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Practicing Liars	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 63257 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and I am not making any money from this story.

Chapter List
- 49
- 50
Thank you again for all the reviews! This is the very last
chapter of Practicing Liars, though I
will be writing a few epilogue fics. (No ideas on when these will be completed
or posted). I hope you�ve had half as much fun following the story as I have
writing it.

Chapter Fifty�All
Masks Gone

�� Of course
there were whispers, stares, sniggers, and claims of disbelief.

�� Of course
there were newspaper stories, so many of them that Harry stopped reading the Daily Prophet, because they always had
something to say about him, and it was either something he already knew or
something distorted and false.

�� Of course
it turned out to be a good thing that Harry was so good at Defense, because
hexes came his way. Some of them were from Gryffindors, he thought, though
since they hit him in the corridors, he was never sure.

�� Snape was.
He performed spells on Harry�s robes and, once when he limped into Defense with
a swollen ankle dragging behind him, on his leg. He never said anything aloud.
Harry thought he had learned from the way Harry had worried about the hunt for
Draco�s poisoner that it was a good thing if he didn�t tell Harry all the
details.

�� But certain
students got detentions, or they had to perform more complicated spells in
Defense class, and Snape would stare at them or smirk or make a cutting remark
when they failed. Harry heard the rumors even when he wasn�t in those
particular classes. Snape�s remarks were carried from mouth to mouth so that
people who hadn�t been there could enjoy them in all their horrid glory.

�� Harry
thought of protesting. But he also knew that Snape would say this was his own
method of protecting his son, his blood, and he gave up the notion.

�� It was not
a perfect life, but it was his.

*

�� Severus
knew that Harry had told a few of his friends in Gryffindor House, and from
there the tale would have spread around the school. He saw no reason to appear
in the Great Hall and make an announcement as Harry and Draco had. That was
their choice. Severus was more dignified.

�� But when he
stepped into Harry�s Defense class on Monday morning and everyone stared at
him, he knew what it meant. He sneered and glided up the aisle between the
tables, turning around at the front to stare back.

�� That is the mistake so many of my colleagues
make, he thought with satisfaction as he watched the students begin to
avoid his eyes. They find them intimidating,
as if the students and not the professors
held authority at this school. That allows the little brats to feel as if they
are in charge, and then it is no surprise that we lose control of them so
easily or that they laugh at us in their sleeves.

�� We will
begin with shields,� he said, exactly as if this were a normal morning, no
different from any of the others that had gone before it. �Now��

�� Is it
true, sir?� asked someone from the middle of the classroom. Severus did not
have to look very far to know it was Wells, a girl from Ravenclaw. She never had paid enough attention to her spells,
Severus thought, but since she was always gossiping instead, that was not much
of a surprise.

�� That we
are beginning with shields?� Severus focused on her and made her squirm in her
seat within a few seconds. �Of course. I said so, and you may trust me.� The stress he laid on the
word made some of the students blanch and others just look more curious.

�� I meant,
is it true about you being Harry Potter�s father, sir?� Wells asked, with more
curiosity than good sense. Severus felt a faint surprise that the Sorting Hat
had not placed her in Gryffindor. �It�s just, it�s so strange, and��

�� She fell
silent again as Severus looked at her, and he waited, this time, until the
quietude in the classroom had become distinctly uncomfortable. Then he
whispered, �Detention, Miss Wells, for interrupting a professor, and five
points from Ravenclaw for assuming that I would permit such a rumor to spread
and not contradict it if it were only a rumor.�

�� Wells
looked ready to faint. Severus did not think it was from the detention or the
point loss. For some people, a confirmation of gossip from those involved in it
was always more powerful than simply hearing it.

�� But how?�
someone asked.

�� But why?� Longbottom was looking back and
forth between Harry and Severus as if searching for some sign of the truth in
their faces.

�� Severus
turned and looked steadily at his son. He was not sure what Harry wished to do.
The specifics were between them, still, and Harry�s closest friends. He saw
Draco leaning forwards from the table at the back of the room as if he didn�t
know what would happen next and was eager to do so.

