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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-Eight�Penitent

�� Harry
patted the bed with one hand, and paused when he realized he couldn�t feel
Draco�s warmth anywhere. He sat up, pushing his hair back, and scanned the room
with hazy eyes. No, Draco definitely wasn�t there, though Harry probably would
have seen that more decisively at first if he�d put his glasses on.

�� He scooped
them up from a nearby table and took a moment to scavenge among the robes at
the back of the cupboard. He had never realized how few robes he had for his �Harry�
self, compared to the multitude of clothes he could choose among when he wanted
to construct a persona, until Draco moved in. Draco had opened the cupboard, looked
inside, and then looked back at Harry with only a raised eyebrow. That was
eloquent enough. Harry had already made a resolve to buy more, though as yet
they�d hardly had the time to venture to Diagon Alley�and he thought he�d want
to go disguised in any case. He wanted to concentrate on shopping, not on attacks or hero-worship.

�� He paused
with a faint smile, one hand braced on the cupboard door. When had he last thought
of such an ordinary chore with pleasure? Shopping was something he did for the
sake of his personas, not himself; he preferred to leave the choice of food to
Kreacher, and he had no need to regularly buy furniture, textbooks, cauldrons,
or the like. When he did have to venture out to acquire something used by Harry
and not the people of Metamorphosis, he did so reluctantly, darting glances in
all directions from beneath his glamour. The mere thought of the cracked
foundation below the beautiful house of faces and histories he�d built inspired
him to doubt and wonder and worry.

�� Well, no longer, when Draco thinks the
foundation the most beautiful part of the house, he decided, and placed his
arm in a sleeve. No doubt Draco was below, having breakfast already. He had a
greater restlessness than Harry did, a desire to make plans that would achieve
immediate results as well as long-term ones. He had been content enough during the
last few days when they plotted to take down Grey, but now he would require a
new amusement to keep his mind racing.

��

�� Once, Harry
would have thought such a companion would drive him mad. Now, trying to imagine
life without Draco made his mind spin in its own useless circles.

*

�� Draco
sighed and sat back on his heels. He had thought, when he came down the stairs,
that he could prepare a breakfast for Harry on his own, simply to watch his
eyes brighten. Instead, Kreacher had called his attention anxiously to the
fireplace, where someone had been waiting to speak with him�someone Draco hadn�t
expected to hear from for a few days at least.

�� And you�re
sure he�s being honest?� he asked for
the seventh time.

�� Narcissa
smiled and sat back on the cushion that faced the hearth on her side, her
fingers lightly laced along the folds of her skirt. His mother didn�t often
wear gowns unless she was expecting company, but she did look lovely in the
sky-blue one she had on today, which brought out the color of her eyes and hair
in a way Draco hadn�t seen before, and made even her pale complexion look
deeper. �As sure as I can be without putting him under Veritaserum,� she
replied. �He confessed the whole ridiculous truth when he came back from Miss
Parkinson�s house, you know�that he meant to put you under an enslavement spell
and bind you to Alice Moonstone. I asked him how he could think of doing such a
thing.�

�� She shook
her head in wonder. �You would have felt sorry for him, Draco, if you could
have seen him. He was so broken-down. He�d finally realized that you never
really intended to return to him, and that this exercise was more than just a
test of his patience.�

�� Draco made
a noncommittal noise. Lucius had not guessed that Draco meant to make him crawl
and beg Draco to be his heir again, and he could go on not knowing it. That would
make his final groveling all the sweeter.

�� I
explained to him that you were an adult now, and had been for years, that you
could make your own choice in partners as well as the people you wanted to be
heir to.� Narcissa looked him fully in the face. �And he listened to me. That�s why I think it�s safe for you to come to the
Manor, and to bring Harry with you as well.�

�� Draco
smiled in spite of himself. His mother had never called Harry by his first name
before, or at least not without curling her lip. But Narcissa was clever, too,
and she had remained enough on his father�s side that she wouldn�t defy him
openly whilst Lucius still spoke against Harry. She might demand a reconciliation
sooner than Draco would like one; she might also have been fooled by Lucius�s
cant.

�� Forgive me
for not wanting to enter a house with someone who tried to enslave me not long
ago,� he said.

