Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

A Brother to Basilisks	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 85172 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 15
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this story.

Chapter List
- 50
- 51
- 52
Thank you again for all the reviews!
Chapter Fifty-One—The Sought-After
            “And I think we should definitely pay more attention to the quality of rare woods that we import.” Harry hoped his voice was steady. It didn’t help that Dash was laughing in the back of his head, and had been since almost the start of the interview. “After all, rare magical creatures live in those trees the same way that unicorns live in those forests.”
            Xenophilius Lovegood basically hadn’t stopped writing since Harry started speaking, but he leaned back now to flex his hand around his quill. He looked at Harry thoughtfully. “Those unicorns are important to you, aren’t they, Mr. Potter?”
            “Yes.” At least Dash had stopped laughing now. Harry reached back to touch one coil that Dash had cast over his shoulder, and met Lovegood’s eyes as serenely as he could. He had tried to befriend the man’s daughter, Luna, but it had been a little difficult, she was so vague. “I saw Voldemort drinking blood from a unicorn my first year at Hogwarts, you know. It was awful.”
            Lovegood stared until Harry thought his eyes were going to fall out. “Where was this?” he demanded in a faltering voice.
            “In the Forbidden Forest. He’d possessed Professor Quirrell. He was making Professor Quirrel crawl around and drink the unicorn blood.”
            The scratching of Lovegood’s quill immediately started up again. Harry picked up the glass of water on the table beside the chair. Professor Snape had said they could use his quarters for the interview.
            “No one else knows about this,” Lovegood said, without looking up. “I’ve never heard you talk about it.”
            Harry shrugged, not knowing what else to say. “I mean—I assumed that most people knew about it. Unicorns were dying in the Forest that year. Other students joined me on the detention. I thought someone talked.”
            “No. I’ve never seen anyone talk about it.” Lovegood finally stopped writing and glanced at Harry with the sort of thin-lipped quietness that Harry knew meant danger when Aunt Petunia did it. “How can we let our children attend Hogwarts if Hogwarts cannot even keep its unicorns safe?”
            Careful, Harry, said Dash, and touched his tongue to the back of Harry’s hand. This interview has drifted far from its original purpose to praise the Selwyns’ business and the wood they import.
            “Er,” said Harry. “I mean, is it the school’s job to protect the unicorns? I didn’t know that. I thought barely anyone could get close to them. Except Hagrid, I mean,” he added hastily. Maybe it would look good for Hagrid if Lovegood wrote his name into the article. The last thing Harry knew, some people still thought Hagrid was guilty of opening the Chamber of Secrets because he had been thrown into Azkaban.
            “It is,” said Lovegood, and he pulled himself up in the chair. Harry privately thought that he looked a little ridiculous compared to how Snape would have sat in that chair, but then, no one else was here to watch and make fun of him. “Thank you for giving me this information, young man. You’ve given me two articles today.” He nodded briskly at Harry. “One about the importance of looking carefully at the woods we import and one about the need to protect the creatures of the Forbidden Forest.”
            “Oh,” Harry said weakly. “Good.”
            It will be better this way, Dash whispered to him. That way, the Selwyns won’t worry about you potentially taking attention away from the discussion of their business in the article.
            I didn’t think it was a bad idea, said Harry, stroking the small ridge of scales down the middle of Dash’s back. I’m just surprised at how fast things can change sometimes.
            You’ll be at the center of a lot of them in a little while. Get used to it.
            You’re not comforting at all, Harry complained.
            Dash made a great show of turning his head so that he could look back over his scales, as if he thought they might not be highly polished enough for his liking. Basilisks are not supposed to be comforting.
*
            Blaise watched from the shadows, in silence. Few people paid attention to him on the surface. He wasn’t a Tri-Wizard Champion, and that was all most of the school could talk about now.
            At least while Potter was busy stealing the glory that should rightfully have belonged to a seventh-year Slytherin, he couldn’t be stirring up inquiries into people’s pasts that should go somewhere…else.
