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Changing of the Guard	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 58627 -:- Recommendations : 4 -:- 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.

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Chapter Forty-Seven�Various
Brilliant Plans

�� Draco
tensed as he watched Harry kiss Grey, even though he knew Harry was perfectly
disguised and no one else would ever suspect that he�d cheated even that much
on Draco. Could he help it that he found watching his boyfriend with another man
hard?

�� And then
Therris appeared, and only the need to maintain their act kept Draco from
snarling. That was another surprise Harry hadn�t told him about. They would
have to have a small talk when they were done acting out their plan to diminish
the threat of Grey and embarrass Nusante.

�� Grey jerked
away from the kiss, one hand prizing like an iron claw at Vivian�s�Harry�s�face.
Harry stared at him with lips parted for a moment, then assumed an expression
of incredible alarm and fumbled for his wand. Grey was reaching for his, too,
but he hadn�t been prepared as Harry was, and his movements as well as his
reaction time were slowed. Harry managed to lift his wand and gesture
frantically first.

�� Draco moved
his wand under the table at the same moment, reciting the incantation Harry had
had him practice with such effort in his head. He used the force of his own
anger and shock to power the spell. The sooner they were done with this, the
sooner he could have his little talk with
Harry.

�� Surrogo Harry Potter in loco suo con vultu
meo!

�� Once again
he was seized and shaken through a tunnel rougher than any Apparition, and then
he landed in the seat where Harry had been sitting, his glamour dispelled.
Harry had warned him he would have to give some explanation to Grey as to why
he�d suddenly staggered, but he�d envisioned them as standing on opposite sides
of the table at the time. Draco was still sitting, so he only had to slump
backwards and make a loud noise of shock.

�� Not hard,
under the circumstances. And it was better than laughing at the absolutely
stunned look on Grey�s face when he saw Draco Malfoy replace Vivian Wilde.

�� Across the
room, Harry, in the place Draco had held and with his own face�to all
appearances, he would never have moved at all�leveled his wand but let his
mouth hang open. Nusante was on his feet, staring back and forth between the
two of them. Therris, the reporter, still stood with his camera trained on
Grey, but his muscles twitched in a way that Draco knew meant he wanted to turn
and photograph the new arrival.

�� What,� Grey said at last, in a low voice
like rocks grinding, �is the meaning of this?�

�� I want to
know that, too,� Draco said, and leaned forwards. He was good at feigning
certain emotions�he�d been doing it in front of his father for years�even if he
wasn�t good at glamours and Transfigurations, and this time, he had some
genuine anger to exercise. Harry blinked at him for a moment, as if suddenly
realizing that Draco might have found his unspoken surprise unpleasant.

�� You have
plotted with your cousin to embarrass me, of course,� Grey said. He recovered
quickly, Draco would give him that. He was holding his wand halfway between
Draco and Harry now, studying both of them. �You have plotted with Harry Potter
as well. A strange thing, as I did not think your cousin was gay. But��

�� Draco
snarled at him. �I knew nothing of this,� he said. �Ask Harry. He�ll tell you
that one reason we haven�t appeared in public in the last few days is that I
had disappeared, and he was trying to find
me. He didn�t know of Vivian�s existence; it�s not something my family
generally admits. And I had no way of getting a message to him, as my cousin
kept me bound and without my magic in a dark cellar.� He shut his eyes and put
a hand to his forehead. �He told me he�d perfected Apparition, the dunderhead.
I didn�t ask what he meant. It�s perfectly obvious now, isn�t it? He meant to switch places with me and let me take
the blame whenever he�d done�what he intended to do.� He blinked up at Grey. �What
did he do, anyway? It must have been something boorish, or you wouldn�t stare
so.�

�� Grey peered
at him. Draco peered back. Harry had warned him that this was the most
dangerous passage of the plan. Grey had every reason not to believe Draco, and
to persist in thinking it was a plan between him and Harry. On the other hand,
Apparition that switched two people was at least as plausible as a spell that
switched two glamoured people and made it look as though one of them had never
moved�especially when no one had reason to think that Harry was good at playing
anyone other than Brian.

�� And Harry
was actually counting on Grey not to believe it immediately. It was the reason
he had brought Nusante.

