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Corybantes	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 9753 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; that belongs to J. K. Rowling. I am making no money from this fic.

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
- 7
Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Six�Illusions
and Allusions

�� Harry
stared at the object on the table in front of him for several moments before
shaking his head and saying, �I give up. What am I looking at?�

�� Malfoy gave
him a secretive smile from the other side of the table. Harry only glanced at
him once before lowering his eyes back to the object. It might be
bewildering�it had a body made of red crystal with projecting silver spikes
that curved into tiny bowls on the ends, like Pensieves�but it was easier to
look at than Malfoy�s smile. At least the object didn�t inspire thoughts that
Harry had no business having.

�� This is
the equivalent of one of our rooms,� Malfoy murmured. Harry had the
disconcerting feeling that Malfoy was looking at him instead of the object. He
tried to ignore it. �We use it to screen our customers and make sure that they�re
not harboring plans against Corybantes or desires that would be truly dangerous
for us to fulfill. As I�ve told you, the combination of magic we use is new and
not perfect. It cannot do everything.�

�� That�s the
first time I�ve ever heard you admit that about something important to you,�
Harry muttered. He thought he could see a gleam of rising light in the center
of the red globe. He squinted, and the gleam turned into a five-pointed star.
Harry had no idea what that meant.

�� Malfoy�s
voice sharpened in the way that Harry had known it would. He grinned inwardly
at the success of his ploy, not thinking that Malfoy would be able to detect
the slight change in his face. People who dreamed, or fantasized, about Harry
didn�t know what his face really looked
like most of the time. �I�ve changed my mind about more things than you know,
Potter. The Dark Lord, for example.�

�� Harry
shrugged as if it didn�t matter to him, as if he were sorry that he�d brought
it up. In reality, he was relieved. He obviously couldn�t ignore Malfoy and
hold his composure perfectly the way he should have been able to after hundreds
of cases. The next-best thing he could do was to substitute the relationship
they had shared at Hogwarts for the uncomfortable mass of swirling emotions in
his chest.

�� So the
device screens their fantasies,� Harry said. �What does it have to do with the
case? If you intend to use it on me, Malfoy, I think you should be prepared to
die of boredom.�

�� Malfoy
paused. �Your fantasies could never be boring to me, Potter,� he whispered.

�� His voice
was odd. Harry didn�t look up into his eyes because he knew he would only
regret it. He examined the device again. �What does it have to do with the
case?� he repeated, as if he hadn�t heard Malfoy.

�� There were
long, promising moments before Malfoy responded, moments that seemed to be
filled with his silent struggle to get himself back under control. �This device
contains some of Keatson�s more recent fantasies,� he said finally. �I thought
you might want to see it.�

�� Harry
looked up then, because he would have had to possess an unviolated, quiet heart
not to do so, and it was too late for that. �You�ve had this, and you only thought about telling me about it now?� he demanded.

�� I didn�t
realize we still had it,� Malfoy corrected. He was leaning against the wall,
watching Harry with a small, triumphant smile that emphasized the redness of
his lips far too much. �Usually, we destroy the star-globes after we make the
decision to turn the client away or admit him to Corybantes. I kept Keatson�s
out of the vague sense that he might need professional help to separate his
mental visions from waking reality�someday. But I put it away when none of his
violent fantasies seemed to endanger his sanity, and I assumed that Leon had
destroyed it.�

�� Who�s
Leon?� Harry circled to the other side of the globe, because he hoped that
viewing it from a different angle might tell him how to use it. That the
movement put more distance between him and Malfoy was merely incidental.

�� One of my
other employees,� Malfoy responded. �I can call him in if you like.�

�� It seems
awfully convenient that this would be the one star-globe spared, out of all of
them,� Harry muttered. His eyes searched the nearest side, and found no switch
or incantation of any kind. Damn.

�� Nothing
about this case has been convenient.�
Malfoy�s voice turned brittle, snapping in Harry�s ears like a chicken bone.
Harry gave a small nod. Good. Maybe that was a sign that Malfoy was getting
bored of him and wanted Harry out as much as Harry wanted to leave. �A great
deal of it was forgetting and coincidence, I told you. It�s possible that I
mentioned something to Leon when I gave him the star-globe that made him decide
to save it in case we ever needed it again. I repeat, should I call him in?�

�� Harry
nodded. �Yeah. But after you show me the fantasies that are in the star-globe.�
He looked up at Malfoy, who simply stood there, staring at him, and raised one
eyebrow. �Did you need help with what any of the words in that sentence mean?�
he demanded.

