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Seasons of War	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 9694 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and I am not making any money from this story.

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

Chapter Six�Overall

�� It makes
you difficult to work with when you are hiding things from me.�

�� Draco
started and looked up. He had been contemplating what he would be able to do if
he could simply keep Nusquam for a few more days and use more complicated
piercing and impaling spells, of the kinds that Professor Snape�s memories
contained. It had made him, he knew, slow and inattentive to what Gregory was
doing, but he had not expected that particular remark. �I beg your pardon?� he
asked stiffly.

�� You are
exhilarated.� Gregory eyed the list in front of her a moment, and then turned
around with that abrupt kind of movement that usually made Draco try to keep
his distance from her. �I am able to see this from the way your eyes glow and
focus beyond me. And there is nothing to be exhilarated about concerning either
your performance in classes or the methods of torture we have discovered. What
is it?�

�� Draco
studied her carefully for a few moments before replying. Gregory was more
observant than he had thought. He�d never doubted her intelligence, but had
counted on the way she tended to focus on one thing at a time to keep his
secrets safe around her.

�� I have a
secret,� he responded. �I�ve won a victory that could make the difference
between winning and losing the war.�

�� Gregory
leaned forwards and then waited, seeming to assume she only needed to do that
to have the secret shared.

�� You could
tell the other Aurors,� Draco said, folding his arms, �or at least the instructors.
And that would be the end of it.� He was pretending reluctance, but really his
mind was racing, trying to calculate the precise chances of Gregory betraying
them. He would like someone to share
this with who would appreciate his skill and finesse in a way that he rest of
the comitatus could not.

�� What
reason have I to tell them?� Gregory tilted her head back, and her eyes were
wild and bright and scornful, the way Draco imagines his would look under
similar circumstances. �They were the ones who believed me a traitor based on
slight evidence. They were the ones who cast me out and turned their backs on
me, refusing to spend time searching for evidence that would have proved Dearborn�s
ridiculous story false. No, I have no reason to talk to them about this.�

�� Why did
you come back and ally with them if you despise them so much?� Draco asked.

�� They�re my
best chance to defeat Nihil,� Gregory answered, giving Draco a strange look, as
if she had assumed everyone knew that.

�� Draco
pondered one moment more, and then decided to trust her. At least it would be
easy enough to use a Memory Charm on her if he turned out to be wrong.
Gregory�s mental defenses weren�t that great compared to her physical ones.

�� All
right,� he said. �I managed to capture one of Nihil�s major servants, and so
far she�s staying where I put her instead of dying or changing into a different
body to escape.�

�� Gregory
paused. Her hands, resting on the table, began to tremble a moment later. Draco
looked at them uneasily and wondered if he had made the wrong decision.

�� Nusquam,�
Gregory said. �It must be. There is no other servant I know of is who both
major enough that you could be proud of capturing her and female.�

�� Well, I
could have arrested one of the Auror instructors,� Draco muttered, but he
didn�t think he was that displeased that Gregory had figured it out without
being told. After all, it was clear that his announcement itself had surprised
her.

�� Not
without severely disrupting the schedule of classes and the life of the camp.�
Gregory locked her hands on the table again, this time to hold herself upright,
her eyes bright and steady and hungry. �Well, shall we go see her?�

�� If you can
come up with a good reason to venture out of the camp in daylight,� Draco said.
�She�s in a tent beyond the edge of it, actually easier to reach at night when
not everyone thinks they need a reason for your business.�

�� Or sees
you to think they do so,� Gregory corrected him. �Yes, in fact, it�ll be easy.
I�ll tell them that I�ve chosen you to demonstrate some of the more dangerous
techniques on, and that I�m worried your partner might think they�re abusive.
Hence the need for a private place to practice.�

�� Draco
nodded, and followed Gregory out of the tent and across the camp. Not many
people tried to speak to them, though almost everyone paused to watch Gregory�s
cold, disdainful face and fast stride. Draco reckoned he could count on that as
a safe alibi in one way. No one was going to forget seeing them, but on the
other hand, Gregory�s company was its own guarantee of a good purpose.

�� The
sentries didn�t bother stopping them, so they didn�t have to use their story.
Draco was pleased about that, since he didn�t want Harry to worry.

�� More than he already is, at least.