�� Grey took a
step back from the table. Then he said, �I will learn the truth sooner or
later, and I see no need to waste time responding to your ridiculous lies. Veridica simulatio!�

�� The spell
splashed Draco like a glass of ice water in the face. He gasped and shivered,
clutching the edge of the table, then shook his head. Merlin, that was worse
than the Disillusionment Charm, which at one point had been his standard for
uncomfortable magic that was not actually fatal.

�� When he
glanced up, it was to see that Grey had aimed the spell at Harry, too. Harry,
instead of trying to deflect the spell, had reacted by raising a Shield Charm
in front of Nusante. Draco knew the movements would have been practiced,
smooth, instinctive; Harry had shown him before he assumed the appearance of
Vivian that morning.

�� And Nusante
would have been able to see that, too�to see that Harry had fought for him at
last, had protected him from physical harm, as he had long demanded.

�� Right now,
his face looked devastated. Draco had to fight hard to keep down a grin. Was
his spell setting in now and lashing Nusante with the full weight of guilt he
hadn�t had to feel yet? Was seeing Harry defend him enough to make him
understand how much Harry had sacrificed? Draco hoped so. Harry had brought
Nusante into this plan in the first place so that he might convince him Harry
had protected him from genuine danger, but if they could punish him and convince
him in the same moment, Draco was all for it.

�� Meanwhile,
Grey was once again staring. His spell had been a powerful one that would have
dissolved the strongest of glamours, as well as most other appearance-changing
spells, including Transfigurations. If Vivian Wilde was still in the room
disguised as either Harry or Draco, his magic should have revealed him.

�� Draco
shivered and glared up at Grey. �Are you satisfied now?� he demanded. �My
cousin isn�t here. I can only conclude that he did perfect his Apparition, and is right now making preparations to
flee the country. He rambled on about doing that if his plan didn�t go as he
said it would.�

�� How
fascinating,� Therris said. �Tell me, Mr. Grey, are you going to follow your
absent lover?�

�� Grey spun
towards him, teeth set. Draco caught the slight movement of Harry�s head out of
the corner of his eye, but he didn�t need it. He had already made a clucking
sound and reached out, scooping up the documents �Vivian� had given Grey.

�� What�s
this?� he said. �Donations that I meant to go to the rebellion, diverted?� He
looked up into Grey�s eyes, speaking softly but clearly, so that Therris, at
least, would hear every word. �How odd. Why would you need so much Malfoy
money, Mr. Grey, when you�re wealthy enough on your own?� He paused, as if his
brain was at the moment piecing together important clues he hadn�t had time to
notice before. �Could it be,� he murmured, �that you need to fund an
organization connected in some way to the rebellion? It would explain why you
were willing to come here when my cousin summoned you�you, so careful about
avoiding public places and acting on your own initiative. You needed money for
Counterstrike. Your people invaded a peaceful private meeting and a peaceful
public party. Of course you can�t show yourself as connected to such a group.�

�� Grey went
white. Draco felt a tiny breeze lift his hair and knew Harry�s wandless magic
was working, this time concentrating on Grey, pushing at his mind. He was so
experienced in holding his balance whilst accusations flew around him that
Harry hadn�t trusted he would lose that balance now, not without help. Better,
Harry had said, to plant a few paranoid suggestions in his thoughts and shift
his mood, making it harder for him to be rational about this encounter.

�� Therris,
Draco suspected now, had been part of that same plan, to make sure Grey didn�t
have time to recover and think about
what he was doing. But Harry could still have told Draco he�d have a reporter
present.

�� I don�t�I don�t
have anything to do with Counterstrike,� Grey said.

�� Really?�
Draco stared at the documents again. �Yet my cousin met you to provide you with
these, if he didn�t do something else��

�� He kissed
Grey,� Therris interjected helpfully.

�� Ah.� Draco
raked Grey with a slow, thoughtful glance. �And of course, Vivian can be clever, even if he�s not particularly
sensible. He had to know that a way to lure you in would be to give you a way
to weaken our rebellion. And you came, didn�t you?� He lowered his voice
insinuatingly on the verb of the last sentence.

�� Grey lost
his temper, though Draco doubted he would have known it if he hadn�t been so
close to the man. It was a certain iciness in the muddy eyes that warned him, and
the way he took a step towards the table as if he would like to reach across it
and wrap his hands around Draco�s throat instead of rescuing the documents.

