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Ceremonies of Strife	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 16218 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, and I am making no money from this writing.

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Chapter Six�Passing
Days

�� Harry shook
his head at the newspaper. As usual, the Daily
Prophet was reporting the story of Nihil�s armies, or at least the
sightings of the living dead, in the worst way that it possibly could. It chose
the most incredible stories, mixed them together with breathless lines from
Rita Skeeter about whose fault this could be, and
plopped them on the page with headlines in type six inches high.

�� One
wonders what they would do if these living dead were already killing people,�
Draco said dryly as he sat down at the table.

�� I know,�
Harry said, and handed the paper off to him to read while he finished his
breakfast. Kreacher had learned how to make toast and eggs exactly the way
Harry liked them, and he no longer banged his head against the table or the
walls because Harry wouldn�t take fancier food. Harry crunched through the last
piece of toast and looked up. �Why do
you think Nihil hasn�t ordered them to kill people yet?�

�� I don�t
know.� Draco was looking at the photograph on the front page with a deep frown
on his face, perhaps because it showed a near-hysterical witch fainting over
and over again into the arms of a wizard who just �happened� to stand ready to
catch her. �Perhaps that isn�t their purpose.�

�� What else
could he want them to do, though?� Harry swallowed the last of his orange juice
and leaned back in his chair, tapping the tabletop with his fingers. Draco
looked at him with one sharp eye over the top of the paper. Harry grinned and
stopped. �I mean, you don�t raise an army of the living dead simply to wander
around and give a few susceptible people shivers.�

�� Draco
shrugged and turned back to the story again. �Who can say what thought would
occur to a mind raddled by necromancy? You have to be a bit mad to even take up
that study in the first place.�

�� Harry felt
the crumbs of the toast turn bitter in his mouth. He stood up more quickly than
necessary. �I�m going to go add some things to the training room,� he muttered.
They had turned a large room on the first floor of the house into a place where
they could practice violent spells and compatible magic and not have to worry
about them splintering walls or cracking the floor.

�� Draco
nodded at him, seemingly absorbed in his reading. Harry fled.

�� But there could be other purposes, he
told himself to dispel his guilt, as he climbed the stairs and turned towards
the training room at the top of them. Draco�s
never practiced necromancy. He doesn�t
know, not really.

*

�� Draco hesitated,
and then scribbled out a line in the letter he�d written. He wanted to write to
the War Wizards and make it sound as though he were loftily inquiring about a
place in their ranks because of a passing interest in their methods, not
because he was fascinated to the point of irritation that he was shut out.

�� Then relax, said his father�s voice in
his ear.

�� Draco
frowned automatically, but leaned back in his chair and tried to think about
the matter clearly. Just because his father was a bastard didn�t mean it wasn�t
good advice. God knew that he needed to put down his words so that no one else
could misunderstand them, and a few minutes of rational thought would
contribute more to that purpose than an hour of excited babbling.

�� Why do I want to be a War Wizard so much? Draco
thought, imagining that someone from their group had come and asked him that. There are disadvantages. I�ve already begun
my training as an Auror, and they would be sure to point that out. War Wizards
have dangerous jobs; I couldn�t want to join up because it would be safer than
being an Auror. And there�s the possibility that I would have to leave Harry
behind, compatible magic or not.

�� Unfortunately,
Draco knew the answer to that question. It was unfortunate because it was not
an answer the War Wizards would want to hear.

I
love power.

It had to be something less naked
than that, Draco acknowledged reluctantly, something that would seem to do
honor to the War Wizards� reputation and purpose. They were supposed to
intervene in those situations where the enemies were too strong for the Aurors
to handle. They were supposed to be the guarantee against war, and the Ministry
hadn�t used them more often because there was the fear that they would become
bullies, crushing all opposition. Using them in ordinary Dark wizard work, or for that matter their
spells, would be like using a hammer to crush a gnat.

Or so the books and pamphlets and
letters Draco had read had said.

He still wanted their spells,
though. He still thought those spells could be useful in ordinary Auror work,
and besides, he wanted to feel them thrumming through his wand and his bones.
What would happen when they were multiplied by the force of the compatible
magic that he shared with Harry?