�� Draco frowned
and thought again about what Harry had done in the last few days. He spoke
less, and he had refused, with an absent air, Draco�s attempts to introduce
intimacy into their interactions since they had captured Nusquam. He spent a
lot of time looking at the walls of the tent. His essays were sloppier.

�� He was
probably worrying about Draco and when the invisible corruption that was
supposed to plague everyone who committed torture would set in. Perhaps he was
even worried that it hadn�t come yet. At least then he would probably have some
solid plan for how to act towards Draco.

�� Draco
rolled his eyes and snorted so loudly that Gregory glanced back at him until he
waved her on. It�s ridiculous. He stopped
being a Gryffindor years ago, and still he can only see the world through a
Gryffindor mindset. I still have Slytherin traits, yes, but at least I can look
beyond them and see through other people�s eyes.

*

�� But if
it�s based on my connection to Voldemort, that�s just as bad,� Harry said. He
didn�t know why he couldn�t make Portillo Lopez understand that. The latest
snake illusion around his shoulders, a python, swayed and hissed, and Harry had
to murmur several soothing words in Parseltongue to hold it back from attacking
his supposed mentor. �Then it�s not something I can teach to anyone else.�

�� We don�t
know that yet,� Portillo Lopez said, with that unfailingly patient manner that
sometimes bolstered Harry and sometimes irritated the fuck out of him. �Let us
try one more time.� She conjured a mirror and held it floating above her head,
then cast another spell that filled it with bright blue and yellow lines.
�Bring your snake to look into the mirror.�

�� Harry
sighed and asked the python to do so. It flowed down his shoulders with an
extreme slowness that suggested it was only doing this to oblige him and then
floated through the air to hover opposite the mirror.

�� The yellow
lines disappeared, leaving only the blue ones. Harry blinked. That was the most
result they�d had out of any of the tests they�d done so far.

�� Before he
could call Portillo Lopez�s attention to that, though, she spoke a single word.
The blue lines stabbed out of the mirror and hit the snake like a sunrise.

�� Intense
agony cut through Harry, and he slumped to the ground, so much in pain that he
couldn�t even cry out. His mouth filled with blood, his hands filled with loose
earth as he scrabbled at it, and he tried to grip his wand but simply dropped
it. Even when the pain faded, he knelt there, gasping and loose-limbed.

�� That
proves it,� Portillo Lopez said. Her voice was soft and proud.

�� Harry
managed to force his head up, and sternly told himself that he could kill her later, when she might deserve it even
more. Portillo Lopez was still looking into the mirror, instead of at him.
�What did you do?�

�� The lines
of light in the mirror represented various kinds of magic connected to life and
death,� Portillo Lopez said. �The yellow lines represented the magic of life.
When they vanished, I knew that your magic is not purely based on illusions and
Parseltongue.�

�� And let me
guess,� Harry muttered. He was feeling a little better, but he still shook his
head and moved away to stand up on his own when Portillo Lopez extended a hand.
�The blue lines are the magic of death, which means that my magic is necromancy
after all.�

�� Portillo
Lopez chuckled. �No, because they would not have caused you pain if both they
and your magic were part of the same category. Instead, your magic is what I
theorized it was, a combination of the forces of life and death.�

�� Harry
sighed and leaned shakily against the table that Portillo Lopez had covered
with diagrams, drawings, and lists before they began this experiment. Harry
hadn�t bothered looking at the parchment because he knew he wouldn�t understand
it anyway. �I still don�t see how that helps.�

�� Don�t
you?� Portillo Lopez looked at him with a faint frown. Then she nodded. �Of
course not. You have told me that you have trouble understanding magical
theory.�

�� Especially
from people who hurt me without a moment�s notice,� muttered Harry. He�d
already decided that he didn�t want to tell Draco what had happened today.
Draco would probably get as angry as he had about Holder, and they might
actually need Portillo Lopez.

�� Portillo
Lopez gave him another frown, as if trying to determine what he was talking
about, and then took up the thread of her talk again. �You have already used a
weapon that combines the forces of life and death. The wand I gave you. The
wand affected you, I understand, when you tried to use a blood ritual against
this shadow of Lucius Malfoy, but not as badly as it should have. Your magic is
a hybrid.�

�� But that
doesn�t help,� Harry said, and raked
a hand through his hair. Draco wasn�t here to tell him not to do it, anyway.
�If it�s something so intensely personal, how am I supposed to teach it to
anyone else, or help with the battles unless I�m right there?�

�� Portillo
Lopez sighed. �Because I believe we can modify that weapon to yield others that
might affect Nihil. And your magic gives us an idea of how to do it.�

�� Harry
stared. Finally, a statement that he understood, and one that actually sounded
hopeful.