�� You may tell
your cousin Vivian Wilde,� he said, voice low, �that I shall never rest until I
have hurt him as much as he has hurt me.�

�� You�ll
have to run him to ground first,� Draco said, barely moving his lips. �And it
might be difficult to do that and manage Counterstrike at the same time.�

�� Grey�s
glance was so frustrated that Draco felt a small smile tug at his lips. But he
reminded himself that he was supposed to be angry over Vivian�s kidnapping him
and trying to divert his money to Grey, and he schooled his mood until he could
sigh and hold out his hand.

�� I would be
willing to tell you what I know of him and his movements,� he said, �as well as
what little he revealed to me of his plans to leave the country. He spoke of
some of them in front of me for want of another audience. But in return, I
would demand that you back away from Counterstrike, and leave our rebellion
fighting against prejudice as its sole enemy, rather than your cleverness and
your money.�

�� Grey stared
at him for a moment, then at Therris. There was a thoughtful look on his face,
which Draco had expected. He was a man well used to �gentlemen�s bargains� and
silent deals that changed the face of the wizarding world without anyone ever
knowing where they had come from. He would like this, Draco thought, better
than the public battle he must otherwise engage in, trying to punish Harry and
Draco for something that he couldn�t prove they were connected to.

�� Silence
him as well,� he said, twitching his head at Therris, �and I�ll consider it.�

�� Draco shook
his head. �I don�t have any power over him,� he said. In reality, there was no
way he would give up causing Grey some
public embarrassment. It was a safeguard against his changing his mind later
and renewing Counterstrike. �But if you back away gracefully now, then I�ll
deny the full extent of your involvement if anyone asks me. A newspaper story
can only thrive so long in the absence of hard evidence.�

�� Grey
paused, no doubt thinking how it would affect him when the Prophet printed the photograph of him kissing Vivian Wilde. Then a
different kind of look came over his face, one that touched the corners of his
eyes more than his expression. Draco suspected that life was about to become
difficult for Therris. He would have to remind Harry to warn the reporter of
that.

�� I could have done that already, if Harry had
told me he would be here.

�� Very well,�
Grey said. �I will, of course, feel free to resume my backing if it turns out
that you fed me false information about your cousin.�

�� Draco
inclined his head gracefully. �I would expect nothing less.�

�� Grey had
recovered his balance now, but it was on the side favorable to them. He would
feel some of the same self-blame Draco had when he cornered Harry and tried to
force a confession out of him. Such a reaction was common when a pure-blood
wizard discovered that his own stupidity had contributed in part to the
difficulty of the situation he found himself in. Grey, from the tilt of his
head and a variation of an expression Draco had seen Lucius wear, was wondering
what in the world had possessed him to believe Vivian and show his face in
public in the first place.

�� He would
back away from this. He would be able to recover from this stumble in time, or
so he would be telling himself. But he would find it harder if he insisted on
pursuing Counterstrike�and here his eyes traveled to the documents on the table�when
his enemies were aware of his connection to the organization. Better to let
that go for right now and focus on preserving his reputation and punishing the
man who had lured him into his trap.

�� Draco knew
now why Harry had insisted on Draco�s being the one who should handle the latter
part of the negotiation with Grey. Harry understood pure-blood culture well,
but Draco had been raised within it, and his ability to closely follow the
calculations Grey made, because they were the ones he would have made himself,
was nearly as good as Legilimency.

�� The
information about your cousin first,� Grey said.

�� Since
Vivian did not actually exist, and Grey would be tracking a phantom, Draco
obliged, spinning out a tale that he and Harry had already agreed on, and Harry
had supported by appearing as Vivian to several people in the Ministry and asking
anxiously about Portkeys. Grey swallowed it without pausing, though sometimes
his jaw twitched with suppressed anger. Of course he would assume that a man
who had tricked him and hadn�t convinced him to be his lover would flee the
country in fear of him. He was far too impressed with his own power, and
committed to thinking that other people were, too.

�� That part,
Harry had predicted. Draco would have been more disturbed than impressed at how
well he knew people if Harry hadn�t failed to predict that Draco would be angry
when Therris appeared without warning. Harry still had some weaknesses and some
limits to his power, and that meant Draco still had a chance to be equal to him.