�� Draco.�
Narcissa sighed and leaned forwards. �You are
your father�s son. Both of you, so proud and absolute, not remembering how
very mixed a thing life is. Your father had to accept the fact that you prefer
being with a man to making the very eligible marriage he chose for you. You
have to accept that he only slowly changes his mind about anything. The best
way to put his back up is to refuse to come into the Manor again. He�ll decide
that he was right and that you�re a stubborn child.�

�� I want
Harry safe,� Draco said bluntly. �I want my freedom. Next to that, I have
almost no regard for Father�s feelings.�

�� Narcissa
regarded him so severely for so long that Draco felt himself begin to blush. But
he didn�t look away. His mother might make him ashamed; she couldn�t make him
think his demands were unreasonable.

�� I taught
you better than that,� Narcissa said at last. �Lucius might have made you think
blood a net of treachery��

�� He was the
one who made it so!� Draco leaned away from her. �I certainly never tried to enslave
him.�

�� He�s still
your father,� Narcissa said.

�� He
disowned me!� Draco tried vainly to lower his voice. He knew he sounded like a
squealing child compared to his mother, and from the way she stared at him, she
was thinking the same thing. He did take a few minutes to breathe before he
tried to speak again. �I think that counts as severing the bonds between father
and son.�

�� Narcissa
sighed. �You deliberately exasperated him that far. And now I want you to make
peace. Come to the Manor and accept the truce he�s deigned to offer you. I�ve
pushed him for the past few days to acknowledge his own folly and admit that
you would hardly marry the woman he chose after you found out about the curse he
cast. He�s admitted as much as can be reasonably expected without your
presence. My work will go to waste if you don�t appear.�

�� I didn�t
ask you to do that.� Draco scowled at his hands. He hated moments like this
most of all. He knew he would agree, because
his mother was bloody good at getting her own way, but he didn�t have to like
it. �You could have told him the truth: that I value Harry more than all the
money I would inherit from him.�

�� As he
values me more than what he has in all his vaults.� Narcissa shook her head. �Draco,
this petulance will not serve. If for no other reason than he may change his
mind later and persuade himself you can�t be as angry at him as all that, come
home now.�

�� If he
makes one threatening movement��

�� I�ve explained
to him the consequences if he does.�

�� Draco
peered at his mother in amazement. He�d heard that tone of voice before, but
mostly directed at him. And he always obeyed, because he couldn�t bear the
sighs, glares, and restrictions of small privileges that would result if he
didn�t. Narcissa had never raised her voice to violence, but she hardly needed
to when she could cut into him with much softer sounds.

�� As a child,
Draco had assumed she never did the same thing to Lucius, both because his
parents always presented a united front against him and because Lucius seemed a
figure of such formidable power he didn�t think Narcissa could have got away
with it. As he grew older, he had known they kept their fights out of his way, but
Narcissa still spent more time on his father�s side than not. Why shouldn�t
she? She loved him�somewhat, somehow�and she valued most of the same duties,
privileges, and attitudes that he did.

�� Now she had
gone against Lucius for his sake, and Draco had an excellent idea of the
sacrifice it must have been for her to do so. He bowed his head and muttered, �I
can�t promise that Harry will agree.�

�� You can�t
promise that Harry will agree to what?�

�� Draco
yelped and whirled around, only to see Harry standing in the doorway of the
study and regarding him curiously. Then his eyes went past Draco and to the
face in the hearth. Draco thought he was probably the only one who knew what the
slight flicker in his eyes met, or the cool tone of his voice as he said, �How
do you do, Mrs. Malfoy?� He had picked up another persona, one better able to
handle the situation than he was.

�� Narcissa
seemed to have noticed the change of expression, at least. She responded in the
same restrained manner. �Very well, Mr. Potter. Of course, I would feel better
if you could persuade Draco to come for a visit to the Manor soon, and if you
would come with him. His father is most anxious to see him and apologize for
his conduct.�

�� Draco shot
her a swift, narrow-eyed glance. Narcissa hadn�t said anything about an apology
before, and Draco privately thought that Lucius was physically incapable of it.
Now she held his gaze serenely and didn�t move.

�� I would do
that if I thought there was a chance that Lucius Malfoy would ever really
change his mind,� Harry said. Draco felt a surge of gratitude that Harry could
speak to his mother in a way he would never dare, since Harry could disregard
the bonds of blood, and reached up to press his hand. Harry squeezed back
without looking away from Narcissa. �Draco�s told me how many years he spent
trying to show Lucius he had changed,
and how his father ignored anything that didn�t take his fancy. Why should we
think it�s different now? We encounter enough frustration and disgust in our
daily lives without taking on an extra load when we don�t have to.�

�� Narcissa
grew more and more coiled, and colder, the longer Harry spoke. When she lifted
her head at last, Draco shuddered a little at what he saw in the corners of her
lips, which were pressed so tightly that they were almost white.