�� How are we
going to do that?� he asked.

�� Of course,
when Portillo Lopez began to give her explanation, Harry was promptly lost
again, but he clung fiercely to that one statement he�d understood. If he could
provide some way to defeat Nihil that didn�t rely on torture, then he was going
to do it.

�� Draco�s great. He�s doing something
necessary. But�

�� I just think it would be a good idea to have
some other weapon on our side that we could use if we needed to.

*

�� When they
came out of the tent that held Nusquam, Gregory was walking with the same
flushed face and bright eyes that she had accused Draco of displaying to give
away his secret. Draco touched her arm before they got back to the camp.

�� You
understand why this has to be kept a secret?� he asked.

�� Gregory
snapped him a look of contempt and nodded. �You must think that I�m stupid,�
she said. �Not trusting me with the secret of Nusquam�s capture in the first
place. Thinking I would betray you to the other Aurors. What reason do I have
to do that? They�re allies to me, and nothing more. I told you that before.�

�� I know,�
Draco said, but he was thinking: You and
I are nothing more than allies, too. What reason will you have to keep the
secret if you decided that someone better had come along, or that you could
take better charge of Nusquam than I could?

�� He waited
until they were most of the way back to his and Harry�s tent before he brought
up his next idea. Gregory was watching one of her classes at a distance,
perhaps with an Eagle Charm on her eyes, and snapping instructions. Draco
waited until she turned around with a distinct scowl on her face.

�� You know
that Nusquam developed the spells that bring Nihil�s servants into the center
of the camps, behind the wards,� he said. �And that those spells are based on
links to specific individuals.�

�� Gregory
moved her head in answer, but didn�t deign to look at him. Draco gritted his
teeth and reminded himself that he knew about pride�enough not to let it become
a liability.

�� We�ve
broken the links on people we can reach,� he said. �Harry, I, Granger, and
Weasley were all victims of that particular spell. But there are others we
can�t reach and convince to hold still for the spells�Holder, in particular,
and a few of the higher-ranked Aurors, such as Ketchum. Could you come up with
a reason for us to cast the Finites on
them that they would believe, without revealing the secret of Nusquam�s
capture?�

�� Gregory
stopped walking for a moment, standing there with her foot raised from the
ground while she stared into the distance. Then she grinned and nodded. �I can
come up with one for Holder, at least. As for Ketchum and the others, leave
them to me.� She glanced sideways at Draco. �You know that I will have to have
the full list of names, in order that I can create plausible stories for all of
them.�

�� Draco
nodded back, and said nothing else. He had made the decision to involve Gregory
in the secret in the first place, and he refused to regret it now. Especially
when Gregory sounded like she would be useful to them.

�� Especially because regretting it now would
give Granger the material to say that she told me so.

*

�� Potter,
Malfoy, stay behind.�

�� Harry
winced at the cutting edge in Weston�s tone. She hadn�t spoken to him and Draco
like that in days, and he had finally started to hope that they were good
enough to match her impossible standards. Well, their impossible standards,
since Weston and Lowell didn�t seem to have a lot of thoughts that they didn�t
share.

�� But of course not, Harry thought
gloomily as he trudged to the center of the training ring, slipping twice. The
instructors covered the mud with charms to keep it as smooth as the stone of
the Ministry during practice, but the spells usually had begun to wear off by
the time the class was over. We can never
do well enough to please them.

�� Weston
waited for them in the middle of the ring, eyes narrowed as she surveyed them,
arms folded. Lowell stood at her shoulder, but he seemed to have decided that
she should handle this conversation. Harry wondered how they made their
decisions, then shrugged. He only knew that it was on some level of cooperation
he and Draco appeared incapable of reaching.

�� He looked
sideways and found Draco standing there quietly with his eyes narrowed. He
looked like a cat waiting for someone to step on his tail, Harry thought.

�� Then he
remembered some of the things Draco had done when he looked like that, and
mentally winced.

�� Your
compatible magic is once again suffering,� Weston said bluntly. �Why?�

�� Harry
blinked. That hadn�t been what he expected to hear. He cast Draco a glance, but
Draco�s eyes were as wide and his face as pale as though those words had been a
surprise to him, too.