�� With Therris
hovering nearby to absorb every nuance of the bargain, Draco and Grey traded.
In the end, Grey shook Draco�s hand, barely seeming to flinch at touching a gay
man�he had touched one already today, as far as he knew�and then he turned and
stalked out of the restaurant. Throughout their talk, he had entirely ignored
the audience of ordinary patrons staring at them, and Draco thought he might as
well keep up the same tradition.

�� He rose now
and extended his arm to Harry, who had been commendably quiet. Harry leaned
towards him and hugged him hard, as would be consistent behavior from a lover
who had known Draco was missing for the last few days but hadn�t been able to
tell anyone for fear of looking weak. Then Draco looked at Nusante. The man was
ashen, and supporting himself with one hand on the table where he and Draco had
briefly sat.

�� Well,�
Draco said. �I hope you can see that Harry does intend to fight for you if he
needs to, and that Grey isn�t just a threat to your friends.�

�� No.�
Nusante evidently felt his voice was too quiet, so he cleared his throat a
moment later and tried again. �No, he�s not.� He hesitated, and then looked at
Harry and caught his hand so swiftly Therris couldn�t have snapped a picture of
it. �I�ll think about what you did for me,� he said. �Thank you. I�I should go.�

�� And he
turned and hurried away, his movements jerky. Draco smiled. Yes, the guilt
spell would be taking effect. Perhaps Nusante had been so convinced Harry would
never make any gesture of physical violence against another person for the sake
of the rebellion that this one gesture had been enough to overset the balance
of his mind. And the sympathy Draco
had found himself unwillingly showing before might have helped.

�� Thank you,�
Harry whispered into his ear. He sounded close to exaltation. Well, Draco
supposed, he had cause. The plan had come off more or less as Harry must have
envisioned it, and without a casualty, even of their secrets. �I can�t believe�there�s
no one else I could have trusted with that.� His hand slid up and down Draco�s
spine as though he were trying and failing to find a way he could express his
gratitude.

�� Trusted me
with much,� Draco whispered to him, as he turned and embraced him more
strongly. Therris was snapping pictures with happy abandon, and either that or
Harry�s name and face was enough to keep the restaurant�s owner from moving in
and ordering them out of his establishment. �But not with Therris�s appearance.
And you also didn�t say how long you would kiss Grey for.�

�� Harry
stiffened for a moment, and Draco prepared himself for evasion. But Harry
sighed instead, and said, �You�re right. We�ll need to talk about that. For the
moment, will you accept that the reason I didn�t tell you is because I didn�t
think of it?�

�� For the moment,� Draco said, and then he put an
arm around Harry�s waist, nodded to Therris and to the people watching them
gape-mouthed, and escorted Harry out of the restaurant.

�� He could
hardly wait for tomorrow�s headline.

*

�� Harry
settled himself on the couch with a cup of the tea that Kreacher had had
waiting when they walked in the door. Harry wondered idly whether Draco had
ordered him to make it or whether he could read his masters� moods well enough
to know that they would want refreshment as soon as they returned.

�� He looked
up as Draco stopped in the doorway of the drawing room and observed him narrowly.
Harry smiled ruefully and patted the couch beside him. Draco crossed the room
to join him, his shoulders dropping. Someone else might not have noticed the
release of tension, but Harry always would.

�� As he
turned to face Draco, he experienced a moment of dizzy terror at how necessary
Draco had become to his life in such a short time. Harry could no longer
imagine wanting to wake up alone, or to keep all the arrangements for
Metamorphosis to himself simply for delight in the secret; his life would have
lost something if he couldn�t have told Draco about the new persona he was
creating or the slightly risky plan he had concocted to take advantage of an
enemy�s weakness. He didn�t expect perfect sympathy from Draco, but an argument
from him was more precious than the most ardent agreement from someone else.

�� What if he feels like this about me? Even
half as much, or a fourth as much? Harry swallowed. For the first time, he
understood exactly why Draco resented it so strongly when Harry left him out of
something.

�� I�m sorry,�
he said gently, and raised a hand when Draco opened his mouth to speak. �Just a
moment. If I don�t say it right now, I�m afraid I�ll never find the words
again.�

�� I didn�t
think you had trouble finding words,� Draco muttered, but he subsided.