�� Draco
shivered simply sitting there. The only thing that could compare to the golden
feeling overtaking him when he thought of being a War Wizard was the thought of
sex with Harry.

�� They might not be so different. Even that
makes me feel powerful.

�� Draco
licked his lips and focused on the letter. What excuse would make his
intentions clear and yet not offensive? How could he write so that the War
Wizards would be prepared to grant him an interview and never dream that he
thought of something else than serving the country day and night, to the last
drop of his blood? (Draco did not for one second believe
that all the War Wizards were really that sincere, but their propaganda made it
clear that they wouldn�t consider candidates who couldn�t speak the language).

�� And then
the perfect thing occurred to him. He nearly laughed out loud as he took out a
fresh sheet of parchment and began to write.

�� Dear Wizard Cardogan:

�� I am writing to you because I am concerned
that the Aurors� spells may not be of enough use in defending the Ministry
against the living dead, and I am interested in what more you can teach me and
Auror trainees like me.

�� The
Ministry had already been attacked once. No one could say that it wouldn�t be
attacked again, especially when Nihil seemed to have a grudge against several
of the Auror instructors, and him, and Harry. And Draco was asking only for
teaching in individual spells, not admission into their ranks�which, in truth,
was all he wanted.

�� There, Draco thought as he sealed the
letter and got up to persuade Harry to go to Diagon
Alley so they could find a post-owl. Let�s
see what response that produces.

*

�� I am
sorry, mate.�

�� Harry
raised one eyebrow and leaned back in his chair. Ron said the words with a
downcast expression that Harry could believe easily enough. But he didn�t know
if Ron was apologizing because he was upset for having displeased Harry or
because he was really sorry.

�� And would I have demanded an absolutely
sincere apology from Draco? Harry thought. Or an absolutely sincere holding of his temper? I know that he�ll only do it because I
asked him to, and not because he has any desire to be friends with anyone named
Weasley.

�� Besides, it
was probably a bit much to assume that Ron would change his mind all at once,
and then punish him if he didn�t. Harry decided to accept this in the spirit it
was given. Ron had cared enough to
come here and do it in person instead of trying to foist it off on a firecall or an owl, after all.

�� I forgive
you,� Harry said. �But why in the world did you say something so stupid, Ron?
You were able enough to accept him when he was my friend. Why is his being my
lover so different?�

�� Ron stared
at the floor, and said nothing.

�� You can�t
think that I�m going to get back together with Ginny,� Harry said, and frowned
when he saw the way Ron flushed. �I mean, you can�t, can you? Why? We�ve already said everything that we had to
say to each other, and you know I would have stayed with her, but she was the
one to throw me out, and then act as if she had some kind of power, or should
have, over me still. Why would I want to go back to her? Besides, I�m happy
with Draco. You can�t imagine.� He heard the way his voice broke on the last
words, and coughed in embarrassment.

�� Ron finally
looked up, and his eyes were bright and steady, but his voice was a mumble.
�Friends are one thing, mate. I�ve never thought that I was more important to
you than Hermione, or the other way around.� Harry thought about reminding Ron
of the fights they�d had in Hogwarts, but that would just start another row,
and so he was quiet. �But a lover�I�m afraid Malfoy
will be more important to you than we are. I�m afraid that there�s nothing we
can do, and he�ll take you away from us.�

�� It took
Harry a long time to find his voice, especially because he could more or less
guess what it had cost Ron to say that. Finally he whispered back, �Ron, I�ll
never let you or Hermione go, not without a fight�a much worse fight than I
went through when I gave Ginny up. You have to know that, because I know that
you feel the same way about me. And you don�t think Hermione is more important
to you than I am, do you? I just know that she�s important in a different way.�

�� Ron stood
up and paced in a circle around the sitting room. Harry leaned forwards and
looked at him. He was glad, just now, that Draco had gone to Diagon Alley to shop for something mysterious and wouldn�t
be back for a few hours. He didn�t want anyone to interrupt Ron and make him
speak before he was ready.

