Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

The Only True Lords	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 54573 -:- Recommendations : 4 -:- Currently Reading : 11
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this fanfic.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Five—Healer Interrogations

            “Is he going to be all right?”

            “He’ll be fine. No thanks to you.”

            Harry swallowed. He had known, when Healer Kislik herded him into the infirmary immediately after he came out of the conversation with Snape, and took him to Zabini’s bedside, that she hadn’t come to congratulate him, but he hadn’t thought it would be this harsh. He folded his elbows into his hands and turned to face Kislik, who had shut the door of the infirmary and performed a few complex locking spells on it.

            “The bond wouldn’t let me stop hurting him until I said I forgave him,” he whispered.

            “I know,” Healer Kislik said, and turned back to Zabini. Harry looked with her. He looked small and still, his chest rising and falling so slowly that Harry had to watch for almost a minute to convince himself he was breathing.

            “He hasn’t woken up yet?” Harry asked.

            “No.” Healer Kislik turned her head slowly. Harry flinched from her gaze. He reminded himself that she wouldn’t hurt him. That would be a violation of her oath as a Healer. He squared his shoulders and prepared to continue facing up to his new responsibilities. Snape had gone down into the dungeons to speak with Malfoy and Parkinson, and see if Goyle would come out of his room. This part of it was something only Harry could do.

            “You caused him nerve damage when you burned him,” Kislik said quietly. “It will heal, because it was magical damage alone, and you forgave him.” Her lips curled around the words. Harry didn’t look away. It was hard, though. “You must see that being Lord of these Slytherins is not the proper thing for them, that they need their freedom.”

            Harry nodded. Even the ones he was sure would face trials for being Death Eaters, like Snape and Malfoy, would do it better if they weren’t tied to him and he could testify for them freely.

            Ignoring the bubbling-lava feeling in the back of his mind that said they were his and he had to protect them, not let them go unprotected into their trials, he asked, “But what can I do? Everyone seems to think there’s no way that I can break the bond.”

            Healer Kislik leaned forwards. This time, he was the recipient of the shark-smile that she had given Hermione, and Harry had to admit it was no more comfortable for him than it had probably been for her. “Who told you that? People under the bond. And people not under the bond, but who don’t necessarily know much about the bond magic.”

            Harry blinked. It was true that Hermione had just looked up the information on the Lord-bonds when she spoke to him, and while he trusted her, she might not know much about it yet. And the others… “Are you saying that being under a Lordship bond affects what they can tell me? What they know?”

            Kislik took a seat beside Zabini’s bed and leaned back, shaking her head a little. She kept her body as a barrier between him and Zabini. Harry licked his lips and forced down the twisting threads of color and emotion in the back of his brain that weren’t him, and would never be him. “You are smarter than I thought you were, considering you never once considered there might be another option.”

            “I only thought that because people kept telling me there wasn’t,” Harry snapped back. At least he thought this flare of temper was his own. “I thought Zabini’s centaur idea had merit, but I never would have thought of it myself. I don’t want to be a Lord, though. If there’s another way, tell me and I’ll do it.”

            Kislik continued to examine him as though wondering how sincere he was being. Harry glared back at her, silently daring her to find fault with his determination to get free. Of course he wanted his life to go back to what he thought it would be, with people to mourn and people to talk to and people to testify for, but no one to rule.

            And maybe then he could go to Ginny and explain the truth, and understand the fear in her eyes, and how he could cure it.

            Finally, Kislik said, her hair swirling around her as she shook her head, “You might not have thought of this because you do not have a Healer’s training.” Harry nodded a little, accepting that as the best apology he would get. “But magic is like anything else that you can use, any part of your body,” Kislik continued, her voice rising a little. Then she glanced back at Zabini and lowered it. “If you don’t exercise a muscle, it atrophies. When wizards live away from our world, among Muggles, and don’t use their magic, it is never as strong as it was if they do come back. If you don’t exercise the Lordship bond, it will begin to fade. There have been examples in the past, one I assisted in myself five years ago, where the bond became so weak after a time of the Lord—well, Lady in this case—not using her power that the next time she tried, it snapped.”