�� Maybe they
were and maybe they weren�t, Harry thought. He didn�t know that he could read
Draco that well anymore.

�� And I think that�s the problem, Harry
decided after a slow moment, when the answer hit him like a Bludger.

�� I think
that we�re having private disagreements that affect our performance,� he told
Weston. �It�s not the disagreements that are the problem, it�s that we�re
keeping silent about them and not telling each other. That sets up the
barriers.�

�� Lowell
sagged forwards as though he would fall, and Weston supported him with her back
while she gave a low laugh. �Well done, Trainee Potter. I am gratified to see
that you recognize the problem.� She shook her head. �Now, perhaps, you could
go away and repair it, and prevent it from happening at all next time?�

�� Harry
nodded, and then turned to face Draco. He was glad that Weston and Lowell
hadn�t asked about his problems with Draco, because almost all of them had to
do with Nusquam, and that wasn�t something they could discuss in front of other
people.

�� Draco
stared at Harry, then at Lowell and Weston, nodded once, and turned around to
walk with Harry back to their tent. When they�d got inside and put up the wards
and silencing charms, he paced in a slow circle before he turned to face Harry.

�� Well?� he
asked.

�� Harry had
been planning to sit down, but he decided that he didn�t want to, and walked
closer to Draco instead. Draco stood where he was and watched him come.

�� Their faces
ended up closer together than Harry had planned on, which was a good thing, he
decided, because it made Draco look a bit uncertain. This wasn�t going to be Harry raising silly concerns that Draco would be
free to immediately disregard. It just wasn�t.
He was going to talk about things that mattered to him, and if Draco ignored
them, that would be grounds for another row.

�� I�m
worried about you,� he said.

�� And my
torturing Nusquam, I know.� Draco nodded, fixing a bored expression over his
face like armor. �Granger has already discussed her concerns with me, and until
someone comes up with a better method that would intimidate Nihil and his
servants as much as the use of Death Eater torture would, then I don�t see��

�� I�m
worried about you because I think that you�re changing into a different kind of
person than the one you want to be,� Harry said. �And I�m worried for me, too,
because I think that I might accidentally do something that would hurt you.�

�� Draco
paused, blinking. �What?� he asked at last.

�� Listen,�
Harry said. �During the war, Voldemort ordered you to torture people. You did,
but reluctantly. Is that reluctance gone now? Are you the same person you were
then, or is it different because this time you�re hurting people who have
already tried to hurt you in the way that those Death Eaters didn�t, or what?�

�� Draco
tilted his head to the side. Harry hoped that he was listening to his own real
wishes, rather than the things he thought he had to do to make himself hard and
tough for the war.

�� I�m not
the same person I was then,� Draco said at last. �Of course not. And it changes
things that Nihil and his servants have hurt you.�

�� Harry
nodded. �All right. But how far are you going to go in pursuit of hurting
people who hurt me? Torture�s included. Killing�s included. What about Holder,
for example? She hurt me the first day we came to the camp, and I know by the
expression on your face when you mention her that you intend to get back at
her. Would you torture her?�

�� I never
even thought about that,� Draco said, his face closing up in the way that meant
he was uncomfortable and didn�t want to discuss this anymore. �The
circumstances are different. She�s not Nihil�s.�

�� But you
described her as an enemy the other day,� Harry said. �I heard you. And she
hurt me. That puts her in the category of people you�ve agreed to torture. How
far would you go? Would you rack her? Stab a spike through her wrists, the way
you did with Nusquam? Strangle her? Read her mind with that painful Legilimency?
Flay her? Impale her? Use the Cruciatus Curse on her? Gouge her eyes out?
Break��

�� Stop it!�
Draco snapped. His eyes were a little wild. Harry wondered if he was making him
relive bad memories, and winced�this had been part of why he was afraid�but he
wasn�t about to back down now. �No, I wouldn�t do any of that.�

�� Then what
would you do?� Harry cocked his head. �Why is Nusquam different? Why do you use
torture on only some people and not others, after you told me that you used it
on everyone who fit into certain groups?�

�� You�re
not�� Draco said, and then closed his eyes. Harry left him alone this time.
From the state of his face, Draco was at least doing some hard thinking, and
Harry wanted to leave him to work this out for himself.

�� Until it turns out he needs help.