�� Hermione
doesn�t want to take me away from you,� Ron finally said, and stopped and faced
Harry now as if he was determined to get all the words out at once. �I know
Malfoy wants to take you away from us. It�s in the way he smirks, and the
way he came down and put that arm around your shoulder the other day.� Harry
didn�t point out that �the other day� had been a fortnight ago. He knew anger
did strange things to Ron�s sense of time. �And it�s in the way he talked to
Ginny and my mum. I�m just afraid that we�re going to lose you to him, and you
won�t even notice. You�ll think that
you�re spending just as much time with us as you ever did, but it won�t be
true.�

�� Harry
blinked. He had to admit, that was not a view of things that had occurred to
him before. And it did fit with Draco�s character that he would want to keep
Harry all to himself and would be pleased if Harry�s friends stopped visiting.
That was something Ron might well have noticed that Harry didn�t.

�� But Ron was
forgetting one thing, the way Ron and Draco had both forgotten it when they fought.
Harry thought it was time to remind him again.

�� Ron,� he
said gently, �I have a will of my own. If it turned out he was doing that, I
would fight my way back. And if he cared more for angering you than he did for
loving me, then I would drop him.� Not
without tearing my heart from my body, he wanted to say, but didn�t,
because he thought Ron wouldn�t have been as open with him about his feelings
for Hermione.

�� He also
didn�t say that he thought this would never happen, because Ron was watching him
with bright eyes, and that was clearly what he needed to hear. �Really, mate?�
he breathed.

�� Yes,�
Harry said. �If that
happened. Which I don�t think it will.�

�� It seemed
that the assurance was enough for Ron. He immediately relaxed and smiled, and said,
�Good. That was�that was what I was worried about. Losing
you, and you seeming glad to go.�

�� Ron was
flushing by now, and Harry was feeling uncomfortable himself. He wanted to hear
the words �I love you� from Draco, but he didn�t often talk with Ron about
their friendship. And he didn�t now. He stood up, patted his shoulder, mumbled
a few words, and then sent Ron out the door.

��

�� Ron reached
it just as Draco was coming back in. Harry tensed, but although they sneered at
each other, Draco stood aside to let Ron pass, and Ron hurried off without
speaking any insults.

�� Harry
sighed in relief, and then smiled at Draco. �No answer to
your letter yet?� He knew Draco had written to the War Wizards, and he
had to admit he was curious to see what they would say.

�� Draco shook
his head, looking disgusted. �They sent me a pamphlet and a letter �thanking me
for my interest.� But nothing more than that.� He
touched Harry�s shoulder, with a light, quick motion that for some reason made
Harry have to close his eyes to absorb it. �I take it Weasley apologized?�

�� Harry
nodded. �Yes. He was afraid of losing me to you, that
was all.�

�� Well, he
should be,� Draco muttered.

�� Harry
laughed, and leaned towards him, and kissed him, and then they had more
interesting things to do than argue about Ron.

*

�� Harry�s
birthday was celebrated with his friends, of course. Draco knew he had gone
over to the Burrow the night before, but it seemed Granger couldn�t be there,
and she had borne Weasley with her somewhere, so he had a second birthday party
at Grimmauld Place.

�� Draco sat
as patiently as he could through the opening of those friends� presents: dull
books from Granger, a pair of Quidditch gloves from Weasley, and a poster of
the Chudley Cannons from Weasley, too. Harry had glanced
at him more and more as the celebration went on. He knew Draco had a gift for
him, because Draco had said that, but he didn�t see it in the small pile on the
table.

�� Draco
simply smiled at him, and said nothing. When the celebration finished and it
seemed as though Weasley might start jeering at him for not getting Harry a
gift, he stood up, said, �My present had to be contained in a different place,
because I couldn�t wrap it,� and went to fetch the shining glass cage from the
top of the house.

�� Politesse
sat beside it, guarding it. He stood up, wagging his scorpion tail gently, when
he saw Draco. Draco nodded to him and picked up the case. The creature inside
lunged at the walls and hissed at him, annoyed.

�� Draco
carried the cage very carefully down the stairs. The ceremony of binding Harry
to this creature had to be done just right, or it would fly madly away at best,
take some other master at worst. It was the reason Draco hadn�t opened the cage
since he bought it in Knockturn Alley.