�� Harry took
a breath that sounded like the one Severus had sometimes drawn before plunging
into water. Then he waved his wand and muttered something. Severus felt his
muscles tensing; it was a reflex he had noticed lately, as if he had to be
aware of all Harry�s spells in case they went horribly wrong.

�� Harry�s
face shimmered, and then he looked like the boy Severus had seen only once
before, in the corridor outside the heavily warded room where Dumbledore had
died. Harry gave Severus a small smile and then turned around.

�� Is this
what you wanted to see?� he asked, with a passable imitation of a drawl. Draco
must have been teaching him, Severus thought with approval. �Yeah, I�m his son.
He�s my father. My last name would have been Snape if they�d been married. What
else do you want to know?�

�� Granger
leaned over and laid a hand on his arm. Severus would have liked to do the same
thing. Despite Harry�s fa�ade of confidence, his voice was rising towards the
end of his words, in both volume and pitch.

�� People
stared at him with their mouths hanging open. Severus readied himself to cast a
ward, a shield, or a curse if it was necessary. Perhaps Harry had revealed
himself a bit more dramatically than Severus would have liked, but he would not
put up with others treating his son poorly because of that.

�� Harry?�
Granger whispered. �Are you all right?�

�� Harry
didn�t have time to answer before the voices of the other children in the room
were piling into the conversation.

�� It�s not
enough that he dates a Slytherin, but his father
is a Slytherin, too?�

�� Well, he
can�t help that,� Longbottom said, though now he was staring between Harry�s
revealed face and Severus�s as though he hoped to find something in his search
that would contradict the resemblance, or at least make it less marked. �I
r-reckon.� He sounded as though, if there was a spell that would allow one to
go back into time and change one�s birth parents, Harry should use it.

�� He looks
different,� Wells said, and there was disgust in her stare. Severus�s
fingers crushed down on his wand.

�� What other
secrets is he keeping?� The Gryffindor, Finnigan, had shoved his chair back
from the desk and was pointing an accusing finger at Harry. �Who knows? He
could be keeping some secret that we don�t even know about. Maybe he�s
You-Know-Who�s grandson!�

�� I don�t
want to be in the same class with him anymore,� one of the Hufflepuff girls
whimpered, and began to push her chair back.

�� Harry
lowered his head and clenched one fist in front of him, and that was what eased
Severus from half-amusement into anger.

�� Sit down,�
he said, and he did not make his voice loud, because he did not have to. Years
of learning under him had taught his students what would happen to them if they
disobeyed an order such as that. �You will sit down and be silent.�

�� There was
silence in the next instant, save for the squeaky sound of bottoms settling
into chairs. Severus prowled out from behind his desk and along the aisle
between the tables, turning his head alertly from side to side, watching faces
that blanched and eyes that fell away from his.

�� One thing
you ought to consider,� he said, and managed to keep his voice smooth and sweet
and bland with an effort, �is what will happen now that I have a son in
school.�

�� Some of the
eyes darted up to take a look at him. Harry, the only one who hadn�t glanced
away, appeared perplexed.

�� I will
know if any of you do not treat him with respect,� Severus said. He planned to
hand out detentions and take points if any of them harmed Harry. He didn�t
think there would be any trouble in finding a justification, as often as the
little morons broke school rules under the impression that they could get away
with it. �When I despised him, when I did not know he was my son, I often
encouraged my Slytherins to despise him as well. That time is over. Can you
imagine what will happen now?�

�� There were
some sucked-in breaths among the Slytherins in the class, except for Draco, who
looked up with a shining face. Severus nodded. He thought he could depend on
most of his House to leave Harry alone, and, by extension, Harry�s boyfriend
alone. It was enough to know that their Head of House had changed his mind.
Most of them would not ask for reasons, and collective scorn would silence
those who tried.

�� But for the
rest of the Houses�and especially for the Gryffindors, who would think that
Harry was a �traitor� to the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin�a
stronger message was needed. Severus turned and prowled slowly up the aisle
again. He knew he was smiling, and that the smile was vicious, and that
McGonagall, who had taken over the post of Headmistress, would scold him
violently when she heard about this. But she had never interfered in the
relationships between a professor and more than one student, and even if she
tried, Severus�s power was too great.