            Harry thought about that. It made sense, as far as he could see, although he was hardly an expert on magical theory. He was sure Hermione could pick all sorts of holes in it.

            But he was the one concerned in it, and it seemed that Kislik had some kind of experience that made it more likely her advice originated in reality. He asked, “All right, but how does that deal with the legal aspects? Hermione told me I would be legally bound to do things like appear in court and pay fines if they misbehaved.”

            Kislik’s eyebrows rose. “You mean, exercised their own free will and their true choice, like the independent human beings they are?”

            Harry felt his face burn. He supposed he deserved that. The Lordship bond seemed sometimes to be creeping into his brain despite himself, altering his language and his priorities.

            He nodded and said, “Yes. But people on the outside would still expect me to handle the legal penalties, and they could go to Azkaban if I don’t, given some of the things the Death Eaters did. How can I keep from exercising my power then?”

            “The legal penalties, you cannot,” Kislik said, shaking her head. “But that has little or nothing to do with the magic of the Lordship bond, the power that carves its way into your hearts and minds, making you think eventually that you have a right to own them, and them think that they have a duty to obey.”

            Harry made a face. That did sound like the sort of thing he had been through with the Dursleys, which meant it sounded awful.

            Is that what’s making Ginny afraid of me? I don’t want to make anyone afraid of me.

            “It was imposed by people outside the bond, who sought some way of accommodating the Lords and their vassals under standard legal practice,” Kislik was continuing. “They thought they had to recognize it, because it affected the behavior of everyone concerned.” She sneered. “If they had refused, then perhaps more of those bonds would have been broken before they could become entrenched. The key is not to recognize these bonds, but to weaken and not enforce them.”

            Harry nodded. He could see that. And so far, everything she said still sounded like good sense. Maybe it was even the same thing as what he’d been talking about with Snape, the idea of holding the reins so lightly that in the end, his Slytherins wouldn’t think about him or let him affect their lives. He just hadn’t thought that doing that would possibly weaken the bond itself.

            My Slytherins. There it was again. Harry shuddered at himself. He would have to watch his thoughts closely, that was certain, or he would never manage to break the bond. The stupid thing was linked directly to his protective instincts, that was the problem, and so it was natural for him to behave this way.

            But not natural, in the end. Enforced by magic. And even if I would like it, it’s because I wouldn’t have the raw end of the deal.

            Harry looked up at Kislik. She wasn’t watching him. Her eyes were on Zabini instead, and her expression was so fiercely tender and protective, itself, that Harry had to ask, “Do you know him?”

            “What?” Kislik glanced back at him, as distant as a hawk. In an instant, her lip had curled, and Harry shivered. He was glad she didn’t look at him with the same mindless fear that Ginny did, but being despised that intensely wasn’t much more comfortable. “Oh, no. Of course not. My family has always been Light, and I don’t think that anyone in it was ever Sorted into Slytherin. I was Hufflepuff, myself.”

            Harry nodded uncertainly. Kislik leaned forwards, her hands looped over her knees and her voice so soft that Harry thought someone trying to eavesdrop wouldn’t be able to hear her.

            “I am an advocate of breaking Lordship bonds and the other unnatural, pernicious forms of slavery that run through wizarding society and which far too many people understand as something to be praised and celebrated. Lordship bonds are not the most common, but they are the ones that the most people think of as good. For years, I’ve fought for victims who can’t speak for themselves, who might be literally unable to lift their voices against their Lords, or who might think they’ve fully accepted it, when really, the magic has the effect of brainwashing.”

            Harry nodded slowly. Okay, so he didn’t like the way she looked at him, but it made sense. If he was part of that class of people she despised, he was surprised that she could sit that close to him and still speak to him nicely.