�� He brought
the cage into the dining room, and heard Granger stop talking with a gasp.
Weasley�s jaw hung open, which Draco preferred to his chatter. Harry was the
last to turn around, slowly, as if Draco�s gift was so important to him that he
wanted some anticipation before he saw what it was.

�� Draco
smiled as he set the cage down on the table. Yes, that was as it should be. If he
was the most important person in Harry�s life, then his present should be the
most important one Harry received.

�� Harry
opened his mouth with a great gasp, but didn�t say anything. He moved forwards
instead, staring at the cage reverently.

�� Inside
crouched one of the tiny creatures that Draco had heard were being smuggled
into the country, and had received confirmation of when he ventured into Knockturn Alley. It was, to all appearances, a small
dragon, though with long, slender horns to crown its head, a fringe of spikes
around its neck, a longer tail proportionate to its size, and no ability to
breathe fire. Its scales glowed blue-green, with flashes of gold on the flanks
and the wings. Its eyes were pure gold, and, at the moment, shone with menace
as it flung itself at the walls of the cage, screaming in a high voice.

�� Harry
recovered first, the way Draco had thought he would. �I reckon there�s some way
to tame it,� he said, smiling at Draco.

�� Of course
there is,� Draco said, and returned that smile with an interest that made Harry
blush. He ignored Granger�s spluttering about illegal animals from across the
table. Really, these fire-dancers�named for their color,
and not their breath�were only illegal as long as they weren�t bonded to a
master. Once they were, they could be as docile as any other pet.

�� He held out
his wand, and Harry extended his hand without protest. Draco murmured a simple
charm. Harry�s hand began to bleed in the web between his thumb and his
forefinger.

�� Draco
stepped back and opened the lid of the cage.

�� The
fire-dancer flung itself into the air, accompanied by a shriek from Granger.
For a moment, it hovered, turning its head from side to side. Draco smiled. It
was a beautiful thing, even when it bared its long fangs and brought a gleam of
unexpected and shining white into its colors.

�� But then it
smelled the blood and immediately dived, digging hooked claws into Harry�s
shoulder and arm to balance itself. Harry gasped, but
held still. The fire-dancer shot out a long, forked tongue, and began lapping
impatiently at the blood, hissing all the while as if displeased that it was
such a small amount.

�� When it
finished, though, it lifted its head to Harry and uttered a gentler hiss. The
cut had sealed itself already. The fire-dancer leaped to Harry�s shoulder and
shoved its head against his chin like a cat. Harry lifted a hesitant hand and
started stroking the soft, smooth scales.

�� He�s
beautiful,� Harry said, and his voice was soft and dazed, and Draco smiled at
him in triumph.

�� Isn�t he?
He�s called a fire-dancer, Harry. I found him in a shop that had a shipment of
them, unbonded, that it wanted to get rid of. And I
thought he would be the perfect gift for you, since you speak Parseltongue and
you need someone to keep you out of trouble.� Draco shared a smile with Harry
that was purely private. �The way that I have Politesse.�

�� Harry
nodded. He seemed utterly absorbed in the fire-dancer, which was investigating
his cheeks with its tongue. Granger was the one who spoke next. �Those things
are dangerous, Malfoy.�

�� Draco
smiled pleasantly at her. �How do you know? In fact, bonded fire-dancers are
perfectly legal, because they never hurt anyone save
at their owner�s command. They can�t breathe fires, so they�re in no danger of
causing the kind of damage that a real dragon could. And they can keep an eye
on their owners a lot more easily than some other pets, because they can fly
and they can track the vibrations of their owners� heartbeats.�

�� But it
drinks blood!� Weasley blurted. Draco sighed; the git had recovered enough to
be annoying. �That means it has to be
a Dark creature!�

�� Draco would
have disdained to answer, except that Harry was looking at him inquiringly, and
Draco knew that he would have questions of his own about the way the
fire-dancer had lapped at blood. �Only the first meal,� he said. �The one that bonds it to its owner. After that, it eats
meat and fish, and nothing else unless its owner tells it to.� He turned to
Harry, and away from Weasley and Granger. �What are you going to call him?�

��

�� Harry, his
eyes locked on Draco, offered a smile that was different from the one they�d
shared before. This was smaller, but also deeper. Draco licked his lips and was
glad that the table was in the right position to hide his reaction to that
smile from Weasley and Granger.