*

�� I never thought of that. I never realized
the inherent hypocrisy of promising to destroy someone but not being willing to
use methods on her that I use without hesitation on people like Nusquam.

�� Draco hated
recognizing limitations and flaws in his thinking after the fact. He preferred
to anticipate arguments before he had them, so that he had the responses packed
like shining blades in his skull, to deploy as necessary.

�� And to find
that Harry, of all people, had identified one of those flaws and made him
recognize it�

�� Draco
winced. Another unpleasant thing to realize was that he had been surprised by
every instance in the last few days of his partner�s intelligence.

�� He may be stupid about magical theory, but
not about other things.

�� Draco
opened his eyes, looked at Harry, took a deep breath that he hoped absurdly
would help him, and then said, �You�re right. There is a difference in what I
planned to do, and it�s taken me until now to recognize the grounds of that difference.
I didn�t think about torturing Holder because, although she�s an enemy, she�s
still human and doesn�t serve Nihil. Nusquam is neither of those things.�

�� So you�ve
been thinking that the only victims of your torture would be his nonhuman servants?�
Harry pounced on the information as though Draco had just offered him a peace
gesture. �Nemo, and Nusquam, and Nihil himself, and the living dead? If they
can even be tortured,� he added doubtfully.

�� I think
they could be, with the same techniques, depending on how much of Nihil�s mind
was in them,� Draco muttered, temporarily distracted by the problem. �In that
case, the desire would be to cause them not pain, but fear.�

�� Harry
nodded. �But you�re only going to torture his nonhuman servants?�

�� Draco
opened his mouth. He could torture
others. He could nerve himself to it, and it would be easier than it had been
under the Dark Lord, because he was an adult now and had been a child then. He
didn�t want Harry to think him weak.

�� And then he
stopped, because he doubted that Harry would think him weak for admitting his
lack of stomach for torture.

�� Yes,� he
said at last. �I am.�

�� Harry
smiled at him, and Draco caught his breath. It had been too long since he�d
last seen Harry�s smile that free and uninhibited. �Thank you,� he said. �That
was the thing that frightened me most, the lack of clear boundaries. I wasn�t
sure how far you�d go, what I was allowed to object to and what I wasn�t, what
might be most important to you and what was trivial. So I stewed and was upset
about it, and that caused the barrier.�

�� Why would
you not be allowed to object to
something?� Draco tried to remember anything he�d said or done that Harry might
have thought was an invitation to shut up.

�� Because
I�m not objective,� Harry said. �I�ve been tortured. That might influence my
perspective too much, and I knew that I wasn�t really feeling sympathy for
Nusquam, just thinking about what I would feel in her position.�

�� That
doesn�t matter,� Draco said. �I�m not interested in the finer points of
philosophy like that. I�m more interested in when you were tortured. I know
that you weren�t at Malfoy Manor.�

�� With the
Cruciatus Curse when Voldemort kidnapped me after fourth year,� Harry said.
�And�� He stopped, and an expression of particular stubbornness came over his
face. �It wasn�t torture. Just bullying. By my cousin.�

�� Draco knew
enough to back off. He nodded as though completely satisfied and said, �Then I
value your opinion. I�m not going to stop torturing Nusquam. You needn�t watch.
But I won�t torture anyone else unless we capture the others you named. There
may be other ways that we could get the information we need from them.� He
thought of Aran, who had been willing, even eager, to betray Nihil, who had
taken him over against his will. There could be others like that.

�� Thank
you,� Harry said again, and stepped forwards to kiss him.

�� Draco
returned the kiss, deepened it to a snog, and tugged Harry experimentally
towards the bed.

�� This time,
Harry went along with a laugh that warmed Draco even more than the smile or the
kiss had.

*

�� SP777:
Well, as you see, Draco attempted to do just that, and Harry didn�t want to. ;)

�� And Harry�s
real discomfort was because it seemed to him that Draco would torture anyone he
didn�t like, since he seemed to take so many things (like Holder�s spell she
used on Harry) as an indication that they were beyond the pale. He�s relieved
to have some boundaries in how far
Draco will go to hurt someone who�s hurt the people he cares for.

�� MewMew2:
Thank you!

�� Dragons
Breath: Nihil doesn�t think that way. He might retain Arrowshot so that he can
use her to hurt Harry and Draco some more.
- 5
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Seasons of War