�� Malfoy
stepped around the table. His cheeks were flushed. Harry told himself that he
should take some pride in spoiling Malfoy�s appearance, and that that pride
should diminish the apprehension he felt at seeing him come closer.

�� I�ve tried
to cooperate with you, Potter,� Malfoy began, his voice full of quiet threats
like arrows in a quiver. �I�ve tried to give you what you need to solve this
case. And I�ve been far more open with you about my honest wishes than anyone
else who has ever come into Corybantes. Must
you insist on driving me away?�

�� It�s
unprofessional,� Harry said coolly. He dearly longed to point out all the ways
Malfoy had not been helpful, but he
decided that would be counterproductive. Malfoy wanted him to get emotional, to
get angry, to let his guard down so that these bloody rooms of his could
capture Harry�s fantasies. Harry saw no need to let his mind be raped that way.

�� Rape is an unnecessarily dramatic way of
putting it, he thought a moment later.

�� But
everything else was still true, so he waited stoically, quietly, for Malfoy�s
response.

�� He could
hear Malfoy�s rushing breath as if he was standing next to the man in a void.
Malfoy�s face had turned red, and his head had tilted forwards as if he
intended to stab Harry with his nose. Harry felt himself grow calmer and
calmer. Malfoy seemed to be sucking all the anger out of the room. Given what
lengths he had gone to to get Harry angry, Harry thought that was only fair.

�� Professionalism
means too much to you.� Malfoy�s hands had closed into fists, now, and he
drummed one impatiently on the table next to him. Harry watched it carefully.
He had seen people who seemed to make senseless gestures suddenly lash out
before. �I can be professional. I can investigate my customers, and make sure
that their fantasies cause no damage to themselves or other people. And yet I
am friends with many of my clients, and I don�t turn away in disgust from what
I find in their minds. Is there no way for you to act like an Auror and yet be
friendly towards me?�

�� Not when I
have reason to suspect that you�re the murderer,� Harry said. �Or perhaps
hiding the murderer.�

�� Strangely,
those words seemed to make an impact on Malfoy. He stopped moving and
considered Harry attentively, with his head cocked on one side. Then he swept a
hand through his hair and nodded shortly. �I suspect this must seem rather
alien to you,� he said. �Someone who�s so intense that he makes you feel
threatened.�

�� Harry kept
the words he would have liked to speak about his feelings to himself, and
nodded back instead. Malfoy �� pursed
his lips.

�� Someone
who seems to have other interests at heart than clearing the reputation of his
club,� he said.

�� I can
understand that last part,� Harry said. �You have wealthy patrons who would continue
to come even if I could prove that Keatson died as a result of carelessness
here. But an accusation sustained with evidence would scare some of your clients away. You must know that.�

�� Malfoy
might have stepped next door into another world and not heard Harry�s most
recent words. His eyes were slitted as though he were a large cat reclining in
the sun.

�� Someone,�
he murmured, his voice soft, �who seems interested in you, and not merely what
you can do for them.�

�� Harry
frowned. This sounded like it was straying into personal territory again.

�� I know it
probably doesn�t look like it,� Malfoy said, stretching out one hand so that
his fingers curled slightly at the ends. Harry glanced into his palm out of
habit, but he wasn�t holding a weapon. �But I�m not mad.�

�� I never
said you were, sir.� Harry instinctively used the defense that he called upon
when Kingsley annoyed him, making his voice bland and soothing, while his eyes concentrated
on a point above Malfoy�s head.

�� Malfoy�s
face changed with extraordinary rapidity. He shook his head, and his leg
twitched as if he would have liked to walk nearer, but he stayed where he was.

�� You don�t
believe that,� he said. �You feel overwhelmed. I understand. I would, too, if I
came into what I thought would be an ordinary, if somewhat repulsive, case, and
found out that the person who ran the establishment where the death happened
had dreams about me.�

�� Harry
examined him attentively. Malfoy�s voice was the slowest he had heard it, and
the hectic flush in his cheeks had died away. No, he didn�t look mad.

�� Now, anyway, Harry admitted to himself.