            But there were a few people starting to pay attention to Blaise. People who might have allied with Potter, but who had been put off by his name coming out of the Goblet of Fire. Slytherins who resented the time their Head of House was spending with the idiot. Upper-years who knew that Potter might be friends with Malfoy, but would never sympathetic to their true interests, which usually included Dark Arts.
            Blaise knew how long it took to build a power base. He had no delusions that he would wake up tomorrow and find the Potter problem taken care of. And it would be better to position himself at the center of a loose network of people allied by the same irritation than at the pinnacle of a tower that might too easily be toppled.
            He did pause when he got an owl one day from someone who didn’t sign their name. Names were important. From them, Blaise was able to tell who might ally with Potter and who wouldn’t, who he had to worry about and who was only puffing and blowing hot air. And he didn’t want to waste time corresponding with a Muggleborn or someone else he would never be able to fully trust.
            But he had to admit, the letter was intriguing.
            I notice that you are trying to set limits to Harry Potter’s power in Slytherin. I wish for the same thing. I know some of your methods. Would you be interested in learning some of mine? If so, leave your response in the Owlery beneath the perch on which the rufous owl is sitting.
            And so Blaise did. He thought there couldn’t be such harm in merely a request for information.
            If there was…
            Blaise smiled a little. It was entirely possible that the harm would befall Potter instead of him, and in that case, he would be more than happy to watch it.
*
            Harry paced up and down in front of the Floo. He had wondered where in the world he could speak with Sirius. He didn’t want to go home, because that would probably make Sirius think that Harry just wanted to keep things secret, and he couldn’t use the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room because someone would protest.
            But then Professor Snape had said Harry could use his office. It would be okay as long as Sirius didn’t find out where they were.
            Why do you care so much about what he wants?
            Harry sighed and crouched down in front of Dash, who was lying along the floor like a huge—like a huge snake, Harry thought. Nothing else really worked as a comparison. “Because I do still love him. And he’ll just pull away and stop listening to me if I act like I don’t care at all.”
            He has already done that.
            Before Harry could answer, the Floo flared. Harry turned around at once. He knew Professor Snape had promised to be gone from the office, but he took another quick look around just in case.
            “Harry? Are you okay?”
            Sirius sounded concerned. Good. Harry tapped his foot on the ground and finally faced the fireplace. “No. Not really. I need to talk to you, Sirius. Can you come to Hogwarts?”
            “Of course, kiddo.” Sirius sounded alarmed now. “We can meet in Dumbledore’s office—”
            “No.” Sirius jumped a little. Harry tried to sound softer. “I want to meet where I am now. You can just say ‘Blue Floo’ and come here.”
            “Of course.” Sirius still sounded as though he was trying to figure things out, but Harry stepped back and gestured him through the Floo before he could say anything. That was something he had decided on his own. He needed to talk to Sirius face-to-face.
            You decided it on your own, but I approved of it.
            Harry gave Dash a strained smile and then stepped back further as Sirius scrambled out of the Floo. Sirius looked around and gave a startled growl that almost made Harry expect to see him transform into a dog. “Isn’t this—”
            “Snape’s office. We can speak privately. He isn’t here.” Harry moved a step forwards so Sirius would look at him and stop growling at the walls. “Sirius, did you really not care that I had to risk my life to get that egg?”
            Sirius gaped at him. “Of course I cared! What made you think I didn’t? Did Snivellus tell you I didn’t?”
            I could bite him. It wouldn’t kill him.
            “I thought you cared, but you seemed so excited that I would go up and risk my life.” Harry thought he sounded like a whining kid, but he would have to continue on. “Like I was my dad. Is that the only thing that matters to you? That I’m like my dad?”
            “I would love you no matter what you looked like,” said Sirius fiercely. He came up and just grabbed Harry in a hug before he could think about it. “And I would love you no matter what you did. I’m just glad that you proved you’re still a Gryffindor and not a Slytherin.”
            Harry didn’t need Dash to point out the contradiction to him this time. He said, “If you would love me no matter what I did, what does it matter if I act like a Gryffindor or a Slytherin?”