�� Flash,�
Harry said. �Because it would be repetitive to call him
Draco.�

�� Draco accepted
the tribute with a slight turn of his head and a flutter of his lashes that he
could hear making Weasley gag. That was a secondary benefit, of course,
compared to the way that it made Harry�s eyes glow.

*

�� Harry
flipped through his necromancy book, growing more and more frustrated. It
seemed that all the other rituals, beyond the simple one he had used to see the
vision of Sirius, were so insanely complicated that he could never gather all
the ingredients he needed without alerting Draco as to what he was doing.

�� Flash,
sleeping on top of a cabinet in the attic, opened one eye and then closed it
again. Harry had noted that he often did that, as if he wanted to make sure
that his owner was always within touching distance.

�� Harry
smiled at him, and for a moment let his gaze linger. Draco had given him a
magnificent gift. Harry had thanked him, he hoped, properly and at length that
night, and yet it still didn�t make up for it. Harry could never have afforded
Politesse. He�d been given him by someone who, he thought now, was probably
fleeing from the Ministry and had to give up all his exotic animals before he
was caught with them and condemned. Draco had bought Flash with his own money.

�� And this is the way you repay him. By studying necromancy.

�� Harry
winced and took a deep breath. Sometimes, he thought of explaining to Draco how
important the dead were to him, why he thought it was so unfair that Sirius and
Remus and so many others hadn�t got the chance to
live out their lives, but then he remembered. Draco hadn�t known those people,
or he had known them and hadn�t cared for them, like Remus
and Fred. Harry didn�t think he could make him understand, and one of the
things he feared most in the world was for Draco to look at him with blank eyes
or a face full of hatred.

�� Flash
opened one eye again, and then fluttered up from the cabinet and landed on
Harry�s shoulder, wreathing his tail around Harry�s neck. He had a strange
noise that he made when Harry was upset, not quite a purr, but probably the
closest to it that a reptile could make�a low buzz. He did it now. Harry
stroked his back and tried to take his thoughts away from necromancy. Draco
would be back soon. He should go down and wait for him.

�� He flipped
one more page, idly.

�� And then stopped.

�� On this
page, which he had never looked at before�the book was thick�was an
illustration. It looked as though it had been hastily done, and Harry didn�t
think he would have recognized it if he hadn�t seen it before.

�� A wheel,
with the leaves of deadly nightshade twined around the axle and through the spokes.

�� The symbol that the Battle Healer Portillo Lopez carried hidden on
her skin.

*

�� Thrnbrooke: Thank you!

�� paigeey07: He
is, but he�s coming around.

�� anciie: Yes, Harry isn�t always
smart. But I wanted to show that he isn�t dumb, hence his perceptiveness about
dealing with both Ron and Draco.

�� Draco is
beginning to realize that being the most important person in Harry�s life does
carry a price with it, in the form of having to listen to him.

�� qwerty: Thanks so much!

�� Chidee: Nihil would most likely have no idea where it is,
since even most of the Death Eaters didn�t know that Voldemort was seeking the
Hallows.

�� polka dot: Yes, and they will.

�� MewMew2:
Thanks! Yes, while necromancy is a stupid solution, I think it�s understandable
that Harry feels this overwhelming drive to do something, to make up for having
survived, in a way.

�� Sarah:
Thank you!

�� SP777:
Thank you! I think Harry is a hard character for a lot of people to handle because
he does make a lot of mistakes in canon, but that doesn�t really mean he�s
stupid. It just means that he�s ignorant, and one can grow out of that. I try
to do it consciously, but don�t always succeed.

�� Harry turns 20 in the course of this chapter. Everyone else
is already 20.

�� Dragons
Breath: He would have to advance further in necromancy for that to happen. Or
are you talking about with Nihil? At the moment, Nihil is hunting larger game.
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Ceremonies of Strife