�� There are
things I still need to think about,� Malfoy said. �Decisions I made that seemed
good at the time, and now I think they were wrong. On the other hand, reversing
them might not correct the wrong. It might make you respond worse than ever.�

�� Harry
stiffened to his full height and spoke as sternly as he could. �I wish you
would stop thinking about what the effect on me might be, sir. It�s solving the
case that�s important.�

�� Malfoy�s
smile had a tinge of sadness to it this time. �No,� he said. �You�re wrong
there. The effect on you is the most important thing, and, for me, always has
been.�

�� Harry
closed his hands into fists and wished he could think of anything to say that
would convince Malfoy they weren�t destined lovers, or whatever strange
conception he�d worked up in his head.

�� Now you sound mad, sir,� he managed.

�� Malfoy
shook his head again. �You�re only saying that,� he said. �And I suspect that I
haven�t been able to alter my approach enough to make you sure about me. I
always thought that the best thing to do if I finally got you into Corybantes
would be to come on strong. I thought you would need to be seduced by overwhelming
you until you could acknowledge your own need to give in to pleasure.�

�� Harry held
himself still, because a hasty response would be worse than the wrong one, and
carefully probed around the insides of his Occlumency walls. No, they felt as firm
as ever, which made him suspect that they hadn�t fallen or permitted Malfoy a
glimpse of his fantasies. Instead, Malfoy had probably either guessed already
or just happened to hit on a quirk of wording that came near what Harry wanted
in the most shameful part of himself.

�� I was wrong,�
Malfoy said. �You need to be talked to and treated rationally, because you are rational. Repressed, yes.� He gave
Harry a sidelong amused look. �But rational. And you�re too strong to treat
like a conquest.�

�� I don�t
understand you at all,� Harry began,
his voice crackling with the tension. He no longer cared if Malfoy knew it. �I
was brought here to investigate a case��

�� Yes,�
Malfoy said. �That had to occur when we knew the death had happened and what
the inevitable consequence would be. But that�s not all you were brought here
for.� He bowed to Harry and walked towards the door. �I�ll summon Leon. In the
meantime, enjoy the visions that Keatson placed with me.� He waved his wand,
and a whirlwind of sparks began to move in the star-globe.

�� Then he was
out the door, and gone, and Harry had to clench his jaw against the temptation
to shout. What the fuck was going on?
Did Kingsley know about this? Did the patrons of Corybantes know that Malfoy
considered toying with him more important than getting the club cleared of the
imputation of crime so that they could return to their favorite decadent
pursuits?

�� He wanted
to shout and lash out. He wanted to do it so badly that he knew that was an
excellent sign he shouldn�t do it.

�� He ended up
taking enough deep breaths to make him feel light-headed instead, and then he
turned to investigate the star-globe. The fantasies were bright and insistent,
if smaller than Pensieve visions, and he had
to concentrate. He had to.

�� But based
on what the visions showed him and what Malfoy�s employee said, Harry hoped
that he could make an arrest. Malfoy might be sane, but Harry wouldn�t be for much
longer if he stayed in Corybantes.

*

�� You wished
to speak to me, sir?�

�� Harry
stared. Of course he knew that the name �Leon� could indicate a lion, and given
the ways of Corybantes, that should have prepared him. But the man who stepped
into the room had a flaring lion�s mane around his face and lion�s paws in
place of feet. His fingers were tipped with delicate claws. His eyes were far
too bright a green�though not, Harry thought with a touch of scorn for himself
for noticing, as bright a green as the ones he saw in the mirror�and had pupils
like a cat�s.

�� Yes,� he
said, and did his best to sound relaxed and not ungracious. Malfoy�s employee
didn�t deserve to have Harry�s ire at Malfoy taken out on him. �I understand that
you happened to preserve the star-globe that belonged to Pascal Keatson.� He
nodded to the globe on the table, keeping his eyes away from it. The visions he
had seen in it still sickened and haunted him. Keatson wished to know what it
was like to feel death coming for him, bright and sharp, and his favorite idea
about it was that a knife would cut his throat. After watching him die in
endless permutations, Harry had no taste for more.

�� Leon
nodded. �Lord Malfoy��

�� Why do you
call him lord?� Harry demanded,
turning sharply around. One never knew, he told himself. This might be
important. Maybe Malfoy had fantasies of supreme power and control, the kind
that would make him conceal information because he wanted to solve the case
himself. Harry had met plenty of people over the years who were convinced they
could play Auror, and some of them had managed to pretend well enough to
convince others.

�� You know that isn�t the reason that you�re
asking the question, his conscience said, in a clear voice that Harry hated.
It was the same way it had spoken when he did something that endangered his
partners because of pride and stupidity. You
want to understand Malfoy so that you can unsettle him, so that you can get to
him the way he�s getting to you.