�� Those
words belong to me,� Harry said softly, �but more strongly to my personas. They
come back to me like echoes at a distance.� He paused, mind straining for a
moment after the thought he wanted to express. �I want you to know I�m sorry
for not telling you about Therris not because I�m afraid of being scolded, or because
you need to know everything I�m thinking�you don�t�but because it would have
been better for us both if I�d told
you. I could have shared the delight with you of knowing he�d show up. I could
have asked you if you had suggestions for improving the plan, and doubtless you
would have offered them.� The dry tone in his voice made Draco smile, and that gave
Harry courage. �I could have expanded the possibilities, the good
possibilities, for the situation. And I would have remembered, if I�d done
this, that you have a say in my life too, now. It�s been a long time since I
wanted to allow someone that kind of a say. I thought Ron and Hermione would
only disapprove if they knew everything, and I wasn�t truly close to anyone
else. But you�I don�t know how you do it, Draco, but you make me more than I was. And given how many
different people I can be when I want to, I would have thought that was
impossible.� He had been staring at their hands during the last part of the
speech; his hand had crept out and linked his fingers with Draco�s. Now he drew
a deep breath and glanced up.

�� Draco was
looking half-stunned. He reached out and trailed his other hand down Harry�s
face.

�� It would
be better,� he said, �if you could back up those words with actions more often.
But you do well with the words, when you want to.�

�� Harry
turned his head and kissed the palm offered to him. �I know,� he whispered. �I am sorry. I kept silent from sheer force
of habit, more than anything else. I would have known you wouldn�t disapprove
if I�d sat down and thought about it. But I didn�t want to think about it. You
know how much I hate being disapproved of��

�� Yes,�
Draco whispered. �It�s a cowardice you�ll have to get over eventually.�

�� Harry
smiled. The words might have sounded harsh to someone else, but he knew Draco
was fighting hard to keep his own principled stand, and not simply give in and
let himself be swayed by Harry�s speech, no matter how honest it was.

�� And couldn�t he be excused for having some
doubts about my honesty?

�� I will
try,� he said. �Please tell me if you see me slipping.�

�� Draco
leaned forwards and kissed him for an answer. The desperation in his lips told
Harry more than ten thousand words could have. He wrapped his arms around Draco
and laid his head on his shoulder when the kiss ended.

�� Having
someone else to depend on wasn�t as terrifying as he had always thought it
would be.

*

�� 70_Sol_Laen:
Draco won�t let himself remain as poor at glamours as he currently is.

�� qwerty: Thanks!

�� As you can see,
there was indeed a second part of the plan. Draco and Harry don�t think they�ve
stopped Grey forever, but they�ve defeated the immediate threat and got him to
step back from Counterstrike for a while as he chases Vivian�who does not
exist.

�� rafiq:
Draco did know about the kiss. It would have been impossible to avoid
mentioning that.

�� butterpie: Thank
you very much! I will say that Lucius is not under an enslavement spell, but a
lot of the way he acts toward his wife and son can be explained as a desperate attempt
to pretend that he was never tempted by anything else.

�� SoftObsidian74:
Thank you! Lucius is probably bisexual if he�s anything at all.

�� Narcissa
will be making an appearance when Lucius does, and her absence will be
explained. The problem is that she has been doing things, but not in a way that
Harry and Draco can find out about them.

�� Anon,
broomrider949, xAmbeth: Thanks for reviewing!

�� Mangacat:
Thank you! And no, I didn�t know about the Gabaldon character; John Grey seems
to have all sorts of references that are cool, but not the first ones I
immediately recognized.

Yume111: Thanks! I did rather enjoy
writing Chapter 46.

�� Lucius
probably isn�t completely homosexual, since he does express affection for
Narcissa. But yes, he completely denied that Draco could be �abnormal,� the
more so because he himself so nearly was.

�� Draco does
trust Harry quite a bit more than he did, which is why it hurts and irritates
him when it seems that Harry won�t return that trust.

�� Draco�s
spell triggers itself when Nusante realizes how many sacrifices Harry made for
the movement. It does sound like it may have started here, doesn�t it?

�� FallenAngel1129:
Thanks for reviewing!

�� Angelia:
This story will be finished, I promise. Just three more chapters after this
one.

��
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Changing of the Guard