�� You have a
chance to repair the wound between Draco and his father if you come to the
Manor now,� she said. �If you hesitate and stammer from your fear��

�� I�m not
afraid of Lucius,� said Harry, with a
tilt of his head that managed to convey without words that Lucius should be far
more afraid of him.

�� Then you
lose the chance,� Narcissa continued, paying no attention to this at all. �I
can�t say how long this penitent mood he�s been thrown into would last. And he
learns from his mistakes. Do you really want to tempt him to strike at you, or
try a gambit more subtle than the enslavement spell, because you are proud
enough to resist meeting him? At least imagine, Mr. Potter�though I know it is
difficult for you, raised as you were outside a proper family�the demise of a
loving relationship between a parent and a child.�

�� Harry was
too experienced to let his color change, but Draco felt him flinch. He kept on
staring at Narcissa as he asked, �Draco? How far do you trust your father?
Enough to go to the Manor?�

�� Draco
gritted his teeth. He would have preferred to say he didn�t trust Lucius at
all, but it would have brought a firestorm down on him, in the double form of
his mother�s anger and Harry�s guilt. They were going, he thought. Narcissa
knew well enough how to play someone like Harry, who had lost both parents and
who loved Draco�and thus wanted to ensure his happiness, which he must think a
strong relationship with his father would contribute to.

�� At least
Harry had still asked him whether he wanted to go to the Manor, rather than
simply reassuring Narcissa they would come.

�� If my
mother vouches for him, I do.� Draco stared at her.

�� I vouch
for him,� Narcissa said without backing down. Draco had hoped for at least a
hesitation as she considered the multitude of treacherous actions Lucius might
try.

�� Then we�ll
come,� Draco said. His mother�s face softened with a smile that he couldn�t
help but feel glad to see, even though he knew it meant he had lost
conclusively.

�� Harry
leaned forwards so that he was staring into Narcissa�s eyes through the flames.
�I promise,� he said quietly, �if Lucius so much as makes a threatening motion
towards Draco, I�ll kill him without hesitation. Tell him that. He might want
to leave his wand in another room.�

�� Narcissa
raised her eyebrows, confident in her victory. �Come, Mr. Potter, do you expect
me to believe that? You are letting my son venture into this dangerous
territory, after all, and if you meant what you said, it would be far easier to
keep him at home.�

�� Harry
sneered impressively at her. He had picked up some other persona, one Draco
didn�t recognize but thought must be closer to the Slytherin one Draco had
frequently worn during Hogwarts. �Unlike you, I have more respect for Draco�s
choices than for Lucius�s. He�s choosing to visit you. He won�t choose to be
threatened, or enslaved. So, yes, I will kill your husband if he tries to take
away Draco�s freedom yet again. Remember how powerful my wandless magic is,
Mrs. Malfoy. It might even happen accidentally.�

�� Narcissa narrowed
her eyes, but nodded, and shut the connection. Draco slung an arm around Harry�s
neck, silently grateful that they hadn�t lost completely.

�� Harry gave
him a very faint smile. �You can still change your mind,� he said.

�� Draco shook
his head. �Not now. I�m sure this will be one of the more�interesting meetings I�ve observed in a while.�

*

�� Harry hadn�t
told Draco so when he proclaimed his opinion of the meeting with Lucius, but he
intended to make things even more interesting. Namely, the moment Lucius stepped
into the large drawing room of the Manor where he had chosen to receive them,
Harry gestured at the slight tingle of magic in Lucius�s pocket that announced
the presence of his wand and said, �Expelliarmus!�

�� Lucius�s
wand flew towards him immediately. Harry snatched it handily from the air and
stuck it in his back pocket. He kept his eyes on Lucius the entire time, and
let the faintest trace of a smirk touch his lips. He wanted Lucius to think
about the same time Harry was remembering: the time when he had defeated the
Dark Lord Lucius had served with a Disarming Spell.