�� Harry
clenched his teeth down on his tongue until he tasted blood. The question had been
asked, and Leon looked no more than mildly surprised by it. In fact, he smiled
knowingly and nodded again.

�� It takes a
bit of getting used to, doesn�t it, sir?� he asked softly. �Everything here is
his. Under his control, produced from his mind, executed�or not�at his command.
Some of our guests feel rather claustrophobic at first, convinced as they are
that they should be able to command their own destinies.�

�� So that�s
why you call him lord?� Harry asked, to fix his attention on the words and away
from how supremely creepy he found the results of Malfoy�s control.

�� Leon
grinned, showing teeth that had become points. No surprise, Harry thought. �Yes. It started out as a teasing
remark from Shadow, because of the way that he ordered everyone around. But the
rest of us liked it, and started adopting it.� He cocked his head to the side
and lifted a tail that Harry hadn�t noticed properly before, since it seemed to
spend most of its time coiled around Leon�s legs. �It fits. He gives us what we
most crave, and in return, we indulge his tiny caprices.�

�� What about
his fantasies?� Harry asked. He was wondering if the subservience that Malfoy�s
employees exhibited, including the way that Shadow refused to talk to him about
anything important in front of him, was meaningful. Perhaps most people here
knew Malfoy had committed the murder, but they had gone so deep into the dark,
hot labyrinths of Corybantes that they weren�t able to see that they should
report the death. Harry had dealt with situations like that before.

�� And been in
them. He shuddered as he thought of the way he had acted during an undercover
assignment to investigate a group of demon-worshippers. He had never been so
near to becoming what he despised.

�� Oh, no,
sir,� Leon said, sounding shocked. �He would never ask someone in the club to
do something that intimate and personal.�

�� Harry
stared at him. �But this place is all about trusting someone else with your
intimacies,� he said.

�� Leon looked
over his shoulder, then leaned confidingly towards Harry. �Well, sir,� he
whispered, �between you and me, Lord Malfoy is a bit of a hypocrite.�

�� The
richest, ripest snort of Harry�s life tried to work its way out of his nose,
and he had to suppress it. A bit?

�� He
encourages others to lower their barriers,� Leon was continuing, with several
wise nods that Harry thought made him resemble Hermione, �to bathe in the
relaxation he offers, whether they want a literal bath or something as exotic
as a group of dancing girls who are half-panther. The fantasy rooms must have
been the centerpiece of your experience of the club so far, because that�s
where Keatson died, but there are plenty of other rooms here as well. Massage
rooms, bathing rooms, bedrooms where our clients can sleep in the assurance
that their rest will be undisturbed.� He paused, with a faint, gentle smile on
his lips. �Sometimes people come here who are parents and simply want to sleep, the way they can never do when
they have young children around the house. We entertain the children so they
don�t need to worry at all.�

�� Harry
blinked several times. Trying to fit that imagined Corybantes into the one he
had seen was impossible.

�� But of
course,� Leon continued, waving one paw above his head to show off the
seriousness of what he was discussing, �Lord Malfoy thinks differently. His
fantasies are private. I don�t think he�s ever confessed them to anyone but
Shadow, because she�s been with him longest. And I reckon he�ll confess them to
the person who can fulfill them,� Leon added, with a shrug of one tawny
shoulder. �I suspect it�s one single person he wants with a devouring desire,
the kind that sometimes destroys our clients before we can fully ease them of
the flames. But I don�t know who it is.�

�� Harry had
to close his eyes and swallow slowly, because only now did he understand the
full impact of Malfoy�s admission in his office.

�� I�m the one he wants.

�� So many
emotions bent back on themselves in Harry that he didn�t think he fully got to
feel one before another intruded. There was wariness, and anger, and amazement,
and concern for Malfoy�s mental health.

�� But most of
all, making sparks dance golden behind his eyelids the way squeezing them shut
too hard did, was confusion.

�� Why�why the fuck would he want me? Someone
who understands the weaknesses desire unleashes as well as he does wouldn�t
succumb to mindless celebrity-worship. And he said something about knowing that
I wasn�t the same as I was at Hogwarts, so he can�t want the schoolboy. But
there�s no way that he can know the real me, either.

�� Harry
blinked and opened his eyes slowly. He had the impulse to seek out Malfoy now
and speak to him, but the case was still the more important thing. He could do
nothing as long as the fear that Malfoy was the murderer, or protecting the
murderer, stood between them.