            “So,” Kislik said. Suddenly she was leaning back from him again, still with her arm on Zabini’s bed. “You think you know how to handle this, and you don’t. You don’t understand what it will do to them, how it’ll carve paths in their minds, the thought of obedience and even the pleasure of being protected. For some people, a lot of people, it’s like that. They start thinking there are enough advantages to being protected that rebellion isn’t worth it.” Her eyes flared wide open, while her fingers clenched in front of her. “It’s fucked-up.”

            Harry sighed. He understood that. “All right. I agree it is, and I never wanted this, either.”

            Kislik considered him again. “Good,” she said at last. “Most people don’t consider it, but this kind of thing deforms the Lords’ souls, too. Free human beings aren’t meant to own each other. You want to be a good person? Then step back, and hope that its hooks aren’t too deep in you already.”

            “It’s only been a day,” Harry mumbled.

            “More like a day and a half, and it can be enough.” Kislik looked at him for long seconds before she continued speaking. “You can feel it, can’t you? The urge to defend them. The urge to think of them as yours.”

            Harry nodded and closed his eyes. “All right. How do I step back from them? How do I—how do I weaken the bond and keep from exercising it?”

            Kislik patted his shoulder. Harry opened his eyes to see her holding her hand up, the tip of her wand glowing.

            “I’ll show you.”

*

            “Gregory, will you come out?”

            Pansy rolled her eyes and leaned back against the wall of the Slytherin common room, her arms wrapped around her chest. Draco didn’t understand. This had changed everything. He thought he could just command Greg the way he always had, but Vincent had died only yesterday, and the Dark Lord had fallen, and Potter had marked them. They were living in a new world. The old rules didn’t apply anymore.

            Which meant that maybe the things she wanted didn’t apply anymore, or she wouldn’t be able to achieve them.

            Pansy shut her eyes and gritted her teeth, holding her hands close to her sides. She wasn’t going to think about that. She was going to find some way to have what she wanted in spite of…everything.

            Of course, if Potter was so violent that he would do to any one of them what he did to Blaise, then there might be no point. She would slip up and irritate him sooner or later, and he would destroy her.

            But thinking like that wouldn’t free her or give her her freedom back. So she stood up straight and opened her eyes gratefully when Professor Snape swept into the common room. He glanced at her, and then turned in the direction of the boys’ bedroom. Draco shouted Greg’s name again, and Pansy nodded at the way Professor Snape’s eyes flashed.

            “He keeps trying to make him come out,” she said.

            The professor drew his wand and gestured up and down with it in a cross shape. Pansy blinked a little. That meant they could cast spells without the permission of their Lord, then. She had been afraid to try, afraid that she would find herself forbidden.

            Draco had mentioned watching Professor Snape brew potions, but that was different. You didn’t need a wand for that.

            There was an abrupt sound, and Pansy, listening hard, realized a moment later that it was the door of the bedroom clicking open. A few seconds later, Greg’s heavy footsteps came slowly down the stairs. He paused in the middle of them and stared at Professor Snape, his hands shifting back and forth. It was like he didn’t know if he wanted to cover his left arm or his right one, Pansy thought, watching.

            Professor Snape looked back at him in silence. Pansy had never been good at reading his face unless he was trying to communicate something to her, so she didn’t know how he reassured Greg. But a second later, Greg nodded and came the rest of the way down the stairs to sit in the big green armchair he usually took.

            Professor Snape turned his head, and Pansy understood the message perfectly well this time. She slinked over and took the small stool to the right of the fireplace.

            Draco clattered down the stairs, and paused halfway down, too, although not in the same place that Greg had. Then he walked down with an almost prim demeanor and sat on the chair nearest her.

            “I am displeased that we must commence this without the presence of Mr. Zabini,” Professor Snape murmured. He turned and cast a spell on the door of the Slytherin common room that Pansy didn’t know, or at least she didn’t know its effect. It was nonverbal, and the door made a little shivering sound and settled heavily into its frame. Professor Snape nodded and faced them again. “At least we will not be disturbed.”