�� Lucius
opened his mouth, then seemed to remember that he had agreed to be polite and
neutral during this meeting. He bowed his head and said, �A reasonable precaution,
Mr. Potter, though if you could read my thoughts, you would know I have no
desire to hurt my son.�

�� A pleasant
pronouncement,� Harry said, ushering Draco into a chair. The room had two sets
of chairs spaced around the hearth and widely separated from each other, an
arrangement Harry approved of. Draco was tense with shock when Harry touched
him, but he went with the gesture, which showed he wasn�t truly angry. Harry
smiled at Lucius over Draco�s head. �But I notice your words do not include me.�

�� You weren�t
always so sensitive to nuances, I think.� Lucius took the chair opposite Draco,
leaning back against the cushions in what seemed to be perfect ease. Narcissa
slowly took the seat beside him. Her eyes hadn�t left Harry yet, and he thought
she was probably unsure of what to make of him.

�� I fell in
love.� Harry squeezed Draco�s shoulder briefly, then leaned his arms on the
back of his chair. He had no intention of sitting down himself. The chair
chosen for him to occupy looked broad and comfortable�hard to stand up from,
and even if he leaped up, he would lose a moment to sinking down into the
cushion. He preferred to avoid such unpleasant encumbrances. �That gives me
something better than Legilimency: the awareness that someone could hurt Draco, and that I could lose
him.� He smiled emptily at Lucius. �Or that someone could hurt him by hurting
me.�

�� This was
meant to be a meeting of reconciliation,� Draco interrupted quietly, though his
hand rose and squeezed Harry�s elbow to show how much he appreciated it. �I�ll
take an apology for that enslavement spell, Father, if you don�t mind.�

�� Lucius stiffened
his shoulders. He had the look of a man who had been granted a stay of his own
execution in which to make a speech. And just like every other criminal who should
have been repentant and couldn�t bring himself to be so, Harry thought, he was
going to fuck it up. �What else could I have done, given what I believe?�

�� We�ve had conversations
about your beliefs before.� Draco�s voice was so gentle that Harry would hardly
have believed it was his, except that it had a chiding tone behind it he knew
well. Draco hadn�t had much occasion to sound like this to him, that was all. �I believe there was a period in which they
endangered all our lives and the future of our entire family, thanks to your
deciding to bow down to someone who called himself a Dark Lord. Or am I
misremembering? To be sure, I�ve had so many
things to think of since I was seventeen that I might be forgetting the
cause of the pain that dominated two years of my life.�

�� That was
not so essential as this is.� Lucius sounded half-confused. Harry saw Narcissa
wind her hands into each other. Just like him, she probably longed to
interfere. But Draco had made Harry promise that once he took control of the
conversation, Harry would only speak to combat threats or to make Lucius
understand exactly why he was there, if the man was fool enough to ask. �You
are the one threatening the survival of our family now, Draco.�

�� I have
hardly threatened to tear down Malfoy Manor, and I cannot believe that the
disagreements between you and Mother over what to do with me are so spirited as
to rip you apart in divorce,� Draco said primly.

�� Lucius made
a thick noise of frustration in the back of his throat. �You know very well
what I mean, Draco! If you stay partnered to Harry Potter, or to any other man,
you will never have a child to continue the Malfoy line.�

�� Draco
sighed. Harry allowed one hand to trail up the slope of his shoulder. The sigh
seemed to come from a very long distance, and by that alone Harry knew how
frustrated Draco was. �I asked you once if we didn�t have any higher purpose
than reproducing, Father,� he said, �whether we existed only to have children,
who in turn would have children. You don�t put any weight even on rearing the son or daughter you expect
me to have, on being a good parent. You only expect me to have one. Pardon me
for thinking that Malfoys�if we really are the sum of all existence the way you
liked to tell me we are when I was a boy�should do something more fulfilling.�

�� You can do
that after you have a child.� Lucius was speaking through his teeth now.

�� But heirs
of Malfoy blood exist.� Draco lifted his nose. �I�ve a good mind to legitimize and
adopt one of them. I know the proper laws to do so. And then I could have the
satisfaction of having fulfilled my legal duties, whilst at the same time
living most of my life the way I want to, since my heir would have other
parents to raise him or her.�

�� There was a
perfect, scandalized silence, which Harry enjoyed, though he suspected he would
have had to be born a Malfoy to understand the full implications. Then Lucius
extended his hands towards Draco in a helpless motion and murmured, �Tell me�please
reassure me that you don�t mean to make one of your Cousin Maxwell�s children
your heir.�

�� Their
blood is good,� said Draco with a shrug. �And you should hold him in higher
regard than me, since he�s actually done the ultimate Malfoy duty and
procreated.�

�� Lucius shut
his eyes and held his breath for a long moment. Then he opened his eyes and
said, �Would you consider having a child if I apologize?�

�� Who can
say what I may decide in the future?� Draco murmured. �For the moment, my life
is devoted to running Malfoy�s Machineries, earning equal rights for homosexual
wizards, and living in love with Harry. You can�t ask me to determine the whole
course of my life in a single conversation.�

�� This time,
Harry had to hide his grin against the back of Draco�s neck. Draco turned and
grinned up at him, not bothering to hide his
expression. Lucius flinched as though someone had punched him in the
stomach. Then he cleared his throat, and Harry saw his hand flex towards
Narcissa, who was shaking her head with her lips pursed. At least, if she was
displeased with Draco, she was probably equally displeased with Lucius, who was
wasting the opportunity she had gone to so much trouble to arrange for him.

�� You ask
for an apology,� Lucius said harshly. �You ask for me to refrain from attacks
against your lover, even to welcome him within my home.� He looked up at Harry
with a burning gaze that convinced Harry he had been wise to take Lucius�s
wand. �You ask for so much, Draco, and you will not promise me even to continue
the Malfoy line, the thing I have always most valued.�

�� I ask for
you to trust that I am an adult, and responsible for my decisions and my future,
not simply the future of the family.� Draco�s voice sharpened as he leaned
forwards. �Pushing me, Father, earns nothing but negative results for you. I am
constantly astonished that you haven�t yet
learned not to do it. And yes, I do expect basic courtesy to Harry. I�m in
love with him, and that�s never been true before.�

�� Lucius
stared at his son, and Harry saw the final, decisive shift as it took place
behind his eyes.

�� He still
didn�t like Draco�s resolve to act independently of the family; he would
probably never really like it, or understand it. And he still blamed most of
the problems in his relationship with his son on his son�s lover. But he had
come to realize, perhaps with bitterness, that he could not control or
influence that independence or that lover. Better to surrender and let Draco
become comfortable in his presence again. Then, perhaps, Draco would attend to
his suggestions.

�� And at
bottom, Harry thought, Lucius Malfoy was a man who loved his son. Harry had
heard as much during the final battle at Hogwarts. He didn�t really want to
drive Draco away forever, and if he had to buy his company on terms distasteful
to him, he could bear that.

�� Very well,
Draco,� Lucius said. �It shall be as you say. I will refrain from attacks on
Mr. Potter, through Counterstrike or other means. I will welcome him within my
home. I will never again use an enslavement spell�and I am sorry that I used
one already. I will not urge you to marry and have an heir for five years.�

�� Draco
leaned against the back of the chair and released a tiny sigh. Harry used both
hands to rub the nape of his neck.

�� Thank you,�
Draco said. �I accept your apology.�

�� After that,
the conversation slid back into normality, with Narcissa bestowing an approving
smile or two on Harry himself. When the time came they had to leave and Harry
handed Lucius�s wand back, he did it with a small, formal bow, and then a
single intense look, to signal that he still distrusted Lucius and would guard
Draco as long as necessary.

�� Lucius
returned the look. And then, the most unexpected thing happened. His eyes
softened, and he murmured, �My son is fortunate to have someone so devoted at
his back.�

�� Even
knowing he had probably only said it to throw him off-guard couldn�t prevent
the warm glow that sprang up in Harry.

�� He needed
every bit of that glow to bolster himself when they returned to Number Twelve
Grimmauld Place and found Ron and Hermione waiting.

*

�� FallenAngel1129:
Thanks for reviewing!

�� qwerty: As
you can see, Narcissa is in this chapter. But Lucius is still more worried
about his own possible humiliation at his son�s hands than about Grey.

�� 70_Sol_Laen:
Thank you! And if Harry is more trusting of Draco, it makes them more likely to
pull off complicated plans like this one. ;)

�� broomrider949:
Though we won�t see all the tough times in this story, I do agree that Harry
and Draco will need that reliance on each other.

�� butterpie: Thank
you! If I was one of Harry and Draco�s enemies, I would be utterly terrified to
face them when they�re acting together.

�� Lucius still
has plenty of issues. He�s beginning to realize that he can�t win all the time,
though.

�� Mangacat:
Thanks for the review, and for the recommendation!
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Changing of the Guard