�� He is
mine,� Severus said. It was the strongest statement he could make, and it
would, at the very least, make sense to the members of the other Houses who
came from pure-blood families. �I will tolerate no interference with him.�

�� Mulish
looks answered him, and awed ones, and startled ones that would turn stubborn
when they thought about it. Severus did not care. He knew there would be hexes,
but few students outside Slytherin would try Dark Arts, and that was his major
concern. He could deal with hexes. And eventually, they would learn. Harry
would spend his last year and a half at Hogwarts in as much peace as Severus
could muster for him.

�� After that,
the news should be stale enough that Harry could go about his life in some peace. Severus would at least
always make sure that he lived in a warded house, behind the very best
defenses.

�� He turned
back to Harry and met his eyes. Harry was blinking rapidly, as if he either
wanted to deal with the information one piece at a time or still wasn�t sure
what happened.

�� He didn�t
protest. It was enough for Severus. He swept back to the front of the room and
started the class.

�� Harry came
up to him after it was over, and didn�t try to hide that he was doing so,
although some of the Gryffindors left with less than friendly mutters and
stares. Severus studied his son�s half-Transfigured features and was content.

�� That
wasn�t fair,� Harry said.

�� He didn�t
have to explain what he meant. So far, they understood each other. �No, it
wasn�t,� Severus replied calmly. �But nothing is ever fair when a professor
teaches his own child. Better to establish the footing that we will stand on
and not allow them to establish it for us.�

�� Harry
hesitated for a long moment. Then he said, �Don�t you think I�ll get stared at
and insulted more often now that they know you�re standing up for me?�

�� If they
do,� Severus said, �I will simply assign them more detentions and take more points.
At some point, the cost will outweigh the satisfaction they get from insulting
you. And if it does not, then I will increase the punishments.�

�� Harry shook
his head, looking stupefied. Severus leaned over his desk. �Speak,� he said.

�� I just�no
one�s ever looked out for me like that before.� Harry stared into his eyes. �My
aunt and uncle would get upset if something happened to my cousin at school,
and they would go and yell at the teachers.� He didn�t appear to notice the
shadow that Severus could feel moving into his eyes at the mere mention of
Harry�s Muggle relatives. �But no one�s ever done that for me.� He bit his lip,
hastily gathered up his books, and left the classroom.

�� That is not the only thing that might
surprise you about having me for a father, Severus thought as he watched
his son depart.

�� Events fell
out as he had foretold. Some of the other students attacked and insulted Harry,
though none with the severe curses that Severus had frightened them out of
using. And their Houses made them stop it as soon as the punishments became
severe enough.

�� McGonagall
called him in for a talk several times. But she did not put a stop to his
activities, and considering that she had not put a stop to the attacks and
insults either, Severus felt justified in pursuing his present course.

*

�� Draco lay
beside the lake in a bubble of warmth, lazily watching the snow build up
outside his enchantments. Harry was beside him, lying so that his thigh and
shoulder rested against Draco�s, and they were watching the reporters try to
get onto Hogwarts grounds past the wards that McGonagall had put in place.

�� It was
entertaining, Draco had to admit that. The wards were intricate and powerful,
using five-minute Transfiguration into harmless animals as a punishment, and still the reporters kept trying.

�� A young man
seemed to think he had got past successfully this time; he�d sneaked into
Hogsmeade and then come strolling along the edge of the Forbidden Forest as if
he were gathering Potions ingredients, down to the basket slung over his arm.
Then he turned and walked towards the school, holding up his camera as he came.
Draco had no idea what interest he thought he could stir with a picture of the
school�s towers, but the Daily Prophet in
particular had a habit of illustrating their stories with something only mildly
relevant if they couldn�t get better than that.

�� One of the
Headmistress�s wards was trained to respond to the presence of cameras (which
had caused that one annoying boy in Gryffindor, Colin something or other, a lot
of anguish at first). It rose out of the grass like a snake, and struck the
reporter�s feet almost exactly like one. There was a flash of golden light.

�� The camera
dropped into the snow. A rabbit hopped about where the reporter had been,
staring in astonishment at its own paws.