            Pansy folded her arms. She wouldn’t be the first to say something.

            Draco was, of course. “Did you come up with something that would let us resist Potter, sir?” he asked eagerly, and almost rose from the chair.

            Professor Snape turned to him. Draco looked down at the floor and brushed at an imaginary piece of dust on his sleeve. Pansy decided that she was glad she wasn’t Marked on both arms, even though sometimes it seemed to lead to greater understanding between Professor Snape and Greg and Draco. That understanding didn’t always work to Draco’s benefit.

            “We cannot resist him,” Professor Snape said. “But we can use his Gryffindor sensibilities against him, in effect.” He grimaced as if smelling an inferior potion. “He does not desire to rule us.”

            “But,” Pansy said, and winced as those black eyes turned to her.

            She had spoken, though, which meant she’d already lost whatever advantage being silent would have brought her. She raked her fingers through her hair, because she wanted to do it and she might as well now, and plunged ahead. “I thought the bond would make him rule us whether he wanted to or not. He’ll get more and more possessive. He’ll want to restrict our movements for our own safety. And it’s going to be worse than usual because the whole world is out to get Slytherins and Death Eaters, and he jumped in front of us, so the bond would have interpreted his intent as protective already.”

            Professor Snape was staring at her. Pansy flushed and stared back. He hadn’t paid much attention to her before this, except as part of the Slytherin House it was his duty to lead. Well, why should he? She wasn’t brilliant in Potions, which was the only art he cared about, and she hadn’t been a Death Eater, and she hadn’t been horribly good at Dark Arts. All the paths to advancement in his favor were closed to her.

            Professor Snape shook his head a little, and then said, “Ordinarily, you would be right. But most Lords do not have a history of animosity with the people they are ruling. That may work in our favor. And most Lords were not Gryffindors, so committed to the ideal of freedom for everyone.” Professor Snape sneered a little, and rubbed at the mark on his right arm. Pansy wondered what he and Potter had talked about in their private conversation. “Potter said that he wants to use the reins loosely. He wants me to—to give you some idea how to live, as well as how to live with it.”

            Pansy bit her lip. She knew she would think long and hard about those words, because they landed in her soul like fishhooks, and she always thought hard about the words that did that.

            Only yesterday she had wanted to offer Potter up to the Dark Lord, and now he was saying things like that.

            “I don’t want to live with it at all,” Draco said. “I have plans. And Malfoys serve no one.”

            “Oh, shut up,” Pansy snapped, because suddenly it was too much, sitting in the middle of all these serious things, and having Professor Snape look at her like that, and having to think about something Potter had said. “Your father knelt at the Dark Lord’s feet. Besides, do you think anyone’s going to be eager to hire you or give you political connections now? Potter can probably do more for you than he can for the rest of us.”

            Draco blinked and touched his chin as though she had punched him. Pansy turned around, and she knew she turned absolutely crimson as Professor Snape watched her this time.

            “What do you want to do, Miss Parkinson?” Professor Snape asked, when enough time had passed that Pansy had really started to wish that he would look at Greg instead.

            Pansy sat up. She had brought this on herself. She would do what she could to live with the consequences of her actions. “I want to go into politics,” she said.

            “To pass certain laws?” Professor Snape asked. “To be a power behind the throne?”

            “To know everything,” Pansy said, wondering when he would start laughing. “To hear gossip and trace the places it comes from. To pass certain laws, yes, but to have power, and to make sure that no one else could have power over me.”

            Professor Snape gave a kind of complicated grimace. “This Lordship will not be easy for you, either.”

            Pansy shook her head. “And he probably hates me because I wanted to give him up,” she said, grateful she could tell someone that. She had tried to mention it to Draco, but as always, he was too preoccupied with whining about his own problems.

            “He may not,” Professor Snape, his eyes so distant now that Pansy really wished she could have a Time-Turner and go back in time to witness that conversation he’d had with Potter. But Professor Snape shook his head and pushed on before Pansy could regret it too much. “Draco?”