            “That’s not what I meant, kiddo.” Sirius chuckled, a little nervously. He was still holding Harry. “I meant—I think that Snape and that friend of yours encourage you to act like a Slytherin. I’m just glad that you don’t listen to them all the time and you act like what you want to act like.” Before Harry could say anything, he added, “Unless they knew about you going up to challenge the dragon. Did they approve of it?”
            “No. They were pretty upset, really.”
            Sirius laughed. “Just like I thought! They don’t trust you. I do.” He ruffled Harry’s hair. “See? I don’t think you’re like your dad. I always wanted to be with him when he played a prank or something. I know you’re your own person. I trust you to get your own things done in your own way.”
            “What if I have to do something Slytherin for the Second Task?”
            “Well, you don’t. That’s all.” Sirius was frowning, now. He let Harry go and shuffled his feet on the floor, then sniffed and grimaced. “Ugh, what kinds of potions does Snivellus brew in here?”
            “Don’t call him that.” Once again, Sirius jumped. Harry tried to calm down and breathe the way that Snape had been teaching him when he taught him Occlumency. “I might have to. I need to know that you love me no matter what, and not just because you think I’m like my dad or a good little Gryffindor.”
            “I already told you I did!” Sirius threw his hands up. “What can I do if you don’t believe me? Do you want me to take some Veritaserum?”
            “No. I just want to know why you keep saying that you’ll love me no matter what and then get upset when I act like a Slytherin.”
            “Because that’s not you. That’s Snape. And maybe Malfoy. I want you to do what you want. I don’t even understand how Snape and Malfoy got so close to you in the first place.”
            Sirius looked at him appealingly, and Harry knew that he probably wasn’t going to get through this without hurting him. He tried to ignore the hurting feeling in his own throat and shook his head. “No. It’s all me.”
            “It—”
            Sirius fell silent. Harry waited. He had no idea what was coming next, and even Dash was silent in the back of his mind, with that tense, expectant sense of waiting that Harry usually felt when he was eating.
            “I know the Hat wanted to put you in Slytherin.” Sirius spoke at last, and it was as if everything in the world had ceased to exist for him except Harry. “But that doesn’t mean you have to be Slytherin. Dumbledore told me once that our choices make us who we are. I didn’t choose to be evil like the rest of my family.” He shuddered a little.
            Harry thought something he wouldn’t have thought a year ago: What is Draco’s mother saying to you?
            “And you don’t have to choose to be Slytherin.” Sirius got down on his knees and looked straight into Harry’s eyes. “Malfoy and Snape might want you to, but you still have the ability to make your own decisions. Choose who you really are, Harry. If they—if they’re going to side with you no matter what, they won’t care whether you’re Gryffindor or Slytherin.”
            “Then why do you care so much?”
            Sirius bowed his head and knelt there in silence. Harry waited. The walls seemed to boom with the silence.
            “It’s different for me,” Sirius whispered at last. “Did Dumbledore tell you that I could only hang onto my sanity in Azkaban because I was innocent?”
            “You told me that,” Harry reminded him.
            Sirius nodded slowly. “But another thing that helped was hanging onto the memories of my friends. Remus and James and—” He didn’t say anything else for a second, but Harry could see why he was reluctant to mention Pettigrew. “And the Gryffindor common room. It was so bright. Red and gold. Sometimes I could just pretend that I was on the couch in front of a roaring fire laughing with James about something.”
            Harry thought of the way he had sometimes lain awake in his cupboard dreaming of people who would come and rescue him from the Dursleys. His heart ached.
            You can’t use this empathy as an excuse to let him off the hook. He still has to act like an adult.
            Just—be quiet for a while, Dash.
            Amazingly, Dash was. Sirius went on being quiet, too, and Harry finally said, “But that just makes you more of a Gryffindor. You did what you had to do to survive. But I need to do that, too. So if I have to be a Slytherin, I’m going to be one.”
            “Oh!” Sirius’s head flew up like someone had jerked on his strings. “If you’re just pretending, that’s different, Harry! Then I can get behind that.” He sat back and gave Harry a grin. “I’ll help you any way I can. Do you want to come up with the complicated evil plans, or should I?’