�� We seem to
have drifted a bit off-topic,� he said, smiling at Leon. The man had a polite
look on his face still, so Harry didn�t know how much he might have guessed of
the thoughts going through Harry�s mind. Harry hoped he hadn�t guessed much at
all. �Why did you keep this star-globe?�

�� Lord
Malfoy is wonderfully cunning and clever,� Leon answered at once, with a brush
of one claw across his mane, �but not always conscious. He said that Keatson�s fantasies worried him, but he
couldn�t understand why, since he had seen more violent ones before. Well, I watched
the visions and I understood why at once. There was a desire to die there
without any of the usual motives for it.� He glanced at the star-globe. �You�ve
watched them, sir?�

�� Harry
winced, which Leon took for an answer. �He wanted to taste that special pain
that comes on the brink of death. He didn�t think about what would come after
that, so it wasn�t a wish to leave life behind. He didn�t want to make people
sorry he was gone. He didn�t want to die because of some overwhelming sorrow in
his life. It was�that taste of sensation. Nothing else.� Leon looked at once
solemn and disbelieving.

�� Harry
curled his lip. �So you kept it because you thought that Malfoy would probably
want to look at them again someday, in case something happened?�

�� Leon bobbed
his head. �Yes, but I never anticipated something like this happening, sir.
Lord Malfoy�s protections are, as I said, all under his control. No one could
have broken through his wards if he did not allow it.�

�� Harry
licked his lips. The evidence that Malfoy was complicit in the murder seemed
stronger everywhere he looked.

�� But he had
no idea how that fit with the evidence of Keatson�s drawings and fantasies. Or
the things Leon had told him. Or the fact that Keatson had been killed by
someone facing him instead of from behind�although both positions had showed up
among the visions he had just watched.

�� Thank you,�
he said. �No further questions.�

�� Leon bowed
and retreated from the room. Harry bent his head and raked his fingers through
his hair until he felt a bead of blood break from his scalp.

�� Malfoy had
given him a gift. But was the gift poisoned, or meant to be a pure, sweet
elixir? And even if Malfoy thought it was pure, did it still have poison hidden
at the bottom of it?

�� Would he
end up a sex slave if he listened more closely to Malfoy?

�� Then Harry
laughed at himself, a short bark that sounded desperate.

�� No, the inevitable will happen. Malfoy will
find out that I�m nothing like he thought me, and give up in disgust and despair.

�� Harry
strode out of the club. He knew his next step, but he could not be on the
premises of Corybantes when he enacted it.

�� And all the
while, he subjected himself to a scathing with mental steel for worrying more
about disappointing Malfoy than whether Malfoy was the murderer.

�� At least my priorities are in the right
place, though. I need to be thinking about Malfoy and the other people who will
be affected if the murder happened in Corybantes�including Keatson�s family�and
not myself. Who the fuck cares how
Malfoy�s fantasies affect me? He gave me the gift of his honesty under a
mistake about who I really am. I just have to make sure not to drop it. There�s
no question of taking it into myself.

�� That final
idea couldn�t still the confusion whirling in him, but Harry made it serve as a
stable point to fix his thoughts to, out of which he could grow his intentions.

�� And the
first of those was sending an owl to Shadow, to ask her to meet him privately,
and without Malfoy�s knowledge.

*

�� hieisdragoness18:
Nothing that scandalous, alas. At this point Draco is just really wishing Harry
would listen.

�� polka dot: Harry
thinks that everyone should realize there are more important things in life
than whether you are passionately in love with your job.

�� MewMew2:
Thanks for reviewing.

�� nekoyoka:
Sorry, not yet. Harry is so confused that he doesn�t want to make a move on
Malfoy yet. And yes, his fantasies do disgust him. You�ll see why later.

�� SP777: It�s
most likely that control Leon talks about in this chapter combined with his
desires for Harry. He hasn�t sated those desires in years, and so, in a way, he�s
just as repressed as Harry (though more acknowledging of it). He does try to
slow down in this chapter, but if he backed off completely, then he would
probably just make Harry leave.

�� puresilver:
Thanks! And right now, Harry really needs an answer as to whether Draco is the
murderer or not.

�� callistianstar:
Thank you! Harry is kind of far gone and kind of not at the same time. He doesn�t
understand himself as well as he thinks, but he is perceptive about other
people, I think (about perhaps Draco).

�� Lots of
things about this case have been mishandled. That�s one of the things that�s
driving Harry crazy.
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Corybantes