            “Finally remembered my existence?” Draco folded his arms and glared.

            Professor Snape simply gazed at him. Draco’s arms dropped to his sides and he looked down, shaking his head.

            “I owe him a life-debt because he saved me from that fire,” he whispered. “And maybe he owes me one because I told the Snatchers who brought him to Malfoy Manor that I wasn’t sure if it was him. But I don’t know how they interact with a Lordship bond, and I don’t want this, just like you don’t.” He stroked his left arm for a second, then dropped his hand as if he’d been scalded. “Sometimes I was wondering which arm I should cut off.”

            “You will do neither,” Professor Snape said crisply. “Lor—Mr. Potter may help to protect you from the consequences of taking the Dark Mark, and I will help protect you from the consequences of the other bond. But you need to think about what you want, about what matters to you beyond the life-debts.” He turned his head. “Mr. Goyle?”

            Pansy looked over, and then sat up and stared. She hadn’t felt anything from Greg, the way she had thought she might since they were all in the same kind of bond. But it seemed they were bonded individually to Potter, rather than to each other.

            Greg was curled up in the depths of his chair, his arms wrapped around himself, shivering. He opened his mouth, but his teeth chattered together as if he was trying to crack a nut between them. “Vince,” he whispered.

            Draco stood up and crossed the floor between them to stand with a hand on Greg’s shoulder. “He was with me when Vince got burned,” he murmured to Pansy, and then knelt down and took Greg’s hands. “I’m sorry for mentioning it, Greg. Really.”

            Pansy thought she heard Professor Snape murmur something tired, and he walked over to Greg’s chair and pulled out a thin vial. From the silvery gleam inside, Pansy assumed it was a Calming Draught. When he poured it down Greg’s throat, though, it took Greg forever to unclench. At last he let his head sprawl back against the chair and inhaled deeply, then seemed almost to go to sleep.

            “And that, of course, is another complication,” Professor Snape muttered, and turned to Pansy as if he thought she might need one. Pansy just shook her head. Her heart was beating fast, but she wanted to remain fully awake and aware, to see what happened next.

            Professor Snape nodded, and glanced back and forth between her and Draco, gathering them effortlessly into his attention, the way he used to do in Potions class. Pansy had the impression he was doing it for Greg, too, although Greg still seemed out of it.

            “Now,” Professor Snape said, low and intense. “We will figure out what you want to do with your lives, and you will get to do it. Potter wants to make this as easy on us as possible. He will not get rid of the bond, and neither will we, but we will live with it, or in spite of it. Understand?”

            Pansy nodded slowly. She could feel her heart ringing, rising. This might be easier than she had thought, better than she had thought, at least if Potter didn’t blame her for wanting to throw him to the wolves. Potter’s name could be a protection, even a passport to victory in the new Ministry.

            It was only a long time afterwards, when she’d started to think of the five of them—six, if you counted Potter—as a team against the world, that she noticed who Professor Snape’s words had left out.

            We will figure out what you want to do.

            Not what we want to do.

*

            Sasunarufan13: Ginny is afraid of Harry because the power he has over Blaise reminds her of the power Tom Riddle had over her.

            You get Pansy’s reaction here! And, well, that’s almost everyone. I don’t want to try writing from Greg’s point-of-view until he’s a little less traumatized, because it would be difficult.

            Something_Else: Harry has been involved in a prophecy. The centaurs are reluctant to touch anything concerning him, given that.

            delia cerrano: The bond does concentrate more on more intense feelings, because those are more likely to be linked to moments of danger. But there are other different, strange things about the bond that they don’t understand yet.

            SP777: Malnutrition does do things to the body that aren’t so easy to shake off.

            Kibou32: If it’s any consolation, the H/D is going to take forever to develop, for reasons that you saw in this chapter.

            Unneeded: Good to see you back! And thanks for the compliments.

            Harry has five: Blaise, Pansy, Draco, Snape, and Greg.
- 4
- 5
- 6
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

The Only True Lords