�� Draco
laughed. Harry laughed with him, a sound Draco hadn�t heard enough of lately,
and nuzzled his nose into the side of Draco�s neck. Draco raised a hand to
clasp the back of Harry�s head. They didn�t do more than that, not when they
were in a place as public as this, in case someone did manage to snap a picture.

�� Members of
both Gryffindor and Hufflepuff were playing in the snow around the Quidditch
pitch, not giving them much more than their share of baffled and envious
glances. Draco made sure to catch the eyes of a girl who had been watching
Harry more and more often lately and move closer to him. She glared.

�� Draco,�
Harry murmured, not opening his eyes, �stop using me to make people jealous.�

�� I can�t
help it if I�m dating the best-looking bloke in school,� Draco said, and
settled his arm around Harry more firmly in place. The girl turned and threw a
snowball at someone else. The other students had already tried to get through
the enchantments surrounding Harry and Draco�s hiding place and learned that
they would get hit in the face with their own stones, hexes, snow, or anything
else they threw, given the defensive spells Harry had worked into the shield.

�� Going out
with your reflection, then?� Harry opened one eye. �You know I�m not that
good-looking, Draco. It�s the scar they stare at.�

�� Draco
sighed and decided not to argue with him right now. If Harry wanted to pretend
that he wasn�t wonderful, at least that would allow Draco to stay with him and
keep him all to himself. Draco wasn�t against that at all.

�� Is this
what you thought life would be like after the Dark Lord was dead?� Draco asked,
when a few more minutes had passed and the rabbit had turned back into a
reporter and run off. Draco wondered if he should have warned McGonagall about
Rita Skeeter, but decided that he would take the lack of detailed stories in
the Prophet so far as a statement
about the effectiveness of the wards.

�� Not
really,� Harry said. �At the time, I didn�t know that I would have a father and
a boyfriend.� His hand found Draco�s and squeezed, tight. Draco squeezed back
and sneaked a glance across the field. Yes, the bint was watching. �And I
didn�t think about it in any detail, you know? Not at all. I would promise myself
sometimes that I would do this or that when I was free, but I couldn�t picture
myself doing it. And then things would change again and I would want to do
something else with my freedom, or I�d become convinced that I would never
survive against Voldemort.� He glanced at Draco when he felt the flinch Draco
couldn�t suppress. �Oh, come on. You know
he�s dead.�

�� Draco
rolled his eyes. �Maybe you could change a lifelong fear just like that, but I
can�t.�

�� I keep
forgetting,� Harry muttered, and he did sound genuinely apologetic, even before
he added, �I�m sorry.�

�� Forgiven,�
Draco said, and turned to kiss Harry, which made some of the students giggle,
and some look away, and the jealous bint look as if she was about to have a
stroke. Draco considered prolonging the kiss in the hopes of giving her one,
but Harry would probably figure out what he was doing and refuse to
participate. Draco liked the kisses where Harry was participating best.

�� So many things to get used to, Draco
thought, as he drew his head back and looked into Harry�s �new� face�which
wasn�t really changed that much from the �old� one, but which was much
handsomer. Harry�s face. My standing as
boyfriend of the Savior of the Wizarding World. What my mother is going to say
about our relationship being revealed like this.

�� He had
written to his mother, but hadn�t received any reply yet. For a moment, Draco
let himself worry about that.

�� Then Harry
touched his shoulder, and Draco smiled. He
had been able to picture what his life would be like when the Dark Lord was
dead. It was much simpler, and there were reasons to be happy.

�� His wish
was fulfilled.

*

�� Harry
hesitated, then told himself he was being stupid and pulled the bathroom door
open.

�� It was the
middle of the day, and no one else was in the whole of Gryffindor Tower, it
seemed. Harry was here because he had decided that finally facing what he�d
been putting off was more important than sitting through yet another
interminable Charms lecture.

�� Snape�or
Father, maybe; Harry still wasn�t used to that yet�would be angry when he found
out, but Harry would deal with that later.

�� He strode
across the bathroom, pretending to a confidence he didn�t feel, and, for the
first time since he�d removed the glamour in Defense, looked into a mirror.

�� He caught
his breath. Then he felt silly for that, and checked over his shoulder to make
sure that no one had come in, and then looked closer again.