            “No.” Harry’s throat still hurt. He hoped he was getting a cold. “I mean, really be one. So I can survive.”
            “But not because you want to be one. Because you want to survive.”
            “What’s the difference?” Harry reached out and grabbed Sirius’s shoulder, shaking him back and forth the way Draco did sometimes with him. “Between wanting to do it and wanting to survive? I don’t—I don’t understand you.” Now the burning in his throat and mouth was really bad and Harry was talking faster. “You’re fine if I run into a dragon’s mouth but not if I learn to protect my mind or watch what I say or make political allies? I don’t understand it, Sirius! Why can’t you just explain it to me?”
            “You don’t know Snape the way I do, Harry.” Sirius reached out and tapped his knuckles lightly on Harry’s forehead. “I knew him when he was a kid. Trust me. I know better. I’m an adult.”
            “You’re not acting like one!”
            Sirius stood and backed up until his back hit the wall. He was breathing hoarsely. Harry closed his eyes. Dash moved up beside him until his head was resting on Harry’s foot. Their bond vibrated like he was breathing, too.
            “I suppose you think that Snivellus is the way an adult ought to act?” Sirius whispered. “Harry, can’t you see that he’s conning you?”
            “Conning me how?” Harry didn’t even know what kind of tone he had in his voice now. Whatever one it was, he didn’t think it was the one Sirius would hear.
            I could never make Uncle Vernon see my side of the story. I could never make Aunt Petunia see my side of the story. I could never make my teachers at primary school upset enough to take my side…
            “He wants something from you. Maybe he just wants to be famous himself, because you are. Or maybe it’s actually money. But it’s something. And that means he wants to take you away from me. Hell, maybe he’ll be telling you next that he should be legally responsible for you! That would mean he was responsible for most of the money you have in Gringotts, did you know that?”
            Harry felt as though someone had tried to poison his heart. He shivered.
            You know that isn’t true, and you shouldn’t even be dignifying his craziness with belief, Dash snapped, and lashed out so that his nose struck Harry’s foot.
            I reckon I have to decide what’s true. Harry opened his eyes and said slowly, “Why did you want to have custody of me?”
            “Because I love you!” Sirius pushed himself off the wall and glared some more. “If Snivellus told you that, he’d be lying!”
            “But you don’t act like you love me. You act like you’ll love me as long as I’m a Gryffindor. Otherwise—what’s the problem? You act like I’m bad because I speak Parseltongue. Professor Snape has never lied about what he wanted to do to help me. But you keep coming up with these ideas that make no sense, and then you’re disappointed because I disagree with them. Do you really love me?”
            Harry spoke the words slowly. Beside him, Dash was absolutely silent. Before him, Sirius was absolutely pale.
            “I do,” said Sirius finally. “I know it doesn’t—it doesn’t sound like you believe me. But I do.” He shook his head and put one hand up as though he was going to grab the top of his hair. But it dropped back, and he stared at Harry with dull eyes. “How can I prove it to you?”
            “You can tell me that it’s okay if I’m Slytherin or Gryffindor or both of them,” said Harry. “You can tell me that it doesn’t matter how much I’m like my dad. You can say that you—I don’t know. I mean, I don’t want you to say those things if you don’t believe them.”
            He felt tired, and very, very old. And he felt Dash coiling around his foot, and he didn’t want to look down, because he thought he would probably succumb to the temptation to just leave the room and go back to the common room with Dash.
            Harry didn’t want to. He wanted to give Sirius a chance. So he waited, and Sirius finally said, “Of course I love you no matter what.”
            “Okay,” said Harry. He didn’t know if—
            He didn’t know if he believed it. But he knew that he wanted to give Sirius the chance. He held onto the words and repeated them to himself until he thought that he could at least stand here and not walk away.
            “Then please stop talking badly about Draco and Snape. And please don’t tell me that it’s wrong for me to act like a Slytherin.”
