the entire Wizengamot didn’t turn against him.
            “I do not question your knowledge of your vassals,” said Ollondors. “Or the magical theory that vindicates you.” She glanced around as if wanting everyone to know that, or make sure that all eyes were on her. “But I do question their loyalty. At least, the loyalty of this one.” She indicated Snape. “He did something that weakened the bond, or something that reads to an expert as if it weakened the bond. And you have already had one vassal turn on you. Can you really trust this one?”
            Oh, Harry thought, feeling his heart begin to beat again. Ollondors wanted to make sure that Harry wasn’t going to be taken down by someone stabbing him in the back, and bring down her power and prestige along with his.
            “I’ll answer for his actions,” Harry said. “And if someday he goes free of the bond, then I won’t have to worry about it anymore.”
            Ollondors frowned a little, but in the end, she nodded. “Then I don’t see any reason in putting off the vote,” she said. “Hands up, those who think that Severus Snape should be acquitted of the charges against him.”
            Harry could hear his own heart, like a fist thumping on velvet, in his ears. He was glad, at the moment, that he couldn’t feel any emotions from Snape. If the man was upset or annoyed or fearful, Harry didn’t want to know that. And anyway, he was the one who had caused all the trouble, so he could just feel that, and Harry could avoid dealing with it.
            There was a long rustle of motion, as though every member of the Wizengamot was waiting for someone else to go first. And then the hands began rising, not around Jenkyns and the people who sat near him, but everywhere else.
            Harry looked about with eyes that burned. He thought he could see McGonagall doing the same thing, and Dumbledore popped a sweet into his mouth in the portrait and chuckled with delight. Harry could even feel Pansy sighing through the bond, as though putting down a heavy burden.
            The hands were up in all places, most of them. A few people sat on their hands, but so what? Harry knew it was a majority, knew it was enough to clear Snape. He swallowed through a dry throat, and barely listened to the official announcement of the acquittal that Ollondors made. Instead, he did what he had promised himself he wouldn’t do, and turned around to see the expression on Snape’s face.
            Snape’s face, that looked like a mask. He folded his arms in front of him and turned away with a sharp jerk, sharp enough to make the feeble bond that Harry still had with him vibrate a little. Harry sighed and turned back to the front.
            Ollondors was making a speech about justice and forgiveness now, and Harry had to pay attention. There was chatter all around him. He had to hear the announcement of when the next trial was going to be, and whether there was any further consequence for Snape.
            It seemed that Snape would have to stay under house arrest for the same amount of time as Harry: in the same house as Harry if he was still a vassal, in a different one if the bond was severed. And he would have to submit to having his wand checked every week by Aurors, to make sure that he hadn’t cast any Dark spells.
            Harry thought that was fair. Then again, he had looked away from Snape, and didn’t have to see what he thought about it.
            He didn’t miss the jump beside him, either, when Ollondors looked down at Pansy and announced that her trial would be next, the day after tomorrow. But Harry was finally in the position where he could send emotions down the bond comfortably, and even put his hand on Pansy’s shoulder and squeeze comfortingly, and not feel awkward about it.
            And let Snape think what he would about that.
*
Ciara_D: Thanks! At least Pansy’s trial shouldn’t be as tough.
BAFan: Thanks!
Polka dot: She can only estimate the strength of bonds, not break them safely.
delia cerrano: He sure didn’t do much to help here.
minieegold: You’re welcome!
SP777: Harry is a lot more relaxed than he would be if Greg wasn’t there, that’s for sure. Although he does also have his friends.
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The Only True Lords