�� Yes, his
face was like Snape�s. But it was like his mum�s, too, or at least like the
photographs he�d seen of her. Her eyes under a forehead and above a nose that
was kind of like Snape�s, but not bigger, thank Merlin, and there were a pair
of cheeks that could have come from anywhere, and his hair had stayed tangled
dark and wild.

�� I could say there�s a little bit of James in
me if I wanted, Harry thought, and snickered as he thought about the way
Snape would explode if he said that.

�� He hadn�t
changed as much as he had thought he had, which was one of the reasons, maybe,
that people hadn�t spent as much time staring at his face and nudging each
other as he thought they would. They had got
a photograph of him into the Prophet before
McGonagall banned cameras, but that was fine; that was just the way things
were. And no one seemed to think he was exceptionally ugly. They just did the
same thing Harry was doing, scanning his face eagerly for resemblances to his
parents�.

�� But there
was that hair, and those cheekbones that might have come from anywhere.

�� And the
lights and shadows in his eyes was all his own, Harry thought. His mum had
grown up in a family that loved her. He was becoming increasingly convinced
that his�his dad hadn�t, but he had
known about magic before he came to Hogwarts; that much, he had confirmed to
Harry. And neither of them had fought a Dark Lord directly, even though they
had lived under his shadow and his mum was responsible for saving Harry�s life.

�� He was more
than just the sum of his family. He was his own, Harry, no matter what his last
name was.

�� He stepped
slowly back, watching the stranger in the mirror whose face he was certain
would become more and more familiar. It wasn�t as though he had spent a lot of
time looking at himself when he had the other face, either, except when he was
memorizing his old features so he could cast the glamour. And he had years and
years to live with this face.

�� And his
family, and his friends, and his boyfriend. Any way he wanted, in any freedom
he wanted. He wasn�t going to let the Death Eaters still at large�the Aurors
had already captured several of them�or the ridiculous reporters stop him.

�� He had
adults on his side now. McGonagall had crushed the rumors that Harry might have
killed Dumbledore the instant they started, and Snape had actually gone to the
Ministry and sworn under Veritaserum that Dumbledore had planned to die. And
there were the wards McGonagall had created and the promises Snape had made.

�� Harry felt
a stupid stinging in his eyes. He lifted a hand and rubbed fiercely at them,
and the stranger in the mirror did the same thing.

�� Everything
was going to be different now.

�� He had lain
in his cupboard at the Dursleys� when he was a kid, hoping and wishing and
dreaming of that. But now, it really was.
He had so much of what he�d wanted, and a bunch of things he hadn�t known he was
missing.

�� For a
moment, his heart was tight in his chest, and it felt as if he was trying to
breathe more air than existed in the world.

�� It took
Harry far too much time to recognize the emotion.

�� He was
happy.

�� It was
hard, but he reminded himself that Snape was going to be angry enough already,
and Harry should probably go and prepare himself for that detention.

�� With one
final glance in the mirror, Harry turned away and went to live his life.

�� The
End.

*

�� polka dot:
I�ll probably be putting the sex in an epilogue fic.

�� k lave
demo: Thank you! The epilogue fics will be one-shots, but at least they will be
continuations of this universe.

�� Hermione is
getting better now that she�s concentrating on Harry�s happiness instead of how
it will affect her.

�� KadyRae:
Thank you!

�� I have no
idea when the epilogue fics will go up, really. It depends on my other writing
commitments.

�� Madamdragon:
Thank you.

�� Mya Malfoy:
Thanks for reviewing.

�� Sneakyfox:
Ron is a lot better since he saw the way Snape and Draco treated Harry like
they actually cared about him.

�� Petalsoft:
Thank you.

�� anciie: It
really was, wasn�t it? It�s hard to remember that I started this fic in
October.

�� SP777: Thanks!
I do think it makes a difference that other people didn�t find out in this fic
until much later, which is not the way it is in most Severitus fics I�ve read,
and not until Snape and Harry were in a position where they had already
acknowledged each other and gotten ready to defend themselves.

�� And you can
compliment me all you like; I promise my head won�t get too big.

�� EmruasCat:
Thank you! I know there will be two epilogue fics for sure.
- 49
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Practicing Liars