            “I’ll try,” said Sirius earnestly. “I just distrust them. If you knew some of the things that they tried to do to me and your dad and Remus when we were in school…”
            “I know some of the things they tried to do to me,” Harry said, and kept speaking, because he thought Sirius was about to start talking about his dad again, and Harry really didn’t want to hear it right now. “Before Draco became my friend, I mean. But even some of the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs didn’t like me when they thought I put my name in the Goblet of Fire or when they thought I was the Heir of Slytherin. So I don’t think just one House has the monopoly on making my life miserable.”
            “You’ve reconciled with Ron, though?” Sirius asked cautiously. “Right?”
            Harry nodded. “Yes. Ron’s a real friend.”
            “Unlike—”
            “Some of the other people I told you about, who thought I was evil because they read it in the papers? Yeah. Unlike that.”
            Sirius obviously wanted to talk about Draco and Snape and the Slytherins again, but Harry just wasn’t interested in listening. He’d done what he thought he should do, talked to Sirius and maybe got him to think about some things. He and Sirius chatted a little awkwardly about him coming home for winter holidays—which he could only do for a few days right at Christmas, because of the stupid Yule Ball—and then Sirius went home.
            Harry went to Snape’s quarters.
*
            Severus did not really know why he had kept up the pretense of reading when no one was there to see it. But he had never been so glad to put a book aside and tell Harry that he could enter.
            Harry came in with Dash slithering along the floor behind him. Severus glanced at the basilisk, but either nothing bad had happened or he wasn’t good at reading Dash. The basilisk simply curled up with his nose against Harry’s calf when Harry slumped into a chair in front of Severus.
            “What happened?” Severus asked.
            Harry looked up, and Severus winced. It had not gone as badly as it could have, was what he saw there, but much worse than Severus had dared to hope.
            Why did I hope anyway, since this is Black we’re talking about?
            But Severus knew why. He had hoped for Harry’s sake. He would rather have a Black who was generous and loving to Harry than he would a Black who acted nicely to him. That was a revelation.
            And one he would have to deal with later, because Harry was talking, and Severus didn’t want to miss a word. “I thought—I thought that it would be easier to talk to him, because he did say he loved me. But all he really wanted to do was talk about how Slytherins are evil and call you names. He did say that he loved me at the end, and he said that he would try to stop talking about how Slytherins are evil.”
            Severus was about to note that that was more than he had expected, when Harry looked up, and Severus got another glimpse of those aggressively weary eyes.
            “Why does he have to say things like that?” Harry whispered. “I would be fine with it if he was just hating Slytherins having anything to do with him, but it’s like he sometimes thinks I’m independent from him and sometimes thinks I’m the same.”
            “He thinks that you should be the same as your father,” Severus said quietly. “And while your father had many…fine qualities,” he didn’t even have to battle as hard as normal to get the words out, “liking Slytherins wasn’t one of them.”
            “Yeah.” Harry brushed a hand over his face. “And it isn’t even that I think it’s doomed. It might work out. At least he seemed really upset when I asked if he loved me. But why do I have to be the adult?”
            “You should not have to.” Severus stood up and reached for the Calming Draught he had kept sitting on the desk. “Do you need this?”
            Harry hesitated, and Severus held his breath. Then Harry clamped his jaw and moved his head up and down.
            At least Severus had the minor comfort of watching some of Harry’s tiredness ease when he had swallowed the potion, and Harry began to stroke Dash again.
            Severus only wished he could do more.
            But the time for that had not come yet, if it ever would.
*
ChaosLady: Thank you!
starr: Snape did get it through to Harry, or he wouldn’t have asked for his help in talking to Sirius.
Lucius wants to help Harry from a distance, so as not to incur wrath from old allies like former Death Eaters.
MzPurpleMist: Thank you! As for Dash, he has no intention of dying, but he is much more intensely aware than Harry is of how dangerous things could be (partially because he puts Harry’s life above everything else, while Harry doesn’t tend to).
moon: Thank you!
MissAdora: Thank you!
Jester: Thanks so much! Good to see you back.
- 50
- 51
- 52
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

A Brother to Basilisks